Sadness

It's over. It's really over. There's no more train stations, no more exploring strange lands, no more sleeping in a room with ten strangers. As nice as it is to be back in the states, I miss Europe. We were just in Amsterdam yesterday. We had so much fun, I didn't want to go home. I mean, I still haven't seen ALL of Europe. There's still Switzerland. And Spain and Portugal. And then there's Eastern Europe. I need to see all of those too. But, I guess its time to get back to real life. It had to happen at some point. I hope you all enjoyed our blogs throughout the trip, we had as much fun writing them as you probably did reading them. This was the trip of a lifetime, which I don't think can be topped at any point in my life. It was challenging, but fun and exciting everyday. I don't think I had even one day when I didn't want to be there. Every day was great, and each place we went was amazing. I can't pick a favorite city, its like picking a favorite child. Each place had its own character and personality, and I can't wait to go back in the future. I'm going to miss Europe, but I am glad to be home!

Annnnnd we're back

I woke up in Highland this morning, which was a little bit unusual since I woke up in Amsterdam the two mornings before that, and Brussels the two mornings before that. And as much as I absolutely love being home, walking around barefoot, drinking tap water with ice, and throwing things away in the trash cans that I can find all over, I miss Europe already. At least the weather is nice here and everyone speaks English!

We woke up Wednesday morning at 5:30 AM Amsterdam time, which is 10:30 PM on Tuesday night central time. We had a layover in Dublin, and then landed at O'Hare a little before 5 PM yesterday. By the time Kalee and I got back to Highland a little before midnight last night, we had been up for 25 hours. What a record! You'd think I would have slept until noon today, but ohhhh no. My body have to either hate me or just be incredibly confused. I was awake at 6 AM. My bet is that I fall asleep before it gets dark tonight.

I'm figuring the jet lag will kick in in about 3 days. We'll see.

The average age on our plane home yesterday from Dublin was apporximately 10. There were more children under the age of 6 on that plane than there are at family weddings here in southern Illinois. And then there was some group of 8th graders that didn't seem to understand that they couldn't just loiter in the aisles of the plane. If that one kid had blocked my view of the movie screen one more time, he was going to receive a Birkenstock to the head. I'm just saying. Don't mess with three girls who have been traveling for a loooong time and just want to watch a good movie on their way home. And for the love of God, if the fasten seat belt light is on, please sit down!

Looking back, I can honestly say it was the trip and experience of a lifetime. If it wasn't for the almost 400 pictures I took and the phone call from my bank yesterday to make sure my debit card wasn't stolen, I'd say it was just all an amazing dream. Now I feel like a certified expert on how to backpack Europe - what to see, what to skip, how to save money, where to buy the best PBJ, and what to pack that you'd never think of (aka a corkscrew). I'll save all of my worldly knowledge for those of you who really want to know though. Thanks for reading and posting comments as we traveled; it made us feel connected with everyone at home, and it was always nice to know people were thinking of us! If you want to see some pictures or hear a few stories, you know how to find me!

PS: I somehow got addicted to Nutella over there. That stuff is amazing. Peanut butter consistency, but tastes like chocolate? Perfect thing to put on your toast in the morning.

Almost done

So, now we're in Amsterdam, which is our final stop. I don't really want to go back home, but I guess we have to. We did another bike tour today in Amsterdam, and it was fun....we took some crazy pictures, so you all will get to see them in a few days. I am sad to leave, I don't really have any good stories to tell right now, because we just got to Amsterdam. BYE!

More than a little sad to be almost done

It's true, our trip is almost over. This calls for more than just a single tear.

Munich was absolutely amazing. I'm so bummed that we only had 2 days there, but let me tell ya, we packed those days full. Mike's Bike Tour was probably the most fun event of our entire trip. Well, for me anyway. We haven't taken an official tour, but going by the number of times we refer to the tour, our tour guide, our tour friends, and the girl slamming into the BMW three minutes into the tour in a given day, I'd say we all rank it pretty high on our list of trip highlights. It was so much fun that we're definitely doing a MBT in Amsterdam tomorrow. i'm not sure if it can compare, but if it comes close, it'll be totally worth it.

Today we took a day trip to Brugges, which was very cool. Brussels isn't anything to write home abouth (seriously), so we took an hour train north to Brugges, which was much cooler. The chocolate was TO DIE FOR. Oh wait, I forgot. Brussels DOES have a Chocolate Museum, which we obviously felt we needed to see, for reseach purposes only. I can make chocolate now, if someone just supplies me with the cocoa beans. Cocoa beans grow in a fruit too, by the way. OK, I digress.

Brugges kinda reminded me of Venice since it was a bunch of canals. We climbed to the tob of a belfry, only 366 steps though, so it was short climb for us. Riiiight. The food in Belgium, other than the waffles and chocolate of course, is not that great, so we're ready to move on. Not that we expect much from our last stop in Amsterdam, but ya never know.

We come home on Wednesday, so be ready for lots of pictures and tons of stories when we see you next! And Mom and Dad, bring me a bottled Ski to the airport please!

