Windosr Castle

Yesterday we started our day off with a trip to Windor Castle. When we left in the morning the weather was beautiful and we didn't pack our raincoats. We had to change trains in Slough (the armpit of London), and when we got to the train station in Reading Janna realized that she forgot to put on deoderant. Now, for a normal person, this is a slight setback, but for her it is the entire focus of her day until she gets some.

So, she was roaming around Reading station trying to find some for sale, and did the same in Slough. When you get off the train at Windsor, after passing through a sort of carnival, you end up in a big, quite fancy shoping area. Luckily we found a pharmacy, but it was not the end of the story. In England they have roll on or spray. No solids. So, despite being quite skeptical and not wanting to make a bad impression on the royal family, she chose roll on and tired to move forward.

We paid to enter, and as soon as we got inside the castle gates it started pouring rain. We hunkered down inside an outdoor canopy for a bit and enjoyed the audio tour from there, and when the rain let up we did the indoor areas first. It did seem like, however, every time we went back outside it was raining but nice while we were indoors.

The castle was great and amazing. It was fancy beyond belief. There was an amazing doll house that was a gift to Queen Mary (I think) that was really something to see. We even looked at a fair bit of art. I don't think either one of us realized how wealthy the royal family really was. As we left we a little changing guard ceremony that was quite fun to watch.

We already had paid for our tickets into London, so despite the bad weather and lack of raincoats, we pressed on. While in London, we rode on a double decker bus just becuase we could. We walked through Hyde Park and also Kensigton Gardens. We saw Kensington Palace, but we aren't abundantly clear as to what it is. We saw an amazing playground that was the Princess Diana memorial playground. We were told by J that Primak was the best shopping in England and that all British people buy clothes there. It was meyhem. As we walked in, we saw people trying on dresses over their clothes, there were large piles of clothes. You could barely walk through the isles. Then we realized why they were trying on clothes everywhere. There was a "Queue" about 40 people long for the dressing room. We found a couple of things that were very very cheep and we liked, but after standing in the "Queue" for five minutes, we put down our stuff and left. It was too much of a jungle for us.

At this point we were looking for a bathroom but couldn't find one anywhere. We tired the basement of a store called Marks and Spencer that looked like a normal department store, but we found a grocary store in the basement. The food there was amazing! We got a roll and a scone and if we had any idea how good it would have tasted we would have gotten much more. By this time we were tired and wanted to head back. J and her friend Tillie made us Falafel. It was really wonderful. Then we had some Cornish ice cream. Very good. Then we had some good talks. But the real event of the evening was that we tried crumpets. Oh my goodness! They were so good. After eating them last night and again this morning we have been on the lookout for crumpet rings so we can make them at home.

Today we decided we are ready to go home. We spent the morning shopping in Reading. Sue got some cute sandals and we got some last minute items to take home.

We visited J at Microsoft and couldn't believe how amazing it was. The five buildings were bright, open, colorful, and had lots of really neat working spaces. There was a food place or two in each of the buildings, and all drinks there were free. Free. Everyday. All day. Granted, the selection was not amazing, but there was water (still and bubbly) coke and coke light, orange soda, sprite, some juice, ect. We had lunch there with Jay. Our food was amazing and really quite cheep. J showed us around and we were really impressed by how well they take care of their employees.

The we were going to go on a bike ride along the Thames, but this morning someone hit Js bike, so we ended up just going for a walk. It was really nice and enjoyable on the river walk.

Tonight we are going to have some English fish and chips and do the last of our packing to head home. It has been a fun trip. It has been much more tiring than I think either one of us could have imagined, but it has also been amazing and unforgetable. The next time we post (which could be quite a few days because we don't have internet at home) we will fill you in on all the juicy details of our flight home. We are already thinking with anticipation of our flight home on British Airways with the complementary meals, and drinks and the TV screens on the seats.

For now, we've got to go, were getting a bit Peckish.

Bathing in Bath

As nice as London was, we wanted to spend a day out in the country here. We decided to go to Bath. The train was very expensive (but not a surprise anymore), but it only took us about an hour to get there.
Bath was a super adorable town that had several notable things about it, but it was a tradidional, miserable summer day in England. It rained all day. Sometimes it was raining quite hard. After a quick walking tour in the rain, we decided to go to the thermal spa. It was next to an old Roman bath that is a museum, but it was actually a luxury spa. It was quite decidant. It was a bothrobe and slippers kind of place. Anyway, we went for the two hour treatment and soaked in the mineral bath and on the rooftop pool. There was also a fun sauna room with four different scents and a food bath area. The water was about 30 C which was nice, but you could stand to stay in it for two hours.

We headed out of the spa and jumped on a tour to Stonehenge that we had booked. It was funny. We were in a little purple minibus with a really funny driver. There actually isn't a ton to see besides countryside between stonehenge and bath, but our driver pointed out everything. He would always say things like "Ok Guys, if you look on your left you will see a funny house. It looks like a castle, but it is a hotel. Again Guys, on your left." Then becuase it was so cloudy we couldn't see one of the attractions (a calk carving on the hillside) he would say "OK Guys, what you would be seeing right now to your left is a gigantic carving into the natural chalk, but as you can see Guys, it is too cloudy. OK Guys, you would see it right throught the break in those trees, right there, but it is too cloudy Guys. I have a picture I can show you later of what it would look like Guys."

Stonehenge was very very cold and very very cool. We had heard lots of times how it is a bit disapointing, but we went into it with that attitude and it was much cooler than we expected. Enjoy the pics. We were soaking wet by the time we headed back to the bus. We got some hot chocolate and enjoyed hearing about the same attractions on the way back.

We went shoping in bath before we left.

When we got back to Reading we met J and went to hang out with her friends at the Pub. Then we went a Thai place with them for dinner. We didn't get home until about 11pm. Apparently that is what everyone does here every night. It is very different for us. We had a blast with J's friends. They all work for Microsoft and are very fun. We even got a new copy of Windows 7, not for release until October, but apparently amazing. I can't wait to get it on my computer and enjoy the sneak peak.

Our First Day In London

Our first night in London J and her friend Tilly took us to a British Pub. The food was excellent, and it was a really nice night. We all laughed a lot and enjoyed our evening. We tried sticky toffie pudding because we never had. We expected it to be . . . well . . . pudding, but it wasn't! It was some kind of cake covered with toffie sauce. It was really good.

The next morning we took the train into London. Compared with everywhere else we have been, the train prices here are like armed robery. In London we went to Trafalgar square, then we walked down and saw Paralment and Big Ben. They were all really nice. Then we headed to Covent Gardens for lunch. It is an area with a ton of shops and good food. We started off by sharing a dinner jacket. We can't stop laughing about dinner jackets. They are baked potatoes with fun toppings. We also got some really good curry.

This area between Covent Gardents and Leicester Square was probably our favorite area. It had a really fun and unique city feel. We detoured to see Soho, then we headed to Picadelly Circus (Circus just means a large circle) and walked down that road to Buckingham Palace. The Palace was nice. The weather was so-so. Then we headed toward this giant ferris wheel called the London Eye, but by the time we got there, it was close to when we were planning on leaving, so we walked through Waterloo and caught the train back.

We taught J how to cook French Toast and we played Monopoly City. It was a lot of fun. We got to be kind of late.

London was a really nice city, but in a lot of ways like Boston. It was really easy to get around because everything was in English and everyone spoke English, but it was bloody expensive.

