Out of order

Unfortunately my Wi-Fi and data has been a little screwy, I wrote all three "Lake Garda, Firenze!, and the Riviera posts on the bus but they didn't post til now.. having a wonderful WONDERFUL time in Barcelona.. plan to post all about it at the airport!!

The Riviera!

French Riviera!! This place was awesome as well! We stopped by a perfumery on the way to our hotel! It was exciting because they talked about Tonka Beans being used for fragrance but I remembered Googling Coumadin and Warfarin, they are also extracted from the Tonka Bean.. Coumadin comes from the French word Coumarou.. so it was pretty cool using all my Pharm knowledge haha (random sidenote, Italy had so many Fleur De Lis everywhere! It reminded of Ursuline <3 ) they made soaps that smelled like lemons and were shapped like lemons and eggs and duckies! I didn't buy anything. I can get that stuff at Bath and Body Works haha. So we arrived at our hotel, called Cannes Beach Residence .. it was like a little resort! We had like a vacation style flat.. so we had 5 girls in a room probably made for 3. Oh well! We went night swimming at the beach! It was super close by, all we had to do is walk thru this creepy tunnel that use to be a sewer and we were there! So I can't believe I swam out to those.huge floating rafting with everyone. Let me rephrase, Stjepan basically carried me out to it Because I can't swim to save my life. It was straight out of a scary movie where a large group of people swim out at night in the ocean and get eaten by sharks, while the level headed losers watch their friends get eaten as they sit on the shore. We didn't get eaten! Yay! It was beautiful out! The sky had a line of clouds straight down and we could see the city sparkle all around. Monaco was close by! The next morning, we SLEPT IN!!!! probably the first time in 20 days! It felt incredible. We moseyed around, went to an open market ( I bought strawberries, blueberries, 1 peach, and a super strange sandwich that I could identify having black olives, maybe Tuna or Chicken, hard boiled egg, possibly a potato or a pear, red pepper sauce maybe curry and that may be it.. maybe.) We ran around trying to find a swim suit because half of is didn't bring any (including me) I got onethat looked like an Indian pattern, way over priced and wayyyy too small! Oooooh well! People go topless I think I get 2 points just for being covered! We went to the beach. I forgot to put sunscreen on for a good hour. Remembered. Attempted to swim out to the floaty raft thing, laid out there with everyone.. came back in closer to the shore, played chicken with Tasha, Yelena, Sunny, Parker, and Stjepan. Straight out of a Mary Kate and Ashley movie hahaha. I don't care what they say. They cheated. Haha. We ate on the beach, I looked like I killed a small cat from all the strawberries all over my hands and towel.. we got SO SO SO burnt. I am in physical pain right now. I have hysterical tan lines. Utterly rediculous. fun day at the beach tho =]
When we got back from the beach Ginette and Anel cooked us a FANTASTIC dinner!!! We had fettuccine, long green beans, a huge whopping piece of meat (that they made sure wasn't chewy for me <3 ) probably one of the best meals we had. Ginette can adopt me. Tasha And I went with the Croats to walk around the city at night.. it was shank land I swear. I was freaking out about getting killed. They thought I was exaggerating a bit but it seemed like the Croats were going to kill us and eat us as a tradition haha. We stopped at a cool bar by our hotel that had crazy drinks like Le Pirate & Gorilla that came in crazy glasses! Don't worry we took photos haha the drinks came with candy on the straws like they did in Paris! ) [two random things I forgot to mention, Speedy suggested we go to a Lebanese restaurant in the Riviera  and oh. My. Gosh.. bad idea. The guy refused to let us share a meal even tho it was 22 euros a plate! And they were HUGE portions! We navigated around his attempt to make us pay more and in the end he "allowed us" to eat as a group. Don't think we are cheap we were just sharring one plate for two people Geesh! The food was.. alright. Not my fancy. Lots of couscous and chewy lamb and meat and vegetable soup :(
Second thing I forgot to tell you about.. at the Sulfur Lake, the one with the castle.. it had upside down V's at the top of the towers to symbolize their allegiance to the king not the pope.. because there was such a strong power struggle between the two)  anyway so last night after the cool drink at the bar, we stayed up til 3 just BSing and packing and I made grilled cheese for everyone .. yum!!! We woke uo super dooper early to fight for good seats on the bus. I literally waited 39 minutes before the bus even arrived to save seats where I wanted haha. Its quite intense. Maybe I should explain.. a little more later but brief overview now is that there is a group of kids we call the Gerbil Gang who are utterly obnoxious and we eon't want to be even within ear shot of them. Especially not for a te hour bus ride to Barcelona!! That leaves me to right now.. sitting on the bus, driving to Spain.. its 500 kilometers away.. like that helps anyone understand. That's just what Speedy told me when I asked him how far away we are haha. Today we are stopping by a sweet ass picnic place on the way - Pont du Gard ... its an aquaduct .. were going swimming yay! And jumping off rocks! After that Barcelona! Shopping. Shopping. Beach. Shopping. Pub crawl. Gay club.  Farewell dinner. home.

