The Lions Den....

As the train arrived into Berlin HBF we couldnt have been more relieved to be there. This was an exciting destination as it was the only stop on our adventure that hadnt been predetermined. Once we realized how expensive Switzerland was we dropped Zurich and added Berlin.

Our hostel was located in the artistic part of east Berlin. As we wondered the streets looking for the Lettem Sleep 7 we couldnt stop thinking about how nice it was to finally see the sun. We arrived to a very friendly staff and quickly met our roommates as usual. At this point we had made the transformation to seasonsed travel vets. Soon, we were in the typical conversation you have after arriving at every hostel ie where you are from, where you have been, what are your feelings of president Bush, etc. You know just the basic information when meeting new people. Let it be known Mallory could care less if i ever talk politics with another european again as she has heard it in 13 cities now. This go around our roommates were from Sweden, Finland, Austrailia, Japan,and finally South Carolina.

The question of the night for us usually starts with so what do you feel like eating.... After 5 foreign countries you would of thought we would figure this out. We had oven baked pizza, the flavors were western and BBQ chicken. A meal for the ages to say the least. Prior to going out our roommates had invited us to a local club called Watergate, having traveled all day we did our best to avoid having to go at all cost. The oven in the guest kitchen reluctantly wasnt working and the front desk attendant was nice enough to let Mal and I use one of the apartments. We dined on fine frozen pizza and a lovely bottle of white wine. For the first time in a long while we had nothing to listen to but ourselves, and it was nice.

The next morning we had planned on taking the free berlin tour. At this point in the trip Mal's cold had shifted to my cold, which wasnt going to put a damper in our adventure. We set out in hopes of making it to Brandenberg Gate by 1pm. We got lost, and we didnt just get a little lost, we got real lost. For the first time in more than 12 thousand miles traveling we didnt make it where we wanted to when we wanted to. Instead we took the free guided tour from Mike and Mal, we figured it worked well in the previous 11 cities who was going to teach us anything we didnt already know.

The tour started at the famous TV tower Berlin located at Alexander Platz. Next, we made our way over to Museum island. For any of you history buffs out there museum island is where all the famous Nazi rallies were held. We took in the ambience for a while trying to think of how much history this city had really seen. As usual our peaceful experience was ruined by gypsie beggers asking if we spoke english. Once again we replied in perfect english 'no we dont speak english' it always seems to do the trick. After the island we made our way to berlins version of the tomb of the unknown soldier as well as the University of Berlin. This portion of the tour ended at checkpoint charlie in front of the Brandenberg Gate. We took in the sights, the sounds, and the street performers for a good half hour. We made our way through the lobby of the Kennedy museum as well as the US embassy. The next stop was the Reichstag, German parliament, followed by the white crosses of the river spree. Finally, we made our way to the berlin wall memorial.

As two twenty somethings the berlin wall memorial might be the closest thing to history we could see. For hours we walked the length of whats left of the wall reading anything we could see. The tour ended and the night began as we arrived back at our hostel. the sweed invited us to see a side of Berlin we never would have without him. He took us to his favorite restaurant in Berlin, Babel. From the outside this place looked like just another kabab stand, but it had so much more to offer. We enjoyed an authentic Lebanese meal and another conversation about foreign diplomacy. After dinner the sweed bought us Berlin native beer and we communed in a park while the sun went down. We talked in length at what life must have been like 20 years before and together couldnt fathom the cities history.

Our final day in berlin took us to one of the more moving experiences of either of our lives, Sachsenhausen concentration camp. We spent close to 5 hours wondering through the exhibits and remnants of this historical place. For the first time in our trip we knew our day wasnt going to be a high one but something we should see. The memorial housed old barracks, the yard, memorials grave sites, the firing range, and whats left of the crematorium. We learned a lot and were very appreciative of the chance to see the memorial.

We headed back to the hostel and spent much of the night planning our trip to Heidelberg and updating the blog. Our room housed two snorers that might as well had been playing dueling banjos. Mal spent the evening flashing her light in their faces while I rolled around on the bottom bunk to the degree that mal could 'feel the anger rising to her bunk'.

As we left Berlin we thought back about how much we have seen, learned, and experienced in the last month and half and reflected on it all.

