Post Trip Fever

I know most people have stopped reading the blog by now because they know that we are home from the Europe trip. However, we still have lots to share with you all, and we'll continue to share them as time goes on and the days past trip fade into mere memories. In any case, logging our memories here will not only help you understand our mindset at any given time during and immediately after the trip, but it will also help us remember how we really felt the summer of 2007.

Right now, im just sitting in my room in the dark, wondering what i'm doing here. There's a surreal mood surrounding everything. It seems ironic really, because if you saw my room, you'd see the 5 seasons of futurama on repeat, my brother sleeping, and me just sitting typing into the wind. It's very strange to be back.

Jessica and i spent just under 3 weeks, seeing each other 24/7, yet now that we're apart, even by the short distance of only a few miles it seems impossible to reach each other. On a grand scheme, a few miles seems incredibly miniscule, and anyone who's been here the whole time would understand better that a few miles really is meaningless. From my eyes it seems that way with family. I missed them alot while i was gone, but strangely and not in the least disrespectful of them, i miss them less right now. Obviously, it would seem i miss them less because they are here right now. I'm with them now. While I was gone, they felt a world away, yet Jessica was there, she was always within reach. I missed my family, i missed Jessica less. The thing is, when i was there, they really were a world away. Now that i'm here, Jessica is not a world away, yet the short span of a few miles is an impossible trek, one that might as well be a world away. The only satisfaction you can get by being separated by a few miles rather than a million miles is the simple fact that if anything were to happen its only a matter of minutes before you can be there.

This is one thing that i was troubled with the most in Europe. I was scared, frankly, that something would happen to anyone in my family and I wouldn't be able to be there for them. Even now i can revisit the emotion and feel the same way; it was that strong. I guess some would call it helplessness. In a world where life is chaotic by nature you'd think we would be used to feeling helpless. I really can't speak for anyone else because its simply impossible for me to imagine what another person is feeling. But personally, the way i would justify such a reaction to a helpless emotion is the fact that most things in my life, i have complete control over. In programming, there is always logically a way to define things, a way to explain things and to manipulate them. That doesn't exist in life. Life is more stubborn than that. It takes some getting used to. I just hope that someday i will be content with how life turns out, and not feel that fledging urge to push life onto a track that its not meant to travel down. So far it hasn't kept me from trying to blaze my own trails. Until i realize that no path down life is truly unique i guess i'll keep on blazing.

How do i get that from a trip to Europe? Its the fact that I decided to go even when i knew that it was an impossible dream. We made it happen, so no matter how old you are or how bad life seems to be treating you, you've always still got the chance. The chance that one day you can blaze your own trail and travel the world, or at least stray away from the path you're on. If you've never done it, just remember, it's an impossible dream for us all, it always will be, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.

I want to keep typing, but i should cut it short since i've strayed off topic quite a bit. I just wanted to share my thoughts in a stream of consciousness thats at least somewhat related to this blog.

Thanks for reading... Look for more posts and pictures in the very near future.

The best and the worst of Europe

Jessica's ratings:

Favorite city: Berlin. The recent history, the modern architecture and the punk culture really draw me to this city.
Favorite monument: The Holocaust Monument in the middle of Berlin. The use of space and vague metaphorical architecture is very effective for the purposes of the piece.
Best Hostel: Jacob's Inn in Dublin. It was close to the bus station, within walking distance to the Temple Bar and O'Connell Street, and it was clean and organized.
Cleanest Subway: Athens, mostly because the city had to renovate the system for the 2004 Olympics
Most efficient Subway: The Underground in London. That train will take you everywhere.
Best Place to Eat: Cafe Med in Paris. We had a three-course meal for 12.50, and the food was fantastic.
Nicest weather: Amsterdam. After the rain in the morning, the blue skies and 70-ish degree temperatures really made this city shine.
Favorite art museum: the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel. The Louvre was cool, but nothing really compares to the Sistine Chapel and the work that Michaelangelo did there.
Cheapest water: Athens, where 1 euro will get you 1.5 litres. Glad we were there when the weather was at 110 degrees.
Best festival: San Fermin in Pamplona, although the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the end of the Black Plague was pretty cool


Worst hostel: Luna Parc in Paris. The place was just plain dirty. The staff had no clue what was going on and it was not near anything. Astor Hyde Park came in close second.
Worst airline: Tie between Easyjet and Ryanair. Easyjet did not have one flight on time during our entire trip, and the system of no assigned seats is just disastrous. Ryanair charges you if you have to check in one bag, even when the airport has more stringent guidelines than anywhere else in the world.
Worst airport: Gatwick in London. There are hardly any words to describe how aggravated I was when we could only take one bag as a carry-on, including my purse. And, we had our tickets checked five times before we got to our gate. I'm sorry, if I were going to up security someplace in London, I would definitely worry more about Heathrow, which is the closest to the city, than stupid Gatwick, which is a half-hour away.
Most expensive meal: Florence, but I don't really want to talk about that. Let's just say it was expensive and not worth it.
Strangest place: The serial killer museum. That was just weird and disturbing.

