Mollie:
So this will probably be the last blog about our trip. And, better yet, it will be short and sweet. Well maybe. We´ll see how ambitious I get.
So yesterday, Saturday, our plans were to go to the beaches of Sitges. Well that never happened. We decided that we were waaay to sick of the sun to spend a full day at the beach. Plus Amanda and I are pretty sure that our skin would have fallen off if we had tried to do so. We ended up splitting up because Eric wanted to go to the local beach for a bit and then check out a few things on his own.
Amanda and I really had a problem working up the ambition to do much of anything. We were rather tired and ended up sitting around the hostel trying to figure out what we wanted to do that day. When we finally left we decided we were going to hit up the markets, the beach (only for a bit though), and then go to Park Guell. We ended up going to the market/shopping area for awhile, but spent the entire time walking around like zombies. Amanda started talking about McDonalds and I was like thats a fabulous idea...I just want to sit in McDonalds!! We haven´t had air conditioning for the whole trip and McDonalds does...therefore we decided to go there and grab some lunch.
When we got there they had these little kiosks. You order your food there just using pictures , touch screen, etc. and then put your credit card in and then it gives you a little receipt with your number. Then there is an area you go and when the sign flashes your number you pick up your food. It was really quite cool. Amanda and I were rather impressed. It was also nice b-c the we didn´t have to try and mess with the whole foreign language part.
We ended up sitting in the McDonalds for about 2 hours. We were a little embarrassed that we spent so much time at McDonalds on one of our last days over here, but we seriously needed it. Amanda was going a little loopy. She kept saying really profound statements like..."I know that I know"....and..."I´m hungry, but I´m not hungry". Eventually we got up and hit the markets up again and then ventured out to Park Guell.
The Park was really cool and you have to go up like a gazillion (seriously) stairs to get to this place. The view of the city is phenomenal. We walked around there for awhile and then headed back to the hostel.
We joined up with our little group of friends and then went with a bunch of people from the hostel to a rather large Irish Bar and then after that to a Club.
This morning we woke up and headed to the train station to take our last train ride of the trip. We were in a bit of a hurry to check out and when we got to the train station i made the comment, "I feel like I left half my life in Barcelona, and I don´t even know it yet." Therefore Amanda then called me out on making such profound statements. We had a good time waiting for our train recalling the past few nights, the friends that we made, and their accents and funny little sayings they would say.
The train was called a bullet train b-c it is a really high speed train. I believe it goes like 200 miles an hour. We got to Madrid around 4 pm and got settled in to our little hostel. We then walked around and saw a few of the sights. We were planning on eating at the Oldest Restaurant in the World (or so it is claimed) but we couldn´t find it. Insteat we ate at a little restaurant on the street. It was delicious. We ended our trip by having a final meal of pizza (how couldnt we), Veal, and Paella. It was all very delicious.
Adios!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Oh Barcelona...
Mollie
Well we have spent a couple days now in Barcelona and I´m pretty much loving it. The first morning we allowed ourselves to sleep in : ). Then we woke up and decided to walk around the town. We went to this shopping area called La Rumble. It is just a huge shopping place with lots of different stores. Naturally there were also all the street performers etc to keep us entertained as well.
Probably the most memorable part of the day was when we ran into this huuuge market. (Mom and Amy: it was about the size of the flea market we went to in Daytona). It was really neat and consisted of fruit, fruit juice drinks, nuts, meat, seafood, olives, etc. Amanda and I realized that we never realized how terrible olives smell when you have like 20 different kinds all together. And if you know how I feel about seafood you can imagine how I looked everytime we had to cross by another huuge seafood stand just covered with all the different weird things. Ick. There were full, complete fishes--eyes still in tact. It kind of started Amanda and I when we saw all these lobsters and other unidentifiable creatures still moving on the stands.
We also saw what I can only guess to be a cows head. Again, eyes still in contact. Don´t worry I got a picture. The fruit stands were definitely the funnest. Yes, funnest, not most fun. Side note: I really feel funnest should be a grammatically correct word, so I chose to use it like it is. Anyways, the fruit lay out was soo colorful and really organized. They also had 100 percent real fruit juice for only 1 euro 50. (Yes that is how they say it). Amanda and I shared a pineapple-strawberry juice. It was delicious! We also tried some dried fruit there (mostly b-c we had seen it throughout our whole trip and we always thought about trying some, so we just decided to each get a piece).
We then walked over to the beach and checked it out. It was quite large. Lots of people, but even more sand--so that was looking good for us for the next day.
That night we decided to hit up our first full fledged European night club. It was quite fun! The hostel organizes a bunch of people to get together and then take you there which is nice since otherwise you would really have no idea as to where it is. This club was located right on the beach which was kind of cool. The club closes here around 5 am...us being the Americans we are headed home around 3 30 and thought that was just fine! Lots of fun though.
The next morning we slept in, woke up, and got ready for the beach! We enjoyed the sun for awhile. Eric stayed for about 3 hours then decided he had had enough. he then went and did this little tram that takes you over top the city and has some cool views. Amanda and myself continued to be beach bums until about 5 pm.
That night we again decided to go on the hostel organied actvity. They took us to the Magic Fountain. In the words of the worker who described it to us, "when I saw it I felt like a kid again!" And let me tell you, it was quite amazing. Its just this huge fountain, with a giant castle looking building right behind it. They do a really neat light show as well as playing lots of differnet music. Some of the selection included:My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion made famous by Titantic, The song from Star Wars (daaaa, daaaa, da, da, da, daa, da etc.) , and much more. It was fuN! Then afterward we all went down to this bar or pub, I am unsure as to what the correct term is here.
It was huuuge. It kind of reminded me of a middle school cafeteria. But it was cool. Lots of pool tables and foosball. I bragged up my skills about the two (falsely) and then totally got called out on it when some Ohioans made me play with them. That was a humbling experience haha.
We have mets lots of different people throughout the trip. I spent the night hanging out with a bunch of French guys. They were really quite funny and all spoke pretty good English. Well all except one but I didn´t have the heart to tell him that. lol. We have also hung out with a guy from Chile a lot here. We love the accents...for some reason they can say like two words, and if an American had said it you wouldn´t even think twice, but for some reason when they say it its just hilarious. But as much as we love getting to know people from different countries whenever I hear someone speaking American English I get so excited to talk to them b-c you can just talk, and not have to think about the best way to say words or explain them. Also, it´s impossible to listen in on conversations over here--since I don´t speak the language. For those of you who really know me you know how much I enjoy doing this :)
Afterwards we came back to the hostel and A & E decided to call it a night but I decided that I needed to make up for my lameness in Florence on the 4th of July and decided to bum in the common area of the hostel with some of the people who had gone out plus the hostel worker. He was off duty, the hostel desk closes at 3 am. I love hearing everyones stories about what they are doing, and why they are traveling. It was fun.
Today we are heading to Sitges. It is about 30 minutes from Barcelona and is supposed to have a fabulous beach. Oh one thing I have forgotten to mention. At the beach there are lots of topless women. It´s not weird to them at all...but it is weird to us. We have seen a little bit of this throughout our trip but normally it is older women (women 50 plus). But here in Barcelona there was tons of it and it was generally the younger population (women 18 plus). Its funny bc you can tell who the tourists are by who has tops on. You can also tell who the tourists are that are pretending not to be by taking their tops off. It is pretty easy to identify them b-c yes even though they are following the local trend, they still have the tan lines that prove them otherwise.
So today (Saturday)= Sitges.
Tomorrow (Sunday) = train to Madrid, Prado Museum (only b-c its free for students that day ;) ), some shopping, last night dinner at the Oldest Restaurant in the World.
Next Day (Monday) = airplane ride back to the US. : ( yet : ) We have a 7 hour layover in New York so I think we are going to venture out into the city for a little bit b-c I have never been there!
We then fly into Chicago where we will be staying for a few days with mine and Amanda´s aunt! Then we will make the drive from Chicago to SD.
So theres our little itinerary.....see you all sooN!
Well we have spent a couple days now in Barcelona and I´m pretty much loving it. The first morning we allowed ourselves to sleep in : ). Then we woke up and decided to walk around the town. We went to this shopping area called La Rumble. It is just a huge shopping place with lots of different stores. Naturally there were also all the street performers etc to keep us entertained as well.
Probably the most memorable part of the day was when we ran into this huuuge market. (Mom and Amy: it was about the size of the flea market we went to in Daytona). It was really neat and consisted of fruit, fruit juice drinks, nuts, meat, seafood, olives, etc. Amanda and I realized that we never realized how terrible olives smell when you have like 20 different kinds all together. And if you know how I feel about seafood you can imagine how I looked everytime we had to cross by another huuge seafood stand just covered with all the different weird things. Ick. There were full, complete fishes--eyes still in tact. It kind of started Amanda and I when we saw all these lobsters and other unidentifiable creatures still moving on the stands.
We also saw what I can only guess to be a cows head. Again, eyes still in contact. Don´t worry I got a picture. The fruit stands were definitely the funnest. Yes, funnest, not most fun. Side note: I really feel funnest should be a grammatically correct word, so I chose to use it like it is. Anyways, the fruit lay out was soo colorful and really organized. They also had 100 percent real fruit juice for only 1 euro 50. (Yes that is how they say it). Amanda and I shared a pineapple-strawberry juice. It was delicious! We also tried some dried fruit there (mostly b-c we had seen it throughout our whole trip and we always thought about trying some, so we just decided to each get a piece).
