Romin around!

Christina and Cheryl at the Pantheon

So the last I left off we were heading to Rome on an awful train ride. To Christina and I Rome would be place to relax and enjoy ourselves having visited before. To be honest I can’t say that I look forward to doing anything touristy in Rome. The weather is hot, too sunny, and way too many people! My advice is if you ever intend to visit Rome or the surrounding area do avoid visiting during the months of July and August. What were we thinking?

The first day we were in Rome, we had to say good bye to Alyssa. Her flight left the next morning very early so she decided to stay in a hostile closer to city center. Christina and I however were able to get a bungalow in a camping area right on the outskirts of Rome. The campsite was huge, almost like it’s own community having a grocery store, restaurant, laundry, pool, volleyball court and much more. We arrived too early to check in so we decided to take advantage of the pool for an hour or two. Coming straight from Vienna where the sun isn’t as strong, we didn’t even consider putting on sunblock. I mean we were only out there for a short time. Yeah in like the hottest times of the day. When we got the key to our room, we changed from our bathing suits and realized that we had one of the worst sun burns since we were kids. The best part was, since we didn’t think that we were out there that long, I never rolled over. My backside is still pretty pale. I have all of these weird sunburn lines all over my body. First stop, Christina and I picked up a huge bottle of sun block and a huge bottle of Aloe Verae (thankfully written the same in English and Italian.) The rest of the day we spent lounging around and eating dinner with some fellow travelers!

Eating Gelato outside of the Ruins

The next day we devoted to sightseeing. Since it was the last Sunday of the month, the Vatican was free. We bought our shuttle tickets bright and early for 8am (we didn’t miss the bus this time!), since the Vatican opens at 9am. The travelers that we met from dinner the previous night joined us. I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the Vatican, I took a quick video of the Sistine Chapel. Brandon (a fellow traveler) drew a portrait of me, while waiting for his friends at the Vatican.

Cheryl's Portrait

I can’t say Christina and I were in the mood for sightseeing when our sunburns ached underneath our clothes. We of course had to wear jeans and t-shirts since we were going inside churches.

Recreating a fight!

The rest of the day consisted of roaming around the city, visiting ruins, the Pantheon, and other must sees. The weather was hot, the sun was just plain mean on our already burned bodies. We tried to cool off with some gelato, (Tiramisu was soo the best, good choice Chris!!!).
Later that night, we enjoyed dinner at the campground. Some roast chicken and a bunch of other stuff from the grocery store. We had a feast, well until the bees found us and we were forced to move indoors to our bungalow. Talk about cramped eating!!!

Our Massive Feast

Thank god for facebook, it allowed us to stay in touch with Josh. He was still in Madrid doing his own roaming around. He told me that we went to go see a bull fight and now I’m super jealous!!!! I soo wanted to see a bull fight, he told me he took a ton of pic so I’ll try to post them asap if he doesn’t update the blog himself. Soon he’ll be off to Barcelona where we should eventually meet up.

Off to meet our distant relative, Asunta!!! We’re renting a car, this is sure to be an adventure!

~cheryl

Vienna, Paris' rival!!!!

Cheryl, Josh, Alyssa and Christina at the Orchestra

Sitting on an overnight train to Rome should be one of the highlights of our traveling experience. Trains are comfy, cozy, spacious forms of transportation. I mean, even the seats come down to form a bed. So then how the hell did we get stuck next to the two worst smelling men in all of Europe!!!!! The cabin is hot with very little ventilation and of course the men don’t speak a lick of English! How should I describe there awful stench? Think of a man in a whole who has not showered in over a month, defecating himself while in 110 degree weather without bathing once. Then times that by ten and you will have what the men next to us smell like. You may be wondering, well then why don’t we just move? It’s because the train is sold out! There are absolutely no seats available and the dining car is full, people are sitting in the hallways because there’s no room. For the first two hours we’ve been spraying this tiny can of deodorant in the air every five minutes, I even took off my shoes to see if my feet could make the smell any better. Nope, it’s at the point where I don’t want to get up to move because when I walk back into the cabin, the shock of the odor makes me want to vomit. Thank god, I didn’t buy that Kabob for the train!!!! (ill gross he just touched me!!!! Alcohol pads, I need alcohol pads!!!)

So back to Paris’ rival, Vienna and euros!!!!! We spent the last two days enjoying this city. Which also must have the best looking hair because there are hair studios every two feet! So far we’ve learned that they speak German here, so I can use my few little words. Although, it’s kinda a touristy area so almost everyone speaks English. The first day we wondered around the city, taking pictures of old cathedrals and political buildings. We even took some super funny pictures of us on a statue of an elephant, well that was until we realized that since we uploaded Pragues’ pictures and didn’t replace the memory card in the camera no pictures were actually taken. Sorry guys we missed out on some really cute pics! That’s when we bumped into some guy on the street selling orchestra tickets. Looking at all the signs, we kinda had a hint that an important part of coming to Vienna is to see an orchestra, especially one that plays Mozart. So after some haggling, we got him to reduce the ticket price to ½ of what it was worth while throwing in some free champagne. (Mean while we were praying that this guy was ripping us off.) I‘m not gonna lie, the show was much smaller than I had imagined. I pictured a huge Opera house (kinda like the Stanley in Utica, NY), instead we got a small section of a huge building! None the less the show was very impressive as the orchestra was accompanied by singers and dancers. At the end of the show, we went to the stage to take a group shot.. Taking our sweet time actually worked out in our favor. Right as we were about to leave a huge storm rolled in, with hale and strong gusts of wind. We were trapped with the performers. Therefore we had nothing else to do but watch the rain, drink some more free champagne and enjoy our time talking to the performers, there was about 15 of us! It was so much fun, we danced the Waltz with the professionals from the show!!! Alyssa, looked amazing dancing. I however think that I have to work on my kicks. After the rain had let up, we walked back to the hotel admiring the destruction that mother nature had caused through out the city.

