Florence!!- 28-31 (SB6)

I will never forget the days in Florence with Cris, Marcello, Fabio, Fernando, Adriana, Fernando, Cris's brother, Yuri (Mr.U) and all of the other friends that came and went through the apartment. It was the most amazing time of my life! We had some drinks and laughed a lot, listened to good music, took lots of photos, made new friends, walked a lot, chilled on the bridge, met creepy Italians, listened to an array of languages in the house and had loads of fun doing all of this!! We saw the Duomo and Plazza del Michaelangelo, which were both amazing! Seeing the sun set over Florence from atop the Plazza will forever be engrained in my memory. I have a feeling Cris and I will stay in touch, too. I hope to go back and visit him someday and I know that he wants to come to Wales, so we will meet again! Overall, the best 2 1/2 days of my life!!! I cannot even really write down all that I want to, to explain how great my time in Florence was. It is one of those experiences that really is just better kept inside and treasured. I learned so much about different cultures. I mean, I don't know much Spanish and definitely don't know Portugese. The guys and their friends are Brazillian, so Portugese is their first language. Cris spoke very good English, but I liked sitting back listening to them all talk to each other. I think that was the first time in my life when I realized how hard it must be for people in America that don't speak english as their first language. You really feel lost and kind of left out. You have no idea what is being said or if someone is talking about you. It is very confusing and frustrating! I loved it though!

We had to leave early in the morning on the 31st and it was sad to say goodbye to Marcello and Cris. We had really just began to bond with everyone and I did not want to leave, but Venice was calling us! We got Cris a mini soccer ball and we all signed it, along with the recipe cards that Mel and I made up. they had traditional American recipes on them. When Cris saw his gift, he almost started crying and I was so excited that he liked it. Someone else had wanted to get him wine, but I knew from talking to him that a soccer ball would be much better! Again, I will never forget those days, the people or the lessons learned!

Rome- March 26-28 (SB5)

Couchsurfing is not for everyone, pointe blank!!!!!!!!!! People who want dates or hookups or those who flirt constantly don't couchsurf! It is not a good idea for you or your host/hostees. That said, we had a horrible experience with Nik in Rome. He seemed nice, but turned out creepy. His friends seemed nice, too, but now who knows!? Other than our host problems, we did really have a good time in Rome. We saw the Pantheon, Colloseum, Roman Forum, Campo del Fiori, the Spanish Steps and the Vatican! Everything was amazing! I had seen some of these places before, but was glad to go back and excited for the new palces. I got my hair cut near Vatican City and we ate lots of Gelato!! Even though we all had fun in Rome during out day excursions, we were all ready to get the heck out of Rome due to Nik. It was just not a good situation. We were all looking very forward to Florence! We caught an early evening train to Florence and were very excited to meet Cris and his roommates.

London- March 22-25 (SB4)

I though London would be larger than it was, but it was still fun. I saw Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery and The Portrait Gallery. We were in London with Janny's dad, which was cool, aside from the 14 immature high school girls. I can understand it though, as I was also once 17. There were also a few parents along on the trip, plus 3 tour guides. It was a fun time, getting lost in a larger group. Some of the stuff the girls did was eye opening to how I might've acted as an ignorant high school kid when I was overseas before. They would laugh at things that were clearly just different than American culture, not weird. The time with the group and J got old fairly quickly. I got sick of listening to J be fake to the parents of the kids. She acted so different, like she had to act older because her dad is the coach or something. I cannot stand it when people do that. The parents were very cool. I talked to them and I know that had J just been herself they would have liked her just the same. Oh well, you can't change how people are I guess. You can only make sure you act like you want others to see you..and for me that is just me being me.

