Ciao Italia: 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!