Italy

Top 5 reasons to visit Italy
5. The people. Italy has some of the nicest people that I’ve ever met in my life. They are so friendly and lax in everything they do. Coffee break anyone?
4. The language. Just the language alone is in and of itself artistic, poetic, beautiful, and so much fun to learn.
3. Mosaics. Every cathedral and every building is covered floor to ceiling in beautiful mosaics. Sometimes you have to look hard to make sure that it’s not a painting.
2. Gondola. A trip to Italy would not be complete without a gondola ride. There is something so magical about a really attractive Italian man taking you through the alley ways of Venice at sunset while singing “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s amore!” Mmm… Yes please!
1. Gelato. There is no limit of how much gelato one can consume in one day! For me in Italy it was an essential ritual of getting through the very hot and humid summer days of wonderful Italy.
Let’s be honest, what is there not to love about Italy? Every nook and cranny is covered in ancient ruins, which is surrounded by the crazy hustle and bustle of modern day living. I found myself soaking up the culture and really enjoying my time spent there.

Aug 4th

Today was our last day of this wonderful tour. I'm a littles sad about it, I've learned so much about design and archicture and also about myself. Tomorrow is a 16 hour plan ride and its back to reality, facing the fact that I'm completely broke and school starts in two weeks! Yikes!! It was so worth it though! Late last night Beccah and Malory came back from their trip to Scotland, I'm so glad that their back. I've missed them, but I'm glad that they got to go and that they had a good time. This morning Darrin took all of us to Buckingham Palace for our last group activity! What a great way to end our tour. I've seen a lot of Palaces in the last 5 weeks and this one is my favorite! Its gorgeous inside, there was stuff from all over the world that have been given to Kings and queens over the years. It was pretty neat to learn about the history of the palace and the british history. After the palace Darrin gave us the rest of the day to do what we wanted so a group of us went to this really cool restraunt called Ask. It was really good, they had really yummy pasta and soup. Then we decided to to last minute shopping on Portobello Road. We did that for awhile and then it was time for Wicked! I was so exicted! Oh my! It was the coolest play that I've ever seen in my life! Its such a good story, good music, awesome set and design, way cool costumes, and great seats! It was really incredible! I'm so glad that I got to go! After wicked we wanted to get fish and chips one last time so we found some restruant, it was the only one that was open because it was pretty late. We got back to our flat around midnight and now we are all franticly packing and cleaning, I don't think we're going to make it to bed tonight, we all have to meet at the metro station at 5 AM! Yuck! Oh well, I'll sleep when I'm dead right!? It has been such a wonderful trip, wonderful is not even the word but its been amazing and life changing and I'm so blest to be able to have gone. It was a rough road preparing to go, but my experience here made it all worth it, a hundred times over!

Aug 3rd

Today was our last free dau before we go home. My friend Ashley and I went to the Imperial War Memorial Musuem this afternoon. It has exhibites of the 1st and 2nd World Wars. It was really cool to learn about these wars on the european side of things. They had a cool exhibit about spies called "Secret War" they had really cool displays of the old devices they used to use. There was also an exhibit about the Holocaust, it was really well done but very graphic and very sad, I definately did not leave with a good feeling but a greater knowledge and respect for those who had to go through such horrible treatment. After the museum we headed back to the flat and I did some more sketching. Bec and Mal should be coming back pretty soon, I'm so excited! I've missed them!

Aug 2nd

Happy Sabbath! It's the last Sunday here in Europe. Today we decided to go to the Single's Ward here in London, it didn't start until 2 30 so a group of us decided to go back to the V & A and see what we didn't get to see sense church was just right around the corner from the museum and its free too so thats always nice. I'm so glad that we went back. There was a section for theature and it was prety sweet, the picture of the rino is actually a life size costume, pretty sweet. We also saw the textile section too. We spent a few hours there and headed to church. I love the Single's Ward here! They are super friendly and there were some pretty good lookin guys too! Yes please! It was a really good sacrament meeting. This really cute girl in her talk talked about how she had the scriptures on her cell phone so she would listen to it while she was on the tube. Well one day when she was on the tube her phone got stolen so she got a new phone and texted her old phone and said " to who ever the new owner is, there is scriptures on my phone so feel free to listen to them." Ha ha! That is awesome! Good for her! After church we went to Hyde Park and walked on the Princess Diana Memorial Walk which led to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, that was pretty cool. Hyde Park is like Centeral Park in New York, its a huge park in the middle of a huge city. While we were walking there was a really cool tree, its branches grew down towards the ground. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen but so cool. After Hyde Park we went to Covent Gardens, Ive already been but the others hadn't so we looked around and enjoyed the street performers. Our favorite was Luca. He was really good and I got some video of him. We watched him for awhile and headed back to the flat. Tomorrow is Monday which means Bec and Mal get back tomorrow night!

Aug 1st

Today was a super low key day. It was kind of nice to just take her easy today and go at my own pace. This early morning Bec and Mal left for Scotland, they were running a little late so I got up and made they're lunches. I miss them already and can't wait for them to get back. After they left I went back to bed and slept for a few more hours. I finally got up and met up with Jenna to check out this little shop that had Beatles stuff in it. It was so cool and if I had all the money in the world I would have bought everything! After the shop we went to the Apollo Theature to go buy Bec and I tickets to...WICKED! I got tickets for Tuesday night, our last night here in London, we're going to go out with a bang! I'm super stoked about it! I've always wanted to see it and now I get to! I even got the tickets for only 20 pounds, super cheap! After buying the tickets, Jenna and I wondered around the streets of London for a while and headed back to the flat and sketch for a while. I'm an idiot because I left my camera at the flat so I don't have any pictures today sorry.