We woke up today with fond memories of the night before, luckily no headaches today. Thanks to Poland, I think we were prepped for a night of drinking. Sadly, Josh and us girls parted ways. Josh is hopping on a bus to Prague where he will jump on a plane to Madrid only to meet again in Barcelona. Christina, Alyssa and I will take the train to Rome for a few days before saying our good-byes to Alyssa. Thank god for our hotel though, they let us keep our luggage there all day so we could roam around the city. They even let us check out late and do our laundry. Our day consisted of visiting the Freud Museum because this is where his practice was (well besides his later one in London where he died). Then we hopped on the hop on hop off bus. This was the first time we did the tourist bus thing. It was nice, no walking and all the sights. It was a good way to take in all the sights on such a limited amount of time. It really brought in how Vienna contributed so much to the world of classical music and art. If you ever visit Venice, the city is so big that the hop on hop off bus is so the way to go, we however had a difficult time catching it. Leave it to us to get to the bus stop early to only miss it twice in a row! We have also discovered that there is no possible way for us to eat an apple strudel and take a decent picture!

So that’s about it for now. Check out the pics and videos !!!

Czech us out!!!

Just a quick update while I get a chance to steal the computer in the am.
Prague is a cute little city in Czech Republic about four hours from Berlin and four hours from Vienna. Our difficult challenge in this country has been the currency. First, we couldn't figure out what the hell kind of money they use (it's called krowns), when we got to the bus station of course I had to immediately use the bathroom which you had to pay for. 10 cents is what it will cost you to use the bathroom around here or at least what I thought was 10 cents. See around here it's 18 krowns to $1. The woman at the counter in the bus station looked at me like I had three heads when I asked her to break a 2 krown coin. Apparently there are no 10 cent pieces (their currency doesn't go that low!!!) That meant that I needed 10 krowns!!! So this has been the whole trip, trying to figure out what everything costs in dollars. A whopper is 109 krowns, you do the math!

(The Castle at Night)

(This is the clock tower that has every Czech name on it, there's what the call your name day.)

We stayed in a cute little hotel, Josh and Alyssa got the room while Christina and I are just "visiting". They charge like an extra $50 per person, so we figured this would save us some mula. It's definitely interesting only having two beds though, I can't say I enjoy sleeping in the crack!!!!
The first day that we were here we took a walking tour of the city, I'll post the pics asap. It was pretty interesting considering that Prague is a land locked city yet every country wanted to take it over. They've only had two victories in their country and one was revoked because the Red Army showed up later that day! Just a quick tid bit, Prague is where the sugar cube was invented!

After a night on the town! Don't ask!

So after a few touristy dinners, and some quick shopping I can now say I did it... That's right after leaving Josh and Alyssa to take naps at the hotel. Christina and I went down to the piercing studio to get my nose pierced. Man did that hurt like no other!!!!! I'm such a wimp and will never get that done again! Although I really like it, it took Josh about a 1/2 hour before he noticed and Alyssa talked directly to my face for at least 5 minutes before realizing. Of course I couldn't tell them what I was doing (I didn't want to have to come back and tell them I couldn't go through with it.) Check out my before and after videos:

So that's about it for now. I have to start packing and eat breakfast. Our bus leaves at 10:30am to Vienna. I think Josh still wants to get his hair cut, poor guy hasn't found a place yet and he's been looking since Dublin!!!!
Czech you later...

Warsaw.... where?... We've Seen....

... and then some!!!

In every country we have hit so far we have all tried the beverage they are known for. In Ireland it was Guiness, England their scotch, France their wine, Germany their beer, but in Poland its vodKa.

In Poland vodKa is not generally taken with a mixer. To fully appreciate it you drink it by shot. That’s great!!! The first one starts off smooth, and it is quickly followed by the second leg. The second shot is called the second leg because that shot is meant to balance you out. Now I don’t know if you have all seen me so take a good look at the pictures. After about the fourth or fifth leg… yeah I am hammered.

Cheryl has told you a lot about the nights we were there, but I have to say this past few nights have been the funniest in Europe thus far.

Woz has been a great tour guide and has shown us the cultural and the party scene of Warsaw.

Here is a first…

In every city we have hit so far we have had a great time and have loved every minute of it… well almost every minute (we all have our moments), but Warsaw… Wasrsaw is a different story. Maybe it is because we got to see Woz, we met a lot of cool people, had and insane time or because Kup went back to the states, or maybe it is because of all these reasons that I found leaving Warsaw difficult. I am truly sad that this leg of the trip is over. I wish I could stay in Poland for a few more weeks and see the entire country.

Since you now know my feelings twards Warsaw, here it goes!!!!

Top memorable moments of Warsaw :

Afromania!!!!

I don’t know if you guys already know this, but if you don’t check out Cher’s blog. Afromental is Woz’s band and he was nice enough to invite us to go to a concert. IT WAS AWESOME!!! They are a really great group of guys. Not just the band members, but the whole crew. Everyone was so polite and welcoming. The Poland boys are by far the most polite boys we have met so far. I can honestly say their momas raised them well!!! None of them let us really carry our bags up the stairs and they always held the door open. (Don’t worry Mrs. Tefel, you raised Josh well too. He is always offering to help us and always opens the door for us)

Ok… ok.. I know I am rambling.

Mine and Alyss's Dream Apartment in Old City of Warsaw

The concert Woz and the guys performed was awesome! Check out all of the videos on our website, but here is a taste, I really hope they come to the US soon. So we can show them New York!!!!

Shoving cake in Robs face!!!

I know this is kind of mean, but I loved it. I really wish I had a picture to show everyone. However, vodKa was involved and the camera taking thing didn’t happen.

Anyhow, at the hotel we were staying at where there was a wedding. They were nice enough to give us some of there cake to try. It was delicious cheese cake. We loved it!! It was soooo good (not as good as my Dads, but really can you even compare the two!!!)

