Italia.

Florence

After an epic 13 and a half hour coach journey from Montpellier (the pillow I had stolen from my foyer in France saved me), I arrived in Parma for a taste of la dolce vita. Impressive!

Of course, the main reason of my visit was to catch up with Sazzle, fellow 'Love-Manorette' a.k.a university housemate. It had been a long time since we had seen each other, so spending time with her was a priority. After a much needed shower (13 hours on a Eurolines coach doesn't bring out the best in me), and some scrambled eggs I was ready to hit Parma hard.

We ended up going to an Erasmus picnic put on by some of the Spanish students living in the city. They'd made sangria and tiramisu (always a winner as far as I'm concerned)- almost as if they knew I was coming really! After trying my best to understand Italian/ eat as much tiramisu as possible, we headed home.

Early on in my visit to Parma I discovered Italians know how to do apératifs, or aperativo. We went out to 'Acquolina Leoni', ordered a cheeky prosecco and helped ourselves to the FREE BUFFET. Pizza, ciabatta, crisps, those Italians knew how to woo me.

My second day in Parma was spent seeing the sights, sounds and smells of the city, namely Il Duomo (church) and H+M (standard). Also learned how to play backgammon in Palazzo, i.e. outdoor public space where you can drink sans harassment! Win! Went for a romantic meal in Trattoria Corrieri, a traditonal trattoria (like a restaurant but less posh and a lot cheaper). Of course this meal was accompanied by a bottle of local Lambrusco red wine and tiramisu. Italy was quickly becoming my favourite country...

Tiramisu, cheers Italy.

As Sazzle had the day off *cough* skived her lectures *cough*, we took a cheeky day trip to Florence! I'd been wanting to visit for years, beautiful city! Especially if you're an art lover (not that I am....). After a quick coffee and croissant pit-stop in Bologna (another city to tick off the list), we arrived in Florence! It's actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be- lots of small streets, cute cafés, bridges with jewellery shops and squares. We wandered around the streets of Florence for a good few hours, admiring the impressive Duomo. Had a meal at a cute little restaurant (crept around for a good 15 minutes trying to snag the first outdoor table that became available) and then climbed up the Piazzale Michelangelo for fantastic panoramic views of the city. The ice cream made it all the more sweet...

Reunited with my love! No bridges in sight!

Sooooo, Florence is beautiful, yes. However the sheer number of tourists can get slightly annoying at times, especially whilst trying to cross the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). You can find quieter quartiers of Florence if you amble the streets, which incidentally is the best thing to do in my opinion. Florence is clearly still one of the places to visit in Italy, just be prepared for a shit-load of whiny American/British tourists.

Florence, Il Duomo.

My trip to Parma had been a great one and marked the end of my epic European travels (for a while, anyway). From Parma I was going HOME. Unfortunately...

HOWEVER

...the end of my journey was quite exciting/stressful/annoying/delete as appropriate. I was supposed to be catching a train from Parma to Milan, then catching a bus from Milan Central station which would take me to Bergamo airport, about an hour away. Was supposed to arrive at Bergamo airport at around 1pm, a whole twenty minutes before check-in opened. Anywaaaay, the Italian SNCF equivalent bodged up the platforms at Parma and blissfully unaware, I found myself on a train heading to Turin. Only realised 70 minutes into the journey when the (surprisingly helpful) ticket inspector came round to check tickets. To cut a long story short, I had to change trains in a dead-end station with a load of confused Italians including a minor Italian celebrity chef with whom I conversed in French. He kept going on about Gordon Ramsay and told me how to make the perfect tiramisu/lasagne. You really can't make this stuff up! I finally arrived at Bergamo airport with 15 minutes to go before check in closed. I was one lucky badger.

I'm taking it as a sign- 'Europe' clearly did not want me to leave.

Luxembourg and sunshine!

Luxembourg, cute as!

After a long absence, the blogging business is back in full swing. Felt another one was necessary after the really nice weekend I've just had. Sorry if I sound smug....

Perhaps the main reason for my good mood is the weather. Living in a notoriously rainy city, any sunny day that comes your way is worshipped to an almost ridiculous level. Today (Sunday) was a blinder of a day, so Jackie and I headed to the other end of town for a walk along the canal. Beautiful! So many people were out on their bikes/running, felt very French all of a sudden. Apart from a hilarious incident where we ended up running away from hissing swans it was a relaxing Sunday morning stroll. We finished in Place Stan with a cup of coffee from a bar right opposite the town hall and indulged in some people watching- a great way to spend time if ever I needed another excuse to procrastinate. Amazingly we had our coffee outside, sans coat! Was so warm and a rare treat to soak in the sun in the industrial heart of France. Job done.

The weekend got off to a good start on Friday evening when Jackie, Michelle and I were invited to dinner with an English class. An English tutor (and Anglophile to a downright weird extent) organised a soirée featuring a ''traditional'' English meal (more on that later) and English conversation. As we had been invited, our three meals were free which was pretty convenient. The ''English'' meal consisted of coleslaw (never have I eaten coleslaw as an entrée), strips of rozbif (or roast beef) and gravy accompanied by a hash brown and salad. Yes. SALAD. A true Brit knows that roast beef would NEVER be accompanied by salad, and hash browns are for breakfast! Dessert was cheesecake (nice, but American...) so although it wasn't a particularly English meal it was nice all the same to have a free meal in exchange for speaking some English. The English learners were mainly middle aged/ retired but were lovely and very interested in what I had to say. After the meal I moved onto another table and everyone was looking at me like I was a famous person/ alien (take your pick) asking countless questions from 'What is the weather like in England?' to 'What do you think of Sarkozy?'- the perennial question really. When posed this question, I tend to just mumble something along the lines of 'He was alright before he came to power but now he's just a short idiot' which seems to do the trick...

Anyway, I met an English lady who's been living in Belgium/France for the last 50 years so it was interesting to talk to her (she's been in France so long that even her grandchildren can't speak English). She lives in a village about half an hour away from Nancy and invited me to her house for lunch one day which was nice of her. She even took the time to draw me a map of how to get chez elle- including which bus stop to get off at. Will definitely take up her offer, think it would be nice to hear all her tales of France (I'm sure of which there are many). In addition to this I've also been invited to a French woman's house for some proper Champagne (she comes from the Champagne region and was horrified to hear that I'm yet to drink any of the stuff since my arrival in Nancy (True dat). La vie est belle!

Went to Luxembourg yesterday (Saturday) for the day with 3 other assistants which was great! It's the sort of place you'd never think of going for a weekend but it's actually a really nice city/country. Had a bit of bother with the trains- our train on the way there was late and took 2 hours instead of 90 mins and our train on the way home was cancelled! Had to change and wait 50 mins in Metz but at least we weren't stranded. Upon arrival in Luxembourg we headed to the nearest eating place as we were all starving after our long train journey. Went to a Chinese buffet which was a bit crap if I'm honest- not much choice and the food wasn't very hot (avoided the chicken). Norah, an Irish assistant exclaimed ''I never wanted a fekkin' Chinese anyway!'' upon our exit. Don't mess with the Irish....

Still, the dodgy Chinese didn't ruin our day in Luxembourg. Did a walking tour of the city which is built on two hills. Ended up walking down below in the valley which was pretty and wandered round the old fortifications just as the sun was setting. Got some nice pictures (hilarious ones involving coloured vases and our reflections). I'd definitely recommend Luxembourg for a day trip- there's not loads to do (a few galleries, a history museum but that's about it) but it's nice for an amble.

After my four day weekend, it's back to work tomorrow. Probably should start doing something more useful with my time. A la prochaine fois!