Well, the trip is almost over. James and I are both looking forward to getting things back to normal. I'm looking forward to NYC with Callie, whom I haven't seen in over a year now! When we get back to Bozeman we have a quite a few projects; 1st I need to find a job!
We'll be back in NYC Tuesday evening. We'll have our cell phones back then too. Wednesday we're going to a Mets vs. Twins game and Friday we're going to a comedy club. We'll be back in Spokane Saturday afternoon.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
lo and behold, rotating meat is good
yah, we sprung for rotating meat today, it`s the pork they put in pitas. It tasted good, but qbout a 1/2 hour later we were on q frqntic search for a bathroom in the Louvre. On to ,ore pleasant things; we went to Versailles this morning, i feel sorry for the landscapers! Then to the Centre Pompidou, we didn`t go in, I just wanted to see the exterior. And then we went to the Louvre for a few hours, we only really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, and then we just wandered around. That place is HUGE!!!
We`re ready to go home, we desperately need meat: Not kidding. Neither of us could ever be a vegetarian. It surprises both of us how familiar our routine has become. The unknown is now becoming familiar in a weird way. I`m used to strange beds, sharing a bathroom, bottled water, not knowing where the bathroom is or how to flush or turn on the lights.
We`re ready to go home, we desperately need meat: Not kidding. Neither of us could ever be a vegetarian. It surprises both of us how familiar our routine has become. The unknown is now becoming familiar in a weird way. I`m used to strange beds, sharing a bathroom, bottled water, not knowing where the bathroom is or how to flush or turn on the lights.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
This will be short....
The French Keyboard is crazy! Just want to let everyone know we made it safely and with out any problems! Today we went to the Eiffel tower, Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame; champs Elysee, and the Latin Quqrter; where we had relly good crepes for dinner. Tomorrow were going to go to Versaille; the Marais Quarter, the centre Ponpidou and then to the Louvre. Thats all for now, this keyboard is wickedly stressfull! oh, we'll be back in nyc on the evening of the 19th.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Barcelona, continued
Yesterday we went to parc Guell and to Casa Mila, both were designed by Antonio Gaudi. They were pretty cool. We wanted to see the inside of Casa Battlo but it was too expensive. The outside is really neat though. You can see Gaudi´s influence throughout the city.
We didn´t really do much for our anniversary, we figured being in Barcelona was cool enough. We did go out for tapas again but it wasn´t as good as the previous restaurant.
I think our hotel is Paris has internet so I´ll try to throw up a blog or 2 while we're there.
Adios!
We didn´t really do much for our anniversary, we figured being in Barcelona was cool enough. We did go out for tapas again but it wasn´t as good as the previous restaurant.
I think our hotel is Paris has internet so I´ll try to throw up a blog or 2 while we're there.
Adios!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Tapas
We went out to dinner tonight, and it was soo good it´s worth writing about already! The food was nothing spectacular, but it was very good! I´m still full! We had went to a tapas restaurant that was recommended by the hostel. We ate outside which was nice, all of the sounds add to the experience. There was music almost the entire time, different types: spanish guitar, hammer dulcimer, and then guitar again but all popular songs in the U.S. The only foul moment was when I had to tell one of the many rose vendors to leave us alone (most leave when you say no, this one was too persistent, like the umbrella vendor). Anyway, we had pasta salad and greek salad. The greek salad was cheese (mozzerellaish), tomatoes and maybe pickles, we´re not sure. The pasta salad was pretty much tuna salad, both were pretty good. Then we had veal sirloin cuts on french bread (so good!), bravadas (Fried potatoes with mayo and some spicy sauce), coquettes (Fried cheese and ham balls, good but not as good as the rest) and fried cuttlefish. I surprisingly ate a lot of the cuddlefish, it reminded me of calamari. I think we liked it so much because they actually salted stuff. We´re so desperate for salt that we buttered bread and then salted it (With salt that we brought from home). Ok, and for desert we had catalan style creme which was creme brulee with a little cinnamon and creme caramel. We were stuffed after that, still are! And it was cheap!
Anyway, I´m going to try to go to sleep in our 90 degree room, as long as I´m full I´m sleepy.
