London bridge is falling down...

We landed at 1:30pm local time, and it took us until 6pm, to find our hosts house. We were totally lost! We got into the center and just sat and had coffee at Starbucks to get our focus back and figure out WTF was going on! I've been in big cities, and we knew what we were going to be dealing with but for some reason we just felt like we were walking in circles. It's ok though, we enjoyed our time watching a woman screaming about loving Jesus, got it figured out and we were off. Until the train was shut down and we had to pick a new train to take. We eventually got there and met the newest friends we have made! There are 2 filipino who live together, Joe and Jeff. They moved to London when they were teenagers and have been friends ever since! Good men, overall. Joe is a 2 star Michelin Chef! So, that should explain the amazing food we had while were here :)

The second day the guys brought us into the city and showed us so much! That night I went to meet my good friend from Italy who came in for the weekend, Giuseppe. Danielle and the guys went to a Moroccan bar and enjoyed their Friday night. I got lost for several hours, looking for my friends bus stop, on the other side of London. It was nice though I was able to see London as night, alone and just take my time since I was lost! Seeing Giuseppe was a nice feeling, just seeing someone who I knew in such a big city, was a very comforting feeling! The next day we went out with our friend who we met in Seville, Spain a few months ago. His name is Adrian. He such a great man! He met us and spent the entire day with us, showing us things and bringing us all over! Very kind of him!

The next 2 weeks were spent relaxing, taking day trips to other parts of London and just being here living like a local. Our hosts were kind enough to allow us to stay for so long! We needed a break! We just spent the last month in 6 different countries, and hitchhiking for the 10 days prior to being here. We just needed to stop and literally smell the flowers for a moment. They let us do that. We have had some great nights and interesting conversations with these guys! They have also been all over the world! We asked many questions and suggestions on places to make sure we get to.

I am taking a bath currently! It's fabulous! It's been raining non stop here for almost 5 days...it sucks, to put it plainly. We are leaving tomorrow to a city called Weston-Super-Mare. Lol...we couldn't get a host in Bristol, and I'm sleeping outside at a beach or park of its raining...so Weston-Super-Mare it is!! I'm sure we will enjoy our time, we do everywhere we go!

Well, dinner has been served...so I must get out of the bath :'(

I am still writing my portion of our time hitchhiking through the Balkans...that should be done in the next few days!

Pictures of London

Miss you all Xoxo

Update!

I have added links to our pictures from each location, on each post! Enjoy!

Sarajevo, Mostar and meeting our travel buddies!

The ride to Sarajevo from Belgrade was crazy! It took 10 hours and we had to go North into Croatia to come back south into Bosnia and towards Sarajevo. Sarajevo was another amazing city full of deep history. We felt that the people there are even warmer than any of the other Balkan countries we had been to. When we arrived we didn't realize how far away the location was from where we were meeting our host. We had to take a taxi. We had already asked 2 locals what the price should be to the center, they said 5 marke. When we asked the taxi cab driver he said 15!!! I was pissed!!! We had no choice though and we had 15 mins to get there! We finally met our host and he introduced us to his roommate. What a wonderful couple of men to be with! They were so respectful! They are from Istanbul but are living in Sarajevo going to school at an English school. They spoke to us about many things and many differences between  the Turkish culture and Bosnian culture.

Of course we had more Čevapi and beer :)

We stayed there for 4 days and enjoyed the hell out of our time there! Our hosts cooked many typical Turkish meals and brought the kitchen table out into garden one night! It was a good time!

Pictures of our time in Sarajevo!

Belgrade

Haven't written in about 2 weeks! We have been just going, going, going and going...we arrived in Belgrade and met our host after walking in circles trying to find his place for about an hour! Lol! That's the way things go for us. Belgrade, Serbia has a lot of crazy history! Even in the last 20 years they have been through a lot. Knowing that and knowing how much the US was involved in the conflict and the injuries sustained both physically to the country and mentally, it was a very awkward feeling coming to this country. We were very hesitant to speak English very loudly, as to not attract attention to ourselves. We got over that after a few days but we were still cautious. Many people liked us and were friendly even after they knew we were American but after our issues in Slovenia, with so many people putting us down for being American, we were a bit reserved with how loud we spoke and who we told we were American to.

Our host was really cool! He met us at his home after we finally found it and we had a nice night with just relaxing. We did go out to a typical Serbian restaurant. The food was awesome!! We had something called čevapi. It is pork mixed with some secret spices and sauces and grilled...the combination creates something that you just want to stay and eat forever! With a cold beer, you can't go wrong with that meal!! It's to bad you can only find čevapi in this part of the world, in the Balcanes. I'm sure in other countries but it has to be the best here!

In Belgrade you can see new buildings and old buildings and new architecture and old architecture. Most of the variety comes from what had to be repaired after each war. Belgrade has been bombed and destroyed over 40 times, that was a crazy fact to learn. The people were very kind and welcoming. Our host brought us all over the city the first day and we saw so much! The second day I went on a free walking tour and learned a few more things and even won some free Rakia. Rakia is the local alcohol in the Balcanes. Every country we went to claimed it as originally being from there so I'm still not sure where it is from! Lol! It's compareable to absinthe though but its a bit lighter and comes in numerous flavors. I answered the following question correctly: how many zeros does the largest bill have on the ex-yugoslavian Bill have? Just so happens my host had taught me that the day before! It's 11 and its kind of a random question but I won and got to drink some Rakia!

Danielle and I spent the next day on our own. She went with our host to a park and into the forest outside Belgrade. I spent the day in the city, exploring and meeting some people I had met the day before on the tour.

I am going to start linking my photo albums from Facebook and Picasa to my blogs so everyone can see pictures too! 

Enjoy! Love you all and miss you!! Xoxo

Ugh oh...haha

04/30/2012
Haha, well I threw my Damn bank card away. We arrived at the hostel on Thursday and went food shopping. I had leggings on and didn't feel like carrying my purse so I put my card inside my cigarette pack and stuck that inside my sports bra (please excuse that part gentleman, lol, I'm trying to explain what lead to me throwing away the card). So, we went to the store, bought groceries for the weekend and bought some prepared food so we could eat. We were starving! After we were done, we waited for the bus and ate some food. We went back to the hostel and since I had 1 cigarette left, I smoked it and threw the pack away. We went on with our night. Relaxed and listened to Music. The next day we decided would be dedicated only to relaxing and doing laundry. We hadn't taken a shower in 4 days cause of hitch-hiking and staying with the Turkish guys on our trip through Croatia. So, we did exactly that. Because we didn't go anywhere, we didn't need money and I didn't realize that I had lost my bank card. The next day we decided we would go for lunch in the city and sightsee a bit :) this was where everything changed.

We were ordering our food and went to pay, I opened my wallet and realized immediately that I was missing my card. My heart dropped. I kind of freaked for a second because I know how much money is on that card. That would have made someones freaking day to find it...and I know all to well what happens with credit card fraud and how quickly the money can disappear! We left as soon as I realized it and strayed re tracing our steps from the past few days. Since we were staying in the country, we figured the garbage can at the bus stop by the grocery store isn't emptied very often, so we walked back there and checked, no card. I starting thinking about when I had it last. In my cigarette pack, in my bra lol...which was in the trash in the hostel. So, we went back. I literally dove into the trash bin and started searching for the bag. Only problem is the trash is picked up daily!! WTF?!?! Where on earth besides Zagreb is trash collected daily!? So, no card. I checked the funds and all the money was safe and sound, still sitting there waiting to be used...by me...not some creep! So, I called and canceled the card, got a new account number and can use the card at least, just don't have it physically as of now. I'm taking care of that. We contacted my mom to tell her what was going on, she wired us $ pretty quickly. Now, we just had to go get it. It was 530pm when I left.

Danielle stayed back and mingled with other people in the hostel. I walked the 3 miles to the tram stop since there wasn't a bus coming for almost another hour. As you all know, I have some issues with staying awake on trains, buses, TRAMS, etc. I had to take the tram into the city. I tried hard not to pass out but I did eventually. Hahaha...I was woken up around 730pm by a nice woman who said "dear, this is the last stop". I just looked around, looked at the time and discovered I had passed out, not just through my stop but I possibly past my stop around 2-3 times according to my calculations. I feel asleep for 2 freaking hours! Funny shit...it would have been just fine but the only post office doing Western Union past 5 was not near where I was at all. I had to wait for another tram going back towards the city and haul ass to that post office before 8pm. I made it 5 after 8, even with running the entire way. Lol....now looking back it didn't really matter, we could have waited until the next morning, I'm not sure why I was running lol. I got there though, explained my situation and that I had no other money. The woman explained that she couldn't process ir though because the system was shut down after 8pm. While speaking with her, I complimented her on her eyebrows. She had very nice eyebrows, really. After a few more minutes of explaining what happened, she finally said she would turn the system back on and do it!! I'm not sure if it was her just feeling bad, the eyebrow comment or that she was just a nice person. Either way, she did it :)

I decided to get Danielle and I some dinner. I saw the time the last bus was going to the hostel from the tram stop and figured I had 10th mins to order a quick burger, get on the next tram and make the bus so I didn't have to walk another 3 miles back to the hostel. It would have been all good excpet that the tram was running late. So, I missed the bus and had to walk to the hostel. Lol! I just laughed when I realized what was going on. I finally made it and Danielle got to laugh at me for quite a while. All the girls in the hostel told her not to worry and said maybe I had met a Croatian man and went for drinks lol....not....Danielle knows me much better than that. But the idea sounded much better than what I had just gone through trying to get the money. What should have taken 1 hour, took me 5! I saw Zagreb at night and that was nice. It's a beautiful country and Zagreb is a really cool city. For being the capital you don't feel the dame hustle bustle feel that you normally do in capital cities.

