Brrrr-lin.

We got up and got ready pretty quickly, then headed down for the hostel´s breakfast. Then we put on our rain gear and headed on yet another sight-seeing adventure.
We had already seen the tv tower and had no desire to climb to the top of it, so we went straight to the Historisches Museum. All we wanted to see there was the staircase designed by IM Pei, but we couldn´t see it from the main lobby, so we decided to keep on truckin.
We passed the Humboldt University on our way to the Deutsche Guggenheim, which we were all excited about becasue its a museum dedicated entirely to contemporary art. However, it was closed, and we were bummed.
So we kept walking down the Unter Den Linden, a main boulevard in Berlin, until we reached the Brandenburg Gate. This gate was one of the main city gates and is most known for the Berlin wall having stood right in front of it.
After snapping a few pics, we walked to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Above ground, there are thousands of stelae built at all different heights and angles - it is really difficult to describe, you just have to see it. It is very cool. Underneath the ground are descriptions of the progression of the Nazi extermination policy, personal accounts written by the prisoners, a description of the fate of fifteen families, etc. It was intense.
After spending a decent amount of time there, we headed to the Parliament Building, which has four exterior facades that are very ancient in appearance, but the inside boasts a gigantic glass sphere that you can climb. We hopped in line and then learned that the sphere was closed for renovations, so we decided to pass altogether and walk to our next stop, the Hamburger Bahnhof - a museum of modern art.
We got in and checked out a few of the exhibits, namely Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol. Neither of us really understand Beuys, even with studying him in school, which is who was mostly represented in the museum, so we just sort of glanced around and then left.
By this time our shoes were full of water and making squishy noises, and Nicole´s stomach was growling, so we grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel.

24 hours in Würzburg!

We woke up bright and early Monday morning to Nicole having a swollen eye, which is an unsolved mystery. We think it may have been caused by all the use of public transportation and aslo by their lack of hand soap over here.
We headed to the train station to catch our 9AM train to Würzburg. But, before boarding, Nicole bought a Cappuccino to warm her bones and an ice water to reduce the swelling of her eye. After a nice, quick ride to Würzburg, we jumped off the train to find Katharina walking towards us!
Katharina studied abroad in Monterey when Nicole was a sophomore in high school, so I has been 8 years since they have seen each other.
Katharins welcomed us with open arms and she took us to her and her fiances new apartment.
It is 3 flights of stairs up, at the top of the building. It has an incredible view of the castle Marienberg. Since it was raining, we hung out indoors, catchin' up on old times and we lavished her with all of our crazy stories of the past month.
We got our last load of laundry done for the trip, for free this time, thanks to Katharina! And then headed out to do a quick tour of Würzburg.
Katharina took us all around town, first showing us a night view of the Residenz in Würzburg and we peered through the closed gates to see the Hoftgarten(their beautiful garden). Unfortunately, this was all closed when we arrived there.
We also took som epictures of the Marienburg Castle from the 15th century stone bridge, Alte Mainbrücke. While on the bridge, Katharina pointed out to us the Alter Kranen (old crane), which serviced a dock on the river back..."a really long time ago," she said. :)
After our tour, we went back to her place to meet her fiance, Todd, so we could all go out to a wonderful German restaurant.
Katharina and Todd ordered us some wine, made right in Würzburg and also hlped us decide on dinner, since the menu was in German.
Katharina recommended the schnitzel, an authentic German meal of fried pork. Both Katie and Nicole went with her recommendation, but Nicole got it Cordon Bleu style, which is fried pork with ham and cheese. And mmh mmh was it delicious.
After dinner we headed back to their place, watched a little T.V., then hit the sack at a decent hour.
Tuesday morning our train to Berlin was scheduled to leave at 11:30AM. Katharina gathered up some quick breakfast for us and we sat around her table chatting until it was time for our departure.
We had a smooth ride up to Göttingen, where we had to switch trains. After barely making it onto our next train, we had just two more hours until Berlin.
After trying to follow the horrible directions to our hostel, we finally made it. We got all settled in, then headed to a German restaurant our hostel recommended. Nicole and Katie both went with the schnitzel again. With full bellys we headed back to the hostel and made our way up to the top floor, where the bar was located. We ordered a pitcher of beer, had a lil chat, then decided to call it an early night.

Munich in a Day

Day one, the only day in Munich, we woke up late, but technically it was early because daylight savings time changed in the middle of the night. We mapped out our plans for the day, ate breakfast, then took off.
Because the U-Bahn is so expensive (they want 6 euros for one trip) we decided to walk, which is a good idea because we have both become a bit rotund!
We headed toward the RezidenzMuseum, which was the residence of the Bavarian rulers for over 500 years, and on the way we passed one of the only city gates still standing from the Middle Ages, the Asamkirche and Frauenkirche (both important churches), The Marienplatz (The main central square), Rathaus (City Hall), and Glockenspiel (a famous clock tower). None of these were on our list of things to see, but they were all on our way to the Rezidenz, so it worked out.
The Rezidenz is a huge palace, with a maze of adjoining rooms. Most of it has been rebuilt because it was pretty ruined in WW2, which made the tour a bit ridiculous because our Audioguides would say, "This is called the 'Red Room' because of the red tapestries that once covered the walls. The room has been fully restored with green tapestries...By the way, none of this furniture is original." We had a laugh about that. But it was still a marvel and we definitely recommend seeing it.
We passed the Theatinerkirche, and ordered a couple hot cocoas from a drag queen at Starbucks before heading into the Englischer Garten, which is one of the largest city parks in the world. Apparently nude sunbathing is common here, but we didnt see anyone - we think it might be because it was so cold we could see our breath, but we are not sure.
After strolling through the park and Nicole raving about how much she needs a horse in her life (hint hint, mama and papa etter, we have a birthday coming up!) we headed to the Pinakothek der Moderne. This is one of the worlds largest 20th and 21st century art museums. This museum could very well be up for nomination as our favorite on this trip (competing with the Pompidou and Albertina).
There was a huge exhibit on design, including computers from the ancient time of the early 1980s up to present. Also, a huge collection of designer chairs...After about two minutes, we decided that our ID5 teacher would have LOVED IT! We really enjoyed it.
There was also an exhibit on the evolution of the car and motorcycle, and a gallery with modern paintings from artists like Fontana and Kandinsky. The building itself was an incredible piece of design as well.
After leaving the museum, we passed the Lenbach-haus on our way to the train station to buy our tickets to Wurzburg, where Nicole´s friend, Katharina, lives. Then we headed back to the hostel and proceeded to have a few - no, not a few, a LOT of - laughs.

Pink Eye, Maybe?

Our train to Munich didnt leave Budapest until 1 pm, so we had a lot of time to kill. We packed our bags and checked out of the hostel at ten, then went to the pastry shop around the corner for breakfast.
With nothing else to do, we headed to the train station and sat in the McDonalds, stealing their internet, for a good hour.
We then set on a mission to find a deck of cards, but apparently Hungarians dont believe in the past-time of playing cards; we gave up after looking in about 5 shops, and settled on watching the train timetable click away until our train and platform were displayed.
We hopped on and had a rather peaceful and uneventful ride to Vienna, where our cart then became full. One of the people was a disgusting, suicide-bomber looking lady who was eating a sandwich and gracefully sneezed mucus and food all over Katie, even into her eye, and she didnt even acknowledge what had happened. That sort of sums up what the rest of the trip to Munich was like.
We arrived around 8:30 and headed straight to the hostel where Katie showered off that lady´s germs. We ate dinner and drank until we fell asleep.

Last Blog, Continued.

It was still super early so we decided to drop into the supermarket (making sure to grab a basket because according to our guide book, if you dont take a basket, you are under suspicion for theft) to grab a couple tall cans. We were going to get wine, but they didnt sell wine openers, so we had to work with what we had and be a bit less classy. Then we headed to the banks of the Danube for a quasi-romantic evening enjoying all of the lit-up bridges and buildings.
After finishing our drinks and chilling our bones, we went back to the hostel and tried to sleep (because thats how hostel life is...)

A1! Like the bbq Sauce!

First item on the list today was the Central Market Hall: an indoor farmers market selling fruits, veggies, all kinds of meat, pastries, and souvenirs. We headed to a pastry stall where Nicole got a chocolate-y croissant, and Katie told the lady she wanted whatever was the lady's favorite. We dont know what it was, but it definitely was tasty!
We looked at all of the stalls, and stared at each other when we crossed a dead pig, propped up on one of the counters, with sunglasses on. It was disgusting.
We stopped back at the hostel for a quick minute before heading to the Great Synagogue and Jewish Museum. This Synagogue is the largest in Europe and second largest in the world (the first is in NYC). It looked sooo much like a regular church, we were pretty disappointed - but it was very beautiful nonetheless.
After that, we headed to the train station to purchase our tickets to Munich. Another 7 1/2 hour train ride...Yippeeee!
We then headed to Heroe's Square and the surrounding park, which has a really great castle (that we failed to take any pictures of) and a couple of museums. We went into the Museum of Fine Arts, but didnt stay too long because, honestly, you can only look at so many paintings of Jesus.
We left the museum and walked to the Opera House, where we waited 25 minutes for a guided tour of the place. It was pretty amazing, but you folks back home are just going to have to see it yourselves because we werent allowed to take pictures.
Thennnn, we headed back to our hostel and found ourselves a hostel in Munich, as every host we asked has said they have no vacancies.

