Au revoir

Day 15 

We decided today would be another great day to sleep in. Gen was now done with classes and Jill and I had seen almost everything we wanted to. We got up, made breakfast and made our game plan. 

We decided that we really wanted to see the gay and Jewish area of Paris. We took the metro that way. It was a very cute area with plenty of restaurants and shopping. We walked through a few stores before getting pretty hungry. Gen was told that this area had great falafel, so we went on a search for it.  After about 5 minutes of searching we weren't really sure where to go, so Gen kindly asked a local waitress near by. She gave us directions and sent us in the right way.  When we got their we were so excited. There was a line around the corner and the inside looked packed, it must be good. We found a seat inside and order. We all got the special, falafel, humus and much more deliciousness. 

After lunch we decided to shop a little more. We all ended up with very cute things. Around 3pm our feet started to get tired, so we decided to head back to the apartment and relax for a while. Jill napped, Gen sent emails for her new job and I just relaxed. 

Finally we decided the best thing to do would be to watch a movie. Gen had never seen Pitch Perfect, so we knew we had to show her!! By 8pm we realized we needed to eat. We paused the movie headed to a vegan restaurant for dinner. After dinner Jill and I both got two huge banana Nutella creeps. Once again they were amazing!!! 

We headed back to the apartment and finished the movie. By this time Jill and I had to get ready for bed, it was going to be a long day tomorrow. 

Day 16 

We woke up bright and early, 630am, got ready and headed to the metro. At first the metro looked like it was still locked up. This made us worried. We then realized it was open across the street, so we proceed on our route. We had to take one metro to another metro. Get off at the train station and take a bus to the airport. That was easy. Once we got to the airport it was a little more confusing. We walked over to delta, but had heard we had to go to airfrace. We tried to check in there where we were told to go back to delta. We waited in a non moving 20minute line. Again we were told to go back to the delta kiosk, from where we were sent to stand in another long line. We finally got our boarding passes and luggage sent off. It was now time to head to the gate. We would first have to pass through customs. This was the longest line I have ever seen. It took us about an hour to get through. Many people in line were worried about missing their flights. From there we had to take a tram to our gate and go through security. After a that we found out our flight was delayed. This has already been a long day! Finally at about 11am we boarded. We got ourselves situated in our seats as set back home to America!!! 

After 16 days, 5 cities, metros,trains, planes, busses, and tubes we made it!!  Making new friends, meeting up with old one, never holding back, missing tours, making tours, exploring, getting lost but always finding our way and of course our sweet glasses....Europe was an amazing trip, one we will never forget! I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner....to next years travels, I can't wait!!! 

We're still here

Day 13

We enjoyed our tour so much the day before that we decided to take another one. We used the same company, but today we were going to see Versailles. Versailles is just south of Paris and was the home to the monarchies of Paris.

We got up, took the metro and met the group at 11am. We were given a train ticket to and from Versailles. Billy was our tour guide again. We had a large group today. Billy mentioned that he normally only takes about 10 people a day, today the group was up at 40. We were excited. 

We got onto our 40 minute train. On the way we rode past the mini Statue of Liberty. That was pretty cool to see. When we finally got there Billy took us to the chateau in Versailles.  This chateau was not only huge, but also covered in gold. It was a sight to see. 

For this tour we were not going into the chateau, we were looking at the gardens.  Going into the tour we didn't know to much about the history.  Coming out of the tour we learned a lot. We learned about the rise and fall of the Paris monarchy. We also saw an incredible garden. This was probably the biggest garden we've ever seen. I felt like it kept going and going. The tour was about 5 hours round trip. It was worth every penny. 

When we got back from the tour, Jill and I showered relaxed and called up some friends that were also in Paris. The plan was to meet up with them, have dinner, then head to the Eiffel Tower. After a while of waiting we couldn't get a hold of the girls. We figured they must have already left. We decided it would be best to head that way ourselves. 

We took the metro, and had to switch a few times, over to where the Eiffel Tower was. When we got their our friends, Ashley and Jaime, were not there. We decided to eat at a restaurant on the corner, that way we could spot them if they showed up. Just after our food arrived I spotted Ashely on the corner. Her and Jaime joined us for dinner. It was very good and very filling. We decided we needed to head over to the Eiffel Tower before it got to late. 

Jill and I had bought tickets the day before, but since there was a strike we couldn't use them. I decided to ask if I could use them today instead.  I was told, by the rudest lady I have ever met, that I couldn't. She told me I needed to fill out a refund form and get back in line to buy tickets. This annoyed me a lot, but I got in line anyways. The 4 of us stood in line for about 2 hours. When we got to the front we were told they were not selling tickets to go to the top anymore. They also said we could not buy tickets for tomorrow either. 

At this point I was very upset. All I wanted to do was make it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Also in tears I explained to the lady how I bought tickets for the day before so that I could go up to the top. I told her I wasn't going to wait in a 2 hour long line tomorrow either. Finally, after she saw how upset I was, she called her supervisor who gave us permission to go to the top!  This was the best moment ever!!!  

The sight was amazing. We were able to see the entire city. We took a few pictures and then headed back down. We said goodnight to Jaime and Ashley and headed for the metro to get home. 

