New York-Colroado

Today we are going back to Colorado, finally!  Our flight leaves at 11:20 and then we have a layover in Texas and from there we are headed to Colorado.  We didn't get into Colorado until 5:00 pm, and then my dad came to pick us up.  Overall, the flight was not too bad, but seemed like a lot of flying for only going from New York to Colorado.   From New York to London seemed almost shorter time, probably because there was no layover and Air India made it very relaxing.  Overall, our trip was amazing and now we are planning more trips that we would love to go on, such as South America, back to Ireland, and Australia, etc.  Love you all that have kept up with us and thanks for your comments!!

New York, NY

This morning we woke up early to a nice american cup of coffee!  We ate breakfast in the hotel then took the metro to the church near where the World Trade Center used to be.  We walked around the memorial and the new construction site for awhile before going down to Wall Street.  The site had an ominous feel even with all of the new construction going on.  Wall Street just looked like money.  The Trump Tower is right there among many other fancy high rise buildings.  The New York stock exchange was roped off so we weren't able to see what exactly happens inside but on the front of the building was the largest american flag that I have ever seen.  We walked from Wall Street down to Battery Park on the southern tip of Manhattan island.  There we saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Cheryl's mom asked us if we wanted to go and see the statue but Cheryl and I were a little tired of waiting in lines for tourist attractions.  I'm glad we decided not to buy tickets after seeing that line, it would have been an all day event.  We were all getting hungry so we decided to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop we passed by.  A "euro" sandwich shop if you can believe it!  Lunch was great and afterward we took the metro up to Carnegie Hall.  I wanted to see the inside and the only way to do it besides a concert was to get a tour.  Cheryl and Tena were nice and came with me, though I don't think it was something that either of them were really excited about.  It was cool to see the hall but would be much better in concert.  The guide was an interesting lady and kept us somewhat entertained throughout the tour with her crazy antics.  Afterward we walked into Central Park and had an ice cream.  It was a beautiful day out and we just sat and talked for awhile.  We went by the Rockefeller Center on our way back to the hotel and walked in the NBC studios down into the center.  It was basically one big shopping mall with famous studios everywhere.  The ice rink was turned into a cafe for the summer.  By the time we left there we were all a little tired from such a long day and decided to go back for a nap before going to dinner with Cheryl's uncle in Long Island.  We got off to a little bit of a late start for our train to Long Island but we mad it just in time!  It took about 30 minutes or so to get to her uncle's.  He picked us up at the train station and when we arrived at his house Cheryl and I played soccer with the kids while the "grown ups" talked.  Then we sat down over a nice dinner and talked for a long while with her aunt and uncle.  We were all tired on the train back home but we had decided earlier to check out the rooftop lounge of the hotel.  It was beautiful on top of the huge building but Cheryl and I felt a little underdressed and tired so we just went back down to the room to call it a night.  We were both excited to fly back to Colorado the next day!

London-New York

Today we fly back to the states, and both of us can't believe it's time already!  Our flight leaves at 1:00pm and gets in at 4:55 pm in New York.  The flight is about 8 hours, but with all the time changes, it would seem that we don't fly to long.  However, Air India has been a great airline to fly because no one is ever on the big plane and they are very accommodating.  We got 2 meals, drinks whenever, and they had a list of movies that we could watch.  Overall the whole flight went by pretty fast and we were in New York before we knew it.  From there we had to catch the air tram out of the airport to get to where the underground train runs.  We were going to stay in a hostel in New York, but my mom ended up having an extra bed in her room so we stayed there.  My aunt Mary had work in New York and my mom came along for the ride, so we were able to stay with them and hang out with them, which was nice.  It took about 3 hours from the airport to the hotel where they were staying, and by that time we were hungry so we went out for dinner with my mom.  After dinner we just hung out in the hotel and talked about the trip.  By 10:00pm all of us were really tired and ready for bed, because tomorrow we are going to go and see some of the other sites that Rj and I didn't have time for when we were there last.  

London

 Rj and I woke up this morning ready to see the sites of London.  It took a little while to get where we wanted because our hostel was about 20 mins. outside of where all the monuments were that we wanted to see.  We went to the London Bridge and could get a good view of  the Tower Bridge from there.  We were able to see the levers of the bridge go up, so that a big ship could go through.  Then we went over to the Tower Bridge and were able to walk across it and see just how big it was.  The Tower Bridge seemed a lot more interesting then the London Bridge and had more to look at.  Then we walked along the river back to the metro station, so that we could go to see Big Ben and many other sites.  Along the way we came to a little shopping area, where there was a tournament going on that we didn't not understand at all.  There was about 5 or 6 grown- men playing some sport where they throw a ball that looked like a shotput, and threw it into a sandpit.  We were confused by the sport but that it was interesting, because it seemed like a huge game.  After that we went to Ben Big, where there was a park, and a church all next to it.  From there we walked to James Park, and onto Buckingham Palace.  It was amazing and so much bigger than I thought.  At each entrance there was a different country on the gates (Australia, Canada, Africa, etc).   From there we wanted to go to another Palace that was near by, but some how we miss it, or got lost.  We ended up by some big statue and then from there made it to a big arch way.  Cars went through the arch way and there was a beautiful view going both way (to the Buckingham Palace and  a big waterfall).  After walking most of the day we decided to go back to the hostel and get dinner.  Both of us were really hungry to we went to a take-out place that had fish and chips, and then we made it to the grocery store for liquor.  We ended up getting 6 beers for 5 pounds, which we 8.4 % liquor and were really good.  That night both of us drank a lot of the beer and felt really good.  We also talked with a few of the people from the hostel and had a great time that night.  Tomorrow we have to catch our flight back to the states, crazy!

