Journey # 6 Bologna

12/30: Reunited and it feels so good!!!!
        Caylin and I took the train from Venice to Bologna and met Andrea at the station and walked to our HOTEL together...yes yes I said it, we actually stayed in a hotel, and a nice one at that! Immediately we all took a nap in our luxurious beds..I even took a bubble bath :) A little later in the afternoon we wandered into the town and eventually met up with Saso and Meghan...the Fam is back together again, such a sweet reunion.
**sidenote: the reason we chose Bologna as our new years destination is because Caylin had really good family friends, the Watson's,  that were going to be there. The youngest daughter was playing on the high school Bring It tour, so we were about to be surrounded by tall volleyball people and see the guy that runs our agency!

So after we grabbed some food and booze, we headed back to the hotel and played some card/drinking games and met up with the Watson's. After our mini hotel party we decided to go try a couple of places that Lucy's sister had recommended for us to try. The first bar was really cool and very hipster. The waiter recommended a moscow mule...how could I not!? All in honor of Grandma. Then off to the next place where we couldn't find a seat so just took a shot at the bar and continued to wander. As we were giving up and walking back to our hotel we passed a hole in the wall place where there was karaoke!! We ran in to find the most white trash Italian people I have ever seen....I'm talking fat, missing teeth and smelling bad! But I wasn't going anywhere because there was a microphone, room to dance, and 1 euro shots! We sang quite a few songs including, but not limited to, The Eagles, The Spice Girls, and Mariah Carey...I admit my decision to belt Mariah was a huge mistake. But, it was so freaking fun.

12/31 NYE!!! Started with a tingling hang over...but was easily cured by the wonders that were provided by our hotel. First: Free breakfast! Second: Mini workout and Sauna!! Ahh just sweated out all that alcohol and felt like a new woman :) It wasn't exactly the most productive of days, but there really isn't anything to see in Bologna so I wasn't missing out by just relaxing with m'friends. We prepped for our big night...and by prepping I mean buying more booze and showering. We were heading for a dinner with the Bring It tour that was on an Italian military base. Tim had rented out a city bus for the whole crew to take there which was pretty awesome. It was good to see Tim, wish that we could have talked to him more though. The dinner was supposed to be a 5 course traditional Italian style meal, but it was quite the disappointment. Of course we made the best of it and took advantage of all the drinks and played card games and made some new friends....like olympic volleyball players :) So cool. Everyone was soooooo tall...we had been in southern Italy far too long, because we were in awe of being shorter than people. We left the base a little after 11 to get to the center where there was a statue they were going to burn and then set off a bunch of fireworks. Exciting stuff.

When we got into the center, there was so much noise and people were setting off fire crackers EVERYWHERE, it was crazy. As Caylin, Lindsey and I were making our way into the crowd with the others close behind, we were somewhat mobbed by some Moroccan guys who proceeded to put their hands all over us...I ended up punching a guy in the head and then one tried to rip my camera out of my hand! It was so scary. We all got separated, but found our way to safety before midnight. Feewww! Watching the burning man was pretty cool and there was about a 45 minute firework display. Made sure I was surrounded by Andrea and Saso the rest of the time. Once we were all safe and the crowds had died down, the champagne tasted so much sweeter! Caylin had a rough time and we had her go home with the Watson's....I only wish that we had been there to see her trip and fall 3 times during that walk home hahahaha. 

1/1/12: First day of the new year and what do I do....enjoy free breakfast, work out, sauna and watch CNN all day :) Then "the fam" cooked a really good pasta dinner at Meg and Saso's place and watched Jersey Shore and then some weird animal planet thing on Sea Elephants. Extremely educational. All in all it was a great trip...but maybe next year I'll skip the big crowd for the new year and keep it with just friends and family. 

Burning Statue

Journey #5 Venice

VE-NE-ZIAAA!! Oh what an amazing city...not such an amazing travel experience getting there. Had a little trouble getting to the airport for our flight, so we had to throw down the big dough for a cab :( And then Caylin left her nook on the plane so we had to wait for a couple hours in the airport for them to return it. BUT, once all that was settled we started exploring the city with great weather right when the sun was starting to set, so needless to say we got some BEAUTIFUL pictures of one of the most unique cities in the world.

Since we were "ballin on a budget", our diet consisted of cheese and crackers from the store and .69 cent boxed wine :) Caylin + Kelsey = pure class. Not quite the nightlife these wild thangs were hoping for, but it was probably a blessing in disguise since we didn't want to spend much money.