We then walked over to the beach and checked it out. It was quite large. Lots of people, but even more sand--so that was looking good for us for the next day.
That night we decided to hit up our first full fledged European night club. It was quite fun! The hostel organizes a bunch of people to get together and then take you there which is nice since otherwise you would really have no idea as to where it is. This club was located right on the beach which was kind of cool. The club closes here around 5 am...us being the Americans we are headed home around 3 30 and thought that was just fine! Lots of fun though.
The next morning we slept in, woke up, and got ready for the beach! We enjoyed the sun for awhile. Eric stayed for about 3 hours then decided he had had enough. he then went and did this little tram that takes you over top the city and has some cool views. Amanda and myself continued to be beach bums until about 5 pm.
That night we again decided to go on the hostel organied actvity. They took us to the Magic Fountain. In the words of the worker who described it to us, "when I saw it I felt like a kid again!" And let me tell you, it was quite amazing. Its just this huge fountain, with a giant castle looking building right behind it. They do a really neat light show as well as playing lots of differnet music. Some of the selection included:My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion made famous by Titantic, The song from Star Wars (daaaa, daaaa, da, da, da, daa, da etc.) , and much more. It was fuN! Then afterward we all went down to this bar or pub, I am unsure as to what the correct term is here.
It was huuuge. It kind of reminded me of a middle school cafeteria. But it was cool. Lots of pool tables and foosball. I bragged up my skills about the two (falsely) and then totally got called out on it when some Ohioans made me play with them. That was a humbling experience haha.
We have mets lots of different people throughout the trip. I spent the night hanging out with a bunch of French guys. They were really quite funny and all spoke pretty good English. Well all except one but I didn´t have the heart to tell him that. lol. We have also hung out with a guy from Chile a lot here. We love the accents...for some reason they can say like two words, and if an American had said it you wouldn´t even think twice, but for some reason when they say it its just hilarious. But as much as we love getting to know people from different countries whenever I hear someone speaking American English I get so excited to talk to them b-c you can just talk, and not have to think about the best way to say words or explain them. Also, it´s impossible to listen in on conversations over here--since I don´t speak the language. For those of you who really know me you know how much I enjoy doing this :)
Afterwards we came back to the hostel and A & E decided to call it a night but I decided that I needed to make up for my lameness in Florence on the 4th of July and decided to bum in the common area of the hostel with some of the people who had gone out plus the hostel worker. He was off duty, the hostel desk closes at 3 am. I love hearing everyones stories about what they are doing, and why they are traveling. It was fun.
Today we are heading to Sitges. It is about 30 minutes from Barcelona and is supposed to have a fabulous beach. Oh one thing I have forgotten to mention. At the beach there are lots of topless women. It´s not weird to them at all...but it is weird to us. We have seen a little bit of this throughout our trip but normally it is older women (women 50 plus). But here in Barcelona there was tons of it and it was generally the younger population (women 18 plus). Its funny bc you can tell who the tourists are by who has tops on. You can also tell who the tourists are that are pretending not to be by taking their tops off. It is pretty easy to identify them b-c yes even though they are following the local trend, they still have the tan lines that prove them otherwise.
So today (Saturday)= Sitges.
Tomorrow (Sunday) = train to Madrid, Prado Museum (only b-c its free for students that day ;) ), some shopping, last night dinner at the Oldest Restaurant in the World.
Next Day (Monday) = airplane ride back to the US. : ( yet : ) We have a 7 hour layover in New York so I think we are going to venture out into the city for a little bit b-c I have never been there!
We then fly into Chicago where we will be staying for a few days with mine and Amanda´s aunt! Then we will make the drive from Chicago to SD.
So theres our little itinerary.....see you all sooN!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Catch Up
Mollie--
So it´s been awhile since our last blog, but naturally, we have a good excuse. No internet access in Cinque Terre and a funny keyboard in Nice, France.
We spent two days here in the little town of Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre is five little towns (Riomaggiore is one of them) that is tucked into the mountain side of Italy, right next to the ocean (or sea or whatever...we all know how good I am at geography...its next to water). Anyways, it is absolutely breath taking. The first day we got there we found a room to stay in and then put on our swim suits and headed off to the beach. And by beach, I mean giant rock beach. There was no sand, but instead the "beach" is large rocks. Many of them are flat though so you can lay out on them. Later that night there was a DJ who played American music in a little square in the town. We all went down to that and enjoyed that. Amanda pooped out early on us so it was just Eric and I who participated in the dancing but it was pretty fun. We later learned that Amanda had a dance party by herself in our room after she left. ´Don´t worry, we already made fun of her :)
The next day we woke up early with a mission on our minds. We were going to do a little hiking. In the past these towns were only connected by a footpath (now there is a train that goes through them all and connects them). So we set off. The total hike is about 5 hours long, we only did 4 hours of it before Amanda and Eric convinced me that our time would be much better spent at the beach instead. I was a little leary, but with the sweat dripping down our bodies and the hot sun, it didn´t take much to convince me. So we decided to try out a new beach and went over to the town of Monteresso. It takes about 10 minutes on the train. The beach was made up of small rocks. It really hurt our feet. The beach was incredibly crowded. After getting out of the water you would go immediately from "wet" to "sweat". It was soooo hot I can´t even describe it.
We then went back to teh town we stayed in and decided to do some Kayaking. It was a lot of fun. We decided between that and the hike we definitely got our workout in for the day. We cooked some pesto pasta in our little kitchen and then decided to watch the World Cup Final Game. Well Amanda and Eric did, I conked out hard core about 15 minutes into. I was wore out!
The next day we got up and journeyed to Nice, France. When we arrived there it checked in and then got some dinner. It was kind of funny b-c we split up b-c we weren´t sure where we wanted to eat. So Eric left and then shortly later Amanda and I left. A and I ended up eating at this Burger Isle, basically fast food burgers. I said somethign to Amanda how it would be funny if we ran into Eric there. Well we didn´t run into him at the restaurant. But later we did find out that he ate at the SAME place. lol kinda funny.
Then we went and checked out the beach area and scooped out the prices for a nice mattress, lounge chair. We happened to see this little waterfall way up in this hill so we decided to go walk up it. It was fun to see and the mist that came off the waterfall felt amazing.
The next day we got up early and got our train stuff for the next day figured out and then hit the beach. We were there from 10 am to 6 pm. It was real hot but we had an umbrella and the ocean water to cool us down. We splurged and got some nice mattressed lounge chairs and really felt it was worth the money spent. Oh the beaches here were also very rocky, but luckily since we scooped it out hte night before we also bought some handy dandy watershoes, so the rocks didn´t slow us down a bit!! I felt like I was 6 again wearing them though...oh well. I didn´t mind really until after the day when Amanda made us walk around the town and get dinner for like 2 hours wearing them. Not only do watershoes look rather ridiculous, they also are not the best choice for a walking shoe.
Today we started off for Barcelona, Spain. A nice little journey of 14 hours on a train. Yuck. We left Nice at 8 35 am and pulled into Barcelona around 11 00 pm. Then we had to take the Metro to find our hostel. We got minorly lost, asked for directions twice (mind you it´s about midnight by now) but finally found the lovely little place. This one is actually pretty nice! No free breakfast but free internet so thats nice!
Tomorrow I think we will sleep in, and then check out the area. the next few days will probably consist of lots of beach, ocean, and sun!!
Hope all is well!
So it´s been awhile since our last blog, but naturally, we have a good excuse. No internet access in Cinque Terre and a funny keyboard in Nice, France.
We spent two days here in the little town of Riomaggiore. Cinque Terre is five little towns (Riomaggiore is one of them) that is tucked into the mountain side of Italy, right next to the ocean (or sea or whatever...we all know how good I am at geography...its next to water). Anyways, it is absolutely breath taking. The first day we got there we found a room to stay in and then put on our swim suits and headed off to the beach. And by beach, I mean giant rock beach. There was no sand, but instead the "beach" is large rocks. Many of them are flat though so you can lay out on them. Later that night there was a DJ who played American music in a little square in the town. We all went down to that and enjoyed that. Amanda pooped out early on us so it was just Eric and I who participated in the dancing but it was pretty fun. We later learned that Amanda had a dance party by herself in our room after she left. ´Don´t worry, we already made fun of her :)
The next day we woke up early with a mission on our minds. We were going to do a little hiking. In the past these towns were only connected by a footpath (now there is a train that goes through them all and connects them). So we set off. The total hike is about 5 hours long, we only did 4 hours of it before Amanda and Eric convinced me that our time would be much better spent at the beach instead. I was a little leary, but with the sweat dripping down our bodies and the hot sun, it didn´t take much to convince me. So we decided to try out a new beach and went over to the town of Monteresso. It takes about 10 minutes on the train. The beach was made up of small rocks. It really hurt our feet. The beach was incredibly crowded. After getting out of the water you would go immediately from "wet" to "sweat". It was soooo hot I can´t even describe it.
We then went back to teh town we stayed in and decided to do some Kayaking. It was a lot of fun. We decided between that and the hike we definitely got our workout in for the day. We cooked some pesto pasta in our little kitchen and then decided to watch the World Cup Final Game. Well Amanda and Eric did, I conked out hard core about 15 minutes into. I was wore out!