During the trip I took pictures of the girls playing soccer, which was fun for me. That may have been my favorite part. We did geet a chance to go out one night in London. We went with Graeme and Nick, two of the tour guides. They took us to the Cheers! bar in Picadilly. It was fun minus the drama. J lost her phone in the taxi on the way there and then she was freaking out about it even though there was nothing she could do. The night was fun aside from that and all the creepy guys at the bar. That happens everywhere, so it wasn't a big deal. The next day we headed up North to Manchester, where the girls did some training. One of their games got cancelled due to field conditions, so we all went to Warwick Castle instead. That was pretty fun. It was definitely more of a kid-oriented place, but still fun. I took some photos and got to have some alone time just walking around the grounds. That was just what I needed! That night, the girls did have a game. We went to the game, but had to leave from the fields to catch our bus. We had called a taxi, but as we were heading up to the parking lot the owner of the travel company offered us a ride to the bus station. Even though we felt bad for leaving the taxi waiting, we could not turn down a free ride. We both knew it would save us money and with most of the trip still ahead every little bit would help! We got to the bus station to catch out 6 1/2 hour bus to Stansted. It was a decent trip and we got our plane just fine after meeting up with Melaney and Kelly in the airport. We were all so ready to leave the UK and embrace Italy for the next week!!

Germany- 19-22 (SB3)

Janny and I caught our flight from Stansted to Munich early in the morning on the 19th. We spent some time in the airport talking to a guy from the States. He had been in the airport since 6 pm the night before and was still waiting for his friends to get there, so they could catch a flight together to Italy. We decided to call him Ryan. Being the silly, forgetful people that we are we never asked him his name. Oh well. I think I like making up names better anyways! We got into Munich and caught a bus to the main train station. It is really close to a lot of the major tourist attractions and the shops. We walked around the area for a while. I had seen all of it before, but it was still nice. I got to be a tour guide for Janny, which was interesting and funny! It started snowing, so of course, we took pictures of us in the snow in Germany. We also bought scarves, mine blue and Janny's pink. Getting those scarves was quite an adventure. We had our packs on and decided it would be a good idea to venture into the tiniest shop in the world. I am pretty sure that I hit every single person in there with my bag. That is when we decided to start calling our bags the "overly large baby attached to our backs!!" It started to get cold with the snow, so we decided to go back to the train station and get to Kyle's house.

Kyle picked us up at the train station in Parsberg. I was really excited to see him again! J and I were both so tired and ready for a shower...but first dinner. Kyle took us out to eat at the same place where he took Mel and I before. After dinner, we drove home then played with Jolie. We took showers and basically passed out upstairs.

Overall Germany was really fun. I got to spend time with Kyle, which is always a plus anytime! I even got to spend some alone time with him, playing FIFA and MLS on Playstation. It was a lot of fun even though he kicked my butt everytime!lol... Sonja came down again for the weekend as did her parents. Aside from Sonja's smoking, I love spending time with her, Kyle and her parents. They are always so much fun. It is so interesting to spend time with people that are not American, because it really is a challenge to listen and talk to people that don't speak English well or at all. After a fun-filled three days, it was time to go to the airport. Kyle and Sonja dropped us off at the airport. They were heading to Tiffany's to get an engagement ring. I was so excited for him!! He texted me right when I got into London to tell me that they were officially engaged!! I am really excited for their wedding in June and for the little ones to come, hopefully soon!!!

Germany is always a fun experience and I always learn something new while I am there. This time I learned what the story is behind the mushroom coffee shop in Regensburg. I decided to ask this time and the man was very eager to tell the story. He said during the 50s/60s the government commissioned the building of five or six of these mushrooms. The reason behind it..I am not sure. The man wasn't sure how to explain it in English. However, the one in Regensburg is only one of a few left in Europe. Now, it is a historic site, preserved by the government. I really though this was interesting!

Dublin- a day in the city (SB2)

We had breakfast waiting for us at 9 in the morning. This is where we met our other housemates. There were two other guys staying at the B&B. They definitely had a rough night by their gestures. They looked extremely tired and hungover.lol.... After breakfast, we headed out to catch the bus. We spent the day walking around Dublin's main city centre and Grafton Street. We visited the Dublin Castle, which was cool... only 4 Euros for a person-guided tour! We walked out to the Guiness factory, but the line was outrageous. Other than that, we didn't really see too much in Dublin. We headed to the airport and caught our flight back to Bristol. Once we got into Bristol, Janny and I had to leave Tricia at the airport. We had to catch a bus to London for our flight to Germany. We left, but not without first having an amazing conversation about the homeless issues in our society. It was probably one of the best serious conversations I've ever had. I think we all got closer with that conversation. It may seem silly, but I really do believe that helped us bond. We gave Tricia hugs and kisses and headed outside for our bus!

