... and now it's time for the grand finale: PARIS

The first thing we did in Paris was to go on our last NewEurope Free Tour! This time we met by the St. Michel fountain located near Notre Dame Cathedral. Our tour guide Spike was freakin' awesome. She was an Aussie and had a very unique knowledge of Paris. For example, did you know that Paris is home to 250,000 dogs. These dogs produce roughly 6000 tons of poo, which result in 600 hospitalizations each year.

• Paris was founded in 4 A.D.
• The Louvre was founded in the 13th century and it became a palace. After Louis XIV built and moved the main palace to Versailles, the Louvre fell into disrepare. Napoleon rennovated and turned the Louvre into a museum to house his thousands of stolen works of art. The museum now houses 35,000 works on display and has another 100,000+ works in the basement.
• Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame actually saved the cathedral. The church had fallen into disrepare but the novel sparked enough interest to save it and make it a tourist trap forever.
• The Prime Meridian ran through Paris until the 17th century when it switched to Greenwich, England; however, the stubborn French wouldn't recognize this fact until 30 years later.
• The Place Charles de Gaulle, more commonly known as the roundabout around the Arc d'Triomphe, averages a car accident every 30 minutes, due to the ridiculous 8 lanes of traffic. Insurance agencies will not even cover an accident claim if it took place within this circle.

After our tour, we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Kjelsie was so soo excited to see that tower, it was hardly comparable to Mikayla and Mannekin Pis. We took pictures and then walked up to the Place de l'Alma and bought Eiffel Tower keychains from the hagglers. We returned to Montmartre, hunted down a kebab shop, ate, and put our tired asses to bed early...(but only after completely relishing in the fact that we were staying in a hotel--a nice hotel too!!).

Day 2 in Paris began with a full and FREE breakfast. We made friends with the lady tending to the breakfast. After filling our bellies and dressing, we ventured to the internet cafe to blog about Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Once our hour was up, we hadn't quite finished, but we were close so we journeyed down toward city center. We started out at the Concorde, a very beautiful plaza where a scene from The Devil Wears Prada was filmed. We mimicked the action of throwing a cell phone into the fountain, that Anne Hathaway made famous. Then we went to the US Embassy and tried to take a picture, but as it is the most protected building in all of Paris we were diverted from fulfilling our task. We found out the next day while in a souvenir shop that the Obama's were staying in the embassy at that very moment. We walked by and checked out the security at Pres. Sarkozy's house before venturing further down the Champs Elyssees, towards the Arc de Triomphe.

We grabbed some lunch and walked towards the park across from the Eiffel Tower where we sat for a while before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our NewEurope Montmarte District tour. We met at the metro station across from Moulin Rouge. Our guide's name was Frasier and he had a great Scottish accent :). He told us about the beginning days of Moulin Rouge and its can-can dancers before we made our next stop at Cafe des Deux Moulins, where the popular movie Amelie was filmed. We then saw the apartment where Vincent Van Gogh lived, Paris' last surviving windmill, Picasso's studio, Montmarte's Vineyard (Paris' last original vineyard), and Lapin Agile, or 'the Nimble Bunny', which is the cabaret/brothel/restaurant where 19-year old Picasso used to exchange his paintings for meals (Grandpa Ken had told us about this before we came!). Frasier also told us about an annonymous man who has dedicated his life to the completely obsurd task of strategically placing images of space invaders all around the city (and around Europe as well). When one looks at where these images are placed on a map of Paris, they create the image of gigantic space invader. I'm sure his parents are proud of their son's...umm, unique...accomplishments, if you will. After making the big trek up to the top of the highest hill in all of Paris, we were stunned by the beauty of Sacre Coure (meaning Sacred Heart), a church that was built after the first World War. We walked around and looked at the spectacular interior and then enjoyed the incredible free-view of the city before finishing the rest of our tour at the base of the hill.

Just as the tour began, Mikayla was starteld by a woman, none other than her friend Isabelle, attacking her from behind. It was thrilling! She had tried to find us in front of the Eiffel tower earlier in the day but we had just left when she arrived. She and MK talked and caught up on everything that had been going on since they left Granada, and then Isabelle parted ways to attend to some other obligations.

We ended the night by stopping into some shops to do some souvenir shopping and then made our way to Subway down the street from Moulin Rouge for some cheap subs-of-the-day... mmm! Our night ended when we returned to our hotel, contemplated journaling, and then crashed while watching a Rugby match on TV.

