Florence, Pisa, Rome, Venice July 9 - 16

ITALY WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS 2006

My trip started off in Florence, this was a really cool town but I have to admit there wasn't much that got me saying wow, like on my other trips. Thats Tuscan sun was really hot also but it was well worth trecking everywhere to see everything around Florence. I have a ton of pictures from Italy and here are just a few. The first picture is a picture of Florence during the day and the next one is during the night, it was a long treck up hill the whole time but some of the sights were well worth the hike. The last pic is of me in front of the David statue, this is a replica and I didn't really see a need to see the original, considering it was in a museum and I would not have been able to take pics anywaya, haha I'll explain this later!!





On Tuesday, I made a quick trip to see the all famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. This was only about an hour and a half bus ride from Florence so it was well worth it to see what all the hype was about!! I have to admit also Pisa is really small and there isn't much to see other then the main square where the leaning tower is at. The first picture is what was everything in the main square!! This was really cool cause everything was so intricate and beautiful. The next pic is of me taking a little break on the leaning tower!!




After Pisa, I left and did a 5 hour bus ride to Rome. I arrived to Rome late on Tuesday night. This city was AMAZING there was so much to see and it was equally as beautiful. Like mentioned there are so many pics here are just a few of what I took!!

I started my first day in Rome to see the Vatican city. Of course if you go to the Vatican city you have to go see the Sixteen Chapel. The first picture is of where the Pope stays and inside this building was so beautiful and huge!! This is the only time you will see me wearing pants out here because is so freaking hot but they are really strict and if your knees or shoulders are showing you can't get in!! This pic is from the top of the Pope's place and looking out over the Vatican. The next picture is of the all famous roof of the Sixteen Chapel, I do have a video of this also, it was so amazing and we were not supposed to be taking video or pictures but of course I played the dumb "tourist" and did it anyways, it was well worth it. Oh also, there was a huge line, and if you know me I don't wait in lines, it took me 20 minutes alone to walk from the back of the line right to the front. I talked to some friends and they waited 2.5 hours in that same line, haha, I feel sorry for them!!





I guess to start, Rome has a ton of fountains and all were really beautiful, this on is of the Fontana di Trevi (Trevi Fountain). The next picture is of me in front of the old Roman city and if you look close you can see the Collesseum!!




Rome is amazing at night also, here are a couple of good night pics that I have. The first one if of course the Collesseum and the next one is of the Ponte Vitorio Emanuele (Angel's Bridge). So beautiful!!




My second day in Rome was spent to check out some Catacombs, this was really nice because it was underground and it was really cool, temperature wise, down there and it was a nice relief from the hot Italian Sun. The second pic is what it looked like down in the Catacombs, haha also here, we were not supposed to take pics but guess who doesn't listen, sorry its blurry but its the night setting on the camera and I had to take it in a hurry, haha!!




After the Catacombs, I went out to check out Ostia Antica/Ostia Lido. Ostia Antica is the old Roman harbor village, this was really cool to see also, its crazy because the whole town was underground and everything had to be dug out!! Ostia Lido is the beach that is about 10 min from the harbor village and it was really nice to hit a beach and chill for a bit, it was nice to kick back and enjoy the Italian scenery (topless chicks) haha!!



After the beach, I went to the Collesseum and I have to say, WOW, its crazy that people made something like this!! The first pic is of the floor of the place, there were two levels underground and if you look you can actually see it. The next one is of me inside!!




After that I left at night to head towards Venice!! Friday morning we got to Venice and took a boat to check out this sinking city!! The first picture is of the main square in Venice, it was beautiful and very elaborate!! The next picture is just down one of the canals in Venice!! The third pic is of me on the main bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice!!





No trip to Venice is complete without and Gandola trip. Here is a pic of the Gandola boats and then of me on one of the boats heading through the canals. This was a really cool experience!!




While in Italy, I also recommend having one of the vamous Giolaittis!! Y-U-M-M-Y!!!



After Venice we headed back to the main land and also hit another beach, it was very nice and relaxing to be here because it was pretty private!!



On the last day in Italy, I decided to go a little island hopping to check out Burano and Murano. Burano is famous for its lace products and Murano is famous for its glass products!! Here is a pic of Murano, and yes that is another leaning tower, haha!!



This is the glass blower that we saw, he put on a show for us and told us about it, its crazy to know that he turns something like this (first pic) to something like this (second pic) in less then 2 minutes!!

London June 30 - July 2

Once again, haha, I planned to go to Paris this weekend but again it was packed and my American friend from Kassel was going to London to spend time with his family so I decided to check out the Brits. We left Thursday night and drove all night to London, we ended up taking a barge across the channel rather then the Chunnel. We arrived early in the morning and started from there. Here is a picture of Piccadilly Circus center. This was very simular to Town Square in New York, but to me, it wasn't as big as Town Square, but the advertisements on the screens behind me were the most expensive advertisements in the world. I was told that a 3 foot by 3 foot square was about 100k pounds which is about 200k US Dollars.


From there I did a ton of walking to see the major sights and stuff like that in London, and believe me there was a ton of things to see here. Well I definately had to check out the all famous "London Bridge" well to my surprise it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. All the pictures on the post cards were, to me, the London Bridge, but to my surprise it was the Tower Bridge, the bridge that was right beside the London Bridge, haha. Well it is true the London Bridge did fall down about 10 times or so, kinda scary if you ask me. If you look closely, on the first pillar London Bridge is written on it, so I guess it has to be true, haha. Well the first pic is of the all famous London Bridge and the next picture is of the very beautiful Tower Bridge.