Edinburgh-London

We slept in a little this morning then went for a walk around the town.  We walked down the main street a little further than yesterday and came to a big cathedral.  They were in mass so we only took pictures from the outside.  After that we came back through the old city and the castle.  We did a little shopping on the way and went by a couple of scotch "bottle shops".  Then we went back to the hostel to round up all of our stuff and catch the train.  We are taking a gamble on our rail passes as we were told that they actually don't work in the UK just the night before.  The train was really full when we got on but we found some seats.  The ticket taker checked our passes and said we were good to go.  That was a big relief!  The train kept getting more crowded with every stop and seeing as we didn't have reservations we were forced to move from seat to seat.  That was fine until the train started having electrical problems.  We were told to get off the train and board another.  The other train was already full of people and now it had another full trainload coming on board.  We had to stand up between the cars for the last hour of the trip home.  We arrived in London about 2 1/2 hours late but had no trouble finding our hostel.  After checking in we went to the store and grabbed some pizza for dinner.  Then came back to watch the soccer game.  It was definitely an interesting day!

Dublin-Scotland

Rj and I decided the night before that the next morning we were going to go for a run around town, so that we would be able to see more in Dublin.  However, when we woke up that morning it was raining pretty hard, so we decided not to.  We had free breakfast, which was not that good at all.  So we went down the street to a hotel that had a traditional breakfast, which was really good.  I of course didn't like half of it, but Rj and I traded foods and it worked out well.  After breakfast we decided to try to go and see some of the city, and the farther in we went the more it rained.  We didn't make it too far because we were trying to find another umbrella and look at the sites.  Since we were tight on time, we couldn't make it as far as we wanted, so we had to turn around and head to the hostel to get our stuff and then to the bus.  I was a little stressed out because we had to fly to Scotland that day at 1:00 pm and it was 10:45 am by the time we got to our hostel.  I thought that we were not going to make our flight, but Rj was calm and seemed to be fine.  The bus ride took about 35 mins. to get to the airport and then check in went surprisingly fast and we even had time to look around the airport.  Since we are going to Scotland and they are on the pound, we thought we would spend some of the euro we had, which was 12 euro.  So we got some chocolate with whiskey, I think!  Then we made it of course perfect timing to get in line to get on the plan.  We even got the isle seats, again, which was so nice and very spacious!  Once we got into Scotland, we took the bus to our hostel and on the way we were site seeing all of the area.  Our hostel was right in the center of the city and we were able to go out that night and see a lot of the sites around town.  That night it rained again, which kind of sucked, but it was to be expected.  After going around the town and looking in all of the little shops with tons of Scottish items, we decided to hang out in our hostel.  The hostel had DVD's for 50 cents (pound), so that would be $1.00.  So we rented two movies and watched both of them and saw part to the soccer game that night.  Overall, it was pretty laid back and relaxing, but the hostel was a little on the odd side of things.  The whole time we watched the movies, it poured out side, I couldn't believe it!  Hopefully tomorrow is nice so that we will be able to go out and see more of city!

Killarney, Ireland

Rj and I didn't get up as early as we wanted this morning.  We wanted to be able to rent bikes for the whole morning, so that we could see the entire Killarney National Park.  However, by the time we went to rent bikes it was about 10:00 or 10:30 and we had to be back by at least 1:00 pm because we had a train to catch at 1:50 pm.  Both us of were sad to have to leave because we wanted to stay a lot longer.  We weren't even sure if we were going to be able to see much of the National Park because of the time limitation.  We rode as fast as we could so that we could get to the National Park and then be able to go to see the Torc Waterfall.  It took us about an hour to get there and along the way it was so green and reminded us of Switzerland.  It was so lush and everything seemed to be growing on top of something else.  On the way we saw this giant house called the Muckrose  House, which out looked a lake.  Rj and I took as many pictures as we could and still tried hard to get to the Torc Waterfall as soon as possible.   Once we got there the sign said it was a 30-40 min hike around the Torc Waterfall. By that time we knew that we would not be able to go any farther around the lake if we did this hike.  We decided just to do the hike and then go back, which was unfortunate.  The Torc Waterfall was only a little ways up and then there was a path that went in a circle around the area.  Once we got to the waterfall, our camera's batteries started to die.  We had bought new ones the other day, but they were cheap and must have been too cheap!  Every time we tried to use the camera we had to switch the batteries around and just hope that it would work.  It was very frustrating and had to keep moving along with a time restriction.  We were able to still get some pictures in and make it back to return the bikes and get on the train.  We took the train all the way to Dublin and got in around 5:00 pm or so.  We then had to take the metro to our hostel and were able to see some of the sites along the way.  That night we hung out at the hostel and made dinner and watched another one of the soccer games.  The hostel overall, was alright, and were glad that we were only staying in Dublin one night.  However, we wished we had more time tomorrow before our flight so that we could walk around and see some of the sites.  

Killarney, Ireland

We woke up early in the morning to a beautiful day!  We were pretty excited about the bus tour on the Ring of Kerry but thought that it started a little later so we were forced to rush through breakfast a little.  There was this older irish guy who came and picked us up in his car at the hostel.  The irish are extremely friendly and when most of the time on our tour we have had to ask people for help, the irish are asking us all the time if we need anything.  This guy was cracking jokes and making us laugh the whole way to the bus.  This gave us an idea of how the tour was going to go and made us even more excited.  We hopped on the bus with about 20 other people that were all like 90 years old.  The man who gave us a ride to the bus was telling us that we must be the youngest couple to ever visit Killarney.  I don't understand why, but I think that most of the young people stay in Dublin and drink.  I guess they don't understand that the people everywhere in Ireland drink.  Anyway, on the first stop we saw the peat farms and an old irish town where we had the best coffee we have had in all of europe.  Then we went drove on, the driver cracking jokes and describing the countryside, to see the tallest mountain in Ireland before stopping at a shepherd's house.  This was one of the best things on the tour by far.  The shepherd had 3 dogs that were all trained on different commands and whistles so that he could use them individually.  He provided a demonstration with his dogs and a small flock of sheep.  I wish Bandit was this well trained, these dogs could do anything at any distance up to a half mile away.  It was really cool to see.  Then the shepherd described the many different sheep varieties from all over Europe.  After the shepherd's house we went to this little irish town on a lake and ate lunch.  Everybody from the tour went and ate at some fancy hotel while Cheryl and I packed a lunch and ate at the school on the lake.  It was a beautiful day and the driver told us that we were lucky because the tour the day before didn't get to see much due to the rain.  After lunch we went to the west coastline.  It was beautiful!!  Ireland has sandy beaches, little islands, and big cliffs with waves crashing in.  The best part is the green, irish green.  We stopped several times for pictures along the coast and we tried our best not to fill up the memory card on the camera as we still had 2 hours left of the tour.  We stopped at a little town on the coast that is known as the cleanest town in Ireland.  Cheryl and I went down to the river and snapped a few pictures before I stopped into the pub for a Guinness.  After the coast he drove into the mountains over windy passes with views of lakes, rolling hills, and mountains everywhere.  The road was very small in areas and it made me feel bad for the other cars on the road when they saw our huge bus coming around a tight corner.  The mountains were not very big, at just over 3,000 feet, but provided great views.  There was one especially great view called the valley of 40 shades of green and the name says it all.  We had one last stop on the tour which was the viewpoint of Queen Victoria.  I guess it was one of her favorite spots whenever she came to the island.  This was a view of the 3 lakes of Killarney in Killarney national park.  As we were rolling back into town, all Cheryl and I could talk about was how we wished that we had more time in Ireland.  We definitely plan on coming back for a much longer visit someday.  When we arrived back in town we made dinner and discussed our plans for the next day.  I met up with a guy from Limerick and a palestinian guy and we went out for a couple beers before bed.  It was a wonderful day!

