One last time...

Hey all,
So this will probably be the last post from Europe. The more I think about it, the more glad I am to be heading back to my own bed and seeing you all. Ive loved it here so much, but it will be soothing to be back home. Like I was telling Amy earlier, its just more peaceful to be home. Plus I miss you Mom and Dad, like crazy amounts. Oh and Jeff and Brian and Anna too (but I dont know how often jeff and brian check this... :]) I will get to see you guys soon!

And for the sake of it, one last city update:
Madrid.
I have enjoyed Madrid pretty well so far. Ok a lot. Despite hearing stories of gangs of people doing... bad things. No worries, that has NOT happened to us. Madrid, madrid, where to start? We have walked around the city quite a bit in the few days we have been here. Of course we hit up the parks and gardens, it just wouldnt be possible to not. They do have some nice gardens- though I prefer Sevillas. Amy and I went on the free walking tour while Rachel did some much needed laundry... Im still a huge fan of them! I felt bad because I literally had about 1 euro 27 on me and couldnt really tip the tour guide, but I figured thats why they make them free anyway. At the end of the day we went to a flamenco show. I loooooooveee flamenco. I wish life could always move to the rhythm of the dance. On the way home from the show we saw a fire on the street. Of course we had to stop and watch.... at first we thought it was a car fire, but eventually it became evident that it was just a dumpster and not going to explode... which was disappointing but probably for the best. The popo came and put it out, and as far as I could tell there was no real damage done.

Next day (because Im tired because it is 140am and we need to get up in about 5 hours to get to our flight). We walked around some more, this time with Rachel so she could see the town. We went into the Palace, which is the largest palace in Europe with thousands of rooms in it (literally). We didnt get to see every room, for which i am thankful because we probably wouldnt ever escape it, but my oh my was it beautiful. I think, hands down, this place had the most ornate and interesting art work and sculptures I have ever seen. Every ceiling was covered in frescos, every trim was carved out, and sometimes it looked as if the two were intermixed and part of the painting were popping out of the wall. We couldnt get pictures- I wouldve snuck some if there werent guards in every room. But look it up and maybe youll find some. I dont remember the name of it, so youll have to do some investigation...
Then we went to the Prado Museum for free (because it was 6pm) and wandered it for a few hours. What can I say, there were lots of paintings... some of them lovely, some of them average, some of them repetetive, some of them ingenious, some of them plain gruesome. I liked it. We went to the museum with a couple of parisian girls who are in our room, who have officially offered to show us around paris next time we come... I hope they dont mind when I honestly take them up on that offer. :)

Ok I have to go to bed. See some of you tomorrow (well... I guess thats a relative term in this case) and see others of you later than tomorrow.

Laura

One day I will move back here

Sevilla is one of those beautiful cities. Just looking at it, it plain looks nice. There are palm trees and plazas with fountains around every corner, rivers and bridges, and sculptures. Its also hot, but its a dry heat so I loved it. On the first full day in Sevilla, we walked around town a bit, and wandered through Alcatraz... ok not really, but I dont have the name of the place in front of me, and it sounds very similar to the prison. If town itself is beautiful, you might say that this place was heavenly. You can see I liked it a lot there. Part of Alcatraz was the building, which was similar to some of the castles in France (except more spanish) with ornate decorations and trims, tiles and mosaics, carvings, things that make buildings look nice. I preferred, though, the outside gardens. Oh my I could wander those things for days and be happy. Parts were more foresty, parts were more grassy (with trees), there were fountains and ponds and small sculptures here and there, and paths going every which way so you could get lost if you arent careful, and PEACOCKS! Babby peacocks too. And they tried to attack us. At least we were convinced they were going after us. Have you seen their beaks, they are sharp. Not something I want in my leg. Eventually we were thirsty and hot enough to drag myself out of there (oh another nice thing about Sevilla are the student discounts... this place normally costs 7 euro, for students it is free. Thats the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh). I dont remember much else we did that day, but Im sure we walked around a little more and ate some food. Probably used the bathroom a few times. Maybe some other stuff.
The next day we met up with Rachels friend Bea, as Amy mentioned, at the semi-circular building in town... again I dont remember its name. I am not good with specifics such as that. Sevilla is beautiful. So was this building. With Bea we walked through the Maria Louisa gardens (ah ha! I remember a name! but only because Amy likes to call them the Marisa Louisa or Maria Lucia gardens), through town a bit, and then grabbed some food at a bar. A resturante is where you pay a lot for food. A bar is what you call a place you get cheap food. I like cheap food. And then! we headed down toward Cadiz, about an hour away, to stay at her familys flat near the beach.
The night we arrived in Cadiz, we stopped by the beach for a little while, just long enough to see a horse race along the coast. It had cooled down a bit by that point, only around 23 C, so much cooler than we have been used to that Amy in fact turned PURPLE. Her entire arms were bluish. This is not uncommon for Amy. Her body tends to do this when she is cold. But, 70 F is not THAT cold, is it? Apparently when you are used to 100 it is. The air was very humid too, and after about 10 minutes outside my arms were sticky and wet. I was just grateful that it wasnt hot out. That wouldve been un-fun.
I dont know if yo u all know this... Im assuming most of you do, because most everyone who reads this knows Amy and I, but Amy has taken French and is pretty darn good at it. She has also taken approximately 6 months of spanish, approximately 6 years ago. Her speaking spanish is the most hilarious time I have had on this entire trip. She is not bad at it... actually she can speak better than a lot of people who have studied it for much longer than she has. I dont know how to describe it other than we spent hours sitting around on the balcony, the four of us laughing until our sides hurt, and then laughing some more.
The next day we spent at the beach. I have an amazing tiger pattern on my back. No it wasnt intentional, but if I HAD thought of it, I probably wouldve done it on purpose. We all got a little sunburned, you could say, other than the spanish one. She tried to convince us that she is white by showing us the inside of her arm, but we didnt fall for it. That was about the color of the "tan" on my outer arm. The beaches in southern spain, by the way, are just as gorgeous as you would imagine. And the sand is very soft. And the water warm. Oh I think I got stung by something in the water because my arm... got... stung. My underarm area. Dont fret too much though, it stopped hurting after about a half hour or so. After hours at the beach, we drove back home. I mean Sevilla. Oops. I want to move to France and Sevilla. We will see about the whole visa thing.... so far our investigations show that its not that easy to move here.
Today we have transfered from Sevilla to Madrid, our last and final and NO MORE AFTER THIS ONE city. Eek! This was our LAST train day. I miss you all out there, but it has been nice to be here without worry other than what to see in the city or when we will catch our train.
I would tell you what we have seen of Madrid so far, seeing as we got to the city around 2pm (and it is now 11pm) but all we have done is sleep and eat. What can I say, we were tired. Tomorrow though, we will start seeing the city. I hope. That would be really bad if we were here for two days and didnt see anything. Naw that wont happen... we still have to see Flamenco!
Hokay, Im going to go back to the room now. Despite not wanting to leave, we do in fact miss you out there. Three more days until we are back in Edmonds, eating Taco Bell and sleeping in our own beds. (Except those of you who are reading this for Rachel... three more days until she heads up to England...)

Adios!
Laura

Towards our last city....

Tomorrow we take our last train day to Madrid, our last city before we fly home on the 3rd. It is very weird and scary to think that well be leaving and that we wont be in Europe anymore. However, were very excited to see everyone!!!

Im thinking of you Max. :)

In Seville we were able to meet up with Rachels friend Bella, who had an apartment on the beach so we took a mini vacation out the beach for a day and a night. It was gorgeous and fun and a nice change of pace to have a "home". She is really fun too so that helps. And I have for sure decided that spanish will be the next language I learn, very fun and beautiful! Laura will update you more about Seville, because it is beautiful and fun and deserves more writing.

On a sad note, the cleaning lady threw away our food, a souvenir :( and all of our sunscreen EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON OUR BED. Im upset, but thats me.

Time to go! Adios.

Quick update

So were now in Seville, where we plan to stay for four nights. It is crazy hot here, around 117 degrees. Meaning that well be napping by day and seeing the town by night! ;)

Rachel and I just found out that one of her friends is here, so we may end up meeting with her. Well keep you updated!