We are on the train going from Croatia to Slovenia right now. I'm going to go to sleep. I only got 4 hours last night. I'm tired. Miss you all!! Xoxo

05/03/2012
Wow, about 2 more weeks and we will have been gone for 5 months! Craziness! We are on the bus on the way to Belgrade. We left Ljubljana at 10 this morning. We arrive at 6ish. What an amazing time we had in Slovenia! The girls we met at the hostel in Zagreb and then met up with in Ljubljana are such wonderful women! They were nice, outgoing, full of energy and just as excited to hang out with us as we were with them.

The first night we arrived, Tea, Eva and Jasna are their names. Tea and Eva are sisters. Jasna is a great friend of theirs. Jasna met us at the train station and walked us around the city, showed us the center and some other cool spots in the city. That first night we all had dinner at Eva's house. They prepared dinner. Before we all went out, they brought out a cake with a candle for Danielle and we all sang happy birthday!! It was one of the kindest things someone has done for us on this trip! The fact that they went out thirty way to do that was impressive!! They gave Danielle a magnet of Ljubljana. She was very very happy. It was so nice. Eva did Danielle's makeup! She looked great!! We all went to the top of this massive hill near the city. It's something everyone in the city does for labor day. There's music, food, drinks and the biggest bon fire I've seen!! We met different people but drank mostly :) ...it was a stupendous evening! Lots of fun was had with us and the girls!

The next day we all relaxed!! We never made it back to our hostel the night before, that was a waste of money lol. We just paid to keep our bags somewhere pretty much. We met our CS host and brought our stuff to his dorm room. He was so cool! He is only 20 but was the most mature 20 year old guy I have ever met, seriously! He needed to study so we left our stuff and took off with the girls to the park. We slept, chatted and ate some snacks. That night we had some great conversations with our host. He told us of his hitch-hiking experience the week prior to the coast. The next day our host needed to study some more so we let him have his space for the day and walked the city with the girls. Before this though, we went to Eva's house for breakfast. They cooked a real American breakfast!! Eggs, bacon and toast! Mmmmm! We told that was one of the things we missed the most from home, just eating a normal American breakfast. So Tea offered to cook! I couldn't have thanked them enough! We went up to the castle above the city. We had great views of Ljubljana! The castle was cool too! It has been used for different things since it was first built in the 13th century. It was used as a prison for some time, I thought was neat. Also, they had a gallery with pieces of some of the original wall and painting. Overall it was a nice day!

We went back to  Eva's house for lunch and I cooked them tortilla española. They loved it! They had never had it! I saved some for our host. That last night was difficult to say good bye to the girls. Danielle and I have learned how hard it is to say good bye to people we meet along the way. It sucks. There's no other way to explain the feeling. We become FB friends with many of the people and this is nice. But, we don't know if we will ever see any of these people again. And that's what sucks. The fact that they entered our lives and were apart of our journey is what matters though. Also, in life, if I am ever able to see any of them again, I would!

We just passed a field of flowers and the electrical poles were tree barks! So cool!

Sorry back to my story...lol...so we said bye to the girls and went to hang out with our host for the night. He invited some other students over and we all hung out and drank wine and spoke for hours. One of the guys had gotten some Chinese wine from a family friend. He shared it with us. It tasted like sweet teriyaki and soy sauce, mixed?! If that makes sense. It was alright. I had drank way way to much for Danielle's birthday so having one glass of the teriyaki/soy sauce wine was just fine for me! We are on the bus very close to the border or Croatia and Slovenia right now. We are nervous because Slovenia is Shengen. We have only been here for 4 days so hopefully they see that and think we just came for the holiday week and are leaving...we shall see.

Today before we left our host, he gave us a sandwich, bananna and apple for each of us. So thoughtful! He knew we would be on the bus for 8 hours! He was a really cool guy! Very smart! Well, guess what I'm going to do...sleep lol...I'm getting tired. Miss you all!! Xoxo  

Pictures from:
Zagreb
Ljubljana

funny...

I was reading my blog today just to see what I have actually put and what i should have added...etc. Reading it makes it seem like we have not been gone for so long. Sometimes I think 4 months seems so long but it's really not. Reading it makes realize this. Just wanted to add that :)

hitch-hiking Croatia

04/26/2012 So, we decided to try hitch-hiking! We weren't going to tell my mom at first but then decided that it was probably a good idea just in case something did go wrong. She wasn't very please obviously. She asked "have you lost your fucking minds". (please excuse the language). We explained our plan and also decided if we couldn't find a ride by a certain time, we would take the bus. We started at 830 and were picked up by 910! We were dropped off about 5 miles down the road. We were hungry so pulled out the meat and bread to make sandwiches. As I was making them, so no eating. we were picked up about 20 mins after arriving by 2 electricians going to work. They brought us about 30 mins south to a town called Omis. We stayed in Omis for a little and walked around and took pictures, it was a really cute town! The whole day it was windy and cloudy. I thought it was going to start pouring at any moment. It never did though! That was mother nature giving us a break for the day! While were waiting at the bus stop for a ride a young girl, probably in her teens was watching me stick my thumb out as people drove by. She probably thought we were crazy thinking we wanted to catch a ride. I only think this because of the way she was looking at us. Lol. I think she was in shock when about 30 mins later, a Bosnian man pulled over and said he was going to Mostar! That was about half way to where we needed to go, Dubrovnik! So, we jumped in. He couldn't speak much English and we don't speak Bosnian lol so, it was an interesting car ride to say the least! He put his Adele CD on and we all just listened to that for an hour and a half! It was great! He pulled over twice at sightseeing points so I could take pictures. I thought that was very kind. He dropped us off in front of a cafe/pizzeria in the middle of no where!!! It was close to the Bosnian border and we weren't going to Bosnia, so he kind of had no choice! We walked into the cafe and spoke to the couple in the cafe, asked if we could use the restroom and asked where on earth we were! Lol! We spoke for a little, explained what we were doing. They offered is coffee, very nice gesture since our Damn host had us running out the door and we hadn't even eaten yet! We enjoyed the coffee and decided we walk around the area for a bit, it was beautiful. They told us we were in the middle of the Bacina Lakes. Such a wonderful location to be dropped off!! The couple let us leave our bags and we went around and took pics and enjoyed the surroundings. When we decided to leave, I thought I would try to make the sandwiches again, as I began, the man in the cafe said he was going south and would bring us as far as he could. Lol, so no eating again. He dropped us off literally in the middle of no where. There was just a gas station near by and some cafe (i think). We stood there for a bit until we realized we were at the split for the highway for Bosnia and Croatia. People didn't know where we were trying to go. We had someone ask if we were going to Bosnia. So, to make things easier we just walked about 2 miles down the road and waited. About 15 mins later we had 2 Turkish guys (about our age) say, "hi, Dubrovnik". We asked if they literally meant Dubrovnik or just close to it. They responded with "city center"....and we were all off! They didn't speak English so well but we were all able to communicate. They were on vacation for 10 days and doing a road trip through Croatia. They brought is down and dropped us off in the city center. We exchanged personal info so we could all stay in touch in case we made it to Turkey, we could contact them. Danielle and I walked around, looked for a CS host. My request was set for the following day since I didn't think we would make it in one day let alone, in half the day! We went to a bar and looked for hostels. After a while we decided to take a walk. While walking around, we ran into the Turkish dudes. They asked what we were doing, we told them we weren't sure yet. They said we could sleep in their car with them. So, we did! Lol! Danielle and I sprawled out in their back seat and woke up the next day fully rested and hit the town. We saw a lot of cool things. We went into the first pharmacy in Europe! It was neat! Later that day, the guys asked if we had any plans or if we wanted to join them that night and head back North and go to Plitvice National Park. That is the one place in Croatia we actually wanted to go! It was perfect! So, we went :) The drive that night was great, I slept. Danielle can't sleep in cars with other people driving so she stayed awake the full 7 hours. The guys just switched out when they were tired. We made it by 5ish. And pulled into a rest stop and we all slept some more. In the morning we took off the to park! I have been to some awesome national parks but that park was unbelievable! There was ferry we had to take to cross the river. When we got off on the other side, it was like heaven! There were waterfalls everywhere!! I was picture happy for sure! I am not sure if I will ever see anything like that again! Big waterfalls, small waterfalls, cascades coming from every direction. Danielle trips about 5-10 times a day, no joke. So, of course she was bound to trip while in the park and that she did. Only think is that she fell into a hole full of mud. It was gross ans funny all at the same time! There were tiny bridges that connects people from one side of a waterfall to another. And millions, yes millions of steps made of planks of skinny wood used as stairs. It's like something you see in a movie that you think they added special effects! Just amazing! Remember Everyone: Plitvice National Park! Get there at some point if you can! It's amazing! It eventually started to rain but kept going a bit further and then started making our way out. What a wonderful way to spend a day :) We left after that to head towards Zagreb. Zagreb is the capital city of Croatia. First we needed gas. We barely had enough to make it another 20 miles, if that. The closest gas station or petroleum office as the Turkish guys called it lol...was over the Bosnian border. No problem, just cross, get gas and come back to be on our way. Yes, in a perfect world that would be the way the story would go but not with us. The craziest things go on sometimes and I just wonder if these types of things happen to all people, seriously. Lol. So, let explain the back story so you know what was going on. The guys we were with are from Turkey and had taken a plane into Zagreb about 1 week prior. We are 2 American woman and had taken a ferry from Italy 4 days prior. Somehow though we were all together in a rented car trying to cross the Bosnian border. Ok, so we get to the Croatian booth, they are ok, stamp us and we go to the Bosnian booth. They weren't so ok with it all. They asked us to pull over after siting there for 5 mins. I knew none of us were criminals because we had all had our passports checked already going to Dubrovnik (so I knew they weren't criminals or anything). We pulled over and sat there for 10 more mins. Finally some man came over and started speak Bosnian, asking questions. None of us speak the language. The guys could respond with a few words they did know but it didn't get us very far. We tried to explain that we were almost out of gas and the closest station was over the border. The man told the guys to ask Allah for more gas and that maybe we wouldn't have a problem. Not very nice. The man just laughed and walked away. About 5 mins later another man walked up asked the same questions and finally gave us our passports. We crossed got gas and cane back. Then had the same damn problem coming back in. Like, the dude from earlier couldn't have told his college what was up?! They saw the tank before and now it was full, its a miracle! No, we really got gas! Danielle made a joke. They asked why we were coming into Bosnia together so many times, she said we should tell them take we came to Europe and decided of all places that Bosnia was the place for us! We were laughing hysterically! I think it made the guys nervous that we kept laughing. The whole situation was ridiculous though. Fine, going in question it. But coming back 20 mins later. Check the car or do something then, don't just make us sit there, it made no sense but it was funny. So, we got to Zagreb and we are now at a hostel in the middle of nowhere. Literally in the country side! It's wonderful though!! We took a day to do nothing! Today we did laundry and some more of nothing and tomorrow we will go into the city and see Zagreb! That's about it. Miss you all! Xoxo