Days 3 & 4 to come later!........

Beer, fries, waffles, and small weeing boys

After we arrived in Brussels we miraculously found our hostel after having to stop and ask for further directions about 5 times, given that the ones we got from the hostel were nothing but useless. Dreams of Belgian fries, waffles, and beer danced through our heads, and we set off in search of them with our new friend and roommate, Mary (from LA). She was great as was all of the food and beer :) With the exception of the drunk asshole in the city square (where we sat drinking our beer), we had a fabulous night out in Brussels!

The next day we set out to find a small, weeing boy known as Mannequin Pis. Mikayla was surely more excited than the plethora of surrounding Asian tourists to see this national mascot. What could be more exciting? We ate mandatory Belgian waffles (another one checked off the list), froze in the chilly weather as we milled about the city's streets a while longer, and then headed back to the hostel to retrieve our packs.
We boarded the train to Bruges and helped a couple of Italians get on the right train. Look who the expert travelers are now! :) Upon arrival in the quaint medieval town, we resorted to maps once again as our directions from the internet never seem to be trustworthy. The hostel turned out to be a cute little Mom-and-Pop bed and breakfast joint with a restaurant/bar on the ground level. The lady who checked us in was cute as a button and gave us the warmest welcome. We left our things in our room and walked along the main street, trying to ignore our growling stomachs. Along the way we saw Michelangelo's sculpture, The Madonna with Child, before we gave in to our hunger. We settled for the most over-priced and untasty burger and fries at Quick, the French version of McDonald's. Bad decision. A stop at an internet cafe was the next thing on the agenda, and we got to hear our families' voices for the first time since we left Milan three weeks ago... we couldn't have been happier :)

We returned to the hostel early in the evening on account of having to wake up early to catch a train to Paris by way of Brussels in the morning. Before we went to bed and after we journaled for nearly three hours, the ignorant boys in the next room over blew the fuse not once, not twice, but thrice. Who knows how they managed to do this, but the fact is that we lost power three different times. Thanks to the handy little flashlight provided for Mikayla by Grandma and Grandpa Wesche, we were not left completely in the dark. Yey!

Waking up in the morning and catching both of our trains was fairly easy by our standards. We picked up some coffee and croissants before boarding the pricey (unexpected 26€ reservation fee) train to Paris. We got to the City of Lights in hella good time, as we should have for the price we paid. Regular tickets for the short, 1 1/2 hour journey run at 96€ a pop... hot damn!

We got checked in to the magnificent HOTEL(not hostel), a gift to us from Grandpa Ken and Grandma Ruth(!!) early and the awesome lady at the front desk let us check in early, too. We are having a great time in Paris but due to the lack of time and internet accessibility we wont blog about our stay here until the 9th when we return to Milan. We are sorry but we really want to do it justice and we just don't have time here.

We love you all- thanks for your thoughts and prayers. See you soon... four days!!

<3, KJ and MK

Pricey but Precious Copenhagen

Sorry it has taken us so long to update you all on our most recent travels. It has been a little difficult to come by free internet and a decent keyboard as the Belgian and French ones are hard to type with so please dont judge our poor grammar :)

Our overnight train from Berlin got into Malmo, Sweden 20 minutes early (!!) on a Sunday morning. Very much like our northern neighbor, North Dakota, nothing was open at this hour. Soo, we walked around the old town square, took some pictures, and then walked towards the harbor where we saw the mast of what looked to be a pirate ship. Yes, folks... a pirate ship! Argh! We scoped out the perimeter trying to find an easy access point to board the wooden vessel but it was pretty well fortified. Then, we saw a man standing outside dressed as a pirate; we came to know him as Carl. We asked him how one could see it up close and he informed us that the kogg is actually a museum and it opened daily at 11.00. A kogg isnt actually a pirate ship, it is a fishing boat which is significantly lamer. We somehow connived him into giving us a free entrance and he showed us all around the exhibition. We got a sweet picture, MK did her handstand, and our quick trip to Sweden was compete.

