I think we may be masters at public transportation by the time November 22 comes around!
Last night after the use of Internet that is hard to come by, we went to our new favorite souvlaki restaurant. We figured we would be eating lots of Greek salads here but have yet to have one. We were thinking of making one tonight with all the groceries we bought.
After our amazing souvlaki, we headed home on the bus. Stelios told us that two buses come close, and then showed us where one was and gave us some directions earlier in the morning. Well if there is one thing we have learned about each other on this trip is that we are good at nodding our heads and listening to only later realize we weren't really listening! :) We do it to each other often... It's a skill we have perfected!
Anyways we finally got on a bus and knew it was at least headed in the right direction! We rode for a while ubtil we were the last people on the bus and then rang the next stop bell, realized it was the next one and then got off at the right one! We were really proud of ourselves and I told kare in the heat of the moment we come thru :)
Lastnight we ate some honeynut cheerios we found at the store and some coke light. I finished the DaVinci Code which I had only started the day before. Not only is it a good book, but it was cool because I had seen almost all the monuments talked about in the book! I had to ask Kare a few questions to clarify! She might re read it again too. A purchase of angels and demons made be in the near future for me!
This morning we woke up and headed to find a place to get Kares haircut! We made it to the mall which was nice and searched a few stores. I have decided not to let myself like anything because I don't know where to draw the line and would walk out with 200€ less... Which is not a good plan! I am sure a few warm purchases will have to be made in Prague where it is currently snowing!
Kare got her haircut and it looks sooooo good! It's shoulder length and has some cute European style side swept bangs! We are both big fans of her hair!
We headed into the center of Athens to meet stelios and johanna at the brand new acropolis museum. It was really nice and had some really awesome artifacts. We saw the Parthenon from afar and will make our way through there tomorrow. After we parted ways with S and J (they have to work--- work? Ha! :) ) we got some veal souvlaki and made the best purchase yet... Kare found her amazing European boots! They weren't too expensive at all and were exactly what she was looking for! I otherhand will not be purchasing boots because a. I have one pair at home but do want to add to my collection at a later date and b. All the ones I want are 3 times as much as I want to spend. Again with the drawing the line problem :)
We took the most crowded metro home... Literally packed of people which is awkward, but are finally back in our neck of the woods. We are going to soak in some Internet and then head home for warm baths and maybe some more book reading!
Our plan tomorrow is to head back to the center of Athens and see the acropolis, Parthenon, temple of Zeus and the stadium. Saturday looks our island day and Sunday looks to be a day we head to some cool ruins. But a lot will change before then!
Everyday we say God Bless America where our cell phones and unlimited time of Internet exist! :) since we are half way through our trip which we can't believe--- we will do a fun awards presentation in one of our upcoming blogs.
Oh one last thing--- if we get arrested by the Greek Police it's because they are smoking hot and we may egg them on! Haha only kidding about the arrested part, dead serious about the 14 on a hotness scale of 1 to 10 part!!
Love and miss you all very much. Can't believe we are on the downhill side of our appetizer plate trip around Europe.
Loves and hugs---
Melanie
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
An E, two triangles and some squiggles
Alrightly then. We have no Internet connection in Greece at the house so we will try to blog whenever we get the chance. We made it to Greece safe and sound and as the title mentions, the phrase... It's all Greek to me.. has taken on a whole new meaning. Sometimes we aren't sure if we are looking at some type of picture or if it's writing. But the tales of Greece will come soon- let's finish up with Rome first.
So Sunday morning we woke up and Emiliano our couch surfing host brought us espresso and croissants in bed. I don't think he drinks wine like we savvy travelers do since he still was wearing his sunglasses inside- never a good sign. We all hung out and talked during the morning before mel and I took off to walk around the sights outside of the Vatican before meeting up with Emiliano and the family with whom he was giving a private tour. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and absolutely drowned them in vinegar our new favorite condiment. Pretty sure we will eat it with everything when we was back home. I also discovered my love for anchovies on everything. I think it is the saltiness that gets me. Then we met up with Emiliano who was with a candian Iranian family from Britian. We seem to find these melting pot people everywhere here. The mom was a hoot, she knew a lot of facts about roman history and the Vatican itself- we were way impressed. Even her 10yr old son knew stuff we weren't sure about. Us stupid Americans haha. The museum had gorgeous statues and tapestries by Raphael and we saw lots of incredible art. There was a bathtub pool made of the now extinct purple marble from Egypt which is one of the most expensive things the Vatican owns. We walked through the Sistine chapel which truly lives up to everything anyone has ever said about it. The artwork and detail as well as the amount of stuff to look at was breath taking. You could stay there and stare at the ceiling til your neck breaks from lookin up. They have specially trained shh'ers because you aren't allowed to talk or do anything but look. Eventually we had to move on and we went inside st peters. The size of the cathedral in general is enough to astound you. The letters along the wall apparently are 7.5ft tall which was unbelievable until we saw ppl up on a balcony to compare it to. We seperated from the family on the tour and Emiliano so we could go to the mass held in st peters. When in Rome right? It was completely in Italian, plus mel and I both aren't catholic but we enjoyed listening and just staring at how ornate the walls were in front of us. Once mass was over we met up with Emiliano to grab a drink with 2 of his girl friends he worked with. Though we found Italians to be much nicer then the French, these girls were not the nicest. They seemed a little fake towards us and then though they all spoke perfect English (one was American) they spoke almost all Italian while we sat there. Not a fan. Emiliano took us back home on his scooter so we could make dinner at his apartment. He made some pasta and we had some gelato and then he tried to have us watch this horrible movie that made us both want to die. Something about asian ninjas who have powers while fighting or something. We were
wiped out so we went to bed. We got up early to head to the airport on trains that were so packed you could barely board them. We were tired irritated and homesick for our non foreign friends who act more normally and understand social cues since we have learned that Italians do not. They are quite an egotistical and pushy culture. Not every Italian is the stallion they think they are haha. French guys are definitely the most hot of Europe, not counting austrailians :). We got to the airport an 1.5hr wary and waited in ticket and security lines which had some of the stupidest ppl we have ever met within them. It was a struggle for people to understand coming 30mins before their flight is not ok nor is wearing your metal studded belt, wallet And sunglasses through the xray machine. A long time later we made it through. Mel and I miss what we now know is American smarts and much more travel experience. The flight went well and the airplane was very nice for a budget airline (easyjet). Stelios, my family friend who lives in Greece whom we are staying with, had emailed me amazingly detailed directions of how to take the bus from the airport to the stop where he would pick us up. We love him already. Stelios and his girlfriend picked us up and we went to the house where we would be staying. So nice to be in a house! We went grocery shopping and then out to dinner to meet up with some of their friends who are all really nice. We ended up goin to a Mexican restaurant where we all had margaritas and nacho and chips and salsa which mel and I had been craving. A perfect end to the day. I forgot to say how we all had slovaki (sp?) a Greek sandwich for lunch which was really delicious. We might get them for lunch today too. The beds were amazing and we already like Greece the best- even though we keep saying that about every place. It is a holiday today so most things are closed so we are laying low- tomorrow will be the acropolis and the parthenon and things like that. We are planning on a day trip to Greek ruins and also a boat tour of 3 of the islands on 2 of our days here as well. Love to all!
<3, Karin
So Sunday morning we woke up and Emiliano our couch surfing host brought us espresso and croissants in bed. I don't think he drinks wine like we savvy travelers do since he still was wearing his sunglasses inside- never a good sign. We all hung out and talked during the morning before mel and I took off to walk around the sights outside of the Vatican before meeting up with Emiliano and the family with whom he was giving a private tour. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and absolutely drowned them in vinegar our new favorite condiment. Pretty sure we will eat it with everything when we was back home. I also discovered my love for anchovies on everything. I think it is the saltiness that gets me. Then we met up with Emiliano who was with a candian Iranian family from Britian. We seem to find these melting pot people everywhere here. The mom was a hoot, she knew a lot of facts about roman history and the Vatican itself- we were way impressed. Even her 10yr old son knew stuff we weren't sure about. Us stupid Americans haha. The museum had gorgeous statues and tapestries by Raphael and we saw lots of incredible art. There was a bathtub pool made of the now extinct purple marble from Egypt which is one of the most expensive things the Vatican owns. We walked through the Sistine chapel which truly lives up to everything anyone has ever said about it. The artwork and detail as well as the amount of stuff to look at was breath taking. You could stay there and stare at the ceiling til your neck breaks from lookin up. They have specially trained shh'ers because you aren't allowed to talk or do anything but look. Eventually we had to move on and we went inside st peters. The size of the cathedral in general is enough to astound you. The letters along the wall apparently are 7.5ft tall which was unbelievable until we saw ppl up on a balcony to compare it to. We seperated from the family on the tour and Emiliano so we could go to the mass held in st peters. When in Rome right? It was completely in Italian, plus mel and I both aren't catholic but we enjoyed listening and just staring at how ornate the walls were in front of us. Once mass was over we met up with Emiliano to grab a drink with 2 of his girl friends he worked with. Though we found Italians to be much nicer then the French, these girls were not the nicest. They seemed a little fake towards us and then though they all spoke perfect English (one was American) they spoke almost all Italian while we sat there. Not a fan. Emiliano took us back home on his scooter so we could make dinner at his apartment. He made some pasta and we had some gelato and then he tried to have us watch this horrible movie that made us both want to die. Something about asian ninjas who have powers while fighting or something. We were
wiped out so we went to bed. We got up early to head to the airport on trains that were so packed you could barely board them. We were tired irritated and homesick for our non foreign friends who act more normally and understand social cues since we have learned that Italians do not. They are quite an egotistical and pushy culture. Not every Italian is the stallion they think they are haha. French guys are definitely the most hot of Europe, not counting austrailians :). We got to the airport an 1.5hr wary and waited in ticket and security lines which had some of the stupidest ppl we have ever met within them. It was a struggle for people to understand coming 30mins before their flight is not ok nor is wearing your metal studded belt, wallet And sunglasses through the xray machine. A long time later we made it through. Mel and I miss what we now know is American smarts and much more travel experience. The flight went well and the airplane was very nice for a budget airline (easyjet). Stelios, my family friend who lives in Greece whom we are staying with, had emailed me amazingly detailed directions of how to take the bus from the airport to the stop where he would pick us up. We love him already. Stelios and his girlfriend picked us up and we went to the house where we would be staying. So nice to be in a house! We went grocery shopping and then out to dinner to meet up with some of their friends who are all really nice. We ended up goin to a Mexican restaurant where we all had margaritas and nacho and chips and salsa which mel and I had been craving. A perfect end to the day. I forgot to say how we all had slovaki (sp?) a Greek sandwich for lunch which was really delicious. We might get them for lunch today too. The beds were amazing and we already like Greece the best- even though we keep saying that about every place. It is a holiday today so most things are closed so we are laying low- tomorrow will be the acropolis and the parthenon and things like that. We are planning on a day trip to Greek ruins and also a boat tour of 3 of the islands on 2 of our days here as well. Love to all!
<3, Karin
Monday, October 26, 2009
Best hostel night in recent history...
Okay so let me start by saying we have gone through daylight savings here and since apparently the U.S. missed the memo we are all screwed up on our time and when we head to Greece tomorrow we are going to be another hour different! Anyways let me explai. The blog title... This one is hilarious but if you want to laugh harder you have to watch kares rendition and accent that goes along with it!
So Michelle our crazy Kenyan/Asian roommate that fears malaria infested Mosquitos had quite the night... After dinner with our brother and sister friends from LA which was fun and we went down the coolest streets, we arrive home to Michelle still awake which was fine. So Jonathan our amazing gay roommate comes home around the same time and we are all just talking about our days until Michelle abruptly sits up and kare says 'what more Mosquitos?' She goes no, I got the diarhea all day. We all just start cracking up. For the simple reason that we don't really know this lady and man, TMI!!! So she head to the bathroom holding her stomach and moaning while we are still laughing! Our hostel is so quiet you can hear a pin drop... Nextthing we hear is a mini explosion and we start laughing again and she yells Sorry!
She comes back in as we are still laughing and we say oh what'd you eat? She says well maybe I had bad meat for lunch and then I ate a ton of spinach for dinner! Well hello lady! Rule number one, not feeling well? Eating spinach isn't going to calm your stomach! So we say maybe drinki g water would help... And the next words out of her mouth are epic...! She goes (in an asian accent) 'my asshole hurts I am going to go put some cream on it.' At this point the 3 of us are dying! And we are all facebooking each other and like randomly would bust out laughing it was so funny!
