Greece and we are HOME!

Hello all,
Most likely this is the last post for our blog. I have been excited to hear from so many of you that have followed us :)
From Olympia it took a full day to travel to Athens via bus and then ferry to Aegina Island, I think the closest island to Athens' port. Being the only people at our Olympia Hotel, one of the owners helped us out so much by calling around to many many hotels we found online listed to be on this island. We were realizing how shut down Greece was in the winter, but it didn't fully set in until after calling at least 8 hotels on the island and they were all shut down! Finally in another town (not the main port town) the hotel owner found a place open for 35 Euros a night. Maybe the fact that everything was shut down should have been a warning for us, but we really wanted to see a Greek Island. So Tuesday, after leaving Olympia at 8:30 am on the bus and taking a ferry from Piraeus Port in Athens at 4:15, we got to our island closer to 6pm. On arrival we did not know where the bus station was and were tired enough to just get a taxi to get us right to our place around the island. The island is only really like 11 km across but it took the taxi almost 30 minutes (guess the main road is closed) and we were so thankful once we actually got to our rooms and a real shower!!
We stayed for two nights, again being the only guests :) I am pretty positive we were the only tourists in town, which was one main strip of street. I can see how in the summer it is beautiful- the sun, clear blue ocean, lots of shopping and restaurants, pools and music clubs... However the only places in operation in our two days were the two mini markets, a bakery, a few "American fast food" places at night for take out (no commercialized places, but we could have gotten a sandwich or ice cream to go), a bar/ cafe, and Gilly's- a restaurant owned by a retired English couple. Tuesday we had not eaten more than snacks all day and decided to check out Gilly's. The couple were so sweet and had homemade English dishes (two or three choices, whatever she was cooking that night). We were the only people there for a little while, and then suddenly all these English speakers started pouring in. We had come on BINGO night! English residents came to hang out and play here sometimes and were all very welcoming (after the questions of "Why did you come here, NOW???")We put in our two euros for cards- different than we usually played in US- and played a few games. I even won 5 euros for a "line", or 5 numbers in a row.
Wednesday it was nice enough we lay out on the rocks some (beach pretty dirty) and soak up the sun like lizards. Back to Gilly's that night for dinner and when asking them the best way to get back to port on Thursday to go back to Athens, they offered to take us!!
Loving the people, we catch a ride Thursday just in time for our 1:00 ferry to Athens. (If you are ever in Agia Marina on Aegina Island, go to Gilly's restaurant and say hi!!) They gave us recommendations on where to stay in Athens, close to the port, and how to get to the airport Friday morning.

That afternoon we made it up to see the Acropolis- probably the most amazing was the view from the top! I think we liked Athens more than expected because we heard so many bad things about the place, it was nice cause everything was open!! Some Christmas decorations were up and people were out just hanging out. Lots of time spent just walking around, enjoying a comfortable 60 degree day... Found a restaurant for some Greek food again finally- and since it was Thanksgiving and turkey is virtually impossible to find cooked, we found one package of turkey lunch meat in a store. Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday morning, after some difficulty with the bus that never came, we took the metro to the airport. Leaving a morning in the 50's, we arrive in Frankfurt to 0 degrees C!!! We found the coolest hostel ever, check out 5 Elements Hostel in Frankfurt if you are there. Then took a train to Heidleberg, town about 1-2 (depending on the train you find...) hours south. Didn't know it before we went, but they have a renown Christmas market that was so so cute! It was the perfect last afternoon in Europe, walking around a German Christmas market on pedestrian only cobblestone streets with Christmas music, lots of really good homemade food and crafts... Even though it was still literally freezing, we saw the castle there, tried warm spiced wine, looked in all the Christmas stores and decorations and just enjoyed really like 5 hours there!
Back to Frankfurt to wake up at 3:30 am, flew to Amsterdam, went through lots of security checks, and flew for ten hours to Portland! We arrived about noon on Saturday, in time to get back to Forest Grove before the Civil War kick off. Josh made it to Corvallis by the second quarter I think, and I stuck to the couch with my parents. Sadly it was a pretty bad game, but we are glad we are home safely after an amazing amazing trip!

Cinque Terre 2 AND Rome

We are realizing time is running out to post while we are over here, so this may be shorter. We did stay an extra night in Cinque Terre and the weather was beautiful! On Sunday, when we hiked them all, we actually went swimming and could lay out comfortably on the rocks in the sun to dry! We stood out as Americans, or at least tourists, because our swim suits covered so much!! As in Josh had board shorts instead of underwear (ie whitie tighties) like all the good old men out there and I had a regular 2 piece instead of bra/ underwear. It was so cute seeing the little ones running around naked, without a care!
Only bummer was that sunset was 5 pm, so we had to make sure to leave Monterosso (town number 5) by 3:30 or 4 to make it back to Vernazza by dark. If you go, definately check out pizza and the place by the water. You cant miss it, just follow the main road to the water and it is on your left. There are three tables, but best to take it take out and eat outside. One night we did meet a family of 4 there (but dad was taking a break in the room) who had been traveling around Europe together since June. The son was 8th grade, daughter 4th grade and from Nevada City, CA. They will fly home in December after 6 months! I was most impressed by how excited the kids were to tell us what they saw, learned, and want to do at school when they get back.
ROME:
Tuesday morning we took the train down to Rome. We had written down a possible place to stay (for the most part we stopped booking ahead of time in case things dont work out so we dont waste money/ have flexiablity to change). Arriving in Tremini station it was a comfortable day out and within 5 minutes we found the hostel and got a room! If you are there, check out the Travelers Hostel, closest metro is Tremini. It is clean- they make you leave between 11-2 to clean all the rooms/ kitchen/ bathrooms- with two free computers to use, 2 kitchens, free breakfast AND dinner! There are some huge perks to traveling in the off season- the crowds are a lot smaller, don't need to plan ahead as much due to less tourists, and free hostel dinners/ other perks sometimes. One of our roommates from Portugal (from a city there where Port wine is from actually!) said he waited for 6 hours in line to see the Sistine Chapel in July. We were able to walk through the museum maze right to it. Tuesday nights they had pizza, as much as you want til its gone, then every other night we could go to the restaurant next door for a bowl of pasta and glass of wine for free!