12/29: We basically just spent the day somewhat aimlessly wandering around and getting lost in the adorable little streets and looking in the shops where I wanted to buy everything. And I actually did...Up to this point I had managed to not buy a single thing in 5 cities...I need to work on not being such a cheap ass and buy more fun stuff! Sad to say we did not take a romantic gondola ride (talk about $$$$), but we did share a glass of wine in an little wine bar with a cutie patootie little waiter man. Then it started raining on us, so we called it a night. With our diet solely consisting of crackers the past 2 days, we decided to go wild and go and find a pizza near our hostel..NOT AS EASY AS ANTICIPATED. The guy working at the front desk offered us a couple of options and of course we chose the most difficult one, causing us to wander into the ghetto of Venice for about 20 minutes. Not our brightest move of the trip. Eventually we found pizza (not the place he recommended) and it tasted gross...they gave us one with FISH on it! Not what we ordered..big vomit.

The wild thangs enjoyed a quiet evening of boxed wine and banana grams, in preparation of the madness that was Bologna....

Journey #4 London-Rugby-London

12/23: After a fabulous 2 hour nap, we left our hostel at 5am to catch the bus to the airport to make our way to London. Everything went smoothly as far as our travels went, caught our flight and found the right bus to take us to where we needed to go, but that bus was an hour long ride and we all passed out the whole way and missed the stop we were supposed to get off on. Oh well, we just had to walk a little further to find the train station where we could leave our bags for the day before we caught our 9pm train to Rugby. Mission #1 in London: find food and wake the fack up! Success was found in an adorable little square with a weird statue and a christmas tree.
Then sightseeing: Tower bridge, Tower of London, London bridge, London eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, Westminster Abbey. We even passed through a "winter market" (we're in London now, so they had to be politically correct and not say Christmas market booooo)

*sidenote: at this point in the journey we have been walking EVERYWHERE, going out at night (usually dancing and running is involved) and all of our shoes have gotten holes in them and are leaking (especially Caylin and Meghan's).

With our aching feet and still a couple of hours before the train, we decided to make the trek to Buckingham palace...we were bitching the whole time, and I think God heard us and wanted us to shut up because it started pouring rain while we were in the middle of the park and had no coverage. We found shelter and as soon the rain let up and we figured out where the nearest tube was, we sprinted past the palace to SIT and wait for the train in the comfort of chairs and heat. Enjoyed some hot soup and a couple games of banana grams before catching the train.

TRAIN REUNION!!! Decided to have some "cocktails" on the train aka buy the cheapest whiskey we could find and mix with coke zero. Lucy jumped on board, of course we greeted her by hiding and jumping out to scare her! Once the scare was over, she took a second to look at us and said, "you guys look like hell!" TRUTH HURTS. After a loud (and probably very annoying) train ride, we arrived in Rugby to meet John and Cath Thompson! We stayed up had some food and a little wine and chatted about what the next couple days were going to be like.

CHRISTMAS EVE: My favorite holiday :) This part of the trip could not have come at a more perfect time...got a great nights sleep, woke up to a delicious hot breakfast and then went to get pedicures (our christmas present from Caylin). Had a relaxing day before John made a delicious curry dinner early in the evening , so we had plenty of time to go out to the pubs! WARNING. When spending Christmas in England be prepared for lots of drinking because most of their "traditions" involve going to the pub. So Christmas eve was spent boozing with some of Lucy's friends. Met some real weirdo's....and EVERYONE wanted to know what the heck we were doing in Rugby...apparently they don't think very highly of the birthplace of Rugby..they should have more pride.

CHRISSIE!!! Woke up to breakfast and "breakfast bags" - same idea as stockings, so I was stoked. Then presents! I had a package from home that my mom had sent (such a cutie) and Cath had gotten all three of us a couple little presents that were perfect for our travels: hat, socks, gloves, candy! Around noon we went to the pub with John (again a tradition) for a couple hours and had some fun. When we got back it was 2nd Santa! Meaning, Santa is a forgetful guy so we had a couple more presents waiting for us :) At 3 it was time for the Queen's speech. I was very excited for this because I had never heard her speak before, and Lucy and Cath were saying that she has the weirdest accent and is the only one that speaks like that, they call it Queens english. I couldn't really tell, but she was small and cute and it was nice. Before dinner started we had a champagne treasure hunt! Cath had made little clues on our place settings and we all got a glass of champagne and hunted around the house where our final gift was! Loving this tradition. Dinner was great, we had turkey and ham and cranberry sauce! And best of all there were poppers! So I got to wear a crown all night. After dinner we played Bingo...which Cath now refers to as "black bingo". Side story: Cath's daughter-in-law went to New York and said that only black people play bingo. When Cath told me this to find out if it was true I almost fell out of my chair laughing. Anyways, we played a couple games of bingo: things got wild (and we were drunk) and John threw his napkin at me to knock off my hat :( We grew to have an interesting relationship, but I would like to think he liked me best because I'm so "sassy". We continued with the game theme and taught them how to play Thumper. Aww such fun :) AND BEST OF ALL, they had great internet, so I got to skype with the Shrodes for a long time and my parents!! Even though I couldn't be with my family, it was a pretty awesome Christmas.