We then had a coffee and departed for Denmark via the bridge that connects the rest of Scandinavia to mainland Europe. It was awesome! Half an hour later we arrived in Copenhagen in all of its expensiveness. They are famous for having the highest public transportation prices in the world-- woot! Not. We bought ourselves a one-way bus ticket to our hostel, for the equivalent of 5€. Our hostel was simply bizzare, but by Danish standards it was cheap so I guess that is to be expected? We were informed that the hostel closed everyday for cleaning between 12 and 4 so we dropped our things off in the lobby and went to find some free entertainment. Success- there was a bench near one of the city's 5 reservoirs that we sat on. KJ journaled a bit while MK made a couple of avian friends. Specifically, none other than Mama Duck! Her mate wasnt extremely pleased with her lust with popcorn but she seemed to wear the pants in the relationship so she kept coming back after plopping in the water every now and then to wash out her beak.

After running out of popcorn, we had nothing left to offer the ducks so we decided to change up our venue and moved to Kings Park where we sat on the cool grass, took in the summer sun, and played a few games of cards before take a quick zoomer. The park was packed with other Danes doing likewise. Apparently their climate is similar to Seattle, so when the sun does decide to make an appearance the whole country takes full advantage of it.

As our hunger made itself known, we set off to find a supermarket, which was not made easy as it was the Sunday evening before a holiday (Pentecost). Half an hour in, we saw a beacon of hope in the form of an all-you-can-eat SALAD and pizza ad outside of a restaurant by the train station. So we paid our 70 DKK and feasted like queens. We were excited because it was the first time we have had salad dressing since we conned the McD's manager out of it in Venice.

The next day we woke up to further explore the city by foot-- no public transit for us! We dropped our backpacks off in a locker at the train station and then found our way to Copenhagen's claim to fame: the Little Mermaid statue! It was awesome, and with an ice cream cone in hand, it was even awesomer!

We returned for yet another all-you-can-eat dinner of salad and pizza, and it pulled us through our awful 15 hour train ride to Amsterdam that followed. We optimistically boarded the train, looking forward to catching up on journaling and chilling out in our couchettes. This, however, was short-lived, as we were immediately joined by the stinkiest 77-year old man, or hobo as some might call him, we have ever met in our lives. About only every tenth word of his was decipherable and we are still dumbfounded as to how he managed to pay for a couchette ticket but was unable to pay for a shower along the way. Next came an overly-friendly, self-proclaimed Canadian man whom we also had a difficult time understanding. He insisted on helping us with EVERYthing, from climbing up to our beds, folding our clothes, and forcing unwanted conversation on us. The real kicker was when the first thing each of them did upon entering the compartment was to take off their shoes AND sweaty socks. We made a short-lived escape to the dining-car where we indulged in sacred 1.30€ boxes of Nesquick. After returning to our smelly and stuffy compartment, we experienced a miracle in the form of an open window. Then we climbed up to our couchettes and called it bedtime around 8.00. The sun was nowhere near set but that was fine... conversation was just over. Over the course of the night we tried to change compartments but this was made impossible as all of them were quote-on-quote full. The cabin hostess refused to take pity on us, despite the grotesque faces she made every time she entered our compartment.

We forced a 12-hour nights rest and upon waking up we booked it out of the compartment to find some coffee. We didnt return until 5 minutes before our arrival in Amsterdam. We then bid our cabinmates a farewell and then set out in elation in search for some beloved stroopwaffles! We dropped our backpacks off at a nearby hostel and found a supermarket where we got our tastey treasures and some salads for lunch. We then chowed on a bench by the canal, fed some pigeons, and then made our way back to the train station, stopping to pick up our backpacks on the way. Belgium, here we come!

Belgium & busy-ness!!

Hey all!

Sorry about the lack of updates lately.

I am sorry to say that the full stories are not going to come now either. :(

Let us just say that free internet and normal keyboards are few and far between.

Ok. Here are some really simple bullets:

• Pirate ship in Sweden
• Pricey but precious Copenhagen
• The Little Mermaid in Copenhagen
• All-you-can-eat salad & pizza food
• Mama-duck
• WORST CABINMATES EVER
• stinkiness
• Nesquick!
• Stroopwaffles in Amsterdam
• New friend Mary
  
• Beer, beer, beer
  
• Mannequin Pis

ok. I am sorry but this is all I can provide now. I leave it to your imagination to fill in the gaps for present, but I promise we will fill you in later.

We are in Bruges, Belgium right now. And we leave for Paris in the morning!

Au revior!

Ich bin ein... jelly-filled donut!

