The Queen and the Mob

So.. yesterday to prove that we are sooo tough we gathered all of our strength and walked to Buckingham Palace. There were police barricades set up and lots of "Bobbys". They said that there was going to be a march (parade) and the royal family would be out too. Well we didn't want to miss a march or the queen so we went and got a good spot on the railing. We waited about an hour and then they marched in their entire military. Every branch and everyone who used to be in the military and is still alive. They also brought in two big busses of what we call "queen look alikes" which was a whole bunch of women all dressed like the queen with big ridiculous hats. I thought that maybe she was one of them or something and for safety they brought extras you know so people wouldn't know which was her. HAHA.. anyways, we never saw any royal family but it's safe to say we enjoyed ourselves. Behind us a guy climbed up in a tree and a female bobby(police officer without a gun, only a stick and handcuffs) was like, "get down, it's not safe for you up there." Then she got another female bobby and they both told him to get down. So he enjoyed the entire parade from the tree obviously and got down when it was over and left. HAHA... that amused me quite a bit!

So our hotel is most definitely run by some sort of mob. Not really sure. They have 8 employees that work all around the clock, morning to night and they have at maximum 14 rooms. Sooo... it is interesting that they are in such a bad condition and breakfast is so awful and they are always out of water and toilet paper. We like to name the employees because it sounds like a clue game.

Here they are: 1. the french guy 2. his girlfriend 3. The asian reception girl 4. the Asian guy 5. The curly hair man 6. The little maid girl 7. The bearded man 8. the mustache man.

We think there must be a little "side" business going on. Last night we were in our room talking and we had been for a little while about how we wished we had a tv so we could watch stuff and see what was going on with the queen and why she didn't come out or where she was if she did and stuff. Then like a little later at night there was a knock at the door. I asked who was there and Asian girl said "reception" so I opened the door and Asian man was standing there with a tv and Asian girl stood behind and answered the phone when it rang. He said, "you needed a tv?" I was like, no, we didn't need one because obviously I didn't want him to come in!! That totally creeped me out because we said no such thing about a tv to any of the employees, but maybe I've been reading too many spy novels. HaHa. Anyway I will be REALLY relieved to leave that hotel in 21 hours! Love you all!

London...T minus 21 hours

Hello everyone. Thank you for all your prayers. This morning I woke up and got out of bed and washed my hair all without crying. So it's a good day. Plus, Amy and I are both in good spirits since we have started our count down to come home to the States and see you all! We are so excited for the party (not so much the long flights though) and planning what new outfits we should wear. We hear you are getting it nice and hot for us there so there can be badmitton and fun on the deck! This morning, it was raining. It must be the fashion here, everyone seemed prepared with gargantuon umbrellas. We spent the morning at starbucks with our good coffees and muffins and new books we got for the flights home. Now we are passing the time in an internet cafe until lunch. We will also go to Picadilly today and try to get theatre tickets for tonight. I think today would be perfect for the National Gallery with the rain, I will have to find somewhere to put Amy though. Maybe the gift shop, I know she has one more thing she is looking for. Cheers! and Love -S

London

Hello all! We are in London and needing your prayers. Shannon is in a LOT of pain. She has a spasming muscle in her upper back that makes it impossible to do her ADL's (activities of daily living for those of you non transcription folk). She needs your prayers. I am still sick. I hope it is not the plague. I had a VERY high fever all day yesterday which was a joy for traveling and carrying three bags. I also have massive swollen glands and a sore throat and runny nose. Shannon can't wash her hair and makeup is out for both of us. We are so sexy. It's hot. HaHa. We do laugh though and we smile on occasion to each other! This morning our breakfast was bad toast (but at least there was butter) and cereal with shelf milk as Shan calls it. It is milk that has been sitting on the shelf all day. Yum. We walked to Starbucks and to the pharmacy (our third time there since we've been in London) and home and we both decided it was way too long of an outing. Now we are waiting for time to pass and we plan to call the men later today when it's day for you people!

I will tell you a funny Paris story. We were in our room after Versailles and we had finished dinner. Across the street in another top floor window were like 4 guys. Well I looked out the window at one point and one guy saw me and leaned out the window in serenaded me in French. It was funny. Then Shan walked by and they got really excited and were like, "oh deux, deux" They were very excited about there being two of us, we didn't want to break the bad news that there were still 4 of them! HAHA. We laughed a lot though. And that night we made our "American" food. Which was fried egg sandwiches on english muffins and I put laughing cow cheese on mine because there wasn't any cheese you chew and I can't eat just egg. It's one of "the rules". Shan is getting better at learning my rules. HAHA. We also had fresh raspberries and strawberries and nectarines. It was good. We watched an entire french movie on tv and narrated a lot of it and it was entertaining and we laughed! Now that we are safe in London, don't let us forget to tell you about our Paris ghost.

Ok, well happy man day to all! We love all of you and appreciate everything you've done for us!
Have a fun party! This is love from both S and A!

Paris

Hello everyone. my time is almost up online. Amy is raging because she just lost her whole blog and her computer logged off. We are trying to work past the challenges of the last couple days. Thanks for all your nice encouraging comments. We love you. S and A

Chateau de Sucky *edited*

Sooo.. Chateau de Versailles was NO GOOD! That whole stupid place was bad. We got up and it was really hot and sunny. I put on my cute little white dress and sunscreened and shan looked all cute in white capris and a little tank and sunscreen. So we get on the train and get off and it's freezing and pouring rain in Versailles! Of course, we aren't shocked by this anymore. We stand outside in the rain in the Queue for an hour. Joy. We finally get in and bought tickets to get us into the house and Marie Antoinettes stuff down at another place. The maps are completely useless as it doesn't show the entrance to the buildings and there seems to be no entrances. We finally get in the house and in each room there is a little sign with just a number on it. So that the people who bought the little audio thing can hear what the room is or what happened there. Everyone else can guess. I wasn't about to buy the stupid little thing. Every once in a while there would be a sign.. sometimes 5 languages.. NEVER english. I think those people would invent another language before they would post English anywhere. They made me RAGE a lot. So they said there is a mini-bus to take you to Marie Antionettes stuff. Wouldn't you know it costs 6 euro (which they don't mention when you buy your ticket to get in there). Shocking. Or you can walk (in the pouring rain on the mud) and they say it's a 60 minute walk. Well, what's that at least 3 or 4 miles? When we get to her little play area she had as a little kid (which was really cute) on the walkway out there, lots of dead scorpions laying in the dirt. I'm a big fan of nature you know!! My leg is very infected now and I noticed it while I was there so i blame Versailles of course. After every stupid room in the castle there was a little place you could buy stuff. Oh ya, I wasn't gonna give them another penny. One part made me laugh, the queens chamber where apparently 19 royal children were born. I thought at that point Josh would have exited via second-story window. HAHA.

Now we are going to relax tonight and tomorrow. We're sending lots of love and we love all of your comments!

We are very tired. Shannon says she loves you all and she is alive. I am blogging for both of us.
Au Revoir!

Happy art day!

