Ko Phangan

Monsoon season has had its effect on our travels. The weather has been cooler but the sun has been out less. With that said, it has been a little hard to find things to do that are fun that don't cost money. Fortunately we have found some great little restaurants that show movies throughout the day. We travelled over here with the Canadian girls we met at Ko Tao. We went to the half moon party our second night here. Apparently if you have travelled anywhere through southeast asia you have at least heard of the full moon party if not been to it. Everytime there is a full moon there is the giant party on the beach with flame throwers and bands and all kinds of good stuff. Andrea and I had planned to be ehre for the full moon party but because of the weather decided to head over early with the Daphne and Marla (the Canadians) and go to the half moon party instead. I thought there was going tro be this big meaning behind why they have this party every full moon, but it turns out that some guy who apparently was pretty populr around here had a birthday party however many years ago and it was so much fun they decided to just have a big party every full moon, and now every half moon probably to bring in even more money to the island. The half moon aprty was back in the woods and it was nuts! There were guys doing florescent paint tattoos and these dj boothes that looked like they were in the trees. It was soooo much fun but with that said we spent most of the next day in our room recovering. Our friends left yesterday and since the weather was cloudy we decided tor ent a jeep ($15 for 3 hours - I love this place!) and cruise around the island. I had to drive since Andrea can't drive a standard and I'm not gonna lie I was a little nervous at first since not only are there massive mountain hills that we have to drive on to get in and uot of our beach area, bt they drive on the opposite side of the road and the drivers seat is where our passengers seat is. I got the hang of it pretty fast and we cruised all over the island. It is much bigger than I realized. We were back in this woodsy area with just a dirt rouad and Eric Clapton Tears in Heaven came on the radio. It was so random. Then last night we met up witha guy we are rooming with and played cards till around 1am and watche dold episodes of Friends at one of the restaurants. Today Andrea and I went on an elephant trek. I would like to say that enjoyed it, but I really didn't. It ended up just making me really sad fro the elephants. I will spare the details in case Kristen reads this (she is about as much of an animal lover as I am, if not more), but I left wondering if there was anythign I could do to help protect these animals from having to live in the conditions they currently are. Enough about that. I think we are goign to see a Thai boxing match tonight and head back up to Bangkok tomorrow to get our visas for Cambodia.

Ko Tao

As if Bangkok wasn't amazing enoug, we have found ourselves this nice little island down in central Thailand and are finding it very hard to ever think about leaving. It's the smallest of the three islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Pleas edon't be turned off by the word "gulf" here either. This is no Gulf of Mexico. It's a really big scuba diving site as it is cheaper to get your scuba license here than just about anywhere else in the world. Andrea and I met some really cool girls from Canada thata re staying in the hut next to ours and we have been bumming around the island with them for the past 4 or 5 days - however long we have been here. It's REALLY easy to lose track of the date and day of the week here. We rented mopeds the other day and cruised the island for different beaches and today we went scuba diving. I was a little terrified at first but I can say now that if the opportunity ever arises again for me to scuba dive and I can afford it I am going. It was hands down one of the most amazing experiences of my life. We went on 2 dives today and swam abuot 12 meters deep and were surrounded by the most beautiful coral and exotic fish I have ever seen. Mush cooler than going to the aquarium!! We have been staying in these little one room huts right on the beach for $6 a night. We are so close in fact that we are havinga hard time getting to sleep at night becasue the waves are right outside our window - I know, please feel sorry for me, right?

And can I talk about the food? I was nervous about this part of the trip because as you proabably know I can eat pasta like it's nobody's business, but I'm not really into asian food. Well, I have had a few lates of thai food that I have enjoyed but there is by far the biggest selection of deliciousness I have seen on this entire trip. The town itself is really small and there aren't really too many cars on the island so everyone either walks or takes their little motorbikes everywhere so everything is basically about a 2 minute walk from our hut. There is no grocery store but two, count em two seven elevens. I know, go figure. The other night we had this appetizers taht was avocado mixed with grilled shrimp, pesto and parmesean cheese. Then tonight we went to this little restaurant right by our hut and had a massive $4 bbq dinner and watched Superbad on pillows basically overlooking the beach and the sunset. IT"S AMAZING!!!! Anyone who loes the beach needs to come here. Enoough rubbing it in your face for now. We are headed to Ko Phanang tomorrow for the full moon party and eventaully will make it back north to Cambodia and Vietnam, which we have heard from everyone is equally amazing. Please enjoy the photos from the view of our hut.

