Ok WOW. I honestly don't even know where to begin. I just had the most ridiculous 3 days of my entire life. The way that we travel and do things here is completely out of control. We hit Barcelona in 3 days and had the time of our lives. Last Thursday was a pretty crazy day hence my three classes and the amount of traveling that I did. Traveling through Europe alone (as a girl) can be rather intimidating and overwhelming at times. Traveling and making your way through the states is much different. I never feel incapable of doing anything or getting wherever it is that I need to be but Europe is much different. Traveling through countries that are within the European Union is actually pretty laid back. I hardly needed my passport and I didn't go through any form of customs going into Spain or coming back into Italy. I thought that was a little weird.
Fortunately on Thursday I got out of class a little bit early so I could run home to switch some stuff around in my bag before I had to dart to the train station for my 9:15 train to Milan. The trip seemed to be going rather smoothly. I had a very attractive Italian man sitting across from me blaring music through his headphones. He said that he was headed home but our conversation was unfortunately very brief because of our terrible language barrier. Once I arrived in Milan around midnight, I realized I was the only one on the train left, that's weird.. Train stops, waiting for the doors to open.. waiting.. waiting.. waiting.. Oh shit, how do I get off this train ?! I started to run up and down the cars trying to find somewhere that the doors were open but nothing was budging! Oh my god! What am I supposed to do?! I randomly saw a green button and pushed it, a door down that car opened. Thank god.
Anyways, get into Milano Centrale -- not a soul around. I go outside to try to find my bus in the snow (ew). Fifteen minutes I found it and the guy almost didn't let me on because I showed up 15 minutes after the time frame that I bought the ticket in. Really buddy?(potential panic attack #2). If I didn't get on that bus, I wouldn't make my flight, and I would miss out on Spain. Great.
Thankfully he let it slide and I finally arrived at the airport at like 1 a.m. With no one else other than the people on my flight in the terminal, we all dispersed and slept on the cold, metal benches until about 5 a.m. for check in. The flight was only an hour and 10 minutes and I slept for most of it. There was one point where I opened my eyes and I thought I was in heaven.
I'm pretty sure I was flying over the Swiss Alps because all I saw for miles was mountains covered in snow piercing through the clouds as the sunrise kissed its' peaks. Arriving in Spain was easy, no security, no customs. I just had to find terminal 1 to meet Taylor as he came in from Orly in Paris. Seeing Taylor emerge through a crowd of people in an airport always feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Seeing a familiar face in a completely foreign place has a very releasing feel of relief. Even though it had only been two weeks or so since London, it still seemed like too long as I held him in the terminal.
Being the prepared, efficient people that we are we then realized that neither one of us knew where our hostel was or where we were supposed to meet our friends. And of course, why would our phones work in Spain? We figured out how to get to the Catalyna plaza down the road from La Rambla where Kabul was located (through the airport information desk). We decided to be silly and walk around the beautiful plaza posing like the statues we saw and running through mobs of pigeons.
We took a stroll down a couple of random streets talking about how amazing it was that we were going to be there for the weekend. Tay is into trying new random types of food so we stopped into this HUGE market on the way to the hostel. He bought this thing that we still don't really know what it's called. It was some type of pastery that was long, thin, flaky, sugary, and it like pine nuts on it or something. I'm trying this new thing where I try not to become offended when I try foods that I don't like.
Alex pointed out to me in London that whenever I try a new food that I don't like, I start to cuss and freak out and get angry at the world. When he first said that I was like there is no way that I do that but then when I rethought about all of the foods in the past that I have tried and I hated I remembered how upset I got at the actual food. It's kind of funny actually, who does that ?! I tried to like the weird, pinenut pastery but I really didn't. But this time I decided not to yell at it.
Our hostel, Kabul, was in the perfect part of the city. It was inside Plaza Real with a big fountain in the middle and from the outside, it looks like a club. The main floor where everyone hung out is where I got those cool quotes about traveling in my facebook album. The scene was taliormade to exactly who we were and what we were doing there.
College students in Europe, traveling together for a short and sweet couple of days. They had this deal that said that you could add an addtional FOUR days for 33 Euro. Kelly and I about cried because we TOTALLY would have done that if you know, we weren't here for school or anything. I saw these random postings in that room for people who are looking for a travel partner who did not have any official plans on where to go or how long to stay, I wish I could call them. Kabul gave us free breakfast and dinner and one morning I met a guy working the bar who was from Tampa, small world.
