For those of you stil reading...

Hello...hello....anyone out there?

For those dedicated few that may still be checking this blog even though the trip is over, I just wanted to mention a few things:

1. we made it home alive (and in comfort with another great score on our airplane seating!)

2. PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES! Stay tuned for pictures posted to the blog soon, though it might take a week or so to sort through them all and give you the very best (highlights will include: Leo shouting at Johnny Mac at Wimbledon, Pamplona Costumes (including the imfamous capris), 1000 pictures of gargoyles, and much more)

3. If you've been reading (whether you enjoyed it or not) if you wouldn't mind sending me an email at blyle@vt.edu (or just post your name right on the blog), we'd love to know how far reaching our blog was and how many people might have been reading (we're really curious).

4. We had a great time blogging, hope you enjoyed reading, and stay tuned just a bit longer as there may be some more final thoughts about the trip and definitely some pictures soon to come.

Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you.

Hookers and Hash...

if any of you know me even just a little you already know that here in Amsterdam I saw both, but partook in neither. So sorry to disappoint, but you know, I yam what I yam.

So this is it, the last night of this long and wonderful journey and despite a rained soaked day we're going out on top (literally, I'm on the top bunk and Leo is probably much higher than that).

Amsterdam has been a nice enough stay, but coming here at the end of a six week trip I've been pretty much overwhelmed by a "been there, seen that" attitude and I've been pretty much ready to get home. I took a nice little bike tour that took me to a cute little dutch farm/cheese shop/wooden shoe factory, run by a crazy farmer that likes to shake a tail feather. I took some nice walks around the canals of this Venice of the north (Amsterdam reminds me a lot of Boston, not sure why, but its true). I ate some good tasting, but gross looking shoarma (sp?), and some good Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Boom Chicago was good for a few laughs. Today was all about some Van Gogh museum, like Leo, I became a VVG convert last time I was here. This time they had a cool exhibit of his drawings, which I knew nothing about, but enjoyed seeing. But the highlight of this stay was without question I wonderful evening with the Rohr Family Friends - Bert and Nel. We rode the train about 20 minutes out to meet them and walked back to their house where we had some surprisingly delicious dutch food. Don't ask me what it was, because even if I did know, there is no way I could pronounce it. Then, as Leo already described, we walked through a really cool old village with lots of windmills and farm animals and cool doorways. All the while we thoroughly enjoyed the company of a delightful real-life dutch couple. What a way to end our trip. I think we both found it fitting that our trip was basically bookended by our trips to visit people we knew (starting with Mike and Kate in London and ending with Bert and Nel). The dinner and walk were great. (sorry I can't be more creative and funny about it).

So that's pretty much it for Europe. We're headed out of here early tomorrow morning to catch our plane and come home! Looking forward to being back in the good ole USA. See you all soon.

It's A Race Against Time

Will our heroes make it out of Amsterdam alive???
Will you please shut up???
Will this blog make it out of me before I descend into madness???
Stay tuned to find out.
Well it is 9:30 on the eve of our departure. This will probably be our last post from Europe. But do not fret my darlings. It has been a good ride. We have spent most of our time in Amsterdam apart, exploring the city as we individually saw fit. I can only tell you about my times. Yesterday, did the Van Gogh museum, and inhabited some moments of perfection in the park outside. I'll admit, before this trip I wasn't a huge Van Gogh fan, but now I'm a convert. The man was out there, but he was there.
This morning was dedicated to the Anne Frank house. I got there early cause a full day was planned, and as Bryce says, that is a really well-put-together museum. Very classy and very informative and very tear-inducing. I haven't cried that much since a certain character in a certain book bit the dust. It seemed mother nature agreed with me, since when I went in it was nice and dry and by the time I left the sky had opened up. A few last minute errands were executed before Bryce and I took the penultimate train ride out to visit...
Yes Bert and Nel!! We had a fantastic time with them!!! They made us dinner, a surprisingly good compote of kale along with gravy and sausage. Then we took a walk to a Colonial Williamsburgesque little Dutch village that had working windmills and woodshops. It also had an alarmingly slug-covered ground. When the sun went down and the temperature followed, we parted ways at the train station with a hug and a wave. And now we are back in the hostel for our last night. Bryce intends to stuff his face and fall asleep. I intend to explore space and time.

Thank you for joining us on this journey. It is as much yours as it is ours. Hopefully we will see each other soon.

Yours,
Leo

p.s. I love you mom
p.p.s. and Ruth

Why don't you get lost in Amsterdam?

It would be easy. All the streets look the same. Not to mention all of the "things" that you can get here. But we won't say too much about that. So I don't have that much to say. Then why post you might ask? Well the urge struck me, and I'm in a library that has free internet, and that's a good thing. We're about to go to an Improv show called Boom Chicago that we hear is pretty good. Other than that, all I've done in Amsterdam is sit in the park and look at the clouds, oh and play a little frisbee golf before it started raining, but it was that mist kind of rain that I like so much, so it wasn't bad.

To Robyn and Bill. YAY! So cool that you are coming down to play frisbee. I can't wait for Sunday.
To Chuck, Thanks.
To JKR, I love you.
To R.A.B.-I know what you're up to, and I like it.
To A-remember what we talked about playing spades at the lockin?
To F-Captains please.
To all...peace and godbless

OK OK, sorry!

Lest I feel anymore of RAP's wrath, let me apologize for my grievous error, I don't know how I turned off the comments on my mammoth post, but I think commenting is back on, so everyone go back now and leave me sympathic posts regarding my Venetian trauma.

I wasn't really planning to post now, but quick thoughts:

Brussels - what's the point? I'm not entirely sure why Brussels even exists. To be fair we got there at 6:00am and I don't guess there is a lot going on anywhere at 6:00am. We had some waffles (delicious), watched that little statue pee (all of the Crosses would have, no doubt, found this as hilarious as I did), we looked at the "most beautiful square in the world" which was quite pretty, we took in the most useless chocolate museum in the world (though we scored some pretty good free samples) and we took in the Royal Palace with about 70,000 of our closest Belgian friends. All in all our 6.5 hours in Brussels were very...so-so.

Amsterdam - we got here and showered and I was all about taking a canal tour. Leo, however, wanted to stay in his bunk and "journal" though I suspect when I get back to the room he will not be there and by "I need to journal" he meant "I need to ditch Bryce so I can score a cheap hooker," but I guess we'll see about that.

Ok, more on Amsterdam after we actually see it (so far the city is beautiful, but the street preformers are pathetic).

Sorry for the confusion, don't forget to post retroactively to my previous previous post.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Well no I´m not but I wouldn´t mind it. Our hostel was actually right across the street from where Kennedy made that infamous speech. Berlin is Awesome! Würzburg was Awesome! Munich was Awesome! I guess that means that Germany is pretty freakin awesome! I´m proud to call myself Pipe.
I´ve spent most of my time in Berlin walking and lounging, and yes finally playing some frisbee in the extensive park system that they have here. Yesterday was spent completely in one park where they had this concert called Yellow Lounge, which consisted of mostly classical music being played while people chilled around a pool floating in the middle of the Spree river. It was very laid back and a very cool day. Today I walked through the Tiergarten and made up around 14 holes of golf before I ran out of park and ran into the zoo. So I thought, why the hell not? The zoo was certainly worth Berlin placing the train station next to it that U2 would later name a song for. For those of you confused by that sentence, consult your local record store (or neighborhood yard sale apparently) for Achtung Baby.
So there´s only one stop left (not counting an afternoon in Brußels(haha I just wanted to use that key)) and that´s Amsterdam. It´s time to throw all caution to the wind, drop all the weight that´s slowing us down(see ya later clothes), and seriously end this trip in style!

Auf Wiedersehn Deutschland! I loved ya even though I didn´t understand one word whilest I was here.

p.s. mom the email for Bert and Nel didn´t work and I don´t have their phone number, though you do. Please email it to me at cooleo626@hotmail.com

random notes...
Hey Megan! Glad to hear from you and I can´t wait for that epic battle on the 6th.
I now have a strange desire to watch Night Rider
Mein Hotel ist nicht weit von hier
Hitler sucked
German musik, or at least the American music that Germans play, ROCKS! I already mentioned the sweet 80s internet cafe. Then there was this radio station that within the course of a few hours played, Thriller, Summertime by Fresh Prince, Don´t Speak, plus all these current hits from the US.
Dangit Bryce beat me to posting, one way to fix that...

Berlin

Even though my previous post did not seem to resonate with the reading public and obviously no one gives a damn, I would like to start by saying that German public transportation has been, thus far, excellent. Their trains are great and Berlin's local transportation worked like a dream.

Ok, so Wurzburg was very quaint. Very German-y, we saw a big old castle way up on a hill with a nice view, we saw an incredibly gawdy royal palace that was decked out in Roccoco style, and we saw a gummy bear shop and I've never seen Leo so happy. Thats pretty much Wurzburg.

Now, Berlin. Berlin Berlin Berlin, I have been extraordinarily pleased with our stay here. This was one of the places that I demanded we go before the trip, but I didn't really know what to expect, I didn't even really know what kind of sights and culture there was to see. Even when we arrived I didn't know what to expect. On the bus ride from the station to the hostel, I told Leo that the city seemed different from the rest, more metropolitan, more modern. I'm not sure he agreed, but the city is unlike any other place I've been in Europe. I couldn't really put my finger on it until I had been here a while and been on a tour and stuff. The difference is that its NEW! The city has the most incredible 20th Century of any place I've ever seen and much of that history involved it being destroyed, so everything has been built in the last 60 years, much of it in the last 15 or 20. Also, unlike all the other places we've been Berlin is ashamed of much of its history and has therefore actually torn down a lot of historic sights, even if they weren't destroyed in the war. Everywhere else glorifies its history, but Berlin has to hide some, or at least try to get past it.