Rob asked me for a piece and well I just couldn’t resist. I meant to just get a little bit on his nose, but a force inside of me shoved it a little bit harder then I thought and it went all up his nose!!! Hilarious!!! Rob took it well and laughed it off… again… thanks to vodKa.

Trains are the way to travel!!!

Since we have been on such a tight budget we have been taking a lot of buses to places. Going from Berlin to Poland however was cheaper to take the train. This was a luxury I am happy to say was on the second part of the trip. Lets just say once you go choo choo you never want to go vroom vroom again!! This train was cool we had our own car on electricity for our laptops. We were on cloud nine. It made our ride super smooth.

Plus on a train like this you can run really fast and slide in your socks down the isle.

Traditional Polish Food.

Having Woz as our guide allowed us to properly discover Polish food. The first day we were there he brought us out to a traditional polish restaurant where we tried Prorogues (all different kinds), and fat. What they call fat is this really good spread you put on fresh bread, add some salt and eat a pickled cucumber with. ( I liked the fat, but I wasn’t a fan of the pickle). Since everyone at the table ordered prorogues, I decided to mix it up by ordering a pancake with a pineapple in the center served with a raspberry sauce ( I don’t remember the polish name). It was AMAZING, really filling, but amazing. I am craving it right now!!!! They gave me four and I was luck to get through two!!!

Culture and history:

Let me give you a little background information on Poland. During world war II much of Poland was bombed and flattened. This meant that much of Warsaw’s building were built post war. It is a very new city in an old way. The buildings arr newer and reflect mainly the style of the 20th and the 21st centuries. Old city is a part of Warsaw where many tourists go, and now we know why. It is beautiful. Alyssa and I picked out the type of Apartments we would by if we could, just based on this area. It was gorgeous!!!!

The Mermaid:

The mascot of Warsaw is the Mermaid. You will see a number of sautes of a mermaid around the city, just like the one you see below.

This particular statue is the most famous and was placed here after it survived WWII.

This statue is the cast of a sculpture made by Konstanty Hegel in 1855.

The Tower:

Abover is this really nice tower in the middle of Warsaw. It has a clock on all four sides. You can climb the tower too, but we went and saw Bruno in the bottom. That was a hilarious movie. It played in English, but subtitled in Polish. Really though the tower is really cool. For a while I guess the people of Poland were debating about tearing it down. I really hope they don't!!!

The Park:

This is the Agrykola Park ( I think, I am not entirely sure) in Warsaw!!! It was really beautiful!!! There was a really pretty bride and groom here taking pictures and you can understand why. It def. looks like the most peaceful and beautiful place in Warsaw. Although, Alyss did get eating alive by bugs. There were many cool buildings and statues.

This was better said by Afromental, but here it goes!!

Thanks guys you have been a great audience!! (now picture a virtual bow)

Catch you guys soon!!

~Chris

Afromania!!!!

So now that the days are flying by, its harder and harder to keep up on the blog. Christina's doing great with updating the pictures and videos to the website but it's still difficult to find time everyday to write, especially when there's no internet access. With that in mind, please don't mind the gramatical errors of the next few blogs. I'm way too tired tonight to re-read everything. Plus, I type faster than I can think!!!!

Warsaw, is one of Poland's most European city! It's pretty large, and everyone drives like maniacs. Every time we take a taxi, I'm surprised we're still alive. They must go through so many breakpads because every light they slam on their brakes!!!! We didn't do too much site seeing as our main priority was visiting Woz, a friend of ours from high school. He was our foreign exchange student our senior year. He lives about fifteen minutes away from the hostil we stayed at. Right now he is a lead singer in a band called Afrometal, a pretty popular band in Poland. To be honest I hadn't heard much of his music until about two days ago. He took us to old city where we saw the oldest buildings in Warsaw, they were beautiful and full of life! Traditional perogies were our lunch that day, I didn't think I'd be a fan but not bad at all!! It was also nice because we had Woz there to interpret. The afternoon was of course spent in one of Poland's most beautiful parks were we watched a couple celebrate there wedding. Although, we were very amused at the random peacocks walking around.

It wasn't until that night, that we realized Poland guys like to party hard!!!! We went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, then the Mono Bar for a jam session. This was pretty cool, because a bunch of Woz's friends were at the bar and are very talented. The have a set of instruments on stage and whoever wants to play or sing goes up and plays with whoever's up there. It was amazing!!! I'm also pretty sure we are now know in Poland as the crazy Americans that can't dance!!! We didn't get home that evening until about 6am, the food and the laughter was heavy that night. So of course the next day we spent passed out in bed (apparently we got some complaints because we were too loud!) Shopping was our next priority! Still there was no place for the girls to get our nails done (way too expensive), no piercing studio found, but the boys bought some new clothes because they ran out of clean ones. One of the top picks for the evening was some wacky ball thing that Woz bought the boys, you spin it in your hand to see how fast you can get it to go. I guess everyone's into this game over here. And of course the boys were then occupied for the rest of the night.

Last night, would be our craziest and wackiest night. Since Woz is in a band (we kinda got a gist that he was a semi celebrity when people would stop him in the mall and ask for his picture or autograph) we were invited to watch him play up north at Bikupiec. We left early that morning to catch the tour bus where we met the rest of the six band members and crew They even gave us a before show, show using Josh's guitar on the bus. All of the guys are super sweet and really fun to hangout with (check out the pics on the website to learn more). Lucky for us they all spoke English really well. I can only say about two words in Polish!!!! The manager was sweet enough to book us a hotel room at their hotel. Three hours later we were watching the band setup and get ready for the night. To my surprise, the guys were pretty serious about their music. After we had settled into our hotel room, we went back to the concert as the guys were playing last. This is when it hit me that the guys were kinda a big thing in Poland. Girls were screaming everywhere, asking for autographs or pictures. It was super cute! Of course we got backstage passes and took a ton of pics, Kup was all over the place! He really seemed comfortable walking around the stage and even on some parts of the stage. The guys were super good, we took a video of the show and plan on posting some of their songs to the webpage! Alll the guys are really talented and such good musicians! It wasn't until the end of the show when a crowd of girls covered the rec building chanting the guys names that I was the most entertained. There were so many girls who wanted to meet them!!! Even one of them asked for Josh's autograph (way to go Josh!!!) We actually had to wait around quite awhile before we could go back to the hotel room. Talk about the other side of the spectrum, it wasn't even a month ago that we were those girls waiting for Dave! Ok, ok at least we didn't scream and throw our panties on stage!

