A Delightful Day in Florence

After we had seen Rome and had our fill of pasta and pizza, we spent a day in Florence on our way to France.  In Italy they have a saying, "il dolce far niente" or "the sweetness of doing nothing".  It represents that time is not something that can be spend, wasted or passed, but that it simply just IS.  Every moment holds the possibility of goodness.  

I have always thought of this whenever people talk about or describe Italy, but quite honestly, I never felt this or noticed this when we were in Rome.

In Florence, however, I could sense a more laid back and relaxed city.  I could easily understand this phrase and see how it could be applied here.   

When we arrived, we had absolutely no idea what to do or what to see.  We leisurely explored the streets, visited another amazing European church, saw the statue of David and found a quaint small restaurant to eat at.  While we sat and ate, they had the Beatles and Frank Sinatra (the waiter was sure to point out to us that Frank Sinatra was Italian) playing in the background.  We never felt rushed to see/do anything.  We found our way around and marveled at whatever came our way.  

We only spend perhaps 10 hours in Florence, but instantly I could tell that this was a city that I would be more than happy to return to.  

Duff man says oh-yeah!

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Visiting the Vatican

What was probably my favorite day in Rome was our visit to the Vatican City.  We were able to see St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum.  It is definitely something wondrous to see.

The churches in Europe are amazing and it is interesting to see how each country has a different style of architecture, but they are all elaborate and have amazingly high ceilings.  It's a form or art in itself.

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Mama Mia!

Once we were able to escape from Venice, we found ourselves in Rome.  We explored the city some and saw many of the beautiful monuments scattered around the city.  Of course, we did the typical touristy stuff:  visited the Colloseum, Vatican city, and ate pizza and pasta.

But, what also made this part our trip different is that my mother met us there to visit Italy and France with us!

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Venice: Been There, Done That.....Next!

Let me preface this post by saying that Venice is a beautiful city, or at least for the first 5 minutes.

Before I start my potential rant about Venice, let's first talk about our overnight train journey to Venice.  There was this romanticized idea of what an overnight train experience would be like as neither Luke nor I had ever experienced it before, but um, it was not that at all.  Most of all, they are loud and impossible to sleep in.

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Before Ze Germans Get Here

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  Good internet is hard to find, but hopefully I will be able to catch up this week to our current location (WHICH IS PARIS BTW!).

Our next stop on our whirlwind tour was Vienna.   Time for some wiener schnitzel and itty bitty sausages.

We only stayed for one day, but it was a really good day.  We were able to explore the city, visit a museum and find an awesome restaurant to eat at.  It is a really pretty city and has that good ole german ingenuity.  It was easy to find our way around.

Try to prounouce this....I dare you.

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Going to the Prague Zoo - Oh Yeah!

After constant traveling and seeing monument after monument, old building after old building, it is easy to become desensitized to the different cities and sights.  So we decided to do something different, we went to the zoo.

It was so interesting and cool because there were so many different animals that we have never seen before.  Of course though, one of the first things we saw were flamingos, not really so exotic for Floridians:

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I Heart Prague (^o^)

Our next stop was in the most awesomest city ever!  PRAGUE.  We decided to travel via a day train to enjoy the countryside.  When Luke went to the dining cart to get a beer, he wanted something authentic, a REAL Czech beer, and this is what they gave him.

Hehehehehehe.

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Krakow in a Nutshell

Our next stop on the itinerary was Krakow, Poland.  We arrived and stayed in our first hostel, Mama's Hostel.  What an experience.  On our first night, we got zero sleep, mostly because some guy was trying to get into some girl's bed and they were arguing the whole time.  Then somewhere around 6am, someone woke everyone up to crash a Polish wedding.  I am still not quite sure what that was all about.  

We decided to change to a more private room, but in our time there we met some very interesting people from New York, Netherlands, Canada and Australia.  It was definitely a new experience, both good and um, not so good (I like my sleep).  

What was cool about the city was the main square, where there were more restaurants and cafes than you could imagine many street performances throughout the night.

While in Krakow, we visited the Salt Mines, Auschwitz and Wawel Castle.  The city is very beautiful and I would want to return to spend more time there as 4 days was simply not enough.  Here are some pics from our stay there.  Warning: this is a very heavy photog post.  

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Making it to Morskie Oko

I am quite far behind in blog posts as we had lost internet for a short period.  While we were in Zakopane, we  were determined to see Morkie Oko, which is an amazing lake at the top of a mountain.  To get there, iit requires about 3 hours walking.

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Mountain Climbing in Zakopane

While in Zakopane, we knew that we would be doing some hiking in the mountains.  Our first venture was to Kasprowy Wierch, which is a famous peak in the Tatra Mountains.  We did have a little help from a cable car though :).  Once we reached the top, we were able to climb higher and enjoy some amazing views.  Pictures could not capture how awesome the place really was, but here are some anyways.  

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