July 31st

Today was our last day trip for the rest of the grand tour. This morning we took a train to Chesterfield, then a bus to Haddon Hall. Hadden Hall was so interesting. It was like a hotel back in the 1300s. The way people lived was really interesting...I was getting really grossed out because of the way they lived and eat. Personal hygene was non-existant niether was cleanliness of any kind, but it was super cool and fasinating to learn about. Outside of Hadden Hall was a pretty garden, and we all spotted this really cool rustic and old door, so naturally we all had to take our picture in front of it. Ha ha! I love looking like tourists from America. While we were taking our pictures a british man came walking by us and said "Do they not have bloody doors in America?" Ha ha! Yes sir, of course we have doors! We got back on the bus and headed to Chatsworth. Chatsworth was Mr. Darcy's house in the newest movie of Pride and Prejudice, but is the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. When we got there my friends and I decided to look at the gradens first while the weather was good. The gardens here are so much fun, there were really neat fountains that you can wade your feet in and hours and hours of exploring. There was a really cool maze that you can go through made out of bushes. I was so mad because my camera ran out of batteries so I wasn't able to take as many as I wanted to. The interior is pretty sweet too. There is a ton of art and sculptures. It was a pretty fun day. When we got back into London we went to Piccadilly Circus to see a shop that we thought looked cool. It has a tun of british stuff, I finally got me a really sweet London jacket I'm so excited about it. The next three days are free so Beccah and Malory are going to Scotland in the morning. I'm going to miss them and I so wish that I could go, should be an interesting weekend.

July 30th

Today we were giving the option of going to the Roam Baths but Malory, Beccah, and I decided to go to Windsor Castle. We had realized that we hadn't even seen one real castle during our time here in Europe. So with our Brit Rail Passes we took a train to Windsor. Windsor Castle is the Queen's actual residence and has been for the last 900 years. It was pretty darn sweet! I got to see an actual castle!! The town of Windsor reminded me of Disneyland, just with the castle and all the little shops and places to eat around it. We spent awhile there but we had to head back to London because my friends had tickets to see Peter Pan in Hyde Park. We get back in London and we're taking the Tube back to our flat and we had to transfer trains, so we're walking to the next train and all of a sudden my friends start running to get on before the doors close, but I get caught behind a bunch of people and the train leaves and my friends are on it! My first thought was..."oh shizz!" and I paniced a little bit. So I pulled out my iPod and turned on some music to calm me down and I hopped on the next train. Well I soon found out that I got on the wrong one so I got off on the next stop and got on the right trian and eventually made it safely to my flat. I will admit that I was scared, but luckly the metro system here is really easy to read and understand. Well my friends went to the play and I later met up with them for dinner in Piccadilly Circus at Planet Hollywood. Piccadilly Circus is like their Times Square, circus here in England means a square or court. It was pretty cool but there were wierdos out tonight! What a day!

July 29th

Seriously! Everyday just gets better and better! I freaking love it here! This morning we took yet another trian to Petersborough, from there we took a bus to the Burgley House. When we got there, there was a big heard of deer in front of the house. Anybody that knows me knows that I'm not a fan of any animal that has hooves...due to my lovely expereince that I had while working in Yellowstone! Anyways, so I wasn't too excited to get out and walk up by them. Apperently they are very friendly and they'll let you pet them and feed them but I made a bee-line for the enterance. The Burgley House was really cool, one of the coolest rooms was the Heaven Room which was filmed in movies like The DaVinci Code and the newer Pride and Prejudice. The interior was over the top with embelishments and the finest furniture at the time. The gardens were pretty too. We were able to eat lunch at the Orangery Restraunt in the Burgley House, it was there that I was able to experience an English scone and clotted cream with hot chocolate made with Cadbury chocolate. All of it was SO delicious! I loved the scone, they are a lot like a biscuty texture with raisins in it and the clotted cream is like butter but 100 times better and creamier! So good...I could feel my arteries starting to clog but oh my...it was so good! After the Burgley House, we got back on the bus and headed to Stamford. Stamford is one of the oldest towns in England. The streets were also filmed in the movie Pride and Prejudice. It's a really neat and charming little town...if the streets could talk! We found this great little place that had the most amazing pasties! I got one with cheese in it, it was so good! It just warmed me right up! It has been pretty chilly here in Enland, its rained almost everyday sense we've been in the UK. I don't really mind though, I like rainy weather, I think its better than being freaking hot. Our time in Stamford was short lived and we had to head back to the train station to catch our train back to London. Well the night was still young so Bec and I went and had dinner and tried out a traditional English dinner, which is roast beef, potatoes, veggies, and yorkshire pudding. It was pretty good as you can see in the picture. After dinner we wanted to go to the London Eye! I was so excited and it was something that I totally had to do while here in London. It was so much fun! We met two really nice guys in our capsule, one was actually from Utah but lives in Washington now. He was there on a business trip. Anyways, they were really nice. As you can see from my pictures, Bec and I had some good times with the camera. We got off the Eye and this freakish wind/rain came. Umberellas were completely useless! It was pretty funny. It was such a good day, I could die happy right now! Life couldn't be more grand!:)