Well hello there!
So i do apologize for the lack of updates. So i have a little bit over one week left in Malaga. Seriously?! I feel like i was in my room packing, blinked, and now i'm here typing to you. But just really tired all of a sudden. Then i remember, oh right! I didn't simply blink, i have experienced EUROPE within that blink! So the exhaustion and lack of english abilities do stem from somewhere.

So last weekend Amanda and I went to London and Venice. It was really fun and quite the experience and adventure being simply the two of us. It was great. So, we got to London and continued to develop our love for public transportation. We rode a train into the main part of the city, this was kinda neat too, it was like a classic passenger train where two seats face inward to the table and the two opposite seats. Like a booth in a resturant. Then we got to our stop and it was gently raining :) And slightly freezing. So we found the bus that we needed next, and were so excited that the stop was close to a vent from a nearby resturante. We slightly felt ghetto. Then we got on the bus. Woo! So we ask the driver if it's going to stop at our stop and his obvious love of tourists he just motioned behind him with his arm. So we were like sweet! He's going that way and we don't even have to pay! Then we heard his loving voice telling us that we need to get on the bus that's going the other direction. Oh. Welp, i surely felt like an idiot. So we crossed the street and continued our waiting. Then the bus came, and guess who was the driver? Yes, our favorite man. He kinda laughed when he saw us and jokingly told us to go the other way again. Ha. After the much longer than expected bus ride, we arrived at our cutsie little hotel. (not sarcastic, it was cute) It was also classic Europe, with the five flights of steep endless stairs. Then in our room was our bed, and shower. A random free-standing shower. It was great! Just sooo funny! We decided that the theme of our lives is that it's so great yet so ghetto. I mean it's Europe! It's London! But a shower snuggled up next to the bed? I love it.

The day started with an english breakfast. So for the cheapness of the hotel, it was actually pretty good. We made some friends from Poland. Side note, i think that's been my favorite random thing, meeting people from all over. Even in simple breakfast conversations, i feel like i've experienced so much! Ok, so then we again made our way back to the public transporation, but this time we lived it up London style! In the short amount of time we were there, we became pros at the metro, or underground. And off to Hyde Park we went! It was fun, they had "Winter Wonderland" It was exciting. I love Christmas. This was about the most of the Christmas festivites we saw in London though :/ I did slightly feel like SnowWhite some when all the creatures of the park decided to become friends with us. Seriously like 4-5 squirrels and then their pidgeon friends. That's when i broke off the friendship. We walked over to Wellington Arch and were being classic tourists taking pictures with it. We had a cute old man take a picture of us, and he was precious. He wasn't sure if it took, so we took it again, and he said, "If it didn't turn up, you can toss me in the bin!" So as we were mesmorized by his accent, we turned and all of a sudden the were all kinds of official-looking men on horses! And i'm amazed that we turned just in time, because we would have got run over! It was crazy! The day continued with the classics: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, red double decker buses, but my favorite place of all was where we spent the majority of the day, Westminster Abbey. Not only was it simply stunning, but it was jut nice to stop and breathe it in for a moment. We had an audio tour guide. We saw the exact spot where Princess Diana's funeral was. We made a friend who worked there who told us lots of stories about the history and other things he's seen. He pointed out to us in the middle of everything is a more off-limits to tours place, and you can see that they use it for storage. He pointed out specific chairs that are only used for the Queen and the Princes when they come there. It was so funny! So i've seen those fancy chairs! :) We ended up coming back that night and heard the evensong of the Westminster Abbey men and boys choir. Rather magical actually. The next day we went to The Tower of London. This was great too because i remember things from it. (In 4th grade i went to England and Paris with my family, how awesome right?) But that was some of my most vivid memories from that trip that i got to re-experience. It was almost surreal walking in the spots that i know i walked 10 years ago. We proceeded to continue to get the full London experience and freeze as we sat outside and ate some fish n-chips! So overall, London was super great. Nice to be able to see things that i remember, experience new things, and completely absorb it all in.

Now the cutest/coolest/strangest part of our journey is the fact that if you previously asked Amanda if there was anywhere she could go, she would reply London. If you asked me, the answer would be Venice. Which leads us to the next chapter of this adventure...

