Venezia Carnevale.

 That's right, the Venice Carnival! And what an epic Saturday it was. Mary Kate, Steph and I took a day trip to Venice for the Carnival this last Saturday, the 18th of February. The best way to describe Carnival is a classier, more formal version of Mardi Gras. Carnevale is held three weekends out of the year from late January to mid February, and basically everyone just walks (drunkenly) around the streets at night with masks on. The masks are handmade in Italy, so of course we had to get some of those. More on that later though. To the left is Venice! We left Florence around 9:00 AM and got to Venice by 12:30. This is the port we stood at waiting for our water taxi to take us to Murano where we ate and watched a glass blowing demonstration. 

To the left is the glass blowing demonstration! It was incredible, he made a glass vase and a horse right in front of us. He took the hot glass out, which was attached to that metal rod, and played with the blob until it formed actual works of art. Below is a picture of the glass art he created - a horse and a vase of some sort. Glass blowing is apparently pretty big in Venice, so it was a pretty cool thing to see. I of course, being the klutz that I am, walked into the shop next door with anything and everything you could imagine being made out of glass (clocks, vases, jewelry, decorations, plates, etc) and broke the first thing I touched. Thankfully it was just a 6 euro necklace. The lady behind the counter was incredibly nice, I apologized profusely and told her I'd pay for it and she let me pick out another one! Needless to say, I didn't touch anything remotely breakable the rest of the day.

After the glass blowing demonstration we started walking the streets of Venice! As you can see, it's amazing.

Breathtaking, even.

 The main form of transportation within the city is boating, as seen above. Their cars are boats, so that was pretty cool to see. I seriously cannot get over the buildings in Europe -- I love how they are all old, connected, with different color walls and windows. They're all touching yet are all so different from each other; there's nothing like this back home, especially not in Texas. Below is a picture of part of our travel group for the day. A group of about twelve of us happened to get off of our charter bus around the same time, so it worked out quite nicely. This is the group with a Carnevale themed lady; there were lots of people dressed up like this throughout the city so of course we had to stop and take a quick picture. Shortly after this picture was taken, we all stopped and ate. Steph and I split a pizza, which was amazing. A massive pizza with artichokes (apparently it's artichoke season here in Italy), mushrooms and ham. Then the group (13 of us) got two liters of red wine with our meal. Let's just say it was a good start to our evening. 

After we ate we stumbled into (what seemed to be) the coolest mask shop we could find. The masks in most of Venice are all HAND MADE -- the owner of the store was actually making a mask as we walked in. Each mask was so intricate in their design, style and coloring, it was unreal. There were mask shops like this dispersed all throughout Venice, so we definitely had our fair share to choose from. Below to the left is a picture of me with my mask! I love it, it's absolutely beautiful. And authentic. As we came off our charter bus there were multiple stands of cheap Chinese made masks that you could get for 2 euro, but myself and my company all chose to splurge a bit and pay 10 euro to go for the real thing.


 I can't wait to hang this up in my room back home and put it on display for the world to see. I love it! This picture was taken on the water taxi ride from Murano to San Marco, the part of Venice where Carnevale is located. All 13 of us played some drinking game (we had each bought a bottle of wine, per person) so needless to say, we were the touristy, obnoxious American's of the water taxi ride. I could care less, because it was a blast.

Here we are, finally in San Marco for the Carnival! To the right is myself and Kelley, our Bus2Alps guide for the day. Bus2Alps is the company we booked our bus ride through and basically, their job for the day entailed taking us from Florence to Venice and then back. Kelley, however, knew who the cool kids were on the bus and decided to tag along with our crew for the day! Thank goodness for Kelley is all I have to say -- from everyone else I've talked to it's really easy to get lost in Venice, but not for us! Kelley has been to Venice multiple times, so not only was he AMAZING company during the day, he made sure we had a great time, saw all that we needed to see and, last but not least, survived. He also bought us all a few shots, definitely a bonus. Below is a (blurry) picture of the Venice Canal! It was packed in the city but Kelley was determined to get us there.

