SANTORINI

One word: heaven. Absolute heaven!

Hanna and I arrived in Santorini at about 3:30, and we got picked up by a shuttle from our house--yes, HOUSE! Since I was in charge of booking the accommodation for Santorini, I of course went for the traditional houses for rent!!--at around 4 because of a miscommunication on our arrival time. No biggie :) So we were in the van, chatting with the manager, Maria, who was really, really nice, when the van stopped in a dirt parking lot, overlooking the ugly side of Santorini, and I totally freaked out!! In my head I was like "crap, crap crap!!!! The girls are going to kill me!" but we dutifully followed Maria and the driver towards some steps, and when we reached the top, I think both of us gasped with amazement! We were overlooking the Santorini you see in postcards, with the white buildings and ocean view. It was breathtaking, and I'll never forget it my whole life! When we got to our house, and after Maria left, Hanna and I literally started jumping up and down and screaming because we were SO excited: our house was quaint and so cute, with its own kitchen and washing machine, and pool and patio with pool chairs! So of course as soon as we put our stuff down we changed into our swimsuits and headed to the patio to lie out. Ah, it was so nice, honestly like a vacation for our vacation! After getting some sun and watching the beautiful and famous Santorini sunset (during which time we shared a bottle of awful Greek red wine, but also saw a wedding!!!!!), we climbed into our bathtub and soaked and chatted for awhile since we were waiting for Sarah and Saaya to get in before heading to dinner! We got out of the tub at around 9:30 PM, at which point we were getting a little worried because the girls were supposed to get in at like 8, so we called Maria and she told us that the girls had called her telling her that they had missed their flight and wouldn't be in till the next morning!!

So Hanna and I, starved and famished at this point, headed into Firostefani (where we were staying, a suburb of Fira, the main city of Santorini) for a traditional Greek dinner at a place called Aktaion. SO yummy! We split pork with rice and mousaka, a traditional Greek dish made like a lasagna out of potato, eggplant, cheese, and ground pork. SOOOOOOO DELICIOUS!! We also got a free shot of Mextaca (I think?), which is like Greek rum at the end of our meal. We walked around Firostefani for a little but it was chilly so we went back for an early night.

The next day, bright and early, we heard Sarah and Saaya get in while we were half asleep at like 7 AM. We all slept till about 10, when we woke up for breakfast, which Maria brought down for us to our patio table. We ate with a gorgeous view in the background, and afterwards we just hung out by our pool all day, tanning and swimming and listening to music :) It was so relaxing! We went to Aktaion again for dinner, but afterwards, since it was Sarah's last night and she loves to party, we went into Fira and went to some dance clubs! We met these really weird guys, one who danced like he was a hamster on crack, and Hanna and I just laughed and laughed at him! When we tried to imitate his moves, though, he shook his head at us and basically told us we sucked. Haha!

We started the next day pretty much same as the last, breakfast at our table, tanning in the patio, but then we wanted to check out the beaches of Santorini, Perivolos, a suggestion from Maria. It took a 20 minute cab ride to get there, but it was worth it! It was a black sand beach, so it was really hot on our feet, but the water was soooooooo beautiful and perfect temperature! Also it was REALLY salty, so I was able to float! :) It was kind of hard finding a cab back to Firostefani, but we finally got one like 30 minutes after we started looking for one (we had to ask a bartender to call a cab for us!) and headed home. But this was again, a very interesting cab ride for me sitting in the passenger seat! One, he stopped for gas... this had never happened to me in a cab before... haha! Two, I started falling asleep and he (an old man) thought he was being funny when he said if I wanted to sleep there I had to pay him 200 Euro and I laughed nervously and tried not to fall asleep :) we got back to the house and watched the sunset and then Sarah had to pack and then leave for the airport!! :(:(:( Hanna, Saaya, and I spent the rest of the evening sitting at our table chatting. For dinner we got 2 Euro gyros from a little place we found in Firostefani that we fell in love with! We watched National Geographic and Animal Planet the rest of the night before we all fell asleep.

The next day, the three of us had our usual breakfast before Hanna had to get ready and leave as well for the airport :( After our goodbyes Saaya and I got into our swimsuits and tanned one last time :( in the afternoon we decided to head to Fira to check out the souvenir shopping and the main city we had only seen in the dark. We got some souvenirs and got a very filling dinner in Fira before we headed back to the house to pack our things and head to the airport. Our flight back to Athens was fairly short and sweet, nothing too bad, but then we spent a VERY LONG NIGHT in the airport, we actually slept on the floor, ughh!! It was awful to say the least... but then we hopped on the plane at 7 AM and headed back to Paris :)

ATHENS

Athens, on the contrary to what I had heard before getting there, was perfect. Possibly because we only had one full day there...?

We arrived in Athens at about 1:00 AM since our stupid flight was SO. DELAYED. When we arrived the airport was pretty much empty, which was only a little bit scary, but we headed out to the bus stop for bus X95, which took us straight to Syntagma Square (the main square in the heart of Athens). We had JUST missed the 1:15 bus (yes, very infuriating) because we were buying our tickets like the honest girls we are, so we had to wait for the 1:45 bus. By the time we arrived at our hostel it was about 3 in the morning. Ugh. Not to mention upon arrival we were greeted by a jerk who told us we had overpaid for our cab, to which I snappily replied, "Well seeing as how it's 3 in the morning we just wanted to get here." JERK. So anyway, we checked in and finally got to bed around 3:30!

The next morning, Hanna and I woke up bright and early to join a walking tour that was set up by our hostel. The check-in guy, Peter, told us about the walking tour the night before: "You vill see all of Athens hot spot, have snack break, maybe if you tell the guide and get other walkers to join you." Then his friend blew his cover and said, "Wait, aren't you guiding the tour tomorrow???" HAHA Did I mention Peter is actually from Hungary? So anyway, the other girls decided to sleep in and avoid the 13 euro fee and 12 euro entrance tickets so it was just me and Hanna, and we were not happy campers, having only gotten about 5 hours of bad sleep, since the air conditioning kept waking us up. But, the walking tour was AMAZING! It gave us a good chance to see ALL the sights in an efficient amount of time, and we also met a couple really cool people from our hostel. Peter was really funny (in terms of we were laughing at him, and not with him)... Hanna and I found out that Peter had actually only been in Athens from two weeks, and had never actually gone to any of the sights himself.... yeah, DOT DOT DOT haha so we teased him that he had actually just Wikipedia'd all his knowledge. And he kept saying, "maybe this is the basics" or "maybe this is all you need to know" haha! 

As for the sights themselves: the Acropolis was crazy cool!!! The Pantheon, even though it was covered in construction materials, was really awesome to see, but it was suuuuuuper windy, and the rocks were like pelting our legs, so we hurried through... but then somehow managed to be the last people to meet back up at the base. Oh well. It was really, really hot that day so we were glad when the tour was over! Hanna and I went and got gyros and beer with two of the people we met at our hostel: Tom from New Zealand, and Emma from Australia! We had just managed to sit down at a place on the side of the farmer's market street and ordered beers in frosted mugs, when Aaron from Australia met us (he lost his friends and decided to join us for food instead) and the five of us ate and laughed it was so yummy! The gyros are so different from what we have in the States: no lettuce and no cucumber, but FRENCH FRIES instead!!! Yes, my heaven. SO delicious. After we ate, an Indian vendor came up and tried to sell us sunglasses. We all refused, but Aaron got sucked into it, and even though we tried to help him barter down, he gave in way too quickly and so was subsequently ripped off for fake Ray Bans haha. We were all given a free (and rather large) shot of ouzo, which I took like a champ even though I a like physically incapable of taking shots, and decided to head back. On the way Aaron bought a useless tomato toy (we were like, "you HAVE to meet our friend Sarah!!!" haha), it looked like it splattered when you threw it on the floor but then reformed! 