This monument was to remember the London fires that burnt down a good bit of London city. The fire originally started in a bakery and the Fire Marshal said that it wasn't that big of a deal and didn't call for more people to help to put it out....well....4 days later London was under blazes and they have a newly appointed Fire Marshal, haha!! Funny thing, is that the memorial is 61.5 meters tall and if it fell exactly to the left of the picture, it would fall right on the original bakery where the fire started, ironic huh?



Here is a picture of the building of the Royal Courts of Justice. I noticed that anything that had royal in it or dealt with the queen was extravogant. We drove by the place where the royal hourses were housed, well they lived in an apartment style housing with their own balcony, funny the royal horses lived better then some Londoners.



This must have been really frustrating =), haha this was in the middle of a traffic circle. It was an artist's creation and to me its just really confusing, haha!!



On my second day in London, we headed to Greenwich. This was really cool, we walked across the Greenwich Foot Tunnel which went under the Thames river. This was really cool because here is a picture of the Prime Meridian of the World and me standing right in the middle!!



While there, I also decided to check out the all famous Shakespeare's Globe. This was beautiful and really amazing, I got to see the Titus Andronicus play, and if you don't know the story, it is very very good and pretty twisted also, haha! The next picture is of course Buckingham Palace, because any trip to London would not be complete to see where the Queen lived. You can tell that the Queen was in because of the flag at top, if it is flying it means that the Queen is at home. Everywhere around this palace was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the changing of the guards, but its no biggie, I still experienced a lot around the palace. The last picture is of the House of Parliament and Big Ben at night, very extravigant!!

Prague June 11-15

This trip to Prague was so amazing!! After talking to a roomie, he told me about Rainbow Tours and I decided to attend this one, I originally wanted to go to Paris but the weather and seating were not co-operating. Well I met with the bus around Kassel and we took off at 9 p.m. and went to pick more people up and drove all night to Prague. We finally arrived on the 11th at about 9 a.m. I spent the whole day of Monday walking around Prague and taking in all the beauty and the wonderful atmosphere that this "Golden City" had to offer. Its sometimes refered to as the "Golden City" because during sunsets, the gold on top of most buildings light up and is very beautiful!! There was so much to see in this city, and I took a ton of pics but here are a few pics of the buildings and stuff like that around the city!!

This is probally the most modern building in Prague, I thought it was really cool, the design and yes those are babies walking on the building. Pretty interesting for a TV station huh, but this building did stick out when you looked at the city!!



Here are some pics of the city. The first one is from across one of the rivers looking back at Prague. The second one is of the Old Square, because Europeans are crazy about Football (soccer), they had a huge screen where everyone could watch the game, and there were a ton of people watching the games!! The third pic is a picture of the Old Square at night, I met two other Americans (Linda and Lucy), New York girls here following some of the games, at the bus station on Tuesday, funny, we were all looking for tickets to Terazine where the town populated an old concentration camp. I forgot what the last two buildings were but they were equally as beautiful!!







In the Old Square there was an amazing Astronomical Clock, this thing was very beautiful and was really neat because certain parts of the clock would move on the hour. People first told us that the maker of the clock, after completion, had his hands chopped off or was blinded so that he could not make another clock. I found out later that it was just a myth, haha but kinda hardcore huh?



On Tuesday, like mentioned, I met the other Americans and we decided to go to Terazine and check out the concentration camp. This town was an hour away by the beautiful and elegant bus, haha yeah right =), that took us from Prague to Terazine. This town was pretty dead, there were very few tourist or even people around when we arrive but after some looking, we found what we were looking for.

This is a pic of me infront of the rail road tracks that were used to transport the Jews.



While there we checked out the cemetary and the crematorium. Both places were really hardcore. We saw alot there, and its crazy to think about how 30k Jews were treated and killed when you see and autopsy table, furnaces, and mass grave sites, here are pics of the first two and the third pic is of a grave site for the Soviet soldiers that died!





On Wednesday, I did more walking around the town and got adventurous and headed to Prague castle, which is the largest castle in Europe from what I remember. Here is a pic of the front of the castle and the guards were really cool, they were like the queen's guards where they had to stand there and stay still. Next are some pics of what I believe was a church inside the castle, you can see part of the church in the first pic over the buildig, this thing was huge, old and very amazing!! To show you a size of it, the last pic, that is me in it at the steps and thats a small portion of the whole which you can see on the second to last pic!!






I have to say that the walk UP HILL the whole way was pretty hardcore. It was long and since I figured I was already up there that I would check out the replica of the Eiffel Tower that is in Paris. This is a smaller version of the one in Paris but with the added height of the hill that it is on, it is the same height as the original. Well I trecked once again, UP HILL, haha for a while and when i get there...it was closed, so I was kinda dissappointed but here is a pic of what it looks like. It was hard work, haha, so I figured Id get a pic at least huh??



Thursday was my last day in Prague, and there was still one last thing that I wanted to see before leaving. It was a bone church in the town of Kutna Hora, which was an old mining town, hence the litteral meaning of the town's name, that was an hour bus ride East of Prague. Haha, once again I took the wonderful bus system that Prague has, to get an idea of this, imagine sitting in the oven next to the turkey you had for Thanksgiving Day, and that is how it was on the bus ride. Well, I met some really nice couple, from around Boston, traveling in Prague. We made our treck to the bone church and that was a story in itself, but we finally make it and it was amazing considering they used the bones of some 40k plague victims to decorate the whole church.



This is the center of the church and man I wanted that chandaler for myself to put up in my home, haha!!



At the four corners of the church there were thest pyramids of bones with the crowns on top. There were alot of people that were put into making this.



The creator, a monk, even used some of the bones to create his familie's coat of arms. This seemed to me a unique way to show pride in your coat of arms!!