how could i forget

ummm i completely forgot to tell you guys about my favorite part of barcelona. i had the opportunity to see fc barcelona play on saturday night! they were playing gatafe, which is a team based out of madrid. this was a big game cuz one barcelona needs to win the rest of their games to win the league and two gatafe beat them 3 weeks ago 4-0 in a cup tourney. so needless to say the game was huge! my seat was amazing, on the 2nd tier right on the 50 yard line. i bought a ronaldinho jersey and headed to the game. the atmosphere was amazing, so many fans of all ages and sizes. the stadium itself was HUGE, much bigger than real madrids, it can hold up to 100000 people. i got there a lil early so i could take pics but the game started at 10 pm. within 7 mintues ronaldinho scored. i happned to get a pic of the goal as well. but then 15 minutes later ronaldinho got a red card and had to leave the game....but he pretty much deserved it. but as the game went on the ref was getting worse and the crowd was getting more roudy. they were saying chants like ¨die die die¨to the ref, it was insane. the crowd didnt quiet down till the final whistle too. fc won 1-0. the game was a great experience, something i am very happy i did. hopefully i will be able to see more european football matches in the future. ok gotta get some sleep...got an early flight home tomorrow :) night

Espanya

hola from spain, supposely the country that never sleeps and has siestas everyday because of it. I flew out of rome last wednesday and almost missed my flight because 1) the line to check in was ridiculous and 2) the security people stopped me in line and had to check and go through my bag. but i made it on and off i went to madrid. i had checked the weather before i left and it said it was raining in madrid so i prayed that it was wrong and i would get out of the metro and the sun would be shining, but nope it was downpour. made it to my hostel and decided to go to the prado museum. this is really known for 15th 16th and 17th century paintings as well as spanish paintings. to be honest it was a nice museum but pretty much like all the others ive seen throughout europe. but it was neat in a way because i started to see the difference between italian french and spanish paintings just because i have seen so many in my 2 months. after that museum i said to myself no more art museums because i was getting tired of seeing madonna and child pieces or christs cruxifiction....not that they are not nice or anything but when ive seen about 100 of them it gets a lil old. anywho i headed back to the hostel and went to get a few drinks with people i had met in my room so we went out bar hopping, everywhere we went people were standing outside their bars or clubs just saying free shot if you come in....so of course anything for free works for backpackers. we were out till about 3 then headed back and i hoped for better weather the next day. yea that didnt happen woke uand it was still raining. but i went to the real palace. it was the palace that the king of spain still lives in, so it was neat being able to walk through and see all the beautiful rooms and furnitures. then i just spent the rest of the day just moping around town. not too much to see. now the next day i had planned on going to seville for hte night so i could see an authentic flamenca show. but i went to the train station and found out i needed a reservation for trains so the next available train was at 6 at night and it wasnt worth it so i had another day in rainy madrid. but it worked out because i got to see the football (soccer) stadium. it was huge, got to go near the pitch and in the press room and everything. veeeeery nice. so that was madrid....as you can tell i didnt really like it but i think the weather had a lot to do with it. the next morning i took an early train to barcelona and made it to my hostel by 2. my hostel is right off the main street. la rambles. tons of bars and clubs and shops. and its a 15 minute walk to the beach. so the rest of the day i just walked around and went to the big food market. they had fruit veggies meat fish candy. everything you could possibly imagine almost. the next day i went to the beach. the weather has been gorgeous the whole time i have been here. sunny barely any clouds and a lil wind but it was nice laying on the beach because i didnt get too hot. the following day went with a few girls to see the torro ring and the sangrada familia (which is the goudi church that has been under construction for almost 100 years) then we went to the park guell which is where goudi lived. it was a neat place and plus the view of barcelona was amazing. that night we had happy hr at the hostel then went to get some GOOD sangria. same thing happened here as in madrid where everyone would say come into the bar and get a free shot....so needless to say this morning was a lil rough getting up. but i had motivation....beautiful weather and the beach! so thats what i did all day, just got more tan :) but tonight me and some girls are going to see a free flamenca show, so we will see how good it will be...atleast its better than nothing! i fly home tomorrow YAAYYYY. cant believe i have already been gone for 2 months, its insane and has flown by. so here is where i leave you. i hope everyone has enjoyed reading my blogs just as much as i have been living them! cheers everyone!