Our 24 person room was perfect. This was one of those weekends and one of those places where things just worked out in our favor. Twelve sets of bunks, all with maroon sheets and matresses that were too short for anyone exceeding like 5'7" (Tay and I were screwed). The beds right behind the door were decorated with an odd collaboration of assorted balloons. All different colors, all different shapes. I didn't think too much of it until I heard that we had a man in our room that had been there for three months who claims to be Jesus. Interesting, I thought. I hope I get to meet this guy.. much more on him later.
As we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive, we discussed where we should grab lunch since I hadn't eaten since the day before in Milan. Since Alex, Morgan, Laura, and Kelly were all out "GoCar"ing and said they'd be a little late, we wondered down to the water to find somewhere authenticly Spanish to sit down and chill. We ended up walking for a pretty long time but we landed on a place called "Sailors" where we had typical European service to American students. They guy tried to charge us for random things we didn't get so our bill as one table of four turn out to be 72 euro, but Taylor couldn't accept it. Somehow he got so many things subtracted from it that we walked away only paying 35. Sitting outside seemed like a good idea when the sun was on us but by the time everyone else made it to the restaurant, we were freezing again.
We walked along the shore and I began to realize why Anna always says that she wants to move to Barcelona after she graduates. This place really is as beautiful and as magical as it claims to be. "Vicky, Christina, Barcelona" is a great film but I really had no idea that it was actually better than what the movie portrayed. How often does that happen? We couldn't stand the anticipation for touching the Mediterranean Sea, so we all started running. As soon as we got there we realized how silly we looked in our boots and puffy coats at the beach about to jump into the water. Note to self -- GO BACK TO BARCELONA IN THE SUMMER!
We walked across the street to pay 9 euros to take an elevator up to a fernicular, which was this cable car that took us back to the top of Montjuic. Tay, Alex, and I didn't really have a problem with the heights, as our travels to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in July had us bungee jumping out of a similar contraption into a desert canyon. However, the rest of the group seemed pretty terrified but we got some incredible pictures and views of the city. It was a little unsteady but I tried not to think about it. As we got across the water, we started climbing up the mountain to go see the staduim and pool from the 1992 Olypmics. We stumbled upon some ridiculously beautiful sights and we caught the sunset at one of the most gorgeous views I've ever had.
This was most definitely one of those moments that you want to hold onto forever. I wanted it to sink into my pores so it could be embedded in my memory for the rest of time. I couldn't absorb it enough. I was with the right people, at the right time, in the right place. A sense of clarity and happiness washed over me as I almost felt like crying as I witnessed such beauty. This place will always have a part of me. By the way, the way to describe my weekend in a song (cuz you know that's how I do) is ironically by a band called Barcelona with a song called "Colors". That's how I felt this weekend, exactly what that song says. Look it up, I love it.
We had some more little adventures as we made our way down the mountain..
We stopped somewhere off of Parallel to pick up some tequila that we thought would make to it night number 2 as well (YEA RIGHT) and Tay insisted on buying like a 8 liter jug of water that was only 88 cents. We all made fun of him at first but turns out it was a genius idea. My two albums on facebook could probably do a better job describing chronologically what this weekend was like but I'm doing my best. I'm still kind of in shock about this whole thing and coming down from a vacation high really sucks sometimes, but whatever, I'M IN ITALY now.
We were advised to take the metro home because walking through the streets that would take us home were apparently dangerous. Whatever, we thought, this could be quite an adventure. It surely was! I don't think that I've ever been that close to or seen that many hookers and drug dealers at once. Alex and I joked that we would be able to individually pick which STD we wanted to contract that night from the streets we walked down. We were rather relieved to finally find La Rambla.
Emerging from that situation, we made it to the hostel in time to nap (yes, we quickly learned why the Spanish tradition of the siesta is so important), grab a less than delicious yet still totally free dinner at the hostel, and make plans for the night.
We took down some tequila rather quickly in our party room and took some scandalous CW-drama pictures. Oh man, that was so much fun. Of course I always manage to find a way to hurt myself so while I was cutting a lime, I sliced my finger open. If I had a nickel for everytime I did that..
