London Reunion Tour

Friday, November 16th

Perhaps I shouldn't wait so long to update, especially if I'm just in London, because I seriously have no recollection of this day. I'm pretty sure I went to the cafeteria for lunch, perhaps I hung out with the girls, and I am quite sure that I went to bed too late. But then again, all of those things are just a part of the routine I've constructed for myself out here.

Saturday, November 17th Jet lag

Nick and Taylor arrived today. I met both of them at the Gloucester Road Underground Station (well, Taylor arrived three hours later than Nick), and it really was nice to see them. I haven't been keeping in touch with them (or any of my other good friends for that matter) as much as I should have been over the past three months, but they're the type of high-quality old friends that you greet with a "hey man" after three months and all of the sudden you're on the same page again. Not to mention it was just really nice to have a taste of my life back home, a life that I am starting to miss more and more as the day of my departure from Heathrow moves ever closer. So for the rest of the day we just took it easy and caught up on our lives. We went to the pub (Gloucester Arms) for dinner and a pint, and jet-lagged Taylor nearly fell asleep in his fish and chips. We came back to my dorm room, which was quite cramped for the next week, I introduced them to a few of my friends, I told a story or two about my travels and I finally let them get their much-deserved sleep.

Monday, November 18th A quick tourist introduction to London

I woke up rather late and went to one class, I turned in my poorly written, ten-page History of London paper (on "The Politics of Power: London Politics in the 19th and 20th Centuries"), and then met up with Nick and Taylor. We took the Tube to Parliament and walked around the outside of the building, a building that I should have been entering for my British Politics class, but I told myself that good friends trump MPs. Oh, and I finally got my picture taken with the Churchill statue in Parliament Square - very exciting I know. After admiring Big Ben and the Eye in the crisp London twilight for a few minutes, we took a stroll past 10 Downing Street and on up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I made sure to again see the paintings by da Vinci, Titian, Botticelli, and Van Eyck, and in a whirlwind fashion we saw half of the enormous gallery in about 15 minutes. I forgot to mention that Nick and Taylor have been to London before with their families, so luckily I didn't have to play the role of tour guide too much. After the National Gallery we walked over to Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Leicester Square, once there we proceeded to wander the pseudo-seedy streets until we stumbled upon the premiere of Fred Claus in Leicester Square. I'm not much into the culture of celebrity, but it was pretty "cool" to be a few feet from Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. Standing in the cold rain was worsened by the herd of umbrellas and the halfwits attached to them that were angled precisely to dump all of their runoff onto my shoulders and/or pants. After getting our fill of flashing lights and frantic entertainment reporters we went to Lloyd's on Charing Cross Road for dinner and a pint. We then headed back to South Ken where we then went to the Imperial and had a pint and a laugh.

Tuesday, November 19th Abbey Road and Harrod's

We woke up far too late, but then again it was pouring and frigid outside, and I think that that is a good excuse. We walked to Gloucester Road and took the Tube to St. John's Wood where we did the Abbey Road "thing", which of course consisted of several botched attempts to replicate the Beatles' street crossing. We spent about the same amount of time on the Tube getting there as we did walking around the neighborhood. We too the Tube back to Knightsbridge and walked through Harrod's for awhile. It's within walking distance of my flat, but I've never been inside before - and it was almost as ridiculous as I expected. Does your twelve-year-old really want a petrol-powered miniature Hummer? Do you have 100,000 pounds? Well, you've come to the right place. I'm a fan of capitalism, but no one needs a solid-gold eagle worth 80,000 pounds, or a teddy bear with diamonds for eyes and gold for fur. I will say my ranting is a bit misleading, I had a good time there, especially because it was brimming with Christmas decorations and Nat King Cole was playing in Housewares - why I was in Housewares, I don't know.

After going to one of the largest department stores in the world and not buying anything we went to the Natural History Museum. I think when I walk into that building I become ten years younger, because for some reason I discover and rediscover this "new" fascination with Dinosaurs and Blue Whales. After looking at the exhibits and playing a few games designed for eight-year-olds we walked back to my flat. We went to the Queen's Arms for dinner and then went back over the Imperial for a pint before calling it a night.

Wednesday, November 20th Tower of London and Thanksgiving

Had fish and chips for brunch/lunch near the Tower of London and then the three of us joined up with my History of London class and went on a tour of the Tower. My ticket cost 10 pounds, and it honestly should have only been 3 or 4. For me, the Tower of London was one of the more disappointing things I've seen in London (let alone paid to see). The history was downplayed in favor of nearly meaningless collections of guns and swords. And what history there was, it seemed to be geared towards elementary school students. Let's just say that I was not impressed, but then again I didn't go on a Beefeater tour - which I am sure is quite more enjoyable. After the Tower of London we went back to South Ken and waited until 7:30 to go downstairs for the Thanksgiving party my friends were having. It was 7 pounds for a plate, and I got more than my money's worth. The night consisted of mashed potatoes, good friends, stuffing, and a turkey-induced coma. It was wonderful.