Anyway, I´m going to try to go to sleep in our 90 degree room, as long as I´m full I´m sleepy.
Barcelona
We finally made it to Barcelona. The trains getting here were a nightmare, I´ll admit it, I finally cried. We had itinerary that was printed for us in Venice at that train station. So we got up at 5:30 am to catch the train at 6:56am. We got to the train station and the train was listed as being on time, track 1, everything as usual, and then 6:56 came and went, no explanation. So we waited for the ticket office to open and I did my best in french to tell the agent we needed the next train to Barcelona, he told us not until that night. The agent next to him spoke english and she gave us new itinerary. We´re pretty sure she tried to screw us, we´ve found the french don´t care. So we did what she told us and when it was time to transfer trains we figured out she told us to get off at the wrong station so we had to take a bus to another station and wait a round for 3 hours and then transfer again, and supposedly again but it turned out we didn´t really have to and the itinerary we had wasn´t even close to correct. Anyway, 6 hours later than planned, we made it.
Barcelona is really nice, but hot and our hostel is junk. The only window to our room has a bed pushd up to it so you can´t open it and there´s no AC. It´s probably close to 90 degress in there. Hopefully I´ll be able to sleep tonight ( I was beyond exhausted last night, lucky for reception).
Today we went to Sagrada Familia, it´s the coolest church we´ve ever seen! Unfortuantely, over 100 years after being started it´s still not finished so it´s covered in scaffolding, hard to get a good picture. We also went to the German Pavilion, aka Barcelona pavilion and Mies Van Der Roh (SP) Pavilion. It was really nice. We also walked around for a while on Mt. Jiuc, where all the old Olympic infrastrucrture is. Tomorrow we´ll go to Casa Mila and Parque Guell, then maybe to the beach if we have time. Tonight we´re going to go out for dinner.
The french Riviera was nice, but it was a little more like a geriatric convention and unfortunately the beaches to not require you to wear a top. I think at least 60% of the people at the beaches were eligable for a senior discount. We´re both officially ¨French Fried¨ , we spent to much time in the sun our 1st day (even with sunscreen) and the 2nd day was a little boring as a result. The water was beautiful, perfect temp for swimming, and finally, it didn´t rain on us!
I´ll give another update before we leave Barcelona.
Barcelona is really nice, but hot and our hostel is junk. The only window to our room has a bed pushd up to it so you can´t open it and there´s no AC. It´s probably close to 90 degress in there. Hopefully I´ll be able to sleep tonight ( I was beyond exhausted last night, lucky for reception).
Today we went to Sagrada Familia, it´s the coolest church we´ve ever seen! Unfortuantely, over 100 years after being started it´s still not finished so it´s covered in scaffolding, hard to get a good picture. We also went to the German Pavilion, aka Barcelona pavilion and Mies Van Der Roh (SP) Pavilion. It was really nice. We also walked around for a while on Mt. Jiuc, where all the old Olympic infrastrucrture is. Tomorrow we´ll go to Casa Mila and Parque Guell, then maybe to the beach if we have time. Tonight we´re going to go out for dinner.
The french Riviera was nice, but it was a little more like a geriatric convention and unfortunately the beaches to not require you to wear a top. I think at least 60% of the people at the beaches were eligable for a senior discount. We´re both officially ¨French Fried¨ , we spent to much time in the sun our 1st day (even with sunscreen) and the 2nd day was a little boring as a result. The water was beautiful, perfect temp for swimming, and finally, it didn´t rain on us!
I´ll give another update before we leave Barcelona.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Sea Enemies
Last night after I keft our blog we had dinner at the hostel- I had fresh pasta with pesto and james had stuffed mussels and local wine. The mussels were only 7euro! I thought they were excellent, and my pesto was very good too. We're going to go try a retaurant in town tonight.