HAPPY CARNEVALE!!! There was loads of confetti every which way, so this shot was inevitable. We ended up leaving Venice around 10:30 PM, giving us just about a full 12 hours in this wonderful city. We got back to Florence pretty darn late, but so worth it.


So ya, that was our day trip to Venice in a nutshell! I've improved my formatting a bit -- it takes longer but looks much prettier. Next up, PRAGUE for my BIRTHDAY! I am excited beyond belief. Myself, Mary Kate and Steph all leave tomorrow evening around 7:00 PM on a 12 hour bus ride, putting us in Prague around 8:00 AM the next morning. So that should be fun. I cannot wait to see Jessica, one of my closest friends from back at school and my roommate for next year! We are going to have an epic weekend. A few of the things I'm looking forward to about Prague: seeing Jessica, my birthday, the food, the people, the sights, and the fact that BEER IS CHEAPER THAN WATER. That's right. Clearly I'm excited.


Partying like it's my birthday,


Julie

Switzerland: Interlaken, Grindelwald and Bern.

So, I finally decided on an official theme for my blogs! I'll post here once a week recapping my last weekend's endeavors, which should be pretty much every weekend from the looks of it. I guess I'll start by telling you all about the lovely and frigid Switzerland! It was absolutely beautiful, for starters. I've never seen so much snow in my entire life. My travel buddies Mary Kate, Steph, Sarah and I were in Switzerland from Thursday, February 9th to Sunday the 12th and visited three cities during our stay: Interlaken, Grindelwald and Bern, the capital. 

The ride getting to Switzerland, however, wasn't exactly a smooth ride. We took a charter bus from Florence to Interlaken, about an eight hour drive. However, we got there in about nine due to extreme weather conditions: it was snowing, below freezing, dark outside (we left Florence at 6:45 PM) and to top it all off, the ground was icy. Just picture a massive charter bus with over 35 people in it, going down a mountain covered in ice. At night. With snow flurries whizzing by. Definitely a trip I won't forget for awhile. 

Anywhooo, come 3:30 AM we finally made it to Interlaken! Here's a view of our hostel for the weekend. This picture was taken around 4:00 AM, fun times.

And this is the view from our room window! We woke up to this the next morning -- it was absolutely breathtaking. So. Much. Snow.

None of us got much sleep the first night. We rolled into Interlaken around 4:00 AM and were up by 7:45 AM to sign up for any activities we wanted to do that weekend. It was a very impulsive, last minute decision, but myself, Mary Kate and Steph decided to go canyon jumping! Just a little bit of background for those of you who don't know what it is (I didn't, so don't feel bad), we basically jumped into a canyon 300 feet below us, a four second free fall. Canyon jumping is only offered in two places in the world: Interlaken and New Zealand, due to canyon dimension restrictions. So of course, we had to take advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunity.  We had to take a bus from Interlaken to Grindelwald to get to the canyon, so here's a few shots of the town of Grindelwald.

Myself, Mary Kate and Steph getting pumped for the jump!

Pictures do not do any of this justice. It literally looked like this from every angle; massive mountains covered with massive trees, all of which were covered with snow.

This is a shot of the canyon we jumped into. You can see at the lower right hand of the mountain the walkway that encompasses the bottom of the canyon - that's where we walked once we finished the free fall.

Making our way up the mountain!

Here we are, all harnessed up and ready to jump! Steph, myself, Mary Kate, and our fellow canyon jumper friend Molly. As you can see, we're all pretty bundled up as it was below freezing. I had seven layers on top and two layers on my legs, and I've never been so cold in my life. I'm also from Texas, so most people who know me can vouch for me when I say I hate the cold.

As it turns out, we had to sign a contract saying we were aware of the dangers of jumping off a cliff into a canyon. They read it aloud to us before we took the leap, so we all got a good laugh in.