Things we learned in Berlin
1) the sweeds think they are gods children.
2) the Fins snor like bears
3) the U bahn means underground while the S bahn means surface
4) Curry-Snitzle really isnt that good
5) the Berlin metro is an honor system; buy one ticket for the whole trip if you're on a budget

Things we loved in Berlin
1) seeing the sun again
2) Babel
3) how Berlin is the center of European culture
4) remembering much of the history took place in our life times.
5) the soft beds.

much love,

m&m

The rainy days....

Our trip to Luzern took us through quite possibly the most beautiful parts of Switzerland. Each time the train came around another bend we were surprised with waterfalls and snow capped peaks. In the likeness of rick steves we both had our heads as far out of the panaramic windows as possible. Until in typical fashion it started to rain.

We arrived to Luzern in the middle of the afternoon and the begining of the thunderstorms. As we got off the train we immediately went to our packs for our rain coats. After what seemed like ten minutes of digging they finally curlded their way to the tops of our packs. We quickly threw them on took off on foot against our hostels directions advice. In no time at all we had found ourselves at 71 zurichstrasse Lion Lodge Luzern. We quickly came to know it as Spider mansion. the nicest albanian man in all of Switzerland checked us in bright eyed and bushy tailed. After the cordial conversation we marched our soaking wet packs and bodies up the 4 flights of stairs to room 32.

Our roommates were the nicest little Asians ever. Literally, little like 4 feet 10 inches, little to no english, lone travelers. The first from South Korea and the second from China. We talked about Chris Jo and Yao Ming, they hadnt heard of either.

We spent the first night cooking a light meal and enjoying a bottle of wine on the 2nd floor balcony,really the third floor, until Mal was viciously attacked by a hybrid brown recluse with black widow like speed. Fortunately, she wasnt harmed in any way nor did she see the spider at all but she swears it was there.

We cooked a travelers breakfast in the morning. We guarded each other while we stole other peoples milk out of the common refrigerators. Once all preperations had come to an end and we were ready to begin it happened. As mike was about to put his eggs on the burner he looked up to a spider with black widow teeth, terantula legs, a body the size of a large wasp, and an egg sack that according to mal housed 10,000 babies. Mike was put in the perfect boyfriends delimea, I can´t kill the spider and risk eating spider babies in our food and I can´t let it be cause Mal is freaking out constantly. Eventually, the spider fell to the ground, Mike gave up all hope and went on with his cooking in hopes of being attacked and taken from the scene. Mal did her cooking from a stool at an arms length from the stove. We ate in peace, like the russians vacationed during the cold war.

For the first time in a long trip across the pond our bodies finally caught up to our location. With the awful weather we both felt our bodies begining to weaken. We only spent a few hours wondering Luzern in our two days there. We spent the afternoon wondering Lake Luzern, visiting the bridge, and enjoying the company of 14 Asian tour groups at the Lion in the wall. For dinner, at Mals discreation, we avoided cooking and had a salad.

We left Luzern in the same state we found out, rainy and somehow still beautiful. Munich, had everything we could have ever imagined. In Mal´s best description a January summer and Canadian roommates, perfect. By this point Mals cold had reached full potential. We decided to do a pub crawl. The advertisement had said all the free beer and stew for the first two hours. We indulged ourselves in as much spam stew and munich beer as our bellys could handle. The tour took us to our first and what would become our last stop of the tour, Cafe Americanos. If we have learned anything at this point in Germany it´s that they have worse techno than they do fashion. To the tour guides advice we tried a shot known as a porno wodka. Ingredients are as follows, one shot of bad vodka, one packet of german version of fun dip/ pop rocks. Insert fun dip and dump the shot over while enjoying the fizzy sensation that follows. America needs this as we were both pleasently surprised by the aftermath. While the rest of the pub crawl danced like Hans and Veder to Lady Gaga´s poker face Mal and I made our second attempt at shots. In our best German we politely picked up the menu and pointed. Mal ordered straight jager with a lead pencil finishing taste. In true european road trip fashion we realized we had both spent 5 euro at the bar and persisted on going home. Apperently, everyone else in the world wonders the streets of foreign cities until all hours of the night, it wasnt in our agenda.

we awoke the next morning to more rain. Mike arose to an even more pleasent sound of a stuffy nose and sore throat from the bunk above. Being the good boyfriend he immediately jumped out of bed wondered the streets of Munich in serch of any grocery store that sold OJ. He struck gold like Hasselhof brought down the Berlin wall. Aldi Sud as it is better known by in Munich, is like costco for countries who have been shamed by the rest of the world. Orange juice, ramen, jam, and two giant bear claws was a wopping 3.50 euro. Mike could barely contain his enthusiam upon his return to the sickened and battered top bunk of room 401. While Mal enjoyed 1.5 liters of heavy pulp oj, Mike had ramen and bear claws like it was going out of style.