In our homeland

Okay, so Munich was awesome. I felt like I was home. I mean, we were finally surrounded by our people. It was great. We didn't have much time there, but we packed everything we possibly could into the time we had. We toured the Dachau concentration camp, which was sad, but interesting to see. We also did another bike tour, which might have been the most fun I've had on this trip so far. We had a good guide, and our group was really fun, so it was a good time, and we got to see all the highlights of Munich. We also stopped halfway through at the Hofbrau Haus for a beer, which was fun. That place is crazy! I think the World Cup crowd added to the craziness of Munich, so I would like to see how it is in non world cup times. Now we're in Brussels, and its cool so far, but there's not much to see, so we've just been walking around and eating Belgian waffles. They are amazing. I got one covered in chocolate, and it was fabulous. I think I may remember all the food on this trip more than anything else. That has been the best part!

My great-great-grandfather lived in Germany

I forgot to mention last night that the escalators in Prague move at warp speed. All of the escalators to get into and out of the Metro moved at a speed so rapid that I was a little scared for my life, especially this morning wearing my backpack and day pack and souvenior bag, because I tend to be slightly unbalanced with all of those weights on. But don't worry, we all survived. If you're ever looking to place an escalator in a building you're building (since I know you're allllll building buildings these days), check out the motors Prague uses. They're not messing around.

Today we're in Munich. Munchen, actually as it's called here, but that makes me think of munchkins, so it's really better if I just stick with Munich. ANyway, we got here just before 5:00, so all we've done so far is eat dinner at a beer garden. It was like the Kirchenfest in Highland, except real and waaaaaaay cooler. I had some sort of Bavarian Pizza, but it was really potatoes, eggs, bacon, and some sort of gravy/sauce covering the whole thing. In all reality, it was just a big delicious casserole. Topped off with the "best" German beer. We couldn't really read the menu, so I just told our waitress to bring us 3 of the best beers. It was pretty delicious, so she did a great job.

The World Cup is still pretty much the center of attention throughout Europe, and every city seems to have a square where they are showing the games live. There are no games in Munich again until Saturday evening, and we leave here on Saturday morning, so we'll miss the chaos of actually having a game in town, but with with all of the games going on, the city is still full of jerseys from all over and chants of all sorts. I love it!

Anyway, we're off to find this Olympic Park and find out what the World Cup fever is like here in Germany. Auf Weidersehn!

PS: We keep commenting, to ourselves only, that we obviously fit in here so well since we're clearly German. I hope the natives don't overhear us. But seriously, Munich has a very American feel to it, but all the perks of the church and town picnics of southern Illinois. I wonder if there's a big Bavarian Skillet around here like at the Kirchenfest...

A few random thoughts...

1. Who knew it would be THIS hot here? I mean, it's seriously hot. And sure, we're hiking and riding bikes around like maniacs all day everyday, but still. I thought it was going to be a little less St. Louis summer-like here. But ohhhhh no, it's freakishly hot. My fingers were sweating during dinner tonight. I didn't even know my fingers had sweat glands!

2. Every single country/city we've been to so far has had a different toilet-flushing mechanism. It's like an undercover mission to try to figure it out. Some have buttons on the toilet lid, some have buttons on the floor, some on the wall. Some have these weird square lever buttons on the lid, but we haven't seen a lot of those. I've seen pull-chains, I've seen American flushers, and I've seen rods that pull out of the toilet lid. I must admit, I had no idea there were so many flushing mechanisms out there.

3. Venice has water buses and water taxis - how cool is that?!?

4. I really wish the US would get more excited about the World Cup, because it's pretty impossible to not have World Cup fever over here. I've decided England has the most fun fans, but that could be because I understand their cheers and songs better than the ones in other languages. And I can read the lips of the players on the screen when they speak in English, but not so much the ones that speak in Swedish.

5. It doesn't get dark in the northern parts of Europe until 10:00 or later. And it gets light in the morning anywhere from 4:30 - 5:30. Talk about a lot of daylight hours to fill!

6. Air conditioning is not real popular anywhere n Europe. Do they enjoy sweating? Or is it unseasonably warm now? Or is it just considered unnecessary?

7. Wearing a tanktop and then wearing a 20 pound backpack for about an hour is NOT fun. I might have rubbed my shoulder raw yesterday, but don't worry, the skin grew back today despite all of the sweating.