Sarah and Saaya were still sleeping when we got  back, and Hanna went in for a nap so I wandered into Victoria Square (the square right by our hostel) and found an internet cafe. Then I came back and had a beer with Tom and Aaron downstairs before heading up to shower. The girls finally woke up and showered and we got a quick bite in Victoria Square before heading back to the hostel for our "welcome shots" (of ouzo, yucky!!) in the downstairs bar. We were expecting to hang out with our friends in the bar, but they were nowhere to be seen... until the door of room #1 opened, and out stumbled Emma, hanging all over Tom, and Aaron, who wandered out by himself. They had been drinking in their room since I saw them at the bar for a beer!! Neville, another really nice guy we met from Ireland, had just been out to dinner with his friends and re-joined us at the bar. The bartender, Elia from Canada, persuaded Hanna and I to order some Espresso-tinis, which we happily ordered since I was exhausted to tell the truth and not in the mood to party. They were delicious. So for the rest of the night we sang and danced in the downstairs bar (because going out in Athens is apparently REALLY expensive!). Aaron was super drunk and starting singing about jellybeans after Hanna and I persuaded the poor guy to order a drink called the jellybean. He and Tom were supposed to be lovers but then Tom was hooking up with Emma hahah so Aaron had no other choice but to hang out with us. Sarah liked Elia the bartender, and Aaron liked Saaya, so Hanna and I were once again a couple for the night! Haha, unforgettable night. 

The next day we slept in and checked out at check-out time, 11 am. Hanna and I headed straight for the airport since our flight was at 2:30 pm (Sarah and Saaya had a later flight into Santorini), and thank goodness we left right away, because we actually barely had any extra time in the airport at all! We got McDonald's as our first meal of the day (even though I swore to myself no more Mickey D's after the Big Tasty because everything else in the airport did not look yummy and was more expensive) but the evil lady at security took away our drinks!!! :( The flight was a small one, we had to take a bus to our plane and board outdoors!! 

All in all, perfect stop in Athens!

ROME

I've always heard "when in Rome" but I never had the opportunity to use it till now... and actually now that I think about it, I don't think I did ever use it while we were there... damn.

Rome was amazing, so full of history and ancient monuments, it was everything I thought it would be... with some kinks. When we arrived in Rome we were pleasantly surprised to find that our hotel was actually LITERALLY right outside the train station, which saved us all some cab fare. After we checked in, we found out our room was on the fourth floor (again, 3rd floor in European terms) so we hiked up all four flights of stairs, carrying our now EXTREMELY heavy luggage, since we had accumulated several souvenirs by this point... a bottle of wine each for Sarah and Saaya. Huffing and puffing we finally reached our room, and though the plan was to hit the ground running as soon as we got there we were too exhausted to move, so we took short naps before heading out. When we finally left it was sometime after noon, just in time for the hottest time of day in Rome in the summertime... yay. Luckily for us, since we were staying so close to the train station, the bus station was right next to it (we decided to avoid the Metro, since we read it was the #1 pickpocket area!). The bus we were looking for turned out to only come once in a blue moon, so we waited in the hot heat for about 30 minutes till the right one came. And not only was it hot but it was also quite smelly, probably due to the heat and the homeless creeps wandering aimlessly around the station, waiting for the air-conditioned busses. We finally got on the right bus and a kindly old grampa fell in love with me (he asked me seriously if I was a model and I laughed at him) and so he led us to the Trevi fountain, which was our first stop. It was beautiful, and everything I imagined, but quite crowded, so we snapped our pictures, threw in some coins in honor of tradition, tourism, and good measure, put our hands in the cool water and left to find lunch. Lucky for Sarah, we found Asian (Chinese) food right around the corner and we went in. I finally felt useful with my Chinese language skills and helped order us some delicious food... Im actually quite impressed with how good it was... good Chinese food in Rome, who would have thought? After lunch we headed for the Pantheon. It was amazing! It literally felt like it had its own AC system because the marble interior kept the whole thing cool. Hanna and I found a place to sit (on the floor) in the corner for a little before getting kicked out. Oops, forgot to mention a couple things:

1. At this point in the trip, we had all accumulated several bug bites, thanks to Florence. Im saying around 10-15 each on average, I think Hanna had like 20, except Saaya because apparently her blood tastes like stale bread. And with my luck, I managed to get one of my bug bites on my eyelid. And it managed to swell, so I looked like quasimoto--aka Hunchback of Notre Dame--for a good 1-2 days before it went down... Joy.

2. On our way to the Pantheon we met a very drunk (yes, and it was like 3 PM) boy who invited us on a "ladies night" (by ladies night they meant 5 euros cheaper... he goes "for you beautiful ladies" and we go "wait for being ladies AND being beautiful we only get a 5euro discount???") pub crawl. We had fun on the last pub crawl we did so we figured why the heck not.. big mistake, which I will explain later.

After the Pantheon we headed to Piazza Navona to see the Fountain of the Four Rivers (I learned about it in Roman Civ sophomore year but now cant remember why its important...). It was beautiful and the square was full of artists, which was awesome. We lounged here for awhile... Saaya got lost from us and thought we ditched her and hid haha and then we all headed home to start showering for our pub crawl. When we get to the pub crawl, theres a beautiful view of the Colosseum since we met at the Colosseum metro stop, and the sun had just set. I was busy looking at the beautiful monument, but when I turned around I met two very nervous faces.. Sarah and Hanna looked at me and told me that we were basically going on a pub crawl with minors. I look around, scan the crowd (which was like 50 strong at this point!) and see a bunch of kids, about 16-18 looking... and mostly girls eye-ing us back. Lovely. I tried to see a bright side but there wasnt one... we decided to try and stick it out. Big mistake. Red lights flashed in my head when they started playing flip cup at an Irish pub, and the "all-you-can-eat pizza" turned out to be three small slices of lukewarm bread with no tomato sauce and no cheese and only shredded zucchini. Worst pizza Ive ever had hands down. Very unsatisfied, we tried to stay cheery and things got a little better at the next bar, especially when they played a Spice Girls song :) but the next stop was a bar that looked like the set of a cheap, under-funded 90's music video: all metallic.... yeah, Im serious. So I actually got more sober as the night went on, especially since we walked for like 30 minutes between each place, so they actually should have paid ME to go on their pub crawl. Hanna and I walked out and sat on the sidewalk, wishing for our money back and the will and know-how to get home when they announced body shots and we were like HELL NO. The night ended when we got big waters and walked home... and the convenience of the train station nearby suddenly became the scariest area of Rome probably...

The next day we slept in and decided to take it easy. We woke up late, got Chinese food (again) and decided to have laundry day, so the whole day was pretty quiet. After we finished our laundry we showered and headed to Piazza Navona for dinner. We went to a great little place called La Locunda de something right off of the Piazza Navona. They had the yummiest Njoda flan, it was like cheesy spicy flan that you spread on toast, so delicious! And I got ricotta and olivev canoli in tomato sauce which was also delicious. Hanna and I split a bottle of wine, which was no problem at this point since we had wine so much in Italy up till then!Then we wandered around the little streets, found a place that made cocktails to go, and headed back to Piazza Navona. Sarah bought a useless but very fun toy (it lights up and flies in the sky) and we played with it for awhile, laughing and chatting in the square before getting on the bus to get back to our hotel.

