the final blog

hey all
paris has been really amazing. we saw le tour de france on sunday. what a day, it was so awesome to see the riders in person and to be in paris to see the third american ever win such an incredible race. monday we took it easy and just enjoyed the city. tonight we are planning to have a nice dinner courtesy of mom and dad, we cant wait.

this trip has been an incredible experience and i am so blessed to have seen such amazing places.

paris part deux

so last night after i blogged we decided to do a night bike tour through paris. it wasn't as informative as we would have liked but we did get to see a beautiful sunset and the effiel tour light up the night.

today we headed to the louve, when they say its big they arent lying. the thing is huge and very easy to get lost in, but we took all day and navigated through it and saw all the major pieces including the mona lisa and venus de milo. i liked mona lisa, she looks like a smart ass. there were other works i enjoyed as well but i took pictures and am not so sure about the names. i ate an incredible strawberry french pastery today that might have been too pretty to eat... if i hadnt spent four euro on it. anyway, after the louve we headed for notre dame. it is absolutely stunning from the outside. it is pretty on the inside, but we have been to vatican city so we are spoiled. but none of the cathedrals we have seen are anything like the outside of notre dame.

tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to go see the tour de france at the champs-elysees. the tour was the reason we began planning this trip so we are quite excited to see it. viva le france! viva le tour!


p.s. im so glad all the girls have been enjoying the blog, we will have to get together when i develop the pictures.

paris

bonjour bonjour from the city of love
we arrived in paris this morning at 7:30 am on a ten hour night train. the bunkbeds in the train were an experience in themselves and i dont think i would be in such a good mood if it wasnt for jadi's dramamine. but we made it and so far paris is beautiful. we havent done too much, just explored the area around where we are staying called montmarte because we cant check into our hostel yet. we have already visited the sacre coeur cathedral which has a ceiling adorned with a gorgeous mosaic of christ. we also visited a salvador dali exhibit which i really enjoyed, and we checked out the moulin rouge. we wanted to maybe see a show but they are 150 euro to check out. tomorrow we are trying to maybe see the last time trial of the tour de france but it is an hour and a half away. we will definately be at the champs-elysees on sunday for the final leg of the race and im pretty excited about it. i gotta run but i will blog again tomorrow.

barcelona part 2

holla from spain,
after some much needed sleep we headed out for some sight seeing in barcelona. we walked down the main street here called las ramblas and saw all the crazy spanish architechture. we also hit la bouqueria(the market)which is interestingly enough really pretty. all the vendors line up their fruits and vegitables one by one by color and type, i've never seen anything like it. we also got to see the port which is also very beautiful. the city of barcelona is very busy and full of action, we have seen several street performers including a break dancing routine and lots of kids playing soccer in the squares. today we are planing to go down to the beach and tomorrow hit the modern art museum and the cathedral. we are hoping to get some local food here soon, will try and have some tapas albrights. hope all is well in the states.

barcelona

just got to barcelona and im exahausted from twelve hours on the train. we are staying with one of jadi´s friends from florida who now lives here. i dont know what we are doing tomorrow but i wanted to let mom know that i got in o.k. in case i can´t find a phone card. goodnight all.

nice

bonjour from nice,
we arrived here in the south of france around noon and hit the beach right away, and by beach i mean smooth pebbles leading to the ocean. there are way more boobies than south beach here but everyone is in great shape (if that makes a difference). the weather was awesome and nice is gorgeous, jadi and i went parasailing this afternoon...what a view! so tomorrow morning we are on the train again at 6 am on our way to barcelona. im a little tired but having a great time, the trip is flying by.

cinque terre

wow. so cinque terre is beautiful. one of my favorite spots so far. it is five tiny costal towns connected by hiking trails on the north west coast of italy. we are staying in the first town and my favorite one called riomaggiore. the towns are cliffside to the ocean and the water is unbelievable. so glad we chose to stop here. the first day we got here we found a spot on the boulders and went for a swim. today we did four of the five hikes between the towns. the hikes were really scenic but very difficult at times. tomorrow we plan to hang out by the water all day and then we leave early the morning of the 16th for nice. if anyone is in italy anytime soon this place is not to be missed. especially for all of us who love the beach (the "beach" is mostly boulders with very little sand). this will be my last post from italy... i'll talk to you from france.

last day in rome

today was our last day in rome and we took advantage of it. today we visited the colosseum, the ruins from the ancient city, the pantheon, and revisited the trevi fountain. they are all incredibly preserved for their age and so enormous. it was pretty cool to walk over some of the same stones that the ancient romans did. and by the way, the colosseum looks nothing like it does in the movie gladiator. its actually a good bit smaller.
tonight we are going to meet up with danielle natoli who is studying abroad here in rome and then tomorrow morning we are off to cinque terre. cinque terre is on the north west coast of italy and is five small towns connected by hiking trails and has one of the largest free beaches in italy. it should be nice to get out of the city for a while. i don't know when my next post will be but until then, i hope all is well with everyone.