Paris-Ireland

So about ryanair that Rj didn't mention was that we were afraid that our luggage was going to be over the weight so we wore a lot of our clothing.  I wore 4 shirts, 2 pants, a jacket, and Rj wore 2 shirts, 2 jackets, and thick socks.  We also took the top to his bag and attached the tent to it, so that it counted as one of our carry-on.  When Rj went through the security they were not sure if tent polls were allowed, but they let us on anyways.  We both thought it was really funny, but we didn't have to pay any extra charges for over weight.  Actually we were under weight so when we go to Ireland, we can get more items and will be fine for the flight to Scotland.  Anyways, the morning of our flight went well and we were so tired that we slept well on the uncomfortable plane chairs (but we did get the icle seats).   By the time we got into the airport we got our luggage and caught the bus to the train station.  We had about an hour until our train left so we decided to walk around Dublin a little, and ended up at the Guinness Brewery House.  Rj wanted to see how much it cost and if we would have time to go to see it.  Then we caught our train from Dublin to Mallow and then from Mallow to Killarney.  It took about 3 or so hours total in train riding.  Overall, it didn't seem like too long because we were still not caught up on our sleep.  Once we got to Killarney it was raining and so we checked into a hostel that we saw on the way into town.  We had planned on camping, but since it was raining and we were tired we decided not to.  Then we went out to dinner to get a traditional Irish meal.  Rj got Sheppard's Pie and I tired a Irish Stew, both of them were great.  I would say very high in fat, but extremely tasty.  At dinner Rj got his favorite beer Guinness and said that it was amazing.  He said that it tasted different from the states and so much better.  You could tell he was satisfied by the look on his face after taking drinks of it.  After dinner the rain had stopped and we decided to walk around the town and look in the shops.  We really wanted to find cool unique items because this was a place that both of us were really excited about being in.   That night we didn't stay up to late because we knew we had to get up early to go to catch the Ring of Kerry Tour.   

Paris, France

This morning we woke up a little early to go to Versaille the royal palace near Paris.  This little town holds the largest royal palace and gardens in all of europe.  We caught the train there, which only took about half an hour, and walked to the palace.  It was a very big place but I think that the lines were even bigger.  Cheryl and I were ready for the lines (or so we thought) when we arrived and very patiently waited for our turn with the ticket sellers.  This took about 1 1/2 hours!  We were still perfectly happy right up until they told us that we had to take our ticket to another line for people who just bought or already had tickets.  We found out later that we could have bought tickets at the railway station and saved ourselves some time.  This second line was about an hour long and brought us, finally, into the palace.  The palace was very nice and luxurious as Louis XXIV was one of the richest rulers in european history.  They called him the sun king because the sun never set on his kingdom.  The palace was great and all but our favorite part was the gardens.  It was the most well kept garden I have ever seen.  Just to give you an idea of the size, there is a canal in the middle of the garden that is in the shape of a cross.  This canal goes 1 mile north-south, and 1 mile east-west.  King Louis imported Gandoliers from venice just to give him and his guests rides around the canal.  It was a really cool place and must take a lot of money to keep up.  We caught the train back to Paris after we were tired of walking around the gardens.  We went back to the hostel, ate, and took a short nap.  Then, we caught the metro to the Eiffel Tower, right at sunset.  We walked up (just the first 2 stories, you're right Jules) to the second story and were lucky enough to see a big red full moon.  It was a beautiful night!!  Shortly after the sun went down we headed back to the hostel to pack up for our flight the next morning.  Ryanair only allows you to fly with a 15 kilo bag and a 10 kilo carry-on.  Unsure of exactly how much our luggage weighed we did a lot of reorganizing.  We were up very late, until about 2am, and had to get up around 5 to catch the bus to the airport.  A great day but we both went to sleep with a feeling like we were going to pay for it tomorrow.

Paris, France

We slept in a little this morning because although it was a comfortable night train the night before, it was still a night train.  We missed the free breakfast at the hostel but found a great pastry place (they're everywhere in France) and got a bite to eat before catching the metro to the Louvre.  We had downloaded these free Ipod tours by Rick Steves on the internet a couple nights before and used the first one at Notre Dame.  It worked out very well and we decided to use one again in the Louvre.  The crowds were not too bad at all and the museum is huge and magnificent.   Definitely the best museum we have been to on our trip.  It is crazy, though, that people walk past all of these amazing works of art without even glancing, just so they can go get there picture of the Mona Lisa.  It was definitely my least favorite piece in the museum, very small with a huge crowd of people around it pushing and shoving for there shot.  Right outside in the main hall there is an entire wall of Leonardo DaVinci's and another with Rafael's and Boticelli's with nobody around.  People are funny (or something).  The museum was great and we spent about 4 1/2 hours trying to see it all which of course didn't happen.  But I feel like we saw the main parts we really wanted to see.  We went to the art of Africa, Oceania, and Asia room and might have seen 2 people.  After the museum we went back to the hostel for dinner and just relaxed for the rest of the night.  Well, as relaxing as it could be.  A large school tour group of kids showed up that night and took over our floor.  So we were kept up for a while by a bunch of 10-13 year old kids running around and yelling everywhere.