I absolutely love reading all your comments. We always look forward to them, and then spend the rest of the night talking about the funny things you say and the news you tell us. I will tell you some more to hold you over for another day, but I think you are all going to have to hear our stories again in person when we get home. Amy says no presents if you don't. :)

So we woke up and went straight to Musee d'Orsay this morning. There was a tiny line that went really fast, it wasn't even out the door. I spent about three hours looking around. I made it to most of the museum, but spent most of my time at the impressionism, granted that is most of the museum. i actually got the little audio guide thing this time and learned something. So I lost Amy to the cafe and gift store after about an hour and met up with her at the end. There were soooo many pieces there it was sort of overwhelming. I snapped a couple of pictures just so I could remember my favs, I know you art ladies will be asking to hear all about it when I get home. So Van gough is my favorite in every museum, so that was fun. and i like the degas ballerinas. who can say? it was all amazing. and i saw another painter that i can't remember the name of but i took a picture. it was cool. sort of starting to be surrealist, of jungles and crazy things. almost a graphic symbolic quality. oh and renoir was really cool which i haven't really appreciated before. I really like all of their subjects of landscapes and countryside and regular people and everyday sort of life scenes. Today we also went to Notre Dame. I think it was very cool inside and out. I like how it is so sculptural on the back exterior. And the inside was so dark and mysterious with the huge columns and vaults and stained glass. We got very hot walking around so we went home and took a nap. Then did a load of laundry. It was pouring rain, so we went to dinner right around the corner from our apartment.

We will work on the hot chocolate day after tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to Versilles. Amanda and sara recommended we rent bikes to go around the huge grounds, and i think that sounds like a great idea after all this walking. but amy might take some convincing.

Bonjour!

Well it's Bonsois here right now! I am always very happy when I read all of the fun comments! Deb- yes I watched a lot of I Love Lucy, perhaps more than the normal dosage. haha! Angel face- I don't think that's the plan unless you are bringing a plane to get us! That would be fun-fun-fun!

I am trying to remember your questions-- people are weird here.. like if we're crossing the street they actually slow down and encourage you to cross safely, which is the exact opposite of Rome where they try to kill you! Most of the people we have met have been friendly and helpful with directions and when people see us with the map they are usually eager to help! Funny thing though, today a man asked to look at our map to see where he was going, then he asked if we needed help. HAHA.. we were like, no we got it, but thanks! Crazy.

We started the morning with getting up and going to the Musee D'orsay. I almost died in there actually. They have a lot of art. Shannon got this little device that tells you all about lots of pieces of art so she would look at the art, and then listen to an hour about the art still looking at it. I had to compete with the elderly for the few chairs. Finally I went to a cafe in there and had Cappucino and a muffin and I didn't die. For the art people, I enjoyed Degas and the ballerinas, I like Monet, I like Renoir with the dancers, and of course Van Gogh, but I just don't look at them for quite as long. You know I have the attention span of a poodle!

We also visited notre dame today. I give them props for sweet architecture and lots of stained glass. There is not a shortage of dramatic statues. Creepy gargoyle things on the outside of the building too. We got tickets for this boat ride you can do on the river and you can get off at any stop and get back on again or at another. We got on it and tried to ride to a certain location, but it was HOTTT and there were 5 million children on the boat so we had to get off for sanity purposes. We are going to ride it tonight to the eiffel tower and we are very excited! It was raining earlier so hopefully not so hot and maybe the children will be in bed, we're not taking it until late so it will be dark!

I can't think of what else to say about today. Tomorrow we are going to Versailles and we are very excited about it! Both Shannon and I are experiencing foot problems. Swelling and achiness. It is hard to be walking and on your feet for like 15 hours straight! Much Love to all!!
Au Revoir!

Party!

June 21, 7 PM at the Rasmussens.
Snacks, games, girls.

Paris

So we got into paris yesterday afternoon sometime. We took a so called airport shuttle from Paris Beauvais which actually took longer than our flight. it was pretty hazy that afternoon, but it was fun to see a little of the countryside before driving into the city. We navagated the metro easily, (if it's easy to climb up and down tons of stairs while carrying a third of your body weight is easy?) We're so smart these days. It was just about three blocks to our apartment. Easy easy, you must have all been praying. There we climbed the 118 stairs to our apartment, (of course we had to count!) and our cute french landlady gave us the tour. It's so cute how all the landladies can manage to give a twenty minute tour of a 300 square foot space. We like our apartment a lot. It's in a great location next to plenty of restraunts and a grocery store, a very 'homey" area of the Latin Quarter. There are a ton of university buildings and students all around, so it feels very familiar to me. We have three big casement windows, we are in the roof of one of the typical paris apartment buildings. I feel like I am in one of the scenes from Moulin Rouge movie (not the bad ones, but the ones that are of the roof tops of paris) There are window boxes with bright flowers absolutely everywhere. It looks exactly like Paris, it doesn't disappoint. So our apartment is really cute, but it wouldn't be interesting without a couple of problems. There is the huge dip in the center of the bed which tries to suck you in as you sleep, so you feel like you're constantly about to fall off the edge of the cliff. plus, it's on the "sixth" floor, so you have to keep the windows open to let the heat out, but then if you do that you let the mosquitos in, so Amy and i are mostly covered in mosquito bites. More and more bites kept appearing while I was cooking dinner. We never actually saw the mosquitos, even though we were watching each other intently to see when they struck. I am not sure what our final count was. But, praise God, we found a pharmacy that was still open and bought some bug repelant, and we already had cortizone cream from Florence. On our way to the internet cafe, I was counting the words that I have learned in French so far. There are about seven :) and one of them is Creme de anti-instecte. Shannon and mev, we should have packed you as our French-english dictionaries! So that sounds like a lot of complaining, but I really really like Paris, and we have already had lots of fun and seen tons of the sites.

After we got in last night, we hadn't eaten in about 13 hours, so we were starving. Plus we hadn't heard from Amanda and Sara (two of my best architecture friends that have been backpacking europe these three weeks as well) in days so we weren't thinking that we'd actually see them. So we went down our street a little ways which is lined with tables so deep a car can barely get through without hitting the diners with its side mirrors, and ordered dinner. I had some really good lamb, and a salad. it was all fabulous. Amy actually ate steak. (no snails yet) So we were just getting done with the main course, and I see two very sweaty tired looking girls carrying ridiculously huge backpacks. So I yelled out to them from our table, and when they finally figured out where the voice was coming from, we were all very excited to see each other. I left Amy to hold the table at the restraunt and took Sara and Amanda up to the apartment to drop off their bags. Then we sat and talked to them while they had dinner. It was so fun to catch up on each other's trips so far. They were definitely able to comisserate with the good times, and the trials, and of course the carrying of the backpacks. it sounds like they have had a great trip, despite Amanda's luggage being lost for the first three days of their trip. They crack me up, i have definitely missed them both. They left our apartment at about 11 to go sleep at the airport, since they had to check in at 4 AM, and the last train out there left at midnight. don't worry, we won't sleep in any public places. but we did make a hierarchy of bad places to sleep. The "best" is an airport inside security, then an airport outside security, then a train staion, a bus station, and of course a park bench. We will stick to our exciting apartment.