We woke up bright and early the next day for the Vatican!! Because of the Vatican dress code, I wore capris and a tshirt.... BIG MISTAKE. Even though we got there around 10, I was already sweating and miserable. So miserable that I couldn't even concentrate on the cool Egyptian exhibit that the Vatican had! Note: I did see a real mummy in a coffin though!!! SO creepy. Anyway, we managed to drudge through all the hallways, lined with beautiful frescos and paintings, until we finally got to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was a-m-a-z-i-n-g, first of all, because it was cool and dark inside, but more importantly because of the famous fresco on the ceiling. It was unreal! But it was extremely disturbing because despite signs that said very clearly NO FLASH everyone took pictures anyway! And the guards did nothing about it! Don't people realize that they are ruining beautiful pieces of art with their freaking flash photography??? It's bad for the painting!! GRRRRR we stormed through the Sistine Chapel with a lot of anger and tried to get to the Basilica. But of course, because things always go wrong when they can, we went the wrong way and had to go through the same route we had just come from. Again. And this time there were about 10 times more people. No. Big. Deal. 

The Basilica was really pretty as well. Being the biggest Christian church in Christiandom (I think?), I guess it had to be pretty spectacular! It was full of people when we went, with marble from the floor to the ceiling! Lots of surprisingly dark statues... it was beautiful but at this point we were all exhausted from the heat and lack of food. Sarah and I kept sitting down on the bases of pillars and then getting yelled at to stand up. So we took our pictures, even ran into some Texan teachers we had met in San Gimignano earlier in the trip (what a small world!), and left. On the way out we saw the Swiss guards dressed in funky outfits (because the Vatican doesn't have its own security! Weird, huh?) and sent our postcards to friends and family.

After the Vatican we went to Campo de Fiori for lunch--pasta again! :) And after lunch we hopped back on the bus to go back to the hotel: a change of clothes for me, and a nap for the girls. After a nap and a shower, we headed out, back to Campo de Fiori for another great dinner. After dinner we wandered around the small street off of Campo de Fiori where there were lots of little shops and restaurants. There was even a stand outside one restaurant for cocktails to go! I got a Mojito, it was awesome :) then we walked back to Campo de Fiori and shopped along the TINY "night market" if it can even be called that... in reality like 10 little stands on one of the little streets off of Campo de Fiori. I got burned by a woman's cigarette (ouch!) as I was running to catch up with the girls and when we got to the square, Sarah bought another useless item! This time it was a plastic light up toy that flies in the air. This purchase was much more fun for the rest of us, though, and we played with her new toy for awhile before getting on the bus and going home for a good night's rest before our last day in Rome!

On our last day we slept in a little, and then headed out to see the Colosseum (finally!!)! We were a little worried on the way there, because we were afraid that the line would be insanely long and we wouldn't have enough time to see the Colosseum AND the Roman Forum. But when we got to the Colosseum (around 11:30) the line actually wasn't as long as we thought it would be, thank Buddha. We snacked on really bad sandwiches and Pringles as our lunch as we waited in line. Hanna and I shared an audio guide, which was totally worth it, even though the line to get it was EXTREMELY unorganized and took forever. We walked around the Colosseum for a bit, which was REALLY cool, and then Hanna and I went to see the Roman Forum. It was incredible! I will say though that the audio guide for the Roman Forum was a complete waste of money so don't get one if you ever go. We managed to see all that we wanted in about an hour or two, and then we headed back towards the hotel since we had a flight that evening. We caved and treated ourselves to McDonald's! I went a little overboard and ordered a burger called the Big Tasty (oh, and of course the fries and the drink too... "large" which is actually like a medium in the States... jeez no wonder we have an obesity problem in the US!!) which was probably the largest burger I have ever eaten... diameter-wise. Of course it was only after finishing my burger AND fries that I looked at the box and realized I had just inhaled about 83 grams of fat in my one meal. That's more than you're supposed to have in ONE DAY! Thank goodness my "lunch" didn't count for much. It was frightening that I finished all of that, but TOTALLY WORTH IT.

So after our yummy McDonald's dinner, we took a "shuttle" to the airport... and by shuttle I mean a BMW. Yes, it was awesome. Especially because he was a crazy driver!! I loved it. Except for when he pulled into our terminal, when I thought I was going to die. But other than that I loved how fast he drove, it definitely made me miss driving! We got to the airport about two hours early, which felt really nice since it meant for once we weren't cutting it close :) We got in line to check in (which wasn't open yet!!) and in front of us was a girl who was traveling alone, and two guys. The girl was TOTALLY chatting up the guys in front of us, like hardcore. I was sitting on the floor writing in my diary when I kept hearing the iPhone alarm sound, and I was like... what the heck?? whose phone is that?? Then the girls and I realized that it was the girl's cell phone! Yeah, the one in front of us who was trying so hard to talk to the guys! Haha, it was HILARIOUS. She was trying so hard to get them to continue the conversation with her that she was ignoring her phone, which literally would not stop going off. It was so sad. Then, in a very funny turn of events, the guys start talking to us and completely ignored her for the rest of our time in line. You would not believe the death stare she turned and gave us when she saw that the guys she had tried so hard to entertain had just shafted her and started talking to us! Haha ahh :)

After we got through check in we headed in to go to our gate. Since our flight was delayed (we were to find out later that pretty much ALL flights in Europe are delayed), we wandered around duty free for a little, Sarah and Saaya got sandwiches, and Hanna and I split a bottle of wine (our last GOOD wine of the trip!!) and we all talked while we waited for boarding. The flight itself was actually scary because of the turbulence that greeted us when we got closer to Athens, and as we landed in Athens, it was hard to believe that we were in our last country!!

FLORENCE

Florence... hm.

Well we arrived in Florence quite late at night and got into a taxi (yay!) to get us to our hotel. Our taxi driver for some reason was quite convinced that I spoke Italian despite my fervent and desperate "non comprendo"s so he happily chatted with me in the front seat the whole ride there while the girls laughed in the back seat. When we pulled up to our hotel, Hotel Colorado (.......) my new friend gave this look of extreme pity and disgust, at which we were extremely alarmed. Haha. We ring the doorbell while we're standing in the middle of a dark street with a dirty-looking sports bar across the street looking very confused and scared when the door gets buzzed open and we are standing face to face with a staircase. And all our luggage, which is now considerably heavier than when we first arrived in Madrid. We walk up four flights of stairs (Again, floor "3" in Europe, floor 4 in American terms) hauling our luggage the whole way (I think I'm getting buffer on this trip for this reason alone) and when we stumble in, out of breath, a tall, skinny man who I swear could pass for Rasputin (the creepy Russian adviser who aids Czar Nicholas in Anastasia) greets us. We get our keys, chatted for a little on ideas for day trips (just about everything worth seeing in Florence is closed on Mondays, and we arrived Sunday night), found out air conditioning cost extra, and he fell in love with Sarah ("hehe she makes funny jokes!").