Pictures from:
Split
Dubrovnik
Plitvice National Park

Back to Bordeaux and beyond...

04/06/2012
The week in Bordeaux went well. I didn't write last while in town, just spent my time with my family. It was wonderful to see them. We will be gone for a bit longer this time and I'm glad we had the chance to go back now. Danielle was able to get her contacts (or her eyeballs as I call them. We both switched out our clothes in preparation for spring and summer! We have about 2 weeks left and we will be on 4 months and counting that we have been gone! Time is flying by! Seeing people in Bordeaux that we met the first time we were there was very nice and great to share stories with them. It was especially nice to speak with Charlotte, as I already mentioned in another blog. Just sit there, eat cheese, drink wine, smoke and talk for hours. That was the best time I do have to say. She is an amazing woman and a wonderful mom/wife. Louis is very lucky to have met her! They are lucky to have met eachother! Well, we spent our time in Bordeaux and left to Milan on Wednesday the 4. We are officially illegal lol! Only by a couple of weeks. I figured this would happen (we would stay past our 3 months). We are leaving Italy in 2 weeks and heading for Croatia for this reason. Croatia isn't part of the Shengen agreement, we just realized! So we plan on spending at least 1 month there, since we have to be out for 3 months. The pictures I have seen of the country are just incredible!! The next few months will be very exciting, there are many amazing places we plan on going. The temples built into the rocks and ground in Jordan and the beaches and cascades in Croatia are what I am most looking forward to. Israel will be enjoyable for many reasons. We are planning on taking a ferry over to Croatia unless we can find a cheap flight. At this point taking a flight out of a Shengen country is taking a risk. So, we are going to try not to :) currently, we are on a 5 hour train ride through Italy going from Milan to Florence. It's an amazing trip!! Great views! We are taking the trip during the day this time, so we can see Tuscany and the surrounding regions on our way. We are going back to Giuseppe and Vincenzos home. Jenny will be there too! She moved back to her home town on the island of Alba since she couldn't find a job in Florence. We have created a great friendship with them and I am thankful we met them via CS. We all clicked very well from the beginning and its a wonderful chemistry. Even with the language barrier, it doesn't limit our conversations or ability to share great food and times out together. It's wonderful! It's a type of relationship that I have never had with anyone else before (with the language barrier and all). I'm going back to sleep :) im going to wake up when we hit Tuscany. Miss you all! Xoxo

04/12/2012
We left Florence and spent a few days in a small seaside town called Livorno. Our host here is very cool! He speaks Japanese and Italian fluently and a little English. We all manage to communicate just fine though. He has 2 apartments in town and he lives in his home in the country side outside of Livorno. His homes are beautiful! The apartments are are very well designed inside and he has a stereo system set up so you can hear the music you play in the living room throughout the entire place! It's the coolest set up I have ever seen! His home in the country side is gorgeous! He has it completely renovated to accommodate parties with over 50+ people! It's impressive! His grill is the biggest I have ever seen! Danielle took a picture of it. You can roast about 3-4 full size pigs on the grill, its that big! We had seafood spaghetti last night. It's the first time we have had seafood in Italy and I was very happy with the dinner! Today we are all going to Pisa to see the leaning tower and then to the port. That should take up most of the day :) I think we will BBQ tonight! Second time that we will have had a BBQ since leaving home. Gosh, I'm excited for that! Well I have to finish getting ready for my day out! Miss you all! Xoxo

04/17/2012
We are on the train heading to Alcona, Italy. We will be taking a ferry later today to Croatia. We are going to a city named Split. It's the second biggest city in Croatia. It's located on the coast and from the pictures, it appears to be absolutely breathtaking! They don't use the Euro there instead they use a currency called the Kuna. It's about 75 Kuna for €10. They speak Croatian, which sounds similar to Arabic and their official religion is Roman Catholic. Lol the mix of all of this makes me wonder what type of a feel you get being there. Sitting here writing I just looked out the window and all I see are the green rolling hills of Tuscany. My goodness do I hate the idea of leaving Italy. I absolutely love it here. It really sucks to leave. I have moved a lot in my life and I have lived in many different places but leaving here is not like any other feeling I have ever had, not even leaving home for this trip. I think thats because I assumed I was going home after we were done traveling. I'll stop talking about how much I'm going to miss Italy now lol...it makes me sad to talk about. I love the Latin countries! Ugh! So, I made grilled cheese yesterday for Danielle, Jenny and I. It was delicious! I used Swiss and asiago cheese! Mmmmm...it came out very well! We had spritz and sausages on the side :) We stayed up super late last night because we figured we could sleep on the trains today lolololololol! I should know better by now! When we are traveling all day I get tired anyways so I figured it wouldn't matter how much sleep I got. It does. But its a bit late to go back and change that now.

