macaroni0330

Well its been a few days since I have been on, So im going to recap the last 20 days. On Oct 24th and 25th I kept roaming around in Rome, went to the Colosseum. Learned some cool facts...next to the Colosseum use to be a colossal statue of Nero nearby it. This statue was huge and people used it as a place to meet, They would say lets meet at the Colossal and so they believe the Colosseum was derived from that. Another little fact was that there use be sand that filled the bottom of the Colosseum and the word sand in Latin is Arena, thats why arena is used now days. I also did a walking tour to the Vatican that lasted a few hours. I ended Rome with a bang and leaving ... read more

Started out at 10 am and met up with Ali. I first got a lonely planet guide book of Rome. The first guide book I got since Great Britain but since there is just so much to see in Rome I didnt want to miss anything. In the book there were tons of different walking tours so I we picked one and just started on the route. First went to the Presidents House in Palazzo del Quirinale and thought it was free so we waited in line but when we got the entrance it was 5 euros. It had some great rooms in but nothing fancy or anything that I havent seen so far on the trip. Next stop was to the Trevi Fountain which of course is an amazing fountain and I had to make ... read more

I woke up around 9 headed out to Florence to try to beat the lines for the two places I wanted to see. Well that didn't happen since it was a Saturday and full of Tourist. I first went to the Uffizi gallery and paid the extra 5 euros to skip the line and walked about 2 hours through the Museum. Ive learned that Im not really into religious paintings and more into secular art. Now there are some though that I like. Lucas Cranach il Vecchie had a nice and simple Adam and Eve painting. Sometime the simple paintings that don't have so much going on it actually can tell you so much more then a loud painting with tons of things going on in a small area. Ive learned to sometimes attach myself ... read more

Well since the local trains were on strike and I couldnt get out to Siena I decided to do the taste of Tuscany tour with my friends. The tour was through Plus Hostel ( Def the best Hostel in Florence I think) and we left about 10 am in a small bus with about 10 people. We first stopped at a authentic Tuscan farm in the Chianti Classico region where we had a huge brunch with platters of different meats, cheeses, olive oils, wine (red and white) and of course you cant forget the bread. I think four of split a pitcher of amazing amber color wine. What more could you ask for? The olive oil was extra virgin and so thick and tasty. They had three types of flavor; garlic, truffle, and regular. MMMMMMMM. 2nd ... read more

Wanted to start the day off heading up to Mountain Vesuvius and get a good view of the city but that didnt happen cause it looked like it was going to rain and there was clouds around the mountain. I just headed to the ruins and grabbed a bite to eat on the way. I love history and I wish I paid more attention to world history when I was in 7th grade in Ms Gardners class (i think that was the teachers name) Anyways I love to sit and think how many people have sat here or walked through this path especially when Im in Philly. Hope that makes sense. So I went through the back entrance and there was barely anyone around. I walked through the streets with out a map having no clue ... read more

Started the morning off with the regular bread and jam around 9 and headed towards CAPRI. I had to take a train to Sorrento and then a boat to the Island. It was a beautiful island and I had no idea where to start and how to get around. The tourist information lady was not helpful at all. I just followed the crowd to some boat slips and bought a boat ticket that went around the island. It took about hour and half to go around the island with a stop at the Blue Grotto in the middle...... This was awesome because when you get to the Blue Grotto, there are little row boats that come up to the boat and three people get in each one. You then get rowed over to this low entrance ... read more

So early, AHHH, This is now the earliest I have woken up on the trip. 5 am. beep beep beep beep. I pretty much froze my ass off all night in my bed and I slept full clothed with a beanie on. Got the taxi and headed to the Airport. First flight goes to Munich... delayed taking off since there was to much fog in Munich. I don't remember when we took off since I passed out on the plane and woke up landing in Munich. Since the delay occurred I had 20 minutes to go through passport check and then get to my other gate. Get to the gate and Delayed. Finally got on the flight around 930 and again don't remember taking off or landing. Just woke up at the airport. Met two nice ... read more

Off to sofia on a 11 am train. The cart I was in had a broken heater so I was crammed into another cart for 6 hours of a boring train ride to Sofia Bulgaria, the capitol. I am only going here to catch a flight tomorrow that I haven't even booked yet. ha. Got into sofia around 7 pm and started to walk to my hostel. Tad chilly outside but I managed. I get to the right area but the directions started to be a little weird and I asked to Americans where it was and they pointed me in the right direction. Well I thought they did.... I went they way they told me and I looked for about 20 minutes and then I hear two guys calling out DALLAS. I realized it was ... read more

My main person coming here was to go to the Black sea and walk the beach. Well thats not going to happen. I mean the weather was horrible. I uploaded a few pics and did some cruise searches. Well found an awesome cruise leaving out of Rome on the 26th and pulls right into Galveston and it was the same price as a ticket home. So I opted for a 16 day cruise home then a 11 hour flight home. But this did change my plans up a bit now since I was heading towards Greece. I spent a few hours rerouting my trip to get to Rome. Rain stopped for a little so I decided to take a walk outside and at least find the mall..of course it starts raining again when I get outside ... read more

I forgot to mention this in my blog there and I remember when I was posting the pics up on Facebook. I was on the train heading to Varna.... the sun started to set started and it started to get eerie. It was somewhat a peaceful creepy eerie feeling, if thats possible. I was all alone in my room on the train that is probably as old as my grandfather and all you could hear was the train chugging along. We would pull up to some spooky looking train stations and I would just see maybe one or two people get on...dogs running in the back ground. Kinda felt like a horror flick and I was just waiting for all the lights to go out with just the moonlight shining in. Anyways just wanted to share ... read more