Me and my man Ziggy right before I took the jump!!! Here's a good view of the 300 foot drop below me.

And I'm off! The photographer, Julie (true story), recommended all the girls wear their hair down for the drop as it makes for a better picture. I can't help but agree.

Literally the weirdest feeling I've ever experienced. I wanted to scream but gravity was pulling my face down so it kept me from making a peep. After the four second free fall the rope becomes taut, then you swing sideways throughout the canyon. I wish I was able to have my camera, it was incredible.

This is Mark! He met us at the end of the canyon fall and pulled us back to land. On the bus ride back to Interlaken from Grindelwald Mark and I talked most of the way, which basically consisted of me asking him endless questions. As a native Switzerland, I asked him how long snow was on the ground in a year: his response was November to May. Can you imagine, snow like this for seven months out of the year? I sure cannot.

After a four second, 300 foot free-fall, beer had never tasted better. On a side note, everything is incredibly expensive in Switzerland, so be prepared to spend your life's savings away. The Swiss Franc has about the same exchange rate to the US dollar, so when I spent 25 Swiss Francs on my lunch (a beer and a burger), I was not a happy camper.

As part of the program we booked our trip with (Florence For Fun), we got to take part in a Swiss chocolate tasting! I'm usually not a fan of chocolate, but even I was swooned by this stuff. Below is a champagne truffle. Literally, a truffle with champagne. The guy leading the chocolate tasting handed these out and said, "This is my way of saying, welcome to Interlaken!"

These were chocolate shots. Yep, I said chocolate shots. A shot inside of chocolate, chocolate being the chaser. The guy leading the tasting said, "Don't operate a vehicle after having three or four of these."

The freezing yet beautiful walk back to our hostel after the tasting. 

Helloooo Bern, the capital of Switzerland! The four of us took a day trip to Bern, and surprise surprise, it was beautiful.

Apparently Albert Einstein lived in Bern for some time, and his apartment where he came up with his theory of relativity is open for the public. So of course, we checked it out! Here's the inside of his apartment.

Albert Einstein and his first wife, Mileva. He married his cousin after him and Mileva split up.

Albert Einstein's living room.

The clock tower in Bern!

Just to illustrate how cold it really was. There were fountains like this all over Bern, and they were all completely frozen.

The (frozen) fountain with the clock tower in the back.

Bern, Switzerland!

So long, Bern!

The four of us went out to a local club that night, it was pretty epic. Anywhoo, I really liked this picture of the four of us. Travel buddies for the weekend!

This is the view of our hostel, the Funny Farm (yes, that's the name) the next morning, the day we left. The pictures below are all from Interlaken.

I kid you not, I turned a 180 degree angle from the previous shot of the hostel and took the picture below. That was the view from literally, right outside of the Funny Farm.

Pictures don't do justice the size of this massive mountain. It was massive, literally all you could see.

And that's all, folks! Thanks for taking part in my virtual tour of Switzerland. Next up, the Venice Carnival.

I'll sleep when I'm dead,

Julie

Pisa and Lucca

This past Saturday, myself and twelve other girls hopped on a train to Pisa, Italy, then to a small town Lucca! My roommate Steph is friends with a girl who had friends going so it was basically a big, random group, and I loved it. We all got along really well, a few of them were actually from Texas! Love my state.

So we all met at the Florence Santa Maria Novella train station at 9:15 to buy our tickets and ended up leaving around 10. We got to Pisa and similar to what I'd heard, it's really nothing too special (aside from the tower, duh). I'm so glad I went and got to experience "pushing over the tower," but that's pretty much all we went to do. It's super touristy, but definitely worth the 7.50 euro train ticket. 

This is just a picture of us walking through town to get to the infamous leaning tower. I cannot talk about how much I love the buildings here enough -- so I take pictures. But really, I love how the streets are so narrow with tall buildings, you really don't see that in most places in the US. It's like that in Scotland too, so I'm assuming it's just a European thing.