This morning we got up and took the metro down to the Arc de triomphe and then walked up the Champs Elysees. I don't think we made it out there until probably eleven and hadn't eaten anything, so we stopped for lunch and had sandwiches almost right away. We continued to wander around Paris, and we kept seeing buildings or monuments that seemed like they might be important, and then we'd get out the map and try to figure out what each was. You don't have to look far to see beautiful cool buildings here. We have taken lots of pictures, especially posing/mimicing statues. Amy's favorite travel pasttime i think. We sat in the Jardin des tuileris and journaled for a bit. We eventually walked down to the louvre to check out the pyarmid, the museum was closed today though. Then we went to the opera house. I like how they added just a touch of gold here and there on every building and statue. Shiny is good. So we eventually went back to home base, bought some groceries and cooked us dinner. We had a picnic on our floor and we narrated the French news. It is very funny, if you ask us. We love paris, and all of you, and your comments!

Shannon, sorry for your scare with Derek, that's how it is with boys. I'm sooo glad to hear he is ok. :) How is your little boy doing??

Paris at Last!!

Bonjour! Did you get that was the title of the " I Love Lucy" in Paris?? Hee Hee!! So where to start.. we landed (And bounced three times) at the Beauvais airport yesterday and got our luggage.. had a small shoe incident.. and then boarded our "shuttle". When I hear shuttle I assume 15 or 20 minutes, but no the shuttle was longer than our flight. Joy. We got to the right metro station, changed lines and made it to our apartment relatively easily. We entered our automated code (all secret spylike-ish) and then got in. Oh ya, 118 stairs to our apartment! Our land lady was really cute though and she told us all about everything and how to get everywhere! Our bed is the one from I Love Lucy that is shaped like a V and is made for one because you both fall to the middle. So last night Shan rolled up a big extra blanket and put it in the middle hoping to make some sort of barricade as we were "falling" all night!! We laughed a lot though! We awoke this morning each having multiple mosquito bites. Well we have to have all three windows open because it's 3000 degrees in there, but of course these people don't have screens!

Last night we went to dinner with Sara and Amanda (two of Shan's friends from school) and it was really fun to talk about their trip and ours and share all of our fun stories. We are really good at eating in Paris! We went to a little restaurant and I had Sirloin Steak (believe it or not) and potatoes and salad and some sort of weird upside down apple pie. The apple pie on the English menu said it was with sour cream. We figured that there must have been a language difference or something and that it was probably ice cream or whipped cream, but no, sour cream!

We walked around a LOT today and played in Paris really. We shopped(I bought a teeny present for Ollie) , had Ben and Jerrys, ate lunch, had a freezy fruity drink in the Jardin de Tuilleries, saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance, and just looked at lots of stuff. Tonight we cooked our own dinner and sat on the floor in front of the French TV and "interpreted" and it was hilarious. We made the French be VERY funny people (as if they aren't already).

I guess that's all for now, Shan is talking crazy about getting up EARLY for a.. get this.. museum!!! I suppose I will though, there must be a gift shop at the end right??

Ok, so 7ish for the martinis mev?

Love you all so much! We look forward to all of your comments always! Au Revoir and Bon Sois!

kissing a ROCK...

Yesterday we just hung around Cork. It was Saturday (which is terribly hard to know when you are traveling and not on a regular schedule. we were trying really hard to figure out a way to ask someone what day it was and not sound absolutely crazy. and even more so it was like 8 at night by then!) ...and all of Cork was out on the main street, which is called St Patrick's, surprising ay? I did two sketches yesterday, and it's funny because I make Amy sketch too. She says she is bad at it, and won't actually call it 'sketching' she says she is 'diagramming.' but really she is not bad at all. I don't think mine were very good either. This morning we had breakfast at our B and B, and then took the bus to Blarney. It was just about ten or fifteen minute ride, and we walked to the castle. I still say it's absurd for so many people to stand in line in a clausterphobic castle to hang upside down and kiss a ROCK! It's not even a pretty kind of rock, just an old grey ugly rock. But we did it, and we have pictures, so check that off my list of things to do. :) There is also a little forest thing with lots of cool rock formations, and of course it looks like a rain forest. There were some plants with leaves that were as big as Amy, so I made her have her picture next to one. I really wanted her to lay down in it and pretend to be one of the anne geddies babies, but she was scared to get too close to the nature. It seemed like a forest out of a fairy tale, with creepy snarley trees, and along the way it had all little signs about the superstitions of the castle and the area, about witches and wishes and spirits and druids. Strange, but it was pretty anyway. We had lunch there and then took the bus back here to Cork. They are having some sort of strange religious event here today, and the street is closed off. I am hoping they will have a parade, but so far they are just saying Hail Marys over a loud speaker over and over and creeping me out! One of the streets off of St Patrick is called Grand Parade, so I am still hoping. We have had the most amazing weather here in Ireland. The guide book said to carry an umbrella with you at all times, and there was actually an umbrella vending machine at Blarney! I took a picture of course. But it has been warm and sunny the whole time, and I have gotten as tan here as anywhere else. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to Shannon Airport and then flying to Paris. It is probably counter productive rather than just flying out of Cork, but at least we will get to see the countryside a little bit. Cheers!

Blarney.. Blarney...Blarney...

This morning we went to Blarney and went to the castle! It was an interesting experience. We had to walk up lots of VERY SCARY teeny stairs inside the dark scary castle with lots of people. We were there pretty early so the line wasn't terribly long but we didn't like being stopped in the inside spiral staircase knowing there was no way out, only teeny little windows big enough to shoot arrows out of (Shannon taught me that). Once we were almost to the daylight at the top (I don't know why they put the stupid rock at the VERY TOP) I said, "lets get this kissing over with" and there was this cute older couple from Virginia behind us and she said, "I bet that's the first time you've said that". They were funny and we laughed! Ya so Aunt Colleen said that when she was in Ireland on her honeymoon when she kissed the blarney stone there was a little old man who lowered her down to kiss it. As luck would have it, that same old man was working today!! He was very cute though. I was a little nervous (see if you're shorter you have to lean back and down even farther) but of course after the line I was gonna do it!! He lowered me back and I still couldn't reach and I had to go even lower!!! Then I kissed it and I came back up and I told him, "That wasn't my best kiss ever" and he was like, "Oh come now... is there something you aren't telling us?" It was cute! The photographer was young and strong and cute and he had to sit there and push a button, which made a whole lot of sense to have the 103 year old man be responsible for not dropping people a long way!! Although they have several signs posted about them not taking ANY responsibility for any injury. That made Shannon feel oh so secure! We do wonder what the death rate is! We went to the rock close and there were all these creepy witch things there. The irish are very superstitious! One of the things was the wishing stairs and apparently if you walk up the stairs (which mind yourself because they can be slippery) then you close your eyes and walk back down the stairs backwards your wish will come true. Ya.. that's a very safe good activity! We of course didn't but we did laugh at this crazy lady doing it and her husband rolling his eyes at us! HAHA.. that's funny in all countries! The rock close all together was very Bayou-like! WAY too much nature going on there!

Happy Anniversary Rico and Emperor!! I hope it's grand, they say that word a LOT here!
Hey Aunt Sheri!! Welcome to the blog! I can't wait to hang when I get home.. I'm coming to the lake, prepare my bed in one of the cute little upstairs rooms!

Ok, well it must be getting close to dinner, and then we have to pack you know, then tomorrow is a VERY long pack day. Taxi ride, then 3 hour bus ride, then 3 hour flight, but then we will write from Paris!! Love you all!