When in Rome

you know i never understood that expression, ¨when in rome do as the romans do¨, because if the romans stood in line for the vatican, check did that, if the romans stood in a crammed pack metro bus or any bus for that matter, uh huh yup check, if the romans ate pizza pasta and gelato everyday, yea pretty much got that down, then i pretty much did as the romans did. but if they didnt do any of those things then im just a regular tourist trying to fit everything in rome into 3 days.
but let me rewind 2 weeks since i havent written since then. i left off in cinque terre i headed south to sorrento, now this was my ¨vacation¨ from my vacation. little did i know there was so much to do there. the first day i layed out on the beach, the disadvantage of not traveling with someone is i have no one to put suntan lotion on me, so i just went to th beach hoping for the best. well 6 hrs later i was burnt of course (but no worries the peeling is gone and i have a nice golden tan (sorry keri:) anywho the second day i climbed up mt vesuvio, which we all know erupted and covered the city of pompeii. the day i went it was cloudy, but to my suprise it was really cool. it gave the volcano a mysterious look. now before i left on my advanture i gave my roommates my full name and address so in case the volcano erupted ya´ll would know what happened to me :) haha but luckily no eruption. the following day i went to the city of pompeii and hurculaneum, two very different looking cities. in herculameum you could actually tell it was a city at one time where as in pompeii it was so spread out with random ruins everywhere it seemed like different towns as opposed to one city. THEN the next day i went on a day excursion to the island of capri. this island is known for its beautiful blue water and the ever so famous blue graddo. well on the way over it rained a little so the seas were a bit rough and unfortunately we could not go into the groddo cuz the hole to get in there was completely covered with water/waves. but when we docked on the island and the sun came out. me and these two girls from cali, kim and haley decided to hike to anacapri which is where all the big houses and ¨star¨hotels are. little did we know that this hike would take us scaling up rocks holding on to chains as we went up and climbing through bushes and weeds up to our waists. yea that was our hike, needless to say we got lost and just made our own way up but we eventually made it the top of the mountain and the view of capri and the italian coastline was breath taking, so worth the ¨narly¨hike. when we hiked down to anacapri we decided to get lunch at this place called il cucciolo. this place was definately off the beaten path but when we finally found it it was right off the coastline with a beautiful view of the sea and coast! the meal was the best i have had in all my trip. obviously every meal i have had has been from a different culture but everything involved, taste, presentaion, authenticity, company, service etc was over the top. we started off with the house wine. then had the antipasti. capri is known for their mozerella and tomatoes so we had that. i am NOT a fan of whole tomotoes, but paired with the mozerella i could have eaten those ALL day. next came homemade ravioli and tomato sauce then for dessert chocolate cake with walnuts. this meal was amazing! after nearly endulging everything on our plates we were ready to make our trip back to capri since our boat left in an hr. we hiked back into the middle of anacapri to catch the bus back but when the bus came no one was gettting on and it left, now we had 40 mintues to get 8 km back. so what else do we do we start walking with our thumbs out, yea thats right we were hitch hiking, after about 5 minutes this little red car pulls over and picks us up. to our luck it was a dad with his little girl. he takes us all the way downt to our boat with time to spare. so me and haley jump in the green blue water. very nice after the day we had. the next day i just lay out on the beach again but only for a lil cuz the rain came in so that day was spent mostly inside which was good cuz i needed a day of rest before roma.
now enters rome, luckily kim and haley were going to rome too and staying at the same place. so we traveled together. made it there and had an interesting time trying to find our campsite. but 2 hrs later we did and it actually ended up being like and hr metro ride away from the city and near the beach. i spent 3 total days in rome and did pretty much everything i wanted. the vatican, st peters basillica, colosseum, roman forums, palentine hill, villa gorhese, spanish steps, trevi fountain, pantheon, and all the piazzas. kinda insane huh? but rome was fun, a lot like paris, a lot to do with a lot of people doing it at the same time. but being at my campsite away from the city was a relief got some peace and quiet at night. the best pizza i had was at san castillo pizzeria, and now my new favorite cheese is buffalo mozerella and my favorite gelato in all of italy is near the vatican museums called old bridge gelateria. they had my favorite, black cherry, this taste just like the bubble gum icecream i used to have as a kid....so good!
i caught an early flight this moring to madrid and that is where i currently am. i got into my hotel around 2 and walked around the city. i went to the prado art museum which was nice but i must say it is my last one in europe, i have seen so my paintings and sculptures to last me ohhh quite some time. but i will go to the goudi museum in barcelona. i leave friday to go to seville which i will be there for a day then i head to barcelona till i fly out next wednesday. so one week left...cant believe it. the next enrty will probably be my last night in barcelona just to wrap everything up. hope everyone is doing well and is looking forward to me coming home :) i must say i am ready to stop living out of a suitcase thats for sure. until next time. ciao!