Yesterday we moved out of the hostel And headed to Emilianos. We are couch surfing with him last night and tonight. He is awesome! He is a tour guide for 5 star hotels here and knows the families that own the Lakers and the Suns. So he is pretty much a baller!!! After hanging out and talking with him, we head to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and the place where Julius Cesar was apparently killed. They were all so cool, we did a lot of walking yesterday. Had some bomb gelato by the Pantheon by a place recommended to us by a college friend! The sites were so packed so we came, we saw, we took pictures and peaced out!
We headed to dinner one last nigt with our LA friends and Emiliano joined us and we spent 4 hour there. Pretty sure 10ish people left due to our volume control! Emi took us on vespa rides back to his place and this morning he is taking us on a tour of the Vantican which is great and free. Much better than a 45€ tour I am sure! So we are excited about that!
It's our last day in Rome, which is sad. It's such a great city, so much to see and such a vast amount of history!! The ruins of the city are unfathomable! We are gettin up very early tomorrow to head to the airport and Greece which we are looking forward to! One whole week in the same place! Lookout! :)
Alright we love and miss youall :)
So Michelle our crazy Kenyan/Asian roommate that fears malaria infested Mosquitos had quite the night... After dinner with our brother and sister friends from LA which was fun and we went down the coolest streets, we arrive home to Michelle still awake which was fine. So Jonathan our amazing gay roommate comes home around the same time and we are all just talking about our days until Michelle abruptly sits up and kare says 'what more Mosquitos?' She goes no, I got the diarhea all day. We all just start cracking up. For the simple reason that we don't really know this lady and man, TMI!!! So she head to the bathroom holding her stomach and moaning while we are still laughing! Our hostel is so quiet you can hear a pin drop... Nextthing we hear is a mini explosion and we start laughing again and she yells Sorry!
She comes back in as we are still laughing and we say oh what'd you eat? She says well maybe I had bad meat for lunch and then I ate a ton of spinach for dinner! Well hello lady! Rule number one, not feeling well? Eating spinach isn't going to calm your stomach! So we say maybe drinki g water would help... And the next words out of her mouth are epic...! She goes (in an asian accent) 'my asshole hurts I am going to go put some cream on it.' At this point the 3 of us are dying! And we are all facebooking each other and like randomly would bust out laughing it was so funny!
Yesterday we moved out of the hostel And headed to Emilianos. We are couch surfing with him last night and tonight. He is awesome! He is a tour guide for 5 star hotels here and knows the families that own the Lakers and the Suns. So he is pretty much a baller!!! After hanging out and talking with him, we head to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and the place where Julius Cesar was apparently killed. They were all so cool, we did a lot of walking yesterday. Had some bomb gelato by the Pantheon by a place recommended to us by a college friend! The sites were so packed so we came, we saw, we took pictures and peaced out!
We headed to dinner one last nigt with our LA friends and Emiliano joined us and we spent 4 hour there. Pretty sure 10ish people left due to our volume control! Emi took us on vespa rides back to his place and this morning he is taking us on a tour of the Vantican which is great and free. Much better than a 45€ tour I am sure! So we are excited about that!
It's our last day in Rome, which is sad. It's such a great city, so much to see and such a vast amount of history!! The ruins of the city are unfathomable! We are gettin up very early tomorrow to head to the airport and Greece which we are looking forward to! One whole week in the same place! Lookout! :)
Alright we love and miss youall :)
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Photos
Note to those who do not know... We can't post our pictures to the blog but we have been uploading pictures onto facebook from my iPhone! Feel free to see our photo blog through my mobile uploads album. :)
The Lists and other stuff you have been dying to know!! :)
Okay so there are things that we keep leaving out so we have been leaving notes to ourselves to remember!!
New Australian Words We Are Going to Adopt:
1. Jandals and Thongs: Flip Flops
2. Piss: drunk-- Used in a sentence: Man I am a piss head tonight!
3. Dodgy: Shady
4. Heaps: Alot--- Sentance: There were heaps of Mates there.
5. Mates: Friends
6. Cardy: a Cardigan
7. Jumper: Sweatshirt
8. Reckon: Right?-- Sentence: Thats great I reckon...
How you can tell we are Americans:
1. We aren't wearing skinny jeans... Both male and female wear them here and honestly I am starting to like it.
2. We don't have awesome sexy boots on... with our skinny jeans. (But it may be a purchase in the future)
3. No matter how hard we try our scarves don't look as cool tied as theirs do!
4. We are wearing sweats... Similar to the beggars :)
5. We are wearing nikes
6. We aren't wearing scrunchies... and everytime we see one wearing them we reinact the scene from Sex and the City and Carrie and Berger--- ps. couldn't remember his name but our gay roommate surely can!
7. Our jackets aren't made of leather nor do they have a fitted belt as a fashion statement!
8. Our hats are NOT berets!
9. We are not wearing tights with shorts although we wish we were!
10. We ARE wearing colors... they only wear black here. Seriously.
11. We forgot our multi and electric colored backpacks back at home or in the 80's same difference :)
Top things we brought to Europe
1. Blanket
2. Corkscrew bottle opener
3. Let's go! Book
4. Over the counter drugs
5. iPhone and iTouch
6. Bag lock
7. Comfy shoes minus mel
8. Matching outfits... Lots of them!!!
Things we wish we would have brought
1. A book to trade in at the hostels
2. Mary Poppins bag
3. A sleeping bag
4. Dressy going out clothes and something to wear to the beach (which would only fit in the mary poppins bag)
5. Rosetta Stone
6. A Towel
7. Shower shoes for kare so she didn't need to buy Barcelona ones
8. A wifi hot spot plug in/internet card
9. Cool European boots everyone has but us... would need the MP bag for this.
10. Vitamin C and Airborne tablets
11. An American drinking song other than the national anthem... It's a long song!
12. MORE MONEY! :)
Okay enough of the lists, here is more stuff we keep forgetting but you need to know :)
We have devided the french might hate us because everytime we swear we say Pardon my French...! Not gonna lie, that would make me mad too! But they are not friendly. In general.
In our Italian Villa we found Stefano's much which consisted of Pomp and Circumstance as well as swan lake. I got a nice ballet put on by Karin which was great and don't worry, recorded. Also in our villa was a random array of decorations. The more I looked at them the more I got confused! We also found an English Slang book that kept us entertained for a few hours... It was hilarious! They think we are crazy and by the looks of our slang we are!
Pickle:
So Karin touched on the craziness of Pickle but he was great! He was always out of control... When we first met him he was like no, no drinking, haven'y slept for 35 hours and had just flown from Berlin. Next thing I know he's running down the stairs to get more wine before the stores close. Flash forward a few hours and he's having a lighter party in our hostel. And Sam is yelling 'Do less Pickel, do way less!' We were laughing so hard at him. The lighter party when on for a solid 2 minutes it was greatness. Honestly one of my favorite 2 minutes of my life! Then when we find him in Florence when knew the city had just taken a 180 degree turn. In Florence he was calm until next thing I knew he was naked in the pool. We again we yelling do less and just laughing so hard! He got out and then we went to find Sam, to no avail, so we started walking to the Kebab shop. (For all our friends reading this, Kebab shops= Los Betos and Taco Bell!) Along the way I had to swiftly kick every ATM machine because they wouldn't give him the money he didn't have! Then we found Kare and Matty and he made me give him a piggy back ride. He proceeded to run and jump and Kare, practically tackling her. It was seriously pure hilarity. When we got back to the hostel he decided shaving his head was a good plan. The mohawk looks sexy, or so we told him. In the morning he tried to convince me to pack his bag which I didn't do. And then finally looked at himself in the mirror and said... Wow, how Metro! He was so great!
What Vespas save in air pollution they double in noise pollution! They seem great but we have almost been run over by many and beeped at by millions! You all know we aren't patient enough to wait for the walking sign to come up!
The drivers here and on a death march! They apparently don't believe in stop signs... And they don't care a lick about pedestrians... We have found out the hard way!
It gets dark here super early, which in turn makes us tired and go to bed early. But we have only done that during our sickness which we think we are officially over!
Kare had to superglue the crack in my heel. It was so painful for me to wear shoes for a few days and so we finally invested in some super glue and I wore kares shoes for a few days which has made things a lot better!
We are definitely going to need a spa day soon... Pedis and a hair salon session are calling our names! :)
And last but not least... What we miss about America!
1. PHONES and TEXT MESSAGING
2. Free internet... People are stingy here!
3. Taco Bell!!! mmmmm and any kind of Mexican food. Apparently no one knows what they are missing here!
4. Our full wardrobes... When you finally see our pictures we are wearing the same few outfits in all of them!
5. The pure convienvce of America!
6. Well of course all of you!
7. Real sandwiches with MUSTARD!
8. Vegetables and Fruits... All the wheat is not good for my allergy to gluten! oops!
9. Chinese food!
10. American TV!
11. American movies... We want to see so many new movies!
12. Country Music!
13. That's all I can think of but there are lots!!!
Oh and that weird thing Kare was talking about in the previous post was called Rocket Salad. Which was really just arugula lettuce... But Rocket Salad sounds waaay cooler!
Wow two in one day! Love and miss you all! Less than a month which is craziness! xoxo
Ciao for now!
Melanie
New Australian Words We Are Going to Adopt:
1. Jandals and Thongs: Flip Flops
2. Piss: drunk-- Used in a sentence: Man I am a piss head tonight!
3. Dodgy: Shady
4. Heaps: Alot--- Sentance: There were heaps of Mates there.
5. Mates: Friends
6. Cardy: a Cardigan
7. Jumper: Sweatshirt
8. Reckon: Right?-- Sentence: Thats great I reckon...
How you can tell we are Americans:
1. We aren't wearing skinny jeans... Both male and female wear them here and honestly I am starting to like it.
2. We don't have awesome sexy boots on... with our skinny jeans. (But it may be a purchase in the future)
3. No matter how hard we try our scarves don't look as cool tied as theirs do!
4. We are wearing sweats... Similar to the beggars :)
5. We are wearing nikes
6. We aren't wearing scrunchies... and everytime we see one wearing them we reinact the scene from Sex and the City and Carrie and Berger--- ps. couldn't remember his name but our gay roommate surely can!
7. Our jackets aren't made of leather nor do they have a fitted belt as a fashion statement!
8. Our hats are NOT berets!
9. We are not wearing tights with shorts although we wish we were!
10. We ARE wearing colors... they only wear black here. Seriously.
11. We forgot our multi and electric colored backpacks back at home or in the 80's same difference :)
Top things we brought to Europe
1. Blanket
2. Corkscrew bottle opener
3. Let's go! Book
4. Over the counter drugs
5. iPhone and iTouch
6. Bag lock
7. Comfy shoes minus mel
8. Matching outfits... Lots of them!!!
Things we wish we would have brought
1. A book to trade in at the hostels
2. Mary Poppins bag
3. A sleeping bag
4. Dressy going out clothes and something to wear to the beach (which would only fit in the mary poppins bag)
5. Rosetta Stone
6. A Towel
7. Shower shoes for kare so she didn't need to buy Barcelona ones
8. A wifi hot spot plug in/internet card
9. Cool European boots everyone has but us... would need the MP bag for this.
10. Vitamin C and Airborne tablets
11. An American drinking song other than the national anthem... It's a long song!
12. MORE MONEY! :)
Okay enough of the lists, here is more stuff we keep forgetting but you need to know :)
We have devided the french might hate us because everytime we swear we say Pardon my French...! Not gonna lie, that would make me mad too! But they are not friendly. In general.
In our Italian Villa we found Stefano's much which consisted of Pomp and Circumstance as well as swan lake. I got a nice ballet put on by Karin which was great and don't worry, recorded. Also in our villa was a random array of decorations. The more I looked at them the more I got confused! We also found an English Slang book that kept us entertained for a few hours... It was hilarious! They think we are crazy and by the looks of our slang we are!
Pickle:
So Karin touched on the craziness of Pickle but he was great! He was always out of control... When we first met him he was like no, no drinking, haven'y slept for 35 hours and had just flown from Berlin. Next thing I know he's running down the stairs to get more wine before the stores close. Flash forward a few hours and he's having a lighter party in our hostel. And Sam is yelling 'Do less Pickel, do way less!' We were laughing so hard at him. The lighter party when on for a solid 2 minutes it was greatness. Honestly one of my favorite 2 minutes of my life! Then when we find him in Florence when knew the city had just taken a 180 degree turn. In Florence he was calm until next thing I knew he was naked in the pool. We again we yelling do less and just laughing so hard! He got out and then we went to find Sam, to no avail, so we started walking to the Kebab shop. (For all our friends reading this, Kebab shops= Los Betos and Taco Bell!) Along the way I had to swiftly kick every ATM machine because they wouldn't give him the money he didn't have! Then we found Kare and Matty and he made me give him a piggy back ride. He proceeded to run and jump and Kare, practically tackling her. It was seriously pure hilarity. When we got back to the hostel he decided shaving his head was a good plan. The mohawk looks sexy, or so we told him. In the morning he tried to convince me to pack his bag which I didn't do. And then finally looked at himself in the mirror and said... Wow, how Metro! He was so great!