Yell and Scream and Make a Scene

So were still in Barcelona, but I thought that there was something VERY blogworthy to tell everyone. So, we went on a day trip to a nearby town, known to be cute and have good beaches. We took the metro there of course, seeing as Barcelona is so large and very tiresome to walk. When we were walking between lines, I noticed there was a couple, mid thirties walking very close to Laura and Rachel, who were each walking in front and to the right of me. (Meaning the couple was on my right). I assumed they were trying to pass them and get through, so I didnt think much of it. However, I did noticed he was staring at Lauras black day bag. I thought this was weird, and being the paranoid, anti stranger person that I am, I took more notice of them. This is very very very good, because next time I looked over, he had unzipped Lauras bag and was about to reach his hand in. Ugh, just writing about it gives me a adreniline rush of hate. So of course I yelled at him, told him to stop and closed her bag. There was not much else we could do besides give them evil glare. Well we probably could of made a scene, but we were on automatic and didnt think of it. Boy do I wish now that when I had stopped him that I had also "accidentally" pushed him down the stairs or something. But anyway, I'm not violent at all of course so we'll move on ;). I saw that they had hung back and were going to take another route, so I figured that was that. But once we got onto the next train, Laura noticed that they were on the same train, just down a few cars. By this time my head had cleared a little and I didnt know what I wanted to do, but I needed to do something. So, I made them walk down with me, where we stood a few feet from them and glared at them for the extent of the train ride, which was conviently only one stop. (They defintely looked like they were avoiding eye contact and looked like they got out just in case we were going to make a scene). My head wasnt cleared enough to do more, like announce to the train that they were pickpocketers, which would of been smart because as we were approaching them it looked like they already had another victim.

Hindsight is 20-20 though and there is nothing I can do now. But yea, we were almost pickpocketed-which would of been a great financial loss on this particular day (had a lot of money for the day trip) BUT we werent and thats what counts. But if I see him again and Im gonna yell and scream and make a scene and hope he doesnt have a knife or something. :)

We're in Barcelona!

Our trip across the border was simple and hassle free. Once again our passports were not checked and therefore we did not get a stamp. Meaning we ONLY got stamps for entering Ireland. Lame. They don't speak normal spanish here, it is a very strange mix of french, spanish and something else. But thats ok, we're still able to get by!

We like Barcelona, but sadly its very big. We walked across town yesterday, but pretty much you have to use the metro. There is a bus tour thing overground, technically lame, BUT, it acts as a bus, and a tour, and you can rest in the wind! So we would like to do that but it costs 20 euro, way more euro then were willing to pay. So instead, we walk. Yesterday we saw a melting church, not actually melting of course but its more fun to pretend that it is. There are a lot of shops, and Im trying oh so hard to get the last of my souvenir shopping done- that means you Lindsay! The beach is beautiful, as expected, and I'm trying oh so hard to convince Laura and Rachel that they want to swim with me, but neither of them want to. Because they're lame.

Today were going to go to a cool park and read, to an aquarium (which sadly costs 13 euro but its ok) and then to the beach. Wish me luck on getting them to swim with me! I mean, how many times do you get the chance to swim in the Med Sea in Spain?

Amy

Oh, and ps. It was freaky! One of the guys in our dorm room (sharing Lauras bunk) is from Bellingham!!! And he goes to WWU. It was weird talking about bellingham things, like streets, and Mallards, and Padden with a perfect stranger, in Barcelona.
Oh, and pps. Its possible we may have someone to stay with in Seville, meaning we wont have to pay for hostel. Were not positive, but were hoping! (A friend of Rachels, not a stranger)

Hey there, long time no talk

It has been a long time without internet, which is good and bad. Good for us and not being pulled into this infinite abyss, bad for you because you dont get to know what we are up to. But I have a little time now and thought I would let you know what is up in the lives of the three of us.

Paris
Paris was beautiful, like last time but now we got to explore more than just the tower. We met up with Rachel, as mentioned, late on the 13th. On the way to go find her at the metro station nearby, Amy and I ran across some amazing street performers who could do handstands and flips and hip hop like no one Ive seen. We did find her after a little bit of confusion... which is good because I wouldve hated to call her parents to tell them that we lost their daughter in Paris. The hotel we stayed at was ok... I probably wouldve had a better opinion of it if the lady who ran it werent such a b$%c& but I wont delve into that. For those of you who havent been there, Paris is pretty large and city like. Not overwhelmingly huge (at least the city center area isnt) and we did manage to walk across it in the pouring rain one night from the eiffel tower to our hotel. It was fun, but I wouldnt recommend it on a daily basis; plus, Im pretty sure my cold started the next day... just saying. Anyway, we didnt so much go into all of the sites we are supposed to go see. We tried, I promise, but I think the stars were aligning against us. The friday we were there was a bank holiday, which we didnt realize until we were wondering why a lot of shops were closed, and after searching quite a bit for the Catacombs (due to a faulty map we were directed to a prison, which is close but not quite the same thing) we found them to be closed for the holiday. The Louvre also closed early. So the next day we went back to try to see the catacombs before catching our train to Rennes. Not a good idea. The Saturday after a bank holiday. We waited in line for an hour and a half, just to have to give up once we were about 15 minutes away, because we had to go catch our train. Maybe we didnt go inside the big stuff, but we did see it from the outside and got to lay by the river eating ice cream, which to me is just as good if not better.

St Marcan, near Mt St Michel, Nearish to Rennes
Our trek to St Marcan was an interesting one to say the least. Long story short, we ended up in a town about a half hour away from the one our hotel/B&B was in with no way to get there (no trains, the buses had stopped, and no ferry). After walking around the town, and every hotel being full, we were literally talking to a car rental place to rent a car just to sleep in for the night. Luckily we got ahold of our B&B before we did that, and they told us to go to Dol (nearby) and they would pick us up. Oh holy day! The couple that run the B&B are a nice older english couple who decided to do this with their time after retiring and are super sweet, and the town that the B&B is in was barely a town, mostly surrounded by farms and fields. The buildings were quiant little stone buildings that looked like they literally came out of a movie.
Mt St Michel is a monestary on top of a random hill of metamorphic rock (i believe) surrounded by tide flats. The man who runs the place drove us out there (getting up to 90mph on small country roads... now we're talking!) and back. Lovely people! When we got to Mt St Michel we wandered around a bit, went into the monestary (where there was a service going on because it was Sunday) and decided to go to the Alligator Bay down the road (a sort of reptile zoo). You will have to ask Amy and Rachel more about that because I stayed outside when they went in... but I will tell you that there was LARGE tortoise humping going on. mmmhmm youre interested now, I know it.
Oh and one of my favorite parts- the B&B served breakfast all fancy like. In a dining room. With specific seats for each room. And juice and coffee and croissants and rolls brought out to you. Yeah. And it was the earliest we got up on the trip, other than for the 3am bus Amy and Rachael and I had to catch early on. And the 5am time we had to be off the train in Paris last time we were there. But other than those...

Blois, in the Chateaux district
France has a lot of castles. We saw a few of them. I like castles. Because Im running lower on time, I will start skimming a little more. Sorry. Anyway, we went to see the last residence of Leonardo Da Vinci, where he passed; got to see inside of his house, some of his inventions, the underground passageway that connected his place to the castle, his gardens, things like that. That man is genious, btw.
We also went to the largest castle in Europe, the grounds of which cover an area the size of Paris. The chateau is magnificent, with paintings and carvings everywhere. Lots of Kings and Queens were quite ugly. But regardless, we got to see the bedrooms of said kings and queens, as well as lots of other rooms. Chambord (the castle) has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms... as well as lots of fields and forest with wild animals. Now thats my kind of a house.
Ack i should go soon! We also saw a light show at the Blois castle. It was cool.

Carcassonne
And now we are to our last location in France. We are staying within the walled cite, which is very cool. Walking around, the streets are small and windy and have shops on all sides. We spent some time yesterday after sunset walking around the edge, overlooking the city, and today was spent mostly inside around. We are good at killing time.

We leave tomorrow for Barcelona.

I have to go, but hope fully will have more internet later

Laura

Paris, take two

We have made it to Paris, without complication, and met up with Rachel. Lots of walking around. I dont feel like writing a long post, but I thought some of you would like to know that we are alive and well. Perhaps we will write more later, but we leave Paris tomorrow and I dont know if we will have cheap internet at our next place.

L, A + R

Because we can...

Well update you, AGAIN!

