To Be Sure, To Be Sure

So, my time in Ireland is almost done sadly, and I've had a lovely time here in the land of the green. I don't want to leave! Two and a half weeks is not enough here, just a piece of advice!

So my time started out with a few days in Dublin, staying with Conor that I met in New Zealand, and meeting his friends and having a good old time. He took me on an excellent walking tour of the city, and all the sights, including enjoying the view from the top of the Guinness storehouse with a fresh pint of the dark stuff. Delicious. We went out to their favourite pub for some drinks, and I had a night out on the town, local's style. It was great craic! (Means fun)



One day he also took me out sightseeing to places around Dublin. We went to Newgrange, which is this old tomb that pre-dates the pyramids in Egypt. It's over 5000 years old, and it's very special because it's built so that every year on the Winter Solstice, at dawn when the sun rises over the horizon, it travels through this small passage in the stone to the center of the tomb, and illuminates the small burial chamber in there for about 15 minutes, before it moves on and leaves the tomb in darkness again. We got to go in and see a stimulation of that with lights, but the real thing must be absolutely amazing to see.


Newgrange

Next we went out to a small town called Trim to see an old castle, and one of the best preserved ones in Ireland. It still had a lot of the outer defense wall, and the actual castle had been well restored. We wandered around there for a while before heading back to Dublin.


Trim Castle

From there I left Dublin to head up to Belfast in Northern Ireland. I had plans to do some cool sightseeing, as that is where the Titanic was built, and there's lots to see regarding that in the town. But that's where I finally hit true Ireland, and it absolutely poured rain the entire time I was there, so I was holed up in the hostel in the evenings mostly. But I did a day trip bus tour up to the North Coast, and had lovely weather for that which was excellent.

On the tour we went north to visit a famous rope bridge that connects to a small island so fisherman can get out there to have better access to migrating salmon routes. It was a bit scary, but much smaller than the Cap Suspension Bridge in Vancouver! After that we went to the Giant's Causeway, which is a stunning naturally formed landmark of Northern Ireland. It's a small peninsula of thousands of hexagonal basalt columns that rise out of the earth at varying heights. It was formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago, or you can believe the Irish tale, that a Giant tore up a stone bridge that used to connect Scotland and Ireland so that another giant couldn't come and attack him, since he wouldn't be able to cross the water. Whichever tale you choose to believe is up to you...


Northern Ireland coastline near the rope bridge

Giant's Causeway

Close up of a section of the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway.

Next we went to the historical town of Derry, where on Bloody Sunday, British soldiers fired into a crowd of peaceful protesters and killed 13 people. It's only been very recently that the troubles between Ireland and Northern Ireland and Britain have finally come to peaceful terms and agreements. The U2 song "Bloody Sunday" is about this event. In the town there are a bunch of large political murals painted on buildings, and there are memorials to the people that died that day.


Political mural in Derry.

After Belfast I headed back into Ireland and over to the West Coast to Galway. That's such a cool city. It's right on the water and has lovely public access to the beach and ocean, and cute little multicoloured painted houses. The city center is around a nice park, and there are loads of awesome pubs!


Galway

From there I headed south to the tiny town of Doolin. All that the town consists of is B&B's, a deli, a few souvenir shops, and 4 pubs. I had the best time here, and it's probably been my favourite stop in Ireland. I went out to the pubs both nights I was there, and had a great time meeting people and listening to the traditional Irish music. It was so neat because people would just show up with their instruments and form a group and break out some wicked tunes. Such awesome music too. There was a bit of a break in the rain on one afternoon and I went out and had a nice little walk around and explored the area around the town. That is what I always pictured Ireland to be like. Small little roads lined with rock walls, houses interspersed amongst fields of wheat and cattle, rolling green hills and beautiful ocean views. Perfection!




Doolin is a great stop because it's only 10 minutes away from the famous Cliffs of Moher, 200 meter straight cliff faces that drop into the Atlantic Ocean. I went out there and had about 15 minutes of nice weather before it turned sour and started to rain. It was so windy up on the cliffs that it was actually blowing me over, and it was nearly impossible to walk into the wind. Crazy!


Cliffs of Moher

From Doolin I went further south to the town of Dingle on the Dingle peninsula. Not much happening there, but it was a cute little town to stay in for one night, and the weather was lovely in the afternoon so I went for a walk along the coast. There was a tiny castle in ruins, and a lot of sheep. Lovely walk.