Thursday, November 21st North-central London

I took Nick and Taylor to Sir John Soane's Museum, my favorite museum in London. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed its eccentricity, and I found it more interesting walking through there at night - interesting in a eerie kind of way. After wandering through the museum we walked over to the British Museum and did a quick walkthrough the main exhibits, although it closed before we were able to see the mummies. I was finally able to see the Enlightenment Room, and being that it was an entire wing of the museum, I'm still trying to figure out how I've overlooked it on my previous four visits. From the British Museum we walked to Little Italy and went to a pizzeria for dinner, the pizza was enormous, tasty, and reminded me of Italy. Properly fat and happy, we headed to Filthy McNasty's, which is a pub in North London that I've been to once before, but Nick and Taylor wanted to go there for the sole purpose of saying they had been to a pub called Filthy McNasty's - and I was happy to oblige. We grabbed a pint and then headed back to South Ken. On the way back to my flat, we stopped at the corner store and noticed six paparazzi standing outside the restaurant around the corner from my flat. Turns out Prince William was inside, but successfully escaped out the back door.

Friday, November 22nd IWM and Cabaret

We woke up late, again. I think their jet lag rubbed off on me a little bit. We went to the Imperial War Museum in the afternoon, and I was immediately reminded how enormous that museum really is. One could easily spend three hours on the first floor alone - and there are six floors. We went to the Crimes Against Humanity exhibit, which was a 30-minute film that was very interesting and thought-provoking. It was a bit hard to carry on conversation for a couple hours after watching it. From the museum we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus, we were planning on seeing Macbeth starring Patrick Stewart, but it was sold out. As was Les Miserables, so after a fifteen minute conversation with an interesting homeless Londoner we went to see Cabaret. I will admit that I was a bit worried for the first fifteen minutes, but it turned out to be a wonderful musical/play with quite a depressing ending. Afterwards we hopped on the cramped train back to Gloucester Road and came back to the dorm where we watched a movie with Kaila and Danielle, and then went to bed.

Saturday, November 23rd Bon Voyage

Woke up early and walked Nick down to the Tube station. It turned out that the Piccadilly Line (which is the only line that goes to Heathrow) was down, so supposedly Nick went to Paddington and took the Heathrow Express - I hope he made it. Taylor left a couple hours later, and here I am. Their time here made me wish I had more friends coming out here, but it also made me look forward to my homecoming all the more. Three weeks from now I will be flying over the Atlantic, and while I am anxious to get home I feel like my time here was not long enough. Oh, by the way, I leave for Bergen, Norway in five days (hello credit card debt). It will be my last Continental adventure, and it has been the one that I have most been looking forward to. I'm flying into Haugesund on Thursday morning, then I'll take a four hour coach to Bergen where I'm staying at "one of the nicest hostels in Europe" in "one of the most beautiful cities in Europe", which is nice.

Another Week in Beautiful London

Tuesday, November 13th
Spent the better part of the day studying and reading, over the past few weeks Tuesdays have essentially been my recovery days - which have been necessary and very enjoyable. I went to Museums and Galleries later in the afternoon and had a great time talking about Sir John Soane's Museum. After class I felt a bit restless so I skipped dinner and wandered around Kensington, and found myself at Hyde Park Corner at about 8pm. The weather has finally taken the dive for the late Autumnal cold, and I can't get enough of the crisp air or London, so it was a very nice few hours. After returning to my room I first attempted to get my body temperature back to normal and then did nothing until my late bed time.

Wednesday, November 14th
Woke up early and went to Apsley House for Museums and Galleries. It was really interesting, we got to tour the museum (which was the house of the Duke of Wellington) with one of the education officers so it was a bit of a treat (and it was free as well!). The house was absolutely amazing, it was given as a gift to Wellington after his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, and was filled with hundreds of priceless paintings and ornate trinkets given to him by nearly all the nations of Europe. The paintings were fantastic, the artists included Goya, Rubens, and Brueghal, and those were just the ones that I recognized. After Apsley House we walked up to the top of the Wellington Arch, which had some decent views, and only 100 stairs, which after the 450 stairs at St. Paul's were a breeze. After "class" I went with my friends Rebecca and Keila to a Greenwich pub for lunch, where we waited to meet up with our History of London class. I had a Ploughman's Lunch, which is a proper English lunch, and quite interesting as well. It consisted of two cheeses, one of which smelled like feet, half of a baguette, chutney, an apple, and rocket with dressing. After meeting up with our History of London class we toured the Royal Navy College and then went to the Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian. Greenwich was very interesting, it's only about an hour away on the Docklands Light Railway, so I might have to fit in one more day there before I leave. The sun now goes down at about 4pm here, so it had been long dark by the time our "class" was over, and I will admit that I got slightly lost trying to find a DLR station. But getting lost is what travel is all about, so it was fine. I came back to campus, grabbed some dinner, and then hung out with good friends for about five hours until going to bed. I am really going to miss the nightly routine of spending hours with a proper group of good friends.

