After our 4:15 am goodbye to Britt :(, we went to the room for a couple hours, then got back up at 6:30 to get ready to head to Madrid! We were a little nervous about this bus ride, since the last one was so bad, but this one actually turned out to be really nice! We shook things up a bit and sat at the front of the bus with the girls that we've made friends with on the trip. I got my own seat bc Jac and Eeps are SO nice. I'm sure you will all see the lovely sleeping picture that Jackie took of me later. After a couple hours on the bus, we stopped in Zaragosa, a cute little town, for lunch. We kind of got pushed towards an outside restaraunt. It turned out to be okay. We paid our check, then ditched that crowd to get some gelatto!! What's new? After that, it was back on the bus. Surprisingly, we only had ONE pee pee stop the rest of the trip to Madrid! When we got here, we were pleasantly surprised to find a nice hotel smack dab in the center of the town. We checked into our room, then walked around the hotel area. We found some Paella to satisfy our new craving. Erin enjoyed hers, but my rice was a little undercooked and crispy. Oh well, I was fed. Being the party animals that we are, we headed upstairs to watch a tv show online, then go to bed early. 10 am the next day, and we were back on the bus for the sight seeing tour of Madrid! Our tour guide was a cute little lady who reminded me some of Sue Sue! We listened as she talked to us about things we were passing. We took a quick picture stop in Plaza del Espana, then headed to our tour of Palacio Real. This is an old Palace in Madrid where the royal family used to live. They havent lived there since the Spanish civil war in the 1930's. After the palace, we hopped back on the bus, FOR THE LAST TIME!!! They dropped us near the hotel, right across the street from Mickey D's.. so naturally, we had tat for lunch. Then, we voluntarily went to an art museum.. weird. We went to the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica, thanks to Catherine's recommendation. It was a really great piece of anti-war propaganda that Picasso did in 1937 to speak out against the civil war in Spain. So after this busy morning of sight-seeing, I'm sure you can guess what we did next.. SIESTA!! Obvi. After the snooze, we went out to explore a little more. We walked to an area a little ways away from the hotel called Plaza Mayor. This is a fun local place with shops all around. We found the Adidas store, Desigual (one of the main Spanish designers, so I had to get a dress and a shirt!), and some souvenir shops! Our tummys were talking to us after the intense shopping, so we stopped at a little cafe. It wasn't great, but Erin had a good tortilla con ensalada! Haagen Daas was right next door to this cafe, so dessert came next! Jackie ended up paying more for her waffle/ice cream sundae than she did for dinner! After all this walking and eating, we came back to the hotel, rejected the invitation for one euro beers with some of our friends, watched a little online tv, then went to sleep for the night!
This morning was when the homesickness really set in! We didnt have any scheduled activities with the group, so we slept in. When we woke up, we spent the morning packing, after a yum breakfast of DUUUUUUUNKIN' DONUTS! (that was for you, Kyle!)We somehow managed to fit all of our things into the suitcases, with little cruisin' and losin'! (that was for you, Dad!) Since we were already ready to get home after packing, Jackie and I decided to go wander around and kill time. Eeps decided to wake her parents up extremely early to skype! Jac and I ended up on a street called Grand Via, which is another one of the great shopping areas in Spain. We somehow end up in all these areas when I set the plans for the day.. whoopsies! We found a great little spot for lunch, Cafe VIPS, that served CHIPS AND QUESO!! Yuumm.. After lunch, we just walked around, and of course, found a great store called Springfield. We decided to keep the purchases minimal, each buying one dress only! After that, we were back to the hotel to sit and wait for the day to move faster. Tonight was fun! We got dressed up cute and went to the farewell dinner with the group to "shed a few laughs and a few tears" according to the tour program. The food was good! After the metro ride back to our hotel area, we hung out with a few of our tour besties. I am now sitting back in the room, waiting for my wild friends to come back from club Kapital! Whitney suggested it, so I posed for a pic, then headed upstairs to pack and take it easy. Jackie and Erin decided to check it out and see what all the fuss was about!
Can't tell yall how EXCITED we are to be back home tomorrow! Pray that we dont encounter any delays or problems! can't wait to show and tell everything!!!
We survived,
Kaci and mis amigas!!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Barcelona and a Bummer
After a way-too-long ride on a not-so-good bus, we made it to Provence, France, a place known for…wait for it….RATATOUILLE! We’re not sure if Provence is really famous for ratatouille, that’s just what we heard, and we all like the movie…so we just went with it. We made about 3 stops in some small towns with some sort of Roman ruins (note: almost every place we’ve been has some sort of Roman ruins, the Romans ruled most of Europe for Pete’s Sake, of course there’s gonna be ruins from them!!!), but we were pretty tired of seeing roman ruins at this point in the trip, especially when it turns an hour long bus ride into a 6 hour long bus ride! But, after some frustrating stops…we made it to Provence and our lovely BEST WESTERN HOTEL. We cannot even express the joy felt throughout our whole group when we realized that not only were we staying at a common American hotel chain, but that our hotel also has a pool! Since we’ve all had a couple too many French pastries and gelatos, we decided against going to the pool, but we were glad to have the option nonetheless! We ate at the hotel because apparently Provence is not a nice area of France…our tour leader told us to go into town with guys on our group and stay in at least groups of 4. (We were told the same thing when we went to Bryan middle schools like Jane Long for volleyball games so it brought back memories.) We had an “index finger meal” at the hotel. If you don’t know what an “index finger meal” is, let me explain. When you are in a foreign country, you cannot read most of the menu, your waiter doesn’t speak English, and you don’t want to completely butcher the language by trying to say what you want, you simply point with your index finger at the item you can recognize the most words in…and that’s what you’re having for dinner! Even though we only pointed at one item each, we got a salad, entrée, and dessert that we didn’t order, but had to pay for…perfect! After a comfy and relaxing night in our Best Western, we hit the road again, this time in route to ESPANA!!
For the trip to Barcelona, we had the same crappy bus (smelled like smoke, gum all over the place, little space, and a bus driver who never ceased to have a cigarette in his mouth) so that made the trip all the more pleasant…sarcasm. We only stopped once in a town to have lunch, a stop we could all be pleased about. Our hotel in Barcelona only had 3 person rooms, so again we had to pull a bed from another room into ours and squeeze like sardines. It’s a good thing we still love each other. We couldn’t complain too much about this hotel though because it had air conditioning…and air conditioning makes us happy people. The next day we set out on a sightseeing tour of the huge and beautiful city of Barcelona! We went on our crappy bus, but had a different driver so that made it a little better. Unfortunately, the bus ride, mixed with someone’s feet poking through the seats and making her queasy, was all a little too much activity for Kaci, so she decided to opt out of the rest of the sightseeing and took a taxi back to the hotel. The rest of us went through Parque Guell, which is an interestingly designed park that has amazing views of the city. There we saw the walkway that was used as the runway for one of the finals of America’s Next Top Model (for fans of the show, it was the final between Caridee and Melrose where they were in wedding dresses), so naturally, we all took turns strutting our stuff and posing for the cameras! If only Tyra or Miss J would have seen us...ha! After the park we saw Sagrada Familia, which was absolutely amazing! I can’t believe how intricate and massive it is! When the sightseeing tour was over, we decided to end the afternoon in traditional Spanish fashion…SIESTA time! A short four hour nap was all we needed to get up and get going for dinner time. We went out with a big group of people down to the harbor where all the really good food is supposed to be. It was indeed there. We had the BEST paella! We got a mixed meat and veggie paella and they were both incredible, we stuffed ourselves full, had some Sangria, and finished off our meal with free shots of “schnapps” (which our waiter said everyone does after meals)…whatever, they were free and they were good! After our dinner, which ended at 11:30 PM, we decided we needed to rest more, so we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next day, we got up and went souvenir shopping with some other girls in our group. After walking through a super sketchy ‘flea market’, which looked more like a junk sale, we headed back to Sagrada Familia in search of good soccer gear and souvenirs galore! Boy did we find it…found some great soccer shirts (at good prices thanks to Kaci’s bartering), tons of good souvenirs, and even a good smoothie place! By this time it’s early afternoon, it’s getting extremely hot (Spain’s temperatures have been in the 120’s!), and Brittney isn’t feeling too good. The four of us go back to the hotel room, where the “bummer” part of this title begins. After being in so much pain for so many days, Britt is tired and thinks something more is going on, other than kidney stones. So phone calls begin, our tour guide comes in to help with the situation, and after weighing the pros and cons, Britt decides to get a flight, and go home. Although we are all sad about her leaving, we know she’ll be more comfortable at home. We can’t imagine the pain she went through, but we tried to make it better for her! We’re proud of our little trooper; she made it to all the countries, and carried her kidney stone to 3 countries in Europe! We know Europe loved her and we loved getting to share this experience with her (the good experience, not the bad one…we wish she wouldn’t have had that)! We’re jealous that she’s back in the U.S., with air conditioning, plentiful amounts of free drinking water, ice, her own hair straightener (maybe the thing she’s most excited about), and in her own bed. We miss you already Britt!! You’ll be hearing from Kaci about the “Final 3’s” days in Madrid, our last city in Europe…stay tuned!
-Erin and the other 3 chicas (while only 3 chicas are present when writing this, the 4th is with us in spirit!)
