something strange happened here

As we got off the place we couldn't help but wonder, "why didn't our passports get stamped as we left the London airport?"

Well, I must have been talking at my normal voice, which yes, is very loud, because a young girl next to us stopped to answer. Apparently once you arrive in Europe, most airports don't care to stamp your passport.

Dang, there goes my goal to fill up my passport pages! But luckily, it was stamped in Milan, though lightly.

It's now 11 AM and we are wandering around the Milan airport, we have to search for an ATM because of course we can't buy our shuttle tickets with a card.

After walking through another terminal, we find one. But of course, it's broken, and says something in Italian, which we later means "updating, wait 10 minutes."

Phew, we get our money, buy our tickets, and are on our way to the Milan train station.

Our time in Milan was short. After a 30 minute bus ride we had arrived at the station, and now faced our first challenge.

How the hell do we speak Italian?

We managed, with great difficulty, to purchase two train tickets to Venice. We're now exhausted from carrying our bags, and cannot find one bathroom.

We have literally no idea how this train stuff works, as I'm sitting waiting for Corey I see all these people placing their tickets in this little yellow box. So, when Corey gets back we figure why not?

It wasn't till later that we realized that by doing this, we were assigning ourselves seat numbers. But at first, we just entered the train (that is after we found which number it was).

Wow, we loved it! Why didn't we take trains more often? But after I walked around, I realized we were sitting in the first class section, and were going to have to move.

So we picked up our bags and headed back to where our real seats were, and quickly fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later as we were driving by Italy and fell in love. I love Italy!

We have no idea that the time zone has changed, so as we arrive in Venice we still think we have another hour to go. But luckily the train was stopped for a while, as there was nowhere else to go, and we ventured off into Venice.

We end up walking out of the station into the beautiful city of Venice. It's sunny out and crowded as can be. We realized we'll need to take a boat, so I get in line to purchase tickets while Corey sits with our stuff by the water.

I end up buying a 48 hour unlimited boat pass, because, of course we think we'll need it. That turns out to be the only time we ever got asked to show a ticket, and most stops didn't even have people there to check. (Yes, a waste of money).

We take the boat all the way to St. Marco Square, where we get off and follow our directions to the hostel. Pretty simple, and as exhausted as we are, we can't help but notice all the people.

We find our place, and remember, my knee is still killing me, we have to walk up way to many narrow steps to find the reception desk. Then we're told we aren't staying here, but in a tiny place a block or so down. So we walk down the steps, walk a block or two, and then walk up even more steps.

I think I counted over 90 as we walked up the narrow stair case that had walls reminding me of shower tile.

Our place was great, a little apartment with a kitchen, that we'd be sharing with 3 other people (using another room). I couldn't figure it out, but I assume the building itself used to be a dorm of some sort as there was a "biblio..somethig, library" downstairs.

It's now around 6 and we decide to venture for food. Suddenly, Venice is empty. Where did all those people go? We bought some ice cream, ordered a pizza and went back to our place. Apparently, Venice was dead on a Thursday night where we were.

7:30 the next morning and the bells are ringing. I figure this must be some sort of city alarm clock and by 8 AM we are up and exploring the great city of Venice.

The city is now filled with tourists, most in massive groups following a leader holding some sort of object. My favorite were the ones that carried these long fake flowers, but some went as far as to hold umbrellas ( I wonder if they shut them when walking inside?)

The weather had taken a complete turn from the previous, it was rainy and by far the coldest city yet. We walked through the main Square, took a boat to Lido (did anyone know there were actually cars? It looked so strange to see a gas station and cars driving on wide streets!), and then walked through Murano. We went to a glass museum, yet never managed to find some place to watch someone blow anything.

Our day was filled by rain and wind. Not the best way to explore Venice, but still, it was wonderful. My favorite was when we were on the boat going home from Murano and we noticed one of the stops at a huge letters that said "something strange happened here." Now, this wasn't graffiti or anything, this was legit words placed on a brick wall. I think we guessed it was where the University of Venice was, but still, it was hysterical.

We never managed to find any great food because every place seemed to have ridiculously expensive service charges, so we ate a lot of ice cream.

By Saturday morning the sun was out and we were able to enjoy our last day. We stopped at a shop to get some coffee and as I went to the bathroom noticed the back of the store was a casino?!? I was completely shocked, but apparently Corey had noticed it before and thought it was normal for Europe?!

But what was normal was seeing all the men selling fake bags and stuff outside. This is something we will become used to as we move from city to city. I still don't understand why someone would think it is a good idea to sell a fake Gucci bag in front of the Gucci store?

