Apparently they don't believe in knocking in the UK

So for the past week (the entirety of the time I've had the pleasure of being in the UK) I've been sick. This has not stopped me however, from exploring the new city! In the past few days, after we settled the kitchen debacle, Emily and I have been to our first pub (yay!) the tower of london (and tower hill and tower bridge) and buckingham palace! On Friday night (despite the cold weather and rain) we did ourselves up and went out to our first pub. Now we planned to go to this pub - an ale and cider house - that was supposed to be close. I was quite excited about this because I couldn't wait to try some traditional english cider! Despite our hopes, we walked for nearly an hour until we found ourselves lost and gave up. We made our way back to school, and then found our fall back pub - the court. this is the go to place for students of UCL, and also offers great student discounts. Emily and I tried some english beer, english cider, and some english vodka cranberry (which kicks america's vodka cranberry's ass, by the way). Now this pub was really crowded, and had all walks of life. College kids to middle aged men dressed in suits. And it was totally normal. Everyone just sitting around tables drinking cider and beer and having a grand old time. We stayed for a few hours, met some new friends (yay!) and then made our way back home.

The next day we headed out for the Tower of London. It was 15 pounds to get a ticket in, but it was definitely a landmark of London worth seeing. We got a free tour by these men who live in the tower and guard it (but also give tours..) but they have to serve in the military for like 25 years and all this crazy stuff to qualify. That was fun, then we explored around. We saw the Crown Jewels (reallllllly amazing), some torture chambers and dungeons, some armor and swords and things like that. After a long, long day of touring around, we made our way to the Tower Bridge. Now, for those of you who are confused by the nursery rhyme, the huge landmark bridge in london is NOT the London Bridge. Nor is it falling down. The Tower Bridge is the huge bridge that was sooo exciting for me, because I love bridges. Its absolutely tremendous, probably the biggest one I've ever seen. There are offices IN THE BRIDGE! How cool is that?!

Anyway, we grabbed some food at a pub and tried some pimms (a lemonade fruity alcoholic drink that is just delightful) and then made our way to Tower Hill (where all... well, pretty much every person who lived in London got beheaded). It really was a bunch of nothing, as what's left of it is just a patch of grass. We walked past it like 8 times before we realized. Its in the middle of this huge navy memorial, which if you ask me is not the place for a guillotine site. But oh well.

We didn't make it out last night because we were exhausted, and had to wake up early this morning to get to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards. We arrived there at 10:45 am, 45 minutes before the guards changed. I kid you not, there were THOUSANDS of people there. I don't understand. The changing of the guards happens every single even day of the month at Buckingham palace. And every single even day of the month there are thousands of people there!!! Its unbelievable. It was cool to see but rather uneventful as I am quite short and could not see the bulk of it. But the guard's band did play a nice Abba medley. After the changing of the guards was over, we waited in line for a long while to get tickets inside the palace. Now, I had never really thought much about the queen and her palace, but after seeing it I could definitely see myself living there. Or being the queen for that matter. Every single thing in that palace is gold - the staircases, the chandeliers, the walls, the chairs, its like endless gold. And there was this one display of some of the queen's actual gowns, which I wouldn't mind wearing myself from time to time.

After the palace, we headed over to a small tea shop that I remembered from when I was here a year ago. It was still there!! We went in, and tasted some of the BEST tea I've ever had. I bought a few packages of tea and as it started to rain, we got on the metro to Euston. Next, we went into this medical museum that is part of our school and was sponsoring a free skin exhibit. It was really cool (a little creepy) but had real human skin, some photography, some information on skin diseases and some really cool tattoos.
All in all it was a long but great day, and then we finally made it home and decided to just hang out for the night because we had been running around so much. Tomorrow we are going to the science museum, which I'm really excited about!

You have to be 21 to buy a knife. No, this is not a joke.

Two days ago, I arrived in London. My flight from Milan was delayed 3 hours while we were sitting on the plane. However, I met this nice woman named Shaney who told me all about how she was engaged to man she met six weeks ago. After we landed, we waited on the line for border patrol together. At this point in my trip (I had now been in the UK for all of about 2 hours) I learned something about that British accent that I love so dearly. It either makes a person sound extra nice and friendly or SUPER mean. I don't know what it is. But anyway, the woman at border patrol wasn't very nice. She kept asking me what classes I was taking. I kept telling her I hadn't registered for classes yet, and she proceeded to tell me that this was the dumbest thing she had ever heard of - why would i pay for classes at a university that won't tell me what classes I'm taking? I said this was a good question, but there was still nothing I could do about it. She stamped my passport as a short term student and asked me to please just leave.

