Pictures!

We made it to snowy, cold, cozy and beautiful (but ridiculously expensive) Zermatt! We can see the Matterhorn just outside our hostel, so I guess that´s pretty incredible. Oh and we´re back in the land of z´s and y´s being mixed up on the keyboard, so I´ll do my best. A few recent pictures:

Sunset from our last night in Cinque Terre - this was in Monterosso, I think, as we were headed back to catch the train to our town, Riomaggiore. It had been a drizzly day (and very stormy night).

Earlier that same day, in Manarola, I think, walking along part of the trail that connects Manarola and Corniglia. (By the way, Cinque Terre is composed of 5 little towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso - accessible by train, car, boat or foot.)

We were about to make the walk along Via dell Amore, the most famous of the Cinque Terre hikes (connecting our town and Manarola with a 20 minute walk), but due to the stormy weather, the trails were all closed that day.

Cinque Terre is definitely cat land! This was one of many felines we saw, although most of the others were roaming the streets or creeping into the restaurants...

Sunset from our first night in Riomaggiore.

Our Thanksgiving appetizer in Rome :) We spent a good amount of time dividing this up evenly, down to the last spoonful of gravy.

Ali and Sarah, at the Thanksgiving dinner restaurant.

These crazy birds in Trastevere, a neighborhood in Rome! We stood watching them for quite a long time, but no one else seemed to think it was such a big deal - the birds were just swarming around, moving like amoebas in the air. We asked a girl at the gelato place nearby, and she said this happens, but they´ll be gone by January.

Ali and me on one of the footpath bridges between Trastevere and the Jewish quarter.

Carciofi alla roma - the most amazing artichokes we´ve ever had.

Ali and Sarah in Rome... oh yeah, that´s the Colliseum back there.

Swiss guards at the entrance to Vatican City.

Modest clothing only at St. Peter´s Basilica. Sarah had a little too much skin showing on her back, so she had to cover up!

It takes so long to post pictures, but I´m going to try to do some more, some from earlier in the trip. Ciao, ciao, ciao-ciao-ciao! (The Italians love that word.)

Our Thanksgiving feast :)

Hope you all had a delicious and grateful Thanksgiving. We had our Italian dinner all planned out, and stopped at a restaurant earlier to get something to drink and kill time before eating. Our server, probably a Bostonian (he reminded us either of a young Billy Crystal or Tony Danza), informed us that they had a Thanksgiving dinner available and that the turkey was already in the oven, ready to go. Well... we debated about it for a few minutes, because we were pretty stoked about having a big Italian meal, when he suggested we share one plate. Done. So we got our fair share of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, veggies and gravy! And about an hour later, we started our own feast. To start, we got bruschetta, Roman artichokes (we tried those the day before and they were incredible) and caprese salad. Then we all had some sort of a creamy tortellini. And then we all had roast lamb. Plus we got gelato later, on our way home. It was definitely a feast, and we were all very stuffed from it!

Rome was a bit exhausting because of all the sites - saw the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Colliseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and other buildings and things all over - but it's definitely cool to just be walking through the city and come across some Roman ruins!

When in Rome...

We're back from another day out, and I figure since we get a free half hour of Internet each day at this hostel, we may as well try and post on the blog a bunch since we have but 2 weeks left! Can you believe we've been gone for 9 whole weeks? Or that we 3 have been together for 9 whole weeks in Europe? It's crazy!

A few things I've remembered about some of the past cities we've been in... in Madrid, I think while Ali was getting her new AmEx card, Sarah and I stumbled upon some sort of a parade going down one of the main streets. We later found out it was for some sort of a Santa Maria day, and that probably explains why everything was closed that day. We had to head in that same direction, so after all the nuns and priests and such went by, we started walking that way, but then the crowd of onlookers all piled into the street and suddenly we were just part of the parade that was being filmed and all that jazz. Everyone around us looked a bit somber, but Sarah was slurping up the sauce from her doner kebab foil and I was giggling, so I think we were sort of out of place.

Oh and also in Madrid, we went to a big park where there was one of the most amazing playgrounds I've ever been to! The playgrounds in Europe are much cooler than ours - they still have all the toys we've deemed to dangerous in the U.S. as well as a bunch of others. I feel like we've come across that a lot - things in Europe that definitely would not be okay back home. Take construction - we'll be walking along the sidewalk, and find ourselves directly under a crane carrying a load of cement blocks or something - it's a little sketchy. Not to mention that our hostels/hotels always seem to be near a construction site that starts drilling around 7 or 8 in the morning! I've made a 'Europe generalities' list that includes some of those things - other things on the list: excessive church bells (our hostels also seem to be situated near churches often), poor plumbing and smelly sewage, cheap cheese!, water is rarely free at restaurants, street names are on the buildings (which means we either have to go around the corner or cross the street to see where we are), eggs aren't refrigerated, they love their roundabouts, doner kebab stands are everywhere!, and 'to-go' containers aren't really a thing.