After Doolin I went to Killarney, which is a good base town to do the famous driving route called the Ring of Kerry. It is a day trip to do around the Iveragh peninsula in Southwest Ireland, and I had a beautiful day when I did my bus trip. We stopped at a few towns around the ring, and saw some lovely scenery.


View of Killarney National Park from the Ladies' View Lookout

Next up was Cork, and I have had a great time here. I've stayed with some friends that I met in New Zealand when I was staying with my friend Evie, and they even came out and did touristy stuff with me this weekend! On Saturday we went out to Blarney and went to the castle. Of course I had to kiss the Blarney stone, although I haven't noticed an improvement in the eloquence of my language since then. Maybe the gift of gab from the stone only applies once you leave Ireland.. Hmm... I'll choose to believe that.


Dusk in Cork City.


Blarney castle and kissing the Blarney stone. In case you don't know, you have to hang upside down on your back over the wall of the castle to kiss the stone. Totally awkward and pretty scary! But I loved it.

Yesterday we went to the wildlife park nearby, and then out to the tiny town of Cobh, (pronounced Cove) which was the last stop of the Titanic before it headed out to cross the Atlantic. It's also where we figure my great great grandfather left Ireland to come to Canada from. There must be a rule in the town that states that no two houses on the same street maybe be the same colour though. It was pretty cool.

So, my time in Ireland is ending, and so is my trip! I head back to Dublin today and then fly back to London tomorrow. I have another few nights there and then I come home on Thursday. It's hard to believe my trip is over, since it feels like this has almost become a way of life for me now. But I'm eager to be home and see all my friends and family again, and to have a semi-normal life again for a change.

I hope that you'll all get in touch with me so that we can meet up! I miss you all!
See you soon!

Crepes and Haggis!

I know you all have been eagerly awaiting another blog entry...(harhar) so here you go. All about my adventures in Paris and Scotland!

I had a full week to spend in Paris and absolutely loved every minute of it. I had been a little worried since I had heard mixed reviews of the city from many traveller's I've met along the way, but I ended up having nothing to worry about.

On my first day I took a walking tour of the city and saw most of the big sites. Although they are very spread out so I didn't get to see most of them from up close, and I had to go back to most of them later on anyway. But some of the information on the tour was great, and I got a few inside tips on things to do in the city.

I took advantage of the free Friday nights at the Louvre, and headed there the next day after spending that day updating my blog (last time) and walking around the Luxembourg gardens. I thought that the four hours wasn't going to be enough, but I had seen enough after about three. The place is freakin huge, but I didn't look at the Egyptian stuff since that doesn't interest me, and I blew past tons of paintings that just aren't my style. In fact, most of the stuff in the Louvre isn't my kind of art. But the sculpture gardens and galleries were amazing, and I really enjoyed those.



Of course I went and found the big things like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Those were cool to see if only just because they are super famous. The Mona Lisa was actually BIGGER than I expected, because of always hearing that it is smaller, I expected it to be the size of a piece of paper or something, but it was about the size of a poster I guess, if you include the frame. Not that small really. I don't really see the big deal about it to be honest. Sure, she's got a bit of a smirk on her face, but it's really only so famous because for some reason Da Vinci called it his greatest work and carried it around everywhere with him for a long time. Weird. The Venus de Milo was very cool though, and I didn't realise that actually had legs! For some reason I thought it stopped about the thighs or something. I don't know.



Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo

I spent the next day fulfilling another of my life dreams, having a picnic on the lawn in front of the Eiffel tower. I spent about 4 hours there just taking it in, people watching and relaxing, and reading my book. I didn't want to leave, but the weather had started to take a turn so I did. Even after travelling for this long it still almost feels like it's not real sometimes, and it's all a dream. That was one of those times. It was hard to believe I was actually in Paris. I didn't really feel like I was until I was there at the tower. I had a great day there.



The next day was the first Sunday of the month, and lucky me, that means that all the museums in Paris were free that day. I took full advantage of that and went to the Musee D'Orsay, which is so much more my type of place than the Louvre. It was full of Monets, Manets, Signac, Picasso, Degas, van Goghs and so much more. I spent so long in there and looked at every single thing they had! Absolutely stunning pieces of art. Next I walked to another museum near the Louvre that holds all of Monet's Water Lily series. Those completely surprised me because I had no clue that those were all massive, long murals. I guess you only ever see bits of them in books and stuff, so to see them being 20-35 feet long was a surprise. Breathtaking pieces though, and really interesting to look at, because close up they don't look like much at all, kind of a mess really. But standing back to take in the whole thing is when they take shape. Amazing.


