soooo it's been 2 and a half months...

.... and i never told you about the rest of my trip!!! i've been so busy, sorry it's taken so long!!

so i headed to berlin with a girl that i had met at my hostel in dresden, she was headed for copenhagen and decided to see if she could get a bed at my hostel.... no luck, so she headed out to look for a room, i got settled in and decided to go wander around berlin until my friend kat got to the hostel (horray for running into friends on european journeys!) it was a beautiful sunny day, my hostel was close to the tv tower, so i decided to walk towards that... i found the birkenstock shop!! (one of many in germany, but still an exciting event) and went in for a look... about 30 seconds after i left i got a text from my mom saying "glad you made it to berlin! go buy yourself some shoes!" so good. i wandered down the street towards the brandenburg gate, and got distracted by friedrichstrasse, the main shopping street, after a good little stroll i grabbed some lychee green tea and headed back to the hostel to see if kat had gotten there yet.... she had not.... but i did run into some friends that i had met in greece! so we hung out for the rest of the evening. i went to bed wondering if kat was alive... and was awoken by 3 texts from her at 6 in the morning... ridiculous... haha, we met up for breakfast and went on the free tour, which was quite informative and very interesting, we went to the brandenburg gate, saw where mj (rip) dangled blanket out of the window, hitlers bunker, checkpoint charlie, the wall, the holocaust memorial, and various other berlin sights to see, it was a good day. *kat and i bought birkenstocks on the way back!! that makes 2 pairs for me! haha* that night kat and i went out for ice cream and met up with jared and grant (my friends that i had met in greece) and went to the reichstag and took the elevator to the top, what a beautiful view of berlin. we left and grant and jared wandered off so we got a "china box" (so delicious). we then wandered to the trendy nightlife part of berlin and watched a fire twirler and wandered back to our hostel to hit the hay. the next morning we decided to wander around the trendy area again and go shopping, we ended up laying on the grass in a park next to a pool filled with german children, basking in the warm summer sun, i was supposed to catch a train to hamburg that afternoon, but decided to take a later train, so kat and i went out for lunch at a nice restaurant (real food! we had been on a diet of bread for breakfast and falafel for lunch and dinner) we found an amplemann restaurant! so delicious. i had risotto and kat had a yummy pasta dish, we ate outside and had some good conversation and did some people-watching. i love berlin's cafe culture, i found it to be much more inviting and less terrifying than the cafe culture in paris, to sit outside in paris you must pay extra, buy a 30 euro meal, etc, etc... in berlin there are cafes everywhere! and they are affordable, and not snooty and just an overall good time... so after lunch kat and i went to the starbucks next door to the restaurant for a delicious after dinner treat (at less than fancy restaurant prices!). kat got a frozen strawberry lemonade frapuccino-thing and i got the most delicious piece of chocolate truffle cake. so freaking good. we then wandered back to the hostel, i got my bag, bid kat good travels, and headed for the train station.





when i got to hamburg it was about 5 or 6 in the evening and pouring rain. i decided to run for my hostel and check in. the rain let up so i walked to a nearby grocery store to get some food for dinner and breakfast, i was exhausted and cold, so i had a quiet night at the hostel, there was a tv in my room so i watched the sports channel, which had a diving competition on! horray!





the next morning i woke up bright and early and hopped on the train to copenhagen! the swedish girls in the seats in front of me were watching gossip girl! season 2, so good. so fun fact about taking the train to copenhagen, the whole train goes onto a ferry!! so cool, they tell you to get off, leave your stuff and go wander around the ferry, and get back onto the train in 45 minutes when the ferry is almost there, so cool, so i went up to the seating area and watched gossip girl with the girls from the train.





it was rainy in copenhagen too. boo. i was hoping for 3 days of sunshine. oh well. i walked to my hostel and checked in. i went to my bed, in a room with 66 tiny bunkbeds. i barely fit into my bottom bunk! i definitely couldn't sit on it without being crouched over to avoid hitting my head... i went to explore copenhagen, i walked down the main shopping street, the stroget, and had a wonderful time window shopping and people watching. i stopped at the grocery store on my way back to the hostel. oh boy. everything is so expensive in denmark. even at the grocery store. a pint of ben and jerry's was 10 us dollars. a liter and a half of coke was about 6-8 us dollars. so expensive. it was at this point that i realized that i would not be able to eat out at all in denmark. i grabbed the cheapest bag of pasta and the cheapest sauce, some cheese and some bread and prayed that it would last me my three nights in copenhagen. the next day i took the train to malmo, sweden (only 30 minutes away by train, across the bridge) and walked around, it was a cute little town, good for a day trip. the next day i woke up bright and early, ready to see all copenhagen had to offer, i saw the planetarium, and went to the huge graveyard where hans christian andersen is buried, which is absolutely beautiful. it is huge, green and so peaceful (i walked by two people making out on a bench, in a cemetary? really? so bizarre, copenhagen, so bizarre) i dropped my camera and broke it while i was there, which was quite upsetting. after the seeing the cemetary, i walked by the smaller jewish cemetary and then way north to see the little mermaid, which was pretty sweet. on my way back to the hostel for lunch i saw the rosenborg castle. that night i hung out with my friends, travis from seattle, shelby from georgia, and doigo from portugal, we met a group of belgian girls and a few guys from england and hung out in the hostel that night. the next day i checked out and put my stuff on shelby's bed. shelby, travis and i went to the micro-nation christiania, which is basically a hippie commune in the middle of copenhagen. it was a fun little excursion. we made pasta for lunch, shelby contemplated coming to london with me and in the end decided against it. travis, shelby, diogo and i had ice cream at the delicous ice cream place in the square near our hostel (best ice cream from my trip, so goood). and i said my goodbyes and headed for the airport



my plane to london was delayed. so delayed. it got into london 2 hours after it was supposed to. i had told my hostel that i would be there at 10, i got there at 1 because the train that went to kings cross wasn't running anymore so i had to take a train to victoria and then wait for a bus to kings cross. thank goodness i had been to this hostel before, i got in soooo late. found my bed and crashed out. the next morning i walked towards oxford circus. shopping!!! i had a wonderful time at topshop and primark and met up with my friend nick,whom i had met in nice, he took the train in for the day to see me! horray! we ate fish and chips and drank a pint for lunch, then we went to the british museum. there we saw the rosetta stone and all sorts of egyptian artifacts! so cool. we walked to the thames and chilled on a bench for a bit. we then walked back to oxford circus, i had a cornish pasty for dinner which was quite delicious. we went to platform 9 3/4 which fulfilled my nerdy tourist-y ness for the day. nick took the train home and i went back to my hostel. there i met a girl from seattle and 2 girls from new zealand. the girl from seattle and i went to the bar in the basement of the hostel for a drink and then we wandered to a nearby pub where i had a delicious bulmers pear cider. which is one of my favorite drinks ever. so good.

