I’m back in the USA as of 10:25 last night. I will work on putting up pictures and writing about stuff real soon. So far I’ve driven for the first time in 4 months, paid using dollars. Ones seem so strange to me. Why aren’t they coins? Also I toasted bread and cut it up to put in soup a la ADA. I definitely miss Sharita’s cooking. But I’m looking forward to Mexican food and Barbecue and that sort of thing.
I have a few hours left to hang out in Rome, then I take a train to Florence, get all my bags and attempt to get to the airport around 5am to catch my flight home. Mostly I’m not ready to go back… But it will be nice to have clean clothes and not live out of a backpack and not have so much walking to do and to see all my people at home.
But Europe: (mostly Italy) I will miss you.
So after a fun time in copenhagen we’re off to Berlin. In an actual sleeper train this time so hopefully it’ll be a relatively comfortable night on a train. Also I put up a bunch of pictures on my Picasa … But none of them have captions yet … Okay train time
So at the moment I’m in Maastricht. It’s in the Netherlands and pretty cool. It has some pretty sites, there are nice churches and we took a tour of the sint pietersburg caves. They were started in the 1200s and continued until the 1900s. In the winter the farmers couldn’t farm so they’d go down into these tunnels and cut limestone blocks to sell. They were also used defensively in world war 2 - 40,000 people could stay there and they had a water pump and a bakery and an airplane engine to suck in fresh air. So they were pretty set. Also Napoleon went into the tunnels and tried to use them to collapse the fort but he measured wrong and just made a big dome in the tunnels. Also in the tunnels we did this thing where the guide took the lamps away and it was absolute darkness and we felt our way along the wall until we got back to the lights. And then we were told a story about some monks who had gotten lost in the tunnels in like 1642 who were found missing their fingertips from feeling along the walls. Unpleasant.
Anyways tonight we’re off the copenhagen. Which should be exciting. It will be a long train filled night
So I’m on a train going from Oxford to Leeds. I just spent a nice couple of days with Allie who has been studying at Oxford all year. It was nice and relaxing. We went yesterday to a pub where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien hung out. I watched some croquet, saw a super old library, had cream tea! (tea and yummy scones) it was all very exciting (though I might’ve teased allie about it). It is always nice to visit people though and Oxford is just a nice place to hang out. I am now heading to Leeds to visit my friend Karissa from middle school. So I’m excited about that. Though I did end up spending more on my train ticket than I wanted to :( I’ll try to post some pictures soon. I have some from Italy, Barcelona, Prague and now Oxford.
John Lennon wall in prague!
People have been writing on and painting this wall for a long time, it is pretty cool to just look and read the various things people have written. It used to be covered in more political writings, but it has since become less political.
So I stayed in Florence for about a day and a half, I stored my luggage for a bit and then wandered around… and bought a leather jacket!
Sunday evening I took a train to Pisa, and then a plane to Barcelona!
I only left Italy three days ago, and I already miss it! It’s a bit sad to realize that I don’t get to go back to Arezzo soon, and especially that I don’t live in a Villa anymore! I’ve really had a good time and I am so glad and lucky that I got to go do this program in Italy. So now, a gallavant around Europe for a bit, and then who knows? (I don’t).
Stephanie Drinks things in Barcelona!
So I went to Barcelona for about two days. I walked around a lot, I saw some really cool things (Gaudi is a really cool guy). And I drank some new things. However I decided that I don’t particularly like traveling by myself. I especially don’t like eating by myself, and it was hard not having anyone to talk to. Also because I really didn’t speak the language it was a bit awkward. Though I did help a woman find a metro stop- she went through a few language options and she ended up asking in Italian. which I mostly understand by now. And that was Barcelona.
So I am in Prague now! This is the memorial for Franz Kafka. I only got here last night. I took a walking tour during the day, and have just been hanging out with Kelsey the rest of the day. Oh and I had a Bagel!! I haven’t had one since january! So it was pretty exciting.
And I’m here till saturday!
