So I've finally returned from my travels.

Well, according to my clock it's not 12:30am on 31 December, so I actually got back two days ago, but I've been resting since then so for my purposes I've "just" returned.

It was a good trip, kind of eye opening I suppose? It made me really greatful that having kind of blindly picked a European city to study in, I picked London.

Don't get me wrong, I had a great time, but I found Naples far too dirty and noisy for my tastes. People really seem to love honking their horns there, whereas you'll rarely hear them here.

Also, apparently laws of the road don't apply to, well, anyone.

Especially the motorcycles. This doesn't just go for Naples: it applies to all of Italy (that I saw) and even Paris.

But I did manage to pick up a bit of Italian and it was nice to be able to use my French a little bit.

Also, the food. Oh the food.

I've found a new favourite pizza: it's called Diavola and it's incredibly delicious. The menus in Italy had the ingredients listed as cheese, tomato, salame, and hot peppers. There were sometimes other ingredients too, but those four were the big important ones.

Essentially, it's a spicer version of a pepperoni pizza.

I have my doubts that I'll ever be able to find it in Kansas or Minnesota, and Paula has suggested that I learn to cook it myself, but I'm guessing I'll have trouble with making the crust (which, by the way, puts American crust to shame.)

Anyway, this is going to be a long entry with pictures and a sort of day by day update. I think. That's what I'm planning on. Things might change once I get more into the flow of writing....

December 16: I took my first real train trip to Paris on the Eurostar. I had been on trains before, but they had always been ones at zoos and stuff where you start and end at the same place. So, I was very excited for this one. My first day in Paris I arrived at my hostel (it's called St. Christopher's Paris and if you're young enough to visit Paris and seem creepy for staying in a hostel, I suggest you check it out. It's REALLY awesome. Now that I've stayed at multiple hostels, I feel like I can accurately say how wonderful it is) and then I ventured to Pere LaChaise cemetary. I wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave and Pere LaChaise is where he (and like every other important French person ever (Yes, I know Jim isn't French)) is buried.

It's a REALLY gorgeous cemetary. It's apparently like 63,000 acres and I didn't have time to walk the entire thing, but what I saw was absolutely breathtaking. It's definitely worth a visit if you ever go to Paris.

That night, I visited the Bastille (which, having been destroyed during the storming of the Bastille, is now just a big memorial in the middle of a busy intersection) and then went to Le Bataclan to see Gogol Bordello play. I was incredibly excited for this as I love them immensely. The show was great--I arrived pretty late as I wasn't too excited to see whoever opened for them, but I still ended up second row!

It was an incredibly fun show! It was such a circus. I adored it.

Dec 17: My only full day in Paris, I tried my best to make good use of it. I went to the Operahouse (the one that Phantom of the Opera is based on) and was disappointed to find that they weren't letting people in. So I just took a picture and consoled myself that they probably wouldn't let me see the thing I really wanted to see anyway (supposedly they really do have a lake in their basement, just like in Phantom...) After that I went to Notre Dame, which was really really pretty.

After that I went to one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting: the Paris catacombes! I'm not sure what the exact story behind them is, but whatever happened it resulted in the french building an underground city with walls made entirely of human bones. Rumours abounded once that it was a gateway to hell. I was amused that I would visit a very holy place (Notre Dame) and then immediately go to what was once considered a gateway to hell...

It was AWESOME. It's just miles and miles of walls of bones! I didn't get to see the entire thing since it's really easy to get lost and there are doors and stuff to make sure you follow a set path, but still. It was totally worth it.

Next I went to the Eiffel Tower. I didn't want to climb all of the steps (it was an equal combination of it being cold and rainy and me just plain being lazy). But I paid to take the elevator all of the way to the top. Then I went to the cafe there and drank hot chocolate and called my mom (not while in the cafe, but while at the very top), becuase how often are you at the top of the Eiffel Tower?

After that I was awfully tired, so I went back to the hostel to rest and then met up with Emma for dinner that night. I was so wonderful to see her! I really like her and it was nice to have something so familiar in such a foreign place. She's so great. :)

Dec 18: I tried to take advantage of my last day in Paris to do whatever else I had not done. My first stop was the Moulin Rouge. I didn't get to go in (I wanted to go to a show too, but alas, they are incredibly expensive and I was on a budget...but someday I'll go back and then I will have the money to spend on a ticket!) but I took a picture outside anyway:

Then it was off to the Louvre. There I saw the Mona Lisa, but I was disappointed by it. I knew it was small and nothing much to look at, but I was hoping for more security or something. Though I presume it's hooked up to an immense amount of alarms and whatnot, and there are guards standing by it and lots of glass and wood to protect it, I don't know. I guess I was hoping for more arms with big guns or something. But I did see the Venus De Milo and it was SO beautiful. I didn't know it was there, so it was such a treat to stumble upon it!