James was swimming in the mediterranean by 9:30 this morning while we were waiting for a train. There are 5 small towns here, all linked by train and hiking trails, it's a national Park and a UNESCO world heritage sight. The towns are, in order, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monteroso. We're staying in Manarola. We took the train to Vernazza this morning and then hiked to Monterosso. In Monterroso we went swimming again even though it was raining (It was sunny this am). Then we took the train from Monterosso to Riomaggiore and then hiked back to Manarola. These town are all still very touristy, but we've noticed a lot of the tourists are french. Still plenty of Americans though. We had wanted to go snorkeling or sea kayaking today but it rained all afternoon. Now it's sunny again. We're hoping that on the French Riviera we'll have those opportunities.
We took a lot of pictures, there are so many flowers here! I'm not sure you could spend a week here, the towns are all so small it doesn't take much to explore them, but there are hiking trails galore so if you really wanted to hike you certainly could spend a lot of time doing it.
We went swimming again this afternoon in the coves in Manarola. I was a little nervous because down the shore a little way there were a lot of spiky anemone. I've decided it's easier to call them sea enemies, I just can't seem to get the word "anemone" out. When were were out on the breakwater (which is huge chunks of raw marble!) there were little tiny crabs all over. The looked like huge spiders from a distant ande I freaked out a little bit the first time I saw some between the rocks.
We've decided if we see someone working in one of the orchards in town (they're every where!) we'll see if we can pay them and pick a little fruit. We got really good peaches at the grocery store but I have no idea if they were local.
oh, and this morning both James and I were woken up by a rooster cock-a-doodle-doing outside. I think there are cat birds here too, which is a terrible sound- it sounds like a cat is being tortured. We heard one in pompei too.
In St. Raphael we're staying at a hotel so most likely we wont have internet, so if you don't hear from us, just know we're enjoying our time at the beach (rain or shine!)!
James was swimming in the mediterranean by 9:30 this morning while we were waiting for a train. There are 5 small towns here, all linked by train and hiking trails, it's a national Park and a UNESCO world heritage sight. The towns are, in order, Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monteroso. We're staying in Manarola. We took the train to Vernazza this morning and then hiked to Monterosso. In Monterroso we went swimming again even though it was raining (It was sunny this am). Then we took the train from Monterosso to Riomaggiore and then hiked back to Manarola. These town are all still very touristy, but we've noticed a lot of the tourists are french. Still plenty of Americans though. We had wanted to go snorkeling or sea kayaking today but it rained all afternoon. Now it's sunny again. We're hoping that on the French Riviera we'll have those opportunities.
We took a lot of pictures, there are so many flowers here! I'm not sure you could spend a week here, the towns are all so small it doesn't take much to explore them, but there are hiking trails galore so if you really wanted to hike you certainly could spend a lot of time doing it.
We went swimming again this afternoon in the coves in Manarola. I was a little nervous because down the shore a little way there were a lot of spiky anemone. I've decided it's easier to call them sea enemies, I just can't seem to get the word "anemone" out. When were were out on the breakwater (which is huge chunks of raw marble!) there were little tiny crabs all over. The looked like huge spiders from a distant ande I freaked out a little bit the first time I saw some between the rocks.
We've decided if we see someone working in one of the orchards in town (they're every where!) we'll see if we can pay them and pick a little fruit. We got really good peaches at the grocery store but I have no idea if they were local.
oh, and this morning both James and I were woken up by a rooster cock-a-doodle-doing outside. I think there are cat birds here too, which is a terrible sound- it sounds like a cat is being tortured. We heard one in pompei too.
In St. Raphael we're staying at a hotel so most likely we wont have internet, so if you don't hear from us, just know we're enjoying our time at the beach (rain or shine!)!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Pack your bags!
James and I have only been in Manarola for a few hours and we'd already recommend visiting here! The are five town in total, all old fishing villages built into the mountain sides on the mediterranean. We walked around for a few minutes this evening and saw lemon, apricot, peach, kumkwat(sp?) trees, grape vines galore and even an artichoke! This is also where pesto was invented. Tomorrow we're going to go hiking and swimming, maybe snorkeling. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures!
Ciao!