Bangkok or bust!

We left Athens in a bit of a hurry. As I may or may have not mentioned earlier, we met this really cool guy, Sam, that was the night shift guy at the hostel we stayed at in Athens. Well, when we found out we were getting our luggage back from the airline (they left our luggage in Milan, did I mention that??) we were so excited that we decided to go have some drinks and brought Sam along since the reason he was working there was because he showed up basically with no money and the guy that ran the hostel gave him a job so he could eventually meet up with his dad who was travelling through Italy. Sam was great but not the most responsible. He apparently had fallen asleep at the desk the night before, kept the music up too loud and was drinking on the job. He was fired from the front desk position but was being moved to bartender, but still was able to make some extra money doing peoples laundry (2 euros per load). Sam, is 24, and grew up on a vineyard outside Melbourne. He was such a cool guy - or so we thought. So anyway, after taking him out for some drinks to celebrate the impending arrival of our luggage we returned to the hostel. We decided that we wanted to start fresh in Southeast Asia - new plan, new outlook, clean clothes. Sam had about ten euros to his name so we thought we would give him our laundry to do and we'd get clean clothes and he would make some more money. We gave him everything around 11pm (he had to work the night shift one last time to train the new guy so he was up all night mind you). Our flight left at 3pm the next day so we had to be at the airport by 1pm since it was an international flight. Around 11am we go down to get out laundry. It wasn't ready. 11:30- it wasn't ready. Finally at noon we went down and demanded our laundry. We received a trashbag filled with sopping wet clothes. Now Sam "claimed" that he put the laundry in the dryer at 3am and checked it again at 6am and it wasn't dry. Andrea and I both knew he was full of shit. He forgot about it and now we had to travel LATE to the airport with wet clothes in our bags. The only reason I tell you this is because it seems no matter what we do the odds are always working against us.
Enough about laundry. We made the flight fine and Gulf Air which I was a little nervous to fly turned out to be the nicest flight I have ever taken. We arrived in Bahrain around 9pm. It was so surreal. Most of the women were wearing the long black robes, some of which even had everything covered but their eyes, which was kind of freaky. A lot of the men were walking around in the white robes with briefcases. There was a Lamborgini for sale at Duty Free. It was all pretty crazy. And of course, in true form, Andrea and I hear "last call for flight 150 to Bangkok" so we are literally running through the airport to the gate so we don't miss our flight. We get there and everyone had just started to line up so we were fine, but still - so embarassing. The flight from Bahrain was fine, but I sat in front of this guy that looked just like Sadam - and I'm not just saying that because of the middle eastern thing. It could have been his twin. He kept hitting the back of my seat and I wanted to turn around and punch him in the face. That would have been just like me though (the american, always turning to violence) so I refrained, turned around and gave him a really mean look and changed seats. I sure showed him.
We are now in Bangkok at this really nice hotel, suggested to us by some friends we met in Cinque Terre. We have been ordering room service and had a massage yesterday. Food is like $3 a plate and the one hour massage was only $10. It was a little awkward though because it was a tradistional thai massage and I didn't really know what that consisted of, but at one point this tiny woman stands on the back of my thighs, bends my knees up and pulls my arms back. It felt like some sort of Cirque Du Soliel act. Nice, but I had a hard time not laughing at some moments.
So...so far, so good. Will let you know what happens once we finally make a plan on where to go and what to do next.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