The party didn't really start until we got back to the hotel. It was ridiculous and so much fun. The guys were hysterical and couldn't stop making me laugh!!! Every two seconds theree was a joke, or something fun going on. I especially loved the little pup that followed us around. (Probably because I kept sneaking him food) Again we didn't go to bed till about 6am, only to have to get up only a few hours later. Oh yeah, apparently Woz and I were married at some point during the night. So for the rest of the day today we refferred to ourselves as a married couple. The relationship started off on a high note, but fizzled when he found out about my love affair with another man. Only took a day to ruin that marriage!!! I even picked out my rings while the boys tried to play golf (it started to rain, so before they could finish the first hole they came running back!) The ring is a million dollars and will be engraved to me. Thanks WOZ!!!!!

We are now back in Warsaw, no hostil was booked so we decided to check out the hotels online, finding a super good deal for a five star hotel righ tnext to the train station. We took super long baths and are now just trying to get back to reality. Kup, however is done...finished!!!! He ran out of money and only has enough for his plane ticket home. So he stayed at Woz's place, his flight leaves tomorrow from Warsaw into NYC. None of us had planned on it happening so quickly. We're all really sad to see him go, I mean he is our mojo! :( It's only been a few hours since our good-byes and we already miss Woz and Kup. I think we need to start planning our next trip out here.

Tomorrow, we will be taking a train to Prague (the four of us Alyssa, Josh, Christina and I.) So now your caught up. I'm sorry Iwasn't more entertaing but I'm too damn tired from the partying, so not used to that life style!!!! Well, now it's off to bed!!!!

Later gaters!!!

~cheryl

Choo...choo...Warsaw!

Good-bye Berlin! Our train was the best way to travel thus far, we had a nice little cabin to ourselves (which we destroyed in all of ten minutes!), a dining car to have super cheap food at, and if you wore your socks in the walk way you could slide from one side of the car to the next! By far the best way to travel in my opinion! The train was so good that when we arrived in Warsaw we sat on the train for about ten minutes not realizing that we had arrived. We may not have flown but the time sure did!

Our hostel is in a family run old house, very homie! It's perfect for what we need, and only about 15 minutes from the train station. We just wish we knew that before we walked the hour and 1/2 to get here, missing the street not once but twice!!!!

Today, we're meeting up with a friend of ours, Woz! He was our foreign exchange student from high school. He should actually be here in about a 1/2 hour to give us a tour of the city and hangout!

Well, till next time!

~cheryl

We’ve Made Our Mark on Berlin

We have been away now for exactly one month. I know I know, many of you are wondering if we are home sick yet. Well, that answer is NO!!!! We are still having an amazing time and haven’t killed one another yet. Although, I must admit I do miss everyone, however I wouldn’t use the word homesick.

Tina, Cher and I left for Berlin two days earlier then the boys. We decided to spend 3 days in West Berlin then the next 3 days in East Berlin. Spending time with just the girls has been a lot of fun and we have met a ton of people. When entering Berlin my expectations were low. Knowing some of the history about Berlin from our high school days set a real pessimistic point of view for me. Learning the history of WWII and the holocaust of Amsterdam and how it affected the city lead us into the intense history of Germany. However, Germany has proven to be a country where we met a number of people and had an amazing time.

ToP MEmorAabLE MoMMentS of BeRliN!!!!

1. Playing Tag in the Holocaust Memorial

Watch the videos attached to the website (or above). One thing I hope never to forget is the face that someone makes right before you tag them and there it. Unfortunately the only person I saw make that face was Kup, but all and all I f**ing rocked at tag. This was one of the funniest nights I have had in all of Europe.

2. Pub Crawl

Tina, Cher and I went on a Pub Crawl that was awesome. Now I do know that Pub Crawls through the tourist centers are very clichéd, but where else are you gonna find 200 people who speak English. We met a ton, and yes I mean a ton of amazing people. Tina had a blast and was completely in her element, just look at the pics below.

3. Signing our Name on the Berlin Wall

I am completely and utterly against taking part of the Berlin Wall home. If everyone who visits Berlin takes a piece of the wall home with them in 20 years what will be left of it. Plus, I am sorry why take the wall with you when you can leave a piece of you with the wall. If you guys ever go to the gallery look for the mark that the Poccia Twins left. If you have a problem identifying it, well its on the East Gallery side of the wall and says Poccia Twins.
The picture above is of what I thought spelled Poccia. We DID NOT tag this. I spotted it within seconds of looking at the wall. I thought it was awesome.

4. Breakfast

Breakfast is a meal in the day that 9 out of 10 of us take for granted. Infact when I am home I rarely ever eat breakfast. That was until we stayed at this hostel in Berlin. There breakfast was as good as Cher described. We only paid 9 Euro a night for the hotel, but the breakfast should have been 9 Euro alone. A bonus side to going to hostel that serves an amazing breakfast is that it forces us to get up be for noon. We even had the idea of getting up at 7 am to eat the buffet go out and see the sites then come back by 11 am to have lunch with the free buffet. Although, we weren’t that ambitious, but we did wake up by 10 to get that full hour of eating in.
I think after us they may be raising the rates of the rooms.

