Giant Lego Man found!

First order of business:

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE GIANT LEGO MAN WHO WASHED UP ON THE SHORE OF THE NETHERLANDS??
check it out: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL0787011420070807?feedType=RSS


Here we are on our last train ride. How sad, we have grown to love trains. Instead of our usual bar of chocolate and sandwich for the train, this morning we purchased a box of Dunkin Donuts. I know I know, freakin’ American chain donuts…but in Germany they’re actually really popular so we feel like it was an authentic purchase.

Okay so Berlin. Well Berlin is a massive city to only have one full day in so this automatically resulted in us attempting to squeeze everything in. We spent 12 hours in the city and I think an all around conclusion is that Berlin was a favorite. It is so rich with history and everywhere you go you’re constantly amazed that you’re standing on the spot where something so ground breaking occurred…or wall breaking that is (pun intended). There is a row of two bricks inbedded in the ground all around the city where the Berlin Wall used to stand. It was strange to see it just making it’s way around. We went to the spot where the wall actually remains—ironically it is located right next to Hitler’s headquarter remains (that is just rubble and will never be rebuilt). We also went to the Jewish Holocaust memorial that was just built in 2005. It has taken years to design and cost about 27 million euro. Basically, it’s a large area of land with 2,711 different sizes and mazes of square slabs. There isn’t any symbolism with the number or shape of slabs and in fact it is supposed to be that way. The designer said it was meant to be contemplated upon as you walk through and get lost in the slabs. We also spent a significant amount of time in the museum underneath which was a personal taste of the Holocaust. It covered personal stories and families whose lives were torn apart from hatred. It has been a rewarding experience to study the Holocaust from such a close proximity.

A few more sights we ventured upon include but are not limited to the square where Hitler held most of his rallies in Berlin, “Checkpoint Charlie” which is the famous point in the Berlin Wall and the only point where international passing through was allowed (there is now a massive picture of an American soldier), the Brandenburg Gate, and the Victory Monument (we actually climbed to the top.)

Our favorite visit of the day: The Reichstag. This is the parliament building and heart of German democracy. The Bundestag meets here (similar to US House of Reps) but most people go inside not for governmental purposes but to climb the huge glass cupola that circles around the top. Okay, so they stop letting people in at 10 pm and the line was massive in the morning so we decided to come back later that evening. Well time let go of us and we actually didn’t make it back until 9:30. Unfortunately, the line was still rather long. We decided to wait anyway…even against warning from the woman in charge that we may or may not get to the door. At first we didn’t have much hope until we figured out the system. There is a huge security room that is opened for people and then closed until emptied out again. Therefore, in 10 minute intervals rushes of people move into this room and the line moves up a lot. Now there was no turning back…we were into it. Kind of life a spectator sport where half of the excitement at the end of the game is not knowing the outcome, we began to get a thrill out of whether or not we would make it in. 20 minutes till close, 15 minutes to close…we were much closer. To our disadvantage, a lot of line cutters figured out the system as well and when the glass security door would open and the masses moved forward, it was mad chaos. We literally saw an old man and woman creep up in the line in front of us. Are you serious? I mean come on. The three or four person-wide line was now 20 people wide like a mob trickling into an entrance. Each time the door was about to open, we would prepare ourselves, grab each other’s hands so as not to get lost, and charge forward like a bull toward a red cloak. The crowd was sort of in this together. It was like a love hate relationship. When it was charging people, people were aggressive. When we all got one step closer, we were practically high fiving. So the outcome? Golden. At 9:56 the doors opened and we closed with us only inches away. However, rumors quickly spread through the line and were translated in multiple languages the door may or may not open one more time. Well it did and we made it in the very last group. People were ecstatic. So what did we do? We climbed the dome, said “there’s that” and came back down. It was all about the chase.

One more thing. Our couch surfing host Caspar. He is the epitome of couch surfing. We were his 114th guests…imagine never living alone because you are constantly housing backpackers. Caspar was very sarcastic and sassy so we quickly learned that to hold our own, we had to bite back. It was a good time and we’re glad we had the opportunity to stay with him.

2 more hours and we’ll be in Prague!!

Some Pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Our BeerGarten experience in Munich:


Kathleen's Accomplishment:


What we fought in line for (the Reichstag, Berlin):

Hitch

Well, we did it.

We hitch-hiked.

Now we are true travelers, right? Our little cardboard sign, flappin on the side of the windy road... "Innsbruck or Bust!"... in a German speaking country, I'm sure the only word that really mattered was "Innsbruck". We learned a lot from our short stint on the side of the road. Number one: know which side of the road to stand on! We got a few honks and gestures, and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. Afterall, we were smiling! We soon realized the drivers to Innsbruck were on the other side of the highway. It's not as easy to get on the otherside by foot.... we had to walk back to the ramp and under a bridge and back up... it's a lot slower than you think. So, we're on the right side of the road. While watching all the drivers cruise by, ten minutes passes a lot slower than you think! We tried multiple tactics: the sign, the thumb, the sign and thumb... we finally had a sweet ride pull over to find out where we were going. Now, if you're going to hitch a ride, Mercedes is the way to go. Unfortunately, they weren't going the direction of Innsbruck. At least we had our first "bite"... We hadn't lost hope yet. After another ten minutes of waiting (and deflating in hope) the same Mercedes came back around. Now, if this isn't the nicest hitch-hiking story you've heard: He came back to let us know that we wouldn't get a ride to Innsbruck from here, and we needed to be in a different spot on the highway. So he at least took us that far! About 10 minutes up he dropped us off at another interchange. No turning back now! We either had to hitch a ride to Innsbruck, or back to Salzburg!
Another slow ten minutes of finding the right place on the highway... but we had another taker! This time all the way to Innsbruck! We enjoyed our ride and getting to know Kristoph! No other way to travel...

Innsbruck was beautiful, but a little disappointing that it was, yet again, another rainy day! So we just did the normal walking (no hiking...) and hopped on our train to Munich.

Our couch surfing host in Munich was Norb Soares…aka “Norbasaurus.” This is how we would describe Norb: A computer techie so hyped up on life that he actually talks more than the three of us combined…now that’s something to say. Norb has a pseudo obsession with music but the bonus of this is he is always willing to share all of his tunes with us. Last night we actually stayed up until 3 am listening to music with Norb. Well, we didn’t actually get home until 1:15 or so because Norb was also determined to take us to his favorite outing where the DJ played so some hot stuff. Hot means two things here. One: good and/or hip music. Two: the club was so packed that the heat inhibited ones ability to dance the night away. We did cut a rug regardless…Norb is quite the dancer. Since we were unprepared to go clubbing, we all had on t-shirts, rain jackets, and even athletic pants and flip flops from walking around that day. Oh well…the door man still let us in although he did card Kathleen. Side note: you only have to be 16 according to Norb. Final conclusion: we LOVED staying with Norb. He was fun, friendly, generous (like all couch surfers) and burned us a CD with 750 of his favorite songs. He also made us a wonderful Bavarian breakfast of pretzels, sausage, and beer. Oh and speaking of beer:

Earlier in the day we headed over to the famous beer gardens where we proceeded to buy huge hot pretzels and mugs of beer. Since Kathleen is the only one who actually loves good ol brew, she ended up drinking hers and—of course we didn’t want to waste it—the rest of Noelle’s and mine as well. Oh no. Enough said.

We also strolled through the city but the highlight of our day was taking a trip outside of Munich to Dachau—a famous concentration camp. I’m not sure what we can really say about this besides what an emotionally straining yet incredible experience. To actually walk through the remains of a location where thousands upon thousands of people were tortured and imprisoned is beyond description. There was a rather detailed audioguide that really allowed us to learn in detail about the history of Dachau. Tears were shed and eyes were opened to the atrocity of Hitler. We were all very glad that we went.

