Hello Again!

blogging is not one of my fortes, as is apparent by my lapse in posting. i have vowed to do better in order to keep certain family members apprised of our goings on. here is a rundown from where i left off:

we successfully completed our first european excursion, after london we continued on to:

*paris-10 days of hitting every major site and dozens of nooks and crannies of the outer

city. we stayed in a fabulous hostel with fabulous roommates who supplied us non night lifers with plenty of entertaining tales. the food was ok, the pastries were sinful, and the seemingly boring fare of bread, cheese and fruit turned into our most often ate meal (aside from the made to order nutella and jam filled crepes). the louvre only took three days to navigate though i could probably live there and still not see everything. all in all a very successful first visit:)

*rome- ten days of unbelievable sights including, but not limited to, the colosseum, the roman forum, all seven of rome's hills, the spanish steps and the pantheon. our feet were by now well accustomed to the miles and miles of walking which especially paid off in rome which is much smaller than paris. we explored every church we stumbled upon which was rewarding in not only the grand art we found but also in the comfort of the stone walls that not only kept heat out but also excessive light which clearly ruins the atmosphere. we ate exorbitant amounts of gelato at both world famous gelateries as well as the little hole in the wall patisserie in the town of fiano romano where we stayed on a campsite and watched world cup matches with alfredo, our italian shuttle chauffeur. it was awesome. oh yeah-vatican city is overrated-the vatican museums however were very nice-the sistine chapel is indescribably awe inspiring.

*naples-trash, trash, and more trash. we explored enough only to find the good pizzerias, the remainder of the nights we ate food ordered for us by our new british friend harriet while we watched world cup games. our sole purpose for naples was to see pompeii which was so worth it. two days was quite sufficient.

*florence-an art lovers paradise, which made me very, very happy-quinn however was a little museumed out after the louvre and the orsay in paris so i reveled alone in the amazingness of the uffizzi and several others. we waited in line for three hours to see michelangelo's david which thankfully paid off when i was able to acquire a few illicitly taken pictures of the larger than life sculpture which was absolutely breathtaking. florence was almost painfully beautiful-i could most definitely live out my days in its sun soaked hills.

*venice-truly unique with its meandering canals and carless city. venice is pretty small and manageable if you can avoid becoming lost in its countless walkways and alleys. we walked all of the city and i can report that my theory of following groups of what we hoped were tourists panned out well, i strongly recommend this method if you are hoping to find large attractions. my favorite spot was the peggy guggenheim collection. also noteworthy-candystores that have bins of haribo candy in bulk, pannetone, and biscotti.

after venice we rode the night train back to paris with some gratefully normal brazilian med students (the other night train we took consisted of being woken up at two in the morning in switzerland by rail police who proceeded to escort one of the three middle eastern men from the cabin never to be seen again. shocking i know but i hope he was ok because he was nice and shared his chips with me, he also said i should learn arabic which i am still considering). after perusing paris for the afternoon, eating one last crepe which exploded all over my shirt leaving a noticeable nutella stain resulting in a slightly inappropriate change of wardrobe by the seine, we (and by we i mean i) spent our last few hours before flying back to london in the famous bookstore shakespeare and co. which was intoxicating. we spent two more days in london, this time on the other side of town. at last it was departure day which by now was a welcome relief because of the exhaustion that had officially overtaken our bodies and souls. it is a good thing that heathrow airport comes equipped with several large no duty stores, at least two toy stores and a miniature harrods because our plane was delayed for somewhere around six hours. some people were quite upset, some gave up and fell asleep on the floor, others (who had been there far longer than us) wept openly, i masked my pain by purchasing a purse while quinn surfed the internet. we flew into philly, missed our connection and were compensated by a free dinner and stay in a deluxe sweet at a nearby marriot which i have to say was one of the best nights sleep i have ever had. we landing in LA the next afternoon and i slept for many, many hours. best time of my life.

this concludes my deceptively concise description of our travels. for the two people who will probably read this i hope it wasn't too boring and that it answered the inquiries that i was too tired to explain upon my return.

Paris

Rome

Pompeii

Florence

Venice