A few hours and quite a struggle with all the luggage later, I made it to my residence. I say this because one cannot actually call this an apartment. I walked through the steel door into my apartment, and entered the miniscule standing area we have. you can probably comfortably fit 2 people in this area, standing. then there are 4 steel doors - one to my bedroom, one to Emily's, one to the kitchen, and one to the bathroom. The kitchen is fine, though I am wondering if we would even be able to fit a plate in the oven. Though this is apparently a wonderous living situation, we were not equipped with any kitchenware. We spent the entire day yesterday wandering around trying to buy plates, utensils, cups, pots/pans, etc. so we could actually eat some real food. It was an epic fail. We ended up going to a restaurant and stealing some plastic sporks, and we found two ceramic mugs at the grocery store. Needless to say my cheerios this morning out of a mug with a spork was quite a treat.

Today we woke up fresh, and actually had the energy to go somewhere farther (Poundland - everything is one pound) and buy all of our kitchen stuff. It was a great success! We even made pasta tonight. Oh except for one thing - we tried to buy a little pack of things - a steak knife, a grater and a pair of scissors - which was entitled "student kitchen package." When we were at the cash register ringing it up, the cashier asked us how old we are. When we replied 20, she took our knife away. "You aren't allowed to buy knives unless you are 21," she told us. We started to laugh until we realized she was serious and I asked her how we were supposed to cut anything because we live here alone and we don't know anyone who is 21 who could buy us a knife. She laughed, but failed to give us an alternative option. After that, we made our way to Primark, which is something like Walmart. It was fabulous. I bought blankets, a beautiful pair of boots for $15, rainboots and a winter coat. It was great. And then tonight we unpacked, cleaned up and set up our living space quite nicely. I think things are finally starting to get less stressful now. The last hurdle is registering for class, which we are going to try to do tomorrow. I am also trying to figure out how to get photos developed here, I bought some frames today to make my room look like less of a prison cell.
It definitely has been an adventure thus far...

This is the highway...

So sorry to anyone who is actually reading this, but we had scarce internet the last few days of backpacking so I had to wait until now to update. After we left Florence we headed for Venice. We ran into a slight issue on the train there which was that we bought a ticket, but not a seat (because apparently it wouldn't make sense to put these two things together) and nearly got kicked off the train. So after a lot of harsh words and 36 euros later, we arrived in venice to our hostel which was conveniently situated in the middle of a chinese restaurant. No, not next to it, in the middle of it. Strange.

Anyway, we made our way into the actual city of Venice (different than the one where our hostel was) which is the real Venice. It was gorgeous. Every single thing is on the water.. it really is a floating city! I don't know why it was so hard for me to believe, but it just seemed so magical. Every type of public transportation is on the water! And there are bridges EVERYWHERE (which I lovvvved).
So the first day we just wandered around and somehow made our way to the complete opposite very end of the island. As in if we took another 10 steps we probably would have dropped off into the ocean. After a very very long battle trying to find our way all the way back across the island, we finally made it back. The second day we went to this main piazza, where all the pigeons land on people if you stand still. I found it to be freaky and disgusting, but amusing at the same time. We made sure not to stand still for too long. In fact, one guy was lying on the ground with about 20 pigeons on him, and one eating a pretzel out of his mouth. And people had their babies with pigeons on them!!! It was very weird.

The day after that we left for Milan. Milan was a very needed rest, and also a very needed shopping spree as I had finally bought a suitcase and was able to buy things to fill it! We bought Camille the teeny tiniest straightener and hair dryer i've ever seen. We also had McDonald's for dinner this night, just because it was a stressful day and the smell of American french fries were calling to us. It was delicious!

After Milan I left for London, and I will write about that in my next post!

"I just mind the incredible number of bloody horrific drivers"

So today was our last day in Florence. We had a lot to do today because we planned to go to the Uffizi gallery yesterday, but then learned that everyhingggg in Italy is closed on Mondays. So we had to squish in a bunch of activities into today, our last day here.

Last night we left our walking around to come home, only to be drenched in a tremendous rainstorm. Again, I had to protect my leather bag and all of my electronics within it. After about two hours of being completely lost in the pouring rain and probably walking the entire perimeter of florence, we made it back. In the process, however, I completely soaked my good walking shoes, and today had to wear a flimsy pair of flats from payless instead.