Ciao!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Adventures in Pompei and to Mt Vesuvius
Our day started with an insane bus ride to Pompei. That was just the beggining. We got to the bus station just fine, but the bus ride was something else. The bus driver passed EVERY car on the road! There are posted speed limits but he had to be going at least twice as fast. It was a little scary! Pompei was excellent, we were there from 9:30 am to 2 pm. We took around 150 picturers so I'll let them explani everything later. We thought it was going to be small but it's huge! Pretty much the entire city was excavated. We didn't even see all of it!
Ok, the adventure to Mt Vesuvius; We went to the "point of sale" booth as indicated in the ticket office. Our guide book says to buy tickets on the bus so we waited at a sign that had bus routes. Well the time the bus was supposed to come came and went to we walked down the hill to the tourist office. He didn't nhave tickets and told us to try the tourist shop across the street. They didn't have tickets and told us to go back up to the train station on the hill. We went back and were told to go back to the tourist office. The guy at the tourist office just said to get on the bus and pay later. Other people had tickets and said they got them at the train station. I think they bought them at the train ticket window even though the sign in the window said to buy tickets at the point of sale booth. I don't know... the other places we had tried usually have tickets but they had run out. So anyway, the bus driver told us to pay at the top. 10 minutes into the bus ride he pulls over and starts yelling at someone on his cell phone for almost 5 minuts. The one person on the bus who spoke Italian asked if there was a problem so he made her translate to us and some otheer people who also couldn't get tickets: we were to just pay him 5 euros for the trip and that would be fine. That was cool with us because a round trip ticket is usually €8.60. That was taken care of but the bus ride up up the mountain was something else. It's switched back pretty much the whole way nd he would just lay on the horn to warn people we were coming and then he would yell "It's okay, it's okay" you could see people white knucking the seat, wide eyed with great looks on their faces. We hiked to the crates wich was letting out a little steam here and there. The way back down the mountain was a little better, we came with in inches of colliding with a little car, the bus driver just laid on the horn until the guy backed up. The driver had honked before we turned the corner. You really had to be there to get the full experience but let's just say it was scariest bus trip we've ever experienced.
we had really good pizza again tonight, it's so fresh tasting!
We leave for Cinque Terre very early tomorrow, we're looking forward to laying on the beach and eating fresh pesto!
I have to go shower, we're absolutely filthy! The dirt on Vesuvius is black and as a reult my feet are black as well. Oh, I'm now carrying rocks in my backpack, I couldn't resist! But volcanic rocks are lighter than regular rocks right?
Ok, the adventure to Mt Vesuvius; We went to the "point of sale" booth as indicated in the ticket office. Our guide book says to buy tickets on the bus so we waited at a sign that had bus routes. Well the time the bus was supposed to come came and went to we walked down the hill to the tourist office. He didn't nhave tickets and told us to try the tourist shop across the street. They didn't have tickets and told us to go back up to the train station on the hill. We went back and were told to go back to the tourist office. The guy at the tourist office just said to get on the bus and pay later. Other people had tickets and said they got them at the train station. I think they bought them at the train ticket window even though the sign in the window said to buy tickets at the point of sale booth. I don't know... the other places we had tried usually have tickets but they had run out. So anyway, the bus driver told us to pay at the top. 10 minutes into the bus ride he pulls over and starts yelling at someone on his cell phone for almost 5 minuts. The one person on the bus who spoke Italian asked if there was a problem so he made her translate to us and some otheer people who also couldn't get tickets: we were to just pay him 5 euros for the trip and that would be fine. That was cool with us because a round trip ticket is usually €8.60. That was taken care of but the bus ride up up the mountain was something else. It's switched back pretty much the whole way nd he would just lay on the horn to warn people we were coming and then he would yell "It's okay, it's okay" you could see people white knucking the seat, wide eyed with great looks on their faces. We hiked to the crates wich was letting out a little steam here and there. The way back down the mountain was a little better, we came with in inches of colliding with a little car, the bus driver just laid on the horn until the guy backed up. The driver had honked before we turned the corner. You really had to be there to get the full experience but let's just say it was scariest bus trip we've ever experienced.
we had really good pizza again tonight, it's so fresh tasting!
We leave for Cinque Terre very early tomorrow, we're looking forward to laying on the beach and eating fresh pesto!