We are currently writing this from our train en route to Berlin…a nice 5 1/2 hours. We’ll be in Berlin for a few days before we head to Prague…our last stop before London. We’re all a little anxious about our next couch surfing host, Caspar, who happens to be the Berlin’s couch surfing ambassador. This is a big deal guys. On top of that it’s heard that he’s not a fan of America. Here we go!

Are we proud of it?

Confession. We went on a sound of music tour through Salzburg, Austria. Are we proud of it? No. Did we do it? Yes.

Okay so there’s all this talk about the infamous Sound of Music tour. Clearly an event created solely for tourists considering most locals haven’t even seen the Sound of Music…yes we checked. So initially we just made fun of it leading up into our arrival in Austria. I mean, why would 3 totally immersed travelers ever want to go on this tourist scam? We’re so beyond that. We like to experience the culture from a local perspective. Or, do we? Shortly after arriving in Salzburg one of us bravely admitted that we actually did want to go on the tour and the other two quickly confessed as well. Next thing you know we’re on a yellow van with a Bob’s Tours logo on the outside bouncing around through Austria. Actually, we never bounced…this van was very high tech. It even included a microphone.

Our freakin rad tour guide, let’s call her “Maria” was an ideal fit. She had somewhat of a side mullet, spiky combover, in which she topped off with a headband. It was sweet. (definitely not the first we’ve seen in Europe.) She also had a somewhat of a Nazi approach to this tour. (side note: NOTE TO SELF: Americans have a bad bad habit of using the word Nazi in a light manner. DON’T DO THIS IN A PREDOMINANTLY GERMAN COUNTRY…NOT FUNNY.) Anyway, she was pretty strict. She told Kathleen to be quiet at least 3 times. People, this is Kathleen were talking about so you can only imagine the intensity of Maria. As we cruised from site to site, the three of us and two sisters we met and dragged along sung along with the CD to every hit song from the movie. We covered them all.

Another example of Maria’s intense attitude. We pulled over to get the best apple strudel in the area and as Maria was pointing out the different types, the new waiter kindly came up to offer his assistance. We all awkwardly stood there as Maria curtly snapped back that she knew the flavors and didn’t need any help.

Maria took us to several sites. I need to clarify, however, most of the movie was filmed on a set and these sites only inspired the film. But, we did get to see a lot of the authentic ones as well. The “sixteen going on seventeen gazebo,” the church where the marriage is held, etc. etc. If you aren’t a Sound of Music fan, I’ve already lost you.

Special bonus: we got to stop and go on a luge ride down a massive mountain. Luging is freakin awesome. We were determined to go 9 miles outside of Salzburg where the largest luge ride (over 7000 ft. long) is located but it rained today so it wasn’t in operation. Boo.

Final observation. It was cheesy but fun. There’s really no other way to be able to travel around Salzburg and the surrounding areas with a rad chick from Austria while singing the Sound of Music…a movie set in Salzburg.

Enough of the tour. Lets talk about Salzburg. It’s so wonderful. Did I tell you it’s where the Sound of Music took place? Just kidding. But seriously, this is a picturesque town. The hills are truly alive (with the sound of music.) Okay okay I’m done. It was just so tempting. Salzburg is about the size of Columbia or a little bigger and maintains that small town love found throughout Europe. Most of the old city sits on a side of the river beneath a huge castle like fortress on the mountainside. It’s very clean, colorful, and sociable. There are also tons of great gardens and parks. Unfortunately, it rained later in the day but we did get to cruise most of the morning. We are currently couch surfing with a great girl, Virginia, but we hardly see her because she has to work. Therefore, it’s like having the apartment to ourselves and we came back here in the afternoon to take a nap. Of course, we brought three massive pretzels on the way home. One chocolate, one sugar, one strudel.

Tonight we plan on exploring more of the town or just watching a movie and resting before our departure early in the morning. Tomorrow were heading to Innsbruck, an even smaller town in Austria where there is nothing to do but hike around…our favorite types of towns!

We’ll be in touch. Until then, auf wiedersehen!!!!

Did I mention this town is so great we think someone should produce a movie here? Just a thought.

Are we proud of it....?


Did we do it...?

Expectations...

Note to self: Always stay with David Klein when traveling to Budapest. Time of your life. We have decided that our time with David is beyond description. The following are our collaborative efforts to summarize the past few days:

When sleeping in a Mongolian Yurt, expect the following:
-One room. No corners.
-Late night philosophical discussions.
-Open the door to any European travelers for communal living.
(the key is kept with “the place” rules, available on the desktop)

When taking a road trip from Budapest with David Klein (spending 32 straight hours), expect the following:
-Cooking dinner over an open fire, it IS the only way (don’t think that a bottle of sunflower oil is water, like Kristen)
-“We’re still determined to go to the lake” actually means: going to the lake, even when its cloudy, and swimming in 50 degree water
-Sleep outside, under the star (with a tent available only in case of rain)
-Watermelon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (only served in one pound wedges)

When traveling in David Klein’s 1970 “Loto”, expect the following:
-A frequent stop to pour water over the engine to cool it down
-A frequent stop to check the map, after passing off to Kathleen who doesn’t know where we are in the country
-David’s encouragement for the worst driver in the car (who isn’t even allowed to drive in Columbia, Missouri) to learn to drive a stick shift, on Hungarian roads
--here’s a visual: Kristen and I laughing as hard as we can in the back, holding each other with each jolting sputter for fear of the clutch going out.
-Picking up a hitch-hiker…. You can’t expect any less, after all, if this is your main mode of transportation(we’re pretty sure David has never actually driven to this lake before, he usually hitch-hikes. Keep in mind, we did stay at David’s family’s lake house where he had just been to one week prior)

When engaging in conversation with David Klein, expect the following:
-“Dear Lover” – only the kindest reference used mainly for sexual partners, acceptable for romantic interests, used out of detachment for worldly relational perspectives.
-“Trust the process” – you can never control the outcome, just rely on the experience. There’s no room for worry, just enjoy what happens in life.
-The lack of the word “my” – everything is communal. We share.“I don’t tell you where the trash can is because it is mine, I tell you where it is so you can share it with me, and tell other travelers where it is as well.”

We obviously enjoyed our time in Budapest. We haven’t laughed so hard in one day, been scared out of our minds that we were going to be lost in the middle of Hungary, and been more “trusting of the process” as we spent time with David Klein. We loved the conversations and time with a famous Hungarian mountain climber…. apparently even the tabloids follow him!

Now, a few highlights from Vienna, Austria:
1. A 24-hour transportation pass apparently doesn’t cover everything, as we honestly anticipated. Austrian trains are strict about their passengers, and we almost got kicked off for not having the right ticket. We saved 60 euro by politely explaining that we had no idea.
2. A nice afternoon rest in the park… and a fight. We were just resting in the grass, when a nearby outbreak of fighting between two locals turned into a brawl with a man almost thrown into the lake, and 4 police cars showing up to break it up (according to our host, Martin, this is highly unusual for Vienna. We picked a good day, hiuh?)
3. The first disappointing tower climb of the trip. We climbed 365 steps to the top of the St. Stephen’s south tower, only to be enclosed by fenced windows. Not as impressive as the others we’ve seen, but St. Stephen’s was beautiful.
4. Zanoni Zanoni. Even though we left Italy, we did find an extraordinary gelato place (owned by an Italian family) and enjoyed a big cone! We’ll be back tomorrow.
5. A 2 hour train ride home… maybe reminiscent of our bus ride in Valencia… but we promise it’s not our fault. We got on the train (to catch a train and another train) but it stopped and turned around at the next stop. So we got off where we started, and ended up taking another metro line (maybe a little out of the way) and switched two trains, and made it to our last stop. Perfect, right? Well, Kristen turned and asked “Hey, Who’s got Rick? (our best friend and travel guide) but neither one of us had it… So we retraced our steps and realized it was either on the last train we were on (now headed to the outskirts of Vienna) or in the bathroom at the last train stop. After sulking with a gyro and pomme-frites, we got back on the train, walked the entire train end to end, but no sight of Rick. We got off at the previous station… and were reunited with Rick in the bathroom! He waited for us, and we are excited to have a guide for the rest of the trip. Kristen apologized and made up with Rick, after he graciously accepted her apology. Thanks, Rick.