04/19/2012
Well, my o my have we had a few very interesting days!... I have never dreamed it. Have you ever dreamed a night like this...its the chorus to the song I'm listening to right now. A song from Caro Emerald. I love the song, nice beat! So, let's get back to the story of the last few days! Lol! We arrived and realized we didn't have enough money on us to purchase our tickets, the research I did was only for tickets purchased online. Now, we didn't know this at first so we had my mom put enough money in our account and money to last a few days for food, etc (for once we got to Croatia). At this point we figured we could still leave that night to Croatia. We got the money and went to the port. Getting there was fun! We got lost on the buses in one of the smallest cities we have visited yet! For some reason they have double lines for each individual line itself, both going to different parts of the city. Let me explain, the sign to the center was bus 1/4 (who uses numbers like this for bus numbers first of all). The sign explained which stops like a normal sign does. So, we got on. Then we made it all the way to the end of the bus line and realized everything was getting off, so we did too. We asked where the bus that was going to the center was located and the driver pointed at another 1/4 bus, so we got on it and thought for a brief moment that maybe there was some switch or something, just to get to the center. The bus took off and we noticed fairly quickly that it was going right back to the train station. At this point it was around 4pm. We had only a couple more hours before the ferry left. So, we made it back to the station. Tried taking the same bus again, thinking we just missed the center and didn't notice it. Lol...we were wrong. We finally decided to get off at a stop half way from the station and just figure it out from there since it seemed like a big bus stop area. When we did that, Danielle was bombarded by elderly people and couldn't get off the bus in time so she kept going. Hahaha this is now the 3 time we have been separated due to public transportation. I knew what to do this time and I stayed put. She eventually made her way back to me! So, we finally figured out with help from an old Italian woman which bus we needed to take and we were off. Once we arrived in the center, we realized that it wasn't going to be so easy to find WiFi to contact my mom to say we needed more money. But we tried. To make this story shorter, 3 out of the 4 bars that are "free WiFi", didn't have access for one reason or another. By the time we found WiFi, we had missed the ferry. So, we decided to hang at a cafe and have a coffee. We didn't want to waste $ on a hotel for 1 night, since the cheapest hostel was 18€!! That's pretty expensive for those of you who don't know. We decided to hang at the train station for the night, get up in the morning, see some more of the city and just leave. That was the plan until I went online and realized the next ferry going out at the price we wanted wasn't for 2 more days. At that point, we just decided to take that price in 2 days and we figured we would just rent a hotel room or hostel. Wouldn't be a problem...that's what we thought...in our minds, which forget about reality at times. We bought the tickets, which are non-refundable due to the low price they are purchased at. Then we went to look for a room for the next 2 nights and I put up requests on Couchsurfing. We discovered immediately that ALL the hotels and the only hostel in Ancona were completely booked for the next 3 days because of some big military event occurring in the next day or two. So, we went to the station that night. We ended up meeting some really cool guys who worked at the train station and we all had conversations about all sorts of things. We all really clicked! They invited us to Porto Nuovo the following day and said they would bring us around and show us the coast. We had a blast the next day! It was one of the most beauty coast lines I've ever seen! I took so many pictures! That night we went to see if any hotels "maybe" had an extra room since we didn't want to sleep at the station again! Nope they didn't BUT, one hotel, Hotel Fortuna allowed us to sleep in their back lounge since they knew our situation and didn't want us going back to the station. The station was fine, at least it was warm. Just a lot of homeless people and kind of sketchy. We even offered to pay just to sleep in the lounge. They just let us rest on the couch. In the morning, we met the guys one more time for lunch on the coast in another city near by and we went to several other cafés and pastry shops along the way. It was a great ending to our time in Ancona. Even with the circumstances of our sleeping arrangements, Danielle and I had an amazing time in Ancona because of these men! They brought us to so many neat places and great restaurants! So, we were on the ferry that night off to Ancona. Getting through customs was insane! I'm not sure if describing what happened can be incriminating to me, but I want to share our experience! So, we were 3 weeks past our date of having to leave Shengen countries. Ok, so because we "were" 3 weeks past our date of having to be out of Shengen countries Danielle and I were a little scared to go through customs just incase they did check. Although anyone you ask will tell you, they don't check Americans. But that's the right attitude to have, so we were scared. We walk up to the customs booth and see 3 men inside. Now we are freaking...one of them may check. We turn the corner and the entire is lined with customs officers!! I almost had a heart attack! We haute sat and smiled and didn't say a word. They took the passports, stamped them and let us on our way. They didn't even look to see when we came in! People are right I guess :\ its still not a good feeling. All it takes is one person who wants to actually do their job and we would have been a bit screwed! Anyways, we ande it to Ancona the next morning. I remember riding the overnight train from Granada, Spain to Barcelona, Spain and waking up in the morning on the rain, riding the coast on the edge of the cliffs. Watching the waves hit the sides of the cliffs and seeing the sun rise was one the best mornings of my life. It was wonderful. Well, this ferry ride tops that. Only a little :) I woke up to the sun rising on the hundreds of islands off the main land in Croatia. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Really. I took soooo many pictures! I know I can't capture what I saw with pictures alone but it helps! So, we arrived in Ancona and started our mission to find WiFi and a cheap hot cup of coffee. We found both pretty quickly! It took us about an hour to find a place but we did! I think being in Italy so long made us forget the rest of the world does use and offer WiFi in public places! That's one downfall about Italy, technology sucks there. Not sure why. I figure since they get so many tourists they would shapen up. So, we put out some Couchsurfing requests or look for hostels and let my mom know we were still alive and kicking! I wonder what she will think if she ever reads this blog! There is so much we don't tell her because we don't want her to worry...lol...hopefully she will read this in years to come and not now! One of our requests was answered 30 mins after I sent it! We made the plans to meet that evening and Danielle and I were off to see the city for the day! We eventually found a hostel that allowed us to drop off our backpacks for a few hours (free of charge). I will not pay to have someone watch my bag of clothes!!! It's clothes!! Not some valuable shit! We always make a joke that if they loose our stuff it will be ok...lol! I just think its dumb, just let us put our bags down, if somethings happens it happens. If not, then we still have our stuff. I have learned very slowly that my personal belongings have no value. My passport and camera maybe haha but everything else can go, if it had to. After having to toss pajama pants (at the airport in Barcelona) that I paid $50 for and other items, I have realized that clothes and other things CAN be replaced even if you don't think so at that moment. Ok, so we dropped off our bags at this cool hostel and went walking down the boardwalk in Split. It's a wonderful place, reminded me a lot of south beach. The set up was very similar. We kept walking towards this really big hill and walked up it until we realized it turned into a small mountain pretty much. Lol. At that point we were so far up we just decided to keep going. We had some amazing views of the city! We met a woman who was on vacation with her parents, they were from Colorado. Very nice lady. We spoke for a while and laughed a lot. It was nice to speak to an American for a while :) Our CS host was a bit off. We didn't care for him. He kept making comments about us being American and every time we did something he would say "ugh Americans". We didn't feel so comfortable so we planned to leave earlier than we had said. He was nice just very short with us. I don't understand why you would have someone come to your home if you don't like the nationality they are. He could clearly see we were American on my profile. O well. He gave us a warm place to sleep. It disappoints me to meet people like that though. He really shouldn't do CS for this reason. You have to be really open to all cultures, religions, races, etc if you do CS. It's just part of the gig. The last day we were there he said we should be up by 730-8 so we could get ready, eat and leave. He said not worry about setting our alarms that he would wake us up. He woke us up at 8 and then said we had 5 mins to get ready before his friends were there to leave. I was pissed. That wasn't cool and he definitely did it on purpose to us. I was annoyed we listened to him. We should have set our own alarm. We had time to throw on our clothes and run out the door. It was ok though, we were away from him! Even though we stayed with an idiot our time in split was great!

Pictures from:
Milan
Porto Novo

Under the Tuscan Sun and back to family :)

03/21/2012
I am going to start writing on my note application everyday and uploading the entries to my blog weekly. This will allow me to have a more accurate account of our daily activities and not have to write in my journal as much :) I want to save my journal for the more personal accounts of my journey.

We are on the train currently waiting to leave for Siena. We are a bit behind schedule but that's ok, who's keeping track anyways! I have researched the hell out of Siena and the surrounding area in search of hotsprings, FREE hotsprings to be exact! I found numerous locations. So, we will spend today, Thursday and Friday in Siena and the national park just south of Siena basking in the sun and enjoying the wonderful hotsprings of Tuscany! It will be quite relaxing I'm sure. We don't have a place to stay yet but I sent a bunch if CS requests out and hopefully someone responds or to a hostel it is! I'm ready to do some more CS. We stayed in 2 different hostels and with a host in Rome. That was enough hostel time for me. I enjoy CS because of the types of people we meet. Although, we have met some fantastic people in the hostels we have stayed in. Danielle and I decided that the saying "bent out of shape" comes from somebody who probably dropped their water bottle numerous times in a day and bent the bottle out of shape. Sort of like what Danielle did today! Lol! I think she dropped the bottle 6 or 7 times already and she's only been holding it for 2 hours!

Dinner was great last night. There were 6 of us at a man's house named Alex. He is friends with our hosts. Nice guy! We had 2 bottles of wine that Danielle and Jenny went and picked out at a wine shop. They tried several kinds and once they picked the one they wanted, the associate transferd the wine into a bottle fresh from the barrel! How cool is that! We had a pasta dish with a delicious white sauce that included eggs in the ingredients. Very interesting recipe I do have to say. I didn't write it down, though I wished I had. I have so many recipes at this point. I'll have a new dish for each night of the week for a good 2 months with all the recipes I have written down and learned how to cook! We had nutella pie for dessert! I love that Italians love nutella! Danielle and I were wondering if this is where nutella was created because of the love they have for it here. I don't mind either way though lol.

Well we are on our way now...the train is moving. It will take about 1 hour and 30 minutes, not bad at all. I can't wait to enjoy the hot springs!! We want this to be our trial run to determine how difficult it is to get to the hot springs without a vehicle. I'll update on our conclusion.

I'm going to take a nap now. I only had 3 hours of sleep last night and I'm sure we will have a long day today.

Well, Siena is wonderful! We love it here :) its a much smaller city than Florence and almost reminds me of Granada. When we got off the bus we met a Mexican girl and 2 women from the US. We were all looking for the center so we walked and talked searching for the center and/or the main plaza. We eventually found it and said our farewells to our walking partners. As we stood there a man approached Danielle and I and showed us his phone with our picture on it. He asked us if that was us?! We just looked at each other and weren't sure what to say to him. It was super strange! All I thought was, why does this man have our picture on his phone. He quickly stated, you sent me a request this morning for CS. I was shocked! Lol! We figured we would stay in a hostel since we didn't really plan accordingly to stay with a host! I knew exactly who he was once he said he was from CS. He said he had just responded to my request and said we could come, when he looked up and saw us standing in the plaza!! How random?! We had just gotten off the bus walked to the center and in a crowd of over 200-300 people we just happened to be standing right next to him as he looked at the request! What luck!? So, he gave us directions to his place and we were on our way to explore Siena. The main plaza, Plaza Campo is very cool. It's a crescent shape and has many cafés and shops along the inside. Danielle and I sat and had coffee and a quick snack. We decided to get on the bus before nightfall. As we got on the bus, the woman in front of Danielle didn't move in on time and Danielle couldn't get on! The doors closed and I said very loudly not to move so we didn't have another incident like back in Bordeaux! Lol! I got off at the next stop and started walking very quickly back towards Danielle. It was too funny! What a day! Well, we are here with our host now, about to go to dinner. I'll update tomorrow night on how the hot springs turned out :)
Miss you all! Xoxo

03/23/12
Well, we had a late start yesterday and decided not to head out ti the hot springs but rather enjoy Siena. I'm glad we did too, we had an amazing time walking around the city and seeing the hills of Tuscany in the distance. We had lunch in a park near the center and then enjoyed some wine and cheese at the top of a hill overlooking Florence and miles of hills in the back round. It was amazing. We stayed for the sunset and I was able to capture some incredible moments on my camera. So, we have decided we will just cone back another time and dedicate more than 1 day to the hot springs.
Last night our host taught us how to plat a new card came, similar to euchre. Was had a good time. I had a bit too much wine and passed out during the movie we watched, No Strings Attched.

