Cannoli, Gelato, & Crepes

Spring break in a nutshell: a costume dance party by the night lights of the Colosseum, tangoing with rose stems in our mouths under a full moon, kiwi flavored gelato, napping on the Spanish Steps, fighting like the Romans did inside of the Colosseum, sunbathing at St. Peter's Basilica, vineyard tour in Tuscany, watching the sunset over all of Florence with Paige, devouring cannoli every chance we got, a romantic gondola ride for 3, 15 hours in a train station in Venice in the company of every crazy person in the city, an unexpected stop in Milan, singing lady marmalade in front of the Moulin Rouge, eating chocolates by the lit up Eiffel tower at night,  a quick dance party to Michael Jackson in the streets of Paris with a crepe making man, a baguette fight in Mary-Kate-and-Ashley-Olsen style and then enjoying the bread with brie cheese for a quick morning picnic by the Eiffel tower before heading for our plane ride home.

Rome

 Good morning Italy. We had to take a bus from Limerick at 1am for our 6:30am flight out of Dublin and then immediately jumped right into going/doing/seeing off of a practically sleepless night.

 First view.

 Italian pizza and our free salad cut up dry cabbage. There's a euphemism if I've ever seen one. 
 Roadside dinner view

 We kept seeing people walk by wearing your average oompa loompa getup or horse head or pirates outfit, so we followed the music...

Welcome to a costume party on a hill next to the Colosseum with music and disco lights blaring out of a school bus. 

 We danced there, we danced here. Then we befriended a man selling blue roses who mimicked me so I mimicked him mimicking me... and then we forgot if he was me or I was him and it was a hot mess.

 The only time cannoli flavored gelato was found

 "Cultural" week in Rome = FREE colosseum entrance

 You were warned

 ELEPHANTS? RHINOS? HIPPOS? Holy smokes.

 We happened to run into a parade of dressed up Roman warriors and goddesses. Don't fret, we made it out alive. Check out this guy's tattoo!

 A little stop at the Pantheon

 Wishing to be confused with Europe's hottest pop star, Isabella, and fall in love with her Italian singing partner ... hey now, hey now, this is what dreams of made of. This reference is for anybody who was around the age of 11 in 2001.

 A kiwi, coconut, & banana flavored afternoon

We visited both the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain as many times as possible during our three days there. "Do you think it looks different at 6pm compared to 3pm?" "Maybe! Let's go check it out."

 Being 100% ridiculous. We're good at that.

 Tango for two dancers

 The next day we ventured over to Vatican City area... swarming with people since it was only a few days before Easter.

 The line to get inside the Sistine Chapel was 300 years long, so we sunbathed outside St. Peter's Basilica instead.

 Authentic Italian pizza in a crammed restaurant with tables elbow to elbow

 A night walk and cannoli by the Trevi Fountain

 We joked during the rest of the time traveling that the saying should be, "When in Rome, stay in Rome." We had a really amazing time the whole trip, but everything seemed to go perfectly in this city and it fulfilled all of my expectations. Plus, our clothes were still clean then and our feet didn't stink so bad.

Florence

 PAIGE! After the unfortunate occurrence of miscommunications in Dublin, we had the chance to hang out again in Europe and it HAPPENED. Seeing her face almost immediately after jumping off the train was pure solid relief. It was great to get to see where she has been studying and to finally meet her friends from college after hearing so much about them for the past three years.

 Love padlocks on the bridge

 Ponte Vecchio & a sunny day

 We went on a vineyard tour in the hills of Tuscany and stopped at a cute little town along the way.

 Under the Tuscan sun... you guessed it, we watched the movie nights before leaving.

 Hanging out with Paigel around Florence, showing us the way to 1 euro gelato.

 Watching the sunset over all of Florence

 City lights with the Duomo in the back
I enjoyed Florence, but it wasn't my favorite mainly because it was FULL of Americans. Literally, every corner was overfilling with them and I heard more English than Italian being spoken. The whole city was also packed with tourists because of Easter, but I can't pretend like we weren't a part of that problem.

Venice 

 Chocolate masks?

We searched every inch of this maze of a city until we found cannoli

 Kelly and Emily were dying to go on a gondola ride, so after asking several companies and men, Emily used her tricks to get us a deal and we were off on a relaxing ride under bridges and through quiet neighborhoods on water with our rower Andrea. Venice was beautiful, there's no doubt about that, but it just felt like a big tourist trap with nothing to do but walk  in circles. Tough crowd, huh?