Ireland does not have an art shortage!

Hello! Let's see... I don't remember all of the names I changed at the art museums but I especially remember there was one artist in Dublin- sir John Lavery and I of course referred to him as Sir John Lavatory! But I'm a bad little girl like that. We went to a Cork art museum today. I swear, this one girl looked at a painting of a two circles and a square for like 25 minutes. I can only imagine that maybe she fell asleep standing up. I have also decided that the museum gift shop does not fall into the shopping category as much as the museum category. Shannon seemed to like a lot of the art. Sometimes there is a painting that is random and nothing and she tells me it is a belly button. Obviously I do not get art.

We like Ireland! We had Irish breakfasts this morning which were good! We aren't really in the mood for looking at churches and cathedrals today so we are shopping and eating and probably journaling; we have a really pretty park by where we live. Tomorrow we are going to the Blarney castle and we are very excited about it!! I do plan to kiss the Blarney stone and Shannon is "leary" but I know she will!

Shannon smokes like a chimney. I keep saying.. Shannon please put that out and she refuses. I will need a patch by the time I get home. Everyone keeps smoking in the middle of my oxygen. We are both tired today. I have a headache and she is trying to get sick. I try to tell her not to but she never listens to me. Ok, I think that's all for today. I miss all of you!

Corrrrk! Long story...

Debbie- Shannon gets up promptly every morning at 5:00 am and irons all of her clothes. No need to worry. When we arrive at a new location first thing she irons and hangs up all of her clothes. ; ) wink,wink.

Cork, well I like it of course. I do like Ireland a lot! We are about to have dinner at a pub I'm sure as that is mostly the choice besides burger king and McDonalds.. hee hee. We are adventurous though, last night Shan had Irish Stew, and I ate an entire bite that included lamb. Yesterday in Dublin we did absolutely everything all in one day-- walking! We visited the Dublin Castle, Trinity college, Many statues (I tried to climb on lots of them for you mom), St. Patricks Cathedral, Christ church, The National Gallery, Grafton Street, and we ate in the temple bar area. We accomplished a lot. Also there was a sign at the Cathedral that made me laugh a lot. It said no intoxicating liquors were allowed beyond that point, but liquors that don't intoxicate are apparently fine.

Our B&B is really cute!! We got an entire history lesson from our B&B man, he is cute and knows lots of stuff! I may have been more interested but I had the pack on for the entire 25 minute history lesson. Tomorrow we will stay around town here in Cork I think and then the next day we will go to the Blarney castle. Everyone, try to remind us in person to tell you the story of "Stanley". Also, we are not going to Tralee as planned, we had bus and airport and flight time issues so we are staying at the Cork B&B for three nights, the 8, 9, and 10th. Then bus to the airport and fly to Paris! Ok, I think that's all for now, Cheers! (They say that a lot here). Love you all!

Cork

Hello to all. It is very entertaining reading all of your comments. Especially yours aunt colleen, since you have so many memories of Ireland and know everything we are seeing. We went to Trinity but not into the book of kells. Was it very sad?? We didn't get kicked out of any pubs, but then again we didn't try to go into many. Nellie, we did hear some Irish music and I knew you would want to know about it. There was a live band at Temple Bar playing as we were walking "home" from dinner last night. Shannon G, it sounds very fun to walk the puppies in the park, I will walk the dogs and you push the stroller ok! :) OH ya, happy anniversary! Mom, we have an iron and ironing board available upon request at our b and b, I promise not to use it. hehe! Today I bought new socks, so I can throw the dirty ones away. I'm such a good traveler. Dad, I have actively tried just about everything with the phone. I found a place in Cork to have them unlock the razor (because of course it is locked) and then I am going buy a sim card for it. Then you can call me. I'll let you know if and when that works out.

Now I will tell you about Ireland to entertain you. Yesterday after I wrote we went and saw Christ Church, Dublin Castle, St Patricks Cathedral, and St Stephen's green. Check check and check, all of the sites of dublin. St Patrick's was huge and actually really cool. A good change from all of the Italian cathedrals and churches. Not gaudy at all, but with some monumental towers, and interesting windows. I really liked St stephen's green. It's a giant park and garden in the middle of Dublin, about three blocks from where we stayed (although the blocks are probably a quarter mile long each at least!). It is beautiful, and not surprisingly, green, and everyone is sprawled around on the grass enjoying the sunshine. This morning we got up and took a bus and the light rail to the train station, then took the train here to Cork. That was all pre-coffee for Amy, she's a trooper! We took a taxi from the train station to the B and B, which is great and our host gave us at least a half an hour lecture about the history and key sites of Cork (while we were still holding our packs!). He hopes we make lots of good memories here, he (and the taxi driver) were anxious to give lots of advice about what we could do here, apparently they like it, and so should we. I think I catch about 80 percent of what is said with the irish accent. I guess better than Italian or Spanish. :) So far, we walked downtown and had lunch at one of the cafes, a good normal chicken begal. Then we walked along the main street, and checked out the shops until we were sick of walking, and now we are checking email. We love you all! Keep the comments coming. Shan

Dublin!

So we are here in Dublin now. My new biggest fear ever is riding on these stupid little flights around. Only two more. I'm telling you it's like I'm a first time flyer. I get flustered and my palms sweat and I am always very hot and cold and nauseas and I pray a lot. These airlines use a different system of flying apparently. The descent seems to always drop altitude MUCH quicker than any other airline I've ever in my life been on. They don't seem to go down in a diagonal line, more dropping sensation. They freak me out always.

I enjoy Ireland! It is very pretty and nice weather. Not freezing or raining and just warm enough for walking around! Some shopping has taken place today! We went to the Trinity college and it was VERY pretty. We also went to the Ireland National Gallery. It was a lot of art. Shannon seemed to like it so that's good. I tried to memorize some of the Irish artists names to tell mom so she would be proud, but then occasionally I would change the names to funny names so now I don't remember the real ones. Oops!

Josh- remind me in person to tell you the tall building and limping story. Oh ya, i have seen Kate sooo many times today. But for real I saw this one girl twice and she had the exact same haircut and a sweater like one Kate has. It's just rude to be in Dublin and not at least stop to say hi.

Aunt Colleen get well!! Love to everyone... bought little presents for Uncle Bob and Gpa today!!
Love you all so much!

