Andrew and I made the quick decision that we wanted to take a holiday and since neither of us had been to Rome we made plans to go there. After this was all booked I found out that I still had almost two weeks until classes started so we booked another trip, this one to Barcelona. However we weren't so smart in our planning and we were scheduled to get in from Barcelona with one day to spare in London before heading to Rome.
But we're young so we figured we'd go for it anyhow.
We got great prices on lastminute.com and had 4* hotels the whole time.

Barcelona was beautiful. We had to catch a bus at 3:30am to get to our flight because the tube doesn't run all night. But once we got there and napped we were good to go for the day. Their metro was easy to use and we spent the first day wandering around the Gothic Quarter, a section filled with narrow winding streets with balconies and they seemed so full of life. We made it down to the harbor for lunch before wandering some more and finally heading to the hotel for some room service and to crash early, it'd been a long long day of traveling.

The second day we stopped by a tourist information booth to grab info on doing a bike tour, and headed over to sign-up for it. While waiting for the tour to start, on another winding street, we grabbed pastries from a little shop. It was great because I was able to understand some of what was going on and speak spanish a little to people. I used the phrases "do you speak english?", "one minute please" and "thank you" most. I managed a few other that surprised even me but even without that everyone was so friendly it didn't seem to matter, it just made me feel better to at least try.

We were the only people signed-up for the bike tour so we had a personal tour of Barcelona all to our selves. This was exceptionally good because I needed the time to re-learn how to ride a bike, the phrase "just like riding a bike" now means nothing to me because I didn't remember and almost ran into the wall five times just trying to get out of the alley. It was a sunny, beautiful day to ride around, once I got the hang of running people over we were off. It was 3 hours and took us all over the city, down to the beach, through the Gothic Quarter and to see most of the monuments we wouldn't have found otherwise.

Our tour guide had recommended a restaurant in this quaint little square for dinner so we went there. It's a cooking school so it was excellent quality for a very inexpensive price. We went all out, appetizers, sangria and even desert.

Our final day we had a lot of time to kill so we wandered the Gothic Quarter some more, our favorite area by far, and eventually found a pub with beers for 1 euro. We had a few there before heading to the hotel to grab our stuff and get to the airport. Well, for all the time we had all day we managed to get to the service counter for our flight 5 minutes after they closed check-in for our flight. They told us there was nothing they could do, we were stuck (even though the plane was 45 minutes delayed in leaving). So after a minor break down we bought new tickets to leave Saturday morning and found a hotel with shuttle service to stay at. We would have stayed at the airport but I was past my breaking point and I was scheduled to work Saturday night until close and was going to have to head straight from the pub to the airport to get to Rome.

It ended up working very well in our favor besides the spending so much extra money part. The hotel was really nice with a bed so huge that I rolled over 5 times to get from one side to the other side. We slept so well, probably better then we would have it we had made it home Friday night instead and had to take 3 different buses to get home. So instead we made it home Saturday around 2 with time to repack, I had just made dinner getting ready to go to work when my manager let me know they were slow that night so I didn't have to go in. Instead I got to sleep early to get up to catch yet another bus at 3:30am.

We arrived in Rome soon after the sun had risen. We had quiet a time getting lost trying to find the hotel and trying to confer with people with no common language. But we made it to the hotel, even better than the one in Barcelona.

After a rest we headed out to explore. We figured we'd hit all the main sites that we're near each other so we started with the Spanish Steps. We grabbed pizza from this little shop tucked in near the Metro station. I have no idea what I ate because I told the guy behind the counter to just give me whatever he'd have so it was some kind of white pizza with mushrooms and I think anchovies or something, absolutely delicious.

We walked all over the city seeing so much and absolutely exhausting ourselves. Following the routine in Spain we grabbed some take-out from this little place around the corner from the hotel where they spoke almost no english and curled up watching some tv in our room.

Monday we got up for breakfast at the hotel since it was included and since it was a wonderful european breakfast there was bread, meat and cheese that we used to make sandwiches to have for lunch, brilliant idea.

We went to the Colosseum and explored that. Then went to St. Peter's and climbed all the way up to the top where we got a 360-degree view of Rome. We ate our sandwiches in the plaza outside of St. Peter's and then walked down along the river to find a monument we had seen from the top of St. Peter's. The whole city was amazing because every corner we turned there was something new we hadn't seen yet. We kept thinking we knew where we were and then we'd get into the square and find that we were no where we had been. It was pretty great to see all the little squares and fountains.

Monday night we had dinner outside in this little alley and splurged again having an appetizer, desert and a thing of their homemade red wine, very tasty.

Tuesday we had breakfast and packed extra sandwiches since we were flying out that night. We went over to this big park and wandered around through the gardens. Our day is going to sound romantic but it was us so it was mostly goofing around the whole time. We had lunch in the park by a nice fountain and then wandered over to this little lake where we discovered it was only 6 euro to row a boat around it for 20 minutes. Since we had time and really wanted to check out the temple structure in the lake we headed off. Andrew did most of the rowing but made me switch with him towards the end so I could row us into things too.

I can't remember what else we did that day before heading home but I know I needed to get this off before it's way too late, especially since I need to write another one soon. Pictures will be added soon.

More craziness over in London. Once I got back from Christmas I spent my entire time working on my two papers I had due last week. They didn't seem that challenging until I was stuck short 700 words shy on each one. Yea, a bit stressful and all. Those got turned in and then it was time to work, and work some more. 

Saturday we had a last minute 80s party at the pub, which means there was a lot of people packed into the pub, including the new group of american students attending the school down the road. They seem like a good and friendly group so we're looking forward to seeing them around. Because there was so much going on I worked until 3am at which point the place was still insanely packed. It was a good night all in all.