For the trip to Barcelona, we had the same crappy bus (smelled like smoke, gum all over the place, little space, and a bus driver who never ceased to have a cigarette in his mouth) so that made the trip all the more pleasant…sarcasm. We only stopped once in a town to have lunch, a stop we could all be pleased about. Our hotel in Barcelona only had 3 person rooms, so again we had to pull a bed from another room into ours and squeeze like sardines. It’s a good thing we still love each other. We couldn’t complain too much about this hotel though because it had air conditioning…and air conditioning makes us happy people. The next day we set out on a sightseeing tour of the huge and beautiful city of Barcelona! We went on our crappy bus, but had a different driver so that made it a little better. Unfortunately, the bus ride, mixed with someone’s feet poking through the seats and making her queasy, was all a little too much activity for Kaci, so she decided to opt out of the rest of the sightseeing and took a taxi back to the hotel. The rest of us went through Parque Guell, which is an interestingly designed park that has amazing views of the city. There we saw the walkway that was used as the runway for one of the finals of America’s Next Top Model (for fans of the show, it was the final between Caridee and Melrose where they were in wedding dresses), so naturally, we all took turns strutting our stuff and posing for the cameras! If only Tyra or Miss J would have seen us...ha! After the park we saw Sagrada Familia, which was absolutely amazing! I can’t believe how intricate and massive it is! When the sightseeing tour was over, we decided to end the afternoon in traditional Spanish fashion…SIESTA time! A short four hour nap was all we needed to get up and get going for dinner time. We went out with a big group of people down to the harbor where all the really good food is supposed to be. It was indeed there. We had the BEST paella! We got a mixed meat and veggie paella and they were both incredible, we stuffed ourselves full, had some Sangria, and finished off our meal with free shots of “schnapps” (which our waiter said everyone does after meals)…whatever, they were free and they were good! After our dinner, which ended at 11:30 PM, we decided we needed to rest more, so we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The next day, we got up and went souvenir shopping with some other girls in our group. After walking through a super sketchy ‘flea market’, which looked more like a junk sale, we headed back to Sagrada Familia in search of good soccer gear and souvenirs galore! Boy did we find it…found some great soccer shirts (at good prices thanks to Kaci’s bartering), tons of good souvenirs, and even a good smoothie place! By this time it’s early afternoon, it’s getting extremely hot (Spain’s temperatures have been in the 120’s!), and Brittney isn’t feeling too good. The four of us go back to the hotel room, where the “bummer” part of this title begins. After being in so much pain for so many days, Britt is tired and thinks something more is going on, other than kidney stones. So phone calls begin, our tour guide comes in to help with the situation, and after weighing the pros and cons, Britt decides to get a flight, and go home. Although we are all sad about her leaving, we know she’ll be more comfortable at home. We can’t imagine the pain she went through, but we tried to make it better for her! We’re proud of our little trooper; she made it to all the countries, and carried her kidney stone to 3 countries in Europe! We know Europe loved her and we loved getting to share this experience with her (the good experience, not the bad one…we wish she wouldn’t have had that)! We’re jealous that she’s back in the U.S., with air conditioning, plentiful amounts of free drinking water, ice, her own hair straightener (maybe the thing she’s most excited about), and in her own bed. We miss you already Britt!! You’ll be hearing from Kaci about the “Final 3’s” days in Madrid, our last city in Europe…stay tuned!
-Erin and the other 3 chicas (while only 3 chicas are present when writing this, the 4th is with us in spirit!)
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Nice is Nice!
So after our escapades with kidney stones and cruise and loose panties, we jumped back in the bus to head to Nice (pronounced Nee-s) on the French Riviera! Our sight-seeing stop for this trip would be Pisa! We got a great photo shoot of us each holding up the famous leaning tower before we finally made it to the hotel. We relaxed a bit and finally decided to be social. Surprisingly, we have been keeping to ourselves and mainly hanging out with only each other, so the other people in our group were excited to finally get us to do something with them! We went to a Cuban restaurant with salsa dancing and it was nice to finally eat something other than pizza, pasta or sandwiches! Erin and I continued to be social for the rest of the night, while Kaci and Britt headed back to the hotel.
Sadly, after that, this will be a quite boring blog, because we used our Nice days to lounge in our air conditioned room (WHOOP!) Summary: We slept… only leaving our room for food! Explains why our parents will be rolling us to the cars when we get home!
Being the beach lover that I am, I did end up leaving for an hour with another girl from our group to lie at the beach for a little while. It was weird though…instead of having sand, this beach had stones! Not the kind of beach you go bare-foot to, but nonetheless, very beautiful! In the meantime Kaci blogged, while Erin and Britt continued to sleep.
Once I was back, Kaci went on a jog, Erin and I did a “hallway workout”, and Britt showered and primped! Next, time to leave again for food! The 3 sweaty ones, and the one pretty one headed out and again found something other than pizza, pasta or sandwiches… yay! What delicious French food did we find?! McDonalds!! To the rescue! We were craving a taste of home and it sure did hit the spot! While walking we also saw a double rainbow climbing over the beach (Chris L! - for the bachelorette fans!). Speaking of the bachelorette, that was next on our agenda: Climb back in our beds and watch the finale of the bachelorette online! We grabbed tissues in case Britt got emotional and finished the night singing “can you feel the love” from Lion King! Although it doesn’t make for the best blog, these couple of days were much needed and wonderful for us!
Soon we will be saying au revoir to France, and Hola to Espana!
Love,
Jackie & the 3 bums!
PS- make sure to check out the uploaded pics below!!!
ZEE END
Sadly, after that, this will be a quite boring blog, because we used our Nice days to lounge in our air conditioned room (WHOOP!) Summary: We slept… only leaving our room for food! Explains why our parents will be rolling us to the cars when we get home!
Being the beach lover that I am, I did end up leaving for an hour with another girl from our group to lie at the beach for a little while. It was weird though…instead of having sand, this beach had stones! Not the kind of beach you go bare-foot to, but nonetheless, very beautiful! In the meantime Kaci blogged, while Erin and Britt continued to sleep.
Once I was back, Kaci went on a jog, Erin and I did a “hallway workout”, and Britt showered and primped! Next, time to leave again for food! The 3 sweaty ones, and the one pretty one headed out and again found something other than pizza, pasta or sandwiches… yay! What delicious French food did we find?! McDonalds!! To the rescue! We were craving a taste of home and it sure did hit the spot! While walking we also saw a double rainbow climbing over the beach (Chris L! - for the bachelorette fans!). Speaking of the bachelorette, that was next on our agenda: Climb back in our beds and watch the finale of the bachelorette online! We grabbed tissues in case Britt got emotional and finished the night singing “can you feel the love” from Lion King! Although it doesn’t make for the best blog, these couple of days were much needed and wonderful for us!
Soon we will be saying au revoir to France, and Hola to Espana!
Love,
Jackie & the 3 bums!
PS- make sure to check out the uploaded pics below!!!
ZEE END
A few pics...
So I finally updated all one million of my pictures on Jacs computer, and here are a few! Hope you enjoy! Jackie should be blogging about Nice soon, and Erin is going to write about Barcelona soon after that! Love y'all and hope home is wonderful! God Bless!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Grey's Anatomy has got nothing on us!!
Soooo.. To say the least, Florence was definitely an interesting experience. While the city is famous for art, we saw very little. Upon getting off the bus after a day of traveling, we climbed the six flights of very steep stairs up to our hostile. Did I say hostile? I meant "hotel." This place was run by an Italian family. Our room consisted of four cement walls, four creeky beds, no air conditioning, and a shower that was hazardous to our health. Brittney quickly broke in the lovely blue bathroom with an upset stomach, and that's where the story begins...
