Hi all!

I know everyone is just about home at this point so safe travels if you aren’t. Tomorrow is my last full day in Japan and let me tell you, Nella has tested my limits. We’ve jetted around the whole country (amazingly all on public transportation) and seen SO much over the past week and it’s been exhausting but incredible.

Since our Tokyo experience, we visited Mt.Fuji (which unfortunately wasn’t much of a site that day…see below)

Where Mt Fuji was supposed to be. Luckily we’d passed by it on the train a few days earlier so I caught a glimpse then!

The day could have been awful, but Nella’s friend who owns a wonderful cafe in the area took us in, fed us, and we hung out with her family for a while before going back to our hostel.

Kamakura made up for the prior gray day and we saw the most amazing temples surrounded by hydrangeas (see below).

Apparently these flowers are native to Japan and this is the season they’re in full bloom!

We ended the day at a black sand beach and took a cute freshman year roommates pic

Quick fast forward through the next few days, we fed wild deer and hung out with monkeys and ate a lot of food. Enjoy the photos below!

This wasn’t the one that bit my butt but it looks like it. Peep the little one in the back! It wouldn’t take the snack from me and ran away a little scared.

Mama monkey and her baby all nuzzled up!!

Inside this massive temple is the biggest Buddha statue in Japan. Pictures don’t do it justice!!

Big ol’ Buddah

Didn’t want to leave you all hanging…. but this is what Mt. Fuji is supposed to look like.

Flying back across the pond on Sunday! Thanks all the families for your support as always. And thanks girls for an amazing trip, I can’t wait to catch up on all the details 😊

Emma

To reiterate what Bailey said, after a looong day of travel (Thurs-Friday), I finally arrived in Kyoto and was greeted by a familiar face at the bus stop! Nella picked me up and we wandered around her little neighbourhood to get soup and dumplings before bed time. The next morning was early and we took the 7:30am bullet train to Tokyo (300 km/hour) getting us there in 2 hours instead of 10 hours by car.

Reunited!!

Needless to say I was tired and somewhat ill due to the travel and dehydration etc. We walked around Tokyo for a few hours, window shopped like madwomen and got to our lovely hostel for a nap around 3pm. Waking up after that I felt like a new woman and we wandered over to the beautiful Sensoji temple / market place area where I got a sweet fortune basically saying I’m gonna have an awesome life (woo! So far so good) and also I got to try taiyaki (a fish shaped pastry).

My half eaten taiyaki

We got some boba and then went back to our neck of the woods where we stopped at a karaoke building (several floors)

Listen if you dare… karaoke is a BIG thing here and several places were totally full before we found one we could get into.

Currently in the more populated area of Tokyo with lots of cool shops! We bought some pinky rings and feel pretty cool about ourselves but will feel even cooler once we play with hedgehogs at the hedgehog cafe!! More to come on that. So far a great start to the Japan portion of the trip.

Nella is my translating saviour (literally), making sure there is no ebi to kani to robusta in my meals. Didn’t stop her from getting near me in this kani hat though.

Sayonara for now!

The Class of 2019 divided their day between Milan and Venice, with a healthy dose of train travel through the Italian countryside in between. We encountered the first challenges of the trip, but just as Jeff taught us, we ~worked as a team~ and ~persevered~. These hurdles include but are not limited to:

•Jamie stepping in dog poop in the Piazza del Duomo (shoutout to the kind Italians who immediately offered water and tissues for clean up!)

•finally reaching the front of the Duomo line, tickets in hand, only to learn that we had to purchase unattractive white ponchos to cover our scandalously bare legs and shoulders for entrance into the cathedral

•the angry Italian hotelier who yelled at us for returning to Hotel Demo after check out time (anti shout out to the woman who told us the wrong check out time)

•arriving at the Milan train station only to discover that ours was “Cancellato”

•KP’s solo first class train trip & solo arrival in Venice, plus subsequent complications in finding the “Charming House” we are staying in

•the fifteen terrifying minutes we spent locked in our apartment, unable to get the stuck door to budge. Jamie began plotting a dinner of biscuits and warm white wine (all we had in our backpacks). Laura and Kip brainstormed potential ways to rappel down the side of the building. Swags began to crumble from claustrophobia and hunger. This weak link (Swags) shockingly saved the day by desperately shouting to strangers out the other window – who conveniently only spoke Spanish – to kick the door from the outside as we pulled from the inside.