Paris, France

The train arrived a little late this morning at around 9:00 instead of 7 which was okay but then we realized that we forgot to write down directions to the hostel.  This made the morning very interesting.  We bought our metro pass, which is a definite requirement in Paris, and asked the lady who sold it to us how to get to the hostel.  She sent us off in the wrong direction and we ended up regrouping over coffee at around 11:00.  Luckily the coffee shop had internet because the coffee was terrible.  We were able to get directions from the internet, though, and made it to the hostel around noon.  The hostel was very big, we were on the 7th floor and I think it went up to 9, but it was a great place.  After checking in we played around on the internet for a couple hours trying to figure out the remainder of our trip and what exactly we wanted to see in Paris.  Then we caught the metro to the Notre Dame Cathedral and walked around the old city.  The cathedral was huge and we were lucky enough to catch it in the middle of a service.  It was kind of funny though because my watch hadn't been working for weeks because of sand or something and I had an alarm going off at 6:00pm every day.  Well, it went off in the middle of the service at Notre Dame and miraculously all the buttons worked again so that I could turn it off.  Pretty crazy!  After walking around the old city we went out for dinner in the latin quarter.  It was nice but the latin quarter is known for being inexpensive and it didn't really have much of a parisian feel.  Afterward, we walked along the Seine river and through the gardens of the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower.  We were walking through the Louvre gardens around sunset and it was beautiful!  When we arrived to the Eiffel tower we wanted to go to the top but they weren't letting people walk up at that time so we decided to come back another night and watch the sunset from the top.  At this point we were both pretty exhausted and just went back to the hostel to call it a night.

Madrid- San Sebastian, Spain

This morning was hard to do because both of us woke up really tired and it was probably a good thing that we were not doing much.  Rj didn't feel good for most of the day and for some reason I didn't either.  We took the train from Madrid to San Sebastian, which was from 10:00 to 4:00 pm and then from there we walked to the next local train station and took the train from San Sebastian to Hendaye, France.  We got to Hendaye at about 6:00 and made our reservation to Paris, which we were hoping were not full.  The lady at the desk told us that the sleeping cars were full, but not the reclining chairs (before the reclining chairs, were normal and not very comfortable).   Then when she told us the price, we could not believe it, she said 3 euro for both  of us and we were like what!!  That was awesome and we were so excited, it was the cheapest night for us so far.  In the mean time, we had about 3 or so hours until our train left so we decided to walk to the water.  We wanted to go to where the beach was and hang out, but it was a lot farther than we expected so we went to a bench that was near a playground and hung out.  We both read our books and relaxed and watched the people go by.  There was a walking path and a bike path that looked like it went around the whole area and to where the beach probably was.  Then we made ourselves some dinner (salami sandwiches with cheese) and then we were on our way to catch our train.  It left at 10:00 pm and got into Paris at 7:00am.  When we got on the train we realized that these chairs were actually recliner ones and very nice, so we were excited and happy to hopefully sleep good.  

Madrid, Spain

We woke up a little early so that we could check out of the hostel and go to the train station to get our tickets reserved for our train to San Sebastian.  Once we got to the train station, which was about a 5 min walk, we had to stand in line for about 20 mins or so.  Then we when got to the desk the guy told us that the train was full and we couldn't go, so we thought maybe we would go straight to Paris.  However, that was probably also full, but we had to go to another train station to do that and figure out what we wanted.  So we had to take the metro for about 20 mins. to another train station, only to stand in more lines.  The guy at that station told us we could get a ticket to San Sebastian the next day at 10:00, so we took it.  Then we tried to book for Paris, for the next night (which would be an over night train).  He told us that we would have to go to another line and figure that out.  By the time we got up to the counter, the guy told us that we could not book a train from there to Paris.  He said that once we got to San Sebastian, we would have to cross over to France to make the reservation.  So at the time we had no idea if we would be able to make the train to Paris or what we would do.  We decided to stay in Madrid one more night and then go to San Sebastian and then see if we could go to Paris.  The thing that sucked was that we new the next day we would be traveling on the train all day long and then hopefully take the night train.  Another thing that didn't make us happy was the fact that the train reservation was 46 euro each to be in a recliner chair for the over night train.  After that huge ordeal, we were really hungry and wanted food soon and found a buffet at the train station, which was pretty cheap.  We filled up on lots of food and made it back to the hostel some time in the afternoon.  That afternoon we look at stuff online and got a room at the same hostel that we had been at.  Then Rj took a nap, while I went grocery shopping food dinner.   That night we again watched the soccer game and talked with our friends from Ireland and Scotland (the couple), and we also talked with a guy from Canada.  All of us had a great time drinking and hanging out.  The other girl and I went up to bed around 120:0 or 1:00 am, while the guys hung out and talked.  Later I went down to the common area where they were and found that all of them were gone.  I knew that they must have gone out, but didn't expect them to be out all night.  Rj said that he had a good time, but the guy from Canada wanted to stay out all night until he had to catch his train in the morning.  Rj and the guy from Scotland didn't really want to stay out that long, but stayed anyways.  The guy from Canada kept buying them drinks at every bar, but I guess that he was a rude guy to the people from Madrid.  So Rj and the guy from Scotland were afraid that he was going to get beat up or never make it home, so they stayed with him to make sure he made it home.   However, Rj didn't get in until like 5:00am that morning and we had to catch a train at 10:00, which was about 30-40 mins away from where we were.  Luckily I got up and got him up, cause he still was drunk that morning, crazy I know!   But we made it to our train that morning. 