The next day we woke up bright and early and were greeted by a Dustin Hoffman look-a-like (and sound-a-like) who was our hotel owner. We headed out in search for the bus station to buy tickets to San Gimignano, a small village in southern Tuscany (as we found out, Tuscany is not a city, but a region... so Florence is actually IN Tuscany, and our "we want to go to Tuscany"s just made us sound like retards). After some confusion and lots of questions, we bought our tickets and got on the bus. Two bus rides and 2 hours later we arrived in San Gimignano! It was such a cute little village, apparently known for its towers (there used to be 78 towers but now there are only 14 or so), but it was basically like Mont St. Michel, enclosed within stone walls and inside little meandering streets with lots of little shops! We walked around and found this GREAT restaurant called Dulcisinfundo, which had the best spaghetti pomodoro and bruschetta EVER. It was so good we asked the owner to make reservations for us again at 7 pm for dinner... and they opened 30 minutes early just for us (they close between lunch and dinner)! In between we walked around and shopped. We found a great gelato place, it's actually award-winning, and I got grapefruit champagne, melon, and passion fruit. Literally the best gelato I've ever had! Sarah got pooped on by a seagull as we were sitting and enjoying our gelato hahaha! Well, it actually pooped on her satchel of steel (supposedly impermeable by pick-pocketers) which was sitting on her lap.. but she said some got in her gelato hahah. Literally a circle of people formed around us-some laughing, some looks of horror, and some looks of pity, and some with all three hahaha. After doing some shopping we attempted to walk around outside of the city walls, but it wasn't very successful since there was a TON of mosquitos, but we got a great view! To be honest it looks a lot like Napa but with less vineyards and more trees. Then we went to a cafe to sit because it was so hot and we were so drained. We asked the waiter for some recommendations and he said: "Me likey the strawberry but I don't know for you! hehe" hahaha anyway, the smoothies were the worst I've ever had... like frothy and just yuck. So dinnertime rolled around again and we went back to Dulcisinfundo. I had the pesto :) and the girls had bolognese made with boar meat (apparently San Gimignano is famous for boar?) and it was delicious as well. After dinner we literally ran back to the gelato place, this time I got melon and peach, before rushing to make the last bus back to Florence. Great day!!! :)

On our first real day in Florence we got a late start because we didn't have that much planned and we had a lot of time in Florence, so by the time we got out and ate and got to the Uffizi museum, it was around 1 PM. Flo also came to visit (you know what I mean, ladies) so I wasn't feeling well at all. We got to the Uffizi and discovered the LONG. FREAKING. LINE. and of course got in it because we had no other choice. Now, had we had the foresight to book tickets in advance we probably wouldn't have had to wait so long, but oh well, it is what it is. So in total we waited in line for THREE. HOURS. yes, people, three hours. I don't even think I've ever waited at DISNEYLAND (my favorite place on Earth) for three hours. But it was worth it because when we got inside and I saw Botticelli's Birth of Venus & Spring I was blown away. Hanna creeped on some Japanese guided tours and translated as much as she could for me until the guide noticed her and subtley inched away :( so then we just creeped on an American tour when he was talking about Da Vinci's stuff, which was equally awesome. After the Uffizi we headed to Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge in Florence, which had a lot of little shops on it, but we skipped it because we wanted to get a good view of the bridge itself so we passed it. Probably better for my wallet that way anyway! Then we headed to Piazzale Michelangelo, which is situated on top of a hill and offers a great view of the city. The climb was in.sane. Hanna and I were totally winded by the time we reached the top, but it was well worth it because Florence is beautiful from above, much more beautiful than from below at least. After this we got some dinner in Piazza della Signora and headed back to the hostel.

Sarah and Saaya were waiting for us at home when we arrived. We made the mistake the night before of jokingly inviting creepy hotel guy (named Dennis) to come out with us on his night off. And then we made the mistake of thinking (aka hoping) he would forget and the invitation would fall through. So imagine our surprise when Hanna and I walk into the lobby and he is standing there, alone, waiting. dot dot dot... AWKWARD. Then we get into our room and see Saaya and Sarah huddling in the corner with looks of fear in their eyes and we dread the rest of the night. It started out not so bad at the dirty sports bar across the street, which had really cheap but really watered down drinks, because Dennis was pretty funny. But then we discovered he was a lightweight and he was drunk and then we got to the club and he started trying to get on Hanna and then me (even though I told him I had a boyfriend of five years, what a CREEP!!) so I eventually had to take one for the team, and I said: "Look, you're really nice but when we go out we like to dance by ourselves. You know, not with boys. Just with each other." And he was like "Well then I am confused like why the fuck am I here?" to which I replied, "well, aren't you having fun?" to which he replied "I understand." and then walked off. But then when we headed back to the dance floor and who do we see sitting in a chair by himself lurking in the corner? You guessed it! Dennis. AWKWARD. After a while he disappeared (thankfully) and we danced the night away.... until we got tired and wanted to go home. Haha

The next day we started out at the Accademia and saw David. Man he was pretty unbelievable! I mean, really big. Like, I imagined him to be the size of a normal human being not like ten plus feet tall!! A beautiful piece of art if I say so myself. After this we headed to Santa Croce, which was cool because it held the tombs of Michelangelo and Galileo, but the security guard lady was a raging b-i-t-c-h with a stick up her butt... by this i mean that there were probably at least 10 other people (and this is a low estimate) who did not have knee-length bottoms and their shoulders covered, but did she chase after any of THEM shaking her finger at them? NO, of course not. Just me and hanna. And when I confronted her she denied pinpointing us. It was also super hot out which made it more miserable. But no matter, we took our pictures and went home. We all napped for a bit in the midday heat, and we decided to splurge on buying air conditioning :) then we went out one more time--to getMcDonald's! Then I went off on my own to find an internet/phone cafe to be connected to the outside world. After catching up on emails and trying to make some unsuccessful calls, I headed back but decided to stop at a small cafe in San Marco square right by our hotel for a nightcap: a cold glass of white wine. Yum! It was really nice to sit in the square and sip my wine and people watch by myself... as sad as that sounds haha. When I got back I jumped in the shower and we huddled around Sarah's iPod to watch Grey's Anatomy re-runs before falling asleep.

The next morning we woke up nice and early and made our way for the train station for Roma!!

VENICE

Oh, Venice... where to begin. I absolutely loved it!!

We got into Venice the next day at around 3:30 pm (an hour late), because as we found out, the trains in Italy are RARELY on time. The train itself was probably the worst I've seen so far: no AC, graffiti all over the place, toilet paper all over the bathroom (let alone the fact that the toilet lets out--or sprays out--your business onto the train tracks below), absolutely NO ROOM for any luggage of any decent backpacking size... anyway, we were glad to get off the train when we finally did. We got out of the station expecting to use our usual plan of cabbing it to our hotel, when we looked up and saw the Grand Canal. No. cabs. anywhere.

Plan B was to hit up the tourist info office and ask for the best route to the Hotel. Except when we get to the counter and tell the lady the name of our hotel, she looks at us and says, "Eh... this isn't in Venice..." and Hanna and I look at each other and laugh because we think she must be wrong. But she wasn't. So we go to the bus station to get our tickets and the ticket lady doesn't know where our hotel is (crap, the tourist info lady was right) but tells us to get onto bus 25, then we go to bus 25, the driver is nowhere to be found, and a girl who spoke English told us to go to bus 6. So we go to bus 6 (keep in mind while all this is going on its oh, about 1,000 DEGREES outside in the glaring hot sun) and once again no bus, no driver, the guy selling water on the street has no idea what we're saying, I'm sweating what must have been all my water weight, practically dripping. It's clearly a very pretty picture. We finally find the right driver and the right bus and 40 minutes later we get dropped off on a random road NOT in Venice, residential status. We start walking and we walked for another 20 minutes down empty roads with cornfields on the right and old unused houses on the left before we FINALLY find our hotel. Now, in their defense I must say it's a really nice hotel, and we didn't print out the right directions. But still, NO HOTEL SHOULD ADVERTISE THEY ARE IN VENICE IF THEY ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WATER. Am I right???