We had intentions to have a pretty epic night out, but it ended up not being as ridiculous as planned, which was okay (especially once you consider the following night). Our first stop was the FAIRY FOREST BAR. It seemed like you were walking into a rainforest here and not a bar. It was beautiful and very intense decorations. We didn't stay for too long since it was more of a calm, restaurant vibe and we were kind of raging but I'm glad we checked it out! We then headed to the shore to check out the clubs down there for a crazy beach scene but we got there and realized it didn't really exist.
It was completely dead. It was 11 o'clock which seems like a normal time for us Americans to go out and in most cases the Italians too but not the Spanish.
Apparently most places don't get poppin' until like 2 a.m. GEEZ! We considered staying on the beach to party but it was too cold and we were getting too sober. We illegally hoped back on the metro (which, we took at least 10 times throughout the weekend and I think I paid for it once.. it was bad. We completely broke the law in a foreign country by cramming all of us through as many gates as we could. It was our way of saving some kind of money over the weeked, highly illegal, yet highly effective) to some bar that I can't recall what the name was. I think that the next series of pictures speak for themselves and I'll leave the rest of the night at that..
The next we woke up we hit up some of our free breakfast from Kabul. On our way out we found a Dunkin Donuts! It was like the states in my mouth. It was fantastic to get a little taste of home. Another illegal metro ride later, we landed at Sagrada Familia. This church has been under construction since 1909, and they hope to finish by 2032. Why it takes that long to build a church is beyond me but apparently it is funded through anonymous donations! Generous people.
It was started by Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi who died in 1926 after being hit by a tram. I later found out that wherever he want to architecture school (I forgot where exactly) but they said that they were handing a dipolma to either a nut or a genius. He was pretty crazy but this this is truly one of the greatest buildings known to mankind. The church has faced financial issues ever since his death, and has also appeared in every Spanish textbook ever (which I can now recall). It will eventually have 18 towers - 12 for the 12 apostles, 4 for the gospels, one for Mary, and the tallest, of course, for Jesus. These 18 make up the sacred family - "La Sagrada Familia". The architecture is spectacular, it reminds me of dripping candle wax or those dripping sand castles that you make at the beach.
It's so tall that it sticks out of the Barcelona skyline like you can't believe. Its covered in detail, alcoves, statues, and odd design features that are inspired by curves seen in nature, according to Gaudi. We took pictures forever. Ugh, I just can't get enough of this place.
The others had seen it the day before Tay and I got there because they had some time to look around the city. We then ventured down this street that looked alot like La Ramblas to Parc Guell. Walking the same streets was fun, giving us time to really look around and enjoy the sites. Just walking down the streets through Barcelona was fun, it seemed like you could take pictures of everything you saw and it would be beautiful. We stopped at this churro place to get chocolate-dipped churros where I called Tay out on his FIDLAR philosophy. He didn't look like he regretted it... I know I'm happy he bought it.
Walking up the hill to Parc Guell consisted of steep hills and a ridiculous amount of stairs but I discovered the Spanish barbed wire made out of broken glass bottles. I swear, the Europeans invented stairs. I think I have climbed more stairs in the past month than I have in the past 20 years. Barcelona made me sore in places that I have forgotten about since soccer season. We weren't even into the Parc before Alex and I had a palm tree fight. He thinks he won but I think I want a rematch. Can we please go back ?!
Parc Guell just looked like a huge playground to me. Kelly said that it would be a perfect place for America's Next Top Model should have a shoot, turns out they already did. It's surreal. I don't even know how they kept all of the stones together. It's the perfect place to scrape your knee, play hide and go seek, climb walls, or jump off of anything you wanted to. We would break off into little groups and go exploring through random walkways and tunnels. I felt like a little kid that ran away from home trying to find a place to live. I'd be ok with living there with my friends. We'd make it work. All of this European architecture completely blows my mind, everything is so old and SO well done! As high up as we were, we could then again see another gorgeous view of the city from a different angle. We could see the water and how far we had been just the day before.