Amsterdam, Paris and home

I'm currently sitting in my house in Indianapolis at 7 a.m. In Paris, it is midnight. In London, 1 a.m. Obviously, we are home finally, after a grueling last stretch of the trip.

Amsterdam
Amsterdam was great! I wish we could have stayed longer than we did.
Our hostel was not that good, mostly because we had five obnoxious German 17-year-olds, who were doped up on the good ole Amsterdam MJ, in our room.
We went on another free tour in this city too. The tour guide was not as good as our first one, but the tour was worth while. We learned about the liberal history of the city and its focus on business. They tolerate because it is good for business. If they regulate the drugs, their feeling is that less people will use harder drugs. And, in the country only 9 percent of the people actually use drugs at all. Much less than here in the United States. Also, the regulation puts a social standard out there for people, so they are less likely to go overboard when using certain things.
But outside of drugs and prostitutes who rent out windows in the Red Light District, Amsterdam has an amazing history of tolerance for other cultures. We visited areas where Catholics would "secretly" worship and where Jews would gather. The government knew that these groups were worshipping, but they said to the cultures, "We just don't want to see it," and so they would worship in houses during that time period. Kicking people out of the area is not good for business, and that policy helped the city become one of the most widely visited capitals in the world.
We did go see Anne Frank's house, but we didn't go inside because the line was too long, and because you don't actually go into the house. You go into a museum that is located two houses down from the house.
We had planned to do a lot in Amsterdam (i.e. the Heinekin Experience, Cannibis College and such), but it just didn't happen. We chose to just kind of hang out and enjoy the city's cultural side, which was just what we needed for this day trip.

Paris
We took a train to Paris for a two-night stay in the cultural capital of Europe. Our hostel was just plain gross. I swear there is some kind of mold growing in the shower that could eat you alive if you were in there long enough.
Anyway, we started early in the morning for a trip to the Louvre. We didn't wait in line at all to get into the house of Mona Lisa. We went through the metro entrance, rather than the main entrance, and that plan worked out for the best. The Mona Lisa was obviously our biggest pull to the art museum, but we also saw great works that ranged from Egyptian artifacts to The Coronation of Napolean.
After we left the Louvre, we walked around a bit in the city, taking in all the sites. We visited Notre Dame and the Palace of Justice and other enormous, elaborate buildings throughout the city.
We took a cruise of the Seine that night and saw the Eiffel Tower light up the entire city. We also went to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower that night.

Back home
We left Paris thinking we would have about three hours in London to look around and go sightseeing. The plane was delayed, the train to London was long, and all time was pushed around until we were given an hour in London. So, we went back to the boardwalk area to look at everything in the daylight, but we didn't even have the time to go on the London Eye. Oh well... next time, right?
We left for Dublin that night, and headed to the airport in the morning, leading me to where I am right now: sitting in my parent's house early in the morning, suffering from jet lag and waiting for my clothes to dry so I have something to wear today.

Overall, I loved the trip. There were some obvious problems with the way things are run, but I would undo any of it. The experience was completely worth it. Next time, I'll know where I want to spend more time and really take in the culture. I know I want to go back to London and Berlin. I also want to go to Naples and the islands in Greece. But those trips are for another time, and maybe another life.