Sample section of one of the Water Lily series by Monet

I spent a day doing the church circuit, and went up Notre Dame. Unfortunately it started raining while I was waiting, so my pictures from up there are kind of gloomy. A common misconception about Notre Dame is that the creatures at the top are called gargoyles, when in fact the gargoyles are the gutter heads, used to drain water. The carved creatures at the top are mythical creatures called chimeras. I thought they were great and took loads of pictures of them. There were some stunning views from the top as well, a full 360 view of Paris.




Chimeras at the top of Notre Dame

Did you know that if you get in an accident inside the roundabout that goes around the Arch de Triomphe, the insurance company won't cover it? That's how insane you'd have to be to drive in that thing. I stood there for a while just watching the cars because it was like a gory car wreck scene where you just can't look away. It was pure madness!!! Wide enough for 6 or 7 cars side by side, but no lanes or markings on the road. Just one giant free for all, with about 8 different streets entering into it. Luckily there are underground walkways to give a safe passage to the island in the middle where the Arch is. Too bad Napoleon didn't live to see it finished, because it really is pretty nice.



And of course, I dedicated one of my days in Paris to visit the ultimate place to feed your inner child. Disneyland!! I mean really, how often are you only one hour away from a Disneyland? I had a great time, although it was smaller than the one in LA and not as many attractions. Some of the rides were different too, but most of my favourites were still there. The weather was kind of overcast and cloudy, but that meant that the park wasn't overflowing with people, so the lines for the rides were very very short. Perfect! I had to wait in line for about 45 minutes to get my picture with Mickey, but I stumbled upon Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Baloo, Chip & Dale, and Woody around the park and had no trouble getting to see them. I took my journal with me and they all signed it too. I'm such a kid! I think I might finally be outgrowing Disneyland though, since I did get a bit bored of it by the end of the day. I think I would have had more fun if I wasn't alone, but I still enjoyed myself.





The next day I said goodbye to Paris and hopped on my plane to Glasgow, Scotland. Welcome to the land of bagpipes and Haggis! And a whole bunch of rain...

Actually, it poured the first night I got there, but after that I had some pretty excellent weather, especially for Scotland! I actually liked Haggis (it tastes like spicy meatloaf), but was disappointed that I couldn't find deep fried pizza anywhere. I know it exists, I swear! I went Nessie hunting on Loch Ness, but had no luck finding her. I explored a few castles, and did some hiking around the Highlands. I went on a ghost tour in Edinburgh and learned about it's creepy past, but found no ghosts myself unfortunately. I found the cafe where JK Rowling brought Harry Potter to life, and was amused to find a sign advertising that they now serve draught beer...

I loved Scotland! It's a beautiful country, and and awesome accent! Everywhere you go there's people in kilts and some sort of shop playing celtic music. I wish Canada had such a cool heritage we could flaunt everywhere. I would love to come back someday and spend more time in the Highlands.


Some building in Glasgow


Two pictures of the Scottish Highlands

Urqhart Castle overlooking Loch Ness

Haha


Bagpiper and Edinburgh Castle.

So, I'm almost a week into Ireland now and I'm having a great time! But I'll save that for my next (and possibly last!) blog entry in a few weeks. I'm almost home! Ireland is my last stop. I'm definitely ending my trip on a high note, and I can't wait to get home. I hope it hasn't changed to much, cause I'm really missing it! And I can't wait to see everyone again too of course. I'm home the first week of July, so get in touch and we can meet up!

Talk to you all soon!
Julie

Ah Paris!

Well everyone, I’ve made it to Paris! But there is not much to say about Paris yet since I haven’t done much here so far other than walk around a little bit. So I’ll fill you in on my last few weeks .

By the way, French keyboards are WAY worse than German ones and I am reduced to finger picking this entry becquse NOTHING is anywhere near what I’m used to . You better appreciate it!

After my last update from Florence I headed to the South of France and hit Nice as
my first stop. It is absolutely beautiful, and I used Nice as a jumping off point to go to Monaco and Cannes. Monaco is the second smallest country in the world after the Vatican at only 1.95 square kilometers, and home to the famous Grand Prix race that happened there a few days ago . When I was there, they were setting up for the race and had the big banners up and stands were being built too. I went to the famous casino and lost €2 in the slot machines there before heading to the other side of Monaco and seeing the palace where Prince Ranier and Princess Grace used to live. Otherwise there wasn’t much to see so I only spent a few hours there. Now I want to find out the third smallest country so I can go and say I’ve been to the three smallest countries in the world!