Dublin

We got into Dublin last night and checked into our guest house. Very cute. This morning for breakfast they had normal things like cereal and milk and eggs. we were so excited. then we went to starbucks to continue the wake up drill. it is very strange coming from Spain-time to ireland-time. people are up by 6AM making the street all noisy, and then they have dinner at 6PM, so when we were trying to find something to eat at 8, nearly everything was closed or not serving dinner anymore. that made us very mad! on the way though, we saw a bridge with a fairly shallow canal going over it with little ducks swimming. Then we looked over and saw the tiny life preservers posted on both sides of the bridge. Maybe people get drunk and fall in often?? It seems like they should be smart enough to just stand up, I mean really it's probably about 18" of water!!Finally we found a kabob place that was open, yumm! Tomorrow we head to Cork in the morning. This morning after breakfast we headed out, we successfully took a bus from right in front of our guest house to right exactly where we were trying to go downtown. how often does that happen?? We went to Grafton street, which is a "posh" (as our taxi driver put it) pedestrian shopping street. I got a couple of cute things there. while we were shopping, I found this accessory store that had puppy accessories too, so I got a purple sparkely collar with sequins. I guess I better get a girl! Amy insists that a boy dog cannot have any sparkles and definitely not purple. she is so man! So once Amy finally released me from shopping duty, we went to lunch. Everything seems very "normal" here, and like at home as far as the schedule and the food go. they have about ten million juice bars here with every different combination of fresh juice. Yum! After lunch, we went to the National Gallary. It was very cool, especially the current show they have going on which is all Irish artists from the impressionism period. Plus, the building it is in is super cool and modern. I took some pictures, wherever I could. I wonder who designed it. At the millinium, Ireland passed a thing to make all of its museums and gallaries free, so you just wander in, and look around as you please. We thought they would make us check all of our shopping bags at least, but we didnt even have to do that. They also have two photography gallaries, but I dont know if we will make it since we pretty much only have one day here. I dont mind that though, I am looking forward to relaxing on the countryside. oh ya, somewhere in there we went to Trinity college, and saw a statue of Molly Malone an another one of James Joyce. They love people will alliteration?? Last night while we were looking for dinner, we walked by all the Georgian townhouses with all their little colored doors. soo cute! Our guest house is in one too. Now we are going to head down and see Dublin Castle, and probably St patricks cathedral. We miss you all, and always point out the things that each one of you would like to see.

So long Spain...

I think Amy covered very well all of our doings today. It was sad that it was too windy for the beach, but we made a very fun day anyway. Pedicures ALWAYS make us very happy. We were also happy to find the beach-sandwich that actually had protein, hard to find sometimes. I am very strict and mean for making Amy sketch, but it was such a beautiful marina with palm trees and sailboats everywhere. :) Amy might still be afraid of seafood, and virtually every other food on the planet, but I love the food here. it is the best. and everything else too. so I recommend you all come. I have been saying all day that I am excited for Ireland, but I see no reason to leave Alicante either. ever! it is a good thing I love you all too much to do that! We have to be at the airport by 7:30 tomorrow, so we better not make dinner too late! adios!

Adios Alicante! : (

Hola! Ok, Ill start with answering questions. Grandpa.. not to worry, we are most careful. We made jokes with the waiter about how he was working a lot and running in circles. We had to do circular hand motions so that was funny because he understood it. We are VERY good at becoming deaf and blind when boys come up to talk to us.. hee hee you would be proud. A/F, the last neighborhood was very bad. Very unsafe. We are women so we have that natural instict and knowing what is good and bad and we both agreed at the same time, this is NOT safe and we need to leave, and so we did! We assume you all will put in on that extra hotel we had to pay for ; )

So today was very fun! We had manicures and pedicures at a very fancy spa! We made appointments in the morning and then came back later for them. When we got there they took us back one by one to little rooms. Well I walked into mine and there was no ¨pedicure chair¨only a hospital like bed. I immediately thought, ¨I really thought we had made it certain through the language barrier that we wanted manicures and pedicures.... what treatment have I accidently signed up and agreed to pay for?¨It turned out though that the entire pedicure and manicure was done while you were reclining on a comfortable bed. I have never had that before, it was VERY relaxing. Occasionally with some of the beautifying techniques as always I would have to check for blood. Shannon mentioned she occasionally wondered if she was bleeding too. But our toes and fingers are very nice! It was too windy for the beach today really but we walked around a lot and ate our favorite sandwiches at our favorite cafe on the beach. (Tuna with a little mayonaise and hard boiled egg on bagette). We also walked in the marina and Shannon made me sketch! It was lots of work.

We also had tapas today at a tapas bar place. They are like little apetizers almost, scary but very good! After that we went to this place that had the best thing ever! It was Churros and a whole cup full of just melted chocolate! It was DELICIOUS! Good thing because dinner isn´t for a while you know... Its only 9:40.

I´m very sad to say goodbye to Spain. I loved it! You should ALL come here and enjoy it! Please pray for us tomorrow. It is a two flight day and we have to stop in London and reclaim our baggage then go and check in and and clear security and then fly to Dublin. It is a very early morning too! Ok, well hopefully I´m off to dinner soon. Love you all! Adios!

Alicante Caliente!

Hi everyone. It seems that you are all very good communicators, because you have all heard about our hotel woes even though we havent blogged about them yet! Suffice it to say that we are very happy that we decided to change hotels, we are feeling much safer and much happier in our new location. Today was a great restful day at the beach. I am happy to tell you that we are almost completely un-sunburned. Even Amy. Which is good since we went through an entire bottle of sunscreen just today!! If we got burned, we decided we would sue. :) While we were on the beach hiding under our umbrella and enjoying our books we drank some frozen lemon and orange granitas. yea! Last night after we finally got to the second hotel, we sat down for dinner at 10 after walking all around the Marina trying to kill time. However, we were still just about the only ones eating at such an early hour! I had seafood paella, my favorite! and I even got Amy to try the rice part of it. She didnt think it was too bad, although she still protests the food with eyes and legs being on our table! The weather is perfect here. I am not sure how hot it is, but it must not be too bad because I am not constantly quoting Marisha and saying "it´s hot!" We are having a hard time figuring out how hot it is in Post falls because we are getting varying reports from each of you. Some say its 90 others say a thousand, and another one says one million! is someone exaggerating here?? Aunt Colleen, we are gearing up to tell lots of stories in person. We are planning some skits to act out some of the funny things that happen to us. I think you will like it!! Tracey, you are a very good blogger. I hope you bought both pieces of the swim suit!! How is the new job?? They should give you a raise! We love hearing from all of you! Love, S

Loving the BEACH!

Hola! It feels like forever since we´ve been on here. Yesterday was really not a great day but by last night we were VERY happy little girls! Yes, yes, the stories are true. We checked into our hotel in Alicante and then walked around for a little bit and realized... no. So we checked out and went to a new hotel that is perfect and great and there are some people here on the streets who weren´t born here. We are not alone. Ok.. lets see for all those interested in my love life.. i fell in love with our waiter last night. He started out hating us because of a wine incident but by the time we left we had worn him down and we got him to actually smile and he sat down with us and joked in a different language.. which is tricky!! Oh and girls remind me to tell you about Valentino. hee hee

Justine.. i know i´m in Europe but you´re just making up stuff to make me come home now.. nuns playing softball.. really? I took a great picture of a nun doing a questionable deed near the vatican. Good times!

Ok, so today we went to the beach and all i can say on here is APPLEJACKS... and trix and cheerios and fruitloops and cocoa puffs and rice krispies and all cereals and all breakfast food! HAHA. We really did have lots of fun though. I applied sunscreen every 10 minutes and I´m NOT exaggerating. I have a teeny burn on my upper leg and that is all!! We are good girls!

It´s is about 9:30 here so no dinner for like at least an hour. These people are crazy with the eating. I do like all the food though except shannon ordered food with eyes last night. I´m not good with that. Well I don´t remember what else i was going to say but I will say that I love you all and now that we found this internet cafe maybe we will be back. I LOVE Alicante though. It is very cute, picturesque. Beautiful marina and palm trees, very tropical and very hot. Love to all!!