Contrary to the implications of this blog entry, we really do love Vienna. It is beautiful, very clean and we are excited to spend the day here tomorrow. We are staying with our host Martin, who lent us bikes to get the train station. We definitely felt fraulein-esque (just like Maria) as we biked around Austria this morning to the train station.

and now.... picture update:
Our Watermelon Breakfast


Kathleen's Driving...


Flashback from Venice: Feeding Pigeons in St.Mark's Square


More Pigeons!

DAVID. KLEIN. authentic yurt man.

we'll post more later but this just couldnt wait. david klein is post worthy.

we are now in budapest. well, actually were in erd which is a small suburb of a suburb outside of budapest. it took us one metro and three buses to get here but its all worth it. we arrive at our new couch surfing host, david klein's, at about 8 pm. it was just getting to get darker but as we walk up the rock path there it was. an unusual white circular tent structure in the middle of a property. this my friends is also know as a mongolian yurt. yes david chose to have his yurt built in mongolia and shipped to hungary..it is the type of man that he is. we are convinced that we are staying with a famous hungarian mountain climber, philosopher, and indian guru on the side. thats right folks, david walked around india for 6 months with no shoes and no access to food. he now has guru status in that country. there's that.

after he built a bonfire, he gave us a quick tour of the yurt--one room so it's not that difficult but amazing nonetheless!--and the house which includes the study where this computer is located along with a tank of turtles and a massive quantity of books, a shower, toilet, and kitchen. so basically he owns a house but chooses to call the yurt home. we think its cool that even though he owns a house he sleeps and lives in the yurt. a slumber party occured last night.

we sat up for quite some time on blankets around the fire discussing a variety of topics. david claims his english isnt that good but considering he came to the US at the age of 15 to hitchhike across country, he speaks better english than we do. we covered a large amount of philosophy, including a few of his personal theories, marx and communism, hungarian history, human fears and several of david's adventure stories which we kept begging for more. we just need to share our favorite. david mountain climbs and once in alaska he basically got lost in a snow storm in which the other climbers had already pronounced him dead. for 3 days he and a fellow climber layed in their tent under the sleepingbags to protect themselves from the wind. there were no other options and he admitted it was a sudden realization of approaching death. as they realized the wind would soon blow off the top of the tent, they needed a new plan. the plan was to run as fast as they could towards an area where a crevice was located (usually crevices are avoided ya know) hoping to actually fall into the crevice. if they survived the fall, they would go from there but at least they wouldnt die from the wind. if they didnt survive, well...

these types of stories and more are what we are looking forward to for the next couple of days. basically we love it here in our mongolian yurt!!


a few of our favorite pics from david's many adventures

David at Burning Man


David in India

Does it rain here frequently?

Venice…came and went too quickly. Wer’e about to get on a plane for Budapest but a quick recap of the last couple of days.

First, just wanted to give you all an idea of what our train time looks like. We wrote down a few things from our Florence to Venice train we found rather amusing…
1.Note to self: please do not title a Christian song “All I need.” We discovered that Noelle’s ipod had 7 songs titled this and they were all by Christian artists. Seriously now.
2.If you play me puff the magic dragon I will cry…guaranteed.
3.Muffins from the train station that appear to be scrumptious and chocolately taste like cardboard and are hard as a rock. We ate it nonetheless.
4.If Noelle wants you to like a particular song, she will do all in her willpower to make this happen. As I started to hand her back her earphone (I wasn’t a fan of the music choice) she looked at me and eagerly asked if I at least wanted her to fastforward to the bridge. No Noelle, that’s okay.
5.Our new found obsession…fig fruit from Manfredi’s tree. He packed us up 7 figs for the train ride…we ate them all. Side note, figs are amazing and we cant find them anywhere else. What the heck?
6.After I introduced Noelle to the actual ipod identification game included with every ipod, her pride quickly began to swell as she guessed every song correctly and scored over 10000 points.
Basically, we listen to a lot of music and amuse ourselves with anything we can. We do love the trains though.

Okay back to Venice. Venice is incredible and it’s like a dream city you never really think is real or logical to exist. As most of you probably know, it’s an island but not what you imagine. None of the buildings are really on land, they are all just on water and the entire island is full of canals, bridges, and water transportation. No cars! It’s probably the best city to just wander around and get lost in -which was good for us considering that’s what we end up doing in every city we visit.

From everything we heard about Venice, the top 2 most popular warnings were: it’s really hot there and there is no air movement. Okay, so it was the windiest city we’ve been to—at least in italy—and there was a rainy day which actually made the city chilly. I think this went in our favor considering how everyone said it was dreadfully hot. To avoid the rain, we snuck into a cheap and wonderfully delicious pizza parlor small enough to only hold 4 people. In an honest effort to make conversation with the pizza guy who spoke not one lick of English, Noelle asked him if the rain was normal. Her first wording was “does it rain here a lot?” and after a blank stare she reworded here question to “does it rain here frequently?” oh of course if this man didn’t understand the first question he surely wasn’t going to get the second. I had to give Noelle a minor lecture on her avoidance of using large words with those who don’t even understand the small ones. She is not allowed to use words over four letters big now. No more “frequently’s”.

We met some wonderful Canadian girls here in Venice who we ended up spending most of our time with. They are a little younger than us and doing the same Europe trip. We loved them. It’s so fun to instantly connect with people who you can naturally be yourself around. I mean they actually got to see the real Kristen…most of you reading that are close friends are probably laughing right now because you know they had quite some entertainment with that. Today we got up really early and took a train to Bolzano, which is a small village in the Dolomites, essentially the Italian alps. Wasn’t much to do there but stare at all the beauty and hike around. We paid a visit to “the earth pyramids” which were pretty interesting. I can’t tell you how they got there because all the descriptions were in German…boo. I like to think they literally erupted out of the earth considering they look exactly like stalagmites. But then again, I don’t even know how stalagmites are formed so what do I know. In our attempt to find a new path to take, we actually began to hike down the mountain until we realized it was an outrageously long hike (we took a gondola to the top) so what do we do instead? Hitch a ride with a little old Italian man who spoke no English either. He let us hop in his car and we cruised down the mountain. He asked us lots of questions, which disappointingly enough we failed to understand and stared at him blankly. But we got down the mountain so success!

Once again, our luck with transportation evidenced itself again. One. We got on the wrong train going home. It was headed to Venice but it took twice as long because it made twice as many stops. Whoops. Two. I forgot my eurail pass today…not a good day to forget it considering we ended up taking four lengthy trains all day long to get from Bolzano and back. We did come up with a brilliant plan that involved intense lookouts for the pass checker and a quick run to my hideout (the bathroom) to avoid getting a fee at all costs. To our advantage, we didn’t have to use this risky ploy. Our passes were never checked and I paid no fines!

Tonight is probably going to be our last night in a hostel for the rest of the trip…more couch surfing baby! It’s so sad that we’re leaving Italy considering we’ve been here two weeks and covered just about every region. Really grown to love this place but we’re pumped to meet up with Kathleen tomorrow. Yay.

Until Budapest…ciao ciao!