8. We go to Munich tomorrow! Wessel and Rolvi ancestors, here I come!

I've never sweat so much in my life

Okay, so today in Prague was very sweaty. And I'm totally not kidding. I don't think I've ever sweat this much in my life. This is out of control. It is freakishly hot here, and really humid, and we had the bright idea of doing a bike tour of the city starting at 11:30 AM, so in the heat of the day. Riiiiight. Well, the bike tour was actually really good and super fun, but still hot. Then, we walked to the Prague Castle, and walked some more and then went to dinner in a restaurant that was not air conditioned and therefore felt like an inferno. I might have sweat more during dinner than I did during the bike tour, but oh well. Okay, back to the bikes. Basically it was a 2 1/2 hour tour of Prague, done on bicycles, and it was really fun. We had a tour guide who spoke English, and we saw all the major sites in Prague and got to see some scenery too. I might have gotten a little carried away with the bell on my bike. But I've never had a bell on my bike before!!! And some of the sidewalks and streets we were riding on were crowded with pedestrians. How else was I to let them know I was coming? I think Sandy might have almost fallen off her bike because she was laughing so hard at my bell ringing. And some of the pedestrians were giving me dirty looks. But I was just trying to be a good bicyclist, I swear. Although the bike tour was awesome, there were times where I feared for my life. I think our tour guide was trying to cheat death, because at one point he pulled out in front of an oncoming tram, and we almost got ran over. And then we cut off a police car with like 6 officers inside and they flipped us off. Needless to say, they were not pleased. My bell did not help with either of those situations. But other than the near death experiences, the bikeride was really fun, and Prague is great. Its such a cool city. They have jumbotrons with the World Cup games in their city center, so everyone watches the games there, and its a great atmosphere. People paint their faces and have chants, its like a sports fan's dream come true. Really cool. And tomorrow we'll be in Munich, just in time for the US vs. Ghana game, so that should be really fun. Bye for now!

Beer cheaper than Water, can this be true??

It is true, beer is cheaper than water here. Most draft beer is about 25-30 Krown which is about 1 dollar. This is an awesome bonus of Prague, minus the massive heat wave here and the possibility of dehdration. Therefore we had to splurge and buy a lot of water! We have officially sweat for about 48 hours straight. Kinda gross! Today was just a great day. Prague is amazing and we had a great bike tour in which many events took place. Since the city is very crazy with tourists right now we took advantage of the bicycle bells. At times we put together some jingles while riding. I think our tour guide thought we were crazy but at least he knew we were not far behind. Refer to Kalee's blog for our riding adventures.

We also officially made some Czech police and tram workers angry. Well the police I think flicked us off in Czech signals as we came a little to close to them on our bikes. And then we had a little incident on the tram. We all bought public transport tickets and realized on our way to Prague castle that Kalee left hers at the hostel. In every city we have been in they don't check the tickets and use the honor system. We have been completely honarable and paid our way up unitl today. Well of course we get off the metro and on to the tram...as soon as we get on these guys (so called undercover tram police) pop out of some seats and show us a badge and ask us in their native tongue for our tickets. Kalee of course tried to explain the situation but they didn't buy it and charged us 20 bucks. What a rip off!

After that little run in we walked over the Charles Bridge and went to the Communism Museum...very eye opening I must say. After that depressing experience we went to get Czech food and a brewery. First of all the place is like an inferno, my legs were sweating! We got some good food, Goulash, Snitzel, Vegetable Medallion and beer (both banana and blueberry flavored). Is that considered a fruit serving?? Maybe some antioxidants? Anywho, after sweating profusely throughout the meal we decifered on the way home that Prague was just amazing and loved every moment we spent here, minus the sweating.

Ahoj from Prague!

Wow, it's been an insane three days. We left Rome on Saturday, went to Venice, took an overnight train from Venice to Vienna on Sunday night, and then took a train here to Prague (today on Tuesday). It's been QUITE the experience.

Venice was just what I pictured it to be - lots of canals and gondoliers trying to get us onto gondolas. Obviously the three of us took a romantic gondola ride in the blazing sun of the afternoon, and the gondolier guy showed us Marco Polo's house and Casanovia's house. We braved the pigeons of San Marco's Square (think Zales commercials) and took a ride to the bell tower to see Venice from above. We ate dinner at what could have possibly been a Mafia-run establishment, but if I talk about it here, they make have to kill me. You just never know about those Sopranos...

Vienna was a super fast 28 hours as well. WE left Venice at 12:30 AM and had to try to sleep on a rapidly moving train that arrived in Vienna at 8:30 AM. I love top bunks and all, but I think I was sleeping on a 2 by 4, and the train wasn't the smoothest. Hey, it happens. We took a boat/bus tour in Vienna to see the highlights, but we don't think we had the best tour, so I know I defintely would like to go back to see Vienna in more than 28 hours. We also had to skip Salzburg since it was 100 euros each, and let's be honest, that's not in our budget. Sooo the Sound of Music tour will just have to happen another time.

Now we'er here in Prague, and as confusing as switching from Italian to German was, this whole Czech language is even worse. WE can't sound out words that look like sdkfldfkgh;gh;. Because that's what they look like. And they have their own money. Roughyl 1000 CZK equals about $33. So paying 20 CZK for a water seems like a lot, but it's really less than a $1. And beer is cheaper than water. Such an interesting place.

Anyway, we're off to see what we can see, find some cheeseballs and beer (seriously, that's tradiational Czech food - how happy are we?!?!), and then see what the World Cup celebration here in the Old Town Square is all about. sdfkj;skdfjl;alskdfj. (I think that means bye in Czech.)

