Day 51.

Back in Vienna. 

Our train arrived at the Westbanhof station, at 8:34am, two iPods and one purse short [some creep came into our compartment during the night and stole things. We were not pleased]. We had class at 10am. I didn't have enough time to go home before nor did anyone else so we rolled into class looking like this...

Yeah we look good huh? Instead of having an actual class we just told stories about our ten day trips the whole time. We were laughing pretty loud. It would seem as though everyone had a pretty grand adventure. After class I was finally able to go home and take a long hot shower. Just what the doctor ordered.

Italy seems like a dream that never happened. Guess that means I'll have to go back. :]

Day 50. VENICE

After sleeping and attempting to recoup from the night before we finally made our way out into the city. Venice was the perfect city to finish up our trip. The people were friendly, the weather was amazing, and the scenery was perfect.

I got my gondola ride in Venice. Cross that off my life to do list.

 Of all the shirts I could have brought to Italy... but hey I guess I was living out of a backpack. 

 This is my GIGANTIC backpack. 

This is Paul and Mike. They are British. 

After we spent the day wandering and eating we caught a night train home to Vienna.

How I will miss you Italy. You are charming and romantic and I can't wait to come back and visit you. Maybe I'll even learn a little bit of Italian. :]

Day 49. CINQUE TERRE.

Last day in Cinque Terre. Sad. It seems like every time we are getting ready to leave a city we all get super sad and want to spend more time there. We spent one last day basking on the beach and then we were getting ready to leave. Here are some pictures of the happy part of the day.

There were seriously cats everywhere in Italy. EVERYWHERE.

This is where the saga begins.

This was the longest night of my life. 

It was probably because I was up until 6 am, but still. 

Jenny says,  "Should we catch the 4:22 train of the 4:47 train?"

Of course we pick the 4:47 train. Little did we know that this decision would change the course of our even in ways that no one could imagine. I am going to tell you this saga in a series of bullet points. If I try to explain everything I will be writing for days. Here goes nothing.

-The 4:47 train never came
-The 5:15 train was 25 mins late
-We got to Le Spezia at 6:50
-We missed our train to Florence
-Jenny had to cry to the ticket lady in order to get our tickets changed
-We almost got on the wrong train
-We barely made the 7:10 train to Florence
-The train to Florence stopped in Pisa. It never started again.
-An Italian woman told us to get off the train and to go to platform 11
-We ran to platform 11
-Once again... we barely made the train
-We arrived in Florence at 10pm

SIDE NOTE. We were supposed to be in Venice by 10pm. Just saying.

-At the Florence train station we realized our train wasn't coming to that station
-We had to take a train to another station
-None of us have eaten dinner
-We get to the other train station there are creepy people trying to talk to us
-We have to wait 4 hours for our train
-It arrives at 1:47am
-The waiting room is freezing, we don't have jackets
-After hours of waiting the train comes
-There are no seats
-All 7 of us have to sit in the hall
-The train smells
-The people are super creepy
-Did I mention that the train smells?
-None of us got any sleep
-We arrived in Venice at 6 am
-The buses we need to take aren't running yet
-We have to wait for a cab
-It isn't big enough to fit all of us
-I am in the second cab
-We finally make it to the hotel at 6:30
-This is 8 hours after our planned arrival time
-We all cuddled and slept until noon

And that is the story about the train ride from hell. The bullet points really don't do it justice... but for my own sanity they will have to do.

Day 48. CINQUE TERRE

Day #2 in Cinque Terre.

The sun came out. We figured it would because it was a Sunday, but we were still happily surprised. After taking some time to explore the cove we set off for the beach. How am I ever going to go back to landlocked Utah? We bought a train ticket for the next town over called Monterossa. We laid in the sun and played on the beach. The weather was perfect. Around 6pm we were all feeling a little hungry so we went off in search of food.

To our surprise all of the restaurants were closed, but weren't empty. They were packed with Italians cheering on their country in the World Cup. These small restaurants has bigger flat screen TV's than I have at my house in America set up outside so everyone could pull up a chair and watch. So that is exactly what we did. I sat in a pub and watched the World Cup with a bunch of Italians. I cheered on Italy as if it was my own country. Love. They ended up tying the game and then it was over. Right after the game the restaurants opened and we were able to grab dinner. I don't think there are any sports like that in America where a whole town will just close down. I liked it very much.

Here are some pictures from our lovely day. 

 A window in Vernazza. 

T

The Coastline. 

 

 Caity I hope you like this scarf. 

And I always look awkward.  

 Vernazza... and Kayla.

Inside the Church up on the hill.

We love our pizza. The green stuff that looks gross is Pesto and it is actually really good. 

Monterossa!

Can you ever go wrong with a jumping picture?

Maybe we did a little photo shoot. Maybe :]

Once again Whitney is one of the coolest people I know. 

Another successful day in Italy. 