When we got to the metro we were told it was closed for the night. We weren't really sure what to do next. We decided the best idea was to take a cab. The only problem is we couldn't find an empty one. People around us were able to, but we had no luck. Finally, about 15 minutes later, we found an empty cab. He drove us back to our metro station. From there we headed home and called it a night! 

Day 14

Because we had to wake up early the past two days we decided we were going to sleep in today. We woke up around 10:00, made breakfast and hung out at the apartment with Gen for a while before we left for the Louvre. A few days earlier Billy told us about the secret entrances so we left the apartment and were on our way, only we didn't realize until we got to the metro that we had no idea where we were going. Luckily we are really good at reading maps so we found one with all the landmarks drawn out and found which line we needed to take. 

Once we got there we were able to get right in. We walked around for a few hours looking at all of the different artwork, including the Mona Lisa and then decided to walk to the love bridge. Blair had previously bought a lock for us so we picked a spot, put the lock on the bridge and threw the key into the water. We stopped a lady and asked her to take a photo of us while explaining to her what we were doing, and what we threw into the water. 

Once we got back to the apartment we watched a movie (Rock of Ages) while waiting for Gen to get back from her last masters final ever. We then all got ready for dinner. We ate at this cute little sushi restaurant before heading to meet up with everyone, including Ashley and Jamie for our pub crawl.  We also found out that we could not pay for our meal with our American credit cards, so Gen graciously paid for the meal.  On our way Blair met another guy named Billy who declared his love for her on the metro and asked her on a date. She politely declined but told him he could find her on Facebook.  There was also a lovely Chinese women who decided to stop right where Jill was sitting and sign a native song. To say the least, our metro experience was interesting.  

The pub crawl was a blast! We met a bunch of people at the first two bars and then headed to the third where we danced and sang to some of the best 90s music. While jamming out to the Spice Girls, one of the workers told us we were too loud and had to quiet down. We then headed to a club where we proceeded to dance the night away before heading home and crashing.

Passport to Paris

Day 11 

We got up pretty early, finished packing, and headed next door for a real English breakfast (we talked to the bed and breakfast the night before and convinced them to let us have it). We both got eggs with bacon and toast...delicious! 

We had a little time to kill before heading to the train, so we hung out in the room and relaxed. Finally we picked up some food for lunch on the train and ventured on our next excursion getting to our Eurostar.   We had to take the metro to a different stop and then transfer to our train. The biggest problem was how to get our luggage to the train. We only had one choice, lug it down the stairs.  It was quiet the scene, but we did it. It took us no time at all to get to our Eurostar. 

We hung out until they told us we could check in. From there we had to put all of our belongings through an x-ray machine.  Jill got through right away, I was another question.  Apparently the X-ray machine showed something suspicious in my bag.  I watched as they searched the lady in front of me first, turns out she didn't realize you aren't allowed to bring a large knife on the train with you. They asked if they could check my bag next and of course I agreed. The security guard pulled EVERYTHING out of my bag. The only two things he questioned were my newly bought menorah and my epipen. Once I explained what both items were he put all my stuff through the machine and said I was free to go. 

Jill and I waited a little longer until they called our train. We boarded the train, found out seats (which weren't next to each other) and headed for Paris. The two hour train ride was easy.  Jill slept and read while I watched a movie and people watched around me. 

We finally arrived in Paris. We bought a 5 day metro pass and followed the directions we were given. This included lugging our luggage both up and down stairs and switching metros. This was fine for us, we were pros as directions!  We made it to Jill's friend Genevieve's  place easily. We waiting for her to let us in and dragged our luggage up 3 flights of stairs. 

We settled in, went grocery shopping, and started our night. Gen suggested we go to the Eiffel Tower and see it light up as sparkle at night. This sounded perfect to us!  We headed over that way. The sight of the Eiffel Tower was amazing! We found a seat and waited. We then realized we had a few hours, so we ventured around Paris. We walked toward the water, bought a pastry, and bought a bottle of wine to drink at the Eiffel Tower. 

We headed back and waited.  One thing they have at the tower is people selling wine, beer, champagne, and cigarettes. Not only are they selling them, they won't leave anyone alone. It's quiet annoying.  At one point a man selling came very close to us, mumbled something, dropped all his merchandise, and left. As you can imagine, we were very confused and had no idea what was going on. It turns out it's not legal for them to sell this stuff at the Eiffel Tower and the police were looking for them. We saw one officer pull a bag out of a bush. He biked over to the sellers and asked them to leave. They did, but then came back once the police had left. By 10:30 we were very cold and confused at why the Eiffel Tower wasn't sparkling. We assumed it must have been because the workers were on strike.  We headed home and called it a night. 

Day 12 

We are excited to announce that today was the first day we actually made it to our scheduled
 walking tour. Yes, it is day 12 of our trip and we are just now making a tour. On our way we stopped at the most delicious bakery where we both got a pastry to eat on our way. 