Then I boarded my train to Rome (where I would later pick up one to Naples). For the first few stops I had an entire compartment to myself (I had sprung for a sleeper compartment. It was one of the few extravagances I worked into my budget (thanks mom and dad!)) but then we stopped somewhere and an Italian woman entered my compartment. All I will say about her is that she didn't speak any english and her boots were knee-high, white leather, and platforms. I like to call those "hooker boots". I think you get the idea.

Dec 19: I met up with Paula in Naples. We found our hostel. It was small and not the best I've stayed at.

Dec 20: after what seems like a lifetime of waiting, Paula and I went to Pompeii! The weather was GORGEOUS. Sunny, 60 degrees, and Pompeii is on the Mediterranean. It was GREAT. Here are pictures:

And, my very favourite part of the entire day (and possibly one of my favourite things I've ever experienced): they had some bodies that we could closely examine!

Yes, those are bones. You can still see where their nails were and everything. SO cool. Paula had to tear me away from the bodies pretty much. I wanted to take one home with me. They are really just incredible. To see the bodies, it's like seeing the person when they died. I want to know all about them: who they are, what was going through their mind when they died. There was one who seemed to be in a praying position. It was awe-inspiring. And there was a dog. It made me tear up a little. How sad :(

Dec 21: We spent the day wandering around Naples. We saw the Duomo, but were promptly kicked out as everything seems to hold weird hours in Italy and they will be open in the morning and the evening, but never in the afternoon. It wasn't too weird that the restaurants did this (though inconvenient), but pretty much every other place seemed to do it too. I was a bit weirded out.

Dec 22: We ventured to Rome. After wandering around a bit, we decided to cancel our trip to Florence and stay in Rome an extra night (we were previously planning on staying the night in Rome, going to Venice for three days, then spending the night in Florence, then going back to Rome so we could go home early the next day. But with Florence out the window, we just went from Rome to Venice then back to Rome). We saw the Spanish Steps, ate some wonderful gelato at a place with over 100 flavours (YUMMY), and saw the Trevi fountain. We didn't throw coins in: Rumour has it that if you throw a coin in you'll someday return to Rome. If you throw in two, you'll fall in love with an Italian. Throw in three, you'll marry one. We knew we'd be back, so there was no need to throw in coins.

We also saw the Pantheon. It was great!

Our hostel for the night was The Yellow. I don't recommend it. The front desk staff isn't too friendly, the rooms are dirty (we ended up staying our first night back after Venice since our other hostel was booked that night, and we didn't have sheets and ht beds weren't made or anything!), and it's just all in all not worth it. Our second hostel, Hostel Beautiful 2, was MUCH better. I highly recommend it!

Dec 23: We went to the Roman forum, which I didn't much enjoy as there is not much there to see and I don't know much about it, but if you want to go to the colliseum, it's smarter to buy tickets there as they get you admission to both places and the lines there are MUCH shorter. Then it was off to the Colliseum!!

It's SO BIG. I didn't really think it would be quite that huge! I really liked exploring it, but we didn't have much time to explore it as we had a train to catch. Then, it was off to Venice! Our train ride was uneventful, but once we got there it was a different story. You know how in horror movies it's usually really foggy and dark and sometimes kind of purple? That's what Venice looked like when we arrived. I thought we would be axe murdered or something. We found the bus station and took the one our hotel told us to take (it wasn't really a hotel--it was SO much more, we had an apartment with a kitchen and everything (another luxury we sprang for--nice accomodation over Christmas. It's called Ca' Danieli and it's worth EVERY penny, assuming you can find the place!)) Well, they told us to get off at the Fiat dealership at Tessera. But Tessera has a few stops and not one of them has a Fiat dealership. So we ended up getting off at the wrong place and misunderstanding some directions given to us and wandering down a remote country road at night. Paula was nervous, but for some reason I felt fine. We ended up finding the right place (which was such a relief since my back was starting to hurt) and were two hours late, but the woman who owned the place didn't seem to mind. The daughter seemed really pissed, but the woman who owned it, who spoke no english so I relied on Paula to communicate with her (thanks, Paula!), was so incredibly sweet.

Dec 24: We wandered around Venice. SUCH a cute city. The streets are too narrow for cars, so you have to walk everywhere or take a water taxi (or gondola if you're rich or something...yet another thing on my "to do when I have the money" list). Paula and I walked. A lot. But it was worth it.