Greece and Berlin

Dustin and I are in Berlin now, and we will be leaving for Amsterdam this afternoon.
Greece was fantastic, despite the 110-degree weather. We took a ferry from Bari, Italy, to Patras, Greece. The ferry reminded me of a cruise to Nassau (Bahamas) I went on a few years ago. The ferry had a nice sit-down restaurant and a self-service cafeteria, three or four bars, a slot casino, an arcade area and fancy rooms, something Dustin and I have only experienced in Barcelona because we had to book a place at the (literally) last minute.
We watched the sun set behind Italy as we sailed away into the Adriatic Sea for our 16-hour trip.
Once in Patras, we took a bus to Athens. The three-hour trip took about five hours because of the route our driver took. But, we saw a lot of the Greek country side. We arrived in Athens in the early evening. Our hostel was right in the middle of Plaka, the oldest part of Greece.
We walked the (around) 500 meters to the Acropolis to find it had closed already, but we stayed in the area and explored the hills, which were filled with toppled columns and other artifacts. It is hard for me to even contemplate the fact that I have used a 3000-year-old artifact as a step to another part of the ancient ruins. People just sit on the rocks and artifacts as if they were put there yesterday. The objects are so common that people just treat them like they would any other piece of outside furniture or landscape.
We climbed Areopagus Hill, which is right next to the Acropolis, and we watched the sun set over the mountains. Areopagus Hill was where the Areopagus Council would preside over trials of murder, sacrilege and arson. Most people on the hill at the time did not care about its history though. The site has a beautiful view over the city, and the cool breeze is a relief from the temperature.
Plaka happens to be the central location for restaurants and tourist shops. The streets are filled with people and vendors until late hours of the night. Dustin and I stayed in the area the entire night and window-shopped. There were crazy pieces of artwork and furniture that I would love to own. Too bad they are so far away (and way too expensive). The artists in Europe are so creative and their contemporary functional works are the kinds of things I would buy if I were rich. (It feels good to dream about the impossible.)
Saturday, we went up to the Acropolis in the blistering heat. The site was worth the heat exhaustion and sunburn though. We saw the Parthenon, the Theatre of Dionysus and the Temple of Athena Nike. From the top of the mountain, you can also see the Olympic Stadium that was used for the 2004 event.
We took a plane Saturday night to Berlin. Our plane was an hour late arriving, and the train we needed to take to our hostel was stopped for the night by the time we got into the airport, so we had to take a taxi to the hostel.
The hostel is really nice, one of the best we have stayed in yet. Actually, Berlin is strange in that everything is either really new or restored, mostly because of the war and the problems the city had until the 1990s.
Saturday, we took the S-bahn into central Berlin for a free walking tour of the sites. We started at Brandenburg Gate. The gate is the exit from a French square where the French embassy, some of the American embassy and the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his son Blanket from a 3rd floor window are located. (The American embassy is still being built.)
Our tour guide was an young woman from New York who was great at her job. She told fantastic stories of the buildings and events in the city as we visited the sites. We saw the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, the Holocaust Memorial, Charlie Checkpoint and several other sites.
The Holocaust Memorial was interesting because all it was was a bunch of cement blocks, all the same width and length, but each at a different height. The architect said he wanted it to be vague because the Holocaust is something that is too hard for anyone to really grasp entirely and each person has their own feelings and perception of the horrible tragedy. The monumental size, he said, is also part of the piece because anyone who passes it has to at least wonder what it is. The point is to remind the people who want to forget.
The Berlin Wall was also pretty interesting. Our tour guide told us about the mistake that was made that led to the fall. I remember watching the news about the wall, but I also remember not really understanding why it was important, so this part of the tour was really interesting to me.
After the tour, Dustin and I went back to the Reichstag, and went into the huge glass dome. The parliament meets right underneath it and the point is that the members of parliament always know they are being watched and who is really in charge in a democracy.
So far, I think I have liked Berlin the most, despite the rainy weather we had during the walking tour. Unfortunately, we did not have time to go to the concentration camp because something like that really deserves more time and attention than we really have at this point. However, the trip to Germany really was a great experience.
On a side note, there are no pictures with this entry because we sent a package of stuff (including my computer) to the states this morning, and the CD of pictures from Rome, Greece and Berlin was in there. Also, we lost the CD of pictures from most of Barcelona, all of Venice, and some of Florence (including the Duomo). It was left at an Internet cafe in Florence.

Rome

Rome was amazing. That's all...just amazing. It was the one place that both of us loved. We got into Rome pretty late, so we basically just went to sleep. But the next day we got up around 7:30 a.m. and headed to the Vatican to see St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. We expected to have to wait in a line for about three hours, like we did in Florence for the Uffizi, but we did not wait at all to get into the Basilica.
We started in the tomb of the popes, where almost every pope had a different style tomb, each decorated with beautiful artwork and craftsmanship. We walked through the tomb into the chapel.
The site was absolutely gorgeous, every part of the building was decorated with elaborate designs that were almost too intricate to see from the distance the visitors were forced to stay. There were beautiful marble statues along all the walls, and the cathedral ceilings were painted with detailed stories from the Bible.
When we got into the church, hardly anyone else was there. It felt almost like we had our own private viewing of the place. There were a couple of tombs within the church itself, where you could see the body entombed in a glass case.
We went into the attached museum to see some of the artifacts the church held in its possession, and when we came out, there were thousands of people in the church.
We left the church and headed to the Sistine Chapel. We stood in a moving line for about an hour before we reached the Vatican Museums. You have to go through the museums to get to the Sistine Chapel. The museums were filled with any kind of art you could think of, from Classical Roman art to Egyptian pieces. There was even some contemporary artwork there. But, the Sistine Chapel blew the rest away. We've all seen the pictures associated with the chapel, but they really do not do Michaelangelo justice. His work is one of those things that you have to see to really understand how important and historical it really is. The walls and ceiling were painted so that it looked like this flat room had columns and doors and statues surrounding the great hall. The painted curtains looked so real that you could hardly tell they were not there even up close.
We left the Vatican after that and did our own makeshift walking tour of the city- literally from one end to the other. We went to the Castel Sant' Angelo, which houses Hadrian's tomb. We didn't go inside, but we did circle the enormous cylindrical building.
We walked past the Piazza de Tribunali, which had huge, famous statues outside of the building, to the Piazza Navona. Here we walked around its huge fountains and took a lot of pictures.
The next stop was the Pantheon. This place was really cool because the outside was in ruins while the inside was almost perfectly preserved and protected from weathering. The inside had some cool statues, but the main attraction was the dome that filled the inside. The light shining through a circular opening in the top. The light was used in conjunction with lots of panels around the dome that was used as a sun dial.
We got some water from the fountains at the Pantheon, then headed to the Trevi Fountain to cool down. Legend has it, that if you throw a coin into the fountain with your left hand over your right shoulder you will return to Rome some day. If you throw 2 coins into the fountain you will get married soon. Three coins will lead to divorce. Needless to say, we didn't know which amount of coins meant which superstition, so we each threw a few coins, and didn't throw them in the right way.
We passed by the Colonna Traiana and Mercati Trainei on our way to the Foro di Cesare (Caesars Forum). Which is right next to the famous Roman Colosseum.
Similar to our luck in other places, the camera battery went dead just as we were arriving at the Colosseum. We decided to walk around a little and look at all the ruins and ancient roads before going back to the hostel for a nap and a nice battery charging.
That night, we returned to the Colosseum to see it lit up with lights. We walked around a bit more and saw a cool reenactment/play between the Forum of Caesar and the Forum of Augustus. We went back to the Colosseum the next morning and walked inside it, taking lots of pictures. They happened to have an exhibit of Eros (better known as Cupid) inside the Colosseum there at the time.
Lastly, in Rome, we went to the Roman Sephardic Jewish Synagogue, which housed a Jewish museum. The museum had lots of information about Roman Jews who were persecuted by several popes and then during WWII. We took part of a tour of the place, just to see the synagogue. It was like another world. The walls were all painted, as if it were a Roman cathedral, and the seats were like pews. If you didn't notice the menorahs in the room, you would have sworn it was just another cathedral.
The trip to the synagogue was kind of last minute, and we almost missed our train to Bari. Luckily, a very nice taxi driver, along with a hostel located very close to the train station helped our situation and we made it to the train, to Bari, and to the ferry.
We will talk more about the ferry and Greece when we get to Berlin.