I pretty much fell in love with a tour company here called "New Berlin." Leo and I both went on their free general tour of the city on our first full day here. I then used thier other tours to plan my days. After the free tour we checked out some museums (including the Pergamon Museum, where I actually enjoyed looking at super-ancient artifacts! that might be a first, but they had this really cool Babylonian gate, ok, it doesn't sound cool, but trust me). We split up there so Leo could gaze for hours and I could leave while I was still enjoying it. I took in an organ concert at the Berliner Dome (Berlin Cathedral) and we met back at the Reichstag (Capital Building) where after a 45 minute wait we had an incredible view of the sun setting over the whole city. I really loved the Reichstag, it has this great glass dome that you can walk around and take in the whole panarama of the city. After that we took in the "ultra modern" Sony Center and FINALLY saw "War of the Worlds" (review available upon request). Next day, I took in the Jewish Museum, then went on the "Third Reich Tour" from my favorite tour guides. This was obviously all about the Nazi years. Then I took the S-bahn out to the Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens showed up Hitler in 1936 and took a cool tour of that. A nice walk through the Tiergarten (their Central Park) and some window shopping and I called it a day. Today, we both went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which had some really cool artifacts from the Wall and the East Germany Years, particularly crazy devices that people used to sneak out of East Berlin. I had to hurry through a little more than I would have liked so that I could catch the "Red Berlin" tour that took us to lots of Cold War sites. The highlights of this tour were a stop at the Stasi Museum (East German Spies - 1 in 7 East Germans were working for the Stasi, either by choose or (mostly) by coersion) and a little strip of the Wall that is still standing just as it used to, with the inner and outer wall, with the "death strip" running in between. Throughout town you can see little pieces of the wall and it doesn't seem that intimidating, in fact, you think "what's the big deal" but when you see it all together like that it seems incredibly imposing and impossible to cross (though a few people did make it over the years).

All in all, Berlin far surpassed my expectations. The history was incredible and it was actually a very beautiful city in its own way. I think I learned more here than anywhere else and it really captivated my interest in a way that no other cities have on this trip. I hesitate to call it my favorite, but it was definitely the most interesting.

Well now we are off to our final overnight train (I have a bed, thank God) and we will awake in Brussels. One day there then we are off to Amsterdam tomorrow night for the rest of our stay. Home feels right around the corner (and thats a good thing). More later from the Red Light district.

I HATE mass transit!!!

Hey Bryce, so you've been away from home for over a month, what do you miss the most? Home cooked meals? NO...I don't cook so I never have them anyway. You're friends and family? No...that's what the blog is for. The awesome summer movies that you missing? The comfort of your own bed? Your roommates OC Season 1 DVDs? No no no, I miss but one thing and that is my CAR! And if you know me, you know I don't even like cars. I miss it not because I'm a car guy, or because of I have some great emotional attachment to my green Honda that I bought used, not even because I miss driving like last time I was out of the country for a long time. I'm just sick and tired of relying on other people's time schedules that will take me only relatively near where I want to go. If America is a land of liberty I am only just realizing why. Not because of freedom of religion and press and speech and all that crap, but because there I have the freedom to go where I want when I want and I MISS IT!!!

Ok, so I don't think the Monaco fiasco was ever fully explained on this board, but suffice it to say it was unpleasant. However, that story has now been rendered meaningless by my adventures over the last few days.

So we arrive in Venizia around 1:00pm to find that our hostel that is oh so convenient to the train station is not convenient to the actual Venice train station but to the Venice Mestre train station which is one stop out from the real Venice train station. I was more than a little disappointed to discover this, but no doubt we are saving lots of money and since trains run like every 15 minutes, this should be no big deal right? right! So we check in, I shower, Leo stuffs his face and we head to real Venice to see what its all about. Upon arrival we find each others moods to be sour and decide to split up and explore the labrynth that is Venice on our own (me with no map, but its not like they help anyway). So I wonder and wonder and I'm loving life and loving Venice and I'm seeing St. Mark's and I'm eating gelato and I'm searching for the library from Indiana Jones, you know typical Venice things that everyone does and loves cause you can't help but love Venice cause its one of the most perfect cities in the world (and contrary to popular belief it does not stink and believe you me, it was hot). Anywho, circe 6:30pm I'm relatively near the train station and I decide I'm pretty tired and I'm thinking, maybe I'll head home. But then I think, why? there's nothing at "home" for me, I'll just be heading back to a hot and crowded hostel room, why not stay and just soak up more Venice. Afterall having finished HPATHBP on our first night in Rome (though I still hesitate to open the board to full discussion out of respect for those who may still not have read it, but I will say this--WOW) I was no listening to Ender's Game on audiobook and I, of course was loving it. So why not just go sit down and listen to Ender's while I look out on the beauty that is Venizia? Reasonable thought right? NO, the worst decision of my life.

So I find a comfy little bench on the other side of San Marco, looking out on the large body of water (canal? bay? sea? i dunno) and I'm listening to my book and a cool wind is blowing and the sun is setting and Ender is kicking everyone's butts and life is nice! Around 8:00 I figure I'm ready to leave now and I start back, it is then that I'm struck with the brilliant idea to not go the way I came, but to "find a new way through Venice" (second worst decision I ever made). Well an hour and a half and about 10 miles of walking in circles (ie. passing the same point numerous times without meaning to!) I arrive at the train station around 9:30 to find that the trains are on strike! No trains til 9:00 the next night. Good GREAT GRAND! Now I have to take the bus back to Mestre. Which bus? I dunno. Which stop? I dunno. Where are the damn busses? I kinda know, but not really. So I follow the throngs of angry would-be train passengers to a huge bus parking lot and after my third attempt at talking to a bus driver and basically saying just "mestre?" I finally find one that is going there. After a 35 minute wait for a bus ticket and a 15 minute wait on the bus its pushing 10:30 and I'm on my way. To where? good question. The bus is soooooo crowded and the sun is now set and I have NO idea where I'm going. This becomes painfully obvious when about 25 minutes later I see out the window the old Mestre with an X through it sign that says we have left the city where I was supposed to get off, wonderful! At this point I assume/hope/pray that this bus route is a loop and that we will be going back to Mestre after a while. It is not for another hour when I'm the only person left from the soooooo crowded bus and the bus driver is pulling into a bus depot 18 km from Mestre that I realize it is NOT a loop and is stopping for the night way the freak out here and I am SCREWED. Now I'm looking at 11:45 and the bus driver is looking at an idiot. Thankfully the man is very very kind and offers to give me a ride to...somewhere, I don't know where because we don't speak the same language. But I figure anywhere is better than here and with reckless abandon I jump into the tiny tin can that he calls his car and he sets about a winding Italian path that is so incomprehensible to my feeble mind that I don't even try to follow the signs. As his speedometer needle hits 100 km/hr all I can think is I have no idea how fast that is, but can't you go faster? After about 20 minutes in silence (I don't know if he doesn't have a radio or if he was just trying to make it even more awkward) the bus drive (now, just a car driver) pulls over to the side of the road and tells me to wait here for 10 minutes and take the bus back to Venice. Well I don't want to go back to Venice, but again, anywhere is better than here. So I wait and wait...and wait and along comes a bus a good 23 minutes later. So I get on this bus, today having turned to tomorrow many minutes ago, but this time I ask the bus driver if he will be going near the Mestre train station, the only landmark I know in Mestre. He gives me an "ehh, kind of close" hand gesture and I feel relieved? no I think still just scared. So I find a seat on this bus, its easy today since there are only 5 of us on the bus and not two minutes pass before skeezy drunk Italian from the front has gotten up and decided to sit in the seat right next to me (why did I choose the window and not the aisle seat? why?) Skeezy, as I will now call him, speaks no English and I speak very poor "drunk italian" so everyword out of his mouth sounds like "I'm going to steal your money and stab you in the chest" and every word out of my mouth is "I don't understand you, I'm sorry, I don't..."

After a while, the driver announces that this is the closest to the the stazione as we're going to get and I get off. Skeezy comes with, talking to and touching me all the way down the long, dark street to the stazione. With every pat on the shoulder I all but feel his knife slicing my little american bones to bits. Skeezy is now in desperate need of a cigarrette and when I could not provide one he feels the need to ask every other person we see. I jump at each of these small pauses as a chance to lose him, but this proves easier said than done as he calls "amigo" everytime I get too far ahead (apparently he now speaks Spanish). As we get to the station I see a big pack of american looking kids and I contrive a plot to start talking to them as a way to get away from Skeezy, I'm now assuming/hoping/praying that they actually are american or at least speak english so my brilliant plan will work. As I walk toward them Skeezy lunges at the chance to ask like 15 more people for cigarrettes and I lunge at the chance to literally run through the empty train station to lose him.

Finally free of the scary Italiano I walk back to the hostel, where of course the reception desk is closed at just a little past 1:00 am and I have no way to get in, Leo having our only key. I walk down the block to where I think our room window would be and I start whisper yelling "leo, Leo, LEO" until the whisper is gone and only the yell remains, but there is no answer and I resign myself to the fact that I will sleep on the steps of my own hotel tonight. Only then an angel appears, oh wait, she's only some drunk Canadian thats staying at my hostel and has a key, close enough. I'm in and I'm alive! I go to the bathroom, only to come out in the hall and find Leo and some friends just coming back from some bar down the street and I forgive him for not answering my calls. With that I go to bed and Leo continues to party hard with the multitude of Canadians (and I think some Irish lasses, but I can't be sure).