RIOT!

We took our time getting up and ready in the morning, but were out the door a little after 10. We walked up to the Matyas Church, which turned out to be under some serious renovation so we couldnt go in. The Fishermans Bastion is right behind the church, so we checked that out - pretty killer views! It started to sprindle and we werent prepared for rain, so we hurried over to the Hungarian National Gallery (or so we thought). Turns out that the National Gallery and the Budapest History Museum are located in the same building, but in separate wings. We didnt figure this out until after we had spent over an hour in the history museum and by that time we were museum'd out. We also walked past the Presidents House before heading back to our neck of the woods. Halfway home, the weather had turned from a managable sprinkle to a miserable rain. We stopped to grab lunch, where it turned into a torrential downpour while we ate.
We made a mutual decision to run our little fannies as fast as we could from the restaurant back to the hostel for the rest of the afternoon. We hung our there, couchsurfing, reading, and napping until we were hungry for dinner, which became a bit of a predicament because today is a national holiday here in Hungary, so pretty much everything is closed, except for American Restaurants.
We had noticed a Pizza Hut sign the day before and settled on going there, as neither of us have been to one in the States before. We were expecting it to be like a Dominos or Little Caesars, but this place was a sit down restaurant with menus, a waiter, and the whole deal. When our pizza came the watier even served our first slice! It was great!
After dinner we headed back to the hostel, but there was a demonstration going on in the middle of the street; the roads were blocked off, and there were a TON of police in full on riot gear. We didnt think we were going to be able to get back to our hostel, it was pretty crazy.
We dont know the whole story, but apparently whatever holiday it is here causes uproars and riots and who knows what else.
Anyway, we were able to walk through the road block and made it safely home.

Right Hand Man

We were awoken at quarter to 8 by our aussie friends who were packing to leave. We got up and ready, and found a bakery to grab breakfast, as our hostel claimed to provide it, but they LIED!
We werent too sure where to go, as none of the museums open until 10 and it was only quarter after 9. So we strolled up the Danube River (this river runs through the middle of the city and divides it into Buda and Pest), marvelling at the Hungarian Parliament Building on our way to Margaret Island. The island is a beautiful park with monuments, fountains, church ruins, and a Japanese garden.
We enjoyed the scenery for a while before heading to the Ethnography Museum. This museum wins the award for being the strangest, scariest, most awkward, and confusing museum on our whole journey. There were no signs telling us where to go (which, in this building, is pretty essential) and the stuff on exhibit was mostly creepy and weird. None of it was in English either, so even if we wanted to understand it, we couldnt. The architecture of the building was the best part.
After running (almost literally) out of that museum, we headed for St. Stephens Basilica, home of St. Stephens right hand....no, for reals! His mummified right hand is in this place. Interesting...There seems to be a bias towards St. Stephen with all the churches we have been to in his name. He must have been one popular dude.
We were going to head to the Opera House, but the only way to see the inside is by guided tour at 3 and 4 o clock daily and it was only 1. Instead, we headed down Váci Utca, the pedestrianized main shopping street in Buda. We grabbed some Hungarian food on this street, then walked past the University and over the Liberty Bridge to the Gellert Hotel, where we peeked in at the hotel lobby, which is supposed to be breathtaking. It was nice, but not breathtaking - not to our standards anyway.
Then we hiked up Gellert Hill, stopping and riding down some super awesome fantastic slides (Jarrah might call this place Heaven). We went into a cave church that was built into the side of the hill, and was almost as creepy as the Ethnography Museum.
We kept hiking up this giant hill, but not qite high enough to reach the Citadel, as we were admittedly out of breath. The view of the city was beautiful from way up there, even with the somewhat gloomy day.
We champed back down the hill, passng the Gellert Monument on the way. Then we walked across the Elisabeth Bridge and headed to the supermarket for a few essentials before landing back at the hostel where we made dinner and watched a movie (Sam - we watched "The Terminal"). We made friends with an aussie guy, who never introduced himself formally, so we dont know his name. ha! He is a member of couchsurfing too. We went to a bar with him and chatted it up about our travels and experiences and home towns. When we got back to the hostel, somehow politics came up (as it has pretty much everywhere on our trip, because everyone wants to know how us Americans are going to vote, and how it is an atrocity that not everyone in the US votes - as it is the worlds most important election. Its always the same conversation) so we talked about that for a while, then headed to bed.

The Receptionist is not Receiving

We got up at 8 am for our journey to Budapest. After a tea at starbucks we headed for the train station. Our train left at 10 and arrived at 1. First things first, we immediately found an ATM because Hungarian currency is Forints, not Euros. We thought we were so clever for thinking of this, and we each retrieved 1,000 forints. After we left the ATM and did the math, we realiyed that we had only extracted 5 dollars worth of cash. Okay, but REALLY, what kind of ATM has five bucks as a withdrawal option? We went back to get more, but the line was now about 10 people long, so we agreed to deal with it later.
We found internet at a McDonalds across from the station, where we grabbed directions to our host, Ushma's house. After following her horrible directions, we found it ourselves at 2:30. No one was home and she didnt tell us a specific time to arrive, so we didnt know how long we should sit on the sidewalk and look like hobos.
We decided to head back to Mickey D's for more free internet, and we found ourselves a hostel for 12 bucks a night.
After we walked there, we were told that the receptionist was out, but he said he would be back within the next hour. So we made ourselves comfortable by Katie reading her Budapest book and Nicole trying to upload pictures for you kids back home who apparently cant rememberwhat we look like since Florence.
We sat patiently for over 2 hours, and still no receptionist. At this point it was 6:45 pm and all of the other travellers were cooking up their delicious smelling dinners while we wasted away, watching the clock from our spots on the sofa. All we could think about was finding some great restaurant and getting our hands on some authentic Halushki!
Finally we resolved to go to the supermarket and buy the ingredients for Halushki ourselves, which was interesting because Katie didnt know the Hungarian name for sour cream. We guessed, and guessed correctly. When we got back to the Hostel, the receptionist was there, but he informed us that he didnt take cash. So we had to go back out and find an ATM...at this point it was about 8 pm. We found an ATM and got back to the Hostel, gave the man our money, threw our stuff on a couple of beds, and made us some DIN DIN!
Afterwards, we made friends with two girls from Australia who were leaving in the morning for Czech. One of them has been backpacking for 6 months! We thought 5 weeks was a long time...

Black Inside?

In the morning, Katie was startled awake by a loud, firm, panicked, "KATIE!" by Nicole. Her tongue was black. Really black, like she had been sucking on licorice all night, or drawing on her tongue with a sharpie pen. She brushed her teeth a million times and it finally went away, and we made a note to call Dr. Toth, medicine woman at a decent California hour.
We grabbed breakfast and headed for the Hundertwasserhaus - an apartment building designed by Hundertwasser himself. On our way we met a very happy middle aged man named Daniel, from France. He came right up to us with a fat grin and said hello and how are we and went out of his way to walk us right to the Hundertwasserhaus, even though we didnt need or ask him to. He was in a VERY good mood. It was funny.
After the visit to the apartment building (you cant go inside), we went to the Kunsthauswein, another building designed by Hundertwasser that houses a lot of his artwork and models.
We were making our way to the Belvedere Palace and stopped to look at our map when a lady came right up to us and said cheerily, "would you like some help?" We didnt really need help, but she was so sweet we said yes anyway and she was so happy to help us!
We found the Belvedere and walked through the gardens and lower building which is known for displaying Gustav Klimts "The Kiss." We liked exploring the grounds better than the museum...
Right across the street was the train station, so we grabbed lunch and bought our train tickets to Budapest. From there we took the U-bahn (metro) to Schloss Schonbrunn, another palace in Vienna. These gardens were even more vast and beautiful than the Belvedere! Here we took the 26 room tour of the 1,440 room palace and loved every minute of it.
At that point we had had a pretty full day and it was about time to call Dr. Toth, so we started to head home. When we got Jeanette on the phone she immediately said, "Well, did she take any pepto bismol? Because that turns EVERYTHING black." Piece of cake! Nicole had, in fact, taken some pepto...she wasnt dying! YAY!
We grabbed some food at the supermarket and headed back to Mattias, put in yet another movie and made dinner. Two more movies and a greatly named ice cream bar later (it was called Magnum - Temptation), we hit the sack.
Oh, and for all of our avid readers who are curious (namely Sam), here is a list of all the movies we watched at Mattias house: Click, The Girl Next Door, Knocked Up, The Devil Wears Prada, Old School, The Italian Job, The Stepford Wives, and Meet The Parents. :)

