tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77060415342122155882024-03-14T00:14:17.403-04:00Pat is Visiting Cool Places and You are Not!Pat's blog for his backpacking trip through Europe!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-53054687547867779672010-06-30T23:44:00.005-04:002010-07-01T18:18:18.355-04:00Iceland - Our Final Stop<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohGcTLgMV-oWv-hboR-KHr05teuCsCkpoiFZpIu076fg5SXXH1f0_R-lw98IgELi8aBGqcfCviWLS8Cl6cbEChEVY7ckCjuJJpNaz1aZKsx2xiuNcIlRDxG4cLf8Yv1JbnhMVViAxDGBn/s1600/IMG_8395.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhohGcTLgMV-oWv-hboR-KHr05teuCsCkpoiFZpIu076fg5SXXH1f0_R-lw98IgELi8aBGqcfCviWLS8Cl6cbEChEVY7ckCjuJJpNaz1aZKsx2xiuNcIlRDxG4cLf8Yv1JbnhMVViAxDGBn/s200/IMG_8395.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779577885865330" border="0" /></a><br />Okay, let me get this started by stating that Iceland is absolutely amazingly cool. At least from what I have seen online, in videos, magazines, etc. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPqLQt1Ub1xR3ev20pugb4_v-pCT2592aWxmqpETQIvlyALeBdBSjteAT3ySVLmkOj40eyr6o8jEifajJzH6g_KqEXlilU7xC6HyMNmkc2m7eyUL7Ug1Fc0D7s-wE3uOxVEDCYjMXFGEz/s1600/IMG_8399.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdPqLQt1Ub1xR3ev20pugb4_v-pCT2592aWxmqpETQIvlyALeBdBSjteAT3ySVLmkOj40eyr6o8jEifajJzH6g_KqEXlilU7xC6HyMNmkc2m7eyUL7Ug1Fc0D7s-wE3uOxVEDCYjMXFGEz/s200/IMG_8399.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779890946339602" border="0" /></a>But our stay tonight in Iceland has been limited to the waiting area of the airport because everything in the entire country outside of this airport is closed during the night and even though it never gets dark (I'm typing this at 2:30 am and it is still light out) there is no way for us to get to the city or anything else interesting. So we are stranded here at the airport. So our night in Reykjavik is less then stellar so far. Now I have thoughts of maybe going on<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGc0FXm0yOBnAMF-Xk2cSC1mA_PHy3yZo49yBroKK8gOt3gNEOgZ5JU5-nzYdfubpDOQj43LftiBmE-fIRzKbtqgOZBItgg1jhovRb4tOzj4DbBehBxp6zvb4bh7em0GAjJLrcC1dYqwdM/s1600/IMG_8408.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGc0FXm0yOBnAMF-Xk2cSC1mA_PHy3yZo49yBroKK8gOt3gNEOgZ5JU5-nzYdfubpDOQj43LftiBmE-fIRzKbtqgOZBItgg1jhovRb4tOzj4DbBehBxp6zvb4bh7em0GAjJLrcC1dYqwdM/s200/IMG_8408.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779579367583378" border="0" /></a> a bus or something out into the city as soon as they start up again around 5 or 6 or whatever, but I'm not sure. We shall see. Just have to make sure we would be back here and ready to go for our flight comfortably before takeoff at 10:30am.<br /><br />On the bright side, there is a trophy here stating that last year this was voted the best airport in all of Europe. Even though it doesn't really seem to be in Europe. Hooray!<br /><br />Iceland Air has really awesome planes too. Tons of leg room, these cool TVs on robot arms that <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhFSEemSu7IMcVt9kQEC3MEFKqzmmVh9QUNisz0xvVc2nACnYuZW1DwbusU5tuVgoA4UUOHZ2PA3Htem8c1pXvVGA6l6QXK_FBTxpJtvdEnKF_UfyNYN0DquBNfmyLmHf91GaYCb43xF8/s1600/IMG_8409.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikhFSEemSu7IMcVt9kQEC3MEFKqzmmVh9QUNisz0xvVc2nACnYuZW1DwbusU5tuVgoA4UUOHZ2PA3Htem8c1pXvVGA6l6QXK_FBTxpJtvdEnKF_UfyNYN0DquBNfmyLmHf91GaYCb43xF8/s200/IMG_8409.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779891652904178" border="0" /></a>come up from under your seat that are touchscreen and have a great selection of free movies, tv shows, and music and stuff, most seats (not ours... boo...) have USB charging docks, just good stuff. Makes the long flight home in the morning a bit more optimistic!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />So we were really bored and made a little video thing. We ran outta steam very quickly. Here is Europe in review!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Europe - The End Live From Iceland!</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyUZiWKWGbPIMLOPXfvLY3p0-biaKvxrQwg7u95OFhT_SczYIZ8UP0pDkGHLnHXc426arBCUGvoHzp9pfWsMw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br /></div>PS: Garrett, I hope there was enough star wipe in there for you this time.<br /><br />See everyone real soon!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-64090281422926626182010-06-30T23:43:00.001-04:002010-06-30T23:47:23.618-04:00Amsterdam Episode II: Return of the Dutch<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1RvQ1ImTOcdH5bnMfSeOAA0lkomyvbkcA0AUyVYJblFQHseNdTUq929EcMKXpHSlLC-9dNxmmfROw1FFhQs4NSh1iRHDG5riiuRkjw5Gq62xnATHefURF2uA_N8y2HPcipsBibcuFrNc/s1600/IMG_8323.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1RvQ1ImTOcdH5bnMfSeOAA0lkomyvbkcA0AUyVYJblFQHseNdTUq929EcMKXpHSlLC-9dNxmmfROw1FFhQs4NSh1iRHDG5riiuRkjw5Gq62xnATHefURF2uA_N8y2HPcipsBibcuFrNc/s200/IMG_8323.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779134571884002" border="0" /></a>Today we had our second day in Amsterdam, and after checking out of our hostel and storing our bags in the hostel bag room for the day we started off by taking the free walking tour about the city. It was really good and kind of sad because it was our last tour about a city. We covered things and saw the sights, so here for the last time is my tour sum-up bullet list:<br /><br />The Old Church The Red Light District (Briefly, obviously yesterdays tour was more in depth in this area...) The Jewish Quarter The Royal Palace The Jordaan District The Anne Frank House The Begijnhof Covent Hidden<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCdRgWC8K_KvaJre4QaKtFuju1oPEHnAgNg-pcAbb_BTJ8P2PE6YNTXo8PunLN7ddSxkLf6jNTqdg0mdZvpbVFA6LiY0Ml0-5eTYuZC9zzd23YdhD17uHOLt0rdJHH-h7IqlLsSiEycHY/s1600/IMG_8339.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCdRgWC8K_KvaJre4QaKtFuju1oPEHnAgNg-pcAbb_BTJ8P2PE6YNTXo8PunLN7ddSxkLf6jNTqdg0mdZvpbVFA6LiY0Ml0-5eTYuZC9zzd23YdhD17uHOLt0rdJHH-h7IqlLsSiEycHY/s200/IMG_8339.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779268022692530" border="0" /></a> Catholic Churches Masterpieces of Dutch Art Multatuli's Giant Head The Marihuana Museum (naturally) Looked at the strange leaning buildings The Manttoren The Dutch East India Company<br /><br />After the tour we got lunch at a place with the tour group called Boom Chicago, and I had a traditional Dutch meal called... Stampot? Stempot? Something like that I think. I wasn't really paying attention. The only Dutch meal on the men<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeif4LUjdXk6paS_OqTpzLEcCJCd5_CeI0nAL7euSyaAo3gcYmGNa6lRhkyBdWMp9k53esmtrSyzaSR_xUAhc-o8wHJw7JDU6ixBaE3odMTpFKZZEKH1E3SJFZUO2Ji3aYbVswZ08oGlwr/s1600/IMG_8341.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeif4LUjdXk6paS_OqTpzLEcCJCd5_CeI0nAL7euSyaAo3gcYmGNa6lRhkyBdWMp9k53esmtrSyzaSR_xUAhc-o8wHJw7JDU6ixBaE3odMTpFKZZEKH1E3SJFZUO2Ji3aYbVswZ08oGlwr/s200/IMG_8341.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779136489015938" border="0" /></a>u of a place called Boom Chicago, and it was like potatoes, carrots, little bit of apple all mashed together with gravy and a sausage. It was good. Then we made our way slowly back to the hostel, wandering around the city and stopping in stores and such. I've got a patch for every country we have been to that I'm going to sew onto my backpack when we get home (I stole the idea from Dave I have to admit, he has been getting them <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfvooI42jwIGFGrQfqMImTJ8abaB_COR5Ofs96ZzObl-yLLEwuQ-m9BtkA9_mA5qVfuVg3PkxAkEUv2Z5eJ-RgV3iaLoMCS-cV4WJ879-9xxFW1TJGcVg8CdtjwD3PcJbmLvZWmNUP6rp/s1600/IMG_8372.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrfvooI42jwIGFGrQfqMImTJ8abaB_COR5Ofs96ZzObl-yLLEwuQ-m9BtkA9_mA5qVfuVg3PkxAkEUv2Z5eJ-RgV3iaLoMCS-cV4WJ879-9xxFW1TJGcVg8CdtjwD3PcJbmLvZWmNUP6rp/s200/IMG_8372.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488779270406864706" border="0" /></a>all along to put on his jacket he got in Dublin)<br /><br />Then we headed back at the hostel just to pick up our bags and head on out to catch a train (our last train ever in Europe...) to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Then after a little time killing in the air port, it was time to catch a 2 hour flight to Iceland, and from there we have 11 hours layover in Reykjavik during which time hopefully we can squeeze in something cool to do and see. See everyone real soon!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-80818789135088983242010-06-29T15:28:00.003-04:002010-06-29T15:42:29.878-04:00Amsterdam day 1 - Our Final Mainland Country<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjeSXYIUYfogwz5HoEWR3aY3-PThwJMhHdH9DAzLxNH1o2cmEklParwqsy9cqQbQwUQ3gpH8C_YcFnqOm654uSl2JyJ-8dOo8vDkbGUiibBTbgF4bS9z6e3addtwSM6WxwlWJpsXjXLtnd/s1600/IMG_8283.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjeSXYIUYfogwz5HoEWR3aY3-PThwJMhHdH9DAzLxNH1o2cmEklParwqsy9cqQbQwUQ3gpH8C_YcFnqOm654uSl2JyJ-8dOo8vDkbGUiibBTbgF4bS9z6e3addtwSM6WxwlWJpsXjXLtnd/s200/IMG_8283.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488282550962970738" border="0" /></a>Well today we arrived in Amsterdam in The Netherlands - our final mainland country on the trip. Leaving only our brief stay in Iceland left before we are back in the states!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbhfanKyZzoFIEFn3m12_DIf4U4vSGvLtQOt4jgXk1u-LoKpLcFb2fTMpmKLPlv4BXRlqFG1UeAEKF4iIlkBAiJldBsKfLqEV3n4BavaObDBjeyYJ-vNMTXORaU20L-_xkpx2kWE0Bz-L/s1600/IMG_8285.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikbhfanKyZzoFIEFn3m12_DIf4U4vSGvLtQOt4jgXk1u-LoKpLcFb2fTMpmKLPlv4BXRlqFG1UeAEKF4iIlkBAiJldBsKfLqEV3n4BavaObDBjeyYJ-vNMTXORaU20L-_xkpx2kWE0Bz-L/s200/IMG_8285.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488283176310717266" border="0" /></a>Now as I mentioned last time I was starting to feel a bit under the weather last night. Well over night I got to be <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> sick, and spent most of the night awake, you know, being sick and all that. So when morning arrived I was not going to be sticking to the plan of going out to see some last things in Brussels before we left like the Chocolate Museum, Comic Strip Museum, etc. So instead we just kind of all hung around the hostel until check out time at 12:30 and I spent that whole time horizontal. Still feeling quite sick, we left at 12:30 and got ourselves a 1:18 train - our final country to country train ride - to <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdpKzI_ueAwGo8ks-0bBoTHPoO_c6QCHU0WB1YEpFv-HX_Y18agSk31VKSPrsWv_uWPWRxo8NaxKb6oUeNkxz6wAf0lTd13FnBe7ULby7Wfr9s-nGARXjZrcDDPWy3F2Xt3aNTpAccw2G/s1600/IMG_8299.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjdpKzI_ueAwGo8ks-0bBoTHPoO_c6QCHU0WB1YEpFv-HX_Y18agSk31VKSPrsWv_uWPWRxo8NaxKb6oUeNkxz6wAf0lTd13FnBe7ULby7Wfr9s-nGARXjZrcDDPWy3F2Xt3aNTpAccw2G/s200/IMG_8299.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488282555266405218" border="0" /></a>Amsterdam. The train ride proved to be all the difference, and those last 3 hours of rest had me feeling much better by the time we got to Amsterdam. I'm still not 100% but leaps and bounds better, phew!<br /><br />So we navigated our <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_L0sRGPsuhLF0QaqNeZecJlbh6av-n0cry2g8mG1TCzZLpxAUWQH5lE3k81BN2541Dmokae27d7D3nCdlAGhoeAD-gKMoowRkIo24V-xoJ1oHeuro6TKZBpCws0LyUZdJ4a0PakB36ip/s1600/IMG_8311.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX_L0sRGPsuhLF0QaqNeZecJlbh6av-n0cry2g8mG1TCzZLpxAUWQH5lE3k81BN2541Dmokae27d7D3nCdlAGhoeAD-gKMoowRkIo24V-xoJ1oHeuro6TKZBpCws0LyUZdJ4a0PakB36ip/s200/IMG_8311.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488283179084173106" border="0" /></a>way to our last hostel, The Bulldog, and it is a pretty cool hostel. We have a 12 person room but I don't really know our roommates yet, it is only 9:35 as I'm typing this and I'm the only person in the room. After dropping our stuff we grabbed the New Europe pamphlet as we are so apt to do in countries they are available in, and found that they were running a Red Light District tour about an hour from that time, so we <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLtLa1pR4HN4CSBCoA4FXwC64sXGFUXAWaQZk31Rj7I2E4PksHmmEhL__EAtDpBXxGJgRh7lEp-vtlyqh1Pqtfo797upOHKIgX-It2x9r6TMH6b_NmV3eTewS4nOEm8sVGrcyeBsOjBMF/s1600/IMG_8313.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFLtLa1pR4HN4CSBCoA4FXwC64sXGFUXAWaQZk31Rj7I2E4PksHmmEhL__EAtDpBXxGJgRh7lEp-vtlyqh1Pqtfo797upOHKIgX-It2x9r6TMH6b_NmV3eTewS4nOEm8sVGrcyeBsOjBMF/s200/IMG_8313.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488282560981695026" border="0" /></a>decided to do it. We got ourselves some Japanese along the way, which was actually really good so finally good Japanese in Europe, and met up with the tour.<br /><br />The tour guide, Ryan, was real good and funny and we took our tour throughout the district. We saw a lot of girls standing in windows, and yes there are red lights on in windows all about. I <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT_WYksIwnB0IaOyk2p-gLCnswCBPKravuuXXu1NsUSwJizdiLXf0iXLXt1DIytuF7al253_mafgUAETmTf9Q3vW6Scqv_20WIZNQcqZy3eiq_FzNRx6i9S-xQYciBK6cHlYU5K6jAGwI/s1600/IMG_8315.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT_WYksIwnB0IaOyk2p-gLCnswCBPKravuuXXu1NsUSwJizdiLXf0iXLXt1DIytuF7al253_mafgUAETmTf9Q3vW6Scqv_20WIZNQcqZy3eiq_FzNRx6i9S-xQYciBK6cHlYU5K6jAGwI/s200/IMG_8315.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488283187405453394" border="0" /></a>also did not take any pictures of any girls in windows, because I don't need no guys coming out and smashing my camera. But it was a real funny tour and a good start to learning the city, now tomorrow morning we will take the full city walking tour and get to know, ya know, the rest of the city.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZEiU-cZgRB5MWYzp_pLZiVeRM4nvPnLi982aJ8b3xYvrZFFE3io-hr9pCGJqIIXWQWI2G72Z6S4ZiXALZdf5YrYP3AgLtpjsxk3dRjKsZQLf-j6h1A4G0pe-VV1NnvyA8Mv-o-_nz0hd/s1600/IMG_8317.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPZEiU-cZgRB5MWYzp_pLZiVeRM4nvPnLi982aJ8b3xYvrZFFE3io-hr9pCGJqIIXWQWI2G72Z6S4ZiXALZdf5YrYP3AgLtpjsxk3dRjKsZQLf-j6h1A4G0pe-VV1NnvyA8Mv-o-_nz0hd/s200/IMG_8317.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488282566733886770" border="0" /></a><br />Oh and a funny thing I almost forgot to mention - On one of the streets we walked down in the red light district, right smack in between some open windows, was the Shelter Christian Hostel. Thought it was a really funny place for it to be located.<br /><br />I'm not sure how blogging will be working out for these last 2 days... I will definitely be able to post something, but I don't know if pictures will be working... But I will try my hardest!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-3127852532235728392010-06-28T17:22:00.004-04:002010-06-28T17:51:20.578-04:00Brussels, Belgium - The capital city of Europe!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqQJBdsT2N5ZmOPdBrrXSbej-38nJytRfC7NYkYhwbEisOBlwH6RL2bIbqR524vNpBhDxrZBpUdW-ERmTF5NlhERqIdjZJTGTiJE6ooVROgk6uc5LxlODGV6RI3eplMmqtHroqosRjI7F/s1600/IMG_8214.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgqQJBdsT2N5ZmOPdBrrXSbej-38nJytRfC7NYkYhwbEisOBlwH6RL2bIbqR524vNpBhDxrZBpUdW-ERmTF5NlhERqIdjZJTGTiJE6ooVROgk6uc5LxlODGV6RI3eplMmqtHroqosRjI7F/s200/IMG_8214.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487943718934253794" border="0" /></a>Weird, right? Why Brussels of all the cities in Europe? Got me...<br /><br />Anyway today we left Munich at 9:55 am headed for Brussels. We had to get out at Frankfurt and wait for about 20 minutes, so for 20 minutes we got to be in Frankfurt, yay! Then it was back on the road and finally at 4:30 we arrived in Belgium. We got out and took a metro to where our hostel, Hello Hostel, was located. Which is just a <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-MY1_XIEf6qT4jzgJzUSV9cT6o6Ey35eBKgKJv7qKvyAUb_SR_IEnLjFDKn7Iyy7GzlE4Qod74bTGYfh_QazbuPyVXSagplJRda4MznIfdHvh0Uh0TeV1PLMpPD32ftC4t0vPWaOsH6c/s1600/IMG_8236.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI-MY1_XIEf6qT4jzgJzUSV9cT6o6Ey35eBKgKJv7qKvyAUb_SR_IEnLjFDKn7Iyy7GzlE4Qod74bTGYfh_QazbuPyVXSagplJRda4MznIfdHvh0Uh0TeV1PLMpPD32ftC4t0vPWaOsH6c/s200/IMG_8236.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487944872560404434" border="0" /></a>few doors down from the Godiva Chocolate headquarters. Pretty cool.<br /><br />Our hostel looked like a tiny piece of crap on the outside, but once we went inside it was actually really big and nice. We got situated and got ourselves some maps and headed out to explore the city while we could. We first h<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmdt3H5icYbpMa1OCYzUgeplorvKMKwf9pZta0lq2YNQsav6NhK3j3_KjsWOS80BoyNBhtD0fqE_JtnDyQbG94lByorH8TylWQioj0BNzSr2ADD2300QkaKi294my6mPZB67UAB3fNNV7/s1600/IMG_8218.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimmdt3H5icYbpMa1OCYzUgeplorvKMKwf9pZta0lq2YNQsav6NhK3j3_KjsWOS80BoyNBhtD0fqE_JtnDyQbG94lByorH8TylWQioj0BNzSr2ADD2300QkaKi294my6mPZB67UAB3fNNV7/s200/IMG_8218.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487943728472309010" border="0" /></a>eaded to around about the center of the city (for what we could tell on the map) and had a few goals in mind - Eat fries, since they were invented here, and eat a real Belgium Waffle. Just 2 or 3 minutes after getting off the metro we found a big fry place <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxz3pigvF7YTCK1G6WGgd5p0IFYEqFc-a6XuBzHdM7UROFkZl25CBzyZeelpnYCuBoEraIJ5xwNSzd4H3sar46ef-GFwE6EKfxHEj5nmsgNGHc2DixSPUcU2a0jO2OP4udVQHXwZTLaO_/s1600/IMG_8217.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVxz3pigvF7YTCK1G6WGgd5p0IFYEqFc-a6XuBzHdM7UROFkZl25CBzyZeelpnYCuBoEraIJ5xwNSzd4H3sar46ef-GFwE6EKfxHEj5nmsgNGHc2DixSPUcU2a0jO2OP4udVQHXwZTLaO_/s200/IMG_8217.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487944867168172546" border="0" /></a>(there are a lot of fry places marked all over our maps) and got ourselves some fries in mayonnaise (the drown em in that...) and they were delicious. So good. I don't know how the others feel but I think they may have been the best just strait fries ever.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezEjHoqQNV_R8qkKcC_fuN3CSvOsNf3lsEW6iRu-8n548ln2B-lrQYmHqK6xeddxbyZYZIvza_lD4zwyABg-DyFkjOHb4pQ0awMZyxBZcA2B8bzDVmrcSm9FKXclbUGOYPfW-YDoaRSla/s1600/IMG_8245.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjezEjHoqQNV_R8qkKcC_fuN3CSvOsNf3lsEW6iRu-8n548ln2B-lrQYmHqK6xeddxbyZYZIvza_lD4zwyABg-DyFkjOHb4pQ0awMZyxBZcA2B8bzDVmrcSm9FKXclbUGOYPfW-YDoaRSla/s200/IMG_8245.