Laura and I are packing up and were gonna start our adventure at 1020, with a series of trains that will get us to Paris by 6. If all goes as planned, that is, there a couple sketchy close trains, and weve bought a ticket for the last, so hopefully we dont miss it!

Have we mentioned just how amazing having the eurail is? It has paid off ten fold. We plan on calculating savings when we get home, but we can tell that having to pay 5 euro once and awhile for a reservation is much better than the 140, 70, 105, etc. euro train tickets that we would have had to pay. Theyre each like that, meaning that yes, definitely this has paid off!

Well I should get ready, cause we cant miss our first train cause we only have a 10 minute layover! (As I put it, I use "When will we land?", and "How long is our layover?" oops!)

If I remember right, France is the messed up country, keyboard wise. Will we right another coded message, or will we take the effort to right it out, as readible! Youll have to wait and see!!

And JSUK...

I figure we can do a "live" update as well, seeing as were signed in and all...

Right now it is wet outside, which is sad. We plan on walking around some more and reading and writing and drawing, all the usual, once the sun comes out. Until then, were doing laundry, using the internet (what a surprise) and me, Amy, is TRYING to convince her evil big sister that she does, in fact want to play cards, board games (theres a lot of new interesting foreign ones here) or playstation 2 (its set up for free and a few of them look REALLY fun). Even though its amazing to be out in nature in the Swiss Alps, it is also nice to relax in our hostel, which has amazing views, like what summer should be!

Guess what! We went swimming in Cinque Terre on the last night of our stay, and we left our clothes out overnight. To no ones surprise, they werent quite dry yet the next morning and we had little choice but to put them in a bag and carry them to our next destination. Seeing as were doing laundry, we had to open said bag. UCK UCK UCK. They stunk soooooo bad. We stuck them in the washer, along with other clothes. And now Im pretty gosh darn sure that EVERYTHING in the load smells, half of our clothes. Darn. I blame the washer though...Ive never had something come out of the washer so NOT clean. Yea, well thats a unfortunate side note. Well keep you updated as this story develops.

Well now Im going to grab Lauras arm and drag her to play games with me because there is a man standing really close looking like he wants to use the computer, yes, laura there is another computer but he doesnt look like he knows.

No Laura, you will not go use the other computer, you will play games with me!

Ok, last note, I have a new favorite smiley face, but sadly its only really easy to use here.

ö

Ok, well thats our update. Tootles.

Just for you, Dad! (p.1)

By popular demand (ie our father) we are now releasing previously unpublished journal entries about the trip. This is a once in a life time event (or maybe twice or three times), people, so hold on to your horses, tighten your tie, and sit back! This is going to be amazing. No Joke.

So I thought that it might be a good idea to just go through and remember things that happened in various cities, what the people were like, how cool it was, or things like that. Im not sure how this will turn out, because like you, I have not yet seen what comes to follow. If it is boring and terrible, I apologize ahead of time. It sucks for you, but at least I didnt have to read it myself. And we can all take solace in knowing that fact. So lets begin maybe?

Dublin...
"We just got back from a walking tour of the city with Paul, one of our dormmates. It took us about 9 hours or so, but was quite nice and worth it. We found a park and as we were wandering through it heard snippets of music playing. So we wandered over to find out what it was and found a small orchestra getting ready to play- it was sunny out, so we stayed on the lawn and listend to 5 or 6 songs, until the sun got covered and we decided to wander off. We wandered through all of the tour that would have taken us through the various sections of the city- such as the Cathedral area, the medeival, etc. And instead of paying to see it, we just walked it ourselves. Dublin has some good character to it, but Ill admit it, Im tired"
Dublin was a nice city, but theres not much to pull me back to it. The people are quite friendly and multiple occasions strangers stopped to help us with directions, not because we asked for them but just because we had a puzzled look on our faces. Plus, who doesnt like an irish accent? It has a nice mix of city and park, of new and old, but really there are other cities that, in my opinion, do it better.

Edinburgh...
Because there I dont have anything really coherent in my journal, Ill just plain out tell you that this may have been my favorite city so far. The city itself is beautiful, filled with old buildings and history. We had another adventerous entrance into the city, which is both fun and scary, knowing that our opinion of the city was dependent on how smoothly we could find our hostel. We arrived by plane, with no idea how to get into town, and once there, where our hostel was. Luckily for Edinburghs sake, we were able to find a bus to town, and it only took asking 2-3 Scottish men where to find our hostel. This was good for us thus far. We were mesmerized by the town we were in, not expecting our hostel to be right on the Royal Mile, like a castle itself. I defintely suggest doing the free walking tour... it gives a good sense of the history of the area, plus you only have to pay as much as you want (good for us, bad for our tour guide- ok, not really, we liked our tour guide and gave her the most we have given any of them). I honestly wish we had spent another day there, 1 and a half probably wasnt enough. Lauras rating: 2.5 thumbs up! If anyone choses to go to Scotland and see Edinburgh (which we recommend), we also recommend the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Sky, two places we have not been, but most people we came across in Edinburgh had, and they recommend it to us. We plan to go and see those in the future ourselves. (Also, this is for another post because we DID go there, but the Lakes District is just a short distance away, and therefore is easily easily easily included in the same trip- but well tell you more about that later).

Rostock
Im going to describe the town as if you havent read our previous post on Rostock, seeing as I havent read it since I wrote it! The town of Rostock is on the northern coast of Germany. From the center of town, it is a short train ride to the actual coast (a town called Warnemunde), with sand and water and everything. In the center of town, there are docks and a boardwalk. As we heard later in Berlin, "Rostock is where the Germans go for vacation, not foreigners". We definitely noticed this as true, seeing as there were very few non-Germans. The town itself doesnt have that much to offer, and we would not recommend a stay here. A day trip to the beach in the north of Germany definitely sounds like a good idea, and therefore Rostock could be a good destination for a day trip. Maybe, maybe you should look up stuff on the internet instead of just relying on us.

It was rainy and overcast during most of our stay, and began to rain while we were on the beach. We personally did not mind, in fact we thought it nicely reminded us of home. To get a feel for the area: "We took the train to Warnemunde to go to the beach. The town, about 15 minutes north of Rostock, is cute. It has shops along the wide sidewalks with clothes, smoking fish, crepes, and more. We bought raspberries for €2 and made our way to the beach. It was an actual beach! Dunes and kms of sand!"

A quick unrelated excerpt from Lauras journal:
"Tonight Amy and I got to freaking ourselves out by thinking of people hiding in the bathroom, or movement out the window or in the hall. We shouldntve gotten ourselves on that, but its hard to stop once you start. Like Pringles. Which are delicious"

Amys explanation...As you may remember we arrived into town around 9 or so pm, this is late for check in to a lot of hostels and we were worried that it may be closed. What worried us even more is that we had no idea how to find our hostel. We asked a woman at information, a couple with a young son, and eventually and old man who spoke a few words of English who walked us to the door. By the time we had arrived it was dark, and check in had already closed. Luckily the man still checked us in, and showed us to an empty room. We had been alert while walking outside, because it was dark and we were lost...reasonable. Therefore when we got to the room, we joked about people in the windows, strangers, noises, etc. Then we walked through the empty, large hostel to the bathroom. Luckily we have yet to watch that backpackers hostel horror movie, imagine the nightmares wed have then!

And on the pringles- were addicted. Theyre expensive here, but they are oh. oh. oh so delicious. This needs no further explanation.

Ok, so here is our first attempt to give a further in depth feel into the places weve been, as requested. Tell us what you think and if this isnt what you had in mind, tell us and well write something new!

In the Swiss Alps...

Were not quite sure where we left off exactly, and its a little too difficult to go back and see, so were going to assume it was Florence, and if not...well then, we embarrassed ourselves!

Ok so after Florence we went to the Cinque Terre region, which is gorgeous. Like, actually yes everyone who says it is is telling the truth, it is gorgeous. We did relatively little here, we camped in a town called Deiva Marina. We relaxed on our beach, swam a lot, and we relaxed on some other beaches...swam some more. We walked along the coast for awhile too. We never quite made it into the forest, because on the day we planned to do that, we went to Genova first to get a ticket. This was supposed to be an easy task, but train wise and connections and all that good stuff meant that we didnt get back home until dinner. No problem, what did we do? We ate dinner then went to the beach and swam a little. Overall, this was a very good place to stay! We recommend it.