What Vespas save in air pollution they double in noise pollution! They seem great but we have almost been run over by many and beeped at by millions! You all know we aren't patient enough to wait for the walking sign to come up!
The drivers here and on a death march! They apparently don't believe in stop signs... And they don't care a lick about pedestrians... We have found out the hard way!
It gets dark here super early, which in turn makes us tired and go to bed early. But we have only done that during our sickness which we think we are officially over!
Kare had to superglue the crack in my heel. It was so painful for me to wear shoes for a few days and so we finally invested in some super glue and I wore kares shoes for a few days which has made things a lot better!
We are definitely going to need a spa day soon... Pedis and a hair salon session are calling our names! :)
And last but not least... What we miss about America!
1. PHONES and TEXT MESSAGING
2. Free internet... People are stingy here!
3. Taco Bell!!! mmmmm and any kind of Mexican food. Apparently no one knows what they are missing here!
4. Our full wardrobes... When you finally see our pictures we are wearing the same few outfits in all of them!
5. The pure convienvce of America!
6. Well of course all of you!
7. Real sandwiches with MUSTARD!
8. Vegetables and Fruits... All the wheat is not good for my allergy to gluten! oops!
9. Chinese food!
10. American TV!
11. American movies... We want to see so many new movies!
12. Country Music!
13. That's all I can think of but there are lots!!!
Oh and that weird thing Kare was talking about in the previous post was called Rocket Salad. Which was really just arugula lettuce... But Rocket Salad sounds waaay cooler!
Wow two in one day! Love and miss you all! Less than a month which is craziness! xoxo
Ciao for now!
Melanie
When in Rome...
Ciao...
We did decide to stay the extra night in Florence to rest up and get better. It was a terrible rainy day so we just got take away pizza and called it a night after watching some one tree hill (one three hill to the old wolfpack haha) on melanies itouch. We went to bed around 9pm so even with needing a lot of rest, we were up around 830am. We thought we would go down to the train station early so that we could use the internet we had been deprived of during our florence stay. We left Stefano his statue of liberty of bourbon and also bought him a gelato cake since he so generously let us use his villa for free for 5 days. what a good start to couchsurfing haha. when we got down to the train station in signa the internet place was closed...maybe things arent open in florence on fridays? idk...it was 10am so not like it was too early. oh well. we hopped on our train crazy person free this time and rode into firenze station to get on our train to rome. we arrived with about 30mins before the next train left so we got some orange juice for our vitamin c treatment to get better and hung out trying to ignore the obnoxious umbrella weilding solicitors bothering everyone. those people were one of my least favorite things about florence. it didnt help that it rained half of the time we were there so they seemed to always be out. once our train track was posted we headed over to the train to board and hang out. We saw that the first car wasnt too full so decided ust to get on that one. as we lugged our bags in the area we realized our friend Tony from our cinque terre just so happened to be in that car too! and just happened to be heading to rome as well. such a small world when you start running into people you know in europe. the train ride was good despite me drinking too much orange juice and having to pee in the nasty train bathroom which i typically try to avoid...ive decided the trains in europe are great. despite the stops that they make, the gentle rocking and the italian countryside flying by just puts you right to sleep. ive had some great naps on the train. once we arrived in rome we said goodbye to tony who was staying at a hostel a bit down from ours. we checked in and then headed over to the spanish steps which were about a 25min walk from our hostel. the steps were beautiful and also surrounded by fabulous expensive stores we wished we could shop in. Mel got some awesome lemon shrimp alfredo like pizza which was really amazing. we headed back to our hostel for the free pasta dinner that they provide. We ate with our roommates, michelle (an asian kenyan who spoke english) and jonathan? i think his name is... a gay guy who is super fun. we watched 40 year old virgin with a bunch of others in the common room followed by pretty woman- one of the best movies ever. we had been craving vegetables so we went to the market and had sliced tomatoes along with our pasta which was really good. i ran upstairs to grab something and what did i find when walking into our 4 bd room? michelle, the 4'8 asian kenyan, prob age 40, was standing on top of the desk holding one of jonathans flipflops. feeling awkward, i tried to close the door but she told me she was trying to kill misquitos because in kenya they carry malaria. even though we were in rome currently...idk. it was an interesting little experience. after our movies we went to bed. michelle was already sleeping having gone to bed at 9pm. we came in at about 1030 and jonathan was home by 11. as we all tried to sleep i realized i had the ghetto bed. despite the springs stabbing into my back the mattress wouldnt have been that uncomfortable if it werent for the extreme tilt to it- as though a 500lb man had been laying on the one edge for about a week. this made my sleeping a bit of a challenge along with the concrete pillow. i think melanie fared slightly better but this was no ritz carlton. at least its clean. when we got up in the morning we had breakfast and lattes since we didnt know how to read any of the other options. our italian has not improved yet haha. we walked down to the colleseum (sp? i know that looks wrong) and decided to do a guided tour of both it and palatino hill. the colleseum was exactly how you have heard it to be. Truly breath taking. it is so huge and intriquite...plus to know what went on inside it is really incredible. there were about 6-8 gladiator shows a year where at least 35-40ppl died each time. overall they predicted that about a quarter million people died inside the arena. we both loved it. next we headed over to the palatino hill where we had a british tour guide who reminded me of my mom. idk why but mel agreed. this tour ended up being both of our favorite things we have gone to see during the whole trip. the ruins and the stories behind them were so interesting as well as receiving a spark notes edition of ancient roman history. we got to see the rarest marble in the world, purple marble from egypt, as well as bright yellow marble from northern africa. the leftovers from the palace in which 9 roman emperors ruled from and added to was amazing. this place was so huge it was almost unfathomable. pretty sure i took about 300 pictures so it is well documented haha. After this tour we headed down to the roman forum and walked along the main street. a lot was being excavated and it was said that the real rome is about 9 meters above everything that was build back in ancient times. mel and i agreed that this was our favorite touring day all together in combination of everything we got to see. we walked back to our hostel and stopped for lunch at a little trattoria where we got smoked ham pizza and prawns with arugala on it which was called something funny but i cant think of it in the moment. ill have to ask mel to remind me. we met a sister and brother from la at the next table over and are planning to go out for dinner and drink at 7ish tonight with them. they are just here for 10days and its nice to hang out with some yanks for a change. siesta time now, hi to all and we will post again soon!
prego,
<3 Karin
We did decide to stay the extra night in Florence to rest up and get better. It was a terrible rainy day so we just got take away pizza and called it a night after watching some one tree hill (one three hill to the old wolfpack haha) on melanies itouch. We went to bed around 9pm so even with needing a lot of rest, we were up around 830am. We thought we would go down to the train station early so that we could use the internet we had been deprived of during our florence stay. We left Stefano his statue of liberty of bourbon and also bought him a gelato cake since he so generously let us use his villa for free for 5 days. what a good start to couchsurfing haha. when we got down to the train station in signa the internet place was closed...maybe things arent open in florence on fridays? idk...it was 10am so not like it was too early. oh well. we hopped on our train crazy person free this time and rode into firenze station to get on our train to rome. we arrived with about 30mins before the next train left so we got some orange juice for our vitamin c treatment to get better and hung out trying to ignore the obnoxious umbrella weilding solicitors bothering everyone. those people were one of my least favorite things about florence. it didnt help that it rained half of the time we were there so they seemed to always be out. once our train track was posted we headed over to the train to board and hang out. We saw that the first car wasnt too full so decided ust to get on that one. as we lugged our bags in the area we realized our friend Tony from our cinque terre just so happened to be in that car too! and just happened to be heading to rome as well. such a small world when you start running into people you know in europe. the train ride was good despite me drinking too much orange juice and having to pee in the nasty train bathroom which i typically try to avoid...ive decided the trains in europe are great. despite the stops that they make, the gentle rocking and the italian countryside flying by just puts you right to sleep. ive had some great naps on the train. once we arrived in rome we said goodbye to tony who was staying at a hostel a bit down from ours. we checked in and then headed over to the spanish steps which were about a 25min walk from our hostel. the steps were beautiful and also surrounded by fabulous expensive stores we wished we could shop in. Mel got some awesome lemon shrimp alfredo like pizza which was really amazing. we headed back to our hostel for the free pasta dinner that they provide. We ate with our roommates, michelle (an asian kenyan who spoke english) and jonathan? i think his name is... a gay guy who is super fun. we watched 40 year old virgin with a bunch of others in the common room followed by pretty woman- one of the best movies ever. we had been craving vegetables so we went to the market and had sliced tomatoes along with our pasta which was really good. i ran upstairs to grab something and what did i find when walking into our 4 bd room? michelle, the 4'8 asian kenyan, prob age 40, was standing on top of the desk holding one of jonathans flipflops. feeling awkward, i tried to close the door but she told me she was trying to kill misquitos because in kenya they carry malaria. even though we were in rome currently...idk. it was an interesting little experience. after our movies we went to bed. michelle was already sleeping having gone to bed at 9pm. we came in at about 1030 and jonathan was home by 11. as we all tried to sleep i realized i had the ghetto bed. despite the springs stabbing into my back the mattress wouldnt have been that uncomfortable if it werent for the extreme tilt to it- as though a 500lb man had been laying on the one edge for about a week. this made my sleeping a bit of a challenge along with the concrete pillow. i think melanie fared slightly better but this was no ritz carlton. at least its clean. when we got up in the morning we had breakfast and lattes since we didnt know how to read any of the other options. our italian has not improved yet haha. we walked down to the colleseum (sp? i know that looks wrong) and decided to do a guided tour of both it and palatino hill. the colleseum was exactly how you have heard it to be. Truly breath taking. it is so huge and intriquite...plus to know what went on inside it is really incredible. there were about 6-8 gladiator shows a year where at least 35-40ppl died each time. overall they predicted that about a quarter million people died inside the arena. we both loved it. next we headed over to the palatino hill where we had a british tour guide who reminded me of my mom. idk why but mel agreed. this tour ended up being both of our favorite things we have gone to see during the whole trip. the ruins and the stories behind them were so interesting as well as receiving a spark notes edition of ancient roman history. we got to see the rarest marble in the world, purple marble from egypt, as well as bright yellow marble from northern africa. the leftovers from the palace in which 9 roman emperors ruled from and added to was amazing. this place was so huge it was almost unfathomable. pretty sure i took about 300 pictures so it is well documented haha. After this tour we headed down to the roman forum and walked along the main street. a lot was being excavated and it was said that the real rome is about 9 meters above everything that was build back in ancient times. mel and i agreed that this was our favorite touring day all together in combination of everything we got to see. we walked back to our hostel and stopped for lunch at a little trattoria where we got smoked ham pizza and prawns with arugala on it which was called something funny but i cant think of it in the moment. ill have to ask mel to remind me. we met a sister and brother from la at the next table over and are planning to go out for dinner and drink at 7ish tonight with them. they are just here for 10days and its nice to hang out with some yanks for a change. siesta time now, hi to all and we will post again soon!
prego,
<3 Karin
Thursday, October 22, 2009
its a small world after all
so lots has happened. since we lost ourselves we did come home and cook ourselves quite a delicious pasta meal that carlo, our fun neighbor helped us with because we had to light a gas stove and turn on the actual gas carton itself. it was delicious and we watched miracle on melanies ipod after and fell asleep. we woke up in the morning both feeling like crap. sore throats and melanie possibly had a fever. not good. we really wanted to go see david even though it was raining out so we headed down to town on the train. i accidently lent my pen to a crazy person at the train stop (im not joking, definitely a mentally unstable man) and when he wouldnt give it back i snatched it and ran away while he starting screaming and moaning. a good start to the day. we got over to the line for the david which ended up taking us about 50mins to get in. the wait wasnt so bad. there was a photography exhibit by robert maplethrope??? something like that, im terrible with names, and it was a study of the body as a sculpture through photo. it was actually really awesome, another one of our favorite museum experiences. we saw the david who was much bigger than we were expecting. the statue is quite amazing and it was definitely worth it to go in. we hopped in on a tour for a second and learned that his leather strap he is holding becomes thin and narrow because michaelangelo ran out of marble. an interesting fact. we walked through another statue room and saw lots of gothic paintings and religious pre renissance art. after we were through we decided to grab some lunch. as we were ordering our pizza from one of the billions of tiny cafes near the duomo all of a sudden we heard 'girls! Karin!' being shouted. we look out the doorways and who do we see? our aussie friends sam matty and pickle on bikes in the middle of florence. what are the chances. they said they were looking for lunch and happened to glance in that shop and saw us. they had gotten into florence last night and were staying in a hostel in the city. things just got much more interesting in florence. we all ate together and then they biked off to see a couple more things and we arranged to meet up at their hostel to hang out for the night around 530. we all hung out on the terrace of the hostel to watch the sunset and then hung out with a bunch of other travelers at the bar. this hostel was pretty cool with a pool and sauna which we all indulged in. that was a lot of fun. pickle shaved his head into a mohawk, i tried unsuccessfully to go watch the phillies game, pickle mooned everyone on the dance floor and matty tried to hold everything together. we lost sam for a bit but found him outside smoking after about an 1hr. we still arent sure where he went haha. in addition to it all we then missed our last train of the night to head back up to signa so we crashed with the boys in their hostel room. in the morning the boys headed to venice and we back to our villa. we still were not feeling well so we proceeded to take a 3 hr nap which was definitely amazing. we were going to try to leave today but think we are going to take it slow and just leave tomorrow well rested. im really excited for rome-and then its greece time! we were just talking about how time has flown, already we are just about halfway through our trip! being sick definitely makes us a little homesick for the comforts of the states. we have compiled a couple lists that might end up being typed in rome tomorrow when we have wireless. they entail things that we have missed in our last couple blogs that need to be mentioned, top things we are glad we brought and what we miss. stay tuned, i know that is so exciting you all wont be able to wait.
love and kisses,
Karin
love and kisses,
Karin
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Florence and a layover in Pisa...