Right when we walked into our new lovely room, Britt went immediately into the bathroom and was very sick. We weren't sure what was wrong, but it was not normal. Erin, Jac, and I went to a little restaraunt around the corner from the hotel and had some yummy Rissoto, Gnocchi, and Ravioli. When we brought the food back to Britt, she wouldn't eat any, that's when we new something was really wrong! The European Brittney enjoys pasta way too much to reject it! We decided to sleep it off and see what the city could offer us in the morning. When we woke up, Britt got ready in her usual cute outfit, and we all put on the Nike shorts and t-shirts. After Britt got cute, we figured everything was back to normal. We met with the group to start the walking tour. Our tour guide had a little bit too much to drink the night before, so we had to wake him up in order to get to the church to meet the man who would take us on our walking tour. We saw a church in the middle of the town, lots of interesting statues, a bridge, and some sort of river. I'm sure these things were all great and full of historical facts, but our guide was a tad long winded, so I lost interest and got distracted by all the pretty street art and the rumble of my tummy telling me it was time to eat. When we went into the leather factory, things started to make a turn for the worse. After the demonstration, Erin and I got hooked on the Italian version of Pandora bracelets, Amore&Beci. We decided to start our bracelets together there, and of course we bought something for Belle and Barb to add to their bracelets too :). While all of this was going on, Britt went to the bathroom, and Jackie found her crying and feeling awful. They took a taxi back to the hotel, and E and I decided to walk back. Back at the hotel, we decided it was time to do something for Britt. We talked to Vitor, our tour guide, to see where we should go to get medical attention. He casually explained where a "clinic" was down the street that had doctors and medicine, assuring us that anywhere we went, someone would speak english. We waited for two hours for this clinic to open. In the mean time, Jackie and I went down the street to do laundry and use the internet cafe. Our laundry took longer than expected, so Erin and Britt went ahead to the clinic at 4:00. After laundry and facebook, Jac and I headed back to the hotel to pack and rest. We figured it wouldnt be long until E and Britt got back, so we waited. When 5:00 rolled around, we got a little concerned, so we started putting on our shoes to walk to the clinic. As I was tying up the easy tones, I got a text from Erin that read: "We are at the hospital. The clinic does not exist." At that, Jackie and I jumped in a cab and got to the hospital. When we finally found our way around to the Emergency Room, we walked back through the hall ways to find Britt laying on a bed in the hall, connected to a creepy Italian man's bed. This was possibly the scariest place any of us have ever been. Before talking to Britt, Erin caught us up on the events that had gone on. After walking for about 30 minutes, they arrived at the hospital, where no one spoke much English. The doctor or nurse, then proceeded to take Brittney's blood. While Brittney was obviously freaking out, Erin was freaking out on the inside, but kept herself cool, calm, and collected. She got Britt through that experience. What a great future nurse! We all three stood with Britt for a few minutes, gave her the book she was reading, then got chewed out in Italian by some old nurse man, that apparently told us we werent allowed to be back there with her. I went to the hallway to call my dad to make sure these people were doing everything right, and Jackie stayed with Britt. She got kicked out of the hall pretty wuickly after that, so we were left to sit and wait, while Britt had to go through this alone. During her time in the ER, two Italian men talked about her and stared at her, an old lady was shocked and brought back to life in the same room as Brittney, and the nurse tried to tell Britt that she had to stay over night at the hospital. I will let her elaborate on these events later. Somewhere around 9:00, we finally saw our little trooper walk through the doors of the ER. She had prescriptions, x-rays, and unclear instructions on what to eat and drink. I am not lying when I tell you that we got out of that hospital as fast as our feet would carry us. We stopped by a pharmacy to get the medicine, got Britt some waffles on the street (she hadn't eaten anything in 24 hours), and headed back to the hotel. I don't know how, but we somehow survived the experience of the Italian hospital. We considered using our usual motto of "don't tell Glen," because we didn't want him to be too upset that we begged for Brittney to come on the trip, but we decided it might not be a good idea for him to be kept in the dark about this, so we made sure to call with any updates as they came! When we got home that night, Jackie and I went back to the internet cafe. Mid-session, I had to go to the bathroom very badly. I went into the less than average bathroom in the dark back corner of this cafe, and realized that there was no toilet paper. It was already to late, so I used my underwear, left them on the floor, because there was no trash can, and got out of that place before anyone realized what I had done. I think I gave the term "cruise and lose" a whole new meaning. When I got back to the hotel, that provided us with a little comic relief before we all fell asleep. I think it is safe to say that we discovered Florence in the way that the locals do. We were bored with all of the tourist non-sense, so we decided to make a new kidn of adventure. Thank youuu to Brittney's kidney stone! The next morning, it was time to travel to Nice, France. While we though our bus was going to be around the corner where it dropped us off, it turns out to be a good half a mile walk away that felt like three miles carrying all of our luggage. Our bus driver picked a place to park and refused to pull the bus closer to the hotel, even though the town was quiet, and there were plenty of avaliable streets for him to park on. Needless to say, his tip amount went wayyyy down when the envelope was passed around later that day! On the way to Nice, we stopped to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That was a fun little area, with a church and the tower. We took the typical tourist pictures, got back on the bus, and rode 4 more hours to Nice. Our hotel has AC, internet, and pretty comfortable beds! We are definitely pleased. More to come on the rest of our time here when Jackie decides to blog next.
Keep praying that the stone passes before Spain, so Britt can feel better and enjoy the last week of the trip! I know all of y'all can't wait to see our chubby cheeks back in the states soon!
Lots of love,
Kaci the other three
Right when we walked into our new lovely room, Britt went immediately into the bathroom and was very sick. We weren't sure what was wrong, but it was not normal. Erin, Jac, and I went to a little restaraunt around the corner from the hotel and had some yummy Rissoto, Gnocchi, and Ravioli. When we brought the food back to Britt, she wouldn't eat any, that's when we new something was really wrong! The European Brittney enjoys pasta way too much to reject it! We decided to sleep it off and see what the city could offer us in the morning. When we woke up, Britt got ready in her usual cute outfit, and we all put on the Nike shorts and t-shirts. After Britt got cute, we figured everything was back to normal. We met with the group to start the walking tour. Our tour guide had a little bit too much to drink the night before, so we had to wake him up in order to get to the church to meet the man who would take us on our walking tour. We saw a church in the middle of the town, lots of interesting statues, a bridge, and some sort of river. I'm sure these things were all great and full of historical facts, but our guide was a tad long winded, so I lost interest and got distracted by all the pretty street art and the rumble of my tummy telling me it was time to eat. When we went into the leather factory, things started to make a turn for the worse. After the demonstration, Erin and I got hooked on the Italian version of Pandora bracelets, Amore&Beci. We decided to start our bracelets together there, and of course we bought something for Belle and Barb to add to their bracelets too :). While all of this was going on, Britt went to the bathroom, and Jackie found her crying and feeling awful. They took a taxi back to the hotel, and E and I decided to walk back. Back at the hotel, we decided it was time to do something for Britt. We talked to Vitor, our tour guide, to see where we should go to get medical attention. He casually explained where a "clinic" was down the street that had doctors and medicine, assuring us that anywhere we went, someone would speak english. We waited for two hours for this clinic to open. In the mean time, Jackie and I went down the street to do laundry and use the internet cafe. Our laundry took longer than expected, so Erin and Britt went ahead to the clinic at 4:00. After laundry and facebook, Jac and I headed back to the hotel to pack and rest. We figured it wouldnt be long until E and Britt got back, so we waited. When 5:00 rolled around, we got a little concerned, so we started putting on our shoes to walk to the clinic. As I was tying up the easy tones, I got a text from Erin that read: "We are at the hospital. The clinic does not exist." At that, Jackie and I jumped in a cab and got to the hospital. When we finally found our way around to the Emergency Room, we walked back through the hall ways to find Britt laying on a bed in the hall, connected to a creepy Italian man's bed. This was possibly the scariest place any of us have ever been. Before talking to Britt, Erin caught us up on the events that had gone on. After walking for about 30 minutes, they arrived at the hospital, where no one spoke much English. The doctor or nurse, then proceeded to take Brittney's blood. While Brittney was obviously freaking out, Erin was freaking out on the inside, but kept herself cool, calm, and collected. She got Britt through that experience. What a great future nurse! We all three stood with Britt for a few minutes, gave her the book she was reading, then got chewed out in Italian by some old nurse man, that apparently told us we werent allowed to be back there with her. I went to the hallway to call my dad to make sure these people were doing everything right, and Jackie stayed with Britt. She got kicked out of the hall pretty wuickly after that, so we were left to sit and wait, while Britt had to go through this alone. During her time in the ER, two Italian men talked about her and stared at her, an old lady was shocked and brought back to life in the same room as Brittney, and the nurse tried to tell Britt that she had to stay over night at the hospital. I will let her elaborate on these events later. Somewhere around 9:00, we finally saw our little trooper walk through the doors of the ER. She had prescriptions, x-rays, and unclear instructions on what to eat and drink. I am not lying when I tell you that we got out of that hospital as fast as our feet would carry us. We stopped by a pharmacy to get the medicine, got Britt some waffles on the street (she hadn't eaten anything in 24 hours), and headed back to the hotel. I don't know how, but we somehow survived the experience of the Italian hospital. We considered using our usual motto of "don't tell Glen," because we didn't want him to be too upset that we begged for Brittney to come on the trip, but we decided it might not be a good idea for him to be kept in the dark about this, so we made sure to call with any updates as they came! When we got home that night, Jackie and I went back to the internet cafe. Mid-session, I had to go to the bathroom very badly. I went into the less than average bathroom in the dark back corner of this cafe, and realized that there was no toilet paper. It was already to late, so I used my underwear, left them on the floor, because there was no trash can, and got out of that place before anyone realized what I had done. I think I gave the term "cruise and lose" a whole new meaning. When I got back to the hotel, that provided us with a little comic relief before we all fell asleep. I think it is safe to say that we discovered Florence in the way that the locals do. We were bored with all of the tourist non-sense, so we decided to make a new kidn of adventure. Thank youuu to Brittney's kidney stone! The next morning, it was time to travel to Nice, France. While we though our bus was going to be around the corner where it dropped us off, it turns out to be a good half a mile walk away that felt like three miles carrying all of our luggage. Our bus driver picked a place to park and refused to pull the bus closer to the hotel, even though the town was quiet, and there were plenty of avaliable streets for him to park on. Needless to say, his tip amount went wayyyy down when the envelope was passed around later that day! On the way to Nice, we stopped to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. That was a fun little area, with a church and the tower. We took the typical tourist pictures, got back on the bus, and rode 4 more hours to Nice. Our hotel has AC, internet, and pretty comfortable beds! We are definitely pleased. More to come on the rest of our time here when Jackie decides to blog next.
Keep praying that the stone passes before Spain, so Britt can feel better and enjoy the last week of the trip! I know all of y'all can't wait to see our chubby cheeks back in the states soon!
Lots of love,
Kaci the other three
When in Rome..