Today we are leaving Rome for Venice, and its a little sad. These two days in Rome have been great! We had so much to see and do, and we got most of it done. We are on day 19 of our trip, so we're starting to get tired and a little worn out. Like the other two have commented, our shoes are wearing a little thin, and they smell really bad, we hardly ever have time to sit down, or even shower, but this is still the best trip ever. I'm already mentally planning future trips. Rome has been amazing, but two days is not enough. And tourist season is not the time to come. I think I could have easily spent a week here. And the food is great. Last night I'm pretty sure I had the best meal of my life. It was amazing. I had risotto with asparagus and zucchini, Wessel had tortellini, and Sandy had gnocchi. They were all homemade pastas, and they were just magical. We just sat there and ate it slowly, because we knew it was by far the best meal of our trip. I love Italian food! Im going to be sad to leave the gelato, pizza and pasta. But we have so many cool places left, I cant think too far ahead or I get really excited. Did I mention I love Europe? Its awesome here. Okay, now we're off to Venice for a romantic gondola ride. Haha. We'll write more later! Hope you all are doing grrrreat at home!

I love Europe!

My feet are killing me, I have stains on three different items of clothing, my shoes are falling apart, my flip flops smell, I now have 3 bags instead of 2 (stupid souveniours... you had better all like them!), I am a little sunburnt, I haven't had a proper shower since I was in Highland, I'm so exhausted, the bunk beds creak in the hostels, but I am having the time of my life! Seriously, I have never had so much fun, and I love Europe! Who wants to come back next summer? ;) Kidding! Maybe the summer after... we'll take suitcases instead of backpacks.

Rockets and Lines

What a busy time we have had here in Roma. I feel like my feet may fall off any minute. Yesterday we did a tour of the Coluseum and Roman Forum and then walked to see the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps. Since there is a city under a city here the metro does not quite take you everywhere like it has in other cities. We are also not quite skilled enough to figure out the whole bus system, so why not walk? Then after climbing the Spanish steps just to walk back down we raced to Diesal, thinking that the shoes would be cheaper since they are Italian and all. Not the case! We were all really hoping for a new pair off walking shoes since ours all have no traction left. Well Kalee has almost wiped out 4 times just today! Last night we got official Italian Pizza and beer. Quite different, but tasty. That comes to our title Rockets....what are they you ask? We suspected cheese since it seemed to be on every pizza...turns out it is greens, so at least we got a vegetable serving.

Today we ventured out to Vatican city and stood in line before the museum opened. 20 minutes later we are super excited cause we are just about to go in. WOOPS, we were in the group line. How the heck were we supposed to know, there were individuals all around us, geez. Then after walking 4 blocks to find the end of the line we were supposed to be in we decided to go to St. Peters Basilica first. We climbed to the dome of course! Only 551 steps, thats nothing, we do run marathons! Yeah right, I think I pulled my hamstring. We went to mass and didn't understand a word but it was great meditation and nice to rest our feet. There are tons of tourist groups that don't speak English or Italian or French...maybe of Asian descent that just are in mass gatherings and do not seem to notice when they are blocking doorways or pushing me over. I am not a small girl and I almost was scared for my life. And some members of the mass groups carry umbrellas, both open and closed. The umbrellas closed lead the herds, but many have open umbrellas for shade or to poke peoples eyes out (aka US). Talk about a treacherous Vatican! Anywho, I am done complaing about tourists....but it quite treacherous in the Sistene Chapel with the crowds. The chapel is just amazing and Michelangelos paintings are gorgeous. Totally worth the hour and half line!

So needless to say we had a great time and saw some amazing things! We are feeling a tad tired from the sun and the lines but are really enjoying ourselves.

Where in the world is bus 62?

So tonight we had some transportation issues, I'm not gonna lie. Well, they weren't really our fault. We went to dinner, and then to see St. Peter's at night, because I decided that's pretty much the coolest thing in Rome last time I was here, and I wanted to make sure Kalee and Sandy could see it so they could judge for themselves. Anyway...

We left St. Peter's a little after 10:00. The Metro was supposed to be open until 11:00. Who knew they would close early? We sure didn't, but out stop was closed at 10:10. Well, we walked to the next stop, just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with that particular station. Turns out that stop was closed too. Shocking.

Soooo, we knew that bus 62 stopped near our hostel. I happened to remember that bus 62 also stopped close to the hotel that we stayed in two years ago, so we decided to just go to that stop, since that was our best bet. Well, either I don't remember thing correctly, or the stops have changed in the past 2 years. Since we'd only been here 3 hours, we didn't really know what else was in the area of our hostel, so we couldn't just hop on a bus to take it somewhere else. Luckily for us, as we were pulling out the map do to some major sleuthing, a cab drove by. So, it's true. We took a cab home. I know, I know, it's the easy way out, but we've been today we already toured Florence, took a train from Florence here, AND found our hostel. We're tired! Our cab driver was driving like a maniac, but hey, what else is new really? We made it back here safe and sound and are now just waiting for people to rotate through the bathroom. 10 girls and 1 bathroom is NOT a good idea!

The next two days are going to be jam-packed full of sights (and gelato), so I'm sure it'll be super exhausting, but totally worth it!

When in Rome...........