Thursday, November 15th
Today was my procrastinating-college-student day. I woke up rather late, grabbed some lunch, and then proceeded to research for, and write my major essay for my Museums and Galleries class that is due on Tuesday. It is supposed to be ten pages, which is usually no big deal for me, but I also have another ten page paper due on Monday for another class. My best friends Nick and Taylor from back home are coming to visit on Sunday, so I'm trying to finish those papers before they get here. They're here until next Saturday, and I am really looking forward to it. It is definitely going to be very nice to have a taste of home for a week, and luckily they've been to London before so we don't have to do the tourist regimen.

I'm coming home in less than a month now, and I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about that. When I was in Prague, alone for the third night I made a list of everything I looked forward to coming home to, which probably wasn't the best list to compile when feeling homesick. It consisted of things like "snow at the cabin", "five hour movie nights with Hoc in the theatre", "the dollar" and "driving over to UW to hang out with old friends". But I could easily make a list of things that I will miss about living here. Living on a street that tourists take pictures of, amazing friends, having a class in Parliament, free museums twenty minutes away, fish and chips, the Imperial Student Union, and the list goes on. I still get to go to Norway, and that fact alone keeps me going. It probably doesn't help that right now London for me consists of writing two 10-page research papers before Sunday. But I am certainly looking forward to seeing my family at the Sea-Tac baggage claim and Christmas at home, and "looking forward to" is a bit of an understatement.

Praha/Prague

Wednesday, November 7th

Went to the John Soane Museum, which was one of my favorite museum experiences I've had here. The museum itself is simply the house of the eccentric architect John Soane, he basically built it as a monument so he would be remembered - and it worked. The house is still in its original 19th century layout with "nothing added nor taken away", which made it feel a bit like stepping back in time. One of the nice features was that I could just download the audioguide to my mp3 player for free, and it made the museum all the more interesting. I wandered around the relatively small space for about two hours and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. After leaving the museum I took the Tube back to campus and tended to items on my "to do" list until late evening. Then a group of 6 of us went to the Imperial Student Union, where I was delighted to see my friends from Boston University - whom I hadn't seen in about a month. So after about an hour or so of catching up over a pint Tim and I headed back to our room to prepare for Prague. But that was when Tim realized that he couldn't go because of financial reasons, so I was traveling to Eastern Europe by myself.

Thursday, November 8th

Got up too early. I say that because when I'm going to be flying anywhere, I leave an extra hour just in case something happens. I think it's quite interesting that I have come to the point where I expect the District Line to go down, my shuttle to arrive half an hour late, and have some problem at check-in. I used to be excited about the whole flying experience, but now its just morphed into a necessary evil. There's nothing like standing in queue after queue, being interrogated at passport control, and for some reason feeling as guilty as a criminal at the security screening, even though I have nothing to hide. I was never taken aside and searched before I grew the beard that I have now, and since it passed the stubble stage I have been searched every time. It has become so commonplace that on the way back to Stansted I didn't even bother taking off my watch or belt. I understand the need for such strict security measures, but I wish there were an alternative approach in which you are treated like a dignified human being. So after running the air travel gauntlet I was finally seated on a Boeing 737 bound for Prague. Half of the people on the plane were from my study abroad program, which would have been nice if they weren't such an embarrassment. Here are some verbal gems that I heard from 15 rows away. "Do they still speak Communist?" "Why are you guys reading books? What are you, intellectuals or something?" So needless to say, once we got to baggage claim I escaped the mass of American students just looking for a party, and who all packed large suitcases for a three-day jaunt. Luckily I ran into my friend Michelle and some of her friends, and I took the bus and Metro into the city with them. I was staying at a different hostel so we agreed to meet later for dinner. My first impression of Prague was walking out of the Mustek metro station into Wenceslas Square, and I immediately fell in love with the city. So I dropped off my things at my hostel and went exploring. I was just taken aback by how unique Prague was in comparison to the other European cities I've been to. It all felt so rich, how the burnt-yellow street lamps cast the streets in sepia tones, how every street or storefront seemed to possess Western optimism and Eastern European bleakness simultaneously. If I could pick two words to sum up Prague by night, it would be hauntingly beautiful. I found my way to the meeting point an hour early and simply explored Wenceslas Square for the remaining time. There was a touching exhibit at the foot of the Wenceslas Monument that memorialized the Czech victims of Communism that I was captivated with for about half an hour. I spent the rest of the time wandering and snapping photographs, but I was mainly just trying to let it soak in that I was actually in the Czech Republic.

I found Michelle and her group of friends and we went to find a restaurant to eat at. They chose the first restaurant we walked by, which is something I hate doing, especially when it turns out to be a swanky dress-to-impress restaurant. I ordered a steak, I was excited because I haven't had proper meat since my dad cooked some up on the grill in August. The waiter brought me a plate that supposedly contained my steak, but I couldn't see it. It was rather hard to find, it turned out that what I thought was a speck of black pepper was my $30 steak. It was officially the most expensive three bites of my life.

