Where are you George?!

Hey guys, so we did a quick day trip to Lake Como on Wednesday and just wanted to post some beautiful pics! I went with Jessica and our friend Nick for the day. It was amazing weather and we basically just walked around Varenna and Bellagio for a few hours. We arrived in Varenna around noon and started our trip home around five. We got an amazing lunch in Varenna (fruity drinks and smoked salmon crepes), wandered around the shops, did a tiny bit of shopping and then took a ferry to Bellagio. We LOVED Bellagio and spent most of our time there at one of the nicest hotels I have ever seen. They had a pool right on the lake with lounge chairs, we we got a bottle of wine and relaxed in the sun! We continued walking through the town and eventually made it back on the ferry and headed back to Varenna. Of course, it wouldn't be right if we got home without a hitch, so naturally we got on the wrong train home which delayed us an extra three hours. We finally made it home and were able to laugh about our traveling issues. The one goal we had was to spot George Clooney, as he has a home on Lake Como, however we had no luck. Guess we will just have to go back soon... haha. I loved the lake and I will be back for you soon George! Tomorrow I am heading to Nice, France to meet up with my Grandma and my Aunt Liz....SO SO SO EXCITED!! We are spending time in Nice and going to Monaco for the day as well. Can't wait to see them and will blog about it some time next week/weekend. I haven't talked to all my friends in so long so you guys should leave your skypes on and I will do my best to skype you this or next week when I get back! Our internet has been broken for over a week now and I haven't been to school very often. I LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SOO MUCH! XOXO

MERICA! See you in two weeks.

We're the three best friends that anyone could have!

Girls on Lake Como!

So pretty to walk along the water.

AMAZING LUNCH!!

We will have 2 Green Lords and 1 Driver please.

Hey guys look what I found! A two liter bottle of vino of course!

A look back at Varenna from the ferry!

Here we come Bellagio!

Yeah buddy.

Our pretend Villa.

A place I'd like to call home one day...

So cute! Just walked by this photo shoot randomly.

Check out this coconut.

Look at our jewels!

BOATS.

Kitties on a hike.

Varennaaa

We live in the tropics.

I love all of these things.

Cinque Terre: Don't sing and hike at the same time.

Happy Easter everyone!! So we spent our Easter Break just relaxing and took a day trip to Cinque Terre. (We were supposed to head to Lake Como as well, but the train schedule was not cooperating, so please stay tuned for that trip.) Cinque Terre is made up of five little towns on the Italian Riviera and you start at one and hike through all five. In total, the hike is about 7 miles. I went with Jessica, Clint, Sartaj, and Kurt and we had amazing weather! It was perfect to hike in, as it was about 72 degrees! 

We first arrived in the last town called Riomaggiore after taking a 4 hour train which left at 5:20 am....SO EARLY. We did our best to sleep on the train and finally made it. It is literally one of the most gorgeous places I have ever seen. The hike from town to town is so beautiful and right on the water. Some lengths were tougher than the others. The first hike was only about 20 minutes. We arrived in the second town Manarola and stopped for a bottle of wine. It was only 9 euro and was one of the best wines I have ever tasted. It was from Manarola and came from the grapes that were growing right behind the restaurant we stopped at! We tried to start the hike to Corniglia however due to landslides, the trail was closed. We were forced to take the train instead of the 45 minute hike but eventually got there. We wandered through the little town and eventually continued hiking.

The fourth town was called Vernazza and was also super beautiful. The hike was pretty intense as we had to go up and down stairs the whole time. It took us about 90 minutes to get there, but we stopped and sat on some rocks near the water to eat our lunches we had packed. I can't really explain in words how amazing it was but please check out the pics below and I will do my best to keep the five towns separate!

After walking around and refueling, we headed for the last town Montarosso. This was the most intense part of the hike and took us about an hour and forty minutes. Montarosso is the best place to end as they have tons of restaurants and beaches. Along this somewhat sketchy hike, Clint was leading the way. It was pretty intense at the part we were at so we decided to continuously sing to get our out of shape asses over this mountain. We just started singing Grease when all of the sudden Clint disappears. The ground gave out and he definitely fell off a mini cliff! I screamed, Jess and Kurt grabbed cameras, and Sartaj was working on ways to get him up. He didn't fall that far as he clung onto shrubs and branches, but they took a toll on his body. His arms, legs, and hands were severely cut up and we still were only half way to Monterosso. Kurt pulled him up and we splashed what little water we had to help clean his cuts. It was slightly terrifying but we were able to laugh about it later. We watched our step from then on out and eventually made it to Monterosso.

