Spring Break with Sha-non

Since I have literally been doing nothing for the past two days I guess now is a great time to actually write this blog. Since my blogs are notoriously long (my friends make fun of me for them actually) fitting a whole week into a readable length will be a challenge, but I'll give it a shot.

In a grave yard... whoops.

Shan come on Thursday! She had a 2 hour delay in Munich that no one knew about though so there was some panic going on in Florence and Arlington Heights as to why she wasn't at my apartment yet. We thought she may just be wandering around Europe alone but she managed to make it. She took a nap while I finished the last of my midterms and then I became a natural Florentine tour guide. I showed her all of the best of Florence; the Duomo, Ponte Vecchio, Piazza Michelangelo, David, Gelato, amazing paninis... but her favorite part was the cemetery I showed her last minute because it is pretty cool. We took inappropriate pictures for a cemetery but it was fun. At least she liked some part of Florence. On St. Patricks day we went to the Irish Pub for a green beer, just to say we celebrated, but then we had to pack up and catch our flight to Paris.

This first day in Paris was... miserable! Oh my. We went on a free walking tour that is over 3 hours long. An hour into it it began to down pour. The weather wasn't very warm to begin with and those 15 minutes of raining left us drenched to the bone shivering beyond control. We still had another 2 and a half hours of the tour though so we shivered our way through it (only because we had the funniest tour guide I have ever met. She was a riot.) and then rushed back to the hostel to change. After showering and changing we still weren't very warm, and the weather still sucked, so neither of us was in a particularly amazing mood. We stopped by Notre Dame and cheered up a bit but when we began to look for decent restaurants to eat at it didn't make us like Paris much more. Desperate for affordable food, we ate at some weird stand where I got a really long hot dog and Shannon got a sandwich I believe... so much for fantastic French cuisine.

Proud Parental Moment I'm sure

The second day started off just as bad as the first. I know, poor McGuire girls complaining about awful weather in Paris... but really though, it was brutally cold in the morning. We waited for two hours to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, turning blue the entire time. Once we finally got up there we were going to just snap a view pictures and run right back down because the wind was wicked. However, we found a heater at the side by the viewing windows and clung to our new best friend like it was life itself. We ended up staying up there for a decent amount of time before heading to the Louvre. Of course, the second we get inside the museum, the sun begins to shine. But we wanted to find Mona Lisa and see a bit of the other art works there (there is too much to try to see it all... this museum is crazy huge). Our (im)maturity really kicked in again when we got to the statues in the museum and began taking some silly photos. I think I only embarrassed Shannon twice during all of this, which is pretty impressive for me.

After the Louvre we went outside and it was amazing how much warmer the sun made it. We became much happier people in Paris and went back to all of the sites to get some good photos. We even had a baguette fight in front of the Eiffel Tower, and then had a picnic with the baguettes and some Brie cheese. It was delicious. We also managed to make it to a decent restaurant later that evening, but we didn't have some good French food until our first night in London ironically.

We took a train ride to London, which was only 2 hours long. Once in London I was in a bad mood again because we missed our original train and were an hour late for everything. I may or may not have taken my anger out on Shannon. Just some proof that I acknowledge I was being mad at her for no reason. But I got over it, cause we were in LONDON. My dream town. We saw the London Bridge, the Tower Bridge, the London Tower, rode a double decker bus and of course saw the best sites: Big Ben, Parliament, The Eye, The guards, Buckingham Palace, and the best of all PLATFORM 9 and 3/4!!!!!!! That's right, we went to Kings Cross Station and saw the entrance to the Hogwarts Express. It was magical. Still makes me giddy.

Later that night I was determined to get some Chipotle. Because I miss that and Diet Coke so much! (London has both. It was Heaven.) However, the map I had flew out of my hands and onto the metro track so that was lost for good. So we ended up searching for this damn restaurant for roughly 2 hours. Shan was ready to kill me but I was determined to get what I wanted for months now. Eventually 2 police officers pointed us to a Chipotle that wasn't open yet... but it had the address to the one's that were  and Shan managed to navigate us in the right direction. It was worth the hunt! (For me anyways.)