After dinner, Michelle and her friends decided to go back to their hostel and go to bed. It was only 10pm, so instead of retiring for the evening, I roamed the night streets of Prague until 1am. The highlight was walking down Narodni street towards the river, and when I turned the corner, there was the looming Prague Castle illuminated on the hill and the Charles Bridge shining across the Vltava. If I would have had someone to talk to, I would say that the scene left me speechless. After attempting to get lost and take a few decent night pictures I finally headed back to my hostel and went to sleep. Well kind of, between my coughing fits and the drunk Americans stumbling in and out of the room, I fell asleep at about 4am.

Friday, November 9th

I set out to tackle the city rather late, at about 9:30. I walked across Charles Bridge to Prague Castle, and realized that they were much more impressive with darkness as their backdrop. I made it a point to visit the Winston Churchill statue that was marked prominently on my map, but laughed out loud when I found the "statue" hidden away on a steep side street, which was a bust roughly the size of my head. I'm just glad that it was on my way. I met up with Michelle at the Castle and then we proceeded to spend too much on tickets that were a waste of money because St. Vitus' Cathedral - the highlight of the Castle - was free. After the Castle we walked back to the Old Town Square and ate lunch, which for me consisted of a 25ck/$1 hot dog. I had heard that Prague was so cheap, and it was compared to London, but it just felt like I was back home without an atrocious exchange rate. I managed to stretch $100 over four days, which I assure you is an achievement. We went our separate ways after lunch, and that was the last time I had travel buddies on the trip - which was fine. I then walked to the Jewish Quarter, and then retraced my steps back to the Communist Museum, which was located next to McDonald's and above a Casino - viva la capitalism! It was very interesting to see how they dealt with such a dark part of their history, and while they did seem to oversimplify the politics into good and evil, it was a very informative and poignant experience. By now it was nightfall, so I did the same thing that I did on Thursday night - I just wandered, got lost, and somehow found my way back - which is essentially this four month adventure boiled down into one phrase.


Saturday, November 10th

I accidentally saw everything that I wanted to the day before, so it was a rather laid back day. I took the Metro to the outskirts of Prague and went to a run-down and probably long-forgotten Catholic cemetery, it was eerie to say the least, walking alone through an enormous, dilapidated and empty cemetery. I spent about an hour walking up and down the rain-soaked paths, and then caught the Metro to the other side of Prague and walked about two miles in the cold rain back to my hostel - and had a blast doing it. I had a $2 hamburger with cabbage for dinner and did one last walk around Prague.

Sunday, November 11th

Okay, so here's the backstory. I usually use my phone as my alarm clock, but the battery died and I had forgotten my power adapter. So I searched Prague for three hours on Friday night and finally bought one for too much money. I figured I was now set, I set my alarm for 6:30 on Saturday night because I had to be at the airport by 8:30. So you can understand why I was a bit stressed and frantic when I awoke to look at my watch which read 8:45. I dressed, packed, and checked out in three minutes flat. Hailed a taxi in the snow, and luckily made it to the airport by 9:15. Where I again waited in four queues, was interrogated by passport control, searched by security, but was rewarded for my tough morning with a seat in the emergency exit row. Two hours later I was getting my passport stamped at Stansted, hopped on the Stansted Express and was back in my dorm room by 2pm. The rest of the day was devoted to doing nothing more than going to Pizza Hut (it's our Sunday night routine), watching movies, and spending time with my good friends Tim and Danielle.

Monday, November 12th

Woke up far too early because I was on my travel sleep schedule. Went to class where I broke out into a wonderful coughing fit for the duration of the class, went to my next class and did the same. I skipped my Parliament session because I didn't want to be the fool you can hear coughing off-camera on C-SPAN. I've been sick for the past three weeks, maybe I should test out socialized medicine.

The City of Light: Paris

Friday, November 2nd

Woke up, finished packing, and headed down the street to our meeting place where the coaches were going to pick us up. Tim and I had just been having a conversation on Thursday about how Italy could have been better if we weren't traveling in a group of people with different travel philosophies, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. So let's just say that I wasn't in the best of moods standing on a sidewalk with 150 American college students with enormous suitcases packed for two days. Oh by the way, this trip was the only one included in my study abroad program. We took a coach across London to Waterloo station, a ride that would have taken 20 minutes on the Tube, but took an hour on a bus with no leg room or air circulation. Once we arrived to Waterloo we were shuffled through security and passport control, and after waiting an hour in the lounge we boarded the Eurostar train bound for Paris. I enjoyed the ride quite a bit, the English and French countrysides flying by at nearly 200mph were beautiful sights. We arrived at 5pm, I wish we would have left London earlier because it was already dark when we finally got to our hotel. Tim and I threw our bags in our room, grabbed a cheap and delicious baguette for dinner and then met back up with the group. We all walked in an enormous mass that just screamed American tour group to the metro station, and then took a train to the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was impressive to say the least, to be honest I didn't think much of it before, but I found its architecture very captivating. We took the lift up to the second floor, which was as high as I wanted to go. The majority of the group stood in line to take the lift to the top, but I just stood at the railing and tried to comprehend the fact that yes, this is Paris, and yes, I am here. So after doing that for about an hour I jumped onto a packed lift and took it back down to solid ground. Somehow I met back up with my friends and we then went down to the River Seine to take an hour-long river cruise. It was nice and relaxing, as well as interesting because we basically saw half of the sights of Paris from a seat on a riverboat. After an hour of blurry pictures and good conversation we docked and then luckily caught the last train back to our hotel. I was exhausted and was looking forward to a good night's sleep, but instead talked with friends until 4am.

