16 Reasons I Love Florence

Milano

Milan was so very interesting from the very beginning. We spent quite a long time bonding with each other in the metro as we waited for our passes to come. It was a great time, I thought. Anyone that knows me knows that I just love hanging out. I don't have to be doing anything to be satisfied with life. 

After we finally received our passes, we made our long journey to the hostel. This hostel was rumored to be on the grounds of a mental institution and the patients would just wander around the halls at night. It actually wasn't that far from the true either. The place we stayed in served as a shelter for people trying to get their lives back together–a starting point to get going again. Some seemed a little crazy, but luckily, we weren't bothered by them our two nights there.

The BYU train

 Waiting for our rooms

I just had some of the best times of my life here in Milan with some of my favorite people. But before I jump into that, a tragic tale must be told.

So, once upon a time there was a young man. Handsome. Witty. Delightful smile with a smolder to woo. He was confronted with two decisions.

Ferrari...

...or Lamborghini.

Either one could carry his one true love with him anywhere across the world. Either one was beautiful, fast and gloriously loud. Alas, he could only choose one in which he himself could drive around Milan. Our protagonist had never been faced with such a hard decision.

Luckily, the decision was made for him. 145 Euro for 20 minutes. Our hero walked around, admired and then left for some gelato. As it turns out, it wasn't so tragic after all. Gelato heals all woes.

Now, back to the good times in Milan. I spent the day with five lovely people.

left to right :: Kiely, Becca, Adriana, Jarom, Andrea

It was so much fun running around with these five. We had wonderful times taking pictures, gossiping, trying to go to soccer games and eating gelato (of course!). Some of my favorite shots are with the first three beautiful girls (Thanks Andrea for taking the pics!).

They were crazy! I don't know how they did it in skirts and dresses, but they did. So. Much. Fun.

We also went to the Milano Duomo. It was enormous and gorgeous. We even went on top and walked around the rooftop. It was amazing.

By far the craziest thing that happened was near the end of our day. There were tons of people walking around in soccer jerseys. We quickly learned that Milan was playing Barcelona that evening. We wanted to go see it. So we headed in to direction of the stadium and suddenly found ourselves on a bus. This bus wasn't like the other buses I'm used to. There were wire grids running across most of the windows. Everyone was wearing red, yellow and blue. We realized that we were on the enemies bus–Barcelona's bus. So, for the bus ride, we were totally Barcelona fans!

After a rowdy, rambunctious ride, we ended up at the stadium.

The place was enormous. We tried to get tickets with Becca's impeccably honed flirting skills. It got us pretty far into the event, but sadly never scored us any tickets. We headed back to the city, reminiscing on the events that had just transpired. Laughing. It was an amazing day. 

I am Amused

After a chilly, snow-flurried Easter, the bright sun and beautiful blue sky was the perfect setting for today's activities. It had been far too cold the past couple of months to check this one off the list. We were headed towards Vienna's amusement park, Prater, seeking to be amused.

And amused we were! We rode the main attraction of the park, which is the Wiener Riesenrad (Viennese Giant Wheel). This ferris wheel is one of the oldest in the world. It was constructed in 1897. It burned down in 1944, but was rebuilt immediately. It originally had 30 cars, which was changed to 15 cars after it was reconstructed. This is why all the cars are numbered evenly.

The beginning of our journey

It was a lovely ride to the top. Quite romantic, even. Then we noticed that the romantic level we experienced was far less than it really could have been.

The romantic car

They have reserved specific cars for a romantic dinner for two. Due to the glare on the windows, it is a little difficult to see, but there is a small, round table for the couple. I'm seeing a lot of symbolism here. Round table. Moving in a circle. No end or beginning. On top of the world. Maybe throw a ring in there somewhere. Man on one knee. Precious.

The view was quite spectacular from the top. For a brief moment, we could see 360° of Vienna as well as a full view of the park.

After we completed our round, we began searching for our next amusement. We saw a huge tower that looked very promising. Upon arrival, we found it to be extremely lame, so we pressed on. This place had to have something else other than the ferris wheel!

Then, we found it.

The snake. He was offering everything that we were searching for:

✔ Amusement

✔ Thrill

✔ Danger

✔ Speed

✔ Surprise

✔ Maybe even death

It was perfect. I could feel my adrenaline boiling with excitement.

We paid our dues and ran to our seats. The anticipation was just killing us!

Not exactly us, but you get the idea

For the next few minutes, we were flying. Thank goodness we had not had lunch. We were tossed to and fro. Backwards and forwards. Losing sense of up and down. Yelling. Laughing. Screaming. The best few minutes that this park had to offer. It was epic. 

I may do this ride once every day until I leave I loved it so much. My adrenaline levels haven't been this high since I did this. I need more adrenaline-filled activities in my life.

Easter in the Air

I love Easter a lot. It's the one time of year when most of the Christian world celebrates the life and resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. The other thing I love about Easter is how big of a deal it is outside of the United States. It's a huge holiday here in Vienna. It starts with Good Friday and most people are still celebrating a couple days after Easter Sunday. So cool. I wish I had time off for school as a child to celebrate Easter. It's just as important as Christmas, if not more so.

