Pisa - May 24th

Our first trip to a city to see some cool stuff! Since CJ and me were staying close to Pisa with Brian, he took us into the city on our first weekend there. As I said before, dirving in Italy is a bit scary, but all of the one way streets and very narrow roads had me a bit concerned but CJ assured me that we were safe driving with "Brian J. Hughes Professional Driver". First we drove around a bit till we found a parking spot along the Arno river and stopped for a minute to get a picture.

Then we walked around a bit stopping at a cafe and a gelato place. While we were walking we found this really cool building along the river that the guide book says was built to house a thorn from the crown of thorns that Christ wore while on the cross. Unfortunately it was closed and we couldn't get in to see it.

Then we walked toward the leaning tower of Pisa and the church that the tower was built to protect.


Did you know that walls use to encircle the church and tower...here is a picture of some of the wall that is left.

By the time we were done we were pretty tired so we headed for the car. Here are a few pictures taken in Pisa from the car ride home. This first one in particular is kind of interesting because it is of one of the many roads in Italy that have trees planted on both sides. The trees were planted on Mussolini's orders to provide shade for his troops as they marched along these streets.

Italy (May 21 - June 17)

So Italy was amazing...DUH! Anyway, we did so much in the month that CJ and I hung out in Italy. I will post independently on the specific trips that we went on (like Pisa, Rome, Florence, Lucca, and my fav Cinqueterra!) but I also wanted to tell a bit about the day to day hanging out in Tuscany with CJ's brother Brian! So first of all CJ and I spent a lot of mornings just sleeping in after all of the early mornings that we all did this past semester. Quite often we would just head to the beach for the day (where you had to pay to park, pay to get in, and pay for a chair!) but it was so nice that we really didn't mind. CJ got into reading Atlas Shrugged and I spent the days wishing I had sunglasses so that the Italian men in speedos couldn't see me staring.

Driving in Italy was crazy! Those Italians are just wako on the roads, but after some time I realized that it wasn't so bad, and some of their driving rules/customs were better than ours (like no police pulling you over for speeding...you just have to slow down for the speed cameras, and that you are expected to drive in the right lane and pass in the left...not hang out in the left lane), plus CJ drove us just about everywhere so at least I didn't have to drive (AAA wouldn't give me an international drivers license anyway). We also spent some days just hanging out at the house playing with the kittens...Brian had two, an orange one named Harley and a black one named Davidson (I wonder if Brian is slightly obsessed with is motorcycle???).

Brian also took us out on the bike and that was a blast. Here is a picture of what it looked like and a bit of what it felt like to be on the back of the bike! We took it through the country side and through Pisa on our way home!
Some mornings we would head to the coffee bar just down the street for a cappuccino and some sort of breakfast. We both got hooked on cappuccino, but CJ prefered hers in the evening (con Baileys!).

Other than that most of our adventures involved traveling so I will post about each trip ASAP. More to come soon!

A day in London - May 20, 2009

Wow! So here I am in England...London to be exact. The fight wasn't so bad and once we got in to the Heathrow airport we went through customs (again) and took the train to Paddington Station! Once at Paddington, CJ's cousin (Kris) found us and we headed for the Tube (or what we might call the subway) and took that back to Kris's place. After a shower and a change of clothes we were on our way to take a trip on the London Eye and a boat ride down the Thames were we got to see all kinds of cool stuff. After that we took a double decker bus to a different part of town and walked down some of the major shopping streets in London (Unfortunately they didn't have anything in my size). After a bit of light shopping we went to meet Kris's boyfriend for a bit of Sushi before returning to the flat for a good nights sleep before another flight to get to Pisa, Italy. What a great time I had in London for one day...I can't wait to come back and hangout with CJ and Kris for a whole week at the end of my European holiday! But for now, it is time to head off to Italy! How exciting!