We spent Saturday walking around, opting to use our legs instead of taking one of the boats. We were shocked to find out where we went as we took turns and got lost! But we loved to! And being worried for time we packed our bags and headed to the airport...

We were off to Rome to do as the Romans do...

21 hours later

Rambling note: I know this is long overdue, but it has been a hassle to write.

I wrote down notes along our journey to make sure everything would be written about

and have over 4,000 photographs to edit. I have decided to write about our trip in segments,

talking about each location separately, so my hands don't fall off from typing,

and your eyes don't become blind.

I promise within the week I will have up all the wonderful stories from our trip!

Hopefully the pictures will soon follow, though I still have tons from Israel that are on my edit list.

Though I will spend more time thanking later,

I want to especially thank my parents, grandparents, and aunts for helping Corey and me!

Without them, these wonderful moments, and this amazing vacation,

would not happen.

Europe was simply wonderful and I cannot wait to share it with all of you!

Our flight isn't supposed to take off until 7, but we're bored, it's Saturday and nothing is open. So we head to the airport a little early. Its 2pm and we are starved, we're completely looking forward to getting to the airport, checking in and eating un-healthy airport food. But no, taking EasyJet, one of those cheap airlines, means we're in Terminal 3. So we wait for a shuttle and head on over!

Terminal 3 consists of EasyJet and one other airline company, a quick "sandwhich" bar, and a vending machine. Its now 4 pm and we can't even checked in yet. We have to spend way too much money and on food that tastes like dirt. Around 5pm people start getting in line, so we pick up our bags and even start to wait. At this point, we've made some friends and are in the middle of tiny conversations when we see on a tiny screen above us "Delayed, 12:00."

We have no idea what's going on. It can't mean midnight because they go by Army time here. So midnight = 2400. But, really? Delayed until tomorrow?

Still, no members of EasyJet around. WHAT IS GOING ON!?!

Finally, we get an answer. Yes, our flight is delayed. It hadn't even left London! We were told to get in line and wait some more, before they finally told us what was happening.

But this cuts our time in London. An entire day cut off! So, being annoyed as could be, try my best to call EasyJet and complain.

I talk to some lady for 20 minutes, but since our flight from London to Milan is under a different reference number, the lady says no.

I'm begging her to just ask her supervisor, explaining EVERYTHING. All we want is to extend our trip in London to the next morning, and we'll skip Milan in total. Taking a bus from Milan to Venice, instead of spending the night in Milan exploring.

After crying, crying and crying some more, she asks her supervisor, who within minutes, says Yes. Okay, so we're losing our time in Milan, but now we'll at least be able to see London.

So for some reason that I still have no idea about, our flight was not leaving on time. They were putting us in a bus and shipping us to a hotel, where we were to wait until further notice.

It was a nice hotel to be honest! They even offered us dinner and breakfast, and we were right by the beach in Tel Aviv. So it's 6 pm, an hour before our flight is supposed to leave and Corey and I are eating pizza off Alenby.

What could go worse?

Then Corey screams. His tooth, which he just had a root canal on the previous Tuesday, had fallen out. We think again, this trip can only get better.

We go to bed Saturday night after watching a horrible comedy still having no idea what time our flight is set to leave.

We find out Sunday that our flight isn't set to take off till 3pm. But that isn't before I have zero sleep over anxiety of missing a flight, which has not taken off time yet!

They take us to the airport and we were lucky enough to be surrounded by tons of London locals who helped us plan things to do during our short stay . We're already annoyed by holding our huge backpacks and we begin to wait in the first of many long lines. Two airport security workers are searching the lines for people with Israeli passports to have them cut the line. After they realize there aren't any more Israelis, they come to Corey and me. I explain to them we are Americans, talk to them for a little about what we're doing in Israel, and they let us right through.

We get our tickets, don't even have our bags go through security. I mean, what if we had something? I've said it before, but they 100% need to stop stereotyping. They were way too nice to us!

We're excited! Things are looking up! We got out of that line, got our tickets, and managed to pass though passport control. Then we get on another shuttle and head to the main terminal.

HELLO DUTY FREE! Sadly, it was actually a little expensive, so I just bought something little for Maria, who we'd be staying with in Barcelona.

We don't end up boarding till 4pm. It's around 11pm when we get into London and we finally get "real" food. UnKosher Burker King. Hello!

In London we're planning on staying with a friend of mine. His name is Aron and he moved back to America 3 days earlier, but luckily still had his lease until the end of March. He had given us his roommate's number to reach and directions to his house.