Our tour guide Billy was the best tour guide we could have hoped for. He was very knowledgable about the city and had tons of corky facts to tell us. We saw Norte Dame, the Love Bridge, the Louvre and many other famous spots. Billy even took us to the original Facebook, which is a bridge where a ruler had all of his friends faces carved out of stone. We talked about how the Eiffel Tower was on strike and how they didn't have a light show the night before but some of the other tourist on the tour told us it did in fact happen just at 11:00 which was about a half hour after we left. 

We had previously bought tickets to the Eiffel Tower but we were unable to use them because they were still on strike, so we instead finished the tour and walked the Champs Elysees to the Arch De Triumph before catching the metro home. We got back to Gen's apartment, had lunch and waited for her to come back from class. Once Gen arrived and we left to go to the Moulin Rouge, we didn't go inside but sat outside and ate more pastries. We then traveled up to the highest spot in Paris where we had an amazing view over the city. We saw some street performers and other street vendors when we were approached by a group of men trying to sell us string that they were tying on our wrists. When we told them we didn't want any they had pretty much the same response "little girl, be happy". We stopped to ask a girl to take a photo of us, she agreed and then asked if she could take one of the three of us on her camera for a souvenir, extremely confused we agreed. 

Afterwards we were getting hangry so we decided to go to dinner. Gen took us to a very nice vegetarian restaurant. The waiter fancied Gen and added extra fruit to her dessert (we know this because he told her he gave them to her because she was very pretty). When we got our bill there was a note on the back "fancy a drink after work?". 

Next Gen took us to the largest English bookstore in Europe called Shakespeare and co. It was really cool to see all of the books, we were even told that Ernest Hemingway worked there. 

It was getting late so we decided to stop at a local restaurant, have a drink and people watch. After about 30 mins nothing really happened so we left to go back to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to see the sparkly lights that we missed the night before. This time we got there at the correct time 11:00 and were able to grab a seat just as the light show started. It was amazing to see. We then headed home to prepare for day 13. 

Winning London

Day 8

After a two hour flight, an hour line at customs and what felt like a 10 hour bus ride (really it was an hour and a half, but watching the couple in front of us make out for about an hour caused it to seem much longer) we made it to our studio in London. We were happy to have our own studio but not so happy about lugging our 35/40 lb bags up 6 flights of stairs. We through our stuff in our room and began walking to find a place to eat. It wasn't long before we stumbled into a small diner. We ordered food and began eating when we both looked at each other and asked why no one in the diner was speaking English, after all we were finally in an English speaking country. We ate and then went to meet up with Blair's friend Matt. He was a very good tour guide taking us to see the London tower and the London bridge. We then took a walk through the financial district where Matt worked, he told us that during the weekend the district was pretty much vacant but very busy during the week.  

We then headed to a local bar where were grabbed a table outside and enjoyed a beer. Matt told us that there was a huge rugby game on earlier that day and there were tons of people out celebrating. Around 7:00pm we were pretty entertained when we saw a guy try to get into the bar but he was not let in because he was piss drunk. After the bar we went back to Matt's flat where we played drinking games. We had a blast as Matt and his flatmate Vicky taught is some new games we are definitely bringing them back to the states.

We were very tired from traveling all day and wanted to make sure we made it back before the Tube (pronounced chube) stopped running.  Matt walked us to the underground only to discover it was closed. We then tried to catch a nearby bus but we missed it by about 30 seconds so Matt put us in the cutest taxi we have ever seen and sent us on our way. 

The taxi driver was very nice talking to us, through a microphone, about the family he has in Michigan and about our travels. He dropped us off at the closest Underground station to catch Tube . We were very nervous after waiting for about 12 minutes that the Tube was not coming but it finally arrived and was pack. We pushed our way in and held on. At the next station the coach got even more packed and tons of people pushed there way on. The conductor made an announcement that if people continued to hold the doors open it would shut down and we would all have to walk so everyone adjusted enough for the doors to close. With two more stops to go we got worried what would happen at the next stop. We made it there and loads more people piled it. At this point we felt like a pack of sardines jammed in so tight we could not even move. We waited there for about 10 minutes because the doors literally could not close due to the amount of people but finally with some more adjustments the Tube was able to drop us off at Victoria station. We walked to our hotel, made some phone calls back home and passed out. 

Day 9

Today was the day we were going to make a tour! We got up, had breakfast, then headed off to Victoria Station to find out tour bus. We searched and searched but couldn't find "gate 3" anywhere. We finally found a tour guide and asked him where he thought we were suppose to meet, he was actually not the tour guide for the tour we were taking (our tickets didn't have a company listed on them) but he knew where we needed to be anyways. It turns out we were at Victoria Station, we were suppose to be at Victoria Coach Station, which was only across the street.  As soon as we got their we found our gate where our tour bus was waiting. This double decker bus was not only green and brown, but it looked like it had just come from the Harry Potters movies.  Jill and I hurried upstairs to get a seat. We knew it would be cold and windy, but we wanted the full double decker bus experience. 

On the bus we made 3 friends from California.  Turns out they had not planned for the cold weather, so they had to buy sweatshirts along the way.  They also had bought a ticket for the London Eye, but later on they tour they asked us "what the big Ferris Wheel  was".  After explaining it was the ticket they had bought, they were excited. 