A funny coincidence though- I dont know if weve mentioned it before, but we sat next to a mother daugther duo on the train from Venice to Sorrento (they got of in Rome), it was funny but nothing special. Well surprisingly, we ran into them again on the train from Sorrento to Florence! We didnt ask why they were on that train, however we did make note of the coincidence and talk a little. They mentioned seeing us in line to buy our tickets and at McDs as well. Well, the final straw happened in Deiva Marina. We heard these two British women walking by (did I mention they were British?), when we looked up out of our tent we saw that it was the SAME mother daughter duo. I instantly yelled out to them and they came by for a visit, and we ended up hanging out with the daughter for an hour or so. We compared trips and realized that they also happened to stay in the same place as us in Venice (which is where our train departed from the first time we ran into each other), that they had gone to Sorrento after a night in Rome- why they were on the same train, but that they were ending their trip so no more coincidences! Speaking of running into people, this isnt the first time. We met a man in Edinburgh on a walking tour (Rachael, you remember the Pennyslvanian, right?), well we ran into him AGAIN in Berlin, on another walking tour. It was quite freaky! Talking about FREAKY, lookalikes. We may have mentioned Jeffreys (our brother) lookalike- met him in Florence, acted, looked (profile), talked, etc like Jeff. It was as if we were talking to Jeff! Similarly freaky, we saw someone who looked exactly like our cousin David in Sorrento. He didnt speak English, otherwise we would of sworn it was him. We were sitting playing cards, and he hung out nearby for a half hour or so and biked by a few times- enough to be sure that IT IS HIS TWIN.

Well I guess I should move on...

Switzerland! We went to Interlaken for 3 nights, and met a slew of very nice asians- very popular asian tourist destination. Its gorgeous, we went on free boat tours, walked around and read and ate near the shore. Laura is LOVING the mountains! Which works very well for here, Grindelwald, where we will be staying for the next three nights. Up in the mountains. We plan on "hiking", it will be hiking, but with a lot of stops to sit and take in the beauty, read, relax, eat, etc. A whole day adventure. Right now were cooking some food, and it may be ready, and seeing as Im starving Im gonna go!

We have free internet here so take advantage of it! Message or email us, and hopefully well update more regularly here.

Oh, and BTW, this is the last city before Rachel joins us in Paris. Were very excited!

A brief history

Caio! So Im aware that it has been quite some time since you have heard any details from us, other than the fact that we are alive and dont have time to actually write a post. Arent you excited that you get some more information?! You should be!

Last you heard about was Amsterdam, I believe, so I will start after that. We made our way to Rostock, Germany, where only germans go (or so we were told). We had some fun (ie difficulties) finding our hostel, but after the help of a lovely family who spoke minimal english, and an elderly man who spoke the whole of 5 words in english, but told us to follow him and took us directly to the front door of our hostel, we made it... about a half hour after check out had actually closed. Luckily the guy still let us check in! In Rostock we spent a day wandering the city, walking along a boardwalk by a river, and a day out on the beach by the sea. Rostock has very similar weather to Edmonds... so ... it was cool and windy, but still beautiful. On a side note, we also bought some raspberries there that were De-licious! One of the nights we heard some music coming from nearby and wandered to it. There was a festival going on with live music, people, festivities, you know. It was an unexpected good time. At one point it started raining, i mean downpouring and everyone ran under cover except amy and I... needless to say we got sopping wet and very happy.

Ok, after that we went to Berlin. I LOVE berlin. It a great city, and we stayed in a cozy guesthouse with about 7 or 8 fun people, and Anderson who ran the place. We played cards and went to see Hancock while there with another set of sisters that we met on the first night; on the second day we went to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp just outside the city- which was eerie and sobering. You should go to a concentration camp if you ever have the chance. The next day we did another free walking tour of the city and saw the sights. I give Berlin a thumbs up.

Next city! Salzburg was cute and touristy. Looking back on it now, I appreciate the cooler weather, but at the time it wasnt that great. Not bad, dont get me wrong, just not great. The hills are gorgeous. We spent one day in Salzburg, wandering around, doing some much needed errands; they have a small natural history museum that we went into as well. The next day was much cooler- we went out to the largest ice caves in the world! It required a train ride, a shuttle, walking 20 minutes uphill, a cable car, and 20 more minutes uphill, but it was well worth it. They dont have lighting in the cave so it was lit by candles that people carried around. My favorite part may have been all of the people with large jackets on while all i had was a thin long-sleeve shirt, rolled up, and I was fine. From the top there were gorgeous views of a town below, a castle, the fields, and mountains. GORGEOUS.

Moving on for the sake of time and money: we finally moved to the heat! We were in Venice for a couple days, camping. We walked around the city- which is cute and quaint and lovely- for one day, and spent a lot of time by the pool on the other day. It was heavenly. And hot.

As was Sorrento, near Napoli. Again we lounged around by the beach, got badly burned (but its ok), and played cards in the shade of a patio with a light breeze going by. We didnt go into Naples other than to get some train tickets (while in line we played a game of blocking this guy who was trying to sneak up the line... it was very satisfying when he never made it past us! muahaha!). We had quite the time trying to leave Sorrento... first we missed our stop on the bus because it didnt take the exact same route as the last time we were on it, then we were in the middle of practically no where (at least it was as good as so to us) and had to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Oh let me tell you that to get to naples to get on our train we had to take a bus, then an hour and a half commuter train, and at this point it was about and hour and a half from the time our train left. So we were a little worried. Finally we got to the commuter train... which was late and had exceptionally long (10 minute) pauses at a couple stops. Needless to say, we missed our train to Florence and had to get back in line, and buy new reservations (because italy requires reservations for a lot of their trains). This time we had to pay 20 euro each (as opposed to 5 for the last reservations) because it was a faster train. Haha. Our train to florence left on time, but somehow got about 2 hours delayed by the time we were in rome... luckily it caught up a little and was only an hour late to Florence.

Here in Florence we have thus far wandered around the city a little, as well as made our way outside of the hussle along some very cute country roads. I like it. Today I think we are going to try to make it out to the north and hopefully find a place to sit and read or draw for a while. And tomorrow we head to Chinque Terre!

Ok we should probably head out soon! Talk to you all later!

Laura and Amy

In Sorrento

Hey another really quick update. Right now were in Sorrento. Its gorgeous, love the beach. In fact, were about to go swimming in it right now. And amazingly, its actually warm! Tomorrow were going to see Pompeii! Were loving the sun, though it doesnt love my skin that much. Were heading to Florence the day after tomorrow. Sorry for the lack of updates, but weve been camping for the last week and a half! Well internets almost out so I have to go!

See you in a bit...

Hey everyone, I don't have much time (I'm catching a train at nine, leaving in two minutes), but I thought I would still make a short post.

Laura and I had an AMAZING time in Berlin, we loved our hostel and the city. We'll update you more on that later. Now we're going to Salzburg Austria, where we are camping and plan to go see the ice caves, look them up, we're excited!! We probably won't have internet while in that stay, just as a heads up!

So next time we talk we may be in Italy!

Until next time,
Amy

Amsterdam...

We arrived in Amsterdam and wandered around for a very little amount of time for us in search of the bus station. (only say, 10 minutes, instead of the normal 30 minute wandering) (I blame Laura). I'm going to start off by saying, that Laura and I LOVE the Dutch. All of the bus drivers were SO nice and friendly, as were the other random ones we interacted with. We got to our campground, fingers crossed that they hadn't cancelled our reservation (we arrived a day late, you remember). They had. They looked all around for it, and eventually found it in a no show pile. They told us we should have called, and we looked sad and pitiful, saying there was ABSOLUTELY no internet. They told us we were lucky, and it wasn't too busy and we could have a spot. We thanked them, and showed our appreciation by buying some spaghetti and sauce (and ice cream...yum) and guess what. THEY HAD PEANUT BUTTER. We have been missing peanut butter SO MUCH. We had some jam, but no bread..but that doesn't matter. ITS PEANUT BUTTER. We made ourselves some dinner, and ventured off into the beautiful country around us, full of lake and water (which themselves are full of algae). It was beautiful, and honestly reminded us a lot of home.