So today we woke up early and took a bus into Greve in Chianti. The bus ride made me incredibly carsick, which made it hard to walk around once we arrived. But it was sooo beautiful. It's a gorgeous little countryside town of Tuscany, with terra-cotta houses. I decided I'm moving there when I retire.
Anyway, then we took the bus back and walked from the train station to the uffizi gallery. When we arrived we waited on line for almost an hour, and then finally paid the ten euros to get in. We had painfully made the decision to go into this gallery instead of going to see the David, because we Both were so excited about all the famous Renaissance art, and also special Caravaggio exhibit, and we didn't have time to do both. Sadly enough, the museum was a terrible disappointment. Most of the renaissance art we were expecting was not there, and the caravaggio exhibit was just ONE painting!!! We left very sad and disappointed.
Tomorrow we leave for Venice early in the AM, so I should get to sleep!

"Europeans don't line up...they mash"

Today Camille and I decided to take a break from the regular sight seeing of Florence life and take a day trip to Siena, a nearby town (or so we thought). So we woke up early, trekked the 45 minutes from our hostel to the train station. A few strange fountains and piazzas later, we made it to the station. But THIS bus doesn't leave from the front of the train station like all the other buses! Of course it doesn't. So after several confused conversations in several languages (everyone seems to think we are Spanish here..) we finally found it. The next bus wasn't leaving for an hour, so we sat down to relax until we saw this ridiculous line forming and feared it might be for our bus. It was.

So we stood in a squished line for almost an hour, and met two nice guys - one from San Francisco and one from Sweden, both going to school in Florence. When the bus pulled up, a mob formed around the doors like the parking lot was flooding and this was the only form of survival. The Swedish boy calmly told us, unfazed by the horrifying situation, "Europeans don't line up, they mash into each other" and oh was it true. Camille somehow weaseled heerself onto the bus, and pulled me in from behind (I almost lost an arm in the process) but then we took the nice, bumpy 2 hour ride to Siena.

After that, everything was greeat. Siena is beautiful and we saw a huggggge Duomo, which I'm pretty sure was bigger than the one in Florence. It's all hills and adorable houses, and we also saw a nice marching parade of jesters. We also saw an opera serenade, which was super random but cool. We spent some time relaxing in this main square that's sloped all around with the lowest point in the middle. Then on our way back we found this tiny little gem of a store where I bought some luggage and an unbelievably adorable umbrella, which I cannot wait to use in London. We finally made it back, scarfed down dinner (we were starving) and then walked the 45 minutes back to the hostel.
Tomorrow we are going to the Uffizi Gallery which I am so excited for. But right now it's time for bed!

You want your clothes back? Not possible.

I am happy to report that Camille and I survived a questionable stay in Bari and have now safely made it to Florence. I am also reporting that no one should ever go to Bari, as there is pretty much nothing good about this god forsaken place. So we arrived in Bari from Naples Wednesday night. After a 4 hour train ride and an entire day in the train station, we finally made it to Bari Central train station. From there we were instructed (after a lot of confusion in different languages) that we needed to take a bus to connect to another bus. Needless to say this went horribly, and not a single person spoke a word of English. A few hours, lots of rain and two very tired and confused travelers later, we found te hostel and passed out. Oh and our roommate was an African Queen who may or may not have been living permanently in this hostel... We named her Esmerelda.

So the next day, we woke up, got breakfast, and Camille washed her clothes. She hung them on the windowsill as usual to dry. Then we went out for the day, very excited for a day of relaxing beaches in southern Italy. We made it to one small castle when it started to downpour. We of course tried once again to navigate the public transportation system, but failed. I did everything I could to protect my new leather bag!! (shes ok don't worry)

So many hours later we made it back to the hostel. We quickly discovered that the storm had blown Camille's shorts out the window and onto a nearby roof. I of course died laughing. We had also discovered quickly on this trip that when you ask an Italian for example "I went to use the bathrooms in the train station but they are closed" they reply with "not possible." and nothing further. As if there is no physical way on the face of the planet that the bathrooms could be closed. They use this expression in many instances. You want a train ticket to Rome? Not possible. You want to share a plate of spaghetti? Not possible.

Anyway, so the next day, 4 buses, 2 trains and a plane ride later, we got the hell out of Bari and made it to Florence, my favorite place in the world. The hostel here is a converted convent, and is just fabulous. Today we saw the Duomo, a few other cathedrals, the main square and we went to a leather market. It smelled soooooo goooooood. I bought lots of presents here.
Then we finally saw Il Ponte Vecchio which is my favorite bridge (and favorite place) in the whole world, and it was even more beautiful than I had remembered.I wanted to stay there forever and just admire it.

