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2004-07-29 - 10:17 p.m. Wow. It's been a long time. I just kept putting off posting because there is just too much to say about Europe, and my other trip to Las Vegas, but I guess I just have to write the brief version or I will never write again on here. Part of me actually wants to stop using the internet altogether...maybe even get rid of the internet at home. It is such a time waster for me, especially when I have unlimited free time like I do right now. I just spend way too much time online. So Europe was pretty amazing. How could it not be? These are the places I visited: 1.) Naples, Italy 2.) Pompeii, Italy (daytrip) 3.) Rome, Italy 4.) Florence, Italy 5.) Pisa, Italy (daytrip) 6.) Nice, France 7.) Antibes, France (daytrip) 8.) Monaco, (sort-of-France, daytrip) 9.) Paris, France 10.) London, England So that was quite a whirlwind trip for three and a half weeks, right? No one mentioned how exhausting a European vacation would be, but we managed to survive. I am glad that we went so many places because I got to see so many amazing things, and this might be my only trip to Europe (hopefully not). But it was really tiring. My favorite place was probably Paris, although I pretty much enjoyed every place that I went. We pretty much began our trip in Naples and worked our way up. So we started in the least nicest place, and it seemed to get better and better as we traveled on. The places that I would definitely want to return to are London, Paris, and Florence. These were some of the things that I saw while I was there: London: The Tower of London (my favorite thing on the entire trip), Museum of London, British Museum, St. Paul's Cathedral (my favorite of the cathedrals we saw in Europe), Harrod's, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Wartime Museum. Naples: A big castle, a lot of garbage everywhere, crazy drivers, and the city of Pompeii (which was really amazing.) Rome: The Colosseum (one of the most amazing things I have ever seen in person), Forum, Palatine Hill, Fountain of Trevi, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, St. Peter's Cathedral, the Vatican Museum (including the Sistine Chapel). Florence: The Duormo, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa when we took a daytrip there. Nice: A bunch of rocky beaches, but we took day trips to Antibes for sandy beaches. We also went to Monaco where I learned a lot about a country that I knew nothing about. We visited the palace which was really fun. Paris: The Catacombs, Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower (so huge in person), the Louvre (the Mona Lisa is so small in person), and Paris Disneyland (so much fun!). I had a really great time hanging out with Elizabeth, and we only got in one fight the entire trip. Sometimes we got on each other's nerves because we spent EVERY SINGLE SECOND of three and a half weeks together, but we really bonded and became closer friends. I am so glad I got to experience that amazing trip with her. Some general observation about Europe: All of the portions are smaller! Every McDonald's we went to was crowded (and we pathetically went to one in each country). It's impossible to get a big huge pop. At the foodcourt at the mall attached to the Louvre, they have no ice cubes for their fountain drinks! There appear to be no overweight Europeans. In Italy and France they have a totally different concept of body space than we do here. French people are actually really polite and overall were much nicer to us than Italians were. British people are adorable. Italian food is not as good as I expected, and I was especially disappointed by the pizza. I have a million more, but I can't think of them right now. We stayed at hostels the whole time, and there were some really annoying people there with us in some places. Usually the best roommates were European, and the most annoying ones were American or Canadian, but part of that was because they were really young, not necessarily because of their country of origin. The worst hostel was in Rome where we had eight other roommates in our room, none of whom ever wanted to go to sleep and talked loudly while we were trying to sleep. We did meet some cool Americans in Nice, where we had six other roommates, but that hostel had the worst shower ever. The best hostels were in Florence and London, where we had very few roommates. Overall, it was an amazing trip. I only was back for a week when I was off to Las Vegas for a school conference for five days. I had such a fun time on this trip, too! I ended up really bonding with my coworkers, especially one of the members of my team at school and the girl who I was roommates with. We had so much fun hanging out, and I even gambled at a table (Paigow Poker) and won twenty dollars. I have always been too scared to try tables before, not even blackjack. We were really crazy and stayed out until at least 3 AM every night, but two nights we stayed up until 7 AM. We did make it to (most) of our conference sessions, though. The actual sessions were not that valuable, but hanging out with my coworkers in Vegas was definitely worth it. I feel like I have made some new friends to hang out with outside of school now, too. I have already hung out with three people since I got back, so that makes me really happy. I really would love to go back to Las Vegas. Last time that I went it was really tiring and overwhelming, but this time it was just the best time ever. I also stuck to drinking only beer, which seems to be a good strategy for me to not turn into crazy-drunken-puke-girl. The administrators were also all there and we hung out with them a few nights, too. It is so much fun seeing the bosses drinking, too. They were very cool. There is a lot more going on with me, but I don't really feel like talking about it right now. I will just say that things are probably going to change a lot in my life in the near future, and I am scared about how it will be. So maybe I will write again soon, but I can't guarantee it.
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