Back in the English Speaking World

Yesterday we spent the day at a beautiful beach right by where we were staying. We had the whole day to kill because we didn't need to take a bus to the airport until about 4:30. We went to a nice beach where there was some shade and good swimming and relaxed and ate lunch. We went back to get our bags to catch the bus at about 3:00. We were going to do internet and then catch the bus. We were talking to Maria (the woman who owns the hotel) and said we were going to do internet and then catch the bus. She looked at us with alarm and said "You don't have time. It is 4:10." Somehow Janna's watch was more than an hour off, and now we had to race to catch the bus.

We caught a bus down the hill successfully (this is a miracle becuase we had never successfully caught the bus any other time we tried). We didn't have tickets, but didnt get caught. We didn't exactly feel good about that, but it was get on the bus right then or stay in Italy. The bus we caught took us right to the train station where our airport bus was. (Again, this was lucky becuase we didn't know the bus route). We were able to buy or tickets on the bus, and we were delighted when there was a bar on the bus and we could buy something to drink also. (getting water was on our list after the internet).

Thus began our great adventure. We like to think of it as our rehearsal for "The Great Race". The bus ride to Naples took 90 minutes. We waited in the airport 3 hours, rode a plane for 3 hrs (during which time went backwards for an hour because we were crossing time zones). Arrived thankfully 20 minutes early into London, waited in line with passports, got luggage, changed money, sprinted to catch the Stanstead Express train into London, rode the train for 35 minutes, to catch the last tube of the night by 1 minute, after frantically buying tickets from a machine(not knowing what kind of ticket we needed). We rode the tube for 25 minutes across London, arrived at Paddington Station. Somehow, we came up from the subway literally in front of the platform for the train we needed (platform 13 by the way so this really was a miracle) to take to Reading, which was leaving in 1 minute. We were lucky enough to have bought the correct tube ticket that worked for the train that we had to get on, or we would have had to wait another hour for the last train of the night, in a cold, rainy, deserted station. We got off the train in Reading, where J lives, and took a cab to her apartment, found her door, rang the bell, and thanked goodness we woke up the right sleeping people. This was 2 am UK time by the way.

Whew. Not sure how or why we every booked a flight arriving into London Stanstead at 11 pm. Next time we'll fly into London Heathrow at a more reasonable hour and then take the express bus to Reading that takes 25 minutes.

An overview of the UK: our trip thuys far has been hot and sunny. Literally, we have had NO bad weather, only hot beautiful sun. 1 day when we were in Budapest it was a little chilly- like 70, but otherwise we have sweated through Europe. Here, it is cool and rainy, and will be all week. Brittish summer.

Today we stayed at J's, as we were exhausted from half a night's sleep. Went to the grocery store, did our laundry (finally), and read travel guides on Britain. Tomorrow we will venture into London.

We took the boat back

Despite not sleeping well last night, we woke up at 5;45 local time and headed out the door to catch an early bus to the Amafi coast. It was actually only about a 90 minute trip, but if you dont go early it is a mob scene. They have 48 seats, and then people stand in the aisle(room for about 25 more) So, we wanted to get out early. We were running a bit late as we walked to the station, and we had to run some. This was not exciting to Janna who was already sweating in the 85 degree 6am heat. Ouch.

Needless to say, we did beat the rush (The next bus left at a more travel friendly time of 8:30). So, we got a seat right at the front, and didnt need to put in our fantastic itallian motion sickness gum until about 4 minutes into the trip. So, with our breath smelling good, we headed out. The trip was amazing and a bit frightful. I dont know how there arent more fatalities on the road the way that people drive here. On this trip, it was winding and at the edge of a cliff, but that is not what made it unique. What really was the trip was that the road was the size of one normal U.S. lane. We were in a coach bus. When we passed other coach busses, they squeezed by. We were frequently passed by people on scooters. When the bus came to a blind curve, it honked its horn as it approached. Although the horn was more like an air horn than a car horn, this (in our ever so humble US opinion) is still perhaps not an adequate traffic control measure.

So, the ride was memorable, and to be honest the traffic was light at that hour, so we arrived in Amalfi in good shape. We bought a hiking map and beat the now 90 degree heat and started hiking before it got hot. We got a spectacular view from the top of the trail, and with minimal wandering, made it back for both a swim and to catch our ride back. Despite the fact that we had a round trip ticket, we took the ferry back (about $30 total). It was smooth, fast, windy, and beautiful. And, since we took the 12:30 ferry, we beat the traffic. (Sometimes it seems we travel like we are 70, but maybe old people just know enough to leave early).

We enjoyed a siesta after being turned away from the grocery store (it closed for siesta at 1:20 and we showed up at 1:30 looking for food). So, if you cant beat them, join them. We cooked a delicous dinner, and now that it is 7:00 and the heat is STARTING to break, we are going to enjoy the town. We get most of a day here before taking bus straight to the Naples airport and leaving for London. We wont get to London until late in the night(ah what we have learned about flying on cheap airlines. We have quite the trip across london becuase we are flying into Stanstead instead of Heathrow) , so for sure dont expect anything tomorrow.

But we feel ready to tackle London. They mostly speak English there. (Although Janna keeps insisting it is a different dialect of English than American English) How tough can it be to cross the city? (Sounds like a topic for the next blog)

A Vacation in Sorrento

Yesterday we left Rome wishing that we had another day there because we really loevd it. We already had bought train tickets for early in the morning. We got on a the train, it was a really nice fancy train and we had good assigned seats with this American couple (aged about 45) who had a teenage daughter in camp while they were traveling and they were from Massachusetts (near Smith College!). It was really nice to talk to them, we havent had a lot of conversations with people who speak English fluently. In Naples, we had to get on this little regional train, and the couple (Carole and Chris) were actually going to the same town as us.

The regional train was UNBELIEVEABLY HOT and sweaty and stopped every 5 minutes. And there were 700 people on it. Many, many of these were standing. We were going right by Pompeii and almost didnàt go because we knew it would be scalding hot and we had seen a lot of HOT ruins yesterday. Carole and CHris, our friends, were having the same debate with themselves. In the end, Peggy, we knew you would never forgive us, if we didnàt go. So we went and it was very cool. Well, very HOT, but much larger than we ever imagined and it seems like back in its day it was a really grand city. Very interesting history.

After about 2 hours, we got back on the hot train and made it to Sorrento (on the southern coast of Italy). Caught a bus to our hotel (soaked in sweat at this point, of course) and our hotel was wonderful. Maria was great, we got to pick between 5 rooms, all cliffside, with awesome ocean views. Our room is cool, as it is below street level, and has a balcony with a table and a great ocean view, across the Bay of Naples to Pompeii and Naples. Excellent. Plus, it has high cielings and a little entryway and a big bathroom with a tub (our first in Italy!) and a big kitchen for guests to use. We were obviously thrilled with this place. Headed into town for a swim and a supermarket, stocked up on much wanted groceries and cooked a delicious dinner (pasta of course, the stores donàt sell much else here in ITaly) with veggies and sauce. Very relaxing evening with the ocean out the door.


We had our first real taste of Italian men. Walking up from town to our hotel, in our one piece bathing suits, shorts, wet gross hair and sweaty from the hike, carrying 3 bags of groceries, we had 3 sets of guys honk or call out to us. Here it is totally appropriate to show affection for women in this way...especially non Italian women which we obviously are. imagine if were were dressed up? One guy pulled up next to us on his motor scooter and tried to give us first a ride (how was he going to fit both of us, 3 large grocery bags and himself onto his tiny motor scooter?) and then invited us out for a drink because "we were very beautiful girls." Donàt worry moms, No is universally understood and we told him we were meeting other people. He was very "jealous".

