Milano for a minute...

Ciao everyone. Tomorrow I will have to spell it differently! Luckily we got all packed last night, so this morning we had plenty of time to go back to our favorite cafe in Florence and drink fresh squeezed orange juice and relax before going to the train station. Thank you for praying us safely to Milano. We were kind of concerned because there were complicated directions for getting to our hotel, and of course we were carrying the 30+ pound packs which always is tricky. We made it with almost no problem at all, we just had to ask a man at one store how to get from the bus stop to the hotel, and he smiled like he got that question all the time. So he directed us right here, and it seems very nice to us, and we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon sitting on the big covered porch here at the hotel reading and journalling. Amy is a very good little traveler and knows how to make everything fun and like a vacation. We just had dinner at our hotel because it is kind of far from downtown or the sites. I ordered turkey, but I am really not fully convinced that was what it was. I was very happy to have broccoli though! To respond to your comments...tracey, my favorite kind of gelato is bacio, but they didnt have that in the south, but i did discover nutell gelato which was amazing!!! and the present is for TC, but you will have to wait until I come home to know what it is! Tomorrow I will write you from Spain!! Love to all. -S

Chillin in Milano

Ciao!! We made it here to our hotel in Milano safely with only little minor issues. We are very smart and think we should do Amazing Race except I would never eat the gross food! HaHa. After we got here today we cooled off in our room and then we sat out on the little outdoor couches and enjoyed reading and of course hearing church bells all the time. You know how I love them!! LOL! My book is so good! Grandma you will love this next one!! It is very exciting! I still love my ring so much. I enjoy typing and looking at it. Shannon and I are just staying in the hotel tonight; we had dinner here and will have breakfast here tomorrow before going to the airport to fly to Madrid tomorrow! We have been reading about Madrid and we are VERY excited. Hopefully we will be able to flaminco dance when we get home!! T- my very favorite gelato flavour (I spelled it all Canadian like for you Mev, oh which reminds me that they also have Bounty bars here like in Canada... i eat a lot) is Coco (coconut). It is delicious and has coconut pieces in it! I love it! I guess thats all for now. If you want something to laugh about... here it is... so all the guys here greet each other by kissing on each cheek.. imagine Josh kissing ANY other guy on the cheek twice. HAHAHA.. enjoy that funny thought. Love you all! Welcome back to PF Jake and Mon! Ciao!

On to Milan!

Ciao! Today we got all of our little list accomplished so that is good! Let's see... I bought presents for a few people. Happy! We were sitting in a Piazza for a while this afternoon and we saw the cutest bride and groom come in and have pictures taken. Everyone applauded every pose. It was VERY cute! We enjoyed sitting and eating Gelato. I had to flirt with a waiter to be able to use the restroom there instead of walking to our place and then climbing the 103 stairs. haha... We went and got our train tickets today too which is good to have taken care of. Tomorrow will be a long day though like I said so we are preparing.. haha.. no not really, but we did walk a TON today so that was probably good conditioning. We had a little dinner and we both tried to get salads. Shannon got salmon and I'm telling you it was completely raw. I hadn't noticed until she had already eaten some or I would have cautioned against here eating any. haha.. I had chicken but I have decided it is too hard to order salads here really. Anyway in two days we will be in Spain. Shan says the salads are better there. Ok, well I am ready to go to bed and hopefully sleep all night to get up early tomorrow and get to the station! I love you all! Ciao!

more florence...

Today was our last full day in Florence. I think Amy and I are both going to be sad to leave, just as we were sad to leave Rome. We have had lots of fun here the last couple of days. Today we started early, can you believe we got up before 8!! We had lots of things to do, and some things that will make all of you happy: shopping for presents and mailing post cards! (sorry mom, the first present was for the little sick girl, Tracey get better and I will you bring you your present!) We also started out with coffee, chocolate pasteries, and journaling in a cafe. Very important! Then we ate lunch on our terrace at the guest house and took pictures of all the beautiful views of the city and ourselves. I also spent time sketching the view of the duomo from our room. We also got our tickets for milan and packed up our backpacks again. Then we hung out in Piazza Signoria and journaled, talked to mom, and ate gelato, while trying not to get attacked by the pigeons. While we were there a bride and groom came out of one of the churches and everyone in the piazza applauded. They were beautiful! Better run! Love to all!
-S

The Answer is ...