the next morning i got up bright and early, ate some breakfast, and took the tube to the airport! hopped on my plane which was on time and arrived in denver an hour earlier than scheduled! horray!

well that's the end of my trip....

until my next adventure!

thanks for reading!!!

copenhagen!

hello!
i'm in copenhagen right now!i just thought i'd say hey i'm still alive! i don't have much time around a computer here, so i'll probably blog about berlin and the end of my trip in a few days when i get home! also, my camera broke today and my pictures from berlin, sweden and copenhagen got deleted, sad day =( i'll be back on thursday! i'm not sure how i feel about it at the moment, i'm super conflicted, i'm excited to be home, but i want to keep travelling! it's weird. oh well, off to explore denmark!

love

annnddddd i'm back!!!

in germany, that is.... looove germany
prague was absolutely beautiful!!! i wish i had gotten to spend more time there! i went and wandered around this morning, so that was nice. then i took the train to dresden, which is absolutely adorable, i loveeee germany! i wandered to the historical district and took a bunch of pictures of the pretty buildings and then wandered around the new district and hung out in a park, it's such a cute little german city! i found a street called Carolinenstraße! i should probably live there... excellent!
headed to berlin tomorrow!!!!!

lovelovelovelove

where did my europe trip go???

so, it's july 13. i come home in 10 days! this is a terrifying thought. i'm really excited to be home, don't get me wrong, but, where did my trip go??? it hasn't been 2 months? oh wait, yes. yes it has. but i have so much left to see!!!! gosh. anyways, i'm in prague. i'm feeling infinately better. the baths in budapest were absolutely divine. soooo good. i highly recommend them. i spent 8 hours on trains to get to prague today. woo! i had some tasty garlic soup and goulash for dinner with some guys from sweden and i'm about to go explore the town with some aussie girls!!
yay!

love love love love love love

budapest!

hello!
i am feeling much better today, but still not 100%, but i can't complain... i took the train from vienna to budapest today. i took the metro to my hostel and went off to explore budapest! it's so beautiful! caitlin told me that it was "the east colfax of europe" but i definitely disagree, i felt that it was more clean and i felt safer than i did in madrid and rome, plus everything is beautiful! the architecture here is beautiful, the danube is huuuge, and there is so much green and ther are so many parks to wander around to! plus everything is waaay less expensive on the forint than it is in euros.... anyways, i left my hostel and walked across the danube on one of the newer bridges and then hiked to the citadel which was quite the hike, but gave me the most excellent view over the city! it was such a nice day! then i walked to the chain bridge, which is the first bridge that connected buda and pest into the city now known as budapest... and there were vendors all over it and delicous smelling food and gypsy clothes and jewelry, it was excellent, then i walked to parliament because it was big and beautiful, then i walked to the basilica and got falafel at hummus bar for dinner! then back to the hostel, i was tired.... i met my roommates, 4 girls from the states that are studying in prague for 6 weeks during the summer, we all went to a nearby bar and had some local brews, i had palinka, which is a budapest specialty, tasty... and now i'm really tired and am headed to bed! thermal baths tomorrow!!

much love

my immune system hates me

bahhh i feel like i've been sick this whole trip! i was sick in london, belgium, the netherlands, france, and spain, got better, then got sick again in nice, then got better ish and now i'm sick again. boooo. so i didn't get to see as much of vienna as i would have liked.. hopefully the baths in hungary will cure me? or maybe i'll just sleep for the next 5 days... no, i really need to see europe!! bah.

anyways, i left you off after i went to füssen and hiked to the castles! well the next day was defintely sunnier! still chilly though, i went to the glockenspiel at 11 at marienplatz, and then wandered to maximillianstraße which is where all of the ritzy stores are and then had a delicious lunch of bratwurst, saurkraut and bavarian potato salad, yummm, followed by some sort of pastry that i don't remember the ridiculously complicated name of... but it was a waffle with marshmallow-y cream all covered in chocolate.. then i took the metro to the university section of town... and fell in love! again! gosh, i love munich. it's my favorite city, even better than paris. the university neighborhood is so wonderful! and then i went to the englischer garten which is absolutely stunning. i want to move to munich. it's wonderful. then i went back to the tent to meet up with some people from utah that i had met the night before while cooking dinner, we went to the hofbrauhaus biergarten, which is one of the worlds most famous beer gardens, it was huge! and there was an oompah band! i had a liter of the hofbrau dark beer and a pretzel that was as big as my face (and i have a picture! haha) then we went back to the campsite and made some stir fry and called it a night!

the next morning, i woke up and headed for the train station! i took the 9:27 train to vienna! or wien as it is called here... the train took me through salzburg, which was absolutely gorgeous. so beautiful! but very rainy... when i arrived in vienna it was sunny and beautiful! i checked in at my hostel, changed into my favorite black dress and headed out to see vienna! i got a delicious kebab from the most adorable austrian kebab lady ever and headed for the center of town... i saw some pretty buildings and hung out in a park then grabbed some gelato and headed back to the hostel.

this morning i woke up feeling like someone hit me over the head with a frying pan, so sick. i got up and showered and walked to naschmarkt, which is the big street market, i got kebab there for lunch. yum. it's so cheap! and delicious! haha then i went to st stephans cathedral, the big church in the center of town, which was beautiful, by then i was still feeling really sick, so i decided to call it a day and head back... i napped, did some laundry, and made myself some dinner... hopefully i'll feel better tomorrow! i'm headed to budapest tomorrow!!!!