Barcelona, Venice and Florence

So...it has been an exciting few days, including some really great times and some really horrible times. Some pictures can be found here. We will add more later.

Barcelona
The train we thought we had to get to Barcelona was not actually booked, and so we ended up leaving Pamplona for a 6-hour trip to Barcelona on a commuter train. It was great to see the country-side, but I think we could have done without all the stops. Because we did not leave at the scheduled time, we had to find a place to stay in Barcelona. We planned on leaving Pamplona at night and sleeping on the train, so we did not book a hostel. Barcelona is very very busy on Friday nights, so we had to book a room at the hotel in the train station, which really was very nice and reasonably priced relatively. Saturday, we headed out into the city. We saw the Picasso Museum, which is on this really tiny road in what seemed like an alley. We also went to Montjuic, which is the Hill of the Jews. There is a castle on the mountain that Franco had until 1960. The entire thing is built on top of a Jewish cemetary, thus the name. We had to ride a skylift to get to the top of the castle.

Venice
We took the 90-minute plane to Venice and took the wrong bus getting to Fusina, so instead of getting to the campsite at 11, we arrived after midnight.
The campsite was great though. There was a pizzeria and a nightclub, and we headed to the docks and saw an amazing fireworks show in Venice across the water. (Fusina is on the mainland, while Venice is an island about a mile away.) The celebration was in honor of the 500th anniversary of the end of the black plague.
The next day we went into Venice and saw the Gran Canal and the gondolas, although we did not ride on the gondolas because they were way too expensive, and we did not have time to find people to share a ride with. We went to San Marco, which is a plaza with a huge cathedral. But the cathedral was not the best part, the pigeons were. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of pigeons in the square, and vendors were selling bird food so that people could feed them. Our camera died about 5 minutes after we hit the square, so we got as many pictures in as we could, as fast as we could, which amounted to about 6.
We tried some venetian food. Jessica had Gnocchi di patate (potato dumplings in red sauce). Thank you Lisa for the suggestion, it was amazing. Dustin had Lasagne al forno (baked lasagna). The lasagna was good, but compared to the lasagna in Noblesville it was about the same. It was awesome, but that just says a lot for Noblesville :).

Florence
We took a train to Florence and arrived late Sunday night. Our hostel is in the middle of everything, within 5 minutes walk to any major tourist site. (We could see the Duomo from our window.)
The first thing we did Monday morning was walk the 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo. The view was amazing. We could see all the churches and castles in the entire city, all from the top. The inside of the dome was inspired by Dante's Inferno, and it depicted many levels of hell and paradise.
We did not know this, but most museums are closed on Mondays, so we spent most of the day checking out the palazzos and piazzas (squares and plazas with statues and famous sites in them). We saw Palazzo Vecchio, Piazza San Marco, Piazza della Republica, Piazza della Signorra and Piazza Santa Croce. Each had their own distinct marks. Dustin enjoyed Palazzo Vecchio the most because of its amazing statues and fountains.
We went to the Leonardo Da Vinci interactive museum, which is a small museum in the middle of a shopping area. They took many of Da Vincis drawings of fantastical machines and actually built them. Machines like the first ever humanoid Robot, a wooden Tank, a Machine gun, and multiple flying machines. It was a very cool museum.
We also went to the Serial Killer Museum Monday night, and that was just plain disturbing. The museum featured people such as Gilles de Rais, Elisabeth Bathory, Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Andrei Chikatilo, Albert Fish, Ed Gein and Charles Manson. It was just weird, that is all.
Tuesday, we thought we would head over to the Uffizi early. However, early for us was still later than for about 1000 people. We stood in line for about 3 hours to get into the museum. We were slightly disappointed because we did not have a lot of time to look through the entire thing. The Uffizi houses some artwork from some of the greats of history such as Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Rafael and many, many others.