The day quickly hit a speed bump when we headed over to the train station to buy over overnight tickets to Paris for the following night and were told that all tickets were sold out until Wednesday, the day before our plane left back to Dublin. WHAT?? Who doesn't buy their tickets in advance? Way to go guys.
We had to search down an internet cafe and after about 2 hours and no solution, we were kicked out. Back at our hostel, we were told that the computers were down and could barely use the unreliable wifi. Even after borrowing a stranger's computer "really quickly" and researching every possible outlet out of Venice for another 2 or 3 hours, we were stuck with no solution and 3 ulcers.
No, it didn't rain next- but we were stuck in one of the few countries in the world where a majority of all business were closed the following day for Easter, so little hope existed in finding an internet cafe. THANKFULLY, we found one and spent another 2+ hours researching all possible combinations of trains and boats and planes and hitchhiking and swimming to get us to Paris. The only possible solution included a train ride to Milan the following morning (with no place to sleep that night) and then a flight to Paris two days later... depressingly only leaving us with ONE day and a short morning there.
Lesson learned.

 Hour 6 or so of the FIFTEEN hours spent in the train station. We could have took the bus back to the Venice islands, but we had all of our bags with us and one large suitcase. From 2pm until 11am, we stayed inside this Mcdonalds and ate 70 cent ice cream cones while people watching, playing M.A.S.H (I almost broke a sweat when I thought I'd have to drive a trash truck and have a puke colored wedding dress... close call), telling other peoples' embarrassing stories (because nobody can ever remember their own), playing would you rather, turning my phone on and placing bets on what time it was, drooling over other people's food and almost stealing a bag with leftover fries (she came back and grabbed it, so I guess my dignity is still in tact), and attempting to play cards but then getting yelled at because apparently you need "permission" in Italy according to the broken English of the store manager.

Once the clock finally struck 11pm and we got kicked out of that fancy establishment, we still had 6ish hours to go... on the streets. We met some friendly Turkish girls and passed the time talking and trying to sleep through the cold. Around 1am, we felt bold and convinced ourselves that if we went into one of the nice hotels near by and acted really pitiful, maybe they'd let us sit on their lobby couches and accidentally fall asleep. We ended up being shy and just asked to use the restroom and then awkwardly lingered for a little too long and walked our dirty, cold, & tired selves back to our spot on the filthy floor by the train tracks. The reality that we're not princesses hurt a little bit.

What occurred in the following hours is one of those times that "you just had to be there" to even slightly understand. Short glimpse: we witnessed an ex-lover's quarrel between the diva of the nighttime railways (sporting glittery sneakers with a heel and a wig) and a man with eyes that looked in more than one direction. Spitting contest, name calling, Italian hand gestures, rock throwing, and everything in between seemed to occur. "I'm NOT your darling!"--> graciously translated by our new Turkish friend. Boarding that 5:30am train to Milan felt almost as good as finally wearing clean clothes after two weeks.

Milan 

 The only thing good about Milan was the existence of more kiwi flavored gelato. We must have been in all the wrong places, because not one thing seemed to be worthy of any traveler's time in this city. Mainly, it wasn't Paris and we were supposed to be in Paris, gosh dang it.

Paris 
We finally made it into the city late Tuesday night after about 235 obstacles. It was most definitely a moment looking through the taxi window and finally setting our eyes on the shinning Eiffel Tower and driving around the Arc de Triomphe. Paris in less than 40 hours... ready, set, GO. 

  First stop? Pastries.

 There was a market right outside our hotel full of fresh bread, creamy cheeses, roasted chicken, fruits, flowers, and clothes.

 I heard it was illegal to go to Paris and not take this photo.

 Quasimodo and Esmeralda, IS THAT YOU?

 French nutella crepes!

 For some reason there is this large platform with wind blowing up in Marilyn Monroe/hair dryer fashion in front of the Moulin Rouge. We danced and sang Spice Girls and Lady Marmalade and got a few too many strange looks so we jumped off, grabbed some candy, and headed back to the Eiffel Tower.

 Paris metro

 Minutes before Emily was proposed to by a 40 year old selling replicas of the famous tower. "I like you, you like me."

The tastiest baguettes of my life. 

 Ireland/Home

Comfort.

12 Days and a whirlwind of the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, St. Peter's Basilica, Piazza del Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Palazzo Pitti, Michelangelo Park, Milan Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre Palace, Triumphal Arch, Notre Dame Cathedral, & the Moulin Rouge. Three airplane rides and three trains.

The 4+ hour bus ride back from Dublin had never felt so relaxing, watching the calm green hills full of sheep and cows roll by.


I need to get my spoon out of the nutella jar and start studying for my 5 finals next week, prepare to pack everything I need for another 2 weeks of travel into a tiny backpack, and slowly continue to take apart my life here and stuff it all into two suitcases.