lovelovelove

love games

i feel like germany is playing love games with me. i love it and it rains on me. are you testing my love for you? love games. not cool, germany, not cool. so, needless to say, it's been raining. a lot. but i still love love love germany... today i was going to do the sound of music tour in salzburg, austria... but it was supposed to be rainy and horrible, and i would only do that if it were lovely out, true sound of music style... so instead i took the train to füssen, to see castles!!! after 3 train changes i made it to füssen and took the bus to the village at the bottom of the hill between neuschwanstein and hohenschwangau castles, it was pouring, i almost turned around to take the train back. in addition to the rain, getting to the castles was a hike through the forest, up the mountain, and to get into the castles it was €9... expensive for me... but i decided to hike up to take pictures, and i'm very glad that i did! it was beautiful! i didn't go into either of the castles, but the forests around them were absolutely beautiful.. füssen is so pretty! then i grabbed a train back and made some tasty dinner at my hostel/campground/hippie tent that i'm staying at and had some nice conversation with some people from utah, minnesota, ireland, and canada... so that was fun... and very rainy. it won't stop raining!!! i guess i couldn't have good weather the whole time that i'm here, now could i? also, i've realized that i fit in well here. i dress like a german, like the clothes that i wear at home are what people wear here... also, i get mistaken for a german person a lot... probably because i dress like them and have german bloodlines? i dunno, but it's nice to fit in! now if i only spoke german...

much love!

Hallo from Germany!!!

after much travelling (from 6 on saturday night until 7 this morning=36 hours!) i have made it to germany!!!! i'm at an internet cafe in munich and i simply adore munich. germany is so awesome. i went to the deutches museum this morning which was super fun, it made me miss physics class and mr mckellips, a whole section of the museum is physics experiments! pulleys, springs, projectile motion! oh physics. the museum is huge and has a bunch of exhibits, including a glass blowing exhibit, a how paper is made and has evolved etc exhibit, a bunch of ships, a bunch of airplanes, space things and much more.... it made for a good morning trip, seeing as when i got to munich it was POURING... there was so much rain, i was soaked. but luckily when i was in the museum it stopped, so i decided to walk to viktualienmarkt, which is a huge food market near marienplatz, which is the main square... i had a delicious sausage on a roll with mustard and a pickle and half a liter of german beer for lunch. soo delicious. for breakfast i had the best chocolate croissant i've ever had in my life at the train station this morning. i love germany! real food!! excellent. then i wandered to marienplatz and now i'm at the internet cafe! horray!
well i'm off to keep exploring, but i just had to express my joy! germany is so fantastic.

love love love

italy and greece.....

alright, i left you off when we went to bed after arriving in florence. the next day we woke up, grabbed some croissants for breakfast, and wandered towards the center of town, we passed the galleria dell'accadamia, where michaelangelo's david is, but the line was crazy and it was expensive so we decided to go to the galleria degli uffizi instead because we heard that it was bigger and better.... so we wandered through town, went to the santa maria novella church, which was beautiful, and then we wandered by the uffizi, saw that the line was out of control and decided to go the next morning when it opened. we wandered to the piazza michelangelo and up into the mountains, it was absolutely beautiful, exactly as i had pictured italy to be, that night we got fresh pasta and made it at our hostel yum... the next morning we got up early and went to the uffizi gallery, we ran into some girls from vancouver that i had met in nice, so we decided to meet for dinner that night. after seeing a lot of madona and child paintings at the uffizi, i mean a lotttt of madona and child paintings, as well as the birth of venus, we went to get gelato and take the train to pisa. pisa was nice... we took some good and tourist-y pictures with the leaning tower, that night we met my friends for dinner and had a good evening with them. the next morning we took the train to rome... after checking in at our hostel we made our way to the spainsh steps, the trevi fountain and the colosseum. the next day we went to the vatican museum (which was free! because it was the last sunday of the month!) and then headed over to st. peter's basilica to go to mass, and after seeing an incorruptable we went outside and guess what?!?! the pope was speaking!! so that was super exciting... then we had a nice italian dinner at a restaurant called that's amore and headed to bed.
the next morning i took the early train to brindisi and then the night ferry to corfu, greece, which is where i am now, i've had a few relaxing days on the beach, i went kayaking, snorkling, and cliff jumping and now i'm ready to head north... i've got a long 2 days of travelling ahead of me... i'm taking the night ferry to brindisi tonight and then the day train to bologna and then the night train to munich... wish me luck!

much loveeee

hi!!

so i'm still alive! i thought i would let you all know... i'm a little homesick and i really want to leave greece, it's beautiful but i really need to go to germany. like right now...anyways..... in italy we were super busy so i had no time to blog, and now i'm in greece and internet is expensive, but i made friends with people that have a computer so i can use the free wi-fi! haha but i don't want to be rude, so i don't have much time to blog about all of italy right now... but i'll try...

caitlin and i met at the train station in milan, caitlin arrived 8 minutes before the train that we needed to take to florence left, so we ran to get reservations and then bolted up to the train and hopped on just before it left! made it! and then i realized that i had set down my bag containing my books, my journal, my planner, and our eurail timetable(lists times of all of the trains, it's soooo useful) and our eurail map... and hadn't picked it up when we were running for the train., so all of that stuff is lost in milan now... sad day... we made it to florence and found our hostel without directions (which were written in my journal) and went out to get some delicious italian food! yummm then we went to bed, it was a long day of travelling...

i've gotta go! i'll continue the next time that i can get some free internet, or internet that i can afford!

love love love

so upsetting

michael jackson passed away.

we're in italy.

and very upset.

mourning with pasta, gelato, limoncello and italian mtv.

love you michael.

niceeeeeee, it rhymes with geese

hi there!

i'm 15 minutes away from checking out of my hostel in nice! my train for milan leaves in half an hour! i'm super excited that i get to see caitlin! and eat real food! i want some pasta, my stomach has had only bread and cheese for the past month and a half, bad.
i had a wonderful week in nice! i went to monaco which was absolutely beautiful and i went to cannes which was nice, it was nice to have a sand beach, all of the ones here are large pebbles...
it was a nice week to rest, and now i'm ready to go to italy! horray!

love,
caroline

nice is more than just nice...