Haha.. all good guesses. The first thing I threw away was my curling iron. It didn't work in Rome and it's big and stupid. So... I will need a new gold metallic heats in 60 seconds curling iron when I get back. haha. All good guesses. No Stine I wouldn't throw away my toothbrush, don't worry. I am about to throw away shoes though. Little white ones, they get too wet easily. Duck-Duck, don't be crying. Boys are not to cry over( I know it's easier said than done). Whatever the reason God will take care of you and he has the perfect plan and the perfect man and probably the perfect jam. I love you too. Rico, thank you very much for showing Oliver pictures of aunt amy so he won't forget me, and don't stress about what to write, I'm happy to read anything from home. Kate, I love you very much too, and yes you will love the ring. Aunt Colleen, this is very new, you know i used to not really like jewelry, but now all of a sudden i do... haha. Grandma and Grandpa, I wish I could throw away everything and just fill my bag with jewels. That is a good idea that I hadn't thought of yet! Hey A/F, thanks for writing, I didn't know if you remembered us still. Today we have a list of things we have to do and buy while we are here. We will try to do it all like good girls. Keep us in your prayers for the next few days, they will be stressful. Back to back bag carrying days with complicated directions. Getting from the train station to our hotel seems hard and the next day getting from there to airport seems a little difficult too. We will do it, and Colleen we use your advice often if we worry, it's true throwing money at the situation will help anything! I love you all!! Ciao!

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Ponte Vecchio

Tonight we went to Ponte Vecchio. For those who don't know it is a bridge that is lined completely on both sides with jewelry stores. Wouldn't you just guess I found something that I needed... well I don't want to describe it because I want it to be a surprise. It is a ring... it is beautiful and has significant meaning to me... I am happy!

Firenze

Ciao all. Thanks for your comments! For your information, we are staying very sunscreened and mostly unburned, especially amy. And for proof, I actually decided to take a picture of her coating it on. It looks like war paint! Bob, last night I had dark chocolate gelato, and it was amazing! So backtracking a little bit...we went to the beach in Sabaudia about an hour away by train from Rome. We told you how hot it was in Rome, so of course when we got to the beach it was cold and windy. We mostly huddled under our towels all day, but it was still very relaxing to sit and not walk or carry our packs. (I am sure you will hear a lot about those packs from both of us. The advice of "pack everything you think you'll need and get rid of half" is great, follow it if you ever travel!) There were a couple of sunbreaks and I swam. And we also built a sand-castle and a sand-fish with shells for scales so we could stay warm. Yesterday afternoon while we waited for the train, I drug Amy around Rome and made her look at the Collesseum and Trevi fountain. Then we took the train from Rome to Florence and enjoyed the beautiful Italian countryside. When we got to Florence we found our very awesome guesthouse just a block from the Duomo. The girl who runs it is named Falina and is a perfectly cute little italian girl of course! Our room is bright and sunny (or it was yesterday before it was raining at least) and looks over one building to the duomo. And there are two terraces for the house that have panoramic views to the whole city. There is cool artwork all over the walls. and a street performer played violin all evening on the corner downstairs. I love it! After we got settled in we walked down to a piazza for dinner where Falina recommended. It is kind of out of the way and sheltered from the main touristy areas. Our cute blonde waitress spoke perfect English with an American accent so when we went in to pay our bill I had to ask how she ended up working at a restraunt in Italy. It turns out that she went to Europe last year on vacation. She was in Florence for two days and went to the restraunt for dinner where she now works. The owner asked her out on a date. And another one. Then after her trip to Europe was over she went back to Florence, and seven weeks later he proposed. So she went back to San Diego, sold her house and her cars and moved to Florence. Hehe, don't let that worry you though. I will make sure to bring Amy home with me! On our way back from dinner we stopped in a million shops, amy bought a purse to make up for the historical monuments I made her look at, and we stopped for gelato. We are soo predictable! This morning we got up and had coffee and croissants at the cafe across the street which was bustling with italians, strange for florence. More to follow...Love you all!

Florence is my Heaven!!!

