Hello all!
I just got to my London home after 10 days of insanely hectic travel, and I feel just as you should after a great Spring Break- tired, sunburned, broke, and happy!
First of all, before I dive into Spring Break craziness, I'm so sorry for not updating about Week 10. I was very busy planning for all that was to come. In the 10th week (my last official weekend in London), I did do some things other than pack everything for Spring Break into a teeny tiny backpack. I went to see the musical "Cabaret" with my friend Mike, and while it was pretty crazy, we both really liked it. I did miss Liza Minelli (how often do you say THAT in your life?) and Joel Grey though. Our program also took us to a real English football match for a team called Charlton, and they totally won! It was very exciting- people stand up, cheer, and chant the entire game. Craziness! We also went on a tour of Parliament, which would have been super cool, except that our tour guide was terrible. He didn't even show us the Magna Carta. It was so funny- Emily, one of our program directors was with us, and she kept getting so angry and whispering all the things he was passing by, and telling us the stories behind them. Our tour guide was just this little strange man who we could barely understand, and who kept talking about how he didn't like his wife. It was so weird, but pretty funny looking back on it all! Those were the notable happenings of Week 10, so I'll move on to what you really want to know about- SPRING BREAK!
I'll give you a day to day breakdown, since that's the easiest way to manage this. But overall, the seven of us (Me, Stacey, Stephanie, Whitney, Chelsey, Hilary, and Katie) had an amazing time. We caught all our flights, trains, buses, etc (with some difficulties along the way- more on that later) and we all arrived safely back in London. So that's the first thing to praise God for- we're home and with amazing stories and pictures!
So here we go- Ev's Spring Break 2007
Day 1
London<Milan<Verona
The seven of us met downstairs at 2:45 am in the morning- I had taken a nap during the day, but couldn't sleep a wink at night. So my marathon day began on absolutely no sleep. We hurried down to Victoria Coach Station to catch the 3:10 train, and believe it or not, it was booked full even that early in the morning. So we anxiously waited, and caught the 3:30. We got to Stansted Airport at 4:45, and made our 6:00 am flight to Milan! Whew!
Then we got to Milan, there was even more craziness because apparently there are only certain trains you can take with the Eurail student passes we had, so we kept getting on the wrong trains and sitting in people's seats, and the people there at the station spoke next to no English. Oy vey. But apparently, we made the train and took it to Verona (fair Verona, where we set our scene...)
It was such an amazingly beautiful city. Stacey and I set off by ourselves (we mostly broke into groups during this trip- seven is just too much to manage) and we got lunch at a nice little cafe. The weather was absolutely perfect, so we just walked around for awhile, trying to forget that we had 50 pound backpacks on our backs. We eventually made our into the Piazza in the middle of town, and there were tons of cool things to see. We went to the Juliette House, which is basically where the family that Shakespeare based the Capulets on lived. So cool! After we ate dinner and looked around, we went back to our amazing hotel- it probably wasn't even that great of a hotel, but when you're used to living in hostels, any kind of hotel feels fabulous! And after over 24 hours with no sleep, I was ready to just pass out on any kind of flat surface, hotel bed or no!
Day 2
Verona<Venice<Bologna<Florence
Oh, Venice. What an amazing place- probably the prettiest city I've ever seen. Sparkling waters, beautiful sprawling villas right on the water, gondolas floating by everywhere, and glittering Carnevale masks on every corner...such an amazing place.
Me, Steph, Whit, and Stace rode a gondola around the city, and it was so cool! One of those iconic things you always hear about people doing but never actually see yourself getting to...amazing. Our gondolier didn't speak much English, so it wasn't like the most illuminating tour I've ever had in my life, but oh well! We were in a gondola!
It was so crazy- no buses or cars anywhere. Public transportation in Venice is by boat- like you go to the dock and wait like you would at a bus stop.
I got to have my first taste of gelato in Venice...oh man. Yummy. I think we had some every single day we were in Italy!
After Venice, we left for Florence. This was a bit of pain of a trip, just because things kept getting delayed and we didn't get to Florence until around midnight-thirty. But all was well, and even though our room kinda resembled army barracks, we had it to ourselves, which is a rarity in our hostels, but one that you really begin to appreciate.
Day 3
Florence
This was a nice restful day- it was Easter Sunday, so everything was pretty much closed. Italians, if you give them any excuse, will close anything, so an actual holiday was definitely reason enough. We went to a market in the morning, and I shopped til I dropped! After that, the seven of us ended up going to these amazing royal gardens, full of statues and fountains and enough little paths for you to get happily lost for a whole day.