San Gimignano & Tuscany

Well, we are nearing the end of our time in Florence... We leave for Venice tonight.

Yesterday we woke up, not sure what we were going to do with our day, so we went to a recommended town, San Gimignano. It still takes a while for me to understand how to pronounce it, but today i finally said it correctly. It is a small Medeival town in Tuscany... built within walls and everything! We took the train toward Siena, but were directed to get off at "PoggiBonsi"... Poggy-what? Ask me how to pronounce it when i get home... hopefullly I will remember. Its quite fun to say. Anyway, we get off at the station, take a short bus ride, and all of the sudden we are in an italian dream! The town was so great and we exhausted ourselves as usual walking every square inch. We climbed one of the 14 remaining towers of the city (used to have 60 in the old days...) and saw yet another beautiful site! Rolling Tuscan hills...

Now, Kristen and I have taken a new job as tourists. We decided to call ourselves the "Photo Fairies". There are so many travelers who have to take unfortunate pictures with just one of the couple, or the whole family minus the sacrificial mom or dad (or even youngest kid... we have seen it all), so we decide to step in and take pics for them! its quite fun -they are usually really excited, like its some novel idea to ask someone to take it for you. So we spent some time on top of this tower not only enjoying the view, but using our magic fairy photo skills.

Today we had another exciting day around Florence. Just outside the town we went on a bike tour through the hills overlooking the city. It was amazing. I really loved it... my philosophy is -what better way to travel and see things, than by bike?? We had a great tour guide -Per, or "Pear" as it is pronounced. We rode the first 3.5 miles uphill.... a little challenge for the morning... and then took a break overlooking the city at Fiersole. Then, we rode on, toward the other side of the hills away from the city and into vineyard country! During lunch, we entertained the rest of the group with our stories and funny observations. Thank goodness we were in the group today, I think we spiced it up a lot. We took a tour of a vineyard, and then biked the rest of the afternoon. Kristen and I entertained ourselves (besides the views) by singing along the way and making the others laugh. Per got a kick out of us and said we obviously had a lot of fun together.
We think so!

One other observation from the last few days....
You know how you meet those people that are just "cool" -you know who Im talking about ... always have great stories, seem to get more out of life than ordinary joe, and those people you just kind of want to hang out with and see if you can pick up on their fun out of life? Kristen and I have made a very bright observation...You always wonder where they are -They are out doing it! Theyre not going to be just sittin at home hangin out. They are out doing the cool things. And we have met them. One of our favorite things is to meet people along the way. Always interesting and fun stories.

We are off to Venice, the city of canals!
Ciao!

IFF

So we made it to Florence or Firenze as the locals say. one of our typical walk around the city all day long adventures. they always end up being the best. especially when you get lost...literally and late at night this time. florence is already a city of mysteries. we used the train to get here and just about sweat to death. about 2/3 through the ride, i went in search for a toilet...noelle says i have the smallest bladder ever...and stumbled upon a train car a few down from us that was nice and icy from the air conditioning. what the? we quickly moved all our belongings with only 30 minutes to go. trust me. you would have too. upon arriving in florence, we met our new friend Manfredi who we met through couch surfing. Manfredi was so kind as to pick us up from the train station and take us to his house he lives in with his wonderfully classic italian mother. She is very sassy. for example, she just about slapped my hand last night during our authentic italian dinner when i went for the cheese before the pasta. apparantly the pasta is first...who knew? maria alberta is a wonderful cook, though. more on manfredi...he is obsessed with american movies (i think its a bonus that were american because we can actually make conversation about these movies.) he owns over 2000 movies...this is no lie because we saw them. manfredi aspires to be a director and lives and breathes movies. thus, we settled in last night by watching one of his favorites noelle and i had never seen. over a joint. just kidding. well, not really. but we didnt inhale, i promise. (okay okay we didnt smoke but yes, our friend manfredi has a thing for "out of season marijuana." we dont know either. perhaps this is what keeps him going all night because manfredi watches about 4 movies a night and sleeps a little during the day. yes this is also true. as we came out of our room this morning he was in the living room still watchin'. we like him, though : )

about florence...a few tour tips. (for anyone who knows ethics, IFF= if and only if)
1. wonder the side streets IFF you avoid angry italian women who thrust unknown liquids/substances out their window in an attempt to hit tourists walking by. we barely missed it. the girl behind us wasnt as lucky. neither was the guy right in front of us who got in a spat with this crazy lady...and by this we mean he spat at her, literally, through her window. hmmmmm.

2. climb the duomo church tower IFF you are not in the least bit whatsoever claustrophobic because this involves the process of standing dead still for quite some time in a dark and narrow stairwell without any ventiliation. all i kept thinking is lame ol' Brunelleschi is smart enough to design a beauty of a tower but only thought to have one stair for up and down visitors? i guess he didnt anticipate florence to become so crowded with tourists. we finally made it to the top and it was beautiful, as always. a perfect view of all of florence.

3. drink lots of peach iced tea IFF you dont have a small bladder. i told noelle today that our tea fetish was actually a pandora's box. basically, sharon ryan's economics class now rings true when she lectured us on "no free lunch" theory. but in florence, this is applicable to no free toilet, no free seat, no free anything. we actually have to buy a drink to use the toilet which then perpetuates the need for another toilet which then requires another purchased drink. only good thing in this situation is that peach iced tea is freakin good!

4. take the bus in florence IFF you are quick enough to jump on in 3 seconds...yes this is all the time that you get. we were patiently waiting for the 1A bus back to Manfredi's when it pulled up. before we even stood up--and i promise we were quick--the bus began to pull away. noelle even banged on the door but the driver totally shunned us and drove off. with our luck of course this was the last bus of the night. therefore, we had to get on another bus (1B) and attempt to ask the driver the best way to get home. he was nice enough to take us to our stop. well that didnt help the process of getting home any better. after getting off, we both realized we couldn't remember exactly how to get to Manfredi's from the bus stop (the dark doesnt help) and literally wondered around for quite some time. after getting directions from a kindly italian, he willingly offered us his car to find the address we didnt even have. we declined because we thought we were there...only to find that we wern't. it wouldn't have been much longer before a true melt down but no worries, GELATO SAVES THE DAY. we came upon a gelato shop still open at this time of night where a lovely employee let us use her phone for free. we got directions from Manfredi (and we were so close) and of course, bought some gelato in the process. and it was the best yet. we finally found the place which by the way we had passed a few times. i swear it looked different this morning. Maria Alberta let us in. We're finally home!

Not sure what tomorrow holds in store. I think we're going to venture away from Florence to head off to the Tuscan hills. Let you know how it is later.

for your viewing pleasure...

From the top of the Duomo:


We (heart) Pastries! -this is one of our favorites:


Sunset over the Arno River:


Our Spaghetti Dinner for two:

Beach Hop...

True or False: Noelle and Kristen spent 7 hours in the Mediterrean today.
True.
As our third full day in Cinque Terre, we decided to scope out all the beaches so we could make an informed decision on which we felt was the best. Although Monterossa is supposed to be the “resort” of the five towns, we would like to vote it our least favorite. Vernazza, our favorite town, has a great swimming area, giant waves, and what we like to call some Italian wave-jumping-climbing sport. However, our favorite spot was just two towns away in Manerola. It has the best deep water swim area, rocky coves, and great cliffs to jump off.

