Hello everyone!
So there were a few weeks where nothing interesting happened and now it has been nothing but adventure . I had my last day of classes on April 3 and took a train to meet my two amazing uncles in Birmingham England! Birmingham is how I imagined all of England to be. It was 50 degrees and rainy and windy. And I’m not talking about the usual London mist. It was full on downpour for days.
My uncle Michael was lecturing at the British small animal veterinarian conference so my other uncle Karl and I got to play for a few days! We went shopping and saw a museum in the jewelry quarter…I think the name was Smith and Pepper and one day in the 1980’s the factory just closed and they restored it and left it completely how it was. It was really cool but looked a lot older than the 1980’s.
I also got to go to Cadbury world which was amazing. I hadn’t heard of Cadbury chocolate until I came to the UK but it’s AMAZING. And the factory was so much fun. It totally reminded me of Charlie and the chocolate factory. I also had the privilege of hanging out with all of Karl and Michaels friends. We went out for fun food I had Chinese hot pot, Indian, Polish and Australian food! (Although the Australian was chips, nachos, and a Caesar salad). I bet on my first horse race too. And all my horses lost.
After our stay in Birmingham we took the train to Oxford where we stayed in Christ Church. So oxford has 39 different colleges within “Oxford” and we literally stayed on campus in dorms. But the dorm was way nicer than what I had in America or London! Karl and Michaels friend Adam came and met up with us too all the way from California. We had high tea and went to the botanical gardens and a museum. Our last night, we also met up with Tom, who came out to stay with my uncles and do some of his vet career at UCDavis, but he’s now at oxford doing his PhD. Lots of vet talk all weekend.
The next day, Karl, Michael, Adam, and I took the train back to London and I went home and did errands and met up with them for dinner and the theatre. We saw Finnians rainbow, it was a really cool show at the Charring Cross theatre. I went home right after that, and it sucked saying goodbye but I’m seeing Karl and Michael again in Paris in less than a month!
I literally slept for like maybe 4 hours then was up at 6:15 for my flight to Barcelona. Kelle and I are traveling together around Spain and Italy. We were in Barcelona from Thursday-Saturday and then we flew to Rome. We’re here until tomorrow and then we go to Florence. I honestly didn’t love Barcelona. It felt like there wasn’t a lot of touristy stuff to see and we were kinda bored. We ate one of our meals at ikea because that was the only thing close to us. We also are covered in bed bug bites from the hotel we stayed at in Barcelona so that freaking sucks. We did get to go to the beach although. It was a little cold. And we also did a sightseeing bus tour so we did see the entire city. But we are now in Rome and loving it! It’s been so warm, even when it drizzled yesterday evening.
I read a lot of articles about being gluten free in Rome and they made it seem so easy. It’s hard man, it’s so tempting to just eat regular gluten. We ate at a gluten free place for dinner tonight and have been eating soooo much fruit in both Spain and Italy. It’s amazing being in the country and using the language. I actually can get us around pretty well. In Spain I was literally like hola gracias adios. Yesterday we did all the sites close to us (we just have to take the metro three stops to the main train station and walk from there) and we saw the Trevi fountain and the colosseum and so many other famous places.
Today we walked to the Vatican…it kinda sucked we couldn’t go inside cause our shoulders and knees weren’t covered but it was 70 degrees and gorgeous so I was enjoying my sundress. Kelle is literally so tan already and I’m just over here glowing in my white pastiness. I actually had to buy sunscreen. Tomorrow we take the train to Florence then we fly home on Friday. Since I’ve started traveling I’ve been really homesick for America and for London. I miss both places! I don’t even know how I’m going to feel when I fly home in just over a month.
Anyways it’s pretty late here and our breakfast is coming early so Buona notte and all my love from Italia
xx
j
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