Any who, the next day in the UK we went to Oxford, which may have been my favorite part of the trip. Oxford is calmer than London but still has enough going on to be entertaining. It also had amazing architecture and a really good cookie shop (Ben's Cookies... yum). We didn't get to stay in Oxford for long though because we had tickets to go see the premiere of, wait for it.....
THE HUNGER GAMES!!

I was so nervous I wouldn't get to see it until it was released on DVD but we saw the premiere... in London. Amazing. Such a good movie and book!

The last day Shan and I headed to Pisa to take some classic tourist photos then spent the rest of the day wandering Florence again. She left me at 4 AM on Saturday morning (she later informed me the airport doesn't open until 5 AM... whoops). And I'll be a nice sister and say that it was amazing to have her here! I'm glad she chose to come to Europe for Spring Break. The only way it would have been better was if the entire family could come (and not just because we would have better food and sleeping arrangements then...)

I come home less than 7 weeks. It's a very bitter sweet feeling to know I'm on the back half of my time in Europe. Although part of me can't wait to be home and see my family and friends. Miss you all so much!

Starbucks never spelled my name right

DIET COKE

Mmmmm Chipotle

Just more proof of Shannon having fun in a cemetery

Spontaneous Trip to Rome

Originally I was going to stay in Florence because this week is midterms and I was going to study. But then I realized that this was the only weekend I had time to go to Rome. And my midterms don't start until Wednesday. So on Friday Kristina and I booked a trip to Rome and left the next morning! It was insane to plan a weekend trip to Rome on such short notice but I am so glad we did it! We left at 6:30 in the morning. Now usually I would be upset by this, however, we paid for the cheapest train - the "slow train" which takes 4 hours. Well, we accidentally got onto the fast train... and yes it was actually an accident. First of all, when you walk down the train the aisle is on the right side and there are like corridors to the left that seat up to six people... can you say Hogwarts Express much??? Which made me SO excited! It looked just like the Harry Potter movies (but slightly less glamorous). So I was able to fall asleep on the train and we arrived in Rome in under 2 hours. No one ever checked our ticket, so we just got off and acted as if we were totally supposed to have been on that train... what they don't know won't hurt them.

Lady Luck was on our side all morning when the hostel allowed us to do an early check-in, charged us 10 euro less than they were supposed to, and gave us a room with our own bathroom. It was fantastic. The weather was also gorgeous, 65 and sunny, so I could tell it was going to be an amazing day.

Big ol' Wheel

First we found the metro and took it to Vatican City. We got lunch right outside the city wall and then entered the museum to see all of the relics and paintings. Even the gardens were gorgeous (probably because it was SO sunny out so everything looked greener than usual). My favorite parts of the museum were the chariots that the Popes used to ride in and the Sistine Chapel. The chariot wheels were huge!!!! Literally taller than me. And the chariot was covered in gold, it was a lot of bling but I loved it. After more wandering around the museum that seemed to never end we finally ended up in this hallway that had a ceiling a city block long just covered in art work. It blew my mind. I thought no ceiling could out do this one! I took picture after picture of this ceiling and then I turned the corner and walked into the Sistine Chapel. Suddenly that ceiling I was so captivated by seemed pathetic. Holy cow. Now I fully understand why this is such a famous icon. The Sistine Chapel put all of the gorgeous ceilings I have admired to shame. Of course there were no pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel but I'm a little dare devil and took one anyone so I could admire the breath taking views for more than the half an hour I spent just starring in awe.

Sistine Chapel - my rebellious picture muahaha

Massive Pillars

St. Peter's Basilica, that middle balcony
is for the Pope.

Next Kristina and I headed out to St. Peter's Basilica, however we may or may not have accidentally turned the wrong way out of the Vatican Museum. The fact that the entire crowd was going the opposite direction should have been our warning sign. So we definitley ended up taking the longest way possible to  St. Peter's. After our lovely stroll through a 45 minute detour we finally found the square, it was hard to miss. It is a huge opening surrounded by ornate buildings with massive pillars. The saints sit on top of the buildings engulfing the entire circle. The middle building is where the Pope lives and makes an appearance on Sundays. We were there on Saturday so I didn't get to see him, but I imagine that would be amazing. And crowded. At this time it was around 4 PM and we wanted to make it to Villa Borghese Gardens by sunset so we took a few more tourist photos (of course) and left the gorgeous square to head back to the metro. 