Bonjourno from Rome! :) Today was my favorite day thus far! It was thirteen hour day, it was a long one, but definitely filled with spectacular sites! We started off the morning with a wonderful free breakfast downstairs in our hotel, which is not always a luxury of ours (it’s always free just not wonderful ;) We then hopped on our bus and headed to the Roman Colosseum, which is much cooler in person than it is in pictures! We got a really nice tour guide who told us all we ever needed to know about the Colosseum, which I LOVED because I’m a huge history nerd. We took lots of pictures and then headed to Foro Romano with the same sweet tour guide. The Foro Romano is basically the center of the old Roman Empire. There were so many facts and historical sites in that area. The one that stuck out most to me was that Julius Caesar was burned in the middle of the square and his son (actually his adopted nephew) built a temple over where his body was burned. We also saw two Arc de Triumphs which symbolized victories of the Emperor. Next, we were off to a quick lunch (at a train station, I might add—Kaci was super pumped about it ;) and then we headed to the Vatican City! Fun fact: The Vatican City is the smallest country in the world and only has 900 citizens! Even though I’m not Catholic, it was still REALLY cool to me. We went into the Vatican Museum and had to wait awhile for our tour guide. However, that was no problem for me because there was a shop upstairs that was calling my name. (shops always seem to have that effect on me) I was debating whether or not to get rosaries (souvenirs for people) then, or just wait—I just didn’t want them to run out. Erin thought this was SO funny and told me that the Vatican would not run out of rosaries. However, I didn’t want to chance it and got them anyways! :) Finally, our tour guide got there and we started our tour of the Vatican. We went through multiple courtyards and saw many famous paintings, statues, tapestries, and religious sites. After a mini lesson of the Sistine Chapel in one of the courtyards, which was actually really neat, we got to go in! It was all painted by Michael Angelo and was absolutely beautiful. It was really entertaining to see all his sarcastic, often looked over, details in the paintings. We were supposed to be quiet and not taking pictures but, everyone there was doing both so it wasn’t as tranquil as I thought it would be, but it was cool nonetheless. Next, we were off to St. Peter’s Basilica, which is the largest church in the world. It was BEAUTIFUL! We see a lot of churches here, but that one was one of my favorites. We saw a lot of art and statues in there, and Peter’s tomb. After the Basilica, we went outside and saw the chimney where the white or black smoke comes out when they elect the pope, we saw where the Pope comes out to bless people every Sunday and Wednesday, and we saw many Angels and Demon reference points :) (which Kace and Erin loved.) After that we stopped by a gift shop before leaving Vatican City. Oh baby, that gift shop was not good for me, or my budget :) But it had some really cool stuff in there and we all splurged a little, me more than others ;) Then we were off on the walking tour of a life time. On the walking the main things we saw were the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps, the Pantheon, and Piazza Navano, lots of shopping, gelato places-which we came back to, and multiple other fountains and statues. Then we went back to the hotel, exhausted. We literally were going from 7:30am to 8:30pm. We stopped by a pizza place right by our hotel for dinner and then headed up, showered and were out!
The next day, we literally roamed Rome. We went down to breakfast, a little later than usual. Over breakfast we caught up with some of our fellow travelers on their night. It included one of the girls breaking her shoe on a rude Italian waitress’ face, police, and supposedly quite a scene. I nearly choked on my croissant. They then asked us what we did last night. We had a whole on new realization of how lame we were and decided we needed to start making up epic stories such as theirs. After breakfast we were off. We went into tons of shops and markets, ate a delicious, authentic Italian lunch, and then did some more shops and markets. We were all pretty tired, so Kace and two of the girls we were with took a taxi back to the hotel, and Erin and Jackie and I decided to walk back-but got some yummy gelato on the way so that made it worth it. After that, we took a quick nap in the hotel, showered, and Jackie and I went out to dinner with a couple of girls in our group. (Kace and Erin were still pretty tired, so they hung out in the hotel and grabbed some dinner there.) We went to Piazza Navano square and ate outside, which is more common here, and watched the people playing music and painting in the square. It was a really cool atmosphere. After that we were on a mission to find this famous gelato place, San Crispino. We finally made it, and I got my second gelato, yes that’s embarrassing, of the day, and it was SO good :) (Gelato is the newest love of my life). We then just walked around, soaking our surroundings in and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and go to bed early the next morning was Florence! Hope all is well at home, love and miss you all!
Britt and the other three :)
The next day, we literally roamed Rome. We went down to breakfast, a little later than usual. Over breakfast we caught up with some of our fellow travelers on their night. It included one of the girls breaking her shoe on a rude Italian waitress’ face, police, and supposedly quite a scene. I nearly choked on my croissant. They then asked us what we did last night. We had a whole on new realization of how lame we were and decided we needed to start making up epic stories such as theirs. After breakfast we were off. We went into tons of shops and markets, ate a delicious, authentic Italian lunch, and then did some more shops and markets. We were all pretty tired, so Kace and two of the girls we were with took a taxi back to the hotel, and Erin and Jackie and I decided to walk back-but got some yummy gelato on the way so that made it worth it. After that, we took a quick nap in the hotel, showered, and Jackie and I went out to dinner with a couple of girls in our group. (Kace and Erin were still pretty tired, so they hung out in the hotel and grabbed some dinner there.) We went to Piazza Navano square and ate outside, which is more common here, and watched the people playing music and painting in the square. It was a really cool atmosphere. After that we were on a mission to find this famous gelato place, San Crispino. We finally made it, and I got my second gelato, yes that’s embarrassing, of the day, and it was SO good :) (Gelato is the newest love of my life). We then just walked around, soaking our surroundings in and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and go to bed early the next morning was Florence! Hope all is well at home, love and miss you all!
Britt and the other three :)
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Venice!
Our day in Venice started out peacefully…but it most definitely did not end that way! We got up, noticed that it was a little cloudy out, so we brought in our clothes that we were trying to dry and decided to close our windows, just in case. Boy, were we smart (although I’m sure y’all already knew that). After a pretty bad breakfast, we took a boat to the main island of Venice. The boat, which was called “Invidia” had a very handsome Italian crew member named Lorenzo, so that made the boat ride a little better! We met our local tour guide Marta on the island and she takes us around various “campos” which is what they call the islands (thankfully we didn’t have to walk around all 118 islands). She gave us a lot of information about life in Venice…basically how expensive it is, how hard it is to walk around the islands because of the cobblestone roads and bridges, how their buildings are set up, how their canal systems work, and how their water systems work. After our guided tour, we went to a glass factory to see how they blow glass and make real Venetian glass. I really enjoyed the glass demonstration; the “maestro” (what they call a glass blowing expert) worked extremely fast and even after just 5 minutes had created a beautiful vase. We also got a little background on Venetian glass, which was interesting. We learned that it’s almost indestructible if it has gold leaf on the outside of it, and how to tell if a product is real Venetian glass or not.
After the glass factory, we grabbed lunch, and then went to see Doges Palace. We waited in line for about 15 minutes, and then we realized that we could go straight into the palace since we already had tickets. It was ok, we enjoyed talking to people in line…made it worth the useless wait…not. We walked around Doges Palace for about an hour, we went down to the prison via the “bridge of sighs” (which is where condemned prisoners sighed as they looked at Venice for the last time), and then tried to find our way out…which was harder than we thought. After Doges Palace, we really wanted to find an internet café because we’re young and need our technology fix or we wilt away. By this time, it had started raining a bit. Now, Venice is a slippery city, all stone walkways, stairs, and bridges, and it’s hard to get around in normally, add rain…and we have a situation. So after asking about 3 people for directions to this internet café, we find it. Is it open? No, of course not. The little man who owns this place apparently takes lunch from 10:30-2:30, and we arrived promptly at 1:40 (in retrospect, we know why he can take that long for lunch…he over-charges BIG TIME). Now the dilemma…what do we do to pass the time. Oh I know: go back to that pastry store we saw a ways back and eat the most delectable thing you see! The pastries are sub-par…but the coffee is good, and it takes up about an hour since our waiter apparently didn’t know how to bring the check to our table. We head back to the internet café, pay 2,50 Euro for 30 minutes online, and go our merry way. I will say, the internet was fast and made us all happy again (maybe happiness is worth a couple of Euro). At this time it is about 3:15 and our boat back to the mainland doesn’t leave until 5:10. So we wander aimlessly around Europe for about an hour and a half, do some shopping, and then head back to the boat dock.