The next day we planned to get up bright and early and bus into Amsterdam, take a free 11 oclock tour (same company as London and Edinburgh) then wander the town all day. That didn't really work out. We slept in, which is always fun. We were lazy and lounging and could barely of made the 1 oclock tour, and only if we rushed. So we decided instead of risking missing it (we'd be in the city, with no map, with no idea where anything is, and not enough space for stamps for the bus to come back the next day and actually see the tour) SO we enjoyed the countryside some more. Poor us! The weather wasn't as nice (did I mention it was realllly hot the first day?), but we sat on a bench, put our jackets on our laps as blankets and were quite comfy. We ate peanut butter and jam. YUM, again. Not too much to say about that day! Hey, that rhymed!

The next day we actually woke up in time to get to town for the....1 oclock tour. But at least we made it to it and weren't late! We enjoyed it, we saw about the houses, we saw Anne Frank's house, learned about all the history of the city and its interesting laws. It was really interesting.

As those of you who've already read this now, Laura and I had a fight and she left me. But we were able to find each other, and she will NOT do that again.

After the ferry we went to a bookstore, and like us, even after that MAJOR fight, we started laughing and and were fine..like, in 5 minutes. I think it may have been that I was buying a book!!! And Laura was buying a Journal, something we've wanted to do in a LONG time. I haven't read a book since the Lakes District! ACKKKK! I bought the Diary of Anne Frank, which was a beautifully interesting read (yes, its me, I finished it within 24hrs).

We went back to the camping site, ate, the usual. That was our stay in Amsterdam. Because the train station incident turned out ok, and we stopped fighting, it wasn't bad, don't get us wrong. We move on, and its a near...soon to be, funnyish story of the past. And we loved Amsterdam, so it did not ruin that either.

We made it successfully to Rostock the next day. (There was a 2 hr line for service, but luckily because we had the Eurail and didn't need to buy tickets, we were able to get direct help so we knew what trains to take). We arrived in Rostock at nine thirty pm, worried that our hostel was closed. We just do not have good luck. We also did not know where our hostel WAS. We asked the information lady at the train station, but kind of got lost. So we asked a nice couple with a young son as they were getting out of their car, but they weren't really sure. So we continued to walk on, and asked a nice old man who was just learning English, and told us to follow him. We did, and he showed us right to the door of the hostel! We were SOOO grateful! We went up, and luckily, there was still someone working there for the hostel, even though it technically was past check in by a half hour by then (ten thirty). He let us check in, in cash sadly, but we got our room and slept beautifully.

Today is the next day, Friday, and we walked on a boardwalk on the water, and came here and used internet, I think thats been our whole day! But even though its taking us hours here, its worth it because we haven't been online in a week! Tomorrow we plan to take a ferry/tram to the ocean, wheres there are beaches, and if its sunny maybe we'll dip our feet in a little!

Well thats all for now, we have to figure out how to get to our next destination, and we have to book hostel after hostel after hostel! Yay.

So until next time,
Amy and Laura

A paris!

A lot happened since we last wrote to you, oh boy! Ok, well as we mentioned, our next desitnation was camping in Amsterdam. Well we went to the train station bright and early, around nine oclock, and asked them how we can get to Amsterdam without any reservations (which cost money). The lady looked and looked and couldn't come up with a single thing. So we were like, ok, how about cheap reservations? She looked and looked again and said nope, unless a cheap reservation is the €150 fare from Paris to Amsterdam, then it is not possible to get to Amsterdam today. Laura and I were like...ok...interesting turn of events. We bought 4 oclock tickets to Paris (€3 reservation) , but we decided that we wanted internet, so that we could figure out if there was a bus, or some other option after that. (Don't worry, the instant Laura said hitchhike I said NO) So we walked, with our bags, mind you a reasonable ish ten minute walk to an internet cafe. But oh no! Its Sunday, its not open. Well darn, we know theres another one near the Cathedral, and its bigger, so we think, well its more likely to be open! So we walk the less reasonable 30 minute walk with our bags over in that direction. Oh, how lovely, as were getting closer the big metal gate closing it is getting shinier and shinier. Just great! We rest our feetsies of course, and go back to the train station, about a 25 minute walk. We go to the counter, and it is BUSY. We stand in line, but the English speaking one isn't availiable, so we slowly walk up to the counter. Through broken English and French we were able to tell him that we wanted to get to Amsterdam, from Paris, tomorrow. I told him we were already going to be sleeping in Paris tonight, so tomorrow we would need one to Amsterdam. Sadly, he didn't realize that we already HAD these tickets to be in Paris, and we paid an extra (non refundable) €3 each, not much, but we're on a tight budget! We also paid €13 to reserve our spot on the other train. Lovely! But at least we're getting there.

This is about when we would want to call our hostel for the night and tell them that we can't get in. But remember, no internet, that means no phone number! That means we just wait and hope that they don't cancel our reservation and rebook the room! We met a couple of girls from Florida while waiting, they were doing a 6 wk Law School exchange program at Oxford. They said they lived on a budget, but the place they offered us for the night in paris (very nice of them by the way) was ONLY 60 dollars a night, per person. We said thank you, but no thank you.

The train to Paris was rather uneventful, and we were able to arrive in the beautiful city at 5pm. We were at a different station then the one that our train left from in the morning, so we looked at a map (a few times) and figured out how to walk to the other, luckily only 10 minutes away. Once we got there, we asked the service desk if there ever so possibly could be a baggage storage. And guess what! THERE WAS. So we went down there, put our bag in a €7, 48 hr storage locker and went on our way. And the direction of our way was the Eiffel Tower of course! We got a one way ticket for the metro, and luckily when we were leaving, there was a herd of people going through the disabled door, skipping the thing that takes zour ticket away! So we joined them of course, and didn't have to give up our ticket. Yes, we like to save money, even 1.50 euro for a ticket. Shush.

We walked, looking for the sky, figuring it would show us where to go! I mean, we got off at the Tour d'Eiffel exit afterall. We just couldn't see it, so we followed the crowd. Suddenly there was a parting in the trees and we were RIGHT next to it. It was pretty awesome. We took some pictures, and bought some bread and cheese (how appropriate) and went to sit on the lawn and listen to music. The weather was nice, we had food and a place to sit, the fact that we had no where to stay that night was beside the point! We opened the cheese and OMG it stunk. We ate this cheese before in Germany, but apparently its made different in France. It was unbearable, EVEN FOR LAURA. That was a waste of €3, but luckily we still had jam from before and were able to enjoy the bread. We sat here, got up to get some delicious crepes to warm up (recommended by those girls from Florida) and continued to sit. We stayed for the 10 o'clock then 11 o'clock shows (lighting and sparkling)

DO you want to know what SUCKS? We arrived the DAY before Bastille day, meaning the day before big parties, major celebration at the Eiffel Tower and FREE ADMITTANCE INTO NATIONAL MUSEUMS, INCLUDING THE LOUVRE. Yea, and we had a 9am train out the next morning. It was upsetting, but we knew that we would want to see that with Rachel in a month (to the day) and that it would be less fun for her if we'd just seen it. EVEN if it was free...

We headed back to the train station (our planned hotel) and were able to use our one way tickets, which were actually not checked either getting onto the metro NOR leaving it. Faulty system, I'd say. We made ourselves a little bed on the floor of the station, and we were playing some cards when a man who worked there said, 'You know this closes in an hour, right?' (but in french) and we were like UHOH nopes! We were like...ok well theres a park like 10 minutes from here...we'll stay here for the hour, then go there for three, then come back when it opens at 4! During that hour, a group of Britains came and sat near us, as did two other college age people down the way. We heard people being shooed out down stairs, and the Britain asked us if we had to go, and we said...yes, in like 20 minutes. So he went up and asked a man if there was anyway we could sleep inside (otherwise they would join us in the park, safety in numbers!). The man started leading us, telling us to follow. We were worried he would lead us to the door (where the dog was barking at people), but instead, he led us to a train! And he told us that we had to be out by 5 and said goodbye. It was amazing! We had a warm place to sleep! We were all ecstatic!

We had a long boring wait til the train, filled with a little grumpiness (it turned colder as the night went on, and Laura didn't sleep very well). We got some food and got onto our train, and had a very nice 5 hr venture to Amsterdam.

I hopefully will continue to update, right about now!

Ack...