 It was about 5:30 pm at this point and we went to go get Clint cleaned up. After that we decided we wanted to eat an amazing dinner so found a great seafood spot. The Cinque Terre is where pesto is originally from, so I decided to have pesto gnocchi which was FABULOUS. Everyone else had some sort of seafood pasta and it was amazing! We shared another bottle of vino straight from Monterosso and eventually caught a train around 7:30pm. It was such an amazing day....Practically perfect, minus the Clint fall. I highly recommend visiting the Cinque Terre if you ever get the chance, even if it is just for a day. We made it back to Torino around 1am and had such a blast. It was fun to get out there and do something somewhat physical haha. We are still trying to fit in Lake Como this week before I leave to meet my Grandma and Aunt Liz in Nice, France on Saturday. School is winding down and finals are approaching...yikes! Hope everyone is well and had an amazing and blessed Easter. Love you guys :)

The Cinque at Cinque

And so it begins....

A true love seat.

Locks of love.

A look back at Rio

Babes

The beginning of the steps...

Best vino ever.

So amazing!

Vineyards everywhere

Another town.

Hotties.

Another town....

Another town....I ALREADY FORGOT THE NAME.

Lunch spot

Water break!

On top of the world

Candid.

See ya later Vernazza

Yes, we will have another bottle...

Monterosso! We did it!

I AMsterdam/I love Belgian Waffles

AMSTERDAM:

So let me first start by saying, I literally LOVE Amsterdam. It was one of the best trips I have taken thus far (and I know I say that after every trip). It basically is like a Disneyland for adults. Jessica and I got there last Friday evening and checked into our hostel. It was a pretty nice place which we shared with 4 other random girls. We wanted to grab some food and set off to walk the streets of Amsty. We found this little Mexican place and went nuts. It was so good to have legit Mexican (although it did not even compare to Casa in Moscow). We continued to walk the streets all over Amsterdam and just took it in. It was definitely strange to walk around and see all these coffee shops where pot was sold (sorry Grandma). We found it hilarious to people watch and see everyone riding around on bikes. Amsterdam is actually a lot more beautiful than I expected. There are canals everywhere, kind of like Venice, and really old beautiful buildings you can see in pics below. At night there are lights on the buildings and it is really fun to just walk around. That night we decided we didn't really want to go out considering it was just us two girls so we saw a movie instead. We saw The Fighter, which we loved. That was the second movie I have seen in about 3 and a half months.

The next day we got up and went to meet our friends Clint, Lexi, and Nadia. They were staying in Brussels so they came to Amsterdam for the day. We had a little food and set off. We first stopped into a coffee shop called the Gray Area. THERE ARE LITERALLY COFFEE SHOPS EVERYWHERE. After that we made our way slowly but surely to the Heineken Factory. It was a really cool tour and we got to see how their beer is made. We had a few taste tests and then continued on. After that we stopped for bagels, which were amazing. I am serious, Amsterdam has some really awesome food. We then found our way to the I AMsterdam sign to take some pics. It was so crowded everywhere the whole time considering we went so close to their national holiday 4/20. Our friend Lexi, has been getting tattoos in every country she visits during this semester. She has been adding on to her one tattoo which says "life is beautiful" in every language of the countries she visits. So naturally we stopped to get this girl a quick tat. It was really nerve wracking for me as I have never seen anyone get a tattoo before and as most of you know I am a freak about needles. It was actually really cool to watch though and came out amazing. After getting her tattoo, we headed to another coffee shop called Happy Feelings. Our friends that had visited a few weeks before said it was a really fun place so we stopped in to check it out. We got some merchandise including t-shirts and headed on our merry little way. Next stop was the Anne Frank House. We had to wait in line for about an hour and a half so we got hot dogs of course. THESE HOT DOGS RULED. There were actually good condiments. Once we finally got in the Anne Frank house it was amazing. We got to see the annex her and her family, as well as another whole family hid from the Nazis. It was really interesting and we even got too see THE DIARY. How cool is that? It was kind of a depressing experience but really really interesting. After Anne Frank, it was getting pretty late so we stopped to get some food. We found a place called Wok to Walk which was basically like Mongolian BBQ. AGAIN, IT WAS UNREAL. Super cheap and super delicious. We ate ourselves to death and then took a lovely stroll through the Red Light District. That was yet again, another interesting experience. It was kind of funny to see people's reactions, but also semi-sad. We decided we had seen Amsterdam in literally like one day so we wanted to take it easy again. What did we do...? SAW ANOTHER MOVIE OF COURSE. We saw I Am Number Four and it was ridiculous. It started off okay but quickly turned into one of the dumbest movies I have ever seen. We went to bed and got ready for our last day.

