Travel How To's and How To Not's

This is related to my winter break trip with Val.

1. Book all tickets in advance so you don't get screwed over by transportation
2. Learn which public transportation actually check tickets so you don't waste money
3. Buy a fanny pack
4. Wear comfy shoes that give good arch support or you will be limping the entire time otherwise
5. No really, buy a fanny pack and keep all of your tickets in there so you don't lose them and have to rebuy them later
6. Don't drop your camera halfway through the trip so the lens breaks and you no longer have a camera right before you go to Rome
7. Double check bus/ferry times so you're not waiting multiple hours because you missed it by 3 minutes
8. Don't book an ridiculously early flight until you know how and when you'll get there - unless you like sleeping in airports (and so you don't book a hostel for the same night you'll be sleeping at said airport
9. Spend more than two days in Rome - lest it own you
10. Don't have bad karma

Ok, so I suck at blogging. I'm sorry.

Hiii all. Again. After an extended hiatus. Ok a few small comments before I update:

1) I suck at blogging - ok I write too much, which takes too much time, and then I don't have time to finish later.

2) I'ma write shorter things, but will get to write about more - pros and cons? Go.

Readysetshoot.

Rest of Winter Break

London 16-17 February

I arrived in London at 6:30am and after getting really confused about where Val and I were meeting, we finally met up in the huge ass Victoria Station - and had a cute running with open arms through the train station moment. Yaya <3

I dropped my stuff off at Val's kickass dorm and had my first crumpet (with peanut butter and honey!). She had finals, so while she was in her final, I wandered around London! (en fait... I wandered and then got horribly lost for 3 hours looking for Buckingham Palace - how do you miss something like that? whoops).

Here are things I saw!

(London Eye, Parliament/Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, cute London phonebooths, Picadilly Circus, cute "this is the way to look to cross the road" signs, Hyde Park, Harrod's)

I stopped at a hole in the wall cafe and got fish and chips and a Stella - duhh and a very English chocolate cookie (whatever that means).

The next day, I chilled at the dorm, planning more of Val and I's upcoming Italy trip! When she got out of her final, we bought tickets for EasyBus - a bus from Victoria Station to the airport - and thus began our transportation woes.

Both the 16h and 16h30 buses didn't show up and we were at risk of missing our flight, so we had to run to the train station, take the subway, then take a train to get to the airport on time - wasting £10 on the bus ticket and then another £17 on a train ticket that never got collected. 

But we did make it to the airport, and to our flight on time, and we got seats next to each other on the plane - RyanAir - and we didn't die! Yaya! 

Venice - Venezia - 17-20 February

After another mess-up with the bus system when arriving in Venice (we ended up in Venice... our hostel was in Fusina...), we finally arrived at our hostel - Camping Fusina - an amazing campsite, where we had a bungalow! 

Venice was super amazing! We went during Carnevale, so there were random people dressed up in classic costumes, just walking around San Marco. We saw the Basilica San Marco and 4 museums in the plaza on the first day! On the second day, we saw Santa della Maria and then wandered around for the rest of the day.

Highlights of Venice:

1) Wandering around Venice and realizing how small, easy it is to get around.

2) Eating gelato all the time.

3) Eating poofs.

4) Seeing all of the epic costumes for Carnevale.

5) Having an Italian football (read: soccer) player ask me to take a pic of him and his buddy in front of the Basilica San Marco. :)

6) Taking 60 illegal photos (sans flash, no worries) inside of the museums and only getting caught once. ;)

7) Buying a bottle of wine but not a bottle opener and trying to open the bottle with a key - yeah, don't do that. It doesn't work.

8) Lovey-dovey photos with Val.

9) Buying real Venetian masks.

10) Getting totally screwed over by transportation - this was a theme of our trip - but still loving Venice the best.

Florence - Firenze - 20 February

We were up super early - 6h15 - to catch our train to Florence - 1st class on a train - not worth it!

Arrived in Florence at 10h15 and began our whirlwind, less than 24h tour of Florence!

We grabbed sandwiches for lunch, saw Michelangelo's David -epic!, got amazing gelato, witnessed my camera die, visited Il Duoma, realized that Dante was from Florence - duh!, went to Santa Croce, took at picture with the Dante statue, ran into some Grenoble girls, saw Dante and Michelangelo's tombs, found a famous fountain, wandered through Uffizi, took a nap back at the hostel, met the G-girls for dinner - Val and I had our first sit-down meal in Italy!, had my first cappuccino, started our vlogs for Jenny & Katelyn back at the hostel, realized I could use Val's videocamera as a camera, then passed out!

 (pics before my cam died)

Rome - Roma - 21-23 February

Up again at 6h15. Caught the bus to the train station - had McDo for breakfast - sometimes... you just gotta.

Some comments about Rome: a) should you ever visit, don't stay with any of the company that owns Happy Days, Roma Inn, or Gulliver's House. THEY SUCK. b) spend more than 2 days in Rome, lest it own you.

Day 1

We had some issues with the hostel - see above comment - and had to get moved to a new hostel. We finally got settled in around 12h30ish and rushed over to the Colosseum and spent all afternoon checking out the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill. We then walked towards Traian Column and the Victor Emmanuel Monument before realizing that we hadn't eaten since our McDo, so we got pulled in the tourist trap and bought a "pizza panini" from one of the stands - groosss. We stopped by a pastry shop - I got a weird pastry thing and another cappuccino before heading back to the hostel for bit. We decided to go out to dinner again - at a real restaurant! I got a 1/2 L of red wine before realizing that Val doesn't like red wine! Whoops! We saw the Trevi Fountain along the way. After, we found a gelateria - gelottery! - and ate inside - remember those service charges I mentioned before? Yeah, it was 7 euro to eat inside. merde. Finally passed out early at the hostel - got woken up a couple of time's by our Latvian host - who was super cool/cute, minus the snoring.

Day 2

We had to get up early again - though we slept in till 7h45 - and switched hostels before running over the Vatican. It was the last Sunday of the month, so the Vatican Museum was free and everyone and their grandma was there trying to get in! We saw St. Peter's Basilica first and then stood in line for the museum. It took oh, about 2 and a half hours and we were seriously worried we wouldn't get in. (They close the doors at a certain point). But we did get it. HAH. And apparently they let you take pictures in the Sistine Chapel on the last Sunday of the month? So I got some mad photos. After wandering through the museum and then the Chapel, Val and I were both mentally and physically exhausted after. It was like sensory overload for like 2 hours on top of standing in line for forever. Grabbed a "quick" pizza from a tourist restaurant, and then saw the Spanish Stairs, Pantheon, Plaza Navona, and St. Angelo's Castle. We got dinner from a cute place that was close to the hostel. Then parted ways :'( on the subway - we were at different airports, both leaving at 6h30, so we both slept at our respective airports.

In summary: Winter break was a whirlwind week but was so amazing - it was great seeing Val and I can't wait to travel with her again - I kept thinking I was going to go back to Boston after Rome, but honestly, I did really miss Grenoble and French when I was in Italy.