Madrid, Spain

This morning we woke up early again, and had breakfast which was free.  We decided to go to the park that Rj went on a run, which was about a 10-15 walk.  The park was huge and was like no other park that I have been to.  It seemed big, like the one in New York (Central Park), but so different.  It was very well kept in the fact that all of the trees and bushes were cut regularly.  They made a lot of the trees into different shapes and sizes and the flowers were so colorful.  They also had different designs in the bushes, which were mixed with the flowers.  I have never seen anything like it and the trees that Rj is under in the pictures were crazy looking.  They look fake and a unreal color green and bunched together like gummy balls.   Then we can to a place where Rj saw peacock's, which I forgot to say scared the crap out of him.  He said that he was running and they must of been sleeping cause he didn't see them and ran right near them.  Then one came up and started yelling at him and he said that he jumped and was so startled by it.  ( I thought it was a funny story and wished that I had been there).  However, by the time we got there the area where they were was closed, so we continued on the park.  It had a lot of fountains and a pond where you could go paddle boat around.  We ended up making our way to another cool area with tons of flowers.  It had arches with flowers weaved in them and rows of different colored flowers all along.  I thought it was gorgeous and an awesome place to look around.  The seem of all the flowers was almost over whelming.  There was two little fountains and not a lot of people.  After the park we decided to go back to the hostel and hang out for a little while.  By this time by my blister on my foot was hurting and we need a rest.  That night we didn't do much and took it easy and watched the soccer game.  

Madrid, Spain

This morning we were awakened early by our roommates and people near us in the hostel.  We got up at about 8:00 am and got free breakfast.  Rj decided that he wanted to go for a run in the park near us and I was not feeling up to it, so I read my book.  After Rj got back, we had a little time before we were to met up with our free walking tour.  It started at noon near by and was about a 2 hour or so tour.  The tour started out good, but as we went on it was ok.  The tour guide was not lively or energetic in anyway.  He didn't keep Rj and I too interesting in what we was saying, but we went through the whole tour anyways.  At the end of the tour we wanted to go to the tapas tour, we would get a few beers and some food.  However, it didn't happen because not enough people wanted to do it.  So we ended up going back to our favorite place, the restaurant with 100 sandwiches.  We enjoyed that very much, and we were really hungry at that time.  After a late lunch we went back to the hostel and got some more groceries for dinner.  We didn't have dinner until way later, but we hung out and had wine.  While we drank our wine, we watched another one of the soccer games.  That night we met a couple from Ireland and Scotland.  They were really nice and we ended up talking with them all night long.  They gave us good tips on Scotland and Ireland and made us more excited to go there.  Tomorrow we are going to see the park and whatever other sites we decide to.  

Seville to Madrid

We woke up and had to catch a train to Madrid today.  We decided to do some sightseeing along the way and saw some of the things that we had overlooked on the way in because of our frustration trying to find the hostel.  We took a few pictures and then hopped on a bus to the train station.  The bus took quite awhile but gave us a good tour of the city on the way.  We arrived at the station just in time to catch our train.  The train ride was very nice and we arrived in Madrid right on time.  The hostel we stayed at had a really nice security system and a big common room.  There was also a nice roof area with a workout facility.  It was very large and looked like it could acommodate a lot of people.  We went grocery shopping and made dinner.  We ate and watched the soccer games that night.  We decided to take it easy and hit the city the next day.

Seville, Spain

We woke around 10:00 am and had free breakfast which included bread and plain cereal.  So nothing great!  Next we knew we had to do laundry cause it had been way over due.  So the laundry place that was recommended to us, which was close, was 12 euros for 2 loads.  So it was and seemed to be expensive, but that would be 3 euro for each load (2 wash, and 2 dry) and not only did the place do your laundry, they folded it, too.  Therefore, it seemed a little more worth the price.  Then we got on the internet for 1-2 hours, planned the rest of our trip and booking hostels to stay at.  After being on the internet for a while, we decided to go to get groceries to make lunch.  The grocery store was about a 10-15 min. walk away and it was located in a big shopping mall, which had a variety of stores and some restaurants.  We were both really hungry and saw one of our favorite place, the little sandwich restaurant, so we decided to eat there.  It's the restaurant that has 100 little sandwiches and it tasted really good especially for the cheap price (just a little over a euro for one sandwich).  After lunch we went to the grocery store, which was on the bottom floor, and got some food for dinner.  Then we decided to walk around the town until 6:00pm, when the futbol game was on.  I had found a place called Art Bellas, which was free and was close to our hostel. So we went there and looked at different pieces of art and saw a cool green bird in the courtyard.  Once we felt like we had see enough we tried to find this bar that I heard of that had cheap beer, but by the time we found it the game had already started, and for some reason the bar was not open.  So went ended up going back to the hostel and watching the game there.  After the game we were hungry and wanted to go out for tapas (little plates of different types of food), but we couldn't find a good place.  So we agreed on going back to the restaurant with the little sandwiches, which is just called 100 little sandwiches.  This time we sat outside where they had music and some guy giving dance lessons.  That night we just hung out there and had a few drinks and enjoyed the night.  My favorite sandwich is with cream chesse and salmon and Rj's is with shredded ham and an orange colored sauce.   He really like the salmon one too and I tried his and the ham was more similar to bacon, almost.  Once we got back to the hostel, we thought about going out, but didn't see too much going on, so went ended up going to bed.  That night I was able to rest my foot, which has  a big blister on it.  So it doesn't really feel good and there is not much to do for it.  

Cadiz, Spain

We haven't updated in awhile because the internet has been irregular and expensive.  It might get a little harder to keep up on this blog for the remainder of the trip but we will try.  In the meantime we'll be writing in a journal to fill this in later.  In the morning we woke up and went to the beach.  The beach here is pretty big and we walked for maybe a mile before we found a spot we liked.  We laid around for awhile next to a soccer "field" until I couldn't sit there anymore and decided to go play soccer with these 2 spanish boys.  I went to play soccer with them and Cheryl went for a walk along the water.  They were 19 years old and from Cadiz.  It was interesting to talk to them about the difference in sports between Spain and America.  Soccer, basketball, and motorcycle racing are the biggest sports in Spain.  When Cheryl got back we decided to go back to the hostel for lunch before we caught the train to Sevilla.  The hostel was one of the better we have stayed in and we were a little sorry to leave the place behind.  The train ride was only about 2 1/2 hours but when we arrived we had a very hard time finding the hostel.  We walked for close to 2 hrs. and both of us were pretty frustrated at this point.  After we arrived we watched the soccer games and went out for dinner.  We wanted to cook something but by the time we found the hostel everything was pretty much closed.  It was a pretty uneventful evening but maybe one of our last lay around relaxing mornings.

