thats amore!

I just spent $2.99 on my itunes account and ordered Grey's Anatomy. I cried like a little baby. But, it was worth it.

As you can tell I arrived to and from Italy. The Italian language is so much like Spanish, its crazy, but kind of nice because I was able to understand here and there. I also think it is quite weird that the fall back language is English. We were on the train yesterday, heading home and there was a woman from SouthKorea, and a man from Holland, and they spoke to each other in English. Silly how that works....

So we left around 9:45 Thursday night. We reserved beds on the night train. It was nice because we got our own car/bunk with 3 beds. I got the top bunk, which was approximately 10 feet off the ground. We attempted to sleep, I had a little bit of difficulty because of swaying and noise and sweating. We arrived in Milan around 8 am. After a provided breakfast, we decided to explore Milan a little.  I read in a magazine that Milan is one of George Clooney's favorite cities, so I thought it would be worth checking it out, especially since we were going to be there anyways. 

We didn't really know where to go or what to do, so we just started walking after finding a city map outside the train station. Eventually, we ended up stopping in the Westin and grabbing a map. The streets in Italy are so confusing! So eventually, after turning around a few times and 40 minutes later, we made it to the Galleria Vitt em Il and the Duomo. This is the center o the city, I am guessing. We went inside the Galleria and the Duomo. In the Duomo, we had to be serched on the way in, eep in mind we had our backpacks with us, so ugh. Then we decided we would walk up the stairs to the top and check that out. It cost 5 euro, so we still did it. I was scared, but even the details in the architecture were precise from top to bottom. It was really spectacular. After descending, we headed to the Bar Duomo to sit and have some croissants and hot choclate, well hot chocolate and croissant for me at least. After that we headed to Castello Sforzesco, one of the most boring castles i have ever seen in my life. So boring, atleast ont he outside. We walked around it where there was a park, Parco Sempione. It was basically like a tiny Central Park in Milan. We ran across a bridge. it was a small bridge, over a creek. But what was special about this bridge was that it had about 87 locks on it. Apparently, you and your love come to the bridge, put the lock on it and throw the key in the creek. How romantic. 

After a photo shoot, we headed back to the train station to catch a train for Venice. We ended up making it right when we got there, although we had to pay a reservation fee on the train. 2 and a half hours later, we arrived in Venice. The hostel we stayed at was "A Venice Fish." Small, crappy, but the people were very nice and it was at a very convienent location. We dropped our things and set off on an adventure. Trent bought a map, but it was really no help at all. See, the streets in Venice are really the waterways. The main way of transportation used to be by boats, so all of the waterways became the way to travel. When walking around there are so many bridges and alleys that take you everywhere, it really becomes impossible to use any map at all, although there are signs pointing you to 3 specific points of interest throughout the city; alla ferrovia, realito, and san marco. Our first night there, we didn't really know what to expect so we just went wandering, ultimately ending up near the University, giving up and finding somewhere to eat. I order a liter of amazing house vino and gnocchi with pesto sauce. Perfecto. ( I of course shared my wine...) After that we ended up just walking back to the hostel, on the way stopping for gelato. I order Nutella gelato.... the most amazing ice cream I have ever had. I dont know what it is with me and Nutella. Back at the hostel, we sat around and chatted with everyone in our room (we stayed in an 8 person dorm). Just relaxed for the evening, and I passed out at 1030 or so. 

I ended up waking up at 630, took a shower, laid in bed and waited for the others to wake up. we walked around int he morning, exploring Realto, a market that sells masks, souvenirs, fruit, vegetable and fish. We walked around a bit, took some pictures and headed back to the hostel for breakfast, which was toast... One of the kids we met at the hostel was considering doing a gondola ride, but only if 6 of us would do. So we decided to. Hell, why not. It only ended up being about 17 euro a person. Not too bad. The guy had been doing it work 45 years, and would not sing for us.  But he did show us some of the oldest buildings in Venice, one was from the 11th century. Sometimes I thought he was exaggerating. It was pretty neat though, we were able to get a view of the city from its original point of view. it was beautiful. After our ride we headed to San Marco. There weren't too many pigeons around. Well, they weren't in those big herds everyone talks about. We walked around a little while, I bought art... as usual. When we walked through the San Marco plaza, there was a dog chasing the pigeons, it was really funny. He would just run in circles. We were all laughing, even Megan, and her fear of swooping birds... On the way back we lost our way and ended up walking through the smallest streets I have ever seen, it was nice to just explore and go off the beaten path and walk down a street where the only noise you heard was from you, but every building was perfectly, strategically placed. it was like a maze. I spent entirely way too much money on souveniers and memorabilia, but i just had to. I tried looking for earrings that were the color of the water, I came close and I ended up buying a pair, but not the perfect shade I was looking for. The water there was perfect, refreshing, and bautiful. It WAS this COLOR. how perfect is that?! 

We left yesterday morning and didnt home until 11 pm last night. It was a long journey, the night train was a lot better. But work is work and kids cant potty train and sing the wheels on the bus by themselves.... PLus hearing "Hi Miss Kadie" from 7 little 2 year olds in the morning makes me smile and fall in love. :)

Anyways, I was sad to leave. I LOVED it there. How can I love everywhere I go? I dont want to leave Europe. 7 more weeks! CAn you believe that!??!!!

küsse