Day 7 - Milan - Zurich - Prague

November 15, 2014

We had to catch our overnight train to Prague around noon. Danielle got up early to shop while Shan & I took advantage of sleeping in! We packed and figured out which train we needed...just in the nick of time!  I was still exhausted so I slept most of the way to Zurich while D&S ooh'd and ahhh'd about the pretty Swiss countryside. They'd wake me up once in awhile to see a waterfall or a sheep so I got the gist. ;-)

We had about 3 hours in the train station in Zurich. Danielle had read that the best place to get beer was actually in the station! Woot! We had our suitcases with us so we had to maneuver around. They were setting up the place for Christmas. We found the brewery easily and settled in for a flight and food! The manager got a kick out of us and even presented us with the best tasting beer ice cream ever! We snuck out during dinner to leave the train station (it was so cold!!) to say we were actually in Switzerland. 

In Zurich

 

After the brewery we loaded up on snacks and beer for the long ride and tried to unsuccessfully get wifi and a Heineken. 

The train car was nice and cozy!! The beds were down when we boarded so we asked our steward Michael to put them back up. I think everyone else in the train car already went to sleep (it was like 8pm). We popped the beer bottle and watched a few episodes of Sex in the City on my ipad. After we had a rousing game of I Never. We were feeling pretty tipsy by then (and squished) so Danielle decided to do some yoga in the hallway while Shannon climbed the walls. We went to bed - and slept horribly - after that.

 That morning we got up around 8 and had a small breakfast that was provided. We got off the train around 9:30 in Prague! (to be continued...)

Day 6 - Venice, Italy

November 14, 2014
Up early again to catch the same train as the day before…only this time to Venice! I was in Venice when i was 14 but I barely remember leaving the room so I have no memories of it. It took a couple hours to get there but we weren’t super delayed. We grabbed the public water bus to take us past St Marks which gave us an awesome view of the whole city via the water! We were starving so we found a cute pizzeria on a canal and ate there. After we walked to St Marks square and viewed all the sites. We slowly walked our way throughout the small streets of Venice, getting lost sometimes in the process. We stopped for a famous Harry’s Bar bellini ($16.50 euro each - yikes!) At least it was tasty. We did some shopping and wandered more. Danielle gave us a guided tour on her Kindle. We went to hotel where George Clooney recently got married (Aman hotel) but couldn’t get to the front door without a boat so we settled for a beer near it.

We wasted more time getting lost down random canals and reminding each other we weren't actually at Disneyland. Our train left late out of Venice so we fell asleep on the ride home and fell asleep right away at the hotel!

Day 5 - Verona, Italy

November 13, 2014
We were up bright and early for our train to Verona! We left the hotel around 7am and made it to Verona late because of flooding and train delays.

We had a cooking class scheduled and paid for that we missed because of the delay! So sad. We finally got the news it couldn’t be rescheduled so we went for a nice lunch instead. Wine, beer and risotto! Danielle had an entire walking tour set for us that included the Verona Arena (so cool), the river, a few piazzas and to Enotecca Oreste - it used to be a private chapel for the old archbishop. We stopped there for a glass of wine. We ended at Juliet’s balcony which would have been way cooler if it wasn’t created as a tourist trap. We rubbed her boob for good luck though!

Verona Arena

Juliet's balcony

 We had a couple more stops on the tour of Danielle including the bridge and river and an old church. We decided we were done early and switched our tickets to get back to the hotel.

 We got changed and Uber'd over to a beer bar (Lambiczoon) my friend had told me about. We sat down for dinner and I ordered a Cantillon on draft (Jason was way jealous)

We met the owner and he was so nice to us! He sent us an appetizer and dessert. We drank quite a bit of beer and ate some amazing burgers before heading back to the hotel to crash.

Day 4 - Milan, Italy

Oops just realized I posted the last two blogs backwards! Sorry about that! I shouldn't be allowed to use technology during jet lag. ;-)

November 12, 2014
We arrived to Milan around 9am - I didn’t sleep one bit on the plane unfortunately. We were able to check in early and I napped for a few hours while the girls walked around the area of our hotel in the pouring rain. We had a tour scheduled at 2:30pm. The one thing we really wanted to see what DaVinci’s The Last Supper. The tickets sell out weeks, even months in advance so booking a tour of Milan was our only way of making it happen. We visited the Opera House, the Duomo, a beautiful castle, the famous bull mosaic where you spin on its testicles 3 times and finally The Last Supper. It was 100% worth it. They have it completely temperature controlled, you have to go in to one room, let the door shut behind you before you advance to the next room. You are allowed only 15 minutes in the room with the painting. It was so surreal seeing it on the wall. Most art I’ve seen is mobile, just a painting. This was the first very famous fresco I’ve seen. Quite a moving experience, even with my lack of religious beliefs. Our guide had a pretty thick accent but spoke good english. She way overused the word elegance, but pronounced it “helegance”. We decided to make a drinking game out of it (even though we didn’t actually have drinks) and then were grateful we didn’t because we would have died from alcohol poisoning! It rained most of the day, so our umbrellas and boots got a lot of use! 