And yet – these hitches (haha get it) were all worth the amazing views from the terrazas of the Duomo, the beautiful inside of the cathedral and accompanying museum, our first sights of Venice’s canals and a ride on the water taxi, and calamares, aperol spritzes, and good company at dinner! Headed to bed full of pasta and sleepy from free limoncello!

After a loooong day of travel yesterday and a good hard sleep I (Bailey) woke up this morning eager to explore. I passed la Catedral de Málaga on my way to the paseo del parque, where I met a friendly older malagueño who was keen on showing me around the beach and port.

After parting ways with José, I wandered a bit more before finding el mercado central de Atarazanas where I partook in some semi-adventurous eating.

After the market, I wandered a bit more where I ran into a lot of cool street art, ancient Roman ruins, & la Plaza del Merced.

I swung by the University of Málaga after, where there just happened to be a student art exhibition – they’ve got some talent!

I’m writing this blog post on a park bench in los jardines de Pedro Luis Alfonso. I was thinking I would do a bit of reading before heading back to the hostel, but I got intrigued by some stairs near the garden and my photos wouldn’t upload there, so the rest of this post is NOT written from the park bench. I climbed some stairs and ramps and more stairs and more ramps and finally reached the top of the hill where I used my sneaky staff ID for a student discount to get into the Gibralfaro for less than 1/2 the price of regular admission (this act was inspired by Emma Griese). Let me tell you, the Gibralfaro has some VIEWS.

The descent was perhaps more difficult than the ascent, but I made it down unscathed. There just happens to be a Málaga Gastronomy Festival going on this weekend, so I also grabbed some bites & a DELICIOUS tempranillo.

Couldn’t resist stopping to grab a bit of “healthy” helado on my way back to the hostel.

I took a nice nap after ice cream, then headed upstairs for a happy hour at the hostel with delicious mojitos. They also had tapas for 5€ tonight and only ~5 people signed up, so we absolutely feasted. Now I am drinking some tinto de verano contemplating whether I want to go on a pub crawl or to a flamenco bar!

After KP, Swags, Laura and I (Jamie) split from the others, we took a train to Milan and since then we’ve been experiencing a little Duomo and a little “FOMO.” We miss our better 3/7ths but are hyped up on all the new sights and foods and Aperol Spritzes that Italy has to offer. Tonight we figured out the subway system and took it right to the main piazza for an unforgettable dinner overlooking the Milan Cathedral. Our seedy room tonight is no Hotel du Cap or sunny Antibes apartment, but we’ll be out of here first thing in the morning for a half day of exploring before going to Venice! Ciao!!

Had a wonderful time soaking in golden hour at the most beautiful place in the world this evening. We were seated at the Champagne Lounge, the rooftop bar of Hotel du Cap, and indulged in some signature cocktails. The drinks were dressed to the nines while we were somewhere lingering around the 7-8 range. The sun was kind to us though and we were able to capture it all in some heavenly lighting. Overall, a 10/10 experience. Retired to the apartment afterwards for some dinner and are now off to sleep. Branching off on new adventures tomorrow. À demain!

On Wednesday, we all took the train to Cannes (which we made just in time) and then the ferry (which we made just in time) to Ile St. Marguerite, a beautiful island with trails, an old fort with Roman cisterns and the cell that held the Man in the Iron Mask. We found a rocky beach spot half-under the shade of a big tree and spent the afternoon sunbathing, reading, playing frisbee and buying ice cream from the sandwich boat!! We grabbed crepes in Cannes after the return ferry, then took the train back to Antibes before buying pizza to go from Le Chrono and bringing it to the keyhole beach for a sunset dinner. We played cards at a nearby bar, and then some of us went out for more drinks after at our favorite, the Drinkers Club!

Today (Thursday) is our last full day in France. We had a fun free day where we shopped around at the market and in town, and hung out at the beach. Heading off to Hotel du Cap for drinks before our last night just eating in and playing it by ear. Sad to leave, and excited for adventures to come!

After a rowdy night at the “Drinkers Club,” (shout out to our new friends James and Alex from that Russian billionaire’s yacht??) we had a slow start this morning… but we rallied with a spread of croissants, pain au chocolat, fresh peaches, baguettes and nutella, juice and coffee.

Then we spent the day sunbathing, sneaking some rosé, and hiking around a secluded rocky beach area with ocean side cliffs. We’ve met so many fun people along the way so far. Now headed to the Ruban Bleu tonight for a sunset dinner right on the beach!

Group effort on our homemade dinner tonight!! All together we’ve downed four baguettes and four bottles of wine… they cancel out, right? Off for some gelato!