hello everyone!!
so i'm back from italy!! it was an amazing trip! there's waaay too much to be summed up in a post, but here's the basics:
it all started with an 11 hour bus ride from Budapest to Venice. It really wasn't as bad as it sounds because it was overnight and so we could do our best to sleep the whole way there...didn't really happen, but we got some sleep! and got to watch "Daddy Day Care" in Hungarian. :-)
Venice was gorgeous! we stayed there only one overnight, but that gave us plenty of time to wander around and admire the view of the canal and visit the little shops and restaurants. (Italy has awesome lasagna!! :-)
we took a train from Venice, which was an adventure in and of itself: the guy traveling with us realized that he had left his passport at the hostel, which was about a 30 minute bus ride away…so he went off to get it while the rest of us (myself and 3 other girls) tried to figure out how we could make it so he didn’t lose his train ticket when our train left in an hour or so. After running around to various ticket windows and customer help offices, we finally switched his ticket to a later time and found someone at a random travel agency who would hold it for him. We finally got our phones to work in time to call him and let him know where to pick up his ticket before leaving on our train. So that was exciting :-)
we all made it to Florence and eventually found our hotel we were staying at. (we knew the road and number, but for some reason the numbers went up to a hundred then back to the thirties…it was confusing…) Florence was a lot of fun too!! We walked around to a lot of things because we were staying probably 15 minutes walk away from most of the big attractions! We saw the statue of David, which was amazing! And went to a couple gorgeous churches, and we saw this riot/protest thing that had something to do with Italy’s university system. We walked along the river and saw a bridge across it that was the same as the road: complete with houses/buildings on either side. It was a pretty neat place!!! We stayed there for three nights and then headed off to Rome!
Rome was definitely the coolest place on our trip. We stayed there for five nights, so we had plenty of time to see everything!! And we stayed in this very interesting hostel—called the freestyle hostel that we picked because it was cheap and had free breakfast and dinner. It was what you would think of when you picture a youth hostel: we stayed in a dorm for 11 people, so it had five bunk beds and one normal bed squeezed along the walls of the room. Then there was a common room which also served as the dining room for breakfast and dinner (no, there wasn’t a table…just seats lining the walls) it was also where you checked in and out and where the computer was for guests to use. Other than that, there were two bathrooms and a tiny kitchen. It was interesting. But a lot of fun!! There were a lot of cool people to meet, from all over. (mostly from Europe and the US, but there were some Australians and a couple people from Japan) it was a fun place to stay :-)
Since we did so much in Rome, I’ll break it up by day:
Wednesday: arrive at dinnertime, head over to the Spanish steps after dinner with people from the hostel
Thursday: head to coliseum, see that and the roman forum/palatine hill. After dinner: some people went to a pub crawl, I went with the group who wanted to see what the coliseum looks like at night…looks pretty cool! We hung out and talked…and one kid brought his guitar. Good night!! :-)
Friday: went to Vatican city. Saw St. Peter’s basilica (gorgeous!!) and the Vatican museums (including the Sistine chapel!!) that was an amazing day!!!
Saturday: went to all the random things that wouldn’t take a full day to see: saw the pantheon, the Trevi fountain, a few gorgeous basilicas, and some castles and fountains.
Sunday: went back to St. Peter’s to see the Pope! Sat in the courtyard during the mass and saw it on a screen and then saw him when he gave a speech/blessing from his window. That was really cool!
Monday: went back to the Spanish steps, but this time to do some studying…we had a midterm on Tuesday morning!! So we studied there until lunch and then headed to the airport where we studied until 8 or so when we could finally check in for our flight.
So that was our trip!! We got back to Budapest around midnight, and I got back to my apartment around one in the morning. It was an awesome trip!!! Pictures will be posted shortly!!!