So thats the greatest story I have from Venice. The next day I spent most of my time watching glass blowing on Murano, which was incredible, those guys are amazing, I also visited Burano, whose houses are really vivid and colorful, the islands had most of the charm of Venice without all the people and pollution, hard to beat, but not quite the excitement of Venice. All in all, I still love Venice, I just hate trains and busses.

If you need further proof of how much trains suck ask me about our overnight excursion from Venice to Munich last night. It made the last overnight with Bruce the babbling baboon seem like a night at the Ritz. The heat was enormous, the stench was suffocating and the seats were almost as comfortable as the beaches of Nice and almost as lovely as the Florence's Boboli desert (nice term Robin, thanks for the warning). I don't think either of us slept more than 30 combined minutes over the whole course of the trip. The one concillation was that part of the time we shared the cabin with one of the hottest girls I've ever seen (but no Mrs. Rohr, we didn't get any, unless Leo was very stealth during one of my 3 minute naps). I had been dreading this train ride and all of my nightmares proved true, save one. I assumed that the train ride would be so bad that it would ruin our one day in Munich. Afterall, I've been to Munich before and I didn't even really want to come again anyway. But I was so wrong.

Munich was nothing short of lovely. Hot, but lovely. Last time I was hear I was so engrossed in daytrips from Munich to castels and concentration camps and so obsessed with museums while I was actually in Munich that I pretty much missed the city for the sights. This time, following the same strict, no museum policy that served us well in Venice. We went on the Famous Mike's Bikes Tour. It was fun, not quite as spectacular as the brochures would have you believe, but fun. We watched the Glockenspiel (not fun). And after the tour I went swimming in a raging river of the coldest water I've every chosen to swim in--VERY fun. All in all, Munich far surpassed my expectations, so much so that I want to come back again, cause I've discovered that there is even more to be done. Tommorrow we head off to Wurzburg and then Berlin. I'm super-psyched about going to a couple of places I've never been before, really looking forward to Berlin.

Ok, I realize this blog is obscenely long, I hope you read it in two sittings, but I do want to add a few thoughts about Roma. Actually just one, I LOVE ROME! I always hear people say that "rome is too big" or "I prefer florence, it has more charm." (no, I'm not going to keep picking on Florence), but to all those people (Har-ho, were you one of them? I can't remember) I have to say that you are crazy loony idiots, what Rome lacks in charm it more than makes up for in grandeur and significance. Rome is a powerful place and you feel the power everywhere, from the Coloseum, huge Victor Emmanuel II memorial, to the Vatican, even the Trevi Fountain. Rome is awesome! And as Leo mentioned the gelato was superb! Having already spent a long time in Rome on my last European trip I made a real effort to see some stuff I missed before including the Borghese Gallery (which was cool, but not interesting to tell about) and this awesome crypt at a church whose name I forgot. The place was decorated with Bones and skeletons, not full of them like the catacombs in Paris, but decorated with them, like they had bone chandeliers and bone art on the walls, it was bonetastic (bonerific? bona fide?). Those two things along with Angels and Demons day, complete with a trip along the Passeto at Castel Sant Angelo, were the highlights of a pretty good stay in Rome. I think we were both tired the whole time and there is a lot of walking to be done in Rome, but it was great anyway.

Finally, I want to end this blog on a sad note. Several terrible things have happened to me lately for one I seem to have lost my Virginia Tech hat, though she was new for this trip, we had been through a lot together and I will miss her. Those of us who knew her will always remember how she never minded being stuffed in my bag when I didn't need her and of course how cute she was with that little Hokie bird head on her side, she is already missed but hopefully she will find a happy home at the bottom of some Venetian Canal, or where ever the heck she is. In even worst news, Venice will always be tarnished in my mind because it was the place where I finally was forced bow to the Italian authorities and pay to use the restroom. I swore I wouldn't do it, but that spicy little Kabab I had for lunch had other ideas. That kabab was delicious...but it was filling and when the time came it came hard and fast, alas, I lost a lot more than 50 cents on that trip to the bathroom, I lost a big old chunk of pride, ahhhh. I was thinking there was one other sad thing, but what can really compare to those two. Good night, thanks for reading and to Joe, good to know you're alive.

As always sorry for the typos, time pressure.

Leo's München Midnight top 10

10.There are certain things that certain posters should certainly not be inquiring. That is all I shall say about that
9.Lido-oh-oh-a-o-o-o
8.My new life dream is to be a postman in Venice.
7.Stealing Bryce's thunder with little gimpy post is fun
6.That girl on the train really was hot.
5.Joe! What a pleasant surprise.
4.I am the Half Blood Prince
3.Internet cafes that play nothing but 80s music rock my world.
2.Cacacazzo
1.How to tell the difference between male and female sharks...the two penises of course!

HELLO HELLO

Hello Hello (Roma)
Went to Estadio Olympico
I had no ticket for the U2 show
but then...it turns out...didn't need one
Neeeeeeed one

Wow, I don't know if a day has gone from suck to rock(literally) like today. Well this morning didn't suck really, I was just exhausted from the day before. Yesterday we did an Angels and Demons tour and actually went around to all the churches, fountains, obelisks, cathedrals, and sistine chapels that were in the book. It was really fun, and really tiring cause we walked all over the freakin city and back again. (Quick plug: Got some AWESOME gelato at this place called Della Palma that had over 100 flavors. Rockin!) But I digress.

So today I had planned to climb the 7 hills of Rome, but that plan went out the door when I barely made it up the first one. I dragged myself through the Forum and Colliseum and then had to go back to the hostel for a nap. Then at 8:00 I headed over to the Estadio Olympico where U2 was playing. Now some of you may know that we tried uber hard to get tickets for this show, sitting on the internet for hours battling with Italian ticketmaster that apparently had no love for Americans. Obviously we didn't get tickets, but I thought I'd go over there and just check out the scene, maybe score a ticket off someone who was trying to get rid of it cheap. When I got there, I found I didn't even need a ticket cause you could hear perfectly well right outside the stadium. In fact there was a whole separate crowd chillin out on the grass clapping, cheering and singing along just as if they were inside. I happily joined this party and rocked out for the entire show...or at least most of it.

When the encore started with With Or Without You, the gates were magically opened and people started flooding in. Naturally I followed and managed to slip in just before the guards slammed the door shut again. We were all running wild in there rushing up to the stands to get a view. So I got to see the rest of WOWY, All Because of You, Yahweh, and a rockin finale of Vertigo. It was so awesome, and worth the 2 hour walk home since all public transit had closed. haha.

Goodnight

Sorry Jenny, but Florence SUCKS!

Well I don't suppose we can blame the city for it being 8 million degrees or the hostelbeinga thousand miles from nowhere or even the fact that there are 800,000 other tourists here, but can and WILL blame them for having the worst public transportation, the rudest ticket sellers/takers, and the most jackassy wannabe policemen in the world.

Today was one of or fullest days of touring of the whole trip and while there were some great times in the middle a day that sucks at the beginning and sucks at the end pretty much sucks.

We are lucky to not be in jail right now, or dictating this to a court stenographer, but before we get to or run in with la polizia a word about our hostel. As mentioned its about a million miles away and once you get to it it is down about a 40 mile winding driveway (just kidding...but not really). And it seems that there reception desk policy is to have at least four people standing around while you wait 20 minutes to find out where the laundry room is. To boot, the place is huge and filled to capacity with Canadian high school girls that want a piece of Leo and his harry potter, the shower privacy curtains are seemingly made of 2 square inches of Saran wrap, and th breakfast greeting us prior to 9:00 am consists of nice hard bread and...well, nice hard bread.

That being said we join our heroes as they get on the morning bus to town. With no apparent method of purchasing a ticket, and having ridden last night without incident, we embarked about our day delighted with the free bus system. When we finally got to the very stop where we were intending to get off we were greeted by a not so friendly bus conductor who was informing us that said busses were not in fact free. As we tried to purchase a ticket from him he only insisted that we hand over or passports. Through my protest that we ought not need a passport to buy a simple bus ticket Leo shrewedly informed the man that or passports were back at or hostel and not tucked neatly under or belts as per usual. In an effort to skirt the law we got off the bus but were promptly pursued by our new friend and his accomplice from Hell. They quickly (and repeatedly) informed us that a fine of 45 euros EACH must certainly be imposed. We feigned ignorance (this not being very hard after a combined 48 years of experience between us) pretending not to understand their broken English and pleading for clemency. Whispered ideas of flight were passed between the two of us, unbeknownst to our captors, who were busy with "calls to the police." When their threatening calls went conveniently unanswered down at the station they became more willing to deal. We were able to plea bargain our way to a two-for-one deal and with Leo still desperately wanting to flee, I jumped at the chance to cut or losses and move on with or day (remember that we have a 3 plus hour queue at the Uffizi waiting for us). I was the lucky one to whom the "officers" addressed the ticket so I signed it with my super-secret alias and we went about our day.

We rushed to the Uffizi and the line did not disappoint, so we scored reserved tickets for tomorrow. We then set about enjoying secret passageways at the Palazza Vecchio., 2.50€ calzones for lunch, a free english tour of possibly made up facts with a spunky (if toothy) Brit, the tombs of lots of famous people at Santa Croce, and the dry, desert wasteland of the Boboli Gardens in summer (though we did catch a glimpse into Beas' future--postcard pending). After a long and ardous walk we scored a beautiful and peaceful sunset at the Piazza Michealangelo, which was gorgeous if yo could block out the throngs of idiot americans surrounding us.

The walk home was tough, made tougher by spicy (but filling) kababs and Leo's refusal to use the bathroom all day. Naturally we found our selves having to wait copious ammounts of time for the Bus from hell that was, of course,entirely full when we got on.