Today we found an area with affordable restaurants for our Thanksgiving dinner, so we are set for that! And also - to our parents, we've thought about perhaps stopping for dinner after we get off the plane? Perhaps at Red Robin? (A good 'ol American restaurant - we've been talking about the burgers and bottomless fries!) There's one in Federal Way, assuming we'll be driving around on the way back...

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow to everyone back home! We'll be here, in Rome :)

Buongiorno!

Well, we're about halfway through Italy! The food here is soooooo amazing. We would normally go out to eat only every other day or so, or at least we'd get something small, and for awhile we were buying salami, cheese and bread like crazy. But here, no. Here, we eat. Tortellini, gnocchi, calzone, pizza, tagliatelle, lasagne, ravioli - we'll have to try it all. And we've decided that we're going to have our own Thanksgiving by going out and doing the whole shebang - antipasti, first course (which is usually a big plate of pasta), second course (usually some meat, and I'm sure we'll choose steak), and dessert. I'm already excited!

Some things we've been up to... in Valencia, like Ali said, we had the Italian roomies. I can't remember if they had been traveling anywhere else before, but for being in Valencia for 4 nights and for being a pair of (we think) straight men, they had a lot of luggage. And, I happened to run into a guy I went to school with at Lewis & Clark! It was crazy - I wasn't entirely sure it was him, and I kept staring at him and debating whether or not I'd approach him, and then later we did actually talk and confirm our identities. We also found a film store store where we could rent DVDs, so we tried to watch Twilight since our hostel had a TV and DVD player, but about 50 minutes through the movie (apparently before it gets really good), it stopped, and we eventually figured out that the player was broken. We did all manage to finish reading (or re-reading) all 4 of the books in Madrid. And okay, yes, the last book was pretty good. The topics of vampires or immortality frequently come up in our conversations now. We took a free tour there in Valencia and learned a bit about the history, which was cool to finally learn about the buildings and things we'd been seeing every day. And we went to the beach! I walked there one morning, and it took well over an hour and a half to get there (and I think I even made it back before Sarah and Ali were up!).

Then we had a LONG travel day. It was about a 3- to 4-hour train ride back to Barcelona, and from there a 15-hour night train to Milan, and then a 3ish-hour train to Venice. And on the night train, we stopped around 6 a.m. at the French-Italian border, and the French border police boarded the train asking for our passports. They searched through some people's bags and even made 3 harmless looking people get off the train!! Ali was in a sleeping car, and a woman in her car had to leave as well, but apparently she might have actually been a criminal! Sarah and I just slept on the reclining chairs, sort of. At one point, I woke up and noticed Sarah wasn't in her seat, and she still hadn't come back from the bathroom or wherever I thought she was about 15 minutes later, but then I found out that she was just sleeping on the floor in the back of our car. So after a long journey, we made it to Venizia! We finally did a little bit of shopping there - what with all the Ventian glass around us, how could we resist?

And we were just in Florence this morning! Last night, we climbed up to the top of the Piazzale Michelangelo and looked over the city and some of the Tuscan landscape under the setting sun. It was beautiful! We did see the David at the Academia Museum, and yes, he was impressive. The detail was just incredible on him, all the veins and muscles defined on the marble. And it was also cool because there was a Robert Maplethorpe exhibit going on too, which complemented Michelangelo's work really well. So we got our art and culture in for the city. And along with all the pasta and pizza, we've eaten a lot of extremely delicious gelato. The gelato stands are just amazing - bright colors of gelato all molded into enticing waves with bits of fruit or chocolate as added decoration.

So here we are in Roma! We still have Cinque Terre (we'll be in Riomaggiore) and then Switzerland! We're definitely still excited for the remainder of our trip, but we've also been preparing ourselves for going home and getting excited about all the things we want to do there. To our families, be prepared to eat lots of European-inspired meals for awhile! I think our other plans include rollerblading (we really should have done that in Nice), walking everywhere, scrapbooking (or at least I will, since I've been saving every little scrap of paper along the way), and reading at the library. We've been making all sorts of lists in our journals - movies to watch, food to make, things to look up regarding Europe or miscellaneous things, etc.

Lots of love to all of you! Ciao! (After seeing Inglorious Basterds, we got really excited for saying 'arrivederci!' in Italy, but we usually just say 'ciao.')

Finally more pictures...