5. My Ring

One day in Berlin Cher and I (and a few other people) were walking through this flea market where I spotted this ring that I absolutely loved. Since this trip we are taking is expensive one way I try to conserve money is to not buy many souvenirs. Well, I loved this ring. The flea market was going on the next day, so I decided to think about it before making the purchase. Come to find out later, Cher had Adriane, a friend we met, keep me occupied at another booth while she went to buy the ring. The entire time we were at the market I kept asking if I should haggle, do they do that here or should I just buy it. The entire time I am talking about it Adriane is down playing it, trying to keep my from buying the ring. I didn’t catch on at all. The next day, after the tag game and the bar Cher surprised me with the ring and I was shocked. Def. one of the nicest gestures. I was almost in tears.

Thanks Cher!!!

6. The Concentration Camp, Sachsenhsn

I have been to the concentration Dachau and that it was so interesting. Sachsenhsn was a lot like Dachau, but had a lot of difference to it. Coming from a designing and architectural stand point I found the design and intent of the concentration camp very interesting. I wouldn’t call this place fun, but it was very interesting.



The one thing that we tend to be doing in every cit is missing the public transposrt. While the concentration camp closed at 6 so does the public bus. We found our selves walking to the train station to get back to Berlin.

I did have fun convincing everyone that the information center was closed though and that now can get their ids back and we were going to have to go cak tomorrow.

Only a few people believed me… but it was still funny. Huh… maybe that’s why we missed the bus.

7. Traveling with the Best People Ever

Spending so much time with the same people everyday and night might take a toll on any relationship. One of my absolutely favorite things to do on this trip in EVERY city is sitting around and bullshitting. Even in the most boring situations we all seem to make each other laugh. There is rarely on hour when someone isn’t laughing. I know the trip isn’t over yet and we still have time to form hatred and irritation tward each other, but for now… well lets just say we are all entertained!!!

So I know that this is the part of the blog is what everyone is waiting for. Do you like culture and history? Cause there is a massive amount in Berlin. Below is just a glimpse at what we learned.

Berlin was home to much of the worlds conflicts, and a base for all of us to learn from.

Below is a picture of the monument at the concentration camp. The triangles at the top signify the 18 countries where the victims of the concentration camp were from. Each Triangle is different and is meant to symbolize the different triangles each prisoner was suppose to wear. Each prisoner was assigned a certain triangle according to the reason why they were imprisoned (homosexuals, Jewish etc…). The men at the bottom of the monument where re worked by the sculpture many times. The Soldier positioned in the center is to liberating the prisoners on either side. The designer originally had these prisoners as being week and frale. However, the people of Germany didn’t like how they were being portrayed and had the sculpture rework the figures. Some people misinterpret the statue as the prisoners of the concentration camp being lead by a Nazis soldier.

Below is the central church of Berlin This church was built by Germany to compete aesthetically with the church of St. Peters in Rome and St. Pauls in London (if you look at our London Blog you will see the Church of St. Pauls). However, this church was little too Baroque in style and was not found beautiful by many people. Personally I feel that it would be a shame not to appreciate this architecture. It is very impressive.

The TV Tower

Germany built the TV Tower in the 1960's to signify their accomplishments and advancements in technology. However, when they designed the big sphere to be placed on the rod, the contractors didn’t know who to build it. In fact it was so difficult they had to call in not one, not two, not three, but four Swedish engineers. A side note: Berlin at one point decided that no place would display a cross. Well. When they built the TV Tower when the sun hits it there is a cross reflected. Germany brought in every designer they could to solve this problem. It was like the pope giving them one big middle finger. At the end of it Germany couldn’t figure out how to solve this. So in the end I guess it was just a plus.

Ok… ok.. I know I am dragging this on, but really Berlin has so much information and I really want to tell you all about it. However, if I do that then what am I going to talk about at home.

Since I always like to end my blog with a laugh, I will tell you about us arriving in Berlin.

The further east we travel the harder it seems to understand the language. German is a language which none of us are familiar with. When we arrived in Berlin it was at the bus station a little outside the city center. We were tired and just wanted to get to a hostel to relax. We had just gotten the subway map from the information station and they didn’t speak English. We were left to our own devices. We went on a search for the Subway and followed the signs for the S. When we got to the “fork in our road” we needed to decide which direction to go in. Well… we were looking for about 10 min for which directions the train was running to Ausgang. We couldn’t find it on the map. So we went on to search for the other line to see if we could find that station on the map. Finally we found a woman in a train station who told us to go back towards the way we came. However, we were faced with the dilemma of heading to that same destination of Ausgang. After a few min of deliberation we decided to go towards this destination. When we went up the stairs we were outside. A little way down the road we saw the S line. We still couldn’t find Ausgang on the map, but that didn’t matter because we found the train heading to the zoo. When we got to the hotel I was walking to the room when I observed the emergency door that had two words written on it. One was Exit and the other Ausgang.

Yeah … not our brightest moment. I will leave you with as much German as I know, Auf Wiedersehen (and just recently Ausgang) !!!!

~Christina

ALYSSA!!!!

We now have our Tina replacement!

Tina, was pretty much our spirit of the group having fun on the pub crawls, catching random men's attention. Oh the stories we could've maybe should've told, well on another thought maybe its good that they are untold. Ahhh the memories!

Alyssa, arrived a few days ago from Italy where her family lives. She is one of our closest friends having gone to high school with us. She now lives in NYC and works as a school teacher for a local high school teaching Biology and Psychology which she absolutely loves. She's good hearted and hysterical. If anyone ever thought I was a clutz they need to meet Alyssa! I'm surprised she still has all of her limbs attached. Very rarely have I ever seen her without a smile on her face, laughter usually follows each sentence. I'm sure having her around will spice things up a bit!

So farewell, Tina, you will be missed!

Welcome, Alyssa, let the adventures continue!!!!!

~cheryl

So funny story...