Movies, movies, and more movies

Our first day in Vienna consisted of not much more than walking to the St. Stephens Cathedral, getting a few necessities at H&M, then Nicole feeling sick. So we headed home, put in a movie and lounged around. When that movie was over, we said "what the heack" and put in another.
At 5:45 we realiyed we were hungry and raced to the supermarket to try to get dinner before it closed at 6. We were successful. After dinner, we watched some Demetri Martin on YouTube and put in yet another movie, then hit the hay. All in all, a very successful day!
Okay, so our first real day in Vienna:
We started with a late breakfast with Jill before she headed back to Germany. (Kelly already left for Salzburg and Mattia was at work).
We saw her off to the U-Bahn (the metro) and headed for the Albertina Museum. Another unbelievable museum where again the modern art was our favorite. It was amazing!
Next stop was the Hofburg where they happened to be holding a design show and today was the last day. Unfortunately it cost a ridiculous sum of money to get in, so we went outside and suclked a little before heading to the Museum Quaters, where there are so many museums one doesn´t know what to do with oneself.
We started at the lomography shop. Which Katie´s brother recently got her into. If you don´t know about it, you should google it-it is very cool photography.
We tried to go to the Modern Art Museum, but it was closed, so we headed to the architecture museum, which was very cool! There were drafting tools over 100 yeras old, and it was set up to give a glimpse of the inside of architecture firms, and there were computers set up with demos of architecture programs like Sketup, Vectorworks, ArchiCad and Allplan. We loved it.
After these museums we headed back to our neck of the woods and grabbed some delicious dinner, then checked our email and tried to find a host in Budapest, then headed home and put on another movie and then another. Katie did a little research on the last few stops on our journey and then we fell asleep.

Dance Machines

Same day in Vienna, Part 2: We knew that Mattia had more couchsurfers staying with him, so at 7:45 Nicole thought we should try the doorbell again in case the surfers were home. Sure enough, they were! These two cute southern belles answered our beckon with pleasant smiles! No language barrier or sexual tension, it was great!
They made us feel at home, even though it wasn´t their home. They are Kelly and Jill, here on Fullbright Scholarships, teaching English in Germany, and couchsurfing during their time off.
We thought we had a couple of crazy stories, but after listening to them talk, our jaws hit the floor. We knew we were going to have a memorable time with them.
Mattia got home around 9:30 and we had dinner and got to know each other over a few beers and game of Kings Cup.
We headed out and went to a college party-one like we have never attended before. It was literally in one of the school buildings and when you walked in you thought there was a fog machine until you took a breath-it was just that muggy with cigarette smoke. DISGUSTING! It was packed with people, with large projector screens and very strange, loud music. We were there long enough to use the restroom, then we left, thank god!
We headed for a club called Empire, seeing the St. Stephens Cathedral along the way. This club was very ....interesting. Very low budget, but we had so much fun dancing our pants off. We stayed until 4 AM, and according to the pictures we danced all the way home too! Once home we fell right to sleep.

Layin´Low

Venice, Day 2:
Not much of a deviation from Day 1...We just took out St. Mark´s Square on day 2. Venice is a little town, with not much to do, just sort of stroll around and admire its unique modes of transportation. We went on the internet, which cost a horrible 9 euros, that´s $13 folks, for an hour! We went back to the supermarket and stocked up on more beer as well as snacks for the 8 1/2 hour train ride the next day.
Venice to Vienna:
After a really shitty night of sleep (we both were tossing and turning) our alarms went off almost exactly in unison at 7 am. Neither of us wanted to get up, but we managed.
After packing up all our crap and eating a quick breakfast, we dropped our hostel keys off at the main office and crossed our fingers that our train was not participating in the strike that our hostel warned us about. Lucky for us, the train was there, and still planning to leave.
So we validated our tickets (we remembered , for once) and jumped on.
The trip to Vienna was a grueling 8 1/2 hours of sitting and eating pringles, pumpkin seeds and Special K bars. The Austrian countryside was to die for though. All of the leaves on the trees were turning brilliant colors; the valleys were green with icy cold rivers running through them; the mountains were tall, with hints of snow at their peaks; the hills were scattered with ancient castles. It was really amazing.
Vienna, in contrast, is a huge metropolis in a vast flatland. We arrived a little after 5pm and immediately found some substantial food to eat. We then asked two kind-looking Austrian girls for directions and we made our way to Mattia´s house(he is our host in Vienna!) We arrived without anz misdirection and rang his bell, and...no answer.
We had a hunch he wouldn´t be there because he was supposed to email Nicole, but she hadn´t got a chance to check it. Coincidentally there was an internet place just down the street, so Nicole checked her email and sure enough, he wasn´t going to be home until 9pm.
We had also passed a Starbucks, so we agreed to take refuge there for a while.

Islands in the Sun

Our goal was to sleep in our first morning in Venice, but once again we woke up fairly early. So we packed up our dirty laundry and decided Wednesday morning was going to be all about running errands.
First stop: the train station to reserve our seats for the ride to Vienna on Friday. Which, by the way, our hostel informed us that Friday there is supposedly a strike on all public transportation. But we got our tickets for Friday anyways and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we don't get trapped here.
Second stop: the Laundry Mat. And we desperately needed some clothes washed. 12 euros and 1 1/2 hours later, we had clean clothes and headed back to our hostel to drop them off. We then set off for some food and some sightseeing. We found a great lunch, and no we didn't eat pizza people! We had some delicious pasta. Stuffed as ravioli's, we wandered around Venice. But then we came across a Gelateria and couldn't say no, no matter how stuffed we were. We strolled through the streets and ended up at the Rialto Bridge. We did a little shopping and then decided to go check out St. Mark's Square. With our sore feet and now empty tummies, we agreed to head to the supermarket for snacks and beer, then back to our cozy hostel.
We watched a little MTV, played MASH, made Cootie Catchers, wrote a poem and then went to sleep!

Upgrade!

So since we were in the ass crack of Rome, out with nature, we figured we wouldn't need an alarm to wake us because all the surrounding wildlife would take our alarm's place. Katie set one, just in case. We woke up bright and early to check our email to see if the Venice hostel would allow us to come a day early...and they said YES! Wahooooo! We get to leave the boonies of Rome to head to magical Venice!
We headed straight to the train station to buy the cheapest tickets out of Rome. We ended up having about 2 hours of spare time before our train left, so we grabbed a couple of seats, some food, and did a little people watching.
During our people watching, Katie discovered a lonesome luggage cart that seemed to be disabled, so we sat there and watched as traveler after traveler struggled as they piled their luggage high on the cart and then attempted to roll it away, as it should. The only problem with this lonely little cart, it wouldn't roll! Each traveler would then look at each wheel, totally stumped why it would not roll. They would give it a couple more pushes to see if their luck had changed, but NOPE, the cart stayed as it was. Then we watched as each traveler would unload the disabled cart and continue on their way. This went on for a good 30 minutes, with at least 12 people attempting to used the lil cart. We were too entertained by this and could not stop laughing!
Well finally our time had come to board our train. With only a few minutes to spare we remembered that you have to validate your ticket before boarding or you will be fined 3 times as much as the ticket. CRAP! So Nicole hopped off the train, with just 2 tickets in hand and RAN like hell to the beginning of the platform...there was no validation box in sight. The whole time Nicole was struggling for our validation, Katie was hanging her head out the door, heart thumping, praying that the train didn't leave without Nicole. With still no validated tickets Nicole hopped back on the train because she didn't want to get left either. In the end, we didn't get fined, and the ticket checker validated our tickets for us.
We rode the train all the way to Bologna where we had to get off and grab another train to Venice. After a full day of travel we finally made it to out hostel in Venice, and it is a sweet little place. It is tiny, with a tiny bathroom, but it is nice and clean! We even have our own fridge, a coffeemaker, and a tv. Big upgrade compared to our "camping" in Roma.

