But before I do: to anyone who’s said in the past that if I got myself to the US they’d want to see me/I could crash on their couch/help me in general now would be a good time to message me where you live and if November -ish this year would be in any way good for you.

Don’t go getting your hopes up but I’m trying to cost something out.

Dodgy photo is dodgy, but the harps were so pretty. <3

The ancient instruments museum in Vienna was so awesome to wander through, even if it did make my heart hurt that the instruments wouldn’t get played. If I’d had the attention span by that point I’d have liked to have listened to the audio guides in English rather than just looking - but it was still worthwhile.

We got to Vienna early in the morning after the train ride from hell (no, really - 37 degrees in a tiny cabin with no air-con… I was close to a panic attack and I’ve never ever actually had one. my parents were being sweet but what I really needed was for them to leave me alone and ignore that I was crying.) and just spent the day wandering around the town and that museum. 

Mum and I went to a concert at night (which was good!) after finally finding the place. We thought we’d been scammed for a little while there xD

The day after that was my last, and so I spent the afternoon repacking my bag to make room for all of the things I had acquired, naturally. And then it was off home with me! 30 hours in transit later, anyway.

I love how this photo turned out. It’s not going to be changed from my lock screen for a while…

Venice! So so so pretty at night. And during the day, really. I love my parents, I do, but after nearly a week of doing EVERYTHING with them, I was well and truly ready to do something on my own. So I set out to get myself lost… and succeeded a couple of times. It was fun. I bought some gorgeous masks to wear at my best friend’s birthday party (lace and molded to our faces, so pretty) and some other souvenirs for myself and for my friends, and just generally soaked up the atmosphere.

The photo is from St Mark’s Square, where we were wandering around and listening to the random assortment of bands playing. One of them started in with a Sound of Music medley and Mum and I were amused.

We actually rode in a gondola this time, expensiveness be damned, and that was awesome too. My parents ended up teasing each other about the fact that every other couple on the gondolas was being so cuddly and affectionate, and they were sitting on opposite ends of the chair. They ended up posing for a photo cuddled up and I thought it was kind of hilarious. They split apart as soon as it was taken XD

The next day we had to leave later at night, so we dumped our bags at the station and went back to visit St Mark’s church, and then jumped on a boat out to Burano island to get fish and chips and look around. Packed like sardines on that boat-taxi wasn’t terribly fun, but the island was pretty.

Considering I’m now over a week late with this, I’m just going to sum up by place.

This is Florence. In particular, the view from a lookout point over the city. My phone really couldn’t capture enough of it to do it justice, but you get the idea. Gorgeous, gorgeous place.

We only stayed one night - and it was absolutely stinking hot, and a Sunday, so not much was open or anything, but it was still fun to jump on a bus and see the city.

It amused me that the tour called a 1960s building ‘very modern’. Here, that’s pretty old XD

… $68 for my phone bill

that’s nowhere NEAR as bad as I was expecting

I have wifi yay!

Hi all! I’m heading away from Rome today, and may not have Internet for a few days.

Florence is up next :)

Today has been lovely. We’ve been doing the hop on/hop off buses thing again around Rome - it’s so awesome to sit up the top and just take in the views of the city.

We ended up seeing the Trevi Fountain (in the photo) and the Spanish Steps, as well as a few other plazas and monuments that I have no hope of remembering the names of. We also wandered around the shopping areas near those places - both in our affordable rice bracket and those far far above it. I have new sunbird! Nice ones, for once.

We finished up by heading to St Peter’s Basilica and thankfully this time I was dressed appropriately… And a good thing too as if this dress wasn’t good enough I literally don’t have anything else. Apart from jeans, and there was no way I was going back to our apartment to change into those in this heat. It is so gorgeous. I can never get over how huge it is - and how detailed.

We’re now resting up before dinner, again, I might write (and post what I finish if I can be bothered typing it up) and read some fic. Or sleep.

Rdm

PS I adore real Italian food. Omnomnom.

Adventures in Italy 

I totally wasn’t going to post again tonight, but dinner was too epic not to. It didn’t start so well - the differences in the way my mum and I travel showed themselves. Because it was my birthday I got to decide where we would have dinner, and so we started wandering off. The further we got the more agitated she got about us not having a destination or whatever. To me, that’s half the fun of going out to dinner when away on holiday. Anyway I was actually getting really upset with mum over her attitude, as stupid as that sounds, and I was close to tears of frustration at one point.

We eventually found a restaurant, and were kind of given a cold greeting by the owner (a little old Italian man who didn’t know much English) and the waitress. Now, she never warmed up to us enough to even crack a smile - but the owner did. We ordered our food, and he must have thought we ordered the ‘right’ combination of dishes or something because he gave us a few smiles during. The funniest part, however, was at the very end when we ordered dessert. The restaurant was named after his region, we think, and there was one dessert that was a bit weird and from said region - so dad decided to order it. When he did, the owner went back to the kitchen we heard him yell the name of the dessert gleefully to the kitchen. His face completely lit up when we told him we liked it, too. He positively grinned at us - massive contrast to the rest of the night.

That still isn’t the best bit. As we went to leave, he signaled us to wait and went to get something from Inder the counter to give to us. We now own a 2013 calendar with pictures of the pope. I just can’t even describe how much we laughed as we made our way away from the restaurant.

Mum had cooled down, I’d cooled down, and the long walk there was now worth it because of amazing food and ‘we have a pope calendar now, life is good’. We headed off in what we thought was the right direction, an kept walking. And then realised that we were both lost and a long way away from our apartment. We’re staying near the Vatican city, so we tried to follow that as a guide. We finally spotted it, and approached it only to realise we we’re across a massive parkland from it. Mum got antsy again, which put Dad and I on edge, but we finally made it back with the direction of a local who thankfully spoke English. Dad thinks we walked upwards of 10km tonight, and i’m fairly sure he’s about right.

The moral of the story is twofold:
Firstly, you can get a restaurant owner to like you by ordering the right foods.
Secondly, all roads may lead to Rome but sure as hell none will lead you straight to the Vatican.