We had ambitious plans today to go to either Capri or Ischia (both islands off the coast here). We were supposed to leave at 8:30. At 7:00, we decided today was not going to be that kind of day. Istead we slept in, cooked omelettes and then left the hotel at 11 to go to a beach in the next town over. Beaches here arenàt really sandy, they are big piers with tons of chairs and umbrellas and only small strips are public, the rest you have to pay for. We baked in the sun at the beach for awhile, swam a lot in the very warm ocean, and then came back to our hotel for a nice rest.

On the way back to our hotel, guess who got on the bus across the aisle from us? Our new friends Carole and Chris. We chatted about our adventures. THey too had ambitious plans for today but threw them aside to relax. It is 104 degrees here today. We are going to head into town and shop and are hopefully ready to head out really siteseeing tomorrow, down the coast (wish us luck catchinga 625 am bus! to beat the crowds).

We certainly have not mastered the art of traveling yet. Every night we come home and our heads hurt, our feet ache, our backs hurt, we are thirsty, and we are exhausted. And, we haven't seen or experienced as much as we want to.

Rome is beautiful, exciting, wonderful, and very very hot. Last night we had dinner at Miscellanea, a fabulous little salad/pizza place with a view of the Pantheon. Neither of us was too sure what the Pantheon was, but we do now. It is very old and very beautiful inside. About 2000 years old to be exact, and has a bigger dome than St. Peter's Basilica (the largest church in the world). It's interior has been restored and it is like in the Roman times, cool.
We were utterly exhausted last night....we went on a short night walk through Rome and saw the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish steps, where lots of people gather. It was very pleasant and warm and lots of people.

The temp today, as normal, was about 38 Celsius. If you convert that, that's very close to 100 F. We were up and out nice and early this morning (after free breakfast at our hotel!) and by 9:00 we were at the Colosseum. And it was already about 95 degrees. The ruins and buildings here are so big that they are hard to fathom and hard to describe. They are interlaced with all the newer buildings in the city, so you're driving down the road and there's a hotel and then some Roman ruins, then a McDonald's. In fact, you can sit in the Piazza surrounding the Pantheon, at McDonald's. We didn't, don't worry.

So, we saw the Colosseum (huge, amazing, awesome), and then Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. Both of the latter two are outdoor places with remains of ancient Rome's buildings. It was pretty astounding. We ate a picnic lunch (there are some things that we are savvy about and that is planning food ahead of time, so we had gotten a picnic early in the morning en route to the Colosseum) sitting on a piece of ruins, and then prepared to head to the Appian Way (the first big road ever, 2000 ish years old) and the catacombs. We got halfway there (via metro/bus) and realized they were closed from 12 to 2:30. It was 1:00. So we decided to take our afternoon rest then, and do the rest of the things later. After 2 gelatos (amazing grapefruit and then dark chocolate to follow it), we got back to our room. This had taken longer than planned because we were a long way away. We rested, but only briefly, because we had to leave by 3:00 in order to get to the Catacombs, St. Peter's and the Pantheon before they closed.

So, we decided to be super efficient and rather than take the bus to the metro to the other metro to the bus to get to the Appian Way, we were going to take 1 bus to the bike rental place and ride bikes. It was only a 4 mile bike ride, on a nice pedestrian road...should be no problem. Plus, we're tough and we had a lot of water so the 100 degree heat wasn't going to be a problem (despite the 1 speed rental bikes we were sure to get).

Yep, the bikes were 1 speed. But, they were better than walking on our tired tired feet. Unfortunately, we had 1 major snafu in our plan: our map didn't extend out to the Appian way and we didn't know exactly how to get there. We thought no problem....but Rome is a big city. It took us 1 hour 45 minutes to find the Appian Way. It also took about 6 bottles of water and ½ gallon of sweat. We saw three maps along the way, on our backwards route, but still couldn't find our way. At this point, it is 5:00 and the Catacombs close in 30 minutes...they are still 1 mile down the Appian Bad maps. Way....so we had to turn around. Guess what? We made it back in less than 15 minutes and only had to pay for two hours of bikes. Yay. So, no Catacombs but we couldn't let our morale fade too much because we still had two more major sites to see and 2 hours until they closed.

Basically, the only way we (and many others) survived the heat of Rome is that there are fountains and water spigots everywhere and you are more than welcome, and expected, to walk up to them, fill your bottle, splash your face, body, hat, dog, etc. You could wash your feet, your clothes, anything to keep you cool. And we did. Again and again. Some of them are beautiful examples of sculpture and architecture, some aren't so nice but all are cold.

St. Peter's Basilica is the biggest and grandest church in the world. It was enormous and very fancy. And not very hot.

The Pantheon we already talked about.

Had delicious salads for dinner. We are getting better at seeking out restaurants that serve casual food, in a casual setting. Like we said before, our favorites are self service cafeterias. Here in Rome, they are not as popular so we are doing our reading and picking casual restaurants (with good food!).

After dinner, still exhausted and hot, we crossed the river just for a gelato place. You might ask, oh, were there no gelato places near where you ate dinner? The answer would be no. We probably passed 50 enroute, but Rick Steve (our guidebook guy), said that this one was “worth seeking out” (unprecedented so far in all of our reading). So we sought. He recommended the cinnamon, unusual, but unbelievable. Rivaling Grom's dark dark chocolate for the absolute best. So good. We were in a new, very fun neighborhood (Trastevere) and if we had more time, we would definitely spend more time there.

We wandered back through Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona, both very busy, bright, fun, night scenes and now we are going to bed. Have to leave early morning tomorrow for Sorrento (already bought our train tickets).

Maybe we should have given Rome more than a day. Who knew?

Ciao!

Quiet Night in Civita (Far off the beaten path)