Firenze!

FLORENCE !!! So! Our first night was pretty intense, we drove around for a good half hour trying to get close to the hotel. In the end we had a parade of suit cases throughout the streets. We got cleaned up, went for a little tour where we got pizza. I wasn't impressed. We walked around the streets and Tasha, Emily, Dana, Beka, and I heard this crazy classical music.coming from this random boom box on the street so we started dancing and skipping and galavanting when ALL OF A SUDDEN this creepy scary man jumped and yelled and we all screamed and ran off. It was super funny. THEN we found a carousel that had NO music but we rode it anyways. Each time we went around we waved to Emily, like we were small children.  People stared. It was humorous. So.on our way back thru the alley way we got scared of, the same guy was doing this AWESOME street performance and had a GINORMOUS (gigantic & enormous - who knew that's not technically a real word?) crowd!! He was fantastic! He pulled an American girl, a Swedish man, and a young Italian girl to help with his act. It was pretty racy. But seriously funny. He stripped the dudes shirt off and made ohh la la jokes about the American girl. He wouldn't speak much but make hand gestures and noises. Its hard to explain. But I would go see him anywhere if he had an act in the States. It was funny to think about, but people would think he's on bath salts and a pedophile if it were America. But I suppose things are different in Europe. Actually I know so. People are very. . Free with their sexuality and expression.. nude beaches. So after the street performance, Emily took us to a bar she use to frequent called The Old Stove. we met people from Jersey there! And! We got free shots from the bartender.. who took a liking to me and made me a crazy drink.. in the end, the Jersey girls all called it a Maggie and people were ordering Maggie's alllllll night!!! Random people from the group went back the next day, ordered a Maggie and they made it! Woo whoo!!! Tasha had a Maggie and spilled it on herself. Then blamed someone for it! Too bad we watched her do it!!! Hahaha (she said, "I would.have gotten away with it, it it weren't.for those meddling kids" HAHHAHAHAH Scooby doo quote )