When we arrive at the boat dock, we spot some of our fellow group members who have been wandering Venice as well. We chit chat and then decide to go sit on the steps of a bridge by our dock while we wait for the lovely “Invidia” to arrive. As we’re sitting there, we hear thunder, possibly saw some lightning, and then we definitely observe a massive thundercloud of doom heading our way. It was seriously something out of a movie: we saw the cloud, saw the rain, saw the people scatter, and ran to shelter. Our “shelter” was the overhang of a hotel sign that went out about 3 feet. Three feet would typically be enough shelter space, except when you put 60 people in a small area, take into account the 40 mph winds whipping the rain into you, and all the food we’ve eaten has made us a little wider…the space is not sufficient! Luckily, many people had bought umbrellas throughout the day, so we made an “umbrella wall” to block some of the rain. (I rocked my poncho from Aggieland Outfitters all day since I didn’t bring my umbrella, so I stayed pretty dry! I got some comments on how funny I looked walking through Venice with a maroon poncho, but I got the last laugh. Thanks mom for buying me the poncho, it came in handy) The monsoon started around 4:40, so we have at least 30 minutes until we can get on our boat, and it’s cold. Venice was supposed to be about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and I’d say it’s about 70 degrees. Five ten rolls around, no boat, no tour director…five fifteen comes, no boat, no tour director. One of the girls in our group, whose name is Rachel, decides to run out into the torrential downpour without an umbrella and without shoes I think to scream at the top of her lungs for our tour director Vitor. It was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, here’s this soaking wet girl in a dress with no shoes, running out in the middle of a thunderstorm screaming “Vitor” over and over again. Around 5:20, a beacon of hope comes pulling into the dock…our lovely boat! It pulls into the dock and all of us run out to greet it! Well, I guess it had pulled into the wrong dock because then the boat pulls in and out of multiple docks, just toying with our emotions. So here we are, a group of about 50, in the POURING RAIN, running from dock to dock to try to get onto our boat so we can finally be safe from water! (Yes, we notice the irony in getting on a boat to get away from water.) Finally, “Invidia” picks a spot and lets us onboard. We get back to the hotel, have some dinner, and then decide that we’d had a hard day, so we go out to the beach and onto the pier with some other people in our group to hang out and watch the lightning storms going on out in the ocean (far away from us of course, I wouldn’t be caught anywhere near lightning). So that was our eventful day in Venice! Stay tuned for ROMA!!
-Erin and the other three ducks!
After the glass factory, we grabbed lunch, and then went to see Doges Palace. We waited in line for about 15 minutes, and then we realized that we could go straight into the palace since we already had tickets. It was ok, we enjoyed talking to people in line…made it worth the useless wait…not. We walked around Doges Palace for about an hour, we went down to the prison via the “bridge of sighs” (which is where condemned prisoners sighed as they looked at Venice for the last time), and then tried to find our way out…which was harder than we thought. After Doges Palace, we really wanted to find an internet café because we’re young and need our technology fix or we wilt away. By this time, it had started raining a bit. Now, Venice is a slippery city, all stone walkways, stairs, and bridges, and it’s hard to get around in normally, add rain…and we have a situation. So after asking about 3 people for directions to this internet café, we find it. Is it open? No, of course not. The little man who owns this place apparently takes lunch from 10:30-2:30, and we arrived promptly at 1:40 (in retrospect, we know why he can take that long for lunch…he over-charges BIG TIME). Now the dilemma…what do we do to pass the time. Oh I know: go back to that pastry store we saw a ways back and eat the most delectable thing you see! The pastries are sub-par…but the coffee is good, and it takes up about an hour since our waiter apparently didn’t know how to bring the check to our table. We head back to the internet café, pay 2,50 Euro for 30 minutes online, and go our merry way. I will say, the internet was fast and made us all happy again (maybe happiness is worth a couple of Euro). At this time it is about 3:15 and our boat back to the mainland doesn’t leave until 5:10. So we wander aimlessly around Europe for about an hour and a half, do some shopping, and then head back to the boat dock.
When we arrive at the boat dock, we spot some of our fellow group members who have been wandering Venice as well. We chit chat and then decide to go sit on the steps of a bridge by our dock while we wait for the lovely “Invidia” to arrive. As we’re sitting there, we hear thunder, possibly saw some lightning, and then we definitely observe a massive thundercloud of doom heading our way. It was seriously something out of a movie: we saw the cloud, saw the rain, saw the people scatter, and ran to shelter. Our “shelter” was the overhang of a hotel sign that went out about 3 feet. Three feet would typically be enough shelter space, except when you put 60 people in a small area, take into account the 40 mph winds whipping the rain into you, and all the food we’ve eaten has made us a little wider…the space is not sufficient! Luckily, many people had bought umbrellas throughout the day, so we made an “umbrella wall” to block some of the rain. (I rocked my poncho from Aggieland Outfitters all day since I didn’t bring my umbrella, so I stayed pretty dry! I got some comments on how funny I looked walking through Venice with a maroon poncho, but I got the last laugh. Thanks mom for buying me the poncho, it came in handy) The monsoon started around 4:40, so we have at least 30 minutes until we can get on our boat, and it’s cold. Venice was supposed to be about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and I’d say it’s about 70 degrees. Five ten rolls around, no boat, no tour director…five fifteen comes, no boat, no tour director. One of the girls in our group, whose name is Rachel, decides to run out into the torrential downpour without an umbrella and without shoes I think to scream at the top of her lungs for our tour director Vitor. It was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, here’s this soaking wet girl in a dress with no shoes, running out in the middle of a thunderstorm screaming “Vitor” over and over again. Around 5:20, a beacon of hope comes pulling into the dock…our lovely boat! It pulls into the dock and all of us run out to greet it! Well, I guess it had pulled into the wrong dock because then the boat pulls in and out of multiple docks, just toying with our emotions. So here we are, a group of about 50, in the POURING RAIN, running from dock to dock to try to get onto our boat so we can finally be safe from water! (Yes, we notice the irony in getting on a boat to get away from water.) Finally, “Invidia” picks a spot and lets us onboard. We get back to the hotel, have some dinner, and then decide that we’d had a hard day, so we go out to the beach and onto the pier with some other people in our group to hang out and watch the lightning storms going on out in the ocean (far away from us of course, I wouldn’t be caught anywhere near lightning). So that was our eventful day in Venice! Stay tuned for ROMA!!
-Erin and the other three ducks!
Wow! its been forever since we've been able to have a blog post! There has hardly been any internet where we've been, but this cafe let me bring in my computer so we could put up the blogs we had on it!
Right now all we have is Switzerland and Venice. Brit was working on Rome, but she got sick today (but doing better), so we will have that to yall soon as well.
Switzerland: So after a charming but short time in Germany we started off early for Switzerland. We had a few “pee pee stops” as Vitor (our tour director) calls them and then finally stopped for lunch at a cuckoo clock shop in the Black Forest. We walk into this cute store and see hundreds of cuckoo clocks lining the walls. One of the guys there even gave us the inside scoops on the clocks and showed us how they worked. A few of us got some souvenirs and we all had lunch before we headed off towards Switzerland again. Several hours later we took another pit stop at the beautiful Rhine Falls. There was the huge falls that fell off into a lake surrounded by mountains and trees everywhere. It was definitely a marvelous sight to see. While there, we continued to eat and eat… we can’t seem to stop! I got a delicious donut filled with vanilla pudding…the best donut I’ve ever eaten! Kaci and Erin got chips and Brit got some kind of coffee, some Swiss chocolate and was still eyeing the ice cream, but stopped short when we were giving her a hard time! Back on the bus we tunneled under many mountains and curved left and right until we could finally see our hotel way on top of the mountain. The bus driver had a pretty hard time navigating around the mountains since the turns were so sharp, but we made it! The view is amazing up here! It is so peaceful and you can see everything! We picnicked on our balcony enjoying the breathtaking mountains, lakes and town below us and are excited for the day ahead of us up to Mount Pilatus!
Day 2 in Switzerland was an early start as we wound down the mountain from our hotel into the city. Vitor announced that he had some vouchers for free presents for us. I was real excited…I love free! As we anxiously waited for our free gifts we shopped around a Swiss souvenir shop buying things for our loved ones. Soon Vitor arrived with our vouchers and we got tiny silver spoons, one from Rolex and the other from the Swiss souvenir shop. When we were done at these places we wandered around the town Lucerne looking in boutiques and trying to find a place to eat. We found a sandwich place that looked good so we tried to get some stuff from there. Our little stop turned into a small fiasco….The thing is people in Europe are real weird about where you eat your food. If you want your food in a “to-go” bag, then you better take your food to go, OR ELSE! Well we had kind of figured out their stinginess by now so we all ordered sandwiches to eat at the place, but Kaci and Brit wanted to order salads in addition to their meals, which were only provided in “to-go” containers. First, this was a huge problem, because the lady would not give Brittney a salad because had ordered a “eat-in” meal. Somehow Kaci was able to get a salad, but then they gave Kaci, Erin and I our sandwiches in a “to-go” bag (which we did not order). We decided not to complain about it and just eat at a little table outside. We had not so much as two bites of our food when a waitress hostilely approached us demanding that we leave the premises because we had “to-go” bags. It was a weird, weird ordeal, so we went 10 feet across the street to a bench and ate our meals there and grumbled about the poor customer service that we have received more than once during our stay in Europe! Sure makes us appreciate American service!
But back to mountains... The scenery, like I have mentioned before is just incredible: rolling hills, tall mountains, and green, green, green everywhere you look! We rode a steep tram up to the top of the mountain – the sign said that this tram was the steepest in the world! And I don’t doubt that! The whole group hung out on top for a few hours. It was great to just take in the mountain air and ponder how awesome our God is! It’s hard to miss his beauty when you are in such an amazing place as this!
On our way down, the four of us rode a cable car and got some good conversation in during the 30 minute ride. It was starting to get late so when the whole group returned, we got some food at the grocery store and returned to our hotel for another relaxed dinner, before calling it a night and turning in early! Italia awaits us, and we want to be fresh!
-Jackie and those other ones!
Right now all we have is Switzerland and Venice. Brit was working on Rome, but she got sick today (but doing better), so we will have that to yall soon as well.