Last night in Florence, we thouroughly enjoyed our dinner at Leonardo's Self Service Cafeteria. Reccommended by Rick Steves, it was right near the Duomo, was cheap, and had delicious food. Seriously, it was probably our favorite restaurant in Italy thus far. At most restaurants here, the menus often have no English, and even what we can translate, it is hard for us to picture what the food will look like. Seafood salad in the US is very different than seafood salad here. Think large chunks of octopus with a few mussels, a piece of celery, and olive oil. At the restaurants here, we always feel a little out of place....at one place they brought us bread and champagne before our meal. It's not that it is too expednsive necessarily, but it is higher class than we are comfortable with. Everyone orders an antipasti and then a primi course and then a secondi coure. WA Y too much food !!! And when we only order 1 course each (still a big and fattening meal)we feel guilty.Anyways, Leonardo's was amazing. He cared about his food, there was lots of it, we could see it all, it was delicious, there was free tap water with ice (unheard of here in Europe) and we got to sit in a big booth.....that looked like McDonalds. There was no guilt and we went back for seconds. We are in love with Italian self service cafeterias.
This morning we ate breakfast in our room (cereal and milk!!!!), went to our first Florentine museum (the History of Science museum), got packed up, and then got some amazing delicious gelatto from Grom....our favorite gelaterria here. We discovered it last night, and their extra dark chocolate is to die for. It tastes like a chilled, melted dark chocolate bar with ice cream consistency. This morning, we were waiting in line at 10:30 when they opened (and we were not the first in line!).
We got our tickets for the train, after a long and stressful line and made it breathlessly onto the train about 30 seconds before it departed. Whew. We stopped in Orvieto and paid to store our bags so we wouldnt have to drag them (they are getting heavier and heavier, we did a lot of shopping in Florence). Sue plotted successfully to not take the funicular up the hill, so we walked. It was steeper and longer than it looked, and the day was hotter than it seemed, BUT, the view was really really awesome. It looks just like the pictures in the olive garden- we are in Tuscany. We walked through the medieval quarter, checked out the Basilica (which was amazing!).
Caught our bus to Bagnoreglio, but couldn't figure out how to buy tickets and our bus driver spoke no English and was in a hurry so we rode free. It was a hilly winding ride up further into the Italian countryside. Gorgeous grape vines and olive trees and other farming. It's very green and lush....We had very good timing and were dropped off in Bagnoreglio right before the shuttle across town showed up. The shuttle drops you off at the foot of the pedestrian foot bridge to Civita. In Civita, there are no cars, only a few scooters. It is an enchanting, fairy tale city, even more so than it looks in the picture. The city is extremely old, and at one time held 4000 people. Since the middle ages, the population has declined. The architecture of the buildings has not been updated. There are lots (well maybe 20 or 30 that we saw) of visitors here during the day, but not many people here at night. There are only 10 or 12 full time residents.
The B and B we are staying in is adorable. We walked around town for a little while. This old lady named Maria who obviously speaks no English sits on her fence and motions for people to come see her gardens all day long. So, of course we went, and they are very nice and the view over the surrounding countryside is outstanding. AND, she had a cat with three adorable kittens (bambini gatti) in her yard. 2 little black kittens and 1 white and tiger striped. Very much worth the euro she asks for in donation. We also went into this Etruscan cave houses below the city. Pretty awesome. Apparently they are all over here. There is also a tunnel that goes under the whole city. Scary, but cool.
Then, things really got interesting. When we checked into our B and B, there was a young girl who spoke some English. She said when we arrived, “Sit. You want water?” We were a little confused and she made herself more clear. We were to sit at the table and drink water. So we did. When she was ready, she showed us to our room- cute, overlooking the main 'square' in town. She asked if we were going to eat dinner, and we said ok. She said 8:00. AHHH! So, after our walk around town and our cat, cave, and garden oogling, we waited. And waited. The giant clock tower outside our room would ring every 15 minutes to let us know of the passing time.
The restaurant is fairly fancy and we were dirty and sweaty so we showered and dressed our nicest (after feeling underdressed in other restaurants) for dinner. At 8:15, we went down to eat and we were the only ones. The woman very clearly showed us our table and turned on a cd with instrumental music (think Kenny G). The same girl who checked us in was our waitress....and our cook...and our dishwasher.....and she is going to meet us at 8:00 for breakfast and clean our room in the morning. She is very straightforward....at one point, Janna tried to order an insalada verde (green salad) and she said, “No!”.....And pointed to something on the menu that Janna could have instead. So she did.
Our meal: was oily. Very oily. Ok, but oily. First we had some bruschetta. We poured the oil off the top and took it out of its oil bath before we ate it. Then, Sue had gnocchi with tomato sauce and Janna had 4 cheese pasta. Both good. Then, we were going to share a “secondi”. After careful deliberation and menu deciphering with our translation book, we decided on scallopine- scallops. Or so we thought. When the scallopine arrived, it was two large, thin, pinkish gray pieces of meat. Not scallops. Since our waitress was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher, we were able to stealthily slip the substance into a plastic bag for the town kitties. And, we fed some to Barilla (maybe that's his name??), the only dog in Civita who spent his evening sleeping near our table in the restaurant. Remember the green salad Janna wanted? Well, she got eggplant and summer squash thinly sliced,6 pieces, floating in olive oil. Oh, and scallopine is actually “thinly sliced veal.” Next time we will spend a little more time on our menu.
Did we mention that we were the only ones in the restaurant all night? And we were there long enough that the CD started looping and we heard “Yesterday” twice.
We went out for a walk and came back to our B and B. The door was shut and locked. Uh oh. Busy thinhking of solutions, we figured there are about 20 people in this town tonight. Luckily, the only phone in Civita is near us....but we haven't located it and can't call out of Italy anyways. So......we got out our keys and lo and behold, found a key to the outside door. Thank goodness. We let ourselves in. Our hostess is already locked into her room with the dog outside her door. Sue tried to entice him into our room, but he wasn't interested.
The town kitties (3 grown ups and 3 kittens as far as we can tell) really loved the veal.
We laughed more here than we have in a long time because we had to make our own entertainment. And honestly, how many people in the world have spent an evening like this in Civita?

But, we went 36 hours without Gelato.
Today we arrived in Rome. Not much to say because we spent the day in the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. It was ok, but we still are yet to see St. Peters Basilica because we were too tired and didn't think we would appreciate it fully today. Tomorrow we will see Rome. For now, it is time for a break.

Gelato

Us in front of the Ponte Vecchio

The food in the Cinque Terre is good, but not exactly healthy. For breakfast you can have nothing, or fried bread or buttery pastry. For lunch, you can have serious pasta at a restaurant and take a bunch of time, or you can choose greasy focaccia pizza at one of the 10 places that sells focaccia pizza. For dinner you have more pizza, or pasta at a serious restaurant. When you set you down here for dinner, they usually expect you to have a three course meal and stay for 2-3 hours. Tough on your waist line and attention span (since it takes both of us about 5 minutes to eat our meal. The grocery stores in the Cinque Terre were small and had mostly fruits and vegetables and meat. Tough to eat dinner without cooking. Anyway, don't worry, no one starved. Quite the opposite.
Our second night in Vernazza, a storm hit the town. It really was only light rain, but the sea became really unsettled. Here it is a big deal because the Mediterranean Sea is always so calm, but it really just looks like the Atlantic or the Pacific on a normal day. All of the boats came out of the water, and no one could go swim. We lounged around our room until about 9 the next morning. We checked out and had our suitcases, but we didn't want to go to Florence until later in the day, so we took the train to the next town and sat along the cliffs above the ocean with our luggage and read for a few hours. It was wonderful. We had a picnic there with the only kind of bread in town (that wasn't fried), our portable mustard in a tube, tomatoes and peppers. We also got some strawberries that were maybe the best I had ever tasted.
One of the coolest things about the Cinque Terre is that although the mountains are very steep, there is a ton of farming on terraces. Along with the heat and some squatting toilets, it makes Janna think she is vacationing in Mexico rather than Italy. But the farming is something to see. Lots of grape vines.
Well, we finally arrived in Florence. Our hotel is within sight of the Duomo. We still aren't sure how exactly how to pronounce it, so we usually just say it really fast. Our room is on the second floor. That should be one flight of stairs, right? Nope, you walk into floor zero. Take a flight of stairs to floor 1, then another flight of stairs to floor 2. Anyway, it is cute and nice. (and there is a tiny fridge)
Gelato is officially our obsession. It started off innocent enough. In Prague, it was everywhere, and it was only 20 Crowns (about $1) The scoops were small, so it wasn't too much dessert. In Croatia, it was about 5 Kuna, (again, $1) but the scoops suddenly got larger. In Hungary, it was usually less than a dollar, and still really good. Each region had its specialties, and it was like art. We started eating it several times a day. Then we arrived in Italy (The Mecca of Gelato) Unfortunately, here Gelato is about 2 Euro (About $3) for a tiny cone of joy. Venice and the Cinqe Terre both had decent gelato, but it is an experience in Florence (according to Rick Steves). Basically we have followed Rick's advice throughout all our trip and tried the places that he thought was best. It has gotten to the point that we have six gelato places we need to hit in Florence. We have planned our site seeing so that we can hit all of them at peak eating times. (Like after breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, after lunch, ect.) Today we went up by the Accademia where there is a famous statue. You might have heard of it. It is called “David” and it is by some dude name Michaelangelo. There are basically miniatures of it all over the city. So, it was almost napping time, and we could only fit in David or one of the “big six” gelatarias. Apricot and Chocolate(2 euros). Priceless.
So, if you are keeping track, Gelato in Italy is amazing. Toilets in Italy are disgusting. When you can find them, you must have small change to be able to use them. Don't expect them to make change from a 5. Also, toilet seats are a luxury, reserved for the best hotels. Count yourself lucky if you get to to the bathroom in a toilet that is just missing the seat. Many “toilets” here (they call them toilets, we actually wouldn't use those words to describe them.) here are just a private hole in the ground. No toilet paper, no soap. Restaurants and stores are usually OK. If there is an emergency, buy some water, and then as you are leaving, casually ask if they have a bathroom.
I think we have been a bit surprised about how much nicer things are in Eastern Europe. They are so clean, and modern and the people there are so friendly. There are many shops in Italy where there are signs in clothing stores that tell you not to touch the clothes. That makes it tricky to shop, eha?
Last night we had dinner in a nice little restaurant. Today we enjoyed our granola with peanut butter in our room. We walked to a hill that overlooks the city, and wandered through some piazzas and markets. Florence has brought out the shoppers in us. We bought a bunch of department store clothes for school. We have been really startled at how feminine all the men's clothing is here. It is a lot of pink and purple (dark and light) , short shorts, tight and fitted shirts. Most guys we know would not be caught dead in a hot pink striped, button down, tailored shirt.
Luckily that storm that hit broke the heat and humidity. It is hot here, but actually really pleasant and nice compared to Venice (Maybe 85). Neither one of us loved Venice, but it was probably partially due to the extreme heat and humidity there. Florence has a really nice down town with lots to see and lot of pedestrians. Cars are really scarce on the streets, and often you forget they are streets because people wander everywhere. It is not at all like US cities. Florence seems like a much smaller city than it really is. It has been a nice break before we get to Rome.

