Time for a France/Italy recap.

Paris was unbelievably beautiful. Everyone was so nice, and I was pretty impressed with how much French I remembered from 7+ years ago. We ate french onion soup, chocolate mousse, creme caramel [like creme brulee but better], and loads of bread.
We got there in the evening, so we walked around near our hostel, had dinner and then went to bed.

The first day there was pretty foggy. We went on the Ferris Wheel, to the Louvre for a few hours, and to the top of the Eiffel Tower that night. Too bad it was so foggy it was like being under a blanket up there, but we could see from the second platform. I got some really cool pictures of that but I can't upload them right now, the internet is being slower than usual.

I think the next day we saw the Arch de Triomph, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and walked down the Champs Elysees. We walked over by the Eiffel Tower again to see it in the day time and took pictures. We got approached by a million gypsies who ask you "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and apparently if you say yes they tell you their father has cancer & they've been here for three months and they're broke. They never said this to us because we ignored them or said random things in Greek. At last, it comes in handy! That night we went to the Louvre again because it's free Wednesday and Friday nights for a few hours. Going there was really incredible. There were lots of art students everywhere sketching paintings. They let you take pictures of almost anything you wanted, including the Mona Lisa, which is weird. Probably not the original, but they can't ALL be fakes, so I don't know what the deal was there.

Saturday was Charlotte's birthday. We had originally planned to go to the Louvre all day that day, but since we'd already done it twice, we went to Notre Dame, ate crepes, saw the monument to the Bastille, the Moulin Rouge and had dinner. We had to spend the night in the Paris airport because the transportation stops at night. That sucked. It was REALLY cold in there. We got back into Rhodes Sunday afternoon, and Tuesday morning, Charlotte, Erin and I left for Italy.

I was really excited for Paris, but not so much for Italy. Probably because it didn't even hit me that we were about to go.

We got to Milan Tuesday night and just hung around in our hostel. The next day we walked to the Duomo thinking we were going to see the Last Supper...but apparently it isn't there. And even though it's the off season, you need reservations and they're booked through February. So much for that. So, basically Milan was a waste. It was dirty and boring and ugly.

Florence, however, was beautiful and a ton of fun. Charlotte spent a semester there so she knows the city really well. Our hostel was awesome, we had a dvd player in our room, so we could watch movies.

The first night we went out to dinner at this place that brings you a few plates of different things 3 times. They also gave us a bottle of table wine which we probably weren't supposed to finish...but did. That was a fun night.

The next day we went shopping, and to the Academia, which is where The David is. Seeing the David was incredible, I totally understand the hype now. It's really an amazing sculpture. I didn't realize how huge it was! It's 17 feet tall, and on this like, 6 foot high stand. We also found a place that makes bagels! Well, sort of. They make them out of focaccia bread, so they're not quite as good, but I'll take what I can get.

Friday we went to the Uffizi and wandered around some more. We went to Santa Croce where they make a lot of leather products, and walked down by the Ponte Vecchio.

Saturday was 12 hours of traveling. Oi. But, the next time I get on a plane, I'll be going home! 12 DAYS! I cannot waaaaitttt.

I actually have a paper due tomorrow in 12 hours that I haven't started yet, so I should probably get on that. Blah. I have another paper due Wednesday, a final on the 17th, 2 on the 19th and then that's it!

I'm going to try and start packing on the 17th because I have to have it all done by the time I go to sleep on Thursday, as I go to the airport at 6am Friday morning :) I get to Athens around 8. I'll meet up with Lauren, and we'll wait around until our flight at 11, then we get into New York around 3. That 4 hour layover is going to be hellish, but I can use the time to check 4 months worth of voicemails, I s'pose. Then we leave around 7:00, and get to Boston at 8:51pm! Cue the tearful reunion annnnnd the 2 hour drive home! Woohoo.

Ok, homework. And hopefully, pictures soon.