Oh Berlin!Today, we took a day-trip out to Sachsenshausen concentration camp--the camp which was the model for all subsequent camps. Words can't really express the flood of emotions one feels when walking down those same roads and through the same buildings where so many innocent people died. What's interesting about Sachsenshausen is that it was shut down after the war was over. Yes, all of the Nazi's prisoners were released, but they were replaced by enemies of the Soviet-state just weeks later.
The past few days have been pretty chill. We met two awesome Canadian girls, Kelsey & Paige, who are backpacking through Europe as well. They're the Canadian version of us and a blast to hang out with. We four girls went on another free NewEurope walking tour and were again flooded with mountains of information. Some highlights included seeing the Brandenburg Gate, crossing frequently between East and West Berlin, standing on top of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide, and seeing the German Parliament building, the Reichstag. Fun fact! The Hotel Adlon (the ritziest hotel in Berlin, and situated just kiddy-corner to the Brandenburg Gate) is home to the infamous balcony where Michael Jackson dangled his infant-son.
Day Two was very relaxed, due to the rainy and gloomy weather. We had planned on going to Sachsenshausen, but took a rain-check instead. We slept in and then ventured into town with the Canadians for a bit of shopping. Sadly, Mikayla didn't find the desired squid-shirt at Zara. We then partook, for the second day in a row, in our hostel's fantastic happy hour. Afterwards, we accompanied the girls to the first couple of bars on their Pub Crawl. One of them was in remnants of a former Jewish department store that is now a hub of artsy inhabitants. The best part about this hostel though is the fact that our first 3 nights here were only 8€, and we were upgraded to a better room (where we met Paige and Kelsey!).

Day Three was met with another free continental breakfast (woot!) and NewEurope Third Reich tour. This one we had to pay for, but it was worth every euro-cent. We went into much more detail about Hilter's rise to power and his following 12-year regime. Highlights included seeing the foundation of the once most-feared address in the world: the Gestapo/SS Headquarters building; also The New Synagogue, and various important sights from Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass).This includes the Berlin basics, but we still have some catching up to do from Prague. After writing our last post and checking out of our ELF hostel, we made our way back to the Old Town to pick up one last souvenir picture from the Bridge. On our way there, we passed the ever-enticing Hard Rock Cafe with its elaborate cocktail menu... you know, we are only legal drinkers for another 2 weeks... and our mouths were pretty dry. We didn't let this divert us until after we completed our mission though. The hostess was sooo kind and helped us take off our immense bags. We sat down and tried to find the tastiest and cheapest drinks on the menu, as it wasn't quite happy hour yet.

As luck would have it, we sat by some really sweet people from Florida. They struck up a conversation with us and offered us their hardly-touched chicken-fingers. Can we just say that we are in no position to be turning down (tasty) free food. So, we obliged and munched. This is when we properly introduced ourselves and met Koby and his relatives. You see, Koby just got hitched to a lovely Czech lady, Martina. He asked about our travels--what brought us there, etc. After we finished explaining our circumstances, Koby pulled out his wallet and tried to hand us a $100 bill. We looked at it dumbly, for about 10 seconds. What's going on? Oh wait... what is that? Is that American money? Is that $100?!? Yes. We were blatantly confused. After coming to, we realized what he was doing and what that meant to us. We refused, naturally, until he fully reasoned his case, and we obliged, again. He lifted our spirits, not just through the money, but through his kindness and encouragement. It's amazing how inspiring a complete stranger can be; he helped us out in more ways than one.
So then, we took a picture with him, of course. :) THANKS KOBY!!!

Tonight we leave for Copenhagen, by way of Malmö, Sweden.
We'll keep you posted from there!

Love love,
us

Set backs: the inevitable

Guten tag, friends! Sorry for the lack of update, lately... we planned on blogging last night, but then we got held up... nothing else to say about that. Oh God! Don't think we got held up like with a gun, we just had some other "obligations."

Surprise--Change in Plans!
May 29--Berlin
May 30--Berlin/travel to Malmö (Sweden)/Copenhagen
May 31--Malmö/Copenhagen
June 1-- Copenhagen/travel to Brussels
June 2--Brussels
June 3--Brussels
June 4--Travel/Paris
June 5--Paris/Mont St. Michel
June 6--Paris
June 7--Paris
June 8--Paris/return to Milan
June 9--Milan
June 10--FLY HOME!

