... 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!

Our (always tentative) Itinerary

Ok. Here we go, this is approximately where we should be and when....

May 26th--Prague
May 27th--????? (it was going to be Krakow... but our Eurail passes don't include Poland, so we don't know)
May 28--Travel
May 29--Berlin
May 30--Hamburg
May 31--Travel
June 1-- 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!

up until this point... this is an outline of where what we've done:

May 17--Milan/Travel
May 18--Munich
May 19--Munich
May 20--Munich
May 21--Salzburg
May 22--Salzburg/Travel/Zurich/Travel/Milan
May 21--Milan
May 22--Milan/Travel/Venice/Travel
May 23--Vienna
May 24--Prague
May 25--Prague

Wieners for a day!

We found our way off the train in Wien/Vienna around 8:30 in the am on Saturday (May 23) and promptly stowed our backpacks in lockers for the small fee of 3,50€. After making reservations for the that evening's overnight train to Prague (yay, beds!!!), we set out to find the tourist information office.

Coffee was a decided initial necessity, so we steered our groggy asses towards the first spotted McD's... it sounds bad, we know, but really the coffee prices as well as the amenities (free internet kiosks, water-closet facilities, etc.) can't be beat! After finding the damn place, we opted for the most economical plan provided for us by the tourist office: a self-guided walking tour around the city.

We passed up a couple costly museums, and continued on to a stationary store where we invested in cheap, colored, felt-tip pens to liven up our journal entries. We came across destination 3 on our map, Stadt Park, where a chorus of Asian schoolchildren were singing in front of the gilded Johann Strauß. We felt no desire to hang out by Mr. Goldenpants so we ventured into the depths of the park and ate our apples with _____ the forgotten civil servant, with a crumbling fountain shrine.

Moving onward, we passed by many buildings suggested on our map, without really understanding the significance of any of them. Surely they all have long elaborate histories... we just don't know them. We found ourselves a sunny little spot in Karlsplatz to enjoy salami & bread sandwiches and some good books.

After some time, our bladders made themselves known and we set off to find a McD's to pee in free of charge. As we came up on the nearest of our favorite fast-food chain, we noticed a higher and higher concentration of police vehicles (meaning, absolutely NO jaywalking for us). The source of this infiltration stemmed from a massive protest of none other than our faithful Golden Arches. Damn. It was after this un-relieving occurrence that we returned to the MuseumsQuartier, and walked through their grounds. These morphed beautifully into the grounds of the Imperial Palace and after a couple photos, we walked through those too.

At this point, our feet/legs ruled all judgment and we opted for the quickest and easiest path back to the metro so that we could go out to the Schönbrunn Palace before we collapsed. The grounds behind the palace were spectacular. I hope the gardener(s) is adequately compensated. We walked down to the Canyon Lake-sized fountain (or so it seemed) and back taking our time and enjoying the sunset before returning to Westbahnhof station.

On the metro to Westbahnhof we made the awful mistake of seeing a Burger King out the window, which set our glands a-salivating. :) Hot food is good. We reluctantly (ha!) commenced a hot-food mission with one simple guideline: cheap. We entertained many options but settled on a kebab shop located just off the main drag and enjoyed the best kebab of our lives! It was so good and filling! and for less that 3€ too! What a marvelous decision.

With stomachs satisfied, our legs exhausted, and our shoulders burned, we returned once more to the train station to retrieve our beloved, green backpacks and wait on the platform for our train.

We boarded and were greeted by Vaclav, our cheery, red-faced cabin host. He was positively adorable and would make a wonderful Santa Claus, if given a white beard and wig. He was sooo kind and hospitable as he showed us all the goings-on of the grounds to his "small (self-proclaimed) kingdom". He continually reassured us, "don't be afraid" adding once, "I'm sixty... (continued gibberish)." After overseeing each of us successfully unlock the door, and showing us every possible thing in our closet, I mean compartment, he gave us a laminated menu for our perusal, which we could order from should we require anything. He didn't have a kitchen, but he did have a... "small kingdom" where he could work some magic. We almost busted a gut, once once finally bidding him adieu and closing the door. We loved him though.

A few minutes later, after adequately stowing our minimal amounts of shit in every crevice, we met our other cabinmate, Marina. She was a sweet Russian lady who lived in Australia. We talked for about 5 minutes, read for about 2 minutes, and passed out.