True or False: Kristen got stung by a jelly-fish.
True.
In the giant waves off the Vernazza coast, we were swimming with the pros. Literally. This is the Italian wave-jumping-climbing sport place. There’s a big drop off where we see a group of people just jump out into the giant wave pool. Do we go? Of course. While Noelle is attempting to join in on this new sport (which really means swimming with the wave until it comes crashing against the wall, at which point you grab hold of the ledge and climb up before the wave sucks you back down… it’s all in the timing… which I never quite figured out) Kristen is out drifting in the vast waves, keenly observing Noelle’s attempts, when the poor girl gets injected by something! We swim around to the rocky shore… which is supposed to be the “safe” place to get out. However, it’s around a corner, so when these waves come crashing against the rocks, it really creates a giant vacuum and you are dragged away from this “safe exit”…. So we really felt more beat up just by trying to get out. Turns out, Kristen had a line of bumps that was spreading. We went into a pizza place (that we have frequented two days in a row) and asked our friend if there were jellyfish in the area. He said yes, but no worries if it doesn’t sting. Oh, well, it stings… Luckily he had some lovely cream to put on the spots, and Kristen is up and running again.

True or False: We may eat pizza and gelato a lot.
True again.
Every day we would like to admit that we have had our share of Italian pizza and gelato. We may as well also admit that if we don’t like the gelato, we are not afraid to go somewhere else, just to satisfy our craving. We’ve been in Italy almost a week. I think we know what constitutes good gelato.
Top flavors: Bacio (chocolate hazelnut), Chocolate (We like to compare who has the best), Straciotella (Italian original), Mint Chocolate (Kristen’s personal fave), and Lemon (I like to try them all because Italy is known for it’s lemon groves).
Most Disappointing: Nutella. The real stuff is better, no need to make it into a gelato flavor.
The best part about gelato is that you get to choose at least three flavors! So we get quite the variety in every gelato experience.


Here’s a little picture update:

A little bridge on the Cinque Terre hike:


The view from the trail:


A view of the Vernazza coast:


Whistling while “sittin on the dock of the bay…”


The Rocky Coast:



Tonight we are going out for a little dinner… strolling around these towns. The best part is that we can go to dinner in one town, gelato in the next. It’s quite lovely. Tomorrow we head to Florence, where we will be couch surfing.

psyke! we found better internet...

Cinque Terre: literally “5 towns”. You know how people often tell you to close your eyes and picture a beautiful, peaceful place …. I think we are here! And it’s real. We are in the five coastal towns along the Italian Riveria. The Cinque Terre are a group of towns on the coast, within hiking distance from one another which by the way we hiked today…more to come on that.
Typical Italian trains had us arriving late last night after a few train delays and then oh wait, an actual train strike which resulted in a few cancellations. We ended up being forced to eat McDonalds yet again in La Spezia because it was the only option available and had no earthly idea when the next train would arrive. It finally came and we laughed as we realized that yes, we could have hiked our way to the first town we had a reserved hostel in. The train ride we waited hours for lasted about 7 minutes. Oh well. Who knew.
Mama Rosa greeted us at the station with a full willingness to direct us anywhere we needed to go in this already tiny town that would take an idiot to get lost in. Rick Steeves actually talks about Mama Rosa in his book and sure enough…there she was with her arms open and a loving smile. We loved it.
Turns out our hostel is actually an apartment with out own room, bathroom, little sitting room, and a balcony…all for the price of an average hostel. AMAZING.
Today we did the entire hike from one side of Cinque Terra to the next. It took 3 hours and 38 minutes…yes we timed it. The entire hike was along a cliff overlooking the sea. Even in the tough parts the sound of the water and the visual aesthetics made the hike very enjoyable. It was just hot hot hot. We drank more water than ever before and still never had to go pee. Our body just sweat it all out…trust me. Internet is limited so we have to go but stay tuned for more on the Cinque Terre. Tomorrow we are doing a beach hop. One beach as the best deep water swimming, one has the best waves, one actually has sand, and a few others looked a lot more peaceful than the rest.

Hey Kathleen, the water was incredible…like the color of your eyes. Rafting anyone? Trip on!!!

As promised…pictures from the last few places.

In Madrid with our friend Carlos!


Our bus trip was no exaggeration. We rode that thing forever.


See previous blog. Our friend on the bus who gave “head massages.”


Fresh squeezed juice in La Boqueria…the biggest market in Barcelona.


Port tour in Barcelona. Ports are boring.


The Roman Forum.


Crowds at the Vatican. Please never again.


Noelle probably breaking a museum law…this fountain was in the Vatican Museum.


Check out how truly massive St. Peter’s Basilica is. Incredible though.


CAPRI!!!!


And again…us in Capri.


Riding scooters in Capri with our new friends Aaron and Nate.

YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT

So we had about 15 pictures ready to post but the internet access in Cinque Terra is 1. expensive
2. limited
3. strict forbiddance of removable devices...hence our jump drive does not work.

Boo. You will just have to wait for blogs and pics when we leave the Cinque Terra...but quickly let me tell you it is wonderful! When you are told to close your eyes and think of a happy, peaceful, beautiful place...yes yes you are picturing our current location. We'll give more details in a few days when we arent paying a fortune to do it.

Day trip = Italy's redemption

Upon our recent break-up with Rome, we decided to take a day trip to Naples. Now, I will claim this now, Naples sounds much nicer than it is…. Let’s be honest, Naples, Italy… Sounds like a nice place to vacation, right? Lesson #1 of the day: Don’t go to Naples.
We get off the train this morning to another not so pretty city… definitely dirty. Not a good second city to see after the recent disappointment in Rome. I guess I was hoping the train station was in a bad part of town…. but as we walked, it actually got worse, and Kristen and I started fearing for our lives and sanity. (We later heard an unfortunate story of a mugging last night that resulted in a broken arm). We thought we would at least try another metro stop, but when we came up above ground, it looked just as dirty. So back to the train station we went… to buy a ticket to Sorrento!
Now, we heard Sorrento would be beautiful. When we stepped off that train, the rumors proved to be true! We were in Italy heaven. Small coastal town. However, the new spontaneity in our day kept us going… and we bought another ticket. This time, a boat ride. Capri, here we come!
Our day trip turned into not one, not two, but three stops. Our attitudes made a 180 and we were like children on Christmas morning when we boarded our boat! We were captured by the scenery and the beautiful blue water around us! Early afternoon we arrived on the island! However, due to our late start, we only had a short time on the island. We were a little disheartened by the idea of only having a few hours, but at least we were there.
First goal on the island: get some lunch. We were starved by this time; so a little coastal pizzeria was nothing less than perfect for a late lunch. Now, of course Italy is known for its pizza –it is the birthplace, after all. I would beg to say the atmosphere definitely made it taste better. Pizza on the coast of Capri? I’m trying not to boast here… but come on. Everything about it was picturesque. Our host: a white-haired Italian man with a little mustache and charming accent. And our portly waiter, who loved to laugh with us. We sat next to a group of men traveling on “business”… whatever that means in Capri. Rough business trip, huh? It’s nice to meet other Americans while we travel. We usually strike up conversation wherever we are. They chatted with us throughout the meal. Good company. We didn’t want to stay at the restaurant too long, so we said our goodbyes and ventured out to find scooters. What better way to see a 4 by 2 mile island than on moped, right? Unfortunately Saturday afternoon on Capri… scooters are all rented.
We kept walking, and ran into our lunch friends again. They seemed to have experience on the island, so we tagged along. It was nice to have someone to follow instead of navigating ourselves. When we came to another scooter place, it was closed. Not our luck. Don’t worry, when you are in Capri on “business”, international phones are included. So our friends called the owner, and before we knew it…. Charlie was there to give us scooters! I’ll continue on without all the detail, but our short time on the island turned into a wonderful and spontaneous afternoon. We skipped out on our return boat back to Sorrento… and worried about that later. (Keep in mind everything is connected: boat to Sorrento, train to Naples, train to Rome).
Kristen and I strapped on our helmets and jumped on the back of these scooters and set out to see the island. It was incredible. Charlie hooked us up! And, I even got to wear a pink helmet  We were whizzing around the winding streets of Capri, up through beautiful heights and overlooking never-ending ocean views. Sounds like a dream, right? It was.
At the other end of the island, we found ourselves at our new favorite place. Capri is known for it’s “Blue Grotto”. Most people see this by boat. Instead, we jumped off the Italian coast, into the ocean, and tread into the cave. (did I mention we weren’t planning on swimming so this swim was actually done in clothes) The Blue Grotto might be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. It is said to be the bluest water in the WORLD. You enter through a small opening, and find yourself on the other side, inside a cave. The deeper you go, the more blue you see. The light comes from sunlight on the other side of the cave, but inside the cave, the only light is from the water! It illuminates the entire cave and is utterly unreal. We spent quite sometime here. We may have been on a Capri-high from all the surprises throughout the day and found ourselves laughing with sheer joy.
The afternoon ended with a cliff-jump from Kristen… after she came over to accompany me. However, she was the only one to make it down. I shouldn’t have stood there as long as I did and just jumped. Maybe next time.
So… day trip turned into adventure on Capri! And we loved it.
We made it back for our train to Rome…just on another boat than our original one. This boat actually went straight back to Naples which ended up saving us a train ride. See it always works out! Note to self: never get round trip tickets. All in all, an amazing day. A lot of laughs, a lot of surprises, and one of the most beautiful places. Thanks to our new friends we ran into who led us to the Blue Grotto and shared scooters… Capri was amazing.

