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...