I must have tried calling her 20 times, but we decided, well let's go. It was getting late and we took a train, then took a subway, and then walked.

Still, this girl wasn't answering. One o'clock in the morning and nothing.

Finally we were let in and kept thinking to ourselves, it can only get better! After all, it wasn't that she wasn't picking up her phone, Aron had simply given us the wrong number.

Monday morning we woke up early and ventured to see London! And, as excited as we are to have a fresh start to vacation, I find out my ATM isn't working.

But everything is okay, because I have spotted my first Starbucks since October.

We walk to Tower of London, one of the only attractions in London that we decided to pay to see, and spent all morning. It was wonderful! One of the most cool places we saw all vacation! Absolutely my favorite place!

We got to see old prison rooms, theatre reenactments and jewels, tons of them!

Then, we saw something even better than Starbucks (for Corey): Subway.

We ate a quick, cheap lunch, and walked towards St Pauls Cathedral. I'm more impressed with the flowers and monuments around the area than the building itself, but to be honest, we never actually made it inside!

We decided to save the 20 Euros and head to Leichester Square, something that reminds me a lot of Times Square.

That's where I spot a TGIFridays, (hello! why isn't Israel filled with crappy American food!) but it is under construction! So we wander into a mall where we find the most amazing fun zone ever! It's an Asian filled, four story building. People are just standing there, like robots, wasting money into these stupid games. This becomes our favorite place to people watch, and we visit it almost daily.

The escalators are the longest we've ever seen! They won't let Corey in wearing his hood on from his sweatshirt, they tried to be an intense casino. It was amazing. Everyone should go there.

This is when we decided London was filled with tourists, so we decided to be extremely tourist-y and see a play! We decided on 39 Steps, a British play, based off of Hitchcock's thriller, that we'd never be able to see in the States. A four-person play that was absolutely amazing. It mocked the fact there were only four actors, and made a joke every time they'd switch to a different character.

Being in London as our first stop was great because they all spoke English. So it was easy to figure out our way home. But once we got home we walked into a new room. All of our things were gone. It turns out the landlord had realized Aron left early, and rented his place.

We found all of our bags downstairs and lucky for us, one of the roommates was leaving the very next morning. We slept on her floor that night and had her room for the next two days. Since we had no idea this would happen, some of our things were randomly around the house. I had to search to find all of our things, and it wasn't until the last day that I found my skirt in a corner of one room rolled with dust.

We go to bed that night and we're so tired it doesn't matter that we're sleeping on the floor. The only thing that is of annoyance is my knee. I somehow had messed it up walking up and down all those winding, narrow steps in the Tower of London.

Tuesday was great! We walked towards Big Ben, Parliament, and all those amazing sights! Then ventured to Buckingham Palace for a "picnic." It's still pretty chilly, and lucky the sun was out, so we sat on a bench and ate bread.

Buckingham Palace, like most tourist places, was overly crowded. By the time we got through the park to the actual Queen's house we coudn't see through the gate. Everyone was looking to see the changing of the guards, but we figured we'd look it up on YouTube at a later date.

It's around 1 and we're exhausted. It is only the beginning of these early morning, long days. We venture into National Portrait Museum as it begins to rain, but we can't even keep our eyes open. We end up going into a of couple rooms, using their couches for a rest, and staring at a few pictures.

Knowing we can't end our day we decide we need coffee and a new plan! So we decide on the nature and science museum. And stupidly, decide to walk there. What feels like 3 hours later, we make it! The museum had a cool exhibit on medicine, and a great interactive room! But after an hour or so of being a kid, we're back to exhaustion.

So we decide we'll grab some dinner and call it a day. We venture back to Leichester Square and I decide to ask some of the men in suits outside of the TGIF if there is another.

Yes, I take Corey to his first ever TGIFriday experience. And as our eyes can't stay open any longer, we take a bus home and fall deep into sleep.

We wake up Wednesday knowing it is our last day. I had been spending the last couple of days trying to get in touch with an old friend, Sam, that I know from vacationing with the family in Sanibel, but it hadn't been so easy without a phone. We decide to take a walk by the river towards the Tate Modern, one of the last things we had wanted to see.

We had a breakfast picnic by the London Eye and then found the most amazing graffiti park. A bunch of skateboarders were around, and I fell in love. I think we spent over an hour here as I took thousands of pictures. There were all these boys skating and biking and doing all these tricks, and then the most cutest thing happened. A two-year old Asian boy went right to the middle and screamed for his mom to bring down his scooter.