Hahahahah I LOVE the Swiss Guard uniforms
Not one of Michelangelo's better desgins.

Villa Borghese is like Rome's version of Central Park (I assume, I've never actually been to New York). But the general idea is a gorgeous park in the middle of a city. When you're in the park it is very relaxed, people rent bikes to ride through it rather than drive cars, there are gelato stands all around too. Kristina and I bought some gelato and then watched the sun set over Rome at the top of Villa Borghese. After all the walking we did it was great to relax and we had an amazing view. When we were ready to start moving around again we decided we wanted to see the Trevi Fountain lit up at night so we headed down towards the Spanish Steps on the way to the Trevi fountain. 

On the way to the Spanish Steps we were stopped by a huge crowd of people holding up Free Hugs signs. It was very interesting to see. I didn't think it was weird until just writing this post actually. Since they were all Italians in the crowd, why were their signs written in English? Weird. Anyways, that was slightly amusing and only distracted us momentarily. We saw the Spanish Steps, which were cool but to be honest they were so crowded with people you couldn't really see much of the actual steps. So we moved on and headed towards the Trevi Fountain. Now THAT was awesome. We didn't make any wishes though because we wanted to go back and see the fountain in the day so we decided to wait until Sunday for wishes. After admiring the lights a little but longer we got some dinner and went back to the hostel. We passed out by 10:30 PM, it had been an exhausting day.

The next day we obviously had to see the best part of Rome for every tourist... The Colosseum!! It was amazing and huge! I mean I knew the Colosseum was obviously a large structure but I mean it is just massive. And it is literally just in the middle of the city. We were walking down a normal street with a lot of traffic, look to our left, and, oh hey, there's the Colosseum just chilling at the end of the city block. It was insane. We didn't actually get an official tour of it, but I listened in to some random tours and I actually  bothered to read the signs around the Colosseum so I learned some fun facts. Like the bottom layer (the layer now visible to us) was used to store the exotic animals that warriors would fight and prisoners would be fed to. And that most of the damage done to the Colosseum was from a horrible fire that is undetermined if the emperor started or if it was accidental. 

Just being in the Colosseum was unreal. It was something I had heard about for as long as I can remember and I was amazed that I was actually standing in this historical and obviously famous building. It was definitley one of the coolest moments of my life. 

Afterwards we went to the Forum, which I'm not going to like was just a lot of ruins. Although Caesar was murdered in one of them! So that was cool. Well, probably not that cool for Caesar... Then we stopped by the Piazza Venezia which has the Capitol building on it. You had to pay to get in and we didn't want to so Kristina and I just admired it from the outside before searching for some lunch. We found this adorable outdoor restaurant that had an Italian man playing guitar outside. We had wine with our pasta and pizza. It was delicious and adorable. Everyone around us was speaking rapid Italian, to me it felt less touristy than most of the places we go. Then we headed back to Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain was even more amazing in the daylight. And I was so excited to make my wish!! I kinda got too excited at first and accidentally dropped my first coin in the fountain... but that one didn't count!! Whoops. So I got another coin, posed for some pictures (of course) and then made my wish. I wished for.... 

Yeah right. You never tell your wish :)

After heading back to the Spanish Steps for a Siesta in the Sun we headed back to Termini train station to catch the train back to Florence. This time we got on the correct train, so it took over 3 hours to get home. Other than the fact that my ears popped every time we went through a tunnel (and there were a ton of tunnels...) it was pretty relaxing.

This Wednesday and Thursday I have midterms. (Oh that's right it's called STUDY Abroad... whoops) But then after that it's Spring Break with Shannon!! I can't wait to show her around Florence. Then we're going to Paris, London, and Pisa!! These midterms need to go by fast (and hopefully they are easy, fingers crossed!)

OH! 

Side note: today I spoke in ALL Italian at the Post Office!! It wasn't a very lengthy conversation but I still felt cool. And I got my first letter in the mail today from Emily Nelms. It was fun! If anyone wants to write me a letter, it would make my day :)

"Breanna McGuire
c/o Istituto Lorenzo de Medici
Via del Melarancio 6/r
50123 Firenze, Italia"

Is this real life? - Interlaken, Switzerland

"Is this real life?" seems to have become my new catch phrase. Everything I'm doing is just unbelievable to me. I mean I went paragliding. In Switzerland....! This is all so crazy! I'm loving every moment of my life right now.