I worked last night and am going in tonight. Tomorrow however, the real fun starts. Andrew and I are heading to Barcelona for 3 days. We have a flight that leaves at 7am, which means we need to leave at 3:15 on a bus to get to the train station to catch the 5am train out to the airport....oh yea. We have no idea what we want to do or see in Barcelona but neither of us have been there and we got a nice 4-star hotel for incredibly cheap. It should be a good time. We get back late Friday night, Saturday night I work again and then Sunday morning we are up super early once more to get to the airport to fly to Rome for 3 days. Tons going on.

This blog will stop here because I have to make sure I'm all ready to go and head off to work. I'll post a nice long one with pictures of our travels when we get back next week. 

What I drunk last night, would have floored a rhinoscerous.

To pick up where I left off I got home to Connecticut and got right into helping Mom make cookies, clean and finish up Christmas shopping. It started snowing the Friday after I got in and continued with almost no stopping until late Sunday night which created nice snow banks for when Andrew flew in Monday afternoon.

Tuesday Andrew and I got up very early to head into New York City for the day. We packed a lot into the day there starting at Rockerfeller Center to see the tree and ice skating. Then we checked out some window displays along 5th Ave, very surrealist inspired work, really interesting.

From there we had to go into FAO Schwarz to play with toys and load up on candy, it's great to have adults in a candy shop because we act like kids we just actually get to buy it.

From there we went and got our picture taken with a very effeminate Santa Claus before trying to find a pizza place to get warm and get some food that wasn't pure sugar.

After sufficiently warming up we went back into the cold to wander through Central Park then on down to Time Square, with a brief stop into M&M World, four floors of M&M's, can't go wrong with that. Finally we headed back to Rockerfeller Center to see the tree lit up at night and then slowly dragged ourselves back to the train to head back home again.

Wednesday we went out to Best Buy so Andrew could buy a computer, a PC but we can forgive him that. And Jess arrived from Phoenix just in time for the snow to be all rained away. After the Christmas Eve service we relaxed for a bit before everyone headed to bed.

Christmas morning we awoke to coffee and the discovery that Santa had come by and he even remembered where to find Andrew.

After stockings came the traditional eggs benedict, one of my favorite parts of Christmas. Then came presents and a bit of resting.

Friday was day 2 of Christmas where my Aunt Deb (my Mom's sister) and her family came by for much food and more presents.

Saturday was day 3, off to New Hampshire for Christmas with the Swenson family, even more eating, drinking, presents with some pool and Wii thrown in for good measure.

I'd say that Sunday we rested but that didn't happen. Instead on Sunday Andrew and I headed into Boston to check out the city since Andrew had never been. We first went down near where Jess used to live to get some sushi, so yummy. Then I had to take Andrew down to Fenway, I mean, it was right there. So we walked around and got to see all the construction going on. We popped into a sports bar across the street from Fenway to have a pint and watch a bit of the Patriots game. After that it was off to Government Center to walk through Faneuil Hall and down to the waterfront to get to the New England Aquarium (Andrew had never been to one of those before). I love the New England Aquarium, especially because when you first walk in the whole ground floor is all penguins and they are my favorite. 

Of course after that we were getting a bit hungry so we made our way into the North End to find Mike's Pastry for some cannolis. While chowing down we went off to the Prudential Center to go up to the very top and get a 360 view of Boston at night, then back down again for more food at a local bar called Pour House that Jess used to frequent back in her Boston days.

And finally it was home again to watch Goodfellas and get a bit of hot tub time.

Monday there was massive running around and packing and it was off to the airport again in a whirlwind. At the airport I sent Andrew off to the correct terminal and went to find my friend Kelly who went to Philly U with me and was flying back to London for New Years here with me.

We got in early early Tuesday morning and by the time we got a cab home we were so exhausted that there was a big nap session, of course I kept waking up because I was so cold and couldn't figure out why. Turns out that Ellie and James had gone back to Brighton for the week and had turned off the heat, and the stove which I discovered when I tried to make some food for us. We headed out to do a bit of shopping down on Oxford Street. And even though we were exhausted we stayed up until after 2am with Andrew playing Battle of the Sexes a new board game I got for Christmas.

Wednesday Kelly, Ellie and I went into Watford to do a bit of shopping, Ellie still needed to find an outfit for New Years Eve so we were on a mission.

We were a bit late heading out for New Years Eve but had amazing timing non-the-less. We took the tube as far as we could which was two stations shy of our destination. The others were closed due to overcrowding because the tube is free on New Years Eve. So we joined the crowds of thousands to walk down one of the main roads, The Strand. We arrived at King's College down near the Thames which is where we got tickets to a party at the colleges student bar. Once we got in James, Ellie and Andrew headed upstairs to find the bathroom while Kelly and I waited while Andrew's friend Rachel checked her coat. The plan was for us to head to the bar on the 4th floor to get drinks and meet them. Things were going well as far as we could see, we got in the elevator and then out again on the floor with everyone else, there were no markers for the floor but there were a lot of people getting off and going into the bar so we followed along. We made it to the bar, got drinks for everyone but couldn't find them. We wandered around the floor which wasn't very big and looked and looked to no avail. Finally it's 3 minutes until midnight (we got in at 11:30 or so) and we still can't find them and I go out towards the elevator until I find someone who works there and ask what floor we're on. Turns out we were on the 2nd floor, so the three of us ran up the two flights of stairs and found everyone else the moment we walked in the door, which means by the time we said hi the countdown was at 3. After that the real party began with much dancing.

We got home around 5 or 6, had a bit of an eating session as we were all starved and headed off to sleep for a few hours.

Today has been a nice relaxing day, mostly sleeping in and watching tv bumming in the front room together.

Back to more relaxing and enjoyment of having Kelly around.

Photos of Christmas holiday and New Years for all to see: here.