Category Archives: Travel Posts!

Hello friends!

It’s been a while and hopefully this is the start of more regularly posting. I just moved to a new city (back with my parents), started a new job, and have been extremely stressed out. Between the political climate and the climate-climate it has been hard to find anything to look forward to. AI has been forced on us by people too focused on their own greed and now crappy fake crochet/knit posted are flooding all of my social media platforms.

Living back with my parents is not so bad. At first I was worried that my parents or I would revert to the way things were when I was in high school. Surprisingly this worry has dissipated. The house may look the same from the outside but my parents now have a completely different way of living. It’s difficult to see how much things have changed since I’ve last lived here (13 years ago?!). We now watch a lot more television and each room always has some sort of phone screen on. I miss the genuine human interaction and deep connections. I love my parents very much and this all might just be part of getting older.

Cue the stress knitting. My fingers hurt from the amount of knitting I have been doing:

• Red hats to resist ICE presence
• Chipping away at my daunting WIP pile
• Sweaters that I know I won’t finish because of fear for the sweater curse
• Random commissions

The list goes on and on. Zach piece has a piece of myself in it and helps lessen the growing feel of dis comfort. I just wish there was something more that I could do to help. This anxiety is all consuming and I’m not sure how much more my fingers can take.

I’m sure there must be others out there who feel the same way. What can we do to help??

I will be posting the rough draft of this post to avoid looking anywhere near AI. This post was written 100% by a human, and that is something to be proud of. Hopefully the bar does not continue to fall.

Love you fellow humans, as always please feel free to reach out- I could definitely use the human connection 💕

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner! What are everyone’s favorite patterns for cute lovey-themed items?

These little adorable heart granny squares are well on their way to becoming a cute vest! Hopefully it turns out well enough to share the final result 😂

Hey it’s been a while so I’m just going to ease back in with a shorter post!

How’s everyone doing??? The past two years have been a DOOZY and I hope you are all hanging there. Maybe even thriving! Who knows? Picked up a new skill, honed in on a hobby, or improved your situation? Hopefully you’ve done something to fill the long hours!

It’s been alright over here, keeping busy, without travel- which is not the best for a travel blog site…. as you may or may not know I have lived in Fargo for the past few years. Fargo is known best for its extreme weather (hot in the summer, COLD in the winter), lovely people, and midwestern charm! There may or may not be a movie and show about the area? If you haven’t watched Fargo yet you should. Fargo is great but the lack of travel is taking its toll. I can write up a blurb about Fargo sometime 🙂

All in all, the next chapter of the is blog is about to begin! The whole crew assembled this time for a half marathon in Las Vegas! This was my first time in this beautiful city and I was blown away!! This trip lasted an entire ten days, and included sites like the Hoover Dam, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. And a half marathon of course… a half marathon that took place on the entire Las Vegas strip… ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS. Photos coming in the next post 🙂

Again, it’s nice to be back to writing. Thank you for reading about these adventures, and I hope you look forward to more in the future!

After sleeping in for what seems like an eternity… Mike finally got up and we got ready to take on the day. Although we had initially planned to have brunch at Cindy’s, the widely popular restaurant was booked, and we decided on venturing to Revolution brewery instead. We picked up Brad in the Uber and were on our way to meet another friend, Kelsey, for brunch.

 

Revolution Brewing is awesome! The vibe is relaxed, hipster, and a lil bit bourgeois. The food is excellent and the portion sizes are on point! Plus the beer, barley wine, and mixed drinks are superb, andddd they had a promotion where they were giving out free glazed doughnuts. Our server was the perfect amount of talkative, speedy (despite how crowded it was), and informative. Overall I would rate my experience here 8.5/10 with the only points being taken off for rowdy children and how busy it was (which I suppose is a good thing for the restaurant).