This gave us more money and freedom for things like an Ancient Rome tour and a Rome Pass. The Rome Pass was a suggestion by someone in the hostel, costs 20 Euro, and gives you first two admissions for free plus discounts on other things around the city, and free transportation via buses and metro for three days. This got us into the Colusseum + Forum and then to the ancient port town Ostia Antica. It didn't work for the Vatican because its not in Rome. On Wednesday we decided on a 3 hour walking tour to understand a little more about what we were looking at. We ended up getting an unemployed archeologist (kind of ironic) as a tourguide, and she did a really good job of pointing out the important things and painting a picutre of how things used to be (and had recreation pictures to show us). By the time the tour was over it was starting to get dark, at around 5, and we started walking towards the river since we hadnt been there yet. There were SOOO many birds in the trees by the river, you could tell who was local because they had umbrellas not for the rain, but to avoid getting pooped on. Luckily when we hit the river we stumbled into Castel Sant Angelo, which looks really cool at night. After taking a couple pictures we looked to our left and saw the night view of St. Peter's Basilica, another amazing view at night. We strolled over there and got a feel for where we were headed in the morning, then headed back to the hostel for another free dinner. The next day was ALL Vatican city, which is pretty much explained above. St. Peter's Basilica is one of the most amazing structures we have ever seen, just the amount of detail on every square foot of that place looks like it would take a month to mold and construct.
The next day...or two...was pretty much taken up by traveling to greece. Starting off, the train that we needed to take to get to the ferry was full in second class, so after an hour of effort the guy getting us our tickets was able to pull some strings and upgrade us to first class. The train ran about a 45 minutes late and it was a little bit of a rush to find and get to the ferry, which was scheduled to leave at 8pm and arrive at noon the next day. A word of caution with the taking the "free" ferry as a perk of having eurail, normally that free ticket only gets you on the boat and only allows you space outside. If the ferry were full we would have had to find a spot to crash outside, something they forget to mention even when you buy the ticket. This was explained to us after a bit of confusion when we asked where we could put our bags and we were pointed into a room of seats and were told it would be ok because it is too cold outside...could've been a bad one. Regardless, we got on and got going and met some americans from north carolina and georgia, which was a good thing as for the security of our stuff because the area we were in had a bunch of gypsy's. To make matters a little worse, we basically went through a storm, making the boat jump around just as much as the miss sarah on a rough day, and also making us extremely late to get into Patras. When we decided to get up and walk around after getting through the rough part of the storm, we saw that the boat was trashed, water and broken dishes everywhere inside, one semi being transported tipped over and bent a railing on the back deck, pretty much this was a boat that was not prepared for any kind of weather. Needless to say, the weather delayed us by about 5 or 6 hours, putting us into Patras well past dark and not giving us time to get to Olympia that night as planned. By the way, NEVER take a superfast ferry, it was not their fault that it was delayed, but they have something against feeding you, keeping you informed on whats going on, and customer service in general. The people on board made every effort to ignore any eye contact in case you may have a question and were in no way willing to help with making a contact to a hotel or suggestions on bus schedules or places to stay or anything of the sort because of the long delay. Enough venting on those people. To make things better, when we arrived into Patras, it was too late to catch a bus, and every hotel in town was 100% booked because of some event running that day. Luckily there were a few beds in a hostel, it was only 12 euro for the night and only semi sketchy. The next day we got an early bus to Olympia and that is where we are today...a little rainy but really nice people, a great hostel with a warm shower, and plenty of sites and history to check out. On the schedule for today is the original Olympic stadium and the temple of Zues!

Cinque Terre

The most beautiful place!!! Sunny days, cool and quiet nights, lots of hiking and our first real gelato. Needless to say, we ended up staying an extra night here making 3 total in the fourth town, Vernazza. It is definitely the off season because very few tourists and at least 1/2 of the town was closed up, but so much nicer that way!
We got there from Lucca Saturday night and just walking down the main road (the only real road although no cars are allowed) that leads from train station at the top to the water harbor at the bottom we found a place to stay. There are no major hotels in the cities but people rent out individual rooms. Because it is in such an inlet on the coast, sunset was at 5pm making for an early night. Most of the town closes down so we settled on a pesto pizza- Pesto originated here!- and a bottle of wine, sitting outside. This became the standard for every other night and we have successfully eaten pizza at least once a day for a week or so straight :)
Early nights helps to get up early, with the church bells ringing VERY loudly every hour. This was Sunday and the day we were going to hike between all five of the towns, about 9km total. Starting out at about 10:30 finally (sun still isn't up until almost 8 too...) We got to Corniglia little over an hour later, warm and tired. Realizing later that the hike between Monterosso (town 5) and Vernazza (4) is hardest, but Vernazza to Cornigilia (3) is a close second. The views around every corner though are mind blowing and take away the tiredness of hundreds of worn down rocky steps.
We have to wrap it up tonight, we leave Rome tomorrow for Bari and then an overnight ferry to Patras, Greece. We put up some photos on facebook and will finish Cinque Terre/ all the rest soon... I hope.