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487943738739510866" border="0" /></a><br />So from there we took the short walk to see Brussels' most famous landmark, the Manneken Pis. It was... small. Like really small. Like maybe a foot and a quarter tall. But it was still really cool to see the real thing in person. Apparently they dress him up for all kinds of holidays and events, and a poster nearby had all kinds of costume images it was funny. Right by the Manneken we spotted a few waffle stands, and we got ourselves some Belgium Waffles. I had one that had sliced strawberry and banana on top drizzled in chocolate. It was real good. Nothing mind blowing, but definitely <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdE9vWYc4P2ptN2-c8IGEXw2oCGkVLz3c6W7CqbyyyZtO3K_Zgx3ZtFNwgYCfNOzncpm-zg2mlIPSQCk45QEOG7p07VCzB-0ExRIKRkmHmYt_OAshhKV1daSTHxgZKU_tM0BRAOpTQB_W/s1600/IMG_8258.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdE9vWYc4P2ptN2-c8IGEXw2oCGkVLz3c6W7CqbyyyZtO3K_Zgx3ZtFNwgYCfNOzncpm-zg2mlIPSQCk45QEOG7p07VCzB-0ExRIKRkmHmYt_OAshhKV1daSTHxgZKU_tM0BRAOpTQB_W/s200/IMG_8258.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487944881962498386" border="0" /></a>good. After that we continued to walk.<br /><br />While exploring we went to the national library and the really cool area around it, with these cool gardens and fountains and steps. Then we went to the Royal Palace where Albert II is currently staying, then to the Palace Park, then saw the Parliament building where the EU is headed up, and finally saw the Gothic Cathedral. After that our wandering was done, and we got on the metro to see our final sight seeing destination for the day.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwGoAfDYf56v7q98iw1GnBtqYNgGPWdQ-g4tl9C5vLKFhnIVg36OeKPjtVcBjmb1pj2EYJlTrmoEsTKGSa5INXzC0sQ61OWr8xSMhr5LDNgpw7z2TmIuCb1LhjyVfNcTlVupMldZ-GAyW/s1600/IMG_8268.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtwGoAfDYf56v7q98iw1GnBtqYNgGPWdQ-g4tl9C5vLKFhnIVg36OeKPjtVcBjmb1pj2EYJlTrmoEsTKGSa5INXzC0sQ61OWr8xSMhr5LDNgpw7z2TmIuCb1LhjyVfNcTlVupMldZ-GAyW/s200/IMG_8268.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487943746516408114" border="0" /></a>We got off the metro and there right in front of us was it... The Atomium. It was so cool, and just totally massive. It is a giant structure erected in the 1950's for the World's Fair and is a gigantic structure of an Iron Atom (I think, if I remember correctly. Something like that if not.) and inside each giant ball is a room with exhibits in them and each connecting beam is an escalator (or elevator in the center I would imagine.) It was closed for a few hours before we got there so we couldn't go in, but it was so cool to see in person from the outside. I can't imagine the inside being more impressive.<br /><br />So after that we metro-ed our way back to Hello Hostel and crashed for the night. One other<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx95ShUc6pa-UiT-vz_QARgVQCNRIVsPUPiRcpxRzNEes6ZkQZ0Tsst3cvPGRQrew_4CUkxe1cWpMSFGyKzr6Jcbm9hkhegMbM1mFBa1XMEIOBdCi0FUkXX-mBm4FwUrh_NWiJsRAXKawY/s1600/IMG_8277.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx95ShUc6pa-UiT-vz_QARgVQCNRIVsPUPiRcpxRzNEes6ZkQZ0Tsst3cvPGRQrew_4CUkxe1cWpMSFGyKzr6Jcbm9hkhegMbM1mFBa1XMEIOBdCi0FUkXX-mBm4FwUrh_NWiJsRAXKawY/s200/IMG_8277.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487944887933700898" border="0" /></a> quick note, just thought I would mention that I caught whatever Jen got in Munich and throughout the course of the day have gotten really sick. Throat is real soar and inflamed. Damnit, so close to finishing the trip without getting sick. Here's hoping for feeling better in he morning!<br /><br />Pat out!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-40840076948250790492010-06-27T17:04:00.003-04:002010-06-27T17:29:19.555-04:00Munich 3.0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaBCL0LQ01TWjQm_HkzYKNtyZIWDNbJ5jatpe7rTCjF3677Y2yMyKTFYcTC9wq6V2lP_hfY58VmHCr2ebDzEJhyphenhyphenksBQxvKS3xlWoQWQBiSQ0WZO8e4Nk9OCC5Me4GUpC7890l5c4bMsxr7/s1600/IMG_8162.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaBCL0LQ01TWjQm_HkzYKNtyZIWDNbJ5jatpe7rTCjF3677Y2yMyKTFYcTC9wq6V2lP_hfY58VmHCr2ebDzEJhyphenhyphenksBQxvKS3xlWoQWQBiSQ0WZO8e4Nk9OCC5Me4GUpC7890l5c4bMsxr7/s200/IMG_8162.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487568335153613730" border="0" /></a>Today for our final day in Germany we took tour trip out to Dachau, one of the largest and most intact concentration camps. We took a tour of the camp and it was a very strange feeling. First of all it was a beautiful sunny day <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JZ4VC-df-167Nxnb2U-zNCPCnQ8gRuIltQN7JtJQjBcaIvDUinpSBVAnvsFo1QqREZrk-oDhFqyX6p3ej4gft5Jt6vHGQJR7wdYn_NNUJWa_G3vaAtfTZ7y0VH_v8u1lqVoh3bxLM24c/s1600/IMG_8134.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1JZ4VC-df-167Nxnb2U-zNCPCnQ8gRuIltQN7JtJQjBcaIvDUinpSBVAnvsFo1QqREZrk-oDhFqyX6p3ej4gft5Jt6vHGQJR7wdYn_NNUJWa_G3vaAtfTZ7y0VH_v8u1lqVoh3bxLM24c/s200/IMG_8134.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487567295970539714" border="0" /></a>which contrasted in a weird way with the mood of the camp, and then of course there was the fact that it wasn't exactly a pleasant or fun day, but it was important and I'm glad we went.<br /><br />Dave and Jen actually went earlier because they wanted to do the audio tour on their own, and we went later because we wanted to do a guided tour and sleep in a bit (remember, the two of us did climb a mountain yesterday). So<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkexSU2hUkyhIxGGjq0JAdf3nGcgEZN91oj_gfiXGuINn8ybDBfWiIpQQ63_8gBxQKzhNDMQ_4eMrX_IZvphu56GC0VTiJR9jflkF4ZukWN2AbpxHe99_Q1125CzYNzgOw4fp8iiDVqXc0/s1600/IMG_8158.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkexSU2hUkyhIxGGjq0JAdf3nGcgEZN91oj_gfiXGuINn8ybDBfWiIpQQ63_8gBxQKzhNDMQ_4eMrX_IZvphu56GC0VTiJR9jflkF4ZukWN2AbpxHe99_Q1125CzYNzgOw4fp8iiDVqXc0/s200/IMG_8158.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487568332455458034" border="0" /></a> we met up with our guide, which was trickier then we expected because there was this sort of race going on around Marienplatz and we had a lot of trouble locating and then getting to the tour start. We finally did, and then it was off on the metro and then a quick bus to Dachau.<br /><br />I don't really have too much to talk about, I'm not going to describe every aspect or relay <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNyEp-euy2q_REwd3zut3ynnm_iIQP-xpo5bVKLZs-JR7B1Xe6igPbPJkt8aMxlx8Z_Ha9GCvqG-STTlUuio3VMaOXdfLOETzS9nc1aC5XsKe8T2R0hszdMWiBLMhRLDkwEGdBUiFZ5E8T/s1600/IMG_8159.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNyEp-euy2q_REwd3zut3ynnm_iIQP-xpo5bVKLZs-JR7B1Xe6igPbPJkt8aMxlx8Z_Ha9GCvqG-STTlUuio3VMaOXdfLOETzS9nc1aC5XsKe8T2R0hszdMWiBLMhRLDkwEGdBUiFZ5E8T/s200/IMG_8159.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487567299897801474" border="0" /></a>word for word the tour but basically there are some original buildings, some that were damaged and fixed up, and then there was a barracks that was completely a recreation because the US soldiers completely destroyed all the barracks once all the prisoners were out. Each room in the barracks had a recreation of what the beds would be situated like in each of the three time periods of the Third Reich. They basically got progressively more cramped and such.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9o_-arRN2ymMspfuHrdEoVzV7R5LJAjRdmIbXHqQXyJaKnIXESwoZ6Uf5E8ZXnnK3FtZ9QXWaaBcXW8MKhMEpSFt3rDJbaoQUtB-wAxZRJUystcbqR1mhodpQJs798jEoijRXx4asdqe/s1600/IMG_8179.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo9o_-arRN2ymMspfuHrdEoVzV7R5LJAjRdmIbXHqQXyJaKnIXESwoZ6Uf5E8ZXnnK3FtZ9QXWaaBcXW8MKhMEpSFt3rDJbaoQUtB-wAxZRJUystcbqR1mhodpQJs798jEoijRXx4asdqe/s200/IMG_8179.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487568337324822706" border="0" /></a><br />There was a building that just had rooms of sort of exhibits set up in it. There were like artifacts, stories, propaganda, punishments, showers, the toilet facilities, etc. There was also a building we didn't get to nearby that had jail cells that were so small a person could only <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdJ_nWnLsZxJGFveA1iSnZq12p-wa86JAcgJLqZjdMaMdf6reOeBuS0Hx9TKSa1gJIkHOCxrma1Z14xqjPU9Q0XUkA7t6gmjNveKzl_POI0rnJgvlHVCQ5ibG4MTIV1vm2tEAWF926DhN/s1600/IMG_8172.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdJ_nWnLsZxJGFveA1iSnZq12p-wa86JAcgJLqZjdMaMdf6reOeBuS0Hx9TKSa1gJIkHOCxrma1Z14xqjPU9Q0XUkA7t6gmjNveKzl_POI0rnJgvlHVCQ5ibG4MTIV1vm2tEAWF926DhN/s200/IMG_8172.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487567303453876786" border="0" /></a>stand and not sit in that was used for punishments.<br /><br />Past the barrack recreation were around 28 large rectangle foundation-like spaces that were where each of the original barracks were before they were destroyed, to give you a sense of scale and help visualize how everything was set up. Behind those were memorial structures to the major religions that were killed in the camp - Jewish, Christian, Protestant, and Orthodox.<br /><br />But past all of that, through an open gate in the still-standing barbed wire gate, was a small bridge (which was built for the exhibit and would have just been fence and a trench with bushes you<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oApe6AwzH8Uo2DlWhL7zhSFWWcety-v43kFkAT6GxZQR81O3Yjhy2fMWDCGKJ5kt58uaG1I51LGZIvKZ8iwgCZKo23QgKcCTxY_JvleHZIQoezO9df_Xg0JAo-4Qe97IS9fz6d6gWqJd/s1600/IMG_8191.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oApe6AwzH8Uo2DlWhL7zhSFWWcety-v43kFkAT6GxZQR81O3Yjhy2fMWDCGKJ5kt58uaG1I51LGZIvKZ8iwgCZKo23QgKcCTxY_JvleHZIQoezO9df_Xg0JAo-4Qe97IS9fz6d6gWqJd/s200/IMG_8191.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487568344630214258" border="0" /></a> could not see through from the camp) that led to the crematorium and gas chamber. Dachau was not an extermination camp but when the so called "final solution" was put into place every camp had to install a gas chamber (<span style="font-style: italic;">pictured with this paragraph)</span>, and when it was installed it was of course used. The prisoners were told that they were moving to a new barracks and then <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmN8lJSjVqTuyrs9e8hQP1FkHGMpRkb-bFnr_PBn6zOgTReZICcL0rOkP93J-3VmYgSfMGp_Bry-CczWINZOsaMsn7HeO-emvT7UCn7kcpy60rZwg9fnZ0wGiQqaEICn22vaLBg5zlcg9/s1600/IMG_8190.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPmN8lJSjVqTuyrs9e8hQP1FkHGMpRkb-bFnr_PBn6zOgTReZICcL0rOkP93J-3VmYgSfMGp_Bry-CczWINZOsaMsn7HeO-emvT7UCn7kcpy60rZwg9fnZ0wGiQqaEICn22vaLBg5zlcg9/s200/IMG_8190.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487567307672039362" border="0" /></a>told they were taking a shower, even so far as to label it shower and put fake shower heads in the room. Then 2 cans of gas were put into little hatches that would go down chutes into the room. Right after the chamber was the crematorium. 2 weeks (I think it was 2 weeks) before the US soldiers arrived the camp ran out of coal so by the time the soldiers got to the camp they found piles of dead bodies around the crematorium.<br /><br />So that was uplifting, eh? After we got back into the city and met up with Sarah who was in Munich for an audition (lives just outside the city of Frankfurt) and we got lunch at a really good place called Schnitzelwirt. I had this really good German dish that is sort of like a mixture of little potato dumpling like things and egg noodles in a creamy cheese sauce. I think it was called Spatzle or something like that. I didn't write it down. It was good though! After we walked back to the train station talking with Sarah and then she headed back home on a train and we headed back to the hostel.<br /><br />So that is it for Germany, we had a blast here. Awesome country. Tomorrow, to Belgium!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-84887104089214471922010-06-26T18:26:00.003-04:002010-06-26T19:19:18.270-04:00Neuschwanstein Castle (and more Munich!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnLNeie2jNZAncpw5VU5o6VMgQJKiUQ6aKlXY99oK62hroJXJe1jpiKHz2pER8nJfcwQcpoZDApVfnRFtn_WruEf1aCNGypdlenugetRLTNOwXSOHU72UQj-uqoT0wL866VZGXFzb8rUv/s1600/IMG_8073.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifnLNeie2jNZAncpw5VU5o6VMgQJKiUQ6aKlXY99oK62hroJXJe1jpiKHz2pER8nJfcwQcpoZDApVfnRFtn_WruEf1aCNGypdlenugetRLTNOwXSOHU72UQj-uqoT0wL866VZGXFzb8rUv/s200/IMG_8073.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225145882291890" border="0" /></a>Today Sharon and I took a tour out 2 hours away from Munich to the foot of the German Alps to see Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle - the most amazing castle in existance. We took two trains to Fusen, and then packed into a waaay over crowded bus to the base of the alps to start our tour and our hike up the mountain.<br /><br />At the alps we had to take an easy hike up the mountain for a wa<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vqIX8qeV2k63DRQ-OpzHPHZ6-cbC9QgYmxxvEqdblM1DaCvSH93cFqnlkhqj_NSGUEhaaOmWYOOogvaebI7ljBCjWFwZH4ah9COo1SvnRrE2jrAZi4TRqMp2pFL1ZgY0AA_SMp3rUmDt/s1600/IMG_8090.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2vqIX8qeV2k63DRQ-OpzHPHZ6-cbC9QgYmxxvEqdblM1DaCvSH93cFqnlkhqj_NSGUEhaaOmWYOOogvaebI7ljBCjWFwZH4ah9COo1SvnRrE2jrAZi4TRqMp2pFL1ZgY0AA_SMp3rUmDt/s200/IMG_8090.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225815046716786" border="0" /></a>ys. It was a consistent incline the whole time, but it wasn't steep and it was either paved or gravel the whole time. So after completing the bulk of the hike we all met up again at a split it in the path, and from there headed across to Mary's Bridge.<br /><br />Mary's Bridge (named after Ludwig's mother, <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>the Virgin Mary, making it the only thing named Mary that is not named after the Virgin Mary in Germany) is really cool. it is a small wooden bridge, reinforced by iron, that stretched across from one alp to the other almost 100 meters above a small waterfall and river. And looking out from the middle of the bridge you <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZGaOEQ_n_NoGX1-BGZxO0_Vv6Qviqj3ky12bys4RYq9qnAUFG6_zAlBdMQRrR2mgSNu-yHdyY6YBX77ZScRk5l4jY9Mg68pWlCuD02-j3djXMpKcgGrH0jHNqTIYps_pWBtdZBfv-jYP/s1600/IMG_8115.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjZGaOEQ_n_NoGX1-BGZxO0_Vv6Qviqj3ky12bys4RYq9qnAUFG6_zAlBdMQRrR2mgSNu-yHdyY6YBX77ZScRk5l4jY9Mg68pWlCuD02-j3djXMpKcgGrH0jHNqTIYps_pWBtdZBfv-jYP/s200/IMG_8115.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225158400092034" border="0" /></a>get the most amazing view of the castle. And a word about the bridge itself... obviously it has not collapsed to da<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-5vqEVUx94ISofPGUp2t07ufhmeU6E6XCKtZzWWbYb_32Yi2rTSFxT2VTLNnScj0pDsY-IZvcX25zwgWBKHIyVTFazaVquKwODVuebtphqs1b_BkY3AuQHugWzzlKUWjYRv8zdMPBHfJQ/s1600/IMG_8105.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-5vqEVUx94ISofPGUp2t07ufhmeU6E6XCKtZzWWbYb_32Yi2rTSFxT2VTLNnScj0pDsY-IZvcX25zwgWBKHIyVTFazaVquKwODVuebtphqs1b_BkY3AuQHugWzzlKUWjYRv8zdMPBHfJQ/s200/IMG_8105.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225826195496402" border="0" /></a>te so it can handle the weight, but it was really cool feeling and even seeing the wooden planks of the bridge bow and bend with everyone walking on it. It just felt like it could collapse at any time, it was awesome.<br /><br />So we walked back to the path split and headed along the edge of the mountain around to the other side and took the path up to the castle itself. The castle is so exactly like fairy tale castles, you can see how they are all influenced from this single castle. We walked into the courtyard through the main gateway and listened to the tour guide some more until we got <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2WNtEqnh8hglxifd4iIibiPFnO6Qcy1QATDXNsr-z3i-4sqmwJ4vP998IuBwdOYd1Z6Fb-wcVZmmh7k7l_TuPPWYZj8pkTfgTNOPKIXePUOB0VGKUnCpIvJkdPIZuWr_pPczSmZs27KQ/s1600/IMG_8111.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt2WNtEqnh8hglxifd4iIibiPFnO6Qcy1QATDXNsr-z3i-4sqmwJ4vP998IuBwdOYd1Z6Fb-wcVZmmh7k7l_TuPPWYZj8pkTfgTNOPKIXePUOB0VGKUnCpIvJkdPIZuWr_pPczSmZs27KQ/s200/IMG_8111.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225154030371490" border="0" /></a>into the castle itself. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take any pictures inside, and while I got one picture at the beginning they were very strict about it. But trust me when I say, the inside of this castle is amazing.<br /><br />The rooms (that are finished, there are many rooms just not finished because they never finished the castle) are so ornate and intricately detailed. For <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWFCCj_NsIDkLmarg66JAHr0P03SBtqNMoJgYkGKYLGesHXnU5jZIUen4yAkPOy5x_JnXCdheIf5TlY-GjuUVtvkzsNI0hNw0J7QVaNbc6hFXiVtSK0rhS6DB55Z5oRWTRL688h9Mwb15/s1600/IMG_8114.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWFCCj_NsIDkLmarg66JAHr0P03SBtqNMoJgYkGKYLGesHXnU5jZIUen4yAkPOy5x_JnXCdheIf5TlY-GjuUVtvkzsNI0hNw0J7QVaNbc6hFXiVtSK0rhS6DB55Z5oRWTRL688h9Mwb15/s200/IMG_8114.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225824891076914" border="0" /></a>example: It took four wood carvers four years to finish the woodwork in his bedroom alone. The inside of the castle was just breathtaking.<br /><br />So after finishing inside the castle, we headed back down and then took the more scenic path back down to the tour meeting point. We got back on the bus, then back on the trains, and then back to the hostel. We met up with Dave and Jen again and then with two Canadian girls they were hanging out with in the hostel while we were gone and we went back to the Hofbrauhaus to watch the USA World Cup game and eat dinner. I had a vegetarian mushroom soup meal with bread dumpling things. It was <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqzVRl6jkKuTKg-yLW_-fNYrocDKVeyD9q83eZxXcdcGGzmVPdMlnze9AXpb5jXDCv8CBAHStn3pb4xPdmym4oorJXNVkidpK6cCNyoo7OaFRCtb3k4JfVaCOGZl7EupV4fwfDJCZkNqd/s1600/IMG_8101.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqzVRl6jkKuTKg-yLW_-fNYrocDKVeyD9q83eZxXcdcGGzmVPdMlnze9AXpb5jXDCv8CBAHStn3pb4xPdmym4oorJXNVkidpK6cCNyoo7OaFRCtb3k4JfVaCOGZl7EupV4fwfDJCZkNqd/s200/IMG_8101.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487225147809279058" border="0" /></a>awesome. And the US team played like garbage and lost. That was not so awesome, but it's okay because I don't really care. So after that we came back to the hostel, and now it is off to sleep because tomorrow we are heading out to Dachau, the concentration camp closest to Munich.Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-65853863746583636892010-06-25T17:55:00.004-04:002010-06-26T18:40:19.378-04:00Mmmm... Munich!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtNVmPzgpFk3bFAboPX-8V58vfB1ck5m3CtmrR03ME4FgmFkXhtRfP-udyyJJzEum57uiqyRu7vYL6Zp-hcPc8C33piLd1C82GY9dwMOenxWgIFwMNjYa_KebjLboOg_DG7Lwl8Jc0kfe/s1600/IMG_7964.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtNVmPzgpFk3bFAboPX-8V58vfB1ck5m3CtmrR03ME4FgmFkXhtRfP-udyyJJzEum57uiqyRu7vYL6Zp-hcPc8C33piLd1C82GY9dwMOenxWgIFwMNjYa_KebjLboOg_DG7Lwl8Jc0kfe/s200/IMG_7964.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487213320534789714" border="0" /></a>Welcome to Munich!<br /><br />Today we arrived at 7:30am to Munich on our overnight train. We got off the train and together with Ian and 2 guys who were in on the train and also looking for our hostel and we headed out in search of it. Our hostel for the next three nights here in Munich is the Wombat Hostel. We had trouble finding it because all the streets we needed to be on were not labeled on the map. But <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPEvIeNbY9J_8L7oD_ZwyTbEgKz8BUKzSTZcqVIHQu7M6zrXXoWcr9OhV0f9Rd8prI-YHUi_AUBaO8Of5Fi6tQAvnLiueJ5Z4RXwby3mth_4WJ6Rxk_zm9fdue8q4dOiXy1pEgZ_WXgij/s1600/IMG_7975.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHPEvIeNbY9J_8L7oD_ZwyTbEgKz8BUKzSTZcqVIHQu7M6zrXXoWcr9OhV0f9Rd8prI-YHUi_AUBaO8Of5Fi6tQAvnLiueJ5Z4RXwby3mth_4WJ6Rxk_zm9fdue8q4dOiXy1pEgZ_WXgij/s200/IMG_7975.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487214102967843794" border="0" /></a>we found it after a little back and forth and it is a really awesome hostel. We dropped our bags and Ian did as well and we headed into the hostel's breakfast. It was a really awesome buffet breakfast and even had a panini maker, wow!<br /><br />After breakfast we headed over to a short walk to Marienplatz, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2Tm8iQ7KoFPSsfQKd22keAQcDv-fVeeAdbxSR93QWrKyaOGoXeTG-0QX0KgTdlJcGd6Frsmvvac2lVYQu-0LzeuVziBY8dIIjN7ThKYW3MgN916znAWbRU-r8qJvbB84pLGnK3pU40xP/s1600/IMG_8023.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2Tm8iQ7KoFPSsfQKd22keAQcDv-fVeeAdbxSR93QWrKyaOGoXeTG-0QX0KgTdlJcGd6Frsmvvac2lVYQu-0LzeuVziBY8dIIjN7ThKYW3MgN916znAWbRU-r8qJvbB84pLGnK3pU40xP/s200/IMG_8023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487213363804236962" border="0" /></a>the center of the old town, right under the Glockenspiel. We hung out for a bit and then headed out with the tour. Our tour guides name was Kevin, and he was pretty cool. We did a lot on the tour, but to be honest it was the least enjoyable of our free tours so far. I don't know why, the tour was fine and I enjoyed it but... maybe we were just tired from the lack of sleep on the train all night. We did cover a good amount of stuff on the tour. Bullet list time!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQfsTNHBsQp8znXnZhM4cp7P9vb6GkmxEHs520VqQUejGq57lPKVF2hgxZ5gbwfPRcBgSBET57_mx6JMubuxTlWkVpGrxadfqQTpEeEtiGXCKw8dSGNkb6A7iILKDz1STkP-USSor-WRw/s1600/IMG_8009.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQfsTNHBsQp8znXnZhM4cp7P9vb6GkmxEHs520VqQUejGq57lPKVF2hgxZ5gbwfPRcBgSBET57_mx6JMubuxTlWkVpGrxadfqQTpEeEtiGXCKw8dSGNkb6A7iILKDz1STkP-USSor-WRw/s200/IMG_8009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487214105823855858" border="0" /></a><br /><ul><li>Glockenspiel, the famous "dancing clock" of Munich. It was pretty cool I guess. Kinda small-world-esque to be honest. </li><li>The New Town Hall (which is older then the Old Town Hall due to the old one being burned down and rebuilt)<br /></li><li><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwg7jba_aRHAAkBVHU9y5lHCMRrlWtPYDS5J6mBGoH4Ey6was9YOemGfEYt5FlSeHgpHwtD1KV3IV-iCDTug1oSRdveJQbs1gMt-oVrj9EXnMdciDmJdNKaD1bMEOmBU3EjmWxll3qEXa/s1600/IMG_7995.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCwg7jba_aRHAAkBVHU9y5lHCMRrlWtPYDS5J6mBGoH4Ey6was9YOemGfEYt5FlSeHgpHwtD1KV3IV-iCDTug1oSRdveJQbs1gMt-oVrj9EXnMdciDmJdNKaD1bMEOmBU3EjmWxll3qEXa/s200/IMG_7995.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487213339622350178" border="0" /></a>The Old Town Hall </li><li>Church of Our Lady (and the legend of the Devil's Footprint)<br /></li><li>Another cathedral that I don't remember the name of... started with a T... haha stupid German names...</li><li>Memorial to the German Resistance (Gold brick path along the alleyway they avoided the Nazi checkpoints with)</li><li>Origins of Oktoberfest</li><li>Hofbrauhaus (famous beer garden and great hall)</li><li>Viktualienmarkt</li><li>St. Jakobsplatz</li><li>Mary's Column</li></ul> After the tour we went to a nearby place to get some good <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_hXSZ8evidy45cUePdYCnCGX9X-FIkSzPzuqXBnDssiqBb6AZXpe1mANdeApPjZb_bYdGOg7yclAg0njvHHDGzEo7Y9PnsDvc-_AYcMAvFT_KZgeqZCMMzUP2SlAWtAa5uBBvw3ci8qf/s1600/IMG_8032.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3_hXSZ8evidy45cUePdYCnCGX9X-FIkSzPzuqXBnDssiqBb6AZXpe1mANdeApPjZb_bYdGOg7yclAg0njvHHDGzEo7Y9PnsDvc-_AYcMAvFT_KZgeqZCMMzUP2SlAWtAa5uBBvw3ci8qf/s200/IMG_8032.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487214110490877954" border="0" /></a>German food with the tour guide, as they often offer after these tours. We went with a small group of people from the tour, and we ended up hanging out with most of them for the rest of the day. Lunch was good, and we hung out there for quite some time. We were hanging out with Emmett and Justine from Canada, Kathleen from Australia, and of course Ian was with us still as well. It was really cool hanging out all day.<br /><br />After lunch we went back to Hofbrauhaus and hung out inside. And everyone else got their German beers, regulars of which were these giant 1 liter glasses. We hung out in the beir garten <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4H7YIQojWkgubVmshrnfSCYVbB985mbnxmWfIRxt5nb3j9MBnkzTNoG6lLdFhyphenhyphenVq_w7QrtUNSw8kIeJgzgwQrYnz-Ca0dfY_bFdcTedYLDZ-YgT8NQpvD-gZR8bfOuvVf20Jau8IBwRwy/s1600/IMG_8038.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4H7YIQojWkgubVmshrnfSCYVbB985mbnxmWfIRxt5nb3j9MBnkzTNoG6lLdFhyphenhyphenVq_w7QrtUNSw8kIeJgzgwQrYnz-Ca0dfY_bFdcTedYLDZ-YgT8NQpvD-gZR8bfOuvVf20Jau8IBwRwy/s200/IMG_8038.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487213366579747410" border="0" /></a>and just had fun for like an hour or two while the football game was on in the background and the crowd was freaking out on and off. After that we headed back to the hostel very briefly just to get our room situated and our bags moved up, then we headed to a bar/restaurant nearby the hostel called Agustiner Brau Mundhen. We hung out there, I got this awesome beef gulach soup, and we just hung out talking and stuff for a while more. We then went back to the hostel and hung out some more in the open air courtyard common area in the center of the first floor, as the end of the football game played. Ian left for his overnight train to Paris, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKzHsCLEjWULcuFu519GFLq86J1lt2q9Pmf1LCVyvrV6eDbTOKYhByebP-n5zzJh5VkZvi-Qw13Xxdk46iIVN3iv_BdUAnCLdCHc8B19G7UXa_90zKdaXKAyCnmRMNomTZvMTjoRcK2gi/s1600/IMG_8047.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJKzHsCLEjWULcuFu519GFLq86J1lt2q9Pmf1LCVyvrV6eDbTOKYhByebP-n5zzJh5VkZvi-Qw13Xxdk46iIVN3iv_BdUAnCLdCHc8B19G7UXa_90zKdaXKAyCnmRMNomTZvMTjoRcK2gi/s200/IMG_8047.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487214115084378178" border="0" /></a>and then everyone else left to get some sleep since they are all leaving in the morning as well. We had an awesome time today with our little Munich Posse that formed, and it is too bad tonight was the last night for all of them in Munich.<br /><br />Tomorrow, Sharon and I have a day at Neuschwanstein Castle planned, and it shall be excellent. Heaps of fun to be had! Good night all!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-86105248963726594692010-06-25T16:47:00.005-04:002010-06-25T17:44:37.052-04:00Berlin!<span style="font-style: italic;">Post about Berlin yesterday...</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2zjy301Ik9vPURQWkN7U2Ta2e2ng9qANzMnqFxj3oYQpYE5qBHzYDi7VTOwiE_H4tu_Dph-VcVlDvbJ4B1kmJw2XL43KbDqXp9tyff4vYLzoAwSXMg9qbky8WU61_ExdyUQb1XWftPwFT/s1600/IMG_7863.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2zjy301Ik9vPURQWkN7U2Ta2e2ng9qANzMnqFxj3oYQpYE5qBHzYDi7VTOwiE_H4tu_Dph-VcVlDvbJ4B1kmJw2XL43KbDqXp9tyff4vYLzoAwSXMg9qbky8WU61_ExdyUQb1XWftPwFT/s200/IMG_7863.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486826547349053938" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I love Berlin. This city is so choice. I want to visit here again. I don't know, it is just the vibe I get. There was nothing in particular that was so amazing, I just<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHEf6OWyElUTopVAV_oOn0MHFtP9UuzDVLnACsInvgPKlVPxIzsk3I30bSUgejHde5xr44vYuvN8itkD58lViN3lU6Yzcvg-AGNBoK70rm33KqKusV9_u1wc8W4OXaFRT91yHF3wqwcwx/s1600/IMG_7903.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEHEf6OWyElUTopVAV_oOn0MHFtP9UuzDVLnACsInvgPKlVPxIzsk3I30bSUgejHde5xr44vYuvN8itkD58lViN3lU6Yzcvg-AGNBoK70rm33KqKusV9_u1wc8W4OXaFRT91yHF3wqwcwx/s200/IMG_7903.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486829653996363826" border="0" /></a> really really love it here.<br /><br />Today we spent the day exploring the city. We got up and got breakfast at a nearby cafe. We then got on the metro (got a day pass) and headed to the Brandenburg Gate to meet up with the New Europe free tour. We took the tour, our tour guide was a kiwi named Stephanie and she was really awesome, and we saw a ton of stuff. This tour in particular had the most sort of history lesson type of things and interesting stories, and it was really great. We saw so much, it was the longest free tour yet (3.5 hours) including... (excuse my bad spelling, I'm sure I will butcher some stuff)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6iAYY_TkzIYET83ax9_lLuw6Z38K4uiZ_wR6-g_9C1Pf9IlDD2zBG9K3BA233CZUMiR9kMT4gYY8xFJW6FoidYbSPsOo6vLdC_0Rm7LL0907HZrcPGJ-VeeTLLD3JmJmNHQxWxust8q5/s1600/IMG_7876.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl6iAYY_TkzIYET83ax9_lLuw6Z38K4uiZ_wR6-g_9C1Pf9IlDD2zBG9K3BA233CZUMiR9kMT4gYY8xFJW6FoidYbSPsOo6vLdC_0Rm7LL0907HZrcPGJ-VeeTLLD3JmJmNHQxWxust8q5/s200/IMG_7876.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486829637251388514" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><ul><li>Brandenburg Gate</li><li>Reichstag</li><li>Memorial to the Murdered Jews</li><li>Site of the bunker Hitler killed himself in... now a nondescript dirt parking lot. Suck it Hitler.</li><li>Checkpoint Charlie<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODcDg8RDMdmLZqcX2D60Wg1mLERxOFd2qDfTFP7ye9BNCoiXAhkhXZ37E4LVuZBr1yNyGpmwvkwfgPxxEK46-eYLlyO3eVnXFuq8977gpslGLnpuPvZaF0o8Hn_mlWod4MnMo_YenpAFJ/s1600/IMG_7887.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgODcDg8RDMdmLZqcX2D60Wg1mLERxOFd2qDfTFP7ye9BNCoiXAhkhXZ37E4LVuZBr1yNyGpmwvkwfgPxxEK46-eYLlyO3eVnXFuq8977gpslGLnpuPvZaF0o8Hn_mlWod4MnMo_YenpAFJ/s200/IMG_7887.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486826555414846674" border="0" /></a></li><li>A Standing segment of the Berlin Wall</li><li>Bepel Platz</li><li>Hitler's Opera House (rebuilt like 4 times)</li><li>Underground empty bookcase, memorial<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjraq8zvE6HuXmVwnyZ0E5YBl6tjKdBR0mEiK66VNPb8Zf8tI7D5X3N-xyDf3YM23IPEl2jbsa6c1EGRKQH500xxONtZwFFDlNAyFPDQh6W23Lo9wvWVA8uzeHyy64jHakvuc_bQCzsIaE-/s1600/IMG_7908.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjraq8zvE6HuXmVwnyZ0E5YBl6tjKdBR0mEiK66VNPb8Zf8tI7D5X3N-xyDf3YM23IPEl2jbsa6c1EGRKQH500xxONtZwFFDlNAyFPDQh6W23Lo9wvWVA8uzeHyy64jHakvuc_bQCzsIaE-/s200/IMG_7908.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486829665388023346" border="0" /></a> to the 20,000 books burned by the Nazis</li><li>Memorial to the New Watch</li><li>TV Tower, known as the "Pope's Revenge" because all the crosses were taken down in Berlin but the sun reflects off the TV Tower in the shape of a cross.</li><li>Museum Island - island formed by the river running through Berlin with multiple museums on it.</li></ul>The tour was totally awesome. After we wandered around a bit on Museum island, then headed back towards our Hostel meandering around, and then stopped at a beer garden calle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj72zDGC_BdTlv_-w1k5JfyjQKLivOVzzbDrOMLJIDDOh1A7MoI8Odwyac2aygxX0XWilWOtS2atnZuwaOCiu4y7IoxXj2J2xpp8wr6Yz50IzAsd05QOAq0XGdlBwo-TM5Ya3bvsFGdJ_Iq/s1600/IMG_7888.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj72zDGC_BdTlv_-w1k5JfyjQKLivOVzzbDrOMLJIDDOh1A7MoI8Odwyac2aygxX0XWilWOtS2atnZuwaOCiu4y7IoxXj2J2xpp8wr6Yz50IzAsd05QOAq0XGdlBwo-TM5Ya3bvsFGdJ_Iq/s200/IMG_7888.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486829646843514850" border="0" /></a>d Prater Beir Garten. We hung out there for a while, got some German food such as brotwurst, and watched some world cup. We then stopped into some stores and fooled around, looking at various things for sail. Caption for the picture of me with the big fake revolver: <span style="font-style: italic;">"I have THIS!"<br /><br /></span>After we headed back to the restaurant from last night and got another strudel. Sooo good! Then we headed back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and headed to Berlin Hbf station.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeOARbP6G4OIq9J0AJf2UI61G8e_cjD7FdwuYlHQqe9TyKqNsTwSsw6g50JM9nFASJw7xrRyAIU9kC8zcgMxfKbLKcUq0gckMYX8SNT9SqIamSiW_8tsmEAWsedwYFAHLPIOywmLQxoPh/s1600/IMG_7950.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAeOARbP6G4OIq9J0AJf2UI61G8e_cjD7FdwuYlHQqe9TyKqNsTwSsw6g50JM9nFASJw7xrRyAIU9kC8zcgMxfKbLKcUq0gckMYX8SNT9SqIamSiW_8tsmEAWsedwYFAHLPIOywmLQxoPh/s200/IMG_7950.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486826558585046514" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We were waiting for our over night train and met a guy named Ian from Michigan who had been living in Vienna for the past 6 weeks for school and was now traveling for the next 10 days before going home. We hung out for a little while on the train and decided that we would all hang out the next day in Munich and <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWteDlsS9V2TJdfkQmq_VqFjTfvxKgsBOTNESinQqJ8kqOJZsu4CK2H1zS-NWQB-K0gSiTbH6rsFUuP2-dNijVLFdul35aKWnnuV3W7ZJhBzgPCD9vlkg_VBBt6NPF9ChJCA_cNyMRTLn9/s1600/IMG_7942.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWteDlsS9V2TJdfkQmq_VqFjTfvxKgsBOTNESinQqJ8kqOJZsu4CK2H1zS-NWQB-K0gSiTbH6rsFUuP2-dNijVLFdul35aKWnnuV3W7ZJhBzgPCD9vlkg_VBBt6NPF9ChJCA_cNyMRTLn9/s200/IMG_7942.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486829669520017282" border="0" /></a>go on the tour together. Then there was the overnight train... which was seats and not beds. Woah... that sucks. So we had to spend all night sitting in the train. Yuck. Oh well, Berlin was awesome and Munich now!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-64454270777498203182010-06-23T16:08:00.003-04:002010-06-23T16:09:39.486-04:00Awesome Awesome AwesomeI heard a rumor that a certain relative of mine who will remain nameless has devised a drinking game revolving around every time I say the word awesome in my blog. This post is for you!<br /><br />awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesomePat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-78011857052373565292010-06-23T16:00:00.004-04:002010-06-23T16:41:25.575-04:00Welcome to Germany...Guten Tag!<br /><br />This afternoon we arrived in Berlin. We spent a good hunk of time traveling (5 hour train ride from Prague to Berlin... I watched a lot of Lost... :-D) and got into Berlin around 3:30pm. We hopped a few metros and made our way to our hostel, EastSeven Berlin. The hostel is pretty nice, especially the common areas. We dropped our stuff, gathered maps and stuff, and asked the desk where we could get some good authentic German food, and he directed us to a place that was like a 10 minute walk away. So off we went.<br /><br />We walked along to the restaurant, called Schusterjunge, and as we walked I was getting a really good vibe from the city, and I'm excited to explore it tomorrow. We got there and ordered our food... I had Shnitzle, Dave had Bratwurst, and the grils had 2 different beef dishes. The food was totally delicious. And it tasted <span style="font-style: italic;">so</span> German. It was awesome. And after we finished, we ordered some apple strudel. Holy crap. That was the best strudel ever. It was insanely good. After we headed back to the hostel and just kind of hung out and planned our day tomorrow. Tomorrow we hit the town, and that night at 8pm we have our last overnight train, to Munich. So Berlin's post will have to be postponed a bit. Only 3 more countries to go after Germany!<br /><br />So since we didn't really much of anything to report today, I thought I would fill the rest of this blog post with fun facts about our trip so far! Here goes!<br /><br /><ul><li>Today is day 30 of the trip.</li><li>So far we have visited 26 cities in 10 countries, with 6 - 9 more cities (depending on what happens and our time) in 3 more countries to go.</li><li>We have been on 28 trains for a total time of about 67 hours.</li><li>Factor in the 63 metros we have taken (Be them above ground trains, subway trains, or funicular trains) and we have been on a total of 91 total trains so far.</li><li>To date I have taken 3,197 photos totaling 14.8 GB<br /></li></ul>And well... I can't really think of any other fun facts. Auf Wiedersehen!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-13170743544394881712010-06-22T16:59:00.004-04:002010-06-22T18:05:17.778-04:00Czech It Out!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqHebNsKvelpzyGv4QiI2wHYoqWu6eocuDYFu1RreUOfhMizhYHuRHZwy-42Ldhjjm11JqlQ_Gy0KDSPu213Pk7UHbbOrpCoWmZJVpucPfD_14LBEFwHX4-J5syYAnluk_IdgqO0O6PlHw/s1600/IMG_7681.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqHebNsKvelpzyGv4QiI2wHYoqWu6eocuDYFu1RreUOfhMizhYHuRHZwy-42Ldhjjm11JqlQ_Gy0KDSPu213Pk7UHbbOrpCoWmZJVpucPfD_14LBEFwHX4-J5syYAnluk_IdgqO0O6PlHw/s200/IMG_7681.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485716656911906178" border="0" /></a>Pat Hughes here, reporting live from Prague, in the Czech Republic. There has been a great deal of activity in the area today, and I'm here to give you all the updates.<br />This morning we got up and headed down to the breakfast here at our Prague hostel, Sir Toby's. The breakfast was not included, which of course stinks, but for only 100 Czech Crowns ($5) You got a cook-it-yourself all you can eat buffet. Eggs, pancakes (first time seeing pancakes in Europe, most countries don't think of it as breakfast!), cereal, yogurt, fruit, etc. It was good and we filled up well to cover lunch as well (always a good thing).