When in Rome, Roam away

Oh where to start. Well first things first…WE PROMISE TO POST LOTS OF PICTURES TOMORROW!!!!

okay we are very thankful that rome was our first stop in italy. Only because it’s not much of our style. Rome is a must see of course but we prefer more intimate setting where we actually can trick ourselves into believing we truly are locals.

Pros of Rome: vast amount of history…truth be told I may have learned more in the last few days than I ever did in any class…who needs college? Go to Europe. Our favorite was the Forum walk which included the Colosseum , Palatine Hill, and the hub of Roman civilization remains. Also, we were privileged enough to see a lot of sites relevant to Peter and Paul’s ministry.

Another pro…we also enjoyed Rome’s night life in a more local flavor. Only by accident on our first night after wondering around for several miles (and by the way miraculously ending up in the EXACT same place where we began…no joke it was truly a miracle) we stumbled upon an entire atmosphere of outside chill time by the Tiber River. There were several restaurants lined up where people sat on pillows with low tables and simply chilled while they enjoyed a good drink, some food, and great people watching. Noelle’s personal favorite which she got a kick out of more than anything were all the people playing competitive fooseball. We definitely went back there the next night to have dinner which was great minus two things: some high guy wouldn’t leave us alone and attempted to order a kabob sandwich which our waitress tried to bring out and we could barely explain to her that he just sat down and we didn’t know him (she didn’t speak English) and the fact that it took her longer to bring us our check than it took to order and eat our meal. We tried to get her attention but once again that language barrier proved to be a slight issue. Other than that, one of the best locations in Rome.

Cons.
Rome is dirty. Being one of the oldest cities you can imagine how much trash has accumulated over
Rome is crowded. This includes but is not limited to crowded subways, buses, restaurants, sidewalks, and lines. Yes we found ourselves stuck in a tourist “herd” especially when visiting the Vatican. Okay a quick spiel about the good ol’ Vatican. We decided that St. Peter’s was incredible and well worth the smothering humans who line up to wait (proof of this in a picture tomorrow) but we have some qualms with the Vatican museum. Maybe it’s the lack of walking space or the evident truth that 99.9% of people are there just to view the Sistene Chapel which they probably have not a clue what it even is but know that it’s the place to be in their best attempt to feel intellectual in the art realm. Oh and side note…it takes about 2 miles of walking through the museum to even get to the Sistene and once again, we were just herded along like wild cows following the hundreds of signs that say “Sistene Chapel ”. If it wernt for those signs, I think the people would either A. get lost or B. give up hope that it would never come and decide the other art wasn’t good enough to continue on. So finally we get there and the actual room is even twice as crowded as the path to get there. Yes the art was phenomenal if you have the ability to block out the screaming children, guards yelling at those who are taking pictures, and an overhead speaker repeating in several different languages to please be silent. TOTAL CHAOS. I was more overwhelmed by this than the actual mural. Did we go? Yes. Did we appreciate it? Still not sure. Am I proud of this? No. Did it happen? Yes.

Oh and maybe our least favorite thing about Rome…the bus transportation. The metro stops at 11:30 (why? Not sure) but we found ourselves having to take a bus to get home last night that probably had about 500 people on it of which only about 10 females and none that I could even see. Noelle and I were up in the front. Me with an Italian’s butt pressed on my hip and Noelle with another Italian standing very very close—too much for comfort—right behind her. We still haven’t decided if this was an intentional way of being a creep or just due to the lack of space. We were highly irritated, ready to duke it out if necessary, and simply relieved to get off this zone of suffocation.

Moral of the story, I know it must be seen but when in Rome even for just two days…make sure and take as least one day trip elsewhere. It was a love/hate relationship for us…still deciding.

Ñ and Ç...our use of this equals total immersion

So we are in Barcelona and it has been a great two days. Today we had a Gaudi themed day and saw a lot of his work, all of which was very impressive. Yesterday we combed through most of the old city and loved getting lost in all the very narrow side streets. You can see a lot of free churches that way f.y.i.
Here are some of our favorite observations pertaining to Spain and Europe in general:

1. Overzealous Photography. For some unknown reason we have discovered that many people are OBSESSED with taking pictures of everything. And by everything we mean even the most mundane rocks. One question that keeps popping in our minds is "What are you really going to do with that when you get home??"
Also, no one ever smiles in any of the pictures. They seem sooo excited to have their picture taken, but as soon as the camera starts to shutter they start to imitate their favorite statue...their very own modern Mona Lisa. Maybe this is so they can play it off to their friends when they get home claiming "I didnt really want that many pictures of myself and I wasnt happy about it" Yeah. Right.

2. Port Tour. Imagine a beautiful Mediterranean ocean with lush green hills, centuries-old buildings and bright blue sky all on a cute little boat with a nice breeze.
That is NOT what you get on a port tour. A port tour is exactly what it sounds like, a tour of the port. There are no hidden surprises. Cargo boats loading and unloading, and loading again. Oh, and dont forget the machinery used to load the cargo onto the boats. It is shiny in the sun however. Later in the day, we did rent a rowboat which redeemed our lack of beauty in the morning...minus some ducks attacking a dead pigeon and Kristen breaking off the paddle. Whoops.

3. Market Pastries. A bag full of pastries and little cookies totalling less than 2 euro is definitely too good to be true. Sick. Cardboard with a little sugar on top.

4. Skinny people. This is a culture that is rich in food and a very chill mentality. The hundreds of pairs of skinny legs should be named one of the wonders of the world. How in the heck do they keep the weight off while still enjoying the gelato placed on every single corner?

5. Absence of toilet paper in any bathroom. Note to self: dont leave one of Kristens two cherished rolls of emergency toilet paper in a shady bathroom..she will be mad. Oh, and it happened to be left in the bathroom where the seat was on the toilet but not attached so the second Kristen sat down...yes we got to observe this with the lack of door...she slid right off on the ground along with the seat.

6. Rattail/mullets/oversized accessories(actually, just one GIANT visor. Kathleen laughed so loud that the poor girl removed it in shame.) Apparently rattails and or mullets are all the rage in Europe. Oh my.

7. P-D-A. i.e. public display of affection. Okay, at first it was sweet and made us single ladies want a boyfriend. Now, it just makes us throw up a little in our mouths. No joke...hardcore public makeout sessions everywhere. Subways, street corners, parks, famous monuments...you name it, weve seen it there. Never knew a statue covered in pigeons could be so romantic.