Hey everyone, we don't have access to much internet here in Florence so this might be the only one for this city... Hopefully Rome is better.
We went out the last night in Riomaggiore, it was a blast and we had to catch a train at 630... Well that didn't happen, we missed it by 2 minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one so we went back woke the Aussies back up again and then headed back to the train station...
We probably looked like hot messes because that's how we felt and what we get for staying up before we were to leave. So we headed to Pisa, got off the train checked our bags and headed to the Leaning Tower. It was really cool, not as tall as I would have thought but still really nice! We got back on the Bus--- which was intense because we didn't know you buy tickets before you get on there... OOPS!
Once at the station we headed to meet our couch surfing friend. We accidentally got off at the wrong stop and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere... So we called him and he came and got us. He is letting us stay in this guesthouse whcih is amazing... I have taken 2 baths so far and after this I will be heading back for some more... I think we have both run ourselves down and need to drink some OJ and rest up. Who knew that crepes, belgian waffles with nutella and pizza doesn't have the greatest nutritional value.
Florence is great, we walked around last night and then came home early for an early bed time. Today we walked around again got ourselves a little more lost and then went to some museums. We saw the Costume Museum which was so interesting and awesome., Apparently they dig people up and take their clothes off and put them in this museum... May they rest in peace? Don't think so!
We are going to make dinner at our little 'villa' and go to bed early again. David is on our agenda tomorrow and then we'll see what else we can get ourselves into. We have our eyes and a 5£ fake burberry scarf!
We are considering heading to Rome early and then making time for a day trip to Naples and Capri. Probably going to happen...
Miss and love everyone... Kare is pulling for the Phillies and I am just following football. Read about some awkward Balloon Boy... Oh the things people do!
xoxo
M and K
We went out the last night in Riomaggiore, it was a blast and we had to catch a train at 630... Well that didn't happen, we missed it by 2 minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one so we went back woke the Aussies back up again and then headed back to the train station...
We probably looked like hot messes because that's how we felt and what we get for staying up before we were to leave. So we headed to Pisa, got off the train checked our bags and headed to the Leaning Tower. It was really cool, not as tall as I would have thought but still really nice! We got back on the Bus--- which was intense because we didn't know you buy tickets before you get on there... OOPS!
Once at the station we headed to meet our couch surfing friend. We accidentally got off at the wrong stop and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere... So we called him and he came and got us. He is letting us stay in this guesthouse whcih is amazing... I have taken 2 baths so far and after this I will be heading back for some more... I think we have both run ourselves down and need to drink some OJ and rest up. Who knew that crepes, belgian waffles with nutella and pizza doesn't have the greatest nutritional value.
Florence is great, we walked around last night and then came home early for an early bed time. Today we walked around again got ourselves a little more lost and then went to some museums. We saw the Costume Museum which was so interesting and awesome., Apparently they dig people up and take their clothes off and put them in this museum... May they rest in peace? Don't think so!
We are going to make dinner at our little 'villa' and go to bed early again. David is on our agenda tomorrow and then we'll see what else we can get ourselves into. We have our eyes and a 5£ fake burberry scarf!
We are considering heading to Rome early and then making time for a day trip to Naples and Capri. Probably going to happen...
Miss and love everyone... Kare is pulling for the Phillies and I am just following football. Read about some awkward Balloon Boy... Oh the things people do!
xoxo
M and K
Sunday, October 18, 2009
5 hour hike and some hottie Aussies
Well it's siesta time here in our little town so I figured i'd write a new, long blog. Excuse any typos because although it's a pet peeve of mine, this itouch shenanigans is making me get over it! :)
After my blog on thursday we spotted some hotties walking up to our dorm from across the street and being the creepers we are we decided to go do some research! Haha! So we met them and hung out, got some amazing pizza and decided to go to THE bar haha, it's a tiny town so there is only one. Then we just went to bed and wanted to be fully rested for our hike. We ended up hiking with the Aussies, they do have names, Matty and Sam. The hike took us 5 hours and you go thru these amazing towns. The first hike was quick and we thought it'd be a breeze... Wrong! The next few were directly uphill... Literally 5000 steps! :) I'm definitely not in the shape I used to be and kare was struggling too. We stopped in one town to get large waters, next town gelato and finally a sandwich at the end. Don't worry we have a million pictures when we get home!
At the last city there is a sandy beach which we semi laid down and the boys snorkeled... Then we played some frisbee and took the train back to riomaggiore-- our city. The boys call it chicken teryaki aka cinque terre. We were so exhausted from the hike and went to watch the sunset which was goregeous. The color of the water here is unbelievable. It almost looks fake! We watched the sunset then decided to make a big thing of pasta in our kitchen we share with the bogs. They cooked and we cleaned up... I told them to feel honored because it doesn't happen often! :) we all just went to sleep and figured we'd go kayaking in the morning.
We woke up to kind of cloudy skies and it was chilly. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast which was amazing and American of us. Then we went to find kayaks only to be told that it was closed for the season! We were so mad, so we took the train to another city and then got over it, had some amazing pesto pizza and started to play frisbee in the town square... It was so fun! Trying to do tricks and catch it mid cartwheel... It was jut Sam kare matt and I. People were definitely staring at the tourists lol. We decided to make our way back to our town and the boys wanted to play beersbee... I think the word is self explainatory!! :) one of kare and I's roomates that's are cute girls from new Zealand accidentally threw the frisbee into the pit of death and so we had to go borrow boat rope and make a makeshift ladder and sam crawled down to get it... He also threw up 15 soccer balls and totally made the local kids day! We played for about 3 hrs then went back to our room to hang out and meet everyone at the bad. We taught them American kings cup rules and for the crew reading this we wanted to teach them thumper :) we met everyone last night and it was a lot of fun!
Today we did a bit more hiking and just really chilled out. Got some postcards and saw k-state won and ku lost which is a double bonus! :) Off to Florence in the morning and the boys might join us there Tuesdayish... This place is absolutely amazing... We locked up our love on the tunnel of love... It legend if you put a lock them is means you'll have good luck so Sam and Matt and us girls wrote on a lock and placed it there today. MAking another big pot of pasta tonight with the guys!
Better get going. Talk to you in Florence! Ciao!
Ps. The word prego in Italian means everything! They say it in response to everything, in greeting... Literally everything!
Lots of love- Melanie
After my blog on thursday we spotted some hotties walking up to our dorm from across the street and being the creepers we are we decided to go do some research! Haha! So we met them and hung out, got some amazing pizza and decided to go to THE bar haha, it's a tiny town so there is only one. Then we just went to bed and wanted to be fully rested for our hike. We ended up hiking with the Aussies, they do have names, Matty and Sam. The hike took us 5 hours and you go thru these amazing towns. The first hike was quick and we thought it'd be a breeze... Wrong! The next few were directly uphill... Literally 5000 steps! :) I'm definitely not in the shape I used to be and kare was struggling too. We stopped in one town to get large waters, next town gelato and finally a sandwich at the end. Don't worry we have a million pictures when we get home!
At the last city there is a sandy beach which we semi laid down and the boys snorkeled... Then we played some frisbee and took the train back to riomaggiore-- our city. The boys call it chicken teryaki aka cinque terre. We were so exhausted from the hike and went to watch the sunset which was goregeous. The color of the water here is unbelievable. It almost looks fake! We watched the sunset then decided to make a big thing of pasta in our kitchen we share with the bogs. They cooked and we cleaned up... I told them to feel honored because it doesn't happen often! :) we all just went to sleep and figured we'd go kayaking in the morning.
We woke up to kind of cloudy skies and it was chilly. We had bacon and eggs for breakfast which was amazing and American of us. Then we went to find kayaks only to be told that it was closed for the season! We were so mad, so we took the train to another city and then got over it, had some amazing pesto pizza and started to play frisbee in the town square... It was so fun! Trying to do tricks and catch it mid cartwheel... It was jut Sam kare matt and I. People were definitely staring at the tourists lol. We decided to make our way back to our town and the boys wanted to play beersbee... I think the word is self explainatory!! :) one of kare and I's roomates that's are cute girls from new Zealand accidentally threw the frisbee into the pit of death and so we had to go borrow boat rope and make a makeshift ladder and sam crawled down to get it... He also threw up 15 soccer balls and totally made the local kids day! We played for about 3 hrs then went back to our room to hang out and meet everyone at the bad. We taught them American kings cup rules and for the crew reading this we wanted to teach them thumper :) we met everyone last night and it was a lot of fun!
Today we did a bit more hiking and just really chilled out. Got some postcards and saw k-state won and ku lost which is a double bonus! :) Off to Florence in the morning and the boys might join us there Tuesdayish... This place is absolutely amazing... We locked up our love on the tunnel of love... It legend if you put a lock them is means you'll have good luck so Sam and Matt and us girls wrote on a lock and placed it there today. MAking another big pot of pasta tonight with the guys!
Better get going. Talk to you in Florence! Ciao!
Ps. The word prego in Italian means everything! They say it in response to everything, in greeting... Literally everything!
Lots of love- Melanie
Friday, October 16, 2009
Crisis adverted 2.0 and the beginning of Cinque Terre
Ciao from Italy! It sucks getting used to a whole new language and the signs but by the time we leave Italy we will be pros!
We left Nice yesterday morning and jumped on the train to Genoa first and had this old anal annie couple in our cabin. It was quite the sight watching her put on her lotion in an OCD way... Sound familiar mom? :) then we got to genoa and had to switch trains. This is where we had a near miss of a crisis. We got nervous and got on the train too early which was headed to Milan. Also known as not where we were heading so we quickly realized it and got off and the next stop and got on our right train 10 minutes later. In the process met the cutest gay couple who wanted my watch and away we went to ct.
Once we got here we fell in love. Probably more than Nice. It has officially moved up to number one and we have only been here 12 hrs!
We watched the sunset at the beach last night with some Aussies! :) we are fans of Aussies... We went out with them last night and are about to meet them for our 6 to 7 hour hike. Bill: you would love this place! And we are wearing our matching arizona fleeces. We will take a picture for you and put it on fb!
We love it here an have already taken 100 plus pictures. Very hilly, so great workout! Love and miss you all! Xoxo
Ly- Melanie
We left Nice yesterday morning and jumped on the train to Genoa first and had this old anal annie couple in our cabin. It was quite the sight watching her put on her lotion in an OCD way... Sound familiar mom? :) then we got to genoa and had to switch trains. This is where we had a near miss of a crisis. We got nervous and got on the train too early which was headed to Milan. Also known as not where we were heading so we quickly realized it and got off and the next stop and got on our right train 10 minutes later. In the process met the cutest gay couple who wanted my watch and away we went to ct.
Once we got here we fell in love. Probably more than Nice. It has officially moved up to number one and we have only been here 12 hrs!
We watched the sunset at the beach last night with some Aussies! :) we are fans of Aussies... We went out with them last night and are about to meet them for our 6 to 7 hour hike. Bill: you would love this place! And we are wearing our matching arizona fleeces. We will take a picture for you and put it on fb!
We love it here an have already taken 100 plus pictures. Very hilly, so great workout! Love and miss you all! Xoxo
Ly- Melanie
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
New itinerary and other fun facts we keep forgetting...