Juvies for a night

We missed our 9 o'clock alarm somehow, but Katie miraculously woke up at 9:15 and we hustled to get out of the house asap.
We went straight to the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel, where Katie waited in line while Nicole went to find us some breakfast. 25 minutes later, after Katie deduced that Nicole had been kidnapped and Nicole deduced that Katie had already gotten into the Museum, we reunited. Nicole found crepes with nutella and banana, just in time to gobble it down before we entered the museum.
We went through the maze of ancient art and artifacts, finally landing in the glorious Sistine Chapel. It was very beautiful and all, but would have been much more stupendous if we didn't feel like cattle being herded into and out of each room.
After the museums we headed to the Piazza del St. Peter and the Basilica, where we waited in the wrong freakin line for about a half hour. When we finally figured it out, we walked straight into the Basilica. It is gigantic, beautiful, breathtaking, and all other related adjectives. Pictures don't do it justice - you just have to see it.
When we left St. Peter's Square we grabbed some lunch and headed for the Castel St. Angelo, but it was closed so we decided to head back home, where we called Lorenzo and he said "Yep, you guys gotta find another solution, sorry." So
we came back, packed our things and headed for this hostel we had found.
After we finally figured out how to get to this place (they always make it sound wayyyy more simple than it really is) we had to cram on to this above ground train where Katie swears she lost about 5 pounds from sweating and thought she was going to pass out.
We finally got to this super ghetto train stop (moms and dads would probably have been worried about us at this point) and waited for the shuttle to the hostel. It finally came and we were originally going to stay for two nights.
BUT- this place is like, a double wide, halved and then quartered. We share about a 9 x 9 trailer with two sinking twin mattresses. It is a dump compared to Lorenzo's white marble condo! We have been pampered!
Our solution? We emailed our hostel in Venice to see if we could move everything up a day, and we also emailed a friend in Turino to see if we could stay with him. Then we proceeded to get drunk, eat pizza, and try to sleep in our tiny prison cell in the Ass-crack of Rome.

Ousted, maybe?

In the morning we set out to eat breakfast at the Trinita dei Monti, better known as the Spanish Steps. At the very top of a whole bunch of stairs is a church with a beautiful view of the city.
After eating our delicious pastries and enjoying the view, we headed to the Trevi Fountain. Don't shoot us, but we decided against fighting the crowds to toss in a coin (Sorry Papa Etter!). It is a beautiful fountain, minus the swarms of gigantic tourist groups who appear to be oblivious to anything besides their headsets and tour guides.
Next, we walked to the Piazza del Popolo - which in the 16th century was the main entrance to the city from the North. We found some shade to rest our bodies in for a few minutes, as it was another very warm day. Then we hiked up the steep entrance into Villa Borghese, a huge park with museums and a zoo (kind of like Balboa Park, we guess) where we sat and spaced out for a while on the patchy grass.
After watching a group of Italians dance around with swords in slow motion (is there a name for that? We don't know..there must be) It was like tai-chi with swords. Anyway, after that we headed back down the hill and grabbed a reasonably priced meal at an ACTUAL restaurant! Amazing to be able to afford to actually sit down at a place, as opposed to paying less to take your food and run.
Nicole had the world's biggest bowl of spaghetti, we could have shared it and still had leftovers!
It was hot, and we were full and tired, so we headed back to Furio Camillo, where our "couch" is located. We were going to go to St. John in Lateran in Piazza San Giovanni, but we realized that we had been standing right next to it all night the night before at the concert, so we just went back to Lorenzo's.
When we got back there was a note from him that said he would be back later this evening and oh, by the way, we might not be able to stay here after tonight. Hmmm?! So Katie researched a bunch of other cool towns in Italy that we could go to (as we have exhausted all couch resources here in Roma), but we settled on a cheap little hostel here in Rome if we do end up needing to leave.
We then grabbed some gelato and came back for a nap/reading/rejuvenation session. Later on, we decided to take on the task of shaving our legs. This essentially has not been done since Amsterdam. It was quite an adventure! We may, in fact, have clogged Lorenzo's drain, and shed a few pounds at the same time (Sorry Sam, we just couldn't hold out!).
We didn't think we were going to be able to find anything to eat except for McDonald's because it was a Sunday and even the grocery store was closed, so we hastily made our way towards the golden arches WHEN, alas! An open pizzeria caught our sparkly eyes! Hooray!
After din-din we went to the internet cafe so Nicole could call her parents, then we came back and packed our bags in case we had to move out the next day. The rest of the evening consisted of reading, reading, and more reading, then sleep!

Intuitto Gratis?!

In the morning, Katie's face was so swollen she could barely see out of her left eye. Those mosquitos really ate her alive. Lorenzo took us to a pharmacy for yet another kind of medicine. We wished we could ice it, but apparently Europeans don't believe in ice.
We came back, got ready for our day, and headed straight to the Colloseum. We checked it out, but didn't go inside, as the line looked about a mile long.
We then attempted to get into the Roman Forum and Palatino, which are ancient ruins, and on our fourth attempt with another locked gate, we gave up. By that time we had seen almost all of it from the outside anyway.
We checked out the monument to Victor Emmanuel II, aka "Vittoriano", which is a gigantic building made all of marble, the Captiol Square designed by Michelangelo, aka "il campidoglio," the Piazza Navona-which had a big market, but the fountain it is famed for was covered for restoration or something. Alsom Piazza Farnese had another cool market in the middle.
We went into the Pantheon, whihc is nothing like the Pantheon in Paris by the way. I was so spectacular that pictures couldn't even depict it-so we took a video for you folks back home.
We walked to the Torre Argentina with more gelato in hand, which house even more ancient ruins.
By this time our feet were achy, and we didn't even mention how warm it is outside-polar opposite of Belgium! We headed home to relax and phone Dr. Toth, medicine woman for all of Katie's medical woes.
We got a diagnosis and suggested medication from the doc, in medical terms of course, because they are the same across languages.
We grabbed some brew and pizza, along with some delicious cookies for dessert, and ate them at the house. Katie had seen a couple of ads for a John Legend concert tonight that said "Intuitto Gratis" which Katie said in spanish means free entry, so with our fingers crossed, we headed towards the show.
When we got there we found that indeed, it was free. It was an MTV concert in Piazza San Giovanni, with a bunch of Italian singers, then John Legend then the Cure.
Nicole had to pee so bad that we only stayed through a couple of John Legned songs(we missed the Cure-sorry fans!) and found the nearest restroom.
We thought about going back, but we were in the way front and trying to even get back into the plazza would have been a chalenge, so we headed home for a healthy night of sleep.

Stranded in Roma

We got up in the morning, packed our bags, and checked couchsurfing. We got the "ok" to stay with a guy named Lorenzo- we were very relieved. We said goodbye and headed to the train station, but we stopped along the way for some medicine for Katie's face, as it has now become swollen, along with the bites...it is quite a sight to see!
We left Firenze at 1:10 pm and got to Roma at about 4:45. The train ride consisted of a lot of reading, music, and beautiful countryside. Lorenzo had given us directions to his house, and said to arrive and 7:30 and to be very punctual. So we found his place, then set out to find some dinner.
You'll never guess what we ate...what's that? oh, yeah, pizza. We still had about an hour to kill, so we sat in the park for a while, then headed back to Lorenzo's early. We sat there from 7:10 until 8:00, ringing his bell. He never came.
We were pretty much in what we will call "OH, shit" mode at this point.
We headed to the Internet cafe right around the corner and tried to call him, but there was no answer. So we jumped on the internet and started searching for the cheapest hostel/hotel available. We were writing down directions to a place when someone comes up behind us in a suit with a motorcycle helmet and exclaims, "Is it You!?"
LORENZO!!! We could have kissed him we were so relieved. He explained that he was late because of this or that reason and he guessed we would be here.
He was late for yet another appointment, so he rushed us to his house and left. We were so so so happy we had a place to stay. A REALLY nice place too, with marble floors and the whole bit. We made up our beds and figured out our itinerary for the following day, then went to sleep.

Attacked...in the weee hours

We had originally planned on going to Bologna for the day, but we were a little work out from running around so much and the guys said Bologna really had not much to offer, but good food. So we decided to take it easy for a day.
Katie managed to wake up with even more mosquito bites, even with the windows shut- so she was definitely down for a mellow day. We took a stroll around Florence and decided to humor ourselves by waiting in line at the Uffizi. Turns out, the line was definitely not as bad as the boys made it sound-we were inside in an hour and 15 minutes. We strolled through the museum, checking out the "birth of Venus" by Boticelli among other famous paintings and sculptures.
Afterwards we grabbed some pizza and gelato and headed for the park located behind Piazza Pitti. After walking what felt like all the parimeter of the park, we finally reached an entrance, and they were charging 10 euros to get in ! We thought "forget that!" and went home.
We checked out all of our internet stuff-come to find out the guy we were supposed to stay with in Rome had several negative references, all from girls implying he was using couchsurfing for all the wrong reasons. So we were in a frenzy emailing all kinds of people for a place to stay.
Later that evening, we went to a pizza place where Katie let Nicole order(bad idea) and Nicole was trying to be adventurous by ordering something random off the menu (another bad idea).
The pizza came out with anchovies and caviar all over it. We though we were going to die, but we managed to choke it down. It was a mutual decisionto head to the supermarket immediately after to buy lots of dessert and brew, and thats exactly what we did.
When we got home we only managed to drink one beer when we had bought six(the beers here are huge-about 3 of our beers in one bottle). And everyone said we were going out-so we went out.
The occassion? One of the hosts, Guilia, had just killed her last exam, and she explained to Katie in spanish(a mutual language) that she intended to party for 3 days straight!
They took us to a "bar" that seemed more like a funky 7-11 with a patio to us-there was even bingo at this place. Right when we walked in we saw a middle aged guy in bicycle gear start choking an old bingo man. They were yelling in Italian and caused quite a scene. It was hysterically funny and very serious at the same time.
After that was delt with, we got some Nagroni's and hung out on the patio for a while.
Finally we got tired, headed home, and crashed out for the night.