Ciao!! I did not like saying goodbye to Rome. I really loved that city. I'm still in mourning a little, but now we are here in Florence. I love it so so so much! At first not so much because we got off the train (where we were sitting across from a very cute swiss boy who had the cutest accent and was fun to talk to) we had to walk all the way to our apartment (which isn't that far but 10 steps is too far with the over 30 pound backpack on). When we got there we buzzed up to our hostess lady Felina and she said (Ciao, top floor). So in we went. I should have looked up outside to see how tall the building was. It was so far... like 8 floors up... I really honestly thought I was going to die around floor 6. If I had the energy I would have thrown my backpack out the window. Our little house is so cute! The bathroom is pink and the walls are all bright colors. We can see the Duomo out the window and from our little terrace on the roof (more steps up) we can see the whole city because when you're as high up as a plane you can see anything. We shopped last night just a preshop you know, find out what we want and what we NEED. I did buy a purse last night because it was too good! I love ALL of the jewelry here. Someone teach Kate, kassi, Justine and Mev how to look at this will you? It's pouring rain today but we still love it. We walked all the way down the stairs and opened our big door (like 17 feet tall) and a man was standing there selling umbrellas. Talk about service. haha. Luckily all the shoe and jewelry stores are inside!! I want to spend all of my money here but a man on a plane told Shannon about a jewelry store in Dublin that starts with W.. where we should buy stuff. Does anyone has any idea what that is? Oh ya, I threw away my first thing from home... any guesses what it was? I will tell you in my next blog. Much amore to all of you!! Ciao!

Rome is too hot for humans!!!

Ciao!! I am loving Rome very much all except its way too hot for humans and it's also very difficult to buy coffee that you can actually drink. I love all the dogs everywhere and i love all the people speaking different languages. I rarely hear english and when i do a lot of the time it is british english. Crazy! I bought a new little white dress in some sort of effort to beat the heat. For all who are deeply concerned about the sunscreen issue i am wearing a lot of it. And those who are concerned about the men chasing me around.. haha.. i'm with Shannon so all rest assured. One of my favorite parts so far was learning how to use the fancy public drinking fountains. There definitely is an art to it. Well i think we are leaving soon so more later from us. I am going to eat more cheese and pasta tonight most likely, that what i do. I am also of the religious belief that one should eat at least three gelati cups a day. It's not like i would be gaining weight with the walking everywhere in the 400 degree hot hot sun. the running tally so far: 9 nuns, 7 priests, and 4 monks. I'll keep ya posted. Love to all.

Roma

For anyone waiting to hear, Amy and I made it safely to Europe. We said our goodbyes at a very fun going away party the Sunday before, and then Tuesday our parents took us to the airport in Spokane. After about 30 hours of travel we arrived at our B&B in London. It was a very cute farmhouse from the 1700s with two horses and lots of chickens. We went for a short walk through the countryside, but quickly got tired and went for dinner at the pub next door to the B&B. We left on thursday early to go to the airport to fly to rome, so we missed out on breakfast, but the French chickens laid very beautiful red speckled eggs that our host showed us. We got to rome and made it to our apartment. Our landlord was a cute italian lady that spoke a little bit of english and she showed us all around our tiny apartment, including the kitchen (which is in a closet!) This is our second day in Rome, so far we have gone to some of the main attractions like the vatican, spanish steps, and the pantheon. And we've had gelato twice, and I'm sure that won't be the last time! And of course amy has started shopping. Tomorrow we're going to the beach...

more adventures for me and cupcake

In a week I will be graduating and leaving this allegedly carefree college lifestyle behind. My graduate project has been presented, my book is printed, I just have one more research paper left to write and I'm out of here. But before becoming a grown up, I'm going to delay the real world for a little while longer and travel to Europe for a month.

Two years ago I studied abroad in Torino, Italy (pre-olympics) for the summer with my friend Amanda. After school we took a whirl-wind tour of france, spain, and germany. From my first day on the trip (or maybe it was the second after some sleep) I was hooked on travel. It was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life so far, and as soon as I got home I couldn't wait to go back. So I planned to take advantage of of the opportunity to give myself a graduation present, and take another trip. It is surprisingly difficult to convince people to take an amazing trip to Europe; I tried my parents, my sister, all my friends, and finally I found someone just as excited to travel as I am!

My very excellent traveling companion will be my friend and honorary little sis Amy from Post Falls. We have already had many adventures together traveling. In 2004, we went to Mobil, Alabama to brave the heat, humidity, unnaturally huge spiders, running leaves, and the bayou boardwalk to support my amazing sister at America's Junior Miss. Then in January 2006, we got to skip the first week of school to go watch T at Miss America. Whether away, or at home floating down the river or eating nachos on tv night, we and our families always have lots of fun and laughs.

Sometime last fall we booked our tickets from Seattle to London to seal the deal. So here's the plan...we fly into London on May 22. Then we'll spend time in Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Paris before returning to London for a couple of days and flying out on June 19. I would love to hear your favorite must-see experiences from any of those places. For now, I'm back to looking for hotels...I'll keep you updated.