Our first stop on the bus was Westminster Abbey. We were able to get off the bus, take pictures, and hear about the history. This was a very cool sight. While getting off the bus we also noticed the big red telephone booths.  I was extremely excited, so we took plenty of photos in and around it. 

The bus took up to all the must see places, Big Ben, London Bridge, London Castle, Buckingham Palace, and a mini river cruise. We were able to stop at Buckingham Palace and watch the changing of the guards. This was an exciting experience.  We were suppose to be able to walk right behind them guards, but due to the filming of a tv show called Top Gear, the road was closed off.  Top Gear is a tv show, that we don't have in the states that shows off different kinds of cars. All the cars were parked all over the road, which led our tour guide to believe there was really a traffic jam, not a tv show filming. That was ok for us, we were still able to see the changing of the guards. 

After Buckingham Palace we said goodbye to our new friends, who were headed to the London Eye and we headed to our last sight, Harrods. This department store was amazing. It was also a little overwhelming. We decided to head to the food court and grab some lunch. The food court is not an average American food court. This food court had restaurants, and food stations. It was more like a mini grocery store then a food court.  All the food looked delicious, so we decided to get a few things and split them.  We looked for tables to eat at, then finally realized they had no tables for us. We found a bench outside the store and ate. The food was just as delicious as it looked. 

Since we were already out this way, we decided to go shopping for a little. Nothing caught our eye so we headed back to our bed and breakfast.  We managed to find our way back just fine, with a little use of my handy-dandy map! 

Since we had been up for a while we decided it was a good idea to nap before dinner.  When we finally got up we decided dinner would be sushi. We didn't choose just any sushi restaurant, we chose one that we had read about before coming to Europe. This sushi restaurant was suppose to have a drone that would fly you your food. We were so excited for this experience. 

We managed to maneuver the Tube and find the restaurant. This sushi restaurant is also very unique because all the sushi was on a convaitor belt. We choose to do the all you can eat Sunday sushi night. This meant we had an hour to eat as much sushi as we wanted...yum!  The food was good, but after talking to the staff we found out they stopped using the drone to deliver food. This was not the answer we were looking for, but continued our meal anyways. 

Just as we were finishing dinner my friend from summer camp, Will, met up with us. Will said he would show us around for a little then we'd grab some drinks. Sounded great to us. We show Oxford circus and Piccadilly square, which is London's version of time square. 

We then headed to a local pub. This pub was actually really cool. It was very comfy and had classic London pub look to it.  When we got there we were told they were closing in about an hour, so we decided to have a drink there then head somewhere else. The only problem was it was a Sunday night. To us this didn't mean much at first, but as we went from bar to bar looking for something that was opened we understood. Apparently things close very early on Sundays.  After about a half hour of looking, we finally found one that was open. We went to a 3 story bar. The first two stories had a Dj. The top story had live music. We really enjoyed it! 

After a drink or two we were getting kind of tired, so told Will we were going to venture home. He decided to leave as well. Since the Tube was closed we needed to take the bus home. Lucky for us, Will knew which bus we needed to get home. We hopped on the bus, paid for our ticket and headed back to Victoria station. From there Will walked us home. We said our goodbyes, it was awesome to see him, and headed to bed. We wanted to try to make the most of our last day in London tomorrow! 

Day 10 

We woke up pretty early today for no reason, early enough to have a proper English breakfast. So we put on our shoes and went to the hotel for breakfast. When we walked in we were told that because we have a studio, we could not eat in the hotel and had to go back to the studio for toast. We went back and got ready for the day. Our adventure started when we went to exchange some money and hit some touristy shops for some souvenirs to bring home. 

We picked up our theater tickets and headed form Abbey Road. We managed the Tube and found our way just fine. We took some touristy pictures there. We were also told there was a webcam we could pull up for 24 hours. We decided to try it out. We also encountered a group of students with their teacher. They must have taken at least 10 pictures each. They also kept walking through other people's pictured. Blair was not to happy about that so she kindly asked them to watch where they were walking. 

We then went back to the hotel to nap before we left for an early dinner. We got vouchers to eat at this Indian restaurant in Soho. Not able to speak the language we pointed out our meals to the waitress and she went to ring it in. When we got our food we informed the waitress that she gave us the wrong meal and she got mad and switched tables with a different server. We ate our dinner and left for the show. Blair's parents bought us tickets to see Wicked. The musical was absolutely phenomenal. The costuming was gorgeous and the singing was amazing. 

We left the musical and went to meet up with the bar crawl we got a flyer for. When we arrived we were told that it would be 12 pounds each but with the flyer it was 10. We told the guy that we only had 5 each so we could not join but we were really fun and they should probably let us go anyways. After 10 minutes of us all looking at each other not speaking we were told we can join for 5 pounds each. We got our wristbands and we on our way. At the first bar we went to we waited at the bar for our drinks and sat down with some other crawlers.  As most people know we love to dance. Unfortunately everyone else on the pub crawl was not feeling it. Some random guy came up to Jill and asked her to dance because he had some sweet moves.  When she decided not to, I sprang out of my seat and decided to dance. He definitely had some interesting moves.  Although it was funny to dance with him, it got old pretty quick. I went back to sit with the group, but this guy didn't like that idea. He continued to come up and try to dance with us.  This was clearly not working in his favor. Finally one of the pub crawls guys decided he should step in and ask this guy to leave us alone. 

