Helloooooo collegiettes! Greetings from…my bed. I know, I’m not that exciting today, but what can I tell you? 21 straight nights of being out on the town in one way or another have left yours truly feeling more than a little under the weather. A movie marathon is for sure on the docket for tonight. But while I wait the standard three hours for my illegal downloads to buffer, let me catch you up my whirlwind European tour!
As you may have surmised, last week was Kristen & I’s mid-semester fall break, which abroad means we basically get license to take ten days off from classes and scour the continent. #abroadproblems, right?
We kicked off our journey with a short train ride over to Venice for the weekend to visit some friends from Wake, and of course, the legendary canals. And by short, I mean “it felt like five minutes because we killed a bottle of Chianti en-route”. Typical.
Now, for any of you who have been to Venice, seen pictures of Venice, even remotely heard of Venice, then you know that not only is it possibly the most beautiful city in Europe, but…it is also the quietest. Like, I don’t know if you guys realize…there are no cars in Venice! Or buses! Or traffic lights! Just miles of crystalline blue water and architecture like you read about.
Che bella, no?One issue: gorgeous, tranquil, relaxing, and romantic as Venice might be, there is zero night life. And zero night life translates to a 100% chance we are standing out. I am talking “loudest people at the only bar open past 1 am on the entire island”stand out. Awkward.
Needless to say, attempting to navigate the fog-laden, labyrinth-like streets of the city at 3 am was not exactly the most relaxing part of our fall break. Especially when we realized that short of the lone street sweeper in the corner of a dark piazza, no one was awake in Venice.
Except us, of course.
Lucky for the Florence girls, the next stop on our fall break adventure was none other than the absolutely hopping London. Guys, seriously, I am in love. Not only did we get to catch up with three of our best buds from Wake on Halloween, but Kristen and I also managed to muster our inner tourist and see, like, the entire city. I am talking tubing (that means subway-ing…ah!) from the Big Ben to the original Top Shop to Shakespeare’s Globe, and everywhere in between entirely in one day!
And dressing up like devils and taking a London night club by storm wasn’t too shabby, either.
Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, our final leg of the journey took us all the way across Europe to the legendary Barcelona. Some backstory: we’d been hearing for weeks about the insane pick-pockets of Spain who would slice open your backpack and steal a cell phone out of your hand without a moment’s thought, so of course, as soon as we stepped off the plane, Kristen and I were expecting to be attacked by some sort of ninja-robber. Seriously, Kristen had her backpack on in the front. I was clutching my messenger bag to my chest like it was a bomb. That was how we looked on our big arrival in Spain.
Needless to say, our safety-first debut was entire unnecessary. After arriving at my best bud from high school’s apartment unscathed, we were more than ready to get our Barcelona beer on, relax, and basically have the time of our lives.
Can we just take a moment to talk about this view? I’m at the beach in this picture. Just one day after having stared up at the London eye! Abroad is not real life.
Anyways…after some wild nights and some breath-taking Barcelona views (the Picasso museum was nuts), the Florence girls were more than ready for, well, Florence! We hopped back on a train and returned to Italy feeling super-European…and super-exhausted. Our bellissima city has never felt more like home.
You know what they say…non c’è posto come casa. Until next week, collegiettes!