The next day we got up and journeyed to Nice, France. When we arrived there it checked in and then got some dinner. It was kind of funny b-c we split up b-c we weren´t sure where we wanted to eat. So Eric left and then shortly later Amanda and I left. A and I ended up eating at this Burger Isle, basically fast food burgers. I said somethign to Amanda how it would be funny if we ran into Eric there. Well we didn´t run into him at the restaurant. But later we did find out that he ate at the SAME place. lol kinda funny.
Then we went and checked out the beach area and scooped out the prices for a nice mattress, lounge chair. We happened to see this little waterfall way up in this hill so we decided to go walk up it. It was fun to see and the mist that came off the waterfall felt amazing.
The next day we got up early and got our train stuff for the next day figured out and then hit the beach. We were there from 10 am to 6 pm. It was real hot but we had an umbrella and the ocean water to cool us down. We splurged and got some nice mattressed lounge chairs and really felt it was worth the money spent. Oh the beaches here were also very rocky, but luckily since we scooped it out hte night before we also bought some handy dandy watershoes, so the rocks didn´t slow us down a bit!! I felt like I was 6 again wearing them though...oh well. I didn´t mind really until after the day when Amanda made us walk around the town and get dinner for like 2 hours wearing them. Not only do watershoes look rather ridiculous, they also are not the best choice for a walking shoe.
Today we started off for Barcelona, Spain. A nice little journey of 14 hours on a train. Yuck. We left Nice at 8 35 am and pulled into Barcelona around 11 00 pm. Then we had to take the Metro to find our hostel. We got minorly lost, asked for directions twice (mind you it´s about midnight by now) but finally found the lovely little place. This one is actually pretty nice! No free breakfast but free internet so thats nice!
Tomorrow I think we will sleep in, and then check out the area. the next few days will probably consist of lots of beach, ocean, and sun!!
Hope all is well!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Eric's Blog: Rome
Due to the high demand, Eric Olson, will be doing a blog for today. I may make some stuff up since I was not present in all of the events and have trouble remembering the specifics of what i was told.
Chapter One: Girls Night Out
It was a hot and humid evening in Rome on July 8th, 2010. Amanda and Mollie, sisters, decided to take on the historical streets of Rome for an evening of excitement and adventure! Eric, their companion while in Rome, was back at the hostel catching up on some sleep he lost the previous night.
Their evening began in a majestic garden called "Villa Borghese". Here they froliced and sang beautiful songs in hopes of grabbing the attention of any Italian men with a soft ear close by. None came.
Truely dissapointed they wanted something to cheer them up. Gelotino would be the only thing that could release them from their sorrow. The first placed they saw they liked, but it was too expensive, the second place they liked even more, but it was also expensive, the third place was grand, cheap, and just perfect! But unfortunately Mollie bought hers at the first one and Amanda bought hers at the second one and both were too full and cheap to buy any from the third place they found.
They were not too distraught by this, because they were girls, and when girls are fed or recieve candy/ice cream, they are always merry!
After this they continued their exploration of the Roman city, this continued to a old castel called "Castel Sant Angelo". Here they hoped to find a couple of princes in hopes to be able to wed. Sadly reality hit them like a lighting bolt from the Roman God Jupiture, the girls realized that they were crazy because it is 2010 and the castel is now a museum. So they must wait and move on with empty hearts....tear.
The night continued for them in the "Pizza Novona", here was a time of great festifivties! Music was playing, people were drinking, dancing, and laughing, this was all taking place around the grand "Four Rivers" fountain. Surely here, they would find the men they have been looking for!
As they begin walking through the court, well dressed men would approach the ladies left and right. "This is terrrific!" they thought. They would flirt back and move on only to be approached almost instantly again. These girls are no dumbies though. They began to notice that each man whom approached them has had a menu in hand. At first they thought they may have wanted to buy them dinner. The girls just had their Gelotino and were not interested of course. Then it clicked...these men were not dashing gentlemen trying to treat them to a fine meal, but waiters trying to persuade them to eating at their establishments. The girls were terribly offended and left immediately!
Both girls are now terribly angry, their entire night devoted into finding their true loves had been a failure! But according to each, it was they other sisters fault. They begin their walk back home fighting at eachother and discussing who is the fairer lady and most deserving of a man's love. They arrive at "Michelangelo's Stairway" and decided to end this once and for all! "A race to the top of the staircase," they exclaimed, "the winner will be considered the more worthy lady of a man!".
It was set. They girls began their climb, step by step they two were in syncronized motion. Sweating, pants, tears appeared in the ducts of their eyes. Finally, one of them reached the top first!....
I never found out who won, I will tell you later
The girls then came home and went to bed after an exhausting evening.
Eric very much enjoyed is evening nap, eating his cheese and crackers while watching Erin Brockovich.
Chapter One: Girls Night Out
It was a hot and humid evening in Rome on July 8th, 2010. Amanda and Mollie, sisters, decided to take on the historical streets of Rome for an evening of excitement and adventure! Eric, their companion while in Rome, was back at the hostel catching up on some sleep he lost the previous night.
Their evening began in a majestic garden called "Villa Borghese". Here they froliced and sang beautiful songs in hopes of grabbing the attention of any Italian men with a soft ear close by. None came.
Truely dissapointed they wanted something to cheer them up. Gelotino would be the only thing that could release them from their sorrow. The first placed they saw they liked, but it was too expensive, the second place they liked even more, but it was also expensive, the third place was grand, cheap, and just perfect! But unfortunately Mollie bought hers at the first one and Amanda bought hers at the second one and both were too full and cheap to buy any from the third place they found.
They were not too distraught by this, because they were girls, and when girls are fed or recieve candy/ice cream, they are always merry!
After this they continued their exploration of the Roman city, this continued to a old castel called "Castel Sant Angelo". Here they hoped to find a couple of princes in hopes to be able to wed. Sadly reality hit them like a lighting bolt from the Roman God Jupiture, the girls realized that they were crazy because it is 2010 and the castel is now a museum. So they must wait and move on with empty hearts....tear.
The night continued for them in the "Pizza Novona", here was a time of great festifivties! Music was playing, people were drinking, dancing, and laughing, this was all taking place around the grand "Four Rivers" fountain. Surely here, they would find the men they have been looking for!
As they begin walking through the court, well dressed men would approach the ladies left and right. "This is terrrific!" they thought. They would flirt back and move on only to be approached almost instantly again. These girls are no dumbies though. They began to notice that each man whom approached them has had a menu in hand. At first they thought they may have wanted to buy them dinner. The girls just had their Gelotino and were not interested of course. Then it clicked...these men were not dashing gentlemen trying to treat them to a fine meal, but waiters trying to persuade them to eating at their establishments. The girls were terribly offended and left immediately!
Both girls are now terribly angry, their entire night devoted into finding their true loves had been a failure! But according to each, it was they other sisters fault. They begin their walk back home fighting at eachother and discussing who is the fairer lady and most deserving of a man's love. They arrive at "Michelangelo's Stairway" and decided to end this once and for all! "A race to the top of the staircase," they exclaimed, "the winner will be considered the more worthy lady of a man!".
It was set. They girls began their climb, step by step they two were in syncronized motion. Sweating, pants, tears appeared in the ducts of their eyes. Finally, one of them reached the top first!....
I never found out who won, I will tell you later
The girls then came home and went to bed after an exhausting evening.
Eric very much enjoyed is evening nap, eating his cheese and crackers while watching Erin Brockovich.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
....MORE HOT days in Rome
So a few nights ago we went out to view the city at the night time. We saw the Spanish steps (hangout for lots of young teenagers and tourists), Trevi Fountain, various ruins, Triton Fountain, and attempted to find the Four Rivers Fountain (never quite figured that one out). We also got to see the street life of Rome which was quite fun. Amanda and I were pulled into one store b/c of 5 euro dresses. We were getting there about half an hour before they closed and by the time we were ready to check out the line was probably like 40 people long. I stood there for a solid half hour. Eric was a good sport :)
We also found many piazzas which are like little squares within the city that normally have a monument or somethign cool. At the one with the Pantheon Church in it there was a live opera singer singing for tips. It was fun to see.
The next day we decided to leave Italy and go to Vatican City. Vatican City is not a part of Italy. It is it's own state b/c Italy wanted to seperate itself from church and state. But this territory is completely within the city of Rome. Just in case you didn't know.
We decided to do a tour for this because we figured since none of us are Catholics, or anything close to experts on the Vatican and it's history. Since it was a Wednesday there was an added bonus (free :)). We got to go to the papal audience. So basically you get herded like cattle through this huge mass of people attempting to go through security. Our tour guide told us that we need to now act like Italians...apparently they don't get at the end of the line, they simply just merge into the line. Quite interesting lol. So we got in and were way at the back but all three of us did get a glimpse of the Pope and was able to hear his blessing. We only stayed for about 15 minutes. It was fun to do though.