Dublin- St. Paddy's Day (SB1)

After staying up all Sunday night, we caught our bus at 12:30(midnight).. Tricia, Janny and I only had to wait for about 30 minutes in Swansea. We had a layover in Bristol and then on to the airport. Even though we got to the airport at 4:30 for an 8:00 flight it was good. There was a massive security line, so we got lucky being there early. After what seemed like two days we finally boarded out plane, along with a group of very excited Italian boys. They were absolutely insane! At one point, one of them stood up and yelled "Peanuts!" for no apparent reason. Keep in mind, they had already popped open the Heinekens in preparation for St. Paddy's Day. It was a good flight overall, though. Once we got to Dublin, we caught a bus into the downtown area. It was relatively easy to figure out. Getting to our bed and breakfast was a different story. Before we started looking for our B&B, we decided to catch breakfast at a local spot. It was delicious and a great way to recharge our batteries after a night full of traveling. We stepped out onto the sidewalk only to be greeted by mass crowds of people heading to the parade. They were all decked out in green clothing, beads, crazy hats, face paint and everything else typically St. Paddy's Day attire. There were a lot of children, which surprised me a bit. I didn't picture St. Paddy's Day as a family event in Dublin. As all of these people marched off to the parade, we decided to head to out B&B to get some rest for the night ahead. I wasn't feel the best, but was definitely disappointed about missing the parade! All we had was the name of the B&B, plus a street name. HostelWorld had overbooked, so we got put somewhere else and they failed to give us a phone number or street number. Two buses, a lot of walking, and one drunk guy later we found our B&B. It was quite the adventure. We took naps and then headed back to town. We wandered around the downtown area for a little while, then decided to head into a pub for a pint. I opted out of the first round as I was still not feeling the best with a sore throat. At this place we met a guy from Holland. He was nice and quite entertaining. Tricia just started talking to him randomly. That is one of my favorite things about her. She will start a conversation with anyone! I am working on being more like that, more open, more out there. It's not easy, but I know I can do it. We moved onto another place after they finished their drinks. We wound up meeting up with a couple of Tricia's friends that were also in Dublin for the day. We all had a drink together, then headed to get some food at a nice Italian place. After dinner, we headed back out to another pub. On the way to the pub, we all got basically enveloped in a group of Italian guys. They started singing and dancing, so we joined in. It was probably the funniest thing of the whole night. It was so random! Once we left our new friends ;) we headed down the street and found a place that was playing good music. Good music is a must when out on the town for me. If I can sing along or hear something new that I like, it's a good night. I actually got up the courage to talk to a guy from Florence, Italy. He was studying in Ireland and it was interesting to get his take on Ireland. Having a conversation was a bit difficult, as he wasn't the most fluent in English and I clearly speak no Italian. It was cool, though! That pub was a lot of fun and we sang and took loads of photos! We were all getting pretty tired at this point. We decided to help Tricia's friends find their hotel downtown, then get them on a bus to the airport. They had an early flight the next day, while ours wasn't until late in the day. We called it an early night, at 9:30. I still cannot even believe we went to bed before midnight on St. Paddy's Day in Ireland. It was still a blast with many good memories and an overall great experience!

4 weeks..6 countries--Europe here I come!!

So, tomorrow starts the beginning of my month long adventure, backpacking across Europe. I got a nice hiking bag yesterday and tomorrow I will pack it full of the neccessities for a month of traveling. We are staying with random people through Couch Surfing and I am really excited. I am taking a journal and will write, then when I get back I will type most of it up into here. Wish me luck!!!