If I told you the stories of what has happened in the last few days I honestly don't know that you would believe me. Siena was great. We found this nice little wine tasting bar in the center of town that was more wine AND tasting than wine tasting. Every time we ordered a glass of wine we received a plate of appertivo (appetizers), but I'm not talking potato skins and fried cheese. We had prosciutto and bruschetta (both of which I know I just spelled wrong) plus endless amounts of cheese and pasta. After one night in Siena we headed to Cinque Terre. I can't even tell you how amazing this place is - you have to see for yourself. So go there, along with EVERY other American tourist in Italy. That was actually the only thing I didn't like about the place. All the Americans!! I guess I can't really complain since I was one of them. We lucked out and had some really amazing roommates. One guy, Damien, was from Melbourne and travelling on his own for a few weeks until he began a tour in Egypt and then Israel. The other two people in our room was actually a couple who got engaged earlier in the night. It was so exciting to hear about how Ben and planned everything for Kim. He apparently hid the ring in this disgustingly huge watch that he bought specifically for that purpose and she complained the entire time about how big, ugly and obnoxious the ring was...little did she know. It was fun to be a part of that moment. Andrea and I took the 12k hike from Riomaggorie to Montorosso. It was uphill the entire hike and was by far the most exercise I had had the whole trip so I guess I didn't really mind the sweat. But just when I couldn't take anymore I heard Celine Dion. Where was it coming from??? This guy had made this little hut out of the side of his land that we were hiking though (most of the hiking was through the middle of peoples vineyards and farmland so we weren't trespassing) and was selling fresh lemonade, limoncello, and wine from his vineyard. All for one euro. It was sooo awesome and completely unexpected!!! We spent the next to days lounging on the beach with our roommates. We made dinner the last night in and drank one euro boxed wine. It was great!
We decided since we were having such a great time that we didn't want to go to Lake Como so we used the train ticket we bought to go from Lake Como to Venice instead for our trip from Cinque Terre to Venice. It was kind of stressful since we had the completely wrong ticket and had to look like we weren't breaking the law for about 4 hours. Italy tends to run on its own time, not the time that trains and busses are scheduled for so it was kind of a nightmare of a journey aside from the wrong ticket. Our second train was an hour late arriving so we missed all 4 trains after that. Then when we FINALLY arrived in Venice, we missed the last bus to the campsite, the train had stopped running and information was about to close. After a 20 minnute conversation in broken english we were finally given the number to the campsite so we could figure out how to get there. After about 12 hours of travelling we arrived at the campsite in time for a few drinks.
We headed into Venice the next day. Venice is a beautiful city. There were so many canals and even more dirty flying rats...I mean pigeons. Seriously though it was really pretty. There were lots of glass and masquarade shops. Kind of a weird combo but...
The next day I took a train to Florence where I met up with a someone special I had met on my tour. We had an amazing night and had a Floretine steak by candlelight. It wsa amazing, he was amazing and I am only sad that we only got to see each other for that one last night. The next day I got up and did yet another 12 hour hike up to Milan to meet Andrea so we could fly to Athens. We got to the airport in Athens and OF COURSE our luggage didn't make it. I was practically in tears. I was so exhausted from the day - mentally and emationally and this was the last thing I wanted to deal with. We had travelled in this order: bus, train, bus, flight, bus, train - all in and around 14 hours. We spent all day today trying to figure out what to do if our luggage didnt show up since not only did we not have our stuff, but I broke the cardinal rule of travelling and left my ticket to Bangkok in my bag. Luckily enough we got back to the hostel and our bags were there. YAY! So, after all that we are off to Bangkok tomorrow. We booked a really nice hotel at a whopping $77 a night. After all we have been through in the past week we felt we needed a nice place to relax for a few days before hitting the hard road. We will be in Southeast Asia for about 6 weeks before I head home and Andrea goes back to Spain. I can't believe this trip is half way over. I can't believe the amount of fun and the adventures I have had and I can't wait what's to come!

ITALY!!

Hi All!
Andrea and I are backpacking through Italy roght now. On the itinerary as of now is Rome, which we just left, now we are in Siena. Tomorrw we are going to Cinque Terre for two nights, then Lake Como for two nights. After that is Venice, then Florence. We are trying to figure out the cheapest way to get to Greece since it is very erxpensive, which of course we did not expect. Hope all is well. I will write more as things progress, just wanted to give you all an idea as to where we were.

MORE PICS...