What We're Leaning Towards...

We woke up around 9 in the morning and got ready for our day trip to Pisa. Again, we were given explicit directions to the station :)
We bought our tickets to Pisa, but the display did not have a destination city for Pisa, so we crossed our fingers and jumped on the train that had the same departure time. Lucky for us, an hour later we arrived in Pisa - and oh, how that tower does lean!
The square that houses the leaning tower is bombarded with people taking pictures of each other attempting to "hold up" the tower. It is very silly to see. We marveled at the tower, strolled through all the tourist shopping stalls, enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather, and headed back to the station.
When we got back to Florence, we grabbed some pizza and walked around a bit more - window shopping and mailing postcards - then walked back home. We rest for a bit and then took the bus to Piazza de Michelangelo, where the original David used to stand (there is now a replica in its place). It is at the top of a hill and has an amazing view of Firenze. We got there right as the sun was setting, so we caught some really awesome pictures.
We sat and looked around for a bit, mentioning how lucky we are to be here, while everyone else is back in the U.S. doing their every day routine (no offense intended).
We grabbed the next bus down the hill, but missed our stop. An hour and a half later, thanks to Nicole's amazing GPS (we aren't too sure what happened to Katie's...must need new batteries or something) we arrived safely home.
We had a delicious family dinner, all 10 or so of us cramped into their kitchen, it was quite a circus! We ate "crap" for dessert (that's how they pronounce crepe in English. Great, right?!), and we chilled out for the rest of the night.
We made a point to close the window this evening before bed, as we didn't do this the night before and we are located right next to the river, which equals LOTS of mosquitoes, so Katie woke up with several welts all over her face. Not so fun, or pretty, ladies and gentlemen.

Bonjourno, Firenze!

We had a pretty eventful train ride to Florence. Nicole was woken up at 1 am by the older lady in our car, saying that the man in our car was doing something "suspicious." The lady wouldn't go tell a train attendant- she just kept bugging Nicole until finally she got up and went to get the attendant. The guy seemed fine to us, and he ended up being legit, too; we think the lady was the crazy one.
Anyway, our train arrived an hour late to Florence, and dumped us at a different station than the one we had directions from, so we wandered around for about 20 minutes before we went into a hotel and asked for a map. The lady at the front desk was very helpful and told us exactly how to get there.
Silly us, we couldn't even find the bus station she told us to start at! So we resolved to walking, and it took about 25 minutes. We rang the bell and the boys answered. YES!
They (and by "they" we mean all SEVEN of them) know a lot more English than Diego the couchsurfer had indicated to us in the email, thank goodness because we don't know any Italian!
We rested for a little bit, then they gave us REALLY good directions (they pride themselves on "never a couchsurfer lost!") and we set out on the town.
First things first, we stopped at the first restaurant we laid our eyes on. We hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours and we were both pretty cranky from lack of fuel. So much so, in fact, we each ordered and FINISHED our own pizza margheritas.
We checked out Via Vecchio - a bridge over the Arno River with shops on it - then headed to Piazza Pitti to sit down and soak in the warm Firenze sun. We cruised through San Marco Square and stopped by the Duomo (church) but the line was way too long for us. We continued on to the Galleria d'Accademia, the museum that houses the original 'David' sculpture, along with several other sculptural and pintoral masterpieces.
David, by the way, is HUGE! We sat and stared at it for a good long time. It's incredible that someone sculpted such detail out of stone.
We wanted to go to the Galleria Uffizi, another museum with a ton of art masterpieces, but the guys explained to us that it is next to impossible to get in, so we didn't even try. One of the guys was telling us that he has lived here for 6 years and hasn't gotten in yet. Something about everyone buying their tickets months in advance or something.
We headed back to the house relatively early and just relaxed, which was very nice. We had a big family dinner of Frittatta and salad, and were planning on going to a party with all 14 people that were over for dinner, but we pooped out and fell asleept instead.

Peace Out, Paris!

We didn't set the alarm for the next morning but Katie woke up early anyway because she was sick. Boo! We had a lazy morning, and went to the laundromat to wash clothes. We grabbed a couple of crepes with Nutella and Banana (YESSSSS!!!!) and met a couple of Americans. One lady was from Newport Beach where she lived on a boat, and now she lives here in Paris, on a boat. Another guy was here for a work conference, and staying a couple of extra days for fun.
After our laundry was done, we headed to the Museum of Picasso, which to our luck is closed until October 24th for renovation. Grr! Instead we headed for the Pantheon. Luckily, that wasn't closed. In fact, it was pretty amazing! A lot cooler than we thought it would be.
We grabbed a metro back towards Max's, mailed some postcards, and packed our bags. We checked our email and Nicole called her mom (Hi Mama and Papa Etter!) Then we headed for the train station to grab our overnight train.
We cut our stay in Paris short a day, but not because we wanted to. It was an amazing city - there were just a couple of unforseeable circumstances. Our sleeper train was definitely petite! About an 8' x 8' space for 6 people. Our room only had four people though. We figured it was the best way to spend the 12 hour train ride: by sleeping!

Blown Away....

The alarm went off at 8 am again, but this time we both jumped right out of bed. We were heading to the Louvre, and it was Sunday, so that meant it was free...so we were expecting to be fighting the crowds. And yes, we said free. Every first Sunday of the month, most museums are free in Paris. So with our luck we happened to be in Paris on the first Sunday, what a wonderful day! :) We only waited in line for about 5 minutes and got right in. We checked out the Sully wing, and it started to get really packed, so we headed for the Mona Lisa, raft of Medusa and a couple others of our favorites. It was so jam packed that we headed out of the museum soon after viewing the Mona Lisa.
We grabbed breakfast and almost got blown away in the wind on our way to Musee d'Orsay. We waited there for about 20 minutes, another free entry, and were pleased that it was much less crowded than the Louvre. We wandered through the museum, which was very pleasant, but a little disappointing because none of the Picassos were available for viewing.
We then headed for the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. We were there at the tail.end of mass, which was a little awkward. We mentioned to each other that it would be difficult to concentrate and enjoy mass while hundreds of people were shuffling around the cathedral.
We left the church and grabbed a very expensive and not too tasty meal, then headed to an American bookstore where Nicole grabbed a new book for all of our long train rides. We jaunted to an internet cafe then went to the train station to book our train to Florence.
Katie really wanted to go to Versailles, but it was too late at this point and the Chatequ was closed on Mondays. Total bummer!
We then jumped on the metro and went to the bibliotheque de something rather, which is another amazing piece of architecture, but we didn't really get to soak it all in because it began to rain, and it was sooo windy that Nicole's umbrella turned inside out and we were leaning into the wind. We couldn't stop laughing at this for some reason.
We headed inside for some tea beause Katie was starting to get the sniffles and a sore throat- and Nicole joined her with not one, but two hot chocolates! We continued to see numerous PDA's as we people watched through the windows!!

These boots were made for walkin'!