This kid was so cute, he slid down the ramps like they were slides and caused a couple of accidents on his scoot

er. But, it was the best sight ever. While we were there a graffiti removal truck drove by and stopped to look. As soon as they got out of their car every skater stared. It was a hysterical thing to witness.

I could tell Corey was bored so we walked by the Globe Theatre and into Tate Modern. Of course, with our luck, more than half the exhibits were closed due to some strike. We only got to go into one room, but it was still great to see such wonderful art. I tried to explain to Corey how most of the art here ( as we stood by Jackson Pollack's work) looked like the art we have in our living room as my uncle and grandfather love to paint.

We finally reach Sam and meet up with him at this lounge for some drinks. Knowing we'll be up all night for our flight the next morning, I order my 5th coffee of the day (seriously, I didn't realize how much I missed real coffee). We take some seats outside and just as I go to sit, my drink spills everywhere. All over my jeans, and yes, we tried to pack light and these were my only pair.

We stay for a while and it's great to catch up. Around dinner we head back to to the apartment and pack things up. We have no idea how long it will take to get to the airport, so I set the alarm for 2 am.

We take a bus, after walking to the subway and realizing they weren't open, to a station, and it looks closed as could be. We walk around and finally see the trains, and a lady with some luggage.

We sit down and figure this looks right, though we can't seem to find one person to buy a ticket from?! Around 20 minutes later we hear a loudspeaker informing us train 8 will leave in 10 minute to the airport. WHERE IS TRAIN 8?

I run around while Corey slowly walks with our luggage, and find it. Yet, can't find Corey. Finally I hear his voice and get him to where I am and we get on the train just before it leaves. But we still have no ticket? And as its 3 in the morning, it doesn't seem like anyone is there to check?

We end up making it to the airport and checking in without having to buy our pass. This is our one luck place, as the rest of the time we find ourselves buying tickets for things that were never even checked (ah the money that was wasted)

It's now 4 am and we are praying this flight isn't as delayed as the last. But we're so tired, who really cares at this point.

As blurry as things could be as Corey is basically dragging me around the airport, we find a quick store to buy some snacks (Hello 1 Pound Tuna Sandwhich!) and start thinking about our time in London.

They use pounds and not the euro.

Its rain everyday but you don't really get wet.

My knee has completely broke.

Double-decker buses are actually pretty scarey.

And it's a 2.5 hour flight to Milan....

should have picked 4.

I can't believe it's been five months. Not just since I packed my bags and headed to Israel, but since Nir sat in our house, with the whole group present, and asked us what we wanted to do.

We had two options: Visit two museums and have Oranim pay for our transportation, or visit four and find our own way.

I was the only one who picked the 2nd option, and now that we are done, I was right..

Our first excursion was back in December. Nir had told us about this great museum in Tel Aviv called the Palmach museum, and it sounded great. It wasn't till I got there that I realized I had been there before.

But regardless, it was a great museum. Nir met us at our house and we got in a Sheruit, and Ron and I rode in Nirs car. (reason #1: my ride was free anyway).

The Palmach museum is very cool. It tells the story of soldiers before the start of the IDF in a story. You walk through different rooms as you watch a story about soldiers, from the beginning to the end. You are introduced to a unit and all its members and then as you walk hear different parts of their lives.

I loved it. I'm pretty sure I'd recommend that to anyone heading to Israel. But it was after that became annoying.

Since we were already in Tel Aviv, Nir had planned us to meet one of Oranims tour guide, Yariv, and learn a little bit about Tel Avivs history.

Now it was around 4pm when we exited the museum. Yariv was supposed to meet us and drive over 5, while Nir took the rest. But Yaris was stuck in traffic and this wasn't going to happen. So Nir took half of us, saying he'd be back for the rest.

But around 45 minutes later, as Ron, Erica, Taylor, Jackie and I waiting outside, sitting on the ground, Nir called. He told us traffic was to bad and to find a taxi. He said he'd pay for it when we got there.

At this point, none of us even wanted this Tel Aviv tour. So annoyed and tired we attempted to find a taxi. Around 30 minutes later we finally found our first Taxi. Ron, Erica and Taylor got in.

Jackie and I then sat and pretended to look for another taxi, which wasn't to bad because none actually came. Around 6 a taxi finally came and we got on in! We figured by the time we all met up, it'd be to late for our tour.

Well, things got even better. As we drove along the streets of Tel Aviv all of a sudden, our taxi stalled. It was a manual, and something went wrong, and we literally rolled down the street. He finally pulled over and stopped, after he realized rolling down the street is not a safe way to drive, and just dropped us of.