Since Barcelona is a city kind of in the middle of the mountains, you can be at any high point and see the city with a completely different perspective. After we were done running around and being silly, we went down to this flat platform thing that was lined with a swirvy wall made out of mosaic tiles. I wanted to be able to take the best pictures I could while still capturing all of the details in every placement of tile. This is one of those places that I wish my parents could see. They would just love it. I could have stayed there for hours just admiring the techniques of how this masterpiece was created. Mosaic doesn't look planned out or particular to where they place each broke piece but at the same time I'm not sure how they can coordinate such beauty without any form of structure. Maybe that's what makes it so beautiful...
Since this little mosaic beauty was kind of like a cliffed off balcony thing, there was more underneath it as well. The ceiling underneath was mosaic as well. We came across and older man who looked like he was in his own world, celebrating the sound of the Spanish guitar echoing through the pillars underneath. Tay and I sat down (SO much walking!) to relax for a minute and enjoy the music seeping through the beauty of the moment.
Adventure #12837912873 of the day was climbing up the mountain/hill to the top of a staircased, stone mound with a cross on top. Being the crazy kids we are, taking pictures like a totem pole seems more than necessary. It was kind of scary actually, climbing up and down the narrow ledges trying to create a leveled affect. We all looked out for each other though, there was alot of holding hands to make sure we didn't fall. I usually fall or hurt myself somehow and I'm not sure if I could have recovered from a fall like that but these pictures were so much fun to take and would have probably been worth it.
After that, we meant to siesta, but instead... we hung out with Jesus.
So as I said, Jesus is the drug dealer who actually thinks he is Jesus Christ. The son of God. When he introduced himself as "Jesus Christ of Nazereth", I knew we'd be in for a treat of conversation. As we hung out in our room before the siesta that never happened, he told us ... ALOT. When asked what he was doing in Barcelona, he said "My father sent me a letter that said I would meet the love of my life here." Oh wow, I thought, that's interesting. Apparently, he has met the Devil. He is an individual named "The Monster", and his Father sent him a love message that he needed to meet "The Monster". The Monster was friends with an Art Dealer, who was rich and glamorous with all the fashions. The Monster was also gay, and asked Jesus 12 hours after meeting him "Will you marry me?". Jesus, of course, says no, to which The Monster replies "Well all my friends will say I'm wonderful." But of course he was the Devil, so Jesus had to apprehend him and so The Monster is no longer the Devil anymore.
Also, one time he went to an outdoor music festival in the South of Spain with 3 kilos of marijuana, because his Father sent him a love message: "Heaven's having a party, so go out and give the people what they love." Unfortunately, he ran out of marijuana, so he prayed: "Father, I am out of drugs. Please provide me with more drugs." Miraculously, he was provided with such drugs, including some I had never heard of it (what are gophers? why was there ever a drug called gophers?) Also, the balloon statue is related to angels, and marijuana and cocaine are the new bread and fish. If ANY of this makes sense to you, please let me know, because we are still working out the details.
The weirdest part to me about this conversation was that we were all sitting around in a circle giving each other looks clearly saying "Holy fucking shit, this guy is completely out of his mind!" He was sitting in one of those like fold out beach chairs leaning forward with his intense voice, repeating little parts of the story. Then he got up and went over to his bag of drugs (the most I will probably see in my ENTIRE life) and pulled out a notebook covered in stories and colors. Once we opened we saw that the story that he had "written" was word for word of exactly what he had been saying. "Will you marry me? But all of my friends say I'm wonderful. No. You are the devil." I couldn't believe that this was even documented. I thought he had made it up as he went along. But then again how many people has he told that same story too?
This conversation needed to be immediately followed by alcohol, so we headed downstairs for happy hour and to plan the night. We met this incredible Australian (hottieeeee) guy named Michael who was studying in Scotland. He was super sweet, polite, and adorable. He was traveling alone it was really cool to meet new people from completely different backgrounds. We taught him beer pong, I loved his facial expressions as we explained all of the rules. He was completely blown away at how complicated it can be from place to place but he also taught us an Australian drinking game. This game is called "Goon of Fortune" that involves a clothesline and boxed wine and running around in circles. We enjoyed some free dinner, then headed out into a sudden downpour to grab some boxed wine and sangria because you know, we're pretty classy people.