So if you know me, then you know that I can't live without my cell phone. I need it so much that I pay the extra fees to be able to have it over here in Europe. Again, if you know me, then you would know I am a huge clutz and drop everything. (By now you should have figured the story out.) Yes, when tossing the phone to Alyssa, I hit the ground. When I went to take a picture, I realized that the screen no longer works!!!! I can still get calls and see when I have a message but I can't read or type anything! Hopefully, I'll be able to get it fixed somehow. OOOPS!!!! So pretty much; FYI: my phone's not working right now for those of you who need to get a hold of me or the gang!

Tina's last night was last night. I can't believe it's already been three weeks!!! We've decided that she is officially the spirit of this trip, always having something to say and making us laugh. This morning I walked her to the bus stop to cathc the bus to the airport for the plane home. Of course everyone else is still sleeping from last night! In fact I have to get them up in about ten minutes because check out is at 10am! That and we have to load up on this amazing breakfast they give us here! So worth the 9 euro alone!!!!!!!!

To celebrate Tina's last night here, we decided to do it the old fashion German way, hit a beer garden. Looking fabulous we went to a very local spot, the six of us now. Ahh yes, Alyssa has joined our group!!!! The garden was filled with picnic tables and families eating while the children play off to the side. Alyssa and Christina tried this green and raspberry beer that Berlin is famous for, so can't remember the name!!!! In my opinion, it was ok. It just tastes like raspberry flavored beer. The night was pretty low key, keeping the conversations to the group. We also talked a bit with two German born men who now live in California. They gave us some good tips and tricks to get around. They also gave us some stories of German and Europe in general twenty years ago. By now you've heard us tell our stories on how nice everyone is, and how it is not what we expected. Especially with all of the horror stories we've heard. But apparently, in Germany years ago there was some kind of world soccor tournament in the country creating lots of tourists. This is when Germany realized that their attitudes and customer service skills needed an adjustment to better represent themselves. This meant that people working in any customer service field, i.e. a grocery store, bank, post office, are specifically trained on niceness, greetings, and working with tourists. If they aren't nice they can't get into trouble! Kinda of funny, but I guess some places are making a conscious effort to be more hospitable for tourists. These and other stories kept us engaged in conversation with these men for the majority of the night. I think I learned more about the culture last night, then I have in the past three days combined.

Alright, I just looked at the time. They are soo not going to like me waking them up! The days we travel are always the most challenging!!!

Berlin'in it out...

Ireland, I think of green; Paris, I think of fashion; London, I think of Big Ben; Amsterdam, I think of Bikes. Not going to lie, out of all the cities we’ve seen I’ve talked about how excited I’ve been this was so not the case for Berlin. When I think of Berlin I think of a large grey block. Nothing interesting, very stern unfriendly people, with a lot of horrible history. In a way I guess I was prejudging subconsciously. Either that or it could have been that I was missing the boys and that it was cold, raining and there was no park but I was miserable for the first day. I couldn’t get warm, I didn’t know the language and people seemed to be much ruder here than anywhere else. So I pretty much didn’t feel like doing anything! Although, I stuck it out, the people in our hostile turned out to be the most friendly people we’ve met to date. They were from everywhere, Cali, Texas, Canada! The next day we did a free walking tour with some of our fellow travelers, 200 people showed up for the tour and I was number 176. Obviously we weren’t going to be making the tour because our numbers were too high. Instead, we just tagged along with an earlier tour in hopes that we wouldn’t be noticed! We visited so much of Germany! Check out the pics on the website. When I get more time, I’ll try to tell you the stories of each site. The Holocaust Memorial was the coolest place here, this is where I came up with the idea of hide and seek (Christina will fill you in) Instead of Germany depressing me and reminding me of the bad things people are capable of doing, I almost feel like I was given a sense of hope. I really feel that the history behind such horrific events should be studied and understood to help guide us in the present! I wont bore you with my thoughts and theories but if anyone’s ever interested feel free to join me for a cup of tea!

Our night out without the boys was pretty fun actually, we went on a pub crawl with about 200 people. Apparently without bodyguard A and bodyguard B, we were much more approachable. We spent the night mingling and just having fun. Five bars in six hours, good times. It was pretty funny because the majority of the people we met were again from the Americas!!!! Here’s a quick cap of who we met: (this is more for my recollection though)

Australia: Cool, really good dancer, and super sweet guy!

Denmark Soldier: he was lost on the train and coincidently was staying at our same hostile so we took him back w/ us. He was home on holiday because he is a Srgt in Denmark’s military. Kinda cool hearing a different perspective on Afghanistan and Iraq stuff!

Holland Boys: I pretty much spent the entire night trying to learn four German words, thanks to the Holland Boys! They were also super sweet guys and looked out for us the entire night.

Cali Boys: They all turned 20 and were wicked drunk. I’m pretty sure the one guy wanted to make out because every time he would lean over to talk he would pretty much be spitting in my ear. And the boyfriend card has been played!!!!!

CANADA: We met a ridiculous amount of people from Canada! All seem very cool, but I’m starting to be able to tell the difference from the people in Toronto, British Columbia, and Quebec. Very different!!!

And of course there were tons of different people, I would definitely recommend the pub crawls for anyone interested in meeting a ton of people!!!!
Now that are time away from the boys is coming to an end, we’ll be meeting them tomorrow at our new hostel!

~cheryl

Amsterdam + Christina = One Kick Ass Time

Hope you are all having a kick ass summer!!!

as for us....

So we have official left the Paris region and have entered the land of tradition and heritage. I know I myself was looking forward to seeing the well known architecture and history behind this great city, I mean thats what its known for, right? Well.. I guess you guys can only assume which city I am refering to. Yep thats right... AMSTERDAM. Otherwise known as the city of good clean fun (ok I made that up, but if you aren't familiar with Amsterdam... umm... yeah what I said was true)

So in an effort to conserve energy and to keep Kup from exploding from the excitment of Amsterdamian charm we stayed our first few nights in a cabin outside the city (you can see the pics above). I loved this place!!! This was by far the best sleep I have gotten since we left on our adventure. I was actually kind of sad to move to our hostel in city center.