By this time we had decided we should head to the next bar. This bar had a lot more people with a lot more dancing.  We danced for a while and had a great night, but were getting pretty tired. We had decided to try to find out way home. We had two options, find a bus, or find s taxi that took credit card.  We were pretty sure the bus would take our metro card, so decided that would be our best bet. 

While walking toward the bus we were stopped by many club promoters. They wanted us to come to their club. When we told them we would only go if we could get in for free, they told us that was not going to happen anywhere. We politely told them no thank you and made our way to the bus. We were able to take the same bus as the night before,which we remembered how to get to, and made it home safely. It was time to finish packing an hit the pillow for the night. 

The Fun Continues!!

Day 6

Our 3rd day in Rome was quite long, we woke up at about 8 so that we could go shopping before catching our 11:40 train to Florence. Unfortunately for us (not so much for our bank accounts) we only made it to one store before heading to the train. Once we arrived we tried to buy tickets from the kiosk but were unable to because we wanted to use credit cards instead or debit. After waiting in line for a few minutes we realized that we needed to take a number in order to be called to the counter. We got our ticket and sat down to wait for about an hour (missing the train we wanted to take along with the one right after it). We finally got on the train at about 12:50 and made it to Florence around 2:00.

While in Florence we walked around a bit and made our way to the statue of David, however, the line was so long that we decided to skip and look for the replica instead. We stopped at the leather market on our way where we got matching leather jackets. We were pretty proud of ourselves when we talked the owner of the store down from 160 euro each to 125. Continuing our shopping spree, we heckled with a few street vendors for some purses and then stopped at a cafe where we asked a few locals where the replica statue was, no one could understand what we were asking for so we gave up and tried to find it on our own. Although unsuccessful we found a very nice leather shop were we continued our shopping spree before going back to the station. We found a second shop that had the same jacket we had purchased earlier. Trying to figure out if we got a good deal we asked the man how much. He rudely responded "you already bought one, why are you asking?" so we quickly walked away.

We made it back to Rome around 8:00pm and went back to the hotel to rest before we left for dinner at about 10:30 (we felt like true Europeans eating so late). We finished dinner and still had some time to spare before meeting our pub crawl friends so we decided to visit the Coliseum.   On our walk we passed a man who was levitating in the air. This blew our minds, although we are still convinced there was a secret bench or something to help him. We asked some security guards which direction we should go to find the Coliseum and they sent us on our way. While walking we received a call from our local friend Liam who asked us to come meet him but we told him we were just arriving at the Coliseum and would meet him a little later. After a few minutes we realized that we in fact were NOT at the Coliseum but instead we were lost. We whipped out the map and realized we weren't even on it! So we started to walk back the way we came. After walking for about an hour, we stopped a local who told us if we talked very slowly she would be able to help us find our way home so we asked her to direct us to the Coliseum. She was able to point us in the right direction and eventually we arrived at the Coliseum, unfortunately we made it to the Coliseum bar and not the landmark. At this point we felt it would be best to call up Liam and have him come find us. When we finally met up with him (an hour and a half later), he took us to join the pub crawl. We were so happy to find that our friends from Sweden had also decided to join the crawl for a second night as well. We danced for a while and then decided it was best to go back to the hotel. 

On our way back, we stopped at the Pantheon where we saw a man in a full suit sleeping on a ledge. We weren't exactly sure if he was alright but there were police patrolling the area and they seemed not to mind so we went on our way. We of course stopped at the Trevi Fountain for another photo-shoot before going to bed. 

Day 7

We woke up relatively early, although still missing breakfast and decided to start our day. Our first stop was Zara. The night before I, Blair, realized one of the shirts I had bought the day before still had the security tag on (this explained why the security alarms kept going off the day before). We decided it was best not to continue shopping due to our huge spree the day before. We had a small list of places we really wanted to go. 

Our first stop was the Coliseum. Although we had seen it at night we really wanted a day time view. We decided it would be nice to take a tour of the inside. The line seemed somewhat long, but moved pretty fast. While in line we couldn't help but notice a lady who looked quiet unusual in front of us. We had come to the conclusion that she had way to much Botox and really need to lay off. We finally got out tickets and ventured in. The Coliseum was quiet a site. We stayed for a little then ventured off. While leaving we were stopped by a pub  crawl promoter who asked if we would be joining his pool party that evening. After looking at the flyer we had told him we were already planning on attending and were good friends with many of the guys. He was pretty shocked by our popularity but was excited we were going. 

Our next stop for the day was the Jewish ghetto. While walking there we realized this was the exact spot we her walked the night before and just didn't realize. It was much better to see it during the day. We took a tour of the two synagogs. They were amazing to see. 

By this point it was important for us to get home, shower and pack in order to go out that night.  We decided to eat at a restaurant suggested by our concierge. Once again the food was great! 

It seemed a little too early to head to the pub crawl, so instead we bought a cheap bottle of wine and drank on the Spanish Steps. This was really cool for us, considering we can't do this in the United States.  We hung out for a while before walking to the highlander, our corner bar in Rome (similar to Ye Olde back home). 