Fun things we keep forgetting
1. Belts are back or never left in Europe...
2. MC Hammer/low crotches pants are totally in here... Cute? Not to these American fashionistas
3. Spicy in Europe has the same kick as vanilla pudding
4. Met a 50 yr old man from Canada that loves my soap opera like me.
5. No wonder the French don't watch tv, it's all American shows dubbed to the french language ie law and order and many others.
6. We have decided if the French hate Americans so much they need to stop listening to britney spears, lady gaga, beyonce and many many more
7. Dogs poop on the sidewalks here and no one picks it up!
8. It's impossible to go hungry here, we bought a baguette for 80 cents
9. Waitresses stand on the sidewalks and recruit you to come eat at their restaurant... A little intimidating to us.
10. Apparently it's okay to start jack hammering the cement outside a hotel at 7 am. If they could understand me I would have a few words for them, none appropriate for our viewing audience.
11. France may be known for topless beaches but unfortunately most of the topless occupNts are 50+ and 50+ pounds overweight.
12. People here have a MUCH smaller personal bubble than we do...
13. We talk way too fast for people here and apparently too loud considering the women on the train next to us were plugging their ears :)
14. Contrary to popular belief 6 euros can buy you 2 bottles of wine 2 baguette 1 block of questionable smelly cheese and a super afternoon.
15. No matter how hard we try we are unable to control the showerheads and the amount of flooding in the bathroom due to unidentifiable circumstances...
New Itinerary...
We changed our flight to 10 days earlier due to the fact that we would rather stay in nice places and not stay as long then stay in ghetto hostel dorms and fear for our stuff and our lives... I'll speak for myself and say I'm pretty sure k was kidding myself that I could handle the backpacking lifestyle! Plus it's thanksgiving and what's the holidays without family... If we stayed here we trade turkey for bratwurst, ham for paninis, greenbean casserole for pasta, and trade the pies for gelato and nutella crepes :)
October 15- cinque terre. Stay 4 nights, leave Monday 19th
October 19- Florence. Stay 4 nights, leave Friday 23rd
October 23- Rome. Stay 4 nights, fly to Athens, Tuesday 27th
October 27- Athens. Stay 6 nights, fly to Milan, Monday 2nd
November 2- Arrive in Milan--- Train directly to Venice
November 2- Venice. Stay 4 nights, leave Friday 6th
November 6- Vienna. Stay 1 night, leave Saturday 7th
November 7- Prague. Stay 4 night, leave Wednesday 11th
November 11- Overnight train to Amsterdam
November 12- Amsterdam. Stay 3 nights, leave Sunday 15th
November 15- London via chunnel from Brussels. Stay 2 nights, leave Tuesday 17th
November 17- Edinburgh. Stay 3 nights, leave Friday 20th
November 20- Fly to Dublin. Stay 3 nights, leave Sunday 22 Kare and Monday 23 Mel
Well that's all for now!!
Au Revoir--- heading east to the Italian coast!
Melanie
1. Belts are back or never left in Europe...
2. MC Hammer/low crotches pants are totally in here... Cute? Not to these American fashionistas
3. Spicy in Europe has the same kick as vanilla pudding
4. Met a 50 yr old man from Canada that loves my soap opera like me.
5. No wonder the French don't watch tv, it's all American shows dubbed to the french language ie law and order and many others.
6. We have decided if the French hate Americans so much they need to stop listening to britney spears, lady gaga, beyonce and many many more
7. Dogs poop on the sidewalks here and no one picks it up!
8. It's impossible to go hungry here, we bought a baguette for 80 cents
9. Waitresses stand on the sidewalks and recruit you to come eat at their restaurant... A little intimidating to us.
10. Apparently it's okay to start jack hammering the cement outside a hotel at 7 am. If they could understand me I would have a few words for them, none appropriate for our viewing audience.
11. France may be known for topless beaches but unfortunately most of the topless occupNts are 50+ and 50+ pounds overweight.
12. People here have a MUCH smaller personal bubble than we do...
13. We talk way too fast for people here and apparently too loud considering the women on the train next to us were plugging their ears :)
14. Contrary to popular belief 6 euros can buy you 2 bottles of wine 2 baguette 1 block of questionable smelly cheese and a super afternoon.
15. No matter how hard we try we are unable to control the showerheads and the amount of flooding in the bathroom due to unidentifiable circumstances...
New Itinerary...
We changed our flight to 10 days earlier due to the fact that we would rather stay in nice places and not stay as long then stay in ghetto hostel dorms and fear for our stuff and our lives... I'll speak for myself and say I'm pretty sure k was kidding myself that I could handle the backpacking lifestyle! Plus it's thanksgiving and what's the holidays without family... If we stayed here we trade turkey for bratwurst, ham for paninis, greenbean casserole for pasta, and trade the pies for gelato and nutella crepes :)
October 15- cinque terre. Stay 4 nights, leave Monday 19th
October 19- Florence. Stay 4 nights, leave Friday 23rd
October 23- Rome. Stay 4 nights, fly to Athens, Tuesday 27th
October 27- Athens. Stay 6 nights, fly to Milan, Monday 2nd
November 2- Arrive in Milan--- Train directly to Venice
November 2- Venice. Stay 4 nights, leave Friday 6th
November 6- Vienna. Stay 1 night, leave Saturday 7th
November 7- Prague. Stay 4 night, leave Wednesday 11th
November 11- Overnight train to Amsterdam
November 12- Amsterdam. Stay 3 nights, leave Sunday 15th
November 15- London via chunnel from Brussels. Stay 2 nights, leave Tuesday 17th
November 17- Edinburgh. Stay 3 nights, leave Friday 20th
November 20- Fly to Dublin. Stay 3 nights, leave Sunday 22 Kare and Monday 23 Mel
Well that's all for now!!
Au Revoir--- heading east to the Italian coast!
Melanie
Nice...our new home in the french riviera
well...the verdict is in. We love nice and plan on a french riviera cruise possibly next summer. The first night we were here we stayed in a hotel that was slightly questionable at first but then ended up being the most comfortable sleep ever. i seriously felt like we were sleeping on memory foam lthough our standards might be a little lower now. We moved to a new hotel our friends from the train told us about, hotel paradis. It is so ridiculously nice, nicer then most budget places you would find in an american beach resort area. we have a private bath and room with a double bed with a tv. we even watched extreme home makeover in french the other night. It is just steps to the beach which is topless and rocky. monday day we took the time to walk around old city and walk up to the top of the chateau with gives a beautiful view of the city and the cereulean blue water. there was a waterfall and little streams running down the side of this mountain like place. all over gorgeous; we could have stood there watching people and the water from above for hours. after finally tearing ourselves away we wazlked through old city which is tiny streets with laundry hanging outside, cobblestone walkways and outdoor cafes everywhere. This place is absolutely adorable. I want to kidnap it and eat it for dinner. after walking around all day we rested in our awesome hotel and then bought two 2€ bottles of wine and sat on the beach watching the sunset drinking and discussing our lives. of course our coversations became more serious as the wine bottles grew emptier :). we met a friend on the beach who was working in nice... he had braces and for some reason this struck us as funny. we contemplated swimming out to the two cruise ships anchored in front of us but decided to wait til next summer to do it a little more legitimately. we got some crepes, one of our favorite french foods along with paninis and also checked out the local quik burger restaurant. we got some delish burgers and a smartie ice cream thing which was ridiculously delicious. these were canadian rachelle-esk smarties, not the american kind. an all in all fabulous day. yesterday we got up and took the train to the next beach down which was `sandy`. by sandy they meant very tiny pebbles though it was nice because it didnt stick to you as much. we laid out on the beach and swam for about 3.5hrs. the water was so warm and nice. as we took our train beach home from villefrache sur mer, we chatted the ear off to 2 american couples we met at the station. we also decided we loved the alert noise of a train arriving. its quite soothing actually- ive found myself singing along to it a couple of times. after we got back we had a siesta (we have more of these here than in spain) and got ready to our out to the restaurant bar strip in old town nice which is about a 5 min walk away. we eneded up going to an irish pub and got hqppy hour drinks and split an appetizer. lo and behold they are playing espn america and what happens to come on? the phillies game four playoff game against the rockies! i was so happy i almost cried. melanie was just excited to be watching baseball not rugby or soccer. we stayed and watched the whole thing and 3 french guys invited us to join their table. only 1 spoke english though the others decided to be creepy and keep staring into my eyes and then told mel she had a nice ass. so the game was over and we left, soon to be harrassed by a car of guys pulling over trying to pick us up. i dont think the french understqnd that they are just being creepy haha.
Today was postcard, pack and laundry day. thank the lord that there was an irish man in the laundrymat because it would have taken us hours and countless euro to figure it out. he walked us through step by step- that stinker here is complicated! we may be ruining all off our clothes but we shall find out soon. we leave for cinque terre in the morning... we,re going to miss this place! best hotel, beautiful weather, the friendliest ppl we,ve met so far. but im sure with italy greece prague amsterdam and the uk- the best is yet to come. yayyyy europe- i love you!
hugs and kisses,
Karin
Today was postcard, pack and laundry day. thank the lord that there was an irish man in the laundrymat because it would have taken us hours and countless euro to figure it out. he walked us through step by step- that stinker here is complicated! we may be ruining all off our clothes but we shall find out soon. we leave for cinque terre in the morning... we,re going to miss this place! best hotel, beautiful weather, the friendliest ppl we,ve met so far. but im sure with italy greece prague amsterdam and the uk- the best is yet to come. yayyyy europe- i love you!
hugs and kisses,
Karin
Monday, October 12, 2009
Fixed the comments section!
Fixed it so now everyone can post comments! We want to hear from everyone so comment away!!
M&K
M&K
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Oops!
Okay--- the post below is a little special ed, I thought I had erased the bottom part so I started over but it was at the bottom and I couldn get down there... So after I say ciao, you don have to continue reading on... Or you can but it may confuse you! It actually kind of does me :)
The glory of typing a miniture book on a touch phone!! :)
Bye lovers!
The glory of typing a miniture book on a touch phone!! :)
Bye lovers!
Crisis adverted...
Bonjour again!
We're laying comfortably in the biggest bed of our trip... Drumroll please, a double that we share. We are not complaining at all! Let me start by relieving some of you worry warts by saying that the crisis was minor and I'll get to it shortly.
Last night we packed our bags and relaxed while the party was getting crazy outside. We went to the supermarket and got pringles and boxed sangria! While at the market some guy said 'sorry, bitch' to Karin which we have decided he didn't mean and probably thought it was a compliment because us Americans are crazy! :) We went back to the hotel and drank the sangria, scarfed down the Pringles and reviewed our time in Barcelona, which we spent a great portion of lost but overall enjoyed it.
We hung out with our wolfpack and then woke up early this morning to shower and head to the train station... Acually when we got up the u of a football game was still going on! Hahaha funny. So we of up caused some comotion downstairs and pretty much ran out of the hotel to get to our train. We blamed it on being Americans and said that's not the way we do it in the US so I am sure they love that response! :)
We got to the station and boarded our 6 hr train ride. I had some americans and a few fellow texans in my car. I took in the scenery and rested up. The water was breath taking. We had a layover in Montpeilier France and got off to get a snack and then board our next train. We see the train we were going to board and it was this sick double decker train with swag :) Kare and I board find our seats and start trying out or sandwiches... All of a sudden it's 5 minutes before the train is to take off, and No ONE is on the train. We're both kinda thinking is this wright? We go back and forth and finally I get off to try figure it out and find out it's wrong... As I'm getting back on to get kare off the train is speaking French to me and kare is running down the steps with all our crap and the door closes on me half way and some guy has to pry the door open to get us out. Seconds later, the train takes off. Hahahaha we were laughing to hard, we almost got on a wrong train to nowhere land... Oops!
We got to Nice, passed all the amazing yachts in Monaco and Cannes. We found our future boat now we just need our made up husbands with their made up millions :) one day, one day. I decided I want to honeymoon in St. Tropez. Karin invited herself :)
We walked the city in Nice and decided to move hostels to the beach tomorrow and stay there the remainder of our trip...
A few observations made:
-French guys are winning the hotness race hands down...
- no one uses phones here like they do in the US, no bluetooths or blackberrys
- they only obese people are american tourists
-we have only seen one gas station since our arrival in Europe in 11 days
Ciao for now! Write more soon!!
The food on the other hand was... Interesting. We really just didn't find anything we loved and we were anxious to get back to the yummy French food. And people are crazy in Spain.
So we spent a little more time with our wolf pack before we departed. We decided that although only knowing them for a few days real time, euro time meant we've known them forever. We may meet up again at some point in Italy but who knows...