Lucca

We have been without internet for quite a while and have since traveled from Barcelona (leaving at 8pm on a bus, arriving in Milan at 10am) then another train to Lucca (11am-3:30pm) arriving on Friday Nov. 14th. The train went well- we didn't have to get off for customs this time, but were woken up at 5am by the French customs on our train. Apparently when you ride through France they need to check you out... Our passports got checked before boarding in Barcelona, then on the train, then when we got off right away in Milan. I can honestly say I have not been more thankful to look like an unsuspecting American student with a US passport. They gave a lot of people a really hard time. I guess lots of Africans come in through Spain and Portugal illegally, so anyone who looked like they could be from South were checked every time, often not sounding polite and not making any effort to communicate in any kind of common or native language regardless of paperwork...kinda sad. Anyways, we arrived in Lucca at 3:30 as planned to a familiar face, my old soccer teammate from high school Marco. He had reserved a B&B place for us (A friend of his from school ran the place), and it was a great experience for our first B&B on this trip. We took a quick shower to spray off the stink of an extremely long train ride and were quickly ready to get our first taste of Italy. Marco and his girlfriend Laura were really excited to show us around and give us a typical taste of Lucca, as there were many things that can only be found in Lucca. We started with some Focaccia and it may be one of the first things on the list to figure out how to make when we get home...the best breadsticks you will ever have is the only way I can explain them. We walked around the city center while we snacked on the bread, Marco was a great tour guide mixing a little town history and jokes about tourists like us in the summer time. The next walk was around the ancient city walls that have been around since midevil times as protection from rivaling cities. They were actually really neat (even for being just walls) and really well preserved, a definite trademark of the city. After a quick candy stop- staying with people turns into trying even more of the local cuisine= to eating A LOT. We went out to Marco's house to say hi to mom and check out his pad. Then he drove us out to Pisa for a quick look at the leaning tower. It's still hanging in there although hard to understand how even after reading all the signs.
That night they took us out to the "Local food" restaurant. Turns out his mom is the doctor of the owner so the restaurant wanted us to have a good impression of Lucca food. This was done by instead of just an appetizer, we each got the mixed appetizer plate. On each we had lots of types of bruchetta, polenta, olives, slices of meat, fritatta, and of course a bread basket with olive oil. Then came the traditional soup of Lucca, 5 different varieties of like a thick almost nutty grainy tasting soup. Really hard to describe and we wrote the names down, but don't have them here.
In all the types they said to put in olive oil and pepper before eating.
THEN the second course, which we wisely choose to just get 2 of and split with the four of us. We had lamb ribs I think with potatoes. With all this we are drinking of course, Lucca area wine. After all of this Marco insisted they always have dessert to settle the stomach! They each got one while Josh and I settled on splitting the best Tiramisu ever. At the end, a shot of lemoncello (or limoncino in some areas) to further top it all off... what a night.
The next day was beautiful, sunny and we visited Marcos house again- also huge and amazing. His mom cooked us a pasta lunch before Marco's soccer game and our train ride. Our train took us to La Spezia, the main town outside of Cinque Terre villages.

Another day in Barcelona

Hola!
We decided to stay an extra night in Barcelona once we found out the train schedule to Milan, Italy runs every other night! Therefore instead of leaving last night we added on a hostel night here and take the train Thursday night. This place is hard to beat as far as hostels go; near a metro station, very clean, super nice other travelers (people in our 10 bunk room range from New Zealand, Canada, the US, Taiwan...), free computer use, a TV room with couches, a kitchen and free breakfast! Breakfast is pretty standard but Josh was stoked that they broke out of the international brand of cereal found at every hostel- cornflakes- and also have like puffed corn cereal, real variety. Ive been doing the white toast/ nutella combination which is taking the place of peanut butter over here.
Rain came in today but still managed to find la Sagrada Familia and a few other Gaudi places. Although neither of us are incredibly into fancy architecture, still walking around this town is amazing. All the buildings are beautiful and most places seem very clean for such a huge city. Yesterday we found an amazing, HUGE market called La Boqueria off of La Rambla that is our new favorite place to look and get food. They have all the freshest- as in the seafood is climbing off the table- meat, seafood, veggies, fruit, bread, and chocolate stands ever. We got two large boxes of pastas, bag of dried fruit and nuts, and wine for about 13 euros total. Plus they have fresh things of natural fruit juice for 1 euro each, and 2 for 1 by this afternoon cause they had to get rid of the rest. Once we can get the pictures loaded you can see the huge slabs of pigs legs hanging off the stands, hearts, livers, everything you could use and eat is there.
Tonight were going to a Barcelona FC game at 9pm with a few people from the hostel. They are playing a 2nd tier team so it wont be as huge, but 20 Euros for a good ticket in the largest stadium in Europe- we are pretty excited.
Supposed to clear up tomorrow and I think we will take a day trip to a smaller coast town. By 8pm tomorrow night we get on the train (47 Euros each to just reserve a inclining seat!) and ride straight until 10am Friday when we get to Milan. From there, taking a train to Lucca where we meet Joshs friend from high school, Marco, for the night.
We will probably post again from Italy- hopefully with pictures.

Encontramos el sol (We found the sun!): Barcelona

We made it to Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain, at 6:30 last night after a LONG day on train. We did start some pretty good card games of Speed and War on the train though, resulting in the first every draw tie of Speed for either of us.
They speak Catalan, a mixture of Spanish and French, here but understand Spanish (including my American/ mexican Spanish) most of the time. After we found our hostel last night, near a metro station but out of downtown, we found the famous street, Las Ramblas. There is something for everyone there as far as we could tell. Didn't go back in the day light today but found dinner and our first glass of Sangria there last night. It was fun to see the street with the lights, shopping and restaurants but it is definately a tourist place. We were always greeted in English and menus were in English before any other language everywhere.
Today is turned into a BEAUTIFUL day, in the mid 60's and sunny - finally!! We found a place on the end of a metro line Josh heard about from a friends blog. It is the highest point of the city, the peak of Tibidabo, 512 m (1,680 ft) high. You can get off the metro, take a tram to the top of the city then a Funicular railway to the top (a tram going up the hill). BUT we hoofed it up the whole way, at times blazing our own trail. It was a perfect day, even going up in a tank top and Josh in shorts!! At the top it turns out is an AMAZING view of the city as well as a huge amusement park. Cool to see, but almost a let down with the commercial atmosphere. Since we are here during low season though, this was shut down so there were very few people around. At the top we found a little restaurant off the main attraction area that was finally very Spanish. The lady running the show only spoke Spanish, took our order then went in the back and made it all herself!! All at a very resonable price and Josh got to try the traditional Paella. This is served hot in a skillet with rice, veggies, shrimp and calamari.
This afternoon was spent finding the Olympic village and walking barefoot in the beaches of the Mediterranean Sea!! A beautiful comfertable night, we even saw our first nudist on the beach.