Monaco

The next day I spent wandering around Nice and checking out the beach and some museums. Ah the lovely Meditteranian Sea! I understand why the South of France is a popular vacation spot. The beach was beautiful and complete with cruise ships docked out in the water. Fancy cars drove around everwhere but there were also tons of people rollerblading along the water’s edge.


Beach in Nice

I thought I would get bothered a lot in Italy, but it was a lot worse in France. Within the first two days I was hit on twice by French guys. It is very obvious I can hardly speak French, so when it gets to the point that they are making hand motions to ask if I want to go for a drink, I have to wonder what would be the point? We can’t even talk to each other! Crazy French guys...

I met a few people in my hostel room and we had decided to go to Cannes the next day since the film festival was going on and we wanted to see that. We ended up having a guy in our room that worked in the business and was in town for the festival. He gave us some awesome tips on where to go for the red carpet and how to try and get tickets to a show. So we went and got a great spot for the Red Carpet just like he told us, and sat and waited. We had no clue who was going to be coming that night, but I was hoping for Sean Penn since he was the president of the jury for the festival this year. Long story short, he never came on the carpet, but we did see Jackie Chan and Natalie Portman. I guess Jackie Chan is pretty famous and cool but of course I was hoping for some bigger stars. Say, oh I don't know, Johnny Depp? Haha. And we saw a bunch of famous French and Italian stars but we didn't know who they were. When the carpet was over and we were leaving, we almost got into the second biggest movie of the night. We were offered reserved seating tickets for free as we were walking by, but formal dress was required and we weren't dressed up enough! Too bad, that would have been awesome! But all in all a good time.


By the Red Carpet!


Jackie Chan and Natalie Portman

After Nice I headed further down the coast to Marseilles, the second biggest city in France. If you know the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, then you also know that Marseilles is where the famous Chateau D'If prison is. (That novel itself is not true, but it was based on a true story.) I took a boat trip out and visited the prison, and it was a lot smaller than I expected! But the boat trip was very beautiful and relaxing even on it's own and it was a lovely day outside. I found a guy in the hostel from Victoria and he went back down to the Port with me at night so I didn't have to go by myself since it is not safe. I had heard that it was really pretty at night though so I wanted to go, and it was very nice! All the boats in the port are lit up, as well as the forts out at the entrance and the big church on the hill.


Small island with the Chateau D'If on it

The prison

Vieux Port at night with church on the hill lit up

From Marseilles I left for Switzerland, and after a long day and three different trains I got to Lucerne. Such a cute little town! Exactly what I pictured Switzerland to be like. I didn't do any trips through the Alps though because they are very expensive, but I could see the Alps fro, Lucerne. I spent my one day there taking pictures of the quaint covered bridges and feeding the swans that cluster around the edge of the lake and river. I had the worst two nights of my trip though as I was in a three bed room with two girls that both snored worse than lumberjacks all night. Got maybe three hours sleep a night, not exaggerating I swear.



Swans and bridges in Lucerne

So I was very happy to move onto Bern, the capital of Switzerland. I had a huge heart attack when I went to check into my hostel and saw the same two girls from my room in Lucerne checking in before me, but thankfully they were not in my room! I had two full days in Bern and they were very relaxing. I did some shopping (Yes, Switzerland is very expensive for most things, but not for clothes!) and checked out the famous bear pits. It was kind of sad to see the bears doing tricks to get food from the tourists, but no worse than a zoo I guess since they could go and hide if they wanted to. I was expecting them to be chained up in a cement viewing arena or something though so it was better than I thought.



Bern

And now, I'm in Paris! Today is my second day and I haven't done much yet. I did a walking tour yesterday but I only got to see the Eiffel Tower and Arch de Triomphe from far away, so I have to go back and do those still. Probably tomorrow. Today I am taking care of a bunch of online things, and then probably checking out the Luxembourg Gardens and Notre Dame. The Louvre is free from 6 to 10 tonight for youths so I am going to check that out as well. I am not deluded enought to think that I can see everything anyway, so I hope 4 hours is enough. If not it is free again on Sunday, but I was hoping to do some other museums then since they are all free that day. And then on Tuesday I am going to go to Disneyland Paris! Totally awesome!

After that it is Scotland, Ireland and then home! Hooray!
Miss you all.

Oh, and I've heard stories that you have to register to leave a comment now. That shouldn't be true, just click the anonymous option and type your name in at the end. Tootles!

Ciao Bella!

Buon giorno!

