Monday, December 18, 2006

My Europe Trip

For those of you that don't know, this past summer I went to Europe for two and a half weeks with a friend of mine. I did not have this blog at the time so I just emailed everyone about my wanderings. Now that I have it I am just going to copy and paste the emails that I sent to everyone here. C'mon, you all know how lazy I am, did you expect anymore?!

Email #1:
"Yay for Europa! I am having the time of my life here! This is my trip so far:

-Monday the 7th: Arrive in Paris, find Mary-Ann, go to the hostel to check in, go to the arch de triumph, go to the Eiffel tower, go to the louvre, go to St. Chapel's Cathedral, and go to Notre Dame. I am sure that I am forgetting things but I will supplement this later with pics.
-Tuesday the 8th: Left Paris and went to Versailles and had a blast. The palace of Versailles is where they signed the treaty of Versailles ending WWII. Moreover, MA's like greatx5 grandfather was the first painter\decorator to king Louis XIV, so alot of the art work is done by him.
-Wednesday the 9th: Took a sleep train from Paris to Nice and arrived early morning. I have to say that Nice is one of the most beautiful city's that I have ever seen. There is not much to do but it would be great to live there. This is where I have the most pics from. I mean c'mon, it is right on the French Rivera!
-Thursday the 10th: Took a sleep train to Veneizia. This one was nice. It had a sink, a mirror, no screaming kids . . . In Veneizia we went to The Basilica and cathedral for St. Marco, we had Pizza and Gelato for the first time in Italy! It is soooooooooooooo good! My favorite Gelato is Lemone! Then we went to our hostel that has a bar in it. After taking full advantage of that we went to bed.
-Friday the 11th: Took a 5hr day train to Roma. Got in to town, checked in. After this we met with a few friends for some drinks and I met two Americans from san fran and to guys from Holland. After bush bashing for a while (NO ONE here likes him), we retired to our beds.
-Saturday the 12th: We got up and hit the town running. We went to the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel, St. Peters Basilica, Michelangelo's dome, and the Rafael Rooms. The line to get in was like 1.5 miles long, wrapped around 3 walls of the city and took us 1.5 hours to get through. After that we hit Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, and the really cool Cappuccin Crypts wherein these monks have taken the bones of the deceased and made a mosaic with them on the walls, I have a post card since we could not take pictures. When we got back to the hostel we got changed and turned right back around to go with our new found friends to a pub crawl. These things are great! I paid 20 euro to have all you can drink beer wine and cocktails from 9pm-10pm. I had these drinks in the Plaza in front of the Colosseum! After that we hopped to 5 different bars and pubs where you got a free shot at each bar and reduced prices because you were with the crawl. Needless to say "I came, I saw, I crawled!"
-Today the 13th: We got a bit of a late start after last night, but we went to the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, The Colosseum, and the Circus Maximus There was sooo much to see that I could have spent 3 days here. Now we are waiting for our train to leave for Florence. Over all it has been a great trip but I am tired. I will write again soon but now I must go catch a train! Caio!"

Email #2:
"So here is ths story of how I almost died in Florence:

-Sunday the 13th: We got on a train late at night to go to Fireneza station SMN. We then had to take another night train to Figline Valdarno, a little backwoods town outside of Fireneza. We then (being the able students that we are) missed our stop and ended up in San Giovanni a 20 min. drive from Figline Valdarno and no way to get there. The trains had stopped, the bus had stopped, there were no taxis, and no metro. We were screwed. Then out of no where these 2 Italian guys and an Italian girl came up and asked if we were ok. We told them what happened (they did not speak very much English and my Italian is worse), they offered to give us a ride to our hostel site for 20 euro (26 USD). It was soooo weird because it was like 1am here and these ppl were just offering us a ride. I was reluctant but I decided to do it. Everything turned out fine and they only charged us 10 euro because they were nice but it was still creepy and I thought I was going to die that night, lol. The funny ending to the story is that today the 14th we were at the Cathedral de Santa Croche (where Michelangelo is buried) and we saw them again! Over all they are good people but I will be worried if I see them in Bern, Switzerland! Well I am off to get some great Pasta and catch a train to Bern but Ciao for now!"

Email #3:
"So my new favorite place in the world is the haufbrahaus in Munich! Only in a place this great can a person get one liter of awesome beer, four sausages, mashed potatoes, kraut, and all of the drunkin' singing Germans they could ever want. I was in heaven.

