Part 1: Milan
We left at like 5am from our apartment to catch the plane to
milan... why? because its cheaper that way... our flight was at 650 am and arrived in milan at around 820 or something... i dont even know... we got to our hostel, which was (thankfully) just a cheap hotel, and we dropped off our bags to get on with our visit... we only had 2 days you know! we went first to the duomo, which materialized as the biggest sand castle ive ever seen in my life! its huge and the entire outside is embellished with sculptures, and its made out of a pink marble (yes erin, its really pink!)... its absolutely gorgeous... we climbed all the way up the stairs to the roof... it was pretty amazing.. we spent the rest of the day walking around the duomo area, doing lots of window shopping... but not any real shopping since we embarked on this journey with only backpacks! later in the day we hung out in front of the duomo and did some people watching... it was mostly beautiful people, but there were also some people in need of a mirror... hahaBright and early next morning, we tried to go see "The Last Supper" as in, the painting... the real one... but apparently to see that, you need to make a reservation about 2 weeks in advance... so no last supper for us :-( ... we had seen that there was a pretty big park with a (free!) aquarium, so we decided that should be our next stop... in the park we found a giant castle museum, a celtic festival, and the aquarium... so we spent some time seeing all of those things and enjoying autumn in the park... by the end of the day, we were pooped, but ready to head to London!
Part 2: London
We arrived in London around midnight (i think) and we actually met some american guys on the
bus who pointed us in the right direction when we got off... well we started off down this street right out of Mary Poppins... no joke, it was really cool... we were also very relieved to be speaking english... we checked into our hostel, which was pretty clean, and eventually settled into bed, only to be woken up very early by our not-so-quiet roomates... we decided to start by walking along the river... we passed by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, we saw all the good bridges (Jubilee, Millenium, London, and Tower)... waved to the London Eye from across the river... saw the Basilica... i cant even remember the name of it right now... possibly St Pauls... we got some Starbucks! mmm... and eventually made our way to Picadilly Circus... all of this we did on foot, which is a really long way... like a really really long way... because the tube (their subway) is 4 pounds per trip... which is somewhere around $8... so that was a no go... we spent that money on candy from Top Shop's Sweet Shop and a movie! (The new Ben/Jerry Stiller movie... not great but it was in english haha)... then we got fish and chips and some London Pride beer for dinner... and headed to bed to rest our feet for the next big dayDay 2 in London led us back to Westminster Abbey so we could go inside and check things out... its a pretty huge church, completely crammed full of tombs... we saw poets corner and the college garden and of course Newtons tomb (this is one of those DaVinci code things haha)... after the Abbey we trekked up through the park to Buckingham Palace, grabbed some soup and had a little picnic in the park, then went on to the palace where we SAW PRINCE CHARLES! yea, im not kidding... he was having tea with some people, i cant remember who, but there was this crazy procession with horses and carriages and lots of guards in funny hats, and we saw the prince and we think the queen was in one of the covered carriages... it was pretty awesome... the funny hat guys i mean... haha! After that it was already time to head out (sad i know)... all aboard for Barcelona!
Part 3: Barcelona
Sooo we got to barcelona late at night on who knows what day of the week... tuesday maybe?
and found ourselves in a bus station where the only person working did not speak english (and neither morgan nor i speak catalan) ... so we got a map and headed out... eventually just getting a taxi to bring us to our hostel... which was a dump, but pretty clean and right on the beach... early in the morning we set out for Park Guell, a Gaudi designed park that has some outdoor escalators leading up to it (now i know why those are uncommon, they sounded like they were in pretty rough shape lol)... and we wandered a bit through the park, saw some crazy colorful mosaic stuff... and saw (get this) where they had the scary bride fashion show for one of the top model finales! i have pics so you should check that out... after the park we headed to la Sagrada Familia... which is this crazy Gaudi church that started being built in 1882 and wont be complete until like 2050... its absolutely ginormously huge, and when you look up at the ceiling, its supposed to look like a canopy of trees... its pretty much all based on forms found in nature, which are then somehow created through math objects... i wish i could explain it better, but see the pics, google it, if youre interested... after that we went to la Padrera to hit up the roof (a pretty crazy Gaudi construction), then walked down to Casa Batllo... after the Gaudi fest was over, we headed down La Rombla... or something like that... which is basically a market that goes down the middle of a street... theres a cluster of pet shops, a cluster of restaurants, a cluster of flower shops (they had blue roses, crazy!)... just clusters of things basically... and it leads down to the water... where there was some cool stuff... so by the time we got to there, me and morgan just walked along the water, and eventually along the beach, before heading to bed to rest our feet...Day 2 had us up and out on the beach again... it was so pretty at night we had to see it during the day... so we walked all along the water, watched the surfers... hung out for a bit... decided to make our way back to La Rombla... saw some salsa dancers and other street performers... walked up and over towards some park that apparently has a zoo (we like animals apparently) but once we got to the zoo and we saw it was like 15 euro for an adult ticket, we said no way and got some ice cream instead... then we headed back to the water to look for some dinner... we ended up having a whole bunch of sangria and tapas on some boat... which was pretty awesome... a good way to end our time in barcelona... we headed to bed somewhat early since we had to be out at around 415am the next morning to get to the bus to take us to the airport
