Italia round 2

We are now in Rome, and celebrated our first night with a pub crawl that started with unlimited drinks and free pizza.. doesnt get much better. Unfortunately that was the highlight of the pub crawl, but atleast we got a free t-shirt out of it. Luckily it is a bit cooler here than in Florence, although we still take daily siestas (just woke up from a 2 hour one actually). Its been nice for me so far here as ive been catching up on lost sleep and battling a cold while the others are seeing sights that i have already seen. Tonight we are going to go watch the sunset from the Spanish Steps and check out Trevi fountain, and tomorrow while the girls go to Versailles I will sleep in again haha. Then on monday we are going to go to Pompeii for the day! Im really excited for that. Anyways, nothing else to update really.. off to Venice next to complete our italian journey and then off to Greece!!!!

Italia

We are now in Florence. Nice was alright, a pretty city but theres not a whole lot to do there. Im glad we only spent 2 days there. Then we headed to the cinque Terre, and upon our arrival had to climb what seemed like a million stairs to our room... but it was worth it. We had a private room in a small villa overlooking the beautiful hills of the Italian Riviera. The next day we tackled the 5 hour hike between all five villages, starting where we were staying in Riomaggiore. We went Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and finally Monterosso where we got to relieve our tired bodies in the ocean. The hike was beautiful though, totally worth the pain my glutes are feeling today. Along the way we also stopped at a small hut for fresh made lemonade with lemons the man grew himself on the land we were hiking around.. it was the best thing I have ever drank in my life.. I think i drank 5 litres of water as well haha. So far I think the cinque terre has been my favourite place, but theres not a whole lot to do besides the hikes and going to the beach.

Today, we took the train to Florence which was excruciatingly hot. But finally we arrived to see a full on cat fight in the train stations... two girls pulling each others hair, slapping each other and finally kicking the other down the stairs... welcome to florence? tomorrow we are going to the Duomo and to check out some of the markets, and then we will see the infamous David, all the while trying to escape the 35 degree heat in midday by taking siestas, as we have becme accustomed too.

Thats all for now. Miss you all.

Sun and sand

Well, it is our last night in barcelona, and i wish we could stay longer! This city is unreal! Our first day we went to the beach and just sort of wandered around, we are staying at an awesome hostel right off the main drag, las ramblas. There are tons of street performers and also lots of outdoor patios. Our second night we went out with our hostel to a club... but didnt leave til 2am! We got home around 5am (which is pretty early by catalonian standards, the club closed at 9am) and slept for a couple hours, then went for a walk up to a fort on a hill, and then to la sagrada familia, which was the BIGGEST RIPOFF EVER! we paid 9 euros to walk around a construction site for 10 minutes... but gaudis architecture is pretty amazing. Then after a siesta we went out again with some aussies and americans from our hostel to another club at 2am and stayed out til 5 yet again. Gotta love barcelona! We wore the same outfits both nights because our clothes smelled so badly like smoke we didnt want to ruin two outfits. Today, we went to the beach again after having a tapas and paella meal, and then after another siesta went and saw some more of gaudis architecture. Tomorrow we are off to Nice where we will see mac and help her ring in her 19th birthday! We will be on the train all day, adn stop again in Montpellier (we stopped there on the way here for 5 hours, its a very cute little city). As much as I love this city im not sure i could handle the lifestyle much longer, and i thik my throat needs a break from teh smoky bars!

PURPLE RAIN

Well.. the eurotrip has officially begun. we all met in amsterdam which was definitely a good start to our trip. We mostly just walked around, enjoying the beautiful city and had a really good time. We had an interesting encounter at the Pink Elephant, which hosts a live sex show. It was certainly a once in a lifetime experience, one that I never need to repeat. But anyways, we are now in Paris, and it is FREEZING! We missed our train here, we literally watched it pull away from the platform.. so we got to spend a few hours in Brussels and eventually made our way to our destination. Our first night we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower, because it wasnt very nice out and we figured there wouldnt be very many people there. Boy were we wrong. 2 hours later we were at the very top and overlooking the city at night. It was beautiful. Today, Me Alison and Dianna went to a cemetary which holds Jim Morrisons grave (which wasnt very impressive, but still interesting to see). The cemetary itself was very breathtaking, and there was a great holocaust memorial there as well. Then we went to the train station to book our beds for the overnight train to Barcelona. However, we found out there was no more beds. And no more seats. So instead we leave paris at 6am and go to Montpellier (which is in the south of france) and then spend 5 hours in Montpellier before heading to Barcelona. Should be interesting....

Tomorrow all the girls are going to Versailles, and since Ive already been Im going to just hang out since I feel a bit of a cold coming on. Im going to try and sleep it off, then spend all day writing and sending postcards. If you want one, send me your address.

We are all alive and well and healthy and having an awesome time so far- We can't wait for the sunny beaches of Barcelona though! The weather in Paris has been a bit offputting, but oh well. Miss you all.

Time to stop for a breather...

Well.. the mcphail troop has come and gone. Ross and Melissa flew home yesterday after we travelled through Norway, Sweden and Denmark. We started in Stavanger, ferried up to Bergen, and then took the train over to Oslo. Bergen was my favourite, it was very beautiful and reminded me of home. We got to do some nice hiking there. Then we went over to Sweden, where we stayed on a Sheep farm in Karlstad- by far my favourite part of the trip so far, even though all my clothes now smell like sheep! It was a lot of fun there. Then we went to STockholm, and finally down to Copenhagen before returning to Amsterdam. From there, Ross and Melissa left me, and I spent the day in Amsterdam before taking the overnight bus to london- which seemed like an efficient way of transportation at the time. It started off okay, I managed to find the bus station easily which was my main concern. I got on the bus, and took a sleeping pill hoping to knock myself out for the whole ride, but no dice. Instead I ended up feeling nauseous and ridiculously tired at the same time. At around 3-4am I ended up falling asleep with my head almost between my knees, only to be woken up at 5 to go through customs, which took FOREVER. Then because they took forever, we missed our train through the chunnel so we had to wait an hour for the next one. Lets just say it wasnt my most restful night ever. Now Im in london, and I sat in the hostel for like 5 hours this morning reading and waiting for Di and Ali since I couldnt check into my room now. I had to resort to reading the Nicole Richie novel I am very ashamed to admit... Alison and Dianna leave tomorrow so I have to find some way to occupy myself all day... we'll see how that goes. Anyways, back to bader in a few days then off to amsterdam where the next journey begins!