And now the fun really begins...

We left Milan (once more) bound for Venice on Friday afternoon. We possibly got on the wrong train at our quick lay-over in Verona, being that we arrived in Venice 45 minutes earlier than expected and the train was REALLY nice (as in not "Regional" quality)... this possibility grew ever more likely when we got off and the side read "Eurocity"... (you have to make a reservation for those...)

We doubled checked our train departure time (having learned from previous mistakes in Venice), and set off immediately for salad dressing. We decided that McDonald's would be most likely to help us out in this endeavor. After the 15 minute walk there, that notably gets longer every time you make it, passed slowly. Kjelsie invested in a cheesy tourist fan, like Mikayla's Toledo one--they come in so handy on hot, stinky euro trains. The McD's manager who received our obscure only-salad-dressing order, turned out to be kind of creepy. He did however, give us the dressings free of charge, and being the sweet Midwesterners that we are, we felt obligated to buy something from him. Cappucinos sufficed. He didn't charge us full price for them... unless you count the conversation as payment, as he sauntered over to our table just minutes afterwards.
We took our sweet time at the McD's. We peed; we filled our water bottles; etc. Then we made our way back down the canal towards the Santa Lucia train station. We passed our little vending machine room, and shed a small tear remembering the good time... ok, well maybe not, but we did smile. :D

We sat on the steps of the canal and oh-so-picturesquely read our books until the time came to board our train. We didn't get a compartment-mate initially so we folded out the couchettes, turned off the lights, watched Anchorman on KJ's ipod, and fulfilled all the usual happenings of a slumber party. :) Around midnight we did get a German-buddy but he just sat on one of the seats that hadn't been folded out yet, and left a couple hours later. At some point later we gained an Italian-buddy... who knows when... and he hung out with us until we disembarked at Vienna's Westbahnhof.

The hills are alive with the sound of... Turtlebird...?

Salzburg, Autria!

We left Antonio's apartment and made our way to the train station by 7:45am, at which point we had to wait 15 minutes for the train to come. The conductor took his merry little time in making his way to the main station, and what should have been a 20 minutes train ride turned into a 35 minute train ride. When we finally arrived, we had about 2 minutes to make our train to Salzburg and hauled ass through the crowds of people with our backpackes and Kjelsie's beer steins in tow. We somehow miraculously made it to the platform just seconds before they closed the doors... Score 1 for us!

We slept the whole way to Salzburg. When we arrived we found our way to our Hostel (for future reference it was a 10-minutes walk) and dropped our backpacks off before going to find some coffee. The cafe we stumbled upon was owned by the sweetest old woman in Austria. She was so welcoming, we loved her.

When we finished our coffees we went back and checked into our hostel before making our way to the heart of Salzburg. It's a beautiful city and is home to both Mozart and The Sound of Music. Mozart balls can be found everywhere (get your mind out of the gutter!) and are quite tasty. We sat in one of the city's main squares and watched some businessman play chess on a life-sized board. There was also a peaceful cemetary that we walked through at the base of the fortress that was pressed against the hillside where a monestary were built into. Mozart's Geburtshaus is one of the city's main attractions, located on a quaint little street that was bubbling with people. A street vendor was selling dried fruit so we got ourselves some mango.. tastey goodness! We later went on a quest for a grocery store which was much more difficult than we expected it to be... we decided that Austrian's must eat out more than they eat in. We bought a bag of lettuce and some dressing and then headed for a stretch of grass along the river where we had a picnic. We couldn't have asked for a better view of the city from where we were! What was once a picnic turned in to a nap and we ended up staying there for a couple of hours, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

All in all, we concluded that unless you have money in the bank to pay for a tour of some kind (Sound of Music, ice caves, Bird's Nest, etc.) Salzburg doesn't have a whole lot to offer. So we saw everything that we wanted/could afford to see within the first 3 hours of visit.

Back at the hostel, we checked out email, journalled, and then succumbed to the temptation of the Mozart balls in the vending machine on our way back to the room. Apparently the vending-stocker didn't know how to stock Mozart's balls correctly because the balls continued to get stuck after we paid for them twice. A young traveler, swaggering out of the bar, offered us his services. He violently manhandled the machine and not only did the balls fall but also a Milka choclate bar. He squeeled with joy, swiped his bar from the machine before we knew what had happened, and dashed out into the night.

