Never ending day

Well today is the day that will never end. I am tired of looking at old building and walking in the hot Italian sun and whining to Kyle about how I dont just want to walk for miles. But through all of this, today still was a good day. I found a great deal on Italian leather sandals this morning which made the long walk back to the hostel a little brighter. Then we also got a carton of wine, yes it comes in a carton, like you might buy some broth. The wine was £1.24 so we got our moneys worth. We have had some great food here in Italy. By far the best in our travels (especially compared to Germany and Switzerland where we ate at Hooters). Kyle is now drinking wine out of his water bottle. We are trying to get the full European experience. I am not looking forward to the flights home tomorrow. Looks like it will be about 15h of travel.... well more than that beacuse we will have to get to the airport early to print boarding passes since I could not do that here. We did go to the Spanish steps today, we stopped, looked, and said, yes those are the Spanish steps and continued on... that was it. Then we drank wine and played rummy in the room. Now Kyle will talk. Well this is the last night. I am really gettind disappointed. Everyone told me before we left be careful be careful. Watch out in Europe crazy people there. In Rome pick pockets everywhere. Where are all the bad people? I came here hoping and expecting to get mugged or at least have someone attempt a pick pocket. I really wanted to get to punch a Euro for trying to rob me. Nothing yet. O well guess I should not be complaining all the hype for nothing, I think I have a better chance of getting mugged in Chicago than here. O well I just really wanted a good mugging story. Peace be with you all. I feel very holy right now being this close to the Vatican. Also good luck to all you fair participants.

Rome Day 2

Day 2 in Rome is in the books. We got to see the Vatican and many other sights. I would say we are about done for. I am not really ready to go home. But I am completely done walking around looking at old buildings. I am confident that Abby feels close to the same. If someone would offer me a week long white water rafting trip I would be in but no more walking around looking at stuff. The pope was not taking American visitors today. I asked one of the workers, I decided that was ok since it was a Sunday and all. We walked around the whole outer wall of the Vactican this morning much to Ab's dismay. But I thought it was worth it.

Rome

Well we made it to Rome. We are on the final leg of our journey and we might be ok with that. Not sure I am ready to get back to the daily grind but I would hate to miss all of fair week. Went and saw the Coloseum. Was very cool have no idea how they build that when they did. We are staging tonight. We came back early to blog and have map out the vision quest to the Vatican tomorrow. I even got a brochure today about becoming a Catholic. Don't know if that is going to happen though. I also have a TV so I am stoked the only english channel I have found is MTV and I am not impressed with Jersey Shore. Not sure why people watch it but o well. A big plus is the shower here has the most water pressure of any we have encountered on the trip. If you are staying somewhere with a shared bathroom make sure to lock the door. Some young lady opened the door on me and not sure what she said but I could tell she was not happy in what ever language she was speaking. If I get to kiss the popes ring tomorrow that will be the highlight of the trip.

Venice

Very glad we stopped in Venice. I am also very glad it was only for a day. It was very neat to see how they park boats outside of their houses like we park cars. First time I have ever been on a boat bus. We just hopped on and it took us everywhere we wanted to go. I think I had the best food yet in Venice. Had an awesome calzone. It was as big as your head. It sucked that Venice is sinking a lot of front doors had water part way up. It was a great stop but sleeping wasn't fun. All night Abby claims she was attacked by Italian misquetos. To hear her tell the story she is lucky to have survived the ordeal.

Cinque Terre

We are in Cinque Terre right now it means five lands or something.. We walked the path along the coast to four of the five towns, but I could not cut it on the last town, so we took a boat. The scenery is amazing and so is the food, finally. Tomorrow we are taking the train to Venice. It will be a quick trip. Well almost out of time...

Interlaken

It is beautiful here, once again though, I am not sure if I can upload pictures. I wish I could. We rented bikes again and rode them around the area. The mountains are all around us and so are glacial rivers. We are going to go white water rafting in a little while. There are people parasailing, skydiving, rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, and even swimming, but I think the water is freezing. Everyone here keeps talking about how hot it is. It feels like a great day to me, about 80 or so. No humidity. Tomorrow we are headed on the train to Cinque Terre. I have a feeling the scenery there is going to be just as amazing as it is here. Once again we will be along the Med. coast when we arrive. I can not get our pictures up right now, but I might come back later if I have time with the camera cord....

German food is gross

Well after 4 days in Germany Kyle and I can not wait to head to Italy for some good food! Tonight we had some nasty sausages and Kyle had this super salty spam-like meat. The only thing that is really good so far is the bread... but that has been pretty much everywhere in Europe. There's a huge gay rally going on in the Marienplatz so that is taking a lot away from the authentic German experience. The German flags are replaced by Rainbow flags, but that too is an experience in itself. We can not upload pictures here because the computers are on super lock down, but it is the nicest place we've been so far. Looking forward to our train ride tomorrow through the Alps. We will be stopping somewhere, we're not sure where to switch planes, but I'm hoping it's in Austria. We shall see.

Munich

so far it has been cold and rainy here in Munich. We like it here though and hope to come back sometime soon. It's nice to be in a smaller city where we can navigate things easily. Today we went to Dachau, the concentration camp which was interesting, but quite depressing. There was so much information and history. The beer gardens are nice, the beer isn't too bad... although it is not going to be my drink of choice anytime soon. Well off to buy a train ticket to Switzerland.