So the four of us practically fall into the cushioned chairs in the air-conditioned lobby and Hanna and I are about to rip the front desk guy's head off because he's giving us attitude ("well your friend should have read the directions better"), but we keep our cool because he holds the key to our room. Damn. After we take some quick army-style showers, we head back out to the REAL Venice (thank goodness the hotel had a shuttle system!) for dinner. We wanted to take the water bus through the Grand Canal and get the scenic route of Venice for dinner, but got on the wrong water bus which took the other way to Piazza San Marco. At this point, Hanna's a little frustrated that we totally took the wrong way, and are looking at the docks of Venice instead of cute little houses and gondolas, and what should happen but it starts to RAIN. It started out as a little drizzle and then turned into literally the perfect storm. So the girls are basically freaking out that we're going to die because the waves are getting pretty intense and we had't reached Piazza San Marco when it starts to HAIL, yes. HAIL. When we finally reach the right stop, we run off the boat and get pelted with really big hail before getting under the safety of the awning, completely soaked head to foot. About 5 minutes later it all stopped and it was literally like nothing had happened! Talk about a freak storm! We headed to Piazza San Marco and had a great dinner and listened to musicians in the square before heading back for an early night.

The next day we got up early and prayed that it wouldnt rain!! We started out catching a water bus to the island of Murano, where they are known for their hand-blown Venetian glass! We got to see a glass-blower in action, which was REALLY cool, and then we shopped a little before catching another water bus back to Piazza San Marco. We then headed for the Basilica San Marco, the main church. Luckily for me a girl walking out handed me a plastic-y, paper-y looking piece of "fabric" which I used as a shawl because my shoulders weren't covered. In Italy they take their religion VERY seriously and you basically have to dress in like middle school dress code: covered shoulders, and dresses or shorts to the knees... which is really not that fun in this heat. Anyway, the inside was beautiful: all the walls and ceilings were covered in mosaics made out of little tiles. Too bad no pictures were allowed! Then we went to the Palazzo Ducale, the Doge's palace, or what USED to be the Doge's Palace. There were a lot of rooms inside, each for a different purpose... it was basically huge and very religious-looking everywhere. After that we walked to Campo Santa Margherita, where we finally got to sit down and eat dinner before the Festa di Redentore (an annual fireworks festival that celebrates the end of the plague in Venice from 1575-1577!). There were a ton of young people there, apparently its a big meeting place! We people-watched and drank wine to stall time so we could keep sitting till the fireworks at 11:30. We all got a little happy as my mom likes to call it and then we met some very nice and very gay Australian boys and we all walked down to the canal to watch the fireworks. Just after the fireworks ended, we had to catch the shuttle to head back to our hotel, but we realized that it was 12:10 and the shuttle was due to leave Piazzale Roma (at the other end of the city) at 12:30! So we literally RAN about 2 km all the way from the southern tip of Venice to the Northern tip where we finally met the shuttle. It was a mess... I led the way running and sporatically stopping, out of breath, to ask strangers directions ("Piazzale... Roma...???.... Grazie!!!") after which a couple seconds later Hanna would pass the same people yelling "Grazie! Grazie!" over her shoulder as she ran past and Saaya and Sarah bringing up the rear. I must admit Im very proud of myself considering I don't remember the last time I worked out and we actually made it relatively on time.. only 10 minutes late ;) but the shuttle was 10 minutes late too so we were perfect!! Our shuttle driver Luca helped us in and out of the shuttle and tried to persuade me not to try and call my boyfriend at 1:00 am Italy time (which, in my defense, would have been PERFECT timing US time).

The next morning, Hanna and I got an early start (relatively... a decision we made BEFORE the Festa di Redentore the night before) but then missed our shuttle because we had to pack up all our things since we were leaving Venice that evening. So we got on the 11:15 shuttle and when we got to Piazzale Roma, got on the water bus (this time taking the scenic route) to the Accademia where we hoped to see Da Vinci's famous drawing of the man in the circle (the name is escaping me just now). We walked through the whole museum (which by the way did NOT have air conditioning) only to come to the end without seeing the ONE thing we paid the 6Euro entrance fee for. When we asked the museum worker where it was, the lady kindly told us that while Da Vinci's famous drawing IS at the Accademia, it is locked away in a private room for restoration... and has been for 9 years. Thanks for nothing, National Geographic guide book (and it was THIRD EDITION!!).

After our disappointing visit to the Accademia, we got lunch at a REALLY yummy hole-in-the-wall place. Having heard that the only cure for a hangover is more alcohol, we ordered some white wine at lunch to have with our spaghetti bolognese & mushroom pasta (it was BOMB: there was basil in the pasta itself, and it came with mushrooms and shrimp in a really light olive oil dressing). YUM! After lunch we met back up with Saaya and Sarah and we walked to a famous church called Santa Maria della Frari. We finally found it (and the "best" gelato place in Venice, according to Naned, our rude-turned-helpful hotel front desk guy) and we got some gelato and sat by the canal to enjoy it! After finishing our gelato, we decided to try the church... but being inappropriately dressed, we weren't allowed inside haha. Instead, we decided to take a gondola ride, even though it was kind of expensive, because no trip to Venice would be complete without one! Our gondolier was named Bepi, short for Giuseppe (surprise surprise...), and he only had 3 months gondoliering (sp?) experience because he just graduated from gondolier school, which is apparently very hard to get into and it is a very prestigious profession. Each of us got to try gondoliering (it was REALLY hard) and we had a nice and pleasant journey through the small canals of Venice with Bepi singing (half-heartedly) the whole time.

The gondola ride was a perfect end to our stay in Venice, which may be my favorite stop so far. After the gondoloa ride we headed to the train station to meet Luca who was dropping off our luggage from the hotel. We had a quick (and not so yummy) dinner near the train station before getting on our train to Florence. Ah, so lovely :)

SWITZERLAND

The next morning, we got up bright and early and headed to catch our train to Bern, Switzerland! Even though we had given ourselves plenty of time to get to the station, we still managed to run late... not quite sure how. So we were basically running with all our luggage to get to the 17th train car (out of 18, FML)... we got to our car and I walked onto the train and almost got pick-pocketed! This big black man was like all of a sudden up in my space, and I was like WTF but then saw that there was another man with a stroller and kid behind him trying to get through the same door, so I was like "um excuse me" but then let it go. Then as he's turning, the man with the stroller & kid says something to the no-personal-space man and points to something on the floor and its MY. FREAKING. WALLET. So he picks it up and is like "thank you" or something in French when I'm like "UM NO THATS MY WALLET" and he hands me my wallet and looks back at me as he runs off the train. I guess the baby/stroller guy was intimidating enough to scare him into giving it back to me. Thank God. I was so freaked out I was like shaky and couldnt sleep for awhile on the train. AH!! And it all happened so fast, I had no idea what was going on. What a wake-up call!!!

We arrived in Bern at around 12:30 PM, but since our hostel didn't allow check-in before 2, we had a quick lunch in the station and went to the tourism office while we waited. When we got to our hostel, we realized it was a freaking rip off because it was SO expensive for what we were getting in return. Our room was on the 4th floor (floor "3" in Europe bc they count the ground floor as "0"), four bunk beds stuffed into a room the size of a public shower stall. We could barely fit all our luggage into the room with us. Ludicrous. Then Saaya, Hanna and I walked around Old Town Bern, which is supposedly a UNESCO World Heritage site, but we don't really know why... there was a Clock Tower (whoopdeedoo) and several weird fountains (including one of a gnome eating babies) and that's about it. Other than over-priced shops, like everything else in Switzerland, apparently. That night we got traditional Swiss dinner: beer, potatoes, and meat and eggs. In one bowl. After dinner we headed back to the hostel and hit the hay because we were all exhausted!