We are on the train, waiting to depart and head back to Florence. I am tired today. I want to take a nap when we return back to our CS house. I'm sure we will be going out since its Friday :)

Well, I m going to take advantage of being on the train and catch some zzz's while I can. It disappoints Danielle that I fall asleep every time we are traveling because she says I miss so much. I just have the hardest time staying awake when I'm traveling. If I absolutely have to stay awake I will but otherwise I'm out within 10-20 minutes after boarding lol. So....here I go. Write more later. Miss you all! Xoxo

03/27/2012
We leave to Bologna tonight. We fly to Bordeaux tomorrow. We are sitting in the Santa Maria Piazza its the plaza by the train station in Florence. It's a very nice evening tonight, perfect weather! The last few days have been wonderful. We relaxed and took advantage of the nice weather by taking walks and going out at night for drinks with everyone. Last night Danielle, Giuseppe and I went for sone beers and eventually met up with some Vincenzo and all went for some more drinks. I rolled my ankle last night, I figured it would happen at some point in the trip since we do so much walking and my ankles are so weak! I walked it off though and today its not so bad. I'm excited to go to Bordeaux and see Louis, Charlotte and the baby! I am looking forward to having wine, some cigarettes, cheese and sausage with Charlotte and Danielle while we talk about our travels and hear about the last few months of what they have been up to! I am also looking forward to getting new clothes and packing up my winter clothes!! Its a 2 hour plane ride to Bordeaux, its going to be quicker getting there than riding by train to Rome from Florence (that takes 3 hours).

I cooked sloppy joes for everyone for lunch the other night, that was cool! They enjoyed it. I made it from scratch for the first time, it came out very well. I am impressed with how well I have been cooking! I never realized how well I could cook until this trip. I made basic meals before, I have now learned to make some more complex meals. It's a good feeling. I am happy. I have been happy for some time now. I think this trip is allowing me to slowly learn so much about myself. It's funny cause everyone says, you take a gap year to travel and "find yourself" but that's exactly what happens! I can't explain what that means or how it happens, it just sorta does? I have gone through points in this trip where I thought traveling alone would have been better but I am very happy (now that we are several months into the trip) that Danielle and I are doing this together. There are too many occurrences to remember and I am truly pleased to have her to laugh with.

Well, I can't really think of much else to write for today. I am going to start my non stop questioning of wether or not she will play some card games with me. Lol. It usually takes about 3-5 times before she gives in and says yes! So, farewell for today! Miss you all! Xoxo

03/29/2012
Well we made it to Bordeaux safe and sound. No issues on Ryanair this time. Lol. We had a bit of a mission getting to Louis and Charlottes place. The trams stopped running while we were on it, not sure why, so we had to start walking. It's ok, it was really nice out!! Charlotte, Danielle and I sat and drank wine, ate cheese and spoke for hours! It was really nice! I enjoy times like this. It makes me miss not being able to live closer.

Today we went out into the center, just Louis, baby Louis, Danielle and I. It was nice. We walked around, had lunch at a great little spot off the main shopping strip and then we went food shopping. I'm cooking dinner a few nights this week. I'm excited to show them what I have learned in the last 2 months! Tonight I'm making a typical sausage and vegetable dinner. It's all mixed with olive oil (i add some wine and water for extra flacos) and you bake it. It's so yummy and simple to make! I'm making sloppy joes for lunch tomorrow! Charlotte has never had them! We r staying in tonight and relaxing, as a family. It's really nice.
Miss you all! I need to finish cooking and enjoy this glass of wine ;)

Pictures of our week in Bordeaux!

Florence...Round 2

So, we booked our flights to head back to Bordeaux. We are back in Florence! We love it here! We are taking this week to visit some of Tuscany. We are leaving very early tomorrow morning and heading to Siena. It's a smaller city south of here in the hills of Tuscany. There are many things to see and do but what has attracted us to this wonderful piece of land situated in central Italy are natural thermal springs. There are many of them in the hills of Italy. We have been trying to see hot springs since we were in Spain but haven't been able to find a way to get to any! I'm very excited! The pictures look amazing! But seeing them in person and swimming in them will probably be one of my favorite things ill do this year! We are going to dinner at a man's house named Alex. He is friends with our hosts. Neat guy!

So, our plan is to stay in Siena for a few days. Come back to Florence for the weekend. Go to Pisa on Monday (for the day). And head to Bologna on Tuesday to spend the day there since we fly out Wednesday. That's the plan. I'll write next week and update if that's actually what happens. Lol. I have learned that planning doesn't seem to work out very well. We have just kind of adapted to "living in the moment" and seeing what each day brings! I like it this way. We get to see what we want and even more! Some weeks are more planned out than others and sometimes those plans actually work out! Other weeks we just go day by day and enjoy wherever we are and the company we have! Well, that's enough for now. I need to get ready for that dinner :)

**To revisit my past blog and explain what happened in Morocco trying to get through customs**

We were in line with 30 mins left before the ferry took off to Spain. There were many people in the line to get through. We were at the end of the line. Everyone got through. When we walked up to the stand, happy to leave and excited to embark on a new journey in a new country, the computers crashed! They couldn't process us! Hahahahah! At that moment we both just started laughing! There was nothing more we could do. If you remember my past blog, our journey to the port was ridiculous. Lol. I didn't think we were going to be able to leave Morocco that day. This was just the topping on the cake for that day. Writing it now I'm laughing. I remember when it happened, Danielle and I just looked at each other and smiled. The man in the booth must have been able to see the frustration in our faces. He told us to go sit down and relax while they fixed the problem. So, we went and ate, had coffee and spoke with a very kind woman who worked there in the customs booth. Eventually the problem was fixed and when we went back down the line was once again extremely long! At that point I decided we were just screwed! There was no way we could get through the customs baggage check and have our passports checked, etc in time to get on the ship. The man who originally helped us, saw us and signaled for us to come forward. That wasn't uncomfortable at all. Nope. Standing in a room with Moroccans and we are the only white females and are allowed to go before everyone. They didn't know why we were pushed ahead. It was shitty walking up to the front with everyone just staring. Lol. But needless to say, we went and got through. Made it on the ship and the rest is history! Or at least has been written down in past blogs :)

Pictures of:
Florence
Siena
Tuscany (Pisa, Livorno & Volterra)

Northern Italy

We are in Rome, many more days than planned. We like it here but not as much as Florence! Florence was amazing! Great food, things to do and a hot nightlife! That's rare to find in a city, or so we have decided. We came to Rome on Monday and spent the first 2 days just seeing the city and taking it all on. We spent the yesterday by our hosts home, enjoying the park and taking in some Sun :) we decided to leave our hosts home and stay in a hostel for a few days before leaving for Sardinia. It's nice to stay in a hostel every now and then to get a break from couchsurfing. It's refreshing! Let me start from our time in Venice and staying in Padova.

We arrived in Padova after a 2 hour plane ride from Barcelona. Leaving Barcelona was a mess! My backpack was to big for our airlines liking and they made me throw away 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts so I didn't have to check on my bags (and pay €50 to do so). I was pissed, to say the least. After arriving we made it to the bus and took the bus from Trevisio airport to Padova. It was a nice ride. We were able to see many small towns and some of the country side. After arriving we walked around while waiting to meet our host, Stefano. He eventually came and we were off. Stefano was a very nice man. He lives by himself in a condo close to the bus station in Padova. We each had our own rooms which was a strange feeling since we have been sharing a bed or sharing a couch since we left. It was very nice though! Stefano spent the following day in Venice with us, showing us the city. That was nice to he wit h someone who knew what they were doing or it would have taken much longer to figure things out. He brought is to the hospital in Venice which looked like it should have been a museum! It was beautiful and has a garden inside. I took many pictures, of course! Venice was definitely much more than I expected. I'm not sure what I thought it was going to be like. I've seen movies obviously, that portray it to be a city full of canals. It was much more. The atmosphere and architecture was great. There is a cathedral that is covered in gold and the docks are surrounded by the small boats with the men who are dressed like clowns lol. Stefano brought us from one side of the island to the other. It took several hours but we made it in one day. That was a cool city to visit. We watched a lady and her child get off a taxi boat and arrive at her home, get off the boat and enter their home. That was cool. Just to think that she has to do that every time she wants to leave. A canal is her front yard! Lol! We left Venice and headed for Verona on a Sunday.

Verona was a great city. Lots to see and our host was very welcoming. It was our first female host! She was very knowledgeable about the city and even spent a day walking us around showing us stuff! There was an area very high up that she brought us to and it allowed us to have wonderful views of Verona from above. I took some neat pictures! My tooth was hurting one night so Danielle and Paola went out for wine and spritz. A spritz is a mix of champagne or white wine and campari. It's delicious and a very popular drink in Italy for an apparative. An apparative is a drink you have before appetizers or your dinner. So, we left Verona and headed for Florence! That was a long train ride, I think it took about 3 hours.