The whole way up to the room we could hear him bragging to others about his good fortune. We showered and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. This may be due to the fact that this was the first time in over 2 weeks that we didn't have to sleep Willy Wonka style (i.e. we got our own beds). Yay... but not a good thing for long because we ended up sleeping through our alarm.
Not good, given that we had to catch a 6:22 train to Zurich. Mikayla woke up at 2 minutes to 6; luckily she groggily glanced at her watch because otherwise we really would have missed our train. In a chaos we tried to get ready, checked out, to the train station, and onto the correct train within 24 minutes. As fate would have it, Mikayla couldn't find the key to her locker. After a 5 minute search she gave up and ran to the receptionist for a new one. On the way back up she met Kjels in the hall with the original. Mikayla finished throwing all the shit into her bag, while Kjelsie checked them out. We ran, then walked, then ran, then walked to the train station. What was once a 10 minute walk turned into a 7 minute hellacious trek.

Miraculously, we once again made our train in the knick of time. Woot! After gaining breathing-ability again, we went in search of the dining car, Mikayla paid for an overpriced coffee, and then we went to find a place to crash. The train was practically empty so we took an empty compartment, folded out a couple couchettes and pursued slumber. Our nap was quickly interrupted by a portly and grumpy Austrian man. God knows what he was spewing about, but it wasn't kind. So we folded up our couchettes and sat facing each other, loathing the man to Kjelsie's left.

At Innsbruck the train cleared out again. After crossing the Swiss border, we got our passports checked by Swiss officers and we were alarmed at the beauty of the countryside. The closer we got to Zurich, the more and more we regretted not spending more time there. It was absolutely spectacular, the whole damn place looked like a country club. It's good that we got to enjoy the views, because once again, our train arrived a half-hour late, and thus we weren't able to spend any time outside the station. We made reservations for the Milan train with about 3 minutes to spare, and so Mikayla set off to get postcards and bread (a very difficult task). Kjelsie went in search of our seats which didn't turn out to be terribly simple either. The store would only accept euros for goods, with the sole stipulation of giving change in Swiss francs... mmm, scatch the postcards, scratch the bread. Mikayla booked it to the platform, to find a familiar bright green backpack getting off the train... She followed. Apparently there was some misunderstanding, and the Italian man in our seat had formed some sort of attatchment to it and insisted that we sit elsewhere. A kind man on the platform, who had previously helped point Kjelsie in the right direction, came to our rescue. The Italian moved. Great success.

It was a long day of travel but the ladies sitting next to us on our way back to Milan were great company. There was a young girl in her mid-20's traveling with her dalmation Zoey who we befriended, an elderly Italian woman, and a young single mother traveling alone with her infant daughter. The Italian woman insisted on helping the single mother in getting off the train and to where she needed to be. We were really inspired by her heart-warming generosity and kindness.


Finally, we were back in Milan and made our way to KJ's apartment where we bummed around for the rest of the evening. On Thursday morning we set out for the post-office once again with hopes of finally obtaining our package that would be there "guarenteed!".... Surprise!! Still not here. Come back and check tomorrow, they told us. We've heard that once before, maybe a few times even. We drowned our disappointment by getting ourselves some 1-euro McDonald's milk shakes. Later in the evening KJ's Italian friend Benny came over and took us to a Victorian bar down the street from Teatro alla Scala with her best friend who was in town from Switzerland. We shared a delecious but expensive Pina Colada and as we were leaving Kjelsie's dreams of sitting on a vespa in Italy were fulfilled when one the guys we were with let her sit on his. Score 2!
Well folks, we are leaving in a couple of hours to begin the rest of our backpacking journey. We're taking a train from Milan to Venice where we will be taking a night-train to Vienna. We'll try to update you soon!

