Spring Break 2008 was the best trip ever thanks to good planning, great locations, and fun travel buddies. 

Friday March, 14: Nice, France

I spent the beginning of spring break in France with Christy.  We tried to take a train to Nice, but the train workers in France were on strike so it took a little work to actually make it into the city.  After checking into our hostel, we spent the afternoon napping on the beach before going out to dinner and meeting many French and other international people.

Saturday, March 15: Nice, France/ Monte Carlo, Monaco

We began the day by exploring the old town of the city for about four hours and then visiting the flower market.

For lunch we ate crepes ON the beach (this was our table: )

and then we took a bus to Monaco to see the world-famous aquarium and visit the Monte Carlo casino.

Sunday, March 16: Nice, France/ Avignon, France

On Sunday morning, we went to the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum in Nice before taking the 3 hour train to Avignon. We both loved the museum and it was a great choice.

We spent the evening exploring Avignon and walking across the river, and we had to try REAL French onion soup.

Monday, March 17: Avignon, France/ Marseille, France

After visiting the Palace of the Popes in Avignon with a long audio tour, we headed to Marseille.

We took a bus tour of the city, during which we saw the Chateau d'If from the Count of Monte Christo, the harbor area, and all of the famous city monuments (including a horrible copy of Michelangelo's David in a roundabout).  The best part of Marseille was the Tunisian food we ate for dinner-- cous cous, veggie soup, and roast chicken. 

Tuesday, March 18: Faro, Portugal/ Lagos, Portugal/ Sagres, Portugal

Tuesday was a LONG travel day.. we arrived at the Marseille airport at 4 am and didn't arrive at surf camp until 11pm. The best part of the day was reuniting with Hannah and Sarah, who had spent the first part of vacation in Ireland.

Wednesday, March 19- Saturday, March 22: Sagres, Portugal & Praia do Amado

Surf Camp was amazing!  We found out about the Algarve Surf Camp (www.algarvesurfcamp.com) in the book we got Sarah for her birthday called Make the Most of Your Time on Earth which features 1000 things all over the world to do.  We stayed at the surf camp house with the instructors, where they hosted BBQs and showed slideshows of pictures they took of us during the day.  Every day we woke up to eat breakfast and make lunch before getting in jeeps for the 30 minute trip on dirt roads to get to the isolated beach Praia do Amado.

We had a half hour of warmups, and then two hours of lessons with our instructor Sergio and his boxer Lucy.

After the morning lesson, a yoga instructor arrived and we had a fun session of yoga right on the beach.  The best part was learning how to stand on our heads!! Hannah and I are experts.

There was another two hour lesson after lunch, and by the end of the week we could all stand up on our boards.  Surf camp was a success!

Sunday, March 23: Lisbon, Portugal

Unfortunately we had to leave Portugal and return to Florence.  Getting home was quite an adventure.  We had to take a long train to Lisbon, and spend the night before catching another train the next morning at 6am to Porto, in Northern Portugal. Luckily we had enough time to try the fried bananas.

Monday, March 24: Porto, Portugal & home to Florence

We made both our flight to Pisa and our connecting bus back to Florence, and ended our trip with Chinese food at a restaurant near school before heading home to 11 days of sandy laundry.  All of the travel was definitely worth seeing the French Riviera and especially getting the chance to see Portugal!

  We didn't want to waste any travel time, so three days after we returned from Barcelona, Hannah, Christy, Sarah and I went to Munich for the weekend.  This was our first exposure to the "night train experience" which involves stuffing yourself into a compartment the size of a broomcloset with 5 strangers and sleeping on a "bed" roughly the size of a boogey board.  Our train left at 9pm on Thursday night, and we woke up the next morning at 8am already at the central Munich station.  After a quick stop at the Starbucks conveniently located next the the tracks, we dropped our backpacks at our hostel and left to explore the city. 

I spent the morning wandering around "old town" Munich which is identically to the "It's a Small World" ride at Disneyland.  I visited the Glockenspiel, Germany's biggest cuckoo clock, before joining the group for our afternoon bike tour of the city. 

Going on a "Mike's Bike Tour" was one of the highlights of our trip.  We saw most of the city's famous attractions on a four hour ride narrated by a friendly English-speaking (Hawaiin actually) tour guide.  We rode through the English Gardens, Munich's park which is even bigger than Central Park in New York City.  We stopped for lunch in the park at the world's 2nd largest beer garden, the Chinese Tower Beer Garden.  When the tour finished around 5pm, we returned to the hostel for a quick nap before dinner.  Going out to dinner in Munich was a true adventure because we had no idea what we were ordering or even how to order in the first place.  We all ate with our eyes closed and hoped for the best. 

On Saturday morning we took a 3 1/2 hour train ride to Schwangau, a small town on the base of the alps, to see Schloss Neuschwanstein. The castle was built by King Ludwig II in the late 1800's and was the inspiration for the Disney logo.  To reach the castle, we had to walk about 40 minutes straight uphill through the snow.  We took a short tour, which was nice, but what really made the trip worth it was the view from the Marienbrucke bridge. 

The Bridge:

The View:

We arrived back in Munich at about 9pm, just in time to head out to dinner at the world-famous Hofbrauhaus.  On Sunday we visited Dachau, about 20 minutes from Munich, to see the concentration camp memorial site.  We spent over 5 hours in the museum, on the grounds, and visiting the monuments.  Of course this was not an enjoyable experience, but we all felt that Dachau was an important place to visit.  One night train later, we arrived back in Florence at 3am.  Just in time for my Monday morning 9am economics class. 

Monday: explored Florence and had a "family dinner" courtesy of Sarah

Wednesday: Opera! (Madama Butterfly)

Friday:  Cooking class!  We made homemade pasta for our spinach ravioli, spinach gnudi, and tiramisu.

Saturday: Skiing in Abetone, popular Italian ski resort. 

Sunday: Florence Chocolate festival

see my new photo albums for pictures of cooking, skiing, and the chocolate festival.