When we arrived in Florence it took us a little bit to figure out which bus to take to get to our hosts home. Once we did we then had to ask which stop to get off at since they don't state what stop tu are at anywhere! Lol! It's been a mission in Italy while riding the buses! Thankfully the people are very willing to help!

Our hosts we very cool! There are 6 flatmates. Jenni, Vincenzo and Giuseppe were the 3 we hung out with. Jenni was an awesome woman! Very interesting and well spoken. She could speak the most English which was nice. Vincenzo is a chef so he cooked some amazing meals while we were there! Giuseppe is the actual person who contacted me about surfing. He was such a sweetheart! He even let Danielle and I have his room and he shared with Vincenzo! They brought us out several nights and showed us an amazing time! We were there for international women's day and Giuseppe bought Danielle and I flowers, mimmosas to be exact. It's what the women in Italy receive on this holiday. Needless to say between the museums, amazing food, great hosts, the nightlife and wonderful sightseeing we had a spectacular time! We love Florence! We are even planning a trip back :)

We left Florence after almost 1 week there and headed for Rome! Our original plan was to fly out from Rome to Bordeaux. Well, our plans change way to often haha ...so...we decided to go to Sardinia instead after Rome. That was until Danielle lost a contact. So, now we are back to square one and going to Bordeaux!

Pictures from:
Venice
Verona
Florence
Rome

Barcelona in 4 days...

so we left Granada at 10pm on an overnight train to Barcelona. When we arrived the next morning we arrived hit the ground running and saw as much as possible. Park Greull is our favorite sight in Barcelona. The port was pretty cool too! The park has amazing views of the city though and interesting architecture. We left that night to a city about 20 miles north named Mataro. We had a couchsurfing host there. This host was very nice too! He was friendly and very informative about Barcelona another surrounding cities. He introduced us to some of his friends and brought us to a local cafe. Danielle tried a chocolate milk that she is claiming is the best she has ever tried, and she loves that stuff! Lol. Its made right here in northern Spain. We spent the next afternoon with our host, he drive us to some beautiful towns about an hour north of Mataro. One place we went to is called Calella de Palafruegell. It is a beautiful beach town, very populated in the summer time by Spaniards and other Europeans. We took pictures that look like they could be postcards! We went at sunset and had the most amazing views. Just unreal. The second place we went was to a small stone village called Peratallada. It was built back in the 13th century and is still fully functioning! That was like being in a movie or something. I felt like it was all a prop! So awesome! All the places we have seen like this have been museums or just abandoned, not literally livable. Please Google these two towns and look at pictures, etc. They are some really neat towns!and we were so thankful that our host brought us there! Well, wanted to get the bog going for this week....haven't had time to write much this week. Ill finish tonight....need to say what happened through customs in Tangier! Forgot about that, lol so funny!

Pictures from:
Barcelona
Mataró
Girona, Calella de Palafruegell & Costa Brava

Granada

We left Seville on Monday the 13. It was sad to leave. Everyone was so kind and welcoming. We made many friends some of whom I presume we will see again. Even if not, we have Facebook to keep us in contact! It was a 3 hour bus ride to Granada. Danielle gotand I had no issues this time with trying to leave, maybe that was a sign...lol. We arrived and stayed in a hostel our first night. We went out for dinner at a local bar and had delicious bocadillos! The following night we went to our first couchsurfing home. The man I was in contact with was named Hendrick. He is from Germany. He lives in a flat with 4 other people and they all go to school at the university here. They were awesome! Very warm and interesting individuals. They are all from all over the world and have couchsurfed themselves. We drank and played a card game called Bang. It took Danielle and I a bit to understand though once we did Danielle kicked our asses! I cooked a dinner for everyone. It was chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella wrapped with bacon and cheesy mashed potatoes. Boy o boy was it delicious. The following day Danielle and packed up our stuff, said goodbye to everyone and were on our way to our next home in the mountains. The group told us we could stay and even offered to cook us a meal but we wanted to keep moving on with our trip. I kind of think maybe another night there would have been fun. But we didn't. We actually stuck to our plans lol. So we waited for a bus on the other side of town to bring us into the mountains. While we were waiting this homeless drugged up man wouldn't stop talking to us. He had on a pink and orange neon Colombia jacket with gold crosses hanging from his ears. He looked marvelous! He started to sing flamenco for us and then attempted to convince Danielle that she should trade her jacket for his since they were both Colombia jackets, I almost died when I heard him trying to ask her in Spanish. She just kept saying, "no cambio"...it was great. We finally got on the bus and were on our way to our next host in the mountains. We happened to be passing through a tiny town and I saw a man running next to the bus shouting, "I'm Tom!" I realized that was our host! I asked the bus driver to stop. We grabbed our stuff and met Tom. He was with 2 other girls. They were hippies from Sweden, with long dreadlocks and baggy clothing. They had 2 dogs with them. He said he needed to come to town to buy some groceries and saw the bus coming (guess not a lot of buses come through). He said he recognized me from my pictures and figured he would just drive us up. Worked out well, Danielle and I were able to buy some groceries this way. The drive to his house was fun, all of us packed in. The view was amazing! He lives on the top of a hill in a tiny little pueblo called Baes de Granada. He showed us our rooms and ins and outs of his home. He taught me how to make Tortilla Espanola. That is my favorite meal I have had here so far! I wrote down the directions because I can't wait to share this simple meal with everyone at home! We had some wine and shared stories. Tom played his guitar and played some of the music from his band. That was nice. The girls shared some of their stories of hitch hiking from Sweden down to Spain (with 2 dogs), still can't believe they were able to do it. We went to sleep late and slept in the following day. When we woke up we had some coffee and were on our way through the mountains for the day. We started off with the girls too but they found some almond trees and decided to stay there and sick some almonds to eat. They said it was meant to be that they found the trees and needed to stay and eat. So...Danielle and I went on our way up the mountains. We picked a point and walked up. We kind of had to go side to side due to the hills, drops and valleys, etc. We made it though and had the most amazing view ever of the Sierra Nevada mountains!! We had some oranges and sausages and played some music on my cellphone. It was just grand. Once we made our way down I cooked dinner for Danielle, Tom and I. The Swedish girls were vegetarians. I fried potatoes, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, and some cheese together and added chicken towards the end. It was very good. I took a nap afterwards. We have been sitting on the couch listening to the girls sing music for us for a while now. Tom and Danielle got some wood and we are all going to enjoy the fire in the living room and have some drinks! Boy do they like to drink in Spain. So, farewell for now. I'm sure I will have a few more things to add by the weeks end. We were supposed to go to Barcelona tomorrow. We have decided to stay here in Baes for a few days and will probably leave Saturday or Sunday. We have host there too. He lives in a town outside of Barcelona and has offered to show us the city if we stay with him. We will probably do that. So, goodbye, again, lol. Hope you all are doing well! Miss u all! Xoxo

Pictures of our time in Granada!

The Dilemma

Well as I stated in the last post, we must be out of Europe after 90 days in. Since we didnt know this until half way through the trip, we didnt plan accordingly. We decided that since we have only a certain amount of time, we are going to split up for the rest of our time in Europe and do the countries we want to visit on our won since they are not the same. Danielle´s boyfriend Matt is coming to meet up with here while we are in Ireland and will go on with her through Italy and Croacia. I will stay in Ireland for about one week, do London for one day, one week in Amsterdam, a few days in Switzerland and a few days in Germany. We are going to meet in Bordeaux to say a final farewell to our brother and go to Paris for a flight to Beijing. Thats the plan. We are going to Granada, Spain on Monday for a few days. We have heard great things about Granada! There are hotsprings just outside the city, that I am going to make sure we get to! We will only be in Granada for a few days then onto Barcelona for a few days. Our sister-in-law told us the architecture is like nothing else in the world there. A man by the name of Antoni Gaudí created most of the work that you can find online, etc. We have heard so much about it and couldn´t imagine leaving Spain without seeing Barcelona. I am sick right now. I have been drinking tea all day and sleeping. I though I would write a bit on my blog. We have met so many neat people since we have been at this hostel! Many of whom we are now FB friends with. I hope to meet these people again at some point in life. We plan on stopping in Argentina to meet a guy who hosts in couchsurfing. We met him at this hostel in Seville. As I am writing this now I am listening to some great soft rock music being played over the speakers in the common area. Danielle is talking to two great girls we met from Belgium and one of the guys from Texas. This place makes you not want to leave! We had spanish sausage with cheese melted on top of it, on pieces of baguette. We let that heat up for a bit in the toaster then put olive oil on last. It was yummy! It helps that it was spanish sausgae lol...I dont care for american sausage, I have come to figure out. Well, I am going to make some more tea and go lay down for a bit. We have a a movie date with our roommate tonight. She is from Australia! Se is here taking classes trying to learn spanish. She is a very cool lady! Miss you all!! xoxox

My Love...Seville

I will say first, I will be back to this city. It is amazing! I have fallen in love. I wish I could stay. I know that in the real world, it is not possible though. The architecture here is like nothing we have seen. There is new and old. The old is kept up so well. They keep the buildings so clean and fresh. It is so neat to have done the walking tours and learn about the history of the city. It was at one point the worlds largest trading point after Columbus discovered America! They also keep the city as a whole very clean. Which is a nice thing to see, just different. We went to the Museum of the Indies. This is the building where all the important documents are held that have to do with the discovery of the Americas. That was neat to see! It is the 5th UNESCO monument and or city we have seen. I am happy to have the chance to see all of this seeing that it is has to do with the history of our world, not just my home. We have been in Seville since Sunday. We will leave Monday for Barcelona for a few days then be on a flight to Rome. Our time in Eurpoe has been cut short becuase we recently learned about the Schengen Agreement. It kinda screwed us for lack of a better way to put it lol. Please google it for more information, it´s a lot to explain on here. It is fine though, we are taking the time we have and enjoying the last few countries we are able to see. We went out with a bunch of people from the hostel last night. That was a blast! We did a "bar crawl" and ended up at a gay bar! It was the most fun we have had since we left home though. The fact that 10 people from all over the world could come together and drink and have an amazing time was just nice to see! The one thing Danielle and I have come to love about walking the streets here is all the backround mucis you hear. People just play in the streets for money but it is so nice. She says its like being in a movie. You can go from street to street and have music playing on each street. When we dont hear the music we question why lol. We saw a man dressed as a crazy clown with 2 puppets on either hand, with olny the heads popping up from the table. He would jump up at people walking by and making loud screaching noises. We stood there for a while and just laughed at the people who he would scare. It was very entertaining! There was an Irish woman who also loved it and kept coming back, that made me laugh hard too. We have found a starbucks and a Dunkin Donuts since we have been here. I am so happy about that! Well, I was just invited out by some people here in the hostel. I am going to take them up on the offer :)

Miss you all! XOXOX

Pictures from Seville!!