An early night here, the computers cant load pictures from my camera so hopefully soon enough we will catch up on those. A few more days in Barcelona and hopefully a night train to northern italy by wednesday.

Bordeaux

Well thanks to Martin and his family I dont think any trip to Europe will be complete (or acceptable haha) without a trip to Bordeaux. It was a perfect mix of getting a BIG taste of culture, staying busy, getting good rest, and being able to relax like it was home all at the same time. We arrived at lunch time on day 1 and had lunch with Juliet, Martin, and Jacqueline (who was affectionately called grandma or Jacquet). We got our first glimpse of typical french food when martin ordered raw beef and made us try a bite. It was good but we were glad to have chicken and fill our stomachs with something familiar. It was sunny and nice to just hang outside and feel some sun. Went back to the house later and continued to just talk, everything took effort and a lot of simplification of french and english phrases, but it got easier as time went on. Martin wanted to take me to meet some of his friends and play a quick game of soccer, so we did that for an hour and a half or so while christa got lost running around the area. After we just went back and showered and I drove Juliets car (french are scary drivers) downtown to see what it looked like in the evening. Martin had his girlfriend meet up with us while we were there (Mom I approve) and we spent an hour or so just cruising and having Martin be our tour guide. We headed back for some dinner and an early bed time. Of course being the day before the election the dinner conversation was politics, but after a couple glasses of wine the excitement went down a little and it was easy to get some solid shuteye.
Day 2 was a day that Juliete and Jacqueline planned to take us to Cap Ferret and show us the houses they are building along with thier favorite place to vacation in the summer. We woke up to election news...looked like a landslide...some were happy, some were sad. Glad for the majority of that hype and politics in the media junk to be over. The drive to Cap Ferret was a short hour and really nice. Cap Ferret is situated on a small peninsula just west of Bordeaux. It was a little foggy and chilly but very easy to picture how nice it would be with people and a little warm sun. We got to see the houses that Juliet and her family were building and they are AWSOME. They gave us an invite to come back in the summer any time, after seeing it we are gonna have to take them up on the offer some day. Oysters were on the menu for lunch, interesting food, you squirt a little lemon on them and see if they move a tiny bit. If they move then they are good to go and you can eat them, if not then they are no good. They werent bad besides the occasional piece of sand you would grind on, a true sign that it is fresh. Christa and I explored around the town while the others had thier house meeting, then met up later to head back to Bordeaux. Just before we left Juliet took us to a small bakery and had us eat some Canele (i think the spelling is not right) which are really good pasteries, and really hard to explain the taste, you just need to try. Nothing much more exciting for the rest of the evening...besides for Jacqueline driving, pretty good adrenaline rush from the back seat, I can see why Martin wont ride with her haha.
Day 3 Juliet took us to Pauillac to visit the family winery, Lynch-Bages. The country is GORGEOUS with grapes as far as the eye can see, with a Chateau scattered every few kilometers. We got to tour the winery, both old and new, and we were then given a lesson in how to wine taste CORRECTLY. It was all amazing and topped by a visit to the gift shop for a souvenir, meeting the main man John-Michel, and enjoying lunch with the family. Juliet took us to another winery to see how others do it (and wine taste again) while she went to visit her grandfather. It is really sad that I dont remember the second one off the top of my head, but google image Pauillac wine and the first big castle to show up is the one we visited...pretty amazing.
Day 4 was spent just checking out the town during the daylight and doing a little shopping. Not much super exciting, just looking. The exciting part of the day was when Joel (Martins dad) came to pick us up and go out to dinner. He took us to a great place where they just put a half of a huge block of cheese on the table with a heating lamp on it to make it melt. We were given potatoes and ham, then just would put our plate under the block of cheese and just let it melt all over our ham and potatoes. It was REALLY good. We ate until it hurt wich called for an early night to bed.
Day 5 we made breakfast so they could get a taste of "typical" american food, bacon, cheese, and mushroom omlettes were on the menu. It was a good breakfast for Martins afternoon rugby game. The morning was spent digesting breakfast and planning the next couple weeks of our trip. At around 12 it was time to say bye and thanks to Jacqueline, and at 3 Joel picked us up to head to Martins Rugby game. Martin had a really good game, and we were given compliments saying we need to come and cook breakfast more often for good luck. I think the game score was something like 25-0. Directly after we went to the Bordeaux soccer stadium to watch a game. We had awsome seats and it was great weather. The section reserved for the serious Bordeaux supporters puts any college student section I ever seen to shame. They never sat down and they never stopped singing...and I give them style points for lighting up some flares during the game, they were awesome. The Keeper had a collision with the opposing teams striker (foot to head) in the first half and he was knocked out cold! The striker didnt get a red card and I was honestly concerned for officials life, I have never heard a crowd boo like that. The keeper that replaced him was only 18 and started with an amazing save! We finally got to see our first European goal in the second half, hard to find the words to explain the amount of energy that pumped into the crowd as fast as it happened. The game was soon over, final score 2-0, we stuck around and had a couple drinks in the clubhouse, watched the players exit, then headed home. We said our goodbyes and gave our thanks to Joel, then headed to bed so we could catch an early train to Barcelona. Next morning came pretty fast for everyone and Juliet gave us a ride down to the trainstation (Martin wasnt feeling very good so he stayed home...hope you feel better and Ann too!). Juliet walked us all the way into the train and showed us our seats before it was time for a long hug, some last minute pieces of advice, lots of thanks, and an open invitation to come back (preferrebly soon and in the summer haha). 10 hours later we are in Barcelona and in the warm SUN! more updates soon to come

