Marcella's Blog

I am going to post my Europe pictues here: http://picasaweb.google.com/marcella20 Let me know if you have problems viewing them. Thanks, M

I thought I had escaped jet lag, as I have been so thrown off these past few days. No, that is not the case, I am awake at 4am in my hotel room in Texas. Good thing there is a Saved by the Bell martathon on TV to keep me company. The plane ride home from Europe was so long!! It is always the case that flying to a place is more exciting than returning home. I sat next tot the window but soon got bored looking at the water below. I watched some movies and read a book. The flight was 9 hours but it was all during the day. I didnt want to sleep knowing that I would get home around 8pm and just want to sleep then. It seemed like it would work. I got a good nights sleep both Friday and Saturday night. Yesterday, I few here to Texas (another 2 hour time change), so all of it added up told me to wake up super early today. Oh well. Maybe I can take a nap by the pool later. Hard life, I know :-) So, date lab.... It was a good experience and I reccommend it to anyone who wants to have a fun night...

So, today was a great last day to spend both with Amanda and with Barcelona. Last night we took a walk to the beach. We have only seen the Med Sea at night...kinda odd. Anyways, on our walk down these two dudes (one french, one english) stopped us and asked if we knew how to get to a restaurant. We said no, but were headed to the beach. Long story short they ended up tagging along and the four of us went to dinner at a nice restaurant on the water and then headed into Barcelona for an evening out. It was fun but since we were all new to the area we just went on suggestions. It turned out ok, except for this one bar where the median age was 66. No Joke. We didn´t stay long. This morning we awoke to our rude hostelmate packing up and heading out. She smelled bad anyways. Then we got ready and were so excited to start our last day on the bus tour. We walked outside and it was rainy....back upstairs we went to better prepare ourselves for the weather and cold. We went to a nice place on L...

Hey, at least I didn't write Barfing in Barcelona... :-) Alas, I have caught the European flu. I think it is a sign that I should have stayed in Italy. haha I was sneezing the whole train ride from Nice to Barcelona and started taking medicine to fight off anything that was headed my way. It was too late. By the time I had my paella last night, I was feeling just awful. I have a head cold and congestion. Luckily, we got a good nights sleep and Amanda was smart enough to bring medicine with her. I have used all of her tissues and NyQuil and am slowly getting over this sickness. We still had to go out an tour the city. To make matters worse, it was rainy and cold. We ended up walking around to the market and had a delicious fruit breakfast and then went to the Picasso museo. The museum was very interesting and we both learned a lot about Picasso. We walked over to the chocolate museo and decided that we rather just try some chocolate then walk thru it. After the museums we headed tow...

We started our long journey to our last country of the trip (Spain) aboard a fairly nice regional train. The train was basically empty, but we needed reservations that included assigned seating. The reservations had amanda and i sitting across from eacho ther and not next to each other. No big deal we thought, we can just swtich and explain to the person in her seat that we were going to switch. we forgot we were in France still, where they are big sticklers for the rules! Everywhere else we have gone we have been able to sweet talk, or sweet nod rather, our way into getting what we want. The French wont have it. We wre sitting next to each other and the old man whose assigned seat was next to amandas made a scene and had her move over, making him inbetween us. He would not even listen to us asking us to switch with him. Oh well. Then the train made a stop where the old man got off and an old lady got on. She also faught with amanda saying that amanda was in the wrong seat all togethe...

Yesterday we left my home country and took the train into Nice. It was a 4 hour train ride thru the mountains. We were nto sure when we wouuld arrive and made a mad dash when we looiked out the window and realized that we were in Nice!! It is such a vibrant and colorful city with many lights. There was also many chinese restaurants! Interesting I thought. We took the futuristic tram up to our hostel and then headed back into the old city as they called it We walked aroiund and played on the rociky beach of the mediterranean. I understand now why when there are pictures of celeb's in the french riveria they are all on yachts. the beach is really rocky! it was like bath water though. so warm and not any waves. Then we walked around by the water looking for a french place to eat. We were stopped by these two french girls who unexpectedly helped us out with a place to eat. we turned the corner and all of these restaurants appeared. they told us which ones to stay out of becuase they h...