As we weren't heading out to the club until 2am, we had LOTS of time to pregame, perhaps too much. We all were on different levels of well, you know. For some bizarre we were craving Mexican food, maybe it's because we were all talking about it the whole weekend? Jesus recommended that we go to some place a few blocks away. We followed Jesus (how funny) to some hole in the wall place that ended up being exactly what we had been searching for. Althought Jesus was kind of a wack job, he was really sweet. He always wanted to take care of people and make sure that they were always having a good time in the best way possible. Unfortuantely we were horribly mistreated by an awfully cruel waiter (again).
After Dinner #2, we went BACK to the hostel for more hanging out and pregaming, then finally, at a time when most people start winding down, we headed out to Razzmatazz. This club was insane. Five rooms, absolutely massive, over 5000 people there, and at least an hour long line for the coatroom. Apparently in the line waiting for the coat check, some guy ask Tay if he could pay him a euro to smack my ass.. weird.
It was fantastic - we danced til 5am amidst panda bears, terrible music, and way too much cigarette smoke. On our way home at about 6:30 A.M. people on the metro were STILL on their way out to the clubs, including the girl in the "Special KKK" white robe. SKETCHY. Sleep was a precious commodity this weekend, and we got very little of it, but I think that we were all okay with that. I think I might have slept 3-4 hours each night? Whatevs. That's how you do Barcelona in THREE DAYS.
The next morning we managed to turn ourselves into real human beings to go see Barcelona on our last day. Saying goodbye to everyone else seemed to be pretty short and sweet. It had seemed like we had just said hello. Time was going by WAY too fast in Spain. Tay and I had earlier flights than everyone else and we wanted to check out what this whole GoCar thing was about that they had done on Friday before we got there. We got our deposit back by checking in our keys before 11 and as we walked out of the hostel I was a little sadden by the idea that I didn't know when I would be seeing everyone from London again. Too bad we all actually came here to be students. WEIRD. It sure doesn't feel like it, Europe is too fantastic for that.
To wrap this thing up (thank you if you're still even reading, I know it's ridiculously long!) Tay and I went to the GoCar place to drive around this little car that Time Magazine claims to be "the coolest invention of the year".
It really was. I thought I was going to want to drive but Tay liked driving and I liked looking around and not having to pay attention to the road. We had an automated woman speaking to us through our topless car's speakers. She was kind of a bitch actually, we named her Veronica. She could be rather assertive sometimes. I know that it was only an automated system but it almost felt like she got a tone with us sometimes when we went off the roads that SHE wanted us to go on. We made our own map and saw the a building that is nearly identical to the gerkin in London. Veronica tried to teach us some Spanish while she wasn't busy directing us around but we were too entertained by swirving around the roads of Barcelona, probably going a little too fast. We might or might not have made motor car sounds..
We probably got more weird looks from people than I ever have before. We got laughed at and pointed at but we had a fantastic time regardless. We were in our own little world. Although it was kind of cold, we darted across the city with Veronica telling us random facts about the different buildings and parks we saw. We tried to make it to the top of this mountain that we kept seeing from a distance with a huge castle and ferris wheel on top but we could only go up so high with a limited time frame. We came across this restaurant that was sitting on the side of a cliff that over looked the beautiful city. Although we aren't that big of celebraters, it is pretty cool to say that we had our Valentine's Day date here...
Since we had to head to the airport pronto, we had to sadly say goodbye to Veronica and go to Catalyna. We quickly stopped to get our last Spanish pastery that was served to us on a gold tray.
You and Me -- Valentine's Day pastery, how freaking cute.
Saying goodbye to Taylor almost feels like saying hello. It's always in an airport. We are basically professionals at it now. And after only three short, jam packed days, it was almost like I hadn't even really seen him. I mean, we were together and everything but we were always running around. Not too much down time to spare but it was one of the best weekends of my entire life. Guilty fact: we didn't shower the entire weekend and I felt terrible for the guy who sat next to me on the plane. I have never felt more disgusting.
I liked the way that Taylor described it though.. "It's kind of cool to think that we can do this and get away with it. We're young travelers, who cares?"