Tarifa-Cadiz, Spain

We got up and checked out of our hostel.  Then we looked at the times for the bus to go to Cadiz.  At the hostel it said the bus leaves at 12:25 pm, so we only had an hour or so.  We waited for the bus and then found out it was the wrong time.  The next bus would not leave there until 2:25 pm.  We didn't know what to do till then.  It was so windy and the only place we knew to go to was the beach.  Me being really smart, thought since it was windy we could sit in our tent.  The closer to the beach the more windier it was.  No one was out but we decided to try setting up the tent on the beach, anyways!  The whole process was really hard because one of us had to hold onto some part of the tent; otherwise, it would have blown away.  Once we got it up, we put my big backpack in it, to hold it down.  The tent still looked like it was going to blow away.  So Rj got in it and the tent suctioned around him (I was laughing).  There was no way it was going to work.  Meanwhile the wind kept getting worse and the sand was pelting our legs.  It took about 30 mins. total to put up the tent and put it away (normally a 5-7 min. process).  When we left the beach, everywhere was so sandy (our body's, in the tent, and somehow into our big backpacks).  Overall, it was funny and I'm sure someone watching was amused.  Then we got a snack and caught the bus to Cadiz.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride, so not bad at all.  A couple on the bus had told us about a hostel they were staying at and how it was really nice.  We fortunately got a room at that hostel and that night we hung out on the roof in their hammocks.  The hostel also had a barbecue for 5 euro each, so we did it.  There was a good amount of food and it was really relaxing.  Tomorrow we are going to walk around Cadiz and check out the beach.

Tarifa, Spain

This morning we were feeling kinda lazy.  We woke up and checked out of the dormitory we were in and into a private room for the same price.  We pretty much hung out at the hostel most of the day because of the wind outside.  We met a bunch of new people at the hostel and we all decided to go out ands party a little that night.  We started off at the hostel with dinner and a couple bottles of wine and then cleaned up and headed out for the first bar.  We went to a couple of different bars and "discos" before the bar that we planned on going to even opened up.  In Spain they go out much later than I think anywhere else in the world.  Dinner is usually around 10 when people go out for "tapas" and a few drinks.  The main bars don't usually open until after midnight and people party until the sunrise several nights a week.  We only made it until about 3 in the morning but the last bar was really cool.  It is inside of an old castle, was very large, and it had a dance club atmosphere.  It was a very good night!

Tarifa, Spain

Today we planned on going to the beach and hoped that it would not a be as windy as yesterday. We were told that morning that the wind pick´s up in the late afternoon. I read that Tarifa is known for kitesurfers and that is because of where the sun is in the sky and with the 2 bodies of water. The beach that day was great, no wind! We layed out, went a little ways into the water, and walked along the water. The water here is cold, but in the Cinque Terre, Italy, it was colder. Once we decided we had enough of the sun we came back into town. That night we cooked spaghetti and went out to see the sunset again. This time we caught it earlier, so we got to see it slowly go down. Tomorrow we are probably going to go back to the beach, if it is nice.

Madrid-Tarifa, Spain

We had to get up a little early this morning to catch the train at 8. Which kinda sucked cause we had a free breakfast that looked really good but it didn't start until 8.  So we checked out without breakfast and caught the metro to the main train station.  Well, we thought our train left at 8 but it turned out that it didn't leave until 8:30 so we just killed time trying not to fall asleep in the station.  Then we hopped a 2 1/2 hour train to Cordoba and changed over there to a 3 1/2 hour train to Algeciras, just eating lunch on the trains.  After the train we caught a bus from Algeciras to Tarifa which was only like 4 euro for both of us.  It took us awhile when we arrived at Tarifa to find our hostel and it was really hot with our big packs on.  Turned out that we had walked right passed it the first time because we were both staring at this really cool looking dalmation.  Then we checked into our hostel, which had a kitchen, and went grocery shopping for dinner.  Afterward, we went to the beach and walked around for awhile.  It was really windy and there were tons of kite surfers in the water.  We both agreed that the beach was not necessarily the biggest beach we had ever been on but probably one of the widest.  From the boardwalk to the water had to be at least 200 yards of smooth feet-loving sand.  We spent most of the rest of the day near the water and watching the kite surfers.  I made stirfry for dinner that night which was a little different considering what we had to work with.  The grocery stores in europe don't have near the variety I'm used too.  We couldn't find any peas so Cheryl decided that canned green beans would do just fine.  It actually worked really well and the stirfry was excellent.  Then we went back to the beach to catch the sunset.  It was another good day and this place is definitely worth the time it took to get here.

Valencia, Spain

As we got up, both of us were excited to go to the beach.  However, when we walked outside it was raining a little.  It looked like it was going to be a cloudy day for at least the morning.  So we decided to go to the train station and see when the  next train to Madrid was available.  It left around 2pm, so we booked it.  We had about 2 and half hours to do whatever until we left, so we just hung out at the hostel and looked at stuff on the internet.  Our feet were a little tired from walking so much the day before in sandals.  The train to Madrid was one of the nicer trains that we have rode.  When we got into Madrid we had to ride the metro to where our hostel was.  This time finding out where we had to go was easy because the information lady was extremely helpful.  Once we checked in, we decided to go and try to find a grocery store because the hostel had a kitchen.  We found a pretty big grocery store and decided to make carbonara pasta.  It was so good and a nice change.  Then we hung out at the hostel until the futbol, soccer, game was on (Spain vs. USA).  We went to a bar down the street and watched the game.  Spain won, of course, but it was still a good game.  After the game we went to bed because we had to get up the next morning early.  Tomorrow we are going to Tarifa.  