Re: no more hiccups

Shan G: You are so funny! After you said you hoped we would have no more hiccups for the rest of the trip, Amy and I both got actual hiccups the very next day!

buonas noches Madrid...

I just wanted to set you straight on a couple of issues. First, the art museum. Reina Sofia. Eek! dont go. Now you have heard it from me. We all know Amy is not a fan of any museum of any kind, but its true this one was especially bad. A canvas with two lines and three dots probably doesn´t count as great art. Also, there is quite a delima when you walk into a secured room with like five security guards, and only 20 people are allowed in at a time. You start to think you might walk in and see something amazing. But then its a giant pyramid made out of caramel or something, a square on the floor that someone tells you is milk, and a bunch of pie tins filled with uncooked rice. And then, you have to try not to laugh hysterically. Its more work than anyone can really handle. The rest, seeing as the museum was dedicated to Picasso and Dali, was disturbing as I have been quoted as saying, and will probably give many people nightmares.

Luckily, we love almost every other part of Madrid. Tonight Amy and I walked down to the very end of Gran Via to a plaza. Every building is lit up beautifully. And I think every single person in the city is out on the sidewalk, all dressed up. On our way back at about 11pm the dinner crowd was just warming up. As for us, we have our train tickets for tomorrow afternoon to go down to Alicante for a few days at the beach! Adios!

You Know I Don´t Speak Spanish!

Hola! That title is mostly for the girls and Josh because I am constantly saying, ¨In English Baxter, you know I don´t speak Spanish!¨ HAHA.. people keep talking to me in Spanish and I obviously don´t ever know what they are saying! Aunt Colleen I haven´t heard from you in a while.. you out there? Happy softball to you Justine, everyone will love you the most, and dont listen to Kate, its not about having fun its about winning! Kate and Kassi, it sounds much TOO hot for stripping.. which is a funny sentence! The triplex of course! ; ) Grandma and Grandpa I´m loving your comments.. thanks! Gpa I will resume texting you when I get home! So.. here is something I have noticed. Spanish guy and Italian guy in a fight.. Spanish guy wins everytime always. They have much more muscle and I believe more the fighting attitude. I LOVE this city!! It is definitely my favorite so far on this trip! The streets are so gorgeous! There are these big buildings with intricate designs on them and then the streets are lined with big bushy green trees and lots of hanging flowers and there is almost no garbage and no grafitti! I just love it! I will share with you people a section of my journal now. It is my list of things I miss from home.. I´m sure it will grow.

1. Family and Friends (all of YOU).
2. Iced Grande non fat no whip white chocolate powder coconut mocha.
3. Texting.
4. My bed.
5. Subway.. we ate at a subway today but it was really just pretend.
6. Cheese you have to chew.
7. Salad dressing.
8. American TV.

Well tomorrow is a pack day :( but at the end of it I will be sitting on the beach in Sunny Mexico.. oh wait that´s the end of a different plan. haha.. I mean I´ll be on the beach in Alicante! Love you all! Thanks for the prayers! The foot is doing ok, but today was a particularly bad day for it. Ouch! :(

Milk is not Art!!!

Hola! So today Shannon took me to an art museum! It was Shannon´s first time ever taking me to one. We had some good laughs though and at one point we turned a corner and there was a male form of me. It was sooo funny! There were three guys and this one guy (me) was just saying to the other ones... ¨seriously? We have to go in there again? We already went in that one!¨ So naturally I started laughing at him and he was like, ¨have they made you go in there yet? You go in there and tell me what you think.. and don´t forget to watch the little ¨movie.¨ It is always very exciting to hear people speaking English. I remember now that I do know how to flirt in English.. I like knowing all the words people are saying about me! I bought TWO presents for mommy today. Very exciting! I really do love Spain. I am making Shannon buy lots of cute things.. you would all be proud! Hi Shannon G!! Say hi to the FAM, I can´t wait to meet the little one. Oh ya, Kate this is mostly for you... So we saw a LOT of Picasso today in the museum. It reminded me of the goat face club; not like you have the face of a goat, but like your face is an entire goat. HAHA... Also Shannon decided that Picasso was clearly disturbed. DUH! Overall, I couldn´t find one piece of ärt¨ that I would actually want to have in my house and that wouldn´t scare me. Although I did like that milk art. Love to all, more later!

Milan Malpensa is My Frankfurt!!!

Ok. Let´s begin with my rage. Yesterday we woke up early and everything and had planned to take a taxi to the train station and then an express train to the airport then go check in! Easy as pie. So we go down to call the taxi and wouldn´t ya know the taxis are striking. Well who wouldn´t? So instead we walk with the 30 pound packs to the bus station then ride, standing with WAY too many people to the metro station. Then we take the metro to the train station. We get on the express train which apparently makes four stops and takes 45 minutes instead of 30. We arrive and realize that we have to go to terminal 2. How far could terminal 2 be from terminal 1. It´s not like we were going from terminal 1 to terminal 40. We take a shuttle bus to terminal 2. It was the equivalent of landing at the cda airport and taking a shuttle bus to a terminal in PF. It was a 20 minute ride. So we get there to check in and of course our plane had already boarded. SHOCKING! So we buy tickets for the next flight to Madrid. It is 1100 when we get there and the next flight is at 1800. Of course. So we sit in the airport for hours. Finally at 4 we can go check in. Our flight has been delayed. only any hour, now it will leave at 7. So it is nearing 7 and they delay it again to 8 now. All of these little delays cause Shannon to rage but none as much as the fact that they said we were at gate D. However there were actually like gates D1 through D30 or something. They wouldn´t put up on the screen what number D. This made her Rage a lot and she looked at the screen quite frequently until every flight out that night before and after ours had a gate number but us. Finally they put our number up and also the notice that it´s boarding. of course we have to walk downstairs because what are the chances that we just happened to be sitting by the right one. We found it alarming when we arrived at the gate and there was no plane. They were boarding us to an area slightly to the right through some ropes. After they ¨boarded¨us they decided that actually we should move ALL of us to a different gate and ¨board¨there. Still no plane. So we ¨boarded¨again. Its like 2100 now and the screens all still say the flight is leaving at 2000. cute. My most frustating part was that they would make announcements all this time but in Italian then all the people would yell and swear and laugh and moan and while they did this they said it in English so we couldn´t hear. I was very annoyed. WE moved gates again and boarded. Still no plane. I have never before boarded a plane that wasn´t there. Eventually we take off at like 2130 or so. I don´t know. It was just one of those typical everything goes wrong traveling days. We finally made it to Madrid and we loveit!! This city is gorgeous! I will get on later and write more about it! If is my favorite.. I know I say that everytime. Also, they have Starbucks here and we had lunch at TGI Fridays and had amazing grilled chicken and vegetables and while we ate they were replaying game 2 of the ducks and senators! I was SOOO happy! Love to all! Sorry this was long.. rage will do that to ya! Adios!