nice is excellent! it's so adorable here! i'm changing hostels tomorrow and i'm pretty sure that the other one doesn't have internet, but here is what i would be writing all week anyways... "woke up, went to the flower market, wandered around old town, got some tasty fruit, went to the beach, swam in the beautiful blue mediterranean, wandered back through old town, had some gelato and went to sleep" every day. i did most of that today, only in a different order. i went to the beach for about 4 hours, laid out, went swimming, all that good stuff, it's so warm here! then i wandered along the promenade des anglais and then went to the flower market and wandered around old town. good day. i'm somewhat sunburnt, so i think a nap is in order!

love love love

still in paris =)

aaah i love paris, the day before yesterday i checked into my hostel and then wandered over to les invalides, grabbed some macarons on the champs elysees and ate dinner in the jardin des tuileries before heading to the louvre (which was free! horray for being under 26 yrs old!) then yesterday i went to check in at my other hostel then read a book in the jardin des plantes before wandering over to ile st louis and the latin quarter, i had falafel for lunch and went to a cute little vintage shop with €10 dresses! the adorable, strapless, poufy, baby pink one that i wanted was €20, too much for me... i got some ice cream at a little shop on ile st louis and then sat by the seine to eat it. good day indeed. today i am lazing around, finalizing up internet stuff before i go to nice tomorrow, i should have internet for 2 days while i'm there, but not really after that. i'm so excited for nice! while i love paris, it is exhausting being here because there is so much that i want to go do and see that i end up walking around all day and not getting much sleep! so nice will be a nice week of rest, i'm planning a few day trips to monte carlo, cannes, aix en provence, and marseilles. and plenty of time on the beach. yay beach! tonight i'm going to check into my hostel and then walk to the eiffle tower to check out the night time light show, should be a good time...

love love love

pictures!

also, i tried to upload some pictures to my flickr account and there's a limit! the tiniest limit ever! i could only upload 44 pictures... so there are some picures up, but really not too many at all...

je cherche nino quincampoix.

today the weather decided to be excellent! it's still a little chilly (around 68, but it's breezy), but there are blue skies and the sun is out!!! i decided to go explore montmartre, including the sacre coeur, because caitlin and i didn't make it up there when we were here last time. I took the metro to chateau rouge and walked down rue poulet (interesting fact if you don't speak french, rue poulet means chicken street hahahahaha, but seriously. it does) if you need a wig or a weave, you should hit up rue poulet, they're everywhere. i took a little back path up the hill to the sacre coeur, i was passed by a group of about 20 school children singing about escargots, so cute. there were so many people there! a french man was singing popular american songs, such as losing my religion by rem and californication by the red hot chili peppers... they're just not the same with a french accent, but the guy had good guitar skills, the sacre coeur was beautiful, there's a huge painting of jesus on the ceiling. haha i'm pretty good at describing things, no? i walked down the hill from the front of the church and the carousel at the bottom was playing the music from amelie. it was so good, i got goosebumps, so perfect. then i decided to wander around and see where it took me, my friend leah, whom i went to the catacombs with yesterday, told me about a good falafel place in the jewish neighborhood, so i thought i'd head that way. i ended up walking to the louvre and then down to rue des rosiers. i got a falafel pita and orangina and ate it outside of the biblioteque national, then i decided to wander some more. i stood up and my knees said NO. bad news bears. i limped for the nearest metro and headed back for the hostel, tomorrow i change hostels and my next one is close to the eiffle tower and gare montparnasse, so hopefully the weather will stay nice and i can lay out in the gardens of the eiffle tower and go to the gardens at versailles!
off to rest my poor knees!

love love love.


p.s. i bought a jar of nutella that is as big as my face. it's going to last me the rest of the trip. haha we'll see how that goes =)

... so i'm back in paris...

i couldn't help myself, i was in spain/portugal for 2 weeks and only in paris for one? that's not ok, so i hopped a train (actually, 4 trains) and i'm back!... but first, the rest of my stay in spain...



caitlin and i went to barceloneta beach on sunday, which was nice, a nice restful day in the sun... every 3 minutes an asian lady offering a back massage or a spanish man offering beer, coke, and water would walk by... barceloneta beach is tiny, it was my first mediterranean beach! horray mediterranean sea! on the way back we got delicious gelato, coconut and dark chocolate for me and cookies&cream and white chocolate for caitlin. caitlin was as red as a lobster when we got back, poor thing. we had patatas crunchy (waffle fries) for dinner, horray!
the next morning we woke up early to go get train reservations, which was ridiculous (ie, i had to take 4 trains to paris) then we went back and took a nice siesta, that afternoon we went to the grocery store and got some fruit, mmm delicious. then that evening we met up with our canadian friends that we met in lisbon!

the next morning i took a train to the border, then a train to narbonne, which was beautiful! it took all of my strength not to jump off the train at one of the tiny french coastal towns, they were so precious! from narbonne i went to montpellier, and from montpellier to paris. though it was a long day (11 hours) it was nice to see the french countryside, the forests are so beautiful and there were mountains in the distance, so it reminded me of home, i miss the mountains. i got to my hostel and checked in, i'm the only non-australian in my room of 10 people... haha they're all quite nice so it's a good time.

today i went with a girl who's been travelling since october and a guy that just started his trip a week ago, to the catacombs (because it's raining and cloudy all the time in paris right now), so that was a cool outing, then we split up. i went to the saint germain neighborhood, which was perfect. so perfect. oh i adore it, i want to live there. i got mistaken for a french person so many times, i got asked if i was from the neighborhood and asked where streets were... so i got to practice my french skills and was quite pleased. i went to explore ile saint louis, but it started pouring rain, so i ran to the nearest metro and headed for my hostel... i'm certainly ready for bed.... night!!

love love love

a few things...

a few things that are big in europe, that i would not have anticipated.
1. pringles. they seem to be the snack to eat. there are pringles vending machines, pringles here, pringles there, pringles everywhere.
2. kit kat, not snickers, not m&m's, not hershey bars, but kit kats, big deal. kit kat mcflurries at mcdonalds. kit kat bars everywhere. kit kat ice cream cones. kit kat.
3. birkenstocks. they're huge, everyone is wearing them. i need a pair. here they're trendy and stylish, not for hippies... haha i guess pags was ahead of the european fashion trends.
4. haagen dazs and ben and jerry. neither of these companies is european. they are both from america. haagen dazs doesn't even mean anything, the guy that made the company just wanted it to sound foreign so he made up words. but they are everywhere here in europe.

