I've got the world on a string...

Hello all!

It has been over a month since I last updated everyone, and I apologize for being so out of touch! If you mix traveling with school, the reading, the papers, the plays, and a visit from my Mom....you'd find the last place you want to be is on your computer!

My spring break in Italy was absolutely amazing! We visited Rome, Florence, and Venice, and I took a day trip to the island of Capri from Rome, as well. I had three travel partners, Katie, Lindsay, and Ellie....and we felt so fortunate to have really enjoyed each other's company and gotten along so well while we traveled! We had all had interesting travel experiences with other people in our program earlier, some of which were not as good as they could have been, so we were really happy that we got along for 10 days and never really got annoyed with each other! If things got complicated, if we had bad luck, or if we were lost, we all just burst out giggling and said...."Oh well!"

Rome was by far my favorite place on our visit. We were there for four days, and packed as many things is as was humanly possible! We actually managed to do all of Vatican City, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill in one day, and before dinner! And let's not neglect the fact that we, of course, had to stop for gelato throughout the day! Rome was beautiful in every possible way. It was the mix of a bustling modern city and an ancient historic monument in and of itself. The Roman ruins littered the streets in every possible way, shape, or form. You could literally walk for blocks and see new buildings everywhere. But, you'd turn a corner and a random Roman pillar would be there to greet you. Our mode of transportation for our time in Rome was definitely on foot. Almost everything is in walking distance, and things that are not are easy to access by the metro. Unfortunately, Rome has a very sparse metro system due to the fact that every time they try to build a new underground line, they run into Roman ruins, and cannot finish the project. Everything was just gorgeous and often times left me in awe!
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/RomeItaly

One quick funny story for you about Rome....we took the metro to Vatican City because it is far outside the city center. When we arrived at our tube stop, we emerged and could not find any signs pointing which way Vatican City was. I noticed a walled area about two blocks down, so we ventured that way, assuming we had found Vatican City! When we stood next to the walled area, we looked a little disappointed at the homely, almost filthy appearance of the area. The walls had barbed wire at the top, and there were guards on duty at the corner of each wall. Someone ventured a guess and said "Hey guys, I think this might be a prison, not Vatican City." And a prison it was! We walked four blocks in the opposite direction and found Vatican City to be the epitome of cleanliness and religiosity!

My day trip to Capri was wonderful and relaxing! Although I had to wake up extra early to catch a bus to Naples, the boat ride to Capri took no time at all, and the blue water and ominous sky were there to meet me! Fortunately, it never rained, and we were able to go on our little excursion to the Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto is a sea cave that is partially submerged. Depending on the tides of any given day, the Blue Grotto can be fully submerged, and tours are not allowed to enter. But on good days, the light shines on the water in a way that illuminates the cave and the crystal blue water. Roman Emperors used to use this cave as a private bath. Once we got into the row boat, our guide asked us to lay down as he rowed us into the tiny opening to the cave, singing "Volare" the entire way! It was beautiful! And well worth the money! Then, we explored a bit of Capri and Anacapri, had lunch, and were on our way back to Rome by dinner time!
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/CapriItaly

Our next adventure was to take a train to Florence for three days. It was quite simple, and our hostel was wonderful and so helpful! I can't say that I enjoyed much of Florence. Seeing as I was absolutely in love with Rome, and Rome is the complete opposite of Florence, it left much to be desired. Our first task was to climb il Duomo....so beautiful, and the perfect 360 degree view of the city! In my opinion, Florence was beautiful from above, but its magic diminished when we found out that there really wasn't much to see besides churches and paintings of Madonna and Child. But, that's Florence. One of the churches that I really did like was the one where all of the most famous Italians are buried, such as Galileo, Raphael, Dante, Machiavelli, etc. My two most favorite things in Florence were the David and Boticelli's The Birth of Venice painting. If anyone had doubted the magnificence of David, like I had, they would be pleasantly surprised! He was literally the most amazing specimen of art and man that I have ever seen! The detail of Michelangelo's work was fantastic....and I found most of my appreciation in the fact that even the veins in his hands were perfectly sculpted and so life-like. One little-known fact I'd like to share is that the pupils of David's eyes are shaped like hearts!

