new pics

sorry I have been slacking on the pics but I just uploaded a whole bunch to old posts so enjoy :)

These are a few of my favorite things...

Flu, bed bugs, achy backs, stinky shoes and the Alps...what do they all have in common??

So a lot has happened since my last post. Well for one, I got the flu so I was not able to do much let alone try to write a post. Second, internet is just so dang expensive in Europe, and I really dislike paying 2 euros to use the internet for 20 minutes to write a couple stinkin emails. But to catch ya'll up- we left Rome and went to the romantic Florence and Venice. We got lost in Venice a bunch of times....on purpose. That was half the fun. The other half was eating gelatto every chance we could get. Venice is exactly how I had imagined it- bridges and canals everywhere, gondalas with charming boatsmen, romantics making out on every bridge and corner, outdoor cafes along the canals, old cobblstone streets and the magnificent square with St. Marks Basillica. The only downfall was the smell and the bed bugs... well on Josh's half of the bed at least. I guess he forgot to not let them bite. Unfortunatly we only stayed in Venice for one night but we pretty much had two full days because we did not take a train from Venice until 9:00 at night. That is when I started to come down with the flu. I think a lot of things had to do with my sickness including my out of aligned back, dehydration, exhaustion and the intense heat. All in all, I was in a lot of pain for about 5 days. We took a night train from Venice to Salzburg, Austria (bad idea), for we got to Salzburg at 4:00 in the morning and we didnt know what to do in the empty train station until the sun came up. I was sick in Salzburg so we were not able to do much. We went to Munich, Germany after Salzburg which was definitly a worth-it stop. If you did not already know, Munich is the beer captial of the world so it would be a diss to Munich and a shame to ourselves if we did not get a beer in the famous Hofbrahaus. Josh ordered the famous liter beer, and it actually tasted alright (considering I hate beer). The Hofbrahaus definitly met up with our expectations- long wooden tables, women wearing the traditional munich clothes and carrying 8 or more liter beer mugs at a time, and the loud, traditional German band playing in the corner. After hanging out with some sweet Germans, watching the famous and overrated Glockenspiel clock that dances, taking a free 2 hour tour of the city, seeing the Neuschwanstein Castle, and visiting the Dachau Concentration camp, our 2 nights and 3 days in Munich were up. We packed our bags and took a 7 and half hour long train ride to the beautiful Alps in Switzerland where I am writing this post at the moment. Honestly, the Alps take my breath away and if there is one place I could recommend you to spend time in in Europe, it would be here...in Interlaken, Switzerland. Interlaken is this small village in the valley of the Alps between two huge, tourquiose coloured lakes and it is everything one thinks of Switzerland to be. Today Josh and I took a train up into the Alps and hiked for 7 hours. We passed through numerous Swiss mountain villages that have about 10 wooden houses each decorated in flowers. The hike gave us an unbelievable view of the Alps- snow capped mountains encircled us. No joke- there were random cows and billy goats just walking along the sides of the mountains and the hiking trails. Josh even tried comparing his gotee with that of a goat's (the goat definitly won). We had a picnic next to a waterfall, and icecream at a little bed in breakfast in the small town of Gimmelwald (pop. about 50). Today was probably one of my favorite days on the trip, and I am also finally feeling better! We finished the day off like true, authentic backpackers by cooking our own dinner in the hostel kitchen (spaghetti with sauteed mushrooms and onions...delicious but very repetitive...) and airing out our stinky hiking shoes on our balcony. Even though our trip is coming to an end soon, we are definitly finishing on a lextraordinary bang. Tomorrow we will go biking around the lakes until we have to catch our 3:00 train back into Germany. Miss you all!!

Stepping back in time...

Rome and Florence were two great cities to see what ancient Italy was like. Especially Florence. Florence felt like a movie set for a Renaissance film. The streets were extremely old and most were just huge stones put together like a puzzle. The river that runs through Florence has these old bridges from Renaissance times that seem like they are falling apart but have been around forever, so they probably will never. Honestly, Florence was cool but Josh and I agreed that it didnt really feel like all the amazingness that it was cracked up to be. Everyone says that Florence is one of the top places to go in Italy, but I would go to the Cinque Terre or Venice before Florence. Maybe it was not as exciting because we had really crappy weather for one of the 2 days, and also coming from Rome, we were dead as dogs. So we kind of wandered around aimlessly. We did see all the great sites such as the Duomo and the Uffizi Gallery (which has one of the best or may be even the best collection of Renaissance and Florence art). Not gonna lie, the hostel was probably one of the best parts about Florence. It was the BEST hostel we have stayed in thus far- it was basically a hotel. The room was really spacious and we had our own terrace. Each bed had its own light and outlet. There was even a pool, sauna, turkish bath, restaurant, bar, terrace bar, and pool/ping pong tables area! It was definitly awesome, and we wish we could have stayed there longer! We met these sweet Aussie's that we hung out with all night and played some pool. It was cool to exchange cultural differences. So I guess the rumor is wrong- Kangaroos arent just running around like crazy through everyone's backyards. Yesterday we took an afternoon train from Florence, and we arrived in Venice around 5:30. Venice was impressive from the very first view of the train window. It is as beautiful and wonderful as everyone says it is supposed to be. If you can get over the smell from the canals, and the flocks of tourists everywhere, it definitly is a beautiful place to be. There are canals everywhere you look, and more bridges than I have seen in my life! We were so wiped yesterday that we did not do much in Venice last night (except get gelatto :) ), but after we get ready this morning, we are going to explore Venice for the day. We have a night train to Salzburg in which we will get there at 4 tomorrow morning. We are really proud of ourselves because we went to the grocery store and bought food for 6 meals and it only costed us 11 euros!! It is so nice when the hostels have kitchens because we just cook our meals. Last night we had pasta and corn and the total of the whole meal for josh and I together came to 2.60 euros! Crazy..right? Well Josh and I are going to walk around the canals so ttyl!
-k