<br /><br />After we left the hostel and got on a tram (Prague is made up of <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUxX0Aahh2Hz3pwg9dPoXmzUu3Ler_2tFln0wf5Tiyxav3rqPEcye8POsHhgzbCzhDW7ASuMbE01m_gv2ZKgMXvFRFU71xsU4X72Bd2642t9UKcMRK1sdkE4w8MB-FF0nOZ1GUd8fwrjnZ/s1600/IMG_7683.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUxX0Aahh2Hz3pwg9dPoXmzUu3Ler_2tFln0wf5Tiyxav3rqPEcye8POsHhgzbCzhDW7ASuMbE01m_gv2ZKgMXvFRFU71xsU4X72Bd2642t9UKcMRK1sdkE4w8MB-FF0nOZ1GUd8fwrjnZ/s200/IMG_7683.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485722180517272258" border="0" /></a>metro systems like subways and trams like subways that run in the middle of the cars on the roads above ground) to the center area of the city, just a 5 minute walk from Old Town Center. Prague's Old Town is really great. The architecture throughout Prague is so varied from Gothic to Art Nouveau and even to the only existing Cubist building in the world. Really great stuff.<br /><br />At the Old Town Center we grabbed yet another New Europe free walking tour. Every city from here on out has one so we will be doing this in every city to really get acquainted with it from the get go. For free!<br /><br />The tour was totally great as usual. Some of the many things we covered and places we visited include... (bullet list time again!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGgVJuE4VRdE749y6iSjCkibvmkONL5XacsRRhGD9eOUcosOKdR85fUR9zfrBXR2q-ALRnglcKFWypFKgpkoO5LSCNu0VZh3etg3yrKPHum-lXtgKF2G1joYN8qEGntC6CodoZ2D8JzWa/s1600/IMG_7721.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGgVJuE4VRdE749y6iSjCkibvmkONL5XacsRRhGD9eOUcosOKdR85fUR9zfrBXR2q-ALRnglcKFWypFKgpkoO5LSCNu0VZh3etg3yrKPHum-lXtgKF2G1joYN8qEGntC6CodoZ2D8JzWa/s200/IMG_7721.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485722189086049458" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><ul><li>Astronomical Clock</li><li>Wenceslas Square</li><li>St. Jame's Cathedral (Which has a mummified severed hand hanging in it, relating to a legend involving a living statue of the Virgin Mary, a thief, and a priest with a saw...)</li><li>Powder Tower</li><li>Rudolfinum</li><li>Old Jewish Quarter<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLIaLHz5bDccH14B7hhcG39p_D4M07nDgNAcDr3xzUuqXy1b2_9XV8z-uX_9CzipIQRwA8tYQfFw5J8yLqghdaE0c6aAuqfFyF7P6JzywIPZRA-WxEfgvLwKbZuSVKJeZupHlXiECkDK6/s1600/IMG_7764.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdLIaLHz5bDccH14B7hhcG39p_D4M07nDgNAcDr3xzUuqXy1b2_9XV8z-uX_9CzipIQRwA8tYQfFw5J8yLqghdaE0c6aAuqfFyF7P6JzywIPZRA-WxEfgvLwKbZuSVKJeZupHlXiECkDK6/s200/IMG_7764.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485716672252795074" border="0" /></a></li><li>Spanish Synagogue</li><li>Old New Synagogue</li><li>Cubism Cafe</li><li>Prague Castle (Oldest and biggest Medieval castle in the world)</li><li>Charles Bridge</li></ul>After the tour we went in some stores, stopped at the post office for Sharon to send out post cards, and headed over to the Franz Kafka museum. Now Sharon and I had no real interest, but Dave wanted to go and Jen went in with him. They <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigIhgTp_glJWnmCFoML5S8WgUbQbjuO2rLpu87w2UEN9-A7mODO3tx-MqfEWUdWwBaBUuWz615nES4QC3f_xLugLTIyMdOj9cljSlKVyRi8HSbCIPHrTMZjEx1TVxIzkaX_ayMSebc8BLo/s1600/IMG_7762.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigIhgTp_glJWnmCFoML5S8WgUbQbjuO2rLpu87w2UEN9-A7mODO3tx-MqfEWUdWwBaBUuWz615nES4QC3f_xLugLTIyMdOj9cljSlKVyRi8HSbCIPHrTMZjEx1TVxIzkaX_ayMSebc8BLo/s200/IMG_7762.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485722176456209170" border="0" /></a>said it was cool and trippy, it sounded pretty rad their descriptions actually made me kind of wish I went in. But the area outside was cool, we sat and hung out and there were these 2 statues of guys peeing on the Czech Republic that moved around (It was a water fountain). It was cool.<br /><br />When they got out we headed back to the Astronomical Clock to see it go off for the 6pm hour. It does this little thing with moving characters and stuff, which in and of itself isn't that impressive... but when you look at it through the lens of being the oldest working machine in the world (built in 1410) it is pretty impressive.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHegwTPwSqz2ETkQ6QPqzIGZ79NJjjKNcnw0hSgPFKECbJI-xqk-qu0KsyDLIBRAh5fCr4K7siVKeQ1y85GT8ToAUkaBo6aMSHAH_lTHxnxIaB5R17mmsCPGSpnQ2FwL169MyX9yzVd6yU/s1600/IMG_7774.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHegwTPwSqz2ETkQ6QPqzIGZ79NJjjKNcnw0hSgPFKECbJI-xqk-qu0KsyDLIBRAh5fCr4K7siVKeQ1y85GT8ToAUkaBo6aMSHAH_lTHxnxIaB5R17mmsCPGSpnQ2FwL169MyX9yzVd6yU/s200/IMG_7774.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485716661684554306" border="0" /></a>We then headed back to the hostel for the obligatory rest/nap time that is becoming so common these days. Seems like everyone is starting to get run down by the trip (Not me, just to clarify... I usually just sit on a computer or writing in my journal or watching Lost or something during these times) Then the other three were off to a Pub Crawl. I'm sure they are having a bang up time right now. As for me? I headed down to the pub under the hostel with our roommate Emilio and we had this traditional Czech soup they were serving and hung out while a live Jazz band played. It was real cool and real chill. Now I'm just hanging out relaxing in the room, and it is good. Tomorrow? Berlin!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-91685801087504367412010-06-21T20:20:00.002-04:002010-06-21T20:31:39.390-04:00Video Time!Hi all! Tonight we arrived in Prague, Czech Republic, and since the day was mostly spent traveling I don't really have anything of note to report. So we put together this video of things we have been up to so far on the trip... enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwUSiA78MtNVONml5FwhC5kcgoogRwe5ga204DPEepEM0UK1HF52dyD_71iWwNIy0iJ6CQBhHEBLOldzKsDPQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-12744630573853897302010-06-20T14:49:00.003-04:002010-06-20T18:19:01.084-04:00Vienna, Austria...it's Naht a Tumah<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pxfwrs_XRtqkYG-V3YycJmbm75DEp3UaFZAWfvdJIITY7DbEQkhoCE8ERmz383dk_Ols3RvXO0WKo8AdqD3ghNTxMw_uhnHi3RmiEq9v-VT1a31goLnICeQpbUdgE2tenIdjouYOJLZz/s1600/IMG_7621.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pxfwrs_XRtqkYG-V3YycJmbm75DEp3UaFZAWfvdJIITY7DbEQkhoCE8ERmz383dk_Ols3RvXO0WKo8AdqD3ghNTxMw_uhnHi3RmiEq9v-VT1a31goLnICeQpbUdgE2tenIdjouYOJLZz/s200/IMG_7621.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484979201041107922" border="0" /></a><br />So today we rolled into Vienna at around 8am on our overnight train. The overnight train was pretty cool. For around an hour and a half we were just the 4 of us in our own private room, but the rooms were 6 person so we knew we would most likely eventually lose our privacy. We had some dinner we had got at a market before hand and just hung out. We ran into some people who were in our room at Naples the first night we were there so we talked to them a bit. Eventually 2 guys got on and then we put the beds up and all went to sleep. I know the others had some sleeping t<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiyTFIzX62gGiXqOLGJxb6fv7NY3W6S9hbpenf0nS8O4Tsb5dX9mgzFfcF51uSdNonW2aj869EENE_9zlz6vA88q4kdEye5mAnI1aMJDfXIKGhWwsrcfNrMiQVG2xm5oKJ0R8ZD1dQjEVO/s1600/IMG_7570.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiyTFIzX62gGiXqOLGJxb6fv7NY3W6S9hbpenf0nS8O4Tsb5dX9mgzFfcF51uSdNonW2aj869EENE_9zlz6vA88q4kdEye5mAnI1aMJDfXIKGhWwsrcfNrMiQVG2xm5oKJ0R8ZD1dQjEVO/s200/IMG_7570.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484983566413096642" border="0" /></a>roubles but I slept pretty well, I like overnight trains.<br /><br />We got in and made our way to the Hostel. It is located like right next to a metro stop so that is good. We got there and checked our bags before hitting the city. We first decided to go to go to the Schoenbrunn Palace. We got there and found that you could wander around the gigantic garden for free, so we spent a few hours exploring the grounds. While we were there we found that there was a hedge maze, so we paid to go into it. Not only was there a hedge maze, but there were three hedge mazes! It was totally awesome. We ran around and successfully navigated the first one. We wen't into the second one and it was a shorter one, kind of for kids, but it had<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF7VbcQ7F8LPHZdsQMrtn-q0ZNVxvqPeEsAWhLcnUMH-W9EoIGAFs4V9YaPxC-slhXZ_Z0sVQRKkchtpm5-3l6c8JCKdETB5gjLtdxllPTsitLcm-fVis3qTqxUtyuYwEaY7XvaVQDVIS/s1600/IMG_7580.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQF7VbcQ7F8LPHZdsQMrtn-q0ZNVxvqPeEsAWhLcnUMH-W9EoIGAFs4V9YaPxC-slhXZ_Z0sVQRKkchtpm5-3l6c8JCKdETB5gjLtdxllPTsitLcm-fVis3qTqxUtyuYwEaY7XvaVQDVIS/s200/IMG_7580.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484979218692959682" border="0" /></a> all these cool things inside it at different parts you had to find your way to. There was a little mirror hall, these pump things, a body of water you had to hop stones to get across, and these panels on the ground that played musical notes when you jumped on them. After navigating out of that one we got to the third one, and it led first to a climbing pole, which Dave and I climbed up (like climbing up a real big fireman's pole to a bell) and saw where the end of the maze was. We got there, a raised area of land with a tree in it, and then got back out.<br /><br />We left there and looked around the park a little more until we made it too the palace. When we <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7miXQkRDT9VOMLHO53-wjsYo6VIjyRygryre0xUXXpyr4fsX4huwiWLjpbyHCfUf-z5bAGoPVk_L7NfNmseOIADqbOu6rikT0HTcEnRVluvLimKksP0VVEgLuN57zgCN-onbvnpccjwG3/s1600/IMG_7612.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7miXQkRDT9VOMLHO53-wjsYo6VIjyRygryre0xUXXpyr4fsX4huwiWLjpbyHCfUf-z5bAGoPVk_L7NfNmseOIADqbOu6rikT0HTcEnRVluvLimKksP0VVEgLuN57zgCN-onbvnpccjwG3/s200/IMG_7612.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484983597816128738" border="0" /></a>were back at the palace, Dave and Jen decided they wanted to go check out Sigmund Freud's museum/house and we were going to go to Stephansdom Cathedral. So they left and we headed up that way.<br /><br />The cathedral was really cool, but naturally - like everything else we seem to see on this trip - it was covered up and heavily under refurbishment. But one side and half the spire were showing, and they were cool looking. The inside was pretty impressive, and such a pure example of Gothic architecture. Very cool. From there Sharon and I wandered the area a little, it was a pretty hopping area. We ended up getting a late lunch and then headed back when it was finally time to check in so we could check into our room.<br /><br />The hostel we are staying in is very cool. It has a good common room and stuff and people are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6i9weXDmnhbSBbbLftJixve5b_ZbdQhwSkA_JjdTej_Ahqyq7XOe1fv3rkqwQPXjFw8hSiUhru2XYaQprzWyzoDOh8YFz8cSRxWFBntnCDycOmBEQ2So8UMzKhRUAku6KFPoWF04n9mD/s1600/IMG_7648.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu6i9weXDmnhbSBbbLftJixve5b_ZbdQhwSkA_JjdTej_Ahqyq7XOe1fv3rkqwQPXjFw8hSiUhru2XYaQprzWyzoDOh8YFz8cSRxWFBntnCDycOmBEQ2So8UMzKhRUAku6KFPoWF04n9mD/s200/IMG_7648.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484979247981352258" border="0" /></a>around so we will probably hang out here for the rest of the night (I think my Blog usually displays the time in USA Eastern, but here as I'm typing it is 8:15 so it will post a little after this). Our room is so big and nice, has a private bathroom, and even has a TV. This is only the third time we have had a TV, and the first time it didn't work, so we watched a little in German because it was funny. We saw an episode of Family Guy, I liked it a lot haha. Peter sounded so angry.<br /><br />So tomorrow we will be going to the Czech Republic to visit Prague, and we will be there for 2 nights before heading into Germany. After a few days in Germany, we will be going to Belgium for one day, and then finishing up for 2 days in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Then after our over night layover in Reykjavik, Iceland we will be home! Everything goes by so quickly...Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-2456926811985547512010-06-20T13:43:00.002-04:002010-06-20T14:48:53.814-04:00Venice: The Final Frontier (aka The Last Day in Italy)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRCzSX4a-tX1rjwmGVveatZw0lU_GwLLWkMAxlsTYeODqRDE8NXHpOqwBBJVrhvR-dKNddBwusvJh3o7HlqsKPRPfJoroS44_WdLLJ-3UtkOuWbNuW2UtYL5slvzFNIvdAjgq4PQWg2SFu/s1600/IMG_7392.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRCzSX4a-tX1rjwmGVveatZw0lU_GwLLWkMAxlsTYeODqRDE8NXHpOqwBBJVrhvR-dKNddBwusvJh3o7HlqsKPRPfJoroS44_WdLLJ-3UtkOuWbNuW2UtYL5slvzFNIvdAjgq4PQWg2SFu/s200/IMG_7392.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484918420216372994" border="0" /></a><br />Last night we had an overnight train from Venice to Vienna, so obviously I had no internet. Here is that post!<br /><br />Yesterday we went to Venice. We got in pretty early, checked our <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeeCwyaRq80Q0HwsEZG4WCOky8UaI5DghaBgsprGWi7UmNrfxKC1kri6vIPTR0tW626XErE6hjyTItk1Tj9aI8zuqHszwDB3atGngHH7B_Y4n2O-wYmS2OE1sVPVCjeVSctuzVnsMKsPLk/s1600/IMG_7491.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeeCwyaRq80Q0HwsEZG4WCOky8UaI5DghaBgsprGWi7UmNrfxKC1kri6vIPTR0tW626XErE6hjyTItk1Tj9aI8zuqHszwDB3atGngHH7B_Y4n2O-wYmS2OE1sVPVCjeVSctuzVnsMKsPLk/s200/IMG_7491.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484928918309318594" border="0" /></a>baggage, and booked our overnight train for that night into Vienna, Austria. When all that was said and done, we headed out to hit the town.<br /><br />Vienna is so cool looking. The way the water just runs throughout the whole city is awesome. No cars, and their taxis and metro system are boats. It is really awesome. We walked around exploring the city some for a while, walking through buildings and along water ways and over bridges. We eventually made our way to St. Marco Square and saw the big cathedral there and all the cafes, but did not go in because the line was too long. We saw the Bridge of Sighs, or at least some of it as most was covered by billboards because <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPquxf8uRkrcIAIvrBxKFwciTq63MACup3D2i5F0XdCn5HLAb5wpwAbmhXdu4Y_7PIQoBCOsOt2mzJLvhYCixQ3X2VuqqA900YoOFKWO4HCA0kRILWjoCTn3Acfp1I0g8AHStmqnFUUlB/s1600/IMG_7388.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPquxf8uRkrcIAIvrBxKFwciTq63MACup3D2i5F0XdCn5HLAb5wpwAbmhXdu4Y_7PIQoBCOsOt2mzJLvhYCixQ3X2VuqqA900YoOFKWO4HCA0kRILWjoCTn3Acfp1I0g8AHStmqnFUUlB/s200/IMG_7388.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484928877774097010" border="0" /></a>naturally it was being refurbished. Like everything in Europe this summer. We walked along the water some more and explored into the city. We looked at some stores, there were so many places selling those Venetian masks... some of them were so ornate, outrageous, and awesome.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAQ70qMn0wE6tMCNgI72XYNyerQADmvDJR2U8qMiu3NVM27_Nelo7k60q8aSDKMLn8UQWChHYh_dsGNxxjJW_QGBTRbpv9fdq7x7XrYAaBc2AVXnAMxMwLpxECYrHVpoZvpeTC6v4X5S2r/s1600/IMG_7427.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAQ70qMn0wE6tMCNgI72XYNyerQADmvDJR2U8qMiu3NVM27_Nelo7k60q8aSDKMLn8UQWChHYh_dsGNxxjJW_QGBTRbpv9fdq7x7XrYAaBc2AVXnAMxMwLpxECYrHVpoZvpeTC6v4X5S2r/s200/IMG_7427.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484918432900108386" border="0" /></a>We eventually found ourselves at the very end of the city, so we started to make our way back in the direction of the the train station. As we had been walking all this time, it had been raining lightly. Never much more then drizzle really, but fairly consistent for an hour or 2. When we got back to St. Marco Square we found that much of it had flooded. The water table was already high in Venice when we got here, so the rain raised it to the point where water seeps into the city from the roads and the waterways were flooding up some of the entrances into the paths. Everyone in the square was trying to maneuver through the same 1 person wide dry parts and it was causing major traffic. We just walked right around them through the very shallow water to get the hell out of there. We found the city fairly flooded throughout. We stopped in a park and some more stores as we <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfGftWa8Gu_nI5eF6ZmFbAiuOpHhkzqGzanH6V5lK74lrmqr7QP8NhQ29zT25iAn4MBLZCGoXhhlyfHJ7p-UW9LJK7PRzZLXDcE2ACyAmvbu2rXpJYZ8Mf-mxDdwQoZ44CagTpudeMf6C/s1600/IMG_7471.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfGftWa8Gu_nI5eF6ZmFbAiuOpHhkzqGzanH6V5lK74lrmqr7QP8NhQ29zT25iAn4MBLZCGoXhhlyfHJ7p-UW9LJK7PRzZLXDcE2ACyAmvbu2rXpJYZ8Mf-mxDdwQoZ44CagTpudeMf6C/s200/IMG_7471.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484928898187732130" border="0" /></a>walked.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsZVkl-h0IUctCSrO6JU4o8p8ZEUUF25IvUuIct03zHG8QeZDWme0vQvXzMch8RypC52Ck44hFNkoMXw1oWWDXJjBWEMExx7BtRUaETj_AC5f2AkS79rFSY6lebe2e4FACsG9ZfjzpmVd/s1600/IMG_7485.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVsZVkl-h0IUctCSrO6JU4o8p8ZEUUF25IvUuIct03zHG8QeZDWme0vQvXzMch8RypC52Ck44hFNkoMXw1oWWDXJjBWEMExx7BtRUaETj_AC5f2AkS79rFSY6lebe2e4FACsG9ZfjzpmVd/s200/IMG_7485.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484918470545448658" border="0" /></a>We split up for a little while, and Sharon and I took a gondola ride around some of the city. It was really cool to ride in an actual gondola through the canals of Venice. Our gondola (pilot? captain?) rowed us and was even wearing one of those big gondola hats you see in movies.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQDPgmn-S5oMFJW-uESJ0bsOPPJgcP_zU6exn2kFOdnqRAGSyedgs3kYdKyaQwUTJcK9YMksCX0hyphenhyphennlM-WgNDLb9j9QhpONAz08loVEn-VyBr0luou1J57xkUmlAWlJweoxPUwKqX2dbz/s1600/IMG_7474.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLQDPgmn-S5oMFJW-uESJ0bsOPPJgcP_zU6exn2kFOdnqRAGSyedgs3kYdKyaQwUTJcK9YMksCX0hyphenhyphennlM-WgNDLb9j9QhpONAz08loVEn-VyBr0luou1J57xkUmlAWlJweoxPUwKqX2dbz/s200/IMG_7474.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484928904383936898" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We got our last real Italian meal at a place on the way, I had Spaghetti Bolognese. It was alright. The portion was super small though so we ended up getting a slice of pizza when we were almost back to the station. It was the most similar to pizza at home but the slice was huge and delicious. I had mushroom, yum!