Although I couldn't even get myself to touch my hair, he was kind of right. Any sort of after consequence, whether it be bodily or a huge dent in my bank account. It doesn't matter. I have come to notices that some of the best things in life come when you just got with it. Alex always tells me that "worrying too much about what's down the road ruins the road". He couldn't be more accurate. I've always been a worrier and being in Europe is allowing me to work on this annoying characteristic that I have. I don't really see it as running away from anything. It's more like learning and growing and accepting all of life's curve balls.
From the wise words of Baz Luhrmann: "Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you. Sing. Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours." These are good words to live by. I'm doing my best.
So as I'm sure you can already see, the weekend of Barcelona was completely, undescribably terrific. I know I just wrote a novel on how wonderful it really was but I highly encourage those who have not randomly traveled or done something that scares you to actually go out there and do it. Seriously, you only live once. I hate that those people that say "Live with no regrets" are the ones that never actually take risks. I'm not trying to preach or anything, I'm just encouraging. There is no other way to live, make the best of your time while you can. We are young. We are fun. We are imperfect. So be yourself even if you don't know who that is. I know I don't but I'm figuring it out...
I need to get my shit together. Eating better, sleeping better, studying harder, loving more. Idolize this time. Focus on what I NEED.
When you're younger, you have this set idea in your head about what your life will be like and you just assume that it will turn out exactly the way you plan it. I've come to find that in the place where I grew up and the circumstances that are presented to the people of the small Floridian beach town limit them to a certain lifestyle. No offense but that is a life that I refuse to live. The world is a much bigger place than that and I am more than happy that I haven't allowed myself to settle. There are very few things that I feel safe admitting my dependence on but even those things are constantly changing within themselves. I'm obviously a fan of stability.
We took a city bus from San Marco for about 20 minutes and then walked up a hill that seemed like it would never end. I hadn't been out of a city for a while and the air seemed cleaner, the grass greener, and my senses just seemed more emphasized than ever before. We were in the Tuscan mountains at the escape house of the De Medici family and the weather couldn't have been more beautiful. During our walking journey up to the estate, I didn't feel like talking to anyone because I didn't want to hear about what so and so did last weekend or about how their feet hurt or the "Oh my god, and then like, he didn't call me back" tones from the sandwich girls Seriously, shut the fuck up -- YOU ARE IN TUSCANY. What do you really have to complain about?
It's funny because we don't even try to abide to them and their language. Our tour guide was explaining that her family bought the estate in the 1800s and it has been with them ever since. We got to explore the wine cellar with barrels twice my height. Underground we also saw humongous clay pots that they used to make olive oil in (I found one that had the year 1847 carved in it). She said that those pots were out of commission because they now use stainless steel because it is more efficient and easier to sanitize. 
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh of relief. The sunshine drapped over me like a light sheet in the summer. I started to feel my cheeks getting a warmer and my skin absorbing color. Catherine took the words out of my mouth when brushed her shiny blonde hair out of her face, opened her eyes, turned her freckled nose towards me and said "Liz, I think this might be what heaven is like." We all then decided that if we were getting a preview of the long awaited Italian spring that we definitely were not going back to the states. 
I'm always down for that. As I was walking to the Arno, I realized that Florence looked different than it ever has before. It's a city you know, not like a Paris or London, but it is a decently sized city. It didn't seem like it last night. There were probably four times as many people out and about on the streets than I have EVER seen before. I've found that hanging out with Maera is an always guaranteed good time. I always learn from her since she's been in Florence for a while now and she's just one of those people. 
aperitivo where I discoverd (yet somehow missed before) the literal elephant in the room. I then inevitably lost a game of "Never have I ever".. which I always manage to do. The five of us then all went our different ways, Maera and Carlos to a concert, Joel to go drink a bottle of wine alone (or whatever that space cadet usually does?), and Nina and I went to Za-Za to meet Catherine and Brooke for a beautiful outside dinner with the view of the San Lorenzo. Note to self -- fresh strawberries, lemon juice, and powdered sugar is my new favorite thing.
This morning I woke and felt inspired to run (this hasn't happened in a while so I figured I would take advantage). I only had my ipod on me and I decided to not play it so safe. I took turns and cut corners and explored streets of Florence that I've never seen before. Throughout my three hour spree of getting completely lost on purpose I found the other train station and a numerous variety of parks and fountains that I can't wait to picnic at when the pleasant spring weather is finally here. 
