Christy and Megan should not be allowed to travel alone…

So, these past two weekends have been incredible! But, seriously, Christy and I should not be able to travel together. Last weekend we went to Perugia to attend Eurochocolate 2008, the chocolate festival of Europe. (if you didn’t catch onto that one…) The school was sponsoring a trip, but we decided we would save money and make the trip by ourselves. Mistake number 1. We talked our good friend Ben into making the trip with us. First problem, we got to the train station too early. (or maybe late…) We thought there was a nine o’clock train, but it turns out there was only an eight o’clock train and an eleven o’clock train. So, when we finally got on the train, it took about two hours to get to Perugia. Once we reached Perugia, we realized there was another problem. We had no idea where the chocolate festival was taking place in the city, or how to get there. I guess we just expected to step off the train and have there be chocolate everywhere. Well, our friend Kellen was at the train station going to the festival too, but he got on a bus before us and told us just to get on a bus that looked like the one he got on. So, the next time a “coach-like” bus drove by, we hopped on. The only problem? This bus was actually heading to another town. We asked a young boy sitting next to us if the bus was going to the chocolate festival and he just laughed. So, we got off at the next stop, which happened to literally be in the Italian countryside in the middle of nowhere! So, we wandered around the Italian countryside for a while until we found another bus stop going the opposite way and only had to wait about twenty minutes for the next bus, but it was a stressful and all around hilarious situation, and even more funny that it happened to Christy and me. When we finally got to the chocolate festival (about three and half hours after we were expecting to) it was worth it! If I don’t have to look at chocolate for a good long while, I will be happy!! But, there were booths from all over Europe. The Swiss chocolate was probably my favorite. We got a lot of free samples, and I ended up buying some chocolate covered hazelnuts, which happen to be my new favorite nut since it is used in everything here!! There were really cool booths with chocolate everything, like a giant life-sized chess game with the pieces made out of solid white and dark chocolate! It was a very cool festival! Once we finally got there!

This weekend, we decided to visit San Gimingiano because we didn’t have too much time to take an entire day trip, since Christy needed to be back to cook dinner for our host parents. San Gimingiano is a small town on the top of a hill about an hour outside of Florence. So, we took the train there and got off in a little cute town. We hiked around a town and through the woods around old fortress walls and walked all around an ancient castle. It was a really cool hike and it was surrounded by beautiful views of the Italian countryside. But, as we were leaving, we realized that we had not actually made it to the town of San Gimingiano because you cannot reach that town by train. Only buses can go to San Gimingiano. Therefore, we had been walking around the town of Poggibonsi all day not realizing where we were or what we were doing. This is why Christy and Megan are not aloud to travel together. I might find some time to head back to see San Gimingiano, because I still do want to actually see the town someday.
On a different note, my parents are getting here this weekend!!!!! And not only my parents, but my mom, dad, Rachel, Aunt Anne, Uncle Tim, and Aunt Colleen!! Let the fun begin! I can’t wait to share my cute little town with all of them!!