The End and Beginning

So the tour is over and I am soooo sad, yet happy because Andrea is here now and we leave for our part of the journey tomorrow. Last I left you I was in Nice, France. Wow, that seems like forever ago. Let me start off by saying that Eastern Europe is far too underrated. I had an AMAZING time there! The last night in Nice we drove up to monaco and went to the casino. Vegas it was not. It was kind of boring. There was no music and the casino we went to was pretty low key, no clubs, no free drinks. I did splurge and get two Jack and cokes at $25 a pop. Of wait, maybe that's where all my money went. But honestly when will I ever have the opportunity to do that again. We did get a chance to stop along the way and take some pictures over looking the med. sea.

Florence

After Nice we went to Florence, Italy. What I remember most about Florence was the crowdedness of it. It was like Disneyland on a Saturday in the middle of summer. I felt like we were cattle being moved around from one sight to another. It was a really cool city, but the group I was with didn't feel like waiting in line for 4 hours to see the statue of the David so we took some pics of an "exact replica" in the middle of the city and went to find a park to lay in. We tried to enter a private park because you guessed it- there was a line to get into the botanical gardesn (apparently the only patch of grass in all of Florence), but there was a guy at the entrance that could tell I was american and asked where I was from and I said Texas he goes "Ahh, Chuck Norris!" I guess that's better than what I usually get which is "Ahh, Bush." Then witha disapproving head shake.

Rome

Rome was full of history. After going there and taking like 4 different tours I have become increasingly interested in the history of the Roman Empire. For example, apparently in the Colusseum, there was like a program everyday of the battles that would take place. Different random animals in the morning (polar bear vs lion), people vs animals for the matinee and then the big show of gladiator vs gladiator. Then there is something where the king put either a thumbs up or down which would determine if the gladiator would live or die and if he was to die then he had to lay in the middle of the colusseum and SMILE right before he was to bge stabbed to death with a trident sword. I mean you can't make this stuff up. Well, I guess you could but it apparently happened. I won't get into the other stuff, but lets just say those Romans were f-ing crazy!

Venice

Venice was cool, but Andrea and I are going back there in a few days so I will write more about it then. We did have a nice little toga party though at the campsite we stayed in. I will try to add some pics of that.

Now it starts to get a little blurry. No, not from drinking, but the first part of the trip seemed to last longer because we still hadn't really gotten the hang of things yet and didn't know each other too well, but the second part flew by.

Pag Island, Croatia

GO TO CROATIA!!!! It's a beautiful place. The water looks like the caribbean and it's SUPER cheap. If you are planning on buying a place overseas, buy a place on Pag or Rab Island. We were there for three days which was a nice change. The first day we took a boat to Rab Island. I don't remember too much about the walking tour we took becasue we were all just so excited to be at the beach. Some of the guys and I gathered money from everyone (100 kuna each, which I think equals about $10, and went to the market to get beer for everyone. We ended up with about 5 cases of beer and money left over. There was a pier we all jumped off of and swam around in the freezing cold water. It was so much fun. The next day we rented bikes and rode to another beach on Pag Island and laid out all day. I got a sunburn so I was HAPPY!!!!

Lubuljana, Slovenia

We only spent one night here, which definitely was not enough. It was such a cool little city, the capital I think. There was a university there and tons of restaurants that all had outside seating next to the river the flowed through town. We had a "traditional" Slovenian dinner there. I went for the pork, but one of the guys ventured out and had the stallion steak. That's right you read that correctly - stallion steak. I tried snails in Paris, but there is no way in hell you could get me to eat black beauty. No way, not going to happen. Matt said it was good but the texture was a little off. No thank you.

Prague, Czech Republic

The one thing I remember well about Prague was the amazing Italian restaurant we stumbled upon on our last night there. I know Italian food, go figure, but it was phenomenal! There is a clock there that has the astrological signs on it and apparently does this really cool little show. I guess we missed it, but the story behind the clock seems far more interesting. So apperntly this artist guy was commissioned to make this clock and the people liked it so much that they didn't want the guy to leave and go do make something just as cool somewhere else so they blinded him so he couldn't make anything. Nuts, huh?