Dripping Wet

Yesterday morning we got out of Venice, but not before being entirely overwhelmed by the number of people. We took a very nice and fancy train to Florence. Traveling on trains is a bit confusing because there are tickets, and there are reservations, and they are different. Also, when you get to the station you have to pick the right train, becuase our train to Florence was actually to Rome, and in any case, Florence is written Firenze (Venice is Venezia). So, we were in the Florence train station and this very helpless and young looking American girl walked up to me and said "Do you speak English?" I helped her find her train, and was astonished that I now knew, because we were doing the blundering just a few hours before.

So, we catch the local train(I am using the term train loosely here) to La Spezia. This trainride should have taken the same time as our train ride to Florence, despite the fact that it was only about 1\5 the number of miles. Luckily, we were in an un-air conditioned car. The train wasnt TOO bad when it was moving fast, but it kept driving slow and stopping, so we were both roasting and sweating like pigs. I dont know if I have ever been that hot for that long.

After six hours of travleing, we gladly spilled out onto the platform to make ANOTHER transfer. As Sue was wandering around looking for the Billetaria (for tickets), I was people watching next to the McDonalds, and started thinking how much everyone would probably hate this part of our trip. It was dealthly hot (still in the outdoor station), we didnt yet know what time the next train was, we despirately needed water, and we had traveled for a long time. But we have learned to roll with it. When in Rome. . . sweat like everyone else.

Oh, and speaking of rolling with it, Sues suitcase lost a wheel in Eger (days ago, if you will recall) so she has been dragging her suitcase along since. Venice is not really the place to buy a new suitcase unless you are looking for Gucci or Prada. Then we were going to wait until we left Vencie, and the Cinque Terra (The five towns along the sea) dont exactly have luggage shops, so in the meantime, we drag. Which is fine, but whenever we start pulling our suitcases, Janna turns it into high gear.

After catching the next train (we sat on the top, and should have had good views, but the windows were so dirty you couldnt see out of them) we were close to our destination. We went through a long tunnel, and came out right by the ocean. The train stopped, then another tunnel. Then the train stopped, and another tunnel. The towns were are in now are on the sides of mountains next to the ocean, and that is the only way to get to them. The trains have to tunnel. It is amazing.

So, in Vernazza (really small town) we wander through the one main street and get the key to our room. It was just up a set of stairs in an alley, to the right, up more stairs. Straight up more stairs, then left up stairs, ect, until after sweating more with our bags we finally get to the door. Success! Then up two more flights of stairs (a small, VERY SMALL winding staircase.) But we get a view, and all the rooms are up stairs. We have a view over the ocean, and since the town is built on a steep cliff, we see straight out on the ocean.

We took showers, got pizza to go and caught a quick swim before going to bed.

This morning, Iwas sitting up dressed at 6;30. Sue was a bit suspicious of my motives. We were going on a 7 mile hike today between the towns, and I was very anxious to go. It turns out I thought if we left early we would sweat less. Turns out it doesnt much matter here. It was Hot, Humid and Hazy all day. But, it was amazing. We climbed millions of steps (maybe a slight exageration, but about 3.5 miles of stairs) and saw some breath taking views. It was worth it, but kind of a after the fact worth it. We did some deep sea swimming in one of the towns. The Mediteranian is so calm and the drop off so steep that you can jump off the piers and never touch the bottom.

By the time we saw our town at the end of the last hike, we literally run (ok jogged) down the hill, past the steps, through town, and into the ocean. We stopped just long enough to take off our shoes. The ocean was amazing and beautiful and it was beautiful end to our walking.

So, before we head back to Florence for a longer stay, we are going to enjoy the ocean and the view and the small town. And by the way, REALLY CUTE cats here. There is even a black bob tailed cuttie.

MAYBE pictures tomorrow.

lovely days

Well, we definately aren't in eastern europe anymore. it is tough to get around, there is a lot less internet, a lot less english, and everything is three times as expendsive. but regardless, if any of you are in venice, would you spend your time in an internet cafe?

venice is as you would expect, gorgeous, hot, humid, crowded, at times a bit smelly and overwhelmingly charming. our transportation here was the most seamless one that we have had yet? who would have guessed that wizz air was a ton better than skyeurope? getting anywhere in venice that is not right on the grand canal is a mess of stairs, dead ends, and crazy addresses. we arrived here and got on the vaporetto, think "city bus on a boat" and took it down the grand canal to where we are staying. the slow ride is really neat, everything here is really old and you can tell that at one time the city was amazing. we arrived at our stop on san marco square. it has st. mark's basilica, a palace, and lots of old buildings. it is the place to be. our hotel is about 30 seconds outside of it. we are on the fourth floor, with no lifts, you can see the top of the basilica and the bell tower from teh square right outside our window.

our first night in venice we ate at our first restaurant with no english on the menu. luckily, we have an italian phrase book so we limped along and ate delicious pizza and pasta. we spent a lot of the next day working on our italian.\

the mornings in venice are beautiful, but it gets very hot and crowded during the day. luckily we haven't been able to sleep past about 7 on this whole trip. we spent the whole first day (yesterday) wandering around the city, it's an island so you can't get lost. but, it is a big island. it took us about 5 minutes ot walk to dinner from our hotel, and 30 minutes to get home. we discovered a new way.

today we are leaving for vernazza, we already have our train tickets so hopefully it will be a smooth trip. if we have internet, we will add pictures. it seems that we have better luck with internet in small towns...but who knows....don't be worried!!! we have to rush right now to check out.....

We are way too tired to be getting into any trouble, so don't worry. Ciao!

Not in Kansas

We are officially not in Kansas anymore. More than once today we purchased fruit from a local stand and they either type the price on a calculator, or my favorite, we hold change in our hands and hope they pick the right amount. I don't think we have been swindeled though, becuasae if we are calculating it right, it is about $0.30 a peach. Also, we almost bought 2 kilograms of peaches instead of two peaches. That would have been considerably more expensive.