Then we started our tour of the Vatican. What a huge place! The museum's exhibits are four miles long. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable so that was really good. We saw huge tapestry's (there used to be gold threaded in them until there was a period of time when apparently the Vatican was strapped for cash so they stripped them out). There were also many important, well known statues. Apparently most of the Roman statues are replicas of Greek bronze statues. We then went through the Raphael Room's. There are three of them, but only two were painted by Raphael. The third was painted after he died but they still include all three of the rooms as his since the last one was painted by student's from the Raphael School. Apparently he always paints himself in his art and is the only person in the painting that is looking straight at you. This is so he can watch everyone take in his artwork.
We also saw the Sistine Chapel. It was really neat and huge! I was entertained a lot by the guards in the place. Apparently you can't have your shoulders or knees showing, you have to be silent, and there is no photography allowed. It was fun watchign people try to sneak through, a surprising number of them completely oblivious to the rules. The guards spent the entire time shushing the people. I think that it would be much more effective if instead of doing that inside teh chapel, tell people as they are walking INTO the Chapel the rules. oh well. it was fun to watch. If anyone would have a camera out the guards were look at them and wag their finger and say no no. lol it reminded me of what you would say to a four year old.
After that we head to St. Peters Basilica. Which is huuuuge. Definitely the biggest we have seen so far. Maybe the biggest ever? we aren't sure. Our tour ended at the Vatican so that's my excuse for not knowing ;). We walked around there for awhile and then went down and saw the Crypt that holds all the Pope's bodies/tombs.
Then we came back and siesta'ed it up. Then we went and ventured off to find the Pantheon in the daylight. We easily found it and did the quick look around that we do at all churches. Then we walked around and saw the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Which is a huge monument, like the size of a building, that is dedicated to just one guy. He must have done something real great.
Today we started off a little slow. We had to go to the post office (bust) and then to the train station to reserve our tickets to go to Pompei the next day (disaster). First of all the line took about 45 minutes to just get to the ticket guy. Once we got there we learned that the train people will be on strike the day we wanted to go to Pompei. So it was a no go. We had learned that the bus and metro wouldn't be running that day b/c they would be on strike but we hadn't heard that the trains would be too. So no Pompei for us. We were a little bummed.
From there we went and saw Circus Maximus which is where the old Caesars would have watched Charriot Races. Then we went to the Caracalla Baths. This is basically a pimped out YMCA. Ok well really it was where all the Romans would go to bathe. It could hold up to 6,000 at one time. It took 9,000 people per day for 5 years to build this gianormous complex. It basically was just huuuge pools that people would bathe in. It also had gyms on the sides where people could exercise as well as athletic areas where people would come to watch people compete in games. So pretty interesting overall. Huge doesn't even begin to explain how big it was. The pools were sourced by natural aqueducts.
We then decided to go find the Appian Way. This was the first and widest highway in the Roman Empire. Since expansion was important to them a good transportation system was necessary. We decided to conquer our fears of buses and took one about four miles outside of the city. We walked along the road stopping at a few tombs and catacombs. Then we came back and hit up a local restaurant. More pizza and pasta. Man I looove Italy.
We are on siesta right now and then will be headed to the crpyts and Borghese Gardens. Generally you do the Borghese Museum first and then hit up the Gardens, however, we have decided to veto almost all Art Museums for the last two weeks of our trip :)
Amanda wants to team tag the next blog, write in third person, and then make everyone guess who wrote which section. I was a little leary at first but it sounds like fun. Plus...I figure it's time for some audience participation. Until then!
Mollie!
OHH Btw...its been like 95 degree's here. ICK.
We also found many piazzas which are like little squares within the city that normally have a monument or somethign cool. At the one with the Pantheon Church in it there was a live opera singer singing for tips. It was fun to see.
The next day we decided to leave Italy and go to Vatican City. Vatican City is not a part of Italy. It is it's own state b/c Italy wanted to seperate itself from church and state. But this territory is completely within the city of Rome. Just in case you didn't know.
We decided to do a tour for this because we figured since none of us are Catholics, or anything close to experts on the Vatican and it's history. Since it was a Wednesday there was an added bonus (free :)). We got to go to the papal audience. So basically you get herded like cattle through this huge mass of people attempting to go through security. Our tour guide told us that we need to now act like Italians...apparently they don't get at the end of the line, they simply just merge into the line. Quite interesting lol. So we got in and were way at the back but all three of us did get a glimpse of the Pope and was able to hear his blessing. We only stayed for about 15 minutes. It was fun to do though.
Then we started our tour of the Vatican. What a huge place! The museum's exhibits are four miles long. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable so that was really good. We saw huge tapestry's (there used to be gold threaded in them until there was a period of time when apparently the Vatican was strapped for cash so they stripped them out). There were also many important, well known statues. Apparently most of the Roman statues are replicas of Greek bronze statues. We then went through the Raphael Room's. There are three of them, but only two were painted by Raphael. The third was painted after he died but they still include all three of the rooms as his since the last one was painted by student's from the Raphael School. Apparently he always paints himself in his art and is the only person in the painting that is looking straight at you. This is so he can watch everyone take in his artwork.
We also saw the Sistine Chapel. It was really neat and huge! I was entertained a lot by the guards in the place. Apparently you can't have your shoulders or knees showing, you have to be silent, and there is no photography allowed. It was fun watchign people try to sneak through, a surprising number of them completely oblivious to the rules. The guards spent the entire time shushing the people. I think that it would be much more effective if instead of doing that inside teh chapel, tell people as they are walking INTO the Chapel the rules. oh well. it was fun to watch. If anyone would have a camera out the guards were look at them and wag their finger and say no no. lol it reminded me of what you would say to a four year old.
After that we head to St. Peters Basilica. Which is huuuuge. Definitely the biggest we have seen so far. Maybe the biggest ever? we aren't sure. Our tour ended at the Vatican so that's my excuse for not knowing ;). We walked around there for awhile and then went down and saw the Crypt that holds all the Pope's bodies/tombs.
Then we came back and siesta'ed it up. Then we went and ventured off to find the Pantheon in the daylight. We easily found it and did the quick look around that we do at all churches. Then we walked around and saw the Victor Emmanuel Monument. Which is a huge monument, like the size of a building, that is dedicated to just one guy. He must have done something real great.
Today we started off a little slow. We had to go to the post office (bust) and then to the train station to reserve our tickets to go to Pompei the next day (disaster). First of all the line took about 45 minutes to just get to the ticket guy. Once we got there we learned that the train people will be on strike the day we wanted to go to Pompei. So it was a no go. We had learned that the bus and metro wouldn't be running that day b/c they would be on strike but we hadn't heard that the trains would be too. So no Pompei for us. We were a little bummed.
From there we went and saw Circus Maximus which is where the old Caesars would have watched Charriot Races. Then we went to the Caracalla Baths. This is basically a pimped out YMCA. Ok well really it was where all the Romans would go to bathe. It could hold up to 6,000 at one time. It took 9,000 people per day for 5 years to build this gianormous complex. It basically was just huuuge pools that people would bathe in. It also had gyms on the sides where people could exercise as well as athletic areas where people would come to watch people compete in games. So pretty interesting overall. Huge doesn't even begin to explain how big it was. The pools were sourced by natural aqueducts.
We then decided to go find the Appian Way. This was the first and widest highway in the Roman Empire. Since expansion was important to them a good transportation system was necessary. We decided to conquer our fears of buses and took one about four miles outside of the city. We walked along the road stopping at a few tombs and catacombs. Then we came back and hit up a local restaurant. More pizza and pasta. Man I looove Italy.
We are on siesta right now and then will be headed to the crpyts and Borghese Gardens. Generally you do the Borghese Museum first and then hit up the Gardens, however, we have decided to veto almost all Art Museums for the last two weeks of our trip :)
Amanda wants to team tag the next blog, write in third person, and then make everyone guess who wrote which section. I was a little leary at first but it sounds like fun. Plus...I figure it's time for some audience participation. Until then!
Mollie!
OHH Btw...its been like 95 degree's here. ICK.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
a HOT day in ROME
Today we got off bright and early and started off for the Colosseum. We got there and decided to join a tour group who showed us through the great amphitheater (It's real name is actually the Flavian Amphitheater...who knew?). It was pretty impressive to see but sad to think that 3/4 of a million gladiatiors have died here. They would have trained gladiators fight others here (sometimes to the death), but they would also have prisoners fight as well, often times wild animals. They would keep these animals in the basement and then had elevators that they would use to bring them up to the main floor and release them into the stage area through various holes in the wall. That way they never knew what type of animal they would be fighting, when the animal would attack, or from what direction it would attack. They had all sorts of animals that they used including: bears, tigers, lions, panthers, etc.
A lot of the Colosseum is actually no longer standing. Apparently a long time ago one of the rulers decided to start tearing it down and did so until a Pope declared it a holy place ((since so many people died there)and began its restoration of the place.
We then went on and saw the Palentine Hill, which is the home to many imperial palaces. We learned about the story of how Rome began. The ruins of the palaces were huge...i cant even imagine seeing the actual palaces themselves.
We then went and visite the Roman Forum which is the birthplace of ancient Rome. All of the political and commercial activity occured there. We saw a few basilicas and arches. We also saw the spot that they burned Ceasars body after his assasination in the Senate. We also saw the building where the Senate was held, however, the Senate was being held in a temporary different location when his assasination occured (so we didn't see his actual place of death).
