KFC Doesn't Translate

I'm not ashamed to say that I've had my fair share of American fast food since being in London this semester. I like cheeseburgers, and McDonalds is often the cheapest and easiest place to get that accomplished (especially considering our lack of appropriate cooking tools). But today I wanted some chicken. So, remembering various KFC-sightings, I dragged Meg with me to pay the Colonel a visit, fulling expecting some good ol' American food.

Mashed potatoes and gravy. Biscuits. Cornbread. Creamy coleslaw. Finally some good baked beans. Crispy chicken, not in nugget form. No, this isn't what we got - it's simply what we wanted. Imagine our surprise when, silly us, we expected to find the same KFC-goodness in London. We searched frantically for their signature mashed potatoes. Preferably on the menu, but even a picture would be some proof. Anywhere. Potatoes? Nope. Fries were the only potato on the menu. Oh, but they did have gravy as a side, which I'm assuming is for their poor mashed potato substitute of fries.

We reluctantly ordered what I can only imagine is supposed to be a family-sized meal: 8 chicken breast strips, 2 regular boxes of popcorn chicken, 4 regular fries, 2 large sides, and 1.5 liters of Pepsi. (Don't judge, we were hungry.) Of all that food, the only thing remotely resembling American KFC was the coating on the chicken strips. Seriously disappointing. The "large" sides were about the size of the usual individually-sized side in the US, leaving Meg and I with about 4 bites of each side, one each of baked beans and coleslaw. Surely, though they were small, they would be classic KFC. Not so. The coleslaw was bland as were the beans, which I have no doubt were of the Heinz variety. (It is here that I am going to officially say that Heinz should not make anything other than ketchup. Stick to your strengths, guys.) The popcorn chicken, while tasty, were not American popcorn chicken. Four "regular" french fries - read: smaller than a McDonalds' small fry each - will never ever, no matter how hard they try, take the place of those scrumptious mashed potatoes. Not even with a little gravy. And I'm still missing the biscuits and cornbread.

The Mons Meg and Other Scottish Phenomenon

Our destination this past weekend was Edinburgh, Scotland's capital. We took a four-hour train ride from King's Cross, home of Harry Potter's Platform 9 and 3/4, with several other Ithacans and Maggie and Bill. After checking into our hostel, the group of us followed Bill blindly, as we always do, for a quick walking tour of the city on which we learned much more information about Edinburgh than my head can remember.

Around dinnertime, we were left on our own to explore and do whatever we liked, and that turned out to be eating dinner. The lot of us, Meg, Jessie, Paddy, the girls from downstairs - Brittany, Megan, Jennie, and Amy, Francia, Amy Cohen, and I, attempted to find food in a city that apparently stops serving food just when you need it. After a few failed possibilities (too expensive, too crowded) and walking past all the humourously-named pubs (Dirty Dick's, Filthy McNasty's, and The Bad Ass) which no longer served meals only drink, we settled on a pub whose name escapes me. This is primarily because it was hard to say. We ordered an abundance of food including several servings of the delicious dessert, Apple Cookie Dough Pie. And, of course, a few of us brave ones sampled the traditional Scottish favorite, Haggis, Neeps & Tatties. (Look here for a description as I don't really like to think about what I've eaten.) Surprisingly, it was good and, vehemently pushing its definition out of my mind, I would definitely eat it again. We spent a great deal of time in the pub before heading back to the hostel for circus tricks galore. I suppose it would help if I explain here that Amy C. is involved in ICircus at school and is interning The Circus Space here in London. She taught handstands and relaxed us all with some circus-y bends in the air - she even got Maggie to try, which Bill took pictures of, of course.

The morning started with a brisk walk up to Edinburgh Castle which, in my opinion, was just another castle. Except that they had a cannon named after me, the Mons Meg!! (And, shh, I know it came first.) I listened to 3 or 4 tales about her on the audio guide and took my fair share of pictures and basically just got very excited about her. I found the prisoners of war exhibit to be interesting, the men wearing kilts entertaining, and the Crown Jewels to be gaudy, but honestly, the Mons Meg was the highlight for me. They had a book on her in the gift shop which I scooped up immediately and read on the train ride home to London. I'll tell you, she was a pretty intimidating piece of artillery.