But now we're home and we gotta go, more later from Roma

been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time

well...not really lonely, I just thought it worked well off Bryce's post. So how's it going? Got a lot of stuff to catch up on so I'll try to make it quick

1-getting from Pamplona to Barcelona was as bad as San Fermines was good. We grosly underestimated the train situation and ended up spending countless(well, 9) hours on the slowest ass regional train that even made stops at ghost towns. I kid you not, some of these places had no building with all 4 walls. Picture the tumbleweed.

2-Barcelona sucked then rocked. First of all we had to climb a mountain to get to our hostel. No Fun. Then we spent a day walking around trying to find museums that weren't there (thanks a lot Let's Go) and movies that weren't in english, or were sold out. We did see super cute penguins at the biggest aquarium in Europe. Extra credit; How do you tell the difference between male and female sharks? Answer for bonus points. Correct answer will be provided in the next post
The second full day in Barcelona was sweet because we split up and did what the other didn't really want to do. For me that ment hiking up Tibidabo..but that's a story for another time(right Big A and Jody?). I also went to a sweet Chocolate or Xocolate museum and had the best hot chocolate of my life. It was more like a melted chocolate bar than milk and powder. Really good!

3-We continued our journey via cramped and overpriced sleeper train to pretty but overpriced Geneva. Bryce loved it, so read his post. I loved this art and history museum where I got to see some of the 18th Century French artists that I missed in the Louvre. They also had an entire wing devoted to prehistory. Sigh.

4-The train ride from Geneva to Chamonix was amazing as the train took us right up and through the alps. Some great views. Chamonix was enjoyed via the awesome concrete luge and incredible gondola ride past Mont Blanc and into Italy.

5-We completed our 4 different countries in 4 days with our long trek down the foothills of the alps and to the bus station that would get us to the train station that would get us to Torino. Home of the coming winter olympics, we had just enough time to see the shroud of turin, or at least a picture of it, the "ultra modern" Olympic atrium (actually quite cool) and the nice balcony off our room in the hostel, which was again, up a freakin mountain. Gosh!

6-Nice was nice. HAHA bet I'm the first one ever to use that joke! It wasn't great, but it didn't suck either(the latter mostly resulting from magical reasons). We heard the beaches were rocky, but no one told us they were bouldery! What gives people? The water was delicious, apart from the random hot and cold spots that seemed to drift by and definitely DEFINITELY had no relation to urine. Most of the first evening I dedicated to finding a book shop where I could obtain The Half Blood Prince, and much to my delight I found one fairly quickly. I made my date with felix felicis for 9:30 the following morning at the resident Virgin Megastore. We literally acted out the plot of You've Got Mail, snubbing the quaint and Potter-banner adorned "shop around the corner"(seriously it was right around the block) for the big bad superstore. Don't hate, it was Bryce's money and it was 12 euros cheaper, which means what, 80 dollars now? So Potter was obtained and read for half the day at the beach, when I wasn't shifting my towel over the quarry. We spent the afternoon, and the evening, and the night in Monaco. Apparently there is no 12:20 train back to Nice. Charlie et la Choclaterie was pleasant enough, though I like the original version better. Pure Imagination ya know. Sleeping on a lounge chair with posh cars revving by and posh cops pretending not to see you wasn't as glamorous as it sounds. It was basically uncomfortable and cold.

7-5 Terre are pretty damn nice. Wish we had more time here about as much as I wish it hadn't been slightly rainy all day today. That didn't stop me from hiking to all five terres, spotting dozens of salamanders, getting great and cheap gelato, reading more Potter, sweating my ass off despite the absence of sun, and buying more peaches. Damn I love peaches! I think I've had more of them on this trip than in my whole life.

8-Off to Florence by way of Pisa tomorrow. We've crossed the halfway point which these girls who obviously wanted me for my Potter on the Nice beach said would mean that the trip starts flying by. It hasn't thus far, which is awesome. Time for another poll, and we'd better get better(that sounds dumb) results this time!

What do you want more of in the next blog?
1-Funny conversations we have with people
2-Detailed measurements of the leaning tower's angle to the ground
3-Detailed account of the hottest girl we see from now till blog
4-Most characteristic Italian curse word
5-Other

A quick thanks to everyone who has posted, especially to you mom. That poem was kick ass in every way. They're only possessions right? Love ya. Big A it's definitely "But the talent show is tomorrooooow!" Hope everything is well in Williamsburg.

For the record, I am taking my time with this Potter and am currently on page 443, so no posting spoliers! This is mostly for Bryce "I read slower than that train from Pamplona" Lyle's benefit, but still, let's have some courtesy for the weary travellers.

Ciao

Been a Long Time

I hope there is still someone checking this blog. We are very afraid that weàve neglected the blog so long that our adoring fans will all give up on us. But we're back (well, I am, Leo will be back in a day or two)

I've got a lot to cover and internet is expensive here, so rather than the minute-by-minute account that you've come to expect from me, perhaps I'll just give you this jist this time.

So we went from Pamplona to Barcelona. The trip was HORRIBLE, very long and very hot and when we finally got there, we had to walk a very long way up a very big hill to get to our hostel which was very big (but actually quite beautiful). I was so dead tired by the time we got there (remember we didnàt sleep the night before and had to guard our lives against bulls that morning) that I was pretty much speaking in tongues to the reception woman. So we pretty much went right to bed. We woke up to our first day in Barcelona and it turned out to be only so-so (ok, it basically sucked). We walked through a big park that was ok and had an ok view. Then we went to Las Ramblas which had a lot of ok street preformers. We went to an aquarium that was pretty much ok, though it did have a really really long underwater tunnel thing, longest in Europe!). We then spent the next, oh i don't know, two hours looking for a modern art museum that no longer exist (thanks Let's Go), some of that time was spent in the rain, YAY. We finally gave up on the modern art and started to head back to our hostel when I decided that there was only one man that could save our day...Tom Cruise. We made a great effort to see WOTW in English, but it was all to no avail, which only made the day worse. The second day, we pretty much had no desire to hang around with each other and have another sucky day, so we split up and both enjoyed ourselves nicely. Leo went hiking up Mt. Tibidabo, ala Joey Tribiani, but he can tell you about that. I spent most of the day at the Sagrada Familia, this incredible church that's been in construction since like 1906. I can't wait to go back in 2045 to see it completed.

We then took a ridiculously priced sleeper train to Geneva. We were joined by a dude named Bruce and Bruce liked to talk...a lot. And Bruce liked to talk in the third person and I think we all know what that is like. So basically, Bryce was getting angry, but I hid behind my Harry Potter book (still book 5 at this point) until the conductor put down our beds. We got to Geneva, very early and had a long time to see the city. The thing about Geneva is that it is GORGEOUS, buuuut there wasn't a whole lot to do. The city is so pretty and its really into organizations that help people, its known for having the headquarters of the Red Cross and the UN (yea, I thought it was in NYC too, but apparently they need to buildings in which to do absolutely nothing). As you know, Leo and I could basically care less about helping people, so we decided not to tour either of those. After a while of walking around parks and discovering that War of the Worlds was going to be way too expensive we split up again. I took a little mini train tour, actually it wasnàt a train at all, just a line of little cars designed to look like a train, I felt like a little kid going to see Santa at Regency Mall or something. Then I went to the top of the church of course and even spent some time looking at an archeological site under the church (less than fascinating). Then I spent mos tof my time in a big park that had old men playing chess, a big monument to the reforms (like their boy John Calvin) and a big outdoor art display of that guy who takes those rreally cool pictures of earth from above (someone reading has to know his name, could you post it for me? thanks).

Next morning we took off to Chamonix and Europe's tallest mountain. The train ride was cool and our hostel and very cool ski-lodge vibe. Chamonix reminded me an awful lot of the New France part of Busch Gardens. It was a great town. We spent the afternoon walking around searching for a summer luge course that Carrie had told me about. We got off the train at the wrong spot and had to basically use the force to get there - and it actually worked! Luging was awesome! Next day was all about the hug mountain and it was beautiful! I was all about getting up early and seeing the views before the clouds set in. Leo was all about sleeping. So I got up about 5:45 and took the lift up early. I got to the top of Augille Du Midi (right beside Mt. Blanc) about 7:00 and I had about 2 huors before Leo joined me. I don't know the words to describe the mountains and the views, but they were big and pretty, use your thesaurus to make it more elaborate. The gondola ride to Italy was cool, not as scary as I had imagined. We spent that night in Torino, a city in which Olympic Fever is epedimic. We saw the Shroud of Turin (well a picture of it, its well hidden in the church) and it was so crazy, I just donàt know what to believe about this stuff.

Then we were off to Nice. More beaches, this time rocky, like rocks, no sand, rocks. Not the msot comfortable Iàve ever been, but neat. The most important thing about Nice was that we scored Harry Potter 6 on opening day. (Leo is upstairs finishing it as I type, I'm about 130 pages in and if Jamey gives anything more away about it I will kill him!). Went spent the day on the beach reading Harry, I was still finishing 5, Leo starting 6 and believe it or not, in response to your question, HP proved a great pick-up line. I was actually asked by a hot (well cute) Canadian "which Potter is that?" "oh, uh, this is 5, but my friend is reading 6" "oh my gosh is it out already?!?!? where can I buy it?" "I can show you, baby..." and you can imagine where it went from there (yea, nowhere, but we saw her later at the hostel and sho nuf she had bought it). So we spent that night in Monaco, on the beach, cause we got stuck there, but thats a long story and I gotta keep you reading.