After they dropped us off near our hotel and we walked around an window-shopped in our favorite stores! Of course we had to stop at every jewelry store and pick out our favorite bling. The Italians eat way late but we were starving by 7pm! We stopped at a Cafe to have drinks and dinner. And gelato. Delicious delicious gelato. We walked around some more until we found a cute wine bar right by the Duomo. Unfortunately the staff was quite rude and we left after 1 glass of wine. Back to our hotel to pass out from exhaustion!

Day 3 - NYC - November 11, 2014

Day 3 - NYC
Up again at 9:30 for a half day of fun in NYC. Today was Veteran’s Day so we took the subway downtown to the 9/11 Memorial. I had never been there - it was so moving. The water falls they set up where the buildings were are gorgeous. Each person that passed has their name engraved. They had placed a yellow rose in the name of each veteran. What a beautiful thing. We also learned that on their birthday, a white rose is placed on their name. We spent some time reflecting on what happened that day. 

We walked down to Wall Street (and saw the bull) and hopped on the subway to Chinatown. Marcy had suggested a dim sum restaurant so we put our name in (it was busy)! We had a nice filling lunch there and

walked down to Canal to see about buying some purses. We were running out of time so we caught a taxi

back to Marcy’s instead. We grabbed our packed bags and headed down to get our Uber to the airport. As soon as we locked the door behind us and got in the elevator Shannon remembered she left her phone charging in the apartment. Oops. Luckily Marcy’s building has a doorman and he allowed us back in to grab it! Thank goodness! We jumped in the waiting Uber...and waited some more. 

We forgot about the parade traffic! We should have been arriving at the airport at the time we left Marcys! Our Uber driver weaved in and out of traffic and then sped to the airport! The skycap told us we had made it by 10 minutes!! We high-fived and got through security easily. We had 40 minutes til our flight so we grabbed a beer just down from our gate. After I headed over while the other two stopped at the restroom. When I walked up, I got a stern talking to from the delta associate - apparently we were marked as no-shows and our bags were being pulled from the airplane!! We rushed on the plane and rejoiced in barely making our plane, not once but twice.
We watched movies and took a nap until we arrived in Milan.

Day 2 - NYC - November 10, 2014

Day 2 - NYC
It was rise and shine at 9:30am - Danielle is quite the bubbly morning person. Marcy had taken the day off to spend with us playing tourist! After a quick stop at Starbucks we had a nice stroll through Central Park. We walked down 5th Ave until we hit Rockefeller Plaza. The tree wasn’t lit (they were putting them on) but ice skaters were out! 

We bought tickets to the Top of the Rock and walked around 30 Rock until it was our turn. It was such a cool view up there! We were 69 flights up. I’ve done the Empire State Building at night but it was cool to be able to see the ESB in the view! We could even see the Statue of Liberty! 

After taking copious amounts of selfies, we headed to lunch. My one NY request was to eat Cuban food since Jason and I had an amazing meal in the city before. We went to Victors Cafe and it was phenomenal! Shan and I shared currascaro with chimichurri and sweet plantains. Plus the best white sangria. We stuffed ourselves silly. We had to walk off some of the food so we checked out the Lettermen studios. The paparazzi were there waiting for Katie Holmes but we didn’t see her. We stopped in Time Square for some people watching. I found a beer bar nearby called Beer Culture and we stopped in out of the chilly weather to warm up!

We walked 12 blocks back to Marcy’s to relax and watch Sex and the City (which we had been referencing all day). It was around 6pm and our dinner reservations weren’t until 8:45. We left the house at 7 to meet up with my friend Connie at Blind Tiger. It was great to see her, if only for 40 minutes or so! We rushed off to our dinner at Beauty and Essex. It;s a super trendy bar (I felt way underdressed). They even provide you champagne in the bathroom and you walk through a pawn shop to get there! It was tapas style food although we were still kinda full from lunch and all the beer. The food was crazy impressive, especially since the place seemed cool and it was pricey! We were all tired from walking so much that we went back to Marcy’s for more Sex and the City!

Day 1 - SAN-JFK - November 9, 2014

NYC - Going on 2 hours of sleep, I met up with Shannon & Danielle in Del Mar and we headed to the airport around 4am. Our flight was majorly delayed but Shan & I got scheduled on a new flight through Phoenix (instead of Dallas) but Danielle had to fly through Chicago. We said our goodbyes (after a celebratory first trip beer) and hit the runway. 

  We landed in NYC around 5pm and Uber’d our way to Danielle’s friend Marcy’s house. She lives in an adorable apartment right next to Central Park! It was a perfect landing place for our 2 days there.
We headed out to grab a beer before our dinner reservations. There is a kick ass beer bar called Pony Bar in Hell’s Kitchen so we grabbed a beer and cheese plate. 

After we headed to a Mario Battali (sp?) restaurant called Otto. Dinner was delish! After we walked a block to a beer bar called Arts and Crafts. It had a really cool vibe and gorgeous wood bar. We had enough time for 1 beer (they closed at 11). After we were off to another bar near Marcy’s house called Lincoln Park. We grabbed a beer and sat down while Shannon photobombed these 3 guys. One of them started talking to us and we soon learned his name was Ben (or Bin in a southern accent), he was 23, an actor and gay. He was super funny, snapping his fingers and calling each of us honey or baby. We chatted with him for about 30 minutes until he went home. We left pretty soon after (it was almost 1am) to fall asleep!