chelsie

The day I left for Venice I had to take an 8 hour train ride to Naples. No fun at all. Very uneventful though, so that was good. I caught up on some reading and took a nap. On the second part of the trip, from Rome to Naples, I set next to a guy I'm pretty sure worked for the mafia. He was completely decked out in an Armani suit and gold chains, and after we talked for a bit, I asked him what he did. He looks at me, winks, and says "Me? I am a beezniss man." Too funny. It's crazy that the mafia actually controls most of what goes on in Naples. All restaurants have to pay kind of a mafia "tax" for protection... And you can't decide NOT to take it. ... read more

Ugh. Today was freaking nightmarish. First I get harassed on the train and then on the way home our train is over two hours late. BUT I saw the leaning tower of Pisa today ! And ate three cups of gelato... mint, fruit roll up, and chocolate. Amazing. SO... my train incident. Luckily, I was traveling with Evelyn from Ireland at the time so I wasnt alone. We were sitting on the train about halfway to Pisa when two young guys get on at one of the stops. One of them didnt buy a ticket and is going around asking everyone if he can have theres. He comes to us and we both just said no right away, and then he sits across from me and says ooo bella mami, I love you. And hes a ... read more

Jet lag has finally sunk in, and I am exhausted. The last couple of nights Ive been waking up at 4-5 in the morning and have not been able to fall asleep. This morning was the same thing, so I got dressed, came online for awhile to pass the time, and eventually went back upstairs to wake up my roomate (Adele from Texas) to go to Siena. We walked to the bus stop and waited, and waited... and waited. Bus never showed, so we walked across the street to the train station and took the train there instead. I absolutely LOVED Siena. I could spend days there, just exploring the cobblestone streets. Its quite different from Rome and Florence as the architecture is much more mideival and gothic. There are gargoyles everywhere, and statues all around ... read more

I apologize in advance for the lack of punctuation ... Seriously, the keyboards here are ridiculous. Just arrived in Florence an hour ago and am waiting to check into my hostel... Havent done any exploring yet. Yesterday I attempted to get to the colosseum but couldnt find my way in because the TOUR DE FRANCE was going on all the way around it ? It was ridiculous... I saw crowds of people taking pictures of someone and thought.... Ooooh maybe theres someone famous over there ! Nope... Just bikers. I eventually got tired and hailed a cab to drive me back to the hostel... Except most of the streets were closed so I ended up paying like 20 Euros, blahh. Oh well, my feet were thankful. I went for dinner with Heather from Cleveland and ate ... read more

First impressions? Flying in, Italy really resembles kelowna from above The sites you see from the train are not a great representation of the city Italians are CRAZY drivers The architecture is brilliant It was quite a trek here... We ended up in Paris for a while, stuck in a bus with 40 other people and they refused to open the windows or doors. Eventually people started banging on the windows and yelling and ... Yeah. I'm glad I can speak French and knew why they were keeping us or else I would have been a little freaked out. When I stepped into the train station at the airport I had a moment of panic when I realized I had no idea what the he'll I was doing, but I figured it out and made it ... read more