Kelly

BONJOURNO!

hey ya'll

sorry i havent written since ummm yea long time, but its been very crazy since the last time i wrote! i dont really have much time to write but ill just give the short version of my trip so far. ok left munich and went to interlaken switzerland. arrived on a wednesday and on thursday i decided to hike into the swiss alps. easy right?? well i guess i took a wrong turn and went up and i quote a "trail for experienced and equipped hikers" not that bad right?? well 4 hrs later i eventually made it to a point that was 2000 meters in the air! needless to say i hike up the side of the mountain, but the views i had of both the snow top mountains and the regular mountains were GORGEOUS! got some with me in them too! well i hiked for 6 hrs and thought that was plenty enough plus my legs were about to fall off. friday i had just planned to sit and relax since i havent done that at all my entire trip and luckily enough (but sad at the same time too) it rained that day...first rain ive had all trip. so eh whatever didnt plan on doing anything anyways. but then on saturday i had planned to do my "adventurous" thing which was cannyoning but the rain was so bad the day before the water was too high so it got cancelled. so i changed my plans around (cuz i had orginally planned to leave on saturday night) and i stayed an extra day. well on sunday again the water was too high so we could only go half a day. but it was so much fun! we jumped off cliffs, slide down cliffs, and rapelled down them as well. although it was only half a day it was a fun experience. definately worth the extra day. i took an over night train that night to venice. left at 1030 pm and arrived in venice at 8 am. i walked around venice the entire day...there are no cars, no scooters just alley ways to get lost through! it was a neat little town, but definately only a days trip worth i think...depending on how many alley ways you would liketo see. then the nightmare of a trip began. i had the choice of spending 30 euros and getting an over night trip to cinque terra or have a free train and have a 4 hr layover in genova. well u know which one i took. i got to genova ar 1230 am and pretty much had no where to go so i went inside the train station and just layed down. about an hour and a half had past and someone kicks my foot....yea its the police. they ask if im ok and what im doing and i say im waiting for my train that leaves at 430 am. they say that this train has arrived and that i can just sit on it until it leaves. i get onto the train and run into 20 woman who are all over 65 years old. turns out these woman are from norway and headed to riogimorre (same place as me). so i sit with them and talk with them and dirnk wine with them until 330 in the morning! needless to say these woman had A LOT to say. jenny and lexie i can see us being these woman and being on a train at 3 in the morning drinking wine btw :)
finally made it to sleep but only for about 3 hrs when we finally get to riogimorre at 7 am. i walk up to my hostel and it doesnt open till 10 am GREAT. so i walk around the town for awhile finally got my room and decided to walk to the 5 towns of cinque terra. along the way i meet 2 people from new york city and we just start talking and end up walking together through 4 of the towns together. we stop and have lunch in the town of venezza. i had the best pesto i have ever had...gnocchi with pesto...AMAZING. as well as 2 glasses of cinque terra wine...pretty much heaven on earth. we made it to the last town of monterosso which had the beach. i layed out and swam in the intalian riveria :) and that is where im writing ya'll from right now.
so yea as you can see pretty hectic. im headed to florence tomorrow and staying there a bit but not in the city but in the tuscan area...very excited to say the least about the wine i will be experiencing!
hope everything is going well with everyone...cant believe i only have 3 weeks left :( ill write more when i can.

Kel

Munich...beer capital of the world!