We didn't really know where we were going, so we asked a local Italian how to get to the tower. He said, "Go straight, cross a bridge, then go left." The directions were pretty spot on actually. Anyways, this is the view from the bridge. 

For lunch we stopped at an amazing little Pizzeria. It wasn't on the main street but instead in a little backstreet, so of course it's going to be better. We tried to go in before we visited the tower, but apparently it wasn't open yet at 11:30 AM, so I took a picture in anticipation of coming back.

AND HERE'S THE TOWER! I kid you not, it's actually leaning. Hopefully you can tell from the picture though (look at the bottom of the tower).

No, I did not tilt my camera in the slightest.

It was crazy looking at it from this angle! The gated area around it encompassed the tilted ground/pavement the tower was on (I don't even know how to describe it?), so that was odd.

Gotta get my tourist shot in, don't judge.

I was super proud of this shot. Just thought I'd share it with you all. To the left is one of my roommates, Mary Kate, and to the right is Brittany.

This is a picture of most of the group! We had girls from all over: US of A (Texas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina), Holland, China, and Korea. 

Heaven in a dish. This pizza was ah-mazing. Ham, artichokes, oregano, garlic, and mushrooms.

So in Europe you can purchase a beer in a McDonalds, which is what Steph and Brittany did. I'm pretty sure American's are the only ones who actually utilize that service (because we can), but that's beside the point. Not only can you purchase a beer at a McDonalds, but you can take it with you on the train. So again, they did it because they can. And because most of you reading probably can't.

Here we are in Lucca!! We hopped on a train from Pisa to Lucca (3 euros), a cute little town probably about two hours from Florence. And yes, that's snow.

Beautiful Lucca.

We got a snack at a little cafe, and as you can probably tell, it all looked incredible. It was a cafe with tables in a big back area (which is pretty odd for shops in Italy), so we all made our way to the back to take a seat. Right after we sat down to eat our treats one of the owners came up to us and told us we couldn't sit there. Looking back on it we should have known we weren't allowed to sit, because you usually have to pay a "eat in" charge at cafe's here. Still, just an interesting cultural difference nonetheless.

So that's about it for our weekend trip! It was so fun, I'm so excited to do more of those. We literally bought our (pretty cheap) tickets at the train station the day of our excursions. 

Again, I'll try to give a little recap of my week that wasn't documented with photos. So my roommates and I have been on top of our shit and have planned bunches of trips together, I'm super duper excited. I'll give you a quick recap - this Thursday, we're leaving for Interlaken, Switzerland for 3 days and 3 nights. Next weekend we are going to Venice for the Carnival, which is a 3 week carnival where people dance around the city and wear masks. That's all I know about it now, I'll be sure to give a full report once I return. And lastly, for my birthday weekend (February 23-26, 25th being my birthday), I'm going to PRAGUE!!! Jessica Helton, mah girl and roommate from Clemson, is studying abroad there so I'm thrilled I get to spend my birthday weekend with her and my two roommates, Steph and Mary Kate. I plan to blog about each of these trips, so stay tuned.

That's all I have planned for trips in the near future. For spring break, Mary Kate, myself, and my friend Meredith, who's studying abroad in Rome, are going on a 12 day excursion! We're hitting London, Paris, and Amsterdam. Again, more on that later.

So today I had my three classes all in a row; I go from 10:30 to 5:30. But it's really not so bad since the last two and a half hours are spent in my Wine and Culture class. I have to blog about it again, just because it's that amazing -- I tasted five wines today. I came home tipsy. From my class. It's the strangest, most awesome feeling, one I know I'll never feel again come May.

That's all I can think of for now. I know I keep apologizing for the length, but there's really no way to shorten it. So, I'm sorry friends.

Lots of love from Firenze,

Julie