Valencia, Spain

The next morning we decided to walk around and check out the old city.  We saw a few cathedrals and walked up to the top of this big castle near our hostel.  It was a beautiful day out so we walked through the park a little too.  The park was in an old riverbed that they drained out and created this big park all the way around the city.  We passed a barber shop on the way back to the hostel for lunch and decided to stop in because I had way too much hair and it's getting hotter by the day.  This guy from Argentina named El Manuel cut my hair and it was a very interesting experience.  Between his broken english and my broken spanish we could communicate alright but they like to do a lot of  "stylish" things with hair in Spain.  I think the mullet is still in here.  He pulled out a lot of instruments I've never seen before and went to town.  He did a pretty good job but I had to do a little restyling of my own when we got back to the hostel.  After lunch we called up a friend that we had met in Switzerland and she showed us around town.  It was nice having somebody who knew the town very well show us around.  We walked through most of the riverbed park and went to where the science and art museum is.  These buildings looked way futuristic, kinda like the Sydney Opera house, completely different than the old town that we were staying in.  Valencia also has the largest aquarium in all of Europe.  The place looked pretty big and she said you need a full day to see it all so we decided not to see it as it was 6 in the afternoon and it cost 23 euros.  We started walking back to town in a kinda roundabout way and stopped for some helado.  Alix also showed us a really nice sandwich shop that does really small sandwiches, kinda like white castle.  Then we said goodbye to Alix and went to the hostel to plan the next couple days.  Afterward we went out for some sangria and tapas before bed.  Everything happens later in Spain, most people have dinner around 10 at night.

Valencia, Spain

So what Rj didn't mention was that going to get on that train, we had a to go through security to get to the platform where the train comes. We have never had all of our bags checked before and our tickets taken before the train got there. It was a pretty nice train and they had T.V., with a movie on it. Of course it was in Spainsh, but it had English subtitles so I was entertained. I had a great time riding that train, but yes Rj didn't. Anyways, when we got off the train, it had just stopped raining in Valencia so it was a nice cool night out. We found our hostel easily and decided to go out to a bar for a little while. However, there was no one walking around outside which we thought was odd. It was a Monday night, but I don't think we have ever been in a town at night when it has been so dead. So we asked the guy at the hostel of some good bars to go to, but most of them were closed or no one was there. Instead we just hung out at the hostel deciding where we wanted to go for the next couple days in Valencia. Our hostel is very calm, friendly, and with a lot of accommations.

Barcelona, Spain

We woke up kind of early again so we could get our bags packed and catch the free breakfast before checkout.  Then we caught the metro into the city and stuffed our bags in a locker so we could walk around town.  There was a line for the lockers but in Spain lines don't mean anything, people just jump in wherever and cut you off.  I had a locker open and was getting ready to put one of our bags in it when a lady came over and grabbed the door to the locker yelling to her friends that she found one.  After the ordeal with the lockers we took the metro to the main square in town and walked down to a giant market.  The market had everything from pets to cow legs to the some of the best looking exotic fruit I've ever seen.  We bought a bunch of fruit and headed to the Olympic park where most of the games took place.  On the way we walked up a giant hill with a view overlooking the entire city.  Barcelona is a lot bigger than I ever imagined!  In the park we saw the swimming pools with the diving platforms, baseball diamonds, the track and field stadium, and the holder for the Olympic torch.  It was really cool but the whole place seemed deserted.  None of the fountains had water and nobody was using any of the facilities, it was kind of weird.  When we arrived at the train station the train we were trying to catch was sold out so we had to wait 3 hours for the next available train.  We actually found a really nice grocery store for the first time.  We've found other stores but not like this one.  It resembled a Walmart in the fact that it was huge and very well priced so we stocked up for the next few days.  Then we went to the park, ate lunch and took a nap until 6:00 rolled around then caught the train to Valencia.  This was my worst train experience in history.  I walked onto the train wearing my flip flops and this little kid sat across from me wearing combat boots.  He didn't sit still and kept kicking me and stomping my feet the whole ride.  Meanwhile there was a crying baby right behind us.  It was pretty sweet!!  At least we had a bottle of wine for the ride to smooth things over a little.

Barcelona, Spain

We woke up to rain in Beziers at around 7:00 and packed up for another train ride to Barcelona.  On the way to the station it smelled great as we passed a few French pastry shops.  We decided to go into one and get some breakfast before we got on the train.  French pastries are really good and they were very cheap in that town.  We arrived in Barcelona around noon because the train was running late due to the fact we had our passports checked twice on each side of the border.  It took us awhile to figure out where the hostel was because we had to ride a metro to get there.  For the first time english didn't seem to be a language that anybody really knew.  I'm glad we both took a little spanish in school but the spanish spoken here is very different from the Mexican spanish that we both learned.  It took about an hour to find the hostel but it is the cheapest one we have stayed in so far with some of the nicest facilities.  Then we took the metro back into the city and walked around for awhile.  We went down to the beach and checked out the Olympic plaza where all of the athletes stayed.  We also saw the Arc de Triumph and had a little dinner before going back to the hostel for the night.  Barcelona is a pretty city but very touristy.

France-Spain

We got up around 9:00am and picked up some food for the next few days.  Then we went to catch our train to Marseille, but the train wasn't going to leave until late that afternoon.  So we changed our plans because we wanted to go to the beach, but not ride trains continues all day long.  Rj figured out a way to split up the train ride and go to the beach.  We rode a 2 hour train to St. Raphael and hung out on the beach.  It was awesome and no one was there.  We had all of our stuff, but we still laid out in the sun.  Unfortunately, we didn't put sunscreen on and should have.  We were out for about 2 1/2 hours and got a little burned.  After that Rj decided that his beard was going to come off that night.  Then it was time to ride the train to Beziers to stay the night, which was about a 3 hour train ride.  It was a really nice train, and nobody was on it.  We got to Beziers about 10 pm and went to the hostel.  That night Rj shaved off his beard and we went to bed with sunburns.  Tomorrow we are off to Barcelona.