Switzerland: So after a charming but short time in Germany we started off early for Switzerland. We had a few “pee pee stops” as Vitor (our tour director) calls them and then finally stopped for lunch at a cuckoo clock shop in the Black Forest. We walk into this cute store and see hundreds of cuckoo clocks lining the walls. One of the guys there even gave us the inside scoops on the clocks and showed us how they worked. A few of us got some souvenirs and we all had lunch before we headed off towards Switzerland again. Several hours later we took another pit stop at the beautiful Rhine Falls. There was the huge falls that fell off into a lake surrounded by mountains and trees everywhere. It was definitely a marvelous sight to see. While there, we continued to eat and eat… we can’t seem to stop! I got a delicious donut filled with vanilla pudding…the best donut I’ve ever eaten! Kaci and Erin got chips and Brit got some kind of coffee, some Swiss chocolate and was still eyeing the ice cream, but stopped short when we were giving her a hard time! Back on the bus we tunneled under many mountains and curved left and right until we could finally see our hotel way on top of the mountain. The bus driver had a pretty hard time navigating around the mountains since the turns were so sharp, but we made it! The view is amazing up here! It is so peaceful and you can see everything! We picnicked on our balcony enjoying the breathtaking mountains, lakes and town below us and are excited for the day ahead of us up to Mount Pilatus!
Day 2 in Switzerland was an early start as we wound down the mountain from our hotel into the city. Vitor announced that he had some vouchers for free presents for us. I was real excited…I love free! As we anxiously waited for our free gifts we shopped around a Swiss souvenir shop buying things for our loved ones. Soon Vitor arrived with our vouchers and we got tiny silver spoons, one from Rolex and the other from the Swiss souvenir shop. When we were done at these places we wandered around the town Lucerne looking in boutiques and trying to find a place to eat. We found a sandwich place that looked good so we tried to get some stuff from there. Our little stop turned into a small fiasco….The thing is people in Europe are real weird about where you eat your food. If you want your food in a “to-go” bag, then you better take your food to go, OR ELSE! Well we had kind of figured out their stinginess by now so we all ordered sandwiches to eat at the place, but Kaci and Brit wanted to order salads in addition to their meals, which were only provided in “to-go” containers. First, this was a huge problem, because the lady would not give Brittney a salad because had ordered a “eat-in” meal. Somehow Kaci was able to get a salad, but then they gave Kaci, Erin and I our sandwiches in a “to-go” bag (which we did not order). We decided not to complain about it and just eat at a little table outside. We had not so much as two bites of our food when a waitress hostilely approached us demanding that we leave the premises because we had “to-go” bags. It was a weird, weird ordeal, so we went 10 feet across the street to a bench and ate our meals there and grumbled about the poor customer service that we have received more than once during our stay in Europe! Sure makes us appreciate American service!
But back to mountains... The scenery, like I have mentioned before is just incredible: rolling hills, tall mountains, and green, green, green everywhere you look! We rode a steep tram up to the top of the mountain – the sign said that this tram was the steepest in the world! And I don’t doubt that! The whole group hung out on top for a few hours. It was great to just take in the mountain air and ponder how awesome our God is! It’s hard to miss his beauty when you are in such an amazing place as this!
On our way down, the four of us rode a cable car and got some good conversation in during the 30 minute ride. It was starting to get late so when the whole group returned, we got some food at the grocery store and returned to our hotel for another relaxed dinner, before calling it a night and turning in early! Italia awaits us, and we want to be fresh!
-Jackie and those other ones!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Our faces are getting fatter..
Hello from Germany! Wanted to catch up with y'all about the past couple of days. Yesterday was. our last day in Amsterdam. We took an excursion to the Hollan countryside. We started the day at a "Cheese and Clogs" place, where we learned all about Dutch cheese and the art of making wooden shoes. After we got to taste the cheese, wine, and dutch cookies, we shopped in the gift shop. Got some fun souvenirs, then headed to a little town on the water. It was so refreshing walking through the little streets with the sailboats on the other side of us! Of course, the food was amazing! Jackie and I ate some fried seafood, then we all stopped for dutch pancakes, which are tiny little pancakes with powdered sugar. YUM!! Erin couldn't sway from belgian waffles, so she got 2. :) When we got back to the city, we did some souvenir shopping. We all got Birkenstock shoes, thanks to Crissa's recommendation. We were in need of something light and fresh for dinner, so we stopped by the super market on the way home and got turkey sandwhiches along with fruits and veggies. All together, we spent about 12 euro, which is typically the price of one meal here! Today, we rode on the bus all day to Heidelburg, Germany. Most of the bus ride was spent sleeping, but I'm sure there was great scenery outside! When we got to Heidelburg, we had a couple hours to get settled in the hotel. Since I waited downstairs like a great friend to get the internet code, I got stuck with the horrible cot in the middle of the room that feels like I am sleeping on a bag of bones. What a great friend, I am :). I will get the best bed in Switzerland, so I'm happy! Tonight, we went into the town of Heidelberg. The big castle that is famous here was closed, so we just looked at it from the bottom of the hill, walked across a cool bridge, then found food! We ate at a place called Beir Brezel. The food was great!! I had sausage and saur kraut, and the other girls also had some yummy food! After that we walked around for a while, sat in a pub, then found a taxi to take us home. First of all, this taxi was a Mercedes. Second, the ear-pierced cab driver cranked the rock music up really loud, then was whipping around the curves of the road at very unsafe speeds. We some how made it back to the hotel safely. We are now crawling in our tiny beds and resting up for yet another 6+ hour bus ride to Switzerland! We will update from there ASAP! Hope all is well back in the states.
Still alive,
Kaci and the other three
Still alive,
Kaci and the other three
Friday, July 23, 2010
A is for Amsterdam
No worries, we all made it to Amsterdam in one piece! Our last night in Paris was an interesting experience, but it’s too long of a story to write so you’ll have to ask us in person to get all the details! We started it off by following our temporary tour guide Crissa to her favorite restaurant, which was kind of a long bus ride away. We were all so excited to finally get to this restaurant we’d heard such good things about (and we were all starving!), but when we arrived, we found out from a sign on the door that the place was closed until August. So here we were, five girls who don’t speak any French in a very artsy, non-touristy part of Paris. Since we were too hungry to take the Metro back to town, we decided to eat at the first café we set our eyes on. It ended up being extremely delicious, and thankfully one of the workers spoke a little bit of English so we were able to order. After our super satisfying dinner, we got back on the Metro so we could go to the Eiffel Tower and stay to see it sparkle blue at 1:00 AM. We were really looking forward to a quiet night, just the four of us (Crissa had to leave early since she had to work the next morning, but we wish she could have stayed!), but the night did not turn out as planned. To sum it up, it involved the Eiffel Tower, wine (not too much actually), a rap battle, running down streets, and trying to find our way to our hotel via taxi very late at night! Like I said, we all were fine and made it to Amsterdam, so parents: DO NOT WORRY.
Our trip to Amsterdam started bright and early yesterday morning with a 3 ½ hour bus ride to Brussels, Belgium. We made a quick stop in Brussels so we could all taste the local cuisine and see some of the city. Of course, we headed straight for the waffle stands! We were honestly the first people from our group in line, that’s how excited we were about those waffles. I got a waffle with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce; it was the best I’ve ever had. Dad: I hope you can re-create this delicacy the next time you cook breakfast! I think the group agreed that Belgium has the best waffles we’ve ever tasted! Kaci and Jackie were the only ones who were brave enough to eat mussels; Kaci liked them, Jackie didn’t. After we got our taste of Belgium, it was back on the bus for another 3 ½ hours. We were all jealous of Kaci’s ability to sleep so well…Jackie, Brittney and I did not sleep very well at all on that bus.
Our first night in Amsterdam we decided to be party poopers and skipped out on the “pub crawl” most of our tour group was participating in. Instead, we watched the Bachelorette episode we had missed and went to bed! This morning we went to see Anne Frank’s house. It was really sad to see the place she hid and hear her story; we can’t even imagine what she and her family had to go through, but after seeing the house, I think we all got a little bit better understanding of the whole ordeal. After the Anne Frank house we went to the Heineken beer factory. We got a 4-D experience where they “brew you” (basically take you through all the processes of brewing beer in a room that shakes and throws water on you), and then went on to make our own personalized beer bottles! We met some people from Dallas, Israel, and Spain on the tour so it was a fun experience! I’m really sorry if this is a choppy, hard to read blog entry. I’m really tired—not so shocking since we’re always tired--and was kind of distracted while writing this and I’m too lazy to proof-read (by the way, Brittney didn’t proof-read her blog entry where she said we were going to Morocco…we’re not going to Morocco, we’re going to Monaco). Anyways, we’re looking forward to going to the Holland country-side tomorrow and seeing the sights away from the city. Hope you’re enjoying our blog! We’ll keep ya posted!
-Erin and the rest.
Our trip to Amsterdam started bright and early yesterday morning with a 3 ½ hour bus ride to Brussels, Belgium. We made a quick stop in Brussels so we could all taste the local cuisine and see some of the city. Of course, we headed straight for the waffle stands! We were honestly the first people from our group in line, that’s how excited we were about those waffles. I got a waffle with strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce; it was the best I’ve ever had. Dad: I hope you can re-create this delicacy the next time you cook breakfast! I think the group agreed that Belgium has the best waffles we’ve ever tasted! Kaci and Jackie were the only ones who were brave enough to eat mussels; Kaci liked them, Jackie didn’t. After we got our taste of Belgium, it was back on the bus for another 3 ½ hours. We were all jealous of Kaci’s ability to sleep so well…Jackie, Brittney and I did not sleep very well at all on that bus.