So, yesterday and today we were in Florence, and it was magical. It was exactly as you would expect an Italian town to be......there were old buildings, and it had a small town feel, but was still touristy enough that the people there understood English. We saw the David this morning, and then did a little shopping......Florence has great outdoor markets!!! Then, of course we climbed to the top of the Duomo, because climbing is what we do best. As if that wasn't enough, we then climbed to the top of Piazza Michelangelo to get a view of the entire city. It was great. Tonight we arrived in Rome, and had just enough time to get dinner and take the metro to St. Peter's Square to check out the Pope's house. It was amazing. The outside anyway. Shockingly enough, the Pope wasnt waiting there for us to give us a behind the scenes tour of his home. However, his light was on in his room, so I know he was waiting up for us. Hahaha riiiight. Anyway, so far I love Italy, especially the food, and I loved what I saw of the city tonight. Its gonna be a busy next couple of days! Bueno Serra!

Nice is Nicer than Nice

Today we ventured to another part of the French Riveria. The rocky beach was okay and all but the pigeons were scary and Kalee got a bug bite...so shocking there are bugs on the beach, I know. So we took about a 20 minute train ride to Juan Les Pins. The have nice sandy beaches there where we could lay comfortably. After taking a few naps and observing the locals we discovered that we were probably the only Americans since we were the only ones with our bathing suit tops on. Kalee thought we were laying next to a man in a speedo....turns out it was a women! Took us about an hour to figure that one out. So to say the least it was quite the experience with the French. There was beautiful scenery and the water was so clear it was amawing. Of course it was no Lake Michigan or Lake Bloomington but I can see past that...ha ha! And we totally did NOT get away from the pigeons because one tried to peck Kristin's leg..it was scary. We didn't get a rose from our waiter tonight but we did get an invitation to jump on the a trampoline on the beach with him, needless to say we turned that one down. All in all it was a great day of relxing and getting tan. I wonder what the skin cancer rate is in the French, they are all so tan???

Nice is nice.

Today we got to Nice, and its great! Lyon was interesting. The only thing we did in Lyon was eat. And I am totally not kidding. We got there and got some ice cream, and then we ate some pastries, and decided to climb a big hill. I think Sandy almost vomited. Actually I almost did too. Note: do not eat ice cream and two pastries and then decide to climb to the top of a mountain in 85 degree weather. It is never good. So Lyon was okay. We weren't even there 24 hours. However, Nice is beautiful, it has rocky beaches, but tomorrow we may go in search of a sandy beach. Just a sidenote, the pigeons here are out of control. Today, one landed on Sandy's head while we were napping on the beach......I think it thought Sandy was a statue. She screamed and woke us all up. It was pretty funny, actually. We love it here in Nice so far, at dinner we got roses from our waiter. That totally made our night. Goodnight from Nice!

Who doesn't love a good beach?

So now we're in Nice, on the French Riveria, ya know with our Gucci and Prada and Gap t-shirts. We toooootally fit in. We've only been here for a few hours, of which we spent 2 on the beach and 1 eating, so so far I love Nice! The beach is all pebbles, but if you move them around and lay down two beach mats, it's not that bad. Really.

Pretty much our plan here in Nice is to lay on the beach. We may take some scooters to another beach tomorrow, but Kalee seems a little frightened by the idea of Sandy and I driving scooters (I can't imagine why! I'm a good driver!), so we'll just see how much the scooters cost. We were in Lyon for about 15 hours yesterday, and I have to admit that Lyon has been the downpoint of the trip so far. It was a very nice place, but we've been so used to moving around non-stop that we weren't sure what to do in Lyon. Shockingly, we ended up climbing up ANOTHER mountain to see another church. Very beautiful, but seriously, my calves are going to be bigger than Mark McGwire's pretty soon.

Things are going so well so far, no major faux pas or anything. We were starting to get a little homesick, but we did have a great dinner with a very nice waiter who knew English and gave us roses, so things are looking way up again tonight. Two more days until Italy - bring on the pasta and pizza!

I will climb any flight of stairs if there's a view from the top

Today we decided to have a laid-back day in Paris since the past day and a half have been pretty non-stop and we've seen all the major tourist attractions. This morning we saw Moulin Rouge and Sacre Couer, which is of course at the top of some giant hill. You'd think we're gluttons for pain and punishment they way we keep trekking up and down hills and mountains. Anyway, the catherdal commemorates the Bleeding Heart, and it's actually really new compared to all of the other churches we've seen - it was built in the late 1800s. There were steps up the dome, so obviously we climbed those as well, because we LOVE stairs. (My leg is still twitching, and it's been about 3 hours, no worries.)

We spent some time up here in Montmartre, which is the area our hostel is in, and the bohemian area of Paris, apparently where Picasso and Monet hung out. There are tons of cute shops and cafes, the streets are so picturesque, and it's just a fun area to people-watch in. This afternoon we're going to go check out the Pantheon and have our afternoon pastry (I'll think of you as I eat mine, Kim).

My biggest complaint about Europe so far is the lack of water fountains, bathrooms, and trash cans. Our restaurant for lunch today made us pay to use the bathroom - I just waited until we got back here. Paris is much better about trash cans than London was, but I'm still a little surprised by the lack of litter in the streets. Where are all these people putting their trash? And water fountains? I've seen one since we left Chicago. They're a rare commodity over here. Who knew?