Dashing through Algeciras, Gibraltar and Tarifa...

We arrived in Algeciras after our few days in Tangier. We decided we didn't care very much for Tangier. Algeciras is a very pretty city and modern. There is a lot of Arab influence in the area. We got off the ferry at 10pm. And the 2 closest hotels were closed. We didn't want to walk around the city that late by ourselves, so we found a cozy corner in the port and slept for the night. We took turns sleeping so we didn't take the chance of having our crap taken. When we woke up, we walked around the city and found a decently priced hotel. The area we stayed in was very nice and we enjoyed walking to the street market and looking at all the amazing meats and vegetables for sale. We talked about how we wished we could have bought food to cook. The hostel we were in was a bit different than what we had been staying in, lol. It was our first official "hostel". You know, the kind that people talk about and reference but have never actually seen but in movies. Well, that's what we were in. There was a guard dog downstairs, we called him kujo. He was not friendly at all. He looked like he was on steroids too! The room smelled like someone just sat there for years and smoked 10 packs of cigarettes a day. The blankets looked like they belonged in a nursery and the beds were actually cots. But, at least we had a cheap place to sleep and there were no bed bugs. On our second day, we took the city bus to a small town named Gibraltar. It is actually an English colony in southern Spain. You have to show you passport to enter. They are known for having these wild monkeys all over the massive rock in the middle of the city. The monkeys were cute. A local girl fed them some coke, the drank it pretty fast, I think they had drank it before, its like they knew they would be getting it. Cute thought. We went into a glass making shop. That was cool. It was like watching "how its made" in real life. The process is very intriguing. It captivated Danielle and I for a good 20 mins. We were told by numerous people in France and in Gibraltar to make sure we went to Tarifa. It is a small beach town about 20 mins west of Algeciras. So the next day we took our stuff, got on a bus to Tarifa and spent the afternoon there. The beaches there are the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen! You could see through the waves for about 40-50ft out. The water was just that clear! I have never seen water that color either, it was a light turquoise. We walked through town and stopped at a little cafe to have coffee and a bite of cake. The cake was the best ever! It was made of vanilla cake, dulce de leche and chocolate fronting on top. The best ever! We then jumped on another bus and headed for Cadiz. We were told it was a nice city to visit. When we arrived we saw how modern it was and were discouraged. So we got off the bus and purchased another bus ticket for the next bus leaving to Seville. While we were in the bus station we met some travelers from Canada. They had been traveling for about 9 months already! They were telling us stories of different options on places to stay in some of the cities we will be going to after Seville. The told us about some mountain people who live in caves in this small town just west of Granada, Spain. I guess if you are able to make your way up the mountain they are willing to let you sleep there. They also told us of hot springs just outside of Granada. We plan on going there. I have always wanted to see hot springs! So eventually we made it to Seville. It was late, once again so guess what we did lol....slept in the train station. We didn't know this city at all. Our phones were dead and mostly everything was closed on the side of town we were in. Wasn't so bad. There was a young guy sleeping by us too, he had a train to catch very early. He was from eastern Europe somewhere. We didn't take shifts that night. We just slept on most of our important stuff and passed out. We were both so exhausted from traveling. The one thing we decided after that night, is no more arriving in new cities at night. Its a hassle when you don't know what the hell is going on and everything was is closed and or you don't know what kind of a neighborhood your in and if its safe to just walk around. So, we have learned our lesson and will try to not let that happen again. Anyways, we woke up the following morning. Found our first Starbucks since we have left home and charged our phones over some coffee :-) we were so excited to find a Starbucks! We researched how to get to the hostel we wanted to get to and were off! I cannot describe how happy we were to arrive at this hostel! Its the best yet! The reception manager was so nice and friendly! He gave us a map of the city. Showed us where everything was, hotspots, good tapas bars, free museums and other things to see! Tapas free appetizers you receive here in Spain when you order alcohol or coffee. He even invited us outside with some of the other people in the hostel fro drinks and tapas in the plaza out front. This hostel didn't have kujo sitting in the reception area and we had our own bathrooms with clean WHITE sheets lol. We were just happier than pigs in shit. So, we have now been in Seville about 3 days. We love it! I am taking today to be super lazy! We are going on a free walking tour of the city later today. We did a lot of sightseeing yesterday. We met a group of guys from Texas! They will be joining us later for the tour. Pretty cool to meet Americans. When we do, I feel like Danielle and I just start talking and don't stop. We get way to excited lol. Well, I have to go make lunch for Danielle and I, since she made dinner last night. Miss you all. Xoxo

Pictures from:
Gibraltar
Algeciras & Tarifa

Last few days in Morocco

We decided to go North because the worst too much fighting going on in southern africa. we took a 3 hour bus ride and then rode a train for 10 hours to get to northern morocco. the ride wasn't so bad except on the train we were lucky enough to be next to the only man snoring louder than any human on earth. you can only imagine how that went and we both only got about 2 hours of sleep. tanger was great ! we saw the first american embassy ever created and we went into town called La medina which is so old there is only enough room in the streets for about 3 people to stand side by side. Cars were not even an idea when this town was built. It was neat to see though. We also had an amazing view of Spain from the port in Tangier. The people were not as friendly in Tangier as they were in Agadir. Tangier is a much bigger city though. The hotel we stayed in was very very nice for the cost! We payed $20 a night and that was cheap for the area but some how we were lucky enough to find that hotel!actually it wasn't that we were luck y the taxi driver told us about the hotel so I guess we were lucky to have him pick us up at the train station lol. So we spent 3 days there and left at 6pm on the third day. If you have read the past blogs you know we have not had the best luck leaving places. Well, this wasn't much better. So here I go...we bought our tickets around 3 and were told by the men in the agency we had to be at the bus station by 5 to get through customs and check in, etc. Through this whole trip we haven't gotten sick. Even being in Morocco for 2 weeks unable to drink the water, we managed to not get sick. Just to make everything go the way it did the day we were leaving, Danielle got sick. So, the men also told us that the bus station was right up the road next to a hotel in the right. We walked there and realized pretty quickly it was to the right and about another mile down the road. So we kept walking. Once we made it ri the bus station it was a hot mess. By that point we had to make sure we figured out what was going on in less than 15 mins cause the bus comes every hour to the port we needed to leave from. There were about 20 bus spots with no signs and people everywhere! All the signs were in Arabic or French which didn't help. So we asked different people who all told us different answers. Then we asked a taxi driver which bus we needed and he told us there was no bus that brought us to the port bu that he would bring us! I almost jumped in the car and smacked him. We finally found an employee who told us the bus runs every 45 mins and we had just missed the bus and would have to wait which would have made us late to the port and in turn would keep us in Tangier another night and we would have to buy another set of tickets. Lmao! Writing this now, I'm laughing. When this happened, I literally almost started to cry. I was so pissed. We still decided to try anyways and went to the correct bus stop. When we got there a taxi driver approached us and asked if we wanted to join a few other people and all go to the port together. We had no other choice so we all pilled in and were off. The ride to the port was nerve racking! I wanted to tip the man enough so he could go get an alignment! We were driving through the mountains and I really felt one of the tires were just bound to come flying off because of how hard the car was shaking! Between, the Arabic music blasting, the amount of people piled into the car, no ventilation, and the car shaking vigorously, it was a great moment in my life to arrive at the port and get the hell out of the car. O yes, when we were driving down the highway, the taxi had to pull over because the truck flew open. That was great. Needless to say, we made it safe and pretty sound lol. The process of getting through customs was another mission. My phone is going to die though. I will have to write more later. Hope you all are having a great day! Miss you all! Xoxo