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvj8daaMlofiPIj3yWCqgoVhWYOhG0fspzoaYfqIc8qGl8P_lNkFwHhaFkLkBpAiCAuFtV99NJtS2g3NAayQopXPzt1QUp5CdU1r8pbpK2URUdzS_oNmpt-hMJ7EssFDUHk-7bTzhez2Q/s1600/IMG_7453.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvj8daaMlofiPIj3yWCqgoVhWYOhG0fspzoaYfqIc8qGl8P_lNkFwHhaFkLkBpAiCAuFtV99NJtS2g3NAayQopXPzt1QUp5CdU1r8pbpK2URUdzS_oNmpt-hMJ7EssFDUHk-7bTzhez2Q/s200/IMG_7453.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484918459737160802" border="0" /></a>While we were making our way back, we saw a small tornado in the distance. We weren't so sure it could be that at first so we studied it for a while, and there was a crowd watching as well. It was fluctuating in size and shape and absolutely swirling. It dissipated while we were watching after a while.<br /><br />We got to the station, headed to Mestro station, and got our overnight train to Vienna Austria!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-86350329966110477642010-06-18T17:32:00.004-04:002010-06-18T17:49:35.867-04:00Bonjourno from Firenze!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAyyEnck-LQHX4RU8oILQszACcqAopDrMichoMofnyvpPkuyXo-o3Yfh306lgAKyRwZ5-ACO0F8lWZkRyt5R8vWVbg1CvrENuUPbfYBXM3bqwsfFIEHl4wXecYbHrVAaKpsE354ooSQKb/s1600/IMG_7301.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmAyyEnck-LQHX4RU8oILQszACcqAopDrMichoMofnyvpPkuyXo-o3Yfh306lgAKyRwZ5-ACO0F8lWZkRyt5R8vWVbg1CvrENuUPbfYBXM3bqwsfFIEHl4wXecYbHrVAaKpsE354ooSQKb/s200/IMG_7301.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484231352367941522" border="0" /></a><br />We arrived this morning in Florence at around 12 and checked our stuff into the hostel. From there we headed on over to the Ponte Vechio bridge and walked down it looking at everything and seeing a really great view down the river from the center. (Dave and I realized when we were standing in the center of the bridge that it is where Assassins Creed 2 begins, and it looks exactly the same so coool) We then headed down towards the Duomo.<br /><br />The Duomo... wow. The Duomo was just an amazing building. The details are so unbelievably intricate and the building is just so massive. We had some gelato (of course, again) as we walked <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfv5iSPshGy8wyFfq-OsDxM8fc8XbB2YUl_mbOjQW_TvOuRa3iI-ovG-JfEbvtvCZ38DDM_60Sm6690u54FruUFXhidtYWTvKs8PW7kEz3PE-MG2vzm9ZPBHDeGDxwTnNEyhQEx0YdaRE/s1600/IMG_7325.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCfv5iSPshGy8wyFfq-OsDxM8fc8XbB2YUl_mbOjQW_TvOuRa3iI-ovG-JfEbvtvCZ38DDM_60Sm6690u54FruUFXhidtYWTvKs8PW7kEz3PE-MG2vzm9ZPBHDeGDxwTnNEyhQEx0YdaRE/s200/IMG_7325.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484232866450903266" border="0" /></a>around the building looking at it from all sides. Unfortunately some of the building was under refurbishment (like all of Europe this summer apparently) but it was in the back so it was alright. After we circled around we went inside to the Duomo, and Sharon had to put on a little paper cover thing over her shoulders to enter. The inside was alright. It was big with a cool clock and a really cool fresco in the dome, but aside from that it was pretty bland and open inside. But the outside was amazing.<br /><br />After that we made our way up to the Medici Tombs and the Lorenzo Medici Basilica. It was short and sweet, very cool but very small. But we could not take pictures. Boo. We first went inside the tomb and there were a variety of things. There was the burial site of Donatello, which I did not know was in there and was awesome. Then there was a room that was just full of relics. And by relics, I mean real holy relics that the Medicis had accumulated over time. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX7nGidcobS3deqJdGSgT4kp6oIPp92D-WsOG9h3hxnYOt9Yv0pWESi2N17o17QH4pTpq4ws2BwwSladsn7CuX_v4WdYpw6HjYdb-B2UvLVQhL6KbbUVQkuEdiDG3LzAlbrx4i7pKkPj3G/s1600/IMG_7320.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX7nGidcobS3deqJdGSgT4kp6oIPp92D-WsOG9h3hxnYOt9Yv0pWESi2N17o17QH4pTpq4ws2BwwSladsn7CuX_v4WdYpw6HjYdb-B2UvLVQhL6KbbUVQkuEdiDG3LzAlbrx4i7pKkPj3G/s200/IMG_7320.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484231365174961634" border="0" /></a>There were things like scrolls that were written by saints or things, but there were also bones encased in ornate cases of saints and apostles. It was hard to read what was what because there were no English translations, just Italian. There was a big femur of someone, some small bones of a number of people, some sort of relic related to Saint Peter that was to hard to see through the glass, case, and dim lighting, and the finger of Saint Mathew. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPPAAmognKo9L0w6QokdSlNFe6SQagAeoakcK55UY4L4sWzTy76ZOsxTk_wV2qtvZ7bMcdA4hS0szp29bh4m6JZJPx3iOkTtDXmWUXfrVVRiwHXBdxGszLn4XUIjkxXxUvfq4Up7fvpJtN/s1600/IMG_7308.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPPAAmognKo9L0w6QokdSlNFe6SQagAeoakcK55UY4L4sWzTy76ZOsxTk_wV2qtvZ7bMcdA4hS0szp29bh4m6JZJPx3iOkTtDXmWUXfrVVRiwHXBdxGszLn4XUIjkxXxUvfq4Up7fvpJtN/s200/IMG_7308.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484232855707516354" border="0" /></a>Literally, it was a gold case thing with an ancient finger in it. Nail and all. It was so cool.<br /><br />After we left that we went into the Basilica itself. It was alright, there were a lot of paintings and some sculpture in it (again no pictures) including some Donatello works, but the real cool part was in the back. They had the sarcophagus of Lorenzo Medici himself, and you could see into it and see his skeleton lying in it with feet in sandals, body wrapped in a cloak, and crown on his skull. It was totally awesome.<br /><br />We left there and headed up to the Academia to get on line to see the David (among other works in the museum) We waited a little over an hour and then got in. it was 10€ (instead of 6, stupid summer price hike) but it was totally worth it. The museum is small and you go through seeing some cool things, and then you enter a hallway that just has like 8 - 10 <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2t2yE7tE18Lo2ixMJ-6utdDj_ry6_UwUbbj5QekMbuyI6uDBxhMOtXiTnDJyQCYBGC1Q__Tv3CdLex_RZ060npX4JoL0tiUrLproHRwNU5cWT0MOFrxbPdQ6iEcQEmfh8WANbhtkcwvE/s1600/IMG_7360.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx2t2yE7tE18Lo2ixMJ-6utdDj_ry6_UwUbbj5QekMbuyI6uDBxhMOtXiTnDJyQCYBGC1Q__Tv3CdLex_RZ060npX4JoL0tiUrLproHRwNU5cWT0MOFrxbPdQ6iEcQEmfh8WANbhtkcwvE/s320/IMG_7360.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484233970726408258" border="0" /></a>Michelangelo statues lining the walkway. And at first I was like this is insane, there are so many Michelangelo's here but nobody cares about them. But you really always have to end up doing the same thing, because at the end of the path is the David. The gigantic towering masterpiece of Michelangelo, in person. It is impossible to really convey, but after seeing countless pictures of it and the 'exact' (so they say) replica in Florence itself you still just find yourself in total awe in its presence. It was insanely amazing, and I managed to snap 2 pictures without getting caught.<br /><br />We left there and headed to a market nearby to buy food to cook ourselves a fine Italian meal with real Italian ingredients in the hostel kitchen. We made a dish of pasta (the pasta in the stores just looked hand made, it was s different and delicious), breaded chicken, mushrooms, carrots, a cheesy sauce, bread... it was delicious (but still not quite at the level of our prawn and pasta dish in Liverpool... so hard to top). We cooked it up and ate in the common room with all the people watching the football game between <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXc3V282PLhVC2naU8e7W_L02-OssATZyGquNr7G8ebhjtuWhvsj3CsqGzBE829VlUOMp2kd45Jd1I-FqgVM49a-WO3tGEiiwUUB_23HMZLTZ1wQVZQ4vVyouoAvl7B5K-8WK6Lwf9h0zf/s1600/IMG_7376.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXc3V282PLhVC2naU8e7W_L02-OssATZyGquNr7G8ebhjtuWhvsj3CsqGzBE829VlUOMp2kd45Jd1I-FqgVM49a-WO3tGEiiwUUB_23HMZLTZ1wQVZQ4vVyouoAvl7B5K-8WK6Lwf9h0zf/s200/IMG_7376.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484231378306404882" border="0" /></a>Algeria and England (USA game wasn't on, but both games ended in ties) We met some cool people and had some good conversations, and it was all good fun. Now it is off to sleep for Venice in the morn!<br /><br /><br />Oh, and we saw Hulk Hogan in Florence. Jen is asleep though so I will be adding that picture later some time, she took the picture not me. I guess I'll leave that as a cliff hanger then!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-27141699783467298562010-06-17T19:09:00.003-04:002010-06-17T19:37:38.978-04:00Naples and the Island of Capri<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCWGRPI23084yIYsu45kSmfhyCQ5qCrxPA-HG1ahTwQ3iKUJZyMUkCdUHTeARqnSxQUGIXYEafmsKtUMfu3tDBcVN5yAdZsDxngyd-2DTT5Em_EyPitsp6okkw8pWYyRI3AuyDazrxa5dl/s1600/IMG_7221.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCWGRPI23084yIYsu45kSmfhyCQ5qCrxPA-HG1ahTwQ3iKUJZyMUkCdUHTeARqnSxQUGIXYEafmsKtUMfu3tDBcVN5yAdZsDxngyd-2DTT5Em_EyPitsp6okkw8pWYyRI3AuyDazrxa5dl/s200/IMG_7221.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483889882628447842" border="0" /></a><br />Ok well short post tonight, because frankly it won't take long to sum up today. We slept in a bit because we did not have anything too crazy to do, had breakfast, and got ourselves ready. We then headed just across the way to the marina where we got ourselves a ferry ticket to the nearby island of Capri. We got on the ferry, and one hour later we arrived in Capri.<br /><br />Capri is totally beautiful. It is an island with amazing cliffs and is basically a big mountain, and the scenery is gorgeous. We went onto a beach and the water is crystal clear and warm. The <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnL_itSwgdVG7W7F8F-Xjfese9pbAI2pUoNuLnuZiHWJcazE93s4hExuWaAG5ErtRs6gKNAKlfdQZvKM_9P5v2AiPkEr-tUuw4qnVK07Hm2pi_SL5G5t5qFfeYVK6qfywfgcLCeUtraU-/s1600/IMG_7240.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnL_itSwgdVG7W7F8F-Xjfese9pbAI2pUoNuLnuZiHWJcazE93s4hExuWaAG5ErtRs6gKNAKlfdQZvKM_9P5v2AiPkEr-tUuw4qnVK07Hm2pi_SL5G5t5qFfeYVK6qfywfgcLCeUtraU-/s200/IMG_7240.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483890845139968498" border="0" /></a>beach, however, is weird. The beaches are all stones and no sand, something I had heard about but it is still weird to see. I liked it better personally since I hate the beach because of the sand, and the water was so much clearer without sand floating in it. The picture makes the rocks look really big too, but I took that picture with the camera resting on them. They are like those small round stones, ranging in sizes from pebbles to a bit smaller then an average apricot.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3SQpIKdXzB0GIioTlNBMzf2tZuv53RvmPiwdcBHKIAMN8xKA4xARDBjIZuMJJtQ8pcsfeJGB1t5hyphenhyphenSvG3FLgqtK3q884ZWvUvsgReuKLMs2YIO_qc14gu3NPbvovypvnrMWAUn9C12UAs/s1600/IMG_7254.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3SQpIKdXzB0GIioTlNBMzf2tZuv53RvmPiwdcBHKIAMN8xKA4xARDBjIZuMJJtQ8pcsfeJGB1t5hyphenhyphenSvG3FLgqtK3q884ZWvUvsgReuKLMs2YIO_qc14gu3NPbvovypvnrMWAUn9C12UAs/s200/IMG_7254.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483889891872451842" border="0" /></a>After a little time at the beach we hopped on the funicular and went up the mountain side. We arrived in a little town area on the mountain and spent some time just exploring. The sights we beautiful. The flowers were so healthy and vibrant, the fruit trees full of round colorful fruits, and the views of the water and cliffs breath taking.<br /><br />I had some fruit I had brought as we walked around, we visited a little park that was on the edge of a cliff, and we took the funicular back down. When we got back down, it was getting into the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWb6gqrh_GHFdOre3uEhA-1L7GOXrSoqBunFZjYxAsmlstUV-orYj68_RJj9ASBiXlTgIYBHfHciozK8TGvQp16bLEZiM_29ys06Sb1S8WduYOaCYr_TWnr_MBNDcO3jMkUsiSagjmU2V/s1600/IMG_7264.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTWb6gqrh_GHFdOre3uEhA-1L7GOXrSoqBunFZjYxAsmlstUV-orYj68_RJj9ASBiXlTgIYBHfHciozK8TGvQp16bLEZiM_29ys06Sb1S8WduYOaCYr_TWnr_MBNDcO3jMkUsiSagjmU2V/s200/IMG_7264.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483890856559318002" border="0" /></a>evening, so we got our tickets back to Naples. We had about half an hour to kill, so I got some gelato and we sat on the beach right by the water until it was time to go.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_4CJ42yP7q0mHJHc-SvZs4Vl1TP9UHYfx3dYci8qYR0P0gTBFfyr45ILUrq4rtwuApf3cHWIZl-23EFPOiGbJ0dFODJ284gsSvSHKwLztSMt1987uD0enTGQBODqwhxVp-XPF-s5tOJ6/s1600/IMG_7275.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_4CJ42yP7q0mHJHc-SvZs4Vl1TP9UHYfx3dYci8qYR0P0gTBFfyr45ILUrq4rtwuApf3cHWIZl-23EFPOiGbJ0dFODJ284gsSvSHKwLztSMt1987uD0enTGQBODqwhxVp-XPF-s5tOJ6/s200/IMG_7275.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483889901716486130" border="0" /></a>Back at the hostel, we met a girl named Sophie from Holland who was really cool. We made plans to watch Memento after we ate, (she was eating at the time) and she recommended a place around the corner she had eaten at the night before. So we headed out and got to the place, funny enough named Sophi, and we had yet another delicious Italian meal. Dave in particular had a really awesome seafood dish. We got back into the hostel to find the DVD player was actually broken, so a no go on the movie. So instead we hung out in the common room talking with some really awesome people from our hostel. We hooked up on facebook, naturally, and then finally after a while it is now off to bed. Tomorrow it is north-bound for Florence!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-52788924152942639572010-06-16T17:51:00.006-04:002010-06-16T18:25:14.217-04:00Naples and Pompeii!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4birzml-mJEPO3kNN_0Jzfu8XFe6SVnJ3ejjO9_Rm84kdRAD11v6qP3cuKxgHGnQIVs9t1f3OmcHOwA0b5UB2cnLFlMOJJlgaG56DQFQQ7gRC0Ou-YnMUbc9PVlfxBartuSSO0snXfyQh/s1600/IMG_7085.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4birzml-mJEPO3kNN_0Jzfu8XFe6SVnJ3ejjO9_Rm84kdRAD11v6qP3cuKxgHGnQIVs9t1f3OmcHOwA0b5UB2cnLFlMOJJlgaG56DQFQQ7gRC0Ou-YnMUbc9PVlfxBartuSSO0snXfyQh/s200/IMG_7085.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483498950070399506" border="0" /></a><br />Okay so now I am all caught up again, today we arrived in Naples, immediately left, and got back again.<br /><br />We got into Napoli on the train from Rome at 11:30 (after just narrowly making our train by mere minutes, stupid cab driver) and went strait to the ticket area to get tickets to the Pompeii Ruins. We then checked our bags into the station lockers and headed out to the ruins.<br /><br />Pompeii is so cool. We got in and explored around, they just have this ruined city that <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIegVXGpRhDutp09hajWGxm1NtszEWLCffvqGX97xoyxrsZ7KfxYW-4fT4NitqrtRkTBwHp2hNPdJtgamWPZR_9iLjhmD6qw97tFBVOEdLGa53tsL9ZhJM2yN8Cer7enSXK6UAsfFDhpBx/s1600/IMG_7087.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIegVXGpRhDutp09hajWGxm1NtszEWLCffvqGX97xoyxrsZ7KfxYW-4fT4NitqrtRkTBwHp2hNPdJtgamWPZR_9iLjhmD6qw97tFBVOEdLGa53tsL9ZhJM2yN8Cer7enSXK6UAsfFDhpBx/s200/IMG_7087.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483500832115749234" border="0" /></a>you walk around and explore in. Parts are roped off, and there are ongoing excavations in certain places, but the map (which we didn't get but we saw) is just a city map with street names and that is how you navigate. There are just floating columns, archways that lead to nothing, collapsed buildings, stairwells that just stop, altars, water collecting pools, it was really cool. And then there is a section where they have stacks and shelves upon shelves of artifacts (mostly vases) coated in volcanic ash. And mixed in, are the bodies. Almost each section of artifacts has a human body in the<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_Ok2maTeSdcSeqRw_npNZt7qcU4elsUfrRKmbvkBhva-qR7DxQf6VGsFl_Jnhac9T5IATXcznQeBNy9qCpVL7pvbjoFyuQRo7d9i83vIk4rD5QO5gzys6ZiEpgjzfC6S9xxDguvs48bg/s1600/IMG_7120.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7_Ok2maTeSdcSeqRw_npNZt7qcU4elsUfrRKmbvkBhva-qR7DxQf6VGsFl_Jnhac9T5IATXcznQeBNy9qCpVL7pvbjoFyuQRo7d9i83vIk4rD5QO5gzys6ZiEpgjzfC6S9xxDguvs48bg/s200/IMG_7120.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483498964747400578" border="0" /></a> middle, frozen in their last moment of life in volcanic material. There were around 5 people, and one dog in a twisted and painful looking pose. After that we explored more of the city until it was time to find our way back out.<br /><br />On our way out we got more gelati, yay!<br /><br />So after leaving Pompeii we got on the train back to Naples again and met a really nice Aussie couple and we talked the whole ride back about traveling, McDonalds prices around the world, etc. We found out that we were both planning on going to the same pizzaria at some point tonight, so we worked together using our maps and phone internet to find the exact location of the restaurant. We thought we might have run into them, but we ended up not going until late so we missed them I suppose. But they were really awesome.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLdJAa2gm5yuZe1s5MTK1l3wqHfy9AvDypma9ypdYTSAnmfruys6tvDKLJRDjh6OYB959pBXHT_pC47l3v-Hx1i_beZM38d506x6jA6q7IXrGSy0Sz-uz6D9jFX_DvwqX1C7R5AwWtIVb/s1600/IMG_7092.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpLdJAa2gm5yuZe1s5MTK1l3wqHfy9AvDypma9ypdYTSAnmfruys6tvDKLJRDjh6OYB959pBXHT_pC47l3v-Hx1i_beZM38d506x6jA6q7IXrGSy0Sz-uz6D9jFX_DvwqX1C7R5AwWtIVb/s200/IMG_7092.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483498954379771730" border="0" /></a>So we got back into Napoli Centrale, got our bags, and hiked the long trek to the hostel. We got there, had to take a really shady looking rickety elevator to the 6th floor of a big building complex and low and behold our hostel, which was up to at least the 7th floor as well, since our room is there. The hostel is Bella Capri and it is a really awesome hostel. Our room mates are from New Orleans and are doing a very similar trip to ours, but not completely in the same order and not quite as extensive, and in 5 weeks instead of almost 6.<br /><br />We hung out for a while in the hostel (free wifi, woo! Hence my 2 earlier blog posts about Rome finally) and then went out around 8 to find that supposed "World's Best Pizza", at Antiqua Pizzeria de Michelle.