Once inside we grabbed a drink and then hopped on a bus to the pool party. The pool party was quite a bit away from where we were staying so it took a little while to get their but it allowed us to make friends with some of the other crawlers. At the pool party we again danced for a while and watched a fashion show the club put on. After that wrapped Blair told two of the boys we had met on the bus to jump into the pool, they obliged. While we were hanging out we met some guys who were on holiday from the London army. We hung out with them until we were ready to leave the club and then convinced them to come to the Trevi fountain with us since they hadn't been yet. 

We left the club with no idea of where we were and how to get home. Blair and our new friend Lloyd decided to follow some random guy because he looked like he knew where he was going so we followed him up a huge flight or stairs and arrived at the express way. After 10 minutes of me standing in the middle of the road trying to flag down a taxi we decided it was best to go back to the club and take the bus with everyone else. We started to head that way when a taxi finally pulled over. We arrived at the Trevi fountain around 2:30 am and hung out there with our friends Lloyd and Matt for about thirty minutes before they walked us home and we said goodnight.

When In Rome

Day 4

We left Barcelona and headed to Rome. We were excited, Rome was going to be our city. We had a much easier time navigating to the airport and from the airport to our next hotel. 

When we arrived at the hotel we were greeted by Stefano, the most adorable concierge. He helped us with our luggage and gave us a map of all the places we should check out before handing us our room key and taking us upstairs. Blair and I just barely fit into the elevator with our carry ons which was quite a sight. Once we made it to our floor we had our first challenge of finding the room. You think it would be easy since there were only four doors in the hallway but we had no clue which one was ours. Stefano met us up there and showed us how to navigate to our room (it was through a kitchen area through a second door). We threw down our stuff and ventured out.

At this point you would think getting out of the hotel would be easy. As we ventured downstairs we pushed open the door,unfortunately it did not open. We searched everywhere for a way to get out but had no luck. Instead of breaking the door we kindly asked  Stefano how to get out. He showed us what we thought was the light switch. In reality it was the unlock button to open the door. 

After a quick lunch we walked to the Trevi Fountain (later to be deemed our favorite spot in Rome) and then to the Spanish steps. It was so hot that we decided to freshen up and head to the Ice Bar. Once arriving at Ice Bar (literally a bar made completely out of ice) we were told that we should wait an hour before entering because it wasn't busy and once leaving you would have to pay to re-enter. We already had plans for later that night so we decided to go anyways. Little did we know that when they said "not busy" they actually meant 100% empty. We had our own private VIP party for a while and then went to meet up with other tourists for the pub crawl at the Colosseum. We waited at the Colosseum for a while but couldn't find the pub crawl anywhere so we decided to stop and talk to some girls standing near by. Turns out they were waiting for the pub crawl as well. After about 30 minutes we all decided to head to another spot that our new Swedish friends knew about. 

We got to the Spanish steps and were stopped by a group of guys who asked if we would like to join their "Ladies Night" crawl so we followed them to the first bar. The Highlander as they called it was a great time. The drinks were flowing, the music was playing, and the drinking games were just beginning. Blair participated in an all female beer chugging contest and then we both join in on our new favorite game called the Dirty Canadian, where you have to move a can of beer all the way up your partners pant leg and down the other side where they then must chug the entire beer. Sadly neither of us won but we are determined to win the next time should we get the opportunity to play again.  Blair went to use the restroom as we were about to leave  but I didn't want to leave without her so went I went to go find her, much to my surprise she was in the gents restroom. She didn't realize it at the time but I informed her of it when she came out. From the highlander, we headed to the next bar where we were greeted with shots. We really had to use the restroom after drinking so much but the line was too long so instead of waiting we thought it was best to use the men's room again. We hung out there for a little bit where us Americans were the hit of the party! This is also where our sweet polka dotted bow glasses made their appearance. Everyone loved our glasses,some even had the opportunity to wear the glasses.  We didn't realize it at the time but these glasses would become our signature piece in the pub crawl. Later I was sitting down at one end of the bar talking to this nice Australian when I looked over and realized Blair was laying on the bar. Not really sure what was going on, I went over to find Blair with chocolate and salt on her belly and a lime in her mouth. It took about 30 seconds for the bartender to find someone to take a shot from Blair.  In reality Blair thought they were asking her to play another drinking game so she gladly volunteered. 

We headed to our last bar, Mood. This was more of a dance club. The rest of the night consisted of dancing, dancing, making friends, and more dancing. We forgot to mention that throughout the night besides being the hit of the pub crawl we were now best friends with everyone that worked for the pub crawl company. Jill and I realized it was getting late (2:30am) and us Americans needed to get to bed. One of the guys who worked for the company, Liam, so graciously volunteered to walk us home. Earlier in the night I (Blair) figured it would be a great idea to whip out my highlighted map in the bar; I wanted to know exactly where we were. Liam informed me he lived two streets over from where we were staying. This was perfect!  He took us to all the amazing sights on our walk home. We stopped to take a photo-shoot at the Trevi Fountain. As we continued our walk home we gave Liam our phone number (Stefano gave us a phone to use while in Rome) and dropped him off on the way. He also informed us that his apartment building was highlighted on our map. Stefano highlighted all the important sights and must have realized we would meet someone and need to know where they lived.  We said our goodbyes and told Liam to call us tomorrow. Finally we made our way home (at about 3am) and called it a night. 

