For my very last trip of my time in Europe, my friend Ally and I decided to go to Istanbul. It was the best decision and the best way to end my travels during my study in Italy. It is a beautiful city and incredibly large, much bigger than I thought it would be actually. The people seemed so happy and very friendly. I had a fantastic time there and didn't want to leave. Sadly we didn't get to do everything we wanted or probably see everything we wanted either since it was so big and we weren't there long enough; [View Full Entry]

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Nearing the end of graduate school my friend Ally and I went to London for the weekend. It was a fantastic decision and a beautiful city. I absolutely loved it there and couldn't believe I actually got to see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London and everything else. There were also quite a few things like home (Starbucks, Borders and certain foods I haven't seen in a really long time). I think everyone should check it out and hopefully I'll be able to make it back sometime. [View Full Entry]

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For a nice relaxing weekend I went with my friend Ally back to Heidelberg to show her around and then we went to Strasbourg, France just over the border to where she studied abroad. We had a fantastic time together and it was great having each other as our own private tour guide and interpreter. We were able to see everything in each place and it was nice to go back and somewhere new (they're about two hours apart). Heidelberg is still fantastic and one of the loves of my life. It's become a bit more commercialized, with two Starbucks, since [View Full Entry]

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While Mom and Dad were visiting we took a trip to Rome and Vatican City to have a general audience with the Pope and then tour the Vatican Museums and what not. It was so much fun and I'm not sure I've ever seen my Mom so excited or happy to get to see the Pope live. It was pretty cool. He also spoke Italian, German, French, English, Latin and some Spanish/Portugese/Polish. It was pretty cool. Also seeing the Sistine Chapel was amazing and I never thought I would be able to see that either. It was awesome, smaller than I [View Full Entry]

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I went to Pisa for the day with my friend Christina and her Undergrad program from when she studied in Florence. It was fun to spend the day somewhere else and go to a place that's close to Florence and a new place in Italy. Pisa is pretty and very similiar looking to Florence. It's about the same size and only around 45-60 minutes away by train. It was also a beautiful, sunny day that was around 60 degrees-gorgeous. Sorry for the beautiful weather for all of you in the snowy sad winter. [View Full Entry]

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Here are the other pictures that I have. These are from Mdina, which is an ancient Medieval city/fort that remains the same as it did when it was built. It was really cool and I loved it there. Also down the road from Mdina was where they did handblown glass, which we went and visited as well (but no pictures of that). Also there are pictures of the beautiful town and view from Qawra, which is where the hotel was that we stayed at for our trip. [View Full Entry]

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I decided to go to Malta for my February break this time. I went with my friend Christina for five days. It was an amazing place, very relaxing and a fantastic choice for break. It is not a place that many Americans go or know where it is for that matter (it's an island near Sicily in the Meditteranean). Malta seems to have a sort of identity crisis-imagine a country that is a mix between Italy, Britain, Germany and Turkey. Maltese is a combo of Italian, some French and Arabic with some English randomly thrown in. It is a great place [View Full Entry]

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Florence had a chocolate festival this weekend, which was absolutley amazing. I went on Friday night with my friends Cara and Christina, where we had hot chocolate which was basically melted chocolate and was absolutely amazingly good. We walked around and saw all kinds of amazing chocolate and many people. I also went back today with Christina to get that all amazing Italian dessert known as cannoli, which I haven't been able to find anywhere else. They were delicious. [View Full Entry]

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The second half of our trip we went to Athens. First we left the Pink Palace on the bus then got on an hour and a half ferry ride at 11:30pm then get back onto the bus for an overnight 7 hour bus ride. It was pretty bad and really provided no sleep at all. We checked into our hotel there and then headed out to the Acropolis with our tour guides. I walked around the Acropolis and saw the Theater of Dionysus, Temple of Athena Nike, The Parthenon and the Acropolis as well. I then headed around with Carly to [View Full Entry]

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For Fall Break my roommate Allison and I decided to take the week and go to Greece. It was an absolutley amazing time and incredibly relaxing. The first part of break we were on the island of Corfu, where it was sunny and in the 80s the entire time we were there. We stayed at the Pink Palace, which is this huge hostel where everything truly is pink and upon arrival you get a shot of ouzu that's died pink. It was crazy. There was also a pink toga party our first night there, which was fun and included traditional greek [View Full Entry]

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