a few things that i miss.
1. my friends and family , a summer without them, even in europe, is really hard.
2. cold milk. my roommate, khrys, knows how much milk i drink. like a gallon a week of cold skim milk.
3. the mountains. without them i don't know which way is west, and then i'm all mixed up, and i am the kind of person that never gets lost. never.
4. my bedddddddddd.

a few things that i enjoy.
1. trains, they're a nice way to see the countryside, plus i never get to ride trains at home.
2. the metro. i can navigate my way around paris with my eyes shut. i understand subway systems. horray! let's get one for boulder.... probably not practical, but it'd be fun!
3. maps. maps are glorious, free maps are excellent, i always know where i am. except for in sevilla, because there's tiny one way streets with no street names and the map didn't have street names on it.
4. europe. it's so exciting here, even though i'm exhausted sometimes and homesick others, i'm glad i'm here. getting to see everything that i've always wanted to see. horray!

love.

spain and portugal...

so i left off in san sebastian, i went out with an australian that was staying in our dorm room to meet up with his friends, that was fun, i met 9 australians, 3 canadians, and a new zealand-er? haha, the next morning caitlin and i took the train to madrid, it was a beautiful train ride through the pyreneese mountains... we arrived in madrid and took the metro to our hostel, our room was pink and flower-y, awesome. we were in the gay neighborhood, which was exciting, we felt super safe there... we looked for something to eat, but it was siesta time... so we didn't have much luck, so we took a siesta... and went out to eat at 10 pm, which is really late for us... and really early for all of spain, hardly anyone was out! we had a delicious dinner, i had chicken and couscous and caitlin had pesto spaghetti. we then went out to wander around madrid... saw some ham museums, (big ham restaurants? haha, the spanish are really into ham.) and checked out the city when the temperature wasn't sweltering... we got sleepy and went to bed. the next day we went and got breakfast and walked to a park to eat it. we went to the tourist information booth and got a map and then went shopping... which was super fun, we tried on a lot of cute stuff, and are so poor. haha but caitlin and i each got a dress at h&m... they're way adorable. we went back to the hostel and took a nap before heading to the bullfighting arena, because you know, we're in spain, gotta see a bullfight right? it's kind of a big deal. so we took the metro there and got our tickets... we got in and were super excited, woo a bull fight!... bad. bad. bad. it was bad. the matadors came out and paraded around and everyone cheered( the arena was huge. and packed. there were so many people there). and then the bull came out and we were like there's the bull! and then it was just really upsetting after that. cruel and unusual. really upsetting. we left as soon as the first matador was done. i nearly vommed and cried. bad. bad. bull fights = bad. later on we went and got dinner then took a nap and went to kapital, a 7 level night club, dean, the australian that was in our hostel in san sebastian had told us about it. so we took the metro at 1:45am and got to kapital at 2 ish, it was really fun, we talked to some spanish girls, an italian from napoli? and some spanish boys. we got back to the hostel at 5:30 am, that's our limit, so late. the next morning we checked out and went to starbucks for breakfast... and to hang out and read, our next train didn't leave until 10 pm... we went to a park on the other side of madrid and then went to mass at the huge cathedral, so that was fun... we then took the night train to lisbon!
we got into lisbon after a bumpy night on the train and took the next train for lagos, a small beach town on the southern coast of portugal. when we got off the train a lady approached us and asked if we needed a place to stay, excellent. "i saw this on rick, it's totally legit" and it was, we had a nice bedroom with a tv and a bathroom and a kitchen across the hall, all for €17.5 euros a night per person.. pretty good... we went out to go to the beach and stopped along the way to get lunch at a local restaurant. i had the fish of the day, which was delicious, the owner told me that it was a portuguese fish from that region and that it is rare... so that's cool... haha... after that we went to the beach and hung out there for a bit, got some gelato on the way back to the hostel and crashed out for the night, it had been a long couple of days. the next morning we ate some breakfast and went in search of an internet cafe to find a hostel in lisbon, we found a sweet artsy one called the black and white hostel and took the next train to lisbon. we got in at 8 ish in the evening? maybe 9? after checking in we wandered towards the main streets and grabbed some chicken tikka masala for dinner, yum. the next day caitlin took the bus to fatima, to go do catholic things, and i went to the beach in a town called cascais with two canadian girls that were staying in our room. when we met up that night, caitlin and i went to get dinner at the local supermarket (croissants cheese and chocolate spread. healthy? no. cheap? yes.) later that night we went out with the two canadian girls and two australian girls that were in our room, one of the canadians had a nightclub that she really wanted to go to, so we all decided to have a nice night out, we left the hostel at 10 ish and the club wasn't supposed to open until midnight, so the canadians went to get dinner and we went with the australians to get drinks, with plans to meet the canadians at the club at midnight, the club was definitely closed... so we had a big adventure, taking the metro all over lisbon, it was a good time, we made some new friends and shared travelling stories.
the next morning we were going to try to get to sevilla, which turned out to be a big crazy fiasco(is that how you spell fiasco? i have no idea)... anyways, there were no trains that go there, to get there by train we would have to take the night train to madrid and then take a train from madrid to sevilla.. so we ended up taking the night bus... which got us to sevilla at 5;30 (4:30 portugal time) we slept at the bus station for a little while before heading to our hostel, where we couldn't get in until 8... and couldn't check in until 9:30 (our reservations were for the night before and the next night) after checking in we ate breakfast and caitlin took a nap. we then went to check out sevilla and get some lunch. we ended up eating pizza for lunch at a creepy cafe/bakery with kkk figurines... which we later saw at other bakeries... super strange, what does the kkk have to to with baking? nothing. that's what. ... so strange. we went to the train station and made reservations for our train to barcelona then got super lost in sevilla's tiny streets on the way home, by then i was exhausted, so i took a nap while caitlin went for a walking tour, when i woke up i went to the computers and a girl from the hostel asked if i wanted to go drink sangria at the other hostel, and i said sure. so caitin and i and 2 people from idaho went to the other hostel for sangria,we met some people from boston and from london and ireland, so that was cool. the next morning we took the train to barcelona. the 13 hour train. 13 hours is a long time. a long time to not eat anything, seeing as the last thing that i had was the pizza in the strange bakery. we got to barcelona at 9:30 at night, after the longest train ride ever. we found the hostel, checked in and went in search of mcdonalds. didn't find one, but we found a pans and company which is like mcdonalds and subway only super gross, but they have good fries, so we got fries and waffle fries and coke and ice cream bars. this was the first thing that i had eaten in about 32 ish hours. yum. we came back to the hostel and went to sleep, yay sleep in a bed!
today we ate breakfast and went in search of gaudi's park, but my knee was hurting pretty badly so we split up, i went to mickey d's for lunch (3rd country in europe that i've been to mcdonalds in, horray hahahaha), then they pointed me in the wrong direction when i asked which way to go, but it was alright, because i ran into la sagrada familia, and it's way super cool, and today was free admission day, which apparently happens only once a year, so that was lucky, because i definitely would not have paid 9€ to go in and another €4.50 to take the elevator to the top. it was huge and amazing and very impressive, i hope they finish building it sometime before i die? yep, very impressive. outside, there was a tourist information booth and i got a map! and headed back for the hostel, which is where i am now... whew that was a lot of information....

