Lego genius

While we were on our trip, we came across a shop that had loads of fun little goodies to play with, one including a portable ipod speaker shaped like a lego. This little guy is the best, and i truly regret not getting one myself but maybe in the future.. The lego just plugs into your ipod and amplifies the sound, so you do not need batteries or a plug. It works anywhere you would like it to, and is the perfect travel buddy. It's no bigger than a chapstick and works so great, plus there are lots of different colors to pick from, so go ahead and click here to get one. You know you want to!

Italia

Italy was so much fun. We started in milan and then went to florence and rome. While we were in milan we went to lake como, one of my favorite places in italy. highly recommended to go there. It was so pretty, we just went for the day and took a boat fairy around the different little towns. Milan was an adventure because we had to find the e.r. cause shan got some sort of odd rash... it made our time there a little more exciting, and no worries she is fine!

After milan we went to florence, that was really fun. Our hostel was really cool, they had a pool, sauna, disco club, and every room had their own bathroom so it was extremely nice for a really good price. While we were there we saw the david, duomo, the famous florence bridge and other random little sites. I had a mishap while there. When we were in line for the david i got hit with some bird poop.. in my hair.. it was really gross so that set us back a little, but gave everyone a good laugh for the rest of the day! On our way going to rome, we took a detour to pisa to get some pictures in at the leaning tower of pisa.
Rome i think is on everyones top list of where to go now. We had a great time there. We stayed in a perfect location, it only took about 5-10 minutes to walk to the coliseum, & about 15 to the trevi fountain, so it was really easy to get around. While we were there we went to st. peters square, climbed to the top of the vatican, made a wish at the trevi fountain, ate dinner while looking at the coliseum, and wandered all over the city. The trip was amazing, everyone became so close in the end and we all had so much fun.

Interlaken


Interlaken was probably one of my favorite spots of the trip. We stayed at a really fun hostel that was also really nice with a good price. The hostel always had loads of activities and people everywhere, and they made it easy to find good things to do. The first day we arrived we walked all around the city, getting a feel for it and trying to see what we would be interested in doing. The second day we were there, we went into the city and there was a huge rain storm that hit so we were stranded for a bit under some covering because we didn't want to get completely soaked, but soon enough i got everyone to agree to just make a run in the rain, which i thought was fun because i love rain. Later that day we went white water rafting, which was so exciting. the water was about 8 celsius, so pretty much freezing but that did not change how much fun we had. I loved every minute of it and am so glad we decided to go.
Our last day there, shan and i went to the jungfrau, also known as the top of europe, and the boys went on a day hike. Junfrau was pretty cool, i have gone there before with my family but when we went it was a cloudy day so you couldn't see how high you were and when shan and i went it was really clear and beautiful. There was an ice palace where they have different sculptures carved out and different look out points, i didn't want to go at first because i had already been and because of the cold, but i'm really glad we did.
When we went down from the jungfrau it was fun to hear what the boys did and see their pictures because our days were so completely different but we were only 2 hours away. Our day was freezing and filled with snow, ice, and hot chocolate while the boys was sunny, bright, and warm. Interlaken is great if you like to be out doors, there is such a huge variety of different things you can do, there is no way you can't find something you're interested in!

Paris


Paris, was lovely. We got there early in the morning and were able to do a lot with our time there. The first day we saw Notre Dam and then napped because we were so out of it. That night we went to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up and have dinner while looking at it, it was very romantic for me and shan, the boys didn't want to join! The next day was my 20th birthday! I had planned it perfectly to spend my bid day in my favorite city, and boy was that a good idea! My mom and Shan surprised me with a birthday lunch at the Jules Vern, the restaurant at the top of the Eiffel Tower! It was so fun, we had to get dressed up and were treated like royalty, plus the food was outrageously good and we had the best view of the city. After we ate we went to the very top of the tower. Later that day we met with our friend that was also there visiting her family, and we went out for crepes. The next day we went to the Louvre, and to Versailles, both are amazing and if you ever get to go to paris, you have to see both. I love the gardens at Versailles, they are breathtaking. WE took a nice little nap in the grass at the palace as well!
Later that night, we met up with another friend who was doing an internship in paris. We ate with her and her friend at a little greek type shop, which i loved, found the other store in paris that sold dr. pepper, which made nathan ecstatic, and then got desert by the Arc de Triumph. And of course, shannon and i had to shop around the main streets and admire all the pretty things in the designer stores that we have no intention or the ability to purchase..but girls can dream, right..?


England


After Spain we went to England, and stayed in a suburb outside of london called Chelmsford with the boys' old mission companion, luke. It was pretty cool because we all had the house to ourselves because his family was gone. The first day we got there, we went down to Cambridge to go punting along the canal of all the famous old universities. That was a lot of fun, punting is when a person stand on the back of the gondola boat and pushes you along with a stick, but instead of hiring someone to do it for us, we did it. It was so funny watching all of the boys doing it, they had no clue how to work it at first, but then once shannon and i attempted there were no words to explain just how terrible we were. It was hilarious needless to say.
One day Shan, Nate, Blake, and I went into London and found our way throughout the city hitting all the main sites. We went to the tower of london, buckingham palace, we wandered through the rain for 2 hours in hyde park to find peter pan, we had a picnic infront of the london eye and big ben, saw westminster cathedral, and ate fish and chips in notting hill. It was a action packed fun day.
On our last day with Luke, we went to the white cliffs of dover. Those were amazing, they reminded me a lot of the cliffs of moher in ireland. They were really cool. We walked along those for a while, and then settled down for a picnic and cool down on one of the edges of a cliff. What else makes them cool is for all of you pride and prejudice fans, a scene from the movie was filmed there, so that made me more excited to see them!





Spain



So i have decided to do an overview of all the places we have traveled to on our grand adventure, now that it's coming to an end! Spain was really so much fun. Shan and i were not thrilled with madrid, but once we got out of there things start to look up for us. San Sebastian was so much fun, and really laid back. All we did was lounge about on the beach and wander throughout the little town getting some pictures, and we also met up with my friend Kaitlyn, who had been doing a study abroad in spain. It was so much fun seeing her and hanging out with her friends from the program. After San Sebastian, we took a 10 hour train ride to Barcelona. Barcelona was amazing. We loved it. We met up with Nate and Blake there, and that's when the party began. We were constantly doing something. We went to the beach, we went to the sagrada familia, park de guell, the boys took us on a bike tour throughout the city, and we went out dancing the night away. We also saw Kaitlyn while we were in barcelona, which made it really fun cause we then had a big group of about 6-8 people! all in all, barcelona was a marvelous experience!