So the next morning, was a little rough.. we went to a real leather shop and saw how it was made.. I found a sweet ass bracelet that looked like handcuffs made out of silver!! Wayyyy to pricy tho! Then we took our walking tour. We were a little distracted by men doing caricatures and our deep desire for food in our bellies. So in the end, I didn't much attention to the tour..but we did see Michael Angelo's house! Cool cool! We ran back for caricatures that ended up being twice the price because there was mad people waiting in line and didn't end up looking anything like us. Sad face. Its okay because I am getting Ginette and Anel to draw us (they have mad artistic skill!!!!!!) We stopped to get some spaghetti. They ran out of all the Chef Boyardee (joke. We really did want some beefaroni tho haha) I don't think you understand how meat deprived the entire tour group is! We literally sit on the bus and fantasize about meat dishes and food back home! We then went to our Wine Tasting Excursion in the Tuscany Country side! Mmmmm! I like white wine a little more than red. There was awesome olive oil on bread with cheese too! and we had a dessert wine (what they do is pick the grapes, don't squish them.. let then hang for 7 weeks then squeeze them.. and then let then ferment.. they have a really small output after all is said and done) it is super sweet wine and you are suppose to dunk your biscotti in it.. I dropped mine in :( so it looked like dog food.. I bought bottles of wine! Surprise surprise, for some lucky people back home haha! Afterwards I took a nap, which I greatly needed and we all made our way to the club. Speedy let us down.. it didn't open til later so we sat at a pub for an hour and chit chatted.. the club had KARAOKE. I don't think you understand the extent of our singing on this trip. It's intense. Beyond intense. It's passionate. We sang Call Me Maybe, The Time of my Life, Barbie girl, Greece Lightening, Eminem..then it started to drag ass and we made our way upstairs. Not pleased with the fact they allow 16 year olds into clubs. But we made our own fun. I danced like I had a seizure (like usual). Great time! It was super fun.. lots of memories! That's the end of Florence!  (Sidenote, we got lost on our way home but navigated to our shitty ass hotel by smelling it. Literally. Its super crazy how random our hotels are. We have a beautiful ski lodge but then we have a place that is Sketch McQueen. Haha! I roomed Iva and Yelena and got eaten alive by mosquitos! No joke. And the guy who ran the hotel yelled at us for being loud and served us one croissant and hot coco. Yum. )

Lake Garda

soo we went to this super fancy schmancy lake that had a freaking Castle with a private harbour!! It was one of the 1st places to be settled by man, and is the mouth of an extinct volcano bed! the water haa a bed of sulfur gases, so people that are ill go swimming in it to feel better! The volcano is surrounded by Alps which creates a micro climate, (climate of southern Italy).. so you can ski in the AM and later get a tan. Its also famous for citrus fruits -lemons (the size of a freaking large softball or Quaffle -Tasha added that comment in), olive oil, olives, wine, pizza thats cheap, gelato (comes from mountains ) & an express ski industry was born[ they were poor.. & had limited crops..so they became specialists in making ice cream ]

We took a speed boat around the beautiful lake, the Guy who owns the company has done it for sooooo many years(1930s) he has rented his boats to Mussolini, JFK, Hitler, & Winston Churchill just to know a few! Its pretty intense.. Northern Italy (the specific part we were in) was for Fascism back then.
So a little back history, Italy -
The North is pretty rich and doesnt not make as much pasta whereas the South has pasta out the butt and is  poorer. So anyeay the meat content for lunch and dinner is much less..however it is high quality food (simple quality of ingredients, not full of flavors). The pizza makers are seriously high paid, like 70000 euros a year!! They even go to Pizza making school for 2 years or so..
Another interesting tid bit : Coffee ordering- you order, pay, then take the receipt to the coffee maker person where you fight with the 50 other people waiting for their orders before you get it.. and the receipt doesnt have your order so you have to tell them again. If you want regular coffee you have to say Coffee Americano. Not that I ordered any because I despise coffee but its still interesting.. (same way at clubs, roughly) 
After the speed boat, some of us went to the beach (I stood around and got sun burnt), got gelato, pizza, Spritz (like a orange wine with fizzy stuff in it) and a few bracelets (I lost my anklet, sad face). On the speed boat we went UNDER the moat thing! Super cool! Ginette got gigantic lemons (a bunt)! we later made lemonade. After Thar we left and drove to Florence .. to be continued

Switzerland OH YEAH!