Hola de espagna

I feel like we are that sad team on the amazing race who is going to get kicked off at the next pit stop, and they know it, but they keep going anyway, and they come in after dark like 9 hours after everyone else. That´s us. Luckily, phil wasn´t there when we got to Madrid, just an awesome taxi driver who took us, very speedily to our hotel. When we got in the taxi, he asked us if we spoke Spanish, and we said no, but somehow that didnt stop him from trying to speak it to us the entire way to the hotel. It was very cute. From what I gather, Madrid is very beautiful, and we agreed, and we are from America, and we no comprende any spanish! duh! we told you that to begin with. I think he was our favorite person in the world just at that moment. Anyone who would take us to a hotel with a bed and let us put down the packs is our hero! We finally got there at about 1 am I would guess, but who would know because there are no clocks on this continent? and we slept this morning until noon. Then we were starving and went and had real salad with real salad dressing and real chicken breast at TGI Fridays across from our hotel. Then we took off exploring the city. It really is beautiful, everything about it is bright and sunny. Everyone is in the park relaxing in the shade, but since we woke up just in time for siesta, we decided to keep walking around. We of course had to do some shopping, because the shopping (and food) in spain is my favorite! Amy says Madrid is her favorite, but she says that about every new city we have come to so far, except of course for Milan. We are having a really good time so far, more later....love!

Milano for a minute...

Ciao everyone. Tomorrow I will have to spell it differently! Luckily we got all packed last night, so this morning we had plenty of time to go back to our favorite cafe in Florence and drink fresh squeezed orange juice and relax before going to the train station. Thank you for praying us safely to Milano. We were kind of concerned because there were complicated directions for getting to our hotel, and of course we were carrying the 30+ pound packs which always is tricky. We made it with almost no problem at all, we just had to ask a man at one store how to get from the bus stop to the hotel, and he smiled like he got that question all the time. So he directed us right here, and it seems very nice to us, and we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon sitting on the big covered porch here at the hotel reading and journalling. Amy is a very good little traveler and knows how to make everything fun and like a vacation. We just had dinner at our hotel because it is kind of far from downtown or the sites. I ordered turkey, but I am really not fully convinced that was what it was. I was very happy to have broccoli though! To respond to your comments...tracey, my favorite kind of gelato is bacio, but they didnt have that in the south, but i did discover nutell gelato which was amazing!!! and the present is for TC, but you will have to wait until I come home to know what it is! Tomorrow I will write you from Spain!! Love to all. -S

Chillin in Milano

Ciao!! We made it here to our hotel in Milano safely with only little minor issues. We are very smart and think we should do Amazing Race except I would never eat the gross food! HaHa. After we got here today we cooled off in our room and then we sat out on the little outdoor couches and enjoyed reading and of course hearing church bells all the time. You know how I love them!! LOL! My book is so good! Grandma you will love this next one!! It is very exciting! I still love my ring so much. I enjoy typing and looking at it. Shannon and I are just staying in the hotel tonight; we had dinner here and will have breakfast here tomorrow before going to the airport to fly to Madrid tomorrow! We have been reading about Madrid and we are VERY excited. Hopefully we will be able to flaminco dance when we get home!! T- my very favorite gelato flavour (I spelled it all Canadian like for you Mev, oh which reminds me that they also have Bounty bars here like in Canada... i eat a lot) is Coco (coconut). It is delicious and has coconut pieces in it! I love it! I guess thats all for now. If you want something to laugh about... here it is... so all the guys here greet each other by kissing on each cheek.. imagine Josh kissing ANY other guy on the cheek twice. HAHAHA.. enjoy that funny thought. Love you all! Welcome back to PF Jake and Mon! Ciao!

On to Milan!

Ciao! Today we got all of our little list accomplished so that is good! Let's see... I bought presents for a few people. Happy! We were sitting in a Piazza for a while this afternoon and we saw the cutest bride and groom come in and have pictures taken. Everyone applauded every pose. It was VERY cute! We enjoyed sitting and eating Gelato. I had to flirt with a waiter to be able to use the restroom there instead of walking to our place and then climbing the 103 stairs. haha... We went and got our train tickets today too which is good to have taken care of. Tomorrow will be a long day though like I said so we are preparing.. haha.. no not really, but we did walk a TON today so that was probably good conditioning. We had a little dinner and we both tried to get salads. Shannon got salmon and I'm telling you it was completely raw. I hadn't noticed until she had already eaten some or I would have cautioned against here eating any. haha.. I had chicken but I have decided it is too hard to order salads here really. Anyway in two days we will be in Spain. Shan says the salads are better there. Ok, well I am ready to go to bed and hopefully sleep all night to get up early tomorrow and get to the station! I love you all! Ciao!

more florence...

Today was our last full day in Florence. I think Amy and I are both going to be sad to leave, just as we were sad to leave Rome. We have had lots of fun here the last couple of days. Today we started early, can you believe we got up before 8!! We had lots of things to do, and some things that will make all of you happy: shopping for presents and mailing post cards! (sorry mom, the first present was for the little sick girl, Tracey get better and I will you bring you your present!) We also started out with coffee, chocolate pasteries, and journaling in a cafe. Very important! Then we ate lunch on our terrace at the guest house and took pictures of all the beautiful views of the city and ourselves. I also spent time sketching the view of the duomo from our room. We also got our tickets for milan and packed up our backpacks again. Then we hung out in Piazza Signoria and journaled, talked to mom, and ate gelato, while trying not to get attacked by the pigeons. While we were there a bride and groom came out of one of the churches and everyone in the piazza applauded. They were beautiful! Better run! Love to all!
-S

The Answer is ...

Haha.. all good guesses. The first thing I threw away was my curling iron. It didn't work in Rome and it's big and stupid. So... I will need a new gold metallic heats in 60 seconds curling iron when I get back. haha. All good guesses. No Stine I wouldn't throw away my toothbrush, don't worry. I am about to throw away shoes though. Little white ones, they get too wet easily. Duck-Duck, don't be crying. Boys are not to cry over( I know it's easier said than done). Whatever the reason God will take care of you and he has the perfect plan and the perfect man and probably the perfect jam. I love you too. Rico, thank you very much for showing Oliver pictures of aunt amy so he won't forget me, and don't stress about what to write, I'm happy to read anything from home. Kate, I love you very much too, and yes you will love the ring. Aunt Colleen, this is very new, you know i used to not really like jewelry, but now all of a sudden i do... haha. Grandma and Grandpa, I wish I could throw away everything and just fill my bag with jewels. That is a good idea that I hadn't thought of yet! Hey A/F, thanks for writing, I didn't know if you remembered us still. Today we have a list of things we have to do and buy while we are here. We will try to do it all like good girls. Keep us in your prayers for the next few days, they will be stressful. Back to back bag carrying days with complicated directions. Getting from the train station to our hotel seems hard and the next day getting from there to airport seems a little difficult too. We will do it, and Colleen we use your advice often if we worry, it's true throwing money at the situation will help anything! I love you all!! Ciao!

Comments

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Ponte Vecchio

Tonight we went to Ponte Vecchio. For those who don't know it is a bridge that is lined completely on both sides with jewelry stores. Wouldn't you just guess I found something that I needed... well I don't want to describe it because I want it to be a surprise. It is a ring... it is beautiful and has significant meaning to me... I am happy!