 

 

Our next stop of the day was Off- Color brewing for their Saison day. Now I mean this in the best way possible; Mike is a beer snob 100%. He also tends to favor saison’s so he was a little amped for this event. After tasting an assortment of the beers on tap, we hung out for the next couple hours chatting with each other and playing with this cute, chubby-cheeked,  Gerber-baby <3 <3  Now there is only so much drinking and social interaction a person can handle, so we decided to part ways and regroup after a necessary nap time. #engineers

 

Nap time lasted a little longer than expected so by the time we finally got ready, it was already 9pm. Mike and I were hoping to hit up this place called the Milk Room (also located in the same building as Cindy’s, the Chicago Athletic Association). Instead we stumbled upon this cool bar called the game room! As you can imagine, the theme was an old-school meets new-school type bar filled with TV screens, and bar games including shuffleboard, lawn bowling, and chess. We stuck around for a drink then met up with Brad at String’s Ramen in china town.

 

YOOOOO… the ramen was delicious. The restaurant was still pretty busy despite it being around 11pm, and for very good reason. I got their specialty called Hell Ramen, which is apparently supposed to be extremely good, and varies in the level of spiciness (Levels 1-5). I was a little worried that North Dakota destroyed my tolerance for spice, so I only got level 1, but I easily could have handled Level 3. Thank goodness they had their chili sauce on the tables BUT the ramen was still absolutely scrumptious.

 

 

After supper we ventured down the block to a karaoke place. As you know, I have a slight affinity towards singing karaoke… but I have mixed feelings about this particular place. The bar itself had a 25$ cover charge that included two tickets for drinks. Overall not a bad deal. The seats were comfortable, and the patrons were vibing to the songs. The one thing that rubbed me the wrong way was the procedure for selecting songs. At one point there was a person working near the touch-screen song selection machine that helped you navigate through to find your song. OK, that’s fine since and all, but he would only let each person select one song, so you couldn’t pick a song for your friend who was guarding your places at the table. Whatever, we just rotated, NBD. However, when the guy stopped working the machine, it was almost anarchy. People just started signing up for the most ridiculous songs willy nilly. I was unable to find any of the songs I wanted to song because all of the organizational tabs WERE IN CHINESE. Ugh. Overall it was fun, but there are definitely some improvements needed here. We left karaoke at bar close, and went home to sleep.

Alright, so Chicago this weekend was amazing. Lets start from the beginning… Mike (a friend from RPI) and I decided to meet up in a city and catch up. After barely any deliberation we decided that Chicago would be the perfect place to go! One of his friends, Brad, currently lives there and was more than excited to show us around. OK! The plans were planned, flights were booked, and we eagerly awaited. I love my new job in Fargo, but the weather this past winter has been a whole new hurdle. I MEAN HONESTLY WHAT IS UP WITH THIS BLIZZARD. This is the second year in a row that a snow storm hit the Midwest IN APRIL. Back to the story…

 

I checked into my flight on Thursday night and arrived at the Fargo airport on Friday morning, ready for my flight. The events that followed are extremely embarrassing, but I will share them for your enjoyment. You are welcome. Keep in mind that I normally fly standby so this was my first time buying an airline ticket in a while…

 

I was the only one in the security line and as I was thinking to myself “this is odd, but convenient”. All seemed to be going smoothly but my mobile boarding pass wouldn’t scan. The security officer told me to try again, but again the ticket refused to work. So he sent me back to the ticket agent to have a boarding pass printed out….. Before I got to the counter I looked at my ticket to see what was up and I realized…. I had flipped the cities during my initially booking. Instead of flying from Fargo to Chicago, I was allegedly flying from Chicago to Fargo UGHHHH After a long conversation with the airline customer service desk, and an EMBARRASSING rebooking fee I was finally on my way to Chicago again.

 

Mike waited an extra two hours in the airport for me, bless his soul <3 We chatted the entire way to our hotel and enjoyed the views into the city. Since we are party animals and wanted to make the most of Chicago we settled into our room and immediately took a nap. We did have a big night ahead of us though since I had bought tickets for us to go watch the Chicago Blackhawks play the Dallas Stars at the United Center! We woke up, got ready for the day, and walked to Stan’s doughnut shop. Stan’s is DELICIOUS. Holy mackerel… Mike got a pistachio lemon doughnut, and I got a blueberry fritter… and both were perfection. We took our food and coffee to go and walked around the town a little more. The Nike store on the Magnificent mile is lit. Each floor is filled with new designs and art installations. Plus on the top floor there is a “design lab” boutique/showroom that displays the newest items coming through the pipeline. COOL STUFF.