The day started off with our free buffet at breakfast. It was included in the price of our room, and very upscale for us. We were the only ones with our suits under our shorts. Everyone else chose to "dress up" in their blouses and slacks. No worries though, they don't kick us out becuase we carry our card that says we paid to be here. We get in free to the open air baths next door, and becuase it is free, we like to go for a short bit of time as many times a day as we can schedule in.

Back to breakfast. . . every food was labeled in Hungarian, but don't worry, there were translations. All the food was also listed in German. But on the upside, we know Wiener Schnitzel when we see it. At the buffet, the more interesting items included: Two types of full fledged hot dog style sausages, (Not breakfast sausage!) Eggs??? with ham chopped in them, fried bread??? Rice Pudding??? Lots of mustard for the sausages (not lots of kinds of mustard, just a giant vat), yogurt??? cereal! (with whole milk) tomatoes, peppers, cheese, various deli meat slices, and about 8 different types of bread. Can't wait to see if we get two sausage choices tomorrow also, or if they will mix things up at the buffet. (Note, doesn't it sound like nice fixings for a lunch sandwich? We think so to. Maybe we bring a bag tomorrow. Maybe we will sit in a place where no one would notice if something went in that bag. Maybe something for later. )

Before our breakfast had time to hit the bottom of our stomachs, we were out at the thermal pool with everyone's grandparents. It was homey. We hung out in the medicinal thermal pool, and the highlight of our day may have been when there was aquatic exercises led by the staff to the tune of cotton eye joe.

We hit the big 11:30 organ concert at the church (at 11:40 after we took the long route and Janna finished clipping her toenails. Ingrown toenails can be bad when you are so far from home) with our new (old, very old) friends. Luckily we didn't get there on time, becuase 30 minutes was about all we could take.

The Classic style church that was the site of the organ concert.

Then we went to the top of the Minaret. It sits up about 100 feet above the town in a small tower. Great view, you might think. Actually, it is pretty tight to go up a tower built of stones where the stairway spirals up and the passage way is about the width of Janna. You have to wait for the last party to come down before you can go up (for obvious reasons). There were some tense moments on the way up as Janna was tired, but Sue wouldn't let me slow down becuase she felt trapped behind Janna. The slower Janna went, the more upset Sue got. The faster Janna went, the more trapped she felt. 97 stairs is a lot to do without a break. Then, you are rewarded by coming out onto a ledge that is about 1 foot wide( with a guard rail) and the thought of going back down when you are done enjoying the vertigo. (And catch your breath). As you can tell, there isn't anything exciting for us to do tonight. Eger is a sleepy town, and the Hulk is on EuroSport. Anyway, Janna went faster on the way down, and Sue went down on her bottom. No worries.


Bum, Bum, Bum. . . the minaret. (Objects in this picture may have a smaller stairway than it appears to have)

We had dinner in this great restaurant on the square. It had a beautiful view and great food with live music. We both got drinks, soup, and an entree, and with tip it was less than $20. I could get used to these prices. Then we got some desert and left our bag (with our passports) in the sweet shop. We thought we might have won a day in the American Embassy in Budpest becuase we decided to let the nice man who doesn't speak English there pick up our bag for us when we left it. About halfway home, Sue realized we didn't have the bag, so we hurried back panicked. Nice man had it. Janna panicked more than Sue. So, no embassy. Funny story once you have your passport back.

Sue thinks it was Janna's fault, so now Janna is only in charge of the money, her watch, and her hair rubber band. Let me explain. . . We have a money belt that we purchased in the London airport. It is very feminine and has a strap like a bra and the front looks a bit like panties. We have dubbed it the money underwear. So, it is strapped to you, and you can't leave it anywhere. So, Janna is forever in charge of the things that are strapped to her before she leaves her room in the morning. Sue is pretty much in charge of everything else.

Our goal for Italy is to determine what exactly one means when one calls something baroque, gothic, neo-gothic, classic, modern, ect. Neither one of us are really into art or whatever you call liking buidings, but we think it might make the trip make more sense if we knew. Wish us luck.

There may be not post tomorrow, because we are arriving in Venice around dinner time, and internet is sometimes hard to find. So, no worries if you don't hear from us for a day or two.

BTW, did you know Venice is an island? Janna does now. She has finished both the books she brought with her and is now stuck with "Rick Steves, Itally 2008". Watch out Alex Tribeck!

Some pictures were added to earlier posts, so if you have a minute, you can see some good pictures from Vienna and Budapest.

A 3 Star Hotel on a 1 Star Vacation

Somehow, we ended up in a ok room in a quite nice hotel. After our last breakfast in Hungary with J (as Grandma was cooking a big batch of fried chicken), we missed the bus we meant to take to Eger by 1 minute because we walked out the wrong entrance of the metro and could not find the bus station. Luckily, the next bus was only an hour later and we had time for some lunch. We could tell things had changed once we got to the bus stop. The ticket person did not speak any English (and we don't speak Hungarian fluently yet) so there was some written number communication as to bus times and ticket prices and so on. We ordered some food (nectarines, mustard and bread) without talking. We're pretty sure that the mustard (in a tube! well, we think it is mustard and it tastes like mustard) doesn't need refridgeration.

The bus was very fancy, especially compared to the Stalin busses and trains in Budapest. We were sad to leave J and her family, but Eger is quite adorable. We do better in small places because we are able to wonder and explore without ever getting too far from where we mean to be.

Our hotel is quite nice, our first big hotel experience. There are about 300 rooms and it backs up to a big bath complex that is like a water park. We get free admission, and spent a bit of time there this afternoon sampling the pools. It's like an amusement park, with grass to lay on and cotton candy and ice cream everywhere. And gyros. There have been gyros everywhere for the last two days. And gyros mean that there is a big hunk of meat that the cooker slices from when he makes a gyro. Gross.

Despite getting further from the English speaking world, we hear American music everywhere. In the restaurant we had dinner in, at the pub last night, downtown in Eger at the wine tasting festival....and I swear, the only music we heard in Prague was Michael Jackson.

For dinner we had delicious crepes at another restaurant that Rick Steves (the author of our guidebook) reccommended. They were AMAZING.....nexzt to the vegetarian place in Prague and J's grandma, it was the best food we have eaten on our trip. And we have leftovers. Unprecedented for us. In order to store them, we cleaned everything out of our hotel room "minibar". No problem though, that stuff won't go bad, but vegetables and tuna will.

Budapest Baths

Today Js history lesson continued. We bombarted her with questions about school, work, and baths. After a morning of sights and a hill climb, we relaxed in one of Budapests famous baths. Now, when I say a public bath, you might be thinking about the San Fransico baths, but you would be wrong. There were old men playing chess, and some very hot and relaxing pools. One of them was like a giant hot tub that you can sit it. The city is on top of a geothermal spring, so it is all natural. There were about 3ö pools in all. Some were almost ice cold, and some were as hot as you can stand. There were also saunas, ect. We think it was like a water park for adults. It was fun and relaxing.

Then we ate a Js favorite cafe and went to a fantasic pub for a soda. We were trying to stick around to see the chain bridge at night. Pictures will follow, and we have a ton more to say about Budapest, but it is late, and we need some rest. More to follow (especially pictures)

Stalins Trains

This is a view of the city from the top of the Citadel. You can see a bit of the chain bridge on the left (the oldest bridge across the Danube River) and the really fancy building in the background is the parlament building.

Aimee,
We just left Austria, and since he will be Hungarian, how about a brown one named goulash?

We had a great day in Budapest. It was majical to not have to carry a map and always make decisions about where to go next.

Where to begin? Grandma cooked us some amazing scrambled eggs and onions. They were the best we have ever tasted. Seriously. Not just because we are so far from home. J took us to a church inside a cave that was very unreal. The church was small, but very quaint.

