Lavender Kay

Here is a list of my favorites:

1. Campo de Fiori – fresh fruit from the market and people watching by the huge fountain.

2. Pizza Biaca – Warm bread with salt and olive oil

3. Sally Bogus

4. Ancient Rome – the Coliseum was incredible

5. Italian coffee

6. Getting soaked in a rain storm

7.The art in Vatican City was breaktaking.  It covered the walls and ceiling of each room.

8. Making dinner in Sally’s Roman apartment.

9. Eating Gelato on the stairs by the Pantheon.

10. Breakfast at our hostel while talking to travellers from all over the world.  Some people are so brave.  I met a girl who is only 18 and she is teaching English in Italy for two months and then travelling by herself for one month.

We had beautiful weather while we were in Rome.  I am amazed by this city and its historical culture.  Sally told us the legend of the founders of Rome – The legend says that there were twins, Romulus and Remus (around 700 BC), who were raised by a she wolf.  They discovered Rome together but had a dispute on where to build the city.  The dispute ended in Romulus killing Remus.  The symbol for the twins are all over the city.

After 18 hours of traveling Shelby and I made it to Rome.  Sally Bogus picked us up at the airport and we took a cab to our hostel.  There we quickly checked in and then walked to her apartment for a dinner party.  Shelby and I were expecting it to be just a few people but it was actually her whole program and professor.  The food was wonderful and we had a great time.

After being awake for about 30 hours we finally came back and went to sleep. Our hostel is charming and we share a room with a few other girls as well. Now it is 7am here and I just can’t seem to sleep anymore.  Soon we are meeting up with Sally for coffee and a morning walk in Rome!

My dad told me that I would only get his blessing in going to Europe for two months if I promised to start a blog for my trip.  So here it is.  Enjoy.

I had originally planned to go to Europe for one month and then when I was buying my plane ticket I decided to extend it to five weeks.  Then two months before my trip I became unemployed and decided to extend the trip to nine weeks!  We also added another traveling partner to our trip so now there will be three of us backpacking through Europe!  My roommate and I just spent the better part of the day making our revised itinerary and contacting people for where we will stay while we are in Europe.  I had no idea that planning a trip like this was such an undertaking.

To backtrack a little, I will tell you how this whole trip got started.  I went through a pretty awful breakup about a year ago.  The experience was devastating but it made me realize I had lost a part of myself during our relationship and I desperately needed to figure out how to get it back.  Within a week of our breakup my friend Shelby contacted me out of the blue to see if I wanted to hang out.  We didn’t actually know eachother very well – we worked together over two years ago for two weeks and that was about the extent of it.  We met up for coffee and ended up talking for hours.  During out conversation Shelby said to me, “I know I don’t know you very well but would you want to go to Europe with me?”  At this same time I had adapted the YES mentality and my answer to her was, “Of course!”  Well, I am not completely that irrational and after saying that I decided to take a couple weeks to think it over but was pretty sure I knew what my answer was.  My life was quite crazy at the time but God was gracious.  We also ended up becoming roommates and I am so lucky to have Shelby as my friend.  Now months later we are planning our two month journey through Europe and am very excited to see what adventures are in store for us.