NIce, France

We got up early and took the train from Interlaken to Milano, about a 2 1/2 - 3 hours ride.  Then we got on another train from Milano to Nice, a 5 hour ride.  When we got on the second train we were in a 6 person compartment and there was a guy who had horrible B.O.  The whole train ride was long, boring, and it was hot.  All of the seats were full, so we felt crammed and were sweating.  At this point Rj decided that he is going to cut his hair and shave his beard.  He can't deal with all of the heat on his head and we are on our beach tour.  As for me, I'm hot and my hair keeps getting longer.  Finally we got into Nice, 40 mins. late, but we were there.  First we got a hostel and then met Kate.  Then we went and got pizza and went down to the beach.  It was beautiful and a really nice night out.  After dinner we walked around town.  We saw a waterfall, a strip of restaurants and walked down the main strip of Nice.  It looked like a lot of really expensive shops all along the way.  On the walk we saw a group of kids street dancing, which was fun to watch.  After walking around town, we said good-bye to Kate and went back to our room.  And again we had a 6 person room to ourselves.  As for tomorrow we are going to St. Raphael, to the beach.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Again we woke up to a rainy morning, but this time it looked like it was going to clear up soon.  Rj and I would have liked to stay longer in Gimmerwald, but we had no idea of where were going to stay for the next few days.  So we decided to take the tram down to Interlaken to figure out at least the weekend.  Interlaken was really sunny out, so we decided to go for a hike before our fun planning.  The girl at the receptions desk recommend a shorter hike behind the hostel.  She also told us about some places to go swimming and a place where we could go hang out by the lake.  The hike was nice and had good views of the town and the mountains.  We found a campsite and there were pits that looked like they had been used before.  We also saw another Chamois, but this time it was a little farther away.  We got pictures, so I was excited.  As we hiked around, we looked for a sign that  would put us in the right direction to the water.  However, we ended up making a big circle around this hill.  Still we had no idea of where this water was or how to get to it.  So we walked down on one side of the hill and slowly found our way back to the hostel.  On our way back we saw five hawks, which was awsome.  They had a little white on the bottom of them and when the sun hit the top it looked golden.  Were not quiet sure if they were hawks, but they were big and had a big wing span.  When we got back to our place, we decided to try to figure out what beaches we wanted to go to and find out a little bit about the area.  After that fun stuff, we were going to go cook something to eat at the campsite.  We invited Kalib and Kate and Dennis and Kalib invited two other people.  So all of us went up to cook some food.  There was three fire pits and so we cooked on one and sat around another fire.  It was awsome being up there !  It was so nice to be able to grill food and hang out with other people in a beautiful area.  Then tomorrow we are off to Nice, France.  

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

The next morning we woke up a little early to rain outside.  I'm gonna be honest with you, Kristen, I was a little disappointed by the weather but we decided to eat breakfast and go for a hike anyway.  I went next door to this lady's farm store and bought some fresh yogurt and 3 eggs.  Just to give you an idea of how fresh these were, when I asked the lady how many eggs she had, she said she only had 3 now but to come back in the evening and she might have 6 more.  Breakfast was really good and the hike was even better.  Kalib went for a run on this trail in the morning and said it was amazing, freaking marathon man.  So we decided to do the same trail.  We met a couple of new friends the night before so there was 5 of us all together on the hike.  We descended into the valley and walked along this crystal clear river until we reached where the river formed against the mountain.  It was formed by a very large glacier there and an uncountable number of waterfalls.  3 waterfalls turning into 1 waterfall then into 2 then back to 1 again.  Completely surrounded by waterfalls while standing on 2-6 feet of ice/snow.  This was like something out of a dream.  I know it sounds corny but none of the pictures did it any justice.  We found a tunnel that a waterfall had formed in the glacier and walked through it, like an ice cave with a waterfall in the middle.  A huge eagle that glimmered a golden color in the sun flew overhead with a huge wingspan.  The sun had broken out of the clouds and pushed them back about halfway to the glacier.  After this hike, we went back to the hostel for lunch and had decided that we would most definitely stay another night.  Then we went for another hike to get groceries in Murren.  We hiked up to a waterfall called Sputz that you could walk through, it was pretty cool.  We bought some tortellini and wine for dinner that night and had quite a feast as the hostel had a nice kitchen.  Then Kalib and I got in the hot tub.  It was one of those old hot tubs that you heat with a fire and it was pretty nice.  That hot tub definitely had the best view of any I've ever been in.  Afterwards it was time for bed after another long day of hiking.

Gimmelwald, Switzerland

R.J. and I got off to a slow start but it was nice.  We packed up and met Kalib to go on our way up to Gimmelwald.  We took the train from Interlaken to Lauderbrunnen and started our hike up.  We took the same hike as we had the week before only this time we didn't see any Chamois.  There was a lot more people going up and down the hill.  It was a great day to hike but a little hot for R.J. and I.  We're not used to the humidity mixed with the hot sun and all of the hair that we both have on our head.  We still had a great hike up to Murren and from there we hiked to Gimmelwald.  Gimmelwald was only about a 30 min. walk all downhill.  The views from Murren to Gimmelwald were amazing and there was only a few clouds in the sky.  We passed a lot of houses that looked abandoned in this grassy field with tons of flowers everywhere.  Then we went straight downhill into the forest and popped out right on top of the town.  We could see the town below us and one below that.  We couldn't even believe it because we were staying on a hill with an awesome view in every direction.  As we slowly made our way down we noticed that almost every house had animals.  Horses, sheep, chickens, cows, etc.  Therefore we new we could get fresh produce.  R.J. was really excited because we found out that they had different kinds of yogurt and fresh milk.  The hostel that we were staying at had a hot tub and picnic benches outside with an amazing view.  When you sit there you can't even believe that what you're looking at is real.  We sat there and looked around for a long time and tried to take it all in.  I think I took a ton of pictures of these 2 giant waterfalls that were out to the right of us because I was so amazed by them.  R.J. and I would have to agree that it was the most incredible place that either of us has ever been to.  By the time it was night we were tired from the long hike and went to bed.

Interlaken, Switzerland

Monday was another train riding day.  The train left at 7AM and we didn't get in till like 2 0r 3PM.  This time the train riding seemed to go a lot better and smoother.  Then we got into our hostel and did some errands, got food, looked on the internet and did some laundry.  Luckily for us we had this 8 person room to ourselves for the 3rd time!!  It was so nice and relaxing.  Another good thing about us having the room to ourselves was that laundry cost 5 francs each load so we only did 2 loads and hang dried all our clothes.  The rest of the night we just hung out around town and decided that the next morning we were going to hike up to Gimmelwald, which is only about a 30 min. train ride up.