I’M ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!  I’m also home, which means I kinda failed on the whole updating everyone on my time abroad, so I apologize.  The end of my trip was very hectic, especially with all my essays and finals.  Then the volcano in Iceland did not help.  The volcano ended up ruining my plans to go to Munich, so I just stayed a few extra days in London before I came home.  But before I get ahead of myself, I will just give brief bullet points about the end of my time abroad.  Then, I will update you with a new adventure that is developing and that I am hoping will all work out after a lot of planning.

• Rome was great!  I saw the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Forum (where ancient Rome started), the location where Julius Ceasar was murdered, and so much more.  As usual, all the pictures are up on Facebook.
• Vatican City was AMAZING!  St. Peter’s Basilica was so nice, but the best part of it all was in the Vatican Museum.  The Sistine Chapel cannot be explained in words.  The paintings by Michaelangelo seriously look like they are coming out of the ceiling.  You must see it to fully appreciate what he did.
• The volcano in Iceland (I’m not even gonna bother look up the name… but I think this is close enough: Eyajsflsasdflfasjflkafjvea) almost messed up our plans to get home from Rome.  We made the LAST plane to fly from Rome to London.  Although, that volcano did end up ruined my plans to go to Munich.  I was going to get a flight back home on April 28th, but unfortunately I could only get it on the 27th in the morning (same time as my flight back from Munich) or on May 1.  I did not have money to stay even longer, so I just stayed in London the extra days to relax and do last minute sight seeing.
• Finals and essays went fine… that is all that really needs to be said about them, as I always tell people, “I learned more in museums, tours, and in different countries then I EVER learned in a classroom in all of college.”
• My last week and a half in London were great!  I went out almost every night (responsibly of course) and met so many new people.  I went to Fabric, the #2 club in the world, and I loved it even though many people told me it was overrated.  I went on a few pub crawls where I met people from all over the place, as well as more people form my program.  It was great to get to know more people on my program, but it was unfortunate that it happened so close to the end of the program.  Just as I got to know more people, it was only a week later I had to say goodbyes.  These people were from Texas, California, Washington, and other places across the United States.  Obviously, that is why Facebook was created, so we can all keep in touch, but it would have been great to have more time to spend with them.
• Besides going out at night, I was able to get a few last minute sites in.  I have a photo album on Facebook called “We had 3 months & we waited for the last 2 days? – Farewell London.”  It fits what happened to everyone to a T.  We realized at the end, we did not do everything we wanted to in London because we kept saying, “oh, we have time to do that later.”  During the last couple days, I went to St. Pauls Cathedral, the Tower of London, Abbey Road, Platform 9 3/4, and a few other things.  Check out that album, as the last week was one of the funnest weeks I had there (probably had to do with the fact that we were done with classes and I was not stressed about anything).
• My last day was hectic, but fun.  I was able to relax a bit, but still had to pack up my entire room and clean it.  It happened to be my roommates birthday the next day, so we went out to the Court (our favorite pub).  After that, we went back and I pulled an all-nighter so I would not sleep past when my taxi was picking me up at 5 AM.  I was so tired, that I almost fell asleep standing at the airport.  It was very difficult to keep myself up.  The moment I sat down on the plane, I was OUT.  British Airways was great again, offering the best service I’ve had and the best food.  Next time I have the opportunity to travel with them, I will be taking it.

That’s about all that happened at the end of my trip.  I had the time of my life abroad.  I know when it started I said it would have a hard time comparing to THON… well, it really did end up being the greatest experience of my life.  Thanks to everyone for all the support.

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The competition

Update

So I kind of failed with the end of the competition.  Therefore, the top 4 people all just got prizes.  My mother and Kim already got theirs.  Jen will get hers next I see her, unless I forget it… again.  Jolene, whenever I see you next, I have something for you too.

Thank you to everyone  who participated.

By the way, that building in the last question (when I asked how many floors it had)…. it is 11 floors.  It is set on a hill and that door is technically the 7th or 8th floor.  So no one was even close.

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Now, to my new adventure that is in the making.  Many of you know that I LOVE biking.  Well, I am in the process of trying to ride across the United States after I graduate.  Nothing is definite at the moment, but there are many things going on to make it a possibility at least.  I am trying to raise money for THON to determine how long my ride will be, but there is a lot of red tape I am trying to figure out.  So nothing is completely definite (as money for myself is also an issue).  I will keep everyone updated, and also let you all know about all the bike routes and tours I end up doing this summer.

I might not be changing countries this time around, but I am still gonna be traveling around.  If everything works out, I’m going to see A LOT across the States and will try to blog better then I did while abroad.

Cheers!

P.S UK>US… just sayin’

I have 9 minutes left on my time for the internet, so this will be short (and may contain errors).