Our romantic evening!

So we have noticed that there are many couples and honeymooners in Paris. Oh no, not us, so we decided to join the groups outside the Eiffel Tower and have some wine and crepes. It was absolutely gorgeous. At 10 pm - 10:10pm the tower sparkles and then it stays lit for the rest of the night. Is this a problem that we know exactly what time this happens? Then of course we all had to go to the bathroom so we decided to head back to the hostel, only to find out the train drivers were on strike. So we had to wait approx. 50 minutes for one train! It was torture! Finally after arriving at our Metro stop we walked super fast and ran to the bathroom. These towns do not condone healthy hydration!

Trip Tally Update

As predicted, I am completely sweeping the trip tally. I have a whopping 12, Sandy has 6, and Kalee is pulling up the rear with 3. I mean seriously, it's hardly even fair; We all know I'm way more clumsy than the 2 of them combined.

I think I'm in heaven. No, really, I am.

Okay, Paris is great. And not in the way that Dublin and London were great, but it is rrrrreally great. Especially the pastries. I think I may just stay here. Okay, not really, but now at least you understand how good the pastries are. I had some pain au chocolate thing, although I had a little trouble ordering it because I couldn't pronounce it very well. So I just pointed at it and the lady figured it out. I've been trying really hard to use French here, but I keep speaking in Spanish. Probably because I know absolutely no French, and Spanish is the only language other than English I know. And I'm pretty sure Spanish is closer to French than English, so I'm aaalmost speaking French. Riiight. We'll just go with that. It makes me feel better. So last night we ate dinner across from the Eiffel Tower, and it was great. The Eiffel Tower is sparkly at night. It was really pretty, so pretty, in fact, that Sandy and I started skipping towards it. It was a magical moment, really. Wessel got it all on video tape. The food we've had here so far has been great! We are so happy not to be eating french fries aka "chips", that I think anything would taste good at this point, but French food really is good. The baguettes are everything I had imagined they would be, so I'm loving France so far. Today we attended mass at the Cathedrale de Notre Dame, and it was really cool. I didn't understand a word they said, but everything was in the same order as mass at home, so I got the general idea of what was being said. It was a really pretty cathedral, with lots of stained glass. Amazing! Okay, well now I need to go because I'm tired from all the French pastries and need a nap. Happy reading!

French Pastries are AMAZING!

Well they weren't kidding when they said French pasteries were good! We approached the Patisseire a little hesitant and now I feel very comfortable going back. As we have come to realize there is no such thing as a bad pastry. We all had something with the form of chocolate in it and really you can't go wrong with that! Good thing we are walking miles upon miles otherwise we may have some obesity issues. Phew! Today we went to the Louve and saw the Mona Lisa. She really does follow you with her eyes...freaky! It was really cool to see the actual Mona Lisa. Then we saw a bunch of other famous statues, why they are famous who really knows, because all the little caption things were in French. That posed a bit of a problem but that is okay. Then we walked down the river to Notre Dame and sat down for a sandwich. It was running very smoothly until I stuck my finger in pigeon poop! Oh yes and I almost vomited! That is the price you pay for eating by pigeons. After sanitizing my hands approximately 5 times we made our way into Notre Dame. The staind glass windows were unbelievable. We attended the 12 pm mass and the only word I recognized the whole time was "Amen", but hey I was still attending church in a very famous church...it was great!

It's so pretty!

We're already up and about for the day, and with the seven hour time difference, some of you are probably just going to bed now. How bizarre is that?

We went to the Eiffel Tower last night, and it's so pretty! We paid the admission price to go all the way up, because, hey, we may only be here once. And that thing is TALL! We took the lift because, well we 1) didn't know where the steps where and 2) didn't want to climb 300 meters, that's a little out of control! The view from the first stop was beautiful, but even more amazing from the top of the tower. I think the temperature was about 10 degrees cooler up top, but it was completely amazing to be on top of the Eiffel Tower.

We ate dinner near the Eiffel Tower, at this cute little outdoor cafe. I went crazy and tried pizza with fried egg on it. I don't know that that's actually French, but it seemed like something I should try in Paris if I was going to try it anywhere, and it was surprisingly delicious. Either that or I was just plain starving since dinner over here isn't until after 8 PM and we had our baguettes and cheese like 6 hours before. We had our first French wine too, and I think that's a custom we can defintely get used to!

Today we're off to the Louvre and Notre Dame, as well as the Arc de Triumphe. Granted, we have to figure out the Metro to get there first, but we're getting pretty good at the navigation. It's that whole 'finding the first station' thing that seems to be tripping us up.

I finally have clean socks again

Sandy's post makes our little afternoon hike sound like a stroll in the park. I almost died. Well, OK, probably not, but seriously, it was the longest walk of my life. OK, probably not again. But those backpacks were heavy, I had to go to the bathroom, and I was starving. Thank goodness we finally found the hostel (which has free internet, by the way!)