Another intersting thing that we saw was the Temple of the Vestals. This temple was a round shaped temple representing the huts that Romans used to live in. There was a big flame in the middle that was sacred and was never allowed to go out. The Vestal Virgins were in charge of monitoring this. These women were chosen when they were 6-8 years old and it was chosen on looks alone. These women were the most beautiful women in Rome. By being chosen to be a Vestal Virgin this promoted you to almost god status. Since women were the lowest of low in ancient rome this appealed to many. You were cared for very well, lived in a fabulous palace, and only had to make sure that the flame didn't burn out. You also--obvious by the name--had to maintain your status as a Virgin. If anyone was found out not to have maintained this, they would be strapped to a funeral car, paraded through the streets of the Forum, taken to a crypt, and then given a loaf of bread and a lamp, and buried alive. Apparently many women suffered this fate. We've really begun to learn that there have been so many terrible things that have happened in history.
We also saw the speakers corner where Mark Anthony offered the Kingship to Caesar. He publicly refused this, but privately became dictator. This was also the spot that many political people would try to sway public opinion.
The streets of the forum were lined with large stones, however, they are not all at the same level. We aren't sure if they at one time were or not, but currently they are definitely not. I learned something today...don't try to be tour guide (aka read out of the guide book) at the same time as walking down these paths. It doesn't work. You definitely need to have your eyes on the rocks! I might have almost biffed it once or twice : )
The day itself was very intersting and we saw some great sights. It was about 90 degrees out today so it was hot hot hot. Lots of people out selling hats and umbrellas. Both our guide book and our hostel owner said the key to surviving touring Rome was to take the afternoon siesta and get out of the sun. We took ours a little later than we probably should....tomorrow we will be smarter, and realize that while we are young, this sun can still kick out butt.
Tonight we will be doing a city strolL!
A lot of the Colosseum is actually no longer standing. Apparently a long time ago one of the rulers decided to start tearing it down and did so until a Pope declared it a holy place ((since so many people died there)and began its restoration of the place.
We then went on and saw the Palentine Hill, which is the home to many imperial palaces. We learned about the story of how Rome began. The ruins of the palaces were huge...i cant even imagine seeing the actual palaces themselves.
We then went and visite the Roman Forum which is the birthplace of ancient Rome. All of the political and commercial activity occured there. We saw a few basilicas and arches. We also saw the spot that they burned Ceasars body after his assasination in the Senate. We also saw the building where the Senate was held, however, the Senate was being held in a temporary different location when his assasination occured (so we didn't see his actual place of death).
Another intersting thing that we saw was the Temple of the Vestals. This temple was a round shaped temple representing the huts that Romans used to live in. There was a big flame in the middle that was sacred and was never allowed to go out. The Vestal Virgins were in charge of monitoring this. These women were chosen when they were 6-8 years old and it was chosen on looks alone. These women were the most beautiful women in Rome. By being chosen to be a Vestal Virgin this promoted you to almost god status. Since women were the lowest of low in ancient rome this appealed to many. You were cared for very well, lived in a fabulous palace, and only had to make sure that the flame didn't burn out. You also--obvious by the name--had to maintain your status as a Virgin. If anyone was found out not to have maintained this, they would be strapped to a funeral car, paraded through the streets of the Forum, taken to a crypt, and then given a loaf of bread and a lamp, and buried alive. Apparently many women suffered this fate. We've really begun to learn that there have been so many terrible things that have happened in history.
We also saw the speakers corner where Mark Anthony offered the Kingship to Caesar. He publicly refused this, but privately became dictator. This was also the spot that many political people would try to sway public opinion.
The streets of the forum were lined with large stones, however, they are not all at the same level. We aren't sure if they at one time were or not, but currently they are definitely not. I learned something today...don't try to be tour guide (aka read out of the guide book) at the same time as walking down these paths. It doesn't work. You definitely need to have your eyes on the rocks! I might have almost biffed it once or twice : )
The day itself was very intersting and we saw some great sights. It was about 90 degrees out today so it was hot hot hot. Lots of people out selling hats and umbrellas. Both our guide book and our hostel owner said the key to surviving touring Rome was to take the afternoon siesta and get out of the sun. We took ours a little later than we probably should....tomorrow we will be smarter, and realize that while we are young, this sun can still kick out butt.
Tonight we will be doing a city strolL!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Rome
So last night we went to the Italian Opera. I think we originally thought that it would be the full blown singing/acting/etc. We were able to get discounted tickets through the hostel so we figured-why not? We'll give it a shot. Plus it was right next door-talk about being convenient. Literally like a 5 second walk from our hostel. So we wanted to be punctual, so we arrived at about 8:45 since the show started at 9:15....and no one was there. So we walked all the way back to our hostel (Just kidding remember?) and went back about five minutes before it started.
It was held in a church and it didn't have any acting. It was just a piana and the singer. At first I was like hmm...not sure if this was good idea or not, but we actually all ended up really enjoying it. We had watched some opera in Vienna on TV but it was soo much better seeing it live. The accoustics really makes all the differences. The young lady was really quite good...well I guess we wouldn't know anything else, but she seemed pretty good! Either way we were impressed. The only thing that was a little weird was between each song the singer (and sometimes piano player) after the applause would get up, leave, and then like 20 seconds later, re-enter the room, thus requiring another applause from the audience. It seemed really strange to the three of us...but none of us are experienced opera attenders so we just went with it. If anyone has any insight on this I'd love to hear it.
Then Amanda and Eric decided to celebrate the 4th of July and went out with a group of other travelers. They spent some time trying to convince some bartender to play some country 4th of July song...but when he refused they ended up singing the Canadian National Anthem. Or so thats what I gathered anyway. I'm not sure why exactly or the reason behind it...but thats the story. I decided to be lame, or cool I guess depending on how you look at it and stayed at the hostel totally engrossed in my book (thanks MOM!). Our mother bought us three books for our trip--she even tried to make them gender neutral so Eric could read them too if he wanted. 2 of the 3 are pretty dynamite. The other one is so so. So just a quick shout out to our wonderful mother...she takes such good care of us :).
Has anyone noticed that my grammer, punctuation use, etc has improved dramatically since the past few posts? Well this is because I am finally on a normal keyboard. You remember when we were in Germany we had the whole y and z mixed up keyboard, then next we ran into the keyboard that had all of its punctuations mixed all up over the place...thus resulting in very un correct grammer. Well we finally almost have a regular keyboard. The one I'm currently using is just like the ones all of you back home are used to, except the signs/symbols don't actually go with the keys. For example...the key that has a question mark..when it is pressed actually results in this: _. So you can't really look for the symbols (like parantheses, periods, questions, at symbols, etc.) you just have to trust your handy dandy fingers to just remember where these keys are at at home. It's actually quite easy. Hmm....I just wrote a whole paragraph on keyboards...time to move on I think.
So this morning we departed Florence and took a quick little 2 hour high speed train to Rome. Throughout the whole trip our ears kept popping and unpopping. It was really quite an uncomfortable experience. Amanda informed me that this was also happening when we were traveling in Austria--however both Eric and I slept through this. I wish I had slept through this time as well, but we have to have at least one person stay awake on the trains to make sure we get off on the correct stop. Plus I'm in charge of being the tour guide in Rome so I needed to do a little reading up on the city. And believe me...there is A LOT to do here. So we will be busy. We have 5 days here. I believe we will also spend a day doing a day trip in Pompei...probably our last day here.
So once we got here we found our hostel with little trouble...other than the hot sun beating down on our necks, but lets face it. We are pretty used to that by now. When we got here I was a bit surprised. It is in a building that is an apartment building, and they turned one of the floors into a hostel. It has that really nice homey feel! It is ran by a family and the guy showed us all the places we should go and such so that was real nice.
We also have our own room, just the three of us which is a nice change. And....we have a TV! As well as a small library of DVD's. So we decided that we just wanted to relax a bit so we popped in a movie and watched/napped to that. We then grabbed some dinner from a local grocery store, came back coooked it, and now Amanda and Eric are watching another movie...James Bond something or another while I read more on Rome, Cinque Terre (where we are gonig next), and wrote this blog. We had been planning on having today be a bit of a chill day so it worked out quite nicely. Tonight I think we will be doing a little walk through the city to get a bit orientated with it so that should be fuN!
I debated about blogging tonight, but after writing that last blog which took forever I thought that even though today was relatively boring day that I better try to keep as up to date as I can in order to avoid doing that again. Plus the internet is free here!! Wahoo!
Take Care!
It was held in a church and it didn't have any acting. It was just a piana and the singer. At first I was like hmm...not sure if this was good idea or not, but we actually all ended up really enjoying it. We had watched some opera in Vienna on TV but it was soo much better seeing it live. The accoustics really makes all the differences. The young lady was really quite good...well I guess we wouldn't know anything else, but she seemed pretty good! Either way we were impressed. The only thing that was a little weird was between each song the singer (and sometimes piano player) after the applause would get up, leave, and then like 20 seconds later, re-enter the room, thus requiring another applause from the audience. It seemed really strange to the three of us...but none of us are experienced opera attenders so we just went with it. If anyone has any insight on this I'd love to hear it.