Our first night in Amsterdam we decided to be party poopers and skipped out on the “pub crawl” most of our tour group was participating in. Instead, we watched the Bachelorette episode we had missed and went to bed! This morning we went to see Anne Frank’s house. It was really sad to see the place she hid and hear her story; we can’t even imagine what she and her family had to go through, but after seeing the house, I think we all got a little bit better understanding of the whole ordeal. After the Anne Frank house we went to the Heineken beer factory. We got a 4-D experience where they “brew you” (basically take you through all the processes of brewing beer in a room that shakes and throws water on you), and then went on to make our own personalized beer bottles! We met some people from Dallas, Israel, and Spain on the tour so it was a fun experience! I’m really sorry if this is a choppy, hard to read blog entry. I’m really tired—not so shocking since we’re always tired--and was kind of distracted while writing this and I’m too lazy to proof-read (by the way, Brittney didn’t proof-read her blog entry where she said we were going to Morocco…we’re not going to Morocco, we’re going to Monaco). Anyways, we’re looking forward to going to the Holland country-side tomorrow and seeing the sights away from the city. Hope you’re enjoying our blog! We’ll keep ya posted!
-Erin and the rest.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Bonjour from Paris!
Sooo, Jackie and I are currently sitting on the bed eating flan. This is the life. :) I was gointg to do a little update on Erin and I's excursion to the Palace of Versailles. An excursion is an understatement bc we had to get on three subways, two trains, and had a long walk to the palace, but when we saw it, it was TOTALLY worth it!! It was huuuggee and the gates were beautiful and gold. They looked like what I imagine the gates of heaven look like! We took lots of pictures (haven't quite figured out how to update pics yet..we'll work on that). I didn't think it could get much prettier inside than it was outside, but when we got in, I realized that I was definately wrong! The inside was BEAUTIFUL!! Erin and I were in complete awe. It was all marble, there were statues, painitings, chandeliers, gold, etc. everywhere. I kept saying, "Erin, I can't believe people actually lived here" over and over! We saw numerous famous paintings, and King Louis VI and Marie Antoinette's bedrooms, but the best room was the Hall of Mirrors. There were countless chandeliers, mirrors, and statues in this forever long hall way. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. After that, Erin and I went outside to the Gardens of Versailles. Once again, I was speechless. Everthing was beautiful and green, all of the flowers were blooming and colorful, there was a lake that went out for miles, those grass/bush maze things, and statues everywhere. (and that was just one little part of it, these gardens went on for acres and acres). Erin and I had so much fun! We frolicked in the gardens for about an hour and half; walking through the mazes, looking at statues, flowers, the ponds, and taking silly pictures! After awhile we headed back up to meet our group and catch the train to head back to our hotel. When we got home we met up we Jac and Kace, got some tortellini and gelato and then called it a night. We were pretty tired so we went to bed early, but we still can not stop talking about how amazing Versailles was!
This morning we all got up rested and ready to go! We headed to the Louvre, a really famous art museum. There, we saw tons of famous paintings, sculptures, etc. including the MONA LISA! I would like to note that I navigated us through the Louvre to my girl Mona (the only thing I've been able to navigate us to the whole trip) so that was definately a high point for me! After that, we went to Notre Dame and toured the church! It was GORGEOUS! After that, Kace went back and took a nap and Erin, Jac, and I walked around Paris for a bit and did a little shopping in Galleria Lafayette. We then caught the subway back and grabbed some fruit from the little market by our hotel. We're now all about to get ready and head to meet Crissa for dinner and sitting under the Eiffel Tower! In the morning, we're headed to Amsterdam, which is supposed to be an all day treck, but we're stopping in Brussels, Belgium for some waffles, which we're all really excited about! Hope all is well! God Bless!!
Britt and the other three <3
This morning we all got up rested and ready to go! We headed to the Louvre, a really famous art museum. There, we saw tons of famous paintings, sculptures, etc. including the MONA LISA! I would like to note that I navigated us through the Louvre to my girl Mona (the only thing I've been able to navigate us to the whole trip) so that was definately a high point for me! After that, we went to Notre Dame and toured the church! It was GORGEOUS! After that, Kace went back and took a nap and Erin, Jac, and I walked around Paris for a bit and did a little shopping in Galleria Lafayette. We then caught the subway back and grabbed some fruit from the little market by our hotel. We're now all about to get ready and head to meet Crissa for dinner and sitting under the Eiffel Tower! In the morning, we're headed to Amsterdam, which is supposed to be an all day treck, but we're stopping in Brussels, Belgium for some waffles, which we're all really excited about! Hope all is well! God Bless!!
Britt and the other three <3
Catching up!
Sorry we are a little behind on posting, we've been so busy, we figured y'all could wait :). Yesterday (July 20), we all split up. Britt and Erin went to the Palace of Versailles. They will update on that later. I was in a bad mood and in serious need of some Kaci time, so I went shopping at H&M and Galleria LaFayette, which is the big department store here. It was fun and a little scary to be on the underground subway and in a busy part of Paris by myself. After spending a little too much money, I came back to the hotel to get Jackie. We had a great afternoon exploring the area of Paris that we are staying in. We started the day eating at a little sidewalk cafe. We had a rude awakening when the waitress wouldnt let us share a pizza, so we had to order another dish and split both. The pizza was AMAZING! The eggplant, mozzarella, and tomato sauce appetizer was also yummy too! We got some weird looks while we shared the food. Guess that isn't a common thing to do over here? After we ate, we explored most of the streets around the area. We found some really cute shops. I, of course, bought some more fun things, and Jackie just looked around. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for some fresh fruit from a street market, and got gelatto! Britt and Erin got back around 6, so we went to yet another sidewalk cafe, and they had some great tortellini. Jackie and I just ate the bread. The other two were pretty tired from their busy tourist day, so they called it a day pretty early, but Jac and I ran into Emily and Dani (some of our friends from the tour group), and we all went up to the mountain that is a market and the area that the artsy people of Paris sell their things. I had a chocolate and banana crepe for dinner there! On the way down the hill, we made a little detour to see Moulin Rouge. We had no idea that the entire street would be line with prostitution and shops that we would never go in! It was kind of scary at night, but worrth seeing the Moulin Rouge! Jackie went off to see the Eiffel Tower again, and I came home to catch up on sleep and do some skyping with Bob!! We will try to get caught up on all of our Paris adventures tonight before we leave for Amsterdam tomorrow!! We definitely miss things about the US, but we are having a great time exploring the world :)
Love and miss everyone,
Kaci and the other three!
Love and miss everyone,
Kaci and the other three!
Bonjour from Paris!!!! Sooo yesterday (July 19) was a pretty crazy-busy day! We woke up at 5am to catch the train (Eurostar) which took us to Paris. It took us under the English Channel, but we were hoping that the tunnel would be see-through so that we could see underwater creatures and such, but it was cement, so it was just a plain old train ride. The country side of France was beautiful, but we tried to sleep for most of the ride so that we would have energy for the events to come! The train traveled very fast, and I think I read somewhere that it traveled at speeds over 100mph! Unexpectedly we stopped in the middle of our trip on the tracks and the announcer came over the intercom telling us that there was a fatality. We came to find out later that suicides are quite common in front of those trains. Once we got to France we made our way to our hotel by bus and everyone left their luggage in one room while each of our rooms were still being prepared for us. Kaci, Brittney, Erin and I split from the group to find our friend Crissa, who has been living in Paris for the whole summer, working at a biking tours place. We went to her by metro: (meeting spot-Eiffel Tower) and our pro navigators, Kaci & Erin, found our way through these underground railroads (keep in mind, none of us know the language here) while Brittney and I frolicked behind in high spirits! It was the coolest thing: standing in the park under the Eiffel Tower and seeing Crissa in the distance as we ran to greet each other in Paris! We had lunch at a cute cafe Tribeca, and had the BEST ice cream in the world (gelato) in a cute gelato shop that made the ice cream into flower shapes in your cone. After that we met back up with the group and Crissa was able to come with us on a boat tour (where Brit and I got MORE gelato) and back to the Eeifel Tower to go all the way to the top! Even though there were some lines and some waiting, it was so worth it to get to go up this historical landmark! Although there were a few in a group that took the stairs, after a long day of walking, there was no way that we were going to, so we took the elevator. It was a long ride up! I never realized how tall it was! My ears even popped as we went up to the top. Looking out over all of Paris is amazing! Paris is so HUGE and you just see buildings for miles: it was beautiful! While we were up there the sun was setting and it really was breath taking to see and unreal that we were up there. I still am in unbelief that we are here in Paris!
After the tower we headed to dinner. Our waiter was hilarious and the food was delicious! I think Kaci and Crissa ordered best. They got this salmon thing that was wrapped in some kind of warm flaky crust and had cooked spinach on the inside. The food here is excellent! Everything we eat is wonderful. On our way back to the hotel we had to pass the Eifel Tower again. By this time it is lit up and an amazing sight to see. At eleven o'clock each night it sparkles for about 5 minutes. We were there just in time to see it! It wasn't like anything we had imagined! It was magical to watch! We took pictures and videos and soaked it all in before heading back to the hotel.