Then we hiked(climbed stairs, really) to the top of great lookout just by one of the hot spring here called the Citadell. The view was beautiful and we could look down on the Danube and the Parliment building (very beautiful. Pictures will follow). We went to a great market place that was like a really upscale flea market.

Oh, and things here are incredibly cheap (especially compared to Vienna). The exchange rate is good, and so 1 dollar is about 200 forints. So, a yogurt is about 38 forints. We walked a ton, and ate some incredible food. First we had fired dough thing covered with cheese, then a rounded hollow cinnamon roll type thing. It was crispy and very sweet. Hungary is famous for their sweets. We plan to investigate this more tomorrow.

It was a pretty cloudy and cool day. Sue and J were cold, but Janna was a furnace. Late in the afternoon we went to the terror museum. It documents the two big reins of terror in Hungarys history (Nazi and Soviets) It was really well done and we had tour guide J to translate everything and answer all our silly questions about communism (like, was there money then? Yup, there was)

After more walking and enjoying the city, we headed back on the subway and trams. By the way the blue line subway looks like Stalin could ride in on it at any moment. In fact, it was a gift from Stalin, and you know how things were made to last them. It has lasted a long time. We also got to ride the yellow line, which was the first underground on continental Europe. It was originally pulled by horses. It is shallow, and if possible, the cars look even older than the blue line. They may be a bit noisy, but they are really fast and easy.

For dinner, Js grandma made soup, . . .dumpling stuffing, hungarian style ? and fried cheese and rice. Time to go to bed.

Breakfast in Croatia, Lunch in Vienna, Dinner in Budapest

This is a picture of the Hapsburg Palace in Vienna

Emily,
We found the perfect squirel colored cat for you. Good news!

Well, Sky Europe was late . . . again. . . so we didnt actually get to Vienna until about 1.00 so we did a whirlwind tour of the city. Of course it was beautiful. We took a nice 3 hour train ride to Budapest. Hungary is beautiful. The farmland was so quaint and quiet. What we have seen of Budapest is lovely. We had a three course home cooked meal, and cant wait to get to bed. We have a lot planned, and have been out of it for the last 24 hours from some motion sickness medicine we took.

Maybe pictures later.

Hot Hot Hot in Split

This morning we woke up and enjoyed a morning at the beach before catching a 12:45 bus across the island to catch the ferry. The bus was awesome as we had to climb the steep cliffs behind the town. Then you drive across the top of the island and back down to another sea-side town. The whole bus ride took almost an hour. Supetar was nothing special (expect some dark chocolate gellato). We took the 45 minute car ferry to Split. Split is a big city (almost 200,000 people) and far bigger than were we have been. Although it has its urban sprawl, it does have an amazing old center with the remains of a 5th century palace.

We walked around the palace. It is huge and now filled with new (but very old) buildings (restaurants, bakeries, stores). We toured the basement of the palace. After the fall of the Roman empire it was used as a sewer and garbage can and has just been excavated in the last 10 years and is really cool to walk in.

Our apartment is just outside the old town and is a cute little loft apartment. Too bad we are leaving in the morning. Compared to the other places we have been in Eastern Europe, this is much bigger and more modern, but it just kills us to see grafiti on an old palace. It just isn't something you see in Prague or Dubrovnik.

The gelato here is something special (Only 5 kunas for a big cone), but we are so tired that we are watching British equastrian programming on tv. At least it doesn't have Croatian voice over.

We have an eventful day tomorrow, so we are going to retire early today. We are so excited to see J and take a vacation from our vacation. Sometimes is it is a major ordeal picking out pastries.

Oh, and one more thing before we end this post. Rest assured, cute cats in Bol and Split. Lots of nice cats in Croatia. Just put in a request to get on the list. We saw a white one less than an hour ago that we can track down.

We added some pictures to earlier posts, so check those out. It will just take a second.

Day 2 in Bol

Yesterday we were exhausted, but after 9.5 hours of sleep we are doing better. This island is very relaxing. We were finally able to fall asleep at a normal European time. The days so far have been about 90-95 degrees, dipping down into the high 70's at about 6 or 7 pm, so the days are hot and nights goregous. It says warm enough that we really haven't noticed any flies, bugs, mosquitos, ect. Despite spf 50, Janna is still getting more freckles and Sue is pulling down a bit of a tan. In Dubrovnik and here, we have enjoyed going out swimming at about 8am and again at about 6pm, as the water is warm and the air is warm too. We have started coming in during the middle of the day to stay out of the worst sun.

We have a kitchen here, so we had omelets for breakfast with some native vegetables. It was nice to know what you are eating again. We tried to buy a dozen eggs, but they would only sell us 10 in a carton. We also couldn't find mustard to save our lives. We made delicious veggie sandwiches at the beach. Bread here is astoundly good and cheep. We also ate some unbelievable native cherries.

Today we went to Zlatni Rat beach, a famous beach in Croatia. The is a beautiful stone shaded walkway to it. It is a pebbly beach, (which is the closest thing they have to sand here) that sticks out into the sea and shifts place as the currents shift. When we left the beach at about 1:00, there were boats coming from all the surrounding islands and people were flocking there. I am sure it gets insanely crowded. We are going to go back later today. There are also a lot of wind surfers here, and I think I read somewhere that it is one of the best wind surfing places in the world.

The dresscode at European Beaches

is slightly different than that of American beaches. They are very equal opportunity. Let say, for instance, that you are a man and you want to go to the beach. Your options are: #1beach shorts, about 6 inches above your knee(~3% choose this), #2 women's boy cut underwear (of course made out of the approprate material and in a nicely masculine color) with legs about 1 inch long (~10% choose this) #3 lets say you go in your grandma's dresser, and find some nice big comfy undies. Take off the lace, make them a dark color, and ensure that you chose some with a nice high cut on the thigh. (~40%) #4 Speedos. No further expanation required, but wear them to the shop, to do "work", to dinner, ect. (~40%) #5 Pack nothing, hang a right at the FKK sign, and live free.

Now, lets say you are a woman. You can choose (note the similarities with the men's styles) #1 A one peice bathing suit with a high neck and board shorts to your knees (~0.0001% . . . Just Janna) #2 A one piece bathing suit, but that is really only for women over the age of 40 and over 250 lbs (and Sue) (~5%) #3 A bikini (two pieces) Bottoms can be speedo style, or if you are feeling comfy and have celulite cream, just a thong. (~70% with 20% of those opting for the thong bottom). #4speedo bottoms, no top (although if you want, WHEN YOU SWIM, you might choose to put a top on) (~20%) # 5 Just wear a thong.(No top) Why not. You look good, right? #6 Pack nothing, hang a right at the FKK sign, and live free.

Please note, there are exceptions to this dress code: Children under the age of 12 and seniors encouraged and expected to wear nothing, regardless of where they are in relation to the FKK sign. We saw more than one kid in nothing but water wings.

Come on,admit it. Even if you are sick of us talking about cats, this is better than seeing your uncle in your grandma's underwear (or less).

You Cant get there from here

We are three dazs into Croatia and we still cannot find the apostrophe. But we did find Brac Island. We had our first reallz bad tourist experience. Last night at dinner, Janna ordered small fish fried. What she expected was small pieces of fish, fried. What she got was small fish fried. Heads, skin, tails and all. About one hundred of them. They were not eaten, and though Sue tried everz method possible to shove them in her bag to save for all the hungry kitties, the fish were wasted.

