Hey everybody! We had gorgeous weather in Geneva this past weekend so I took a break from  my work for a couple hours yesterday to run around the city like a tourist and take pictures! There were lots of real tourists doing the same thing so I wasn't alone lol. Here are my favorites:

 Statue in Plainpalais

 My street!

 The Theatre

 Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross

 Jean-Jacques Rousseau

 Ignore the cars, focus on the pretty lake/mountains

 Kent State

 Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)

 Lake again

 Plainpalais Market

 Smith Center

 Boulevard Georges-Favon

 On the river

 Plainpalais

 Uni Mail (where my classes are)

 Rive Arve

 Uni Bastions

 the Conservatory

 Reformers Wall

In the Uni Bastions park

While L was visiting me, I took her and another girl visiting someone else, S, to see the United Nations. After some confusion getting in, I took them to the major conference room and the General Assembly room, and we walked through the major hallway full of marble and an art exhibit which also has lots of windows. In fact, we saw a peacock outside (and heard it, doing its mating call) because when the land was donated to the then League of Nations, it was done under the condition that there be peacocks on the grounds. Then we took pictures outside, because I haven't been really touristy there yet:

 The view from the front of the UN- over the Lac Leman (Lake Geneva)

 The well-known entrance with a flag for every member state

Memorial to all land-mine victims.

I don't remember showing you guys what I see at the UN every time I go, so here it is! No pics inside because I'm not sure its allowed, but its really nice there too. For those who come visit, I'll take you :)

So this post will be about Vienna and then I'll be all caught up!

L came to visit me from her study abroad location and spent 5 days with me before we headed off to Vienna for M's 21st birthday! We figured she needed some American friends around to celebrate with because 21 isn't quite as big a deal over here. L and I took a night train from Geneva to Vienna (I slept horribly, AND they took my coffee in the morning before I had a chance to drink it) so upon arriving at M's apartment I crashed and took a nap while she had class.

Then M showed us around Vienna- we saw the food market, where we grabbed lunch, then St. Stephen's church:

Afterwards we wandered around the Old City for a bit. I saw the major shopping streets, the Museum Quarter, and the Hofburg Residence:

I'm sorry all these pictures are a little cut off, its quite hard to fit everything in one frame. Anyway the Hofburg was gorgeous! Then we had cake at the Cafe Ritter (yummy!) before heading out to dinner for schnitzel! I had never had it before but its basically a giant veal/chicken finger, depending on what type of meat you get. Also, they had potato salad that was balsamic dressing-based rather than mayonnaise. I drank some beer, too, but its 60% lemonade:

The next day, which was M's birthday, we had gorgeous weather. We headed over to Schonbrunn, the palace of the Hapsburgs:

Needless to say, it was quite impressive:

We had to take a quick break for lunch, so we met one of M's friends for Turkish food! I had borek (dough and feta cheese) and chai tea:

Then we headed back to Schonbrunn for a tour inside, but there were no pictures allowed so I can't show you the absolute splendor these people lived in! I think I said at least five times "I'm just going to move in here. No one will notice, right?"

After some champagne and Mozart balls (chocolate and marzipan) to celebrate M's birthday, we headed out to dinner. It was described as very "posh," aka lots of loud music, fancy food, small menu, etc. It was very good, though, and I liked what I got. L and I switched plates halfway through.

The next morning wasn't very exciting- we hung out, then had schnitzel leftovers for lunch (they give you HUGE portions). My train left at 1:14, and L's plane was at 3 something so I went back to the train station myself, since we'd been there before, and M helped L get to the airport. I had a 12 hour train ride back to Geneva, all of which I was sitting backwards for. The Austrian countryside isn't quite as pretty as Switzerland's, but I'll give it a close second ;). I arrived back in Geneva at 1am, so obviously I crashed as soon as stepping through the door. It was a great weekend, though, and I'm so glad I went!

I feel like I have so much to tell you all now! The big news for today is that I got some funding from the Fox Boorstein Fund towards staying for the summer. It's not much, but it would definitely pay my food and transportation. Cross your fingers for the rest of the things I applied for!

On to Florence- I arrived on Tuesday, April 10th after leaving Bologna (see my previous post). The hostel wasn't hard to find and it was pretty nice, but you have to pay for some really stupid things like breakfast (usually included) and computer usage. After getting settled I walked up the street to this park I had seen when first arriving and wandered around that for a bit:

Then I saw the Fortrezza da Basso, which is right on the edge of the park:

By that point it was getting dark and as I was traveling by myself, I decided to head back to the hostel and get some sleep. The next morning I went to the Lorenzo Market, which is full of leather goods, on my way to the Cathedrale di Santa Maria de Fiore:

It is HUGE and gorgeous and makes you think that maybe the Catholic Church should reevaluate how its spending its money (less statues, more charity?). Nearby was the Palazzo Vecchio, where I got stuck in the rain and ran into this building to escape it. A bride and groom ran in too!