a few things that i don't think i fit in there... spain is beautiful! i feel like i saw all of spain on my 13 hour train ride! there are a lot of different kinds of spanish that are spoken in spain, it's confusing. i really enjoyed portugal, i had never really thought of it before, but it was beautiful (i need a new adjective, sorry), i definitely would go back to portugal if i got the opportunity! erm, what else. spanish people love ham. it's all they eat. i know a lot more spanish than i thought i did, thank you colorado.

yep, any questions? suggestions for what to do in barcelona? we're here for a few more days... more tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after...

love.

sorry...

for the lack of blogging!
we've been moving around like crazy! i haven't had time! we're in barcelona for a few days right now, so i'll try to blog tomorrow....

love.

in lagos....

soaking up sun on the beach... will be in lisbon soon... with free internet! so i'll tell you all about madrid and lagos then...

san sebastiannnnnn

so we spent our last day in paris in designer shops, wishing we were rich... my favorites were valentino (everything was superb, so beautiful and precise, i wanted all of the shoes and the bags and the dresses... basically everything... ) and dior (the gowns were so exquisite) and dolce and gabbana (everything. i've always loved dolce).. and we got ladurée again... we also did laundry and sent a package from the post office, so that was cool... the next day we were supposed to go to switzerland and had train reservations and everything... but we checked the weather and switzerland was going to be cold. and then we looked for hostels. switzerland is severely lacking in hostels. switzerland hostels are expensive. so we decided to get up super early and try to get train tickets to san sebastian... yay spain! so we got to the train station and the girl got us seats on a train that was supposed to arrive in hendaye (about 20 minutes away from san sebastian) at 4:35 in the afternoon... enough time to get a hostel... our train got held over in bordeaux for 4 ish hours and then got delayed and there were screaming school children and it was insane. we got to san sebastian at 10:20 at night. terrifying. noone spoke english and noone knew where a hostel was. we wandered around. scared. we found some english speaking people and they pointed us in the direction of a hostel... we went into the first one we saw and booked a night, we then got on the internet and booked the next night for the hostel that we are at now and then booked our rooms in madrid... exhausted, we went to sleep... today we woke up and went to the train station to book our seats on the train to madrid... after that we went to the beach!! i love the beach. love love love it. we checked out of one hostel and walked to our other one... which had... australians! surfing australians! australians in their wetsuits! australians without shirts on... aah, australians. so we like this hostel... we walked into town and got some tapas and sangria for lunch and gelato for dessert (i had ferrero rocher and coconut)... mmm tasty... and then we went and tanned in the local style on the beach... after that we hiked up to the big jesus that is on the hill... cool. then we grabbed some dinner and we're going to go see the town with our australian roommate tonight, sweet!
audios!

ze louvreeee

alors, hier nous avons visité le museé du louvre... nous l'aimons beaucoup...

i should write in english, maybe? ok, so yesterday we decided to have an artsy day, so we started at the louvre. the louvre was huuuuuge. ridiculously huge. exhaustingly huge. as we walked into the museum after buying our tickets we saw the winged victory, which was beautiful. then, we decided to see the french, italian, and spanish art. there was so much and it was all very beautiful, it was mostly paitings with religious themes. we saw the mona lisa, so that was cool, not as impressive as we thought it should be, so we wandered on... we went to the african and american and island-ish art, where there was .... an easter island head!! so cool. much better than the mona lisa. we were way excited, then went to the roman and greek art which was nice, greek pots and such.. and then to the egyptian section!! it was so excellent, there were sphinx-es and sculptures and sarcophagus-es and ahhhh it was so cool. super cool. i can't even describe it. then we went in search of the venus de milo and stumbled across the dungeon part of the louvre, it looked like a castle, super cool, there was a "the louvre during the war" exhibit down there, which showed what they did with all of the art during world war two, it showed what parts of the museum were open and what parts were deserted, it talked about the bunkers and gas masks that they had for the employees, in case anything happened.. it was an interesting exhibit, one doesn't usually think of what happens to museums during wars. then we walked up stairs and were greeted by the venus de milo, which was beautiful, i am just astounded by sculptures, the detail on them is just unbelievable, so after seeing that we went to see the greek and roman sculptures which were so exquisite.... after all of that art we were spent, so we walked over the the jardin des tuileries and enjoyed a nutella crepe by the fountain, we took the metro to go see the catacombs, but couldn't find them and ended up at jardin du luxembourg, which was beautiful and filled with french people basking in the sun, so we decided to join them. we walked to notre dame for mass, which was quite the experience, notre dame is huuuge. and i mostly understood what they were saying because it was french, instead of flemish like last week... then, we took the metro to montmartre to enjoy a nice evening out with a nice dinner, and to see the moulin rouge! it was a lovely evening, we ate delicious warm food that was made just for us... something we have missed very much, the vanilla ice cream with dessert was the best i've ever had in my life...