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gyLIeUsCUa7dK9v6ox9edcpNxl9JsmBfiZww7uyNtBKbsebX5OsGXn3AwhlJfXoPNXPl7EP9GJzPVDEvLEihm6BrJbMUTawb9TLc-V3xxlW3dsGahuWfAcrjKdXH2_UlPhsnt9aAlGa_/s1600/IMG_7173.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6gyLIeUsCUa7dK9v6ox9edcpNxl9JsmBfiZww7uyNtBKbsebX5OsGXn3AwhlJfXoPNXPl7EP9GJzPVDEvLEihm6BrJbMUTawb9TLc-V3xxlW3dsGahuWfAcrjKdXH2_UlPhsnt9aAlGa_/s200/IMG_7173.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483500846964564642" border="0" /></a><br />Oh, and while I'm on the subject of Naples... this is the dirtiest city I have ever seen. It makes Manhattan look like you can eat off the pavement. There is just trash everywhere. On the streets, sidewalks, huge amounts of garbage. It literally looks like a crop duster dropped loads of <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiON7mJXJZIDaC5wI-e9359jPyOS1ydqEdHZIgsoxWjmGR-4pl5xhzgMmnLH1L6c6uOoJLrFKOWEh0HJBDRAZgrqJ55bNTkgDQP9b8vLgjK-_zfqI5tveQ2xjn_-yzsw4bLJGJAosPSRkd/s1600/IMG_7180.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiON7mJXJZIDaC5wI-e9359jPyOS1ydqEdHZIgsoxWjmGR-4pl5xhzgMmnLH1L6c6uOoJLrFKOWEh0HJBDRAZgrqJ55bNTkgDQP9b8vLgjK-_zfqI5tveQ2xjn_-yzsw4bLJGJAosPSRkd/s200/IMG_7180.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483498973594876386" border="0" /></a>garbage across the whole city. I did not get a good picture because I was so surprised as I walked around I didn't think of it until we were almost at the hostel. Maybe tomorrow I can get a better picture, it's insane! Anyway...<br /><br />We finally found it, a very small place off the main road area, and it had a big crowd out front. We actually had to take a number and wait a while, but luckily they have a fast turn over. We got our seats and ordered our pizza. Now at Pizzeria de Michelle you only have 2 options - Margarrita or <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYW3R2gWVpYVLV6jH6JD_u7tm-uN4_7gvQcXaNBsDX7uUow1FdwuXQheDwq3OU7Av5HT5vUH25w2rTGZWUJMYvQCJzfGXfiOy5I-I8HpgJrQ2FRQ5VLG7UbImfXw16FCpnCbyKMBiJ5ZV/s1600/IMG_7184.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYW3R2gWVpYVLV6jH6JD_u7tm-uN4_7gvQcXaNBsDX7uUow1FdwuXQheDwq3OU7Av5HT5vUH25w2rTGZWUJMYvQCJzfGXfiOy5I-I8HpgJrQ2FRQ5VLG7UbImfXw16FCpnCbyKMBiJ5ZV/s200/IMG_7184.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483500851706613250" border="0" /></a>Marinara. We all ordered the first, Jen medium and the rest of us Maxi. It was only 5€ for the largest pie, which was about the equivalent to a US medium, but for one person. Pizzas in Italy are cheap and usually personal sized, but man Naples has cheap and good pizza. But it was not the best I ever had, and it was actually a little unpleasant after all was said and done because it was <span style="font-style: italic;">super</span> greasy and thing crust so it kind of fell apart into a soup in the middle and we all felt kinda bad <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvj9PR7JVN9eyi4YM1bcS8GFaC_XIvRAQwKBkibQ6dkYtHePWOj23Rc_O5sue-tb8W3IYFncIAUbseRCWr89-eREOciblbuBq8GgYzJfkg-gtEth7EHflaxfFcD35-4370tOjf1bjpMKUS/s1600/IMG_7188.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvj9PR7JVN9eyi4YM1bcS8GFaC_XIvRAQwKBkibQ6dkYtHePWOj23Rc_O5sue-tb8W3IYFncIAUbseRCWr89-eREOciblbuBq8GgYzJfkg-gtEth7EHflaxfFcD35-4370tOjf1bjpMKUS/s200/IMG_7188.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483498983168101170" border="0" /></a>after, but it was very delicious during.<br /><br />After we ate we made our way back to the hostel, and now it is off to bed (it just hit midnight so, today I guess) the plan is to visit the beautiful near by island of Capri.<br /><br />Ciao!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-15264229346506207532010-06-16T13:20:00.003-04:002010-06-16T13:59:37.696-04:00Episode II - Revenge of the Romans<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDI0TT689tN6NMQLLYBLV4iCQQJ7CR2xzFJwqUkhtnEY60PzSzd_-NwceCJ3Z96E59Y-OoYqqpju8cfs9_dkwXkv0wJb03WE9vJ236aIfJgkJqPWlFkw3Tlr2j0cUmPIROBxL-Bjm-vMt5/s1600/IMG_6881.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDI0TT689tN6NMQLLYBLV4iCQQJ7CR2xzFJwqUkhtnEY60PzSzd_-NwceCJ3Z96E59Y-OoYqqpju8cfs9_dkwXkv0wJb03WE9vJ236aIfJgkJqPWlFkw3Tlr2j0cUmPIROBxL-Bjm-vMt5/s200/IMG_6881.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483431812689912770" border="0" /></a><br />Day 2 in Rome... go!<br /><br />We woke up, went down and had breakfast, went back upstairs and... everyone fell asleep. Heavily. Like they did not move at all for 2 hours. So we sat and rested and I watched some Lost on my iPod (I have been watching it through again from the beginning in my spare time on the trip, like trains and stuff. I'm almost done with season 1.. just finished the episode where Boone falls in the drug plane if anyone is wondering!) After a while <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTd-EFKSmg8WkFX0jn7kbjh-T1f491yziQ9AHC7xNitIKxyOf6BTkLGdivgrvNFR6fth2uCbiWtFsDTN5G9PdYT77MQ89nUKhO8YwRRtx5txAHJZolsjcn8EpiJLZ5dBREIJilNNz9RXi/s1600/IMG_6867.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTd-EFKSmg8WkFX0jn7kbjh-T1f491yziQ9AHC7xNitIKxyOf6BTkLGdivgrvNFR6fth2uCbiWtFsDTN5G9PdYT77MQ89nUKhO8YwRRtx5txAHJZolsjcn8EpiJLZ5dBREIJilNNz9RXi/s200/IMG_6867.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483428894590651314" border="0" /></a>people started to stir and awake a bit, so we started to get everyone awake and plan our course of action. Now the sleeping again was kind of everyone's response to the fact that it was raining when we ate breakfast, but at this point it wasn't anymore. So we got up and went finally at 'round 2:30 ish<br /><br />We went first to the Palantino and the Roman Forum which were totally awesome. We spent a while just meandering through the ruins.It was totally awesome. There are just columns, parts of buildings, and flowers and trees growing all throughout.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5F5NWlRF_SZHgLuGc8MPS5UER9-nW-sA2HbXCX98lgmyZzhm-kLIazzSkMmkkaMg4gBGB_VcAi-l_adJbn02dy8p4ESOZ8DgklGLTk5GamSb9_AjpANOpr6xBWkX8U8jgGzWwgQ1FtR4/s1600/IMG_6919.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5F5NWlRF_SZHgLuGc8MPS5UER9-nW-sA2HbXCX98lgmyZzhm-kLIazzSkMmkkaMg4gBGB_VcAi-l_adJbn02dy8p4ESOZ8DgklGLTk5GamSb9_AjpANOpr6xBWkX8U8jgGzWwgQ1FtR4/s200/IMG_6919.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483432417447892946" border="0" /></a>Oh and while we were there we saw Sean, hi Sean! (See picture, he is on the right of the picture.)<br /><br />We next crossed the road and entered the Roman Colosseum. Is it bad then my first impression when walking through the outer hall (and entering the sunlit center through the entrance way) was how much it reminded me of Yankee Stadium? Aside from that, the Colosseum was still amazing don't worry. It was really really cool to actually be in the Roman Colosseum! We walked around for a while, took the lift to the other floor, explored there, and looked around the gladiator artifacts. We got out about 15 minutes before it closed and headed over to the Pantheon. Unfortunately half the outside is covered up with scaffolding and stuff for renovation, but considering it was closed previously I'm glad it was open! We went in and wow... amazing. Everything old in Rome is just so freakin' amazing.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZmSS8M7dn6x8S4-MR2UQfb7rQOI-NSe_YwRm3KGz8i_sLZHdY3EGGbXuPRM6jx_yhmpH7aEFZDjZwyItizYmaEnuldFS9MqS7DC2UqoYNtbMyiJULy9VcIu8waop_nNyRt4Ib9lZehZv/s1600/IMG_6991.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZmSS8M7dn6x8S4-MR2UQfb7rQOI-NSe_YwRm3KGz8i_sLZHdY3EGGbXuPRM6jx_yhmpH7aEFZDjZwyItizYmaEnuldFS9MqS7DC2UqoYNtbMyiJULy9VcIu8waop_nNyRt4Ib9lZehZv/s200/IMG_6991.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483428925066096274" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We sat in the Pantheon just looking around for a while. When we finally got up, we walked over to Trevi Fountain, and that was also beautiful. It looks so great in real life, seriously. After spending some time there, and throwing a coin in to ensure our return to Rome, we headed towards the Spanish Steps. On the way we stopped at a place just around the corner from it called Leonardo's Caffe (Yeah, 2 f's... I dunno) And it was r<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-6yuOmkMuyDk2r_VYVN_DVxrNEKN3SFvCkd1U9DeCrjSvVsAlQ-LlxLVbDfhiwdHc_QdJ4Q4dOYJeuC_KkdOSMYh6F_cOp4LFnXa_9dDwRw3XEGKoj2_o4oMulum7vdnbNtiaG19tPUs/s1600/IMG_7036.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-6yuOmkMuyDk2r_VYVN_DVxrNEKN3SFvCkd1U9DeCrjSvVsAlQ-LlxLVbDfhiwdHc_QdJ4Q4dOYJeuC_KkdOSMYh6F_cOp4LFnXa_9dDwRw3XEGKoj2_o4oMulum7vdnbNtiaG19tPUs/s200/IMG_7036.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483431832470080866" border="0" /></a>eal good. I had Spaghetti and it was delicious. I love real itallian food. After we wen't and Jen and I ran up to the top of the Spanish Steps and waved down at Sharon and Dave. We headed back down and then we all started getting bombarded by the flower people (they try to give you flowers as a "gift", wish you good<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhpBe6eC66yBLoaWPFqNJXY8DKvvsnycHaN6S1mm_ec8coAJDzYRBYgv72SoA-n1jn3gJGRXD3vdAR3EqMjnfJrGuE_pYRXMx74f3_ovUeOoCDhq_xKPtmrzPS_hgKOHM6oOQsELt06fXu/s1600/IMG_7044.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhpBe6eC66yBLoaWPFqNJXY8DKvvsnycHaN6S1mm_ec8coAJDzYRBYgv72SoA-n1jn3gJGRXD3vdAR3EqMjnfJrGuE_pYRXMx74f3_ovUeOoCDhq_xKPtmrzPS_hgKOHM6oOQsELt06fXu/s200/IMG_7044.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483428934504581218" border="0" /></a> luck, then chase you later and demand money) and we ran away to get Gelato. We went into the first place we saw, an American with his family told us it was super expensive and if you just order without specifying small they give you a crazy one and it cost them 37€ for 4 gelatos, insane! We thanked him and high-tailed it out of there. We found a different Gelato place and got normal priced delicious one. I had strawberry (always), black berry, and peach. So far I think blackberry and strawberry are the best flavors. We took the metro back and that was it, time for one last great nights sleep and one last amazing buffett breakfast and then it is off to Naples in the morning!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-17425780664292724162010-06-16T12:37:00.003-04:002010-06-16T13:19:14.806-04:00Rome-ing Through Italy - Day 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tUDLj4Aqoqi2y_PVlMRhU5CHSyY1JZGK9_QtyYqbyklnpLvuIp1GbjuPDsNrkUJSxpVLnlwKICGjnhyphenhyphenhFF6Li5wCjvMlXC8Ofd6Z-3atz9VztrMv0uP3H4EVZ5L5siisMCqoUcDWLLF4/s1600/IMG_6715.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9tUDLj4Aqoqi2y_PVlMRhU5CHSyY1JZGK9_QtyYqbyklnpLvuIp1GbjuPDsNrkUJSxpVLnlwKICGjnhyphenhyphenhFF6Li5wCjvMlXC8Ofd6Z-3atz9VztrMv0uP3H4EVZ5L5siisMCqoUcDWLLF4/s200/IMG_6715.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483415266546338066" border="0" /></a><br />Here is the post from the first night in Rome, 6/14<br /><br />We arrived the night before in Rome, got to our hostel, and I have to admit it was a really dingey place. Very sketch. So Sharon and Jen didn't feel at all comfortable, and Dave and I weren't exactly in love with the place either, (it had no room keys, what is with that??) So about 10 minutes later... we were on our way to some new lodgings in a better part of the city.<br /><br />With that squared away we were off to sleep for a day of exploration in Rome.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BOgYBUBPpTiCzdjEna5DIg-unDHCHibStJ2mXGY-eF987NxRjV_NbMqH5bf9qwaKnAvANSqWE0Pek1ZIeDOeXnJrE9Wu4MU0gDBS944k2VUe74BqgtkNbJ9chzJ9e5SO0DjucBH-wf5b/s1600/IMG_6747.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BOgYBUBPpTiCzdjEna5DIg-unDHCHibStJ2mXGY-eF987NxRjV_NbMqH5bf9qwaKnAvANSqWE0Pek1ZIeDOeXnJrE9Wu4MU0gDBS944k2VUe74BqgtkNbJ9chzJ9e5SO0DjucBH-wf5b/s200/IMG_6747.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483415273399137250" border="0" /></a>The next morning we awoke and headed down to breakfast, which was included. Now this was a breakfast! Buffet of eggs, bacon, ham, potatoes, deli meats, fruit, more fruit, croissants, sugared croissants, chocolate filled crossoints, corn bread, toast, nutella, jams, juices, coffee, etc, etc. So much delicious food! At this point I feel I should admit what our new lodgings were for Rome, but I'm not going to. You can find that answer some other way.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQyKlGvmU0oVW4RUERS1gJJjVlf5TWdezD1YVdzaV_nzvIprc32DFPCwteNdvEFSemwwIuQnV2VZiJiyNtCnHv2NIx3lvkU3or_7EauL28rjKbTSiLbfwRcPdXDl_0MnDgpk6PeyS3RGg/s1600/IMG_6774.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQyKlGvmU0oVW4RUERS1gJJjVlf5TWdezD1YVdzaV_nzvIprc32DFPCwteNdvEFSemwwIuQnV2VZiJiyNtCnHv2NIx3lvkU3or_7EauL28rjKbTSiLbfwRcPdXDl_0MnDgpk6PeyS3RGg/s200/IMG_6774.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483421925292577266" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After breakfast we headed out and headed for the Vatican. We got there and had to wait on a pretty lengthy line that wrapped around to the back of the Vatican walls but it moved pretty fast luckily so we were in a little over an hour later. While on the line it was verrry hot and sunny, and about half way through we got some Gelato from a place near by... SO GOOD. I'm officially in love with a fo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1zHKdx4F8wxPKUFgByxCIZONdLnwylQy3ILE7r3URsPlrI_xk42Fdh6O6_DgXqx6F5G_hzhafJOKE6SiqcF_QtX5fO4PLRI1J9Lh5nYPuPdnpDJ5FxfLVdpBcdnALhgSjUoVu937gZ7Q/s1600/IMG_6767.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN1zHKdx4F8wxPKUFgByxCIZONdLnwylQy3ILE7r3URsPlrI_xk42Fdh6O6_DgXqx6F5G_hzhafJOKE6SiqcF_QtX5fO4PLRI1J9Lh5nYPuPdnpDJ5FxfLVdpBcdnALhgSjUoVu937gZ7Q/s200/IMG_6767.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483415280258529618" border="0" /></a>od from Europe finally. It is amazing here. (The strawberry is the best, but the others I had were good too. Always go with a fruit flavor.) I'm going to have to control myself to not get some every time I see a place.<br /><br />Anyway, we got into the Vatican and headed strait to the Vatican Museum. The Vatican Museum was totally awesome. When we first walked in, the halls just absolutely filled with statues were so cool. Then the paintings, the ceilings, the tapestries, all so amazing. There was even galleries<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yWxpr16g56UhQgxjZ38Yz12ngphzpJo6s5ZeHQgdV4scIYpDqPfLjDlBpzqib9lSdH62dN14y9bpX2g9xg4DjcKy89gecd9aRw-oPFOkv-kjEngqPd3vhJgLERbwlGawfNsh0ktmN_G9/s1600/IMG_6853.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4yWxpr16g56UhQgxjZ38Yz12ngphzpJo6s5ZeHQgdV4scIYpDqPfLjDlBpzqib9lSdH62dN14y9bpX2g9xg4DjcKy89gecd9aRw-oPFOkv-kjEngqPd3vhJgLERbwlGawfNsh0ktmN_G9/s200/IMG_6853.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483419601053566386" border="0" /></a> of modern religious art, and my favorite piece was this really big deformed statue of the pope (see picture) he was so crazy looking and had a really funny face. And finally, after going through the whole musuem we arrived at the Sistine Chapel. Wow. Just incredible. You just stand there looking up with your mouth agape. You are not allowed to take pictures and the guards just keep al<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNM3QSR8cRY45ScK8g35mlZU13Ss5v1phIAEvqzFJTGi-vmDOvGkp4KxqR9W0C_ROTOV6FKjya8zG4EXsHawa9LvOYAinSs42CammItTbV4cJmg6h7BgvB4V_z5HAdgdbgkP58T4jZklq/s1600/IMG_6784.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwNM3QSR8cRY45ScK8g35mlZU13Ss5v1phIAEvqzFJTGi-vmDOvGkp4KxqR9W0C_ROTOV6FKjya8zG4EXsHawa9LvOYAinSs42CammItTbV4cJmg6h7BgvB4V_z5HAdgdbgkP58T4jZklq/s200/IMG_6784.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483415286476794946" border="0" /></a>ternating between yelling NO PHOTO and going SHHH real loud the whole time, so that is all you hear as you look... but I managed to sneak a few photos for you, my dedicated readers! (Thumbs up!)<br /><br />After the Sistine Chapel we exited the museum area and went around back to St. Peter's Basilica. Wow. The place was gigantic. Just so overwhelming. We payed to go up into the dome, first we chickened out and took the elevator to the mid point (it is over 550 stairs total, just 320 if you elevator half way) and we came out in this walk way that <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIgSsoAKoKqfezCkGaMMC4RLkZfyI4uBMlZRIjQAGzzD9oWOAHnmfcYFw6tByYqUdu7E_CdhaQXf66fhyphenhyphenchDLx-6h4EyXaZGfvhuf5tY8xSEkyz4exuE420mPU3mgOCSi4oBD79Gia2zQ/s1600/IMG_6809.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWIgSsoAKoKqfezCkGaMMC4RLkZfyI4uBMlZRIjQAGzzD9oWOAHnmfcYFw6tByYqUdu7E_CdhaQXf66fhyphenhyphenchDLx-6h4EyXaZGfvhuf5tY8xSEkyz4exuE420mPU3mgOCSi4oBD79Gia2zQ/s200/IMG_6809.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483419594405601682" border="0" /></a>circled the base of the dome, high over the alter. It was a sort of dizzying view. After looking around in the dome, we continued up the 320 steps to the top, and stood outside the dome on the top and it was an excellent view of Rome, and a particularly good view of the Vatican. After we left and walked back down, back into the basilica to look around it more. (I just kept thinking of Assassin's Creed, because you can climb around inside the basilica in it... at the top I looked around and imagined a camera swirling around me like I was at a view point. Haha...) On the way back I got some more Gelato. I'm obsessed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_Tls45AUi1liJMjih-9WDPMuxHmrdLVOcFLqAQG960MV3oGN51u-plguFYheLBgOC_X31fwD16G3Frf0rTJui9cEDIWwKTS7O10ASr_UpXOVOjP3zZqtneHw38fcmOLCn1jzCXvaUeDN/s1600/IMG_6834.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF_Tls45AUi1liJMjih-9WDPMuxHmrdLVOcFLqAQG960MV3oGN51u-plguFYheLBgOC_X31fwD16G3Frf0rTJui9cEDIWwKTS7O10ASr_UpXOVOjP3zZqtneHw38fcmOLCn1jzCXvaUeDN/s200/IMG_6834.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483415299484250306" border="0" /></a>So we left the Basilica, and by this point it was 5pm and everything was closing now or in an hour, so we had no time to go to any other sites today but tomorrow we plan to hit as much as we can. We headed back to the hotel and decided that it was about that time again that we were out of clean clothes so we spent some time washing our clothes. After we finished we looked up where to find this restaurant, Osteria Qui Se Magna, that in the Chicago air port I read about in a magazine article that was listing the 5 best places to eat in Rome, and this place was high up and super cheap, so we want to find it. We looked up the address and directions to it on Sharon's Blackberry and started tracing the directions on our map. It was difficult. So difficult in fact that we decided to go to a different place. We will try this place again tomorrow night, but for now we were going to go to a place Jen used to go to a lot when she was here, she said it's good, so off we went!