We walked along The Royal Mile down to Scottish Parliament, our next stop. I was all prepared for boredom because government, Scottish or otherwise, isn't really my thing. I underestimated it, though, because I am in love with it now. Our tour guide was fabulous, and everything she said about the building just made me like it more and more. After the tour, I ate some vegetable soup and bread in the cafe - so cheap! and so so good! - in hopes of gaining some stamina for the hike up to the top of Arthur's Seat soon thereafter.

The group left without us, so we had to do a little speed-walking to catch up, and the climb to the top of yet another super-tall hill was starting again. Arthur's Seat stands 822 feet over Edinburgh, but it felt quite easy compared to the Glastonbury Tor (518 feet). Perhaps it was the sun. At the top, there are all kinds of panoramic views of the city to be had and lots of pictures to be taken. Music from a parade carried up to the Seat so we were able to listen to the bagpipes and watch the procession. We stayed up above Edinburgh until the wind decided it wanted to join us and it got cold, leaving in favor of souvenir shopping and dinner. (Dinner, by the way, was the best jacket potatoes ever.)

Dinner was followed by a quick trip back to the hostel and then back out again to go on a haunted tour called Ghosts and Terror. Our tour guide was a bit cocky and picked on us ("playfully") for being Americans, something that's gotten a little old having already been abroad for two months, and may have had a fake accent. Aside from all of that, the tour wasn't the waste of money is seemed to be in the beginning. We spent 45 minutes above ground, learning about witch-burning and torture devices and such, and we spent another 45 minutes below ground in the underground streets and rooms below Edinburgh. That was the scary part. I clung to Jessie's side for the entirety of the underground section as we went through a series of rooms with increasing paranormal activity from Levels 1 up to 3. At the end, they played a cheap trick and had some stupid man in a dark cape run by and scare us, which made the whole thing a bit easier to deal with but, at the same time, knocked off a load of credibility. A mixed bag, really, that tour.

Sunday was pretty much a free day, with the exception of hostel checkout and a trip to the Palace of Holyrood. The Palace is the Queen's residence in Scotland, which she visits about once a year in July to a whole host of celebrations, parades, and parties, and was once home to Mary Queen of Scots. I most enjoyed the roomful of pictures of the Queen and the Royal Family they had on display to commemorate her 80th birthday. The Queen is fabulous, and Jessie and I are now on a quest to see her before we leave. The gift shop was full of things that I wanted but didn't really need, so I settled on a tin of God Save the Queen mints. We ate a very cheap yet filling lunch at The Castle Arms thanks to our hostel connection and spent the remainder of the day hunting down fried Mars bars and souvenirs. I didn't find the Mars bars, but I did purchase a lovely lambswool tartan blanket made in Scotland and some delightful Scottish shortbread to remember my trip by.

Poor Pompeii

Now, it's even more ruined.

España sin español

Barcelona was gorgeous and relaxing and...

(Interjection: I could use a variety of fun Spanish phrases here, ones I thought I'd be using during my weekend-trip, but that would be about as useless as my skills turned out to be. Apparently Barcelona speaks Catalan, which is really nothing like Spanish with all the j's turned into a lovely tg-combo and x's appearing out of nowhere. I'm still pondering how to pronounce so much of what we saw.)

I loved it. The weekend was really fabulous, with the exception of the 3am wake-up call (I've got to stop with the early-early morning flights), and despite the slight language barrier, I enjoyed myself immensely. People pretty much spoke either some English or Spanish (though the signs favored Catalan) so Meg and I handled it all well.

There's not too much detail to go into since our plan was kind of the anti-plan, better known as stumble around blindly until you come across something interesting and get as much relaxation in as possible. I must say, I'm a big fan of siesta time. We had our fair share of paella and sangria and hamberguesas (they're Spanish, I swear!) and wandered a lot. Las Ramblas and the market just off of them was a personal favorite, full of shopping and too much yummy food to pass up. I now have some jewelry to remember Barcelona by from a few of the sellers. On Saturday, the weather was gorgeous so Meg and I got all summer-y, stocked up on food from el mercado - grapes, strawberries, kiwi, melon, cheese, and bread - and went to spend a few hours on the beach. It was sunny and warm and lovely.