hello all. sorry for the delay in writing, but internet is mad expensive here and i am really using my time booking where I am staying for my next desination. but anywho i am currently in MUNICH germany, also called muchen which means young monk,also called the beer capital of the world! but let me back up to where i left you guys...i was in prague and the bone church by the way was creepy but neat at the same time, ive never been in a church that has been so cold! kutna hora was a neat lil town, there was another cathedral there and the cathedral had an amazing organ...SO BIG and beautiful. in prague i had to make my plans for my next trip. i had planned on going to munich but they did not have anything available for friday and saturday so i was like hmmmm where should i go? so i researched a lil online and saw that this town called heidelberg germany had a castle. so i said sure why not. the train ride (with transfers) was 10 hrs long...needless to say it was a long day. i got to my hostel...which was more of a bar and restaurant but i think the owner was like hey i have 2 extra rooms why not make them into a hostel. so yea thats what he did. when i got there i asked if he had anything available for the next night (because i had booked two different hostels) and he said that he did. so i called my other hotel and cancelled my reservation. me and the owner got to talking and he asked why i just didnt book for two nights and i said cuz the internet said u had nothin available. he looked more closely had his sheet and it turns out there was a bachlore party coming in and in fact he did not have anything available...so basically im out a bed. well he said i could stay in a "cramped" room for FREE. i said free sure why not. well it ended up being in the restaurants store room! there were tables, fridges and drinks. but there was a matress so it ended up being an ok sleep...for free anyway. but the town was cool. it had a 17th century look to it as well as an industrial look to it, so it was split...it even had a hard rock cafe!!! the best part was obviously the castle. this was so much better than the one in prague...it actually looked like a castle.
on sunday i arived in munich and walked around for awhile. i ended up in the english gardens which is a big park. i saw my first nude beach...far too many old mean walking around! and there was even surfing, hard to explain but ull see pics. at my hostel i met this guy ross from new york and a girl hanna from sweeden. both really cool people, we went down to our hostel bar and had a few drinks. on sat the 3 of us went on a walking tour around munich, very cool got to see the main attractions, learned more about germanys history and got to see the most famous beer hall in the world...haufbraus beerhaus. needless to say later that night me ross and hanna went there for dinner...it was good. had my first experience with shnitzel...basically fried pork. yesterday i went to cinderellas castle. SO AMAZING! it was everything i had hoped it would be. took amazing pics. the picture that is on the right of my blog..yea i have one just like it :)
today i am headed to interlaken swtizerland....can not wait for the alps!! now they are known for their extreme sports so i need to figure something out of what i want to do. suggestions would be nice.
over the past 2 weeks i have been informed that my friend, roommate and teammate from college, laura redmond has been daignosed with A.L.L. it is a type of lukeima that affects the bone marrow. at such a young age, 23, she is in the fight of her life. i would like to ask everyone to please have her in your thoughts and prayers as she battles through this to recovery!
i need to catch my train so ill write more later. hope all is going well, i cant wait believe its already been a month :)

kel

praha, czech it out

haha ok that was a bad joke, but im in prague, or as the townsmen call it praha. got here after a 6 hr train ride, which was nice because we followed a river in and out of the mountains of czech. when i got here i took a nap because the night before i got no sleep cuz this guy was snoring SO loud, it got to the point where i had to wake him up and say "u are snoring really loud" (HATE HOSTEL LIFE). for dinner i met up with a guy i had met in berlin and i had a real pilsner urquil (they brew it in czech). its much different than the one in the states. then i just walked around town and kinda got a feel for things. today i woke up pretty early and walked the entire town for 6 hrs! i went to the prague castle, which doesnt look like a typical castle but the view of the town was good. the cathedral inside the castle was amazing, the stainless glasses it had was breathtaking, so full of vibrant colors. after the castle i hiked up this mountain that had an eiffel tower on top. it wasnt the actualy eiffel tower obviously but they made a tower just like it on top of this mountain that made it 1 meter high then the one in france. but the view was gorgeous! i could see the entire city of prague..definately worth the 2 mile hike. i then walked in the direction of my hostel and saw what called the fred and ginger dancing building...shaun i think you would really like the architecture of this building it was crazy. cant really explain it but i have pics. tonight i am going into old town and taking some pics. everyone says they cant wait to see my pics...but i must warn everyone i have taken over 1000...haha so be prepared to sit for awhile :) and im only half way through my trip
tomorrow i am going to a town called kutna hora. its about 70 km away from prague, but there is a church that has over 40000 human bones built into it. i dont know about anyone else but i think thats interesting.
not much else to write, im gonna head out on the town and have a budvar, which is the original budweiser,brewed in czech, except some american came over and took it back to the states and called it budweiser, king of beers...that is probably why the czechs arent too fond of americans.
thanks for people that respond, and im glad everyone is enjoying the blog :)

Kelly

THE BERLIN WALL IS COMING DOWN!