We spent the first few days of our trip litterlay relaxing and taking in the Holland country side. EVERYONE RIDES BIKES AROUND HERE!!! Word to the wise for anyone coming to Amsterdam... WATCH OUT FOR THOSE BIKES!!!! You sure know they wont be watching out for you. Around here the bikes rule the road.

So here we go guys... Top Memorable Moments of Amsterdam!!!!:

1. Cher catching Carters Drum Stick!! (This is the drummer for the Dave Matthews Band, did we mention front row!!!!)

So.. if you have looked at our Where are we headed to next? page on our website you would see that we had our Dave Matthews Band Concert here. Well... the concert was awesome. We were front row!!!! If you look at the videos posted, you can see how awesome the concert was. At the end of the concert Cher got on Rob's shoulders. So together they got Carter's drum stick!!! Everyone was jealous!!!!

2. NUTELLA!!!!

I never thought Iwould be a person to promote a product like this. You know what though... this product is the shit and needs promoting. Kup and Cher convinced me to try Nutella and it was awesome. It is soooooo good with strawberries. It is safe to say I have a new addiction.

3. THE BEST SLEEP EVER!!!!

I am not kidding... in that cabin in the country. It def. was the best sleep EVER!!!!! (or atleast since we left for Europe). Let me give you an example of an average day:

Some Random Time between 10:00 am and 1:00 pm - Wake up

2:00 - Have Lunch - go into town

6:00 - Take a nap

9:00 - Dinner

12:00 - Sleep

(It was very relaxing and I loved it!!!)

4. The Library of Amsterdam

I know this is not on any tourists lists of places to see, but I have to say it was one of my favorite places in Amsterdam. This library was 6 levels of awesomness. There is free internet, music, videos. This library was so interavtive and user friendly. I loved it!!! Plus... I loved how the building was designed...well... most of it!!!

5. Kup hiding Carters Drum Stick

We found something else that Cheryl is crazzzzyyy about. The damn drum stick she cought. While we were at a coffee shop Kup saw the drum stick in Cheryl's purse. He took it out and hid it in his back pocket. About an hour later Cher and I were walking back to the Hostel when she realized she didn't have the stick. She nearly had a heart attack. It was really funny, but only cause Kup had the stick all along and without a plan was walking about 20 feet behind us!

6. Tricking Kup that his Tide Pen was actually Bleach:

Its hard to get Kup, so when you do... its hilarious!!! Well we tricked him that the pen he was using to get a stain out of his Guiness shirt was bleach not detergent. It was hilarious to see him completley bummed out!! Then Josh was like Kup try and use this pen to get the stain out and Kup looks up and was like oh man.. you guys!!! The pen Josh was handing Kup was the same kind he was using. It was funny... you may have had to been there to get it.

(trust me ... I am laughing)

ok... ok.... now here comes the culture and history of Amsterdam, so if you don't want to read this stuff.... skip to the end!!!

Above is a picture of a church in a courtyard of Amsterdam. Amsterdams unsaid motto is Do what you want, but be descret. This motto is reflected in much of the city. A few examples are the very popular coffee shops. Coffee Shops are the cafes where weed is smoked and purchased. There are only two places in the entire city of Amsterdam that can actually use the words Marijuana (or any other WEED term) in there name or adverstisments. Those two places are the Marijuana and Hash muesume and the Institute of Marijuna ( I forget if it was Institute or School of.. but its along those lines). Another example are the hidden churches.

If you have ever been to Amsterdam you know that its a beautiful place filled with canals, stone streets, and interesting architecture, but thats only half of what there is to see. There are all these hidden courtyards scattered throughout the city. Most of these are private, but a few are public. The pic below is of a courtyard we were able to go into and the pic above is a church in that court yard. Many years ago Amsterdam was not a supporter of catholicism, however they did not discourage the practing of ones faith just as long as it was discreate. For this reason there were many churches built in peoples homes or private court yards. This is just like the situation of the church that you see above.

The picture below is of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. It wasn't always the royal palace it used to be the state house. When Napoleon invaded Amsterdam he wanted his brother Louis Bonaparte to rule Amsterdam. Louise wanted a Royal Palace and the only place he could find was the state house.

SIDE NOTE: The amsterdamian people did not respect the french very much and that may have been because when Louise took rule. Lousie wanted to address the people of Amsterdam in there native tongue... however french tongue has a little more of a nasal flare to it and Louise couldn''t get the language down. So he decided to try and just say a few words... I am your King. However it came out I am your rabit. Needless to say he looked like a fool.

Below is the Narrowist house in Amsterdam.

They said the man who lives in the house is taller then the width of the house.

Above is the Coffee Shop that was used in the filming of Oceans 12.





Favorite Random Quote of Amsterdam:

Josh: Sometimes I feel like my life is a movie...
Me: yeah and you are the only one watching.

(its a knee slapper)

So guys!!! There is a lot more information, but I don't have time to type it all. If you want to find out more I will tell you latta!!!

Catch ya!!!!

Chris

Meeting Dave Matthews

One of the most exciting things about being able to go to some of the Dave Matthews shows in Europe is having an audience of anywhere from 1400 to 5500 people instead of 25,000 to 100,000. There are no assigined seats except for in the balcony and people get as close to the stage as possible with their general admission tickets. These tickets would be nearly impossible to get if they were playing in the states and also cost a pretty penny. One of the best parts about that is the locals don't necessarily understand how big of a deal they are and the value of their ticket until we tell them. Just our excitment in the crowd helped get everyone around us excited. The show was amazing, the small room had amazing sound, we were the closest we had ever been and they were taping the concert to put out a dvd soon. It was really all you could have asked for if you were a big fan, but we had no idea what would unfold after.

We knew that since it was a smaller venue there would not be huge security gates with the band being bussed out minutes after leaving the stage like at Saratoga and that they would most likely be walking out the back door to a van. Right after the show ended we had a plan to run around to the back just to see if we would get an autograph or even just catch a glimpse. We all met at a back door and decided to wait for a bit and see what turned up. After an hour or more, fate decided we were staying and waiting after a few games of rock, paper, scissors.......and to our surprise it payed off.

