Crazy past few days.

Our overnight train from Split, Croatia to Zagreb, Croatia was three hours late, making us miss our connection to Vienna, but luckily for us we were on the train that was heading to Budapest so we said let's do it! So we went to Budapest, arriving at about 6pm. worst train ride so far as tony had cut up fingers that were swollen from the beach at croatia and they got infected and killing him for the past four days, but we bought some stuff in budapest that helped, it was also blazing hott and overcrowded, people were actually sitting in the hallways. but we were coming from a sweet place and heading somewhere we hoped was awesome so still happy. We got to Budapest, found a cheap and nice hotel and got settled down. By that time it was quite late and we were so exhausted we decided we should do as the Buda's do and get some beer and stayed out way to late, making us almost miss the rest of the next day. we found ourselves with three hours to explore an entire city. we did the best we could. Seeing their really cool Parliament.
awsome side note i (tony) have been very adament against buying metro or bus tickets but kel said this time we should really get one(cause to me they are always on the honnor system). we did against my wishes, she got one and of course the only time we have been stopped the entire trip she gets caught. but it was coo.
after that fun adventure we went off to vienna and found the greatest city of the trip. this place blew our minds we were only going to stay a few hours but were so intrigued we had to stay more. we found a hostel and stayed another day, which was well worth it. this place was clean, beautiful, and very very fun. The sighst are amazing and the people are soooo friendly. Within twenty minutes of being ther we were approached by two random older people that talked to us each for ten minutes of what to see and how they are worried for us and our heavy packs, it was awesome! The city is so great. Amazing transportation system, including a great biking line for the tons of people that bike. Anyways we really enjoyed it and both agreed its the place we would live if we lived in Europe, hands down. so Tony wants to look into going to school there, but no worries mom its very hard to get a working visa in Europe.
then we went to poland and learned some very intense and make you wanna punch some nazi things about what happened to the jews in auschwitz. that place put you in the situations that the jews were in cause; seventy yeays ago they were there. our guide was very good at showing the exact location of where there gas chambers were or where the place the nazis's gave them only a 15 sec bathroom break for an entire day, it was some eye opening stuff. On the ride there we had a Polish girl ask why we would even want to visit such a place, but glad we did as it was emotionally interesting.
after that sobering experience we headed to Krakow to hang out for a few days. the city was pretty awesome, we only saw a short amount of it, but quite entertaining. We went to the main square and watched break dancers, flame dancers, musicians and a clown/mime that followed people around and made a Lot of people mad, but entertained us and himself. We also found out while already in Krakow that our eurorail doesn't cover Poland or the Czech, big surprise, especially since we got into Poland with no problem. We decided to risk it and just get on the train hoping no one says anything, and no one did, hope going to Berlin goes the same.
We met some really cool people on our overnighter to Prague and now have been enjoying the city today. We took a free guided walking tour to learn about the sites and going to check out the nightlife tonight. So far it is a city with some cool buildings but not the top of the list, we'll see if the next six hours changes that!

Sidenote about cool Australians: One of our fellow hostelmates was talking to us, of course an australian chick that has a World Ticket and is travelling all over since January and to who knows when. They know whats up when it comes to travelling. All of them buy these tickets which are valid for a year and you can fly to every continent. Each continent you can have about 4 intercontinent flights, its really cool though!

Anyways we'll be home in a week but have sooo much to see and do before then, Berlin tomorrow, Hamburg with my buddy LArs the next day, Amsterdam and back to London for our few last days. Can't wait to see you all!

Croatia is Awesome.

We love Croatia! oh so in case ya didnt know we decided to add Croatia in because it sounded tooo irresistable. We had to take the 36 hr ferry from Greece to Venice, so we also got to see Venice for the day, which is a really touristy, expensive but cool city.

Then we headed to Croatia where we have been the past two days loving life. We went to Plitvice National Park yesterday, which was expensive but hey we may never be here again! Anyways, google it becaust it is amaying. 16 lakes and hundreds of waterfalls, soooooo gorgeous. Unfortunately it is kind of hard to get to, the buses were super expensive so we rented a car and that was a free place to stay for a night too.It also gave us the freedom to travel at our own ease, see the country side and tony loved driving stick on the european highways. It is super mountainous here so lots of reallz reallz long tunnels through the mtns.

Today we went to Brac Island, an hour away from our hub city Split on the Dalmatian Coast, super warm and relaxing. Clear blue water and lots of fun, last day on the beach for a while, till the cabin! We are now taking an overnighter to zagreb and then headed to budapest for the day. So far Croatia is awesomely amazing, people are so nice and friendly.

sunset one

A better side of Greece

Well Greece just kept getting worse and worse each day. We finally got out on Monday night, but unfortunately we slept through our stop which was at 630 am and ended up on the island of Ios. We wanted to be on Santorini but had planned on going to another island at some point, so here was our point. We found a cheap campground right on the biggest party beach of the island, and in case you don't know, Ios is THE PARTY PLACE IN GREECE.... Which sometimes we like but really we wanted our Greece trip to be relaxing on the beach and checking out cool towns, not really feeling the partying, but we were going to rally, or so we thought. After the longest game of chess, turns out I take an hour to play one game (always thinking) and a few other cranky cranky hours Tony and I looked at each other and knew we wanted no more of this island. It wasn't what we had signed up for!