 

From the Nike store we walked to Gino’s East, a pizza place where you can enjoy wonderful foods and sign the walls. Yo, the walls here are covered in different names and pictures from people all over the globe. It is super cool to see…. So check out the pictures! The pizza was superb and we were feeling good enough to head towards the United Center. Next stop: the famous Billy Goat tavern DT.

 

This bar is the quintessential Chicago bar. Maybe you have already seen it, but here is a link to the SNL skit that made this bar super famous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1tFx5xKrSI Thank you John Bellushi and Bill Murray! We felt like we were launched into another era filled with prohibition, the Mafia, and 90’s reruns of the news? After enjoying a nice cold beverage we hailed another car and made our way to the United Center!

The hockey game was a BLASTTT. Now, I am not necessarily a Blackhawks fan, but I will always root for the home team (unless the wild are there). Not only did the Hawks win, but we enjoyed a live Blues Brothers cover band, ran into Patrick Sharp in the hallway before the game, and explored the United Center. Overall 10/10 even if Mike did floss (the dance) for every goal celly.

 

After the game we met up with Brad at this AWESOME bar called the Blind Barber. During the day this old timey-looking place functions as a barber shop. During the nights, the back room gets converted into a bumping club with a full bar and DJ. The décor has a homey-mod feel to it, and there is even a coat check so you don’t have to carry your stuff around all night. The music was amazing, the drinks were great, and we had a fantastic time dancing until the wee hours of the night. S/O to this guy who dressed up in a very nice shirt. You could definitely tell he was out looking for a honey. We witnessed him politely asking a female to dance with him, and her response was “Sorry, but I am a bad dancer”. Hahahaha hilarious. I hope both of them had good nights. We then hailed a car home and went to bed!

DAY 6-

I woke up mad early and checked out of the hostel immediately. Rotorua is a cool city but it was not my favorite place so I started on my way to Tauranga and Mount Maunganui. The drive there was only an hour and the weather was spectacular so it went by quickly <3 Holy moly this might be my favorite city so far!! I love Tauranga. The people were super friendly and the environment is STUNNING. First thing I did was hike around the base of the mountain itself. The mountain is located on a peninsula in the middle of The Bay of Plenty.

WOWWWW. Every single gap in the trees revealed the sparkling water, hidden islands, or a secret beach. Boats dotted the waves while happy people swam in the warm water. The hike around the base is only about 2 miles so afterwards I decided to hike to the summit of the mountain. This trip was also relatively easy although the incline is rough in a few places! Hahaha good thing I am in shape… haha… Whatever, I made it to the top where I chatted with one of the locals. She ended up playing photographer and having an impromptu photo shoot with me! I am so grateful to her because she was excellent to talk to and took even better pictures. I stayed at the summit for a little bit before making the trek down to the beach.

 

I laid out on the beach for the next several hours. And before you say “hey Melissa, maybe that isn’t such a great idea because you’ll get sunburned” I SLATHERED on the sunscreen. And still got burned. Eh it was worth it for the sun and crossword puzzles (I don’t even care if that sounds lame to you). I saw people swimming, sunbathing, surfing, boogie boarding, running, playing in the sand etc. I even called my best friend Melissa and talked with her for a solid half hour. Today was amazing. After laying out I walked down the beach to grab a late lunch and see different parts of the park. Eventually I made my way back to the car and left to drive back to Auckland. In Auckland I unpacked my bag and hung out for a while before heading out to dinner. I had delicious mussels at a Belgian restaurant then went back to sleep.

DAY 7-
I woke up today feeling GREAT. My flights was scheduled to leave at 3:30 so I had some time to kill before heading to the airport. I packed up my stuff and drove to Mount Eden (see picture below), got in a quick hike, then drove to Mount Wellington! I also got in a quick hike here before returning my rental car. UGH here is where the trip gets hairy… I waited in line at the airport to check in and was told that standby passengers need to wait in the queue and cannot wait by the gate. Alright that’s fine… so I wait in the line and slowlyyyy the number of available seats gets lower and lower… It doesn’t look like I am going to make this so I call my mom and we figure out what my options are. After lots of deliberation I book an actual ticket for tomorrow just in case, and wait. And wait. AFTER ALL THIS WAITING I still didn’t get a seat so I sat down on a bench and am waiting for my phone to charge. Hopefully I can figure out something to do tonight because my flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning…..