I have to go shower, we're absolutely filthy! The dirt on Vesuvius is black and as a reult my feet are black as well. Oh, I'm now carrying rocks in my backpack, I couldn't resist! But volcanic rocks are lighter than regular rocks right?
Sunday, June 3, 2007
The Umbrella vendors worst nightmare
Is either the sun or me (sara). It rained today and the umbrella vendors (who are illegal) were out in full force. One guy put his arm full of umbrellas out in front of me so I smaked all of the umbrellas as hard as i could with my arm.
Rome was great, there was too much to see though. We went in the colosseum on saturday and saw some of the ancient roman ruins. Some date back to the 9th century BC. Today we did see the pope and we went to the panthoeon. We wanted to go into st peters but the line was too long and we missed our chance. Next time.
This key board is really hard to type with so I'm keeping this brief.
We have over 200 pictures of rome alone so I can't to show everyone, we'll make a power point presentation.
Can someone print this and give it to grandma, MOM?
We in Naples now. Wow. I have to breath into my shirt quite frequently and ste pover mounds of trash. I don't know why they even have stop lights because it's just a free for all. Quite amusing to watch though, but not fun to cross. We did have the BEST pizza we've had had tonight, and it wa dirt cheap! Pizza was invented in Naples. We might go back to the same place tomorrow night.
Tomorrow we're going to pompeii, and if we have time to the crater on top of vesuvius. I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight!
Ok, I'll try to leave another blog tomorrow, hopefully on one of the other computers that doesn't have a sticky keyboard. If I don't, It might be awhile before we have internet access again. I'm not sure our next hostel (In Cinque Terre) has it and I'm pretty sure our budget hotel on the French Riviera doesn't.
Oh, our scrambled eggs were excellent! We also had fried potatoes with garlic and shallots! So good!
Rome was great, there was too much to see though. We went in the colosseum on saturday and saw some of the ancient roman ruins. Some date back to the 9th century BC. Today we did see the pope and we went to the panthoeon. We wanted to go into st peters but the line was too long and we missed our chance. Next time.
This key board is really hard to type with so I'm keeping this brief.
We have over 200 pictures of rome alone so I can't to show everyone, we'll make a power point presentation.
Can someone print this and give it to grandma, MOM?
We in Naples now. Wow. I have to breath into my shirt quite frequently and ste pover mounds of trash. I don't know why they even have stop lights because it's just a free for all. Quite amusing to watch though, but not fun to cross. We did have the BEST pizza we've had had tonight, and it wa dirt cheap! Pizza was invented in Naples. We might go back to the same place tomorrow night.
Tomorrow we're going to pompeii, and if we have time to the crater on top of vesuvius. I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight!
Ok, I'll try to leave another blog tomorrow, hopefully on one of the other computers that doesn't have a sticky keyboard. If I don't, It might be awhile before we have internet access again. I'm not sure our next hostel (In Cinque Terre) has it and I'm pretty sure our budget hotel on the French Riviera doesn't.
Oh, our scrambled eggs were excellent! We also had fried potatoes with garlic and shallots! So good!
Friday, June 1, 2007
A few pictures
At last, a computer with access to a USB port. I'll just put upa few pics, this computer is slow and I'm paying for my time on it.
The 1st one is us in Innsbruck, Austria.
2nd one is in Murren, Switzerland, in the Alps.
Annecy France-------------------------------->
James in Venice.That's all for now, this is taking forever. We'll have hundreds of pictures by the time we're done, so don't worry, you'll get to them.
When in Rome....
We made it to Rome!
Farva is from the movie "Super Troopers", Eileen nailed it!
We have not run into any bed bugs or anything else too bad, our hostel in poland had a moldy shower but it was only one night so we managed. I had researched all of our hostels pretty extensively, reading reviewss, getting ratings, all of that, before booking any of them. We also sleep in silk sleep sacks just in case. Sometimes I look around for bedbugs too, I haven't found any.