Much love-

Turtle & Bird

Princess Day

Monday, 18 May: Princess Day at Neuschwanstein Castle

The day began by us waking up bright and early to our alarm clock. Normally, this is quite unpleasant, however we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Why you might ask?! Because it was our long-awaited for Princess Day! The weather outside was wet and gloomy, thus preventing us from wearing our dresses and the prospect of rain was hanging in the air. There was a slight confusion concerning train times, but they ran every hour so we only had to wait for 40 min. We bought some cheap coffees and then relocated and sat in a Starbucks and drank them. We even stole an empty cup sitting on the table next to us so that we looked legit and wouldn't get booted from our comfy chairs. Things like that just can't happen on Princess Day.

Finally, we were off! There was a layover in the town of Buchloe which would take us to Fussen and we almost missed our train-switch as we were deep in conversation. Luckily the train conductor signaled to us that this was our stop. After our arrival in Fussen we caught a bus to Schwangau. The scenery was spectacular on our way up and was enhanced by the misty clouds that sat amidst the castles. We bought our tickets for the castle tours and then prepared ourselves for the 35 minute walk up to Hohenschwangau Castle. This was the first of the two castles and was the hunting lodge and summer home of the Vavarian royal family. It is also where Ludwig II, who went on to build Neuschwanstein, spent his childhood. While waiting for our tour to begin, we commented on a fantastic German hat which was recently purchased by another woman in line. A Canadian man behind us heard us and made a joke, saying that the first two people to the castles this morning were given one free. He and his wife were pretty cool. How do you like them Candadians, eh!?

Our tour guide at Hohenschwangau was hilarious, we enjoyed his dry sense of humor. The castle's name translates into 'the land of the swans.' The area is also where Swan Lake originated. The inside of the castles were spectacular, but it's difficult to recount their spendor on account of not being allowed to snap photographs within their walls. There were horse-drawn carriages that trotted paying customers to and from the magnificent manors-- nothing is funnier than a big group of Harley bikers loading up into one of these. As appealing as this sounded, we instead walked our happy asses up both hills for a planned 1-hour hike. As a reward at the top of Neuschwanstein hill we bought ourselves some pink princess ice cream... mmm!

After we finished with the tours we headed back down to catch our bus back to Fussen. When we got back to Munich we ate some dinner at the Subway in the train station. We were in no great hurry to get back to Antonio and his "different" sort of outlook. When we returned, he reluctantly watched the movie Hitch with us before calling it a night and we once again slept Willy Wonka style on his couch as we had been doing the past couple of weeks on KJ's single bed in Milan.

And slowly, our minds drifted off into a slumber about our own Happily Ever After.

<3

München---Glockenspiel und Biergartens and GRASS!

Well folks, we are pleased to inform you that we have finally had a completely successful train-transit experience. We made it to Munich around 8:30 last night and after a quick detour we found Antonio´s place. Antonio is our couchsurfing host and he has 2 hilarious cats and a fantastic flat. Upon our arrival, we quickly discovered that Germany´s hours of operation vary greatly with those of say... Italy and Spain. Everything was closed by 9 and hence, we had to venture to a gas station and purchase a frozen pizza... yum. It reminded us of home. :)

We went to bed early on account of having gotten absolutely no sleep this week, and then, on top of that we got to sleep in late--it was fabulous!! We did eventually get up however, and then we attempted to go on a free city walking tour, but apparently the tour guide had one beer too many last night and had to sleep in, because he/she didn´t show up... :( Antonio (who came with us) ended up being our tour guide, and he did a damn good job alone. We stopped at all the important places--the Glockenspiel, a couple of beergardens, a park, and then the finale: the beloved Hofbrauhaus! Kjelsie also attempted to catch a duck, but that attempt sadly failed.

At the Hofbrauhaus, we ate a compilation of deliteful German cuisine. Everything from the spätzel to the wurst, and oohhh boy, those salads!! (Grandma Ruth was right :) It was a bit out of budget, but oh so worth it, because it was the first complete--all-pyramid-satisfying--meal that we have had in weeks! :D
We love the Germans... and their adorable traditional outfits (and beards!). pictures to come.
Everything here is just so efficient and clean!! It is much more like home, but even cleaner and greener. The Germans appreciate grass and outdoor activities; the park was bustling with life, but this may be on account of it being the only attraction open on a Sunday.

mmm... German grub!

We´re off to Neuschwanstein tomorrow. Here´s to hoping all of our dreams are going to come true!