I went to the Easter Market the other day and saw all sorts of cute little Easter trinkets and most of all, painted eggs. There were hundreds , actually, thousands of hollowed-out eggs shells painted from solid colors to fancy, intricate designs.

What do I heart most about the Easter egg tradition? Sadly, it's not the high-protien egg whites. It's the COLORS! Colors, colors, colors, COLORS! Everything just seems so happy and alive. I believe that is a perfect representation of the celebrated event of this day.

Too often we think about Christ on the cross, suffering the sins of the world. Though that is extremely important and vital to us and the Atonement, there is more to the story following these events. On the third day after being place in the tomb, Christ was resurrected. His body and His spirit were reunited. He conquered death. Because of His resurrection, we too will be resurrected. This is His gift to us.

The Easter Bunny also managed to find me all the way over in Vienna. I was so surprised and it was so cute. I have the best host family in the entire world.

When Streets are Made of Water

Welcome back to my blog! I hope I didn't lose too many of you in my absence. I have been all over the place lately with lots of spotty internet. While I have a strong hold on the signal, here is a little bit of my last two weeks.

Welcome to the city built on water. Venice.

I'll just mention right up front that Italy is my new favorite country. I know. It keeps changing. Right now it is Italy. The amazing thing about Venice is that within the main city, there are no cars. You either walk or take a boat. Awesome. It was so warm and beautiful outside. Conditions could not have been any better.

The architecture was fantastic! I loved that the buildings literally touched the water and that there was a ton of Renaissance history there. Vienna does not have much Renaissance stuff but Italy filled that gap very nicely. The cathedrals and churches were enormous and beautiful. I was blown away by the size of some of these structures.

Now, we can't talk about Venice without mentioning the gondoliers. They wear the classic striped outfits and sing Italian, making any moment instantly romantic. I did not get the chance to ride one but that's because I am cheap (they are fairly expensive unless you round up at least 6 people) and I had not a romantic partner to get the full effect of the experience. Maybe next time. I did get a great shot of one of them.

I have this new affinity for bridges. This all started with Budapest. There are hundreds of little bridges all over Venice. I wanted to find them all. The best part was that they all had their own unique character and architecture. Some were old. Others new. Some long. Some short. And they were all fun to walk across.

I also got this picture of a real Italian! He looks a lot like me and may even be me. Maybe I was meant to be Italian. I'm pretty sure I was. I sure felt like I was.

I knew our week excursion in Italy was going to be amazing. I just didn't know how amazing. Then this scene told me how amazing it would be.

Just in case that wasn't enough to convince me, Venice gave me this. And I loved it.

Ticket to Awesome

I have decided that this summer, I'm going to do something extraordinary. 

Something that is cool, no matter how well or how poorly you do it. 

Something that I'm pretty sure everyone secretly wants to do. 

Something that changes your status from average Joe to coolest person in the room.

Something I have been wanting to learn for years.

I'm talking about break dancing. 

Oh yeah. 

These fellas hang out in front of the Stephansdom and put on quite a show. A part of me wants to just jump out there and show them what I've got. Then I remember. I've got nothing. Better change that.

Break dancing instantly makes people awesome. Imagine if I could break dance. I could be awesome, too. And when you reach a certain unquantifiable unit of awesome, you can spin on your head. Awesome.

Hundertwasser

I went to the Hundertwasserhaus.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser is the architect of this building. He loved bright colors. He opposed straight lines, opting for a more "organic" approach in architecture. Like the ground of the earth is not perfectly level and flat, so the floors in these apartments are not level and flat. He believed that all windows do not need to be the same size. He also loved to use ceramic tiles as accents.

When Hundertwasser was born, his real name was Friedrich Stowasser. Sto, or "сто," in slavic languages, such as Russian, means one hundred. He simply replaced sto with the German word for one hundred, hundert. I'm not sure why he made the change. Early on in his career, he just started signing his paintings and works as Hundertwasser instead of Stowasser. He also changed his first name from Friedrich to Friedensreich. Later he also added two more middle names. Who knows why. He's an artist/architect so we don't need to ask questions. Also, his family was Jewish, so the change may have been prompted to hide from Hitler and his men. That sounds like a good reason.

It was pretty cool to walk up to this apartment complex. At first you see the crazy colors, the funky architecture and then the sidewalk.

I love all of the colors that he uses. I also love what he does with plain and boring walls. It is something so simply, yet it really gives the wall some character. Photo shoot, anyone?

Oh wait... a photo shoot totally happened (Thanks for tagging along Julia). She could totally use this as a recital poster/facebook profile/dating card. Something like this is destined to happen when you hang out with me. Also, that'll be 50 Euro, Julia.

I'm pretty sure it is impossible to not be happy here. All of these little details just makes one smile and feel and little bit younger inside.

And when you feel a little bit younger inside, you are able to do cool things...