Alrightttttty! I am a bit behind because of wifi and we've been jam packed with things to do :) SO Switzerland! Oh.my.gosh. it's between Switzerland and Wales with beautiful landscapes.. I think Switzerland might have one.. like we are on the Swiss Alps sitting, drinking wine on a patio surrounded by snow capped mountains yet it is warm outside!!!!! <3 the first night we walled around the little town (Englberg) we stayed in, everything is SO SO pricey oh my Lord. The minimum wage is around 18 Swiss Francs and HOUR!!!!! Mind you, Swiss Francs are worth a little more than our dollar sooooo basically a cheeseburger at a local restaurant was 22 Francs!!!!!!!! We about died. But anyway, the next day we took a cable car, then a gondola up Mount Pilatus. OHHHH goodness the view was phenomenal!!!!!!! It was such a high altitude, we were a bit chilly and I was literally higher than some clouds! we tried to eat them. Haha. Didn't work out that well tho.. so after we all had a baby panic attack riding up in these cable cars, seeing the tops of houses and cows everywhere we decided.to HIKE up a further part of Mount Pilatus that had paths.. I got some really great photos, and a bunch of us signed our names on the old wooden hut thing.. some people went thru tunnels in the mountains or to a small chapel a short ways away. My little ears were freezing cold so Im just going to steal their photos off Facebook haha! Down the mountain was probably more gorgeous than going up it, because we could see a huge lake with the mountains behind it! Once we got to the bottom, we crossed the lake via Ferry and went into Lucerne to spend our time.. I bought a Swiss Army Knife for William and had his name engraved on it =] Tim bought a fancy ass watch, they are around 200-300 Francs which is great because it is like 900 dollars for the same watch in America but I don't have that kinda dough for a watch unless it's going to do my laundry and sing to me.
Speaking of singing - after we stopped at the shops we went to visit this monument for the Swiss Soldiers during the First French Revolution (they are such bad ass soldiers people recruit them all over the world ) so anyways singing - Tasha, Elena, and I (mostly Tasha and I while Elana shakes her head) have musical outbursts... this entire trip consisted of our duet during bus rides, walking tours, and boredom but we went all out in Switzerland at the monument. People were smiling. I'm convinced. More and more of the group found us and we played a game I learned at UC where you think of a word and sing all the songs you can think of with Thar word in it.. our finale consisted of "L is for the way by Sinatra" I'm not sure if that is the title but you know what song I'm talking about. We thought.it was particularly humerous when we started belting out "can you feel the love tonight, from the Lion King Movie " because we are standing at a monument where there is a carved out dead lion. Ironic. Anyway. After all those kicks and giggles we boarded the bus back to our fancy schmancy ski lodge in the mountains. Seriously this place was sooooo cool! I dunno if you can tell by the photos I posted but their are skis on the walls and chocolate Tolberones on the beds and down comforters!  Ah! The water is SO crisp too! Like in the States if you go from the country well-water, to city water or tap its a completely different taste.. in Europe. SO SO fresh. Particularly in Switzerland, it was so cold, finally one placed that did not need ice. There were even old antique locks for the bathrooms! So we bottle a bottle of cheap wine (yuck, regretted that) and some of us were out on the patio where the hotel was connected to its own bar and some went in to the outdoor SAUNA! So cool! Too bad I have asthma attacks when I'm in them haha! we had a young looking receptionist / bar keep so I started conversation .. her name was Nina haha and she moves from Sweden for the outdoor activities. She knew three languages! Unbelievable how incompetent we are with language in America! Anywayyyy, we all started charting with her and a few of us ended up ordering a 'shoo' (it's wheel you pick two #'s and they go from either side of the bar, count, pick the liquor and mix it in a shot. Ew. Ew. Bad shoo.) Nina was cool tho, she didnt yell at me when I brought my own cheap wine into the bar haha after she locked up a bunch.of.us chatted on the patio and later that night a small group of us made our way to a gazebo in the front of the hotel where the staff obviously takes their.smoke breaks.. it was a great night all and all =]

Switzerland OH YEAH!