UPDATE! I decided to go out with a few new friends from my hostel and sing karaoke! Probably not the best idea before the flight but it was totally worth it! The flight went by swimmingly and I managed to sleep the entire 12ish hour ride. Then slept again from SFO to MSP… hahah safe to say I was exhausted.

Aslo… here is a picture from the hot springs in Rotorua that I forgot to post! There was a small stream of HOT water coming from a hot spring that flowed into a river. You could wade into the river for varying temperatures…. it was heavenly.

WOO today Sarah and I set our alarms to wake up early! We had a big day ahead of us going wine tasting in Napier. First things first, we had a light breakfast in the hostel kitchen then bought some much needed coffee at the nearby coffee shop. We needed to stop for gas right away but afterwards we were ready to begin our journey to the Hawkes Bay region. The drive to Napier was 2 hours and holy mackerel was is gorgeous. Green covered rolling hills, jagged mountain ranges, luscious pastures with various livestock, vast forests filled with foreign looking trees… pretty much every single cool view you can think of was somewhere along this drive.

Today was the perfect day weather wise to go wine tasting. Sarah had researched a company that has bike rentals between the wineries so the first thing we did was pick up our bikes. It was around 11am when we arrived and we did not need to return the bikes until 6pm so we had the full day ahead of us to complete the 32 kilometer (20 miles) loop to three vineyards.The biking was an absolute BLAST! Despite getting lost a couple times we managed to navigate ourselves around Hawkes bay, through wetlands areas, and through the city to complete our wine tour! The first place we went to was more of a wine bar than a winery, but they still made wine on the premises. We spent a solid two hours chatting with the bartender Gaston about the different types of wines and fermentation vessels. Sarah and I spent the rest of the time talking about everything under the sun hahahaha.

The next winery we went to was a bit further down the wine trail but completely worth it. Mission Bay wines is located on a beautiful plot of land. So beautiful in fact that someone decided to have their wedding on a Tuesday afternoon. Sarah and I rolled up looking like sweat messes to this wine tasting room, surrounded by guests to an art deco themed wedding. It was hilarious. We still had a great time trying 6 different wines, and receiving a complimentary wine glass! The bartender Hugh made sure we were well attended and we made sure that he was always entertained. We spent another two hours here! By the time we were done the third winery we were supposed to go to had already closed!  PLUS since it was already 5:00 we had to hustle it back to return the bikes to the rental store. Luckily we made it on time. After returning the bikes we had supper at one of the local Irish pubs. It really hit the spot before the drive back to Taupo.

 

DAY 5-

I woke up early and had breakfast with Sarah! Today I was leaving Taupo and was spending the night in Rotorua (about an hour north). Breakfast was good… and I got to say bye </3 The drive itself was awesome! I stopped at a few places along the way to take in the sights including Waiotapu Thermal Park. This park is an amazing conglomeration of naturally occurring thermal pools. The pools range in size, smell, shape, color, and heat… and all of them are amazing!I spent a solid two hours walking through and taking pictures so I hope you’re ready to look at all of those.

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Eventually I made my way to the car and started to drive to Rotorua when…. All of a sudden I see a few of the people from the hostel in Taupo on the side of the road! Turns out that they were there to enjoy the hot springs. WHAT A WEIRD/COOL COINCIDENCE! I chatted with them and hung out in the hot springs for another couple hours before leaving.

The rest of the drive to Rotorua was uneventful. I checked in to the hostel, talked to the nicest bartender ever, chatted with a couple women who lived in Rotorua, then went to bed for an early night. Although the hostel I was staying at had a reputation as a party hostel I managed to pass out quickly.