Day 5 

Before we talk about day 5, let me tell you a little bit about our lovely phone Stefano gave us. This phone is very small and very old. It is one of those Nokia phones that has snake on it.  It's very hard to type on because you have to click each number a certain amount of times based on the letter you are trying to get to (for example to get to the letter c you need to hit 2 3times). This makes texting a lot harder. When I turned on our phone I noticed it said TIM as the banner. I turned to Jill and told her Tim must have had this phone last, thinking nothing of it. Later in the night we would find out TIM is a telephone company (similar to T-Mobile or Verizon), not the name of the last person that used our phone. 

Because we were out so late the night before we didn't wake up until about 11:30, however once we were dressed we were determined to go to all the touristy sights. We got on the metro and made our way to the Sistine Chapel. It was amazing to see, the artwork was gorgeous. We then moved on to the Vatican where we tried to cut to the front of the line. The security guard caught us and told us we had to go to the end so we politely obeyed until he wasn't looking and then cut again. Our trip inside was short but sweet. We missed a total of 5 phone calls on our phone, mainly because we have no idea how to use it. We then made our way back to the hotel so that we could freshen up and have dinner. 

The restaurant we went to was a suggestion from family back home. The food was amazing.  We had the sweetest waiter and the hostess loved us, she even pitched Blair's cheeks.  After dinner we swung by the Spanish Steps in hopes of getting wifi. Instead we ran into our pub crawl friends who tried so hard to convince us to go out with them. After politely telling them we would try to meet up later we headed toward the Coliseum to meet our Swedish friends. 

We went to a local Irish pub (scholars lounge) and had a drink while enjoying soccer,basketball, and baseball on the tv. Jill and I learned a lot about soccer from our Swedish friends, and in return we taught them about baseball (although they had to watch a frustrating Tiger loss). We decided it was time for a different bar. We tried to find a club suggested by our friends, but when we got lost and couldn't find it we decided to head to the club from the night before.  We knew that in Europe people liked to go out late but we figured that since it was midnight we would be ok to head to the club. Once again we were wrong. We walked in to find out no one else was there!  We hung out in the bathroom for a few minutes until heading out on the dance floor to get the night started. As the night continued a few more people showed up at the club.  

It's always flattering when someone tries to dance with you, however the boys that tried to dance with us were soooooooo annoying!!  They constantly asked if they could buy us shots (the answer was always no) and wouldn't leave us alone. One of the boys even went as far as buying shots after we told him we didn't want them.  We really tried to tell them politely but by the 15th time it was annoying. Jill finally turned to them and said as bluntly as possible, "we don't want anything from you go away!"  I still don't think they got the hint. We tried to get a hold of our bar crawl friends, but had no luck. Instead we danced a little longer and then ventured back home.  

On the way we stopped at our favorite Rome site, the Trevi Fountain. We took more pictures, threw more money into the fountain and then headed home.  

To get back to our hotel you need to walk through a few alleys and up a steep hill. About half way up the hill our phone starting ringing (this was exciting). It was Liam. He was trying to meet up with us to take us to the bar crawl.  He went as far as leaving the bar to meet up with us and try to persuade us in person. Sorry Liam you're too late! It's time for us to go to bed. We said goodnight to Liam and actually headed home. Our plan was to leave for Florence the next morning. 

Goodbye America Hello Barcelona!!!!

Day 1

After a 4 hour wait at the airport and an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam, we had only a two hour flight until we made it to our first destination. The plane touched down in Barcelona and we grabbed our bags and headed to the bus stop.

Once we checked in at our hotel we headed up to the room, threw down our bags and jumped into bed for a quick nap. Two hours later I (Jill) woke up to use the restroom, however, I couldn't figure out how to turn on the bathroom lights. Blair decided to get up and help figure it out. Much to our surprise all the lights in the hotel room were not working. Very angered by this Blair suggested that we call the front desk and ask for help. It wasn't until we were about to pick up the phone that we realized in order for the lights to work we needed to insert the room key into the wall (a very unusual concept for us Americans). I then proceeded to take a shower where I could not figure out how to get the water to come through the shower head, luckily after 20 minutes of trying Blair was able to figure it out (in two seconds I might add).

We got cleaned up and decided to check out the pool at the sister hotel a few blocks away. We navigated the streets perfectly but could not seem to find the other location so we stopped at a local restaurant to ask for directions. Much to our surprise the server politely informed us that we were standing kiddy corner from the hotel.

While at the pool we met some nice people from London who were their enjoying a friends 21st birthday. We laid out for a few hours and decided to head to dinner. We asked the concierge for suggestions and she told us about a few places she enjoyed. She gave us a map with a few highlighted places. It seemed simple enough, after all we are two smart girls with a map and somewhat a good sense of direction. It took us about 20-30 mins to arrive at one of the places marked on the map, however not until then did we realize that we never asked for the name of the restaurant and therefore couldn't eat there. So we began walking back towards our hotel.