Sunday was organized sight-seeing day, since most shopping and restaurants were closed, but we were sure to go about it at a leisurely pace. We went to the Arc de Triomf via the Barcelona Cathedral. From there we gawked at the outside of the stadium where the Spaniards bull-fight, and I was surprised I still retained some information about it from Spanish class. Finally, we visited La Segrada Familia, a hugely fantastic cathedral that has been in the works since 1882 (I know this because we were there for the 125th anniversary) and still isn't finished, but it promises to be an absolute masterpiece one day. Finally, we hiked up a mountain to Park Güell which was designed by the genius Gaudí, who I should probably mention designed La Segrada Familia and another dozen or so amazing buildings throughout Barcelona. It was a fun place to wander around in, especially on such a nice day. I love Gaudí so much.

And now, well I'm back in London and happy to be here since it seems I barely am, considering the past couple of weeks. Bye bye beach. Hello snow?!?!

Glass, Gondolas, and Our Last Gelato (Last New Entry)

We arrived in Venice just after noon on Friday where the weather couldn't have been any better. Initially, we experienced a lot of problems navigating the bus system and, apart from the half hour or so we spent checking into our hostel, spent a good 2 or 3 hours travelling around the suburbs of Venice. Our hostel was actually a campsite in which we had two two-person cabins with very nice private bathrooms in each. It was obvious they were preparing for their busy season as not too much was open, but in their prime it must be great to stay there. They have a pool, a few hydromassages, a bar, a pub, their own restaurant, ping pong tables, a market and store.

The bus stops right outside the entrance, so once we got it all figured out, getting to Venice wasn't so difficult. We got in around 5 and were starving for dinner. We began lingering at menus outside of restaurants and had more than a few managers/waiters come out to lure us in. When the friendly, enthusiastic man greeted us with menus (in English too!), we couldn't resist eating where he was. We ordered the tourist menu, but don't let that fool you - it was the traditional Italian meal with a first course of pasta, second course of meat, salad, and a fruit course. I got spaghetti with meat sauce, mixed fried fish (calamari, crawfish, and perhaps some other seafood too), a mixed salad, and fruit cocktail. Mmm. The seafood was amazing. We lingered over dinner for an hour and a half as the man doted on us and insisted that "Here anything is possible!" It was a great choice.

By then, it was dusk and rapidly approaching dark, so we wandered very limitedly so as not to get lost without a map. We stopped in this huge, bustling piazza full of restaurants and shops. Everyone else got some gelato, we looked for postcards, and we stopped in a wine and pasta shop before heading back to camp.

In the morning, we checked out, stowed our luggage, booked a shuttle for the airport, and headed back into Venice. We bought a ticket for the waterbus to take us to San Marco along the Grand Canal. Venice is what I naively thought all of Italy was like - full of quaint little streets and flowering windowboxes - so I was in love. The view from the water was magnificent. We de-boarded, but for some reason, couldn't find Saint Marc's Square for our lives. Then, our plan in Venice turned out to be sightseeing by way of shopping.

We became aimless wanderers about Venice, going from shop to shop to shop. We stopped in one glass store and somehow couldn't bring ourselves to pass up any that we came across; we must have visited nearly 20 glass shops by the time we left the island. Murano glass is another of my new obsessions. We happened upon the most picturesque canals and house fronts and windows, particularly, and I took far too many pictures. We ate lunch at a pizzeria just outside The Rialto (Venice's main bridge - beautiful and huge and with shopping in the middle). We got Capriccioso pizza, with ham, pepperoni, artichokes, zucchini, mushrooms, and capers, which was absolutely delicious. Eventually we found our way to St. Mark's, a square full of pigeons and people. We watched a bunch of little kids feed pigeons, inspiring Erin to buy some seed as well. We had a great time taking pictures of the pigeon frenzy she created - two of them were fighting in her hand!