Sorry for the horribly long gap between this and the last post! We had a long recap one, but it got deleted and we just havent had a chance since. This one wont be great because its so hard to type! And were at an expensive internet cafe!!

this is zhqt its like zhen i type nor,ql; it ,qy not see, thqt bqd; but itms kind of hqrd to reqd; qye§ so thqt is zhy i hqve to type reqlly sloz qnd i dont like it11

(this is what its like when i type normal)

Iù, going to type A's as Q and M's as , or ? becquse thqt is just SO ,uch eqsier: THQNK YOU Qnd qlso W is Z!!!

Qfter lqkes district; we went to Cqnterbury: The town wqs cute; not too ,uch to sqy qbout it though: Ze liked the hostel q lot; ze ,qde friends zith q girl fro, Cqliforniq: Ze qlso zent to q sing qlong pqstq night; held by q very q,using Itqliqn ,qn; zhich zqs reqlly reqlly fun: Ze zpent the dqy follozing in London; qnd slept thqt night in the qirport; (cheqper) qnd flez into Frqnkfurt; Ger,qny the next ,orning: Ze hqd q hoorrrrriiiibbbblllleeee dqy in the beginning; q lot of difficulties zith finding the right triqns (did you knoz they speqk ger,qn?); qnd ze zere qlreqdy tired qnd ze couldnt get on the cruise up the rhine thqt ze zqnted; so qll in qll it just zqsnt the best: BUT luckily ze got to Dusseldorf; our destinqtion; qnd zere qble to relqx qnd eqt in q little courtyqrd; qnd therefore the dqy picked up nicely:

Dusseldorf zqs difficult; becquse ze dont speqk ger,qn; but it zqs cool to be in q foreign speqking country; its been q zhile for both of us:

Ze then heqded to Bruges; zhich zqs q reqlly cute; but reqlly touristy tozn: Ze zqlked qround; qnd it zqs gorgeous; lots of zqter chqnnels through the tozn; nice brick buildings qnd streets; but it closes very eqrly: Like; if you think ed,onds closes eqrly; go to Bruges: Like:::the grocery stores closes qround dinner ti,e: REDICULOUS! Sqdly it rqined; but ze zere qble to ,qke it out zhen it zqs dry; zhich is lucky:

Then ze hqd q long dqy of trqvelling to Rei,s Frqnce: Ze chose this plqce just becuqse ze needed so,ezhere to stqy before ze heqded to Q,sterdq, (to,orroz): Ze chose q route zith qbout 5 seperqte connections becquse it zqs free; co,pqred to reserving q spot zhich cost q lot of ,oney: This ,eqnt thqt ze zent to s,qller tozns; qnd ze zere in q LOT of plqces zhere NO ONE spoke English: THQT ?EQNS I HQD TO SPEQK FRENCH!!!!! it zqs crqzy: One of the trqins zqs on bus replqce,ent; qnd ze hqd to zqit for tzo hours in q s,qll stqtion: Ze didnt qrrive in Rei,s until 9p,; qnd zere zorried thqt the hostel zould be closed; qnd even zrose; ze didnt knoz zhere it zqs so ze hqd to go qnd find qn internet cqfe; zhich is rqre here:

Qnyzqy; Rei,s is reqlly nice; ze spent q dqy zqndering the pqrks (there qre q lot); then todqy ze looked qt the tozn center; zhich hqs Notre Dame Cathedral: Zhich zqs azeso,e looking:

Sorry for the bqd englihs; just blq,e the french; everyone qlzqys does: Its just so expensive qnd SOOOOOO sloz to type zith these three keys to different (others qre zrong too; but you dont use the, qs ,uch): Zere heqded off to go cq,ping in Q,sterdq,; so thqtll be qn qdventure: Ze ,qy not hqve internet in Q,sterdq,; depends on the price; so zell get bqck to you zhen ze cqn:

On qnother note; our grqnd,other Beryl Wilson just pqssed qzqy; qnd ze zqnted to ,qke note thqt she zill be greqtly ,issed qnd thqt our heqrts qre zith our fq,ily: WE LOVE YOU!

Q,y qnd Lqurq

Butts

Butts from Europe:














The peeing horse in Edinburgh














Dolly in the National Museum in Edinburgh














London, Hyde Park (?)














Dinosaur! London Natural History Museum














Windermere sheep

more to be continued...

So, as you can see, pictures are up! Go back and look at them! Rotate your head for some of them (instructions provided at the necessary photos)! It's exciting!

We are in Windermere, in the Lakes Disctrict. We've spent our time lazying around, going down to the lake, playing on trees and climbing up hills with new friends, spending hours at a viewpoint where we have a 360 view over rolling green hills and the lake, down in hidden nook by the lake. It's been wonderful. I love it here. Parents, this place goes on the list. Our hostel is unmanned, and small, which makes it seem more like a home than a hotel. We have been making dinner and lunches too... we bought enough food for 2.5 days at the beginning (for £13.50) which is much easier on the wallet (we splurged a little for amy's birthday which was fun, but ouch did it hurt).



(head rotation necessary... 90 degrees to the right. This was our view for lunch yesterday. HAHA we get to eat here when you dont!)


We found a small ball on the train to London. I took it with me, because it was left behind by a group of very annoying early-teenagers. Being Amy and I, we named it: Winston.



I'm not sure I have much more to say, but I will put up some pictures. I have a habit of taking pictures of animal behinds... so you get to walk with us through our trip so far through animal behinds. Actually... so that I dont have to move them all, I'm going to make another post of all random pictures. So you just looked at the pictures, most likely...

Oh and another thing...

Tomorrows my birthday, tomorrows my birthday. Woohoo, woohoo, tomorrows my birthday!

We may happen to be located in London...

The Londoners are formal and polite, its so weird! Well, its not like its muuuch different than home, but they say "mind the gap" and "please refrain from using this railing". London is large. Today we took a free tour (same company as Edinburgh) which showed us where about half the stuff is, so tomorrow we're going to take the other free tour and see the other half! After the tour, we ate some lunch (which was uber hot, apparently they don't understand that we like air conditioning, even at this latitude) and went to the National Gallery. We saw lots of famous paintings by lots of famous people, it was cool. Laura got reallly bored. I enjoyed it, as did Rachael. (As Laura screams sooo did I! Which is such a lie) After that we relaxed in Trafalger Square, listened to the rants of a crazy screaming woman (we could barely understand her, but she was very enthusiastic). Now we're going to have dinner, then have ice cream as we look at Princess Di's memorial. More on that later!

(... rotate head...)

laura and her wrong font...

Edinburgh. So if I remember right, Laura left on saying we got our tickets. That we did, so we officially made it to Edinburgh. We weren't able to buy our tickets to get to the airport until 3:30am, when we showed up at the bus (which we almost missed, because we didn't know where to go). If we had missed it, we would of had to pay a really expensive taxi fare, but luckily we caught it so it doesn't matter...

Edinburgh is AMAZING. It is gorgeous and safe and happy and old. We've been hanging around old town mostly, which hasn't changed in a few hundred years. We went on an awesome free walking tour, where we learned that Edinburgh is pretty much a KILLER town. Meaning that they killed a lot of people. A lot of hangings. Interesting that it is now the safest town in Europe! Our tour guide was awesome, so much so that we chose to PAY for a night tour (a "ghost" tour- really just a detail of all of the witchburnings, head choppings and hangings) which was also really cool. We've hung around the parks (picnicked), looked at all the free stuff (some museums and cathedrals) and just wandered around. And my general conclusion is that Edinburgh is amazing and we need to come back! Parents, I definitely recommend it to you (in fact, we're making a list of all the places you might like and why). I don't have the camera connector right now, but we'll put up pictures soon, I swear!

(rotate head 90 degrees, please. That's the writers museum in Edinburgh)

(Amy and Rachael playing with interactive exhibits at the National Museum of Scotland)

Well anyway, tomorrow we head to London so we'll get back to you from there!

@"#\ they have funny keyboards here

Amy doesnt know I'm posting this- ha! She's asleep in bed upstairs right now, as is Rachael. We made it to Galway today. This is the first night in many nights that we didnt accidentally fall asleep at 7pm... at least they made it to 9 tonight.

(View from the Aran Islands... rotate your head 90 degrees clockwise... we havent figured out how to rotate them yet...)