We spent the day wondering the streets of Munich. We saw all the major sites that normal tourists do but our favorite part wasnt even on the map. Apperently, the population of Munich realized the nearest ocean is more than 1000 km away and in doing so had jimmy rigged a wave in one of the major rivers outside of the main park. Alongside one hundred other spectators on this cloudy monday morning we watched person after person ride the waves. The evening was had in one of the many beier gartens Munich posses. Although the weather was the major factor of hindering our adventures in Munich, we persevered and enjoyed the january summer as much as one can.

things we learned in Luzern
1) Lion Lodge Luzern houses a spider worth seeing more so than any tourist spot in the city.
2) Richard the bird duck does in fact have two legs. Not one like the pictures will show.
3) Karma does play a role in this life. When your roommates recomend closing the windows and stopping all air circulation what so ever in the room and you can actually count the minutes to your 6am wake up from them, you realize you did something wrong in the city before.

Things we loved in Luzern
1) Richard the bird duck has two legs.
2) the swans
3) Lake Luzern

Things we learned in Munich
1) all you can eat stew and beer is a hoax.
2) June=January in Mallorys book.
3) Germany runs on techno and red bull.
4) surfing is possible, we have video to prove it
5) Our hostel´s basement could have housed a neo nazi meeting if necessary

things we loved in Munich
1) the history
2) the beer gardens
3) the black footprint
4) everything is cheap


much love and we´re still treking... Look for the Berlin installment ASAP.

Much love m&m

Home away from Home.

We left Venice on the 8:09am train to Venice Mestre. We hoped on the 8:29am train to Speiz. And at least caught the 2:25pm train from Speiz to Interlaken OST. We couldn't believe our eyes as we spent the last 15 minutes on the train. The water is crystal blue, surrounded by emerald green forests, topped off by white snow capped mountains.

We hoped off the train and immediately realized how tranquil a country can be that has been neutral in every war for the last 150 years. It's clean, quiet, and everyone wants to help you. Honestly for a minute we thought we were in a retirement community. After 40 minutes of following a 79 year old Swiss man we found our hostel, The backpackers Villa Sonnenhof. We checked in and were immediately taught about the free laundry, free internet, free mini golf, free breakfast, free ping pong, free bus pass, and free pool entry. We also learned the Franc is actually equal to the dollar. What we didnt learn was that living in Switzerland is like living in the Vail village. It's very expensive.

After listening to stories of bungee jumping, white water rafting, and canyoning from our roommates we setteled on our adventure, hiking. We spent the evening wondering the streets in hope of a grocery store and our first view of Jungfrau due to the rainy afternoon. We hit the bunks early with only minimal success of seeing the mountain but were so tired it hardly mattered.

We enjoyed our morning to a cloudless view of Jungfrau as we ate our free breakfast on the south facing porch. We started our adventure in the late morning around 11:30. In the first hour we managed to make it to the grocery store, a liquor store, and the Rugenbrau brewery. Since neither of us spoke German we tried our best to decipher the trail map and follow signs along the way. We passed a 900 year old castle, multiple villages, farmers, and a cow with a bell on its neck. Then it finally happened, we turned back around to witness our first sight of the Swiss alps the Eiger, the Monch, and Jungfrau. It was so breathtaking we realized we hadnt seen anyone in two hours and stopped there to enjoy our hiking wine. We spent close to an hour in complete peace just us, the mountains, and a billion dollar view with no one else.

We spent the evening at the free mini golf course as Mike has never taken Mal on a mini golf date. What we didnt know is that the Swiss have to be the greatest mini golf course designers in the world. One hole was a halfpipe with a hole at the top. Another you literally teed the ball up as if you were at the driving range and had at it. Mallory ended up winning by 4 strokes but we managed to make friends with 6 elder Germans who had no idea how to hold a golf club. After our game we wondered back through the streets as we watched the sun go down over the mountains. It might as well have been heaven on earth.

We spent our last day wondering the streets of west interlaken in hopes of finding the lake. When we finally arrived we learned it was a private grass patch. We put on our best German accents in full force and acted like we were supposed to be there. Our stay was brief but enjoyable as we got to take in the views of this serene little piece of heaven.

We are headed to Luzern tonight and have no idea what to expect. Still very excited at the thrill of adventure today marks a sad day as learned we leave two weeks from today. We miss everyone back home and can't wait to share our stories but in due time. After Luzern were headed to Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg. Afterwards, we fly from Frankfurt to London via Ryan air, it cost us 50 euro for the both of us, we spend 4 days in London then back to the states.

Things we learned in Interlaken:
1) The Swiss are really good at mini golf.
2) We can't afford to do anything in Switzerland.
3) Distance is in minutes or hours, never in actual distance.
4) Interlaken is partly owned by Asians.
5) They have a hooters here.

Things we loved in Interlaken:
1) Interlaken
2) how polite everyone is
3) the color of the water alongside the sunsets.
4) our hostel
5) Rugenbrau

miss and love everyone,
m&m

The city of mazes....

We planned on leaving our new found experiences in Florence on what we thought would be 10:36am train. To our dismay we stood in line at the train station in front of what was clearly the smelliest man on earth. He kept trying to cut the line around each S curve, trying to detour his movement we boldly threw our bodies and nostrils to the wayside. We took turns doing the kansas city shuffle for close to half an hour until at the last on the last S turn he started yelling and causing a scene in a language so foreign we had no choice but to step away. Finally, it was our turn at the booth. By the time we reached the front it was 10:42 and we had missed our train. We ended up waiting for the 12:30 train and sat quietly people watching for close to two hours. When our train finally arrived we boarded and peacefully enjoyed the three hour ride.
We arrived into Venenize S.C station on the main island. Our directions to the hotel were to walk out the front door, turn left, and walk for three minutes. These directions couldnt have been more spot on. We spent our only evening in Venice wondering the streets enjoying slices of pizza with pepperoni and french fries and a warm bottle of white wine.
We toured the normal stuff and managed to get lost in doing so. For as good as a sense of direction Mike has, Venice is the ultimate challenge in navigation. We enjoyed the grand canal, San Marcos Square, and most of all the air conditioning in our room.

Off to interlaken in the morning!

Things we learned in Venice:
1) gps would be a worthless tool in this city.
2) it does actually cost 120 euro to ride the gondola; it's free to watch though.
3) french fries and pepperoni on a slice of pizza is great.
4) the city floods in the main squares during high tide
5) There is a key for every door, in every hallway, on every floor....

Things we loved in Venice:
1) the canals
2) the giant cruise liner named "Costa Fortuna"
3) the views from the grand canal.
4) the air conditioning.
5) the history

much love to everyone,

m&m

Under the Tuscan oven..

We hoped on the our train out of Roma in the early afternoon around 1:15pm. Sometime 4 hours and 19 regional stops later we arrived in Florence under a mild 93 degree day. We took our usual wonder around the train station trying to get our barings and in typical fashion we managed to wonder for half an hour with heads to the skies until we found our street. We should have known from the sights of the check in desk this hostel would be trouble. We calmly walked in the front door and stood among the masses for nearly an hour until finally it was our turn. We provided the proper identification and to the receptionist confused look we knew it wasnt good. Apperently, hostelworld.com, the website we use for all of bookings, had created 4 seperate reservations for our stay in Florence. We dealt with quite a bit of confusion and bit more standing around but eventually made our way to room 410. It was the first air conditioned room since Barcelona and we couldnt have been more excited. It took no time at all to become friends once again with our new found roommates. Collectively we represented the North American continent 2 Americans, 2 Canadians, and 2 mexicans. We also had a 45 year old Aussie sleeping in the corner but we didnt count him. We had heard of an amazing bar/pub that offered 8 euros for a drink and all you eat buffet. The entire room dined together as we shared stories of all our different travels and viewpoints. The men of the group were extremely excited for this dinner as the pub had the Italian fashion network on in the background portraying scantily clad women across the wall.

The next day Mal and I wondered the streets as we usually do. We found our way to the famous piazza mercato centrale and spent most of the afternoon wandering the boothes. After nearly 3 hours of bargaining with vendors Mal was done shopping and Mike was done traveling... The early evening included wondering through the Dromo, the steps of the Uffizi, the ponte vecchio, and the steps of the Pitti Palace. As our stomachs moaned for more gelato we found ourselves once again dining at the Kitsh pub/buffet. Pleasently surprised to see a new array of fine dining items we gorged ourselves worse the night before. We leisurely strolled back to the hostel and enjoyed the last 5 minutes of 2.50 pint specials by each buying 2. Our roommates joined and kindly asked if we were saving the seats for other people since we had four beers and with no hesitation we laughed and told them they were all ours. We enjoyed the conversation and indulged in aother glass of wine, they sell it for 5 euro a bottle on the terrace, and realized the hostel bar had turned into a full blow party around us. Being completely worn out from the Tuscan sun and daily half marathons of walking we headed for bed. As we headed towards our room the terrace bar closed and we were immediately thrown into what seemed to be the running of the bulls as they headed for the basement bar. We made it safely and calmly fell asleep to the pulsating sensation of European techno.

Our last day in Florence was another easy one; spent booking hostels, updating blogs, and strolling the sights we hadnt seen. We made it the Academia gallery, where Michelangelo's david is, and had no desire to stand in the 40 minute line. We substituted David for the lesser known fake versions all around the city. Tonight, we are headed to piazzale Michelangelo to watch the sunset over Florence.

Tomorrow, we head for Venice for the night then off to Switzerland the following day. We can't believe how fast this trip is going and realized before long we will be right back in the states. Honestly there will be tons of pictures to see when we get home, uploading hasnt been accesible in a while.

Things we learned in Florence:
1) under the Tuscan sun literally means under the Tuscan bakers oven from hell.
2) gelato is a food group
3) don't create 4 reservations on hostel world, you will have to move rooms 3 times like mike.
4)French Canadians are a strange group of people.....
5) my cousin Jen got engaged.

Things we loved in Florence:
1) Buffets that offer drinks dining for 8 euros.
2) Air conditioning, we honestly dont see how people lived without it.
3) finally accepting the european walking pace
4) finally having an American sized shower again.
5) appreciating the renissance artwork while being completely lost in Florence.

Much love and safe travels to the Harnagel family and crew as they head for their third Ride the Rockies.

love and miss you all especially OBIE,

m&m

When in Rome....

Our train ride from Cinque Terre to Rome was short, sweet, and to the point. After 50 minutes of travel we hopped off the train, jumped on a bus and 4 stops later were taking cheesy leaning tower pictures. We spent just under two hours in Pisa pretending to hold up the tower, push over the tower, lean on the tower, etc. the best part was hundreds, literally hundreds, of people are doing this as you do it. We enjoyed laughing at everyone more than we enjoyed the tower it self. We grabbed a kabab, one of our new found loves, and jumped back on the bus. To our surprise we were castrated for having food on the bus by an elderly Italian women. As she cursed profoundly we ate away at what ever type of meat seemed to lie between the flat bread. The trip from Pisa to Roma is a little more than 3 hours and flew by except for the two germanic teenagers making fun of us for what seemed like an enternity. They exited the train an hour or so before Roma, we claimed the space in no time for the duration of the ride. We arrived late in the afternoon. Being in the center of the old world you would of thought we would go see the Vatican, the collesuem, etc. we went directly to the grocery store. We cooked furiously as we were being pushed out of the kitchen by the staff so they could make sangria for all, we kindly obliged. Mike filled his nalgene with the interesting concoction and we were off. Our hostel was literally three blocks from Piazza de San Pietro, or to the American St. Peters Plaza. We literally stopped in our tracks when we saw how amazing it all is. Our walk that night included the Vatican, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi fountain, and concluded on the Spanish steps. We enjoyed it immensely, right up until the Spanish steps. Apperently, the cool thing to do for Americans is get really really drunk, bad mouth America, and play the guitar and sing American songs on the steps. All while using the corner of this modern beauty as their private bathroom. Needless to say we were embarrased by our company.
The next day we woke up early in preperation to see the Pope. We didnt so much wake up early just to see the pope but Mike thought he lost his money belt in a dream and woke the whole room up trying to find it. We figured since were up we might as well go see the pope. Every Wednesday the pope makes an address and we just so happen to be in Rome on a wednesday morning. We sat for 2 and half hours watching thousands upon thousands of Catholics fill the plaza. And promptly at eleven he arove in the Pope mobile. We stayed for 10 or so minutes of the service, we left when we realized neither of us spoke latin. We fought the crowds and toured the Vatican museum, Sistein chapel, and St, Peter's basiclia. Our favorite was by far St. Pete's and Mike's personal favorite was the tombs underneath. One in every six people in the world is Catholic and we were standing at their Mecca. We watched as people wept at John Paul II grave and took in the surreal moment.
We spent our second day in Roma touring the colosseum, the roman forum, the capital, the pantheon, and the trevi fountain during the day. It was an amzing adventure. The night included wondering down the Tiber river to the Trastevere neighborhood, with 6 other girls from the hostel. This walk came highly reccomended from Tony and was quite enjoyable. Mike drank wine with two Italians that looked as if they hadnt showered in weeks. One of them spoke faint english and tried to translate between the three of them. While Mike was keeping up international relations, Mal was laughing her ass off with the ladies.
Today were headed for Florence and as usual couldnt be more excited.

Things we learned in Roma
1) there are clocks every 20 feet and not one of them has the correct time
2) the pope has a mercedez
3) the swiss guard dont like pictures
4) Mallory likes to drink water, the romans dont....
5) when confronted by the hundreds of bar crawl people politely tell them your morman and dont drink. It worked for us.

Things we loved in Roma
1) Rome
2) St petes
3) learning about the history
4) the sangria from the hostel. Reciepe includes 1) wine 2) lemons 3) more vodka than lemons and wine.
5) we love our families.
6) we love walking the cities rather than using the metro.


Ciao Bella,

Love m&m

Heaven on Earth

To everyone who has been to, told us about, or seen a postcard about Cinque Terre you were all correct.

We arrived on a beautiful saturday afternoon. Average temperature this time of year is around 75 degrees. It took no more than 10 minutes to find the hostel reception desk as the directions read 'go through tunnle turn left, walk one hundred meters, 94 de columbo'. When we arrived we were greeted with bold Ciao Bella or hello pretty and were quickly ushered down three flights of stairs under the train tracks and through a passage way. And then it happened, we realized our room was less than a stones throw an Audreys throw from the water, my sisters 1 year old. We spent the evening wondering through our village, Riomaggiore, and in less then 15 minutes viewed every corner. The next day we decided to do the 5 village hike instead of spending the day at the beach as weather was not permitting, based on Mals bias. Cinque Terre literally means, 5 villages, our village is the most southern on the map and was ideal to start the hike. Each village is literally built into the rock faces of the sea and houses it's own personality. The first portion of the hike is known as the 'romantic road' and let's be honest it was only romantic until the pavement ended. Breathtaking outlooks in every direction brings you into Manarola which couldnt have been anymore then 20 minutes from the start. We blew right through on our way to Corniglia which is rightfully seated atop 381 steps from the pathway. We enjoyed fresh paninis, literally the best on earth, as we wondered the church of st. david and the 'tower' view which looks back on the first two villages. From vilage 3 to village 4 this is where Rick Steves strongly encourages the older varierty of traveler to descend back down the stairs and take the train. We pressed on through what seemed to be the rain forest of Italy and met another lovely Aussie couple who tried to teach us Aussie rule futbol. With no sucess in learning the sport it took our minds off of the trek at hand. As we arrived into Vernazza the Aussie took the wrong step and tumbled down a few of the stairs, panic stricken we helped. We left our friends at the gelazzi station as we headed towards the most difficult portion of the hike, Vernazza to Monterosso. Trying to entertain our tired minds we imagined the sandy beach awaiting us around every corner. After 4 hours and 7 miles finally the monotanous up and down finally stopped as we arrived at Monterosso. As we approached the sandy beach we realized what sandy in the med. sea really means, rock shards and rip curls. We each had one go of entering the water and it wasnt pretty for either of us. While mike was enjoying the wonderful warm green water of the med sea an Italian man who was also swimming yelled for him. Mike said hi back and quickly realized he wasnt gesturing for international relations. Mike swam over said he didnt speak Italian, the man quickly translated HELP HELP!!. Mike, being the 4 year lifeguard veteran, he was drug the man to shore and was politely thanked or scorned were not sure. We spent the evening dining to cold lasagna and two plates of penne salmon. We met back up with a friend we had made in Barcelona and all watched the sun go down over the northwestern part of the sea.
Our second day was spent doing laundry, relaxing, and researching hostels for rome. We plan on having a dinner on the water tonight and look forward to returning to the center of the old world.