We didn't really have anywhere to go, so we just wandered without a map for a while. We decided to check out Saint Mark's Basilica, so we made our way there, and it was gorgeous. We also found their boardwalk. I love boardwalks, with all of their games and rides and everything. They're just so fun! Also, I had the best pizza of my life at some little cafe there. It was awesome. Then we went to an early Christmas Eve mass at a church ("chiesa") by the bus station. It was all in Italian so I didn't understand anything, but it was still an interesting expereince. I liked how they sang all of the Christmas carols in Italian. I'd like to know the exact translations just to see how they differ.

Dec 25: Christmas. Paula and I did NOTHING. It was great. Well, we watched movies (like 'Love, Actually' which just made me miss London terribly) and even though a lot of them were in Italian (horribly dubbed) we could follow them well. We ate cookies and opened presents. I got some necklaces and was kind enough to buy myself a really beautiful Venetian mask.

I had purchased a little glass Christmas tree in Rome, which I was infinitely glad to have done. Paula liked the Wall-E plushie I got her, which is great. Oh, and I got a Hello Kitty hair bow, which is effing AWESOME and is currently holding my hair up.

Dec 26: We went back to Rome. Didn't do much, just got dinner and gelato and wandered around the city a bit. We saw the Vatican at night--Christmas is definitely a good time to go, they really get into the spirit! We also learned that walking from the Vatican City to the West of Rome to your hostel which is on the far east side of Rome is a really, really poor choice. I don't recommend it.

Dec 27: This was our day for the Vatican City. The line for the museum/Sistine Chapel was ridiculously long and there was no way to avoid it. Luckily, we made it in before last admission at 12:30pm (it closes at 1:30pm-crazy hours!) The museums were okay--it was pretty awesome to see the School of Athens. I LOVE that painting. I have a print of it hanging on my wall at home (maybe not now, but when I'm at Gustavus I do). It's just so amazing! The Sistine Chapel was cool too. Unfortunately pictures are not allowed to be taken (though people do it anyway) so I have no pictures of it, neither does Paula, but it's pretty cool. After that it was imperative that we have lunch (I get MEAN MEAN MEAN when I'm hungry. Don't try to talk to me or reason with me, just feed me!) Then we explored St. Peter's Basilica.

It's less like a basilica and more like a palace, I thought. It just didn't feel like how most basilicas I've been to feel, I thought. Parts of it were really cool, don't get me wrong (the main altar thing was just incredible and their indoor and outdoor nativity scenes (one was life size, the other had running water) were awesome. Also, I liked seeing the dead popes...which is gruesome, but true) but it was so....impersonal? Yeah, impersonal.

Then we went to our new hostel (Hostel Beautiful 2) to drop off our stuff and went back to the Trevi Fountain, where we threw in our coins and then got our pizza and gelato. Lovely!

Dec 28: Paula left early in the morning. I had nothing to really do until my flight at 9 that night, so I was greatful when in return for agreeing to write a nice review on HostelWorld of Hostel Beautiful 2, the owner gave me a later breakfast and said I could stay until 1 or 2 pm if I wanted. I agreed since it was a wonderful hostel, and I liked getting a late checkout time. When I finally left at 11 (check out was 10) I spent a few hours wandering the city (there was a christmas market I wanted to go to) and then ate my last pizza, and went to the train station to catch my train to the airport. I took a discount airline (Alitalia) and ended up not leaving Rome until midnight, but that was okay by me: my flight out of Brussels the next morning was not until 7am and I didn't really have anything to do until then.

Dec 29: I finally arrived back in London at 7am (it's an hour flight from Brussels to London and there's an hour time difference. How convenient, huh?). It was just wonderful. Almost like returning home or something. I was so greatful to get on the tube and then get back to my flat and my lovely bed! Uncle Sean was in town that night, so I met up with him and his friends and we all went out to eat and then to gelato! It was wonderful. I know they were surprised to see me (even though I had definitely texted him beforehand! I'd never show up knowing it was unannounced!) and I hope they didn't mind being interrupted. It didn't seem like they did, but I wasn't too sure. It was very nice to meet Melissa though. She's really sweet.

Today I mostly just slept and went grocery shopping. I had no food left since I had to throw it all out before I left becuase it would go bad while I was gone, so I needed to get something to eat. Such an exciting day, I know.

But tomorrow (well, today at this point) is New Year's Eve and Annah, Ashley, and I are planning on going to see the fireworks at Big Ben! This should be fun! :)