 

Day 47. PISA/CINQUE TERRE

We got up early Saturday morning to catch our train to Cinque Terre. We scheduled our train so that we would have 2 hour layover in Pisa. Just enough time to go see the tower. We arrived in Pisa and thick clouds were blanketing the sky.

Jana said, "It is going to start pouring."
I said, "We are only here for a little so maybe we will miss it."

How wrong I was.

It wasn't raining when we left the train station so we were hopeful. We took the bus to the leaning tower of Pisa and as soon as we stepped down off of the bus the heavens opened and the rain came down. This was not a light sprinkle. This was a monsoon type rain. The kind of rain that bounces back up off of the pavement. We sprinted towards the tower. We came all this way and we were not leaving without pictures. Jenny was the only one that brought an umbrella so she become the designated picture taker. Kayla held her little red umbrella over her head while the rest of us took turns posing in front of the tower. There wasn't a whole lot of time to get everyone positioned so the pictures came out looking a little funny.

After the photo shoot in front of the tower we were drenched. Our backpacks were drenched. We looked homeless and pathetic.

Total we spent 9 minutes at the tower. We raced back to the bus ignoring all of the African men trying to sell us umbrellas. We were already wet. What good were they going to do now? We took the bus back to the train station found a warm hallway and waited for our train to Le Spezia to arrive.

I am aware that I am no where close to the tower.

We kind of have this record going. IT HAS RAINED IN EVERY SINGLE CITY THAT WE HAVE BEEN TO IN EUROPE. It is not always crazy rain like in Pisa, but there is always some sort of moisture falling from the sky. Seems like we were pretty lucky to get to Pisa when we did. :]

When we finally made it to Vernazza we were greeted at the train station by the host of our bed and breakfast. So nice that they come and pick you up. We settled into our cute little B&B and decided it was nap time. Vacations are just the best. We woke up at about 4 in the afternoon and made our way out to explore.

Told ya it was pretty. :] 

Cinque Terre is a group of 5 towns on the coast of Italy. We were staying in Vernazza which I am pretty sure is my favorite. It was just the most precious town. We grabbed dinner and it rained on us as we made the 2 min foot walk home. That night we watched What a Girl wants in Italian while Kayla translated. Yes she can recite the whole movie by heart and yes we loved every second of it. Our first day in Cinque Terre was very relaxing and exactly what we needed after our crazy day in Florence.

We got wet. Really wet. Notice the rain drops on my glasses. I think it's a good look. Don't you?

Day 46. FLORENCE

Indie in Italy. 

3 police men and 30 euros later we had quite the story. 

Florence.
1 dome. 2 museums. 3 police men. 4 hours. 5 pieces. 6 desserts. 7 lepers.

This was one day that was packed to the brim. We started early with the Galleria Academia where we saw "THE DAVID." The statue is huge. I was once again impressed by Michelangelo. I must say that I think I like him better as a sculptor. Then we wandered the streets. Got panini's as a little cafe where the two male servers were singing English Rap music at the top of their lungs. I got separated from the group shortly after this and had to explore Florence by myself. When I finally found them I knew God had granted me a miracle. We also went to the Ufizzi Gallery and I will tell you after that museum I was musuemed out. I can only handle so much 13th century art. The group separated after the museum and Jana, Maria and I went to go to the swatch store. Instead of buying a watch the three of us had a run in with the Italian Police and spent 30 euros on dessert. We met back up with everyone and we went out to grab some dinner. On the way we got sidetracked by a free choir concert in a cathedral. It really made me miss choir. I may audition at BYU in the fall. Maybe. I had the best lasagna in the entire world in Florence. Seriously. One of the best moments of my food eating life thus far. Then we did what we always do, wandered the street until we were tired enough to fall fast asleep.

Nothing like cramming a whole city into one day.

P.S. That smiley face is on Jana's leg. Not mine. We all kinda forgot about sunblock at the beach in Rome. Oops.

Day 45. ROME/FLORENCE

Last day in Rome was bittersweet. We were excited to going to Florence, but sad to be leaving the beach we had grown to love so much. We checked out of our hostel and headed to the beach for one last hurrah before we caught our train to Florence. Perfect beach day. We went to the same private beach we had the day before. We got to do water aerobics in the sea. So fun.We took tons of pictures and had lots of people offer to help. Our favorite were 2 Austira guys that kept saying, "Play with the Camera!" over and over again. Here are some frames from our beach photo shoot.

When we got to Florence that night we ran into the sister missionaires who helped us find our hostel. We weren't sure what to expect since we were only paying 12 euros a night but we were pleasantly surprised. When we arrived the nightlife of Florence was in full swing. There is just something about being in a big city at night that I love more than anything. Everything is more magical. We found a gelato shop ordered our favorite flavors and then wandered the streets.

I never in a million years thought I would be able to travel around Europe with a bunch of my friends.