Czech it out! We're in Prague!

Oh Bohemia!

We arrived in Prague 2 days ago. We bid our dear Vaclav goodbye after the overnight train then found our ELF, the hostel we're staying in, and enjoyed a lazy morning waiting 'til check-in time. After relaxing for a bit, and finally getting some beds to throw our shit on, we showered and took off downtown to partake in a Free NewEurope Tour.

Justin was our guide and Kjels said that he was the best she's had yet. Clean your minds please; it's just that she's been on a lot of the NewEurope's free tours and she said he was the most knowledgable and the most energetic. In addition to the wonders provided by the tour, we experienced our own miracle, by again seeing our friend Justin (from Georgia). We first met Justin on the train from Verona to Munich a couple of weeks ago. We saw him again, two days later, at the Munich train station and then once more at Neuschwanstein! We've decided that we were are destined to be great friends because fate keeps bringing us back together. This however, would still not be the last time we would cross paths. The tour was only supposed to be 3 hours, and it was close to 5. All's well though, because we learned soooo much. I couldn't handle the plethora of knowledge so about 10 minutes in I had to start taking notes. Here's some excerpts:

• A force of only 30,000 Czechs successfully pushed out 900,000 Nazi troops in the final days of WWII but have never gotten full credit for it because days later, the Soviet "Liberation" began and they claimed the success for themselves.
• Salutary Czech words sound dirty when spelled out in English phonetics. (i.e. dick-y means hello)
• The clock in Prague's Old Town Square is animated similarly to the infamous Glockenspiel of Munich. It also holds the title of Europe's "Second-most-overrated-tourist-attraction" following the aforementioned Glockenspiel.
• It's A LOT of fun to cheer to the Prague "glockenspiel" while surrounded by a crowd of first-time viewers. Their first inclination is to feel let down, but when others (us) are cheering fanatically they feel like their excitement should mirror ours. Seconds later, the confusion really sets in.
• The picturesque Prague Castle took over a century to complete. It was began in 870 AD and was completed in the 1929.
• The Cathedral attatched to the Castle has images of all the master-masons from the job, including the 20's attire all the way down through the medival times and beyond.
• The entire film "Eurotrip" was filmed in Prague, even though the plot-line includes visits in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Bratislava. We saw the "Louvre."
• There are over 30 statues lining the signature St. Charles Bridge.
• There's a John Lennon tribute wall on a street just off the St. Charles bridge, which was began in the 1980's following his asassination. At that time, Czechloslovakia was still under Soviet rule, the wall was white-washed every day but would miraculously appear re-colored every morning.
• Right beside the wall is a neiborhood square that has been used in a number of "bad" movies, such as: Mission Impossible, XXX, Van Helsing, and The Oman.
• David Cerny is a Czech contemporary and very controversial artist. He was actually commissioned to create a mural for a wall in the EU Headquarters. When his masterpiece was unveiled, it successfully lived up to his reputation. The painting was of a map depicting an image of each of the worst stereotypes of each country within its boundaries. For example, Bulgaria was a giant toilet and France simply had a huge banner across it that read "On Strike". It must have been a hoot. The really kicker was though that of course, Germany was represented with a huge swastika made our of an autobahn, and thus... the fun ended.
• We saw a fountain-statue of Cerny's. It was of twn men facing each other, moving, and peeing... on an outline of the Czech Republic. The best part about this was that beside the fountain there was a plaques with a phone number on it. One could send a text message to that number and the statues will pee out your message. For example, "Hi Mom. We're in Prague. It's great." :D

So much more was learned but those are the highlights of our first day.

Our second day in Prague was very laid back. We slept in, had breakfast, took advantage of the free internet, then finally made our way back to the city center. Refer to bullet 4. We searched and searched for a Happy Hour but settled on cheap beer instead. After a reasonably priced meal of Fish n' Chips, we sat in the Old Town Square and made our own fun. We greeted passersby, and were successful enough to gain 2 new friends--an Aussie and a kid from New Mexico (who ended up buying us beer). Around this time, we saw our buddy Justin yet again. Yay! Sadly, he couldn't hang around because he was actively participating in a pub-crawl. Then we turned in for the night and now here we are.
We're leaving for Berlin, since Poland is now out of the picture. :(
So wish us luck.
Much love!