Since Nice, we've been in Cinque Terre, but I'm too tired and hungry and poor to continue typing now, so we'll hit you up on that later. Tomorrow we are off to Pisa and Florence, can't wait to see if that tower is still leaning or if its been fixed.

Ciao for now.

ps. Carrie, mom said you rocked out on Sunday, where can I buy the dvd? I'm assuming you'll be donig that again after I return right?

1002 perfect bodies...but where?

So Leo has called blogging rights on Pamplona (which was muy caliente!) so I get to catch you up on all the other stuff we did leading up to the big run.

When last we left you your two young heroes were sitting in an internet cafe in Blois, Fr just about to watch the greatest bicycle race in the world. So we the shifty little Blois internet place and rode our bikes (butts still VERY sore from the previous day´s marathon) to Leo´s favorite place we´ve been so far - the Champion Supermarche. Champion is a very popular French grocery store and Leo loves it. I feel only slight more uncomfortable in French grocery stores than I do in American ones, so if you know my disdain for grocery stores you know how much I like Champion. But we got to ride along the Tour De France path to get there and we scored some cheap lunch (and I FINALLY drank some milk on this trip). It turns out that Champion is a major sponsor of the Tour and they were having a pretty big party out in front of their store. We couldn´t sneak into this exclusive shin-dig, but we set up across the street on a sunny hill and got ready to watch the race come around a curve. About two hours before the race started coming through the parade started. When I say parade, I mean, of course, speeding minivans and trucks with all manor of advertisements, most of them throwing candy and random stuff out at the audience. It was fun trying to catch this stuff as it flew at us. Leo made a couple good grabs and I snatched some lanyard out of the hands of an eager 5 year old (haha, that´ll teach him to react quicker next time). So when the riders finally did come they came in packs cause this was a team time trial day. I think there were 19 teams each with 8 or 9 riders or so. I watched the first two teams ride by from the hill and then decided that I wanted to see some different views. Leo was chill on the hill and decided to stay there so we split up (with no real plan of how to get back together). I rode back along the path that we had come up on stopping every 10 minutes or so to see the next team fly by. It was great. In the actual city they had to make tight turns and they were flying by! So I just kept riding and I ultimately made it to the finish line. I was near the finish line for the last three or four teams, including Lance and the Discovery team. It was great at the line, because they had a huge jumbotron to follow the action. It was neat to see the teams coming on tv and then watch them fly by. When the TV announce said ¨Lance Armstrong¨ the place just exploded. He was extremely popular, especially with the ridiculous number of Texans that were there. So Lance and company flew by and set the best time of the day. From then the suspense was on, the last team was on pace to beat them, but about 2 km from the finish the leader (yellow jersey) fell! No one else on the team was involved and they kept on trucking, but they came in under a second slower than the Americans so we won...and there was much rejoycing (Sheryl Crow was going crazy on the jumbotron). American flags came out of nowhere and everyone was screaming and going crazy. It was at this point that I went and rode around the big press area trying to find where all the riders were. I failed miserably and having made it all the way around to the other side I gave up hope of seeing anyone cool. Just then I saw a couple guys ride by in Discovery jerseys, so I pushed up further to see what was up and here come Lance Armstrong, sitting on a bike and surrounded by body guards Lance rides about 6 feet in front of me, I struggled to get a pic, but only got the back of his head. I looked over and saw that there was a big stage to my left so I hung around there and watched Discovery team get their rewards for winning the stage, then Lance came back out and put on the yellow jersey since he had just taken the lead. It was awesome. I hung out for a while longer and then circled around and headed back to town, now riding in the actual path of the Tour, only in reverse. I went back to the bike place to turn it in and found Leo there. We said our sad goodbyes to the Bike Girl that I was in love with and headed back to the hostel.

The next day was a travel day. We couldn´t get a train to Biarritz til 2:00 so we got up leisurely and headed to check out the town of Blois. We actually had the good fortune to see my Bike Girl again as we asked her to hold our bags for use (which of course she did cause she was just the sweetest little thing). So we walked around town, so a couple 600 year old cathedrals, did some window shopping, walked up 80 million steps, you know, same old same old. The highlight of the day for me was when I went to Dominoes to get a 2 euro pizza that I had seen advertised (as it turns out you had to buy one at regular price to get one for 2 euros, so I ended up getting two pizzas). As good as two pizzas is, that wasn´t the highlight. The guy working their had studied in America for two years (Oklahoma City, no less) and he was more than eager to have the chance to speak english. He just kept talking and talking, much to the delight of the other guy working their who thought our English conversation was the most amazing thing. The guy talked to me about the Michael Jackson trial ("its no coincidence that he got off on all 10 major charges!" he said, clearly an MJ fan), his lack of trust in the American media, and of course his dislike of "W Bush." (the other guy working there told me he didn´t care about "W Bush," he didn´t care about Chirac, he only cared about two things, money and women - oh and he loved Mariah Carey). While I thought I was going to miss my train from this guy talking my ear off it was interesting to hear this french take on "W" and the war, given that you hear about French objections all the time.

The rest of the day was spent on two trains and we arrived in Biarritz that night. Our hotel greeted us with but one double bed and I realized quickly that I would be spending the night in much closer proximity to Leo than I ever wanted to. But it had a private shower and even a TV (half french and half spanish, no english). We threw our stuff down, watched some TV, and set out to see what these French beaches looked like. I really enjoyed the first night, it was still light (cause it never gets dark over here) and there were people surfing at like 10:30. We got some ice cream and walked down on the beach, all of it very romantic except for the aforemention close proximity to Leo.

Next day was all about some beach. The weather was so-so. Sometimes sunny, sometimes kinda cloudy. Even in the sun the constant breeze kept it cool. Not cold by any means, but not hot. The beach was packed by mid-day, bodies everywhere. There were definitely 1000 bodies, but only like 2 were perfect, this was a bit of a disappointment, but it was still a good time. Paddle Ball and topless sunbathing were both quite popular beach activities. But just like paddle ball, the topless sunbathing wasn´t as fun as I expected. It turns out that the only women who don´t mind showing off their boobs, don´t have boobs worth showing off, but oh well. I went for a swim and the waves were HUGE, biggest I´ve ever been in (yea yea Beas, I know you saw bigger ones, ok), but the swimming area was really limited cause certain stretches were saved for surfers and stuff. So we were pretty much crammed in. I did a little bid of body surfing, but you had to go WAY out to get to the big waves (my mom and Ellen would have been screaming at me from the shore) and when I got to them I was too scared they were going to kill me. We hung out at the beach most of the day and then headed back to our hotel and watched some french and spanish reporters talk about the day´s tragic events in London. I took a walk that night to a lighthouse down at the end of the beach (where I saw a girl walking her dog, that I immediately fell in love with).

We went to bed that night hoping that we were prepared for the journey that would be Pamplona. Leo will take it from there.

This blog feels particularly long (and probably quite boring) but thanks to everyone who is posting back to us. We love to hear what ya´ll think and what´s going on at home, so if you´ve been posting keep it up and if you haven´t, get your act together! It feels like we´ve been gone for ever, the days are so long over hear, even just the running of the bulls feels like weeks ago and that was just yesterday. Tomorrow we have one more day in Barcelona and then an overnight train to Geneva. Will write again soon. Look forward to hearing from you (and don´t forget to put your name with your post, these anonymous one´s are tough to figure out).

Mayhem and Mulletts

Buenas Noches amigos!

I am here to tell the tale of the best thing we´ve done so far (I know I just said that about something else and I might say it again about something different, but for now...). Let me preface this with the fact that we are still alive and have no holes. I hope none of you worried about London, we were far away. But the bombings were on all the news channels here (we watched in Spanish and French trying to pick up details). It´s not really affecting day to day life that much. There are no tanks in the street or police checking under our beds, but we´re not in London, so I don´t know how it is there. As Tony and the Queen said though, the Brits will push on and not change their ways. We´re happy they got the Olympics, though we do feel bad for Paris. We definitely noticed how hard both of the cities were pushing for it.

So back to where Bryce left off. We trained it to San Sebastian from Biarritz and then hoped a sweet 6 euro bus to Pamplona. Actually a really nice kid (FROM THE OC!) saw us looking bewildered at the bus station and showed us how to get tickets. He and his four friends took time off from playing water polo and bruising geeky emo kids to tour around europe after graduation.

As we arrived in Pamplona we noticed that everyone (literally everyone) in the city was wearing all white with red bandanas and red sashes. So we figured we had to get them or we would look like complete tourist tools. So we scored some cheap gear(white capri pants for me! another dream realized) headed over to the tourism office looking official. On the way we were nearly run over by giant saints and heads walking down the street. There were also guys wearing these horse costumes running around and beating unsuspecting kids on the head with this foam bopper. It was hilarious!

So we wandered all over the old quarter of the city(ground zero for San Fermines celebrations) soaking in the days events. There was pretty much a constant parade going somewhere with amazing marching bands playing amazing mariachi type music. And people just follow them around dancing through the streets. Whenever we heard the horns sounding we would instinctively flock to the scene. We also witnessed traditional flute dancing and even got on the channel 6 evening news(they had a today showesque set up with the crowd behind their newsdesk)!

Random list of things we saw...man pissing on the outside of a port-o-jon, kid throwing the biggest tantrum ever and throwing himself down on the filthy street and rubbing the filth onto him,

This might be a good time to fill you in on the fact that the entire city became a toilet during this festival. There was no regard for where one chose to go to the bathroom and no attempt to hide the fact that one was going. I still smell the urine on our shoes, and this is after I cleaned them thoroughly with Bryce´s toothbrush.

back to the list...MULLETS. Mullets were everywhere, and mostly on girls! I couldn´t believe it. I don´t know if this is a new fad or if they never went out of style here, but it is not a good thing. A lot of otherwise attractive women were rendered ungogglable and I won´t even get into the unattractive ones. I hope this is a phenomenon that contains itself to northern Spain, for the sake of people everywhere.