The alarm went off at 8am, and as usual, Nicole didn't respond, so Katie snoozed it. We were up and out around 9, and headed to the Sacre Coer (Sacred Heart) Church. It's a big, beautiful white church at the top of a very steep hill, with amazing views of the entire city. In fact, it is the 2nd highest point in France- the Eiffel Tower is the first.
Next, and quite ironically, we headed to to the Moulin Rouge. It wasn't a blaze with all of its lit-up, burlesque grandeur, but we did walk in, see a few pictures from shows, and got a tiny peek at the dining room. This part of town is loaded with all sorts of erotica, including an erotica museum which surprisingly was included in our travel guide. We refrained from entering and, again in ironic fashion, headed to the La Defense, also know as Paris' business district. (Believe it or not, this all made perfect sense geographically)
As soon as we stepped out of the metro, there it was in all of its massive glory -The Grande Arche. Nicole studied this thing through and through for her senior project. It's a modern take on the Arc du Triomphe, and it is filled with offices. Words really cannot describe how enormous and splendid this structure is. What's more is that it is in direct alignment with its predecessor, the Arc du Triomphe, so there is a view of each from the other.
We walked around La Defense a bit, checked out some of the other cooley designed high rise buildings, snapped a pic in front of a gigantic thumb sculpture, checked out the most colorful chimney in the world(as far as we know) and jumped back on the metro to check out the Arc du Triomphe. We probably should have checked this out BEFORE the Grande Arche because in comparison, the triomphe is dwarfed in size. But it is amazing, nonetheless. We sat there for several minutes just looking at it. Crazy.
Next we headed to the trocadero, which is know for its fountain, but also houses a few museums, including one on Architecture. Of course we went in, but we were pretty disappointed. It was full of replicas of ancient columns and carvings and what-not. We were expecting something completely different. It's okay though, we still checked it out and had a good time.
We went back to the Eiffel Tower and snapped a few pics, then continued on to the hotel des invalidies, which contains all kinds of french army and war relics, as well as Napoleon's tomb. It was originally built by Louis XIV after the franco-prussian war to house wounded soldiers. I guess it still serves that purpose, on a much smaller scale.
We looked at all kinds of old military uniforms, badges, guns and flags-Katie's grandpa would have loved this place. We check out a heart-wrenching exhibit on WW2, when Hitler took over France. There were Nazi flags, resistance flags, letters and pictures of Jewish prisoners. It was really intense.
We walked in silence from there to Napoleon's tomb, or at least what we thought was Napoleon's tomb...now we think we might have missed it. Oh well.
After that landmark, we walked towards Champs L'Elysees, but it was so jam packed with people because there was an airplane and helicopter exhibit or something. It was insane, so we kept walking and checked out the grand palais and petit palais, then continued on to the President's House, which was kind of crazy because the President had just arrived so there were a bunch of reporters and police, and they were detouring traffic and the whole bit. What timing for us!
We crossed the Concorde and went to check out the Musee d'Orsay, but it was 30 minutes before closing time, so we re-directed to the Centre Georges Pompidou. Another building with absolutely crazy architecture - it is best described as the architects having turned it inside-out. The inside was even better than the outside, housing thousands of very famous pieces of modern art. Katie kept thinking that her modern art history teacher from college must die when she comes into this museum! Yves Klein, Alexander Calder, Henri Mattisse, Jackson Pollock, etc. Unfortunately we had done so much walking all day that we were incredibly physically drained and couldn't enjoy it 100%. We were cold, hungry, sore and tired.
We really wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower and Arc du Triomphe lit up in all of their splendor, but we were just way too beat, so we went back to Max's.
He had some friends over and they were explaining to us that it was October 4, White Night: Where visual exhibits take place all over the city. For example, a light show was projected onto a historical building, and an artistic film was displayed drive-in style. We were so bummed that we were so exhausted we couldn't go see it, especially because it only happens once a year!
Max and his friends went out, and we fell right to sleep!

The City of PDA!

We got up, checked our e-mail, wrote the boys a thank you note, and left Ghent to continue our journey through Western Europe. We were headed for Paris, France... famous for the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and in our opinions the city of PDA. And for those of you not familiar with the phrase, PDA stands for Public Display of Affection. And you do see plenty of it in Paris, France! But, I guess it is the city of love, so who could blame them.
Anways, we had to take the train from Ghent to Brussels, then jump on a Thalys in Brussels and ride that for 1 1/2 hours to Paris. Apparently the Brussels station we needed has 2 names. We were told we needed the Brussels-Midi Station, so as our train comes to a stop at the Brussels-Zuid Station, we stayed right in our seats and expected to get off at the next station, the Brussels-Midi. Well as the train begins to pull of we realize it was the Brussels-Midi stop as well. "Crap", we both say as we watch the station disappear. Oh well, we'll just get off at the next station and ride a different train back to the Brussels-Midi/Zuid Station. Well after that little mix up we still managed to make our Thalys train to Paris on time! So we arrived in Paris at about 12:40 and tried to figure out the metro line. We saw a stop for "Louvres" so, being freshly exposed to the French ways, we immediately jump on the train. And to our surprise we began to get further and further away from the city of Paris and more into the "boonies" of France. So we jump off at a random stop to discover that we were not at the Louvre museum, but we were in the suburbs of Paris called the Louvres. Silly us! But this detour was a blessing in disguise because it gave Katie a chance to study the metro system of Paris. And without her, Nicole would be somewhere in the suburbs of Paris!
We finally took the correct train to Ecolate Militaire and as we come up the steps from the metro and finally see some Parisian sunlight, a post office was staring back at us! Now this we took as a sign from heaven because we had been looking for one since Rotterdam. We sent home a bunch of clothes for a heart wrenching price of 40 Euros! But it was all worth it because now our packs are much more comfortable. We then walked down Rue Clare, which is a famous street in Paris for food and vending.
It was only about 5:30 and we weren't supposed to meet our Parisian host, Max, until 7:00. So we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower. It started to rain on us though, so we didn't stay long.
We found our way to Max's and we were a little bit early, so we waited in a Subway (yes, the sandwhich place) and enjoyed a few cookies while we waited. Finally, we were in the warmth of Max's flat. It's a very nice place and we met a few of his friends, ate some dinner and chatted the night away. They invited us to go out with them, but we were exhausted. We stayed in, did a little work on the computer, and then passed out for a good nights rest!

Mannekin What?

After struggling to wake up in the morning, we managed to get out of the house around 11. It was only a half hour ride to Brussels by train and all the sites we wanted to visit were near the train station. Katie bought a map, but Brussels is very tourist friendly and we probably could have survived without one.
First, we happened to walk right into the Grand Palace/Grote Markt, which houses some really old buildings including an old judicial building and a museum. It is more of a tourist photo-op than anything else (or at least we thought so). Next, we came across signs pointing to the infamous mannekin pis. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is a nakad little boy urinating into a pool of water. Supposedly, a super long time ago Brussels was on fire and a little boy made a "noble" effort to save the town... our thoughts?--not very exciting. The statue stands about 2 feet tall and it is jammed into a corner of a street. But we figured, what the hay, we are here...so we snapped a couple of shots and continued on our way.
Next on our list was the Royal library and then the royal palace and the adjacent park. We went into the museum of ancient and modern art, but only made it through the ancient part because Katie really wanted to check out the Automium. A description of the Automium....a giant, and I mean giant, jack. It was built for the World Expo back in 1958.
We took the metro to its site and rode the elevator all the way to the top! We took a lap around and because the "ball" was slightly swaying. We both started to fill nauseated slash ill slash dizzy, so we both agreed on heading back down to earth! After waiting in the "elevator down line" for a solid 12 minutes, we were back on the ground floor. The positive part of the experience...there were some amazing views from that high up and we even caught a glimpse of "mini-europe" where a bunch of famous European landmarks are built at a 1 to 25 ratio. It looked like Disneyland from way up above!
We headed back to Ghent and the evening consisted of another homemade meal and bag packing, as well as an "early" bedtime. The boys tried to get us to go out again; Thank god we didn't because they didn't get home until just a little before our alarm was waking us up.

ANTWERP!!

The following morning we woke up and readied ourselves for a day in Antwerp. Again, it was very rainy and cold! But that is why we brought our rainjackets...right?! :) We got to Antwerp and were very excited that the boys gaves us directions and a map--since we always manage to get lost! And plus, Antwerp is their home town so they know their way around! We went to the first big circle on the map, the largest gothic catherdral in Europe. It was, in fact, very large, but it was undergoing restoration so it was a bit of a mess. There were a couple of paintings by Ruebens (a famous Belgian artist) and a ginormous organ!
After leaving the cathedral, we headed for an art museum which was the next place the boys recommended. But neither of us are huge Ruebens fans, so we refrained from entering and instead headed for the fashion museum. That was definitely interesting! There wasn't much there that a person would actually wear, but all of the pieces had very cool concepts.
After that, we headed to the next museum the boys had circled on our handy map, but on the way there it started dumping rain on us...so we quickly turned around and said..."hmm, next time! :)" On our way back we spotted an internet cafe, so we took shelter there and wrote a couple of quick e-mails.
The weather put a damper on our day, so we decided to just head home, but not before a car went speeding past us, hit a puddle and in turn, soaked us! At this point, all we could do was to laugh and laugh!
We came back to Ghent and tried to check out the Gravensteen Castle, but we missed the last tour by 5 minutes. ....Back to the house we went, Thomas made us a delicious 3 course meal and we continued to test out more Belgian beer. They have sooo many!
Luckily, the weather cleared late in the evening and we all went out to Overpoort, which is lined with bars and is where all the college students go to par-tay :) The street was blocked off to cars at night because it gets so crowded with bar hopping students. They don't get the party started til about 1 am in Belgium, so Katie was really dragging. We started at a jazz bar, then wandered to a really packed bar (definitely breaking the maximum occupancy laws) that they call "peanuts" but it is spelled like the math symbol "pi"- nuts. Weird, but a good time! These europeans really love their extremely loud techno music!
Katie was really tired and wanted to go home after we left Peanuts(after all it was 3:30 in the morning) but everyone convinced her to stay. We went to one or two more bars then us girls decided to call it a night around 5 am! The boys stayed out late...and we don't know what time they got home...we think the sun was starting to rise though!!!!
We decided going out in Ghent is really a task! Being that it is about 45 degrees fahrenheit outside and the bars are about 80-90 degrees!!! So you are constantly putting on and peeling off layers of clothing. And during this process, Nicole managed to lose one of her layers...but its ok because now she just has one less thing to carry with her the rest of the trip! :)
Next city to conquer: Brussels!

Ohh, Bruges!

