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.