Saturday, November 3rd

Woke up at 7, so I got less than three hours of sleep. I went on a coach tour of Paris with a large part of our group, and we were lucky enough to have a very good guide so that made it a little more interesting. We stopped at Notre Dame Cathedral and it was absolutely beautiful, but I do feel bad because I am slowly becoming immune to being awed by churches. After nearly being killed by low-flying birds we got back on the coach and continued the tour. Unfortunately we didn't get off of the coach after Notre Dame, but we did see all of the sights: the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, Luxembourg Garden, etc. The tour ended at the Louvre, where we waited for our tickets for an hour and then were finally allowed to go inside. Overall the trip was quite unorganized and there was a lot of hurry-up-and-wait, which was frustrating and usually led to Tim and/or I whining. Once we got our tickets we got as far away as possible from our group and went inside the Louvre. I didn't realize how many fantastic historical artifacts that they had there. I saw the Code of Hammurabi, the winged bull from Sargon's palace, and a good amount of other interesting objects from Ancient Mesopotamia and the Levant. We power-walked through the Greco-Roman sculptures, saw Venus di Milo, and found our way upstairs to the Mona Lisa. It was actually larger than I expected, probably because I had heard "it's so much smaller than I expected" so many times. There were hundreds of people crowded into this medium-sized room just to say they had seen it, and at that moment I was one of them. I spent about a minute looking at it, and walked back into the hall. There were four da Vinci paintings that I think are far more impressive than the Mona Lisa, but I was the only person looking at them, I could easily go off on a tangent because of that, but I will refrain. Tim and I then walked through the Grand Galleries, whose enormous and amazing paintings were a bit vertigo-inducing. After returning our jaws to the closed position we met up with the girls near the Glass Pyramid and then headed back to the hotel. After a quick siesta we headed out to dinner at this nice little French restaurant with an English-speaking waiter who made fun of us but earned his tip. I had a wonderful salmon dish and half of my friend Danielle's mussels, let's just say that I was very happy. After grimacing while paying the bill we went back to the hotel and spent the evening talking and laughing, and once more I stayed up far too late.

Sunday, November 4th

Woke up at 8 after four hours of sleep and grabbed some delicious and free breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Tim and I then went off to explore as much of Paris as we could before we were supposed to leave. We walked to the Bastille Monument and then for some reason kept walking. As the amount of graffiti increased I realized we were probably heading into the gritty part of Paris. And after we were accosted by four drunk Frenchman at 11 in the morning we knew we were in the wrong part of town. Every large white van was covered in graffiti, and the locals knew we were tourists because we had recently bathed. I've walked some pretty scary streets on some very late nights in London and Rome, but the first time I have feared for my safety was on that Paris street at 11am on a Sunday morning. Needless to say, nothing happened, and I am still alive. We got back to the hotel, grabbed one last baguette, waited around for an hour after checking out, took the coach to the train station, and then took the train back to London. All of that fits into one sentence because everything went according to plan, which is never any fun. So what is my verdict on Paris? To be honest I was never that excited to go, I've never dreamed about going to France, because it's...France. Paris is a beautiful city, more beautiful than Rome or London, and a day an a half was not near enough time to give the city justice. I would need a week or two to explore everything that it had to offer, but to be honest a day and a half in Paris was enough for me. Paris and France may be beautiful, but French people still live there. I tried to go into it with an open mind and held out hope that the stereotypes weren't true, but they sure were. The French are so...French. It was a breath of fresh air coming back to snooty Kensington and hearing people say "excuse me" and "good evening", manners are certainly cultural. Later in the evening Danielle, Michelle, Tim and I all went to Pizza Hut to celebrate our homecoming with some good American food. The waitress didn't make fun of us, she was kind, she was English, we tipped her well.

Monday, November 5th

"Remember, remember the fifth of November" So today was Guy Fawkes Day, and while Parliament didn't have to sit, we still had to go to classes. I went to class until 5, and then hung out and watched the fireworks with a big group of good friends until bed time. I know I've said this before, but I am really going to miss the friends I have made out here. I came over here with the philosophy that I would meet a few bearable people and just get by for four months. I didn't realize that I would be forming deep friendships with amazing people that, come one more month, I may never see again. It's bittersweet, that is for sure.

