Completely forgot I had a blog.

I realized I haven't blogged in quite a long time, and I have a lot to update. The problem is that it's been so long that I can't remember details of my life for the past month. So i'll just do the best I can. I suppose i'll start with Italy. Overall Italy was AMAZING. Rachael and I flew into Pisa, then met my other roommates (minus Casandra) with our friend Chris. We walked the streets of Pisa until we came to the leaning tower and that huge... church... thing. I don't remember what it was called but it was big and religious (like Texas). We got some good pictures at the tower, along with the 400 other tourists that were there as well. Then we walked back to the train station (after getting gelato) and made our way to Florence. I do not speak a lick of Italian so getting places was a tad difficult, but we managed. We walked the streets of Florence attempting to read the grafitti. Italy is covered in grafitti. We saw the statue of David and other famous paintings and sculptures. That was very cool considering in Buffalo I see a replica of the statue of David every time I get on the 198. Our hostel was very nice that night, and the elevator was very old school. I had a small feeling that I was going to meet an untimely end in that elevator but obviously I survived. The next day we went to this look out high above the city and we had a great view of everything. I have pictures of it up on facebook, I think. We also went to a botanical garden that was HUGE. Lots of sculptures, large bushes, and rocks. That night we made our way to Venice, which is without a doubt the most beautiful city I have ever seen. It was a very interesting city to explore with all the canals and little alleyway streets. One thing I noticed were the absurd number of Americans. You'd think we were invading or something with the amount of American travellers wandering the streets. I think we had the best food in Venice as well. I know I had the most fun in Venice out of any other italian city. Just wandering around, taking in everything in that city was so much fun. I don't really remember anything too interesting of note that we did, it was a whole lot of wandering. We even made a friend named Fabrizio! I'm glad I got to Italy while in Europe, it was a great country to be in.
Skip ahead skip ahead blah blah blah, life continues as usual in Manchester till a couple days ago when I went to Holland. Sean and I flew into Amsterdam airport (which by the way is like a mall with an airport and a train station). After a few hiccups in the plans we made our way to the hostel and proceeded to get lost. Sean and I walked in the rain in the residential part of Amsterdam until 2 a.m. It was a tad miserable but it could have been much worse. The next day we walked around pretty much the entire city. Amsterdam is a lovely city that meets up to it's reputation. Luckily everybody spoke English as well as Dutch so it was easier to get around than in Italy. Now on the subjects of the legalities of what Amsterdam allows, prostitution is legal and creepy. The red light district is absolutely crawling with legal brothels with women in the windows looking for "customers". It's almost scary and it was awkward on the off chance that I made eye contact with them, but I still laughed. Marijuana is also tolerated in Amsterdam in coffee shops. These coffee shops were very funny places, and you can't really imagine it till you have seen it first hand. We also went to the Anne Frank museum which was actually a pretty sad place. Not that it would be a happy place, but just looking at the authentic things really brings you down. I have offically seen Anne Frank's actual diary. That was surreal. Also everybody in Amsterdam rides bikes. The city center was like a giant bike parking lot. It was insane, you had to look every which way before crossing the street. Amsterdam's tourism industry probably makes that city tons of money, half the people I heard talking probably weren't even city natives. Overall Amsterdam was a ton of fun, and not as expensive at Italy.
My time overseas is winding down and I am going to miss the friends i've made here and the times i've had. I have a lot of essay work to do this week but i'm going to make sure I see the rest of Manchester that I haven't seen yet before I depart. Until next time. Goodbye.