Leah!

[Martrae]

Have a fun, safe trip!

I wanna see lots of pics when you get back.

[Narrock]

Have a fun, safe trip!

I wanna see lots of pics when you get back.

I bet there's some pics that you don't get to see. :P

[araby]

have a fun, safe trip!! I don't know anything about Italy. I'm depending on you.

[leah]

hi i'm home :D

trip was WONDERFUL!! i will try to be more detailed later when i am not at work but i wanted to drop by and say hi and that i'm alive

[araby]

I've been thinking about you! hope you come back soon and post some pictures!

[Martrae]

Glad you had a great time.


Now about those pics!!!

[leah]

well i'm working on uploading all my pix to my flickr account and captioning them and whatnot, so i will probably just post the link here when i'm done. there are 500+ pix and i don't think anyone wants to be bored with all of them :P

though i suppose i could pick a select few and post them on here.

[Maeya]

I'm dying for pictures & stories! Have you gottened settled back in yet?

[leah]

OH here's the flickr set: http://flickr.com/photos/23588133@N05/s ... 154226193/

it took me a while to get all of them oriented and captioned (well, most of them) but there they are. :D

[Tuggan]

looks like good times :D you shouldnt avoid absinthe, thats crazy talk.

i would have liked to go somewhere further south when my girlfriend and i went to europe over thanksgiving holiday.. but we ended up seeing the netherlands, denmark, sweden, and norway. kinda chilly.

[Martrae]

LOL...the absinthe one made me laugh.

Too bad you couldn't keep the cat..but it probably only spoke Italian, anyway.

[leah]

lol mart that's what josh said when the cat wasn't responding to my "here, kitty kitty kitty" haha . . . he's like "duh, you have to call it in italian" :P

[Arlos]

I can't believe you didn't go into St Mark's cathedral while you were in Venice...

BTW, Aubergines = Eggplant. heh.

So what happened with the Absinthe, anyway?

-Arlos

[leah]

we just didn't have time. there was too much going on!

i didn't learn that that's what aubergines were until i got home, haha. but i didn't hate them! so that was pretty cool.

hmm, absinthe. . . . honestly i don't really remember much about the night, and pictures don't go very far, either, so it's anyone's guess. all i know is that there was some ugly drunk crying involved for some reason lol

[Maeya]

Thank you so much for sharing your photos, Leah! It looks *amazing*. I really love all the statues and the beautiful architecture. The US needs more random statues. That's the thing I noticed most in my friend's Czech photos, too.

What happened to your wallet? You got pick pocketed? Or mugged? How awful

Did any of you speak Italian? Or how were you able to navigate everywhere?

[leah]

i'm glad you liked them it was definitely one of the most significant experiences of my life, that's for sure. and i consider myself so fortunate to have been able to go! it was awesome to share it with josh and our new traveling family hehe

as far as the wallet incident, i was pickpocketed on the subway. actually, josh and i both were. it was the morning we got back to rome from venice, friday i believe . . . the night before was when we were all drunk and rowdy, so we passed out pretty hardcore and didn't realize we had reached rome until the train conducter or whatever what pounding on our room door telling us to be off the train in two minutes. so we were scrambling to get ready and get off the train, so instead of taking time to make sure all our things were properly situated, we just kind of threw ourselves together, meaning josh put his wallet in his back pocket in his hurry, and i just tossed my travel purse over my shoulder on TOP of my coat instead of underneath it like it usually was. so we get to the subway and it's morning commute time, so we are squeezed on the train with about a bajillion romans, and i guess josh felt his wallet being taken out of his back pocket and actually went after the guy. it was so funny; we're just standing there waiting for the doors to close so we can be on our way and josh all of a sudden disappears off the train--we had no idea what was going on. so anyway, he jumps back on the train right before the doors close and tells us "that fucker took my wallet!!" but luckily he realized it and went after the guy and made him give it back. so then i'm thinking omg i hope he didn't get mine (because i had WAY more money on me--about 200 euro AND a credit card AND a debit card) . . . i looked down at my little travel purse, saw the zipper was unzipped, and my heart just sank. i said "did you happen to get my wallet back, too?" and totally started crying hahaha . . . as soon as we got off the subway, we hit up an internet cafe to shut off my cards. luckily we still had josh's card (even though he only had about 10 euro in cash on him) but it wasn't ideal, since his card has a $300 a day spending limit, which, given the current exchange rate, doesn't go far. but i considered us very fortunate that both wallets didn't go missing. we just wish the guy had gotten away with josh's and not mine haha

anyway, bill and kevin (the guys we were traveling with) were both *so* generous with us. they picked up tabs for dinner and paid for our last hotel room, and kevin even gave me a little bit of spending money so i could still get my tattoo hehe . . . all in all, it was a shitty thing to have happen, but we're fortunate that it was just one wallet instead of two (or three or four, even!!) and that our companions were so kind and generous.

as for language, none of us knew more than 9 or 10 words of italian, but rome and venice are such hot tourist spots that we had no problem whatsoever making our way through. i was a little concerned about finding and communicating with a tattoo artist, but the guy i found spoke great english and did a wonderful job.

it was an amazing trip :D

[The Kizzy]

All in all, what did that cost? I've been thinking about going to Rome on vacation with some friends, but I have to set a goal and save my money. I like to overspend.

I am so jealous!!! Im gonna have to make Lasagna for dinner now.

Loved the pictures!!

[araby]

thanks for posting the photos =)

[Zanchief]

My girlfriend looked at every single picture. She said it took her about two hours.

She may be your new stalker~

[leah]

haha aw, that's actually kind of flattering! i'm glad she was interested :D