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