On the next day, we woke up bright and early and headed for Lucerne. Again, gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the station in time, but then realized our train was actually leaving at 8:37 AM, instead of 9:05... don't know why we made that up in our heads. So we ran to the station (up a big hill with stairs and incline and across a couple blocks) in ten minutes, sweating on the train, but happy we made it in time! It was an hour and a half train ride to Lucerne, during which time Hanna and I were laughed at by senior citizens. Just another example of our ever-continuing coolness. When we first got on the train, we were the only four people in the car, but about 3 minutes before departure, a group of about 20 people came on the train: all over 65, and mostly women, wearing hiking gear and water-restitant suits. The first lady to laugh was toothless, and I thought she was just laughing because my feet were up on the chair in front of me. Little did I know that the rest of the people giggling were pointing at our shorts & tank tops and then pointing to their windbreakers to indicate our stupidity and unpreparedness for the Swiss weather. The next man actually held up the line to stop and point and laugh at the two silly American girls who dared to come to Switzerland in flip flops. Ah, memories.

We got to Lucerne and walked around the city, catching all the major highlights: an old bridge (that I forget the name of), and the old city walls and watchtowers. But before the watchtower hike, we decided to get an all-you-can-eat Korean (in reality, "Asian") food lunch. Yes, people, I'm saying a BUFFET for lunch before a watchtower HIKE. Clearly, a great idea. The view of the city from the watchtowers was beautiful: we saw Lake Lucerne in the distance, and Swiss mountains in a panoramic view. Then we walked around "Old Town," another commercialized area with overpriced shops. So we got some snacks and sat by the river, watching the swans and ducks swim around. Sarah tried to feed the swans blueberries, which they ignored, and Hanna tried to feed them strawberries... which they ate and then instantly threw up. Picky eaters! The water was SO COLD, but it felt nice on our feet in the hot sun. Then the girls fell asleep by the river while I wondered what we should do....... Sarah and Saaya went back to Bern to watch Ice Age 3 in English (finally), while Hanna and I walked around the lake. We came to spot where there was a pier for boats, and we wanted to go in, but being the goody Asian girls that we are, we saw a sign in German that resembled "security" with a German shepard on it. So we were wondering what to do, when a 12-year-old boy kicked the door open, so we quickly ran in after him. Again, so cool and this time rebellious. We sat down on the pier and dipped our feet in the water as we chatted and enjoyed the beautiful view of Lake Lucerne and the Swiss mountains in the rear. We got back to the hostel and watched The Office and Will and Grace episodes on Sarah's iPod before we went to bed at literally 11:10 PM. PARTY ANIMALS!!!!

The next day Saaya, Hanna, and I got on the train to head to Grindelwald, a town in the middle of Switzerland, at the base of the Swiss Alps. It started raining SUPER bad the night before, with the scariest thunder and lightning I've ever heard and seen in my life. It was still raining (much more lightly) when we left in the morning, but just in case, we made teru teru bozu on the train, little Japanese omen charms against rain-they look like little happy ghosts!. They totally worked. When we got to Grindelwald, we decided it was the most beautiful city in Switzerland, it was like stepping into a postcard. The town was small and quaint and untouched by globalization, as if it stayed the same since its beginning. We got lunch at a cute little restaurant, with a beautiful view of the Jungfrau, the highest peak in Switzerland at about 5,000 meters! Then we put our luggage into lockers at the hostel, since for some weird reason reception was closed from 11:30 AM-4:30 PM (talk about a long lunch break!!). We walked over to the cable car station, and bought tickets (another Swiss-priced fare at 32francs with discount--50 without!!) and got in the cable car that took us to First, where we started our hike. We hiked for about an hour before we hit Bachalpsee, a REALLY OVERRATED LAKE, aka pond, because I don't think it should be called a lake. From there we hiked a very ambitious and adventurous route down to Bort where we planned to take the cable cars back to Grindelwald. Along the way, Hanna and I picked flowers, Saaya sang songs, we talked about Beatles trivia, and we encountered live cows and pigs up close and PERSONAL. It was amazing and so surreal and beautiful, until we realized we still had 40 minutes left to walk to Bort before the last cable cars left. So then we pretty much sprinted down the mountain, IN THE RAIN, on a steeper incline than I care to ever walk again, I mean, RUN again. Hanna and I broke into a run for the last 5 minutes, in complete and utter desperation.

Then we got back to our hostel, and Saaya went back to Interlaken to visit her friend. Hanna and I decided to go to the local grocery store for a cheap dinner. But again, Switzerland wins and the prices were ridiculous. So we walked around the grocery store wishing we had a kitchen, but then decided to make sandwiches, for dinner that night AND lunch the next day. We bought a tomato, and were wondering how to cut it, when we almost fought a smoking, fat, bald man for a plastic knife out of, oh about 70 other plastic knives for free. (success!) We got back to the hostel and sat down at our picnic table and used our plastic bags as placemats/cutting boards. Hanna took out the plastic knife and struggled to dissect the tomato, while I rationed out the ham and lettuce and mayo. Meanwhile, a couple walks out with a steaming hot plate of delicious-looking pasta and white wine on trays. Then Hanna noticed the kitchen....... the lady next to us then kindly told us that the hostel actually did have a FULL KITCHEN with an oven, microwave, and stove ("and yes, even placemats"). FML. Whatever, they were mediocre sandwiches. And the ham tasted like nothingness. Thank God for Mayo.

The next day we went to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe at around 3500 meters... I forget what it is in feet... It was freezing cold and we went to the top of the glaciers and walked around. It was beautiful, the views from way up top were amazing! We met and played with some husky dogs that were sleeping under umbrellas because the heat from the sun was too hot for them! After hanging out at the top of the mountain for a couple hours we started our descent so we could head back to Bern for an early night before a really early train the next morning... in total we rode 6 trains that day: two to get from Grindelwald to the Jungfrau, two to get down, one to get to Interlaken, and one to get back to Bern. By the time we got back to Bern we were exhausted but managed to pack up and put in a load of laundry before an early bedtime. Much to our disappointment, it started raining again when we got into bed, with lots of thunder and lightning again. This time it was so loud, I swear to God our building was hit by lightning because I have never heard it so loud before, it felt like electricity was running through me because I felt the loudness in my chest! If that makes sense... anyway, it was literally the loudest thing I have ever heard. Around 4 in the morning, Sarah accidentally called Saaya from her cell phone thinking she was calling her mom and we were all half asleep and confused...

PARIS

Ah, Paris, Paris, Paris, the city of loooove. Don't know where to begin!

We arrived in Paris looking like crap. The train from Barcelona was FREEZING, I really don't know why they chose to freeze us before dropping us off at our destination. We were all wearing the warmest clothes we had: me in my white capris and white Nike pullover (aka marshmellow suit), Hanna in her sundress and scarf (aka unprepared dark-side suit), Sarah in her black workout pants and black Northface fleece (aka the yin to my yang), and Saaya in jeans and a black hoodie (aka the real dark-side). So it was 9:00 AM in Paris, and we looked h.a.g.g.a.r.d. We were looking forward to getting off our eskimo train, but when we stepped off it was--surprise surprise--cold as hell.

Feeling extremely stupid and ill-prepared, we hailed a cab and headed to Le Meridien Montparnasse, the most beautiful and luxurious hotel we will be staying at on our trip (thank you Saaya's parents!!). After trying to pull ourselves together in the hotel bathroom (and getting strange looks from women as I brushed my teeth... and Hanna brushed her teeth with her finger), we headed to the cafe next door for omelettes and crossaints for breakfast, which marked the beginning of our 5-day cheese tour of Paris. Then we went to the Arc de Triomphe and went to the top for a beautiful view of the city! We walked down the Champs Elysees and we foolishly went into the Louis Vuitton "for fun." After that we went to the Orsay museum, which is definitely my favorite museum so far: it had a great Impressionist collection, with Cezanne, Renoir, Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and Degas. Ah, so beautiful! Then Hanna and I fought exhaustion and walked to the Notre Dame, for a free entry and free tour! We snapped some great shots of the stained glass and learned some religious history before heading home for going to the best restaurant in Paris: Au Chien Qui Fume, The Smoking Dog. The french onion soup was to die for! So much cheeseeeeee :) I had canteloupe melon with parma ham, which was soooo yummy and then duck with rasberry sauce and peaches. So bomb. Oh, and great wine! Then we got a scenic tour of Paris at night by cab (Sarah found her own little "arc de triomphe" at the Louvre: "Hey you guys, there's the Arc de Triomphe!!!" Fail.) before stumbling into bed.