Alrightttttty! I am a bit behind because of wifi and we've been jam packed with things to do :) SO Switzerland! Oh.my.gosh. it's between Switzerland and Wales with beautiful landscapes.. I think Switzerland might have one.. like we are on the Swiss Alps sitting, drinking wine on a patio surrounded by snow capped mountains yet it is warm outside!!!!! <3 the first night we walled around the little town (Englberg) we stayed in, everything is SO SO pricey oh my Lord. The minimum wage is around 18 Swiss Francs and HOUR!!!!! Mind you, Swiss Francs are worth a little more than our dollar sooooo basically a cheeseburger at a local restaurant was 22 Francs!!!!!!!! We about died. But anyway, the next day we took a cable car, then a gondola up Mount Pilatus. OHHHH goodness the view was phenomenal!!!!!!! It was such a high altitude, we were a bit chilly and I was literally higher than some clouds! we tried to eat them. Haha. Didn't work out that well tho.. so after we all had a baby panic attack riding up in these cable cars, seeing the tops of houses and cows everywhere we decided.to HIKE up a further part of Mount Pilatus that had paths.. I got some really great photos, and a bunch of us signed our names on the old wooden hut thing.. some people went thru tunnels in the mountains or to a small chapel a short ways away. My little ears were freezing cold so Im just going to steal their photos off Facebook haha! Down the mountain was probably more gorgeous than going up it, because we could see a huge lake with the mountains behind it! Once we got to the bottom, we crossed the lake via Ferry and went into Lucerne to spend our time.. I bought a Swiss Army Knife for William and had his name engraved on it =] Tim bought a fancy ass watch, they are around 200-300 Francs which is great because it is like 900 dollars for the same watch in America but I don't have that kinda dough for a watch unless it's going to do my laundry and sing to me.
Speaking of singing - after we stopped at the shops we went to visit this monument for the Swiss Soldiers during the First French Revolution (they are such bad ass soldiers people recruit them all over the world ) so anyways singing - Tasha, Elena, and I (mostly Tasha and I while Elana shakes her head) have musical outbursts... this entire trip consisted of our duet during bus rides, walking tours, and boredom but we went all out in Switzerland at the monument. People were smiling. I'm convinced. More and more of the group found us and we played a game I learned at UC where you think of a word and sing all the songs you can think of with Thar word in it.. our finale consisted of "L is for the way by Sinatra" I'm not sure if that is the title but you know what song I'm talking about. We thought.it was particularly humerous when we started belting out "can you feel the love tonight, from the Lion King Movie " because we are standing at a monument where there is a carved out dead lion. Ironic. Anyway. After all those kicks and giggles we boarded the bus back to our fancy schmancy ski lodge in the mountains. Seriously this place was sooooo cool! I dunno if you can tell by the photos I posted but their are skis on the walls and chocolate Tolberones on the beds and down comforters!  Ah! The water is SO crisp too! Like in the States if you go from the country well-water, to city water or tap its a completely different taste.. in Europe. SO SO fresh. Particularly in Switzerland, it was so cold, finally one placed that did not need ice. There were even old antique locks for the bathrooms! So we bottle a bottle of cheap wine (yuck, regretted that) and some of us were out on the patio where the hotel was connected to its own bar and some went in to the outdoor SAUNA! So cool! Too bad I have asthma attacks when I'm in them haha! we had a young looking receptionist / bar keep so I started conversation .. her name was Nina haha and she moves from Sweden for the outdoor activities. She knew three languages! Unbelievable how incompetent we are with language in America! Anywayyyy, we all started charting with her and a few of us ended up ordering a 'shoo' (it's wheel you pick two #'s and they go from either side of the bar, count, pick the liquor and mix it in a shot. Ew. Ew. Bad shoo.) Nina was cool tho, she didnt yell at me when I brought my own cheap wine into the bar haha after she locked up a bunch.of.us chatted on the patio and later that night a small group of us made our way to a gazebo in the front of the hotel where the staff obviously takes their.smoke breaks.. it was a great night all and all =]

First night in Switzerland