Week 2: Lauren!

Hi everyone! Here goes my week two, the girls will be putting up their week two before you know it also...so here it goes :)

I left Amsterdam early and met Gavin at the airport. Everything went smoothly to my relief! We headed to Venice first. We had to take many different forms of transportation to get there, but we did! Once getting there, we went to find out hostel, but if any of you have been there, the streets are in between all the buildings and have no order to them at all, so it was difficult to read the map and find where everything was! We succeeded and found our hostel fairly easily. The city was gorgeous even at night. It is like no other city because of the way it is completely built on water. You just have to see it to understand...but at our hostel, we met a bunch of really fun people. The guy who was working there was a chef and cooked for anyone staying at the hostel each night for only 10 Euro. So we had a traditional Italian dinner with a bunch of the people staying with us and wine was included :) It is amazing how many great people you meet while staying in hostels all over. We met a girl named Anna who is studying in Madrid for the semester and goes to NYU. We hung out all night and walked around the town. She was leaving the next morning but we planned on meeting her in Madrid when we would be there in the days to come. Really cool, right?! The next day we toured all around Venice. I swear we walked 10 miles and just couldn't get over how well kept the buildings are even for being in water. The canals were turquoise and just so beautiful. We went to St.Mark's Square and saw the basilica and had some gelato. Then this generous man gave the two of us some bread so the pigeons went crazy and swarmed us...it was quite an experience. The second day in Venice, we took a boat out to Murano which is an island right next to Venice. They are famous for the blown glass. So, we took a boat taxi out there and watched a glass blowing demonstration, bought some souvenirs and looked at all the beautiful glass creations.

Rome: We got into Rome late and met Anna and Andrea at the hostel. We had planned it out so we were there on the same days and staying at the same hostel. It was perfect. We got a lot of rest that night because the four of us had a ton of touring the next day because Rome has so much history and ground to cover. We all woke up bright and early and walked in the pouring rain...ugh...to the Vatican! The great part about the weather was there was absolutely NO line...which is unheard of. So we got right in, so the tombs of past popes, and walked all through St.Peter's Basilica. We've all seen MANY churches/basilicas by now and this one just blows all others out of the water. It is phenomenal! We then went to the Vatican Museum where we saw a lot of Vatican history and of course THE SISTINE CHAPEL! It really was spectacular and worth seeing! Then we saw the Spanish Steps where we had pizza for lunch :) Moved our way to the Trevi Fountain (My favorite place in Rome), the Pantheon, and many different Piazza's! The city was amazing and just beautiful. My favorite place so far...i think. That night we came back and got dressed and freshened up for a nice dinner out in Rome. The four of us went to a place called Roof Garden where we had a great Italian dinner. Then we went and saw the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain at night and it was just so fun to be out in the city at night. Such a different feel than during the day, and both of those places were so lit up and a beautiful sight. We got amazing gelato that night too...sooo good! MMMM The next morning we split again and Gavin and I went to tour the Colosseum before we had to leave for Madrid. It rained again...but then the skies cleared halfway through and the sun was shining with BLUE SKIES!! So, it turned out to be just fine.

Madrid: We had a 2 hour flight delay in Rome due to crazy wind. It was so crazy outside. But, we made it into Madrid! This city was not was I was expecting. It was SO clean and beautiful with parks and fountains on every street. We were supposed to meet our friend Anna that we met in our Venice hostel that night, but due to some minor/major miscommunication, it didn't work out :( The second day, we toured all around Madrid, went to Retiro Park and walked through. It was gorgeous and there were some really great street performers. We went to the Prado Museum. Saw a bunch of really famous artwork that we have both studied (especially Gavin with his Spanish) all throughout our lives. We then continued our sweep of the city and made it back to go out for the night. Anna had told us some great places to go in Madrid while in Venice so we found a local Tapas bar and went out for the night. We met a bunch of Americans studying there for the semester and hung out with them all night. It was such a blast.

We came back to the RT to meet up with the rest of the group and had a great week catching up with everyone. Spring break was so fun and went by in a whirlwind of fun, but nothing could ever top it! We are now over halfway done being abroad and it seems so surreal that we've been here for so long! We went to Budapest and Vienna this past weekend, and as soon as the other girls write about their second weeks of spring break, we will tell you all about our travels to Hungary and Austria! :)

Get excited!!!

Love,

Lauren