today was our lazy sunday, we took the metro to the arc de triomphe and wandered down the champs élysées from there, it was glorious. we went to louis vuitton which was out of this world. so cool. after walking down avenue montaigne, where all the high end shops are (chanel, dior, valentino, etc...) we decided that we have to go back tomorrow, as they were all closed, and it is our obligation, as girls, to go back and go in and wish that we could afford anything, or that we had boys that took us to those shops and would say " oh get whatever you want..." oh goodness, that would be so nice. we went to ladurée which is our favorite place ever. french macarons and petits tarts to die for. so delicious. then we continued on to a park just north of the jardin des tuileries where we basked in the sun. such a wonderful day...

love love love

versailles!!!

today we hopped on the 10:23 train for versailles, when we got there we had to find the palace, which was about a 10 minute walk from the train station... we saw the golden gates and jumped in line... we were in line for 3 hours. so long. it was a perfectly clear and sunny day, there were no clouds to be seen, so needless to say, we're a little sunburnt. versailles was gorgeous, gold, so much gold, and there were beautiful paintings and statues everywhere. there were also rude, annoying, terrifying tourists everywhere, but i guess that is to be expected... after going through the palace, caitlin and i set off to explore the gardens, we walked to the village that marie antoinette had built, which was quite a walk from the palace, but it's still within the gardens, which tells you how huge the gardens are... we took the 7:30 train back to paris, and i'm exhausted... more tomorrow..

love love

look flowers! don't smile!

aah paris. i may never leave. for serious. today we took the train to giverny to see monet's garden, which has been my dream since i was 5 when i saw linnea in monet's garden. best movie ever. since then, monet has been my favorite artist ever, i have the limited edition monet barbie, monet posters, monet stationary, monet beanie babies, monet thank you cards.... monet everything, so today was big. big big. we waited in line outside of monet's garden for an hour and a half ... long line + one ticket window= bad. but we chatted with some people in line, so it wasn't too bad. we walked in and it was like walking into heaven, it was soooo beautiful! flowers everywhere, vines wrapped around branches, green benches... so good. we made our way over to the pond where we saw the japanese bridge!!!!! and the green boats on the water!!! and water lillies!!! oh it was just so perfect. we wandered around giverny for a while and pretended to be belle from beauty and the beast, and then we took the bus back to the train station in vernon to catch a train to paris. we then took the metro to the louvre, because we thought it was the under 26 get in for free night, turns out it was under 26 get in for free day and the louvre is closed tonight... zut alors! we hadn't eaten in 7 hours and needed food, but didn't want to pay € 24 for dinner, so our only option was...... mcdonalds!!! hahaha so strange, we saw more french people in there than we've seen elsewhere, so that was cool.....on the metro ride back to the hotel we were working on our parisian scowl, in which you have to look bored, disgusted, and disinterested all at once, whilst judging other people's outfits and do it all with a pout... it's pretty difficult, but all parisians have seemed to master it, so i think if we keep working at it we might get it... or we might be too happy to look disgusted and bored, i guess we'll see... versailles tomorrow!!!

à demain!

paris!!!!!

i love paris. i love love love paris. i may never leave.
our train got in this morning at around eleven and we were in the sketchiest and scariest train station that we've been at yet. and there was no information booth. and there were no signs in english. party. so we wandered around and got day long metro/bus passes... but had no idea where we were going, so we got on a train to st michel/notre dame... there was no info there either, so i asked the lady at the ticket booth and she said to go to the bookstore, so we went to the travel section and started looking for phone numbers, addresses, anything... no luck, but a cute little bookstore employee helped us... we bought a map and headed out, still lost, but so happy to be in paris that it didn't matter. we saw a best western and ran in and asked for the nearest auberge de jeunesse, he said that there were none around, so we had him direct us to an internet cafe, where we found the hotel that we are at right now. we took a bus across town and got a room for the night ... and hopefully for the next few nights.... we asked how to get to the eiffel tower, and lucky for us there is a metro line that runs from near our hotel directly there. excellent. we hopped on the next metro and were there before we knew it, we walked outside and down the sidewalk, then we saw it. and nearly fainted from overwhelming joy. omg. it was a dream come trueeeee. aah there are no words to describe how excellent it was. so excellent.

internet time is up!!!
love!

amsterdam hates us.

amsterdam is not the city for us. it's cloudy, cold, rainy, creepy, and super sketch. and we don't smoke pot, so there really isn't a reason for us to be here... we went to the keukenhof today to see the tulips, but most of them were dead, which was rather depressing... and admission was freaking expensive. so we're not pleased with netherlands. we went to make reservations for our train to paris tomorrow. we can't get to paris without paying extra, because only high speed trains go there. the only train that wasn't booked at 6:26 am. so it's going to be another early morning, but that gets us out of amsterdam and into paris faster.... haha it's been a longgg day. we need sun, so we're thinking that we'll only spend a day in paris, because we need sunny, warm paris, and it's cloudy now, so we're revising the plan and heading for italy and greece as soon as possible....haha sorry, that's not a very happy blog....

so my friend pags had some things that she wanted me to blog... and if you want to know anything feel free to leave a comment, or email me (caroline.john13@gmail.com), or text me, or facebook me.... pags wanted to know how we're spending our money, if we've tried to read a newspaper, and if i've used the hairties that she made me pack.... we're spending our money on keeping us alive(hostels, food, water) we're spending a lot of money on water, which is kindof depressing, water is expensive here. the other money that we spend is on museum admissions, etc... we have been shopping a few times, and caitlin got some cute stuff... but i'm poor, so i haven't bought anything yet... i'm waiting til the end of the trip... we haven't really read a newspaper yet because the only ones we've seen have been in flemmish and dutch... we looked at a dutch newspaper this morning on the train... paris should be better for newspapers, seeing as i can at least halfway understand french... and no, i haven't used the hairties, not a single one, they're weighing me down, pags....haha love you.

love love love
caroline

baby went to amsterdam, she put a little money into travelling....

