Peru!!

We made it! We got into our hotel LATE last night. It is actually more of a home stay. We are renting a little room with a private entrance about the home of a nice lady name Flor. We have a shared bathroom and a TEENY kitchen. The room smells a little different but we were so tired last night we didn't really care. We slept in rather late this morning, making up for the lack of sleep we have had lately. Then we went to explore the city. We didn't do too much honestly, we went looking for food and I got Starbucks along the way. It wasn't my intention but it was the first coffee place that we found. After that we got breakfast at a little cafe and went to go find the local supermarkets. The city is amazing! We are both so excited to be here and nervous for the next four months as well!

Some of the things we learned about Lima:

It is winter here right now, even though it is only in the 60s I looked EXTREMELY out of place walking around without a jacket on. Something to remember for tomorrow.

American tourists are very easy to spot. We are loud. Especially compared to Peruvians. I find myself having to lean in to hear what they are saying. This will take a little getting used to for me.

We are thankful we are not driving out here. American laws are non existent. People turn from the middle land of traffic, drive up on sidewalks (more like park on sidewalks), and are very impatient. All we hear all day is horns for no reason. As soon as the light turns green, if there is a car in front of them, I also think that Taxi's honk to get attention.

Cats are EVERYWHERE! I swear they are like squirrels. We were sitting in the park today and stray cats were approaching people who were eating looking for food, sleeping on the laps of people reading in the park and cuddling with people who were just around. EVERYWHERE!

We ended our night going out and looking for something to eat and are not back in our room looking for a place to live for the next few months. Hopefully we find something soon, we only have this place for a week right now. Wish us luck!


P.S. I promise not to update you with our everyday happenings. But it is our first day here and we are SO excited!

-Monica

East Coast Adventure - Monica's Story

FINALLY! We have a little bit of time to sit down and update you on what we have been up to this past week or so. This is my first blog post so please forgive the layout and any other errors I might make along the way. With everything we have done this week, I am just going to give a quick breakdown of where we have been and what we have done. Try not to make you read to much for the first time.

During our tour at Fenway

BOSTON 7/22

Original Sam Adams
Brewery

We started our adventure in Boston, landed sleepless after our flight and realized we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't know where to go, what we were going to do with our bags, where we were staying or even what our next step should be. Our decision was to stay in Boston, drop our bags off at our hostel and walk the city. We fit so much into one day and MILES of walking! Food was first on our agenda, followed by a tour of Fenway Park, a tour and tasting at the Sam Adams Brewery, a couple mile walk to the Harbor to find a great Lobster Roll at a little place called "Yankee Lobster". By this time most museums and such were closed but we walked by the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, and most, if not all of the Freedom Trail.

NEW YORK CITY 7/23-7/25

The bar that influences
 MacLarens's
from HIMYM

Ground Zero

Our next morning consisted of a 3 hour bus ride on Bolt Bus and arrival into NYC in the afternoon. We walked to Grand Central Station where we began our lesson of the NYC Subway system. We made it to our hotel for check in and went straight to a Yankee game. The stadium was such an awesome site to see and we watched about 5 innings of the game before the skies open up and it poured down rain so thick all we could see from our seats was a blanket of white. After deciding the game was going to be rained out we hopped back on the subway system and made our way to the bar that was the influence for MacLarens from How I Met Your Mother.  On our way there we saw Times Square and because of the rain it was pretty empty! It was amazing to be able to walk around without being pushed and trampled by all the other tourists in the city. From there it was a drink at McGees and navigating the subway system back to bed.

Lunch in Central Park

NY Street Food

Our only full day in NYC I feel like it was go-go-go. We got up and made our way to the Statue of Liberty. We didn't get on the ferry but we were able to see it from Manhattan. After that we went to the 9/11 Memorial, which is by far my favorite part of the trip ( I can't speak for Mitch). It was so beautifully done and gave me chills to be standing there. We walked around, read some of the names and just took it all in. After we needed to be cheered up we stumbled upon Wall Street. By this time we were both pretty hungry so we made our way to Central Park, grabbed some food and enjoyed lunch in Central Park. It is SO BEAUTIFUL and huge. It is amazing to think there is something so pretty there when the rest of the city is tall buildings and cement. After lunch we decided we needed dessert so we made our way to find Serendipity, put our name on the list (a 45 min wait was a VERY slow day for them they said), and went and saw the Empire State Building while we waited. We had the Frozen Hot Chocolate (of course) and carrot cake. DELISH! Then back to the hotel to change and rest a bit before we walked back Times Square again. This time there were SO many more people that we stopped to get a drink, snapped a quick photo and left in search of NYC street food. We got Greek and it was AMAZING! Then it was back home to prepare for our bus trip to Baltimore.

 MARYLAND & WASHINGTON D.C. 7/25-7/29

Washington Monument

This was such an amazing time to spend with family! We got dropped off a couple blocks away from Penn Station (???!!) So we walked to the station where we got picked up by Mitch's Uncle. The first night was pretty relaxing, we spent it watching Single A Baseball and having dinner with the family. :) Very nice break from all the walking and rushing around we had been doing.

Took them a couple tries to be happy with the
placement of the monument... :) 

The second day there we took the Metro to D.C. and explored. We had a great time talking and spending time with the family and seeing the sites. I took too many photos of other people taking crazy pictures with the surrounding sites, even though they were just being tourists like ourselves.  We walked the Mall, and we were able to make it into the Museum of National History and up to the Smithsonian Castle.Then we walked up to the Capitol Building and made our way back to the Metro. This whole time is better explained by photos than by words I think. :) Enjoy!

Vietnam Memorial

Family

From Baltimore we took a 27 HOUR Greyhound bus ride (never again) to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Took a rail to West Palm Beach where Mitch's cousin was awesome enough to pick us up and spend some time with us. We stayed the night there and now we are sitting at the Ft. Lauderdale airport where we await our boarding for our 5.5 hour flight to Lima, Peru! More to come soon! Miss you all.