We decided not to go to Pisa because of time and money, so we're taking the train from Florence to Rome in about an hour. We hope everyone is doing well in the USA, and we cannot wait to share more with you when we get back.

Our posts will be slightly more sporatic because Jessica's computer is broken and we cannot figure out why. However, we will do our best to keep you all up to date on our travels. Because of this we have to deal with internet shops and internet cafe's, which are a pain and do not work on the same time table as we do. This means that phone calls, if we found the time to make them, would either be very late at night (Indiana time), or very early in the morning. There isnt much chance of us hitting you guys at the "prime time".

-Jessica and Dustin

San Fermin`, Restrooms, and Sleep Deprivation

So I havent blogged much this trip, but i've been terribly sleep deprived recently. I guess in the last 72 hours i've slept about 6, non-continuous, hours. I slept well in Madrid the day before our san fermin (The Running of the Bulls). That day I got up pretty early to check out , we went exploring Madrid again. We went out , saw El Prado museum with art from Rembrandt , some other guys of note. We ate at a restaurant called VIPS, which was pretty good aside from the steak being cooked medium rare, (they never asked how i wanted it).

One thing I have been doing the whole trip is comparing restrooms to each other. I havent been keeping any record of exactly the ones i've used but i'll talk about the ones i remember at least.

My favorite restroom so far is a restroom i went to on the train from gatwick airport in london. It had really high-tech equipment and a cool setup that was a motion activated sink, soap dispenser, water faucet, and hand dryer all in the same little unit. Very cool stuff. The second one i liked was the restroom in the Madrid airport, where they had green glass everything.

San Fermin was really cool. The first night we got there we walked around looking for a place to put our bags and eventually came across this really old school that had been converted to a less than minimum security baggage hold. In any case, it worked fine, nothing was stolen as far as i know. ( well actually, Jessica reminds me that her imaginary monkey was stolen... who knew).

After we dropped off our bags we went straight to the huge makeshift market for the festival to buy white clothes and red scarves. (You wouldnt believe how many people were there that were wearing the same outfit, it was unreal). We then walked around the city taking in the excitement. We saw live concerts by some spanish people and some indians (yes, indians...?).

We were out pretty much all night that night and ended up getting to sleep on a grass patch outside the old school around 4 or 5 AM and got up around 7:00 AM for the Running of the Bulls. I had a soar throat so we got some hot chocolate and donuts. In spain the hot chocolate is very thick and is meant to be a dip for your donuts, or churros (churros and chocolate is like deep fried elephant ears dipped in thick hot chocolate).

We walked around town looking for the starting point for the running of the bulls after eating breakfast. Eventually we walked into this random area of town the had about 30 million people in a 40 ft radius. They were blocked in by large wooden fences. jessica and i followed some other people into the big crowd. A police officer came over and made jessica leave for some reason (im not entirely sure why). Since i was alone i started walking around, looking for people speaking english. I found some guys from Los Angeles and Washington DC that were talking about the process that goes on before the bulls start running.
Before the bulls run, thousands of guys pack into this short stretch of road leading to a bull fighting arena. The road was split into 3 courses and you had to be fast to make it to the arena. Most people started in the 2nd course and ran from the second all the way to the arena. They explained that before anyone runs, you will hear a loud bang that signifies "get ready", then another loud bang that signifies "RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!".

At first, a few guys started running as soon as they heard the second bang, but the group that i was with waited until the bulls were in sight. We couldnt see them directly at all, as there were way too many people crowded between us and the bulls so we asked people in balconies about the street to tell us when the bulls turn the corner. I was about 200 feet from the corner when they started yelling that the bulls were coming. So i started running as fast as i could, keeping up pretty well with the crowd. People kept looking back over their shoulder looking for the bulls. I looked back a few times then tripped and fell.

I was sure i'd be trampled by a few people and the bulls, but i got back up as fast as i could and luckily, as it turned out, the people behind me were jumping off to the side because a crazy huge bull (at least 6ft tall not including the 3 foot long horns) was pl0wing through people right behind me. As soon as i got back to my feet i looked to my side and this huge bull was right beside me, all he had to do was turn his head to look at me and i woulda been knocked to the wall.

Everyone there was pushing and running into each other. I saw one guy, right in the middle of the street trip and fall like i did, but he wasnt quite as lucky. As soon as he fell, 3 other guys behind him tripped over him running at full speed, they all slammed into each other and probably had a nasty run-in with a bull.
Altogether it was crazy fun, and i wouldnt hesitate about doing it again. It was a great experience.

Mad about Madrid!

Dustin and I are in our hostel in Madrid now. We arrived about an hour ago after a long night of traveling, and for Dustin, no sleep. (I tend to pass out whenever I'm sleep deprived...bobbing the head up and down, almost falling over because I've fallen asleep standing up...you know, the usual.)

I'm sure Dustin will not agree with me, but overall, I did not like Dublin. The evening I previously wrote about was nice, but the next day was worse than the beginning of the first day. We missed the bus to Boyne Valley and the only other one we could catch was a tour that would get back way too late for our schedule. So, we had breakfast and headed out to see Trinity College.