The next morning, we slept in and got some breakfast. We only had a couple of hours before we had to take the train back to Brussels, Belgium. We decided the best thing to do was to go to the Amsterdam Zoo. Hahaha it was really fun and they had a somewhat strange collection of animals. We had another great lunch there and just walked around in the sun. After our few hours at the zoo we made our way to the train station and headed to Belgium. I am absolutely going back to Amsterdam one day (hopefully with my sis). It was so fun to just run around, see the sights, meet cool people, and eat awesome food. I FELL IN LOVE WITH AMSTERDAM.

Brussels, Belgium:

We made it to Brussels Sunday night and met back up with Clint, Lexi, and Nadia. They showed us around town, which is really tiny. We headed to the Grand Palace and then got waffles. These waffles changed my life. I got one with strawberries and powdered sugar which = HEAVEN. I seriously wish I could bring one back for everyone as a souvenir. We went to bed early and the other three left to come back home.

The reason we were in Brussels from Sunday to Wednesday morning was because we had a field trip for my Economics class. We were visiting the EU Parliament and Commission and had the opportunity to sit in on a press conference and even meet a few high ranking officials. (I will tell you about it in sec). We got up on Monday and wanted to just see what Brussels had to offer. We got waffles for breakfast and went to see the one monument Manekin Pis. It is basically a statue of a little boy peeing which was so OVERRATED. We found it to be very boring so we continued to walk the streets and do a little shopping. I got a new pair of boots which I was super stoked about. Finally in the afternoon we met up with our roommate Sartaj and we headed to see this other monument called the Automium. I have pics of it below as well. Underneath the Automium was a tiny little theme park called Mini Europe. Jess, Taj, and I walked around and visited all the mini monuments of Europe, some we had actually seen in real life. It was really fun and pretty hilarious. We got some food afterwards and some french fries (as Belgium claims they are the creators of french fries) and they were better even than McDonalds if you can believe that. After that we finally headed home and went to be early as we were about to have "a long day at the office" on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning we met up with our professor and our class outside the European Union Parliament. It was such a cool experience to even be allowed into these buildings. We got a presentation from an assistant to a deputy and then a tour. We breaked for a while, had a nice lunch outside (it was really sunny and warm) and then met back up again. We got badges and headed into a press conference about corporate social responsibly and sustainability, where the Vice President of the Commission as well as the Vice President of the Parliament were in attendance. It was a really really cool and once in a lifetime experience. Afterwords we were able to say hello and take a few quick pics with these guys. My professor was out of control excited as this was a really big deal for him and us. It was so neat. After the conference (we were still dressed up in our business attire and headed out to taste some famous Belgian beer. It was pretty hilarious because we were given some EU bags and were dressed up in business clothes so we looked like we were going for a drink after a long day at the office. We kept laughing about how our "dogs were barking," and how stressful our day was. I NEVER WANT TO GRADUATE COLLEGE. We finally went home and went to bed. Wednesday morning we left super super early to go to the airport and wrapped up our 5 day long trip.

This trip was so amazing and so much fun. I loved Amsterdam so much and felt really grateful to have the opportunity to meet such well-known political figures in the European Union. Oh, and eat some waffles in the process. Yesterday, we hiked the entire Cinque Terre and tomorrow are heading to Lake Como to find George Clooney. I will blog about these next week! Hope you like the pics below and love/miss you guys tons! Ciao Ciao

Mexican fiesta.

Walkin around Amsty.

Killer shades.

This one's for you Al!

True statement.

Love ya Lex!

So pretty.

First coffee shop!

Excitement.

Anne Frank Huis

Artsy pic by Jess.

I love Heineken! 

Family!

Please check out the dudes in the back.

Beer tasting!

JUST CALL ME SERENA.

Pre-tat excitement.

Action shot.

Happy Feelings!

Best food everrrr.

Amsty

Jess's faves.

Grand Palace in Brussels

Field trip group!

My love.

Maneken Pis

Entirely underwhelmed.

Yay for mini-Europe

Missin my DG's

EU Parliament

Conference Room

I AMsterdam

We in the Red Light District!

Downtown Amsty.

Beautiful day in Amsterdam.

Tough day at the office.

So cool!