We had no idea where we were. We were in the middle of Tel Aviv, and our taxi rolled away. Lucky for us there was a cute furniture store right there. One of those that sells ridiculous things that no-one really needs, but who can resist a chair hanging from the ceiling? So Jackie and I went in and played.

Finally we called Nir and he told us to walk!?! Apparently we were on the street and were to find another taxi, but walk as we did.. 60 blocks later and we saw Nir waiting for us.

It turns out Ron, Taylor and Ericas taxi had got lost, and they were also just arriving. Its not around 8pm.

So, our Tel Aviv tour got cut short, really short! We basically walked a block to Ben Gurians house, and heard a little blurb. Then Yariv took us to "the best ice cream in Tel Aviv." And we went home. End of museum story.

Until yesterday, when Museum number 2 happened. I'm not sure who picked it, but we ended up going to the Israel Museum.

We woke up at 8, met Nir at 8:30, and spent an hour and a half in horrible traffic as we became car sick. Most of the time there were 3 lanes, but one seemed to only be used by buses and taxis. I could not figure out why our taxi driver wasn't taking this obvious much shorter route. It was like he would rather see us vomit?

Regardless we finally arrive and meet our tour guide. A cute little "grandma" from Minnesota, who had made Alliyah years ago. At first we saw this replica of the old city. It was pretty cool, but we sat there for an hour hearing stories, and then continued to walk around it and hear more stories. An hour and a half later and we're wondering when we get to go into the actual museum.

That's when we found out the museum itself was closed. It has been for the past 3 years and is planning to open in July.

REALY? How come no one figured that out? So after 2 hours being lectured and dozing off, we got to see a room filled with the dead sea scrolls.

Pretty cool? Except the fact it was literally just a photograph of them, because apparently the original were off being preserved.

That's it. We then left. No museum to see.

There are tons of other museums here in Israel that I plan to visit before I leave, but it's going to be a journey. After all, the other ones seemed to be! If anyone has a good recommendation, that'd be wonderful!

glad i've never done that before

I've always been a strong believer of laughing gas over the anesthetic shot at the dentist. I don't know why, but the idea of a GIANT shot being used to get rid of pain sounded ridiculous to me. Every time I've been to the dentist and it gets to the time where they try to point this massive needle in my mouth, I've always cried like a baby and asked for something much more easier.

Well, I am glad I have always cried like that baby and asked because today I had the worst dentist experience of my life.

About a week ago I was munching on a gummy candy. Sort of similar to peach rings back in the States, when I felt something extremely not gummy in my mouth. At first I panicked and assumed that I had just ate a bug or something. But no, I realized it was a piece of my tooth.

Yes, eating a gummy candy cause a filling in my lower tooth to come out. Thanks Israel.

So today I woke up, after a lot of refusal, and went to the dentist to get it fixed. First, the lady cleaning my teeth actually broke a part of my tooth off. Then my mouth bled more than I've ever seen. These people were crazy.

After I went to the next room to get this cavity cleaned. Now, since I've never had the shot I've just heard that usually they put some Novocain on your mouth before they do the shot. Regardless, after finding out there was no laughing gas, I had to rid my fear and understand I was going to have to get that shot.

I honestly felt that I was getting tortured. First, no Novocain was put before this shot. Second, the shot lasted for 15 seconds ( I counted as I tears ran down my face). And third, it was the worst experience of my life.

After waiting ten minutes, All I felt was puffyness and that my face was ten times big, he started to poke. But no, after all this needle business, it still hurt!!!

He finally just said he was going to start and to raise my hand if it killed. Well, basically I could have raised my hand the entire 30 minutes, but I didn't just to get out of there quicker.

I don't know why I got the shot, it did nothing. All that happened was my lip looked fat for two hours, but that was it.

I came home to find my roommate saying how proud she was off me for going to the dentist, followed by the words "Why the hell would you ever go to a dentist in Ramla?"

I'm not sure, but I'm never going again. Ever. And back in America, every time I go to the dentist I will cry like a baby until I get laughing gas.

do all children look this cute?

In Israel, instead of dressing up on Halloween, they have a holiday called Purim. Where the days leading up to the holiday, kids dress up, have carnivals, and eat hamentashen, which in Hebrew is actually called something else.

This past week I was lucky enough to be working at one of my kindergartens during one of the days leading up to Purim. Since I think my children are the cutest things ever, I took out my camera and shot way to many pictures, including videos.

Here are some videos of my dancing kids! (Apparently, it only allows me to add one!)

little kiddies

Some of the kiddies at the kindergarten.