Week One

So.. here is the start of my 5-week vacation!!
The break started with Friday afternoon getting on a coach to London and meeting Emily Raney!!! We met her for supper that first night. Saturday the three of us met up again, and we walked through Hyde Park. There was some cool stuff, including a Princess Diana memorial playground, (which was mostly just a big pirate ship, was she a pirate? i hope so.) or maybe it was a huge conspiracy and the pirates who killed her also had a laugh and built her a memorial of a pirate ship... i think that is the most likely story.)
We went on a little walking tour with Emily's class, and that was alrite. We walked by Shakespear's Globe Theatre.. that was really cool. Cara and I split off from their group and went to the Tate Modern Art Museum.. wow, talk about dumb. I just can't call something art when all it is is a canvas painted gray. that is not art.
We saw some people protesting Scientology.. that was pretty cool, we also saw them the last time we were in London. they wear the Guy Fawkes (from V for Vendetta) masks.
Sunday morning, Emily, Cara and I went to church at the Westminster abbey. Wow that place is huge!! it was pretty cool, but it was a very short service (it was just communion?), there were some readings and liturgy and stuff, but no sermon and not very long (weird Catholics.)
The rest of Sunday was very cold, and Cara and I just wandered around London trying to stay warm and visit places.

Monday morning Cara and I went to the airport and flew to Barcelona to meet up with her family.
Barcelona was a really neat place, with lots of little side streets full of funky little shops. We went to a park that has the longest park bench in the world! It was decorated with some neat mosaic stuff. We also went to the Picasso Museum. That was pretty cool, and it was fun to see how he went through phases in paintings, for instance, he went through a phase where all his paintings were ridiculously blue, and then there was a red phase after that. The only thing I didn't like was some stuff he did pretty late in his life. it was pretty bad, and I think I could have made better paintings (okay.. obviously not.. but still.. not the best paintings)
After Barcelona, all of Cara's family and Cara and I drove to Monaco. Monaco was ridiculously beautiful. There are lots of small, winding roads, it is right on the coast of the Mediterranean. The hotel was super nice, with amazing views.
We went to the Monte Carlo casino (from all the James Bond films) and that was amazing. This casino was decorated amazingly with huge paintings and cool statues. Of course, I got a martini inside the casino (i didn't dare ask for it shaken, not stirred though).
Cara and I went to the beach, but it was very cold, and laying on the beach is not much fun when you have to wear jeans and a sweatshirt to be comfortable.
The next day, Cara's mother and Cara and I walked around Monaco. We went up to the Palace, and saw Prince Rainier III's personal collection of Napoleon memorabilia. There was some cool stuff in there, including a pipe where the bowl was in the shape of Napoleon's head. There was a sword in there that was a gift from some Russian czar, and the hilt was completely encrusted with diamonds! it was beautiful, but wow.. so many diamonds...
We also walked into a really cool cathedral in Monaco (the one where Grace Kelly and the Prince got married) and it was a very ornate cathedral. The graves of many princes and princesses (including Grace Kelly and Rainier) were around the front of the cathedral.

After Monaco, Cara and I went on a train from Nice to Bologna where we met Anna Maria (a coworker of my dad's.) She took very good care of us and took us on a couple tours of the city of Bologna, which was a very cool city. There are still two very tall towers remaining from long ago, and one is leaning a lot! It was pretty crappy weather in Bologna, but that is okay because you can walk for 38 kilometres around the city while staying under these great arches that cover that much of the sidewalks!
One interesting thing we walked by is a very nice shoestore where they hand make these great shoes, and Arnold the Govenator and Danny DeVito used to come there twice a year to get shoes.
Anna Maria's sister cooked us a delicious lasagne one night (they make there lasagne with a white sauce, not red, and it is amazing!) The other night, Anna Maria took us to a favorite restaurant of her's, and it was also very delicious.
Tuesday morning Cara and I got on a train to Florence, where we are now!

Wow, I am caught up! yahoo! Hopefully I will be able to blog again soon, i love you all!