So, today is my last day in Italy, and I'm for sure going to miss the Gelato! Oh man is it ever amazing here, with soooo many awesome flavours. Like Kinder, Nutella, honey, cinnamon.... delicious. And the pizza and pasta... wow. Italians sure know how to eat I'll tell you that. I've never seem more shapes and sizes of pasta in my life. I wish I could send a bag of each kind home to try later.


Pasta!!

Anyway, I figured it was about time for an update, since I've done so much in the last week and a half. First off, Roma!

I had four full days in Rome, and I packed in a lot. On the first day I took to the streets (being very careful of pickpockets and scooter theives) and just walked around exploring. I found the Spanish steps (overrated I thought), the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. I really liked the Trevi fountain, and even though I was there about noon, it wasn't as busy as I thought. I was able to get down to the front very easily, and there was tons of room for me to sit on the edge of it and just look at it for a while. Of course I did the whole coin over the shoulder and another for a wish thing, but I felt pretty stupid doing it even though everyone else was too. The pantheon was beautiful, and the tomb of Raphael is actually in there so that was neat.



In the hostel that night I met two guys from Edmonton who were going to be there for a few more days like me, so the next day we met up and went to the Colosseum. That was super cool! We were there early, before 9am so there was hardly any line and we breezed right in. It was pretty impressive! It is kind of hard to imagine what it looked like in its fully glory because time and weather have kind of eroded the seats and stands after over 1700 years, and a lot of the tunnels and stairways have been blocked off or covered in to make it more tourist accessible. The floor is not there so you can see all the tunnels and passageways that would have been underneath it, but there is a sample section at one end of what the floor would have looked like. It was way smaller than I thought though. After movies like Gladiator and stuff where they're riding around in horse drawn carts and all, it's hard to believe they had enough room to maneouver them around. The floor area was smaller than an ice rink. And I couldn't figure out how the trap doors in the floor worked, because I didn't see any ramps or anything from the area under the floor. I'll have to watch Gladiator again when I get home I guess. Haha.





After that we went to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum and spent a few hours looking through the old Roman Ruins. I think Rome has more ruins than dog poop. Seriously. Even just walking down the street you can come across random huge fountains, amazing buildings, or big carved walls that aren't even marked on the travel maps. There is so much history here that it's hard to comprehend considering how young of a country Canada is.

The next day we decided to take a tour of the Vatican. The tour advertised that on Wednesdays you get to see the Pope, and that happened to be the next day so we were all for it. But we were late getting there and had to get through a security line and so we missed him riding around in his little Popemobile, which disappointed me greatly. So by the time we got in he was sitting under his little awning thing way up in front of St. Peter's, and there was no way to get closer because of all the pilgrims that were in the middle of the square. So I saw the Pope, but he was about the size of an ant. Boo.


Um, he's the one in the white near the middle of the photo.

That ceremony goes on for hours, so we only stayed for a few minutes before heading over to the Vatican Museums. We got there about 11am, and there was absolutely no line. Turns out that everyone has the impression that they have to go super early to "beat the line," but that actually creates the line because they all go early. Once all those people get in then there is hardly a line at all! So we only had to wait a few minutes. There was a lot to see in the museums and it was all super interesting, but you probably don't care about that. You just want to hear about the Sistine Chapel right? Probably.

It was so awesome! It's so hard to believe that Michaelangelo did that whole ceiling in just 2.5 years. It is the largest fresco in the world, and the next biggest is only 2/3 the size but it took the artist twice as long to do it. And Michaelangelo wasn't even a painter! He was a sculptor and actually hated painting. And contrary to popular belief, he didn't paint the ceiling while laying on his back. He actually did it standing up, head bent back and painting above him. And because frescos are actually paint mixed with plaster so that they become part of the actual wall or roof, he had to work in 12 hour shifts to still get enough work done but allow the plaster 12 hours to dry. Insane.

The Pope who asked him to do it absolutely loved it, and promised Michaelangelo he would never have to paint again. But not long after that he died, and the next pope comissioned Michaelangelo to paint the Last Judgement on the large head wall of the church. He hated people watching him paint or seeing his work in progress, but one day he let the Pope in to see how it was going, and he brought a few other important people with him. One was stupid enough to insult Michaelangelo's work, and so after that Michaelangelo painted him into the painting as the guardian of Hell, with donkey ears and man boobs. When the painting was unveiled everyone recognised him and he was the laughing stock of the city. Serves him right!