We did some laundry this afternoon, because quite frankly, our clothes smelled worse than it has ever smelled before. Paris is quite a bit warmer than London, and much warmer than Ireland was, so we thought we'd start off with a clean smell again. The laundromat was just down the street and turned out to be quite the experience. We figured them out just fine in French, mostly off of knowing how to do dorm laundry so well, but the best part of the experience was the creepy man who kept wandering in off the street to try to talk to us. He smelled like alcohol, as well as some sort of illegal substance, and he was cackling in all sorts of voices. Plus, in case he hadn't noticed, we don't speak French. And he was creeping us out. But at least we have clean clothes again, and we'll be ready to take on Paris for the next few days. We're going to try to get to the Eiffel Tower tonight, and then we'll see what happens from there!

Ole' Pari'

We made it to Paris today and things seemed to be going well, until we got off the Chunnel train and realized you have to pay to use the bathroom! We felt that we could hold off and got a train pass and hopped on. We soon realized that the stop we needed to get off on was closed. Just our luck! So after getting off at another stop we made our way up lots of windy hills and then down some windy hills and then a few miles later found our hostels. Mind you that we are carrying are 20 pound backpacks (or at least seems to be 20 pounds). We finally found our hostel and got settled while snacking on some baguettes and cheese. My jaw hurts a little from the chewy baguette but I better get used to it. So not too many crazy tales from today yet, but who knows were the day will take us!

I hugged JFK today...

We went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum today, and it was amazingly hilarious. I think we took about 30 pictures of us with various celebrities, in all sorts of picturesque poses. I've never been so close to Pope John Paul II before, but I'd say we're great friends now. We also trekked around Hyde Park this morning, which is just beautiful. There's an amazing monument to Princess Diana there, but instead of yet another statue, like the many that seem to be all over London, it's a water monument that is just so simple and beautiful. Kalee gave us instructions to make a very similar one for her when she dies, but only with a statue chiseled by Sandy in the area as well. Harrod's department store was so nearby Hyde Park, so we took a detour through there, and like our luck has been so far this trip, found the Diana and Dodi Memorial there too. We all felt just a tad underdressed to be walking around there when there were shirts for sale for 9000 pounds, so we got out ASAP. (9000 pounds roughly equals 18000 US dollars - quite a shirt!)

William and Harry were unfortunately NOT waiting outside Buckingham Palace for us this morning like we expected them to be, but we did see the changing of the guard, which I guess is a little more realistic anyway.

Tonight we're headed off to see The Producer's, and then it's off to Paris in the morning. I'm quite curious about this Chunnel situation. In my head it's like a roller coaster that just dips underwater real fast, but somehow I'm assuming I am not correct. I guess we'll find out in the morning!

The birds in London

One day (actually yesterday) while staring at Big Ben I heard tons of birds whistling. I was like "geez" there are so many birds...turns out it was a man with a bird calling instrument. So today since we are running low on cash Kalee and I figured out a brillant way to make money. We decided that we could possibly develop a singing/bird calling group with the street performers. Kalee and I can sing and Wessel with the bird caller...since she has wind instrument experience. That swould be a site...probably won't happen but that would be great!

Is that the Eiffel Tower?

So today we saw St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and climbed 1000 stairs to the very top to get a view of the entire city. It was amazing. It was so high up, that I think we saw the Eiffel tower. Either that, or it was just a structure that was strikingly similar. We also learned an immense amount about British history. We went to Westminster Abbey and The Bristish Museum today, so we saw lots of tombs and artifacts and heard countless stories. See, this trip is educational after all. It was a really fun day, and London is great. Note: We had a chocolate truffle torte tonight after dinner, and i

Look kids: Big Ben, Parliament!

Cheers from London!

Alright, the internet cafe and us are fighting right now, so we have like 5 minutes to post. Stupid British computers. We arrived here in London yesterday around noon, after a 50 minute flight from Dublin. that was after we woke up a half hour after we were supposed to have left our hostel in Dublin. Whoops! No worries though, we had learned the Dublin buses so well that we made it to the airport with no problems, with a half hour to spare in the Dublin airport.

Pat picked us at the airport and helped us navigate the tube/bus system, which was so helpful since some of the tubes were closed for construction over the weekend. Plus, we kept refering to euros and not pounds, so people were getting really frustrated with us.

Anyway, we made it to our hostel and it's our best so far. except the crazy roomies, but hey, it happens. We spent yesterday afternoon walking around London, getting a lay of the land and seeing all the main sites so we were ready to go for today.

Side notes: Our hotel is attached to a bar called Belushi's. So not only can you get an Elwood burger while quoting Blues Brothers, BUT you can then quote National Lampoon's European vacation as you walk by Big Ben and Parliament. Not that I've done that 1804 times already.

Side note 2: We had this amazing chocolate truffle torte for dinner tonight. I'm sure one of the other girls will refer to it too, but OH MY GOD. I can die completely happy now. And that is all.