Venetian Follies

Venice!!! The city where canals are more common than paved roads and picturesque bridges outnumber the local population. There is a lot of hype surrounding this sinking cita, and all I can say is that it is totally, justifiably earned. The city sparkles like the sun on it's glistening waterways, in every aspect... well, except for some of the reeking water/fishy scents, but that just an unavoidable reality, methinks.

All did not go as planned on our little Venetian outing, however. This should not surprise you. Kjelsie and I are never ones for textbook approaches or experiences. :) For the sake of time, and our sanity, we are cutting this blog down to a bullet-style outline of all the high (and low) points. Are you ready for Venice? Here it comes!

• The regional train to Venice(aka, the "free with pass" train) leaves from a different station and at a different time than the ones listed on our Eurail-provided timetable.
• Thus, we got a very late start.
• We resolved to spend only 5 touring hours in Venice, enabling us to make it out on the last train and therefore use only one day on our pass... or so we thought.
• Left at 11:35am bound for Venice
• 2:55pm arrive in Venice. Mikayla is like a 5 year-old waiting outside the gates of Disneyland.
• The posted timetable is checked to verify time of departure: 21:09... this does not match up with our previous information from Milan rail workers, but hey, we're in Venice now.
• We ventured into the streets, up/down the bridges, taking in the sights with the greatest sense of fulfillment.
  
• We decided that 5 hours in Venice is infinitely better than 5 hours not in Venice.
• While (still) our way to the San Marco Piazza. We got thirsty.
• Kjelsie has genius idea to by a wine juice-box along with our water.
• We continued in merriment. The wine was gone by the time we got to the Grand Canal... for some reason it went faster than the water. :D
• We were pigeon ladies--check one of the ole "List of necessary cliched activities"
• We forced pictures upon gondola navigators and swindled.
• We ate our cold, pre-cooked pasta in tomato cream sauce for dinner by the Duomo
  
• We decided that it would be best to be safe rather then sorry so we turned back around 7:30 and worked our way back to the train station.
• Cue fun-time!
• Having not seen Milan on the departure board when we got to the station at 8:30, we inquired.
• We were informed that the 21:09 train only ran on Sundays and that the next train Milan-bound left at 5:14 am
• Shit
• Kjelsie's and my mood immediately drops and we are vexed--our 5 hour trip to Venice has turned into a 14 hour trip to Venice.
• Bus? Not possible. Hostel? Absolutley not--unnecessary expenditure. Does the train station close? Yes--1am. Shit x2
• Our Barcelona-Gerona time-passing practices were reborn.
  
• We had coffee in a cafe for an hour after rumors of a 24hr. McDonalds turned out to be false.
• We sat in the train station.
• We met Oregon friends who were in the same homeless boat as us, and hung out.
• We sat in a 24 hr. vending machine room, because it was warm... I kid you not. It was creepy.
• Unfortunately for us, a homeless man got first dibs on the less-creepy of the two 24 hr. vending machine rooms.
• We showed back up on the stairs with the Oregonites and waited a couple of minutes for the train station to open again.
• We walked the length of the platform, therefore isolating ourselves from everybody, and were followed by obnoxious, schizophrenic and/or drunk and/or homeless guys to the end. And in not so many words told them to f*ck off.
• We boarded the train (yay! somewhere to sleep) and passed out for the first hour of our journey.
• After being awoken by conductorman, sleep was just never the same, because we became conscious again for the ungodly cold air being pumped through the trains vents.
• We proceeded to freeze, having lost the battle of the fetal-position.
• We arrived in Milan over 20 minutes late, and expected to miss the metro because of the "strike" (it's is a mystery as to whether it even took place or not)
• By some miracle, we made the metro to Maciachini.
• We bought tomato sauce for dinner on our way home, started some laundry, showered, set an alarm, and passed out.
• Slept through alarm. It was 2:45 at time of wake up. Shit x3.
• We attempted to go get our package... because of the incredible length of this process and because of the inconceivable stupidity of this whole damn situation, that's all I'm going to say on this topic. Oh, except that it was also raining at this point... :/ no jokes, please.
  
• Clarification: we're still packageless.
• In an attempt to possibly salvage the package out of our situation tomorrow, we're cutting Switzerland out of our day-plan but still going to arrive in Munich tomorrow night. :)

That's about it, I suppose... I think that bullets list is wayyyyyyy longer than I intended, but whatevs. There is great potential for Kjelsie and I to be computerless for up to 5 days, so there may not be any new blog posts for that length of time... we'll do what we can though.