A long time after Michaelangelo died and quite a few Pope's later, one decided that all the naked men in the Last Judgement was not acceptable, and so he comissioned another painter to come in and cover all the private parts with cloths or fig leaves. That pope was also the one who was resposible for the cutting off of the penises of all the statues that were in the Vatican at that time. But they couldn't just throw them away, so believe it or not, someone is actually paid to sit and guard a room full of penises every day. Can you imagine telling that to someone who asked what your job was? Pretty funny.

Anyway, you're not allowed to take pictures inside the Sistine Chapel anymore, and you get hugely shamed and maybe even kicked out if they catch you. But I just hid behind the two guys and snapped away. So here for your enjoyment, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and the Last Judgement on the wall.



After we left the chapel we went over to St. Peter's Basillica and looked through there at all the huge statues paintings and stuff. The church is huge and gorgeous, with over 4 tons of gold used in the ceiling and on the altar. But the coolest thing in there was Michaelangelo's Pieta, which is absolutely beautiful. It is the only piece of art he ever did that has his signature on it, and that is only because when it was unveiled there was doubt that he actually did it. So he went back and carved "Michaelangelo did this" onto one of the folds of fabric across Mary's chest. In 1972 some crazy Australian managed to get right up to the statue and knock of Jesus's foot and Mary's nose, but they were able to restore it. Why would someone want to do that? I don't know. Next we went down underneath St. Peters to the Papal tombs, where we got to see Pope John Paul's tomb, as well as St. Peter's tomb. We weren't allowed to take pictures down there though.

Wow, okay, so that's a lot of stuff just on Rome. I should move on.

Next I headed out to Naples for 2 days, and had some lovely Pizza there, since that where it was invented. Heavenly! I stayed at a great hostel where the guy that owned it showed me everything there was to do in town and gave tons of great help and advice. He even took me and some other girls out rides on his motorbike around town. Holy crap, Italians are worse drivers than Indonesians... and that is saying a lot! They purposely double park and leave their cars in neutral so other people can push them around when they need to get their cars out. Scooters are everywhere, in the middle of roads, the wrong side of roads, and just zipping in and out all over. Everyone speeds up to over 60km for even the shortest stretch of road only to slam on the brakes 400 meters later at the next stoplight. Absolutely crazy. But the ride was still fun, and he took me up to a viewing area on a hill where I got a great view of the whole city with Mt. Vesuvius in the background.


Naples with Vesuvius in the background

Speaking of Vesuvius, I went out to Pompeii one of the days and spent a few hours walking around in there. That was a really weird experience, and seeing the bodies of people who died in their sleep or trying to flee the city was a little disturbing. They are so well preserved that you can see their faces twisted in agony, or their arms are up over their head trying to protect themselves. Some of them still even have their teeth and nails, and some hair too.


People that were sleeping during the eruption

Some ruins of the city with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

Next I actually went to Vesuvius and climbed up it. It gave great views of all of Naples, and the entire coast all the way down to Sorento. It was supposed to be possible to see Pompeii from up there, but I sure couldn't find it in the middle of the huge city around it.

After Naples I came up here to Florence, where tonight is my last night. I went to the Uffizi Gallery on my first day and saw the Birth of Venus painting, and a whole crapload of "Madonna and Child" paintings by about 50 different artists. After that though, I went and waited in line for the Gallerie d'Acadamia where the David statue by Michaelangelo is.

Wow. If I wasn't already impressed enough by Michaelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel, David blew my mind. It was his very first sculpture, made out of a chunk of marble that was going to be thrown away. I knew it was big, but I thought it was about 11 feet tall, when it is actually over 16, just the statue itself! It is brilliant, and absolutely perfect. The anatomy is impeccable, and it is so detailed that you can even see veins on the arms and everything. Just amazing. I didn't want to leave! You weren't allowed to take pictures in their either, but I just hid from the guards behind a column and snuck a few. Here you can see how huge it is because I left some people in the picture to give it scale. Just... wow.


Isn't it amazing?

I also went and did a quick half day trip out to Pisa, since the only thing to see there is the tower. It started raining when I got there too, so all I did was just take a few pictures and then head back to Florence. I took the mandatory "holding up the tower" photo, but the guy I asked to take it for me didn't guide me very well and it doesn't look right unfortunately. :( So here is just a normal shot of the tower.



So, that brings you all up to date on my recent adventures. Tomorrow I leave for Nice and Marseilles in the south of France, and then I'm off to Switzerland for a few days. Hope you all are doing well!

Oh, and I added a Traveller IQ quiz down at the very bottom of my blog. It's pretty fun and addictive! See if you can beat my score of 305,653!