<br /><br />We ate at a place called Evo de Tresevere, right off of the Tresevere Square. The food was surprisingly cheap and really good. We got a margarita Pizza, a mushroom pizza, a 4 cheese <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBeN_XT3G35hEGTDOZCudSjk7Nro-p6h4q2GOYmWQTIlU_yx8q4Jn6m2f0guqsDyItjjGgqERbspfKcUM9TNQ3b5Rc5QAF27kj9DJokO1NLI3VcwMUnVLWzi2pBrwvvgQxloVRY1Q7Le2F/s1600/IMG_6855.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBeN_XT3G35hEGTDOZCudSjk7Nro-p6h4q2GOYmWQTIlU_yx8q4Jn6m2f0guqsDyItjjGgqERbspfKcUM9TNQ3b5Rc5QAF27kj9DJokO1NLI3VcwMUnVLWzi2pBrwvvgQxloVRY1Q7Le2F/s200/IMG_6855.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5483419606168180242" border="0" /></a>pasta, Dave's pasta was somethng involving peppers, and we each got some suppli. The food was sooo good. (but your suppli was better Jamie! For seriousness!) After we ate we headed down to the square (I don't have the spelling in front of me but it was like santa maria de tresevere or something like that) And got gelato from Blue Ice. Yay for more gelato! I hope I didn't gelato myself out already... We walked down to the river and kind of meandered through this big fair thing set up along it as we ate our gelato, and then got a taxi back home. Tomorrow, we explore some more!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-31262800154558344622010-06-15T02:44:00.000-04:002010-06-15T02:58:47.486-04:00Little UpdateHello there, just blackberry-ing a little update. We don't have any Internet here in rome, so I didn't want to leave everyone in the dark.<br /><br />When we last left our heroes, they were about to depart Interlaken for a sort of half day in Zurich before moving on to Rome. Instead, we dexided to nix Zurich and head back to Bern because it was easier and faster to get to Rome that way. So Switzerland realllly got shaved down to basically just Interlaken it seems :(<br /><br />So we spent basically the whole day after Interlaken travellingm Whatever it was fine.<br /><br />Yesterday (it is 9am here, soo it should be 3am there. Ok yeah so it is yesterday for you too) We spent the day exploring Rome' which we are doing today again. I'll put Rome posts up when we get to Naples (I hope...)<br /><br />Bye all!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-37498568329891647372010-06-13T02:50:00.003-04:002010-06-13T03:37:01.129-04:00Interlaken, The Land of Awesomeness<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqOnZ9cgkfiq_NptHJz_85-nmVT9t69qyjmqRzrFOyCSpJ6jFfCBtvAYL51Pp3TUS29a14LvrOuOGIwgLPBUkxApuJPnrSVCiN7P-_sDxEbUpw8KZRnircbXLTjITolm8ajWx_O0L1Nkc/s1600/IMG_6549.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqOnZ9cgkfiq_NptHJz_85-nmVT9t69qyjmqRzrFOyCSpJ6jFfCBtvAYL51Pp3TUS29a14LvrOuOGIwgLPBUkxApuJPnrSVCiN7P-_sDxEbUpw8KZRnircbXLTjITolm8ajWx_O0L1Nkc/s200/IMG_6549.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482154593579147762" border="0" /></a><br />OK, now that I have the last day in Paris and the day in Bern posted below, I'm allll caught up. Today we spent the day in Interlaken, which is a city situated right at the foot of the Swiss Alps and home to all kinds of awesome extreme sports type excursions and adventures for people to do. There is skydiving over the alps, paragliding, zorbing (look it up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwA0h7AHlLMrgExLifTD7Nkn7sAe-Uk2GFomj7Hel51jsKnZFSD5VrJo8aLM9oZdekTlD24v3ItyYVSvYGHzJAJREJu0bgcV8V56shB4QH4zp6NM4M5FfH26nPUCR-5ZDW95QvnXCDA7d/s1600/IMG_6576.JPG"><br /></a> if your curious, basically rolling down a mountain in a big hamster ball), river rafting, canyoning, etc etc. Also, there is a Swiss Army knife store every 3 stores. And they have some really, <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> crazy knives.<br /><br />We rolled into town early, dropped our stuff off at the hostel, and then went to the nearby tourist information building down the street to find out what we could do today or tomorrow morning and what the prices for everything were. We found that because the weather was a bit iffy (it <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6t78N2CkyX1F66Qh9dtWKW3BEreSHTSh3Idf9I1PCeZV_d4ea3e9JXHiFOgnw8yCKYPfTkkT_ToJvh6Ekw9MZI9ERutujeQLsNAZd-z5NSbVOoClYHG9RaF1q2J-6XfkqQUy4VXbaN-_z/s1600/IMG_6551.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6t78N2CkyX1F66Qh9dtWKW3BEreSHTSh3Idf9I1PCeZV_d4ea3e9JXHiFOgnw8yCKYPfTkkT_ToJvh6Ekw9MZI9ERutujeQLsNAZd-z5NSbVOoClYHG9RaF1q2J-6XfkqQUy4VXbaN-_z/s200/IMG_6551.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482157902524406370" border="0" /></a>was drizzling and tomorrows forecast was rain) there were some difficulties. Plus it was obviously too late to book anything that needs booking for today since most of them were already started, so she circled some things we could do today and gave us prices of everything to book tomorrow. Going into this trip I had 2 goals for Interlaken - Zorbing and Sky Diving. Well, Sky Diving was around $350 for the lowest package. No thanks. Zorbing was the price we had looked up previously so we were good to go, but we signed up and they said the weather had kept many people away and nobody else had signed up yet, and it needed a minimum of 4 people for the trip to go through so they took our booking info and said to call back around 8pm to see if it was a go or not.<br /><br />So we went out and decided that we were going to take the funicular up to this sort of landing that has a scenic view and a restaurant partially up one of the alps and then we would hike some of the trails that departed from that area. We got our ticket and hopped on the funicular, which was totally awesome. If you don't know a funicular is a little tram kind of thing that runs up and down the side of mountains on very steep inclines. It is kind of like the very beginning of a roller coaster, only it goes down the same speed instead of the drop. We didn't get it on the way up, but on the way down we got the front seat and it was really cool because the front is just one giant window and you are going strait down that way.<br /><br />We got to the landing and it rea<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwA0h7AHlLMrgExLifTD7Nkn7sAe-Uk2GFomj7Hel51jsKnZFSD5VrJo8aLM9oZdekTlD24v3ItyYVSvYGHzJAJREJu0bgcV8V56shB4QH4zp6NM4M5FfH26nPUCR-5ZDW95QvnXCDA7d/s1600/IMG_6576.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDwA0h7AHlLMrgExLifTD7Nkn7sAe-Uk2GFomj7Hel51jsKnZFSD5VrJo8aLM9oZdekTlD24v3ItyYVSvYGHzJAJREJu0bgcV8V56shB4QH4zp6NM4M5FfH26nPUCR-5ZDW95QvnXCDA7d/s200/IMG_6576.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482154603204197106" border="0" /></a>lly was a beautiful view. We looked around a bit, found some trails, and some other views. You could see almost a dozen mountains behind Interlaken. Also, there is this big music festival going on today (and yesterday, and tomorrow) in Interlaken fronted by Ramstein and with a bunch of other metal bands, and you could hear it from the mountain which we thought was hilarious. We found the stage, it was even on the other side of the city but it was so loud and the area is so open we could hear it all the way up there (and even to almost the top before it finally faded away)<br /><br />We then decided to make our way up the trail. We were hiking for a while, it was fun and an easy hike, and after some time we found ourselves hiking strait into a cloud. Clouds like to sit <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpxeVGLv-9ohpAHNVKGrHGoJYWinEw9hoRp8clakNc0ON8SKZPwV6R2_D-FYjP4eIT3YJCjn35Tr_1Nenxp54WX14ZW7pLOWkNIXWx3q0SfDaMlupoLpfQlYmUfcv2sBpq-gFNkq-D_5I/s1600/IMG_6605.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNpxeVGLv-9ohpAHNVKGrHGoJYWinEw9hoRp8clakNc0ON8SKZPwV6R2_D-FYjP4eIT3YJCjn35Tr_1Nenxp54WX14ZW7pLOWkNIXWx3q0SfDaMlupoLpfQlYmUfcv2sBpq-gFNkq-D_5I/s200/IMG_6605.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482157914973149058" border="0" /></a>themselves about half way to 2/3rds up the alps and ours had one at the moment apparently. It was really cool. We kept hiking, and after some time Dave decided he wanted to go back and hang out in the restaurant landing, so we said we would meet him soon. We pressed on and got higher as the trail got thinner and steeper. Eventually we got to a point where we were considering turning back to get Dave and go do something else, but we moved forward a little bit more and could see the top of the mountain. So we continued to hike, but after a while realized that the trail was sort of spiraling and zig zaging around the peak, probably because the slope of the rest of the mountain was to steep to go directly up. So we stopped for a minute to decide what to do.<br /><br />Jen and I decided that things were taking to long, and we would scale the rest of the mountain.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKDOKzQXQ0XJia9rscJ18OUhhhyphenhyphen06yEUXWgioqaaWTNIzz9lXpMMvqtQfNNGAcW9NSLzstsiBgrY-QpFOqO_1P8bd6PcrLNUgpb0W7FwrofZZVlBRWcHYyeaajM4q70xlTH1LPhHhB4jx/s1600/IMG_6645.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVKDOKzQXQ0XJia9rscJ18OUhhhyphenhyphen06yEUXWgioqaaWTNIzz9lXpMMvqtQfNNGAcW9NSLzstsiBgrY-QpFOqO_1P8bd6PcrLNUgpb0W7FwrofZZVlBRWcHYyeaajM4q70xlTH1LPhHhB4jx/s200/IMG_6645.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482157921495421874" border="0" /></a> (Similar to the last mountain I climbed - about the same slope as the difficult part but this mountain was much more alive with a thick tall grass that we could pull ourselves up on, so it was much easier and more fun) We climbed our way up, and along the way we encountered some small snakes which was cool. We finally pulled ourselves up onto the rocky top of the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeF_CXJT8bRCPXhsOguFTZvK3VSiqxwOi9jd_KOOdamcz2f7nzRWaJKW_wXfoNvBO6_V5icqKqwdhX2k413xxc75feIRcTnq2BitYnlcEEJ1k3Y3MyIIIWUCl4CpGbHh13bKuuBp0osvT/s1600/IMG_6647.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYeF_CXJT8bRCPXhsOguFTZvK3VSiqxwOi9jd_KOOdamcz2f7nzRWaJKW_wXfoNvBO6_V5icqKqwdhX2k413xxc75feIRcTnq2BitYnlcEEJ1k3Y3MyIIIWUCl4CpGbHh13bKuuBp0osvT/s200/IMG_6647.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482154623394480722" border="0" /></a>mountain and stood up to see a really spectacular view from above the mountain. We hadn't realized how much higher up the mountain we were from the restaurant until this moment, and it was very, very high. We looked over one of the other sides and saw that it was a sheer rocky drop off, and decided we better stay away from that side of the peak. We also saw a metal sign facing the opposite side from where we came up, so we walked over to it and saw that it was a really hilarious sign... more so because we came from the side that it was warning about behind it (see picture.) We spent some time up there and then decided to take the trail back down because it would be too dangerous to try and shimmy back down the way we came (and dirty, we don't have enough clothes for that!)<br /><br />So we took the trail down, which did zig zag and such a lot and got pretty steep. It also had a sort of cliff-like drop off along the side of it for a while which was cool. We met back up with Sharon and then headed back down the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTgDRumfkH0qgo3jSG2UlUweHepEoCApZHTaKQAAsoSeKW2jKZpRd1QhzjUujMdp9yHSBslaS_-Kx50jGYSgQ3QrjdUFAK5Jnnx7kZyPU_dpvditLtU9-dp8LOUo4bUeKLpg1D_j5ki9tf/s1600/IMG_6649.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTgDRumfkH0qgo3jSG2UlUweHepEoCApZHTaKQAAsoSeKW2jKZpRd1QhzjUujMdp9yHSBslaS_-Kx50jGYSgQ3QrjdUFAK5Jnnx7kZyPU_dpvditLtU9-dp8LOUo4bUeKLpg1D_j5ki9tf/s200/IMG_6649.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482157928906022914" border="0" /></a>mountain. We grabbed Dave and got back on the funicular and had another awesome ride down in it. The funicular ride, by the way, was about 8 minutes. Apparently there is one in Capri which is 15 minutes according to Jen, and I want to take that if we can it would be awesome.<br /><br />We got back down, checked into the hostel, had yet another room to ourselves, and called the zorbing place as it was 8pm. Nobody else signed up. So no zorbing for us in the morning :(<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZc1ipnUAD0I6anYWaHzXG1MDryjrsE9IS0CpkJ2GRC-0JHh65Or5_ilsFmTmI5-0cXl84SH1mbT4Ma5esGuOOjK_vW4kD3dmJl7-I83i8uJGiL6Wb9J9SG8YzHXX68Y-fKJyhFUsRLuv/s1600/IMG_6643.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZc1ipnUAD0I6anYWaHzXG1MDryjrsE9IS0CpkJ2GRC-0JHh65Or5_ilsFmTmI5-0cXl84SH1mbT4Ma5esGuOOjK_vW4kD3dmJl7-I83i8uJGiL6Wb9J9SG8YzHXX68Y-fKJyhFUsRLuv/s200/IMG_6643.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482154615203894498" border="0" /></a>We spent the rest of the night hanging out and talking to this one girl who worked in the hostel named Karen who was really cool and said it's too bad we were only in Interlaken for one night because she does couch surfing and would have had us over and made us a big meal and she lives right next to a big skiing slope, which we could have gone on. Next time were in Switzerland I guess (I'm sure that won't be too long, right?)<br /><br />So tomorrow it is off to Zurich, which we will only get to spend a few hours in similar to Madrid, and then off on the long train ride to Rome!! I probably won't get to blog about tomorrow until Rome or so, but that's okay because there probably won't be much to blog about haha.Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-75446197732096455322010-06-12T16:08:00.006-04:002010-06-13T02:49:51.958-04:00Enter Switzerland - Bern<span style="font-style: italic;">Here is my post from Bern yesterday...</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjpAorJRZrpi96Ll_iFmJrQfQXcJET_1SZNlpjYEZVWeJQoxbpasD7gQbP3Tih8qtnlnidFp8CZd39KDKVLF9cKpXr56-UOHUnfK3Vez5KStGH-oTZmyTCDpovPd25150mSk0Xjp0ve3A/s1600/IMG_6528.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIjpAorJRZrpi96Ll_iFmJrQfQXcJET_1SZNlpjYEZVWeJQoxbpasD7gQbP3Tih8qtnlnidFp8CZd39KDKVLF9cKpXr56-UOHUnfK3Vez5KStGH-oTZmyTCDpovPd25150mSk0Xjp0ve3A/s200/IMG_6528.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482146306488891730" border="0" /></a><br />Guten Tag!<br /><br />Bern - The capital of Switzerland! We got off the train and as soon as we walked out of the station it was a real party atmosphere. Young people were everywhere, and they were drinking, partying, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpUxr1GrSkRrG-u5dJL7HYPzKVuy979R2cJ85Im0UT2XseEQzXXaWOqvNAK5b59bBdGwGuQT6STb8qU3UZ1osYoqRKn1Pb7xF1j44lmc_u7Tiy92Stz1AyXWRnR6SxatglbKVPhjDfAQs/s1600/IMG_6526.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpUxr1GrSkRrG-u5dJL7HYPzKVuy979R2cJ85Im0UT2XseEQzXXaWOqvNAK5b59bBdGwGuQT6STb8qU3UZ1osYoqRKn1Pb7xF1j44lmc_u7Tiy92Stz1AyXWRnR6SxatglbKVPhjDfAQs/s200/IMG_6526.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482144355143014802" border="0" /></a>blowing horns, stuff like that. We figured it was World Cup related. Unfortunately we had train issues (things were booked full) and did not get into Bern until real late compared to the plan - 7pm instead of 11am. So we basically lost our whole day for Bern, and did not get to enjoy all the fun. Too bad too, we <span style="font-style: italic;">finally</span> found a city that was busy and open past 6pm.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4Pk4qPTyxY3oK3HYb0YA4410Dw571THUVOk7l2Z_x7BXoLEj2Dk9bw5u4joqZUm2o9sMA6Dc1BSd4fdvdCak37Bkvr52n6WkekpnJhcE7e1PT037zQWLQRreW_nd42WpxotQGi2dHa4y/s1600/IMG_6542.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv4Pk4qPTyxY3oK3HYb0YA4410Dw571THUVOk7l2Z_x7BXoLEj2Dk9bw5u4joqZUm2o9sMA6Dc1BSd4fdvdCak37Bkvr52n6WkekpnJhcE7e1PT037zQWLQRreW_nd42WpxotQGi2dHa4y/s200/IMG_6542.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482146323209521858" border="0" /></a><br />Little thing I want to mention - Swiss Franks look really cool. Look at them, they are so cool! My picture is just of 20s, but the 10s are cool too. And the 5s are just real big coins, a little bigger then those old 50 cent pieces used to be. Same with single franks and 2 franks, but they are pretty small coins.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2plkylegOZbUbpdp1wxfJl6EJCcTciqi_9tYy_IrsZ-v75CV_uyEFq33PakcWOfUSsf3EnCVss9YsG44dw2a5yF0Zmu9s03MHP6mzMCMwjzHK_1PCWextP8tfM9kIOkNZioQAPfjSlmIm/s1600/IMG_6531.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2plkylegOZbUbpdp1wxfJl6EJCcTciqi_9tYy_IrsZ-v75CV_uyEFq33PakcWOfUSsf3EnCVss9YsG44dw2a5yF0Zmu9s03MHP6mzMCMwjzHK_1PCWextP8tfM9kIOkNZioQAPfjSlmIm/s200/IMG_6531.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482144363118186546" border="0" /></a>We found our way through the city to a park. In the park there were these awesome giant chess sets where the board is carved on the ground and the pieces were like 3 feet high. It was really cool, if we had the whole day maybe we would have played a game ha.<br /><br />When we arrived at our hostel, it was pretty nice. We had our own <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAbpUSYX-JQDTSA0udZ3ugAP9-9PxkMfmIOifpHheIcS4BFzwcbBQDUV-8wD29XSSG-OCOzAPu5dsiN7B-cARnuiUB3xndCTKUf56Hny5W3-DnOYmNvMnf3kZobMcnujQEUprTxYMjABx/s1600/IMG_6538.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMAbpUSYX-JQDTSA0udZ3ugAP9-9PxkMfmIOifpHheIcS4BFzwcbBQDUV-8wD29XSSG-OCOzAPu5dsiN7B-cARnuiUB3xndCTKUf56Hny5W3-DnOYmNvMnf3kZobMcnujQEUprTxYMjABx/s200/IMG_6538.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482146318416888498" border="0" /></a>room, and the place was big with a sort of gran hall dining area and common room, and it had a real cool mural on the wall outside. We got settled and then headed out. It was dark now, and we were planning on an early train to Interlaken so we decided to get dinner. We were excited because for the first time we were in a place where the dollar was stronger - one CHF (Swiss Frank) = 0.87 USD, hooray!<br /><br />So we got to the places to eat and... wow... Switzerland is insanely expensive! What the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVL20bYfZGdm1n0_eYmTqQZysDaB5Guc9IJOKMNbuEeeGyWAdKHtQM6GKYm5NL6qw5TXbxLODPwi2q2RQAYHl2XW2zQH4ruaxOQbVuGWaedHqLZ8tqR2meOnHsPvU8RhhQUbpBUMKTO8lx/s1600/IMG_6544.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVL20bYfZGdm1n0_eYmTqQZysDaB5Guc9IJOKMNbuEeeGyWAdKHtQM6GKYm5NL6qw5TXbxLODPwi2q2RQAYHl2XW2zQH4ruaxOQbVuGWaedHqLZ8tqR2meOnHsPvU8RhhQUbpBUMKTO8lx/s200/IMG_6544.