Remember the Time Spring Break was Epic

Me with a guard in front of parilament

Me and Jenn in front of the Parthenon

Group pic on the ferry

Church in Aegina

Spring Break was incredible and extremly exhausting all at the same time. Friday we got up early to fly to Athens, Greece. Greece was amazing, it took about 5 seconds for me to fall in love with it. We stayed in Greece for about 3 days and tried to do and see as much as we could. We saw a lot of the ancient Greek ruins and climbed to the top of the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. This was absolutly beautiful and incredible given that the ruins are thousands of years old. We also saw the 1884 and the 2004 Olympic Stadiums. I am sure both were grand in their time but now they were kind of empty and sad, especially the 2004 complex. One day while we were there, we took a ferry to the island Aegina, it wasn't as magnificent as I am sure Santorini is, but it was pretty and we had a relaxing day. It was nice to see the beach again. The food in Greece was amazing as well. I had gyros, mousaka, greek yogurt, and other various dishes that I am unsure of the contents, but it was all really really good. I also tried Ouzu which is a greek alcohol that had 38% alcohol, it was nasty. We were busy, but still made time for shopping. I got lots of souveniers and one of the shop keepers told me I looked Greek so he gave me a luck Greek penny. Greece is incredible and I recommend that everyone get there at some point.

In front of the Trevi

At the Coloseum

At the mouth of truth, it was supposed to bite my hand off if I was lying

Next we flew to Rome, also an amazing city. Rome was the scene for most of our stories, although interestingly it was the only city that I did not fall in. We ate gelato on the Spanish steps and made wishes in the Trevi fountain and of course saw the famous Coloseum. It was raining the day we went to the Coloseum, but it was still really cool. There are also tons of ruins all over the city, the Forum which is the old center of Rome, old temples, tombs, and building remains. It was crazy to think about how old a lot of the things were and how important a lot of it was to one of the greatest empires of all time. The food here was also fantastic, the pasta amazing, the pizza fabulous and incredible gelato. Me and one of my friends actually ordered gelato in a bar and it was the most amazing thing ever, unfortunately little did we know that our gelato, a diet soda, and an iced tea would cost us 30 euros which converts to about $42. It was served on a silver platter, as it should have been. We were so shocked that we only found it funny. Here I tried lemoncello which is one of Italy's famous alcohols. Most of the time there the weather was nice, but the one day it rained, it poured. We were soaked. I kept wringing out my shirt and my shoes were soaked through so much that my skin was soggy. What made it worse was this was the evening we were taking a train to Venice so we couldn't change. The train was supercheap, super dirty and super sketchy. It was freezing all night and the bathroom was one of the nastiest things I have ever seen. I guess that is what it is like for college students backpacking through Europe, but never again!

Venice



Venice



Juliet Statue

We ended up getting into Venice a little after 5 am, the issue being we couldn't get into our hostel and nothing was open til 7. We walked around until we could put our luggage in the luggage room and then had breakfast. We explored Venice until we could check into our rooms and shower our nap. It was one of the best naps of my life. Venice was beautiful. We went to a gondala and explored the city and did A LOT of shopping. The canals were so pretty. We also again had amazing food. The Tiramisu and chicken parm were fabulous. The one day we were there we took a train to Verona to see the Romeo and Juliet balcony. Verona was also beautiful. We toured the Juliet house and emailed her letters. Again like every other city we ate and shopped. It was a perfect day. Our final day back in Venice was more exploring and more shopping. It was a great end to an amazing spring break. Italy is a place everyone should visit.

Operation MK2H

St. Paul's Cathedral

This week was crazy busy.  It seems that everyone is under the impression that my semester is all play and no work, but this week proves that my time here is no such thing.  Even though, I technicaly am only in class three days a week, this week felt like it was never going to end.  Multiple papers, a 20 minute presentation, and lots and lots of reading kept me from doing much sleeping.  And yes I did procrastinate on the papers, but I can't help it, after 20 years its hard to kick the old habits.  To make things more fun, the wifi in our apartment is horrible and we lost it the night I had to write my forensic paper.  Thats okay, I'm young, I don't need sleep. Tuesday we went on a tour of the area around St. Paul's Cathedral for my architecture class.  We didn't go in because it was expensive, so hopefully I will get to go in sometime.  It was such an impressive building and the design is so beautiful.  The other churches in the area are pretty impressive as well, 58 churches besides the Cathedral were rebuilt after the great fire of London in 1666 destroyed the whole city.  The area of St. Paul's Cathedral is part of the actual city of London which is only 1 square mile.  Finally Thursday, the week got better.  For my Soc of sports class we toured Arsenal's stadium.  It was huge and really fancy.  I guess its comparable to pro football stadiums in the states.  Just like at Wimbledon, they spend so much effort and money on their grass, keeping it perfect.  The cool thing about the stadium is that it is a working stadium and so they hold tons of functions during the week, including weddings.  Imagine getting married at a soccer stadium, can't quite imagine why anybody would want to.  After that tour, I took the underground across London to where the Tower of London is for the Jack the Ripper walking tour.  It was really cold and I was exhausted from sleeping for two hours the night before, but it was still neat.  We were shown the areas where the bodies were found and important locations where some of the events took place.  Jack the Ripper only killed prostitutes so we were shown where the prostitutes hung out and the places they stayed.  Clearly there was not much to see now since things have changed in the more than 100 years since the murders, but me being me still enjoyed it. 

Oldest Tower



Queen Mary's Doll house



Friday was the school trip to Windsor Castle.  Windsor castle is the Queen's weekend home, where she usually spends her Fridays through Mondays.  This trip finally happened on a nice sunny day which was a nice change of pace.  The operation I planned out with my friends was to find prince Harry to marry him so I can be a princess, which I titled operation MK2H (marry Kari to Harry).  The plan didn't work out the way I wanted it too. We went on a tour of the grounds, first seeing the changing of the guards.  Then we got to go on a tour of the state rooms.  We started in the room where the Queen's doll house was from when she was a little girl.  The doll house is multiple stories, has scaled detailed furniture, electricity, running cold and hot water and flushing toilets.  It was incredible.  We then walked through the different state rooms, some of which are used now for tourists, the drawing room, ballrooms, bedrooms, etc.  The artwork, decorations, and paintings were magnificent.  We also got to walk through some of the rooms that are still used today to entertain important visitors such as a dining room, ballroom, and sitting rooms.  I wish we were able to take pictures, but we were not allowed.  Once we finished the tour of the castle we walked over to the cathedral where King Henry viii and various other kings and queens are buried.  This building was also extravagent.  To finish up our Windor tour we took a group picture with the guard, it was kind of awkward but well worth it.  There is a little town around the castle where we went for lunch.  The cafe we ate at was really good.  We wondered around the town and ended up in various candy and chocolate stores.  I bought chocolate pasta in the one which should be interesting to try. 

Saturday we went to Camden Market again.  I bought a bejeweled British flag iphone case which I am really upset to find out doesn't actually fit my phone.  I also bought a painting of Big Ben that I am really excited about.  The markets always have great food and really intersting stuff to look at.  It was another nice day which made the whole day a lot more fun.

This week is midterm week which will make it rough, but this time next week I will be in Athens! So excited!!!