Trinity College is the oldest university in Ireland. Historical masterminds such as Jonathan Swift and George Berkeley. There are two identical buildings that sit across from each other in the main yard. One is the chapel and the other is the exam building. The chapel was one of the only chapels to have services that were for Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. The library was amusing as the books are arranged by size rather than topic or alphabet. The Book of Kells, one of the oldest copies of the Gospels, was in the library, and it is the main attraction to the campus for tourists. The old pages were adorned with beautiful, colorful drawings of people and parts of the stories written in the texts.

After Trinity College, we stepped back over to Temple Bar, where we saw some impressive live statues among thousands of people shopping in the area. One particularly talented statue was dressed as a wizard, and he would hardly blink his eyes, none-the-less move. There was one man dressed as Charlie Chaplin that just confused Dustin and me. He would sit in a chair with his costume and make-up on and just smoke the entire time. He doesn't act like a statue, and he doesn't act much like the character (aside from the smoking). He has a CD player of which he uses to play music from the era, but we didn't really understand the point of it all.

We left the Temple Bar to go to Dublin Castle, and we never made it there. The streets in Dublin are unmarked much of the time, and the maps we had were not complete, so we kept walking in circles trying to find this supposedly huge building. It started raining and it was windy, and it was just not a pleasant day to walk around; however, we were walking around...for three hours. It was so cold and rainy that we started aiming for the old buildings in hopes that there would be significance to it. We ended up at St. Patrick's Cathedral, luckily, and we toured through that while our clothes dried, slightly.



We got lost on our way back to the hostel after St. Patrick's Cathedral. We finally made it to the airport to find that our flight was delayed almost an hour. I was glad to leave Ireland when we did.

London
We made it to London around 10:30 and got to our hostel at midnight. We roomed with two Australians who were finishing their last three days in Europe. They were very good for giving advice and sharing some stories. While they were nice, the hostel was not, but luckily, we only stayed there one night.

We slept in Tuesday morning, and headed out to Stonehenge about 11 a.m. Stonehenge was amazing. I thought it was just a bunch of rocks before we went out there, but to see it and learn about it really opened my eyes to why this monument has been such a tourist attraction.

Most of the free audio tour talked about theories surrounding the monument...Was it a calendar? Was it a temple to a sun god? Were aliens involved?...However, the most interesting parts to me were the heal stone and the slaughter stone. The heal stone, or the Friar's Heal, is named from a fairy tale about the devil. The slaughter stone is named as such because it turns red when it rains. The guide said that all the rocks would do that if they were lying flat because of the type of stone it is. The grave mounds around it were also interesting, but we've seen those before in Indiana.

We hurried back from Stonehenge and went straight to Leicester (pronounced "Lester") Square to go see a show. We saw Avenue Q, which was absolutely amazing. Avenue Q is an adult comedy using puppets to act out a show about a recent college grad who has no clue what he's doing with his life (as explained in the song "What do you do with a B.A. in English?").
We had really good seats too because the theater had a deal for students where we get the best available for 20 pounds. We had 35-pound seats in the Royal Section. It was one the most wonderful experiences I've ever had.



After the show, we had dinner, went to the hostel to pick up our bags and walked around Victoria for a bit. By this time it was dark out, so we headed across the bridge by Embankment to see the skyline, which was spotted with different colors of light on several recognizable buildings. We also went by the London Eye, although it was closed, Big Ben, Parliament and other historical sites in that area. I think we'll try to take a tour when we go back to London on the 26th.

We didn't know the underground closed at midnight, so we had to walk about a mile to the closest train station to catch the train to Gatwick, and the stay in Gatwick was completely awful. They would not allow us to have a carry-on bag and a personal bag, so Dustin and I had to stuff all of our things (including my purse) into our bookbags, thus making mine too big for the little cage they measure bags in. So, I had to go check in my bookbag. When we came back, no one was checking bags for size, which upset me quite a bit. Also, we had no clue what gate we had to go to until about 10 minutes before boarding. The screen with the departures said "Please Wait" on it for our flight for more than four hours.

The plane ride was smooth, I think...I'm not quite sure because I passed out before the stewardesses started the safety instructions. But, Dustin couldn't sleep, which is why he's passed out in our room right now.

My camera battery is charging, so I'll add pictures to this later, but I thought I'd put in an entry to update you all about where we are and what we're up to.

Dublin, Day 1

So today we finally made it to Dublin. It only took a 3 Hour drive to Chicago, a 3 hour wait for the plane, a 6.5 hour flight, a 30 minute "overlay", and another 30 minute flight (overlay in quotes as we never actually got off the plane). So roughly it took a total of 13 and a half hours, which isn't all bad honestly. The flight wasn't too bad although i didn't get any sleep due to a inability to find a comfortable spot.

Once the flight arrived in Ireland we got to see some really cool sights. Ireland is basically all flatland until the mountains. Its cool to see the huge green quilt that is Ireland.




Ironically, even though i was very uncomfortable and anxious the thing i was most worried about was my mom making it home from the airport ok.