At Monet's pond in Giverny
Giverny on a muddy trail
I FINALLY won at solitaire...in Paris!!!
Arc de Triomph at night

I'm not sure where this is, to be honest. Paris, perhaps?
Just paying our respects in a cemetary in Edinburgh...
Yea, I sew now...no biggie
In St. James Park, our favorite!!!
America's next top model style
Some ferris wheel thing in London...it might be called "the eye."
Parliment building in London
Traflager Square in London
In Piazzale Michelangelo overlooking all of Florence
Great night in Florence
yea, I took that...In Florence...Italy...no biggie
Sarah contracting a multitude of diseases...and ONE LANDED ON MY SHOULDER!!! scary...
Basilica in San Marco Square, Venice
Somewhere in Venice, I think
Down one of the many canals in venice
A rose garden in...hmmm...Madrid? I don't know where this is but we all thought it would be a great place for a wedding!
Yet another arch! (This one is definitely in Madrid)
Our adorable hostel in Madrid.
Our not so adorable, but still comfortable, hostel in Barcelona.

"Sorry!"

Ok everyone, we are very sorry for not posting earlier. Things are pretty expensive here in Italy so we are trying to minimize internet time. ANYWHOOOO, so last your heard, my purse was stolen, which was a while ago! Since then we have been to Madrid, Valencia, Venice, and Florence! So I'm just going to give you a few anecdotes to hold you until one of the others can post.

In Valencia we were staying in a room with these two Italian guys named Vincenzo and Stefano, yea pretty itailian. So out first night there we are just talking and chatting it up and the most amazing thing happened...Vincenzo, or Vincent, said, "Tomorrow, you, me, we make spaghetti!" And, yes, with the italian accent and everything. It was soooo perfect. We didn't end up making it, but still, it was great to hear an italian say spaghetti like that:)

Let's see, what else...while we were in Venice we met some girls from WSU and some guys from Boston. The girls were hanging out with a boy named Luigi from Naples who was in town for his "Navigation Examination," we're not entirely sure what kind of navigation, but yea...We met them at night and went to basically the only bar that was open. The next day we actually spent the whole day with the girls, which was interesting. We have been just 3 for so long and it was strange hearing so many other voices talking to me!

I'm sure I have lots more stories but things just are not coming to mind right now. So, I am going to attempt to upload pictiures...don't get your hopes up because it may not work, but we'll see...

Ciao!

One more month!

Okay, so Sarah and I are at an Apple Store using the free Internet here, so here´s a quick little update. Ali, by the way, is hopefully getting a new American Express card at the moment (so I won´t get to be her sugar mama for much longer).

So, we were in Barcelona and loving it - remember my last post where I was gushing about it and we had planned to go out to dinner and go out dancing? I guess we should have known - everyone in Barcelona had been telling us to watch out for our purses, even the people selling stuff on the beach would warn us to hold on to our bags. So, we know better now... But they´re crafty, those thieves! The exciting part was that I gave a police report in Spanish, you know, no big deal or anything... :)

Anyway, aside from that incident, Barcelona was still pretty fun. We spent a few days at the beach, although it was too windy to swim - but at least it was a gorgeous sandy beach. It was so annoying, though, because we would be reading or sleeping, and so many people would come up asking, ¨Massage?¨ or ¨Cerveza, beer, my friend?¨ or ¨Sunglasses?¨ We would try and politely say, ¨No gracias,¨ but usually they were relentless, so my tone at least got more and more annoyed. Finally we wrote a few signs, ¨No nos moleste¨(Don´t bother us, if my Spanish was right) and ¨No masage,¨and that seemed to work, mostly. Oh, and - we saw This Is It. Yes, the Michael Jackson film shot while he was preparing for his London performances. (If he were still alive, it´s possible that we would´ve been able to see one of the shows in London.) It was pretty amazing, and I would highly recommend it - those performances would have been really, really cool. The dancing, special effects, singing - we still haven´t gotten ¨Man In the Mirror¨out of our heads. Oh and one of the nights we were there, we cooked a delicious (and cheap) pesto pasta meal, complete with a garlic herbed butter and spinach salad - so hopefully we´ll get to cook more at future hostels!

And now we´re in Madrid, staying in an adorable place. I´m not sure what to call it - not a hostel or hotel, exactly - but it´s cute. We have bedspreads with a green and tan leaf pattern, embroidered pillowcases that match the lampshades, and real living plants around the place. Plus, we got to watch one of our DVDs last night - Murder at 1600! Of course we already found a delicious Chinese restaurant. Oh, and we definitely found our new ¨Que Pasa¨ - the Maoz vegeterian falafel chain. We discovered it in Barcelona and went there 4 times, and then Sarah found out Madrid has one, so we´ve already been to it twice.

So, we´re all safe and sound, being careful and taking care of one another. And we´ve lately been having some very interesting discussions about life and immortality (brought on by Twilight, no doubt), politics, religion, everything. We´re learning a lot more about each other, and we´ve been talking about how weird it will be to go back and be around... other people? :) Lots of love to you all!