So we got up early this morning, showered and went to catch a cab to the train station. Side note: we were I my allowed to have 2 people in the hotel room but obviously we had 4 and we knew this ahead of time. So when we to to get a cab the lady goes oh so you're checking out... What room number? Me being the dumb one I say our real room # and she goes um 2 boys are registered to that room, so maybe a different number? Kare goes oh yeah we must have forgot it and our mom is still in there so... And the lady goes oh well we need to know. So we scramble and pretty much say oh yeah we stayed with them for a night and she was like it isn't okay so we play dumb Americans and say oh well we didn't know because it's okay in America :) which I am sure people love to here. And we just left...
Then we get to the station, board and decide we will sleep on the first train which was 6 hrs. In my car of the train I had a few Americans and some local Texans from Austin. And the view was amazing!!! Just breathtaking.
We're laying comfortably in the biggest bed of our trip... Drumroll please, a double that we share. We are not complaining at all! Let me start by relieving some of you worry warts by saying that the crisis was minor and I'll get to it shortly.
Last night we packed our bags and relaxed while the party was getting crazy outside. We went to the supermarket and got pringles and boxed sangria! While at the market some guy said 'sorry, bitch' to Karin which we have decided he didn't mean and probably thought it was a compliment because us Americans are crazy! :) We went back to the hotel and drank the sangria, scarfed down the Pringles and reviewed our time in Barcelona, which we spent a great portion of lost but overall enjoyed it.
We hung out with our wolfpack and then woke up early this morning to shower and head to the train station... Acually when we got up the u of a football game was still going on! Hahaha funny. So we of up caused some comotion downstairs and pretty much ran out of the hotel to get to our train. We blamed it on being Americans and said that's not the way we do it in the US so I am sure they love that response! :)
We got to the station and boarded our 6 hr train ride. I had some americans and a few fellow texans in my car. I took in the scenery and rested up. The water was breath taking. We had a layover in Montpeilier France and got off to get a snack and then board our next train. We see the train we were going to board and it was this sick double decker train with swag :) Kare and I board find our seats and start trying out or sandwiches... All of a sudden it's 5 minutes before the train is to take off, and No ONE is on the train. We're both kinda thinking is this wright? We go back and forth and finally I get off to try figure it out and find out it's wrong... As I'm getting back on to get kare off the train is speaking French to me and kare is running down the steps with all our crap and the door closes on me half way and some guy has to pry the door open to get us out. Seconds later, the train takes off. Hahahaha we were laughing to hard, we almost got on a wrong train to nowhere land... Oops!
We got to Nice, passed all the amazing yachts in Monaco and Cannes. We found our future boat now we just need our made up husbands with their made up millions :) one day, one day. I decided I want to honeymoon in St. Tropez. Karin invited herself :)
We walked the city in Nice and decided to move hostels to the beach tomorrow and stay there the remainder of our trip...
A few observations made:
-French guys are winning the hotness race hands down...
- no one uses phones here like they do in the US, no bluetooths or blackberrys
- they only obese people are american tourists
-we have only seen one gas station since our arrival in Europe in 11 days
Ciao for now! Write more soon!!
The food on the other hand was... Interesting. We really just didn't find anything we loved and we were anxious to get back to the yummy French food. And people are crazy in Spain.
So we spent a little more time with our wolf pack before we departed. We decided that although only knowing them for a few days real time, euro time meant we've known them forever. We may meet up again at some point in Italy but who knows...
So we got up early this morning, showered and went to catch a cab to the train station. Side note: we were I my allowed to have 2 people in the hotel room but obviously we had 4 and we knew this ahead of time. So when we to to get a cab the lady goes oh so you're checking out... What room number? Me being the dumb one I say our real room # and she goes um 2 boys are registered to that room, so maybe a different number? Kare goes oh yeah we must have forgot it and our mom is still in there so... And the lady goes oh well we need to know. So we scramble and pretty much say oh yeah we stayed with them for a night and she was like it isn't okay so we play dumb Americans and say oh well we didn't know because it's okay in America :) which I am sure people love to here. And we just left...
Then we get to the station, board and decide we will sleep on the first train which was 6 hrs. In my car of the train I had a few Americans and some local Texans from Austin. And the view was amazing!!! Just breathtaking.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Hasta luego Barcelona
Que pasa...
The end of our Barcelona days has come. It's a really cool city, though I think it would take a while to get on true siesta time... They are in a whole new world over here. Yesterday we went to the beach which was really beautiful. Lots of ppl were there drinking and hanging out. Patrick went swimming though it was a little too cold for us. After the beach we picked up some sangria and beer for the boys and got ready and hung out til our bar reservation at the ice bar...celona which was at midnight. It took a bit to get used to going out for the first time for the night so late. Most of the actual clubs don't open until 3 am. We got to the ice bar and stood in a short line to get our parkas and gloves. The temp inside the bar was -13 degrees celcius. Super intense. We drank drinks out of ice cups and sat on ice benches while ppl danced on the ice floor and watched the disco light glitter on all the ice sculptures and whatnot. It was really crazy being in there... I guess it's like what partying in Alaska is like. We eventually got too cold and left, walked along the club/bar strip on the beach. I had no expectations but Barcelona was intensely like Vegas where we were. Red carpets, VIP cards and tiny outfits with platform stilettos heels. Since mel and I had to lighten our loads and send home things like our heels so we felt underdressed for the club. Instead mel Patrick Eric and I walked alon the coast line people watching and headed to a pub near our hotel. Little did we know, on the tv was the Yankees play off game! How wonderful to see baseball on tv. Some norweign fella got sassy and made fun of us for wanting to watch the game being dumb Americans and i won't lie... I kind of judge norweigns now. Sorry If that's wrong. We hung out there til bar close at 3 and most ppl started heading to discotechas. As we all walked back to our hotel room, there were so many ppl outside it might have been new years in times square. It was insane to see that many ppl out and about at 3am. Very odd.
Mel and I got up early this morning and went touring to all the gaudi places. As usual, we accidently tool the metro to the top of the mountains and realized we were in some Barcelona suburb. Whoops... We made it back to park guell which was stunning. We thought at first it was a park type deal with trails and a panoramic view of the whole city. We took lots of pictures. Then we found the main area with all of these detailed tunnels, mosaic pillars and buildings. It's so unusual you can't help but keep staring. This was my favorite touristy thing here :). Then we headed to sangrada familia but once again messed up the metro got off a station where you couldn't tranfer trains and got booted onto the street. We still firmly believe that the signs were wrong. So then we went walking for what looked on the map about 2 blocks. Well... 45mins later we arrived. Stupid map. The cathedral was cool, extremely intriquite. No wonder it's still not supposed to be done til 2026. Everyone definitely moves slower in Spain. Mel and are like marathon speed walkers here. And also my first spanish pigeon shat on me. And we saw 3 trannies. Bad trannies... More man for sure than woman. We eventually walked back to the hotel where the lazy boys were still sleeping at 2pm. We rested... Did some trip planning... Ps- we are going to nice tomorrow not switzerland as was briefly our plan. It's really expensive and hard to travel to/out of conveniently. We had dinner at the most American looking sports bar and had some somewhat decent food. Spain has not good food. We tried our best to only eat in places that said Italian or French style food. We weren't interested in pig testicles or innards. We are cosidering getting another box wine of sangria- an excellent discovery here. Just enjoying a shower and packing now... I really felt like Barcelona was a different place.. The beach felt like Hawaii or somewhere to me, all surrounded in palm trees. It is a beautiful place and never once did we feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I guess having 2 boys around helped as well. Just an 8 hr train ride tomorrow.
NOTE: a new term- being belled at by others. No this is no typo. It appears to be common place to ring a bike bell loudly as a person nearly plows you over on their bike. As we tend to be frequently in their way, mel and I get belled at all day long. Food for thought, watch out for those bikes.
Love to all, <3 Karin
The end of our Barcelona days has come. It's a really cool city, though I think it would take a while to get on true siesta time... They are in a whole new world over here. Yesterday we went to the beach which was really beautiful. Lots of ppl were there drinking and hanging out. Patrick went swimming though it was a little too cold for us. After the beach we picked up some sangria and beer for the boys and got ready and hung out til our bar reservation at the ice bar...celona which was at midnight. It took a bit to get used to going out for the first time for the night so late. Most of the actual clubs don't open until 3 am. We got to the ice bar and stood in a short line to get our parkas and gloves. The temp inside the bar was -13 degrees celcius. Super intense. We drank drinks out of ice cups and sat on ice benches while ppl danced on the ice floor and watched the disco light glitter on all the ice sculptures and whatnot. It was really crazy being in there... I guess it's like what partying in Alaska is like. We eventually got too cold and left, walked along the club/bar strip on the beach. I had no expectations but Barcelona was intensely like Vegas where we were. Red carpets, VIP cards and tiny outfits with platform stilettos heels. Since mel and I had to lighten our loads and send home things like our heels so we felt underdressed for the club. Instead mel Patrick Eric and I walked alon the coast line people watching and headed to a pub near our hotel. Little did we know, on the tv was the Yankees play off game! How wonderful to see baseball on tv. Some norweign fella got sassy and made fun of us for wanting to watch the game being dumb Americans and i won't lie... I kind of judge norweigns now. Sorry If that's wrong. We hung out there til bar close at 3 and most ppl started heading to discotechas. As we all walked back to our hotel room, there were so many ppl outside it might have been new years in times square. It was insane to see that many ppl out and about at 3am. Very odd.
Mel and I got up early this morning and went touring to all the gaudi places. As usual, we accidently tool the metro to the top of the mountains and realized we were in some Barcelona suburb. Whoops... We made it back to park guell which was stunning. We thought at first it was a park type deal with trails and a panoramic view of the whole city. We took lots of pictures. Then we found the main area with all of these detailed tunnels, mosaic pillars and buildings. It's so unusual you can't help but keep staring. This was my favorite touristy thing here :). Then we headed to sangrada familia but once again messed up the metro got off a station where you couldn't tranfer trains and got booted onto the street. We still firmly believe that the signs were wrong. So then we went walking for what looked on the map about 2 blocks. Well... 45mins later we arrived. Stupid map. The cathedral was cool, extremely intriquite. No wonder it's still not supposed to be done til 2026. Everyone definitely moves slower in Spain. Mel and are like marathon speed walkers here. And also my first spanish pigeon shat on me. And we saw 3 trannies. Bad trannies... More man for sure than woman. We eventually walked back to the hotel where the lazy boys were still sleeping at 2pm. We rested... Did some trip planning... Ps- we are going to nice tomorrow not switzerland as was briefly our plan. It's really expensive and hard to travel to/out of conveniently. We had dinner at the most American looking sports bar and had some somewhat decent food. Spain has not good food. We tried our best to only eat in places that said Italian or French style food. We weren't interested in pig testicles or innards. We are cosidering getting another box wine of sangria- an excellent discovery here. Just enjoying a shower and packing now... I really felt like Barcelona was a different place.. The beach felt like Hawaii or somewhere to me, all surrounded in palm trees. It is a beautiful place and never once did we feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I guess having 2 boys around helped as well. Just an 8 hr train ride tomorrow.
NOTE: a new term- being belled at by others. No this is no typo. It appears to be common place to ring a bike bell loudly as a person nearly plows you over on their bike. As we tend to be frequently in their way, mel and I get belled at all day long. Food for thought, watch out for those bikes.
Love to all, <3 Karin
Friday, October 9, 2009
Special Olympics Take 2
Hola!!! So we are in our first full day in Barcelona. We decided to go get coffee at dunkin donuts because this crazy food here is um... I interesting! We then decided to go make reservations at the train station to our trek to geneva. Our other two wolf pack members are heading to Milan. We started by walking to the nearest train station, and they told us oh go to this other trainstation, 10 minute walk. We get there And no such luck... We then ask someone where to go they say oh this way, make another turn blah blah... 4 people later and 50 minutes we end up getting on the Metro and get to the train station . We finally get off it is insane!! So many people 2 windows open and a loooooong line. So we wait 1 full hour we get up there and he doesn't speak english so we are struggling... The guy says it's 50 euro and we both are like ummm no! So then we get out of line, go to the information and he spoke to us in English! So he says it 6 euro and we thought bingo!! So we go back to the mean man again he says no again so at this point we are saying words not okay for the blog readers ears! Rated R audiences only! So he says you can only go here to montpieller and make another reservation to Geneva when we get there... We wait again in a long line and of course get the mean guy again and we were cracking up!!! So finally got our ticket and headed bck to the hotel. mind you we still haven't made it to the beach...
We take the Metro, which by the way we rock at, back to the Gaudi building by our hotel. We take pictures, see our second experience of domestic violence which is apparently okay in Barcelona an make our way back. Apparently people are amazed at the street performers that pretend to be statues, they obviously have never been to the US! We got some cool bracelets and took in the sights. They sell chickens and birds on the street which as you all know I'm intensely afraid of... So it was quite an experience!