Today we Got up early and went for a swim. The ocean was beatiful and warm and the citz emptz at 8 am. We just missed the ten oćclock bus to Makarska because it was full at 930, and waited for the 11. Frustrating. The bus ride was GORGEOUS and super windy and hot, crowded bus, overlooking the ocean almost the whole time. We went to Bosnia!!! It lasted about 10 minutes, and Sue used the bathroom. But then we had good luck in Makarska because even though the bus stopped about 76 times on the 60 mile trip, we arrived 2 minutes before our ferrz took off.

Our ferrz arrived in Sumatrin, 26 km from our hotel which was in Bol. The onlz way to get to Bol was by cab, and here the cabs are scarce, unmarked, and non English speaking. Oh, and driven verz fast bz private citizens. But we made it. The beach here is wonderful, our room is gorgeous, balconz and kitchen in all. Fewer tourists but still a touristz town. The kittens here are better taken care of...what more could we ask for. Jai and Vic, what color kitty do you want?

Gotta go get some gelato.

Croatia!

Good news! We didnt bust, but we cant find an apostrophe on the keyboard we are using. Y is in a strange place, but šđžćč are all handy.

Croatia is amazing. Our flight finally landed at about 1130 last night, and we finally got to our hostel at about 100. It was an adventure. Getting off the plane, we got on the Atlas bus which took us the 12 miles into Dubrovnik at a very high speed, winding through the Croatian mountains (also a high altitude). The driver spoke 0 English but was very angrz and got off the bus one time because of a policie something. After stopping at the bus station, which was still bustling with young people at this late hour, we were supposed to call our hostel for pick up. Well....finding a phone was quite the middle of the night challenge, but eventuallz we finallz asked at the ice cream stand and the verz nice men helped us out and called for us. Who knows what they said to our host on the phone,but 2 minutes later, Marco was there.

We slept in this morning, and then walked around the city walls. It was amazing and breathtaking, and so so hot. Of course we will post a picuture later. Then we took a ferry to a nearby island and swam in the ocean. Then we took the ferry back and swam again. We just got up from a nice long nap and are going out for dinner.

It is impossible to compare this Prague. It is so charming and old. Very very old, but we love it. Perhaps the best part is the small stray kittens that roam around the city. They beg for food. Does anyone want to adopt one? We can put it in the mail asap.

Our favorite pictures of Prague (since we are stuck at the airport)

The New Jerusalem Synagoge that looks really bright!



The grocery store right by our hostel. It is underground! It has funny escalators (think IKEA)

Prague Castle (I mean St. Vitrius Cathedral) at dusk from the Charles Bridge
The church of St. Nicholas
When we first arrived in Prague
Sue enjoying some bread and cheese at our airport picnic. (Glad we weren't planning on eating once we arrived in Croatia.)
A view of Charles' Bridge.


Inside St. V's
Outside V's (from the front)

The stairs Sue made me climb (there are a lot more than you can see), but the surroundings were first class.

Who knew that a budget airline would be delayed?

The picture above is Sue in front of St. Vitrius' cathedral(pink shirt). We could see it from the old town square, but only visited it today. It is within the castle walls of the city, so we mistakenly mistook it for the actual castle. Nope, its a cool gothic/baroque church. We rode the incredibly fast tram to get there. The public transportation is amazing. It is clean, easy, extensive, and fast. Who need an ammusement park when the trolly goes around curves that fast? But, Sue didn't want to follow Rick Steves advice, so rather than taking the tram all the way to the top, we got to get off at the bottom and walk up all the stairs. Fun. Right?

The cathedral was great, and also happened to be free. We didn't go in the castle because it looked surprisingly boring and ordinary, and we are not into ordinary. We took a long walk around the outside of the castle walls and over the deer moat. Then we wanteder through some shops and got Indian food for lunch. Turns out the local fare here is a ton of meat. Rost duck, pork, roast piglet, sausage, ect. . But we knew that from the start.

Our hostel was just about 1/2 block from a store, so we grabbed food for the flight to Dubrovnik and got in the Subway just before we got caught in a thunderstorm. We got to the flight on time, but were told it was delayed for an hour, then three. So, here we sit. Croatia or bust.

How many ways can you find....

the longest distance between the same two points in Prague?

Well, we found lots of long ways, to get everywhere. This morning, despite the time change and not a lot of sleep, we were wide awake at 7:00 and got ready and headed toward the Jewish sights in Prague. The buildings were amazing, the stories were amazing, the artifacts got a little old after the third building. We climbed (Sue dragged Janna who was looking longingly at the tram) a hill on the edge of the city. We stopped by Prague's "Vegetarian Cafeteria" and got ourselves a picnic lunch of spinach, potato soup, potatoes, and tofu summer medley. Delicious! By 2:00 we were back at our hostel for a quick nap. We headed out again to see Wencleus Square and basically proceeded to wander around Prague for the next 5 hours. Dinner was delicious, at a Rick Steve recommended vegetarian restaurant. It seemed like the first real meal we'd eaten in three days. Drinks, dinner, an appetizer, only 22 dollars for both of us including tip. Wow.

This city is amazing, beautiful, old, exciting, touristy (but not very American touristy), safe, and half in English. You would never guess that 20 years ago it was behind the Iron Curtain. McDonalds' even has fried shrimp here. We can't think of anyone who wouldn't have a blast spending 2 days or a week here.

Wireless is down here, so hopefully we'll add a picture tomorrow in Dubrovnik (pending internet access there and us finding a plug converter that allows our computer to charge in Europe. Battery is almost dead. Rest assured we are having a great time, we are always near 300 tourists and are still below budget.

And the photo. . . something old, something new, something borrowed, and something Jewish. (A 900 year old cemetery)

Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to Prague

The title for this post came from our favorite tourist T-shirt. Picture it in neon pink on a black t-shirt. It works. After an interesting challenge trying to get away from the Prague airport, when our driver didn't want to give us change (about $15 worth of change) and we had to go plan B and take the bus. Everyone else in Prague was also taking the bus this afternoon, so it was a bit crowded. When we finally came out from their spic and span subway system (seriosly, we contemplated eating off the floors) we were knocked off our feet. The city is beautiful and breathtaking and luckily the roads didn't have cars on them, becuase we spent the whole night wandering around. We finally stopped for dinner at 10:30 pm and ate a restaurant right in Old Town Square (see the picture), outside, with amazing music playing, and we got a whole pizza and a bottle of San Pellegrino (fancy Itallian Club Soda) for less than $15 including tip. All things considered, I would love to spend the whole trip here. We have WIFI in our Hostel, so it looks like we will be definaely posting something tomorrow. Everyone in the Hostel is having a party right outside our room, but grandmas need to get their rest. Enjoy the pictures.

British Airways Coach Class

We made it to London after a fun and eventful night. The flight to London before us was canceled, and we had a small issue at the gate, but we were only about 30 minutes late taking off.

British Airways has an amazing first class with luxury "pods", business class "pods" that recline, plus another level of luxury that is like the first class in the US. We were treated like royalty in coach with a snack, dinner with desert, and breakfast in the morning.

It was pretty crazy to arrive here and see how far out in the country the airport is. Things are really green, and it look like trees grow everywhere they can. We wandered around the airport for a while, got some pounds and had a traditional english breakfast (mushrooms, half a fried tomato, toast, baked beans, hash browns, and eggs).

Everything seems the same and normal here, but nothing is quite the same. The eggs don't look the same. Restrooms are just labeled "Toilets" and have a very pregnant looking woman on the sign, and I am about ready to pull my hair out because some of the keys on this keyboard in in the "wrong" place.

We are exhasted but having fun and can't wait to get to Prague and get some pictures up.

First Posting Will Be Wednesday Night!

This blog will officially open on Wednesday night in the airport. Stay tuned