Katie's alarm went off at 9:00 to Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" (what's up with the Coldplay?? I don't know) and she looked over at Nicole, who hadn't moved a muscle, so Katie went back to sleep for a half hour. Then we got up and got ready for our day.
We caught tram 1 to the train station where we picked up some Belgian waffles and bought our train tickets to Bruges! Once in Bruges, we jumped off the train to find it a bit wet outside. We threw our hoods on and headed for the first visible church--because apparently Bruges doesn't believe in selling maps, at least none that we could find. We checked out that church, which was very large and beautiful. Then we finally found a street map and tried to make our way to the Markt, but ended up at another church. So we just wandered around the town, buttoned our jackets all the way up because of the rain and wind, and took it all in. We went inside another big and beautiful church (none of these pictures turned out by the way, moms and dads- but we really were there! :) So after seeing the churches, we tried wandering in the direction of the train station when Katie saw a sign: CHOCO-STORY! A whole museum dedicated to nothing but the history of chocolate! We couldn't pass it up! It was actually very interesting and informative- bet you didn't know the oldest traces of the cocoa bean are from 600 B.C.!
We were going to buy some chocolate for some of you back home, but they only had HUGE bags for sale! Sorry! After that we were ready to head back to Ghent, so we kept walking in the direction towards the train station...or so we thought! Finally we asked someone for directions and she said, " Yes, keep walking down this street." We came across a street map and to our surprise we were on the other side of town!! And even though Bruge is a small town, it was cold and rainy and we were not too excited about the walk. We sucked it up and started heading toward the station, all bundeled up.
We finally made it there and had 25 minutes before our train back to Ghent left. So we grabbed a couple of sandwhiches and cokes! Once we got back to Ghent, the plan was to buy our train tickets to Paris, but of course...we forgot! We managed to make back to the boys house, safe and sound and we were very thankful to be out of Belgiums cold weather!
We logged onto the computer and were thankful to find that we were accepted to surf someones couch in Paris and Florence!
Since we had such a late lunch we decided to skip dinner and get some reading down and figure out the next couple of days in Belgium! We also got a chance to look at Nick and Stan's (the host we were staying with)current architecture project-which was the redesign for the expansion of their schools library. We were exhausted by then, and called it an early night--which in Blegium times means about 11 pm!!

Detours continued: On our way to Ghent!

For our blog followers....and those who have asked :) we will give a little more info on our location of this wonderful tour.
So for the previous blog, we were in Rotterdam, Holland...A wonderful little city only about an hour or so south of Amsterdam...it is famous for its architecture and we also came across a couple of its amazing bridges..
So as we purchased our train tickets from Rotterdam to Ghent, we discovered that our connector train (which landed us in Anwerp, Belgium) only gave us 5 minutes to get to our train heading towards our final desintaiton of Ghent! And of course, keeping with the tradition, we managed to miss that train and had to wait 40 minutes for the next train to Ghent. The wait was not so much a hastle, since Katie managed to get a little bit sick, so we took advantage of the 40 minutes! We caught the train to Ghent and once we arrived there we had no idea how to get to our courch surfing host (Thomas) house. All we had was his address and phone number (which really was just a bunch of long numbers jotted down on our notebook page) and his suggestion that if we arrive to his place and he is not there, he says "Just ask a stranger to use their phone to call me and I will come meet you at my house!"
So after staring at a city map for about 5 minutes, and trying to discover where this Thomas lived, we said, "Looks close, let walk!" And to our surprise, it was far from close! We wandered around this "college town" known as Ghent, for a good 1/2 hour until we decided that we needed to ask for directions. We came across a Shell station and the attendant managed to give us clear directions to the street we were headed.
At this point it had become a very long travel day and the dark, ostentatious clouds were looming! We finally made it to Thomas' place (which isn't even where we were sleeping--his wonderful friends were letting us stay at their place, since Thomas lives in an apartment the size of our kitchen!) but with our luck, Thomas was not there because since we missed both of our trains, we ended up being in Ghent two hours later than what we told Thomas. So now it was time to use Thomas' advice on asking a stranger to use their phone!
Well, it didn't really work out as easy as Thomas wrote it in our e-mail. We ended up sitting outside his place, playing damsels in distress for a few minutes, but quickly discovered we were not getting anywhere staring at each other. So we decided to find a place to put our heavy packs down and eat. We found a nice little sandwhich place around the corner. After feeling a bit rejuvenated, we knew that we only had one option, and that was to finally ask a stranger to use their cell phone to call Thomas! Luckily there were some boys at the retaurant eye-ing us and after a few minutes of '' You go talk to them," "no, YOU go ask them," Katie got up, walked over, plopped down next to them.
She told them her sob story about how she is from the other side of the world and her train was late and now her friend she is staying with isn't home and oh by the way, Can she use you cell phone?! Ther verdict..YES! We called Thomas and he met us at his place where we then walked to his friends house that we would be staying at. Their names are Nick, Stan and Stefan. They live on the top floor of an old creaky building with a lot of character. Out the windows you can see the Gavensteen Castle and 3 giant church towers about 8 blocks away. It couldn't be in a more convenient part of town. And even better, almost all of the guys study architecture at the University! Fantastic! :) So we have perused through their models and textbooks...
We talked about where we plan to visit in Blegium and then got ready to go out. Thomas took us to a bar right near the house and introuduced us to 3 good Belgian beers: the Quack, the Duvel (or devil) and the third escapes our memory. After that we went to a Jazz bar(where we aparently missed the jazz) and met a whole group of their friends, who are also architecture students! We stayed and talked there until about 1:30 when the gang was rearing to go to another bar and we went home and passed out!

DETOURS!

Katie's alarm went off at 8 am to Coldplay's Violet Hill. She ignored it and then got Nicole up around 830. we packed up all of our stuff and ate the free breakfast (bread and nutella- yum!) After accidentally locking our bags in a locker (complicated story) and having to rescue them, we headed down to the cube houses. We were about a half hour too early so we wandered around and picked up some warm beverages and sang the rain song (the one where you tell it to go away) and it worked! not that it was really raining; itwas more of an intermittent sprinkle.
at that point, we walked back to the cube houses and took the inside tour, which we weren't even aware you could do until the day before. It was SO awesome! Piet Blom is a creative genius. If anyone slightly interested in architecture is ever in Rotterdam, they should definitely check it out. it's only 2.50 euros.
we left the cube houses rather chipper, headed back to the hostel to grab our packs, then headed to the train station where we missed our train because the stupid machine only took cash - and on top of that it only took coins. Who in their right mind carries around 34 euros in 2 euro coins?
We got that situation settled and waited for the next train (an hour later).
To be continued...Stan needs the computer...

Rotterdam in a Day

In the morning we gathered our belongings and did some dishes until Rob woke up. He made us pannenkoeken (pancakes- Delicious!) and took us to the train station. We wish we could have brought him with us on the rest of the trip, we like him so much! We may have convinced him to meet us in Berlin, so we'll see...
We figured out our trains and got to Rotterdam around 3:00. Katie suggested "let's find our hostel and then eat," and Nicole agreed. But once we found our hostel, we realized how close we were to the Netherlands Architecture Institue (NAI), so we said "Okay, that first, then food." The NAI was incredible, with plans and perspectives over 400 years old. We ate it up! Unfortunately we got booted out sooner than we would have liked because of closing time, otherwise we probably could have spent all day there.
Then we saw how close we were to the Euromast, so we said "That first, THEN food." The Euromast is like that spinning tower thing at Sea World, or the red tower at Six Flags. We aren't sure how high it went, but Nicole felt a little woozy about halfway up, so we didn't go any further. It had an amazing 360 degree view of the city including the port, Het park, the bridges, etc.

After that we said "Okay, we should really get some food." However, the street we were walking along became a construction zone and thus was closed so we took a detour through Het park. Once we were through the park we were really close to the Erasmus Bridge, so we said "Okay then! Bridge first, then food."
Let's just say we probably saw 75% of Rotterdam and walked about 6 miles before we fed our tummies. And guess where we ended up eating? Chinese. It's kinda tough to find dutch food places here; It's really integrated like the States.
Once our appetites were satisfied, we were happy to discover that we had walked in a giant circle through the city and were only a few blocks from our hostel. When we arrived back, we zonked out.

It's a beautiful day, is it not?

Since we went to bed so late the night before, we slept in again until about 10:30. Rob made us breakfast and we lounged around for a bit. We walked with Rob and his friend Yuki to the train station so that Yuki could catch his train to work, and we continued our stroll through the center of town towards the Jordaan, passing the Dam - where the Royal Palace and Oude Kerk (Old Church) are - and a restaurant not unlike our Hooters, called "Teasers."
We made our way to the Anne Frank Huis and took the tour of the secret annex. The tour is pretty impressive. We found it interesting that Rob and his friends don't really know much about the story of Anne Frank other than the fact that she was in hiding during the war.
After the tour, we walked a little bit further through the Jordaan and grabbed some delicious pan de chocolade (chocolate croissants) before heading back towards the city center. Once there, we stopped at a grocery store and grabbed the essentials for a picnic and headed to the Vondelpark to meet Ferr and one of his friends.
We lazed around until it started to get chilly, then went with Rob to say hellow to a couple of friends in the Leidesplein that we had met the night before. Then we took the tram back to the apartment and Ferr made us a delicious dinner. We watched a very outdated "futuristic"flick and Nicole and I tested out Rob's turntables and we figured out the plan for the rest of our last evening in Amsterdam.