Hey everybody!
Internet is expensive and hard to find here... at least for me... haha but right now we have free internet at our hostel!!! so good. we're in amsterdam right now, we took the train from brussels this morning... but i'll start from where i left off in london....
so we woke up at 4:45 to catch our 5:57 train ride to brussels and from brussels we took the train to bruges. bruges is just the cutest little town, there are canals and boat rides and it's just so quaint. we took a train to a hostel, which had no room... so we walked down the road a ways to the next hostel and booked the next two nights. caitlin and i set out to explore little bruges, we went to the grand markt in the center of the town and wandered from there. we stopped to get some belgian fries, or friten, they were so delicious.. yum then we went shopping at h&m and zara and then we got belgian waffles, tasty. we went back to the hostel for a nap, and we met our roommates, a couple from chicago and a couple from spain? or italy? haha... that night we had a picnic dinner with raspberry beer, delicious.
the next day we set off to explore the town some more, we looked for a catholic church for caitlin to go to mass that night. we found two beautiful ones and kept wandering... then we went to a park with a see-saw (is that how you spell it? haha) and bounced around on that... then it started pouring on us, boo rainy, cloudy weather. so we decided that we needed to get to greece and spain as soon as possible. we need sun and warm weather! we're from a place that gets 300 days of sun a year! so we went to an internet cafe and looked at flights to greece and revised our travel plans. we went to the hostel to change into dry clothes and look at the map that we had gotten earlier. we decided to go see the madona and child at the church of our lady, it is one of the very few pieces by michelangelo that is outside of italy, so that was pretty cool, and there was a 5:30 mass, so we decided to go there for mass later. next, we went to do a tour of the only brewery in bruges, called the haalve maan... they brew 3 types of beer, a blonde and a bruin bruges zot, which are 6 and 7.5% alcohol and one called straffe hendrik, which is 9%... the tour was awesome, we got to see the history of the brewery and go to the top of the chimney to see all of bruges. we drank a blonde bruges zot and then shared a straffe hendrik, they were very tasty. we then went to mass and then got dinner...
the next morning we took the train to brussels, found a hostel, and went out to explore brussels. we went to the grand markt and walked around on the streets near it. we went to see mannequin pis, the little boy peeing... which is a big deal apparently... alright... there were a bunch of greek restaurants, so i grabbed a pitta greque... basically gyros with french fries rolled in it, tasty. caitlin had a belgian waffle and we went to check in at the hostel... after putting our stuff in our room we walked to the royal palace and the big park next to it. we went back to the hostel and went to the backpackers bar downstairs. we had some nice conversation with the canadian bartender whilst crazy 16 year old spanish students ran around the bar... party. haha then we played some guitar hero, which i beat everyone at. haha i suppose they don't have as much practice as i do...
this morning we took the train to amsterdam, locked up our backpacks and wandered around... we got some lunch at a little restaurant, i had a grilled cheese, which is popular here? because everyone is stoned? we saw lots of coffee shops. lots. and a lot of creepy people... tomorrow we're going to go to the keukenhof gardens to see the tulips! and then we're going to the heineken museum... then the next morning we're taking the train to paris! horray paris!!! we're both out of control excited for paris. so excited! i'll try to blog tomorrow about my day... love free internet. love it.

love love love.

oh and i'm not sure if i'll be able to put up my pictures until i get back, there hasn't been anywhere for me to upload them yet... i'll let you know if i upload them...

beefeaters, magical trees, and double decker buses

So today we had our "be the quintessential tourist" day, so we started off taking the bus to buckingham place to see the changing of the guard, which was pretty exciting, lots of tourists.... lots and lots of french people, caitlin and i think it must be spring break for all of france, we've seen more french people than we've seen english people... so after the changing of the guard we walked through green park to hyde park, where we walked through the beautiful rose garden... everything is so green here! also, it's very humid. i feel like i'm never going to dry off. my hair is way curly and frizzy..... and i really want to go to the beach, so after amsterdam, we may go to disneyland paris, and then down to the mediterranean.... horrayyyyy! anyways, we found a magical inside out-ish tree in hyde park and went inside of it, there was magic. and faeries. and leprechauns. then we walked to westminster abbey and big ben. super awesome... but westminster abbey was expensive, so we decided that we were going to go to the tower of london instead... so we took the bus over to the tower of london from trafalgar square on a double decker bus! the tower of london was huge, we got to go through all of the towers and see where the kings and queens lived and we got to see the torture chamber... and we got to see the crown jewels!!!!! i need some of those. really. and when i get diamonds i need to name them. then we took the bus home! and now it's late, we were out for 9 hours and 45 minutes... lonnngg day.... we're going to go grab a pint of strongbow, crash and take the 5:57am train out of here!!! night!

hallo from jolly old england!

hey everybody!
caitlin and i are in london right now it's a tad bit chilly, cloudy and rainy... british weather! yay! we have been up for 25 hours! and it's only 2 in the afternoon here! our flight got in at 8:25, right on time, and after money exchanges (£52 for $100... not ok), immigration (a terrifying british man, we thought we were going to get sent back he was so scary!), and getting oyster cards to get on the tube it was 9:25. we took an hour long tube ride to king's cross station, and were swept up and out of the station by hundreds of fast paced british people. we were under the impression that our hostel was near the british museum, so we asked for directions to the british museum and headed where we were told. with our huge, heavy backpacks and heavy purses. fast forward to us getting way lost, we found the british museum, but noone around it had even heard of the hostel that we were looking for! finally we asked in a hotel and the concierge looked it up on the computer for us, we were sooooo far away. outrageous. so we made the trek to the clink hostel, and arrived a little after 12:30. after booking ourselves two nights here, we went out for a yummy lunch of bangers and mash! now we're chilling at the hostel, waiting for check in time! a bed sounds so nice...

xoxo

phone update!

you don't need to delete me from your phone!! i set up my international roaming today and i can receive text messages for free! ... it just costs me extra to send them.. so you can text me... i just probably won't reply.. haha... and you can call me, but it's super expensive so i probably won't answer...

i'm packing! it's harder than it sounds... 3 months of fashion into a carry on sized rick steves bag?

and it's sunday, technically... i leave the day after tomorrow!!!!!

love.

oh hi...

so... i leave for europe in 4 days! tuesday!

and umm, this is my travel blog.

so i'll be blogging about my european adventures here whenever i get a chance to hop on a computer over there...

so yeah, it'll be a grand old time

umm in other news, i'll have my phone over there, and it'll be way expensive... so really, please please please don't call or text me! delete me from your phone if you have to! haha

yep. i'll miss you all! talk to me on fb and email me and whatnot!

oh and i'm hoping to post my pictures on my flickr account... and i don't know how to link to it... maybe this will work? and if not just go to flickr.com and my username is i dream of you beneath the flowers

yay let the adventure begin!!