Since our last blog we've been to Florence and Pisa. Florence smells like poo. We were there two nights and when we came in on the first afternoon we opened the door to our room (Which was nice) and we both said it smelled like eggs. Then the next day, eggs again. Then James figured it out, after looking out the window (Which we decided to keep shut), in some old cities, the storm drains and the sewer drains are the same. Most places have separate drains. Every time the neighbors flushed the toilet we could hear it emptying into the storm drain.
The Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) in Florence was incredible though. I don't remember all of the history behind it but it's one of the 1st of its kind and most of the technology used to build it had to be invented at that time. It's double shelled (we're not sure why) and we went all the way up to the top, which means you go up 463 stairs, on crazy staircases between the two shells. The stairs in many places are only a 1 and a half feet wide with the slope of the dome right over head, most people had to hunch over. That was pretty much the extent of Florence, we went to a few other places but none compared to the duomo.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was really cool too, and we took those really stupid tourist shots of us pretending to hold it up. There's really not much else in Pisa besides the tower. We didn't go in it because it's really expensive.
Today we went to the Vatican. We're going to go back bright and early tomorrow and go up into St. Peter's Basilica, the line was too long today. Then we went to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Both were mobbed with tourists but we still got some good pictures in. Tomorrow we're going to see the rest of the sights. We wanted to let ourselves rest a little bit this evening.
This hostel has a kitchen so we made dinner, shopping at grocery stores is always an adventure. We had wanted to make beek stroganoff but couldn't find any sour cream. When we were in Interlaken we made Tacos but didn't know what kind of cheese to buy, and we made a bad choice and had cheeseless tacos. Tomorrow for breakfast we're having scrambnled eggs with procuitto, we can't wait. Most of our hostels serve breakfast, which consists of bread, cornflakes yogurt and instant coffee. We are so tired of it!
We're looking forward to tomorrow, Hopefully we'll find time for another blog, but if we don't it's becasue there is so much to see here!
Farva is from the movie "Super Troopers", Eileen nailed it!
We have not run into any bed bugs or anything else too bad, our hostel in poland had a moldy shower but it was only one night so we managed. I had researched all of our hostels pretty extensively, reading reviewss, getting ratings, all of that, before booking any of them. We also sleep in silk sleep sacks just in case. Sometimes I look around for bedbugs too, I haven't found any.
Since our last blog we've been to Florence and Pisa. Florence smells like poo. We were there two nights and when we came in on the first afternoon we opened the door to our room (Which was nice) and we both said it smelled like eggs. Then the next day, eggs again. Then James figured it out, after looking out the window (Which we decided to keep shut), in some old cities, the storm drains and the sewer drains are the same. Most places have separate drains. Every time the neighbors flushed the toilet we could hear it emptying into the storm drain.
The Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) in Florence was incredible though. I don't remember all of the history behind it but it's one of the 1st of its kind and most of the technology used to build it had to be invented at that time. It's double shelled (we're not sure why) and we went all the way up to the top, which means you go up 463 stairs, on crazy staircases between the two shells. The stairs in many places are only a 1 and a half feet wide with the slope of the dome right over head, most people had to hunch over. That was pretty much the extent of Florence, we went to a few other places but none compared to the duomo.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa was really cool too, and we took those really stupid tourist shots of us pretending to hold it up. There's really not much else in Pisa besides the tower. We didn't go in it because it's really expensive.
Today we went to the Vatican. We're going to go back bright and early tomorrow and go up into St. Peter's Basilica, the line was too long today. Then we went to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. Both were mobbed with tourists but we still got some good pictures in. Tomorrow we're going to see the rest of the sights. We wanted to let ourselves rest a little bit this evening.
This hostel has a kitchen so we made dinner, shopping at grocery stores is always an adventure. We had wanted to make beek stroganoff but couldn't find any sour cream. When we were in Interlaken we made Tacos but didn't know what kind of cheese to buy, and we made a bad choice and had cheeseless tacos. Tomorrow for breakfast we're having scrambnled eggs with procuitto, we can't wait. Most of our hostels serve breakfast, which consists of bread, cornflakes yogurt and instant coffee. We are so tired of it!
We're looking forward to tomorrow, Hopefully we'll find time for another blog, but if we don't it's becasue there is so much to see here!
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