Rome to Paris to Brussels to London

I left the lab late last night and am back again this morning, hoping to finish up my assessments today. To warm up my brain a bit and get myself in the writing mood, I'm going to write a quick blog entry first and catch up on everything.

Our second day in Rome, I really wanted to visit the Galleria Borghese, a museum especially famous for its many Bernini sculptures, and Jenny and Janie preferred to save their money and visit the parks and gardens in Rome. The museum ended up being free for me, since I'm an art student, which made it even more worthwhile. The sculptures were simply incredible--I'm so glad I saw them. I them walked from the Galleria, on the north end of Rome, all the way to the Vatican again on the west side of Rome, stopping by various landmarks, eating gelato, and enjoying one of our few sunny days of the trip. We met up again for supper at a restaurant we found that we eat at everyday, and also got to enjoy our meal with one of Janie's friends living in Rome.

After supper, we headed over to the train station to board our night train to Paris. We had to be in Winchester by Friday afternoon, the only way we could spend so much time in Rome was to agree to take the 15 hour night train that left Rome Thursday night. When we arrived in Paris, we hurried to the international ticket counter to get a reservation for the next train to London. Turns out all the trains to London were booked that day. And the next. And the next. We stood there staring at each other, not having any idea what to do. The ticket man then suggested that we could get on a train to Brussels, Belgium, and from Brussels travel to London that night, getting us in to London at about 10 pm. It was our best option, so we took it. (And just for the record, we did see the Eiffel Tower from the train as we left Paris).

And so, God really does have a sense of humor. Brussels was the very first city the three of us visited, and it was the one city that Janie really disliked. It was probably the one city nobody in our group really cared to visit again. And it was the one city we did revisit. Also, three weeks ago when we did visit Brussels, we had bought a bunch of Belgian chocolate to bring home as gifts. Unfortunately, after three weeks of travel, the chocolate had melted and hardened, took up a lot of space, and was just all around a pain to carry. We gradually tossed most of it or ate it and stressed about it and what we were going to give as gifts now. And now, here we were, on the very last day of our traveling, back in Brussels, able to go to the store and buy some more without ever having to carry it around Europe. So funny. And yes, if you're wondering, we did buy some more chocolate. But not nearly as much as the first time. I think we were all a bit sick of it by then.

After an afternoon in Brussels we got on the two hour train to the St. Pancras station in London. Returning to England, to an English speaking country, was such a relief. I met another girl on the train from Mankato, MN who was studying in Wales and had also just been gone for a month. 'I miss the UK so much!' She told me, and we gushed for a bit about how excited we were to get back. Even Jenny, who had never really been in England, said that going back to Winchester felt a bit like coming home, from hearing Janie and I talking about it.

So anyways, we got to St. Pancras, had to buy tube tickets to get to the London Waterloo train station, bought tickets for Winchester, and pulled in to Winchester at midnight. One of my rugby teammates, Roux (rugby nickname), is being an angel and is letting Janie, Jenny, and I crash at her house for two days until we can get in to the dorms this afternoon (Sunday). This is also the same girl who stored all my stuff over break (we have to move completely out of our rooms), so I owe her. She even came and picked us up from the train station at midnight so we wouldn't have to walk to her house with our backpacks.

And so here we are, back in Winchester. Yesterday morning when we left Roux's house we walked into town to show Jenny Winchester and to get something to eat. We walked down High Street, enjoyed a pasty, and visited Sainsbury's (the local grocery store) for a snack or two. I still couldn't believe we were actually back. That's always amused me about vacations--when you return, it's hard to realize you were actually gone. Once you're back, it's as if you never left. It's not until a while later that it feels like you actually left for all that time.

Okay, well, I think my brain is sufficiently ready to get back to writing my assessments. I'm almost done with three of them--hooray. Hope you've all enjoyed reading about Europe. I'll try to get pictures up soon. Oh, and please, if there's anything you want to hear more about or any questions you have or anything, feel free to email me or leave a comment. I love getting questions and comments or anything. And I'll do my best to reply. Thanks so much for reading and for your thoughts and prayers throughout the last month!