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?