Please keep us in your prayers. We will need them if our past experiences are any sort of a glimpse at what the next month is going to be. We're so poor. Viva couchsurfing! Like my mom says though, "there's worse things than being poor" and that backpacking (or doing anything, really) in such a state only allows it to become more memorable and meaningful in the long run. Thems some wise words, folks.

Whew. this is way longer than I intended. oops. My eyes are burning with the fire of a thousand suns. Please send us all of your good vibes, and we'll keep you posted!

Salaam

Just another night in Milan :)

So it's 1:50am and we're sitting in the kitchen at my apartment cooking noodles. It's for lunch tomorrow. We're going to VENICE in the morning! We'll be waking up early to catch the 7:30 train and will arrive there by 11:00. MK is very excited... esp. for the handstand picture she plans on taking ;) It's been beautiful out this past week, we're hoping to catch a tan soon...



Today was the last day of my classes at Cattolica. I had a big presentation for my Leonardo da Vinci class on Monday-- my roommate Katie and I made a sculpture for our group's final project, we were pleased with the final product! I then had two finals yesterday and today I attended my Da Vinci class to listen to the rest of the group presentations. I can't believe the semester is over! It's weird to think that people will be leaving this weekend already.

This evening Katie and I took Mikayla to Spib's Pizza just down the street from our apartment. The pizza there is sooo good, it's our favorite pizzeria in town! As we were leaving after paying our tab our adorable nerdy waiter was waiting outside the door with three roses he had bought from a flowerman (sounds like weatherman haha). He made our night! We were smitten. We had to of course save our flowers so we brought them back to the apartment. Low and behold, we were running late (once again, poor Steph...) and we had to run to the metro stop to meet our favorite Minnesotan.

Next stop... Old Fashion (aka: a club, but still not The Club). It was SO much fun-- half of it was inside and half was outside. They played American music and we were able to sing along the entire time. They even played some Backstreet Boys followed by the Spice Girls.. nothing like a little bit of old school tunes and Old Fashion ;) Women were just a little outnumbered and hence, a good time was had by all... :).

Well, Mikayla has finished our pasta and we have to get to bed because the morning is going to come too soon.

Thanks for reading, Maties!
Baciiii!

Mikayla&Milan

Hey dudes.
Well, surprise! I'm kickin' it solo in the apartment again--it's ok though. This is the last installment of planned chill-time for a while. It will be nice to move quickly again. This state of activity (or lack thereof) breeds laziness, and I don't like that feeling.
Sadly, we still do not have the allusive care-package from home. :( Not only will it cost an additional 135€, but it is now out in Milan's warehouseland and it must be rescued before it journeys to the downtown post office on Friday. Well, being the the cab-fare alone could rival the value of the packages contents... ugh. So we're just going to wait until Friday and pick up our package at the downtown post office. Oh, but wait! Now that can't be too easy either, though! Why, you might ask? Well, because there's a planned public transportation strike on Friday! Si, claro! Dios mio!!! Por supuesto hay una huelga de trabajadores a viernes, cuando necesitamos transporte público!!! Dios mio... fucking típico.
I digress, just another "bump along the way"... kinda like 84 before that, but hey! We're still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and nothing can get us down (except bankrupcy)!
I really wish I weren't so obsessive about finances. It's ruining my fun. I need to "Live in the Moment", damn it. I keep telling myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I need to savor it, but I'm too worried about something going wrong and costing us even more money.
Well, my oh my I am just a ray of sunshine today.
Sorry about that.
Things really aren't too bad. I'm glad I have such a positive partner to share this with. Even when I'm dead-set on being a downer, she perks me back up and makes me laugh.
We're good at that somehow. Thank God for Kjelsie. :)
I think I'll throw in some pictures just to keep this from looking boring. They're a bit old (from February) but KJ and I weren't blogging then. Kjelsie and I had rendezvoused in Barcelona for a weekend that will no doubt go down in history. ;) Enjoy.
Peace and Hope,
Mikayla
(respectfully listed: Kjelsie & I at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral; Kjelsie, Andrew,& Scotty at Parc Guel; and all of us at Parc Guel)