Then Amanda and Eric decided to celebrate the 4th of July and went out with a group of other travelers. They spent some time trying to convince some bartender to play some country 4th of July song...but when he refused they ended up singing the Canadian National Anthem. Or so thats what I gathered anyway. I'm not sure why exactly or the reason behind it...but thats the story. I decided to be lame, or cool I guess depending on how you look at it and stayed at the hostel totally engrossed in my book (thanks MOM!). Our mother bought us three books for our trip--she even tried to make them gender neutral so Eric could read them too if he wanted. 2 of the 3 are pretty dynamite. The other one is so so. So just a quick shout out to our wonderful mother...she takes such good care of us :).
Has anyone noticed that my grammer, punctuation use, etc has improved dramatically since the past few posts? Well this is because I am finally on a normal keyboard. You remember when we were in Germany we had the whole y and z mixed up keyboard, then next we ran into the keyboard that had all of its punctuations mixed all up over the place...thus resulting in very un correct grammer. Well we finally almost have a regular keyboard. The one I'm currently using is just like the ones all of you back home are used to, except the signs/symbols don't actually go with the keys. For example...the key that has a question mark..when it is pressed actually results in this: _. So you can't really look for the symbols (like parantheses, periods, questions, at symbols, etc.) you just have to trust your handy dandy fingers to just remember where these keys are at at home. It's actually quite easy. Hmm....I just wrote a whole paragraph on keyboards...time to move on I think.
So this morning we departed Florence and took a quick little 2 hour high speed train to Rome. Throughout the whole trip our ears kept popping and unpopping. It was really quite an uncomfortable experience. Amanda informed me that this was also happening when we were traveling in Austria--however both Eric and I slept through this. I wish I had slept through this time as well, but we have to have at least one person stay awake on the trains to make sure we get off on the correct stop. Plus I'm in charge of being the tour guide in Rome so I needed to do a little reading up on the city. And believe me...there is A LOT to do here. So we will be busy. We have 5 days here. I believe we will also spend a day doing a day trip in Pompei...probably our last day here.
So once we got here we found our hostel with little trouble...other than the hot sun beating down on our necks, but lets face it. We are pretty used to that by now. When we got here I was a bit surprised. It is in a building that is an apartment building, and they turned one of the floors into a hostel. It has that really nice homey feel! It is ran by a family and the guy showed us all the places we should go and such so that was real nice.
We also have our own room, just the three of us which is a nice change. And....we have a TV! As well as a small library of DVD's. So we decided that we just wanted to relax a bit so we popped in a movie and watched/napped to that. We then grabbed some dinner from a local grocery store, came back coooked it, and now Amanda and Eric are watching another movie...James Bond something or another while I read more on Rome, Cinque Terre (where we are gonig next), and wrote this blog. We had been planning on having today be a bit of a chill day so it worked out quite nicely. Tonight I think we will be doing a little walk through the city to get a bit orientated with it so that should be fuN!
I debated about blogging tonight, but after writing that last blog which took forever I thought that even though today was relatively boring day that I better try to keep as up to date as I can in order to avoid doing that again. Plus the internet is free here!! Wahoo!
Take Care!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Vienna - Salzburg - Venice - Pisa - Florence
Well Amanda has filled you in a bit I think on our travels to Vienna. We stayed with my Grandmas cousin and his wife who were absolutely wonderful hosts. They had a great house and even a pool!! After arriving we went up this tower (which was 180 steps) and got to see the city of Vienna, as well as the countryside. It was really pretty and kinda weird b-c you would look out one side of it and see the city (really beautiful) then turn about 180 degrees and BAM suddenly country side (possibly more beatiful)! So it was pretty cool! We then went to this winery and had Austrian cuisine! yummy yummy! We then spent the night watching an opera show that was to honor the Opera Houses director. The three of us felt very culturized!
The next day we went into town and saw the various churches, parliament building, Opera House, and various other places. We also walked around the Hofsburg Palace which was--shocker--HuGE!
That night our hosts suggested to us that us three young people go check out the Vienna Musical Festival. So we did. It was really neat...we were told that about 3 million people go there between the two days. It had 21 different stages and tons of bands that played throughout the day. We found one that we really liked--I like fell in love with hte band and am determined to youtube their songs and learn all of them...regardless of the fact that they are in German. Yes, I was THAT impressed with them. The band was just a really fun, got you moving type of group. I think we all enjoyed it. On the way home we had a little trouble. We left the concert about 11 30 and we were supposed to just be able to take one line all the way home...straight shot no problem. Well...for some reason, that line decided not to run the whole route, but instead stop in the middle of no where. Then our very helpful (NOT) conductor told us to get off with no help whatsoever with what to do next. Oh well...no problem--see the three of us have gotten quite good at navigating the public transportation. So street car failed us...no big deal. We decide to just hop on the metro...problem is we have to find one first. Somehow we manage to do so pretty quickly. We get there and know we need to get on U3 I believe. But when we got there, for some reason it was closed. We arent sure why it wasnt running but there seemed to be LOTS of people also really confused about this. So then we went outside quite at a loss of what to do. WE hadnt brought a map with b-c we feel it was pretty dummy proof getting back and b-c we didnt want to carry much at the music festival. So we go outside and try to get a cab...but we dont know the full address of where we are going....BUT....we eventually got back. Throughout this process for awhile I really didnt think we were getting home. but we did :)
The next day we went and saw the Schonburg Palace. This was soo cool. We learned a lot about the history there and saw all the rooms that they used. The best part about it though I think was getting to see the gardens behind the palace. They were huge. I really cant get over how big and amazing they were. That took the majority of the day. We then went back and Heinzs daughter, husband, and kids came over and we all had lunch together! Amanda and Eric took a dip in the pool to cool off a little. Then we went to the market area and walked around. We did stop at the Sacher Hotel which serves Sachetorte and is one of only 2 places that can serve this. It is a really rich chocolate cake which was delicious.
The next day we left Vienna. It was so nice getting to stay in a real house where you werent sharing a room with 20 other people...but it was time to give up our life of luxury and get back to the real world of fun hostels! haha.
So we get on the train to take us to Salzburg, and it is pretty warm. And by warm i mean smoking hot. Well I figure that once the train gets going the air will kick and and the train will cool off and nap time for Mollie will begin. Well lets just say that NEVER happened. Thus, that train earned the name Devil Train from me. It was about a gazillion degrees in there the whole time and I honestly was miserable. I guess it didnt help that I wasnt feeling the best the night before and the morning before we got on the train. But it was NOT fun. When we got off I couldnt have been happier. We were know in Salzburg, a town the size of Sioux Falls. So we were kind of excitd about that. We decided that we were going to just have a real chill day. We wanted to see the sights of the Sound of Music but we had arrived to late to do the tour. So Amanda and I read, and we read, and we read. I think we were both really wanting to get our books finished. Which we did. We did take a few breaks...we went on a walk around the town and decided to grab a little something to eat. We ended up making our decision on one of the most vital aspects of eating in Europe. FREE REFILLS! Yes we broke down and ate at McDonalds bc we could get unlimited pop. In Europe pop is incredibly expensive and you get like 3 tablespoons for like 4 euros. ok im exaggerating...but not by much! We drank like three large cups of Sprite...delicious and refreshing!
The next day we took off for Venice. We had to do a train and a bus to get there. The bus was a double decker and we had the top, front row seats. Nice for having a good view...bad for having the sun shine in your eyes the whole way. Eric said that he was entertained by watching my and Amandas heads roll up and down....us attempting to sleep the trip away. When we got to Venice we took a little boat to our hostel.
In Venice the citys public transportation is all boats. Instead of buses its boats...obviously due to the fact that Venice is all islands and canals. After we checked in and had some pizza for supper I decided to take Amanda and Eric on a boat tour. Yes, I was the tour guide. I actually think I was better than a tour guide for a few reasons. 1--I was free. 2--Lets face it Im entertaining :) and 3--I didnt just tell them the information, I also quizzed them on it afterwards. Overall it was fun and we got to see the city.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast. Which was two rolls, juice, and then your pick of hot chocolate, coffee, lattes, etc. pretty good overall. Amanda was especially happy b-c she could have lattes! We then went and toured St. Marks Basilica. By now you and me both know that we have seen our far share of churches. Im guessing that maybe this thought has ran through your head...wow dont they ever get sick of seeing all these churches? Well, they really are pretty cool to see! WE dont spend TONS of time looking at them, and they normally are free...but its still amazing to see what they look like and fathom how they possibly could have built something like that sooo long ago. At this church they really have a strict dress code--knees and shoulders must be covered. We were ok b-c we had brought a jacket with, but if you didnt you had to buy this little paper goofy thing to wear. It was kinda funny.
We also went to the Correr Museum which is an Art Museum. While the churches are still fun to see....we are getting a bit tired of the Art Museums. To quote Amanda, 'The Correr Museum was as exciting as a piece of toast, ok at first, but needed some jelly.' I thought this was hilarious. Venice (four weeks into our trip) was kind of where we decided that we werent going to make ourselves go to museums just bc we felt we SHOULD...we want to do what will make us happy (yet still enjoying being in Europe). Thus resulting in what we did the next day :) stay tuned in to find out.
We went and saw the Doges Palace which is where all the Venetian Dukes would have ruled and lived. Although it was funny bc the doge really didnt have all that much power. They have a council of six men and to make any decisions they have to have those men with them. it was interesting. The noblemen elect the Senate, and then the Senate elects the Doge. in the Palace there was the largest oil painting in the world...it like took up the entire wall of the room that houses all of the Government...so yes it was huge! We also went to the Rialto Bridge which had lots of fun little shops on it.
