European Vacation

Damn! A stroke of bad luck today: It is raining in Nice. We have a full free day today so I was planning on wandering the streets and walking the promenade by the water but now I’m stuck in my room. Boooo. I got out for a little bit this morning before the rain came but it was already overcast so I wasn’t able to get the best pics in the world. I put the camera on a setting called Vivid which jacks up all the color levels so it doesn’t look as gray as it was. Oh and their water is amazing . I’m guessing it’s because there’s no sand to dirty it up. Or because someone told me so. Ooooooh preeeeeeety. On the way home from the beach I stopped at a place to pick up new sandals. Then I had to walk the rest of the way with this: It’s cool though because I’m in Europe – guys wear purses here. After catching up on some writing in the hotel, I decided it was about time I went for a run. I mapped out a nice route along the water, suited up, threw on my headband and went out into the pouring ...

Ok today involves us driving from Florence to Nice, as the title of the post suggests. I’m going to skip to the part where we stop in Pisa to see the leaning tower and take some obligatory photos of us pretending to hold it up. I don’t think anything interesting happened before that anyways. Pisa was only a 45 minutes stop because all they have is the leaning tower and all the leaning tower has is people pretending to hold it up. Here is how it went: “Come stand by me, children. We will take a beautiful picture together.” said the tower. “Thanks tower we will do that. But I see how you are looking at the girls and I don’t appreciate it. Now I shall knock you down with my super punch!” said Patrick. “Nooooo! I’ll save you tower! I’ve always loved you!” said Lisa. “You guys are retarded. Please get off my property.” said the tower. And the tower was right. The End. Before we left I ate what will probably be my last good panini of the trip. I also had one of my last good espressos of t...

Florence here we come! If I remember correctly, Florence is about four hours from Rome. But if you haven’t noticed, I don’t remember correctly. We stopped at an overlook when we got close to Florence in order to take our official Contiki group photo. They chose a nice backdrop (the city of Florence) and it was taken by a professional which means it will be high quality, everyone will be in it, and they can charge us for it. I took a few pictures at the stop because the view was nice. Poor statue never stood a chance. When we got into Florence we were taken to a leather shop where they told us about the leather-making process and the best way to determine if something is real leather or fake leather. Florence is basically known for their leather. Ask me the leather trick some day and I’ll tell you. We were then directed into their jewelry shop to learn about how to spend money on jewelry. Woman: “Ladies, we have jewelry!” Ladies: “OH MY GOD JEWELRY!” Or something like that. ...

ROMA! Ok today is going to be nuts. We are starting off with a guided tour of the Vatican which will take about two hours and then we have a free day with which I’m going to see as much of Rome as I can. SPOILER ALERT: I get home at 10:30pm tonight with blisters on my feet. IDIOT ALERT: I was wearing knock-off crocs that I bought at a service station. Let’s start at the Vatican because that’s where we started. This is the entrance. Seems fitting. The line to get in the door goes around the building and out of sight. Being in a group and paying for a guided tour gets us past everyone – it’s worth it. We are told that the Vatican museum is the largest museum in the world – It spans 7 kilometers and 1300 rooms. We soon learn that they weren’t lying. Walking around Vatican city was one of the most overwhelming things I’ve ever done. Not from the heat or the size but from the magnitude and significance of the information. It was mind-numbing. I took some pictures although they don’t do t...

And onward! I’m not sure why but Venice was my favorite city so far. It was just so unique with it’s seemingly random layout of streets and canals. I think the lack of motor vehicles contributed also. Well we only got to spend an afternoon/evening there and now we are leaving for Rome at 8am. Apparently it’s like a six hour drive but the coach is only allowed to drive for three hours at a clip which works for us because we all have bladders and stomachs. There isn’t much noteworthy on the drive except the lack of toilet seats at service stations. I guess everyone in this part of the country is good at squatting or they figured out how to levitate. Some stations didn’t have toilets at all – just holes in the floor. My only guess is that they spent their toilet money on accordions which was a shitty move. Get it?  Moving on… We arrived in Rome around 4pm and checked into our hotel before going into the city which we haven’t done in awhile. It will be nice to get home later and alrea...