We are now heading to the beach finally and made reservations at the Ice Bar in the beach... It's 35 degrees in there and they make you put on a hat/coat/gloves and so we decided it's a must! The bars here don't get crazy tip 3 am and I know my limits... 3 am is pushing it! Our reservations aren't til midnight... Well be careful, and looks like we may try out a disco bar too.
Note to Bill: We have not been arrested, we are being careful, and other then Karin yelling at the Border Patrol to be quiet we are doing well. We miss you and the gymcats. I had a dream about a gymnastics meet it was totally real, but I was also dating George Clooney in it so take it for whatits worth! Also we hope you are puttin these up in the gym without too much editing :) xoxo
Adiós for now... Expect a report on the ice bar tomorrow! Hugs and kisses to all!!!!
Melanie :)
We take the Metro, which by the way we rock at, back to the Gaudi building by our hotel. We take pictures, see our second experience of domestic violence which is apparently okay in Barcelona an make our way back. Apparently people are amazed at the street performers that pretend to be statues, they obviously have never been to the US! We got some cool bracelets and took in the sights. They sell chickens and birds on the street which as you all know I'm intensely afraid of... So it was quite an experience!
We are now heading to the beach finally and made reservations at the Ice Bar in the beach... It's 35 degrees in there and they make you put on a hat/coat/gloves and so we decided it's a must! The bars here don't get crazy tip 3 am and I know my limits... 3 am is pushing it! Our reservations aren't til midnight... Well be careful, and looks like we may try out a disco bar too.
Note to Bill: We have not been arrested, we are being careful, and other then Karin yelling at the Border Patrol to be quiet we are doing well. We miss you and the gymcats. I had a dream about a gymnastics meet it was totally real, but I was also dating George Clooney in it so take it for whatits worth! Also we hope you are puttin these up in the gym without too much editing :) xoxo
Adiós for now... Expect a report on the ice bar tomorrow! Hugs and kisses to all!!!!
Melanie :)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Dirty Paris (literally)
Well we just arrived in Barcelona but there is a lot to be filled in on. I'll try although typing on a phone is not quite as convenient as a keyboard. At least we finally have internet. We truly were very cut off from the world in Paris.
So after our tour we went to hang out with one of our hostel roomies named Cameron. He was from nj but was studying abroad in the uk. They messed up his visa so he had to fly ou of the country and back in again to get it fixed- hence Paris. He was super nice and adorable and walked around with us all day during the tours and our own seperate exploring. We saw the arc du triumph and the fire of the nameless soldier (or something like that) which if you pee/roast hot dogs on they will kick you out of the country. And of course the Eiffel tower. All and all we walked for about 6-7hrs that day... Quite impressive if I do say so myself. That night we discovered it had been Cameron's 21st bday 2 days ago while he had been in Paris by himself so we decided to take him out for some crepes and wine. We got him quite drunk and made friends with some French boys who were sitting next to us at the restaurant. They were staring/ obviously listening in to our conversation so I just asked if they spoke English- a major rarity in France we discovered. They both spoke very good English and we hung out with them for the rest of the evening. We had to take drunk Cameron home and then in the most cheesy of Paris fashion bought us bottles of wine and took us to the seine river to a local spot sitting on the island in the middle. Of course we could see the Eiffel tower glittering in the background. We had major flashbacks to the movie Mary Kate and and Ashley passport to Paris and would start laughing in inappropriate moment because although it was gorgeous... Cheesy was the best description. They were serious about it so couldn't understand our issue. Haha good times. The next day we toured notre dame and went out to sac la cur. We climbed the absolutely literal 1500 step to go all the way to the roof of the catherdral. It was well worth it withthe 360 degree view from possibly the highest point in Paris. We were dead tired after it all and headed back to our hostel, young & happy. Pause for a disclosure here... Young and happy was quite old and dirty. Thus night included about 5 40+ yr old men of questionable ethnic backgrounds and morals. We double locked all our bags and still slept with them under our pillows. On top of that, I was jonesing for a shower. I also believe I am a very tolerant person when it comes to girls but I took one step into the bathroom and couldn't even deal with walking through the sluice covering the floor. So dirty we were.
Next we met a new roomie named Jody (yes a boy) and promptly filled us in on his medical history (long cartilage disease and no smooth muscle so he was unable to stand still for more then 5sec. True story) and then told us about the deaths of his dad and brother. Surprisingly he was a rather upbeat guy. Very odd. The next day we shipped stuf home to lighten our bags... No I told you so's peanut gallery... And then met up with Jody to tour the louvre. Awesome building, stunning art, Mona Lisa boring, too many people and Jody is insane. Mel and I just about lost it when he would NEVER stop talking and proceeded to talk about the sopranos to fill in conversation lags. So we said we had to go, left to go get ready for our overnight train to Barcelona. We headed back a bit early but a rest was nice to have. We also discovered during this trip that it was Paris fashion week so models, wealthy anorexic ppl with furs and peacock dresses were around everywhere. And in this last trek home we saw Marc Jacobs the designer which was pretty cool as well.
Back at the hostel we read our eurail manuals to see train times and such for other places. We then heard a friendly English voice asking if we were trying to get a train. Little did we know our 2 girl wolfpack would soon become 4 person wolfpack. Excellent. Eric and Patrick from Canada decided to try to come to Barcelona with us (we've nicknamed them rachelle's other twin brother and russell brand for appropriate reasons). They are really fun, mellow and have an extremely similar travel path to ours until they leave from Germany in 2.5 wks. We decided to become a travel team. Since our trek to Barcelona over night was 12hrs and we were in glorified airplane chairs, we brought bottles of wine to help kick off the train ride in style. We left at around 10pm and hung out at the bar with our new friend naima and a Spanish fellow who didn't speak english. He kept telling me my Spanish was good but I think he was lying. Naima was moving to Barcelona from London although she was born in Sardinia. Super nice and we are planning on meeting up with her and her friends sometime during our Barcelona stint. We eventually slept... We had to stop and go through Spain customs where I mistakenly yelled at a border patrol man for being too loud while we tried to sleep. When I opened my eyes and saw his gun I abruptly shut my mouth and pretended to be unconscious. Oops. Side note... At this point due to dirty and old hostel of Paris (though it had a great location and was pretty safe) mel and I hadn't showered since Oktoberfest. Like dirty, gross, hairy legs th hole shebang. When I look back, I'm actually not quite sure how we made friends. We made plans with our 2 new wolfpack friends to all stay together but we already had a hostel to stay in for the first night. We checked in... Seemed fine but were so exhausted, dirty and overwhelmed staying in a hostel even one more night seemed impossible. So the four of us went and booked a 2 bed hotel with private bathroom, linens etc the while shabang. I think I almost cried when I took a shower I was so happy and clean and the room is nice and clean. So worth it. Maybe we aren't as rugged as we thought. We have only eaten once since we got here- a cold egg omlet wedge on a slice of bread. Not very promising especially compared to Paris where the food was to die for. It's very warm here and we plan on spending most of the day tomorrow at the beach. We can see the water from our hotel :). Siesta time now... So worn out and tired. But clean!
Love to all,
<3 Karin
So after our tour we went to hang out with one of our hostel roomies named Cameron. He was from nj but was studying abroad in the uk. They messed up his visa so he had to fly ou of the country and back in again to get it fixed- hence Paris. He was super nice and adorable and walked around with us all day during the tours and our own seperate exploring. We saw the arc du triumph and the fire of the nameless soldier (or something like that) which if you pee/roast hot dogs on they will kick you out of the country. And of course the Eiffel tower. All and all we walked for about 6-7hrs that day... Quite impressive if I do say so myself. That night we discovered it had been Cameron's 21st bday 2 days ago while he had been in Paris by himself so we decided to take him out for some crepes and wine. We got him quite drunk and made friends with some French boys who were sitting next to us at the restaurant. They were staring/ obviously listening in to our conversation so I just asked if they spoke English- a major rarity in France we discovered. They both spoke very good English and we hung out with them for the rest of the evening. We had to take drunk Cameron home and then in the most cheesy of Paris fashion bought us bottles of wine and took us to the seine river to a local spot sitting on the island in the middle. Of course we could see the Eiffel tower glittering in the background. We had major flashbacks to the movie Mary Kate and and Ashley passport to Paris and would start laughing in inappropriate moment because although it was gorgeous... Cheesy was the best description. They were serious about it so couldn't understand our issue. Haha good times. The next day we toured notre dame and went out to sac la cur. We climbed the absolutely literal 1500 step to go all the way to the roof of the catherdral. It was well worth it withthe 360 degree view from possibly the highest point in Paris. We were dead tired after it all and headed back to our hostel, young & happy. Pause for a disclosure here... Young and happy was quite old and dirty. Thus night included about 5 40+ yr old men of questionable ethnic backgrounds and morals. We double locked all our bags and still slept with them under our pillows. On top of that, I was jonesing for a shower. I also believe I am a very tolerant person when it comes to girls but I took one step into the bathroom and couldn't even deal with walking through the sluice covering the floor. So dirty we were.
Next we met a new roomie named Jody (yes a boy) and promptly filled us in on his medical history (long cartilage disease and no smooth muscle so he was unable to stand still for more then 5sec. True story) and then told us about the deaths of his dad and brother. Surprisingly he was a rather upbeat guy. Very odd. The next day we shipped stuf home to lighten our bags... No I told you so's peanut gallery... And then met up with Jody to tour the louvre. Awesome building, stunning art, Mona Lisa boring, too many people and Jody is insane. Mel and I just about lost it when he would NEVER stop talking and proceeded to talk about the sopranos to fill in conversation lags. So we said we had to go, left to go get ready for our overnight train to Barcelona. We headed back a bit early but a rest was nice to have. We also discovered during this trip that it was Paris fashion week so models, wealthy anorexic ppl with furs and peacock dresses were around everywhere. And in this last trek home we saw Marc Jacobs the designer which was pretty cool as well.
Back at the hostel we read our eurail manuals to see train times and such for other places. We then heard a friendly English voice asking if we were trying to get a train. Little did we know our 2 girl wolfpack would soon become 4 person wolfpack. Excellent. Eric and Patrick from Canada decided to try to come to Barcelona with us (we've nicknamed them rachelle's other twin brother and russell brand for appropriate reasons). They are really fun, mellow and have an extremely similar travel path to ours until they leave from Germany in 2.5 wks. We decided to become a travel team. Since our trek to Barcelona over night was 12hrs and we were in glorified airplane chairs, we brought bottles of wine to help kick off the train ride in style. We left at around 10pm and hung out at the bar with our new friend naima and a Spanish fellow who didn't speak english. He kept telling me my Spanish was good but I think he was lying. Naima was moving to Barcelona from London although she was born in Sardinia. Super nice and we are planning on meeting up with her and her friends sometime during our Barcelona stint. We eventually slept... We had to stop and go through Spain customs where I mistakenly yelled at a border patrol man for being too loud while we tried to sleep. When I opened my eyes and saw his gun I abruptly shut my mouth and pretended to be unconscious. Oops. Side note... At this point due to dirty and old hostel of Paris (though it had a great location and was pretty safe) mel and I hadn't showered since Oktoberfest. Like dirty, gross, hairy legs th hole shebang. When I look back, I'm actually not quite sure how we made friends. We made plans with our 2 new wolfpack friends to all stay together but we already had a hostel to stay in for the first night. We checked in... Seemed fine but were so exhausted, dirty and overwhelmed staying in a hostel even one more night seemed impossible. So the four of us went and booked a 2 bed hotel with private bathroom, linens etc the while shabang. I think I almost cried when I took a shower I was so happy and clean and the room is nice and clean. So worth it. Maybe we aren't as rugged as we thought. We have only eaten once since we got here- a cold egg omlet wedge on a slice of bread. Not very promising especially compared to Paris where the food was to die for. It's very warm here and we plan on spending most of the day tomorrow at the beach. We can see the water from our hotel :). Siesta time now... So worn out and tired. But clean!
Love to all,
<3 Karin
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The City of Love...
This will be short because we have to pay for the internet but once we get to Barcelona on Thursday we will be able to do it a lot more, aka FREE!
We are loving Paris, beautiful sights, rained on us yesterday and was freezing but cleared off for the afternoon. Went on a free sight seeing tour which was AWESOME! Helped us get our bearings and it was awesome... We loved it. Went to the Notre Dame today and heading to the Lourve tomorrow.
Had some good Panini's and Crepes and plan on having a few more before we leave. We head to Barcelona on the overnight train tomorrow night, didn't get beds on this one which means we will be semi reclining for 12 hours. YIKES! Love and miss everyone back there. Rest assurred we are being very safe!