The next day we did go to a Modern Art Museum in the morning which we actually LIKED! We went from room to room picking what artpiece per room that we each would like. It was pretty fun and there was some weird stuff in there. However I dont think the attendant there trusted us much bc she followed us everywhere...and really didnt even try to hide it. oh well we just laughed. haha..we liked the art but we didnt like it THAT much ;) We then saw the La Salute Church. This church was built for St. Mary of Good Health due to her delivering the city from a plague that wiped out one third of the citys population.
Then we went to the....BEACH! We went to the island of Lido and enjoyed the sunshine and cool ocean water. Eric wandered around in 'boy lalaland' as Amanda calls it, and Amanda and I just had some good ole girl talk. It was interesting bc men swimsuits are not the long baggy swim trunks like they are in the States. We then went back to the hostel and bought some wine and Limoncello (which is the national drink of Italy apparently) which was delicious. We had met some friends so we sat with Alex and Annette on the canal enjoying our wine. We then traveled to the main island and went to an Irish Pub there....go figure.
Oh yeah! While we were sitting out on the canal the mosquitos were terrible! However, we had happened to pack bug spray and had like 3 random strangers stop and ask if they could use it. lol.
BTW....we had pizza for every meal in Venice. It was delicious. In fact, Amanda has a pizza list in her journal so we dont forget how many pizzas we have had. We had 7 pizzas there. Delicious and Cheap! Plus we are in Italy so we figured we had a good excuse! We also got heavy into the gelato here. lol actually we have had gelato about every day. Pizza and Gelato...yum....good think we are doing lots of walking!
We woke up early the next day to take off for Florence. We got to Florence and stopped at a restaurant and decided to have pasta. Yes, it was hard for us to the make the switch. Especially since we were such avid devoted pizza lovers. But we did, and we were quite rewarded. Well mostly. Amanda had been craving day old spaghetti with parmesean cheese on it, so she didnt quite get that....but close. The pasta was delicious so we were all happy. We were still paying 3 euro for a can of pop (not happy about that) but we just remind ourselves that were in Europe and everything is suddenly much better. Actually a few times we have brought our own water or pop to the restaurant and just kind of sneakishly drank it. Im sure if you know me that surprises none of you ;)
We then hopped on the train (if any of you were surprised thinking..didnt they just get off the train--Im impressed, it means you are following this well). We had decided to do a quick trip out to Pisa. So we got on the train and arrived in Pisa and found the leaning tower. Quite impressive actually. Im really glad we decided to do it. It definitely leans by the way...just in case anyone was wondering. Right now the top is 17.6 feet off from where it should be. We even sprang the 15 euro it cost to go to the top. It was well spent. It was really a crazy feeling trying to walk up the circling stairs that are also slightly tilted. That was a feat in itself. Before leaving we decided to have a piece of Pisa pizza. Try saying that ten times fast. We entertained ourselves with that for awhile. We then took the train back to Florence and on our way back ran into a little square that had a live band playing. They were pretty good and would throw in some English lyrics now and then.
Today we got up and did all the sights. But more importantly...we found like the biggest Gelato shop ever!! It had at least 80 different flavors. So naturally...we endulged. We also went to the Pitti Palace and saw that and its enormous gardens and hiked its huge hill. We then went home and made pesto pasta. Later tonight we are going to an Italian Opera...should be interesting!
So Im sure by now you are sick of reading this...and I know that Im definitely sick of writing this---so we will do better to stay a little more up to date.
Hope you are all having a great 4th of July. We might find some matches and throw them up in the air or something to celebrate. Well see.
The next day we went into town and saw the various churches, parliament building, Opera House, and various other places. We also walked around the Hofsburg Palace which was--shocker--HuGE!
That night our hosts suggested to us that us three young people go check out the Vienna Musical Festival. So we did. It was really neat...we were told that about 3 million people go there between the two days. It had 21 different stages and tons of bands that played throughout the day. We found one that we really liked--I like fell in love with hte band and am determined to youtube their songs and learn all of them...regardless of the fact that they are in German. Yes, I was THAT impressed with them. The band was just a really fun, got you moving type of group. I think we all enjoyed it. On the way home we had a little trouble. We left the concert about 11 30 and we were supposed to just be able to take one line all the way home...straight shot no problem. Well...for some reason, that line decided not to run the whole route, but instead stop in the middle of no where. Then our very helpful (NOT) conductor told us to get off with no help whatsoever with what to do next. Oh well...no problem--see the three of us have gotten quite good at navigating the public transportation. So street car failed us...no big deal. We decide to just hop on the metro...problem is we have to find one first. Somehow we manage to do so pretty quickly. We get there and know we need to get on U3 I believe. But when we got there, for some reason it was closed. We arent sure why it wasnt running but there seemed to be LOTS of people also really confused about this. So then we went outside quite at a loss of what to do. WE hadnt brought a map with b-c we feel it was pretty dummy proof getting back and b-c we didnt want to carry much at the music festival. So we go outside and try to get a cab...but we dont know the full address of where we are going....BUT....we eventually got back. Throughout this process for awhile I really didnt think we were getting home. but we did :)
The next day we went and saw the Schonburg Palace. This was soo cool. We learned a lot about the history there and saw all the rooms that they used. The best part about it though I think was getting to see the gardens behind the palace. They were huge. I really cant get over how big and amazing they were. That took the majority of the day. We then went back and Heinzs daughter, husband, and kids came over and we all had lunch together! Amanda and Eric took a dip in the pool to cool off a little. Then we went to the market area and walked around. We did stop at the Sacher Hotel which serves Sachetorte and is one of only 2 places that can serve this. It is a really rich chocolate cake which was delicious.
The next day we left Vienna. It was so nice getting to stay in a real house where you werent sharing a room with 20 other people...but it was time to give up our life of luxury and get back to the real world of fun hostels! haha.
So we get on the train to take us to Salzburg, and it is pretty warm. And by warm i mean smoking hot. Well I figure that once the train gets going the air will kick and and the train will cool off and nap time for Mollie will begin. Well lets just say that NEVER happened. Thus, that train earned the name Devil Train from me. It was about a gazillion degrees in there the whole time and I honestly was miserable. I guess it didnt help that I wasnt feeling the best the night before and the morning before we got on the train. But it was NOT fun. When we got off I couldnt have been happier. We were know in Salzburg, a town the size of Sioux Falls. So we were kind of excitd about that. We decided that we were going to just have a real chill day. We wanted to see the sights of the Sound of Music but we had arrived to late to do the tour. So Amanda and I read, and we read, and we read. I think we were both really wanting to get our books finished. Which we did. We did take a few breaks...we went on a walk around the town and decided to grab a little something to eat. We ended up making our decision on one of the most vital aspects of eating in Europe. FREE REFILLS! Yes we broke down and ate at McDonalds bc we could get unlimited pop. In Europe pop is incredibly expensive and you get like 3 tablespoons for like 4 euros. ok im exaggerating...but not by much! We drank like three large cups of Sprite...delicious and refreshing!
The next day we took off for Venice. We had to do a train and a bus to get there. The bus was a double decker and we had the top, front row seats. Nice for having a good view...bad for having the sun shine in your eyes the whole way. Eric said that he was entertained by watching my and Amandas heads roll up and down....us attempting to sleep the trip away. When we got to Venice we took a little boat to our hostel.
In Venice the citys public transportation is all boats. Instead of buses its boats...obviously due to the fact that Venice is all islands and canals. After we checked in and had some pizza for supper I decided to take Amanda and Eric on a boat tour. Yes, I was the tour guide. I actually think I was better than a tour guide for a few reasons. 1--I was free. 2--Lets face it Im entertaining :) and 3--I didnt just tell them the information, I also quizzed them on it afterwards. Overall it was fun and we got to see the city.
The next day we woke up and had breakfast. Which was two rolls, juice, and then your pick of hot chocolate, coffee, lattes, etc. pretty good overall. Amanda was especially happy b-c she could have lattes! We then went and toured St. Marks Basilica. By now you and me both know that we have seen our far share of churches. Im guessing that maybe this thought has ran through your head...wow dont they ever get sick of seeing all these churches? Well, they really are pretty cool to see! WE dont spend TONS of time looking at them, and they normally are free...but its still amazing to see what they look like and fathom how they possibly could have built something like that sooo long ago. At this church they really have a strict dress code--knees and shoulders must be covered. We were ok b-c we had brought a jacket with, but if you didnt you had to buy this little paper goofy thing to wear. It was kinda funny.
We also went to the Correr Museum which is an Art Museum. While the churches are still fun to see....we are getting a bit tired of the Art Museums. To quote Amanda, 'The Correr Museum was as exciting as a piece of toast, ok at first, but needed some jelly.' I thought this was hilarious. Venice (four weeks into our trip) was kind of where we decided that we werent going to make ourselves go to museums just bc we felt we SHOULD...we want to do what will make us happy (yet still enjoying being in Europe). Thus resulting in what we did the next day :) stay tuned in to find out.