When we got here, we spent a little while in the airport, changing clothes and exchanging a little commerce and whatnot. The airport kind of sucked as it was really old and incapable of handling the amount of people that was moving through it.

We found our hostel pretty quick after the bus trip from the airport, which was kind of strange because it was a harry potter bus driving on the wrong side of the road. The hostel is very impressive, it exceeds any and all expectations i had about hostels. It's similar to a hotel, but you share a room with other people. The people we share a room with have been very respectful and go out of their way to stay quiet and not interrupt anyone. I still have not had any anxiety about having stuff stolen, including the pickpocket thing.

The city is pretty cool, its old and seems to have its own look and feel. Not like any other i've ever been to. Jessica will disagree with me, but one of the most exciting parts of the trip has been getting lost in the city, walking all over trying to gain our bearings. It gives a more intimate feel to the city. You cant get that by taking tours.



The night was similar to the day, we basically ran around and got lost in the city. We came across some very cool things completely by accident. One thing was the Porterhouse, a bar located in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. The porterhouse offered all kinds of beer, from all over the world. I'm not a big beer drinker, but I figured its possibly a once in a lifetime thing, so why not try new things. We tried some local beer and this weird fruity thing that was pretty good. We had "Fish n Chips", which was breaded Cod with French fries. They also had a live Irish band, which was amazing (most of the other bars had live music but unfortunately they were playing American music). All these things at the Porterhouse made it pretty much the funnest thing we did all night.

I'm looking forward to the next day, where we'll get to see the other side of Ireland, the rural communities that define the country.

Drinking in Dublin

We arrived in Dublin this morning. The flight was bumpy and uncomfortable, but we got here and that's all that matters.
Dublin airport has thousands, maybe millions, of people traveling through it daily. That is why I was very surprised when we got there to see an older building, where it was apparent no one had planned to have that many people go through it each day.
We went to our hostel, dropped off our stuff and went on our way to explore Dublin. I was not impressed at all with the city. We walked around quite a bit, and saw a lot of graffiti, run-down buildings and the smell of pee mixed with the trash odor in parts of the city.
We went to DVBLINIA, a viking museum here. The museum gave a brief historical background of Dublin, starting with the vikings, continuing through the Middle Ages. What I found most interesting was the history of Dublin and how the Vikings settled the area. Originally, the name of the area was Ath Cliath. There was a monastery named Duiblinn, meaning "black pool," in reference to a pool of water by Dublin Castle. The museum was interactive too, so we got to play with some of the props, such as the chain mail head armor.

We also saw The Spire, a huge pole in the middle O'Connell Street. It is the tallest structure in Dublin. It's basically a tall flagpole, but it was made to memorialize a statue that was blown up in 1966.
Overall, the morning and early afternoon was unimpressive. However, after a short nap, Dustin and I headed over to the Guinness Storehouse. The air smelled like sweet beer or marshmallows or steak, depending on who you asked.

We snuck into the museum and the gravity bar, and then we were kicked out of the gravity bar because we didn't have tickets (We arrived too late to buy tickets). But, I did manage to sneak a few pictures in before we were thrown out.

We walked to the Temple Bar after that, and we went to The Porterhouse Brewery for dinner. We had the best fish and chips ever, accompanied by some tasty Temple Brau (pronounced brew) and Fruli beers. There was an amazing music group playing at the restaurant too. The restaurant was the most enjoyable thing we did, in my opinion, so far. There is no way to really express how much fun and wonderful the atmosphere was at The Porterhouse Brewery.
In Temple Bar, we saw some great street acts such as the living statue dressed as a skeleton. He would jump on his box as people gave him euros, scaring the people who were watching him. There was also this great street band, who had the crowd basically blocking the street.

Overall, the evening made the trip to Dublin worth it.

Itinerary

July 7- Leave from Chicago at 6:45 p.m. (Aer Lingus- booked, both)
July 8- Arrive in Dublin at 9:15 a.m.

Dublin
July 8- Staying at Jacob's Inn
(one night reserved, Dustin)

Places we want to see:
Trinity College
St. Patrick's Cathedral
Guiness Factory
Old Jameson Distillery
Temple Bar
Pheonix Park
Kilmainham Gaol (updated on June 30)

Boyne Valley
Hill of Tara


July 9- Leave Dublin for London at 7:15 p.m.
Arrive in London at 10:35 p.m.
(Ryan Air- booked, Jessica)

London (updated on June 30)
July 9- staying at Astor Hyde Park hostel
(reserved, Dustin)

Places we want to see:
StoneHenge

Westminster Abbey
Buckingham Palace
-Big Ben
House of Parliament
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
London Eye
Dali Universe
Old Bailey
St. Paul's Cathedral

Take National Rail to Brighton

Brighton
beach
anything else

Take National Rail back
leaves at 3:55 a.m., 5:09 a.m.

July 11- Leave London for Madrid at 7:40 a.m.
Arrive in Madrid 11 a.m.
(EasyJet- booked, Jessica)

Madrid
July 11- Staying at Mad Hostel
(one night reserved, Dustin)

Places we want to see:
Museo Del Prado
Nacional centro de arte Reina Sofia
Museo Thyssen

July 12-
Take plane for Pamplona 9:00 p.m.
Arrive at 9:55 p.m.
(Iberia.com- booked, Dustin)

Pamplona
San Fermines Festival!!!!