Tuesday, November 6th

Wrote a paper, turned it in. Ate dinner with Danielle and Michelle. Am now heading out to the Builder's Arms with Danielle and Tim. Oh and I'm heading to Prague the day after tomorrow, yikes.

Italia! (Firenze, Cinque Terre, Sirmione, Venezia)

Sunday, October 21st

Woke up very early and caught the Eurostar train from Rome to Florence/Firenze, which was expensive, but it got us there in half the time and was worth it because we only had Sunday to explore Florence. Our "hostel" was only four or five blocks from the train station, which was fantastic, and it was right in the heart of Florence as well. I put quotations around hostel because when at least when I think of hostels now I think of the Dublin-health-code-violation-waiting-to-happen that I stayed in. Our Florence hostel had a private bathroom, free internet, free Skype (which helped out a lot with my developing homesickness), and free room service breakfast. Most of all, I got to sleep on a bed, which was obviously quite an upgrade from a cold tile floor. We rested up for about half an hour and then the hostel owner gave us a map and pointed us to all of the sights. We saw the Uffizi and the Academia, but didn't want to pay the 15 euro and wait in line for two precious hours. Besides, we saw Michelangelo's David through a doorway for free anyway. We made the hike to the Piazzale Michelangelo to get a great panoramic view of Florence. The downside to the day was that the weather was horrible. It was about 40 degrees with 25 mph winds, and we all packed for a warm Italy, so needless to say we were a bit chilly - even I was. We walked along the River Arno and the Ponte Vecchio at sunset, which was picturesque to say the least. Then we headed back to the hostel for a quick warm up and rest, and asked the hostel owner for dinner recommendations. She pointed us to "The Porcupinno" or some other Italian name very similar to porcupine. I hate to rely on the superlative again, but that dinner will probably be one of the best meals I will ever had. They served us a wonderful bruschetta, a fantastic house red, and I I had the gnocchi con pesto - which took me about what seemed to be an hour to eat because I wanted the experience to last as long as possible. Our waiter was wonderful, but the manager wouldn't give us the student discount that we were promised, but that couldn't put a damper on such a lovely meal. After dinner we walked back to our hostel and just had a very good time, even though we didn't "do much", I think my day in Florence was the most fun I had in Italy. The three of us were in great moods even though we were freezing, and went to bed early in preparation for another early morning and day of travel.

Monday, October 22nd

Once more we got up early and took the early train, this time to Riomaggiore and the Cinque Terre ("Five Cities"). I'd been told by friends that this was one of the most amazing places in the world, so I obviously had to go there. The five cities are perched on cliffs on the Mediterranean coast and the only things connecting them are ancient footpaths and a train, before the train came the villages were only accessible by sea. It was enjoyable to stay in such a unique and beautiful place. Not to mention that the apartment that we rented in Manarola was fantastic, I got my own bedroom with a king-sized bed, we had a kitchen, and it cost as much as a hostel. Jenny, Lisa and I spent the day on our balcony playing cards and talking, which we ended up doing until about midnight. We ran to the top of the town to catch the sunset, which was a good call because we didn't see much of the sun for the next five days. We ate dinner at a touristy little restaurant, where I witnessed yet another case of a horrible American tourist. The pasta was superb and the waiter was actually nice (even though we didn't order an appetizer, which is what they expect). My roommate Tim was supposed to meet us in Manarola, but all he had was our address and he was supposed to find his way from Venice - so I actually didn't think he would make it. But at midnight we heard a knock on the door and we couldn't believe it was him, we gave him a hero's welcome. It was nice that my good friend joined the travel group, but it was also very nice that I was no longer the only male that would have to figure out what to do while the girls went shopping.

Tuesday, October 23rd

Woke up rather late compared to the other days, which was nice. We hiked to Corniglia, which was a hike indeed, especially with the 400 or so stairs that made up the last leg of it. Corniglia was unique because it didn't have a harbor, it was just perched high up on a hill overlooking the sea - it made me wonder how the town got started in the first place, it must have been by people that either enjoy exercise or don't like leaving their town. The weather was decent, but not swimming friendly. We hiked back in the late afternoon and cooked dinner in our apartment, and then proceeded to play a card game called "Euchere" for the next four or five hours until bed. Wow, these Cinque Terre posts are going to be easy.

Wednesday, October 24th

I woke up to the sound of what I thought was the river that ran underneath the town, but it just so happened that it was pouring down rain (oh and my laundry was on the line outside). Looking out my bedroom I saw swarms of tourists in flourescent ponchos holding technicolor umbrellas and knew that it was going to be an interesting day. The problem with travelling with girls is that while I may be ready to go five minutes after I wake up, they fit the stereotype and take more than an hour. So at about noon we finally left for Vernazza, we hopped on the train without paying for our tickets, and then explored Vernazza in the cold rain - which was more enjoyable than I make it seem. We ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant where I had a delicious salmon pizza, again, another Italian dish that I will be telling my grandchildren about. Lisa and Jenny decided that they wanted to go back, and I wanted to stay but I couldn't feel my feet so we got back to Manarola a little before dark. We then did our newfound routine of cooking and eating dinner, and then playing cards and talking until we were too tired to think. And I think that is why Tim and I decided to go swimming in the Mediterranean at midnight with the cold rain and wind and all. We swam around Manarola harbor and found that the water was warmer than the air, and had a great time. Walking back through the semi-deserted town in our towels, some Italians just laughed at us and gave us thumbs up.