Ireland and France

Basically Wed and Thursday in Ireland with Emilie and Thomas was a lot of fun. Wednesday the 29th was spent hanging around town, finding all the Irish factories like Jamesons... but not paying for any tours.
In the morning we found the old reform jail that was closed in the 1920s after the Irish Rebellion and many of the leaders were shot by the British in the back of the jail. It was very interesting and hard to see inside the cells where people had hard, cold concrete cells, yet preferred that over outside during the famine because by law they had to be sheltered and fed in prision. We heard a lot but not too much sank in because it really was forecasted snow and we were in a cold concrete building, wet from rain... Needless to say a warm lunch was our next stop.
We found St. Patricks Cathedral, Thomas St., and just walked around Dublin as a town. That night we found a little bar where the 4 of us could just sit and hang, talking to the bartender and such. The boys had fun esp hearing the Irish drinking perspective and found out they did not know what an Irish Car Bomb was.
Thursday we took the train to Bray, about an hour south on the coast in Wicklow County. A cute small town, but when we found the tourist office the lady strongly suggested we find a pub and just have a long lunch because most other attractions there were outside. I am sure we left her shaking her head about stubborn Americans because we got the map and went for the hike to the next town, Greystone. Not a hard hike, but in the 2 hours or so it took us to get across we arrived cold and soaked completely through. It was fun to puddle jump and we took time to enjoy the view until the last 30 minutes or so when the rain and wind picked up and our goal became to just get there. Again, another hot and long lunch afterwards.
That night we went to the Arlington Hotel for a free Irish music and dancing show. It was really good, but went from 8:30-11:30! Lots of riverdance style and people...

Friday the four of us had the same Ryan Air flight from Dublin to Paris. Good timing for Josh and I to fly in with them since Emilie knows French and figured out how to get us on the bus, metro tickets, and pointed in the right direction :) We left them there at the station and only saw them one other time passing in Paris!
By the afternoon Josh and I found Jaqueline, Martins grandmother, house. So cute and felt a little bad walking down the street in dirty jeans and big backpacks past the super nice cars and obvious money of the area. We dont know if it was because of us, but a few minutes after we got in the house police were patrolling the street!!
Met by her nephew, Pierre who speaks English, we set our stuff down and saw the house. Such an art lover with a 6 bedroom house in Paris, ooo la la - which we realized they actually say...at least in this family a lot. Pierre took us for our first car ride (more like a roller coaster ride) throught a roundabout in the craziest traffic in Paris, where there are no rules...you hesitate and you die, and dropped us off at the Champs Elysses (be careful how you pronounce this because it took us about a 10 times listening to figure out what french people were talking about and a week to say it right).

Some things we noticed about Paris:
CRAZY drivers, you could not pay either of us enough to drive in the round about around the Arc de Triumph. Basically a 5 lane circle with no lines and no rules.
Everyone knows some English even if they say they dont- they just want you to try French first
The pasteries and crepes are to die for- we got a chocolate banana crepe made by a street vendor that only ended in arguments about who got the last bite

Careful of ¨Typical French¨ food- we are learning this more in Boredaux when we eat with the family 3 meals a day and they order for us. We have tried: oysters, raw beef, raw salmon, stuffed duck liver, incrediably stinky cheese, and other foods we did not try to understand what it was. My personal favorites- wine and bread. It is fun to try these though, nice to have a family around to translate the things we dont know.

In Paris on Saturday we found a New Europe free walking tour like what we did in Berlin. Main points we saw were; Notre Dame, the Louvre, Pont Neuf, Palais Royal, Musée d`Orsay, Pont Alexandre III, Napoléans Tomb, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-élysés, and Place de la Concorde. Our tour guide was a 25 year old from Texas who moved to Paris to get his Masters and obviously loved the job- gave us all the information and background facts mixed with jokes. 4 hours of tour walking around and we ended at Eiffel Tower.

Found out it is only about 7 Euros each total to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower if you climb the stairs for the first 2 levels. It was a beautiful, windy night...
time for dinner here- more typical food :)

In Bordeaux!

Wow we woke up this morning with Martins (not sure about all punctuation keys on this keyboard) family to an Obama win. They say about 80% of people over here were for him and Martins mom this morning was no different, perhaps the most excited of everyone in the room. Martins Grandma and Josh were in the minotiry of people here hoping for a McCain win. Almost hard to here though because the French press are saying how the US is the most powerful, important and leading country in the world. Exciting but scary with the expectations the world has!

Anyway, we arrived in Ireland bringing an Artic front and record winds/ freezing temperatures with us. Plus, our full day in Waterford was on Monday Oct 27th which was a national bank holiday. Therefore everthing was closed... lots of time just walking around the city. They had kept some of the old walls the Vikings put up which were just cool to see...
By 3 pm we found a pub that was warm and spent the rest of the day talking to Irish people, trying some Cider (comes on tap and served cold! but sweet n good) and eventually buying time until 9;30 when live traditional Irish men came on for some live music. We were the only Americans in the pub, and a elementary school principal who we began talking to during the music said she pinned us as ¨Yankees¨as soon as she overheard us talking. Everyone was so nice there though and had a sense of humor which made just chatting with anyone and everyone more fun.
We did notice everything was SO expensive there, and the principal told us the minimum wage was 11 Euro an hour! Tuesday morning we caught a bus to Dublin. Next time we return to Ireland we would take the risk of driving on the left to rent a car. The majority of Ireland you cannot reach by any other way. A lady on the ferry over said the infrastructure is 20 years behind other EU Countries.

