Draw Me a Map: 05/06/13

Happy Birthday to myself. (It was April 20th if you were wondering and it was my "Golden Birthday".) I typically don't do much for my birthday, but this year I decided to go on a trip with some people. So after finding an awesome deal on Groupon (If you have not discovered Groupon yet, oh boy... you are in for a treat.) we booked our tickets and saved our pennies and at 3:00 am on April 15th we were off to the LAX Airport, New York bound.

We landed in New York that afternoon, grabbed a taxi and headed to our little apartment in Brooklyn. I had never been to the East coast before, so I was stoked about everything: my first taxi ride, my first slice of pizza, my first subway ride, it was all amazing. I think I could live there. We were only in New York for a few days but we squeezed every bit of life out of those three days. We went to some great restaurants (thanks to our friend Paul), took the "Hipster train" down to Time Square at midnight (they really don't sleep there), we walked through Central Park (beautiful and lots of flowers), we went to the top of the Empire State building at night (I have decided that I have to go back there because I think that was my favorite memory of New York.), we went to THE Macy's, we got water dogs from a street vendor, we went to Katz's (When Harry Met Sally fans will know the scene), Kelly and I found some great swings in a park and just enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.

We packed up our suitcases that were already exploding and hopped on the plane to our next stop: Rome, Italy.

Italy was so different than what I was expecting, it was way more green and way more open than what I was picturing in my mind. I had always only seen pictures of Venice and the Colosseum and the narrow roads with the Fiats and Vespas winding through them. We stayed in a castle (gasp!) in Tuscany (gasp!) overlooking rolling green hills, vineyards, olive tree orchards, an old church and the most beautiful sunsets. We were truly blessed and not just by the place but by the people too. The people there (if they don't have a grudge against tourists running a muck through their country) are so friendly and warm and inviting. We were at a flea market/farmer's market one day and as I was sitting on a bench, a lady with her dog came and sat next to me, she started just chatting it up (in Italian mind you) and when I told her I only spoke English she smiled, nodded her head and kept talking. We both knew we couldn't understand what each other was saying but we held a conversation for 15 minutes or so and we "talked" about her dog and her flowers she had just bought and she shared some of her snap peas that she had. It was lovely and then we parted ways and said, "ciao ciao." The people were what I will remember most from that trip and not just the Italian people but also all the people at our hotel who we caravanned around Italy with trying to navigate the roads because when you get lost, it's nice to get lost with someone. There were the Jersey boys, the blonde sisters from Florida, the pastor and his wife from Georgia, the New Yorkers, and us the family and friend. It was great.