Our second day, we went to Mont St. Michel! We woke up SO early to catch our 8:00 AM train to Rennes, before getting on a bus to Mont St. Michel itself. By the time we finally got there it was about 12:30! But so worth it! Mont St. Michel is like a little town in itself on a tiny island in the middle of marshland/quicksand on the Northwest coast of France, it also has an abbey situated at the top of the mountain which is dated back to the 8th century! We walked up the little cobblestone streets to the abbey itself and got an audioguide to help us through. It was beautiful and the views were great, though there were some rooms that were very ark and ominous, perhaps due to the fact that the abbey was used as a prison during the Medieval times when religion took a downturn in France... After the abbey we went shopping in the little shops along the way down and ate lunch in a cafe with mean worker ladies who hated us. Then we walked outside and sat in the sun to enjoy the views while we waited for our bus to take us back to Rennes, and the train back to Paris. We got home and went to the local grocery store to get some goodies for an in-room picnic: camembert cheese, crackers, apricot jam, and salad, and WINE! It was delicious :) then, sleep!

No trip to Paris would be complete without a visit to Versailles, even if it was incredibly expensive!! We headed out on a 12-minute train ride (the only time we remembered our iPods) to Versailles and were amazed by the amount of people there! After waiting in line for what seemed like ages, we finally got our tickets and our free audioguides and headed inside for a tour of the palace. The rooms were of course decorated beautifully, and the Hall of Mirrors was breathtaking, literally one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen, not to mention the Treaty of Versailles was signed in it!! Afterwards we got sandwiches for lunch and ate them in the gardens of Versailles, I've never seen anything like it! We were craving Au Chien Qui Fume again, and we found one nearby so Saaya called, being the only French speaker in our group, but got laughed at and hung up on... then Sarah tried:
"Hello? Yes, hi. Do you have ze Parma haaam wis melon? Oui oui? And ze foie gras? Oui? Ok, gracias!" Turns out it wasnt the right one, but oh well.

After our lunch in the gardens we went to Marie Antoinette's Petit Trianon, her little home away from home on the grounds of Versailles, far away from her asexual husband. It was much more quaint and cute and homey than Versailles, with pale green painted walls and basically shabby chic all over the place. We walked around her garden for a little, into the Temple of Love :) but after that we were too tired to go see her other little farmhouse, which was even more casual than the Petit Trianon. Bums.

After Versailles we were exhausted and headed back to Le Meridien for a little rest before going back to Au Chien Qui Fume (the real one). Hanna & Sarah got foie gras (basically REALLY fatty duck liver, which was sooooo yummy!! My first time trying it! It tasted like reallllllly flavorful and rich duck meat except it melted in your mouth, so delicious!) We got parma ham & melon again, and french onion soup, I got chicken and potatoes in tarragon sauce, and Saaya got a creamy salmon pasta. For dessert Sarah got profiteroles ("Cant wait for my proliferats y'alls") with vanilla ice cream in the middle and dark chocolate sauce drizzled on top. Saaya and I split the WORST CREME BRULEE IVE EVER HAD (any of us has ever had). I dont even want to talk about it.

On our last day in Paris, we started out at the Louvre. Much to our surprise, the line wasnt bad at all (maybe because we "accidentally" cut the whole line, whoops!) and we got our tickets in about 15 minutes! We went straight to the Mona Lisa... really cool but totally overrated (sorry, guys). It was like this tiny painting on a HUGE blank wooden wall and it was covered in glass. Then we headed for Miro's Venus, where we met the MOST annoying Chinese girls ever. They insisted on taking pictures in front of every famous work of art, holding up the crowd of people and blocking everyone's view of the art itself. Needless to say, Hanna and I fought for justice and got in every picture. The girls totally talked crap about us in Chinese so I knew we had succeeded. After this we kind of lost interest in everything else... the Louvre has such a big collection and we were museum'd out after all the ones we've seen already so far. So then we walked around the area around the Louvre and got lunch at a small streetside cafe, where we got the smallest and lamest Caesar salads ever (for 14 Euro!!!) and red wine. In the square across the street, there was a small orchestra playing classical music! It was so lovely :) After paying for our meal we watched them play for a little (and Hanna cried during Canon in D) before going souvenir shopping... at which time I got a crepe with nutella & bananas, yum. But not the best choice for a shopping snack, as it got all over my hands and face.

Then Hanna and I went to Sacre Cour in Montmarte. Montmarte was so freaking sketchy-the second we got off the Metro it was like WHOA: weave hair salons everywhere, hair on the streets from the salons, smelly, ew. Sacre Cour was the most crowded thing weve seen in all of Europe so far, and even now we dont know why. Probably everyone was just standing around, catching their breath from the millions and zillions of stairs to get there. So we walked around Montmarte, which was actually really cute, with painters in the streets and cute little shops along cobblestone streets. But again, crowded! It would have been so much better with like 1/4 of the people there. So we left.

That night we had our final Parisian meal: another picnic on the floor. This time, with an Asian twist (of curry flavored ramen noodles) in addition to the camembert cheese and apricot jam on crackers. Even though we were all suffering from a food coma, Hanna and I went to the Eiffel tower! No trip to Paris would be complete without one. The view of the tower itself was beautiful, as the sun had just set when we got there. We took our touristy pictures and went to stand in line, when we realized that by the time we waited in line, got up there, took pictures, waited in line to come down, and got home, it would be past 2 AM. Not cool. So we left.

Ja'dour Paris!!!

BARCELONA

Loved Barcelona!

The city was a great mix between Madrid (all party) and Granada (all culture). Great feel to the place, and great atmosphere! The hostel we stayed in was small but cozy, called Downtown Paraiso Hostel, I definitely recommend it! It had a great location, right off Las Ramblas, and a laundromat across the street, and a cute little outdoor patio, only downside? Public bathrooms (and showers). But no big deal in the scheme of things, eh?

We arrived in Barcelona from a night train from Granada and found our hostel easily enough (aka cab!!). The cabs out of the train station were crazy, a very organized system of waiting in lines, for both customers and taxi cabs. The Asian in me really appreciated it :) Then after putting down our things we set out for Las Ramblas, the major street in Barcelona with all kinds of little shops and restaurants and street vendors selling everything from souvenirs and fruit, to flowers and pets (yes, I saw baby bunnies!!!). Then we looked for the Picasso Museum for about mmm 30 minutes, and EVERYONE kept giving us wrong directions! Youd think people would know the way around their own city! We finally got there: and it was an obscure brown wooden door no a stone wall. CLOSED. FML so we decided to go to the main Cathedral in Barcelona... to be honest it looked like any other church I´ve seen: kind of scary. So then we decided to walk back to the hostel when we found a REALLY COOL market! There was meat, fruit, candies, vegetables, olive oil, it was amazing! So we got some fruit and yummy foccacia and ate in the outdoor patio at our hostel. That night we went out with two American guys who we met in our hostel who were also traveling around Europe, bar hopping, which was kind of boring until the highlight of my night: donur kebab!!!