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482144381548972242" border="0" /></a>hell?! I mean the dollar isn't THAT much stronger to justify spending money here. I got a super tiny (took 5 bites) salad for 10 CHF. We ended up spending about 30 CHF each on dinner ($27) and a large part was the little unexpected twist... we asked for water, and apparently Switzerland is one of those countries you have to ask for 'natural water' in. Meaning we got seltzer. Seltzer that cost <span style="font-style: italic;">7 CHF each!</span>. What the hell!? So that pissed me off. The meal was pretty good, but not nearly worth it. And the place looked pretty cool at least, with a waterway running through the middle of the restaurant.<br /><br />So we turned in for the night. Interlaken tomorrow, very excited! Interlaken was something I was <span style="font-style: italic;">really</span> looking forward too.Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-29784657313887721302010-06-12T12:42:00.003-04:002010-06-12T12:58:17.532-04:00Paris - The Finale<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrCT_5XNCeCNXYJkCg1edaWcm2oPjDuliNunOtV9KxeGNTOu6HFf2JcytPjptaObO30rpjR7TyROXHS_ZrgLQFU_LUnJQiea6iPnRAFANspeK1IONER_j5VRK9SjhNiCVZNUZ6RdwiSTa/s1600/IMG_6456.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrCT_5XNCeCNXYJkCg1edaWcm2oPjDuliNunOtV9KxeGNTOu6HFf2JcytPjptaObO30rpjR7TyROXHS_ZrgLQFU_LUnJQiea6iPnRAFANspeK1IONER_j5VRK9SjhNiCVZNUZ6RdwiSTa/s320/IMG_6456.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481932406461942562" border="0" /></a><br />Had to post this late, did not have a chance before. Posts for Bern and Interlaken coming in the next few hours...<br />Our last day in Paris was a bit less eventful then the first 2 but still very good! We started by sleeping in because we were tired and not sure what we were going to do today anyway. We got up, got ready, and went downstairs to the common room to hang out. We weren't really feeling Versailles too much anymore, with the rainy weather and late day already. We went out and got some crepes and Sharon dropped some stuff off at the post office as we made up our minds. We decided that instead we would go to the catacombs since we hadn't made it there yet either. So we got on the metro and headed south to there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCS8JSkzWTJE1gnLrsvFMMMcyMlD-NU_PJDM2uaYz7MqU4q2Y6E3u3lL8M__L-uPTSE-T77wrckmK7NFrXZjOU3VlncYq50R9SwlaUWSvQKfsPvlC-mOP2s6An9-9veC6kSSfdDhy5KpN3/s1600/IMG_6457.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCS8JSkzWTJE1gnLrsvFMMMcyMlD-NU_PJDM2uaYz7MqU4q2Y6E3u3lL8M__L-uPTSE-T77wrckmK7NFrXZjOU3VlncYq50R9SwlaUWSvQKfsPvlC-mOP2s6An9-9veC6kSSfdDhy5KpN3/s200/IMG_6457.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481931703772877714" border="0" /></a>The area of the city the catacombs were in was actually further south then our map went (it was not a full city map apparently) so we ended up having some trouble because of that. We found the catacombs themselves quickly though after emerging from the station so we got on line. The line was actually very short and quick (I guess the rain kept people away?) and it was a good thing too because we ended up getting in to the catacombs at around 3:35 and it closed at 4. We got our ticket (4€... it's weird but a lot of places in France list prices in this new weirder format 4€, pr 4€50 for 4.50) and went on in. We decended down and down and down, and when we reached the bottom we had to navigate our way through the mostly dark never ending corridors. Luckily Sharon had a flashlight! After walking a while under ground we finally emerged in the first opening of the burial grounds and... woah<br /><br />The bones were endless! They were stacked as high as me, packed tightly, and stretched on making walls for an endless maze of passages. I'm glad they restrict where you can walk to a set<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfmP5hnXmpEwSJ8wN-hbUCUDMsA8WUyKowP7RQTKYYB9lcAiKN0tmKX2d1GWUGap9Ww7Scc4gLeBn_gMBCEGLSVVtKiWgmkOS2yYWG4KTezf8R4vr8-Y6arZls62egMz8dcLab76rStE5A/s1600/IMG_6465.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfmP5hnXmpEwSJ8wN-hbUCUDMsA8WUyKowP7RQTKYYB9lcAiKN0tmKX2d1GWUGap9Ww7Scc4gLeBn_gMBCEGLSVVtKiWgmkOS2yYWG4KTezf8R4vr8-Y6arZls62egMz8dcLab76rStE5A/s320/IMG_6465.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481930562492718130" border="0" /></a> path because it would be impossible to make your way through the macabre maze unguided. There were designs made out of the bones in the stacks as well. There were a number of skull and crossbone designs, and skulls were made into shapes in the pile like crosses, hearts, and archways. We explored there for a while, and at the end we had to ascend the 84 step spiral stair case to the surface. When we walked out, it was suprising just how far away from the entrance we were.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHIFxug759DOLw1r6rS5hUKaELE_1qJeF3QhNr8RB2OkeDUgXBSYwnY0OsvsLZZ6jkHA_QAvsjmOZ_bkuAx9RpEYmfgy1_F3f5Xz5X3yJKI64h61PuAPAmY25MjeX0lzEvl1Z1WQXoKN3O/s1600/IMG_6497.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHIFxug759DOLw1r6rS5hUKaELE_1qJeF3QhNr8RB2OkeDUgXBSYwnY0OsvsLZZ6jkHA_QAvsjmOZ_bkuAx9RpEYmfgy1_F3f5Xz5X3yJKI64h61PuAPAmY25MjeX0lzEvl1Z1WQXoKN3O/s200/IMG_6497.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481931716126464642" border="0" /></a>After the catacombs we decided that we should cook dinner in the hostel kitchen tonight. We dropped our stuff back at the rioom and went out to a nearbye shopping market and got some food to cook. We got back, waited for some people to clear out of the kitchen, and started cooking. While we were we met Ben fom Canada and Kristan from Australia and hung out for a while. After our food was ready, we invited Ben to join us for dinner (Kristan <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtV89LAmZrVW13_l_lxO_bsRXzxLpVjLXmGAjm36BqWegdJdSyHBuhrwdEAIcsLx-Kjx2kQz9l_6o7WMgs1d740eyRdBYmoIC1R20zypgjT3-TomBEZO-EwZZoQR6mmh-cn4QzZU8lQefy/s1600/IMG_6502.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtV89LAmZrVW13_l_lxO_bsRXzxLpVjLXmGAjm36BqWegdJdSyHBuhrwdEAIcsLx-Kjx2kQz9l_6o7WMgs1d740eyRdBYmoIC1R20zypgjT3-TomBEZO-EwZZoQR6mmh-cn4QzZU8lQefy/s320/IMG_6502.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481930579177973122" border="0" /></a>had left, but she came back later and had some food as well) We had chicken, rice, pasta, garlic vegtables, baguettes, strawberries, cherries, and a mushroom sauce. It was raelly good! (But not as good as our shrimp meal from Liverpool... that was awesome.)<br /><br />After we ate and cleaned up Ben joined usa s we went out to the Eiffel Tower to try and see it light up and sparkle. You see, all night the tower is lit up but on the hour for 3 minutes it does this new sparkling thing and we wanted to see it at 11. We ended up getting there at 11:05. Boo. So we sat down in <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRfNj73EWpgCjXIoAB5Zpn5JgqLipb9hSAVS5mDSHwagWz8dEg9jV2F6C1M_Qq-sTUK4Qiun9a7tAZtvCIIE8sAw0FeXpxAWPgavFkKGY37s0v1sRzhgoLsAUQVcwURLr88qDWtu54qHj/s1600/IMG_6506.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTRfNj73EWpgCjXIoAB5Zpn5JgqLipb9hSAVS5mDSHwagWz8dEg9jV2F6C1M_Qq-sTUK4Qiun9a7tAZtvCIIE8sAw0FeXpxAWPgavFkKGY37s0v1sRzhgoLsAUQVcwURLr88qDWtu54qHj/s200/IMG_6506.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5481931723721459986" border="0" /></a>the grass beside it and hung out for a while until it hit midnight and the tower started sparkling, it was beautiful! After that we made our way back (via taxi, the metros were all closed at this point) and turned in for the night.<br /><br />Next, Switzerland!Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-14086732483038679782010-06-12T07:09:00.001-04:002010-06-12T07:18:38.974-04:00Quick little update...We are in Interlaken Switzerland right now. Have been busy and had no time to update, but tonight I will probably be able to upload posts for the last night in Paris, Bern, and today.Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7706041534212215588.post-2256705418221456702010-06-09T15:59:00.004-04:002010-06-09T16:34:24.983-04:00Paris Day 2: Electric Boogaloo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxaRqJJza_JKLEa5O9dJ8bBfd8p_V0QIw9M7b6L22dprgAO8kuQReGllcZk1Qhvncy_UoF_k7CfVbbRk2TkpcPhCqBlhwgl1N4zHchJI54TEh_gjehUUrfQTZQs1lNGyKw7c4vq1vCb6O/s1600/IMG_6323.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxaRqJJza_JKLEa5O9dJ8bBfd8p_V0QIw9M7b6L22dprgAO8kuQReGllcZk1Qhvncy_UoF_k7CfVbbRk2TkpcPhCqBlhwgl1N4zHchJI54TEh_gjehUUrfQTZQs1lNGyKw7c4vq1vCb6O/s320/IMG_6323.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480868558029072018" border="0" /></a>Day 2 in Paris is complete, and for the first real time on the trip we had poor weather (cloudy and kinda drizzly all day, no Heavy Rain in France, sorry everyone). Today's main goal for me was to get into the Louvre and see as much as I can without wasting the whole day there. So we had asked our tour guide yesterday the best way to get in and she said that if you take the 1 or 7 metro line to the (and I'm going to butcher this from memory) Palise Royale, Museo le Louvre station it lets out under the Louvre and there is an entrance there you can buy tickets at that not many people know about and you wait much less in line, and you should still show up at 9 before it <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnX2Sn1sSTicQvSfbYZ8n6HkjS6dqjubQHscdYp2s6nyf3ydlRoS5QBC4Znzp1_txGn4KvZ80Gb2GVGfqv5EUtqT2zj0asRsbeyREEErLZ8RUyK7eg7bNK0DfU6UCUELbA14bZzI0YE1h/s1600/IMG_6294.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnX2Sn1sSTicQvSfbYZ8n6HkjS6dqjubQHscdYp2s6nyf3ydlRoS5QBC4Znzp1_txGn4KvZ80Gb2GVGfqv5EUtqT2zj0asRsbeyREEErLZ8RUyK7eg7bNK0DfU6UCUELbA14bZzI0YE1h/s200/IMG_6294.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480873723607428242" border="0" /></a>opens at 9:30 to make sure you get the shortest line. So we gave it a go, and i think we chose the wrong exit from the station (there was a fork and we didn't know which way to go, both said exit) and we ended up coming up right next to the big glass pyramid. Drat, foiled again! However there were abouutt... I'd say 15 people on line, and we were kind of late so they were letting them in already. So total score! We got on line and very quickly were descending the escalator into the Louvre! So cool!<br /><br />Sharon and i got our tickets (€9,50 - Dave and Jen did not want to go to the Louvre) and we grabbed a map and circled all the things that were most important for us to see. We saw lots of amazing pieces of art, including the Oath of the Horatia, 2 Vermeers, The crown of Charlamange, The Raft of the Medusa, <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbS7uN3o5YFOOQnuZgWyrOZncrSfIVtmAKVPDodcpGKTg1JoZhliL0tTW1IWFuJazQ8z__E3bJRTVn8m622dHKSHrGsV6fnJnlfAPfWV3vXjAybrH0qGoa_wU-gll8xB9iNnvyt-Ju5z8P/s1600/IMG_6289.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbS7uN3o5YFOOQnuZgWyrOZncrSfIVtmAKVPDodcpGKTg1JoZhliL0tTW1IWFuJazQ8z__E3bJRTVn8m622dHKSHrGsV6fnJnlfAPfWV3vXjAybrH0qGoa_wU-gll8xB9iNnvyt-Ju5z8P/s320/IMG_6289.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480868566345058370" border="0" /></a>Code of Hammurabi, a Michelangelo statue called The Dying Slave, Venus de Milo, and of course a few de Vincis, naturally including the Mona Lisa. There were a number of paintings in there that I did not know were there - like the Oath of the Horatia, and we would be walking by and suddenly I would turn a corner and be like holy crap (insert painting name) is here?! Awesome! Lots of paintings were bigger then I ever expected (including the Mona Lisa... I have always heard how dissapointingly small it is and it was bigger then the impression I was given.) Except <span style="font-style: italic;">Th</span><span style="font-style: italic;">e Lacemaster </span>by Vermeer... that was smaller then I expected. Thing was tiny.<br /><br />After exploring the Louvre for a few hours we left and phoned over to Dave and Jen to ask if <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbT540cIq6gb1kOoNO2GXJw_MHDLC6MynKBYqBc5MzGKAMQphD9k8knTi1lFmxUql4OlQSKjfBBrCinTzVkKFsIp3CBDRaYxLl84S1jwluO27pEwz1I6Iz8KWd4Y0lQGdrj25vve3d90OF/s1600/IMG_6339.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbT540cIq6gb1kOoNO2GXJw_MHDLC6MynKBYqBc5MzGKAMQphD9k8knTi1lFmxUql4OlQSKjfBBrCinTzVkKFsIp3CBDRaYxLl84S1jwluO27pEwz1I6Iz8KWd4Y0lQGdrj25vve3d90OF/s200/IMG_6339.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480873733127024946" border="0" /></a>they wanted to go to Notre Dame. They had just left there. So we headed over and visited Notre Dame more in depth then the passing view we got on our tour the day before. We went on in (free admission, woohoo!) And it was awesome inside (just enlarge the picture to the right - so cool!). After exploring there for a while we left and called the others again, and decided to each take a metro to the Arch de Triomph and meet there, so we did. The<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA9oA72Q3Ketn5EOq4KwiW-aKiaZ5NJNiTnuyF6tbvJjpFbbFbong5e4rOqc58gp3b5ISwLU-sB4n3UqW6hjeE0mOTYREcCJESQeQKnlX7Qz6wPEqfckVqfwWBhvl6xRU4xWqo_k07bGD/s1600/IMG_6334.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA9oA72Q3Ketn5EOq4KwiW-aKiaZ5NJNiTnuyF6tbvJjpFbbFbong5e4rOqc58gp3b5ISwLU-sB4n3UqW6hjeE0mOTYREcCJESQeQKnlX7Qz6wPEqfckVqfwWBhvl6xRU4xWqo_k07bGD/s320/IMG_6334.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480868575167498546" border="0" /></a> arch was SOO much bigger and better then the one in Barcelona. It was awesome. And at the bottom is the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier with its eternal flame, burning through the rain. We left there after a bit and headed away from there in search of food. Fun fact: The roundabout that goes around the Arch de Triomph is the most dangerous road in France, and there are accidents every day. It is 12 different roads that converge at a 10 lane wide roundabout. It is so bad that it is the only road in France that if you get in a car accident on your insurance will never cover you, no matter what.<br /><br />We ended up going to a really cool looking cafe called <span style="font-style: italic;">La </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Flamme</span>. It was really good. I got Muscles in a creamy sauce that was delicious. When we finished eating we headed to the nearest metro (the one back at the Arch) and got back to the hostel. We rested up there for a bit to get our energy back for our 6pm waking tour we had signed up for yesterday. But first! It was time to get another crepe! So we headed across the street to the crepe <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpN9FiTL1zwKBeCmvv6z2DvD3GC4TBoST62XFWP_WMlRtrJGnxmBQOEPeAnotkyAGjagqWd641gHrYm7DPLeI61vE-vFbdyIVnUfhGItX6_2rK1a7vcd84LMG9aBpFWZyBr0t-lqSh8GW/s1600/IMG_6371.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpN9FiTL1zwKBeCmvv6z2DvD3GC4TBoST62XFWP_WMlRtrJGnxmBQOEPeAnotkyAGjagqWd641gHrYm7DPLeI61vE-vFbdyIVnUfhGItX6_2rK1a7vcd84LMG9aBpFWZyBr0t-lqSh8GW/s320/IMG_6371.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480868585237301458" border="0" /></a>place first. I got a Confiture Fraise (Strawberry Jam) Crepe this time, it was even better then last night's. We got to the Moulon Rouge and began our tour, again with Linda.<br /><br />We headed up to the Montmartre District where all the famous artists of France lived and saw some really cool things.<br /><br /><ul><li>The Red Light District (which is essentially just down the street from our hostel, ha!)<br /></li><li>Paris' last surviving windmill (With a great story behind it about the owner defending it from the Prussians when they invaded and burned all the windmills in Paris. They found it amusing and decided to make an example of him by tying him to a fan blade on the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesKfIBcDNuIeZ9HPINg41E4f2rNLXFbkgA_W8nW3oszbMHe0cO8nItZFZqNbSBNK2R6BlRnmWyFirYQyis-inV3x0UikNPqAwCJWwTRkEcRJ0TTQmNsqRYs7uEjVqfa6oF1gO2KDTfaXU/s1600/IMG_6412.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgesKfIBcDNuIeZ9HPINg41E4f2rNLXFbkgA_W8nW3oszbMHe0cO8nItZFZqNbSBNK2R6BlRnmWyFirYQyis-inV3x0UikNPqAwCJWwTRkEcRJ0TTQmNsqRYs7uEjVqfa6oF1gO2KDTfaXU/s200/IMG_6412.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480873745938675698" border="0" /></a>windmill and he died 2 weeks later from dehydration and starvation... but the windmill survived!)<br /></li><li>We saw The Montmarte Vineyard, aka Savage Garden, Paris' last surviving vineyard (which is tiny and apparently the wine totally sucks)<br /></li><li>Picasso's studio<br /></li><li>Van Gogh's house (only the outside, other people live there in fact a women came out of it while we were standing outside talking about it.) </li><li>And went up to the top of Sacre Coeur, Paris' highest hill, to the Montmartre <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiT_OPCpSP-TIkcYCugK1VudtYmC5RsrVvGuohvHNbyUyLf5wZU7z25KnfIk6kqCUsJS2yyQvGBzbmH8jSBIOEOVowczXIeWQjOoETepgj5jthS8LOG_26JHEhLZs-Y9TLOMNPr23G3rT/s1600/IMG_6405.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmiT_OPCpSP-TIkcYCugK1VudtYmC5RsrVvGuohvHNbyUyLf5wZU7z25KnfIk6kqCUsJS2yyQvGBzbmH8jSBIOEOVowczXIeWQjOoETepgj5jthS8LOG_26JHEhLZs-Y9TLOMNPr23G3rT/s320/IMG_6405.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480868599909217794" border="0" /></a>Church. The church is really awesome, designed with a mixture of classical styles and made of a material that when it gets rained on excretes a white substance that essentially makes the building whitewash itself every time it rains (like it did today. It was cool!)</li></ul><br />So the tour finished up in a cafe with a free glass of wine for everyone, so whatever there for me, but we met some nice people in the cafe including a woman with this really big but super cute and friendly dog. After we headed back to the hostel, and on<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8Ijrs2bMpv_u_Ex2VyBx5MTPjONIMcUc-H77tGBzygfx1tBzskSMsVc0QPD185s-fryqRpUWybCUdOSZC9vHu6RvbxxxZ7ma799w0cqXQ6G1imrMhfHytcap94CR4FR2B9zhruv8SKmv/s1600/IMG_6439.JPG"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX8Ijrs2bMpv_u_Ex2VyBx5MTPjONIMcUc-H77tGBzygfx1tBzskSMsVc0QPD185s-fryqRpUWybCUdOSZC9vHu6RvbxxxZ7ma799w0cqXQ6G1imrMhfHytcap94CR4FR2B9zhruv8SKmv/s200/IMG_6439.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480873757091848322" border="0" /></a> the way got some Baguettes to sword fight with and then eat and enjoy. We may or may not go out in an hour or two to make a run to the Eiffel Tower again to see it do it's new sparkly lights thing it does every hour and if we do we will hopefully pop by to see Henry IV with his lit up light saber, but we shall see. Either way, day 2 of Paris - <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />fin.</span>Pat Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05693506839213338350noreply@blogger.com2