We went and saw the Doges Palace which is where all the Venetian Dukes would have ruled and lived. Although it was funny bc the doge really didnt have all that much power. They have a council of six men and to make any decisions they have to have those men with them. it was interesting. The noblemen elect the Senate, and then the Senate elects the Doge. in the Palace there was the largest oil painting in the world...it like took up the entire wall of the room that houses all of the Government...so yes it was huge! We also went to the Rialto Bridge which had lots of fun little shops on it.
The next day we did go to a Modern Art Museum in the morning which we actually LIKED! We went from room to room picking what artpiece per room that we each would like. It was pretty fun and there was some weird stuff in there. However I dont think the attendant there trusted us much bc she followed us everywhere...and really didnt even try to hide it. oh well we just laughed. haha..we liked the art but we didnt like it THAT much ;) We then saw the La Salute Church. This church was built for St. Mary of Good Health due to her delivering the city from a plague that wiped out one third of the citys population.
Then we went to the....BEACH! We went to the island of Lido and enjoyed the sunshine and cool ocean water. Eric wandered around in 'boy lalaland' as Amanda calls it, and Amanda and I just had some good ole girl talk. It was interesting bc men swimsuits are not the long baggy swim trunks like they are in the States. We then went back to the hostel and bought some wine and Limoncello (which is the national drink of Italy apparently) which was delicious. We had met some friends so we sat with Alex and Annette on the canal enjoying our wine. We then traveled to the main island and went to an Irish Pub there....go figure.
Oh yeah! While we were sitting out on the canal the mosquitos were terrible! However, we had happened to pack bug spray and had like 3 random strangers stop and ask if they could use it. lol.
BTW....we had pizza for every meal in Venice. It was delicious. In fact, Amanda has a pizza list in her journal so we dont forget how many pizzas we have had. We had 7 pizzas there. Delicious and Cheap! Plus we are in Italy so we figured we had a good excuse! We also got heavy into the gelato here. lol actually we have had gelato about every day. Pizza and Gelato...yum....good think we are doing lots of walking!
We woke up early the next day to take off for Florence. We got to Florence and stopped at a restaurant and decided to have pasta. Yes, it was hard for us to the make the switch. Especially since we were such avid devoted pizza lovers. But we did, and we were quite rewarded. Well mostly. Amanda had been craving day old spaghetti with parmesean cheese on it, so she didnt quite get that....but close. The pasta was delicious so we were all happy. We were still paying 3 euro for a can of pop (not happy about that) but we just remind ourselves that were in Europe and everything is suddenly much better. Actually a few times we have brought our own water or pop to the restaurant and just kind of sneakishly drank it. Im sure if you know me that surprises none of you ;)
We then hopped on the train (if any of you were surprised thinking..didnt they just get off the train--Im impressed, it means you are following this well). We had decided to do a quick trip out to Pisa. So we got on the train and arrived in Pisa and found the leaning tower. Quite impressive actually. Im really glad we decided to do it. It definitely leans by the way...just in case anyone was wondering. Right now the top is 17.6 feet off from where it should be. We even sprang the 15 euro it cost to go to the top. It was well spent. It was really a crazy feeling trying to walk up the circling stairs that are also slightly tilted. That was a feat in itself. Before leaving we decided to have a piece of Pisa pizza. Try saying that ten times fast. We entertained ourselves with that for awhile. We then took the train back to Florence and on our way back ran into a little square that had a live band playing. They were pretty good and would throw in some English lyrics now and then.
Today we got up and did all the sights. But more importantly...we found like the biggest Gelato shop ever!! It had at least 80 different flavors. So naturally...we endulged. We also went to the Pitti Palace and saw that and its enormous gardens and hiked its huge hill. We then went home and made pesto pasta. Later tonight we are going to an Italian Opera...should be interesting!
So Im sure by now you are sick of reading this...and I know that Im definitely sick of writing this---so we will do better to stay a little more up to date.
Hope you are all having a great 4th of July. We might find some matches and throw them up in the air or something to celebrate. Well see.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Wien-Salzburg-Venezia
Ciao!
We have been traveling fiends the last week or so. We left Prague and headed to Vienna via the train system that we have now declared ourselves officially masters of. I just knocked on wood to prevent us getting stranded here in Venice. Anyways, we left Prague at around 7 am so that Mollie and I could get some Starbucks before sitting on the train for 6 hours. It prevents the morning crabbiness syndrome that I will RARELY (possibly more often) suffer from. Before we got on our train we met a couple from New Zealand who were half-way through their WORLD TRIP (and we thought we were cool with our Europe trip). The train ride passed and we found ourselves in Vienna. Our grandmother has relatives in Vienna and they graciously allowed us to stay with them for three nights and were amazing hosts and tour guides. They educated us about how Vienna is arranged -- in districts that are centered around district one in the middle and spread out around it similar to a bulls-eye target practicing shooting thingermabob. They took us around to some sweet viewing sights and then introduced us to the local cuisine and drinkage. We tried many things that evening "just for the taste". All of the tastings left us full especially since we are used to eating less more often than more. And this night we definitely had more. Eric got to experience the schnaaps, which apparently are well-paired with beers, but a bit stronger than schnaaps we are used to back home.
The second day, we were full-blown tourists again with our hosts bringing us downtown to the more historical part of Vienna. We saw Stephandom (st. stephans church), michaeldom, the opera house, the Hofsburg palace, Parliament, the Sacher Hotel and many many other places. The city is beautiful and very .....classy is maybe the word Im searching for. There is a withered tree trunk downtown that is super duper old (yes, that old) that had about a thousand nails busted into it. A super duper long time ago the women of the city would put a nail in this tree to wish their husbands a safe journey and safe return. I believe we learned more about the history of Vienna, Austria and the whole of europe during our three days there than in all the other cities we visited.
That evening we went to a huge open air concert that I would say is similar to Lifelight on crack (for those from sioux falls). The music festival lasts three days, has 21 stages, an amusement park, and a MTV stage for those who really like to rock out. At first, I thought it would probably be more interesting if I could understand the music, but then remembered that I can never understand what the singers are saying anyways. And quite often the band leaders would speak in German and than break out a song in perfect English. When we ordered drinks there, we were told we had to pay a euro for the cup as well and then we would get it back at the end of the night when we returned the cup. Definitely not what we are used to in the states, buuuuut the end result was worth it - pretty much no real garbage that you have to wade through at the end of the night. The MTV stage was pretty hilarious -- their was an American DJ who would play all this crazy techno music and then about every 5 minutes would pause the song in the middle and yell out "We gonna party Vienna!" in gangster English. The best band was the last band of the night, they reminded us of what would happen if Backstreet Boys and NSync got together and had a baby band.
Alright, we are going to the Lido Beach now, so I gotta jet....more later
Ciao!
We have been traveling fiends the last week or so. We left Prague and headed to Vienna via the train system that we have now declared ourselves officially masters of. I just knocked on wood to prevent us getting stranded here in Venice. Anyways, we left Prague at around 7 am so that Mollie and I could get some Starbucks before sitting on the train for 6 hours. It prevents the morning crabbiness syndrome that I will RARELY (possibly more often) suffer from. Before we got on our train we met a couple from New Zealand who were half-way through their WORLD TRIP (and we thought we were cool with our Europe trip). The train ride passed and we found ourselves in Vienna. Our grandmother has relatives in Vienna and they graciously allowed us to stay with them for three nights and were amazing hosts and tour guides. They educated us about how Vienna is arranged -- in districts that are centered around district one in the middle and spread out around it similar to a bulls-eye target practicing shooting thingermabob. They took us around to some sweet viewing sights and then introduced us to the local cuisine and drinkage. We tried many things that evening "just for the taste". All of the tastings left us full especially since we are used to eating less more often than more. And this night we definitely had more. Eric got to experience the schnaaps, which apparently are well-paired with beers, but a bit stronger than schnaaps we are used to back home.
The second day, we were full-blown tourists again with our hosts bringing us downtown to the more historical part of Vienna. We saw Stephandom (st. stephans church), michaeldom, the opera house, the Hofsburg palace, Parliament, the Sacher Hotel and many many other places. The city is beautiful and very .....classy is maybe the word Im searching for. There is a withered tree trunk downtown that is super duper old (yes, that old) that had about a thousand nails busted into it. A super duper long time ago the women of the city would put a nail in this tree to wish their husbands a safe journey and safe return. I believe we learned more about the history of Vienna, Austria and the whole of europe during our three days there than in all the other cities we visited.
That evening we went to a huge open air concert that I would say is similar to Lifelight on crack (for those from sioux falls). The music festival lasts three days, has 21 stages, an amusement park, and a MTV stage for those who really like to rock out. At first, I thought it would probably be more interesting if I could understand the music, but then remembered that I can never understand what the singers are saying anyways. And quite often the band leaders would speak in German and than break out a song in perfect English. When we ordered drinks there, we were told we had to pay a euro for the cup as well and then we would get it back at the end of the night when we returned the cup. Definitely not what we are used to in the states, buuuuut the end result was worth it - pretty much no real garbage that you have to wade through at the end of the night. The MTV stage was pretty hilarious -- their was an American DJ who would play all this crazy techno music and then about every 5 minutes would pause the song in the middle and yell out "We gonna party Vienna!" in gangster English. The best band was the last band of the night, they reminded us of what would happen if Backstreet Boys and NSync got together and had a baby band.
Alright, we are going to the Lido Beach now, so I gotta jet....more later
Ciao!
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