8. Mystery of the unfinished church...apparently one of the most amazing in the world. Minus the fact that absolutely nothing is completed 100 years later except for one half of an exterior wall. Gaudis Sagrada Familia will be beautiful if its ever finished. We really were scratching our heads wondering why we paid 7 euro to walk around a construction site for 5 minutes.

9. Hole in the wall dining. A wonderful little greek restaurant and a small breakfast place might have had the best food we have eaten the entire trip. (This excludes the Nutella. Nothing beats the Nutella)

10. NO SLEEPING IN CHURCH. After resting our eyes in the presence of the good Lord Jesus..I was tapped on the shoulder by a tiny little blonde woman who told me that it was the house of God and if we wanted to sleep, go somewhere else. She thought it was disrespectful. Kristen did not agree and was not afraid to defend our love of Jesus. This quickly turned into a theological debate concerning denomination, baptism and Jesus drinking wine with the disciples. No worries, it was all in good intentions. No fists were thrown, but the lady did look a little floundered.

Time for making fun of each other:

Kathleen...okay, so I didnt know that we were going on a SELF guided chocolate tour suggested by our new best friend Rick Steves which he said would cost around 5 euro. My mouth was starting to water, and I asked, "Does the price of the tour include the chocolate as well?" note to self...self guided tours dont cost money for the actual tour.

Noelle: So the managers of our hostel dont speak a lick of English. While checking her email, one of them asked Noelle if she spoke spanish and after a confident "un pequito.." she was whisked away to answer the hostel phone and translate directions to a lost tourist. Hopefully he made it here...we havent seen anyone come in yet though...

Kristen: After a long afternoon of walking and sightseeing, she has reached an all time low. Determined to have a nutella banana peanut sandwich for a late night snack, she got the idea to steal peanuts from an all you can eat buffet. (which we had already paid for..come on have a little faith in us) however, we were short on proper peanut storage but kristen, being the resourceful eater that she is, selflessly offered the coin pouch of her oversized wallet. she still defends that it would have held a good amount of nuts. with a look of determination on her face she marched up to the buffet line only to find it was empty. they hadnt had a chance to refill the peanut bowl from our last trip through the line. Note to self: Kristen also would prefer a cone with her soft serve please..."Noelle, I want a cone, I want a cooooooonne!" Unfortunately, Noelle is unable to supply cones on demand. Her coin purse isnt as big as Kristens.

Okay, thanks for bearing with us. Its been a funny two days and we love making our readers smile. Gotta live up to the hype you know. Tomorrow Kristen and Noelle fly to Rome and I will begin a cruise with the ENTIRE stewart family. this has the possiblity of becoming an arrested development spinoff. Stay tuned for some good stories.
Love you all!!
kristen noelle and kathleen.

the wheels on the bus go round and round...and round...and round

kathleen and noelle are sleeping. clearly i am awake. quick recap of our humorous day. it was beautiful out so we took advantage of beach bumming. after roaming the city we took a 30 min. bus ride that costs next to nothing to what is supposed to be the best beach in valencia. we were there for quite some time. the ocean never fails to make me feel like a child and i love that. we were laughing so hard as we threw ourselves into the waves. then we took a nap on a sheet we "borrowed" from the hostel...all 3 of us laid in a row.

we ended up staying at the beach until 7 pm. the bus only runs by the stop once an hour and we were under the impression that was at 7:15 so we headed up to the stop at about 7:05. this will always remain a mystery but we either just missed a bus or it was running very late because we waited on the bench until 8:10 when the good ol' bus finally arrived. okay mind you at about 7:20 i needed to go pee but the public WC was locked for the evening. so i attempted to be an adult and hold out.

we take our seats in the back of the bus excited to finally be on the road and headed back towards town for dinner. slowly the crowd we initially board the bus with disperses and before we realize it we are the only remaining boardees from the original loading. yet we just sit there.

then we began to realize that the bus is roaming through some unfamiliar territory but hey, what are you gonna do so we patiently sit for some more time...and even more time after we hit a huge traffic jam on the already unfamiliar road. we have been on the bus now for 2 hours when noelle just bursts out laughing. what, i ask. well it turns out our beloved bus pulls up to the beach stop....are you serious? after two hours on this freakin bus and yes, we all have to pee now...it's back to where it started. we have no choice but to stay on because the beach is very far from our hostel and the bus is the only way to get back. but even that doesnt work out for us. for those of you who know me well, i tear up easily with a good laugh. well i had tears just streaming down my face. it was so fun to learn patience in this situation. there was nothing we could do so we just embraced the never ending bus ride with pure joy.

we finally made it back to the city around 10:30 anticipating an authentic valencian meal we had planned on all day. the first few places we went wernt serving food anymore so we ended up finding ourselves at a mcdonalds. i know i know who eats mcdonalds while in spain but you know what, it was the best mcdonalds the 3 of us have ever had!

our favorite bus characters:
1. a blonde a few seats up who randomly started belting out songs i cannot fully explain due to the fact that they were not in english. her voice wasnt half bad.

2. the bus driver who happened to be the same one who picked us up at the beginning of the trip...sheer determination was seen in the eyes of that bus driver. he did his job well.

3. a random mentally handicapped man who we observed for quite some time as he wondered about the bus from person to person shaking hands at all costs. he finally made his way towards the back and stole noelle's seat (she was chatting with our favorite bus driver) and poor noelle never got her seat back. he sat inbetween kathleen and i, held our hands, repeated the word "amigo" over and over and gave me a head massage. this was very fun.

tomorrow we leave for barcelona. we will miss valencia, it's a wonderful place to be.

Aesthetics & Ethics

We find ourselves in Valencia, Spain tonight. You may be thinking, weren’t they on their way to Madrid? (And I was like... WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN??? -Buster Bluth) Well, been there, done that. Now we’re in Valencia. For a recap of the last 48 hours, after our complete 17 hour travel day, we arrived in Madrid just in time to meet a late night hostel host, who was not too pleased with our late arrival. It was nearing 1 AM, and apparently he only spoke Spanish or Italian. In our failure to completely explain our delayed flight to him, we’ll say it was a short encounter. Note to self, a hostel in Madrid should not be named “Hostal Berlin”… it was a little “hostile” to say the least. However, it was one of our favorites to date. Our cozy three person room allowed the sounds of the city to come in through the floor to ceiling window/balcony. According to Kristen, last night not only did the sounds of the city come in, but a little guest next door also tried to climb in through the window, as Kathleen and I slept soundly, not noticing anything alarming. All I remember is Kristen running around the room trying to get our attention, but I didn’t see anything of the sort. Mind you, it was 3 AM and people in Madrid are just going out. I slept very well until morning.
Here’s a key to enjoying cities in Spain: go to bed at a reasonable time, while everyone is just on their way out. Then, get up and enjoy the quiet morning streets, as the locals don’t get out until around noon.
We spent the entire morning with a wonderful man who captivated us in a quick encounter while strolling through Madrid in the early morning. Carlos immediately began to ask us questions and before we knew it we had spent a few hours chatting with him. He treated us to tea and we continued sharing stories until we realized we had to grab our bags from the hostel. He offered us lunch and we gladly accepted meeting him at a wonderful local restaurant where he treated us to a delightful three course meal. Carlos was great company, enchanting, and one of our favorite people we have met thus far. Not that age is relevant but for all you skeptics...Carlos has the same amount of years as the three of us combined. That's right, the coolest 66 yr. old man ever with teaching under his belt as well as a PhD and a published book. As several spanish boys hooted and hollered at us, we declined their calls and walked proudly side by side with our man Carlos. At our defense, he also yelled at the boys claiming "I never know why they think they'll please a lady like that. If you want to catch her attention, you need aesthetics and ethics." Carlos Carlos such words of wisdom. We were sad to say goodbye but exchanged emails and plan to keep in touch. He wants updates on our future ventures in life.
We are now in Valencia which is actually a drastic change of style from Madrid. It has much more of a Spanish feel to it--architecturally and socially. Of course, our first plan of action was to head to the beach but we were quickly side tracked by a wonderful pastry shop. (oh and by the way we ate the best chocolate pastry we've ever had in our lives in Madrid.) But anyway, we were lured into the pastry shop which was just a minor detour to the beach. We finally made it to the beach and spent the evening there just laying by the ocean. Beautiful. Tomorrow we plan to enjoy the atmosphere and scenery of Valencia, hopefully wonderful through a few of the beautiful churches, and eat dinner on the beach. A spectacular quote from the Decemberists: "Oh Valencia! or from the local dialect: "Oh Balenthia"....