Mathausen, Germany

This was just a stop on our way to Berlin. It was a "work camp" used during WWII by the Germans. It was called a work camp because they didn't actaully have the gas chambers there but they literally worked people to death. It housed I think mostly political prisoners but also Jews and apparently handicapped people, which I didn't know about. It was hard to visit, but I'm glad I did. I learned more about the Holocaust in the few days I spent in Germany than I did in high school and college.

Berlin, Germany

Hands down one of my favorite cities. It's full of young people and not at all what I expected. They are all very aware of what happened and don't try to hide anything. They want to educate everyone on what happened so it doesn't happen again. We took a walking tour and were in this weird grass parking lot for about 20 minutes with the guide going on and on about Hitler and this bunker he stayed in before he killed himslef towards the end of the war then he says that we are standing right where the bunker was underground. There wasn't a sign, a marker or anything. There also isn't a grave for Hilter becuase they didn't want the weirdos out using it as a shrine or something. Also the Berlin Wall was not at all what i expected. I guess i thought iot was this heavy duty wall, but it wasn't. It was just "heaps" as my new Aussie friends like to say, of these very thin concrete slabs. I also became very interested in the whole situation that lead to the Berlin wall being built and why it stood for as long as I did. I will definitely be buying lots of history books when i get home!

Amsterdam

Wow! I don't even know what to say except Vegas has NOTHING on Amsterdam. everything that people love about Vegas is actually legal and fully embraced in Amsterdam. I won;t get into the specifics, I'll just say that a great time was had, I would love to go back to explore the city more, but my goodness that place is NUTS!

Complete Whirlwind!

So here is the reason I haven't written since the tour began...we basically spend an entire day on the bus and one whole day at the city we are visiting so I haven't had time to go on the internet. We are in Nice, France now. It's beautiful and one of my favorite cities so far. We started out in Paris. Seeing as how I had already seen most of what I wanted to I spent the day just revisiting some sights and getting to know my new tour mates. I have become fast friends with a few people. Chloe is from New Zealand and travelling alone also. Matt and Kane are brothers from Australia. Did I mention I am the only American on the tour?? There are a few girls from Canada and a few from London, but just about everyone is from Australia. It made me a little nervous at first, but I think I actaully perfer it this way.

After Paris we went to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, a tiny town outside of Bern. It was by the far the most picturesqu place I have ever seen. Every direction you look it looked like a postcard. We went to some waterfalls that we inside of this mountain that had ice glaciers on top - Juangfrau, is the name of the mountain I believe. Some of the group were going skydiving and seeing as how there wasn't much to do in this little town, we went up and bought some champagne and the guys got beer and we went and put it in the creek by where the skydiving place was and sat around and talked and drank champagne from the creek so to speak.

After Lauterbrunnen we went to Avignon, France, which is an old walled city. Not really what I pictured though. I was imagining a moat and guards. However I was not dissappointed with the city at all. It was quaint and full of culture. We went to a kareoke bar, which as you know I completely dispise, but luckily enough it was dead so we headed to the American Bar. I know, it's completely ridiculous and there really wasn't anything american about it. Avignon was just kind of a one night stop on our way to Barcelona so we woke up the next morning and left.

Barcelona was great! We went salsa dancing and walked around the city at night. I did meet someone on the trip that I ended up walking around the city with our first night, which was really romantic so when I think back on Barcelona that is probably what I will remember. We walked around during the day and saw al of the Gaudi architecture. He has this church La Familia, that has been in the process of being built for like 100 years now. With all the siesta the spanish take it may take them another 50 to finish. Chloe and I ate the entire time we were there. Tapas. Tapas. and more tapas!

We are now in Nice, France. We are heading out to the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo tongiht to gamble some. I probably won't since I would rather leave with some money. Tomorrow we are off to Italy. I have no idea where, but i know Italy for sure. I will try to write more when I can get to another computer.

I have had an amazing time so far and this has by far been the best decision I have ever made and I can't believe I have another 3 weeks to go!!

***I am having a really hard time finding anywhere that I can upload photos. I will add some as soon as I find a place to do so!

Best Day Ever...