ok ok so its already come down, but you can guess where i am, yup berlin germany. ive been here since friday night. the train ride in from amsterdam was interesting. so im on my merry little way hop on the train and head towards berlin, well i thought it was a direct connection boy was i wrong. we came to a stop and i went to the bathroom the intercom came on and said something in dutch. idont know any dutch so i payed no attention. we started moving again then stopped all of a sudden. well when i walked out of the bathroom everyone was gone and the train was in the middle of the tracks...I WAS STUCK ON THE TRAIN! i ran up and down and no one was there i yelled out the window for help and they had to get security to come and get me...so embarressing to be the white american girl stuck on the train because she didnt know dutch. well after that i got on another train and made it to berlin. my hostel it nice, its called baxpax. its a little out of the city, i think in the west part of berlin in kreuzberg. anywho on saturday i woke and went into town to take a tour of the city. the tour was amazing, now it was a free tour so the tour guide only worked for tips, so his enthusiasm was on point and made the 4 and a half hr long tour so worth it. anywho we started in pariser platz. this is where the brandenburg gate is. this is the last remaining gate in berlin. the tour guide said that when the french invaded germany they marched through the gate and napoleon stole the statue on top of the gate. well when the french went to war against the english i think the germans stole the statue back and called the women lady victoria (for victory) and the square around the gate pariser platz to kind of make fun of the french for the defeat. kinda interesting huh? well across from the gate is a hotel that is the most luxurious hotel in the world, hotel adlon. this hotel is where micheal jackson hung his baby outside the window...and you know i got pictures of that window haha. we proceeded to the holocaust memorial for the jews. this memorial is like no other. the designer wanted people to interpret their own way and not really have an explanation of it. its an area of different sized stone slabs going from small on the outside to tall in the middle. the ground itself gets deeper as you go in. some people think of the slabs as coffins, or graves or tombstones. my interpration came in the middle with the tall slabs, i felt very secluded and small standing there, and thats how i think the people in the concentration camps felt. its an intense feeling. we then walked to the only remaining nazi building in berlin. its actually interesting because after hitlers reign they pretty much destroyed all the buildings, well the ones that were left after the bombings in the war. but this one the communists kept around because inthis particular building their was a big conference room that hitler liked to have his meetings. well the communists needed a board room as well so thats why they kept it around. across the street is the remains of the berlin wall. its not wide at all but the tour guide said getting over it was not the problem. there was actaully 2 walls, the berlin wall and the inner wall. the space between the two was called dead mans land...if you were caught going from the east to the west in this area you were gunned down. next we walked by checkpoint charlie, which is where any american )journalist, soldier, etc) stayed/had to check in during the war. the actual checkpoint isnt there anymore but they have a fake one in its place. we then went to musuem island where we got to see the berlin dome. its a beautiful church inside and out. the tour was over after that, and like i said it didnt seem like 4 hrs. i learned a lot of the history behind the war and hitlers reign, and its a lot different than learning it from school because im actually in the city that it happened so it was a lot more interesting. anywho i went to dinner with a guy i had met on the tour and he knew of a good german place to go to. i had the traditional bratswarts and saurkraut with potatoes. and to my suprise i liked it! the saurkraut was not like anythin from the states, it was sweet so thats why i liked it. the sausage was also cooked and served in a beer sauce, so of course that was good! at night iwent on a pub crawl. it was only 9 euros and we got free beer for an hr and free vokda shots all night long. we went to 3 bars and then a club. the club was awesome. it had 5 different rooms all with different music. there were 3 dance floors and there were even dancers in cages. it was fun but i felt like i was back in freshman year, where everyone was 18 and really couldnt handle their alcohol. me and this one guy who was 29 and from london i think were the oldest ones there. but it was still fun.
yesterday i went to sachsenhausen concentration camp. this camp was the "model" camp for all the others. this is where they actually sat down and decided what to do with all the jews. it was an hr away from the city by train. when we got there there were a lot of soldiers with different uniforms on. it happened to be the anniversary of the camps liberation. so seeing the memorial (although in german) was amazing. there are actually 2 anniversarys of the camp, let me tell you a little history. the nazis heard that the soviets were coming into the camp so on april 21 they took over 33,000 people away from the camp and walked into the forest. now the soldiers themselves were afraid they were going to get caught so they left the people there in the forest. the next day, april 22nd the soviets came to the camp and found 3000 people left in the camp. these were the people that were too weak to walk, everyone pretty much in the infermaries. the people the forest were found between may 3rd and may 6th. but 7000 people had died in those 12 days, which is why its called the death march. so thats why there are 2 anniversaries. the desendants of the people who walked in the forest walk the same path that they did in remembrance of them. so theres a little information for you :) we walked through the camp and it was very intense, more intense than the holocaust musuem because we were stood on the ground where the people were murdered, starved, burned, beaten, everything horrible you can imagine. the tour lasted about about 3 hrs, it ended with us seeing the cell where they kept the dead bodies and we saw the actual wheelbarrel that carried the bodies to the fireplaces. i really had no feeling for awhile after the camp just because it was so intense and mind boggeling to hear the stories of the survivors. but i feel that everyone should go to alteast one concentration camp, just so we will never forget what happened. its like the saying goes, if we foget about our past it will come back and kick us in the ass. this is why i am glad people have these tours, so we will always remembe what people had to go through...ok enough preaching. after the camp i went back to the hostel and just hung out with people in the common room playing pool.
today i just went around town and took pics, berlin is a very big city a lot of ground to cover so i tried my best.
tomorrow im headed to prague, check republic. im really excited about it because there is a castle!! but hope things are going well back at home. i miss everyone but im having an amazing time :) ill write later.

Kelly