After almost a whole day in the gardens, we went and got Italian pasta and were ridiculously overcharged for it (4 euro for a Coke...I was furious). After that, as we wandered around, we happened upon this girl who looked like a student around our age (Florence is apparently a big college town) singing opera in the middle of a piazza. She was absolutely amazing. It was so cool to A) hear someone sing opera live, and B) hear someone our age sing that incredibly well.
Day 4
Florence
After going to more markets in the morning, Whit, Steph, and I made the trek up to Michelangelo's Lookout Point. It was amazing up there, and so the three of us just set up in a little park and planned the rest of our trip. It was so fun!
That night, we decided to go out to this club someone in Florence recommended called "Twice." It was pretty funny- we went around 9:30-10:00, and it was this amazing club...black leather couches, strobe lights, two bars, etc etc...but there was absolutely no one there. Apparently, Italians don't go out until like way way WAY later. It was so funny, we just set up on this gorgeous leather couch and sat and talked until like two hours later when people finally started filtering in. It was hilarious- this one Italian guy asked to take a picture with us, and then asked us our names, so we all made up names...
Hilary- Elizabeth
Chelsey- Megan
Stacey- Sara
Steph- Victoria
Everlee- Amber
Me and Steph thought our names were the funniest because mine sounded kinda white trash and hers sounded like a proper English lady. Heee...good times.
Day 5
Florence<Pisa<Rome
This was another deathly early morning (especially since me and Steph had stayed at the club waaaay past everyone else in our group), but it was the only train to Pisa that worked with our schedule.
We made it to Pisa, which was a much bigger town than you would think, high-tailed it to the Tower, took pics, got gelato, and hurried back to the train. There are only certain trains you could catch with our little pass, so we had to stay on a pretty strict schedule.
The ride from Pisa to Rome was pretty much awful...my iPod broke within the first twenty minutes of a three hour train ride, so I had to listen to this enormous Italian man who was sitting right across from me in a little sleeper cabin screech into his cell phone for two and a half hours. When he got really excited, he would spit all over me. Like I could actually wipe it off my face. Eeeeyuck. And then he started talking to me after he had called about four thousand people on his cell phone. Geez. It was just terrible.
But who cares, because once it was over- we were in Roma! I have wanted to go to Rome my entire life, and it was so incredibly exciting being there at last. The first thing we saw were the ruins of the ancient Roman forum, which was just so cool. It was kinda interesting- the forum was like their ancient version of a shopping mall, and it was right next to the Colosseum. So you had like a day of shopping, and then a "show", just like we do- only bloodier.
After that, we were all pretty spent, so the last thing we did before retiring to the hostel was go to the Trevi Fountain. I made a wish (as if I'd tell!) of course and then we all went back to the hostel.
Day 6
Rome
This was probably our craziest day- you would NOT believe all the things we packed into this one day. I'll list them for you:
1) The Vatican City- We woke up at 6 to make it to the Vatican City (on foot) by 7. The lines were already huge, because the Pope was speaking that day, and we couldn't figure out which lines went where so we accidentally waited an hour in the line to go see the Pope speak, which is not what we wanted, so then we had to switch lines to see the Vatican Museums. Oy. We waited like two hours to get into the Museums, but they were incredible. It housed this amazing Egyptian collection, hundreds of Roman statues, and ended up in the Sistine Chapel. Wow. After that, we went back to the main part of the Vatican, waited until the Pope was done blessing everyone from babies to businessmen, and went into St Peters Basilica. What an amazing church- its absolutely enormous!
2) The Spanish Steps- None of us could really figure out exactly why these are so famous, but apparently they're something you should see because they were in all of the guidebooks, so we dutifully went along and took pictures at them. They really were gorgeous, with purple flowers blooming all along the sides and this awesome Spanish-style building at the top.
3) The Pantheon- Incidentally, not the "Parthenon". I totally got these confused, and don't think that two monuments should be that similarly named. Annoying. Anyway, the Pantheon is this cool dome-shaped building that apparently houses tons of different kinds of architecture all in one building, and its most famous for its domed ceiling with an opening at the top. Pretty neat- kinda sends this Indiana Jones-ish shaft of light through the building.
4) The Colosseum- My favorite, favorite thing we saw. I've been dreaming of visiting this place for so long- it was absolutely incredible to really see it. I took like a million pictures. Kept thinking about Gladiator, of course. It was really neat- they left half of the wooden, sandy floor where the gladiators fought up, and the other half was gone to show you all the stuff going on underneath the main stage- it had all these crazy maze-like structures for storing the animals and props that would pop out during the show.