Anyway we are off to dinner now! More pasta and wine mmmmm :)

Grazie!.....Prego?

So here we are on our second day in Napoli, and we seem to be getting along just fine, despite the possible death surrounding us (vespas). Anyway, today we went to Pompei. It was amazing. When we first arrived, my thought was, oh some more ancient ruins. It seemed to look just like the acropolis, and I was slightly put off by paying 11 euros for something I've basically seen already. But alas, as we entered and started our journey through the miles of ruins, I could have slapped myself for being so ignorant. They were incredible - so perfectly preserved and not infected by reconstruction or ugly scaffolding. We saw all the homes of the pompeians (?) a few theaters, and of course, some petrified bodies. Creepy, but SO COOL!

We spent about three hours there, then took off for sorrento. I Imagined sorrento being very touristy but Beautiful, and figured we would just chill on the beach for the rest of the day. Oh i say not.

We actually never found the beach, but we found was soooooo much better. Leather, leather, and more leather. In fact so much leather that I began to think oxygen smelled like leather. I did get a bit carried away with the purchases, but it was just so soft and beautiful and pretty! Camille swindled a nice bargain for the bag and belt I bought, saved me a solid $20 and we moved on. I did make several other purchases, although these are a surprise :)

We eventually (after several hours of shopping and a heavenly cannoli) found the port of sorrento which was breathtaking. I will try to load some pictures on here when I can figure it out. I have taken 254 photos on this trip thus far, so I promise there is much to see. When we returned to naples after about a 75 minute metro ride, we grabbed some disgusting dinner and made our way back to the hostel. We made a few friends last night, but they are gone today, so hopefully we will meet some new people. We have to check out tomorrow at 10 am, and then catch our 4 hour train to Bari at 5 Pm. I plan to spend all day Thursday tanning on the beautiful beach in Bari, as I think my body is going into exercise shock. It needs a day off to rest.

I suppose tonight we will take it easy because we are exhausted. Tomorrow before our train we plan to hit up "pizzeria street" (an actual street) with all the best pizza in Naples. Oh, and speaking of pizza, we witnessed a hot dog and French fry pizza last night (we did not eat it). We also learned the Italian word for cotton candy - puffo. We had some awesome puffo gelato yesterday. I'll write again soon though I may not have internet for a while!
Ciao!

How are the italians not fat???

So Camille and I arrived in Rome just about 5 days ago now, and this is the first time I've had actual internet. We spent our 3.5 days in Rome exploring the Colosseum, the Vatican, Trevi fountain, Spanish steps, markets, shopping and oh, the italians. We made two friends who we have named the following: Lo Mein: the chinese-italian woman who ran our hostel, and Mimo: the arab italian who waited on us at dinner each night. I had my first "lost in translation" experience with Mimo, when he seated us at a table right in the center of the sidewalk outside the restaurant and I said, "Oh, we're in the hotseat tonight!!" and he proceeded to think that I was complaining because the chair was too hot for me to sit in.

Anyway, everyone speaks wayyyy less english than I expected here - I definitely shoudl have brushed up on my italian. I have also learned that the most dangerous thing I will encounter on the trip is crossing the street, as it seems there are no consequences in Europe for running over pedestrians. We have learned that in order to preserve our welfare, we find an italian who is about to cross the street, and then latch on to them in order to cross safely. I have also been told by a different waiter we had at a restaurant near the vatican that he would "walk by me a thousand times in order to hear my beautiful voice". that was nice of him i suppose.

This morning we traveled to Naples, which I found to be less than thrilling thus far. It is somewhat of a dirty city, although the hostel is nice. There is a nice harbor of Portici nearby, which has a sad excuse for a beach, but a beach nonetheless. We are going to Pompeii and Sorrento tomorrow, so this should be fun and slightly more scenic. Apparently they also do not believe in eating meals here, despite that Naples is known for its pizza, as we walked for miles today and were only able to come upon "pasticcerias" (bakeries). As much as I love an italian dessert, I do need to integrate my healthy pizza and/or pasta meal each day. I actually have not consumed anything but pizza, pasta and gelato since I arrived in Italy, but thankfully we have been walking several miles a day with my (I kid you not) 48 pound backpack! Fun times. I will write more soon!

Ciao!