Well not really but kind of. So, this morning I woke and decided since I had seen most of what I had wanted to see of Paris I thought I would go to see where Jim Morrison was burried. That would be fun, right? I left the hostel knowing the basic gerenal direction and hopped on the subway. On my way i remembered a discussion i had had the night before with my roommates about making sure you are always safe and aware of your surroundings. I realized about 4 stops in that I really had no idea if the area of Paris I was going to was safe, I was alone and no one knew I was going there and all the people on the subway looked a little too sketchy for me. That seemed like the makings of a bad made for tv movie. So, I hopped of the subway and got back on going back towards the hostel. maybe next time right? I was pretty bored bascially just waiting around unitl i could leave to come to the hotel to check in and lounge around all afternoon in my own room. It took me forever to find the hotel, it was raining, blah blah blah. Once I found it I went upstairs, put my stuff down and left because I was starving and needed to exchange a travellers check so I had money to eat. Please remember I don't speak French and it was probably my fault for leaving all the talking up to Andrea because I had no idea where I was going or how to ask. I went in and out of about 4 banks all of which either didn't understand what I wanted or simply dismissed me because I didn't speak French. I was so upset the tears were starting to well up in my eyes. The day had turned to shit...but wait, what did I see??? The golden arches. I couldn't believe it, I was so happy to see a McDonald's I thought "You know what, Sarah. Screw the Parisians. I have McDonald's" So I found an atm and just bit the bullet and got out some cash. I waited in line like half an hour, ordered a big mac (which I have never actually had before) large fries and a large coke. I was physically smiling as I left. It was like I was skipping back to the hotel (not really but you get the idea). I laid around a while and about an hour ago went to the grocery store across the street, bought a $2 bottle of wine, some chocolate and a baugette and am going back to take a nice long bath and watch Flavor of Love in German. This has turned out to be a pretty wonderful day. Sorry, just wanted to share.

Sightseeing

Andrea and I went to Versailles on Friday I think it was. It's amazing how easy it is to lose track of what day it is when you don't have to go to work! It was so beautiful and huge. We walked for hours through Marie Antoinette's bedroom and the Hall of Mirrors and the massive gardens. The area of Versailles is actually closer to Paris than I thought it would be and it was such a quaint little town. Andrea left on Saturday and I cruised around our area for a while and took a tour of Notre Dame. I am amazed that so many things here are free. Both Notre Dame and Sacre Coure were free. Sacre Coure is this amazing church at the top of the hill here in Montmarte. If you have ever seen a panoramic picture of Paris you will see the Eiffel Tower and then a hill with a white church on top. That hill is the area of Montmarte and the church Sacre Coure. I walked up there and sat on the steps overlooking all of Paris. It was such an awesome view and I had no idea it was even there. There were a few guys playing guitars and singing. I thuroughly enjoyed the renditions of Hotel California and La Bamba. I still find it funny that most of the bars/restaurants/cover bands here tend to play american music, yet most of the people here claim to not speak any english. Yesterday I went to the Louvre. I can't even get over how huge it was. I was there for about 5 hours and saw maybe 30 percent of the museum. And everything is really old and really important. It just makes me a little nervous that all those important artifacts are in one spot. I saw the Mona Lisa. I mean what can you say. It was cool to see it but I'm still not too sure what the big deal is, but I guess now I can say I saw it. Things are starting to get a little pricey. I bought some stamps for postcards and it was about $20. It honestly wouldn't be too expensive though if the exchange rate wasn't sooo awful right now. For the train to and from Versailles and the entrance fee to the palace, it was only 15 euro, which I didn't think was bad at all.
There are definite differences though aside from the prices. I was on the subway yesterday and there were these three little kids all definitely under the age of 9, just riding the subway - alone. I had to switch trains and noticed they got off and switched to another one. AND I saw to probably 12 year old boys smoking!!! IN PUBLIC! I know you probably think I am naive for thinking that's a big deal, but it was just too weird. Where are these kids parents??
My tour starts tomorrow so I am staying in a hotel tonight to get a good nights sleep. I will also be hand washing all of my clothes in the bathtub since it's about $20 to wash one load here and since I don't speak any french I would most likely screw it up and ruin all of my clothes so I would rather do it myself than pay money to ruin my own clothes. Wish me luck!