rome part 2

hello again from rome.
today we went to vatican city. it was really hot and crowded but beautiful. we did the whole st. peter's basilica thing, such a huge cathedral and everything is so ornate. we walked beneath the basilica and saw the tombs of all the past popes and it was a little creepy. its also a little creepy how much they love the pope here, they sell everything with his face on it, even lolipops. we also saw the vatican museum and walked through the sistine chapel. it looks so much more incredible in person than it does in books and photos. the paintings have so much life that they look like they are 3D. in rome it is pretty cool that you can drink from all the fountains, the aquaducts are still in use from the ancient city. oh yeah and the pope says hello to all.

thanks to everyone for all the comments... its nice to hear from home when i am so far away.

rome

bonjurno,
we arrived in rome this afternoon and have checked into the hostel. venice was not my favorite city we have visited because it is extremely expensive and not very easy to get around in but it was neat to see. we tried to ride in a gondola but the asking price was 100 euro. the water bus allowed us to see the city from the canals though and it is like none other, wouldn't it be nice to drive your boat up to your villa? last night we watched the world cup match in what was supposed to be a square with a big screen in venice, but turned out to be a couple hundred people huddled around a 30 inch. it was exciting nonetheless and after the big win the men stripped to there european man briefs and jumped in the canals. i got some great video clips of the celebrations (not the man briefs). we will be here for the next three nights and tomorrow we plan on visiting vatican city.

venice

just dropping a quick post to say i am in venice and well. did a bit of sight seeing this afternoon and am on the way to the square to watch the soccer game. i havent been able to buy more minutes for my phone because it is a sunday and the store is not open. i will call you tomorrow mom. anyway, heading out of venice tomorrow and off to rome. will post again soon.

munich

hello from munich.
we have been in the munich area for two days now but we have been staying with our friend drew an hour outside of munich in a small mountain town. it was so peaceful and a nice change from all of our time spent in cities. we stayed in "oma´s" (drew´s grandmother... german for grandmother) guest house and were treated to delicious german food the entire stay, and even got some laundry done. the town was right on the border of germany and austria and drew took us to a spot on a hike where we could strattle the border. i am realizing that germans eat a lot of meat... and that is an understatement. we are not talking chicken or fish here... we are talking weiner shnitzle. my stomach is having a little trouble with the adjustment but it definately tastes good. but i really have enjoyed all my time in germany, it seems to be quite a wonderful country. today we are going to try to make to an art museum in munich before we leave on a night train to venice where we will be staying for one night... that just happens to be the night of the world cup finals between italy and france. it should be an exciting night... viva italia.

prague part 2

hello again. today in prague we walked through the city square and went to the prague castle. i didn't think prague would be so pretty but it really is. the currency here is kind of crazy, it's called crowns and about 27 of them equal one dollar. so it is really cheap. our stay here was very short but i am glad we stopped through, it is a very unique city. tomorrow morning we leave for munich where we will meet up with jadi's friend drew who lives in austria. we will be staying (free) with him until saturday. tootles.

prague

hello from prague.
we arrived from berlin this afternoon but we didn't get into any sight seeing today, just took a nap. the train ride was beautiful and the city seems like it will be another good one. i'm writing this blog for mom so she knows i got here safe and sound, because my phone is too expensive to use here. tomorrow we plan to see the prague castle and hopefully much more. happy forth of july all!

spelling

i know that prague is spelled prague and not prauge.

berlin part 2

second day in berlin was really nice. we went to see the pergamon museum and the reichstag (where the german government meets). the pergamon was really unique because the museum has rebuilt scale replicas of ancient cities that contain real pieces of ancient architechture. the best one was the ishtar gates, it was the entrance to the temple of ancient babylon... it was huge and pretty incredible. the reichstag building is a center piece to the city of berlin and was built with an enormous open air glass dome on the top of it. jadi and i ate lunch at a nice restaurant on the roof with a view of berlin, the view was awesome and so was the food. the east side gallery (the largest part of the berlin wall still standing) was a long walk but really made me think about how hard it must have been to be stuck in communist germany while the walls were still standing. it really makes you appreciate your freedom with our forth of july tomorrow.
we are still trying to work out our train to prauge but hopefully we will get there tomorrow.

Berlin

hallo! (german for hello)
greetings from berlin. we arrived last night from amsterdam, we didnt actually make it to the botanical gardens because we had to catch an earlier train (sorry janice). the six hour train ride was a very pleasent experience, definately worth paying for first class. we opted to take a bike tour through berlin today and give our tired feet a break. it was pretty awesome. the city of berlin is 3 times the size of manhattan so the tour guide was a big help in finding our way around as well as providing a lot of the historical information behind the sites. we saw all the major land marks, but overwhelmingly the best part was the architecture. it really was breathtaking but you'll see the pictures. tomorrow we are going to see the east side gallery, the largest part of the berlin wall still standing that has been turned into a gallery for local artists. we will also try to hit up some more museums but i will post about it next time. we are leaving berlin for prauge on the forth of july so everyone has to celebrate for me. i hope all is well in the states.

last day in amsterdam

hey all,
yesterday was an awesome/exhausting day. the van gogh museum ended up being my favorite thing we did. i didnt realize how alive art could be, much different than in a text book. last night we met up with cameron and his friends and went to the red light district. we appreciated having the guys around in that neighborhood. it was definately interesting. this is our last day in amsterdam and we are going to be working out our next train ticket and then hopefully see the botanical gardens. amsterdam is beautiful and im really glad we stopped here on our journey. i don't know when i'll be able to find the internet next so t.t.f.n. bloggers.