So, apparently I'm not very good at keeping up with this blogging thing...

Madrid was a great visit. As a group we saw all kinds of great places, people, etc. However, I definitely have to say that I enjoyed visiting Barcelona much better. I just felt more comfortable navigating that city. While I was there, friends and I went to the beach (yes, I stuck my feet in the Mediterranian), shopped on La Rambla (way too much...), drank sangria, and eventually picked up some Spanish! La Rambla is a main, wide street in the city near the water that is lined with tons of street vendors selling everything from animals to flowers to souveniers--and mimes! I got some pretty interesting pictures from them, just flip though them and you'll see what I mean... The last night a group of girls and I went out to eat at an Italian restaurant where they gave us English/French menus instead of Spanish. I guess we kinda stuck out. Surprisingly, that was the best meal we had in Spain. We didn't have to guess at what we were ordering, we got to sit down inside and be served, and we got full off of what we ordered! And we washed it all down with some delicious authentic sangria...jealous?

We left Barcelona on Friday morning at 8:30 am and stopped over one night in Aix-en-Provence, France on our way to Florence, Italy. The scenery on the bus ride over was absolutely beautiful. For most of the trip we drove along the Mediterranian coast so, there were plenty of ocean views there, but also a good portion of the trip was spent driving through gorgeous mountains--lovely!

Today was our first full day in Florence, so it was pretty packed. We went to see the Uffizi Gallery, the Gallery del Accademia, and had a walking tour of downtown Florence. I'm on art overload after touring both of those museums, but we saw some pretty great works. There were a lot of works by Duccio, Botticelli, Caravaggio, etc. At the Galleria del Accademia we got to see Michelangelo's sculpture "David," which I must say was reallyl impressive. I got a lot of pictures from the walking tour as well. After that Megan Lukken, Katie, and I went shopping near the river for stationary (which Florence is apparently known for) and souveniers. We got gelato earlier in the day, and I have no doubt that I will spend the majority of my budget on that...yum! So far the favorite combo is chocolate and coffee, but we'll see what happens when I try some more adventurous flavors.