Thursday, October 25th

Today we went to Monterossa, the northernmost of the towns. Again it was raining but we didn't let that deter us from playing on the beach and the rocks like eight year olds. It was a lot of fun. We ate lunch in a restaurant that was forgettable and ate gelato afterwards. After only a few hours we headed back to our apartment and did our routine. Everybody else went to bed early, but I was up all night stressing about money, so I wasn't to excited with the 4am wake up call.

Friday, October 26th

We took the 4:30 train from Manarola to La Spezia, where we had to wait for an hour in a McDonalds dining room. We changed trains a total of four times to get to Sermione by noon. Today was the worst weather by far, and it just so happened that we walked 6km from the train station to our hotel. Let's just say that none of us were in the best of spirits. Sermione is a peninsula that sticks out into Lake Garda and has wonderful views of the Italian Alps and is a Summer tourist destination. We finally mustered up the energy to move again at about 5, and went to explore the town. We ate dinner at a tourist restaurant that had picture menus and an Italian stereotype for a waiter. Afterwards we ate gelato, naturally. We ate gelato once or twice a day, which meant that all of the walking I was doing was just cancelling out that delicious ice cream. I had to sleep on a cot in the hotel room, which made me miss my room in Manarola.

Saturday, October 27th

We woke up with the sunrise and were lucky enough to grab some free breakfast at the hotel before we left. It was a continental breakfast buffet with rolls and deli meat, which meant that we were horrible people and we discreetly packed sandwiches for the day. When we walked outside we saw something we hadn't seen since Monday, the sun! The girls wanted to get a head start on Venice, but I wanted to actually see the Alps and Lake Garda, so we postponed our trip about an hour - which was well worth it. We took the train from Desenzano to Venice and were there before noon. This was also where we parted ways with Tim, who took the train back to Milan Airport (he'd already visited Venice before he came to Cinque Terre). The train ride was comfortable and the people watching was fantastic. The train was laid out into separate compartments of six seats, a train that you would see in a movie, and we were sitting with a middle-aged Italian man and a pretty Italian girl. The Italian man somehow managed to get his zipper stuck on the fabric of his jacket, but obviously didn't know how to fix it because he wrestled with it for about thirty minutes. By the end of it he was standing and screaming Italian obscenities at his zipper, it was one of those situations in which you try your best not to laugh. Upon our arrival into Venice we took a bus back across the Long Bridge and went to find our "hostel", which was actually a campground with the lost-in-translation name "Camping Jolly". We stayed in a bungalow or something along those lines, and it was comfortable and cheap - which is always good for me. We headed back to Venice and the girls spent the first three hours shopping, and when I say shopping, I just mean that they bought about five things - but somehow it took that long, I guess I have a lot to learn about women. We managed to move about five blocks in that amount of time, which was quite frustrating. I couldn't go off and explore by myself because Venice was horribly confusing, so I just looked at this time as being preparation for marriage.

Once they were done shopping we went to find somewhere to eat dinner, but instead ended up getting lost for about an hour. And not lost in the nice little tourist town of Venice, lost in the real, gritty part of Venice covered in graffiti and lacking street lights - it was fantastic. The girls decided that because this would be our last real Italian meal that we should eat on the Canal Grande, so after asking a few English-speaking people where we were we managed to find the Rialto Bridge and thus the Canal Grande. It was the worst meal of the trip. The restaurant was overpriced (and I am broke), the waiter hated us because we didn't order enough food, the gnocchi was chalky, the house wine tasted 10 euro cheaper than it cost, and it took them twenty minutes to give us our check, which in turn managed to leave me with 5 euro to live on for the next two days. On a lighter note, we realized that the girls sitting at the table behind us were from Richmond, and spent the rest of the evening with them. They were a lot of fun, and it was nice to mix up the group dynamic a bit, oh yeah, and we grabbed one last gelato before boarding the bus back to Camping Jolly. The bus ride redeemed the dinner. Halfway through the ride everybody started saying "Camping Jolly?" to each other, and soon we were all talking to each other about our lives and where we all came from. I met a wonderful Australian girl who was on her way to Austria, two girls from Mexico that were working on learning their fourth language, and some more Aussies, Kiwis, and Brits - I love the English language. We all made the half-mile trek back to Camping Jolly together, and I was the only one that knew the way, and felt a bit like the Pied Piper walking through the darkened Venetian streets.