The next day we got up bright and early to head to the Sagrada Familia! It was so beautiful and inspiring, even though the weather was grey and Saaya had to translate the ONE audio guide we decided to buy :) After the Sagrada Familia we got donur kebab (againnnnnn) for lunch and then headed to Guell Park for our Gaudi-inspired day. IT. SUCKED. First of all, nobody told me that Guell Park is actually NOT a park but a hiking destination. Barcelona was awesome, but sad that Guell Park is one of the main attractions! Be forewarned: its HUGE, there are NO MAPS, its all sand, and Gaudi only lived in the "Gaudi House" for like 2 months. Did I mention its rather large?? So after finding the famous mosaic benches (ps we found two dogs that were WAY more exciting than the park itself) we gave up on finding the chameleon/gecko and left.

*Note: we later realized it was right under the benches.

That night we went out to a club called Opium. It was a very interesting night. First we made the mistake of buying beers (cans) from some random men on the street thinking it would be a more economical option than buying drinks at the club... Second, Sarah was accused of being a lesbian after trying to get rid of some creepy drunk man who approached us, who also prayed to God for her soul´s redemption. Third, Sarah decided we should walk to the club because it was "right on the beach." TWO HOURS LATER we arrived at the club... an hour before last call. We each got a drink and Sarah and I danced the night away (can you say walking man??) while Saaya fell asleep on the patio. The night ended with a 8 Euro cab ride home (yeah, regret.).

On our last day in Barcelona, Hanna and I got breakfast for lunch in Plaza Real. It was so cute, there was a group of girls who came and started singing in the square and their friendly golden retriever came and sat by us! Afterwards, we decided to check out the two famous Gaudi houses in Barcelona: the Milo and the Battlo. The Milo didnt look very cool so we skipped on going inside that one, but the Battlo (the one that looks like King Triton's castle in Little Mermaid) was so pretty we payed the expensive entrance fee to go inside. Thank goodness we did, because it was absolutely amazing! It felt like we were under the sea, in Ariel's world, there were no straight lines in the architecture, Gaudi's attempt to emulate nature in the structure. I highly recommend it! After that we walked back down Las Ramblas, where I saw the CUTEST bunnies that were only 10 Euro. Don't worry Mom I didn't get one... Then we headed back to the hostel because we had a 9:00 train to Paris!! We took the Metro to the train station, which was a mess in itself, SUPER hot and crowded. We got there at 8:25 and realized we were at the WRONG FREAKING STATION. So we hailed a cab and hauled ass all the way across the city to the other (international) station- you know its bad when the cab driver tells you to calm down... We just barely made it onto our train, sweaty and stressed and ready to get some zzzzz's on the way to gay Paris! :)

GRANADA

Loved Granada!!!

Got here around 10:00 PM on the 3rd and found "Granada B&B Homestay," a B&B run by a very nice and helpful and eccentrically dressed gay man named Victor :) The rooms were clean and we had a full bathroom for the four of us, to ourselves! Victor was like our savior, he gave such great suggestions on places to eat, places to go, etc. Wish there was a Victor in every city!!!

That night after checking in, we went to go get tapas since our hectic schedule in Madrid didn´t allow for any. When we got to the little hole-in-the-wall place, nobody spoke English and I actually got laughed at (by the waiter, bartender, and the people at the next table) for my inability to express myself ("Que... que...???") but it was fun... we just realized that pretty much everything on the menu had ham (or some other form of meat), cheese, and bread... and the "veggie" section had potatoes soaked in oil with a sliver of what was a green bell pepper but had now been soaked through with olive oil. haha

The next day we went to The Alhambra! It was the castle of the Muslim empire that surrendered to the Catholics later on in Spanish history, it was also the last Islamic empire in Spain! It was freaking GORGEOUS, the architecture inside was beautiful--interesting fact: the outside is plain while the inside is super detailed bc they didn't want to flaunt their wealth and make enemies who would want to overpower them! After the Alhambra we tried to get Moroccan food but they laughed at me and then hung up on me when I tried to speak Spanish (FML) so then we found a donur kebab place (Turkish food) that was SO FREAKING GOOD. Then we went back to Victor's and had a siesta before going to a flamenco show that night! It was super cool, the dancers (who I later realized were actually real gypsies.... Don't worry Sam I got pics) were really into it. They all had like really violent facial expressions and actually hit themselves while dancing....... after the flamenco show we went to a delicious traditional Spanish restaurant that also had a beautiful lit-up view of the Alhambra, so beautiful. And great food!

The next day we walked around the Plaza Real and shopped, shopped, shopped!!! We got a bunch of great souvenirs and then (surprise, surprise) we were craving Asian food so we went to a Japanese restaurant and got udon..... whatever. Then we went to the Cathedral, which was realllllly pretty! Then we went on a cafe-crawl (much more enjoyable and less regret afterwards than the pub crawl) and ate our way through Granada: club sandwiches, pastries, cakes, tea... yum!

Then we headed back to Victor's to get our luggage and get to the train station for our 9:55 train to Barcelona... except Victor was nowhere to be found at 9:15.... Hanna and I almost had heart attacks. My palms were like sweating bullets I was so nervous. Victor finally rolled in at around 9:20 with some fellow hostelers who he "had" to take to the hospital to remove a cyst (yeah, whatever) that was KIND OF bleeding. Only a little.

When we finally got on the train, with a HUGE sigh of relief, we found our sleeping car that was actually very cozy! Four bunk beds and our own sink, kind of a luxury compared to what we expected. We got bundled up, got snug, and chatted our way to Barcelona before finally falling asleep around 2 AM....

I LOVE GRANADA!!!

MADRID

Madrid... Oh God.

Well, we all met at the Madrid International Airport at like midnight on the 1st, after hellish flights (especially on my part--see last post).

Our hostel was actually surprisingly nice, we were put in an 8-bed room (all girls, phew!) with our own bathroom. We had two freaking AWESOME roommates and two not so awesome roommates (so anti-social... we thought they were from Korea and didn´t speak English.. until one night at like 2 AM they started speaking English to each other haha guess they didn´t like us). Very clean... except we were in the dirtiest, grossest square ever. Smelled permanently of pee and that is NOT normal.

Our first day we visited the Palacio Real, which was beautiful, obviously, and the Cathedral adjacent to it, which was SO much more interesting and beautiful in my opinion. Then we went and had paella and the BEST sangria (till Granada) before heading over to the Reina Sofia afterwards. The museum was........... ew. The first floor was like WTF in a museum. Finger paintings all over the walls, not to mention graphic pencil drawings of gay sex and orgies. Oh, can´t forget the male statues hanging from the ceiling by their tongues. That was SO "artsy." Thank goodness for Picasso and his Guernica, it saved the day. Gotta be honest, everything else was fucking weird. That night, we went out on a pub crawl with our cool roommates and some other people from our hostel and other hostels in the area. It was really fun, except for the 12-hour hangover the next day... didn´t even know that was possible.

So basically, the second day was spent in our beds all day. WASTE. So sad.

The last day, we woke up SUPER early to make up for lost time so we went to the Thyssen museum (which was VERY well organized by the way, much to my and Hanna´s delight!), which also featured a special exhibit by Matisse. It was BEAUTIFUL. Then we found a STARBUCKS (hallelujah!!! Until we realized the salad we ordered had literally corpses of lettuce that were wilted and soooooo gross in a plastic container yuck, bad memories) before heading to the Prado museum. Let me just say the Prado is somewhere you should NOT go if you´re thinking about killing yourself. Because it would happen. And then they would just hang you up on the wall next to all the other depressing crucification paintings. And you would be even more miserable then before spending the rest of eternity in the Prado. BUT, on the bright side, we saw the BEST. PAINTING. EVER. It was literally a priest kneeling on the ground with BREAST MILK shooting out of from the breast of a statue of Virgin Mary. No joke. We were very disappointed to find that they didn´t have that postcard in the gift shop.

So that was Madrid. GREAT MEMORIESSSSSS