Part 4: Finally in Paris
upon our arrival in paris, we realized that no we
do not speak french and NO it is not easy to find your way along the metro... sooo it took us a bit to get oriented... after a good deal of walking and some metro riding, we got to our hostel and dropped our things off... by then it was about time for lunch, so we grabbed some chocolate chip baguettes and headed out towards the Jardains du Luxembourg... or however you spell that mess... the gardens were lovely, so we stopped and took some pictures, and then continued towards Notre Dame, which is apparently on an island in the middle of the Seine River... pretty cool... so we found that and went inside and spent some time gawking at the rose windows... then took a lap around the outside and decided to come back the next day to head up the towers to the roof... from Notre Dame we walked at a brisk pace towards the Louvre, took a quick look at the outside (again to return the next day) and jumped on a metro to see Sacre Cour, the highest point in the city, topped with a garden, some steps, and a basilica... the view was amazing and probably would have been better had it not been so cloudy... but it was a great view none the less... after that we metro-ed it back down to the champs elysees, and started out along that towards the Arc de Triomph... along there some guy was doing silhouettes in "under 2 min guaranteed" and he was so good at them that i paid the 3 euro to get it done and it really does look like me! totally worth it... so then we continued towards the arc, which never seemed to get any closer and then suddenly we were there... took a look at that and then kept right on walking down towards the Eiffel Tower... we got there just around dusk, took a few pics, and decided it was time for dinner... after dinner we headed back to the tower and bought some tickets for the next boat ride along the Seine River... since we had a few minutes to spare we got some crepes filled with chocolate (mmm the Parisians really know how to do dessert) and then went back to catch the boat for our very romantic boat ride along the river past all the good stuff that we spent all day walking past... it was sooo pretty all lit up at night... then it was time to head back to the hostel for bed...Day 2 in Paris led us straight to the Eiffel Tower... it was a bit cloudy and overcast... but by the time we got there it was clearing up... so we walked up to the second floor, which is really like the 5th floor of a normal building... then took the elevator up to the tippy top... once we got there i could see New York! actually, no i couldnt... but i could see all of Paris... it was crazy high up there! after the Eiffel Tower we headed back to the Louvre for a few hours to see the highlights...first we had to see the upside down pyramid with the little pyramid under it (DaVinci code)... then we hit up Michelangelo's Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave, originally meant to be on the tomb of Julius II before it was redesigned several times... then we saw the Athena Nike... and of course the Mona Lisa... then we had to find the Madonna on the Rocks (any DaVinci code fans out there?)... then we wandered a bit and stumbled upon the rest of the portraits that were originally in the Studiolo of the Ducal Palace of Urbino (we saw that on our Hilltowns Tour)... and also the crown jewels of Napoleon and Josephine (WOW)... we wandered a bit through the museum and then realized it was time to start trucking it over to Notre Dame to see the bell tower... so we started off towards Notre Dame, waited in a pretty quick line, and then climbed the 422 steps to the roof of Notre Dame where we hung out with Quasimodo for a while... again a beautiful view of Paris... theres really so many places in Paris where you can get up pretty high and get a view of the whole city... gorgeous! after Notre Dame, it was time to go... so we racewalked pretty much for about 45 minutes back to our hostel, grabbed our stuff and jumped on the nearest metro to grab the train back to Roma... which nearly hit a speedbump when we were told that since we didnt have eurorail passes we had to pay the difference for the trip, in 1st class!... well the guy was really nice and switched us to a room in coach (still with beds) and we were never charged for the trip... so we had a looooong train ride (from about 7pm to almost 11am) most of which we slept through... and arrived well rested back in Rome this morning...
Back in Roma, we grabbed the bus back to our apartment... i dont think i have ever been so happy to be in a foreign country speaking a language i am nowhere near fluent in... so now ive been blogging forever (its taken me a few hours to get through all this) and i've uploaded all the pictures fit to print (you'll have to see them all to get a real feel for my trip) and i had some gelato! mmm i love gelato... and now im (almost) ready to settle in for a full week of killer studio before my southern trip begins next week... poopy
special thanks to maegen, erin, bratty, christy, lisa yue, and lexie for pointing us in the right direction on our trip... also thanks to lj and erzie for the postcards! and to all the girls who have been facebook messaging me and writing on my wall, i miss you all sooo much and i cant wait to be back with all of you! (even though i looooove rome)
To recap: all was fabulous on the trip... i wouldn't recommend 4 european countries in 8 days (my feet are killing me)... but its totally doable if you get the chance! it was def the experience of a lifetime!!!
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