Sam Visits for Spring Break!!

So I've been many places and done many things, but this was by far the best week I've had in Europe :-). Nothing's easy however... Sam was scheduled to fly in Sat at 11am, Friday night he calls me from the airport, "hey, my flight's cancelled." I was like, wow you are really mean for joking with me like that, and he was like, "no, I'm serious". Luckily, it was only his connection from Chicago to Canada that was cancelled, and he was able to grab another earlier flight so he could still make it on the flight from Toronto to Rome. Of course that flight was an hour late in arriving-- so I was just really excited when he finally did walk through that arrival gate.

The first two days of his visit we spent in Rome. I tried to be a good tour guide, but all in all I have not actually spent a tremendous amount of time in Rome, so it was fun for me to be here as well. We got in the real Italian pizza and gelato at della palma, as well as the Colosseum, Castel San Angelo, the Victor Emmanuel Monument, St. Peter's Square, the Pantheon, and all the basics. I got roses, and we stopped in Piazza Navona and got our picture sketched by one of the artists by the fountain. Not gonna lie, Rome is ten times better with a boy :-).

What I did not mention in the above romantic description is that of course Sam was severly jet lagged, and I, as luck would have it, happened to be severely ill. So of course on Monday we getting up at 4am to catch a flight to London went over real well. And interestingly, I think I had the most trouble I've ever had finding a hostel, though we were in a country where everyone spoke English. Nonetheless, we did find everything eventually. I really like London! Like Paris it is a very urban city, and it is the closest to America I've seen yet. We went to a pub our first day for lunch called the Rat and Parrot. It was sooooo good. I had "chips" but they are really french fries, and while I love pizza and pasta, they tasted AMAZING. After exploring a bit, we passed out from severe exhastion, and then woke up to go to Les Miserables! We got all dressed up, but I forgot my london outlet converter, soooo my hair was in a pony tail. But anyway, we went to see Les Mis at the Queen's Theatre in downtown London. Everything was busy and bustling, it felt really nice to be back in a real city. We had really good seats, and the show was spectacular. We even got to have drinks at our seats. Afterwards, we wandered around for a bit and found a fancy thai resturant to grab something to eat in. Other than pubs with fish and chips, london doesn't have much home cuisine, but they have chinese, thai, and indian places everywhere. The food wasn't the best we've ever had, but I also haven't had any spicy or flavorful food in two months, so I was super pumped. Plus, they put a purple flower in my drink, which i thought was cool. I guess we recieved some strange burst of energy b/c we kept going, and stopped at a casino we had passed along the way to the theatre. I felt a little out of place with all the pros in there, but we had a good time. Sam and I played blackjack for a while, and then I watched him play craps because lets face it I do not understand that game. All in all, a very fun night. The next day, Sam started to feel sick as well, and suddenly London got frickin cold and really rainy. Nonetheless, we decided we had to go out to see buckingham palace and westminster abbey. So we trecked out into the cold and rain. When we got to the palace there was a ton of people there, and all of these police everywhere. I asked one what was going on, and she said that the President of Brazil was visiting the queen, so there was going to be this huge "parade" and the queen was going to drive by. So it is pouring down rain, I'm coughing up a lung, and Sam's barly hangin in there, but hey- when again can you see the Queen of England. So we grabbed a spot and hung around. This really nice woman from Florida took pity on us a gave us her umbrella after she heard my lovely coughing for a while. The guards marched by, there was a band, and there were guys on horses, and guys with machine guns, and finally about 45 mins later, the queen herself drove past. Soo, I may have prolonged my sickness and got my boyfriend even sicker, but now I can say I've seen the queen!

That night we headed back to Rome. We didn't get in until late, and least to say we weren't up for going out. The next day was Wed, and our last day. We strolled around Rome again. We went to the spanish steps and the Villa Borghese, which is like the central park of Rome. I cheated a little because I'd been there before, and knew that there just happened to be a lake that you could rent boats on. So I got to rowed around a lake in a villa in Rome for a while. We also went to the Trevi fountain, and Sam got to throw his pennies into the fountain. That night we went to Alexanderplatz, which is a very hip jazz club that you have to be a member of to enter. We sat and talked the night away listening to a supercool band, and then after we found the famed 24 hour bakery that people have told me about and i have tasted things from, but that i have never been to. Omg!! Soooooooo good. But, yeah, then Thursday he had to leave :-(, not only was I very sad, but then there was some striking in the city and it took me about three hours to get home from the airport. Oh well, it was an absolutely amazing week!!! And I'm glad I have a couple days to recover, I have to leave for Barcelona on Thursday. Arrividerci!!