However, I did do other things in Munich. I went to this castle (the name I am not going to try and spell) that was the inspiration for the Disney land castle, it was beautiful. Also we went to the Dachau camp that was the first Nazi camp of WWII. It was so sad to see the things that went on there. Now it is off to Berlin to see the wall and other cool stuff but I hope everyone is ok and safe and I will write again soon!"

Email #4:
"So my trip has come to a close. I am in an Inet Point in London right now killing time before my train leaves for Paris. I will then spend a night in Paris, then my flight will take off for the states. Now where did I leave off . . .

Berlin-In Berlin we did a good few things. We started the day off at 5am in a cafe in the train station where we planned our day . . . for two hours. At 7am we walked to the Brandenburg Tor (gate). The gate is the symbol of Berlin and became the symbol of the wall during the cold war. This gate was the place that everyone celebrated at when the wall 'came tumbling down.' we also saw the Parliament and it's big glass dome, the wall it self, Europe's largest dept. store, and a really cool street fair. Over all, Berlin is a town with a lot of history and too much to see!

London- After about 15hrs on two trains we ended up in London. Here we truly flew through the town. We started off by going to the British library and seeing all sorts of famous stuff. We saw that Magna Carta, some of the original Bibles, the original Alice in wonderland, some music composed my Mozart and Beethoven, and the original Bible printed on the Gutenberg Press. Then we went to the London eye (worlds largest Ferris Wheel, it takes 30minutes to go around and is 450 feet tall!), and got some great shots of the city. After that we crashed and got ready for the next morning. That morning we went to Buckingham palace for the changing of the guards, then we went and got the classic picture standing next to the guards that don't move or blink. After that we went on an open top bus tour of the city where we saw some of the lesser known sights. Then we got off at Parliament to see Westminster Abby and Big Ben. Then we got on to a river boat down the Thames where we saw London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and the Tower of London. After that we rushed over to St. Paul's Cathedral and bounced to Abby Road (can't forget the Beatles!). We then went to a traditional London play called the Mousetrap. This play is the longest running play in history at 54 years at one theater. It was a classic murder mystery and it was great. After that we got a Pimms and a beer at a local pub called the Bear and Staff and made it home to bed.

This is my trip so far but I will try to write in Paris but if I can't I will write when I get back! Bye everyone!"

Email #5:
"I am home again and classes have started. I friend of mine told me that Europe is an addiction. Once you pop the fun don't stop. I am going to start planning my next trip that I will take back in about 2.5-3 years. This time I will save more for the trip! Any way, thank you for all of your support everyone, it really meant a lot! I am glad to be home and am excited to see all of you again. Remember you have my email and all of my contact info is below, so make sure I hear from y'all. Also, my space is at http://www.myspace.com/maciasd if you want to see pics I will be loading different sets once I get all of them together. Have a great day and I hope to hear from you all soon!"

So there was my trip. It was the trip of a life time and I plan to go back as soon as possible. I will have pictures on my site as soon as my friend, Mary-Ann, gets them to me. Until then, cheers!

Labels:

AAAAHHHH . . . 2006!

Nuckin' Futs! The JibJab Year in Review

Labels:

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Random Picture


This is a picture of me at work that my boss/good friend made me put up on my blog . . . she is a freak!

Labels:

Monday, December 11, 2006

Merry Christmas

So this is just to wish everyone a very happy holidays! I have been in an extremely festive mood today and I wanted to pass that on to all of you! I have a great classic Christmas CD if anyone would like it. It has 24 of some of the all time great Christmas songs of all time. I also have Katz great "Christmas with the Big Artists . . . OH YEAH!!!!!!! . . . :) Merry Christmas" CD if you would like it! Ok, that is it, go back to finals now!

Labels:

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Affairs of the heart

I see a heart in your eyes.
I see my heart in your hands.

I see two paths.
One is the road less traveled.
The other is insanity.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
For the special ed: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten."

I see a desire to be loved.
I see a cup that cannot be filled with just a trickle.
Your passion is for a passion as deep as yours.
My passion is for a passion as deep as mine.
Your passion is for a passion as deep as mine.
My passion is for a passion as deep as yours.

The unknown is unstable.
I do not know what will happen to the heart in your hands.
I do not know what he will do to the heart in your eyes.
I do know that I want to save both.
I do not know what you want.
I hope for the best.
Please do not let it be the worst.

"There's nothing better than affairs of the heart
To make you feel so good then tear you apart"

Labels: