The next few entries are from my second travel week, where I went to Venice, London, Paris, and Barcelona...so enjoy!!!

March 16th, 2007

Heidi and I arrived in Venice around 730 to meet one of her best friends, Ashley, who flew in from Nebraska for the week to visit. It was her first time ever really flying by herself, and so this was a HUGE step for her to jump on a plane and come all the way to Italy.

We met up with Ashley at the hotel, which turned out to be a really nice hotel. The only bad part was the location. It was in Mestre, about 30 mins from the mainland of Venice. This made transportation to and from the city pretty difficult. We took a taxi and had to pay like 30 euro to get into Venice...but its okay because the cab driver was the most interesting guy ever. He had lived in New York City for 7 years working as an engineer, and now he drives taxis and gives people tours for a living here because his visa ran up. He has definitley adapted that 24 hour American work attitude. He was awesome.

We got into the mainland around 930 and realized that the last bus to take us back to the hotel left at midnight. SO basically, we only had like 2 hours to show Ashley the city. We started walking and met this guy from Morocco who was really nice. He told us the best way to get to San Marco Square was by watertaxi, so we jumped on one. Little did we know that the stupid watertaxi trip lasted an hour. It took us around the entire city (Venice was built on water so there are no streets for regular taxis). It was so aggravating!

When we finally reached San Marco Square we stopped at a restaurant to eat some pizza. We had this really creepy waiter who tried to sell us a 50 euro bottle of wine, and then he wanted to take us out to some bar. He was so weird. We tried to tell him it was Ashley's bday in hopes that we could get some free cake or something...but it failed and we didnt get anything :(

On the way back to the bus station we got lost because Venice is made up completley of alleyways, and everything looks the same. We ran into these Americans thankfully that were studying in Sienna, and they helped us find our way. I dont know what we would have done if we didnt run into them.

We made it back just in time to catch the bus, and went to our hotel and slept because we had to get up early to catch our plane to London.

March 17th, 2007 (St. Pattys day!!)

Today we caught a flight to London. We flew EasyJet, which is just like Southwest in the sense that it's first come first serve for seats. It all worked out though, it was just mad chaos when people were trying to get on the flight. Talk about selfish attitudes...sheesh!! lol.

To put London in a nutshell, it's expensive. Our dollar is so weak that 1 pound is worth 2 dollars...so everything is double! When we first got off the plane we had to buy a train ticket for 20 mins, and it cost us 15 pounds!!! thats 30 dollars!! Man, talk about puttin a dent in the wallet.

We met these high schoolers on the train, and it was hilarious because honestly, they said the word "f***" probably 3 times every sentence. Apparantly, it's very acceptable here. I couldnt believe it...but I couldnt help laughing at the same time. Of course we started talking to them, and we asked them how to get to our hotel. When I showed them the address, their faces like turned white. They said we were in the complete ghetto of London, and it wasnt safe there. Despite that, they helped us get a taxi to where it was we needed to go. Our hotel was called hotel 87, and when I showed it to the taxi driver he said it wasnt even listed. He drove us to the area anyways, but he verbalized a lot about the area and how terrible and unsafe it was. He was pointing out like brothels and all sorts of stuff that was around the area, and it was enough to scare the bejesus out of the three of us. I think at one point his exact words were "I wouldnt even let my f***ing dog stay there!".

The three of us were so scared to stay at this hotel, that we decided we wouldnt. We honestly didnt even wanna see it. Our taxi driver was so nice that he drove us around for an hour as we tried to search for a hotel that wasnt booked bc of st pattys day. He brought us to the richest part of London, and we totally lucked out on a hotel called Victoria Inn that had a cancellation. Of course we had to pay extra...but we decided we just wouldnt eat while we were in London to make up for the investment...haha.

After settling in we decided to go see London and meet up with Jess, Eric, Adam, Sarah, and Nick (people from the program). We took a bus to Leister square, and while on the bus this really creepy guy sat next to Ashley and started hitting on her. He asked what our names were...and we all lied, naturally. I told him my name was Abby...and these guys that we had met at the airport (who randomly were on the same bus by coincidence and were sitting behind us) laughed at me and were like "Abby...like the Westminster Abby sign we just passed huh..." hahaha.

ANYWAYS, we went to a pub and met up with the ppl from the program. We saw all these guys dressed as leprachauns..it was hilarious. When we left, we went and saw Westminster Abby and Big Ben...and walked around for a little bit.

When we got back to the hotel Ashley, who is a professional hair stylist, chopped my hair. I had been wanting to do it for a while, so I was excited. My hair was gettin reallllll boring. I chopped 7 inches off, and Heidi decided in the moment that she was going to do the same thing...so she chopped like 9 inches off her head. It looks great, even though shes still in denial that she did it.

That night we went to go meet up with Jess and Adam to go out to the pubs. We were supposed to meet at trafalgar square at930...but they didnt end up showing up till 1045. In the meantime we met this random 16 year old that came up to us and starting talkin to us. He was really odd. He was drunk, and he asked if he could sleep on our floor in the hotel. hmmm...weird.

By the time Jess and Adam got there we tried to get into a pub and the guy outside said it was closed. Apparantly they close at like 11. 5 minutes later, however, he let us in. I dont know...I didnt understand it either.

At about 1am we went to a club, and it was pretty fun I guess. It was sooo crowded though, and I wasnt really in the mood to be there, because lets face it, I'm a grandma who gets tired and doesnt really party. I made myself laugh though, because it was sooo crowded that I decided to get up on the bar where there was room, and I guess I had no choice but to dance, haha. It was pretty funny.