We went back to the piazza from the night before for dinner, some last minute gifts and a final cup of gelato, just soaking up the last of Venice before we had to leave. A bus to camp, a shuttle to Treviso, a plane to London, a shuttle and bus back to the flat. At 3:30am, we were home. Midterm break is over, and finally with some time to rest, I realized Meg and I have a trip to Barcelona next weekend.

All of Italy right here. (How did it fit?! Crazy.)

Learning Italian Phrases (New Entry #6)

Thursday was our last Rome day, so naturally I used it to catch up on some sleep and didn't wake up until 9:30. Yay! Paddy and I ventured out with a short, leisurely list of necessary things to hit before we left.

We stopped at the Spanish Steps first, having only seen them in the dark before. They were covered in teenagers who seemingly had no school to attend. I was pretty annoyed they were ruining any pretty picture of the Steps that I had in my head, but mostly I find it odd (and am perhaps a bit jealous) that ruins and tourist attractions are popular hang outs in Rome. We walked up and looked at the outside of the Villa Medici since going in didn't seem like an option, took in the view from up there, and walked back down. Well, that's a set of steps for you.

Because of A Roman Holiday, I had to seek out the Mouth of Truth, or in Italian, Bocca della Verita. It was pretty tricky to find, but we managed. The line wasn't too bad, certainly not the longest one I'd encountered. Paddy and I both put our hands in the mouth. And, no, neither of our hands were bitten off. We crossed the nearest bridge to the Isola Tiberina where we sat by a statue amongst pigeons, ate gelato, and I began learning useless Italian phrases. First, my trio of gelato was amazing - kiwi, fruits of the forest, and vanilla. Kiwi! Fabulous. My favorite phrase: "Sono Anna Baldini. Ho una prenotazione a nome Jones." or "I am Anna Baldini. I have a reservation under the name Jones." Runners-up: "Mi piacono le anatre" or "I like ducks"; "Arriverderci a tutti" or "Goodbye everybody!"

After a hike up a mountain (exaggerating a bit there), we came across the prettiest fountain in all of Rome, Fonte Acqua Paola. We took in the view and sat around the fountain. It was quite enjoyable. We planned out a great sight-seeing route from there, but somehow were defeated by the great Via Garibaldi - the road that goes everywhere and nowhere, a torture device. We saw a memorial of I'm not sure what and the Spanish Embassy and a lot of pretty big houses and a park, but not what we planned. Score one for Garibaldi. We lost.

We ate dinner with Meg and Erin just outside of Piazza Navona, enjoyed our last gelato at Old Bridge, and that was the end of Rome. Venice in the morning.

Brits in Florence (New Entry #5)

I honestly didn't get much tourist-ing done in Florence. We waited around the train station to meet Alyssa and Tim at 10:30 as planned before we left London, and once they were there, we split off: I went with them and the other three went to Ponte Vecchio.

Alyssa, Tim and I inquired about tickets for the train back to Rome and made our way toward the Uffizi Gallery, one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world. We bought paninis at a place called Queen Victoria (such an Italian name) and ate them on the way. We took pictures of the replicas of famous statues outside the Uffizi; my second sighting of The David, though not The David. Fun. We met the girls in the line, which a sign told us would take no more than 2 hours but no less than 1. It was just like an amusement park, but the end wasn't quite as thrilling. We were behind two adorable old women from Britain, one from Manchester and one from "the country," who were there celebrating one of their birthdays. We had a great time talking with them in line about Italy and London and New York City and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I'm not too impressed with Medieval art, to me a lot of what we saw in the beginning looked all the same. Sadly, art is lost on me; I only really enjoy looking at pieces by artists I recognize the names of, and that's not very many. I wandered, I learned a bit, I mostly enjoyed the views of Florence from the windows.