After a slow start to the day (THANKS JETLAG) I rolled out of bed and drove to One Tree Hill- a dormant volcano with hiking paths and a Maori monument. I spent the next few hours reading about the historic significance of the site and exploring the various paths. Also… there were sheep literally everywhere in this park. Just roaming around the fields and streets… Check out the pictures of this awesome place to see exactly what I mean. The monument is an obelisk perched on top of the volcano. The rolling hills surrounding the monument are lush and full of wild life, and the top of the volcano gives you an excellent view of the city and surrounding bays. Overall you should check out the photos because I cannot do One Tree Hill justice with words alone.

After driving back to the Airbnb I put on some comfy clothes and started the trek to downtown. I had to be at the piers in downtown by 3pm to catch a sailboat excursion and walking gave me the best opportunity to get a better feel for the city. I passed bustling shops filled with foods, clothes, and everything you’d expect from a major metropolitan area. After the hour long walk, and purchasing sunscreen, I finally made it to the docks! The tour was AMAZING! The guides were friendly and knowledgeable. The other tourists on the boat were also awesome. One couple who were with their friends from Taiwan even took me under their wing and explained how the boat worked, pointed out important sights on the shore, held my hand when I almost fell over, and took plenty of pictures. Everyone was supportive even though it was my first time on a sailboat, and thought it was hilarious that I asked (apparently simple) questions. We saw plenty of other water crafts in the bay, learned about the Maori language, and got to see a LIVE SEA LION that was sunbathing on a dock. This experience was one that I will never forget.

I took a different route back to the Airbnb than the one I took before and got to stroll through a few parks. After the tedious climb back I took a much needed shower, and and took the night to relax and catch up on sleep.

 

DAY 3

 

I woke up after a WONDERFUL sleep and packed up all of my belongings. I needed to be in Taupo by tonight and had the day to explore more. I decided to visit the glow worm caves and Marokopa falls. First up was the glow worm caves. After a 2.5 hour drive from Auckland I finally arrived in the bustling tourist town of Waitomo. This destination is among the top ten sights to see in the country, and you could easily see it was going to be busy with tourists. I booked a tour for 1:15 and waited for the tour guide. Turns out the caves were discovered by a local Maori Chief, Tane Tinorau, back in 1887. Even now, the majority of the employees working for the cave system are direct decedents of the chief. The glow worm is native only to New Zealand and look like giant clear/phosphorescent maggots. They create plenty of clear strings that hang down from the ceiling in order to trap mosquitoes and other cave insects. Once an insect is trapped, the worm reels in its catch and eats it. Turns out these bugs are in the larvae form for about 10 months before turning into flies. The flies only live for roughly 4 days… so they have to be very efficient in propagating their lineage. You can check out http://www.waitomo.com/Waitomo-Glowworm-Caves/Pages/default.aspx if you want to learn more about the history of the caves, or glow worms! Sadly I was not allowed to take pictures inside of the cave but trust me, the caves were AMAZING.

After the caves I drove another 30 minutes to the Marokopa waterfall. WOOOWWWW this waterfall is gorgeously nestled into the side of the cliff. Please look at the picture of this natural beauty. I didn’t spend very long at the waterfall because I had to meet a friend from school in Taupo! The drive to Taupo from the falls was about 2.5 hours. At this point I am starting to get good at driving on the left side of the road. The foothills and mountains also provide additional challenge for the roads and those don’t bother me anymore either. I might become a professional driver after this trip. NBD.

Taupo itself is a beautiful city that is tucked on the crutch where Lake Taupo meets the Waikato River. There is a walking/biking path that follows the shore lines, and bustling restaurants that line the downtown. The marina is filled with fishing vessels, pleasure crafts, and rowdy sailboats… everything that anyone could ever want to use. I arrived in Taupo around 5:30pm and had some time to kill before my friend Sarah would be back from her day trip. I took a jaunt through the town and took in some of the sights then chatted to my fellow roommates for a bit until she got back. IT IS SO NICE TO SEE HER AGAIN! She and her cousin moved to Taupo several months ago and they are both working full time in the area. Sarah and I went to school together at RPI so it was long overdue that we catch up! She introduced me to her friends at the hostel and we all grabbed a late dinner in downtown Taupo at a restaurant called Dixie Browns . After dinner we were all exhausted enough to fall asleep immediately.