Night fell on the city and the festival seemed to double in size. During the day there was a good mix of young and old and in between. During the night it was mainly young adults doing things that young adults like to do. The streets were packed, bars overflowing, bands playing in every plaza, street vendors selling t-shirts sweatshirts and yes...red berets, food vendors, street performers, Indians playing flute music(Bill!), more Indians playing flute music(like every other corner). Mardi Gras has nothing on this!

We had no place to stay so we tried sleeping in an old fort in the middle of the town but they kicked us out of it and we got seperated in the mileu of avoiding the authorities(Bryce meekly turned himself in whereas I made a dash for it...and escaped!) So I walked around all night huddled in my new red sweatshirt for warmth, cause it got cold! Apparently Europe didn´t get the memo that it´s summertime. I tried to dance for warmth in the makeshift disco they established but couldn´t keep that up all night. In the end I drifted over to the start of the run, curled up in a little ball and maintained just enough consciousness to not get pissed on.

I met Bryce and oddly enough, the OC dudes over at the starting line of the run. Crowds gathered atop walls and windows lining the street and the runners convened. I was shocked by how packed the street was with runners. There was literally no room to run cause it was wall to wall people. We chose to run right at the beginning where they release the bulls, and I think it ended up being a good choice. We were right beside a shrine to San Fermin, the patron saint of the town and the festival. So just before 8:00 all the runners start this chant to the shrine and we were right there in the thick of it. The runners really got hyped up by this and a loud gun went off signalling that the bulls were coming. I turned around and found that the packed street had thinned out a bit, given that people had turned tail and started flying down the street. So I did the same and just started booking it! After about 15 seconds I finally look back and just in time! Five bulls are flying up on my right side. I slide over to let them pass and then keep running after them. It was so exciting!! I stopped and got my bearings, found Bryce who was right nearby and then heard another gunshot. Seconds later another pack of bulls came hurling up the street and there was a mad throng of freaked out dudes pushing to get out of the way! After this surprising second wave passed we sprinted after them just in case more were coming and to soak up the rest of the route!

No more bulls came, but I was definitely riding a huge rush. I checked my pulse 45 minutes later and it was still above normal. We were never in any real danger either, though I can´t say that about everyone that ran. We saw a replay on a giant screen, and one guy got dragged about a block when a horn went through his shirt. He seemed ok, but still, that had to suck!

We left the festival tired but in high spirits. This is truly something that everyone should experience. The people there were having so much fun and was transfered through the festival. You couldn´t help but have a good time when old men are singing and babies are dancing and everyone gets dressed up to get down! I had such a good time!

Tour de Loire

Sooooo,

Lots to catch up on since we haven't been near a computer in days. Leaving Paris was easy and getting to Mont St Michel was uneventful. So why put that in here? Good question. Mont St Michel was very beautiful and we had an excellent tour in English by this blue haired french guy who Bryce immediately fell in love with. I'll admit, he was funny...

Our hostel in Pontroson/Mont St Michel was the best yet! Very friendly and cute staff, who Bryce immediately fell in love with. We finally got a chance to watch a little tv. This French reality show that was kind of a Legends of the hidden Temple for adults(if you remember that show). we also caught a bit of Lost in French! Huzzah!

The train ride to Blois was super long and basically took up the whole day, though we did do laundry(much needed) and some shopping at the local supermarche before we left. I really loved looking around the supermarche to see the different things. On the train we met a lovely French girl named Julie, pronounced zhulie, who was from Le Mans. She works for the train and told us all about the 24 hours of Le Mans(happy now Chuck?) Naturally, Bryce fell immediately in love with her. She did give us a postcard and signed it in French. Someone who knows more than us will have to explain if she cussed us out or not.

We arrived in Blois without knowing where our hostel was or the number or address. I know I know; Stupid Bryce. So we started walking in the direction a city map told us to go. We had gotten about a quarter centimeter on the map when a car pulled up and said "going to the auberge de juenesse?" We immediately yelled back YES OUI and he said Get In!!! OH MY GOD I LOVE FRENCH PEOPLE! I don't know where the stereotype came from but it is WRONG. Turned out we would have been walking for about 3 miles more with our packs so he basically saved our lives.

The next day we got the fantastic idea to rent bikes and ride around the valley to different chateaus. Bryce was all about this at the beginning of the day and could not have been less about it by the end. We ended up biking about 70 km the last 10 in the driving freezing rain. I LOVED IT! Well maybe not all of it (our asses do not love us right now), but before it rained it was so beautiful to bike through the countyside. It was like our English walk but better. And I think that in the long run, the hardships at the end(soreness, exhaustion, sleet and snow and all uphill) will make the journey more rewarding and a better story. We did see 5 chateus on the ride;first the glorious and monstrous Chambord, which was one of Bryce's three must hit spots for the trip. It was pretty awesome and while he was being a dork and listening to the lame audio tour, I was examining the fascinating modern art displays that they had arranged throughout the castle. A very interesting dichotomy with the historic and modern. Next was Cheverny, which was less impressive but had great gardens. The other three we basically just rode by, BUT THEY COUNT!

So today is the Tour De France and the town is buzzing! They haven't had it come through here in decades. we still have our bikes and hope to ride around and catch as much as possible. Then tomorrow it's on to the beach and 1,002 perfect bodies and then to Pamplona. Probably won't be able to post again until Barcelona(and we might be gored by then), so if this is goodbye...it's been fun.

p.s. happy late birthday to Sam...and America

Paris part deux

Bonjour all,

First of all let me apologize for Bryce's post yesterday(even though it wasn't that bad was it? C'mon let's hear it for Bryce(yay)). He was unprepared (thinking I was going to type but then I forced it on him when a cute girl started talking to us(me)) and rushed (20 minutes on a timed card seems like a lot, but really isn't). Nevertheless he did our first full day in Paris justice.
Yesterday (the 30th) we were forced to rise early so they could close off our room and bang and pound on the walls to somehow make our hostel safer. I saw no change when we returned. The good news from this was that we got to the Louvre very early and had literally no line for the Mona Lisa, or La Jocunde as they call it here. Let me say, it's famous for a reason. It's magnificent! I won't bore you with the Louvre though, you've either seen it and know how big and awesome it is, or someone has told you how big and awesome it is. I tried to lose Bryce in the ancient mesopotamia wing but he found me at the pyramide inversee so it obviously isn't big enough. I will say that the whole French wing was closed off(what gives, have they no pride?) so I couldn't see my beloved Watteaus and Bouchers.
We strolled through the Tuilleries gardens and then went to see the Rodin Museum featuring the Thinker and about 50 other nude dudes in poses you never see in real life. Feeling very tired from climbing everything in sight the previous day, we sat in the Rodin gardens for a bit trying to think of something that didn't require energy. What you say? A boat tour down the Seine?? That's exactly what we thought!
It was cool to see all the buildings from the river that we saw from the sky, and our tour guide did the whole thing in French, English, Spanish, and Italian. Tres Impressive. We went to St. Michel via the light rail (called RER) which kicks the Metro's ass in comfortability, style and speed. And both trains are included in our three day pass that we got. We also got the three day museum pass which gets us into almost all the museums here in Paris and lets us skip the ticket lines. St. Michel is in the Latin quarter near our hostel, full of restaurants and shops. We looked around for a while(stopping in another Gap, geez their capri pants are expensive!) before deciding on a quiet little French restaurant. It wasn't quite dinner time, which isn't really until 8 or 9 here(really I saw a family with 8 yr olds having dinner and sipping wine at about 11:30 the other night), so the place was virtually empty. Still they manage to sit us at a table directly next to an occupied one. Have they heard of personal space here?? Anyway, apparently they know what they are doing because we had a delightful meal talking to this Brazilian man who is in Paris studying law. He gave us Brazilian geography and travel lessons (Lesson 1-Amazonia is HUGE! Lesson 2-The beaches in North East Brazil are the best in the world. Lesson 3-Brazil's futbol team is the best in the world. As he spoke French and English, he helped us with the menu. I ordered escargo(which was really good. Really.), duck, and creme brulee, oh and wine. Oui! Bryce got (French) Onion Soup, steak, and creme brulee as well. I must say we couldn't have been happier with our big French dinner.
Today we split up to get more stuff done and have a pleasant solo experience. I went to the tropical aquarium, the Musee d'Orsay, Luxembourg gardens(seeing old men playing boules), and the Pantheon. I'm not sure what Bryce did so he'll have to tell you, but it's probably lame and has to do with some old king's velvet-lined sock drawer. Tomorrow we leave Paris for Mont St. Michel which should be fantastic. Gotta find our departure time now so until next time...

Leo Snaileater

Paris is to Die For

If you have not already read Leo's post from today, skip immediately to it and come back to mine later.

Ok, I must start by apologizing for yesterday's post, I was incredibly hurried, unprepared, and distracted by the fact that Leo was getting his mack on with a hot girl from UC Berkley (start singing "Californiaaaaa, Californiaaa..." at your leisure), I was also carrying the heavy burden of trying to please our fan base, one of who had just called me out for not being funnier in an email, on the fly. Today should be better and shorter. However, this dang French keyboard is not the same and it is really really difficult to type. (in case I don't catch my mistakes q=a and ,=m those are the major differences causing ,e problems so fqr.