Florence, by far, had the best food that Italy could offer us! There was no expense or weight gained that wasn't well worth it. The best pizza I had was porcini mushroom and truffle cream sauce. The best pasta I had was with pesto sauce, in this little restaurant called Contadino where no one spoke English and their wasn't a menu! And, my mom already knows that she has been defeated as far as pesto-making goes. This pesto was so amazing because it had literally been made 2 minutes prior to serving it to us! We had world-renowned chicken and Florentine steak...the best I've ever tasted as well. I tried well over 20 different kinds of gelato, the best of which were in Florence!

I met up with Ben Phillips, a friend from high school, who is studying in Florence this semester. Lindsay and Ellie also met up with friends from other programs in Florence as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/FlorenceItaly

Our trip got more and more relaxing as it progressed, and we were much appreciative of that! We took a train to Venice, got off at the wrong train station and the train left before we could get back on it. Under instructions from a worker, we hopped onto another train without tickets, in order to get to the correct train station. That train never left the station because there were Union workers protesting in front of the train, on the tracks. We looked for a bus to take us to the other train station, and found none. So, we hired a taxi, and he took us to the other train station! Once there, we had to take a water boat to our stop on the Grand Canal. At our stop, the guy from our hostel picked us up and we walked the two blocks to our hostel! At the end of all that, really, all we could do was laugh. After that, we proceeded to get lost numerous times in the entirety of Venice, seeing as it might be the most complicated and unmarked city without any streets in the entire world. But still very beautiful! Two days in Venice was just enough, and so concluded our 9 day spring break across Italy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/VeniceItaly

Since then I've gone to Stonehenge, the small town of Salisbury, and Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian. Stonehenge was a little underwhelming, but still fascinating!
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We went to Westminster Abbey with class, and it was so much more interesting than it would have been if I hadn't taken History of London. And, I had just written an 8-page paper on Queen Elizabeth I, so it was rewarding to see her tomb!

My mom came on Good Friday, and we went to tea at The Orangery in Kensington Palace and explored a little bit of Kensington. We went to Churchill Arms for dinner at the Thai Restaurant that is attached, but it was closed. I found this odd, seeing as I had called and made a reservation. So, I called them back, they answered, and I found out that there were two Churchill Arms, and both had Thai restaurants attached to them. The one I called and made a reservation for was not in the city of London, but in the far suburbs. So, we opted for the Goat Tavern for dinner.

Saturday morning we took the Eurostar to Brussels, Belgium for Easter weekend. Most things were closed, most notably the EU Headquarters, which I was a little upset about. But, we made the most of it with chocolate, waffles, fries, mussels, the Beer Museum, Grand Place, the Royal Palace, Grant Market, and some lace shopping, and a movie subtitled in French. My mom and I always laughed before everyone else, so it made it extra funny!
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/BrusselsBelgium

We took the train back to London on Tuesday night and went right to The 39 Steps, which I had already seen, but absolutely loved!
On Wednesday, mom ventured off by herself because I had class from 9-5:30, and she did various touristy things I had already done! Wednesday night we did the London Eye and finally made it to Churchill Arms for Thai. Amazing!
Thursday morning, on our way to the tube stop to go to Parliament, we saw French President Nicholas Sarkozy and his wife with police escorts. Once at Parliament, we sat in on a session of the House of Commons. After that, we went to the Cabinet War Rooms Museum that Winston Churchill used during WWII. All of the war rooms, bunkers, and facilities of the shelter were still in tact, and left preserved in the positions they had at the end of the war. (A quick side note...Winston Churchill lived and died in his Kensington flat, located less than a block away from our flat. So cool!) After that, we took a little trip past Buckingham Palace! I went to class for the afternoon, and Mom went to Kensington Palace. Thursday night I brought my mom to the Old Vic Theatre to see Speed The Plow with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldbloom. She almost fainted when she met Kevin Spacey, shook his hand, got his autograph, and got a picture with him!
Yesterday we went to Harrods, saw the Changing of the Guard and Buckingham Palace, then in the afternoon we went to Wimblemdon. Last night we saw The Jersey Boys and went on to the Sports Cafe to watch the first half of the Badgers game.
This morning I dropped her off at the airport, and she's on her way home!
http://picasaweb.google.com/arolain21/LondonEnglandTheIV

It has been a busy month, as you can tell! I will be home in 5 short weeks, and it has now become imperative to seize every opportunity to explore the parts of London left yet undiscovered.

Hope all is well and that spring is on its way!

Annette