A little fore-word: I decided to post about the NZ trip before the others I have done despite them being out of order. Sorry for any confusion, NZ is just too AMAZING to wait on…

After spending a night in San Francisco with the glorious Bridget and Mark, I took the BART to the Airport to catch a 10:45pm flight to Auckland. I got on the flight itself without a hitch and ended up in an aisle seat with the two middle seats empty. The guy in the other aisle seat in my row and I spread out and took advantage of the extra space. Sadly I am still not feeling the best and I was sniffling and blowing my nose the entire time. I can’t even begin to count the number of times that I washed my hands in that tiny bathroom. The flight was 12 hours and 30ish minutes. I waited until about 3am Western Time (midnight in NZ) to go to sleep on the plane and managed to sleep extremely well for the remainder of the flight (despite massive amounts of turbulence).

The Auckland airport is a decent size with the hallways very neatly marked. The customs there is EXTREMELY strict with signs all over the airport flaunting a $400 fee for any goods that are not declared before going through security. I threw out what little food I had so I didn’t even have to deal with that mess. Although I hopefully wouldn’t get deported or fined for a bag of beef jerky…. OH WELL. After making it out of the terminal I called the rental car company I had booked a car with. They sent a shuttle to pick me up and took me to the depot where the cars are kept. After reading and signing a lot of papers they gave me an adorable little car and I was on my way! HOLY MOLY so this is the first time I have ever rented a car… thank you Bridget for helping me book it <3 and this is also the first time I have ever driven on the left side of the road. Wowwww it is amazingly different at first but you get the hang of it sooner or later. Thank goodness I figured it out quickly but it is still a weird feeling being on the opposite side of the car, in the opposite lane that you are used to.

I drove from the airport to the AirBnb and realized that it was only 10am!!! I could not check in until 2pm so I had some time to kill… so I did what any sane person would do and drove to a beach 45 minutes away! One of the locals at the car rental place recommended it to me as a gorgeous black sand beach with plenty of waves and scenery. He was sure right! Bothell’s Beach is on the West coast of the North Island and definitely lives up to the hype. There is a national preserve/park immediately next to it filled with hiking trails and panoramic views. The beach itself is surrounded by picturesque outcroppings and the most perfect waves.  I changed into my swimsuit in the car, grabbed a towel and some beach items (like my book of crossword puzzles duh) and found a perfect spot on the beach to lay out. I took my time exploring and got to wade through a mini river thing, play in the surf, and swim un poco. After about two hours I made it back to the car and drove back to Auckland.

In the evening I met up with a friend who lives in the city and got to see more of the nightlife aspect of town. We had a blast walking through the streets on a mini bar crawl. After the festivities concluded I went to sleep to be ready for the next day.

So it has been a while since I am posted and that is completely my fault. Hopefully you understand how overwhelming things can seem at times and how you let the hobbies you enjoy doing slide to the wayside. Welllll in light of the New Year here is a reflection on 2018 with a specific focus on my travels these past few months! I will also outline my own resolutions  LATER ON so you can keep me accountable for my lofty goals. This post will be dedicated towards finishing up the Italy trip. We had a lot of adventures there so I hope you enjoy reading about them!

 

In total for 2018 I have visited 26 states and 7 countries with the bulk of the traveling occurring since June. I have reconnected with old friends that have reminded me that there are wonderful people in this world, and I have met new amazing people that have reminded me that there is so much more out there to enjoy. I am proud to say that I went on my first ever solo trip. It was an enlightening experience and I would highly recommend that everyone tries it at least once (I will dedicate an entire post of two to this trip if you are curious to learn more!). I have cut out negative influences on my life and rekindled my interest in self betterment and trying new things (yoooo I just embroidered for the first time and I am thinking about embroidering Nemo’s face on to everything I own… thoughts on this?). Before I sound like a super hippy I will end the self-reflection here. Prepare yourself for the next few posts because I will have a lot of time on my hands to write while I am on my way to Auckland New Zealand.