Once in Dublin we found our hostel and room, sharing a bunk room with 8 other guys for the first night (a few girls came the other nights). Quickly online Josh found a small town 30 minutes away by train on the coast called Howth. It is a beautiful fishing town where we actually talked a few minutes to prawn fishermen and Josh got to see the differences in the fishing boats. We found the cliff hike and through wind, hail, rain and sun we saw amazing views for probably 2 hours. Back to Dublin and met up with Emilie and Thomas, staying at a nice hotel around the corner from us, for the rest of Ireland!

More to come later, just has a criossant breakfast and going to see somewhere amazing with Martins mom! Oh since Martin cant drive over here yet, you need to be 18, Josh drove us around in their family car to a soccer game they played in and into town! A little stressful but funny from the backseat.

Catch up!

Hey all, obviously we have been putting sight seeing and sleeping on top priority vs writing in here, but our time has continued to be amazing!
London worked out perfectly couch surfing with Kristy, a teacher in Slough-just west of London- who is over here for a year or two teaching secondary school. We arrived exhausted to her flat friday after the long night on the bus- still feeling rather drugged by tylenol pm. She let us into her place to sleep before an afternoon of seeing London.
We made it downtown, by way of figuring out HOW expensive it was to travel into and out of the city.
It was a BEAUTIFUL Friday afternoon for our ¨self guided¨ tour of London starting at Victoria Station/ Buckingham palace through to London Bridge- really not that cool to see :(. We walked by way of Westminister Abby, Parliment area, parks, the London Eye, Big Ben and the most inventive versions of the ¨silver¨ man where you give them money and they move, dance, talk, bicycle... they have stepped it up a notch. The English pubs were PACKED and everyone was wearing their sheik black outfits. Feeling rather confident on the subway system- English putting us back in our comfort zone- we found Bond street :)
Friday night we met up with Kristy and her friends to see a night out Windsor style- complete with Christmas music in the club! They are apparently very into the movie Love Actually and so no matter the season, Christmas music from the movie is appropriate.

Saturday Kristy took us around Windsor in the daylight- only 10 minutes by train. We saw the Windsor Wheel, a smaller millenium version of the London Eye for only like 8 Euros! We didnt try it. The Queen was in the castle because her flag was flying, no royalty sightings this time though. We got lunch in a pub right across the street from the castle where we tried ¨brown sauce¨- not bad but not good...- and Josh got his official English breakfast complete with baked beans.
We walked into Eaton, which is so close to Windsor you literally cant drive directly between them, where Eaton College is. The mandandatory dress code was hanging in some shop windows- a full suit complete with tails! Cant imagine wearing that to class.

Saturday afternoon we found out there was a soccer game at Reading (pronounced like the color red), about 30 minutes by train away vs Queens Park so this was our chance for Joshs soccer game. We actually had tickets to a Manchester United v. Everton in Liverpool, but couldnt get there for the game (too far in distance for too much money). These teams are like minor leagues though and still over 20,000 people were in the stands! The game ended in a tie 0-0 but we met friends at half time and caught onto the clapping cheers and therefore consider ourselves real Reading fans :)

Sunday we left Slough at 8:30am for a train ride through Wales, to the Fishguard Harbor (at almost 3pm) and then onto a ferry to Ireland. The first hour or so on the ferry was a blast; I checked out the amazing and windy coastline of Wales, joined Josh watching the soccer games, and explored. It was like a mini cruise ship with shopping, bar, food court, TVs, cabins, kids areas...The sea was rough though and after a pre-made sandwhich lunch and helping a little boy who threw up all over the floor, I lost my own sea legs and lunch. We were very glad to arrive in Rosslare, Ireland and after an hour bus ride we got to Waterford!
Waterford in the oldest town in Ireland founded by the Vikings in 800 something and now famous for their crystal (we didnt go in the factory though).

Leaving Paris tomorrow for Bordeaux- hopefully then will catch up on Ireland and Paris!
Picture links for those with out facebook:
Germany: Frankfurt and Hildesheim: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150899&l=1a7ec&id=19714949
Berlin: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151693&l=301db&id=19714949
Stockholm: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2151839&l=e9c39&id=19714949
London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153972&l=7827b&id=19714949
Amsterdam: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153974&l=5a920&id=19714949Advertise
Belguim; Brussels, Brugge, and a Ghent park bench: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153978&l=74d2f&id=19714949
Ireland: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2154959&l=90c12&id=19714949
Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2154975&l=8c7f1&id=19714949
I hope those work, Good Night

London & Pictures

So before we talk about London, a quick extension on Brugge. Overall really nice. The last day we just spent walking around and seeing more small city sites. We finally found a fresh made Belguim waffle...with whip cream and all sorts of goodies on it:) We climbed the Belfry tower, it was just like the movie, 366 stairs and very narrow. Don't reccommend it to the clinically obese.

Thursday we figured our how we were going to get to London. We ended up finding an overnight bus that left from Ghent at 11:45pm and arrived in London at about 5am. It sounded like a great idea because we were told we could just fall asleep in the bus then wake up in London. So we decided to make a night out of it and took some tylenol pm...washed it down with some wine, and boarded the bus ready to crash for a few hours. About an hour and a half into it they woke us up to pass through British customs where they proceeded to ask us MANY questions we were not quite in condition to answer. We were still asleep and didnt have many answers for them. At the time we didnt know exactly who we were staying with and how we were leaving the country, which they werent happy about, but we knew our own names and where we came from and our state bird so they let us through.

We have A LOT more to post but our time is limited at the internet cafe (been the story lately) We will catch up all the way when we get to france either friday or saturday at the latest. We put up pictures on facebook as well. A lot of them need explanations but that is a little down on the priority list as well...we will get back to ya.