After that long, looooong day, we headed back home and collapsed happily in our bunkbeds!
Day 7
Rome
In the morning, Stace wanted us to go to this garden where supposedly the first rose was found or something, so we traipsed all over Rome looking for it. No dice. Or it was privately owned or something, because there was definitely no open garden like that. Oh well. After that, we left Stace at this garden in front of the Circus Maximo (actually the biggest ampitheatre, but mostly in ruins, so not as famous as the Colosseum) while Whit, Steph, and I went to the St. Callisto Catacombs way-the-heck outta town. We rode the bus most of the way, and then had to do a 900-m climb (some uphill) to the actual entrance to the catacombs.
It was crazy...like I even love scary stuff, and it gave me the creeps. These particular catacombs have 300,000 tombs in them, and 13 popes were buried there. You walk through these narrow, dark hallways, and its like your shoulders are literally brushing against the graves. It was freezing cold down there too...so creepy. Plus, there's this famous saint buried there, who, when they excavated the tombs 500 years after her burial, her body was still completely intact. Like her skin, eyes, hair, etc hadn't decayed or aged at all, and they still haven't to this day. Weird!!
After that, we met back up with Stace at the Colosseum lawn, and I took a little nap while the other girls were planning some other thing we were supposed to do later. It was so weird to wake up, and BAM! there's the Colosseum.
Then we spent our last night in Rome just walking around and talking, and got our last scoops of gelato- me and Steph went for three scoops, just to commemorate the end of our Italian adventure!
Day 8
Rome<Geneva
We got up at 2:45 to catch our bus out of Rome, and then when we got to the airport, Stace discovered she had booked her ticket for the wrong day. And that all our credit cards that were Visas were declined when we tried to help Stace pay for the charge to fix her ticket. Ugh. But finally Steph's credit card, a Mastercard, was accepted and it all got worked out, thankfully. But not a fun way to spend your morning...especially when it's like barely 5 in the morning and you already having to deal with catastrophes.
But we all got on the same flight, and it was totally fine. Our hostel in Geneva was really huge- it looked almost like it used to be a hospital or school or something that they converted into a youth hostel. (oooh, scary movie idea brewing in my head...
) but anyway, it was really nice and we had the room to ourselves the first two nights.
Me, Steph, Whit, and Stace went on a boat tour of Geneva's Lake and accompanying chateaus, and it was really cool. Freezing cold, but really pretty and interesting.
It was funny- the prices in Geneva were totally out of whack. Which was actually fine, because the dollar is worth more than a Swiss franc, so for once, we didn't get slammed by the exchange rate. But like a Value Meal at McDonalds was 11 francs. Craziness!
After that, we walked around and saw this clock made entirely out of flowers that actually kept real time...it was weird. Apparently Swiss people love three things...clocks, flowers, and Army knives. Oh, and chocolate. Which- hey, fine with me!
That night, we just went and sat by the lake and talked. It was such a beautiful, beautiful town.
Day 9
Geneva
The four of us went shopping most of the morning (I did some serious damage at H&M because for once I didn't have to double every single price tag in my head!).
Then we took a Cable Car up to the Alps...it was so amazing! We went hiking around the Alps, which was actually pretty steep and difficult- we were so high up it was hard to catch your breath. But so gorgeous- the views were incredible. It was so cool...we all sat down on this ledge overlooking all of Geneva, and these parasailer guys were just strapping into their suits and leaping off the Alps right next to us. How awesome would that be?? If we had been there another day, I might have tried to get a lesson or something!
Then we went to this amazing garden that had all these beautiful flowers, enormous trees, and old mansions (not sure what they were for, but they were amazing) placed all over. We ate dinner there at a little cafe inside the gardens.
Later that night, Steph, Whit, and I tried to go out to this club called MOA, but apparently, people in Switzerland start going out even later than in Italy. The clubs didn't even OPEN until 11...I don't know how these people do it! So we just walked around downtown Geneva instead and happened upon this totally random carnival, like complete with rides and games still operating that late at night. It was totally surreal.
Day 10
Geneva<London
End of the road! We woke up around 4:00 am to catch our bus to the Geneva airport, caught the plane with no problem, and headed back to foggy London town!
I gotta say, it's good to be back. I'm exhausted, but thrilled with all the experiences I've gotten to have. This whole trip was absolutely incredible, and I appreciate so much all of your prayers.
Love and miss all of you so much
26 days until I'm home!
Ev