We got up nice and early and headed to our newly conquered metro. Then the plane to VENICE! Ah! :) I think i felt like a mere child on Christmas Eve, anxious heart, excited eyes, fighting with time to actually get there. On the plane, i recieved a nudge from manders to look out the window, and what did we see? Mountains! And not jsut any mountains, no that would be too simple. These were snow-enveloped mountains! These were the stinkin Swiss Alps. From the air. Wow. Up there on the most beautiful things God has created that i have ever seen. Then as the plane decended, i saw the water. I saw the islands. Really? I was landing in Italy!!! I was in Venice! Again, i wish there were accurate words to descirbe the glory in which i was seeing, i was feeling, i was anticipating. I think i felt like i was reading a fairytale where the Princess went to the most beautiful land of all. Except it was real! (insert shout of glee here) So then we proceeded to embark on the adventure of finding our hotel. It was weird when i booked it and simply stated that the request was recieved. So we went and there was no real reservation. Not really surprised. They did have one room with one bed for 75euro a night... No gracias. So then the movie-feeling continued. Arielle and Amanda went down the hotel-filled street, entering every new possibitity. No. No rooms. 250euro. No. Dog, then no. Inglese? No rooms. Giant stairway of possibilies? Looked a bit more promising. But then her smiled resasurred our hopes. Our new Italian friend proceeded to show us to a room, down the street a bit, down creeper alley, into the building, through erie old brick archway, and once again up the mountain of stairs! We got a bunkbed. It was so cozy and almost hilarious, but precious, available, and cheap. Whew. Sigh of relief. Without the burden of hunting down a place to stay, we hit the town! Got some classic margarita super thin-crusted pizza. So warm and marvelous! We simply walked around this picturesque town and just made our way into places we wanted to. It was very restful. The beauty of the lack of cars was the accompanied lack of noise. We walked to the nearest bridge and just breathed it in. Was this for real? Yes. :) We continued our journey towards Bascilica de San Marco. It was kinda fun reading the signs. On our way there, we realized having a simple slice of pizza just did not suffice. We stopped into a cute little shop. They are all over he place but this one was different. The lady who run the place was singing to her radio like no one was listening. It was beautiful. Her little place was quite small but lack of space didn't mean anything to her. That's just it, there was a lack of space for every inch had something occupying it. Row of loaves of bread, candies, cheeses, cookies sandwiches, pictures, flags, the back walls were filled with bottles, teas, and family pictures :) She got Amanda her pizza and i thought i was fine until i saw her make herself a sandwhich. Oh the freshness! She looked at me and saw my eyes and saw past the facade that i was "fine" Then i recieved the best turkey sandwhich ever! When asked which type of cheese i wanted, i was overwhelmed with the vast amounts of choices, a through her smile she suggested brie, "como mio!" (like mine) Precious! and delicious! :) i've never been a huge fan of brie, but it pretty much completed the excellence. Ha, are you about hungry yet? So we made our way to the other side of the island to San Marco. Wow again. It was so pretty. But by now it was dark and cold. Still great, got to experience real Italy in the real winter :) Next day, took a water bus to Murano, an island famous for its glass making. We landed upon a glass-making museum. They had a couple cute little shops there, the first one we went to happened to be the best and the least expensive. This island was even more quiet than the main part. It was nice and small. Neat. :) Then we returned to San Marco, and rode a Gondola!!! :) Yes, yes that happened :) Sadly, our Goldalier, Murcio, wore just a black beanie hat, not the classic hat. And no stripes. :/ Way to crush the stereotypes there bud! He was rather quiet, told us "to the left is this important place... CasaNova lived there... " He was cute. I asked him how one becomes a gondola man. "It takes a lot to become a gondalier" (i was gently corrected) His father did it, and his father did it. Amanda asked if he enjoys it, and he responded "Well... i've done it for 20 years..." So we had an non-sterotypical gondola man all around! I would probably be tired of it as well though, so i give him props for that and appreciated his honesty. I later enjoyed his lack of desire for small talk as we silently glided across the water. If i had to describe serenity to you, this would be it. The world stood still for a moment. Air. breathe. calm. see the mist. see the water part from the front of the cute looking boat. I wish i could have bottled up that moment. Too soon the people, the shouting kids, and reality returned, but it was so great. It was funny, every time we started to verbalize the fact that it was delightfully quiet, something would break the silence for us. We evenutally chose to stop and simply enjoy it. Then again, i blinked at we were at the end. But it was lovely. :) Finished off the night with more gentle strolls through the land of magic. I guess if being arm in arm quickly walking to attempt to avoid the cold counts as a gentle stroll... :) But we didn't let the cold stop us! It was so neat to not have an agenda and go into whatever shop we felt, see whatever random cathedral we wanted and just enjoy the short amount of time we had there. (i think i'm still smiling...) To top off the night and the adventure, we went big! And by the way, my mindset in Spain/this semester has been "Go big or go home!" And well, since i'm doing the latter soon, why not revel in the first? So we enjoyed some classic, Italian, PASTA! Yippee!!! :) And this time stereotypes did not fail. It was soooooo delicioso! Oh my. Yep. So simple, yet so mouthwatering. Mmmm. And all i got was spaghetti :)

The next morning was a bit sadder as we said goodbye to our new found friend some call Venezia. This day consisted of traveling. Bus to the airport. Plane to Madrid. Bus to Malaga. Walk home. Looong day. In Madrid, we met up with some friends who are studying in Salamanca. We cut it nice and close to the time we needed to get onto the bus. As we approached the station, and realized we weren'treally sure where we were going. The 10-mintue mark occured! Ah! We asked a lady who told us where to go but looked like we were crazy, es muy pronto!! So we ran. Nothing more ostentatious than two American girls running through the bus station with their bags. It was funny, right until we hit the people-packed escalator. I let out an irritated "Por favor!!" And to my surprise, people turned around and moved some. Oh. right, i was back in a Spanish-speaking country. I felt kinda bad for being kinda rude, but yet felt awesome that i verbalized my irriation in Spanish. :) The epic 6 hour bus ride home wasn't as terrible as anticipated. They played a movie for us... Air Bud. Ah ha ha! I just thought it was hilarious! It was neat to have breakfast in Venice, lunch in Madrid w friends, then finish it up with dinner in Malaga!

So, overall, that was my simple weekend in London/Venice. No big deal really...