Being pressed for time, Alyssa, Tim and I left to walk up the Duomo before we had to catch our train. We were anxious to get the most out of our €6 admission (you know my penchant for climbing hundreds and hundreds of stairs at a time), but we got stuck behind this extremely stupid man who didn't understand how to walk through a turnstyle. The couple made it about two flights up before they had to stop and take a break, so luckily we weren't stuck behind them the entire 423 steps to the top. It got pretty tiring pretty quickly - the fact that most of the way up is also the way down didn't help matters. The views from the windows going up were amazing, but they didn't compare with the views when we stepped out onto the walkway. Florence is absolutely breathtaking. Obviously, lots of pictures were taken. We began to climb down just as the rain drops started to fall on the city to go gather Alyssa and Tim's bags and head to Rome.

We stopped in a wine shop run by the most gracious woman. She happened to own the pizzeria next door, so we ate there after shopping. I didn't see much of Florence as we walked to their hostel nor on the way to the train station as I was trying my best to not get soaked. Rain is fun. The train ride wasn't too bad, mostly because Eurostar books it, and thankfully it wasn't raining when we reached Rome.

According to Alyssa's Rome guidebook, one of the best pizzeria's in Rome was somewhat near their hostel, so after checking them in, we went in search. It took a bit to get there because near is all relative, but it was absolutely worth it. It was full of locals (a good sign) and wasn't too expensive either (another plus). Based on such an accurate recommendation, we walked in the complete opposite direction to what was deemed one of the best gelateria's in Rome, near the Trevi fountain. The gelato wasn't so great - nothing seems to compare to Old Bridge - but the man serving it made me laugh so much. Apparently, I'm Mexican and own a horse.

Isle of Capri (New Entry #4)

We had gorgeous weather on Tuesday for our trip to Capri via Napoli. Luckily, I wore capris. Oh ha ha ha. We barely caught the ferry in time, running to jump on before it pulled away from the dock. The hour-long ride was beautiful; we saw Vesuvius from the other side as well as Naples from a distance.

Once we stepped onto Capri, we wasted no time finding the beach. We climbed up onto some rocks, but getting some cuts and not really being the most comfortable, I shortly thereafter retreated to the sandy beach. Erin actually went swimming while Meg, Paddy, and I sat on a rock in the middle of the sea and dangled our feet in. We hung out on the beach for awhile before catching a bus up into the heart of Capri, which was full of little shops and adorableness. I want to live there. Every street sign or house number is in decorative tile, all of the houses are white or yellow, and the roads are narrow and full of flowers or vines spilling over fences. Love it. Later on, while everyone else bought gelato, I opted for Capri's "Special Drink" - lemonade with fresh squeezed blood orange mixed in - which turned out to be absolutely amazing. I have that drink to thank for my new addiction to blood oranges.

After some souvenir shopping, we took the ferry back to Naples with the idea that we would eat pizza before getting on the train to Rome, since Naples supposedly has the best pizza in Italy. First, a group of creepy Italians followed us all around the ferry and then off of it into the city. Every pizzeria we approached wasn't serving until 7 or later, but the train we were catching was at 6:45. Our plan wasn't working out so well. Furthermore, every time we attempted to cross the street, one or all of us were nearly killed by speeding vespas and cars. Drivers in Naples clearly don't know what a crosswalk is. Meg and I grabbed pizza in the train station, and it was actually quite good but probably not quite what the recommendation meant. By the time we boarded the train to Rome, I was so frustrated and fed up with Naples that I didn't care if I ever went back.

Pompeii: Home of Spirit Guides (New Entry #3)

Apparently, I am the only person in the world that didn't know that Pompeii was a city completely buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and preserved perfectly and then accidently discovered a few hundred years ago. All the same, my lack of knowledge made it all the more exciting when I got there and found out.

Monday, Meg, Erin, Paddy and I took a train through Naples to Pompeii to spend the day. The town was cute, made all the better by the Italian donut I purchased on the way to the ruins. We were greeted with a dog that resembled a young fox, and I dubbed him our spirit guide. We walked along the necropolis to begin where Erin explored the inside of a pitch-black mausoleum. I, on the other hand, stayed safely outside and sent her in with my camera in case there was something cool inside. Turns out, not so much, but most importantly, no dead people. We attempted to use the map we had, but it wasn't the most accurate thing so we just wandered and got lost a lot. Our spirit guide may have been sick and got really tired, so we lost him after about 40 minutes, which in my opinion, contributed to our lack of luck finding things. But perhaps not.