Ahh, the Italians are so welcoming and so ready to feed you to the max. They are really into hospitality and will do whatever necessary to make your stay enjoyable. Even at the hostel people were so generous. At my cousins house, they had us listen to Celine Dion and Lionel Ritchie as they are some of their favorites. Also, Erica's favorite singer is Britney spears. right now she into her song Lucky, as its the name of her cat. I taught my couins some new english phrases like It's ok, It's alright and No worries. There are dogs everywhere, I still cant get over it. I enjoy talking with everyone about America. They are more in tune than we are about the economic state and the election which is interesting to me. I decided that our english language is very abraisve/brash and that italian is the new language to learn. we are going to take italian classes when we come home and come back to italy very very soon. we saw some Fascist deigned buildings tonight in Tornio which was ...

It was an hour train ride west from Florence to Pisa. We decided last minute to have lunch and see the leaning tower before heading to Torino. It has worked out nice that we dont have a set plan becuase that way we can take last minute detours to other cities. We arrived in Pisa around 12 and found that it was a small city and very quirky. The people were a little frigid and not helpful. The train station lady was quite rude and did not want to help us get a reservation for our next train! Uf! After walking and walking we finally decided to sit down for lunch at a place with pink tablecloths. We were the only ones there, but we were so hungry it didnt matter. I got pizza in Pisa, ha ha. Then we walked around trying to find the leaning tower. It is not very tall, but alas we found it. We took some pictures and then had to head back on the train. It was a quick trip but so worth it to see the famous building. The Duomo that it is part of is absolutely huge! Amazing how they built such in...

I have finally had a second to catch my breath. We have been traveling so much the past day I am not sure where I am. I think our goal is to go to eight cities by the time I leave on Friday. So far, we have seen Venice, Trieste, Florence, Pisa and tonight we are in Tornio. It is in the north west part of Italy. Last night, we got dressed up and put up on make up for the first time since I have been here and went out in Florence. We first went to this local Irish pub and made some new friends. Then we walked around town at night and it was so beautiful. There were a couple clubs we walked by, but the big night in Florence is Mondays, not Saturdays. We did pass a gelateria with some loud music and tons of people hanging out on the piazza. We decided it would be fun to see the Pointe Vecchio bridge at night and took a walk up there. It was make out central!!! Returning back to the hostel, we decided to check out the in house bar. It was rather lame but we made some friends (americans) a...

So last night we spent the evening out in Trieste with some long lost relatives. There is a cousin that is our age and she and a friend took us out to a German style bar! I felt like I was Germany for a hot second, so that was nice. This morning Adolfo made us a fantastic mattino (breakfast) and sent us on our train ride to Florence with a huge picnic. What do you know..morefoooood!!!love it!!! We walked around \Venice a bit more and basically bought the whole island. SO many souviners to buy. Then, we sat on the train and p[layed cards and relaxed. When we arrived in Florence we found our HOSTEL!! woo it is my first one ever! I was so excited. We are rooming with an Aussie and bBrit -Ruff ruff. he he We walked around and saw the David! ow ow. and then went to see the Duomo, our plan is to go to church there in themoring to experience it from the inside.the churches here are sooo amazing. it is so gigantic. we went to a great little italian place for dinner after stopping at the aweso...

I am here and already want to move in with my cousins!!! Italy is great!!!! The plane rides were smooth but we were a bit delayed leaving Dulles. It was rush hour departing the US and rush hour entering Frankfurt, so it left me with about 20 minutes to make my connection. I thought that I would have enough time, as I asked how far my connection gate was and was told I would be fine. There was a gate change that I did not know about so I ended up having to run clear across the airport and sneaking thru the Europe passport check (US line was way too long) to make my gate. I got there right as they were boarding. Who wants to wait around anyways?? We got to fly over the Alps, which was awesome and arrived in Venezia on time. The airport was extreamly crowded but knowing I was already there, I was able to relax and take everything in. I collected my bags and went to find the bus station. Like a fool, I had no idea there was only one train station into Venice so I kept asking where Station ...

Today I am off to Venice, Italy! So excited and anxious to get to Europe and meet up with Amanda. Amanda has been over there for a month now!! I am excited to hear about her travels so far. The plan is to meet in Venice and stay the night with my moms cousins in Trieste! We have a tentative plan, but I am up for anything as it is my first time traveling in Europe. Let's just hope I make it to Barcelona for my flight home. Arrivederci!