Interlaken is a small town in Switzerland that is high above sea level but looks like it isn't because it is surrounded by the Swiss Alps. On each side of the town are two beautiful lakes that are connected by a river. It is by far the best place I have gone so far. My friend CJ pretty much summed it up when she said "Are you kidding me?! How is it that every corner you turn the view is breath taking? How is that possible?" My describing it won't do it justice, and I don't want the pictures to be small so I'm going to add them at the end. The pictures really don't do the scenery much justice either, but it's the best I can do.

Swans like the swim in the lakes in Interlaken and they are like pigeons in Chicago... they just come right up to you! It was amazing! This one swam was right by me and we made eye contact. I swear we had a starring contest. He won.

Originally, to get a "thrill" in Interlaken, my friends and I were going to go canyon jumping. There are only two places in the world where this is possible, New Zealand and Interlaken... So we jumped at the opportunity (punny). Sadly, the weather (which was BEAUTIFUL) was too warm. The warm weather was causing the large icles to melt and fall in the canyon, and they could hit jumpers, so canyon jumping was cancelled. We still wanted to do something amazing though so we "settled" for paragliding over Switzerland. It was so breathtaking/amazing/surreal/any other word that works here. I'm still freaking out about it and its been over 24 hours. My guide, his name was Micki, was hilarious. You're up in the air for about 20 minutes and I thought it would be awkward to be strapped to a stranger for that long but we had an amazing conversation. He told me about paragliding alone for the first time, explained that we were over 2 miles above the ground and going faster than 30 mph, he joked (or at least I hope it was a joke) about praying for the wind to go to the right or else we were going to hit the side of the mountain... I was only slightly amused by this joke. No worries though, obviously we got the wind or I would be stuck in a mountain right now with all the mountain goats, deer, and rabbits (the main animals in their mountains. No bears or moose... I had to ask him).

ADPi <3 AGD

Dragon Slide

CJ, Ellen, Kristi, Sara, Kendall, Peyton, and I decided it would be fun on Saturday to do a day trip to Zurich. Although Zurich was great and we had a blast, I had fallen so in love with Interlaken that it just wasn't amazing. We climbed the top of the church tower and saw some great views, stopped in a beautifully decorated chocolate shop (of course... swiss chocolate is to die for.), and shopped on their version of Michigan Avenue; Bahnhofstrasse... not as catchy. It was fun, there was a 4 story toy store had these collectible stuffed animals, they even had a squirrel!! But it was a tiny one for 150 Franks (which is roughly $155). So, sorry AGD, but that squirrel I had to pass on buying. There was also a slide in the store! At first we weren't going to go on it, because only little kids were. But eventually, we all caved, because it looked like so much fun! So everyone slid down it... it was in the shape of a dragon. So basically you get eaten by a dragon, and come out of his "tail". My inner-child loved it.

A sign in our restaurant in Zurich... umm excuse me?

We had lunch at this crazy expensive German restaurant (everything is Switzerland is expensive because they pay better. Minimum wage is 18 Franks ($20) an hour). I tried an onion soup, which was actually good. (I'm getting very good at trying new food.)  Afterwards we didn't have much time before our bus left to head back to Interlaken so we all just got a beer (cause that's legal here and it makes me happy) and relaxed until it was time to head back. Even the bus rides were amazing. You're riding through the mountains so it's just spectacular views all the time!

Next weekend is the weekend before midterms. It is still undetermined if I'm going to stay in Florence or head to Rome but either way it should be a fun weekend in Italy! I'm excited to get midterms over with and start spring break with my sister! Since I'm only seeing her for a week I should actually like her the entire time she's here :)

Paragliding Take-off 3 Miles Above Interlaken

Soooooooo cool! This was right before he started doing tricks. It was nerve racking! :)

 Love these girls <3
The water is really that blue because it is glacier water and the limestone changes its color.

I'm so in love with Interlaken

Peyton, Kendall, Kristi, CJ, Sara, Ellen, and me in Zurich

The definition of Beauty

Having a moment with the Swan Princess; again thanks for the picture CJ <3