Firenze

Ciao all. Thanks for your comments! For your information, we are staying very sunscreened and mostly unburned, especially amy. And for proof, I actually decided to take a picture of her coating it on. It looks like war paint! Bob, last night I had dark chocolate gelato, and it was amazing! So backtracking a little bit...we went to the beach in Sabaudia about an hour away by train from Rome. We told you how hot it was in Rome, so of course when we got to the beach it was cold and windy. We mostly huddled under our towels all day, but it was still very relaxing to sit and not walk or carry our packs. (I am sure you will hear a lot about those packs from both of us. The advice of "pack everything you think you'll need and get rid of half" is great, follow it if you ever travel!) There were a couple of sunbreaks and I swam. And we also built a sand-castle and a sand-fish with shells for scales so we could stay warm. Yesterday afternoon while we waited for the train, I drug Amy around Rome and made her look at the Collesseum and Trevi fountain. Then we took the train from Rome to Florence and enjoyed the beautiful Italian countryside. When we got to Florence we found our very awesome guesthouse just a block from the Duomo. The girl who runs it is named Falina and is a perfectly cute little italian girl of course! Our room is bright and sunny (or it was yesterday before it was raining at least) and looks over one building to the duomo. And there are two terraces for the house that have panoramic views to the whole city. There is cool artwork all over the walls. and a street performer played violin all evening on the corner downstairs. I love it! After we got settled in we walked down to a piazza for dinner where Falina recommended. It is kind of out of the way and sheltered from the main touristy areas. Our cute blonde waitress spoke perfect English with an American accent so when we went in to pay our bill I had to ask how she ended up working at a restraunt in Italy. It turns out that she went to Europe last year on vacation. She was in Florence for two days and went to the restraunt for dinner where she now works. The owner asked her out on a date. And another one. Then after her trip to Europe was over she went back to Florence, and seven weeks later he proposed. So she went back to San Diego, sold her house and her cars and moved to Florence. Hehe, don't let that worry you though. I will make sure to bring Amy home with me! On our way back from dinner we stopped in a million shops, amy bought a purse to make up for the historical monuments I made her look at, and we stopped for gelato. We are soo predictable! This morning we got up and had coffee and croissants at the cafe across the street which was bustling with italians, strange for florence. More to follow...Love you all!

Florence is my Heaven!!!

Ciao!! I did not like saying goodbye to Rome. I really loved that city. I'm still in mourning a little, but now we are here in Florence. I love it so so so much! At first not so much because we got off the train (where we were sitting across from a very cute swiss boy who had the cutest accent and was fun to talk to) we had to walk all the way to our apartment (which isn't that far but 10 steps is too far with the over 30 pound backpack on). When we got there we buzzed up to our hostess lady Felina and she said (Ciao, top floor). So in we went. I should have looked up outside to see how tall the building was. It was so far... like 8 floors up... I really honestly thought I was going to die around floor 6. If I had the energy I would have thrown my backpack out the window. Our little house is so cute! The bathroom is pink and the walls are all bright colors. We can see the Duomo out the window and from our little terrace on the roof (more steps up) we can see the whole city because when you're as high up as a plane you can see anything. We shopped last night just a preshop you know, find out what we want and what we NEED. I did buy a purse last night because it was too good! I love ALL of the jewelry here. Someone teach Kate, kassi, Justine and Mev how to look at this will you? It's pouring rain today but we still love it. We walked all the way down the stairs and opened our big door (like 17 feet tall) and a man was standing there selling umbrellas. Talk about service. haha. Luckily all the shoe and jewelry stores are inside!! I want to spend all of my money here but a man on a plane told Shannon about a jewelry store in Dublin that starts with W.. where we should buy stuff. Does anyone has any idea what that is? Oh ya, I threw away my first thing from home... any guesses what it was? I will tell you in my next blog. Much amore to all of you!! Ciao!

Rome is too hot for humans!!!

Ciao!! I am loving Rome very much all except its way too hot for humans and it's also very difficult to buy coffee that you can actually drink. I love all the dogs everywhere and i love all the people speaking different languages. I rarely hear english and when i do a lot of the time it is british english. Crazy! I bought a new little white dress in some sort of effort to beat the heat. For all who are deeply concerned about the sunscreen issue i am wearing a lot of it. And those who are concerned about the men chasing me around.. haha.. i'm with Shannon so all rest assured. One of my favorite parts so far was learning how to use the fancy public drinking fountains. There definitely is an art to it. Well i think we are leaving soon so more later from us. I am going to eat more cheese and pasta tonight most likely, that what i do. I am also of the religious belief that one should eat at least three gelati cups a day. It's not like i would be gaining weight with the walking everywhere in the 400 degree hot hot sun. the running tally so far: 9 nuns, 7 priests, and 4 monks. I'll keep ya posted. Love to all.

Roma

For anyone waiting to hear, Amy and I made it safely to Europe. We said our goodbyes at a very fun going away party the Sunday before, and then Tuesday our parents took us to the airport in Spokane. After about 30 hours of travel we arrived at our B&B in London. It was a very cute farmhouse from the 1700s with two horses and lots of chickens. We went for a short walk through the countryside, but quickly got tired and went for dinner at the pub next door to the B&B. We left on thursday early to go to the airport to fly to rome, so we missed out on breakfast, but the French chickens laid very beautiful red speckled eggs that our host showed us. We got to rome and made it to our apartment. Our landlord was a cute italian lady that spoke a little bit of english and she showed us all around our tiny apartment, including the kitchen (which is in a closet!) This is our second day in Rome, so far we have gone to some of the main attractions like the vatican, spanish steps, and the pantheon. And we've had gelato twice, and I'm sure that won't be the last time! And of course amy has started shopping. Tomorrow we're going to the beach...

more adventures for me and cupcake

In a week I will be graduating and leaving this allegedly carefree college lifestyle behind. My graduate project has been presented, my book is printed, I just have one more research paper left to write and I'm out of here. But before becoming a grown up, I'm going to delay the real world for a little while longer and travel to Europe for a month.

Two years ago I studied abroad in Torino, Italy (pre-olympics) for the summer with my friend Amanda. After school we took a whirl-wind tour of france, spain, and germany. From my first day on the trip (or maybe it was the second after some sleep) I was hooked on travel. It was undoubtedly one of the best experiences of my life so far, and as soon as I got home I couldn't wait to go back. So I planned to take advantage of of the opportunity to give myself a graduation present, and take another trip. It is surprisingly difficult to convince people to take an amazing trip to Europe; I tried my parents, my sister, all my friends, and finally I found someone just as excited to travel as I am!

My very excellent traveling companion will be my friend and honorary little sis Amy from Post Falls. We have already had many adventures together traveling. In 2004, we went to Mobil, Alabama to brave the heat, humidity, unnaturally huge spiders, running leaves, and the bayou boardwalk to support my amazing sister at America's Junior Miss. Then in January 2006, we got to skip the first week of school to go watch T at Miss America. Whether away, or at home floating down the river or eating nachos on tv night, we and our families always have lots of fun and laughs.

Sometime last fall we booked our tickets from Seattle to London to seal the deal. So here's the plan...we fly into London on May 22. Then we'll spend time in Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Paris before returning to London for a couple of days and flying out on June 19. I would love to hear your favorite must-see experiences from any of those places. For now, I'm back to looking for hotels...I'll keep you updated.