Paris!

We made it to Paris yesterday afternoon after a bus, plane, bus and then train. It will be nice to be in one city for a few days...my tour starts here in a week. The day was kind of a bust seeing as we didn't get out to get food until 10:30pm and of course there was nothing still open, but we managed to find a little french restaurant that we couldn't afford and went in for some cheese and wine. We were the very last people in the place (the cooks had already left, too) and we had been drinking and talking about what a crazy day it was and we were laughing so hard be were both basically crying and this really handsome guy came over (turns out to be the owner, a guy from Italy) to ask if we were okay because I guess it looked like we were upset...due to the crying. We told him what had happened that day and said we had just gotten in from Ireland and asked what we should do. He said we were coming with him, it was his friends birthday and we were going to this club on the Champs - Ellysee (I know I spelled that wrong). His friend was equally as handsome, owned another restaurant in Montmarte, the area of Paris we are staying in, and was from Italy. We drank champagne and had the most amazing time! Definitely not what we expected our first night out on Paris. We are maybe going to meet up with them again tonight to go out, but we will see what happens. We went to the Eiffel Tower today and ate sandwiches in the park - a pretty great day. I think tomorrow we are going to try to head out to see Versailles, but the best times we have had so far have been unplanned. I will try to add some pictures again very soon.

Welcome to Vertigo

We made it! The flight was less than stellar, but after a long morning nap, we made the most of the afternoon. I tried my first Guinness and surprisingly enough I really didn't hate it. After a few though I kind of felt like I'd had Thanksgiving dinner - tasty, but really heavy and probably not something I will be ordering too often.. Enough about the beer though. We stayed with the sister of a guy that works with Andrea. We only saw her once, but it was nice to be able to stay somewhere we could just come and go. She lived in the south side of Dublin, but we spent most of our time in Temple Bar, which was kind of in the downtown area. We met some really, really cool guys our first night - Eddie, Philip and Padric. They all live in the city, but are from smaller towns outside of Dublin. We hung out with them on Saturday night and went to this club and danced and left at what we calculated was 3am. The taxi driver dropped us off at a "mexican restaurant" which was actually run by Asians and sold Greek food - go figure. Yesterday, Eddie picked us up and drove us all over Dublin and gave us the basic history of the country. Did you know that Northern Ireland is still owned by the UK and the rest of Ireland just recently in like 1927 got their independence from the UK? So he told us lots facts and things like that. He also mentioned that he thought it was funny that we went home so early the night before...clearly we did the math wrong becasue Eddie said we left the bar at 10:30. I figure we'll get the timing right eventually. So then he took us downtown to this kind of industrial area by the river and wouldn't tell us where we were going. I know this must sound super creepy, but it really wasn't. So we pull up beside what looks like the back entrance to like a factory or something and in huge spray painted letters across it said "Welcome to Vertigo" - it was U2's recording studio. It was so cool, people had written all these notes to the band so of course Andrea and I wrote something too. Far to lame to mention what we actually wrote, but it was really cool to see the place. We were going to do a tour of the Guinness factory afterward, but ran out of time, so Eddie dropped us off, we regrouped and stopped by an internet cafe to book our flights to Paris and met up with the guys again for one last night on the town before they had to go back to work on Monday and we had to leave. So ladies, just in case you feel like going to Ireland, Eddie said my friends and I were welcome to stay at his place anytime!
Now we are in Galway and will be here until Wednesday when we leave for Paris. It's sooo beautiful and green and tomorrow we are going on a day tour to see some castles and visit the Cliffs of Mohr, so I can't wait for that. So far so good. Everyone has been super friendly and I have had a really great time. I'll update you more once I get to Paris. That should be really interesting considering I don't speak French nor do I understand it. I'll be there until my tour starts on the 22nd.

Grand European Tour

Below is a link to to the tour I am taking for 28 days...

http://www.topdecktours.co.uk/content.asp?Document_ID=16992&Display_Type=1053