Everything was amazing. Mount Vesuvius loomed in the background ominously as we saw both the little and big theatres, the forum, the ampitheatre, the gymnasium, the brothel, shops and houses, gardens, paintings, statues, what could have been advertisements, and so much more. The crosswalks in Pompeii were raised higher than the road because that is supposed to be where the waste flowed and we pulled an Abbey Road shot on one of them. Pompeii had a lot of larger-than-life aloe plants that could have made comfy chairs if they weren't so pokey. Trying to get out, we got super lost and took a tour of the fields of Pompeii before finding our way again.

We were followed through the town by a small pack of spirit guides, some of which followed us into a pastry shop, all of which were adorable. One in particular led us all the way through the square to the train station and sat with us as we waited for the train. He was cute.

For some reason, our train to Naples took an unexplained break for almost an hour in the middle of nowhere. We got a nice picture of the sunset over the water and had a photo shoot of our range of emotions during the waiting. Otherwise, it wasn't much fun. We finally got back to Rome from Naples around 11:30. Sleep was required for the early wake-up call on Tuesday.

Sono Anna Baldini. (New Entry #2)

Day 2 in Roma brought us to the Colosseum, the Forum, and a lot of the other biggies. We fueled up on free breakfast (yummy cornettos - croissants with cream inside) and walked to the Colosseum where we were supposed to meet Erin and Paddy for the day. We waited and waited and probably should have picked somewhere not as big nor as crowded as the Colosseum to meet because we never found them. We did, however, listen in on several tours, and Katie got picked on by one guide who thought we were a part of his - The Roman numeral for 4, by the way, is IIII and not IV.

We bought tickets to the Colosseum/Palatino for the undiscounted price because Italy discriminates against American students. Boo. I still don't really know what the Palatino was except that it's in ruins now, but it was gorgeous and very fun to walk around in. The Colosseum seemed a lot bigger in my head than it was in reality. Still, it was impressive and the helpful signs taught me a lot of interesting facts about it. For example, it had awnings in case of too much sun that were controlled by men in ships. We walked over to the Forum and picked up the last bit of a tour before looking around. We saw the Vestel Gardens, Caesar's tomb, and walked on the road that ancient Roman armies used to. We lunched at a little restaurant before more ruins and Roman sights - the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Piazza della Repubblica, Trevi Fountain, Quattro Fontane, et cetera.

We went back to Freestyle for naps, showers, and "Pastaaaa!" At 8:30, we met Paddy and Erin on the Spanish Steps for a pub crawl around Rome. We got cute free T-shirts, and to be honest, that was about the best part of the poorly-organized crowded crawling experience. Except for the part where we stumbled upon the Pantheon on the way to another pub and saw a suspected lunar eclipse (found out later it actually was one). Meg, Katie, and I ducked out early (around midnight) to head back for bed.

Sunday morning we had our last free hostel meal, checked out of Freestyle, checked into Ottaviono with Paddy and Erin, and found a spot in St. Peter's square to camp out for the Pope's blessing. Due to a little confusion on the times, we were a lot earlier than expected so we used the time to catch up on our sun-soaking, letter-/postcard-writing, and general laziness. At near noon, the Pope didn't come out of where we expected him, essentially making our prime front-row standing area useless. We quickly relocated to see him as he blessed the waiting crowd in half a dozen languages.

We had pasta for lunch at an adorable restaurant where Katie communicated in Spanish to our waitress. We wandered past the street vendors along the river towards the beautiful Piazza Navona, which was full of artists and fountains (well, just 3 fountains). We got a bit disoriented and searched in vain for a bus to the catacombs, though we did stumble upon the Area Sacra. We didn't have time for much more than dinner and some gelato in St. Peter's square before Katie had to hop aboard the Metro for her flight to London.