Faces of pure joy when they opened my gift: flasks..."one for the road?"

Champagne treasure hunt!

BOXING DAY: We were quite lazy. But who isn't on the 26th (maybe the hard core shoppers). John and Cath had left for the day to pick up Beth, Lucy's sister, because the trains don't run on boxing day. Meaning we were in charge of dinner. After meeting the hysterical Beth and having dinner, we went to The Fighting Cocks...Lucy claimed it as the worst bar ever. But that never stops us from having a good time and we turned that place into a good time: bartenders giving us free shots, playing pool, playing ring of fire, and confusing the local lads. 

12/27: Time for everyone to go their separate ways...Caylin and I to London and Meg to Paris. It was a difficult goodbye to the Thompson's because they were such amazing hosts and I really hope that I get to see them again someday.  Caylin and I took the train into London and met our good pal Vincenzo! After dropping our stuff off at our super cool hostel we were ready to hit the town. First stop, Buckingham palace where we could actually take a look around and not sprint pass in the rain. Impressive, but not many guards there because the Queen was in Scottland with her sick husband. The best part is when Caylin and I decided to do our signature handstand in front of the gates...Pretty sure people thought we were a flash dance group. Hit up a couple squares and then got ready for dinner and a night on the town. Dinner was at a bomb Vietnamese restaurant with  a very high pitched waiter who loved the idea of us drinking beer and gave Vince the thumbs up to get us drunk...Then we went on our own mini pub crawl trying new beers at all these different pubs. Accidentally walked into a gay bar and it freaked Vince out hehe. Did some more handstands, played some card games and somehow got Vinceyboy wasted by 11. Not sure how that happened, but when we said we were going to take him home he hung his head and said, "this is the lowest point in my life." But countered it with "I will not surrender and refused to be taken back to his hotel. When I laughed at him, he bitch-slapped me, in the face. Rough night. 

Olympic countdown!

Handstands in Trafalgar square

Dinner

Journey #3 Edinburgh

Oh Edinburgh, how I long to return to your charming streets and enchanting buildings...one day my friend, one day. Biggest regret of the trip: only spending one day in Edinburgh. Such a cool city with really great people. We arrived a little late and had Caylin's old teammate in Sweden pick us up from the airport and drop us off at our most partying hostel of the trip. Immediately upon arrival they tell us to come on a pub crawl, well were not tired and don't know what to do AND it's free so we join. The first bar was rad with some live music, so the 3 of us "tore it up" on the dance floor and sang along (not well) with every song.

The next bar included some aussie hotties and 1 euro drinks, so to say the least, that was a good time. Our guides (male) tried to kiss each other....their drunken theory: if they are getting rejected by girls, their boys will always love them. Not sure why they feel the need to smooch to show love, but it was pretty hilarious.

12/22: A slow waking, but in time for our walking tour! First stop was a grave yard. Yes depressing knowing how many bodies we were standing on, but learning why they were all dead (you know dying for what they believe in and what not) made it a little better. And for the Harry Potter fan in me, I got to see the school that inspired J.K. Rowling for Hogwarts and some of the graves that inspired the names of her characters! Pretty rad. 

We also got to learn some cool history and witch hunting stories. Most of the stories we were told were prompted by the names of the pubs we walked by. For example THE LAST DROP was where they would take people to have their last shot of whiskey before they were hung! They really value the important stuff don't they? Then we walked around for a bit more, headed up to the amazing castle (stayed on the outside because we were to cheap to pay to get inside). That night we had a scary ghost/underground tour where we went inside the underground vaults and got a good spook. Oh and the tour was followed with a whiskey and a shortbread...looooove that. Ended the journey with another pub crawl! Typical us night: playing pool,  drinks, dancing, and shinannigans! End of the night we weren't tired so we took the snoring guys camera in our room and took a bunch of random pictures, my personal favorites would be the handstands in front of the christmas tree! AHHH and then we slept for 2 hours and left at 5 am for LONDON!