Ok also here are the links that should work if you do not have facebook- just heard about this way so check it out!
London: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2153972&l=7827b&id=19714949

Brugge

Hey all, quick internet cafe stop with funky keyboards... Brugge is AMAZING, definately a place to return to. Small; clean, cute with nice people and we can walk everywhere- with help of a well worn map.
Catch up, we did go to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam and spent a solid 2 hours or so wandering and reading. All the pictures/ short movies of how the house was, who was there, excerpts from interviews with Otto Frank and others who knew and helped the family...were intense. There were excerpts from the home they hid in and artifacts...
Have to head out, London tonight by bus- should be there by 6am!

Amsterdam and Brussels Extended

Ok so Amsterdam...first day was completely made up of walking around and acting/being a complete tourist because really we didn't know any better. We got in around 12, found our hostel within an hour, and then just started wandering to get a little bit of a sense of where we were. Our hostel was right on the edge of the red light district which = some of the funniest t-shirts we have ever seen (AJ I got you your gift), some of the most expensive non-netherlands shops, and within a couple blocks you could look over your shoulder and jump a little bit because there was a half naked person winking at you through a window. Just down the road there was a Carnival of all things...which we thought was a little much as far as catering to tourists. On Saturday it was already our mission to find the non-touristy part of town...and luckily our Canadian roommates had a good direction to point us in. We walked about 30 minutes south of our hostel and came across a much more local restaurant and beer district where the prices were a lot more reasonable and the people gave good suggestions on where to go. Our first stop we had some "bitter balls", which were surprisingly good appetizers, and had a couple of local microbrews. That bartender pointed us across the street to a place called Gollem (yes like the LOTR character) where they had 260 beers to choose from. We met up with an English couple and they gave us lots of tips on what to do during our time in London. The guy we were talking to was a university professor and claimed to have taught Prince William and Harry (which is really neat if he's not full of it). Later that night we went to a comedy club called Boom Chicago...don't go there. The comedians were americans that pretty much hate america...not impressed and laughed at maybe one of their jokes at the beginning. Those are pretty much the highlights of that day.

Day two we rented some bikes and rode down to the Olympic stadium and watched the finishers of the Amsterdam marathon. I think first place finished it in 2 hours and 7 minutes or something, 1st women was 2:22. It was a really nice day so we decided to get lost on that side of town. It was nice to see a side of the city where people actually live, it was much prettier. We found a little hole in the wall to eat lunch where I had the BEST italian club sandwich I have ever had. We forgot the camera for that day so all we have is really good mental pictures. The bikes were a lot of fun to ride around and I recommend it to anyone that wants to see a lot of the city, but our butts are really sore from the seats (need to replace schocks on the bikes).

The next day we packed up and headed for Brussels. Got there about 2 and found our hostel by about 3. We met a really nice girl from Chicago on the train ride there who gave us a GREAT little tour map. It had a bunch of little spots that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. We thought the town was much more pretty at night than during the day. A lot of construction right now that just kinda took away from everything. Anyways, the map had a cheap vietnamese restaurant on it that we checked out and ended up being really good. We then ventured on to one of the famous chocolate places and bought a variety box to carry around with us while we walked around the Grand Place. We found a bar called Delerium that is in the Guiness book of world records for most beers available. It had something like 2600 different kinds available. Really neat little place with good music and great atmosphere. We took a picture of the menu which looked more like a phonebook. With all of that selection, we still only tried 2 really good ones each...the combination of that and chocolate was already forming a stomach ache for the next day. We took a walk up to the Palace after that, then headed back to the hostel for sleep. We are in Bruges now for a few days, England is next on the list. Catch up with you soon.

Amsterdam/ Belgium

Hello all,
Thanks for the comments :) they are fun to read from this end... We have been having to pay for internet since we left Stockholm :( (we miss you house Sandra! haha) and the computers are pretty slow, but since Stockholm we have been in Amsterdam 3 nights and Brussels, Belgium for 1.
Not to jinx us, but so far we have only had 1 rainy day this whole trip (Last day in Sweden) and so have been able to explore the cities A Lot!
I am going to get cut off on this computer, Amsterdam recap> walked through red light district, rode bikes, walked and people watched, saw the marathon finish, forgot camera for most of the time :(, met some amazing people, and found the holes in the wall
Brussels> drank good, new beer and ate amazing chocolate!..... literally...

Stockholm

Three perfect days in Stockholm are about done, we leave for Amsterdam tomorrow morning on the plane. We arrived Monday night and were so excited when Sandra and her boyfriend Yassir picked us up, especially because we flew in at 11:30pm!
The first two days were beautiful weather, cold and clear to walk all around town.

Sandra had Tuesday off work and school and so took us via the train system into town, she lives in a beautiful apartment in Huddinge just outside of Stockholm. Of course, we forgot the camera the first day but just Josh and I returned Wednesday to take what we missed. On Tuesday we were watching the changing of the guards at the castle and the youngest princess drove out and right by us! We would have never known, but Sandra recognized her imediately, apparently it is very rare for regualar people to see them in person. This is not the one who will be crowned Queen and therefore is allowed to drive by herself.

Wednesday we took the boat shuttle across another island part of Stockholm, the city is made up of 14 total islands most connected by bridges. We found the Vasa museum where the Vasa ship,a Swedish warship, sunk in the harbor in 1627 and was salvaged 333 years later. Now the ship is 95% original and was actually very amazing to see and learn about! Plus, there was an English tour so we understood what we were seeing.
Today Josh, Sandra and I took a boat through the Archipelago and´stopped at Sandhamn island. There are about 130 small islands off the East coast and many people have vacation homes for the summer on them. Although it was very rainy and windy, we braved the cold under layers and walked around the island. After an amazing lunch of Sill (herring) fish they eat for celebrations such as Midsummer and Christmas time. Sandra and I had Swedish pancakes and Josh tried another traditional dish of flat fish.
Tonight we saw the lights of Stockholm at night with the four of us going into to town for dinner and to look around, getting the full city naration we could only find from those who grew up here!
An amazing trip and we will get pictures up soon. I am going to try to link a new Flickr site here for pictures from Berlin to see if it works. Pictures from Sweden are up on facebook (Mom and Dad, sign up for facebook and add josh as a friend to see ALL the pictures! haha). Let us know if the links work.
We will check in from Amsterdam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31496133@N08/?saved=1

Berlin

A quick morning post, it has been a slower morning around here today hanging in the hostel, comptuer time, cleaning up and a little sink laundry! Jetting up to Stockholm tonight, leaving Berlin about 10 pm and Sandra picking us up at the airport up North at midnight!