So as you just read in Leo's post we split up at the begining of the day to do our own things. I went straight for the Catacombs. There was a warning sign at the door that the path was 1.7 km and included 130 steps going down and 83 going up (which really concerned me cause I didn't want to end up only 2/3 of the way back to ground level. I put that behind me and headed down a long spiral staircase. Luckily, I am quite used to long spiral staircases in Paris now, but this one was particularly narrow. When I got to the bottom there was no tour and nobody, so I just started walking...and walking...and walking. I saw nothing and noone, so I just kept walking. I had all but resigned myself to the fact that the Catacombs were just a very long underground hallway with nothing really to see (though I was taking some pleasure in imagining the French resistance running around in these tunnels unknown to the Nazis above) when I came upon a sign that said "Boulevard Du Mort" or something like that. From that point for the next half a mile or so both sides of the very long hallway were completely covered with bones and skulls. I mean completely covered with tightly and neatly packed bones and skulls. Thousands upon thousands of 200 year old bones and skulls. Now, on top of these piles the bones appeared to be just lying around and I was unable to resist the temptation to pick up an old skull. I IMMEDIATELY regretted that decision! From the very second of contact with the 200 year old skull my hand seemed nothing short of repulsive and I was overcome by the notion that I was now infected with the plague (yes, I know the plague was not in the 1800s, but it just felt that way. My hand was immediately quarrantined to my pocket for the rest of the day (since I was stuck in a mile long tunnel without the handy hand sanitizer that the Snooks gave me). I finally made it out of the Catacombs and headed to my other priority sight of the day, the Conciergie (the place where over 3,000 "enemies of the state" (including Mary Antoinette and Maximillien Robspeirre) were executed by guillotine. This was located on the same island as Notre Dame and it was very cool. It was an old palace that had been turned into a jail and it was in the same complex as the Parisien Court building and a very old Cathedral that had been built to house Jesus's crown of thorns. So I strolled through the cathedral while I was there and it had the most incredible stained glass I have ever seen. From there I grabbed some lunch at Quick (like French McDonalds, just as plentiful) I decided to try the "Chicken Supreme" which I have seen advertised in Quick windows all over Paris. It was not until my first bite did I realized that "supreme" is the French word for "make me want to puke." My typical fast food chicken was covered in a sauce that was anything but special. Trying to fit in, I ate as ,uch as I could, but ultimately I had to take a napkin to that thing and clear it off. I went back on to the island looking for the Notre Dame Crypte and saw that they were about to have a service called the Veneration of the Crown of Thorns, so I went in and watched. It was a neat service with beautiful organ ,usic and french singing, but I'm still undecided one whether or not I believe that what I was looking at was the actual 2000 year old crown that Christ wore when he died (Jamey, maybe you or some other Catholic out there can help me know whether I should believe that). From there I took a quick look at the Crypt and upon reading a plague that contained the words "ice age" I realized this place was more for Leo than it was for me so I went to the Musee D'Orsay and took in magnificent art, before taking a quick stroll through the Luxembourg Gardens (where they were preparing for a concert and blasting "Gangsta Paradise") and coming here. Tonight is our last night in Paris then off to Mt. St. Michel. So good bye Paris and hello the rest of our trip.

ps. I must tell you that we are both very disappointed in the poll results so far. I'm assuming that your silence means that you all understand that the rooms where Winston Churchill saved the world are so far superior to a fake Dineyland version of the Globe that you need not even respond, BUT if we don't get a higher participation on our next poll the blog is in danger of losing that feature all together, so lets get on it people!

Jour De Triumphe

We are happy to announce that we have arrived in gay Paris and it is as gay as advertised! We ended up taking a late train from Paris to London and we got here about 7:30pm and I had absolutely no buying power. My credit card AND atm were blocked and we had just spent all our pounds are were frantically searching for Euros. I was therefore relying on Rohr to buy for me and we all know that's not a good thing. After a low-key night of finding our hostel, getting me some cash and eating a panini we hit the beds in preparation for a big next day. (awesome side note: one of our roomies was a non-Parisian frenchman and the other was a Hokie!)

So we got up around 8:00 on Wed. and went gang busters. Our Hokie friend suggested that we start at the the Eiffel Tower to get a good sense of the city, so we did. As the elevator rose more and more fear mounted in the eyes of my travelmate. By the time we arrived at the first platform he was crying like a small girl. So naturally I booked it to the very top and hung my arms out of the cage (don't worry mom, I'm alive!). We left the Tour Eiffel and headed to Montmarte (we never found Amelie, but not for a lack of trying). After surviving a full on assault by crazy english speaking Algerians we made the climb to Sacre Coure and took in the GORGEOUS cathedral. I'd seen it once before, but it took my breathe away this time. I forced Leo to go to the Moulin Rouge (major disappointment, they weren't playing old Nirvana songs or anything, but we did get a great pick of Leo mingling with the ravens beneath a sweet Metropolitan sign). We grabbed a great Sandwich Turc and ate it on the metro platform before heading to see Napolean's tomb, but by the time we got to the Hotel D'Invalides train stop the walk from the stop to the tomb was just too daunting, so we took a quick nap in the park. I fell into a deeper sleep than Leo, so naturally he grabbed his stuff and ran off, well this caught the attention of a kindly African man who kicked me to wake me and tell me that my stuff was being stolen. Well said African seemed less than kindly to me when I was kicked awake to hear is screaming in Francais and find that my lone companion was no where to be seen. Luckily, the man pointed to Leo, who was just coming out from behind a tree. We carried on to the tomb and bowed before the great Napoleon. We then walked along the Champs D'Elysee (and of course shopped at Gap and drank Coca-Cola) we then took to the top of that huge Arc and saw the city from yet another elevated view. Realizing how high we had been all day we decided why stop there and we booked it to Notre Dame, took in the interior, and climbed the 11,342 stairs to the top (yes, I counted...just kidding...but not really). This was the best view by far, I thought. Oh yea, I forgot to mention that we passed by the Hotel D'Ville on the way to Notre Dame and discovered that a huge film festival just started yesterday. Part of this festival included lots of Tim Burton, so we went to see Beetlejuice...in FRENCH! It was wild. (I'm running out of internet time so) We came home and went to sleep. More about today, tomorrow, peace and God Bless.

Leo and Bryce do BogMan 2005

Well, as announced here is my rendition of today. If you haven't already, scroll down and read Bryce's first because he typed it first and therefore it should come first but it doesn't the way this thing posts. I promised him I wouldn't read his until I posted(the little pansy). So if he made any bets or guesses as to what I would type...blast, there's not much I can do about that.
We slept in late as a result of our walking about 15+ miles yesterday, according to Bryce's shady pedometer. Who knew we would end up walking more today? Looks like our total will be WAY up there. We tubed it into town and failed to find Notting Hill(Hugh Grant would be ashamed). We did find our way to Hyde Park, their version of Central Park, and ended up walking the length of that(no easy task). We visited the British Museum and saw some awesomely ancient stuff (an archaeologists dream). He probably told you about the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon, so I'll mention the kick ass stone handaxes that early humans(australopithecus and homo erectus) used, which were by far the oldest objects in the museum. Some of them were 2 million years old!! The new ones were 200,000! We also saw the famous Bog Man, who was killed and dumped in a swamp, which beautifully preserved his remains for nearly 2000 years before he was found by a peat collector. The boring archaeologist in me will now cease talking and the cool pop culture guy will take over...
We saw Ross from Friends in a play! And it was really good and funny and I sat next to a really hot girl, who sat next to her mother unfortunately. The play was about this guy who was trying to reconcile with 4 of his exes that he wronged when they broke up. Kind of a High Fidelity vibe, which rocked for me. Bryce said he identified with the guy, who was basically a jackass. I also identified that the character was a jackass like Bryce.
Sidenote-The new Coldplay album has been my London soundtrack...so fitting. It was eerily poignant to listen to it on the tube looking out over the London suburbs and while I was people-watching at Trafalgar Square. So check out X&Y!
The whole point of us double posting came from the fact that we split up for the first time today because Bryce wanted to go see some boring WWII rooms whereas I wanted to see the reconstruction of the Globe theater that Shakepeare's plays were performed in. We'll take a poll now-which was the better and more sophisticated choice? Post with your thoughts. The Globe was really cool and was built to the exact specifications of the theater from the early 1600's. It looked just like it did in Shakespeare in Love, which was a real treat for me;)
A highlight of the day was on the tube ride back to Mike and Kate's who by the way, are totally awesome! I don't know if that came through in the last post, but they are so nice for taking us in and showing us around. We haven't thanked them appropriately but we will, even if Kate hates American wankers like Bryce and me by association. We love her...and Morgan ;) ...anyway back to the highlight. This Scottish woman, clearly tipsy, stumbles past us and tries to go through the door to the next car and can't get through. At this time, I'm making a bad joke about sticking my head through that door and saying Heeere's Johnny, in a weird threateningly Shining way. She turns around and says 'Another American? Blimey!' and then basically tells us off. So we try to get on her good side by naming all the things we know and like about Scotland. The extent of my list was Andy Murray(the tennis player we just saw), Trainspotting, and the supposed location of Hogwarts. She retched at all of these, especially the Potter reference(which broke my heart), and it was at this point that I pretended to be Canadian. We told her all about our trip and she seemed to warm up to us after that, telling us not to talk to Parisians because they're scoundrels and that she'd rather poke her eyes out than go to Orlando. I think we charmed our way into her heart with my alarmingly decent French accent(in her opinion) and Bryce's not talking too much, because at her stop she gave us both kisses goodbye and wished us the best of luck. Not bad when our conversation started with her calling us a name I still can't identify. It's these priceless interactions that I can't wait for more of! They are what will make this trip amazing.
On an end note...LONDON IS AWESOME! I can't pick which day has been my favorite because they have all been so good, and in quite different ways. The city is so international and yet so British. I'm definitely coming back!