Journey #2 Dublin

December 19th: fly to Dublin....It's Caylin's birthday and your girls are ready to celebrate. Bought a bottle of jmo in the Rome airport and started the festivities on the bus ride to our hostel. Dropped our bags and immediately headed to Temple Bar. Words can not explain how excited we were to be surrounded by english speaking people...and TALL! Truly a dream come true after the midgets we have been surrounded with these past 3 months. First bar had a live band and dancing, then we went into The Temple Bar with great Irish music and a lively crowd! So much fun.

December 20th: Took advantage of the free walking tour that our hostel was offering and set out to see the hot spots of Dublin along with learning some very depressing history of the country (Love you Ireland, but you guys are some losers). Our guide was great, an out of work architect...telling us all about how no one can get a job. We went to Dublin city hall, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, Temple bar, Trinity college..and I think that's about it. After our history lesson we ventured to the Guiness factory for some beer history. This is my second time there, but still learned a lot and enjoyed a glorious, perfectly poured, pint of guiness. That night we found in outdoor band, everyone was wearing the funniest christmas jumpers, and we tried to convince a group of guys that we were triplets. Sadly we quickly failed at that because Meghan told one guy we were from Florida and another we were from California, and Caylin started a story about HER brother, forgetting that I was supposed to be her sister, making him my brother as well. Next time we are just going to stick with Caylin and I being twins story. One of my goals for this leg of the trip was to meet up with my college friend Kevin who is from Dublin....SUCCESS. He came and met us with some of his friends who took us to a super fun/crowded bar with dancing. Sadly his drunkass got split up from us so I couldn't say goodbye, but it was a lovely reunion :)

Meghan Gilroy...apparently part of the Guiness family

December 21st: A slow awakening. Headed out to find the Christmas market we had heard about..adorable. Found a place to try a traditional Irish breakfast: black and white pudding, egg, bacon and sausage. Then some souvenir shopping where Caylin and Meg did work (both having Irish roots, they were pretty stoked to be there) And I was finally able to find flasks! (my chrissie present for the girls). Checked out St. Patricks Cathedral, cost to get in so we just enjoyed the view from outside. Then off to the airport for our flight to Edinburgh!! 

Journey #1 Rome

What a vacation!!! So much happened in each place that I feel it appropriate to make a post for each city we bombarded. Started in one of the greatest cities in the world, Roma! We flew in around 9pm on December 18th and checked into our first hostel (I have had many a nights in hostels so for the most part I knew what I was in for, but Meghan and Caylin were in for something totally new). We were greeted by 2 tiny little men and glasses of champagne...our kind of welcome :) We found some dinner at a nearby pizzaria and when we told the owner it was Caylin's birthday, he made us stay so he could pop champagne at midnight! To keep up the champagne theme, the hostel workers gave us a bottle and sang to Caylin. Then we decided to take a little walk and see what we would find...well about 1 minute into our walk, I turn and go "hey guys, is that the Colosseum?" Well sure enough it was...all lit up and glorious!

 We took tons of pictures and then met a group of Italians who wanted to take a picture with us. Immediately upon finding out it was Cay's bday they insisted on getting a drink with us (of course another bottle of champagne was popped).
We continued our night time adventure of climbing through ancient ruins (pretty sure that was illegal, but you can really get away with anything at 3 am in Rome) What we thought would be about an hour walk turned into about 3.5 hours....you really can't let 3 very excited and slightly buzzed girls loose in Rome.

The next day we hit the town ready to see it all (physically impossible to do in 7 hours we had). Started with the Colosseum in a day time view, but weren't able to go inside :( But we did get to talk to a "gladiator" who loved Caylin and said for her birthday he would "take her shopping, romance her with a fine dinner, take her to a show, but after all of that he would want to play sex" hahahaha she did get a free picture with him though. Then we basically started ROMEing the streets stumbling upon amazing building after amazing building. Went inside the Pantheon, to Fontana di Trevi and many more. Highlight of the day was definitely The Vatican! HUGE. Sadly we couldn't see the Sistene Chapel     because it was closed, so we opted for the 5 euro option of walking all the way to the top.....BEST DECISION EVER.

After 6 hours of non-stop walking we headed to the airport for Dublin!!