The 'Dam

Day 3 (of travel, technically)
We woke up at 11 AM - Comfy couch indeed. We put away our blankets and helped do some dishes. Rob was at work, so Ferr (Rob's brother) helped us with our itinerary for the day and explained which trams to take. And we were off!
Good thing Katie paid attention to Ferr's explaining and has a generally good built in GPS system because Nicole had no clue where we were going.
We jumped on the 10 Tram to Leidesplein and strolled through the Vondelpark, one of Amsterdam's largest and finest parks. After Nicole got her pants dirty while Katie was taking a picture of her, we grabbed a couple of sandwiches and headed into the Rijksmuseum, followed by the Van Gogh Museum.
After looking at a bunch of art with swarms of other people crowding our personal space, we walked down to Albert Cuyp Straat, which houses a large farmer's market. This was much more pleasant, bring outdoors and all - which reminds me, we have been blessed with some of the best weather for Amsterdam. Clear blue skies and high 60's. - We thought about buying a few things, but realized that we have zero space in our packs for non-sensical items.
Once we strolled through the market, we would probably have gone to the heineken museum, but it has been closed all summer for renovation and doesn't re-open until October 22. So we grabbed the tram back to the boys' apartment to relax a bit before our evening excursion.
Rob came home and let us know that he, his brother, and a handfull of their friends were heading back to their hometown to hang out for the evening, and invited us along. We took the invitation as an opportunity to see a part of Holland that most travelers don't normally see. Their hometown is called Hilversum, and they described it as very "preppy." All of their friends are very nice and VERY well traveled. We went to a couple of bars, played some pool, and listened to one of their friends dj. It was low-key and a good time.
We headed back around 3 AM and once home, we pigged out to some Mác'n'cheese that we had brought for Rob (unfortunately, Rob didn't get to have any...), and went to sleep.

HOOAH!

Day 1!
we jumped out of bed at 4:30 am on wednesday morning, gathered together the last bit of things, and hit the road at 5:00. After getting caught in a bit of the unruly L.A. rush hour traffic, we made it to the airport. We said goodbye to Taylour and headed inside the American Airlines International Terminal. After a few minor setbacks (Nicole's passport saying that she is from the WSA - where the hell is that? - and my account only printing 2 out of the 3 required boarding passes) we boarded our first plane.
We landed in Dallas, Texas about three hours later, after our pilot-slash-tour guide flew us over Lake Havasu, Sedona, and the Berringer Meteor Crater. This put us in at 3:25 PM local time. We had a two hour layover so we used this time to take the tram to the proper terminal, where Katie got her last fix of Mexican food and Nicole stuffed her face with food from a restaurant that she chooses to remain anonymous. We then grabbed some chocolate and boarded our next flight -departing at 5:20 and lasting a whopping 9 1/2 hours- to London.
It went by a lot faster than we had anticipate, with lots of reading along with lots of laughter; we even managed about two hours of shut-eye. We landed in London at 8:30 AM local time on Thursday.
After a three hour layover consisting of a lot of walking around and checking departure screens (our gate wasn't assigned until 45 minutes before our scheduled take-off), we boarded our plane for the last 45 minute hop, skip, and jump to Amsterdam.
Once we landed, we grabbed our packs, bought our train tickets, and headed for Amsterdam Centraal. Once there, it took us about a half hour to figure out how to get to our first couchsurfing destination, which turned out to be a piece of cake and should only have taken us about five minutes.
When we finally arrived, Rob and his brother greeted us with warm welcome. Their place is amazing, as is their couch! After we chatted a bit and got cleaned up, we headed out for a brief preview of Amsterdam. We cruised through the Dam, went to a couple of coffee houses, walked through a little bit of the red light district, and headed back home for dinner -which is where we are now, about to plan our first full day around the city.

Final Countdown

With but a week left before our departure, Nicole is spending time with her family in Monterey while Katie takes time to relax at the beach, hang out with friends, and spend numerous hours in the “travel” section of Barnes & Noble, gathering as much information as possible on her pad of Herman Miller paper.
We’ve been avidly surfing for couches, and have been relatively successful. Thus far, we have found a very comfortable couch with a guy named Robbin, who in return for shelter requested that we bring him a few boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. He lives right near central station in Amsterdam and sounds very excited about being our “tour guide” while we are there.
Stop number two is in Rotterdam, where we will stay in a hostel for one night. Katie isn’t too sure what the status of that is, or the name and location of the place, but Nicole has it all figured out…
Stop number three was originally supposed to be in Brussels, but after talking with some locals, they convinced us that Brussels should be a day trip, not a home base. This actually worked out because we couldn’t find anyone to host us in Brussels, but we found a very nice group of people willing to host us in Ghent. We have gathered that this is somewhat of a college town and we will be arriving during the first week of school. Our hosts have assured us that there will be plenty of “back to school activities” taking place.
We are still working on a place to stay in France…Katie has a couple of friends living there right now, but isn’t sure if staying with them is in the cards. We’ll see…

Train whistles are blowing

After much (and the word much is quite the understatement) researching using "Europe by Eurail 2008," several Eurail websites, friendly recommendations, and several hours on the phone with Eurail customer service who proved to be much less than helpful, we decided on a Eurail pass that we thought was the most fitting and economical for us. Let me tell you, finding the right pass at the right price is quite a challenge, so if you are planning a trip, leave yourself plenty of time to look into this.
We simultaneously clicked the "purchase now" button on the Eurail website. We aren't going to lie, even with all of our researching, we still had our fingers crossed that we had purchased the right pass. We are pretty confident with our decision however, and even if it turns out that we needed more (or less) travel days, we are pretty clever in finding ways to work it out.
So what pass did we choose? The Eurail Select Pass that can be used between any 5 adjoining countries on 8 separate, non-consecutive days, within 2 months. 5 countries you say? and we are visiting 7? We are taking the Thalys train from The Netherlands to Belgium, and from Belgium to France, in addition to our Eurail pass. So the passes won't be activated until we leave France and head for Italy. We did this because the Thalys tends to be cheaper than most of the other Eurail trains, and if you take the Thalys with your Eurail pass, they hit you with additional charges anyway.
Our passes arrived in the mail to Nicole's house about 3 days later; it's finally gradually starting to sink in that we are leaving. Soon.

CouchSurfing 101

CouchSurfing. A word that didn't mean anything to us ten days ago. But thanks to friends of friends, we have discovered the wonderful world of CouchSurfing.
CouchSurfing is an incredible online world of world travelers.

Their mission: Creating a Better World, One Couch at a Time.

Some fabulous statistics to keep you interested:
-There is over 619,000 CouchSurfers
-About 650,000 friendships created
-Over 1 million positive experiences!
-231 countries represented

CouchSurfing has been riding the waves strong since 2006. The site was ready and running for the world in 2004, but then experienced a crash, and was redesigned to what we have today.
CouchSurfing is free, but as we explore this CouchSurfing world we discover that the free part isn't even close to being the best thing about this concept. It is about the learning, teaching and sharing of each others cultures. It is about the friendships that are created. It is about seeing the country in another light; instead of jumping on the tour buses, you explore the country as a local.

We were hooked. We signed up, created a profile and have been persistently surfing for couches throughout Europe.

Plan? Schplan!

Lucky for Katie, she has a friend as fantastic as Nicole. She sat right down and figured out the most logical and least stressful itinerary for as many places as she thought humanly possible on Katie's colossal list of places to go. We will both be surprised if we even visit all of the places on our current itinerary...
The tentative plan as of current is to start in the Netherlands and work our way counter-clockwise through Europe, stopping in Belgium, France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Germany.
Anyway, the reason Katie is lucky to have a friend like Nicole is because Katie is the ultimate slacker when it comes to planning. She likes to call herself a "free spirit," while Nicole likes to call her crazy. We both realize that Nicole is right in this situation; Katie would have been screwed without some kind of plan.
However, in one case Katie's laziness may end up saving us hundreds of dollars. We were looking at hostels and watching them get booked up by the minute. Nicole calculated that for all 36 nights in hostels we would spend an average of $50 per night. Each. That's over $1,800.
Good thing Katie was too lazy to put the deposit on any of the rooms because a few days ago she found out about one of the coolest programs on the planet: Couchsurfing. Learnaboutit.
(sidenote: we also found this really great program called "like a local," which can be found at http://www.like-a-local.com/. It is rather pricy but it might be something to look into if you are planning a trip somewhere soon)