(Night of July 13th After 12 AM)
July 14- train to Barcelona leaves at 12:57 a.m.
arrive at 9 a.m.
(buy at station)

Barcelona

Places we want to see:
Las Ramblas
La Boqueria for lunch
Museu de la Xocolata
Montjuic (Castell de Montjuic)
Museu Picasso

July 14- Flight from Barcelona to Venice 6:15 p.m.
arrive at 7:55 p.m.
(Clickair.com- booked, Dustin)


Venice
July 14- Staying at Camping Fusina
(Hostels.com- reserved, Dustin)

Places we want to see:
gondola ride on the Grand Canal
Collezione Peggy Guggenheim
Giardini Publici and Sant' Elena
Cappa Cafe
Campo del Ghetto Nuovo
beach

July 15- Take train to Florence (time TBD)

Florence
July 15 and 16- staying at David Inn
(2 nights reserved, Jessica)

Places we want to see:
Wine Bar
Duomo
Giotto's Tower
The Uffizi
Palazzo Vecchio
Bargello
Museo di storia della scienza
Accademia- Michelangelo's David
San Miniato Al Monte (to hear monks chanting, go at 5:40)
Piazzale Michelangelo

July 17- Take train to Pisa (1 every twenty minutes, takes 1.25 hours)

Pisa
Tower of Pisa

July 17- Take train to Rome (12 per day, 2.5 hours)

Rome
July 17 and 18- staying at Freedom Traveller
(2 nights- reserved, Jessica)

Places we want to see:
Colosseum
Roman Forum
The Pantheon
Piazza Navona
Jewish Ghetto
Fontana Di Trevi (Chiesa del Santa Vincenzo e Anastasio preserves the hearts of popes)
Appian Way (San Callisto)
Musei Capitolini

Vatican City
July 18- The Pope holds audience on Wednesdays
Piazza San Pietro (Peter's tomb)
Sistine Chapel
Museums

July 19- Take train to Bari
Leaves Rome at 1:38 p.m.
Arrives in Bari at 6:15 p.m.

July 19- Take Ferry from Bari to Greece (booked, Jessica)
Leave Bari at 8 p.m.
Arrive in Patras at 12:30 p.m. on July 20

July 20- Take train to Athens
leave at 1:55 p.m.
arrive 5:28 p.m.

Athens
July 20 - staying at Student and Travellers Inn
(reserved, Jessica)

Places we want to see:
Acropolis (panorama view)
-Parthenon
-Temple of Athena Nike
Agora
National Archaeological Museum
Museum of Islamic Art
National Gardens
Temple of Zeus

July 21- Take plane to Berlin
(Easyjet.com- booked, Jessica)
Leave at 9:30 p.m.
Arrive in Berlin at 11:25 p.m.


Berlin
July 21 - Staying at All In Hostel/Hotel
(reserved, Dustin)

****Try to buy tickets early AM to Amsterdam

Places we want to see:
Bebelplatz (panorama view)
The Reichstag
Neue Synagoge
Bahnhof Zoo (panorama view)
Checkpoint Charlie (panorama view)
East side gallery
DaimlerChrysler Building
AquaDom
KZ Sachsenhausen
-concentration camp, north of Berlin

July 22 - Buy bus tickets to Amsterdam
Take bus to Amsterdam on night of July 22

July 23
Amsterdam
July 23- staying at Hotel Annemarie
(reserved, Jessica)

Places we want to see:
Red Light District
Nieuwmarkt (panorama view)
Homomonument
Institute for War Documentation
Vondelpark
Central Canal Ring
Rembrandtplein
Heineken Experience
Cannabis College
Anne Frank Huis
Electric Ladyland
Van Gogh Museum
Torture Museum
Rijksmusuem (updated on June 30)

July 24- Train to Paris- Leaves at 6:56 p.m.
Arrives at 11:08 p.m.
(booked, Dustin)

July 24
Paris
July 24 and 25- staying at Budget Hotel Luna Park
(reserved, Jessica)

Places we want to see:
Eiffel Tower
Arc de Triomphe
The Louvre
Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris
Ste-Chapelle, Palais de Justice, and Conciergerie
Pantheon
Jardin des plantes
Place de la Bastille
The Catacombs
Cimitiere pere lachaise (graves of Delacroix, La Fontaine, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison)
Musee D'Orsay
Rodin Museum (updated on June 30)
Picasso Museum (updated on June 30)

Going to London- TBD

July 26
London
anything we didn't see before

July 26- Leave at 9:15 p.m.
Arrive in Dublin at 10:35 p.m.
(Ryanair, booked, Jessica)

Dublin
Staying at place- TBD

July 27- Leave Dublin at 1 p.m.

Google Map of Europe Trip

Interactive Google Map
This map shows all the places we plan to visit on our trip.

Click on any numbered marker for details.
Scroll the wheel on your mouse to zoom.

Check out the directions to get there :-)


View our Google Map Tour de Europa