Let’s see… the last post I made was right in the middle of Bryn, Sena, and my trip to Italy! So lets finish up that trip! After Pompei we tried taking the trains to Rome to get to our AirBnb but things got a little messy. Between us getting lost, and the trains being delayed we arrived in Rome a half hour past midnight (only 5 hours later than what we were planning). We immediately went got ready for bed and passed out. The next day we had the morning to explore the sights around Rome. We visited the Coliseum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Stairs), and walked the gorgeous streets until the early afternoon. As it happens my big sister in Alpha Phi, the gorgeous Maggie, was getting married just outside of Rome. I had planned this trip to be able to support her at her wedding and now the day was finally here! Bryn, Sena, and I went back to our room, put on our dresses for the wedding, and hopped in a taxi!

The wedding itself was something out of a fairytale. The venue was perfect, the food was amazing, and the people there were so full of love and happiness you could feel it in the air. Imagine this: a stately old mansion overlooking a vineyard. Rows of tables and chairs set with a chic/rustic decorations underneath a majestic tree with strings of Edison bulbs illuminating an open earth floor. Two separate stations were filled with all of the food and wine you could dream of, and there was a DJ booth and cobblestone dancefloor set up in the drive of the mansion. Maggie looked gorgeous and she was surrounded by her stunning bridesmaids <3 The ceremony was beautiful, caring, and quirky (just like Maggie and Matt). We all had a tremendous time catching up with old friends from school, eating scrumptious foods, and dancing the night away (woop wooooop). Plus Sena and Bryn met plenty of new people and enjoyed dancing their faces off. After the festivities concluded we hopped in another taxi back to the AirBnb and immediately went to sleep.

Sena had to fly out early in the morning… which she ran into her own difficulties. That is not my story to tell but you should definitely ask her about it if you need a good laugh! Bryn and I woke up and left the Airbnb around 10am and hopped on a train to Florence. We were EXHAUSTED so we walked around Florence for our bit then napped for a few hours until suppertime. We got kicked out of a restaurant for looking like two vagabonds (rightly so) and had a wonderful lady date next to the Arno river. The next two days we spent walking through the city, eating a TON of gelato, riding a merry-go-round at 2am, eating past, singing karaoke, and being offered a place to stay by a new found sugar daddy (holla at chu Piero). And although we did not take up Piero’s offer, it was still somewhat flattering…? After Florence Bryn and I took a day trip to Tuscany for an authentic cooking class. We learned out to make glorious Italian dishes from the wonderful Serena and her mother. Serena owns a few properties on a vineyard in Tuscany and teaches cooking classes in her spare time. Her home is clean and beautifully decorated with a kitchen that would make anyone jealous. She taught us how to make plenty of hearty meals, handmade pasta, andddd tiramisu to top it all off!! This experience was AMAZING and if any of you would like to learn how to cook while you are in Tuscany please let me know and I will be happy to give you her contact information!

After a delightful day of cooking and drinking wine, Bryn and I hopped on another train to Rome. We explored the nightlife a little before going to sleep. The following day we went to Vatican City and toured the Vatican City museum! The museum was filled with priceless artifacts, important pieces of art spanning the ages, and a TON of tourists. Bryn and I had a blast and made sure to take our fair share of pictures. Since the Vatican is a functioning church it was very important to remain quiet and respectful inside of the Sistine Chapel. Women must dress conservatively and no hats may be worn by men. The chapel ceiling was gorgeous and people are not allowed to take photos inside of it (which was very surprising). As it turns out the pope had spoken there the day before (apparently he speaks every Wednesday) so there was a large amount of chairs set up in the courtyard to watch his speak. We eventually made our way back to the room and went to sleep early in order to be ready for our flights the next day.

I did skip over a huge portion of the trip involving crashing a memorial for a departed bartender in order to sing karaoke, and shooting the cork of a champagne bottle on to the roof of the house across the street… but those are stories better told in person!

 

Well Italy was amazing. I would 100% go anywhere with you Bryn and Sena <3 <3 For the rest of you reading this I hope you liked hearing about our adventures and that you are on the edge of your seats waiting for the next story!