By the time we got back we were exhausted from walking SOOOO much and having such a long day. I had no idea that there would be so much walking! All of our feet were aching (expect Erin-she's an iron woman or something). We were also sweaty from the heat, I wouldn't have expected it to be so hot, but it IS! And usually I don't mind the heat, but there isn't AC in our hotel, so its definitely an experience! So we were very ready to take showers and fall into bed. We lugged our stuff up to the room they had assigned us and opened the door to find one full size bed and a pull out couch and almost no room for our suitcases! We thought there had been a mistake, but we were wrong! We are making it work fine, it is just hard to have four oversized suitcases all in a tiny space! I definitely can't complain though! Who could do that in Paris?! Like I said, I still can't believe we are here! It is great and I’m so glad that I get to share it with three of my best friends! Stay tuned to hear most about Paris!
Love,
Jackie and the other 3 :)
After the tower we headed to dinner. Our waiter was hilarious and the food was delicious! I think Kaci and Crissa ordered best. They got this salmon thing that was wrapped in some kind of warm flaky crust and had cooked spinach on the inside. The food here is excellent! Everything we eat is wonderful. On our way back to the hotel we had to pass the Eifel Tower again. By this time it is lit up and an amazing sight to see. At eleven o'clock each night it sparkles for about 5 minutes. We were there just in time to see it! It wasn't like anything we had imagined! It was magical to watch! We took pictures and videos and soaked it all in before heading back to the hotel.
By the time we got back we were exhausted from walking SOOOO much and having such a long day. I had no idea that there would be so much walking! All of our feet were aching (expect Erin-she's an iron woman or something). We were also sweaty from the heat, I wouldn't have expected it to be so hot, but it IS! And usually I don't mind the heat, but there isn't AC in our hotel, so its definitely an experience! So we were very ready to take showers and fall into bed. We lugged our stuff up to the room they had assigned us and opened the door to find one full size bed and a pull out couch and almost no room for our suitcases! We thought there had been a mistake, but we were wrong! We are making it work fine, it is just hard to have four oversized suitcases all in a tiny space! I definitely can't complain though! Who could do that in Paris?! Like I said, I still can't believe we are here! It is great and I’m so glad that I get to share it with three of my best friends! Stay tuned to hear most about Paris!
Love,
Jackie and the other 3 :)
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Hello from London!! The past two days have been absolutely amazing! We've had so much fun, seen so much, and met a lot of great people! Yesterday, we were up early and hopped on the tube (what they call the Subway in the UK) and went down to Trafalgar square. It was right in the heart of London. We took pictures with the giant lions, and did a few jumping pics of the waterfalls (naturally :) We then got our double decker bus tickets and all hopped on the bus. It was really fun and we went all around London. We saw the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, the London Eye, where the black plague was, where that fire that burned all across London started (I was zoning during that part..my bad), St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's World Globe, where Daniel Ratcliff (Harry Potter) went to school (the London School for Boys), saw where John Harvard went to school (the man that started Harvard University), Big Ben, and a lot more that I can't remember off the top of my head. Basically, the double decker bus rocked our socks off. After that, we walked down the red road that led to Buckingham Palace. We took some pictures and rested a bit. We then had lunch at the Cript and had lunch and then went upstairs and toured the church, which was really pretty. After that we walked around, took a boat tour on the Thames River, and hopped back on the tube and headed home. We had such a fun day, but we're exhausted! We took a nap, and then went out with our group to a London Club called Tiger Tiger, which was huge, and a lot of fun!
This morning we were up early once again, ate some breakfast hopped on the tube and headed back to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. However, we thought it started at ten buuuut it started at 11. So, we had awhile to wait, but got great seats!! It was a really cool experience. We then went down to Westminster Abbey to see the church and Big Ben up close and personal. After that we hopped back on the tube (we are becoming experts of the tube) and headed down to the Tower of London, which was one of my favorite parts of the day. It is where they house the Queens crowned jewels. They were BEAUTIFUL! We saw the biggest white diamond on earth (I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor when I saw it) and got to walk around the tower. It had a lot of history that went along with it (which I love-yes I'm a nerd) but it was really really neat. Thheen we hopped on the tube and headed to Harrods. My heaven on earth. The only purchase we made were some truffles, (you have no idea how hard that was for me) lol Then we stopped by H&M and headed home on the tube for a rest. Finally, we went downtown to the Eye of London. Its like a huge Ferris Wheel over the Thames River. A lot of people from our tour group did it together (one car could fit 25 people.) It was beautiful and when you got to the top, you could see the whole city! To end the night, we went to a local pub and we all got local food and then stopped and got some ice cream from a stand on the way home! We're now all about to head to bed and get up at 5:45am..yes believe it, and head to Paris in the morning. We're all REALLY excited to see Crissa in Paris! Hope all is well in America!! Love and miss y'all! God Bless!
~Brittney and the rest of the three!
P.S.-We learned a lot of British slang while here.
Rubbish-trash
Bins-Trash can
Lou-the bathroom
Queue-Line
and many more :)
P.S.S.-I wrote this really fast, I'm on a time limit here, so I didn't proofread and probably left things out. Don't judge!
This morning we were up early once again, ate some breakfast hopped on the tube and headed back to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard. However, we thought it started at ten buuuut it started at 11. So, we had awhile to wait, but got great seats!! It was a really cool experience. We then went down to Westminster Abbey to see the church and Big Ben up close and personal. After that we hopped back on the tube (we are becoming experts of the tube) and headed down to the Tower of London, which was one of my favorite parts of the day. It is where they house the Queens crowned jewels. They were BEAUTIFUL! We saw the biggest white diamond on earth (I had to pick my jaw up from off the floor when I saw it) and got to walk around the tower. It had a lot of history that went along with it (which I love-yes I'm a nerd) but it was really really neat. Thheen we hopped on the tube and headed to Harrods. My heaven on earth. The only purchase we made were some truffles, (you have no idea how hard that was for me) lol Then we stopped by H&M and headed home on the tube for a rest. Finally, we went downtown to the Eye of London. Its like a huge Ferris Wheel over the Thames River. A lot of people from our tour group did it together (one car could fit 25 people.) It was beautiful and when you got to the top, you could see the whole city! To end the night, we went to a local pub and we all got local food and then stopped and got some ice cream from a stand on the way home! We're now all about to head to bed and get up at 5:45am..yes believe it, and head to Paris in the morning. We're all REALLY excited to see Crissa in Paris! Hope all is well in America!! Love and miss y'all! God Bless!
~Brittney and the rest of the three!
P.S.-We learned a lot of British slang while here.
Rubbish-trash
Bins-Trash can
Lou-the bathroom
Queue-Line
and many more :)
P.S.S.-I wrote this really fast, I'm on a time limit here, so I didn't proofread and probably left things out. Don't judge!
Friday, July 16, 2010
We're Here!!!!
So, today was long. We all got well acquainted with the tile flooring of the Heathrow airpot in London. Our tour group's bus system did not show up, so the girls from Texas spent 6 hours snuggling on the ground of the airport, no sleeping involved. Believe it. After we finally arrived at the Umi hotel on Leinster street, we were greeted with rooms that were not ready. We made some friends from Florida, Cali, Arizona, and Michigan, and we all went to the local pub to enjoy some cheesey chips and beer. Against our group's advice, we all went back to the room for a shower and nap time. Jackie wins the Sleepy Award for the longest nap of 4 hours. After we woke up and attempted to plug cosmetic devices in with our adpaters, we met the group for a "welcome drink" at another local pub. Our tour guide, Vitor, explained how the trip will go. His most important point was that we need to be on time, hope Britt doesn't get left behind!! After grabbing a slice or 2 of pizza from a sidewalk cafe, we are back at the hotel. Because of our marathon days of 30 sleepless travel hours, we are all ready for bed. We are passing on a night at the Picadilly Circus for sleep. This decision should make the moms proud! After some good sleep, we hope to wake up refreshed for our double-decker bus tour and walking tour of LONDON tomorrow! Goodnight, America! Hope all is well :) Tune in tomorrow for an inside scoop on our tour of London.
~Kaci and the other three.
~Kaci and the other three.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Sooo, I've been waiting and anticipating for this day to come for quite awhile. Today, Jackie, Erin, Kaci and I begin our adventure all across Europe. I'm beyond excited to spend the next 30 days with these girls, catching up, remembering old times, and most importantly making all kinds of new memories that we will cherish forever! Jackie, Erin, and Kace leave around 11 and I (Brittney) leave between 3 and 4 and am flying solo to London! Haha, go figure!(the touring company booked our flights). Keep your fingers crossed that I don't get lost!(Which, those of you who know me, know that this is a VERY likely possibility for me). However, getting lost is probably the least of my problems. My biggest concern right now: luggage. I started packing today at 8am, still am not finished, and will have to get up in the morning to finish up. It has honestly driven me slightly crazy. I have a history of being quite the over-packer, and was determined to turn over a new leaf and pack light for once. Didn't happen. Normally, its fine, but this time the "I don't really care if its over 50lbs mentality" wasn't going to work for me because I have to haul that bad boy all over Europe by myself. So this time around, I really tried to make it work (REALLY, I did!), but, at the end of the day, I just said "Welp if its over 50, it just is, and by golly I'm gonna have some good lookin' arms when I get back!" ;) Hopefully, our next post we will be in London and will have some good stories for y'all (knowing us..there will be plenty!) Hope all is well! God Bless!
-Britt
PS- The picture is of me about mid-afternoon, realizing that there is no possible way to fit all that I wanted to take in my suitcase.
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