amsterdam e italia!

Amsterdam was fun; I went two weeks ago with Carrie, just for a weekend. The city is beautiful, with canals and flower markets and the Anne Frank House museum, where we went. Plus the Van Gogh Museum, also cool. Plus tons and tons of coffeehouses everywhere (if you didn't know, small amounts of weed are legal in Amsterdam and they sell it in coffeehouses as joints, loose leafs, or in 'space cakes').

Then last Thursday headed to Italy for five days; with four cities in mind: started in Pisa, then went to Florence, then Venice, and finally Milan. It felt like two days in each city because we traveled in the middle of the day and napped, then stayed out late in each city. Loved it so much! Each city had such a different feeling but everyone was so nice and friendly, literally waving to us from their houses as we walked by or inviting us into their shops to learn about the history of Venetian masks or watch a Pisan woodcutter at work while struggling to communicate in Spanish/Italian/French. Good thing I spent that week in Spain or else communication would've been way harder (Italians and Spanish can understand each others' languages, generally).

I highly recommend couchsurfing. The first night Jes and I had the most delicious pizza and stayed in a tiny guesthouse with a cute little Italian woman. Next day did all the touristy stuff in Pisa, which took about an hour, then shopped and Jes got a haircut- it's a tiny cute university town, not greatly unlike Granada. Then we went out with our fantastic couchsurfing hosts, who also fed us super yummy pasta and prosciutto. Next day, headed to Florence.

Florence is gigantic! Comparatively speaking that is. Tuscan countryside is gorgeous; we stayed in a great hostel and saw Michelangelo's David and some famous bridge, and ate our most delicious meal in Italy (no pictures though): warm calamari salad, prosciutto pizza (as usual), spinach with butter, and panna cotta for dessert. Pasta may have been involved. I love Italian food! The Duomo in Florence was very dramatic and cool.

Then we hit Venice, which might've been my favorite city (although Pisa was my favorite experience b/c of couchsurfing). The first day we wandered around away from our hotel, with the aim of getting lost, and ended up at this mask store with one guy who makes all his masks by hand, and he showed us how to wear the masks, about the history of them, and made us model them too. Went to San Marco, that famous piazza, and heard some live music and danced around with this piano girl who was playing 'Funkytown' and rocking out.

It started raining the next day and didn't stop pouring all day; my French shoes died so I got pretty Italian designer shoes on the way to Milan. Milan was pretty sucky just because it was cold and we were tired. We couchsurfed that night and had a good conversation about Europe from the American perspective, then left early in the a.m. Watched "Leatherheads" in Italian near the Duomo, which was "In Amore Niente Regole" (In love without rules?) to take a nap. Had gelato and delicousness, grabbed our flight out of Milan, and got on a bus back to Paris. The bus broke down but we barely caught the last metro back into town.

Right now I'm on a road trip across France with my mommy who's visiting for a whole week! So of the 30 days in April, I'm spending 11 in Paris. Haha I love travel!