We caught a really good free walking tour, about 4 hours long, yesterday morning. Through out we met English speakers from all over the world and saw, ah hard to use these keyboards! the Berlin Wall, stood on Hitlers Bunker, went to Checkpoint Charlie, saw the Hotel Adler next to Embassys from around the world where Michael Jackson was caught holding the baby over the railing, the US Embassy that was just moved and opened this 4th of July. I guess they wanted a more secure place and asked the city of Berlin to move the whole street, with the Berlin wall shown in stone in it and Brandenburg Gate; the gateway between East and West Germany, so there wasn#t a public street so close. Berlin refused and the US finally decided to move in anyway this summer. We saw the Reichstag, Book Burning memorial where the Nazis burned tens of thousands of books they dissagreed with and the Humbolt University where Eintein taught for 20 years and 28 Nobel Prize winners graduated from, and now they sell the books that were burning in the Book Burning everyday infront of the university. Then we saw Potsdamer Platz, Museum Island and more! sorry the punctuation bad, this keyboard VERY different, cant find it all...
Afterwards we saw the Pergamon Museum with one of the 7 wonders of the world, all the Antiquity Collections of statues and art from BC... We are picking up a few german words and figuring out the Bus and underground subway type systems!.figured out by taking a good portion of them, often for 1 or 2 stops before figuring out we were not going where we thought or wanted and therefore have seen MUCH more of the city than planned haha.
Apparently the President of Germany lives on Pucklerstraße where we are!!! Therefore the houses and secutiry around here is intense. Weve learned things like your pointer to show the number one at home often means 2 here, meaning we got 2 orders of fries with 2 forks last night and such...
Time to check out, trying to figure out where our airport is for later and if we can or shoudl leave our bags here at the hostel or carry them all day.

Christa and Josh

Germany Pictures thus far

You need facebook to see them unfortunately, but we will try to post some on here or figure out another way soon... time for us to get into downtown Berlin!

Hildesheime

Well we made it to Liv's parents house in a small german town called Bad Salzdetfurth, near Hildesheim. It was an adventure in itself just getting here, as our first trip on a train was in the wrong direction. Long story short, we asked the information desk which train will take us to Hildesheime, and the lady told us to take a train which took us to the wrong side of town so we had to come back and ended up being an hour late to meet Susanne. Then on the train to Hildesheim there were no seats...so we stood in whatever open spaces we could find for the 2 hour ride. It did end up working out because there was a german dude about our age that spoke good english and happened to be standing in the same corner on his way to Berlin. He gave us tips on Berlin and other parts of Europe that we will be traveling, and he was just fun to BS with about sites we were passing by in the countryside. Susanne, her husband George, and son Leonard have been extremely nice. They say their house is around 130 years old! The ceilings are very short...which is ok for Christa...but I have a big lump on my head from hitting the ceiling and tops of doorways a couple times. They have treated us to a couple of meals at their home, mostly consisting of bread, cheese, and different types of sliced meat...George had me try cow toungue last night, it wasn't bad. Susanne took us to school this morning as guest English speakers. We were asked lots of questions like 'are you afraid of spiders' and 'do you have a dog'. The kids were fun and taught us a few german words, did a lot of giggling, and asked for our autographs at the end of class...so we have been granted VIP status at the local elementary school. The plan for today is to go and visit the nearby castle, maybe go and see the old churches in town...which still have burn markings from bombings in world war 2...and then Leonard is going to take us out with his friends to have his version of 'fun'.

Frankfurt was fun, even though we spent half the day adjusting to the time and shaking off the jet lag. We ended up just walking around, getting lost, people watching, and basically doing everything we could to make sure everyone knew we were american tourists...we might as well have had a sign. We tried Frankfurt's famous apple wine. After a nap we went out to see a little bit of the night life and ended up meeting a US soldier on leave. It was his second night in Frankfurt so he showed us around a little and gave us pieces of advice from locals he had met the night before. He had a little different version of a good time, as he insisted the night was just beginning when we decided to head back to the hotel at 3 in the morning. That is pretty much the story up to now. We will probably be heading to Berlin tomorrow sometime and head to stockholm monday night. Try to update when we get to stockholm or something like that. I am going to try to make buiscuits and gravy for our hosts tomorrow so we will see how that goes.

Made it across the Atlantic

Hey all, after a very long flight on the largest airplane we had ever seen (and maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep total) we made it to Frankfurt this am and spent all day walking around. Perfect out, high 50s and partly sunny. Crashing soon though, our bodies feel like we just pulled an all nighter! Tomorrow= Hildesheim!

Night Before: Josh SHAVES!!

YaYa let us use her place to stay the night and through a hilarious process, we got the beard off Josh :)

We will try to use links to all the photos instead of right on here, but can't now- sorry no complete after photos but promise it is MUCH better :) 

About to Leave!

Hi all,
I hope we can keep this up throughout the trip and possibly add pictures at times! We take off from the Portland Airport at 8:30 Tuesday morning and will arrive in Frankfurt, Germany at 7:50am their time on Wednesday. Most of Europe where we will be is 9 hours ahead of Oregon. Once we figure out Frankfurt a little the first day, we might find Internet! :)

FYI: If you check out "my profile" you will see a Blog labeled TED 610 which is only a hypothetical one I made for school last fall and did not take the time to hide/ erase it, so no worries about it!