Sunday, October 28th

We woke up rather early and decided that we would explore Venice some more, we checked out of Camping Jolly and took off to the bus stop with our heavy backpacks. It just so happened that today was the Venice Marathon, which meant that the busses weren't running, which meant that we had to walk the mile and half to the train station, where we hopped on and rode it into Venice. We checked our backpacks at left luggage and took off to explore Venice some more. We walked to the Piazza del San Marco, which was brimming with tourists and pigeons - two of my favorite things. The girls then did some shopping while I watched the marathon runners near the finish line. There were three types of runners, those who look understandably tired, those who look like they've only run a mile, and those who look like me after I run a mile. We spent the better part of the day just wandering and getting slightly lost, which is my favorite travel activity, and somehow found our way back to the train station. We took the 5:00 train to Milan, and it was a regional train, so that meant that it was two hours slower than Eurostar, but 20 euros cheaper, so that was just fine with me. It was a comfortable five-hour ride, even though a drunkard decided to stare at me through one of the partitions for ten minutes or so. From the Milan train station we took a coach to Milan Bergamo airport because we were flying out at 6am the next morning. We decided that we would "sleep" in the airport, which I am no stranger to. We staked our claim on a few uncomfortable bench seats and Jenny tried to sleep on the floor, then the security guard kicked all of us out. He sent us across the street to what felt like a refugee camp for airport passengers, people were everywhere, lying on the concrete, on their luggage, on each other. I was lying on a bench when a Frenchman got a security guard to kick me off of it. I sat up and apologized, it made sense, there were a lot of people. Then the Frenchman stretched out exactly as I had, what a horrible human being. I finished On the Road and then tried to sleep by holding my head in my hands, this didn't work so I decided to move to the floor, as many other people had done. It was dirty cold concrete, but I was tired. I began to doze off, and then for reasons I'm still not privy to, the security guard yelled something in Italian and kicked me in the side, then stormed off.

Monday, October 29th

Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep. They kicked us out of the refugee camp twenty minutes later and sent us back to the actual airport. We checked in at 4am without any hiccups, and boarded the plane two hours later. An emergency exit seat was open, so I chose legroom over friends, naturally. Two hours into the uneventful flight I realized that 1) we should have landed already and 2) we had been flying in a circle for some time. This is when the pilot came in over the intercom "Due to fog, we are being diverted to London Luton". We landed at London Luton 30 minutes later than we should have landed at Stansted. So it was shaping up to be a fantastic day. I had already booked a cheap ticket on the Stansted Express train and had everything figured out, which I had to do because I had class from 1:30-8:00 that night and a presentation in Parliament on top of that. When I disembarked from the plane I waited for a few minutes for the girls, but figured out they just went on without me, which bummed me out. Those few minutes meant that I was at the back of the passport control line, I got stuck behind an Eastern European man and his son who talked with the official for 30-40 minutes, it was horrible and I was grumpy. When I was done being grilled by the passport official I went and bought a bus ticket to London. I caught the bus twenty minutes later, we were later stuck in traffic for thirty minutes driving into London, and were now running well behind schedule - I had to be in class in three hours. I got off at the first London stop and took my chances on the Tube, just when the Piccadilly Line was closed for security concerns. So after another thirty minutes of waiting at the Green Park station I finally caught a train back here.

I didn't realize how much I would miss London, but coming back to my dorm room couldn't have made me happier. I showered, polished up my presentation for twenty minutes and then headed off to class on no sleep. I got an A- on the British Politics midterm that I thought I failed, so that definitely brightened my mood. That night I went to Parliament and gave my presentation on devolution in Committee Room 8, my professor didn't show, but John Hayes MP was there and said that he really enjoyed it. Thank God for espresso. He then took the class to see the House of Lords and House of Commons, which was great. He got us into the special viewing gallery in the House of Commons, told us to have fun, and then left. They were debating about the situation in Burma, and it was so very interesting to see Parliament in action. About twenty minutes after we sat down a familiar voice came over the speakers, it was John Hayes, it was quite nice to see him in action - he actually reminds me of Churchill. After hanging out in the House of Commons for another half hour I headed back to Kensington, finally got to Skype home, and got some much needed sleep.

Tuesday, October 30th

Slept until noon, wrote on this thing throughout the rest of the day.

Wednesday, October 31st

Went to St. Paul's Cathedral with my History of London class, and climbed to the top of the dome - it was a shame that I didn't bring my camera because the view was amazing. Although I could have done without the 450 stairs and having to duck for 20 minutes straight. Hung out with the girls downstairs and had a little Halloween soiree, it was really nice to see everyone again, it made me realize how much I'm going to miss these people when we go our separate ways next month.

Thursday, November 1st

I can't believe that it is November already, and that I'm more than halfway through this wonderful experience. I just wish I had a bottomless bank account so I could just do this forever. Tonight we're all going to a nice pub in Piccadilly Circus for Tim's birthday, which will be a good time. And I know I just finished writing about Italy, but I am going to Paris tomorrow. When I called home from Florence my dad said something to the effect of, "How did you get your life?" I'm still trying to figure that out.