The Adventure of a lifetime

School is out and it's summer time! Time for my big hoorah travel before I head back to San Diego. I waited for warm weather to explore more of Italy, Greece, and Croatia. I chose to be in Florence for a week and explore Pisa, Siena, and Milan then head to Mykonos and Santorini, Greece for another week, and my last week I would meet up with my good friend/roommate Mylene in Dubrovnik, Croatia for one week. It was a bit stressful planning everything on my own. Matching up dates/flights/hotels/tickets/trains/boats....it's a lot of work and a bit stressful. I took of for my adventure to Florence, Italy July 4th. I landed in Milan and took a bus to the train station (painless) then took a 2 hour train ride into Florence. I was really excited to see Florence because my parents and most of my friends said they loved it. I checked into a hostel where I shared a 6 female dorm. Right when I walked in I made friends with 2 Australian girls. It was around dinner time and we heard there was a free concert from Simple Minds (You know the song, "Don't you...forget about me...DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T...la la lala ) ok you get the point. We walked around the city and stumbled across the Duomo. WHOA! Incredible. Whenever I see architecture this incredible I am baffled to think how in the world they created this without modern day technology or machines!

We then found a nice restaurant and at the bar. I had DELICIOUS Chianti red wine. Italians sure do get their wine down just like the Czech's get their beer down. Mmm. I then had the best meal I have had in awhile. It was a spinach ricotta ravioli covered in truffle sauce. Did you salivate a little because I just did. I licked the plate clean. For dessert, we had complimentary mojitos and famous italian drink Lemoncello. It was like a flat version of sour heads and Mike's Hard Lemonade. Pretty good. Then we walked out to the Hard Rock Cafe and listened to Simple Minds. We thought we missed his famous song and were going to get some Gelato when, they played the song. It was a great concert and a lot of fun.

We then ate some famous gelato in Florence by the river and explored a bit more. It was a great great great first night of my travels.