So we bought another boat ticket and headed to Santorini. The boat ride set us right, Tony slept for two hours and I hung out on the top deck watching the islands and waves, sooo cool. The last two hours on the boat we sat watching the sunset eating a delicious mango, life was good again.

We spent the past two days exploring this island and it's little towns. We stayed in a rad hostel for 5 euros each a night, and one night they screwed us with only one bed so we made them charge us for only one person, worked out well. We also rented a scooter for the two days, 12 euros. Tony had a slight learning curve, I learned how to grip to him quite well. We somehow lucked out with the most powerful scooter ever!!! NOT. IT was sooo horrible. Every hill we went up we were concerned about getting to the top, multiple times we didn't and I had to hop off while Tony went he rest of the way, funny looks from the other scooters going by. But it was a joyous occasion none the less. PS. of course it was a Peugot, just one that couldn't go without us singing "Just Keep Swimming..."

Today I had the luck of getting the donkey like our scooter. The donkeys are a big thing here and quite entertaining. You can ride them down, take a cable car down or walk the long winding steps down to the port area and ride them back up. WE of course walked down and paid to ride back up, only five euros each. Well Tony's took right off, without me! I was all alone majority of the ride up, and twice some lady had to grab his ropes and pull my donkey to get going again, he would stop when he felt like it. HE also loved the sides of the walls. Anyways, point is it was a lot of fun but quite silly. WE had a blast the past two days.

The sunsets are supposedly the best in the world, and they are quite beautiful. We watched from the lighthouse on one side of the island the first night and then from Oia (the most popular sunset watching spot in the world) tonight. It was better at Oia but TONS of toursists who clapped at the end of the setting.

The beaches are quite interesting here too. A volcano erupted in 1600 BC so they have black and red sand beaches from the ash of the volcano. Santorini really has been a fun place. And they have bomb ass pitas, yum! Well off to Hungary

Greece

tony day reporting in, and so far greece has not been what we were expecting, the boat ride over was very fun and we met lots of cool people and traveled with one guy all the way to athens. he was very funny guy who was traveling alone because his travel partner fell down some stairs and broke his hip very intense. so he needed a buddy and we had some good times. once in athens we soon found out the place is super ghetto and there are deformed bums one lady had here feet facing the wrong direction. we have had alot of trouble getting around but have been able to find out that sparta is not going to happen. bummer but i did pick up a cool spartan t shirt. checked out the parthenon today and was very cool. we are out of athens tomorrow and off to beautiful santorini, blue and white houses with red sand and white and all the other colors of the rainbow.
we also totally changed our trip around becuase of some dutch girls(anyone who is from holland are great i have meet alot and they all have been very very awesome) we are not going to venice (sorry bec) but through eastern europe. through serbia and we will stop in hungary. which should be very different then to praha and poland this way should be a big change. good times

Information overload is glorious

We have learned so much interesting stuff the past two days and it will continue on till tomorrow and through greece I am sure.

Yesterday we went to the colloseum and as we approached the hour long line an english speaking gentleman approached us asking us if we wanted to do a tour that was 9 euros more than the ticket price, but we skipped the line and got a guided tour through the colosseum and palatino hill. Being that this was something Tony was really excited about and I found interesting we decided to go for it. The guide taught us so much about the history of the arena and the fighters themselves. Tonys fav tidbit was learnin that the gladiators trained for nine hours a day. It was really cool to have the tour, we would have been a little lost about all the history of this place. Then when we went to Palatino hill it really really helped to have a guide, that place is big! And with our guide we learned all about the birth of Rome from Romulus and Remus, as well as what SPQR means, which is on everything in Rome, even the sewer covers. Its a phrase that I cant remember, only Q: que which means and. But not the typical and, it means one thing cant be itself without the other. So a husband can't be a husband without the wife, a man can be a man, but a husband is only a husband with the wife. Well in this phrase it talks of how The senate of rome cant be a senate without the people and vice versa. It was cool stuff! Also learning about how they gave up their own blood or life for the city, Rome meant everything to them. Anyways, lil bit of history we found really interesting.

After that we went and saw the Pantheon, which was sweet, and a few other areas around Rome. WE had a nice Italian meal at this cute little place for our anniversary. Of course I got fettucine alfredo (had to see if it was legit in Italy) but Tony tried some authentic to only Rome meal that he loved. We also tried a glass of house wine...when in Rome we thought.

Today we headed to the Vatican to meet with the same tour group, we knew we would be absolutely clueless about everything there so we wanted to be told about it and so glad we did! It was three and half hours and man I learned more than I do in a semester! The sistine chapel is really really cool if you know what is going on. Tony and I really liked learning about all the figures in the Last Judgment, super cool stuff! Also learned about Romans idea of Beauty, which is pretty serious stuff. Anyways, it was really good to gain a bit of historical knowledge of this amazing place.

