Weekend sunshine

So it appears it is springtime in Florence because I have been frolicking around wearing a tshirt and a skirt. It has been lovely. Brianna, Nicole and their friend Katie were here this weekend so it was fun to play tour guide for a bit. Another huge bonus is while showing them around I have accidentally stumbled upon the best Italian food since I have been here! An amazing restaurant that I am for definitely going back to and a for real sandwich shop that Italians were actually purchasing food in and not just tourists. It is difficult to find great Italian food (oddly enough) in this city because the average tourist is only here for 3 hours so many places are notorious for giving okay food at crazy prices and then just waiting for the next group of tourists to pour through the doors. Florence has a pretty hard shell that I am just now starting to crack through. Better late then never though, eh?

Call for information

Since I have such a wonderful and well traveled reader base of family and friends I was wondering if anyone (and everyone!) could pass on what they know about any of these places. Things to do, things to avoid, etc.

Zürich, Switzerland
Berlin, Germany
Munich, Germany
Dublin, Ireland
One of the major cities in Scotland (we haven't decided)

My travel mate and I are beginning to plan our trip and some of the cities we don't really know one thing about. Also, if there are any cities that you are shocked and apalled that we will be missing out on let me know! Either by email or posting a note on this blog.

Thanks everyone :]

Christ has risen, he has risen indeed

Firenze likes to celebrate Easter with a something roughly translated to "explosion of the cart". Oh it is what it sounds like. They take an ornate wooden cart and parade it around the city with decorated oxen, flag twirlers and trumpets. Then once the parade reaches the Duomo complex in the center of the city they park it out front and begin to rig it with fireworks. You read correctly, fireworks on Easter morning. So after about an hour of rigging, song playing and bell ringing the grand event begins. I was anticipating one large explosion for maybe a minute or two. But oh no, we are talking 20 minutes or so of full of choreographed mortar firework show. Afterward Jenni and I crafted some Easter breakfast.

Superior London Post

I went over my last post about London and found it a bit meh. I threw it up on the web for the sake of putting up a post resulting in a pretty boring result. So a bigger, stronger and superior London post (this one) has been put in its place.

Saturday:
Jenni and I woke up at the unfortunate hour of 5am and started our journey from Florence to Pisa to catch a Ryan Air flight to London. Upon arrival we found our hostel and grabbed some food before taking a walk around the city to take in the main sights.
Sunday:
The initial plan was to journey towards the coast to a vacation town called Newquah. However, after finding out how difficult and expensive it would be to get there we abandoned the plan, called my friend Steph, and went to the apartment we would be crashing in for the rest of the week two days early. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with Clark students studying in London and a few of Steph's friends from home. In the late afternoon I got the chance to hear a famous boys choir during a service at Westminster Abby. We ended the evening with a giant group meal with various parts donating by all the guests

Monday:
We were crashing with a ton of my friends that have internships in London, but Monday was their day off. So off to Primark we went! A British chain store that has super low prices.Tuesday:
Leah, Jenni and I had a high end afternoon including a visit to the Design Museum and tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens. We all had the Darjeeling and it is highly suggested from all parties.

Wednesday:
A day in the country! Jenni and I adventured off to Morton-in-Marsh with the plan to go biking. Although upon arrival we discovered biking was not in the cards for us that day; the rental place is only open during the summer months. We settled on some more tea and scones at a local shop and a long walk to an arboretum.
Thursday:
Off to the shore for another day trip! We went out with Leah again this time to Brighton. The goals were as follows; see seaside, find this amazing milk shake place we heard about and generally frolic around. All goals were achieved.
Friday:
Friday was Steph's birthday! We all went out for Thai food and then to a karaoke bar. The morning was spent with Jenni and Billie at the Tate Modern Museum.
Saturday:
A group headed out for one last stop at Primark and then the evening was Steph's birthday part II at a dance club.