Italia!

Danie made ma a journal for my birthday. I like it a lot! I woke up and came downstairs and she had pancakes made and she and the kids and Hannah and Jenn sang happy birthday to me. I even had a candle in my pancakes. The rest of the day was spent traveling to Florence. I had my first Ryanair experience which was pretty much like any other airline except they attempted to sell us tons of stuff including but not limited to food and drinks, perfume, cologne, lottery tickets, and cigarettes which were not to be smoked on the plane so they sold nicotine patches as well. Also, when the plane landed they played celebratory music which really can't be a positive sign. I don't think you should be celebrating the fact that you landed. Makes me wonder how often their planes don't land.
When we got to Italy we checked into our hostel which was awesome by the way, and we went to get gelato. I got half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate. It was amazing. Embarrassing fact- from wednesday to sunday Hannah and I got gelato 6 times...
On Thursday morning we got up early and went to museums. It was cool to actually see what we have been learning about in class. We got lunch on our own at a small cafe and I got pizza. After lunch we met back with the group and we went to two beautiful churches. Then we got free time and Lauren, Hannah, and I went shopping. I bought black boots from a flee market. It was kind of a sketchy operation...the man who sold them to me disappeared to some secret location to get my size and the shoes he gave me are a different size than the ones I tried on even though they're both labeled the same. Oh well, they were cheap and I like them a lot.
Later we climbed 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo ad the views were absolutely breathtaking. It was totally worth the hike up. We met these asian guys who took our picture and wanted pictures with us. I guess the whole American girls thing excited them. It sounds like they were creepy people but I didn't really get that vibe. The view from the top of the Duomo was so gorgeous and I must have taken over 50 pictures from the top.
The whole group ate dinner together and then we went to a bar. The whole drinking wine provided by your professors thing still feels like a strange concept. Some of us walked back to the hostel early and got more gelato and we stopped to listen to live music along the way. The musician was singing Beatles songs.
On Friday we woke up really early to go to a few museums and churches. We went to a monastery to see Fra Angelico's Frescoes. They told different bible stories and it was interesting to look at them and interpret them. All of the churches we saw were beautiful, especially the Santa Maria Novella. Most of them don't allow you to take pictures though so that's kind of a bummer. I obviously took a few illegal shots so I could remember what they looked like when I'm old and gray. When we went into the churches, I really liked looking at the ceilings because they're so detailed and I know they must have been incredibly hard to make back in the day.
For lunch we went to some lame Italian restaurant owned by Portuguese men. The food and service both sucked. After lunch, Hannah, Lauren, and I explored by walking up some steep, narrow road for about half an hour, hoping we'd get to the top and find a good view of the city. We ended up at some gardens you needed to pay 7 euro to see so instead we turned around and found a path leading to a stone wall. We climbed the wall and sat on top and looked at an amazing city scene. The wall had barbed wire so we we were careful but I'm thinking we weren't supposed to be up there. I got my jeans really dirty and it looked like someone puked on them so I guess that's what you get for not paying.
We all ate dinner together again and then came back to the hostel and played euchre. Hannah and I were partners and dominated as usual.
On Saturday we went on a tour of tuscany. First we went to Siena then San Gimignano and finally Pisa. For lunch we stopped at an organic farm and winery just outside of San Gimignano. The food was delicious and the views of tuscany were incredible! We saw the leaning tower in Pisa as well as a Cathedral and Baptistry. The weather in Pisa was perfect. It was actually pretty warm (probably upper 50's) and the sun came out! We got to see a beautiful Italian sunset.
On the flight home, we flew over the Swiss Alps. It was so pretty it looked fake. It made me really want to go to Switzerland, but I think we're going there in May. I have a really busy week with school (2 midterms, a paper, and a quiz) but Friday starts Carnival break and we have a week off. I'm going to Spain! We just booked tickets for a soccer game which should be really fun since soccer is so big in Europe especially in Spain. I don't have class until 2pm tomorrow but I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed.