thirty dirty days in europe

sniffle sniffle

chanty520 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:53:00 GMT

well...here it is, the end of the trip :-( ive enjoyed every single second of it and although im homesick for home, im afraid to say that when i get home ill be a bit homesick for europe, adventures, new places and life on the road! we will be boarding the plane home tomorrow morning, im looking forward to sharing all the pictures and reliving each place through telling stories about each one! im comin home!love u all:-)

only 3 more days :(

chanty520 — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:15:00 GMT

well we are in amsterdam now, and we love it. We just got in this afternoon, after an early morning SUCCESSFUL attempt to get out of Paris. The thing is, we never made it to London. When we made it Paris, we found out that all trains in the next few days to London were not only booked for Eurail pass holders, but the tickets were only discounted to 75 euro each way...so we opted out of that, hung out in paris an extra day and now we are here!!! We just got done visiting the Anne Frank house right up the street, pretty intense. The weather is beautiful here, as it has been the whole time in Europe. Paris was great, our hostel was a bit crazy...it was called the peace and love hostel and run by the bartenders that ran the bottom floor bar...pretty funny, we stayed in a different room each night but had a really good time anyway. We saw all the sights, there are A LOT: Versailles, notre dame, the eifel tower, the louvre, the arc de triumph, the champs elysees! phew. It was a bit expensive there, but French are WAY nicer than ive heard from everyone else! We are here in AMsterdam til tomorrow late afternoon before we leave for Frankfurt and fly out on Friday :( I cant believe its been a month, wow, it really did fly by and ill miss europe all the europeans...im definately coming back though. Ive got a list of places in my head that I need to spend at least one more week in! Well, off to enjoy the free spirited amsterdamians! Blake says he loves you wrajean! And i love you everyone! see ya soon.

bon bon bon

chanty520 — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:00:00 GMT

Its early in Bordeaux right now, about 745am which means its 145am back home, crazy. We are heading to Paris today, its about a 3 hour train ride from here. So far the French have been super nice to us despite warnings that they supposedly hate Americans...but we have yet to meet Parisians so who knows! Bordeux was beautiful, but I wanna talk about Barcelona really quick, a definite favorite city on the trip and one we should have planned for more time for. First of all Barcelona was so cheap and each night we were there we ate like kings and queens for under fifteen bucks each! And my great sister Lauren hooked Heidi and I up with a sweet hotel room one night with a terrace overlooking one of Barcelonas most popular squares! I cant wait to show off pictures of this place, it was unreal. The boys loved it too, but not as much as heidi and i becuase at the end of the night they had to walk a few blocks back to their not so nice smelling hostel, ha. Bordeaux is literally the city that never sleeps, each night we were there we didnt head out for dinner until around 10pm and STILL had most crowds beat by that. I definately wanna get back there one day. Anyways, now we are leaving Bordeaux. We got here late night the day after the last, so we really only had yesterday, but we made the most of it. Bordeaux is known for its wine, so yesterday am we asked the front desk at our hostel where we could go to check out some cool vineyards and the lady circled some stuff on our map. And it looked within close distance, so we thought it would be cool to rent bikes and bike there. So we rented bikes, biked north and come to find out she directed us towards a wine store! Luckily there was a tourism office across the street and we told them what we were trying to get into and they do wine tours, so we got on one of there afternoon wine tours. They bussed us to the wine regions, along with about 30 other people, and we visited two very popular chataus which produce their own wines. Bordaux is made up of mostly vineyards, it was so cool to learn about it all. We did a couple tastings at each chateau and they talked to us about their wine and the history behind it. All Bordeaux vineyards have guidelines of how to grow their grapes, one of which being they are forbidden to irrigate. Their wine history goes back 2000 years! So they are very particular about holding the tradition of their ancestors, and keeping the soil very natural...and by the taste of their wine, theyre doing it right...it was yum yum! So after the 5 hour tour, we walked around til dinner and then sat at one of the outside cafes and ate some really really good food! And although scallop taglilenni doesnt compare to a huge burrito at chipotle that id pay 20 bucks for right now, i appreceiate everything about being here....ive only got a week left and i will enjoy every baguette i get! well, off to Paris. we are spending a couple days there, then london, then amsterdam, then germany to come home! ill write more the next chance i get, hopefully on a computer thats keyboard is decent, this keyboard has about half the letters all mixed up and in weird places, making for a choppy writing experience, sorry about that!!!

whoa!!!

chanty520 — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:47:00 GMT

we are in nice, france right now. I think the last time i had a chance to write was our last night in rome. Since then, we have been to Florence, Pisa, Cinque Terre and now here! Well, Pisa was an accident. We got stuck there on our way out of Florence on our way to Cingue Terre becuase of a train strike! But the leaning tower of Pisa is definately leaning. Florence was amazing, just as great as Rome but a little smaller and quieter. We saw the David statue, pretty cool. Our hostel in Florence was very cool, there was murals all over the walls and the four of us had our own little room right next to the little garden they had in the back. Cinque Terre was unbelievable, we stayed right in a marina, heard the crashing waves each night while we slept. We did the cities 12k hike throughout all five of their towns, crazy and so hard but we laid on the beach of the last city and soaked up the rays so it was worth it. Pictures from there are unbelievable. And the hike took us about 4.5 hours up and down and up and down the mountains. I'm still sore! And now we are in nice, france! We walked to the beach this morning and laid out for a while, got some lunch and people watched....as least as we could, the beaches here are uh topless. ha. anyways, now we are here and tomorrow we leave for Barcelona, oh yeah. Its nice to have a relaxing beach day amidst all the traveling, we are loving every second of this good weather.

mi amore: roma!

chanty520 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:56:00 GMT

so we were supposed to take catch a train to florence today, after doing some sightseeing, but we decided to stay just one more day. Rome is amazing: the food, the people, the sights AND the place we are staying at is the best yet, so why rush we thought. Everything was pretty much closed yesterday, Monday, so we headed over to the colloseum and all the surrounding stuff. Rome is PACKED right now with tourists, so everything has been crowded. But the colloseum was pretty unbelievable. To think how many people died inside the colloseum, yikes. But the weather here has been amazing, sunny and gorgeous, perfect for walking all day like we have been. Today we got up, dropped it at a cafe for some cappuchinos and pastries and then got into what ended up being a two hour line to get into the Vatican museums, where the Sistine Chapel was. This place was overwhelming! Rooms and rooms full of statues and busts of famous works and then the Sistine Chapel, although so so crowded, was jawdropping. I took as many pictures as i could, but truly its something you just have to see in person. After that we grabbed some pizza (all we seem to be eating in italy!) and headed off to St. Peters Basilica, which is huge! Being as its our last night in this amazing hostel, we decided to eat in tonight. Blake, as we speak, is cooking up some gnocchis with fresh buffalo mozzerella and carmelized onions in the kitchen. We are going to sit out on the terrace tonight and drink italian beers and eat our yummy dinner mmmmmmmm. We are headed out to Florence tomorrow, so we will see how that compares...im sure it will be great too. Well for now, ciao!

smelly smelly smelly

chanty520 — Mon, 9 Apr 2007 19:24:00 GMT

Happy easter to everyone. Just a recap before i get into what we have been doing lately...we left greece around two days ago. We took a train and then a ferry, more a ship type deal to Bari, Italy...getting there yesterday morning around 8am. We didnt want to pay for a room so we all slept on the floor of the seating area, yuck! But it saved us some Euros. The ship was fun though. We boarded around 2pm and headed up to the top deck to explore, where we met a very very cool greek bartender named Dimos. He entertained us for well into the night, discussing everything from why every beautiful woman in the world has greek ancestry somehow to why american politics suck. We also met a turkish trucker that upright told us he hated all americans and then we also met a very not so sober bulgarian guy that watched us play cards and repeated almost everything we said in english. So after hitting the floor, literally, for a restless nights sleep, we woke up and walked into the world of Bari. We only had a few hours before we had to catch a train to Rome, so we headed out on the street...people watched, ate some pizza, and then got back on the road. We got into Rome around 7pm and had a few places picked out that we wanted to check out and possibly stay at, so we headed to a pay phone to get directions over the phone. All of a sudden, we have a couple legit looking enlish speaking old men asking us if we need a place to stay. They have information TOURIST badges on their coats, so we listen. They tell us that everything is booked in the city, they are our only hope. hmmmm. They say for the four of us, they have a room for 120 euros. hmmm. We are hesitant, but they say its only five minutes away, they will walk with us there so we can check it out. We ask them what the name of it is and....they have no answer. Its a bed and breakfast they say. Yea, i say, but whats the name of it. still no reply. hmmm. So altogether, very hesitantly but trying to be hopeful, we follow them to their so called B&B. Once we arrive around a few barren bends, this guy opens a large NAMELESS door for us to see a dark staircase with a flickering light. Go check it out he says. I say, hmm, that light is flickering. That is what all bed and breakfasts in Rome are like, he says. Wow, then that sucks. Heidi and Dan head up the stairs to check it out while Blake and I stay on the street ready to run for help if anything gets shady, even though, needless to say, it already was shady! Dan leans out the window upstairs and says its okay, so blake and I decide to check it out as well while Heidi comes down to stand guard, haha. It turned out to be what seemed like some guys apartment he was trying to act like was a B&B. It had four beds, a bathroom and was actually pretty decent...except for the fact that dont B&Bs usually have other people staying in them? All of a sudden, some hair slicked italian guy walks through the door, introduces himself and asks us if we would like to stay the night. We all look at eachother,hmm. No on my end. He bargains us down a few euros. And then when we ask him where breakfast is served, he replies...in bed. Umm, i think not. We all head downstairs, see ya later. Sorry that story was so so long! It was just really intense! So after getting far away from there, we hop on the subway to get to the other side of Rome where there is a hostel, a real one! This is where the smelly part comes in. All of us had last showered two days before, worn the same clothes for two days becuase we didnt have a room on the ship...so we reaked. Well, i kind of smelled the most. And i didnt really realize it til we were on the packed, literally sardines on the subway and blake said he smelled something. It turns out it was me. And everyone squeezed up against me smelled it too. What made things worse was that in order to hang on, i had hang on to the bar above....exposing all the odor to anyone within three foot range. Anyways, my friends still love me. We ended up finding room at the real hostel, its amazing and they have showers!!!! and we are staying three nights here. I think blake is going to cook for us night three, they have a pretty sweet kitchen here. Anyways, We went to Mass this morning at the Vatican, got there super early by accident and ended up in the first section of seating in the front. We were there for about 4 hours, but it was a coool experience. Then we grabbed some lunch at a really cool family run italian place and ate some really yummy pasta. And then we roamed around the colloseum area all day. We are staying here today and the next and then heading off to Florence for a few days. Rome so far is beautiful and the people are very very friendly, a nice change from the grumpies in greece. Anyways, I apologize this post was crazy long, i had some time and some funny stories i wanted to pass on! Hope Easter was nice for everyone.I will catch up to this the next chance i get!

ohe ohe ohe!

chanty520 — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 10:07:00 GMT

So the last time i wrote, we were in the middle of the meditteranean, waiting to be dropped on the island of Patras, where we would then, in the late of night, search for shelter! As we stepped off the boat with only an address and a few choice words of Greek, we started walking the streets. This, i have to say, was the first time i was truly scared. Grecian people, at least the ones that hang out at ferry/bus stops late at night are not the friendliest of people. Luckily, we ran into some other english speaking travelers that were in search of shelter, so the eight of us managed our way out of the port and onto the street and ended up finding a very nice and CHEAP hostel for the night. phew! We went to bed pretty early, as we were going to have to get up at the butt-crack of dawn (430am) to catch an early train to Athens! It's only a three hour train to Athens. So once we got there, we parked it on a bench at the Athens station, and devoured some really good sandwiches. I had a pretzel bread sub filled with turkey, salami and cream cheese..mmmm. Oh, and some old lady tried to trade me half my sandwich for a pack of tissues and a lighter. I had to say "ohe",which means no, like ten times before she moved on to heidi! She was a pretty persistant old lady and I felt bad but I was hungry! So, again with only an address of a hostel in our guide book, we hopped into a taxi with a really crazy old greek man and tried to explain to him where we needed to go. This was the most hilarious experience. I'm showing him this tiny little map and I finally get the idea that this guy needs glasses becuase he is making me read these greek streets aloud! "nico-dema-dig-a-dou-dou" street. Meanwhile, we're getting a taste of greek life. You think you've seen crazy drivers, oh oh no. this old man was screaming in greek, blaring his horn, waving his hands. There were literally three lanes of traffic and five lanes of cars squeezed in. We were dying laughing the whole time and the old greek man joined in too. So we found the hostel, they had room and we unloaded our bags and ventured out to the sights. It was the most perfect day for it too, sunny and warm with a cool breeze. We walked around all day, the Parthenon, the Acropolis, the Stadium....wow! And we took a ton of pictures. Then we ate out at the restaurant outside the hostel last night, on a little greecian street...greek salads, stuffed tomatoes, and of course some really cheap wine! Well this afternoon, we're off en route back to Italy...which will feel like home compared to this country! We're hoping to get to Rome on the night of the 7th if all goes as planned...train, boat, train! And then we will again, search for shelter, and be in Rome for Easter Sunday. Thanks for all your comments guys, it makes me feel home every time I get on the computer and read them. Happy Easter!

en route

chanty520 — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 11:16:00 GMT

we're in the middle of the meditteranean right now, somewhere in between the southern tip of Italy headed towards Greece. We left Venice yesterday around noon, spent the day and night on the boat and no we'll spend the rest of the day until about 8pm on here until we get to Patras...and then we'll be catching a train to Athens! Before we left Venice yesterday, we were able to make it back to the St. Marks Basilica before we headed out. The Basilica was literally breathtaking, it was finished being built in 1007!!! It hold's St. Mark's body at the alter, so weird to be in something so sacred and so so old. We crossed ourselves with the holy water, and I lit a candle for those back home that are sick right now. Anyways, the boat has been pretty relaxing so far, a good break from walking thousands of miles around Venice for the past two days! We stayed up late and played euchre last night, Blake taught us all and i FINALLY get it after trying to have learned that stupid game 50 million times. I got up early this morning and sat with some coffee by one of the windows, watching the islands we pass by. The tv nearby was speaking greek (such a crazy hard language) and two people next to me were rattling off in german! And there i sit, in the middle of the ocean, in wonderment that there can be so so much in this world, so many different people, so many different lives and i'm just one person...an english speaker from america....who am I? Seeing the world like this can really make you think just how vast this world is, and to know that God created every drop in this ocean and every curve in those tiny islands I watched pass by...AND he created everyone on this boat....WOW. Anyways, enough sentimentality, haha. I'm so lucky to be doing this trip, the world is beautiful! On that note, I think I'm off to catch some fresh air and practice some greek! "Aforisto"!, that means thank you in greek! the only word i know so far. I love you all, and I'll write soon. After Greece, we're trying to make it back to Rome by Easter Sunday, so I'll write in between if I find a computer!

Bennisimo!!!

chanty520 — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 23:59:00 GMT

Its our second night in Venice, the most amazing city thus far. We got in last night very late and luckily found a hostel that had room...poor planning on our part, but we made it in time to get a room and some yummy italian food. We ended up with about 3 bottles of wine, a full meal for only 20 euros a piece...pretty good for food so far! I was able to practice my Italian by ordering and communicating with your server the whole night in italian. the only problem came when we didnt know how to ask for our check (european service is much less frequent and kiss butt than american service)....so when our server was close enough, i said "senor, scusi...quanto costa per le bennisimo festa?"...which translates as "sir, excuse me, how much for our excellent party?" close enough!!! he responded with "interessante!" Afterwards, we got some yummy gelato on the street and Blake was almost pickpocketed...but he caught on and luckily had all his money and id in his money pouch, NOT in his bakck pocket...but it freaked us out a bit! You gotta be careful here! Anyways, today we woke up early and walked all around venice, including St. Marks piazza...amazing, they say there are more pigeons than people and they are right. we had pigeons eating out of our hands! It was great! Each of use probably took 100 pictures each in the afternoon, everything is so unique and beautiful here! So after walking around the whole night, we got some restaurant tips from a local and ended up eating some great italian food along one of the canals. Now we are at a local bar, tipping back some local beer enjoying the sound of American music once again! Tomorrow we will spend another day in venice and then the next day we are off to Athens, Greece. Oh yeah! I will download pictures if i can, but more than likely i will be downloading them all when i get back home!

Zurich

chanty520 — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:20:00 GMT

We are getting ready to leave zurich, switzerland...a gorgeous big city, the prettiest yet. you will get the idea when u see the pictures. we walked around the little town after we checked into our hostel last night...we stayed on the 7th floor above a restaurant...yikes. but we got showers this morning and ate some pastires and espresso, mmmm. the people here are nice, still speaking german here...so we still get around with a gutendag and sprekense english? and danka shane pretty well. we are off to venice, italy now...in about a half an hour, its a 7 hour train ride...but the rest will be greatly appreciated...AND we will be seeing many beautiful things out our train window,like the swiss alps...cant wait for that. the train ride from frankfurt to zurich was amazing in itself. rolling green hills with ornate houses tucked away, all spread out. no corporate mess or fast food joints to ruin the picturesque. loving it, our time on this comp is almost up, i will write more later when we get to venice. we will be staying there at least two days, so we will have much more time to do more. they say wine is cheaper than water in italy, cant wait to take advantage of that. love you guys

i feel like an idiot!!!

chanty520 — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:53:00 GMT

hey guys, i accidentally created two accounts and have been posting everything on the other one....sooo, don't check this page anymore, go to http://journals.worldnomads.com/chanty520/ if that doesn't work, the journal is listed under writers, chanty520. my bad!!! that is the one i'm writing on and you can leave comments there. thanks!~becca

danka shane!

chanty520 — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 08:42:00 GMT

well well well...its been one crazy trip so far. its 8am here, we had traditional german meat and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, mm mm good. yesterday, after about an hour of confusion we found heidi and dan, one backpack short. :-( we're still trying to track down dans bag! soon after, we hopped a near train in hopes of heading toward the hostel we'd reserved...and we finally got there. its super nice. we definately felt like confused tourists, really stupid. we ended up at the tourist office like five times yesterday, and we rode the bus around for a while. ended up eating lunch at some american type place because it was the only menu not in german and we were too exhausted to look any longer for sausages and saurcraut! we decided to push ourselves to stay up til at least 8, and luckily got a second wind right around then so we cleaned up and walked around the town we're in, super quaint with cobblestone streets and all. we took a chance and walked into some hole in the wall local pub, and fell in love with germany. the owner bought us a round of his homemade honey wine and served us the juiciest pork chops over saurcraut with all these breads. the owner/bartender/server/cook was very welcoming to us, and spoke a decent amount of english. his huge dog sat under the table nearby. after filling up on that a few good german beers, we found another hole in the wall bar with live music...and the band sang in english! after that we thought we were off to bed, but when we walked in the hostel we were greeted by about a dozen or more people in the rec room singing american cover songs, so we ended up meeting and singing with our new friends, swedish, german and us the only americans. germany has been pleasantly surprising, full of great people. but we regret not knowing any of this language. today, we're trying to track down dans bag and hopefully catch an early train to zurich, switzerland! we'll see!!!

Two more days

chanty520 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:45:00 GMT

Well, we're down to the last two day before leaving. I've gotta get a few last minute things together and pay some bills for the coming month, other than that and figuring out how to get a months worth of clothes into a backpack, yikes, i'm ready to hit the road. OH YEAH!!!

almost a month til the big trip

chanty520 — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:42:00 GMT

just wanted to test this gidget out, see if it'll do it's job while i'm overseas!