It's been a while!!

Me at the Eiffel Tower



Eiffel Tower at night :)

So, its been a while since I've blogged about my travels. Long story short, I left Arcachon, then my parents, Julie and Cole came to meet me in Paris, and we spent a week in London. It was amazing!!! but more about London details later when I have time to sit down and remember everything we did there. I'm currently in Paris where I have an internship for 3 weeks. It's pretty short but I've been doing some interesting work already and I think it will be a great experience! Plus, I get to hang out in Paris with Cole for 3 weeks and travel on the weekends with him. And I'm also working on my French skills so hopefully I will be more fluent when I return.

Our apartment is tiny but its good for the time here. Mainly the kitchen appliances are ridiculously small, especially the teensy laundry machine that only fits a few things, and there is no dryer so sometimes I have to hang my skivvies outside to dry. But overall, not bad and there is wifi and cable (even though all the channels are in French-- as a sidenote we have been enjoying watching French music videos). Here are some pics of the place!

Cole in the bedroom/futon/TV area

Our wee little kitchen (note the small appliances and lack of preparation space)

The tiny washing machine

Hand-to-door comparison for emphasis

Me on the deck (with enough space for 1 person to stand)

View of the courtyard

ITALIA!

Italy this weekend. Amazing. First of all we took RyanAir and for most of us it was the first time on one of the cheapo airlines. The flight (round trip) was around 40 euros which to me was absolutely unbelievable, considering I paid around 350 euros to get to Madrid a few weeks ago! I was expecting a tiny plane but it was actually pretty big, just bare-bones. No front seat pockets and very little leg room. It really wasn't a big deal since we all talked and listened to music anyways-- also, I discovered that I can play solitaire on my iPod so that is a new obsession. However, on the way back there was lots of turbulence and a pretty rough landing...

Anyways, back to the good stuff. We arrived in the evening on Friday in Bologna and checked into our hostel/hotel... more of a hotel, but with single beds. We ate at the most incredible restaurant of my life. When we got there, they handed us glasses of champagne to drink while we waited for them to fix up our table. The waiter was so nice to us, and he even brought Vince (Jaye and Tony's adorable 2 year old) some coke in a wine glass. Me and Anel shared the caprese salad to start-- the first of several this weekend. It was delicious, especially drizzled with the balsamic creme (reduced balsamic vinegar) which was unreal. I also had possibly the best pasta of my life. Orechietti with tomatoes, mozzarella, and porcini mushrooms!!! It was so tasty. Not to mention the delicious white wine that we ordered. It was just the house wine, but it was one of the best whites I have ever tasted. After this trip I think I definitely prefer Italian wine over French wine-- but shhhh,  don't tell.

That night we got a good night's rest, and then in the morning we were up early for some SHOPPING. There were a bunch of stores like Zara, H&M and other similar shops along the main street in Bologna. I got a few things, like a few skirts and an amazing dress and JEAN VEST which I am super super duper excited about. Later on that day around 5 we picked up our luggage at the hotel, and headed to the train station to catch a train to Florence.

Once we got to Florence, we headed to our hostel and dropped off our bags. It was pretty similar to the one in Bologna, with single beds and a bathroom for each triple. We walked around in one of the piazzas (plaza/square thingy) and looked at all the statues there. We sat outside and ate at a restaurant in the square, ready for some more delish Italian food. Well this one wasn't quite the same as the restaurant in Bologna, but it was decent. The gnocchi with pesto was actually really delicious and made me happy. After dinner, we hit up an Irish bar. We had some snake bites (Strongbow cider and lager) and some cheapo tequila shots--- obviously a brilliant idea.

After we left the bar around midnight, we stumbled upon a carousel and clearly had to go for a ride. Interestingly we were probably the youngest people on it. The two men in front of us appeared to be in their 50's haha. After that we started to wander back and came upon a gelato store open late!! It was pretty glorious and really hit the spot. We decided to go home relatively early that night so we could get some rest for the day of sightseeing ahead.

The next day we hit up all the important sights in Florence. The Michelangelo statue of David at the Accademia, the Uffizi museum with the Birth of Venus by Botticelli, the duomo, and a really awesome bridge that had a pedestrian walkway with a bunch of shops and some great views. Afterwards, we went to get some gelato (reportedly the best in Italy) and went to the Irish bar once again! The gelato was pretty phenomenal-- I had pistachio, always a good bet, and rice pudding flavor as well which was really interesting and soo tasty! A the bar, we drank lots of cider again and limoncello shots too. Post Irish bar, we decided to find a gay bar. We found one called YAG which was playing some sweet music and we stayed there for a while. Pretty crazy night! And lots of fun for sure.

The David in Florence

Girls out in Florence!

Duomo in Florence

In the morning, after passing out, we woke up and had to scramble to check out. There was also an incident with the bidet but I won't mention that here.... anyways most of the day consisted of us traveling to Bologna and then flying back to Bordeaux. The landing was pretty rough on that flight and there was lots of turbulence, but we made it.

Now we are back in Arcachon. I'm pretty happy to be back and maybe have a chance to relax some more! Now I just need to hope for good weather this week. No rain please!!!