Florence

Ahhhh, Florence.

Sorry for the lack of posting.  My mom and I arrived in Florence on Saturday morning after a less than pleasant 11 hour train ride from Vienna.  Once we arrived though, things were good.

We stayed at an airbnb.com apartment just outside of Florence.  Mario was our host and was kind enough to meet us at the airport at 6:30 in the morning to take us back to the apartment.  The apartment is small, but nice and in a quiet area.

Our first day (after a nap), we went to the Galileo Museum and the the Duomo Museum.  The Galileo Museum was very interesting.  It had a lot of interesting information on the evolution of science during Galileo's time. That evening we went on a bike tour around Florence and saw all of the major sites.

On Sunday, Mario offered to take us to Siena, a town in Tuscany outside of Florence.  We also stopped at two other small towns in the Tuscan area.  It was great to see these small renaissance towns.  In the evening, Mario invited us to his home and he cooked a traditional Italian meal of pasta and meat.  It was a lot of food, but it was great.  It was also very interesting to see his home, which is located north of Florence in the hills.  

Today we went to a mosaic museum and saw the central market.  We then took a walk around old Florence.  

Its been a great visit to Florence.  Tomorrow my mom and I are taking a cooking class and then we part ways.  She is going to Rome before heading home and I will continue up the coast of Italy and then to the Swiss Alps.

Hope you liked the longer installment.  I actually have a computer to use here, so it is easier to type on. :) 

Schonbrunn Palace-Vienna

My mom and I had visited the palace on our tour, but we wanted to take my dad back to see the gardens. Below is a picture of a huge fountain in the gardens.

Tonight my mom and I are taking the train to Florence. My dad flies home tomorrow.

Vienna-Belvedere Palace

Today we went to the Belvedere Palace. The gardens were beautiful (see below). There are also a few museums there. One of them was having a Gustov Klumpt exhibit that was really good.

Coffee in Vienna

My view while having coffee in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace in Vienna.

Vienna

Took a train to Vienna last night. Today we went on a city tour. The history of Vienna and Austria is very interesting.

Salzburg

I can now say with complete conviction that the hills are indeed alive with the sound of music.

Salzburg was beautiful. Sad we (my mom joined me in Zurich yesterday) were only there for one day.

Zurich Day 2

Today I roamed Zurich. Not a whole lot to say. It's a beautiful, very old town. The people are all amazingly kind and the city is very clean.

I had dinner with my new bestie from Australia and a previous student of hers (she teaches English as a second language). It was interesting to hear what a Swiss 26 year old has to say about America. We are not loved here. They do, however, have a ton of pride regarding their own country.

Tour of Zurich

I made it to Zurich without any problems. The place I'm staying is like a b and b. the women owns a building with 3 apartments, 3 bedrooms each that she rents out through airbnb.com. She is very nice and the place is clean and super easy to get to by bus or even walking from downtown.

I went on a bus tour of Zurich, which I would give a C. The tour guide was pretty meh. But the city is beautiful. Much smaller than you would expect. We took a tram to the top of one of the mountains over looking the city, which was awesome. We also took a ferry ride across the lake. This city is quite breathtaking.

On the tour I met a women from Australia. Her and I spent most of the tour together and went for dinner after. I have lots of pictures of her because her camera's battery died and I volunteered to email her the ones I took. It was cool to meet someone new and have someone to go to dinner with.

Once

Once was AMAZING!!! I loved every minute of it. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, though I did love it, so I can't compare the two. But everything about this play was great. It's a small intimate theatre, which was perfect for this show. The voices were lovely. I say that musicals are my opportunity to fall in love with the leading man for 2 hours and this was no different. In fact, the love is lingering a bit. I followed it up with a fantastic cupcake from a local bakery and roamed the streets of NYC for a bit. Perfect night.

Done packing. 20 lbs. not too bad. 

This blog is to provide a place for me to communicate with friends and family about my whereabouts in Europe.  I will try to check in daily during my trip, with at least one picture of my current location.

I leave next Wednesday, the 11th of July, and will return August 6th.