We saw the Bridge from Sex and the City Finale and the water feature from Devil Wears Prada. Been awesome... Well that's all for now. Update coming in the next fews days!
xoxo Melanie
We are loving Paris, beautiful sights, rained on us yesterday and was freezing but cleared off for the afternoon. Went on a free sight seeing tour which was AWESOME! Helped us get our bearings and it was awesome... We loved it. Went to the Notre Dame today and heading to the Lourve tomorrow.
Had some good Panini's and Crepes and plan on having a few more before we leave. We head to Barcelona on the overnight train tomorrow night, didn't get beds on this one which means we will be semi reclining for 12 hours. YIKES! Love and miss everyone back there. Rest assurred we are being very safe!
We saw the Bridge from Sex and the City Finale and the water feature from Devil Wears Prada. Been awesome... Well that's all for now. Update coming in the next fews days!
xoxo Melanie
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Special Olympics
Bonjour!
Although we are in France we wanted to finish up our stories in Munich. After we rested and Kare wrote the blog we decided to go get some more Bratwurst at Oktoberfest... It was so intense there! We saw sooo many drunk people which made us both a little flustered so we got our amazing hot dog and left. We passed 5-10 people just taking a nap on the ground it was pretty funny.
We then went with the guys we met at the hostel that are going on that crazy 500 mi walk and went to get our last German beer. We have learned that a lot of people sing drinking songs loudly all over the place. So we decided to sing the National Anthem! It's a little long for a drinking song but when we finished some Americans sitting near us started chanting U. S. A.! It was hilarious! We finally went to the train station and said so long to Germany until we hit Berlin in the 2nd month of our adventure!
Paris is beautiful but quite a bit different than Munich. We got on our overnight train last night and popped some Tylenol PM and away we went. We woke up this morning and got off the train and proceeded to wander around the city for 3 hours looking for a hostel. I don't think we got off in the best part of the city since some lady asked us to watch her child for a few minutes... We were both carrying our too big bags up 8+ flights of stairs so it was quite an adventure. Once we got pointed in the right direction we were a little more aware, but not much! We finally found our hostel and dropped our bags and headed to the Pantheon. We grabbed our first meal in... well probably since we got here. :) Ham and Cheese Sandwich and a Coke Light.
First observation of French residents... A lot less friendly than the Germans. Kare asked if it was weird that she felt comforted by the sound of German and I said the same thing! The Pantheon was huge! And although we didn't take the tour inside it was gorgeous outside!
We're a little tired, I think the overnight train through us off. And since we participated in wandering around the city for the whole day... Our feet are sore and we decided we're going to have great legs when we are done with all this walking...
Tomorrow we plan on taking a free Paris tour which includes the Notre Dame, Louve, Eiffel Tower, etc. We think we'll go for a jog in the morning... It's colder here but it's so nice. It's definitely big and we're glad we had Munich first or we would have been pretty overwhelmed. We did make reservations for our Hostel in Barcelona, we have decided to skip Bordeaux and think we were being a little too optimistic about moving that much!
We'll be in Paris until Wednesday and we're going to take a day trip to Versailles on Tuesday which we're looking forward to.
Oh one more thing, we were watching music videos that were playing in the cafe' we ate at... Including 'I will always love you' Whitney Houston. We were cracking up! That's all for now. We love and miss everyone but we're too busy and tired to think about it!
Au Revior
xoxo Melanie
Although we are in France we wanted to finish up our stories in Munich. After we rested and Kare wrote the blog we decided to go get some more Bratwurst at Oktoberfest... It was so intense there! We saw sooo many drunk people which made us both a little flustered so we got our amazing hot dog and left. We passed 5-10 people just taking a nap on the ground it was pretty funny.
We then went with the guys we met at the hostel that are going on that crazy 500 mi walk and went to get our last German beer. We have learned that a lot of people sing drinking songs loudly all over the place. So we decided to sing the National Anthem! It's a little long for a drinking song but when we finished some Americans sitting near us started chanting U. S. A.! It was hilarious! We finally went to the train station and said so long to Germany until we hit Berlin in the 2nd month of our adventure!
Paris is beautiful but quite a bit different than Munich. We got on our overnight train last night and popped some Tylenol PM and away we went. We woke up this morning and got off the train and proceeded to wander around the city for 3 hours looking for a hostel. I don't think we got off in the best part of the city since some lady asked us to watch her child for a few minutes... We were both carrying our too big bags up 8+ flights of stairs so it was quite an adventure. Once we got pointed in the right direction we were a little more aware, but not much! We finally found our hostel and dropped our bags and headed to the Pantheon. We grabbed our first meal in... well probably since we got here. :) Ham and Cheese Sandwich and a Coke Light.
First observation of French residents... A lot less friendly than the Germans. Kare asked if it was weird that she felt comforted by the sound of German and I said the same thing! The Pantheon was huge! And although we didn't take the tour inside it was gorgeous outside!
We're a little tired, I think the overnight train through us off. And since we participated in wandering around the city for the whole day... Our feet are sore and we decided we're going to have great legs when we are done with all this walking...
Tomorrow we plan on taking a free Paris tour which includes the Notre Dame, Louve, Eiffel Tower, etc. We think we'll go for a jog in the morning... It's colder here but it's so nice. It's definitely big and we're glad we had Munich first or we would have been pretty overwhelmed. We did make reservations for our Hostel in Barcelona, we have decided to skip Bordeaux and think we were being a little too optimistic about moving that much!
We'll be in Paris until Wednesday and we're going to take a day trip to Versailles on Tuesday which we're looking forward to.
Oh one more thing, we were watching music videos that were playing in the cafe' we ate at... Including 'I will always love you' Whitney Houston. We were cracking up! That's all for now. We love and miss everyone but we're too busy and tired to think about it!
Au Revior
xoxo Melanie
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Muchen
well i think i have quite a lot to write about. on thursday night we thought we were just going to go to bed but we ended up drinking down at the hostel bar until 2-3 am. we hung out with our austrian and german roommates and had some crazy convos with some really drunk irishmen who were visiting on a stag party. we went to get something to eat around 230 and had already changed into our sleeping clothes which apparently is not something ppl here ever wear in public haha. we got quite a lot of stares in our nike shorts and arizona fleeces whoops. the next morning we got up and walked around the city with one of our friends named andy. he was a very handy photographer. the city center is such a gorgeous area with all cobblestone and red mums on all the beautiful architecture. went went up to the top of the main cathedral which is the tallest building in munich where we could see the entire city from every direction. it was stunning. we also realized how europeans do not have boundries like americans do. everyone seem to have no personal space and never would step out of the way when walking. and ridiculous staring, even when caught seems to be the norm. after walking through a giant farmers market we walked down through the university of munich and went to oktoberfest. melanie and i decided to go on one ride that pretty much flipped you around in the air and dropped you so you felt as though we were plunging to our deaths. so worth it. we went to a bierharden next which is quite literally a enormous tent with stein carrying women, giant beers and about 1million drunk ppl. we shared a table with some friends from austrailia and then some from britan. its good beer. things escalated quickly and soon we were all drunk frolicing about the festival...excellent times. we got some bratwurst that were about as long as our arms and had the awesome giant soft pretzels, brezn, that seem to also be a german specialty. it was about 10pm and we figured we needed to meet up with our couch surfing friend felix and figure everything out. as we got to his apartment we realized that felix maybe was not the best host. he pretty much showed us to his living room, didnät offer us blankets or pillows and then said poured wine for he in his girlfriend and ignored us. it wasnät unsafe or anything but we were definitely over staying there because he was lame. so we left and we definitelz didnt give him his awesomely tacky statue of liberty bourbon bottle we had brought. haha his loss. so homeless and possibly intoxicated we wandered back to our hostel from the first night and decided to just hang out at the bar there.
i just realized i havent been paragraphing this very well, ill try to do better. anyway, we met some guys at the jaeger hostel who were from jersey and had been backpacking for 2 months now. they definitely had the sexy, ive been traveling and cant really shave scruff going. they were going to do a 500mi walk for 4wks next in spain which sounded really awesome. technically they said it was a religous pilgramage thing so if you wanted to just do it for shits and giggles you could pretend you were doing for religous reasons and they literally give you a :ticket to heaven: when you finish. interesting haha. melanie then got ahold of some of our friends we had met the night before and they met up with us for a drink. these guys were american and one had actually played football at the u of a for a year. small world. we told them how we were homeless and they very nicely offered up their hotel room for us to sleep in. ryan, one of the boys had been a program designer and sold his busness to sisqo and was already retired so their hotel room was quite nice. we all bunked up and they even let us shower there in the morning since we are now dirty traveling girls who have to take any opportunity to wash up that is available. they are few and far between.
so today we have been walking around and touring...the weather has been so nice while we are here. i will miss seeing durndels and leiderhosen everywhere when we walk around. it is about 70% of ppl wearing them, no joke. after we finish here i think we are going to go back to oktoberfest for one last stein or moscs or whatever they were calling them. our german is definitely subpar. we also may try to find the hofhusen biergarden which is the oldest in munich. i think hitler might have partied there. then at 1030pm we take our 11hr overnight train to paris. we bought bed upgrades so we can lay down and sleep the whole time...a very necessary thing. i have already lost my voice vegas style from lack of sleep and drinking. we leave munich with swollen and bruised hands from holding the giant beers but with a great love for this city. its my favorite so far, i would loooove to come back.
auf feidashein,
Karin§
i just realized i havent been paragraphing this very well, ill try to do better. anyway, we met some guys at the jaeger hostel who were from jersey and had been backpacking for 2 months now. they definitely had the sexy, ive been traveling and cant really shave scruff going. they were going to do a 500mi walk for 4wks next in spain which sounded really awesome. technically they said it was a religous pilgramage thing so if you wanted to just do it for shits and giggles you could pretend you were doing for religous reasons and they literally give you a :ticket to heaven: when you finish. interesting haha. melanie then got ahold of some of our friends we had met the night before and they met up with us for a drink. these guys were american and one had actually played football at the u of a for a year. small world. we told them how we were homeless and they very nicely offered up their hotel room for us to sleep in. ryan, one of the boys had been a program designer and sold his busness to sisqo and was already retired so their hotel room was quite nice. we all bunked up and they even let us shower there in the morning since we are now dirty traveling girls who have to take any opportunity to wash up that is available. they are few and far between.
so today we have been walking around and touring...the weather has been so nice while we are here. i will miss seeing durndels and leiderhosen everywhere when we walk around. it is about 70% of ppl wearing them, no joke. after we finish here i think we are going to go back to oktoberfest for one last stein or moscs or whatever they were calling them. our german is definitely subpar. we also may try to find the hofhusen biergarden which is the oldest in munich. i think hitler might have partied there. then at 1030pm we take our 11hr overnight train to paris. we bought bed upgrades so we can lay down and sleep the whole time...a very necessary thing. i have already lost my voice vegas style from lack of sleep and drinking. we leave munich with swollen and bruised hands from holding the giant beers but with a great love for this city. its my favorite so far, i would loooove to come back.
auf feidashein,
Karin§
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We have arrived!!!
Well.... WE MADE IT!!! We arrived in Frankfurt this morning about 2 hours late and 3:30 Texas time, 4:30 Phily time. We did take some Tylenol PM which was helpful and got about 5ish hours of sleep. We made some new friends, two girls like us traveling that we are going to meet in Paris later this weekend and some nice boys that helped us. After getting off we went straight to the train station and activated our rail passes. We boarded the train to Munich which was about a 3 and a half hour trip. Needless to say the train was packed and it was a little hectic. We finally found our seats and tried to hoist our bags up into the compartments. We were crying because we were laughing so hard and could barely lift them (42 and 47lbs respectively). Once we got into Munich we made the reservations for our overnight train to Paris on Thursday night and then we checked into our hostel. It felt amazing to change clothes finally and we walked into our room to meet our roommates... Two boys dead as doornails and we scared the heck out of them. It was hilarious!
Tonight we walked down to Oktoberfest and it is so cool. We are so sleepy so we think we're going to grab a drink at the hotel take another Tylenol PM and head to bed. Munich is so nice and clean, and although we are COMPLETELY lost on the language but I think we look like Americans with our Universitz of Arizona backpacks :)
We bought our couch surfer friend the greatest gift... A glass Statue of Liberty filled with bourbon hahah we thought it was the greatest American gift ever!
Well that's all for now. Love and miss everyone!
ly! Melanie
Tonight we walked down to Oktoberfest and it is so cool. We are so sleepy so we think we're going to grab a drink at the hotel take another Tylenol PM and head to bed. Munich is so nice and clean, and although we are COMPLETELY lost on the language but I think we look like Americans with our Universitz of Arizona backpacks :)
We bought our couch surfer friend the greatest gift... A glass Statue of Liberty filled with bourbon hahah we thought it was the greatest American gift ever!
Well that's all for now. Love and miss everyone!
ly! Melanie
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