Seeing all of Rome's greatest sites in one day is exhausting to say the least

So walking all of Rome in 10 hours in 85 degree weather was definitly a lonnnnggg day. We kicked off the day nice and early and ate breakfast around 7:00. We took the metro to Vatican City (where the Pope lives) and we toured St. Peter's Basillica before the mad rush. St. Peter's was absolutly incredible for one, it was the largest church I have ever seen, and two, the detail was unbelievable- it is the largest church for the Catholic Denomination and it is the centerpoint for Catholics. After seeing the church we tried hard to pass the several annoying tour bookers trying to get us to join an English tour for the Vatican Musuem and finally made it to the museum(after making a quick stop for croissants). Yes, the Vatican Musuem is one of the largest in the world, and yes, there were probably tons of masterpieces within its wall; however, Josh and I were only in the mood to see one thing- The Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo's masterpiece. Yes, we paid fourteen Euros (approximately 20 dollars) to see the Sistine Chapel and it was worth that much and more. The moment we walked into the Chapel and set our eyes upon the ceiling, the power of the paint took over and I felt like I was in another world. The extraordinary colors of the paint jumped out, and pulled me into the creation stories that Michelangelo tried and successfully portrayed. The middle of the ceiling is the famous painting of God and Adam and their hands reaching out to one another (or lack of on Adam's part). After seeing the Sistine Chapel, we grabbed an Italian lunch of spaghetti and gelato, and then we basically walked around Rome from top to bottom (along with getting gelato for a second time). The ending to our grand tour was the great Colosseum where we toured the inside and learned all about he gladiators from our handy Rick Steves Mp3 guide on our Ipods. Tomorrow we will take a 9:00 am train to Florence, but for now we will go get something to eat and see Rome by night! later
kayla

When in Rome...

So lots to catch yall up on , for internet is a luxury for us poor backpackers. On our last day in Nice, France we went scuba diving on the coast and it was definitly an adventure. If you call throwing up over the side of the boat about 15 or more times a wonderful adventure, then I guess you would have had a great time. Dont get me wrong, the coast was absolutly beautiful from the boat. It was just the waves that killed me. For some reason it did not cross my mind that we would need to take a boat out to the sea in order to scuba dive so I did not take my motion sickness medicine. Well I definitly learned a lesson. The waves were incredibly rough, and I started getting sick just as the scenery became more beautiful by the minute. The next thing I know, Im over the side of the boat puking up all my breakfast and more. Yah...it wasnt pretty. So basically I was puking my guts out until they could squeeze me into my wet suit (they didnt take my overly sized butt into consideration when giving me my wetsuit size) and put me into the water to scuba dive. Once I was in the water my stomach became better. The instructor was able to put my oxygen tank on and put the goggles on me. I was sort of nervous because I did not want to trust my oxygen tank. Once we started getting deeper below the surface of the water, I started trusting the tank more and I just enjoyed the underwater world. It was beautiful below the water- we went about 25 feet or so under the surface and we just swam around looking at different colored fish and coral. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever done...it was even freaky that I could breathe underwater! After I came up from my dive, I got sick all over again and I was getting sick all the way until we got to shore. Josh had a wonderful time though! So to sum things up quick, we left Nice that day to take the train to Genoa, Italy. Honestly I could go into detail about Genoa, but really, theres not much to go into detail about except the fact that we spent another hour or so trying to find our hostel. Probably the greatest part of our trip thus far happened after Genoa, Italy when we got to the Cinque Terre, Italy. It was honestly the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. The Cinque Terre are the 5 villages before the big city La Spezia that are on the coast. Each village has its own cliff that its on and the view from each village is amazing. All the houses are colorful and clumped together surrounding the sea. The cliffs have wine vineyards sprawled all along them. When we got to our village, the scene literally took my breath away...like I seriously could not breathe. We ended up spending an extra night there because 2 nights was just not sufficient. We hiked through all 5 villages the following day after we got there and the hike took us about 4 and half hours to do. Not gonna lie- it was a pretty rough hike. Most of the time we just lounged around on the gigantic rocks and soaked up the sun and just soaked up Italy. So we left Cinque Terre this morning, went to see the leaning tower of Pisa and now we are in Rome! We will go to the Vatican tomorrow and see most of the city! gotta go for now but will update more tomorrow! ttyl
kayla

new pictures

I added a buttload of pics to previous posts just so ya'll know...so check em out :)