Next I went into the Galleria degli Uffizi, the major museum of the city. I discovered at the end that pictures weren't allowed (would it kill them to post a sign?!) so I won't post the pictures here, just in case.... Afterwards I saw the Biblioteca Nationale but it isn't open for individual visits. There was another rain shower then I headed over to the Basilica di Santa Croce and then back to the Cathedrale di Santa Maria de Fiore before the Galleria dell'Academia, where I saw the David statue. It is sooo tall and absolutely amazing. You turn the corner into the hall and suddenly there it is, under this giant dome, and you just stop and go "Woa." Well, at least that's what I did. Again, no pictures allowed so I can't share the splendor with you, unfortunately.

Finally I went back to the Lorenzo Market where I bought a belt and leather gloves to match my jacket. The next morning I took a bus to the Bobboli Gardens only to find out that they cost money and I wasn't going to pay 10 euros to only be in there for an hour, because that's all the time I had. So I went to the Pitti Palace:

Then the Vecchio bridge, where NO ONE knows how to walk properly. People just stop in the middle of the street, huge groups try to take pictures and block everything, gaah! What a mess. Anyway I ran into another market on my way back to the Duomo and then had lunch at Coquinarius, this cute restaurant REii recommended, and had AMAZING ravolini stuffed with pears and cheese. Then I grabbed coffee at Caffe Deluxxe, another recommendation, before heading over to REii's old apartment because it was close by.

Finally I boarded a train and left! I think the train ride took 6 hours or so back to Geneva.

Hey all! I went to Bologna and Florence over Easter Break, but for now I'm just going to tell you about Bologna.

I left Sunday April 8th on the train- it took about 8 hours with a stop in Milano Centrale. I got there about 1:30 in the afternoon and found my hotel, which was super nice, and then took a nap because it was raining and I had had to get up early to catch the train. When it stopped raining, I wandered around a bit: I saw the Piazza Maggiore:

 and the church there, then the Due Tori, and finally the Chiesa di S. Maria dei Servi, which I ducked into and accidentally attended Easter mass because I was cold and it was spitting outside again.

A called me and came to meet me at the Piazza Maggiore so I could come to her house for dinner! I  met her housemates and we had ragu, which was very very yummy, and I stayed quite late. Monday morning I slept in and then registered for Smith classes for the fall (thankfully the hotel had a public computer!). Then I headed over to A's again while she registered for classes. She was nice enough to show me around afterwards, so we saw a church on Dell-Indipendenza, and the Towers of Bologna again:

 and then St. Stefano, one of the oldest churches in Bologna (if not the oldest, I don't remember). We ate some gelato afterwards and it was so good! They eat it with a spoon, though, even if its in a cone. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a cone???

I went back to A's for dinner again that night and I helped make stir fry (seeing as how I make it so often at my place that I'm really good at it now). She brought me home late, then met me the next day at the hotel.

Before she met me Tuesday I wandered around and saw a giant book stand:

 and a big park. After lunch at A's we climbed one of the towers and saw the amazing view of Bologna! Here are some of my favorite pics:

Afterwards, A brought me to the train station so I could catch my train to Florence/Firenze, which I'll tell you all about later!

I'm sorry my blog posts have been less and less frequent, I just feel like there isn't much to report except when I travel or have some kind of major life event.

Anyway, I went to Bern, the capital of Switzerland, last Saturday with the whole Smith group (which means Smith paid for it, yay!). We left at 9:45 am and arrived in Bern at 11:30. I went exploring with G, and we saw the market, the Bear Park-

the Cathedral-

 

the Rose Garden-

and the amazing view from the Garden of the city:

Then we met up at a cafe with the rest of the group and took a tour of the Federal building:

We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was really gorgeous. The tour was in French, so I spent most of it translating for G and C, though they understood a lot of it on their own (they're learning so fast!).

There were great views from right behind the building:

Then we hopped on a train and came home! Bern was so so gorgeous, it made me want to pull my camera out every two seconds to take a picture of something that caught my eye. Also, it was odd to still be in Switzerland but hear German around me, because I'm obviously quite used to French. The people there are so completely different from the Genevans, too.

Now I'm on Spring Break and I have yet to figure out what I'm going to do! Probably a lot of day trips. I'll keep you updated!