But none of these are really bad things. Yes I have not been in Florence for a whole weekend in a long time, but that means I have been traveling and seeing amazing things. And I can always eat a nice juicy steak at home. Maybe I haven't physically seen my family, but thanks to technology I can still "see" them in real time. As for relaxing, there is always time for that, and this trip is dedicated to being on the go and doing as much as I can take advantage of. And working out? Well I walk an average of about two hours a day around the city and believe me, it counts! And for all these things I have to be thankful.
On March 1st I left for my spring break with two friends. The first city I went to was Paris, then a few days later I was off to Amsterdam, and finally ended the break in Dublin. I know, I am one lucky girl to have the opportunity to travel and see so many incredible places! Instead of giving you all the details of everything I saw and did, I will talk about one particular thing I did in each city. There is a company called New Europe, look them up on their website (neweurope.com). The goal they look to achieve is to give every traveler the opportunity to learn about the city they are visiting, and on a travelers budget (aka for free). Yes, these three and a half hour tours are FREE. Then at the end of the tour you can decide if you want to tip the tour guide or not. And most of the guides are young-just-out-of-grad-school adults. And they are fantastic at what they do. I mean you get history, funny stories, you learn about the best places to see and eat, you can ask questions about anything to do with the city and you get to see a majority of the attractions. It is well worth it. After each tour the guide will bring anyone who wants to go to a restaurant of authentic and relatively inexpensive food from that city. They also advertise for other tours being offered, which have a small fee, that anyone can sign up for. Truly it is an amazing company. And thanks to them I now have a tiny background knowledge of Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin. I would recommend taking advantage of these tours to anyone.
Paris
Notre Dame
Eiffel Tower
Me at the Louvre! That is the Mona Lisa!
An Adorable Market in Paris
Amsterdam
I Amsterdam sign
Authentic Dutch food
A Canal in Amsterdam, look how cute the buildings are!
Bikes Bikes Bikes
Dublin
Enjoying a Guinness at the Guinness Brewing Factory
Oh, Ireland!
My friend Lauren and I
This lake is nicknamed "Guinness Lake". How the Irish love their beer!
Cliffs of Mohr, it was very foggy but still cool!
The second I got home, aka back to Florence, from spring break, I quickly went to one of the hotels near my apartment where my boyfriend was staying for the week! That's right, Adam came to visit me in Italy for his spring break! We had a fantastic week together. After the go go go of my spring break, it was so relaxing to spend time with him. And so easy too. We knew what we wanted to do and were able to accomplish all of it. We even traveled to Venice on Thursday, one city he had always wanted to see. I was glad to share that with him. The things we did around Florence were also fantastic, especially because some of them I hadn't done yet either. I knew he was coming this week and made sure to save specific things to do together, such as visit well known gorgeous gardens in Florence. It really was like an extended vacation for me having hi there with me in Florence. I loved being about to show him all around the city I have been calling home for several months now. But I must say, the timing of his trip here was perfect because it was just the taste of my real home that I needed.
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