Grainne's Account

This trip has been simply amazing. London flew by in a blur and I do wish we had spent more time there. It was fascinating to see the graves and execution spots of some of British history's most famous. Highgate Cemetery, too, was extraordinarily beautiful- we saw Marx's grave but were unable to find neither George Eliot nor Cristina Rossetti's gravestones. I loved seeing the David and Botticelli's Venus in person. There were two different paintings of Adam and Eve in the Academia that I enjoyed very much as well. In both, Adam simply looked bewildered and dazed out of his mind, while Eve looked very devious and entirely certain of what she was doing. In Venice, Cate, Michaela and I all went to the beach island of Lido at sunset and swim in the entirely deserted and extremely beautiful Adriatic Sea for hours, which was definitely one of the single best experiences of my life. The one full day we spent in Vienna we went to one of the oldest amusement parks in the world and got to go on a gigantic ferris wheel and plenty of roller coasters whilst taking in most of central Vienna. Prague is, by far, the creepiest city we've been to. The elevator in our hotel has not doors, only a sign that reads "Warning! Moving Wall." And finally, Cate and I have completed our mission to climb at least one large tower or building in every city (St. Paul's in London, the Duomo in Florence, the bell tower in Venice, Stephan's Dome in Vienna and the clock tower in Prague), from which we've seen beautiful views of all of the cities.

Oh those italian vendors by Molly Dee

Hey everybody, sorry for the lack of blogging. I've had quite a bit of difficulty figuring this beast out with all the foreign languages and such. It also doesn't help that i essentially ignored the invite thing back before we left. Thankfully, Sean S. has allowed me to sign in under his account to post this. I'd like to tell you about an experience i had in Florence (which was my favorite city by the way) outside of the famous Duomo. Grainne, Cate, and I all went down to the Duomo to climb the tower and on the way there we happened upon a couple of Italian vendors on the street selling prints. Grainne made the mistake of pointing at a painting and referring to it as "pretty". One particular vendor took advantage of the situation and proceeded to basically harass her into buying a print. The conversation went like this:

Vendor: Ah you want to buy print! i give it to you for 50 euro.
Grainne: No
V: ok for you 15!
G: No
V: You kiss me i give it to you free!
At this point Grainne briskly walked away... and the creepy vendor gave up.

Meanwhile, i approached the other vendor and said " hey you offered my friend 15 Euros for the print, hows about you give me one for 8?" He said yes! Woot for me!

So basically, Grainne got harassed and i got a neat print for 8 euros.
The end.
- Molly
P.S. Love you mama!

Prague by Michaela Carlson

We have just arrived in Prague. This trip is so amazing. We went to a performance of some of the famous hits by Mozart yesterday. It was really interesting. Unfortunately it caused many to stay up too late. We had to wake up at 5 and be ready by 5:30. Many slept on the train. I certainly did! Today many are just exploring the town. Everyone is having an amazing time.

Emily's Contribution:

This is emily on Diane's blog... hope you guys can find this!
So we are in Vienna right now, diane and i have already scoped out an awesome cafe and everything is going great. I brought so many shirts, i didnt even have to do luandry with the rest of them today...it really is all about the rolling technique so thank you mom. :)
So, everything has been amazing and im sorry i've been so internet retarded or i would be blogging on my own account.. which i cant quite figure out how to do and i would have checked in already.
Italy was my favorite by far. Cant wait to go back haha. Im taking tons of pics...havent been pick-pocketed...taking my medication...everything is awesome. I miss you people! oh and p.s. i want to learn to cook italian food.
Could you maybe blog back to me about how much money i have left in the account? im getting nervous!! its pricey over here.
thanks! love you guys,
emily.

Venezia

Just a quick note: There are very few internet spots in Venice, and they are more expensive than in Florence, so no one has been on the internet at all except myself now. But we all arrived safely and are having a blast! We've been to Murano (the glass blowing island) and Lido (where the beaches are - and some of the kids went swimming and rented a paddle boat). We've also gotten lost several times in the winding alleys. It's beautiful!
More later!

Ciao, Fierenze!

We're just about to leave Fierenze (Florence) for Venezia (Venice), so I'd like to add a few things.

We love Italy. Every one of us is enjoying the food and the beauty of the buildings and the general friendliness of the atmosphere. Florence is a small town, so easy to get around on by foot. I'm surprised Roger mentioned that it was expensive, since we've switched over to the Euro, which is better for us than the British pound, and we have walked everywhere, whereas in London we were often forced to "top up" our cards for the subway. On the whole, the expensive part is that we've really loved the clothes and food here!

We went to the Galleria dell'Accademia and saw Michelangelo's sculpture of David, among other sculptures of his and many Madonnas and Bambinos. At the Uffizi the next day, we saw many MORE paintings of Madonnas con Bambinos (Madonna and child), as well as several very, very famous Botticelli paintings ("The Birth of Venus" and "Spring"). We also saw some Leonardo da Vincis, and many Roman busts. Then Ms. Harings got hungry and cranky and drove Dr. Zellmer from the museum in order to find lunch.

Ciao!

florence-fun, but really expensive

1) its really amazing and the weather is great.
2) you can get great pictures almost everywhere except most of the museums
3) the museums are ok but they dont have alot of famous stuff
4) it is crazy expensive but the food is great
5) you cant do it all in 3 days


thats about it.