Berlin

Well Berlin is full of history, much of which is new to me... I guess I missed that part in history class. We rented bikes today and did a bike tour yesterday that took us to all of the Hitler historical places. The berlin wall and stor was interesting, theres not much left but we got a piece of it to bring home. Since Kyle volunteered to be the guy who stayed at the back of the bike tour group and made sure everyone was still coming, we got that souviner. Germany is nice, the people are nice and very helpful. although its not very german-ish here. Wheres the lederhosen and german bands? Im hoping to see that when we are in Munich tomorrow. Im thinking we're really going to like Munich. Our room is nice, well as nice as you'd expect. There's a shower stall in the middle of the room... kind of strange. We'll were off to Munich tomorrow, hopefully I'll find a computer there.

we haven't been able to get to a computer in Paris, but we had a pretty good time. It was a little harder getting around because we know no French, and many people did not know English. We had a great time there, but we were both ready to head to Germany. That's where we are right now. Typing on a German keyboard is tricky that is for sure! We did a lot of things in Paris, plus it was their independence day while we were there, so there were all kinds of special events going on. We had some amazing baguettes, wine, chocolates, cheese, and creme brulette. There was a air show, fireworks under the Eiffel tower, and a party going on under the arc. There were also a ton of people everywhere. We also went to the Moulin Rouge, which was a strange experience getting in. The show though was great! Right now we're headed out to do a 'all in one' bike tour of Berlin, hopefully then we'll figure out where were going in this huge city!

World Cup

Watched the World Cup in downtown Barcelona. Could not begin to guess how many people were there. They had two huge screens that you can see in the picture. The mood was electric. When they scored the place went nuts. After it was official saw more than a few grown men crying. Not sure when or if Spain has won before but I am struggling with grown men crying over soccer. When we left the square I counted eight police riot vans and numerous cops. They were ready for the anything. We had about a mile walk back after and the people are just partying like crazy in the streets. Definitely one of the coolest things I have seen. Going to head back out and see if any cars are on fire. (Kyle)

Barcelona

This place is hands down better than Madrid. We had a nice time at the beach water was a little cold. Gearing up for the world cup, game starts in an hour cannot wait to see how crazy it gets here. (Kyle)

Yesterday we went to the Picasso museum. It was interestig to see his art and the different styles. Even Kyle found it somewhat interesting (as you can tell by the photo)

Our room once again is tiny, but at least the people in the room can speak English. We have to share a bathroom with the whole floor this time and thereś only one shower. Itś not too bad though, this hostel is a lot more fun than the last one.

The beach is nice. The water is cold. We will see what itś like scuba diving tomorrow. Im sure weĺl be in full wetsuits.

I have many more pictures but itś hard to upload them on this computer so it might have to wait until weŕe in Paris!

We made it to Barcelona. We went to the airport early hoping to get and earlier flight, and we did. Vueling, our airline was awesome. Our hostel is great this time. The people in our room speak english so that makes things a little better. This hostel has a ¨gathering room¨ downstairs where we are meeting some different people as we speak. The beach here is pretty nice, but the water is cold. Im afraid SCUBA diving on MOnday will be really cold. Weŕe about to start a card game so we will blog more tomorrow... and add some pictures...

Madrid (Kyle)

Fish or octopus anyone?

The beer and vino is starting to flow!

This is some strange bread, poached egg and sardine combo... they had all kinds of interesting food combos in the market we went to. I didn´t try this one though...

Olives and Sangria, the lunch of champions. (Abby)

Second day in madrid. Having a ball, can´t believe how good looking spanish women are. Feel like I am back in the army with the amazingly close living quarters. Love how they drive here, everyone uses the horn and tailgates. 40% of traffic is motocycles and scooters. Have yet to see an accident. My favorite game to play is who speaks English. I am doing pretty well but a couple of blonde people have tripped me up. Every place we go has our music playing. Its like Z107 black eyed peas, dido, lady A. Very strange also went to a caberet so got to see some scantily clad women. Great trip so only looks to get better.

Day II

Our first night in our hostel went well. We have a room with 4 other people. 2 of them speak a little English, the others only speak Korean. We were hoping to be rooming with someone who could tell us something fun to do in this city. Today we took the Metro and made some random stops to check out parts of the city. Their Metro system is amazing and easy to use so that is nice. We made a stop which happened to have a mall, and an Ikea so I was really excited. Even Kyle was interested. We really needed a small towel so we didn´t have to use our dirty clothes to dry off after a shower so we got that there. Other than that, nothing too exciting more site seeing. Tomorrow afternoon we´ll be heading for Barcelona. I´m very excited about that!

Madrid

Well we finally made it to Madrid. It was a really long flight, especially since we sat in the plane in Phili for over an hour. Kyle and I took some Tylanol PM, it seemed to work for Kyle, but not really for me. We were both really tired today. We took a bus tour and explored the city. Kyle couldn´t stay awake on the bus and his head was bobbing all over. He said he was happy he didn´t have a head as big as Dan Lutz because that would have really hurt. I´m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow... our hostel is nice. It took us a little while to figure out where it was, but we did it. So far so good... there´s so much to see!