I ♥ Venezia

Hey hey heyyyyyy...I'mmmmmm backkkk!

Not only back on this blog, but also back in the US... I know it's kinda lame to be updating the blog now that I'm back home, but I really want to share all these photos and stories and stuff with you and I didn't have time before. Forgive me? 

I assume if you're reading this sentence it means that you have, in fact, forgiven me and are ready to see what adventures lie in store for you in this blog post. Well buckle up kiddos, cuz I went NUTZO for Venice and started taking pictures like my life depended on it. So this is gonna be a big post. A big one. Like, it's kind of obnoxious how many photos there are in this post... 

How did I end up in Venice, taking more pictures than a frat boy takes shots? Welllll, Carolyn Fanning and I (and most other students in Europe) both had Holy Week (the week before Easter) off from our respective European universities and so we decided to go gallivanting around Europe. The first stop on our 4 city tour was Venice, and what a good start it was!  I immediately fell in love with the place, its charming canals, its quiet streets, its stately churches, ITS GELATO (omg don't even get me started on my gelato addiction...by the end of the trip, I was like one scoop away from injecting the stuff directly into my bloodstream...). In fact, I think I can safely say that Venice is my second favorite European city, after Paris of course.

But enough with all the chatter. Let's get down to business. 

Carolyn loves Venice

These masks were everywhere

Everywhere.

 The. Fish.

Carolyn making Ca d'Oro look so damn good.

This is what happens when I give Carolyn my camera...

Mmmmmmore Ca d'Oro

View of the Gran Canal from Ca d'Oro

I like to take pictures of the floor.

Trapped under the stairs.

(photo by Carolyn)

 Girls Gone Wild: Venice Edition
(photos by Carolyn)

Best viewed large!

Carolyn pondering The Divine...and probably also wondering why the sign on that church looks so much like the Deathly Hallows? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deathly_Hallows_Sign.svg

The infamous Venice Fish.

Ballin'. Naturally.

 View from the Rialto Bridge (best viewed large!)

Italy has digustingly large Easter eggs.

MUFFIN-FLAVORED GELATO!?!? IT'S LIKE EVERYTHING I LOVE IN LIFE IN ONE PLACE. I LOVE ITALY.

More food.

Carolina loves churches

Masquerade! 

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxKjDUrmecA)

Carolyn's obviously the Queen of Churches (see above photos), but I don't mind a good religious establishment every now and then.

(photo by Carolyn)

Easter makes Italy crazy.

I think my favorite part of this photo is the guy underneath who is just lovin' the architecture!

Church of Santa Maria della Salute

What would Señora say?

The Chiesa dei Gesuiti (Church of the Jesuits) had of the most spectacular church interiors I have ever seen -- and I've seen a lot of churches!

So on our last day in Venice, we decided to leave the city to see some of the tiny islands around it. The first we went to was Burano, an island about 4.5 miles from Venice that is famous for it's brightly colored houses.

Coolest bug ever!

The next island we went to was called Torcello. It was smaller than Burano and had very few inhabitants, although apparently it once held the largest population in the Republic of Venice (thanks, Wikipedia!). It was pretty, but there wasn't all that much to see there...

We returned to Venice that evening and I managed to snap a few final shots before we left the next morning for our next city...

 So as some of you may know, I'm part Italian and my father's family is from Vittorio Veneto, a town not far from Venice, so when my dad heard I would be visiting Venice, he asked me to look and see if there were any DaDalts in the phonebook (it's not a very common last name, so we can be pretty sure that anyone who has it is related to us...). I did and I found one woman, Caterina DaDalt and looked up her address. We went to the address listed and sure enough, we found this on the door, which I thought was awesome. We rung her bell but she wasn't home so I left a note with my name and contact info under the door, so hopefully she'll be in touch soon!

View from the Rialto at night. Breathtaking, no?

I'm not going to tell you where we went next...you'll find out in the next post, which really should be coming soon cuz I'm not running around Paris being fabulous anymore. Now I'm just in Newton, being...lame. 

I'm gonna write you a letter, gonna write you a BLOG

(this post is about Amsterdam. If you don't understand the title, please go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0TQVbiWeEs)

Hey e'rebody!

I know. I know. It's been ages since I last posted. I really am sorry that my fabulous life in Paris got in the way of me keeping in touch with you all via this blog, but that's just the way it goes when you lead such an exciting and glamorous existence.

In all seriousness though, it's actually been work that's been keeping me so busy. To all of you that told me that "you won't have any work to do when you're abroad," I would like to tell you to please go procreate with yourself  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehAR1ZYQSCk) because that is simply not true. I'm actually pretty swamped with work here and it's all in French, so I never have any idea what I'm doing.

That being said, the term is almost over and I'm finished with most of my assignments, so I thought I'd take some time out to catch you guys up to speed on what I've been doing...

Sooooo, like, almost 2 months ago (I know), I went to Amsterdam with my dear friend Aly Kravitz and we had a 'Dam good time.

Much, much more? What more could you possibly need?!?

Amsterdam had some pretty bomb graffiti, so look for more of that...

Case in point...

 Amsta-dam loves da plantz

Bloemenmarkt!

Amsterdam loves bikes even more than plants

No, but like, they still really like plants...

Me in front of mah future house...

(photo by Aly)

(best viewed large)

Love this

Could she be any cuter?

Along with bikes and plants, Amsterdam also has a soft spot for houseboats. According to Wikipedia, around 2,400 families in the city reside in such dwellings.

My life in Amsterdam

the Tulip Museum!

I would live on this houseboat...

KA-BLAM! 

(photo by Aly)

Indonesian Rice Dish OM NOM NOM

Gittin' mah nomz onnnnn...

(photo by Aly)

 "Hidden" Beguinage

 The next few photos are from the garden of a 17th century Canal House which was once the home of a wealthy Dutch merchant family.

This is one of my favorite photos on this entire blog (and it's not even mine!). On our last day in the 'Dam, as the locals call it (not really, but like, wouldn't that be cool?), we went for a magnificent bike ride. Now, you must understand that in Amsterdam, it is bikes, not cars that rule the streets. Bikes go wherever they want and do whatever they want and even have little bells on them that are meant to tell pedestrians that a bike is arriving but really mean something more along the lines of "get the hell outta mah way!" so it was really fun being able to use those. But even better than that was how amazing it felt to ride around the city. We rode through the Vondelpark, one of the city's biggest and nicest parks and the weather was awesome and sunny. The birds were singing, the flowers were in bloom, I felt like I was in a postcard!  It was such a perfect moment, definitely one of the best experiences of my abroad trip!