Italy is AMAZING!!!!  I’m leaving in a few hours to get a train ticket to go to Rome from Florence.  So far, Venice is by far my favorite.  Florence is great too, but Venice was just absolutely amazing.  If you know me well, you know I love Australia and Sydney is my favorite city in the world.  Venice definitely gave it a run for its money.  Venice is up there as my favorite city in the world.

In Venice we just walked around and drank wine on the Mediterraean Sea.  We also biked for 2.5 hours on the island of Lido (loved that of course).

Florence, we have been doing random walking too.  We found this awesome fort that we spent a lot of time relaxing in, feeding pigeons, having some wine, and just laying in the grass in the 70 degree sun.  The day we got here, it was Jessie’s Birthday, so we went to this restaurant that her friend told her about, Il Latini.  The reviews on it online are amazing.  It cost us 35 Euro for a  course meal, with bottomless wine.  They do not give out a menu, you just eat what they make… and I ate it… ALL of it.  SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO goooooood!!!!!  Best Italian food I’ve ever had.  Early this morning I went to see the Statue of David, and it was quite impressive.  The work that was done into that statue is not able to be put in words.  You just need to see it.  I could not take a picture of it, but a pictures would give it no justice.

Time is almost up, so I will end here.  Hope everyone is doing great back in the States.  I will be home sooner then you all think, so don’t worry about it

Edinburgh, Scotland

So I have TWO trip to tell you all about: Edinburgh, Scotland and Ice Bar!

This was a great two day trip with Monica, and I loved it!  First off, thank you so much Brittany Fisher for letting us stay at your flat.  She saved us some money and showed us a good time when we went out at night.  The Hive in Edinburgh, Scotland is my new favorite club, ever.  I don’t have any pictures of it there, since I never bring my camera out at night, but it was a lot of fun!

First off, I need to mention one thing about Scotland: Everything is on top of a mountain… Here is the series of events (and mountains) that we hit:

Arrival time 08:00:

After a night bus of uncomfortable sleep, we arrive in Edinburgh.  We have 4 hours for my friend to arrive, so we decide to find a park to go to…

Calton Hill

Calton Hill

Here are some of the monuments at Calton Hill.  There were other buildings, as well as a Portuguese cannon there.  You can find the rest of those pictures on Facebook.  As the name describes says, it was on a hill.  It was a great view of the city though!

View of Edinburgh

A mountain in the distance (or so we thought)

As Monica and I were at the top of Calton Hill, I joked and said, “Hey look at that mountain.  We’re going to climb that next… Haha.”  Little did we know what was still to come.

Edinburgh Castle

Guess where this castle is?

Edinburgh Castle

We went to the Scotch Whiskey Experience!!! (Thankfully this was near the castle, so no more climbing, but still on top of mountain/ volcano).

Taste testing

We were given 4 scents to smell to figure out what kind of scotch we would like.  Each was from a certain area of Scotland.  They did not smell like the scotch, but there was supposed to be traces of what you smelled in your drink as a flavor.  Monica and I got two different kinds, and I hated them both!  No scotch for me… no thank you.  We were able to keep that glass in the middle though.  Yay souvenir!  Make sure to check out Facebook for all the bottles of scotch that were in the world’s largest scotch whiskey collection.  There were bottles made into a sea lion, a  lamp, a grandfather clock, golf equipment, a chess set, and so much more!

After that, we did some quick souvenir shopping and met up with Brittany.  She then told me about Arthur’s Seat.  I had heard about it before as something you are supposed to do.  I knew it was tall, but wasn’t sure exactly where or what it was.

Flashback: As Monica and I were at the top of Calton Hill, I joked and said, “Hey look at that mountain.  We’re going to climb that next… Haha.”  Little did we know what was still to come.

Sound familiar?  That is because I just said that about that mountain in the distance….

Arthur's Seat

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the 252 meter mountain in Edinburgh, Scotland known as Arthur’s Seat!  Yes we climbed it.  I was excited to do it (Monica not so much at first, but she enjoyed it… don’t let her fool you).  The pictures of the entire climb are AWESOME!  Again, go to Facebook for more pictures as there are WAY too many to put up.

Atop the mountain

That was basically the end of our adventure.  We did everything in Edinburgh in a day.  The next day, we just did a walking tour of the city to get some more history of it.

“You know what going down these stairs means?  We are going to be going up some in the future.”

- Monica McCleary

Ice Bar

Ice Bar

For those of you who do not know what Ice Bar is, I will give a brief explanation:

ABSOLUT Ice Bar is a bar made completely out of ice.  From the walls to the bar, and the chairs to the cup you drink from, everything is ice (except the floor).  You pay for a 40 minute session in the bar that includes one drink and a glass.  You pay for any other drink you want and if you need to replace your broken glass.