Sidenote: The Metro made me love London's Tube, despite all of its stupidity. The Metro goes in a big X across Rome in a most unstrategic way and is a pretty gross, dirty and smelly mode of transportation. Furthermore, for all the costs of the inconvenient Metro, it's much easier to take the free bus. By free, I mean that it costs the same amount as the Metro, but in the bus' case, no one pays. Tourists stick out on Italian buses because they are the ones who take the time and trouble to buy tickets and scan them in on the buses. Once this became obvious to us, we decided to be Italian and take the bus for free too.

Ciao Italia! (New Entry #1)

The group of us finally stumbled into our flat around 3:30 this morning, wearied by the cold temperatures that sprang up in England while we were away and our seemingly endless travel. I'm finally up and loving my own bed and, as promised, here begins the account of my Spring Break in Italy, which I'm splitting up into chapters of sorts so they look less menacing.

I've seen 3am at both ends of our trip, and let me tell you, it looks much better on the optimistic not-yet-exhausted-by-everything side of things. Katie, Meg, Paddy, Erin and I caught a bus to where our coach to Luton was supposed to pick us up, but by 4:05 when it still hadn't arrived, we were forced to hail a cab so that we didn't miss our flight out. I must say, I really miss the convenience of having someone who can drive you to the airport. Saves money, that's for sure.

The flight was quick and painless, though it took a little getting used to Ryanair's constant bombardment of announcements. From the window, I saw us cross the Channel into France and later the Alps! It was pretty exciting. We were greeted with relatively warm weather when we stepped off the plane at Ciampino airport, took a shuttle to the general area of our two hostels and found them without too much consequence (and the help of a postman because piazzas are confusing).

After settling in, we went to Old Bridge Creamery for gelato on the recommendation of someone who works at the hostel. I got arancia (orange), limone, and crema with whipped cream - a TON - all for €2!! Mmm mmm. It was right outside the Vatican wall, so naturally we headed over to St. Peter's Basilica. Everything about Italy is gorgeous and amazing (except Naples, but that's later), so just a warning, those words will probably come up a lot. The Basilica was gorgeous and amazing. We spent a fair amount of time wandering around inside and then down some streets and near the Tiber River and pretty much everywhere, just taking everything in and loving the random ruins strewn about. We went up to the Piazza del Popolo, again on a recommendation, to see the sunset over Rome and it was beautiful. Katie, Meg, and I headed back to our hostel to rest up before free dinner (Salad! Pasta! Wine!), which was delicious, and then taking sometime to stroll around Rome.

Recognizing our love affair with gelato, we stopped into a gelateria near Santa Maria Maggiore. We sat outside and ate our fancy gelato, thinking nothing of its fanciness and enjoying the near hour we spent eating and talking. The bill came and, needless to say, we were surprised to find that the tasty gelato we had just eaten cost us €8.50 each (particularly because our friend Old Bridge gave us more and tasted better). Not hiding our disappointment, the manager quickly discerned that we were Americans and, in a lacking effort to make us feel better about our $4/scoop ice cream, offered us each a free drink at the club next door. We were tired and annoyed and not in any way dressed for a club, so we complained all the way back to our hostel and went to sleep. Oh, gelato.

In a State of Constant Activity

Our grand 10-day trip to Italy is starting dark and early tomorrow at 3:00am, and I'm having trouble finding enough time in the day to get everything accomplished before it gets here.

Katie and I have been taking in nearly every bit of London non-stop since her arrival on Friday (see previous entry) and even the lack of London Pass on Monday didn't slow us down. We've been to museums, seen two plays, watched the Changing of the Guard, tried more British food, and even pub crawled. I won't go into detail at the moment since the rest of our rapidly-shortening day is packed full of things to do as well - afternoon tea, shopping on Oxford Street, packing and prepping and such for Italy, and watching Daniel Radcliffe in Equus. Thennnn waking up at the ungodly hour of two.

I promise to update a ton when I return from Italy and post pictures, of course, and to do it all in bite-size entries rather than the three-course meal type of the one previous. But for now there is more of London to be seen!