After the tour ended we had time to rome St. peter's basilica, that thing is big! but full of so much beauty and gnarly stuff! We were overwhelmed but really enjoyed ourselves. We eventually headed out to do the climb to the copula which gave us the gorgeous view of Rome. The walk up is so weird! Longest and tightest spiral staircase ever. Then you are walkin on a small platform that is leaned all weird because of the dome you are walking around. If you are clastrophobic, might not be your thing. But if you can handle it, its worth the view of the city, and the weirdness of the halls and stairwells. After that we headed into the tombs of all the popes which was interesting to read. A few we saw only lasted for three days or thirty three days, (if ya didnt know we arent to educated in this stuff, but were trying!). It was pretty cool to see the tomb of Peter. Anyways it was a really awesome past couple of days and tomorrow we head to Pompeii for the day to learn even more!

Roman Rains and Assisi Rays

We are now in Rome and had quite the adventure yesterday. But first have to tell of our new found love of Assisi! Such a cute cute town. WE also had an adventure there with accomodations but luckily some cool aussies (they really are so down and cool) helped us out with a great campsite for only 17 euro to go to. And it was conveniently close to town, just up a hill which tony had fun making me run up the next morning ( we are trying to be healthy and work out 4 times a week, he loves it and im getting to loving it.) Anyways but the convenience also made it so we could be on our own time in the town. WE saw the big St. Francis church there and wandered around the city. We played some crib and browsed through the shops. when the sun was setting we wandered to the castle at the top of town that overlooks a tuscan valley below, it was gorgeous. We both rated Assisi up there for sure.

From Assisi yesterday we came to Rome and headed to Pomezia, two train stops away where we had a hotel booked and man was that intense. We had no idea where or what Pomezia was but we assumed it would work out and we could take a bus there, man were we wrong. First off, the entire trip we have probably had a max of 5 minutes of rain, never really been stuck in it either, even in the UK. When we arrived in Rome it was raining, pretty hard. Which wasnt to bad because it was really humid and hot. Anyways so in Pomezia we tried asking any passer bys, they all just stared at us with blank looks, "holiday inn? what is this?" We found a bar that Tony went to charge our phone at, I stayed by the bus stop with the bags. Across the street was a lady in high platforms, a pretty reavealing dress and dancing to some music on her ipod. I watched her for a hwile and came to the conclussion she was a hooker. We had that confirmed after she got picked up, and then dropped back off an hour later. It was awesome. Also in Tonys absence I was approached by an old man in a truck, which I think he thought I was ahooker. He called me over to his truck, I thought he was trying to help and we had a little chat which neither of us understood the other but I was bored so I didnt care, until he starting saying a few things and then he grabbed himself. At that point I said NO and walked away. I have no idea what he was trying to say but I was not down with talking to him anymore.

Tony finally came back and he was really mad. The hotel receptionist informed us that the hotel was 8km outside of the town of Pomezia and the only way to get there is by a taxi which would cost 25 or 30 euro. So every time we wanted to come into Rome we had to pay that. We were not down with this. We tried for a hour and half to figure out if any buses went there but every bus that came pointed us to another bus which was funny because there was only two buses. In order to not get charged anything I had to cancel the reservation by 4pm, it was approaching four quickly. Due to our mishap in Siena when we got to the closed campground, the lady gave us a lil booklet of campgrounds in europe, so we found one in Rome and called to make sure it was open and available. once that was confirmed I quickly called the hotel to cancel luckily in time! We left the sketchy town of Pomezia to head to our campground. The campground is awesome, 23 euros so pretty good and free internet! A bar, free transportation from the train station and a pool.

We decided we needed to lighten our load of the beers and liquor we had been carrying around for 4 nights and after the day we had it seemed like the right night to do it. So we loaded up the day pack, no food just the beers and headed into Rome. We wandered around till we got to the Fontana de Trevi (Trevi Fountain) which was really cool, but filled with tourists there. There was a guy selling little tourist things like light wands and these two magnets you catch together and make a funny noise. He was showing them to Tony when a cop started to pull up, he ran into the crowd (apparently its illegal for them to be selling stuff there?). Because he fled Tony was confused but down with his new free toy. So we started to walk away, the guy followed us but then the cops came back so we chilled by the cops, as for once they were a benefit to us! Eventually we left the fountain to try to find a cool bar. Unfortunately there were none to be found anywhere near us. So we tried asking varios people and finally found two dudes that were from there that were going to the area with bars. We followed them on various buses and eventually got to the area, but most of the bars were closed because ti was a monday. After wandering around more with these locals, who spoke very little english and spanish, but somehow we had conversations, kind of. Eventually we decided we had a long road ahead of us of trying to figure out how to get back to our campsite since the trains stopped at midnight and it was 1 am.

We figured out the bus system and finally made it back to the station in our little town of prima porta, but then we had a mile walk to the campsite, luckily our packs were lighter though so we were happy and content. It was a fun night in Rome, and today we are headed out to see the Ancient City and have a good Italian meal tonight.