It was a lot of fun, but I wish I could have tried more of the drinks.  They all sounded so good!  Also, we survived the entire 40 minutes in there.  The average visit is 25 minutes.

Well that is all I have about recent events.  I leave for Italy in about 16 hours.  I will be in Venice for 2 days, Florence for 2 days, and Rome for 3.5 days.  I will try to write a post abroad if I have a chance at my hostels/ hotels.  There won’t be any pictures for those, but at least the blog when I return won’t be RIDICULOUSLY long.

Ciao!

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The competition

There are two bonuses on today’s blog.  I will only be taking one answer per person for the each bonus question.  If no one gets it right, then no one gets the points.

Photo #12

“Find the diamond” picture

Bonus #1

(if you are my mother, you cannot answer this question)

How many degree’s CELSIUS is Ice Bar set to?

Bonus #2

This is a 2 point question.

How many stories tall is this building?

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Update

My mother is rocking the score board right now, as she has gotten most of the recent questions correct.  Today is a great day to catch up.

I gave Kim a point for finding the diamonds I did not even see.  Very impressive.  Sorry Jen, but Kim found the same one as you just a couple minutes before you did.

Good luck!

The competition

Photo # 11

This one is pretty hard, but look carefully.  There are A LOT of them…. and I mean A LOT.  They’re all pretty close though.  Explain it as detailed as possible.

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Leaving for Scotland in an hour.  I will have a blog post either on Easter Sunday or Monday.  Have a great Holiday weekend everyone!

Yea, you heard me right, the LAST place I thought I would say it was going to be the best trip (so far technically, as I do still have Scotland and Italy coming up).  I am just so used to people saying that Americans are treated horribly in France.  It also did not help that my friends and I went there with ABSOLUTELY NO French conversational skills… at all.  We were the typical ignorant Americans, on a two day vacation there.  But from the very first French restaurant we went to, to the train ride back to London, the French did everything they could to help us.  Although, I hear that is just because I was in Paris, and almost anywhere else would not have been that way.

Anyway, I did SO much there.  That is what made it amazing.  I could go on and on about Paris.  So since I am really busy, I’m just gonna put a bunch of pictures up in a row and talk briefly about everything.

I stayed at the “Oops Hostel.”  Yea…. that is no joke.  We walked passed it and someone even exclaimed, “Oops, we passed it.”  I was forbidden from saying “oops” the entire trip, as I pretty much said it 20 times the first half hour there.  It was actually an AMAZING hostel, so I would recommend it if you travel there.  You can get a room of 4 or 6, and it is co-ed.

Here is the Pantheon.  We could not go in cause we got there when it closed.

We were able to go to Notre Dame (pictures inside are available on Facebook).

Here is the Eiffel Tower during the day and night.

The next picture is of me and my three friends I went on the trip with.

This is Sacred Heart Church.  It lies at the top of a hill in Paris.  When I saw it on a map, I would have never thought about going there.  We ended up going there at the advice of my friend’s (Lana) roommate.  It was an amazing view of the entire city, and I was so glad we ended up making the trip up there.   We relaxed on the steps leading to it for a while listened to an awesome street performer and drinking on some Heinekens we bought.  It was great to just relax up there after doing so much walking during the day.

Yes ladies… that is, in fact, Jude Law.  We just happened to see him when we met up with Lana’s roommate.  He was doing some advertisement.  I forgot for what exactly, but we saw him.  Go figure: the man lives near us in London, but we see him the exact same weekend we go in Paris.

Here is the Louvre.  I got lots of pictures of it up on Facebook, but I am sure you want to see just one certain portrait that I saw there…..

There she is… Mona Lisa.  She kept staring at me… Rude…

That is basically the major things I saw.  There are so many more pictures posted on Facebook to see.  I saw the Moulin Rouge, the Arc de Triumph (I only have one picture from a distance cause my camera died toward the end), and many more sites.

I am currently very busy trying to finish the most of my papers before I start my break.  Thursday night I leave for Edinburgh, Scotland.  I am spending two days and one night there.  I come back to London bright and early on Sunday.  I then leave for Italy next Wednesday for 8 days.  I am very excited for that trip too!

That is all I have time for, as I have to get back to work…

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The competition

Alright, since I have been absent a long time, and the is time running out, I have A LOT of pictures going to be up.  You may answer to as many as you want, but time will be ticking.  I have had some fast responses.  I will only take the FIRST response I get.  They are all “Find the Diamond” pictures.

Good Luck!

Photo #7

Photo #8

Photo #9

Extra point if you can name this monument (If your name is Danika Makuta, you cannot get the extra point)

Photo #10

Have fun!!!