I am in Italy! It's been a long and exhaustively wonderful and harrowing week and a half. Spring Break was wonderful, Paris was more than I imagined it could be. I spent five days there and it was enough, but a person could stay there for weeks and not see everything. The Eiffel tower was amazing at night, though I did climb to the top during the day. And when I say climb I do mean stairs. I climbed up the the first two platforms the equivalent of 43 stories and then took an elevator to the very top. It's very windy and cold up there but a beautiful view and a kind of exhilaration that I haven't felt anywhere else. The Louvre goes on for what seems like days and my eyes weren't big enough to absorb all the beauty that resides there. Versailles is much the same way, the building goes on for years instead of days and the grandeur made me feel like a mouse stumbling into a giant's house.
We caught the train to Lausanne Switzerland, where they still speak French - even more than they do in Paris. There isn't a whole lot to do in Lausanne but look at the mountains and that was fine with me. I climbed an observatory built up in the forests and let my eyes drink in the panorama of the city below, backdropped by that stunning landscape of icy blue mountains. Then I went down to Lake Geneva (in Ouchy - that's Oh Shay not ow chee). From there the Alps loom up across from the glittering blue water in such a way that could entrance a person. The second day in Switzerland the mists rolled in and the mountains dissappeared.
Getting to Italy was a traveling nightmare, one I haven't quite woken up from. Michelle and I caught a sleeper train to Florence or Firenze as they say in Italy. But there was no luggage rack on our sleeper car so we left our bags on a car that had one. Bad idea. We woke up the next morning to find that that car was no longer part of our train! It had split off before we crossed the border! So no clothes, no toilettries, no socks - only the clothes on our backs and our essentials like IDs, laptops and cameras were with us and that's what I've been existing on the past 4 days.
The Swiss, because they're magical, found our (Michelle and I's) luggage and they are shipping it to us in Florence. At the fee of 165 dollars! Guess I'll living on bread and cheese while I'm in Italy (thank goodness we get dinner with our host families). Yikes! But it's due to arrive next Friday, so here's hoping.
Italy is beautiful though, not first day we were here it was rainy and nasty but now the sun is out and the light is golden and the gelato is unbelievably delishious!
That's all for now!
Ciao!