Leo

p.s. thanks to everyone for the warm birthday wishes. It was definitely the most laid back and low key birthday ever for me. I don't think Mike and Kate even knew about it and I spent the whole day with them(Haha). And Mom, don't worry about the phone call. I'm not dead. Love ya!

Bryce and Leo Do Schwimmer 2005

My turn! Hello from my first Euroblog. I gotta make this quick so Leo can get on and tell you the dirty details, but I wanted to get my two cents in before he fills your head with his load of crap.

So we started the day a little later today and headed on an unsuccessful journey to Notting Hill. I mean, we made it to Notting Hill, but it was a disappointment (I think because we just didn't walk to the right place). We saw no market and no blue door and Allison Krause was not singing anywhere! So we took off through Kensington Garden on a LONG walk full of sights including the Princess Diana memorial, which is a strange circular waterfall that I don't really get, but the British people seemed to love it cause they were laying all over it. After walking the entire length of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park without scoring Live8 tickets we went to view the stolen antiquities at the British Museum. The Rosetta hit us like a stone when we walked in, so we checked it out and then a bunch of other old junk, including some really really old pieces of rock that Leo flipped out over but that I think would be more at home in my driveway than in a musuem. The highlight of this trip, besides cute little uniformed british 3rd graders and Leo's handling of the donation bin, was the "Bog Man" and very well preserved human body from the first half of the first century. You can still see his hair! And his skin is like thick leather. After the British Museum we parted ways and while Leo went to a fake version of the Globe Theatre, I went to see the Cabinet War Rooms where Churchill and his boys hung out while Britain was being bombed nightly. It was a high priority for me on this trip and it was really cool, many of the rooms had not been touched since V-J Day when they left the place. They even found one minister's rations of sugar hidden in a desk 40 years later when they went to set up this museum. After that I ran to the National Gallery and was able to run through it in the last 30 minutes that it was open. It was a beautiful museum, I definitely want to spend more time there next time. Leo and I were to meet in front of the Gallery at 6:30 and it closed at 6:00 so I spent the next half hour walking about and I ended up back at Covent Gardens which is an market with street preformers that reminded me of Fanuel Hall (sp?) in Boston. I caught the very end of a juggling act that was pretty funny then I tried to make my way back to meet Leo. So now I'm lost and alone in the middle of London and I luckily stumble through Leicester Sq. where I see lots of theatre ticket vendors. I realized then that I could probably talked Leo into seeing a show as long as it was the Lion King and it was cheap. They advertised tix for 24 pounds, so I started to think up my ad pitch as I walked to meet him. He proved to be an easier than expected sell and we walked back to get tix. Of course as fate would have it The Lion King is dark on Mondays, so I tried to get tix to Guys and Dolls (starring Ewan McGregor)--Sold Out! Dangit, well everything else was too expensive and uninteresting to my less-than-cultured friend. So we went about our way to find something to eat and to check out Piccadilly Circus. When we got to the Circus (which had no tent!) we saw down the street the theatre for the play "Some Girls" starring David Schwimmer. Leo suggested we check it out and aren't I glad he did. We went and ended up scoring really good seats on a student discount (17.50 pounts). After we bought our tickets we had about half and hour before show time so we scored some Fish and Chips around the corner and took our seats. The show was actually really good, made better by seeing our second network all star in real life since we've been here (now we just need someone from CBS and someone from Fox and we'll have all the networks covered). We then hopped on a random double decker bus and took a ride to who-knows-where, but who cares, cause we were upstairs on a bus! We then grabbed some delicious Irish creme Ben & Jerry's ice cream and hopped the Tube back here to Mike's place. We met a wonderful british woman on the train (and by wonderful, I mean horrible sarcastic and bightingly rude anti-american, who came to love us!) but I'm sure Leo will tell you all about her. Ok, sorry this was supposed to be short, but it is not, now its Leo's turn to give you his take, but don't believe everything his says. Goodnight.
(sorry for any typing/spelling/grammar/factual errors, I'm not proofreading)

Just Like Heaven

WOW!
There is so much to talk about, and this is only our third day here. I'll give a quick run through so as not to bore you. Our flight was outstanding, though it looked like it would be awful. When we received our boarding passes we found that our seats weren't beside each other. They weren't even in the same row! Bryce smooth-talked the United lady and ended up scoring us two seats together with one by the window! And the kicker was that somehow we had a seat's worth of space in front of us, like they had taken a row out. So we had more leg room than we knew what to do with, cool personal tvs, and a window view! Totally awesome and a great start to the trip.
Unfortunately we couldn't sleep much and were pretty tired by the time we arrived in England at 9:30(4:30am EST). But we had to push through the day to get adjusted to the time. We visited the Temple Church and Westminster Abbey (both of which play pivitol roles at the end of the Davinci Code). It was fun trying to retrace Robert Langdon's fictional steps. It's amazing how jam packed of tombs Westminster Abbey is! Everywhere you step there is someone underneath you and someone in the wall beside you. Very impressive. We also walked past the houses of the Prime Minister and the Queen. And I use houses there only in the most general sense. Dinner was in Knightsbridge along with a visit to Harrod's department store, the biggest freakin store EVER. Celebrity Spot Alert-We saw Bree from Desperate Housewives in Harrods. I think she was buying some non suspicious tool to kill her husband with. We got back to the hostel around 8 and crashed because not only had we been up for about 36 hours and walked several miles, we had to get up at 5am to queue for WIMBLEDON!
A life goal achieved. Wimbledon was great! It was a cold day and we underdressed in shorts and short sleeves. We queued for about 4 hours and the line streched back about a mile. Bryce bought a hideous pullover cause he was too much of a wanker to handle the cold. He also bought me a Wimbledon headband so I guess I can't give him too much crap. I just stole his rain poncho and huddled up in it for warmth...and style! We saw the hot Serb Ana Ivanovich get trounced by Mary Pierce and the legend Martina Navratilova play doubles. But the highlight had to be watching a match on Henman Hill. This 18 year old Scot named Andy Murray captivated the hearts of all Britains and about ten thousand of us crammed onto this hill to watch this Centre Court match on a giant video screen. *Pic you can't wait to see update*-Me yelling at John McEnroe!
By the way, a belated Happy 50th to my awesome aunt Laurie. I hope you had a great day! And while I'm at it, happy current birthday to Kristen(what up BOA!), Ho, and Robyn's sister Shannon...oh and me.
Today we met up with Bryce's roommate from grad school Mike, and his wife Kate. They live in the suburbs of London and took us out to the countryside for a stroll through the hills. When I say stroll, I mean a several mile trudge interspersed with sneezing fits, nettle stings, me thinking I found ancient artifacts, wrong turns, backtracks, hedge sculptures, kissing gates, pheasant chases, gate jumping, and polo dodging. If you need help understanding any of these, consult your local library. We also visited a town called Henly on the Thames where they have an annual regatta which is occuring in less than a week. They also have an unusual amount of hot girls walking around with older dodgy men. We have a picture of one you won't want to miss(wipes sweat from brow and keyboard). Upon returning to Mike and Kate's, Mike(who makes chairs) gave us a lesson in woodworking. We chopped, shaved, and lathed what is becoming a baseball bat. Perhaps more work will be done tomorrow and said bat will be used to beat away badgers that are either fighting and/or having sex outside the window here at night. Further investigation should shed more light on the subject.
Sorry to make this so long. We'll try to do shorter posts more often. It helps that we can use Mike and Kate's computer for free for the next day and a half while we stay with them.

Cheerio and Goodnight,
Leo

Greetings from Great Britain

Hello All,

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are alive and kicking (well not so much) in England. We are dead tired from staying up all night but we'll post again tomorrow. Later

One Day Left

So the adventure starts tomorrow. With last day preparations at hand, Leo is wrapping up his work at the office while Bryce tries to stuff way too much crap into a tiny backpack. I, for one, can hardly believe its really happening, but tomorrow we're hopping on a plane, Friday we'll be in London, and this time next week we'll be in the city of lights (no, not Aurora, Illinois, the other city of lights).

We recently got in touch with Bryce's old roommate who lives in London, so we'll be spending a couple nights with him and his wife in the suburbs seeing how real British people live. Hopefully, it will be just like Privet Dr. (I call the Cupboard under the Stairs!)

Tonight we are going out with some friends for big American hamburgers before we abandon our patriotic roots and sew Canadian flags on our packs so that we don't get killed by angry Europeans (just kidding, only Leo would do something like that). It should be a nice final hurrah before we turn Eurotrash for a while.

Well thats all for now, I know this blog has been boring so far, but stay tuned its about to get a lot more exciting. Talk to you all soon, next time from across the pond!

3 week countdown

So,
In three short weeks, we will be chillin, London Style. It's pretty crazy how close the trip is. Our official departure date is June 23rd. We will arrive in London on the morning of the 24th. Six weeks later we'll be coming back (August 6th) leaving from Amsterdam. Plans for London have changed slightly. We no longer have a place to stay with Jeannie Addison, since she is now returning to the states the same day we leave them. Good timing Jeannie. We're working on locating one of Bryce's roommates from grad school who lives there, but haven't had any luck yet. Hopefully we'll find out about that soon, or at least before all the hostels fill up. Despite the lack of beds, a Wimbledon excursion is in the works for one of our four British days and could be the highlight of the whole trip(at least for me).

More info as it comes over the wire.
Leo

Intro to Bryce and Leo's trip blog

What's up trip blog fans? This is where we will post our travel tips, musings, and general goings on while we trek through the old country. Keep a close eye on this space, cause you never know what might come up. Until later...