I have decided that Killarney was more Irish than touristy... we passed through a few more towns on the way here that looked very similar, so either they are all touristy or they are all Irish. I just thought i should clear that up for you. I know you were probably dwelling on it... and I hate to have you dwelling on anything like that! I'd rather you dwell on things like... global warming, or... world war 3, or... your shopping list for tomorrow.

Another thing you dont have to worry about anymore, and neither do we, is how we're getting to Edinburgh- we gots ourselves a plane ride over there. Woo! So no fretting, other than whether you want turkey sandwiches or PB&J.

I accidentally threw away a real plate today. We were at a Supermacs (which are common in Ireland, like burger king and mcdonalds but nicer) and were getting up to go when I dumped everything on my plate into the garbage. Rachael pointed out that I had indeed just thrown away a non-disposable plate, but I it wasnt mine so I wasnt going to go fishing through the garbage to get it out. Yeah that's right. Take that Supermacs.

Once we figure out how to upload pictures to this thing, we're going to post some pictures. Actually, let me reword that. Once we get onto the computer while we have both the camera and the connecting cords, then we're going to post some pictures. So then you get to see some of what we've seen! Arent you excited?!

I dont know if you realized this, but irish keyboards have the @ symbol where we usually have the " symbol. And they have small return buttons so I keep hitting # instead of enter. AND they drive on the wrong side of the road. AND they have white lines in the center of the road and yellow lines on the edges. AND they sometimes have white lines between lanes of the same direction, so I have no idea how they can tell if it's a one-way or two-way road. Good thing I'm not driving. We met some people from New York the other night who were adventurous enough to try driving. And they ended up in an accident, just as I would expect would happen to me.

Poor Arney...

What ever did he do wrong? Apparently they are into murder here... a lot of names start with kill...

Our last day in Dublin was nicely relaxing- we walked down to the park and ate bread and cheese while listening to a country duo sing, laying in the sun (they sounded more twangy than most of the country bands in the US...). We were going to meet up with Paul and take a train over to the coast, but somehow we got separated from him and after making a valliant effort to find him again, we decided that we were super hungry and needed to eat. So we did that instead. Paul ended up making it over there, and at least we got to see the pictures. The most disappointing part is that we didnt get to see Enya's house. My heart is broken. And crying.

We left Dublin on Saturday. We hung around the station for a few hours. I ate me some good ole chicken and fries. And although I was tempted to rub the grease on Amy, I withheld and was a good person. I found out when we got to the station that there was a festival going on while we were there, and that there was a parade that night... but it was too late for me to go. Anyway, I lived to get over it. The train here to Killarney was lovely- through the typical green fields and rolling hills that I imagine when I think of Ireland.

Killarney is very cutesy. Im not sure if it's really touristy or just irish... I cant tell. Yesterday there were musicians and dancing in the street, and aparently tonight there is some old boy-band group playing. We were told NOT to go to that one... Today was spent primarily riding our bikes through the Killarney National Park. Initially, I will admit this, I didnt want to ride my bike... I'm poor and cheap. But after walking for about a half hour and not getting anywhere, and seeing people breezing by on bikes, we decided to turn around and get us some bikes. My tush is a little sore, but I got to see some very nice lakes, old houses, and even a castle... oh my! I like ending the day a little sore (not necessarily my tush... but my legs are a little tired) because it meant we had a good day.






I feel a little bad for Rachael because she's not used to Amy and my constant fake arguments... really we arent fighting much, if at all (other than, 'well do you want to get a bike?!' 'I dont know...''well what dont you know?!'... that type of stuff). I hope we dont drive her crazy :)

Well I should wrap this up. We've got to figure out how we're getting to Galway tomorrow. And how we're getting to Edinburgh. Hmmm....

Laura (and Amy)

Day two in Dublin...

Yesterday we woke up bright and early to see as much of Dublin as we could, via a walking tour. We looked at the brochure for a paid trip, and just did it ourselves. We went with Paul, whose a roommate of ours. It was a really long walk, like...really long...like 9 hours or so. We found a really nice park with live music that we sat and listened to for awhile, and we actually plan on going back today and having a picnic. We saw lots of castles, cathedrals and old buildings (its cool to be in a place that actually has buildings older then a couple hundred years)--plus we just got to hear a lot of awesome accents. The weather was temperamental, it was nice when we started and when we were at the parks, but the rain would come and go and at one point was actually quite hard. When we went under cover at Dublin Castle, we actually ran into a friend of mine from college, who is in Dublin as well! And we actually ran into her again at a tour that we did later in the day. Very unexpected! We had lunch at a cute little pub, and they actually had a vegetarian burger. Ok well now I'm just telling you random details so I'll go, but all in all the town is gorgeous and the people are really nice--like, people asked us if we were lost whenever we looked at the map (and we always were), we didn't have to ask! Tomorrow we're going to Killarney, so we may not be able to get back right away. Til next time!

Some new friends in Dublin! Our first dormmates, so exciting :)

We're actually gone...

We've arrived in Dublin so our trip has officially begun! We had two flights to get here, one from Seattle to JFK, and the next straight to Dublin. The first was 5 hrs, the second 7 (surprisingly even). There wasn't much turbulance, yet I (Amy) did feel slightly sick at the end. On the second flight Laura and I originally sat by a cute old Irish man who was on his way home, and he was sweet too because he switched seats with Rachael so that she could sit with us as well. We arrived at 8am, and got to our hostel at 10, after wandering around town for quite a bit of time...we had no map, see (quite difficult with a bus, having no idea when the exit would be!). We planned to nap from 12-1, but that didn't really work out, seeing as we woke up at 7pm! That night we explored the town with a few roommates, Dublin is quite beautiful! And I love the accents. Today we're off to explore the city, so hopefully we can get back to you soon with our impressions!

We leave in three days...

I would have to say that we failed at maintaining this blog and writing everyday. Oops!

Well I will do a quick update on where we are now! We have booked our hostels for the first two weeks with Rachael, and I am about to make a list of things to do in the various cities. We have also purchased our Eurail and Britrail passes, meaning that transportation will be easy! After Rachael leaves on June 30, Laura and I are going to go up to the Lake District for a few days, then to some place that we have yet to choose, then down to France. HOPEFULLY, this will all be chronicaled as we're doing it, therefore I won't go too much into the future and ruin the surprise!

Right now I'm back in Edmonds, doing Laundry, planning a going away party and beginning to pack. Laura is coming down today, and once she's here we will also plan out a few last minute details. Honestly, by most peoples standards, we're way behind schedule on planning and getting ready, but by ours, we're doing just dandy!

Well lunch is served (oh how I love being at home again!) so I must go, but I WILL return more frequently then I have in the past, I swear!

We haven't forgotten...

Not that anyone reads this regularly, but I thought I'd say that I haven't forgotten about this site and I feel really bad for not writing more frequently. We have done more planning, but school has been crazy busy, and on the rare occasions that we find time to plan, we don't have enough extra time to write about it. So I do still plan on updating on the three different sections of the trip, I swear! I can't write now because I have to study, but this weekend! This weekend!

But I'm so excited because we leave in just over ONE MONTH! WOOOOW.

Purchases

Wow, A lot has changed since our last post. A new quarter has began, with new classes and all that new...joy. I now have my own room so we've been hanging out here a lot more. And, in hanging out together here more, we've been planning more!

Over the next few days I'll explain in details how plans have changed in each of the three sections of the trip. Here's a preview:

We are sculpting the first 2 weeks rather carefully. The following two weeks are left completely empty, we were thinking a 2 week tour of Scandinavia, however, that would cost an extra 2000 dollars for airfare and the like, so we are thinking of new ideas. The last 2 months may not be planned until Rachel returns from Australia/ New Zealand, where she is currently. But, we have still nonetheless made some major changes to part three as well.

The really exciting new news has to do with PURCHASES. Yesterday afternoon, we went to kayak.com, and found the cheapest flight to Dublin. It was through Delta airlines, and a return for Rachael was one of the best deals there were. So, as of yesterday, we are non-refund-ably going to Europe. Laura and I have flights to Dublin, and Rachael has a round trip, into Dublin, out of London.

Hiatus....

Lack of posting due to finals week. Final final tomorrow! Can't wait! Instead of studying I'm online though....

Thought I'd just update our lives! Career wise, I start my job after spring break, Rachael just got hired at Old Navy, and Laura has officially sent in a couple applications and has looked into other positions at places like Fred Meyer, Target and Petsmart. The position at Petsmart actually looks interesting to me too, and after I've worked at the foundation for a week or two I may apply to Petsmart as well.