We found a cute little Tapas restaurant on our walk back so we decided to stop in for a bite. When our serve came to give us the menu (which was all I'm Spanish) we asked him to help us order. He picked three things on the menu and sent them our way.  Although the food was ok it wasn't exactly what we were looking for. We said goodbye to our waiter and ventured back toward the hotel to find something better. We were in for a treat (literally). We stopped at a  nice looking restaurant for what had to be the most delicious crape. Our night ended early with our heads hitting the pillow fast. 

Day 2

After a nice 12 hour sleep, Jill and I woke up bright and early to find our way to our first booked tour. The goal was to get to the Opera house by 10am. We made it with plenty of time to spare. This was another story for our tour guide...who never showed up. Once we realized the tour guide had ditched us we decided to take things into our own hands. We decided to rent a gocart (similar to an American golf cart) to take us around the city. Hidden in an alley off a main road the gocart company made a copy of our license and informed us that because we did not have a license written in Spanish we could take an hour and have them translate it for us or we could risk being pulled over by the police. We jumped in the cart and with the help of our lovely GPS (Carmen) we navigated throughout the city. We only got out of the cart to explore once but when we got back in we needed to push the cart out of the parking spot since gocart apparently cannot reverse on their own. 

After about an hour and a half we decided that we had enough of Carmen and wanted to go back to the rental store. We made a few wrong turns hoping she would navigate us back but instead it started the tour over based on the closest landmark. At this point we had no other choice but to find our way back ourselves. We did a pretty good job of getting back to the central location however, the main road was blocked so we turned down a "secret" alley that Carmen called out for us. We arrived safely back at the store and we on our way to the next activity. 

We bought passes for a hop on hop off tour that would take us around the city, and used that as our transportation to get to the beach.  Our beach adventures including napping, tanning, hopping into the water and more tanning. We stayed for a few hours then headed back to eat, shower, nap, and get ready for the night.  It may seem to you as if we are napping a lot, but in order to keep up with those in Barcelona we must do everything much later. For example, going out at 11:30pm is much to early according to our hotel and cab driver. They were correct. The first club we tried to enter was having a private party and unfortunately, we were not on the list. So we walked next door to Carpe Diem where we again were asked if we were on the list, I told the bouncer if he wanted he could add us since we again weren't on it but we were allowed in anyway. We drank a pitcher of Sangria and waited for the club to pick up a bit. We met a lovely man who wanted us to ride his motorcycle later and two cute boys similar to our age. The club was having a party to celebrate the motor races that took place that day (originally the bouncer told us the were model races but we quickly learned we were miss informed).

At about 1:00am we decided to head to Opium, one of the better known club in Barcelona. We danced for a while and then went outside fora breather. While outside Blair and I met a boy named Diego from Mexico, he was traveling with his brother Eduardo. Blair and Eddie decided to hit the dance floor while I decided to go talk to the guy sitting across from us. When I was ready to dance some more, Diego and I went to find Blair. It didn't take long for us to find her, she told me that Eddie was a horrible dancer and that it was time to move on. We went over and started dancing with a group of gay men from Sweden for a while and then moved on to the tallest men at the club. Of course they were American. They were basketball players from True college (we don't even know if this is a real college) studying abroad. Once we had enough of them, we found a cab and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Day 3

We had big plans for our last day in Barcelona. We wanted to stop, take a Gaudi tour and  then try and make our way back to the beach. When we awoke we realized that we were not going to be able to do all we had hoped since it was already noon. We quickly got dressed and headed to find a sandwich shop for lunch. 

Walking in and out of a few different places we finally found one we liked. We could barely read the menu but we were able to understand bits and pieces. It wasn't for the first 10-15 mins of us waiting there that we realized we needed to order from the bar so we asked the bartender for help. He of course couldn't speak English and it took us a little while to realize that there was a piece or paper on each table we needed to fill out with our order. We ordered 6 different sandwiches between the two of us and enjoyed everyone. Then we shopped a little and got on the tour bus. We road the bus around the city for a while and got off at the last stop before the final destination figuring we could navigate ourselves back. We only had to stop and ask for directions three times before we made it back to Plaça Cataluyna.  Our navigation skills have been amazing this trip, I might add.  

We ate a quick dinner and headed back to the hotel to pack and freshen up. We wanted to grab one last drink before we left Barcelona so we ventured out one last time. We stopped for a crepe on the way and while enjoying we saw a group of kids our age walk by on what we decided was a bar crawl. We tried to quickly pay, but unfortunately didn't make the bar crawl in time.  We wondered up and down the streets trying to find them, but sadly had no luck. We decided the best idea was to go back to the sandwich shop from lunch (we noticed there were a lot of people there at night). We waited in what seemed liked the longest none moving line ever. We decided the girl behind us was either on some type of drug or a gypsy. First she asked us how to order, yes you're hearing us right.  Then she found food that was leftover from a man siting at a table near us. The girl decided to eat the leftover chips until a waiter took it a way. From there she decided to eat the crumbs off the table.  We soon realized the sandwich place only served beer and moved next door to Happys Bar. We had a glass of sangria then called it a night.  Goodbye Barcelona hello Rome!!