okay kristen here. just have to lighten the mood with some of our latest chaos.
1. here goes. dearest kathleen ran out of money in less than 2 weeks which greatly confused the rest of us. then we realized she only budgeted $34 a day which technically is the avg. price of a hostel when we arent couch surfing. unless kathleen wants to sit on a bench everywhere we go without food or transportation all day long, we quickly had to rebudget for her.
2. my love noelle. noelle's honest attempt to speak french reflected her passion for ministry...how appropriate...veritas watch out. noelle gave thanks to the ticket lady in marseille by saying "mercy" as opposed to "merci" in which we like to believe put a little light of Christ into her life.
3. i tend to brag about my lack of fear. however, i must admit i am absolutely frightened by these "human statues" we keep witnessing throughout spain. kathleen and noelle arent phased at all but as we approach i began to get the chills. seriously freaks me out. in fact, we were walking by one that was high on a wall so noelle didnt point it out until we were vertically below it. i somewhat yelped and jumped back. if this doesnt satisfy making fun of myself...i'll admit i peed in my wetsuit in a desperate attempt to warm myself up in the ice cold rivers of the swiss alps. note to self: just dont do it.

we are still alive. we are still happy. we are still walking a lot...and eating a ton of pastries....and chocolate...and chocolate pastries. we still love you all.

Cowbells really do exist...

We’re in Switzerland for the fourth night, this time in Gimmewald (sounds like Lord of the Rings, right?) and we’re staying at Mountain Hostel. When we say Mountain Hostel, we mean Mountain hostel. We had to get here by gondola. Gimmewald is a quaint community, to say the least: population 100. Within the last century, the population has declined 50%. Also, a little fun fact, all the families in this community share one of two last names. But, we love it here. It’s breath-taking. The Alps are surrounding us, with snowy tops through the clouds. We got here this afternoon, after spending almost three days in Interlaken.
Before we came to Switzerland, we heard it was expensive. Considering the small towns that we’ve been visiting, we weren’t sure where our money would go. However, Interlaken is an outdoor adventure hub, and we are now adrenaline junkies. We wanted to do it all… but we settled for just three (one per day). Kristen is still fighting to bungee jump, but we’re holding off for now. All we heard about before we came to Interlaken was something called canyoning… it’sonly offered here because they don’t have insurance policies here for high adventure sports… so of course we signed up to go yesterday. However, due to the weather, it has been cancelled for the past few days. So, logically, for fear of not being able to go canyoning before our time was up, we went paragliding instead!
Yesterday afternoon the three of us strapped ourselves to a pilot and ran off the side of a mountain… to fly over Interlaken. It was BEAUTIFUL. It was pretty easy on our part, we just glided over the town from an amazing height.

The rest of the night we ate a meager meal in our little hostel room that included: a block of brie cheese, a loaf of fresh bread, apples, and crackers. But, let us not forget our dessert: a jar of chocolate “ovomaltine”… we decided it’s like a jar of melted crunch bar, but we were hoping more like nutella.
This morning Kristen and I finally experienced the long-awaited canyoning! As we piled in a van to the top of a hiking trail, we were forewarned that if we didn’t follow the instructions the guides offered, we could potentially break some limbs. When Kristen asked one of our guides what the worst thing he’d seen out there was… he only offered a funny look and said he would tell us after our trip was over. Apparently we didn’t need to know before hand. For anyone who doesn’t know what canyoning consists of (we, too, were just in your shoes) – it’s a combination of jumping off waterfalls, rapelling down cliffs, and riding natural waterslides. It was so incredible! Imagine being surrounded by the Alps, hiking through a white water river, jumping from canyon tops into pools of rushing water. It was amazing. Kristen and I had a great time. She would like to mention her award winning back flop that everyone clapped for. (It’s true, it received applause…)
So tonight, we find ourselves at the Mountain Hostel. It’s a very unique place. We love it. It’s a typical Swiss wooden house with backpackers galore. We went to a market to buy food for dinner -a mere 50 minute hike to the next “town”. We used the kitchen here and cooked a great meal with vegetables and all. Not to mention another selection of cheese. We’re becoming quite addicted with every meal.
Our time in Switzerland has been refreshing –it’s been very relaxing and amazingly beautiful. We can see why people love Switzerland so much. We’re off to Spain tomorrow by gondola to bus to train to train to yet another train to plane. We’re ready for a little warmer weather.

Note to self: outdoor adventures are definitely better with Swassie guides

Note to public forum of male readers: Kristen has already booked her honeymoon here. Any takers?

The land of Switzer

WOW. Here we are, day two, in Switzerland! I think we’re in LOVE!!! It is BEAUTIFUL. We almost missed our train to get here, but Guillame pulled through and found a way for us to get on the train. What would we do without Guillame?
We spent the night in Bern last night… 20 person dorm. It was interesting, to say the least. But really, it was much better than expected. We met some other travelers, so we got some tips for the rest of the trip. I still think we have the best itinerary.
This morning we woke up to some rainy weather, but that didn’t stop us from a little bike ride around town. We rented bikes and set off, ready to get lost in the city. Well, town. It is quaint. We were captivated by the tall mountains, beautiful buildings, and UNREAL turquoise river through the center. It was so picturesque. We will say, the strangest part was running into some bears in the center of town. No, we didn’t just come across them… it’s an actual bear pit.. but why? We didn’t know what to think. So, we kept going. Sweet.
That’s about all there is to do in Bern. But it was beautiful nonetheless.
So, here we are in the long anticipated Interlaken. We were here about two hours before we found ourselves talking to a Swiss river guide, who quickly convinced us to hit the river with him. Kristen is rather impulsive, but it was a great way to spend the afternoon. We’ve heard all about the great adventures in Interlaken, and we didn’t want to miss them because of the rain. We couldn’t even tell that it was raining, because we were drenched from the class 4 rapids. Now, I’ve been rafting many times, but this was the most exhilarating yet! We literally put in the river and the next thing we know, Kristen is screaming, almost out of the raft, as we plunge down the chute. Note to self, when the river guide says hold on, he means, HOLD ON. We almost lost Kristen to the river today. The river is at its highest right now, as the glacier is melting and sending us powerful water.
Needless to say, we loved rafting and we want to experience all the high-adrenaline adventures while we’re here. That includes, but is not limited to: canyoning (an almost definite, depending on weather), hang-gliding / para-gliding, bungee jumping, and ice climbing. WOO! Watch out.

Top 3 of Switzerland so far:
1. The Alps – God’s breath of beauty around us
2. The refreshing small town feel – not found in London or Paris
3. Ihr Bild Viroffenlichen Wurde Hizenzugenfute – we don’t know either

Note to self: when setting out on a walk across Interlaken for the afternoon, carry a swimsuit.
Just imagine those wetsuits.

WOO!