We got to meet Dave as many of you know and have seen the pictures and it was an amazing experience, but a unique one indeed. I have grown up with his music, as all of us have, and can remember the first time I heard one of their first albums Under the Table and Dreaming. He has inspired me in many ways and is one of the main reasons I began to seriously play guitar. When you get the chance to meet someone like that, someone that has a big impact, it has a way of really confusing you. At least it did me. It was nice to know that I could stand in the background for a bit, that I wasn't star struck, nor did I have any desire to push to get close or get in his way. After he came out there was a large crowd around him immediately. More than anything just wanted to shake his hand and say thank you and I did just that. It did make it better that he reached out his had first and that he came up to us (thanks twins) as opposed us running up to him.

Its inspiring to know that someone who has had that much of an impact on someones life is just a regular old guy who took some risks, enjoyed life, and did what he did well.
You can't really help but want things to work out the same for yourself sometimes and wonder if they ever will. I am a big dreamer and if nothing else it is fun to think about being able to influence that many people in one way or another.


We got to see concerts in Paris and in Amsterdam after London and both were great shows. Although we didn't get to meet any of the band members again it was still good to see him in such small venues and we have a story and pictures to last a lifetime.

Til next time,
Josh

Big Old City

Hello again.

It's been a bit since I have written so I will just give you some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks.

Just a comment on this lifestyle; It is not routine, comfortable, or easy, but it is full of surprises, rewarding and extremely thought provoking. With that said I often have a lot to say and little time to say it.....

Flying to London was the most excited I had been so far since the start of the trip. When we got there I felt like I was right at home. The hustle and bustle was similar to New York City but still noticably different and I was ready for a change of pace after Ireland. After we checked in I explored the city and the parks.

Now picture this....
You just got to and older part of the city with cobblestone roads and narrow streets and started to hear a chatter in the distance. Its a pretty good feeling to be in a new place where you know there is so much history. As you keep walking the chatter slowly grows louder and you begin to hear the clincks of forks, knives and glasses as they hit the plates and tables. You come across a high end resturaunt that has huge windows that are all wide open for the warm night. The sun was just about to go down and you know most people are just going out for dinner after work. Just the simple buzz from the people in a different accent makes the experince more surreal and makes you wonder how different their world view is in comparison.

I couldn't help but think about all the major news that had broken out throughout the years in that spot and began to actually realize where I was on the map. I like those moments better than seeing any of the tourist attractions.......Plus it's a lot cheaper.

You saw other pictures and heard other stories from London but those were somethings that stuck out for me.

Josh

Amsterdamia

So in a way, we got to see Amsterdam in two different perspectives! When we first arrived last Saturday (sorry we didn't blog then, no internet!) we were exhausted from the overnight bus ride, and after our hike through the woods, I pretty much passed out on the lawn in front of our cabin. Christina's interpertation of those days were pretty accurate, I did try to go horseback riding since there are horsesd everywhere, but since I didn't have my gear I wasn't able to go. Such a bummer, it wasn't too bad though cause the stables were the cheapest place to eat! I love ham and cheese tosti's!!! This cabin proved to be are most relaxing home away from home. That's probably what made it so difficult when we traded our cozy (now smelling kinda funny) cabin for the most disgusting hostel in the red light district!!!! Lucky for us we didn't stay very long, I mean we had a Dave Matthews Show to get to! Yep that's right another show, which was soooo worth it. I got front row, my chest was against the bar. I'm fairly sure, Dave saw me and smiled (this may be wishful thinking, but I think we may have it on video!) At the end of the show, Carter (the drummer) throws his drum stix. Already aware of this ritual, I took my pencils and sketch pad to create three signs for us to hold up in the air at this time. I'd like to think that it was my creativity, ok and the help of Kup's sholders that helped me catch that drumstick. I wish we had that recorded! I don't know if I'll every be able to see a Dave Matthew's concert the same way again!

Now when I think of Amsterdam, I think of four things:

1. Pot- yes they have weed and hash everywhere! Although, it didn't seem like too many of the locals take part. It was mostly Americans in all of the coffee shops. It's pretty funny because the cops always get phone calls from tourists thinking that they've ODed on weed. According to our tour guide, Amsterdam is coming down on old traditions. Mushrooms are no longer legal, and they aren't issuing any more business permits for coffee shops. Its also super easy to close down a shop because the laws are so strict. After our explorations, I really don't understand why the stuff is illegal in the first place. Everyone was sooo relaxed, way better than drinking.


2. Red Light District- Ok so, to tell you the truth I expected a strip like Las Vegas with bright lights and loud people. So you could understand how confused I was when I walked into the district and had no idea! Yes there are prostitutes up and down the streets standing in windows as you walk by. But once you got used to the abundance of sex shops, windows, and naughty pictures, you were mezmorised (well maybe confused is a better word) by the walkways and canals!

3. History- Those of you who don't know, WWII was a huge thing around here. Well... it was a huge deal all around the world, but here there was more first hand information. In fact Anne Frank's annex is here! So of course we took a free walking tour of the city to learn as much as we could. I learned that the reason why the houses lean forward isn't because the foundation was sinking, they purposely did that because the stairs in the house were too narrow to carry things. So in the front of the house they put a levy, now the houses that lean to the side, their foundation is sinking since Amsterdam was built on a marsh and built with boards.

4. Bikes!- Ok so every resident in Amsterdam owns at least two bikes! And when the bike breaks, they just throw the old bike in the canal. A man with a boat goes through the canals collecting the bikes, fixing them and reselling them! Just don't get hit, they are maniacs on their bikes!


That should be it for now, if you want to see Amsterdam the way it is now I highly suggest going soon. There will be huge changes within the next year or so from what we were told! If you do go, I highly suggest the coffee ;)

~cheryl