We'll always have Wicklow

Holler! Okay, so now that we can actually write blogs again, we have quite a bit to cover. On our final day in Dublin, which also happened to be Kristin's bday, we did a daytrip to Glendolaugh and Wicklow, where there are mountains and waterfalls, it was amazing. It was one of those places where pictures can't really capture it. One mountain we were on was a cliff overlooking a valley with a lake and surrounded by mountains. In the valley is the mansion of one of the Guinness heirs, and apparently it is the place that Bono wrote the U2 song "Beautiful Day". It was great! We also saw the hills where much of Braveheart was filmed. So that was really fun, we had a really cute little old Irish man as our tour guide, and he had been to Chicago once for a few hours, so we chatted about that. Anyway, back to the story. After we got back from our daytrip we went out to dinner and got some cake for Wessel's bday. Let me tell you, as a cake officiando, Irish cake is not that great. The icing really leaves a lot to be desired. It was quite disappointing. After that we went out for the bday celebration, and it was great. The DJ gave Wes a shout out and played Sweet Caroline, at which point we ran to the dance floor. It was quite the spectacle. I'm pretty sure based on our behavior Irish people must think all Americans are crazy. We're representing our country soooo well. And then of course we met some Scottish gentlemen who were on a Stagg party, and let me tell you, they really like to hug. Except they don't call it a hug. No, they call it a boozy. So my good friend Gary kept asking me to give him "a boozy". I really enjoy boozies. Note: Irish people are close face talkers and space invaders. Which causes awkward situations when they accidently spit in your face and you don't know whether to wipe or not.

Our first double decker bus

So sorry about the delay in blogging everyone. We had some technicaly difficulties in Dublin... aka we weren't able to get this site up and running. But don't you worry, we're here in London now, with a working blog, and we are ready to fill you in.

Day 2 in Dublin was tons of fun. Now that we're here in London, I can say that Dublin was much more Americanized than London is. We started our day kinda early, when we woke up to the blinding sun at 8 AM. That was AFTER we were woken up at 7:15 by 5 of our rommates who decided to pretty much unpack and repack their entire backpacks before they left. Soooooo fun. There were 2 American guys staying in our room of 10 as well, so they were also a little peeved at our inconsiderate neighbors. The other Americans had just flown in the night before, so they were both jet-lagged and a little tired from their late night. But we survived our first night in a room with 7 strangers and now it's becoming routine. How scary is that?

So on our first full day in Dublin, we took a bus tour of the city, riding in one of those awesome double decker buses only found in big cities. I must admit, St. Louis isn't looking as exciting as it used to! The tour was awesome, about an hour and a half around the city, stopping all over, where we could hop on and hop off. We probably rode the whole thing three times, getting on and off all over. We saw the Guiness Brewery (We didn't tour, that would be sacreligious! No, just kidding, we just didn't want to shell out the 10 euros to see a brewery of a beer we don't like much anyway), St. Patrick's Cathedral (were St. Patrick supposedly baptized all the Irish people way back in the day), Trinity COllege, St. Stephen's Green, and all sorts of other super cool things. Lots of pictures again obviously, so we'll give you the slideshow version when we come home. :)

We were getting tired of pub food, because, well it's not very good, so we had very American-esque wraps for dinner and just spent the night walking around the city. Trinity College was full of college-aged kids, so we hung out htere for a while and people-watched. It doesn't get dark there until almost 11 PM, and the weeather was beautfiul, so it was a perfect night for that. Plus, we had to rest up for my big birthday the bext day! It's only once in a lifetime you can turn 24 in Dublin...

Ireland was amazing, but after a few hours in London, I can tell it was a much more relaxed feel than the rest of the trip will be. I think the rest of the trip will be more hustle and bustle and lots to see, whereas Ireland was just amazing scenery and a laid-back country. it was a great place to start though, and after checking out the lay of the land of London tonight with the help of my friend Pat who is staying in London this summer, it looks like we have lots to see before we leave on Tuesday!

1st night in Temple Bar

Sorry about the lapse in messages, but our hostel computers weren't working so well. A funny side note..when leaving Killarney we saw a BMI (body mass index chart for all you non-diatetic majors) and it was crazy. There categories are underweight, normal, overweight, morbid obese, super morbid obese, and super super morbid obese. Like the morbidly obese people don't feel bad enough, geez...they call them SUPER! Horrible!
We arrived in Dublin and the train system was really easy and really founf our hostel with no problem. The hostel was tiny and there was smelly people we roomed with but other than that is was sufficient. We walked around Trinity college and around the Temple Bar area. I guess Temple Bar is where all the great bars are. It was so crazy and there were so many people walking around. Lots of Hen and Stagg parties or bachelor and bachelorette parties. They all dress crazy with very bright and weird outfits. I hope Kalee and Kristin don't get any crazy ideas for mine...scary! We went to a few bars and tried some different beers. We found that we liked the Cider the best and felt that we were drinking apple juice, just trying to get some added vitamins! Note: Coors light is an import = VERY expensive...who knew!
The first people we met were some "lads" from England. They were very nice young men and we talked a lot about cultural differences. Very informational for a Thursday night out on the town. One particular lad was very impressed with Kalee's straight teeth and tan. And one English man told me that the English really like the Beatles...shocking!
Well that is all for me...enjoy the updates! :)