In other news, my roommate moved out so I know have my own room! There's a possibility that someone new will move in, but I'll just pretend that there isn't!

I've also decided that I'm going to make some jewelry for the trip, because it'd be nice to have simply accessories for the trip so I can pretend that I'm not wearing the exact same outfit again. Laura's going to get in on this too, and we'll upload pictures throughout the process.

Over Spring Break we're going to have an Ireland get together with Rachael, Laura and I where we'll make definite plans for where we'll be when, and what flights. We'll all buy our tickets to Dublin and Rachael will also buy her tickets back from London. This way we have the beginning of the trip set in stone. We won't buy our returning tickets until Rachel is back from Australia, in early May. Luckily, this will still be over three months before the date of the flight.

Obsession...

I'm so obsessed with French its ridiculous. How did I realize this obsession? Besides buying 2 books in French and a "real" French phrasebook online, besides listening to French music constantly, besides reading this bought book constantly (Harry Potter!), and bragging to everyone how far I am, besides reading up on French politics and besides thinking in French and only wanting to talk in French....I did the one thing that makes it a true obsession. I've begun to read my French dictionary for fun. As a bedtime reader.

So yes, I am obsessed with the language. Luckily I have the 9-10 days in France this summer to look forward to. I like to think that it gives me a reason for my obsession. Yea, I'd like to think that.

Nope...

Haha, so apparently no one is out there. Well we don't need advice, we have other people, better than the nonexistent you. Our lame and sporadic posts are due to the fact that its dead week, the week before finals. Not only are we busy on school, making it hard to post, but because we're busy with school we haven't been planning much, meaning we have little to post about. Thought I'd explain myself, seeing as there has been such an uproar, you know, all of you dedicated fans commenting disappointedly...

PS. Laura thinks I should clarify that I'm just teasing cause I have nothing else better to talk about right now. I thought that was a given...

Anyone out there?

I never should of told Laura the password to our blog. I could just EDIT, copy and paste them. First off, she shouldn't change her picture! Mueheheh. Secondly, she used the wrong font and I had to go back and change it. CONSISTENCY, Laura...sheesh. Plus her titles were not capitalize-able, which gave me serious heart pain.

On a completely random note, Annarosa called me this afternoon and sang me "Last Kiss" - by Pearl Jam, and since then I just can't stop listening to it. That and Sympathique by Pink Martini. And Ma lettre au president, by Axiom. And a few others.

Ok so lately I've been asking a lot of: "oh, you've been to Europe?! Excellent! Where do you recommend?". I've gotten some good responses...to be honest, most I don't remember. I try, I really do, but I don't write them down, so really I don't try. So, I was thinking that whoever (if anyone) reads this, they should write a few must see places. Its very beneficial in this early planning stages, plus I get to know if ANYONE is reading this.

por favor

Oh and I keep telling Amy to change my picture because I look angry in it. Boo. I'm not angry! Change it! Wait... I'm signed in... I could change it huh? Muahahaha!

shimmy shimmy

Earlier in the year, before I thought we were actually going to go to Europe… wait, no, I really thought we were going to go to Europe, it just wasn’t as real at that point… I was told that I was nominated for an internship with the USGS for doing well at field camp (I’m a geology major, and for those of you who don’t know this, in order to graduate we have/get to go on a 6 week field course where we learn mapping and other skills. And how to drink a lot of beer. And throw huge rocks off of cliffs). Well, it wasn’t until after I told everyone that I was interested in this internship that Amy, Rachel, and I (mostly them two) started planning the trip. And no matter how excited it was to try for the internship, I was more and more excited about the trip. Finally, a couple weeks ago, it was time to start talking to all of the different internship opportunities and the more I thought about it, the more I thought I would rather go to Europe. And this tore me up. Well, at least a little. I did NOT want to actively close the door on such a good opportunity… but I really want to go to Europe. What to do? What to do? Well, you know the answer… we’re going to Europe! I figured that I would probably regret not doing this more than I would regret not doing the internship. So that decided it. That, and a coin flip. Not really, I would only accept the side of the coin that said Europe.

And I wanted to let you all know how terrible of a sister Amy is. I had to learn from this website that she got the other job. What?! Yeah, now I feel loved. She didn’t even tell me about the job! Gaahh! Well… now it’s my turn to get a job and bring in some money. My parents don’t know it yet, but I will probably be so broke after getting back that I’ll have to move back in there. Something I said I would NOT do. But… they are a lot cheaper than renting… and … I love them? YES I DO! Did you see that parents? I love you! Wanna let me live with you again? I’m a great housemate! Oh I hope they do.

--Laura

Money!

One of the main concerns of this trip (understandably), is money. We need it. We don't have it. I (Amy) previously planned on waiting to get a job until Fall, and taking this first year of college nice and easy. However, I soon realized that that would not be a wise decision if I don't want to come back from this trip broke and having to pay for tuition.

Therefore, Laura and I plan to get jobs for this quarter as well. I'm not quite sure of the details of Laura's job hunt (she can write about that eventually), but mine have been rather successful. I've only inquired into two positions, the first filled up before I actually turned in my application (sadly) but the second seems very promising. I mean, I think I got the job. *knock on wood* I may be wrong! Its at the Foundation Office in Old Main, just entry level data entry. My friend Colleen works there, and told me they were looking for new people. I emailed the boss, and she told me to come in today. When I did, she told me the details of the job, asked me if it sounded good, and I said yes. She gave me an I-9 and W-4, and told me to tell her my schedule after I register. She said that I will start April 1st unless I desire to have the first week free for getting situated in my classes. So I think I have the job! She never said "you're hired" though...

I'm very excited for this opportunity! I need/like money! I'll give more details about the job as I learn them! Like if I'm actually hired!!!

The first month....

We’ve decided that we want to keep this blog updated, writing everyday, and maintaining that, hopefully, throughout the trip. That way everyone who reads our site would be happier, plus we can respond to comments easier. Problem with that right now, however, is that it’s the end of the quarter! Test and assignment crazy time right now, and I (Amy) have my last of 3 tests in 4 days tomorrow!

So I think I’ll just begin a topic that I can talk about regularly, which is my sole planning of where to go in some of the countries. In the countries that Rachel is with us, I don’t have to plan what we do as much, because Rachel is an awesome trip planner. Not only has she been to most of these countries before, but she also she knows great resources and methods for finding out what to do. So she’s been great in telling us what cities are best and stuff such as that. It’s her books that we’ve been using to plan this whole trip. The first month, in Ireland, the UK, and Denmark will be without Rachel however, and I am the second most plan-ey, therefore the main responsibility of finding where to go and what to see, is on me. Don’t get me wrong; of course, I love planning! But I figured that I’d introduce the fact that I am in charge of planning our routes through those countries, because I’ll probably be talking about it a lot!

Well I best be off, I should really study for my test in French tomorrow!

Oh how plans change....

We’re at it again. Laura and I have been planning on taking a trip to Europe for a few years now. This is the first summer where we were “free” (I’ll get into that later), so we decided its time! We started off planning a 5 wk trip, visiting 5 different countries for a week each. However, this slowly, pre-planning, morphed into a 6-week trip, because 5 weeks was already so close to a month and a half. Before we knew it, I had suggested we have a 2-month trip, that way we can really relax and see all of the countries. This is the mindset that we had when we started planning this trip, approximately a week ago, the end of February. But in planning we found a) our brothers wedding won’t be until December, not early September, like we thought and b) Rachel (#2) wouldn’t be able to join us until the middle of July, limiting the countries she can visit. Therefore, we thought the most rational thing to do, was to expand the trip to 3 months. Instead of 6 countries, we plan on visiting approximately 12.

Rachael (#1) came into play when I told her of our plans. She’s known for a long time that we were going to go, eventually, and I’ve always known that she wanted to go to Europe as well. Once we started making definite plans, it came clear that Rachael joining us for the two weeks would be convenient, and fun, for all of us. So Rachael will be with us in Ireland and our adventures in the UK.

Unlike our road trip of the south, where we decided and left in 1 week, this trip takes a little more planning. I’m going to chronicle our adventures in planning our adventure, for all of you to see. I mean, after all, isn’t planning supposed to be half the fun?