Morocco

I don't seem to have the ability room create a new blog. So I will just keep writing on this one until I figure it out. Sorry for any spelling errors or random words by the way. My auto correct loves me and decides at times it is smarter than I am :-) well we have been in Agadir, Morocco for about 1 week now. We are loving it! Its so beautiful here! We will be here another week or so and then be on our way to the Cape Verde Islands ( off the coast of western Africa). About 2 days into the trip we went on a camel ride! That was a hoot! I will post videos and pics soon on Facebook. It was neat. We went outside of town to a forest next to one of the Kings palaces. The ride took about 2 hours. We went at sunset and we were able to get pics of our shadows in the sand. Camels are neat animals. They are so strong! I lead the group which I didn't know at first. The guide was leading the camel half of the way. He decided to go to the back and forgot to tell me I had to lead. We were on the side of a considerably large hill and I was freaking out a bit cause I didn't know I could guide the camel away from the edge. When I realized that I felt much better. The trip gave us the chance to see one of the rivers in the national park here in Morocco. On the way there we passed a Berber village. It was very interesting. Like nothing I have ever seen! My camels name was jimmy hendrix and Danielle's was cappuccino. Mine was mean and bites other camels so he had a harness on his mouth. Meanwhile cappuccino kept biting jimmys ass! We met some pretty cool people on that trip. There was a young newlywed couple from Russia and an older French couple. My butt hurt for 2 days! Danielle's thighs hurt. We took the next day to relax at the pool in the hotel. The day after we did an expedition through the little Sahara., saw Moroccos second biggest water reservoir, ate lunch in a Berber village home and visited the town of Tiznit. The water reservoir was on the side of the anti atlas mountains (they forgot to mention that, Danielle wouldn't have gone if she knew this seeing as she is deathly afraid of heights, seriously). But, we did it. The trip was cool up the mountain and I took lots of pics. The road up the mountain was intense. There is no real road and its only meant for 1 car. I was ok with all this until another car came in our path. We had to move to the edge and allow the car the pass. I didn't understand how that was going to happen but it did. I can't explain how scary that feeling is. My sister in law told me this exact scenario and I didn't get it till I was the one sitting there. I have to thank her though for prepping me for this lol! Thanks Charlotte! One we made it to the top we had the most amazing view of the mountains and the reservoir. Going to the little Sahara was next. It was so hot but the sand was unlike any sand I had ever felt before. We learned many interesting things. Such as, what plant works to counterattack the venom from scorpions and saw a real olive tree! On this trip we were with a couple from Finland, a couple from France and a younger couple from California. The couple from Finland didn't seem to enjoy much of the day trip. They were very sweet but didn't participate in any of the activities?! We ate lunch in a Berber village close by. We had a typical Moroccan dish called tajine and a side of couscous . We had it mixed with chicken but it can be made with any other type of meat. It was delicious! The town of Tiznitis split into the old and new city. The old city is surrounded by a stone wall. The city is very modern and sits on the outskirts. We walked through the old city. It was much different than Agadir. The people was not was aggressive with trying to sell things and the stores were not as modern. Most of the stores have no lights and are quaint little 5x8 areas, where all the merchandise is displayed. There are traps covering the front of the stores. You can find pretty much anything you can possibly need right there in the streets. We passed a store that has chickens in cages and racks of eggs. You can buy live chicken to bring home, kill and cook. I found it to be an interesting way to buy dinner for the evening. On the ride home, the young couple from California decided to have a discussion about how it bothers him that he doesn't speak Spanish and it bothers her she can't speak English well. We couldn't figure out why they thought that was a good time to have a personal discussion. They are on a bus with 6 other people they don't know and the bus was completely silent. It was uncomfortable. Lol. O well. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing except sit in bed and watch movies all day with my feet up, they were swollen. Today we went shark fishing. It was so cool to see the coast and the mountains in the background. We ate the fish we caught. The lunch was yummy! We met 3 guys from France, 2 girls from England, a woman from Hungary, and man from Belgium, and an Indian family who now live in England. We all shared stories about our trip and why we were all in Morocco. We had many good laughs. Well. We are walking up the mountain here in Agadir, tomorrow morning and its midnight. I am going to sleep. Hope you all are having a great week! Take care and we miss you all! Xoxo

Pictures of our time in Morocco!

Our time in Bordeaux

One of the first things we had to become accustomed to was that they only sell cigarettes in stores called "tabacs". No where else, seriously. Not even gas stations. Now the trick is the tabacs close at normal hours since they are not corporations and in turn do not make employees work all sorts of crazy hours. This took some getting used to and we ran out several times with no way to get more lol! Good thing my brother and his wife smoke, that helped! There were many places were visited in Bordeaux. From the city garden, cathedrals, the main shopping strip (which is also the longest shopping street in Europe) other monuments and statues and of course a plethora of bars! The city garden known as Jardon Public, was probably the most beautiful place I went to while visiting. It has magnificent iron gates that wrap around the entire park. There is a pretty lake with a cute bridge. There is also is great big building with vines covering it. I'm still not sure what the building is for or why it was originally built but it sits in the middle of the park and upon climbing up the steps you have a wonderful view of the park. What interested me most was how, in the dead of winter, they manage to keep the grass green!? The gothic cathedrals were like nothing I have ever seen and are just unbelievably large and it makes you question how they were built so long ago! The detail is crazy! My brothers friend made a joke that maybe they had casts to assist with building some of the structures such as the angels. Not sure but to say the least they are breathtaking! Something everyone should see at some point in life! I took many pictures and posted on Facebook. The most amazing gothic cathedral I saw was the one in Saintes, France. It was brightly lighten with multiple colors. It was just a beauty. The bars are cool. They obviously serve different kinds of beer than in the U.S. We learned we enjoy vodka and syrup shots! They don't do flavored vodka but rather add syrup to the vodka. I personally cannot stand vodka yet enjoyed these shots. People can drink in France or at least Bordeaux! We decided to make our next trip Seville, Spain. We missed the flight due to having to wait for the hotel employee in the morning to pay for our room and he was late. So we missed:-)our flight. We asked what the next flight out to warmer climate was and the attendant told us Agadir, Morocco. Just so happens we planned on visiting there anyways! So later that night, we were off! We almost didn't make that flight either. There are trams that run all over the city. They are comparable to above ground subways. When we were on the way to the bus stop on the tram, Danielle dropped the cigarette she was smoking and I went to grab it right before the tram left. It left me. It was hysterical! We agreed to meet at the final stop. She thought I said the next stop and I thought she meant the final stop. You can imagine what happened next. We were going in circles looking for each other when we should have been on the way to the express bus that would bring us to the airport. Needless to say we missed the express bus. So we waited for another one and eventually took a normal city bus in hopes we would arrive on time. How horrible would that be to miss two flights in one day!? Well obviously that didn't happen. Going through customs in Bordeaux they took my fanny-pack first then Danielle had to give hers. We wondered what they wanted with our bags? Not even our backpacks! Ready.....our snorkeling gear! They couldn't tell what it was via the x-ray machine! That made us laugh pretty hard. It made us all laugh. The plane was the oldest I have been on besides to go skydiving on and I was jumping off that one so just imagine how comfortable we were on this thing. The one tip we have when flying into a new country is to fly during the day, if you have any interest in seeing the landscape. This is something we would have changed about flying into Morocco if we could have. We could see nothing and it would have been neat to see the landscape of a country and continent new to us. Well. We have met many nice people here. Before I forget! There was a woman on a scooter, just pushing along the sidewalk today. We saw here while eating lunch at a restaurant down the stretched from the hotel. Wanted to throw that in before I end this is blog. I'm going to bed pretty soon here. We have to wake up at 6am for our Sahara desert expedition! Miss you all! Xoxo

Pictures of our time in France!

first week

well, I finally started the blog almost a month into the trip. Figures! I have been keeping a journal though which will help me go back and be able revisit some great times that were had while on our first stop, Bordeaux, France. We really enjoyed the time there with my brother and his family. They were very welcoming. So to start, Danielle and I still can't believe yet are impressed with ourselves for making it out of ORLY airport in Paris and into the bus which brought us to the train station about 20 minutes away. At the train station we had a great conversatwasion with 2 woman in the restroom. They tried to explain in French we had to pay to use the bathroom and we didn't understand that we literally HAD to pay. It took a few minutes to grasp the concept! Lol! There were random pigeons sitting all over. While we waited there was a pigeon that sat at the table next to ours with a man who was drinking coffee. Kind of random? Not as random as the stray cats that linger in the hotel we are currently in, in Morocco. That's another story though, not quite there yet. My brothers in laws are very nice and his mother in law is an amazing cook! We ate more in the 2 days we were in Saintes, France than either of us have ever eaten, seriously! I tried a bit of turkey brain. It was very mushy but tasteful. We also tried duck liver also referred to as fois gras, in French. That was one of the best things I have ever tasted! It was served raw and cooked. With ways were great although I did enjoy it cooked just a little better. Upon arriving in Bordeaux, Danielle and I were taken back by the beauty of the buildings. Everything is so old, unlike our home, which is a pretty new country in comparison what we saw. People in France do smell funny. NOT all of them but, its one of the first things we took note of! I posted many pictures on Facebook of our time there. I will pick several to add to this first part of my blogs. We learned very quickly that the French love to drink! My brother and his wife were kind enough to introduce us to many of their friends. We met many interesting people from all over the world! It was cool to see what they had to say about our trip and where they suggested we visit and see. Well, my tablet is going to die. O yes! We bought an international adapter so we won't have to buy a new one with each country or continent as the conversation varies. So I will add more to the section of "chlois-sante" tomorrow. I will now finish my glass of wine in the hotel lobby here in Agadir, Morocco seeing as this is the only location to access wifi in the hotel. We miss you all! Can't wait to share more!

Pictures of our time in France!