Things we learned in Cinque Terre
1) in small italian coastal touristy villages everything but the bar closes at 8pm.
2) there are random cats in every village and even more on the hike.
3) don't buy a train ticket when you dont need one.
4) If you meet a Urkraine women who says shes from Canada living in Switzerland for the last year ask for a new room.

Things we loved in Cinque Terre
1) everything
2) Mike reading his book infront of the sea
3) the small village passageways.
4) 6 euro 'round' pizza
5) everything
6) paying 3 euro for a becks at dinner since we dont know the right way to order tap water

much love m&m

The Hell train.

please keep in mind the computers are messed up grammar and spacing is a pain sorry in advanced.


Just like every other city on this trip we were sad to see Barcelona go. We took the morning train out with our new found friend Dan. Our train left Barcelona at 8:45am and as to be expected we made it with 4 minutes to spare. Mal and I sat with a nice couple from LA on our first train and had a lovely conversation until it was interupted by an angry Spanish women somwhere along the French countryside. Apperently the gentlemen from LA couldnt control the volume of his voice and shortly into the trip at the four hour mark the Spanish women abrutly let us know. Our second train wasnt quite as pleasent. Apperently when headed to the nicest part of the country they turn the air conditioning off in hopes riding the train of poor folk. We held strong by making jokes about our train neighbors who happen to be two 6 foot 5 germans facing each other whos knees couldnt be more then 4 inches from each others privates. Apart from the germans misfortune we enjoyed the deathly stares from across our seats from an elderly french women who didnt say a word. When we didnt have anything to laugh about we spent our three hour ride gazing out the window into the deep green sea. As we were getting closer and closer to Nice you began to understand how nice the French riveria really is. We passed through Cannes and almost entirely bailed out on Nice on the basis of how nice their beaches were but again we held strong. We arrived into Nices' central station to a view we didnt expect, Asian markets and Indian kabab stands in every direction. Once again we told ourselves millions of others have said how much they loved this place lets enjoy it. We found our hostel in no time at all; mainly because its 100 meters from the station. Once again Mallory booked us in the redlight district of Nice. Once again we were greeted by 3 traveling Americans, 2 Canadians, and as I call them zeee Germans. Mal and I in true form spent the evening wondering the streets of Nice on our way to the beach. We watched the sun go down and the lights come up. It truly is a beautiful place, we wondered the street markets and poked our heads in expensive shops knowing all well we couldnt afford the toilet paper let alone the product. When we arrived back at the hostel our roommates were enjoying a few bottles of wine which we happily joined in on. Zee Germans were drinking somethinng known as Desperado.....beer mixed with tequilla. I awoke to another pounding headache and Mallory tuging to go to the beach. We took the regional train with our Canadian friends over to Monaco and in true poor backpacker fashion arrived at the Monte Carlo in our bikinis and board shorts. I took pictures of every ferrari, maserati, porsche, audi, etc. I saw the entire day. This place is literally a car show. We spent the afternoon swimming in the Mediterranean where you could see clear to the bottom in 40 ft of water. We took a different route back to the train station through the marina and enjoyed the spectacle of all the billionaires yachts. Let me just say that England has a lot of rich people as we saw more english flags than anywhere else. I took a picture of the one American boat; it was a 20ft dingy. For dinner I had Chinese while Mal partook in a new experience of Indian kababs, to her disbelief she loved it. We all spent the rest of the evening watching the sun go down against our backs while we drank wine on the beach. This city has truly been a great place. We are super excited for the train tomorrow as were headed to Cinque Terre, this place has been built up by everyone we talk to. We love and miss everyone and cant believe were nearing our halfway mark. Honestly we will try to upload pictures as soon as possible; it's much more difficult then we thought.

much love,


Things we learned in Nice:
1) The train is honestly from Hell
2)The french are not assholes, just parisians.
3) the red light districts arent so bad and really cheap.....;)
4) Monaco has more money invested in the marble streets than America has invested in education.
5) Zee Germans do love Hasselhoff
6) Nice has a McWalk through. It's awesome.

Things we loved in Nice:;
1) the beach
2) the Kebab
3) the laid back lifestyle and hopes of millionaires dropping money
4) that neither of us have worn a watch in more then 2 weeks.



love,
m&m

The Mediterranean Sea

We Left Madrid on the 14:30 train out of Estaciones de Atocha. If we have learned anything thus far it´s Europeans travel in style. Our seats of course were the only spot on the train car with no window, so we watched the in-track movie. It was an American movie to our disbelief but of course it was in Spanish. I politely turned on my Ipod while Mal was whisked away into the fast past Spanish version of another awful Keanu Reeves movie. Our train ride was short and sweet and arrived in Barcelona promptly at 17:30 or 5:30pm to the piggish American. We found our hostel in about thirty minutes and realized how well we have taken to finding our way about. As we entered the hostel we once again prepared for the foreign experience that comes along with hosteling. To our surprise the front desk receptionist, an english bloke and swedish blonde, politely said hello and how can we help you. All of our fears dropped immediately and realized we were staying at the most Americanized version of a hostel possible, google centric point hostel youll see. As we took our room keys and ushered ourselves up the 4 flights of stairs we arrived at a 12 bed room with 8 Americans, 1 Englishman, 2 Asains and a few empty beds. We quickly began exchanging stories and felt welcomed to finally speak freely in english with other humans again.

In typical fashion Mal and I seemed to make our way to the beach as soon as possible. Keep in mind this was June 1st which happens to be some sort of Spanish holiday. Parades on every street beer, vino and sangria flowing freely and two Americanos in the middle of all of it. As the parades finally died out we arrived at the water. Mallory immediately headed for the water. We spent the next few hours or so enjoying Sue Wilbourns favorite past time of sea glass hunting as the sun went down over our shoulders. We wandered back to the hostel just in time to head out with the other Americans promptly at 12am. We enjoyed each other company a few different bars and restaurants and wandered through La Rambla, the main street of barcelona, until about 2am. In typical fashion I enjoyed one to many beers and was rudely awoken at 11am to Mal bantering about the beach. I changed clothes since Mal was already in her suit and we were off. We spent just under 7 hours on the beach and enjoying the water and turning away street vendors every twenty seconds. Literally thousands of asians asking if you want a massage, spainarids selling beer water cola fanta or pot and some sort of eastern europeans offering henna tats and fresh coconut pieces known as dode dode dode. We befriended an older couple of Aussies who were traveling europe for 2 months before preparing for their 6 month trip across Australia. Apperently they got tired of work and wanted to start retirement at 55. We couldnt have been more entertained by Greg as he bought a massage, two beers and a majoito in the span of 15 minutes. As he had told us after the massage he would gladly by pay extra for the happy ending if Coral had allowed. We all laughed and spent the rest of the afternoon exchanging stories of travels and experiences. Mal and I decided to stay in the next night and were joined by Jonny the english bloke for dinner. We found a buffet of sorts and enjoyed talking the differences and similarites of the english. After dinner we enjoyed the rooftop terrace of our hostel for a few drinks and met a band of dutch teenagers on a school trip. From around 8pm until 1am we couldnt stop laughing with Willam, Jan and Denise. They couldnt grasp the idea of pot being illegal in the US. We promptly took a picture with them holding up their own supplies in the middle of the bar, picture to come soon.

Our last day in barcelona has been spent wondering the street markets for memories and trinkets as well as purchasing our train reservations to Nice,France for tomorrow morning. The afternoon will surely have beach time and more roof top terrace to come. Mal and I can´t believe how fast the trip is going and eagerly look forward to each new city. We love and miss everyone and love hearing from anyone so please comment or email.


Things we learned in Barcelona
1) The dutch enjoy pot I know all the stuff about Amsterdam but seriously the quote from Denise was 'A lovely little country fu**ed up by drugs and alcohol'
2) The street vendors at the beach are trying to make a living too´¨quote Greg the Aussie
3) McDonalds is loved here more than in America and they give you a kit kat bar in your dollar cone.

Things we loved in Barcelona
1) meeting so many people
2) the beach
3) every one here owns a golden retreiver
4) Mal loves the beach
5) our adopted travel stuffed animal shelly the turtle, pictures to come.

miss and love everyone
m&m

nice, france 4th and 5th
cinque terre 6th 7th 8th
rome 9th-