Venice... smelly canals and a precious cottage

Although Venice had smelly canals, it really was a beautiful and quiet city (from the lack of cars). Our group relaxexd the first day and didn't hit up any tourist places, but the second day we ran around like crazy and Ally got blisters on the bottom of her foot. Our cottage was very cute with three bedrooms and it was very cosy and out in the middle of nowhere (next to a corn field, almost remindes me of home!).

Rome was also a great city, if hard to appreciate at first. We stayed right next to the busy train station in an area where tourists are told not to go out at night, so that was a little unsettling. However, when we explored the neighborhoods away from our area Rome was gorgeous and full of adorable nooks and crannies. I can't wait to visit Ally when she lives there because now that I've got all the tourist stuff out of me we can go to the less well known areas and also relax and eat in the romantic restaurants in the side streets of Rome. I always pictued Rome as a romantic city, but you have to get away from the train station to see it!

Due to some errors in reserving hostels our group forgot to reserve the nights of the 6th and the 9th. Therefore we're staying an extra day in Berlin and staying tonight in Milan. We're not going to leave our little neighborhood though because we're all pretty tired and we're just going to relax and go on the internet! Yes, we did go to McDonalds for dinner tonight, but it's the first time we ate American food and I only had four euros to spend (which I hit exactly with a kids meal). I'm trying to spend only 20 euros a day, but food is a killer! I'm doing well though and I'm keeping close track of all my finances, my parents, grandparents, and Justin should be proud of me! By the way Justin, how's your ankle? (for those of you who don't know, he fell off his motorcycle in the rain and broke it, didn't hurt the bike though).

I'm pretty excited to go to Prague because I've never been to Eastern Europe and I really hope I have a good time. The language is going to be pretty tricky though, wish us luck!

I'm writing in a journal and writing down funny quotes and little stories about our trip which I think is good. I'll tell you one every post to keep things interesting. A couple days ago we had to RUN to the train or else wait an hour for another one and Bethany, Stephen, Ally, and I held open the train doors for literally five minutes for the others to run on. It was pretty close and I'm sure the conductor was extremely mad... he was waving at us and yelling in Italian...