there's over a thousand but here's a few

streets of dublin.



mailbox in london.




fluted ceilings in the abbey cathedral in bath, england.



my lovely friend and bath tour guide emily.



the best stereotypical london picture i think i could get.



the changing of the guard that got rained out...



me, gumbi and big ben.



the london eye...pretty much a HUGE ferris wheel.



massive cathedral in cologne, germany.



chocolate fountain in the lindt chocolate factory (heaven)
cologne, germany.



one of my favorite pictures.
prague castle.



prague, czech republic.



creepy puppets - traditional czech toys.



astronomical clock. aka one of the biggest tourist attraction let downs ever.

back in the states

hey guys.
so we made it back to the states safely. it was a bit of a journey, especially for kelley, to get here, but we made it. i plan on updating the last week later but right now i can't think straight after such a long plan ride and trying to figure out how to get to asheville. thanks for following!

drastic change in ireland

so we made it to ireland a few days ago and i thought i would welcome the cooler weather but it turns out i would take greece/italy heat over rainy cold ireland any day. we have about a day and a half left on our trip - which is crazy to me - and then we will start our trek back home. we have a 12 hour layover in london so we are hoping to watch harry potter in those 12 hours and break up the time. i cant believe the trip has gone by so fast but it has been a blast! i know i have left our a few details about rome and of course ireland but while paying for internet, i dont always find it reasonable to update the blog when i should be checking emails/bank accounts and of course facebook. i will see most of you saturday or after and i can catch you up in person with pictures and everything! pray for a flights home!

roming in rome

so while i have the time, i will do a half update on rome. we are here for 2 more days so there will be much more to say but hey, ive got the time, the internet is free and no one seems to be waiting so why not.

yesterday we made our way to the coloseum. we had met some guys in a park in bari who told us some hot spots in rome and that the coloseum was overrated but we made it this far so we might as well venture in. we kinda got suckered into a paid tour but we skipped the 2 hour line so it was pretty well worth it for that. the guide's english was lacking and we think he just repeated himself but alright whatever. lots of gladiators and lions died in there...(i know there is MUCH more but that's all our little friend told us). we wandered around other ruins and greatness - sorry the name is escaping me right now. we saw where the emperors lived - a house that would cover most of NC State campus plus some...just for a house. mussalini decided he was an emperor too so he added his summer home in the middle of the ruins...pompous if i do say so myself. it was a long day in the sun. we did more wandering through amazing arhitecture and saw the circus...(sorry lacking in specific names of important places...another long day in the sun).

today we did the vatican. we saw everything and our guide was great. he was entertaining and spoke clear english - perfect. we saw the sistine chapel and st. peter's basilica. we saw so much art by michael angelo and rafael divinci. all greatness. after our tour we made our way to a late lunch where our waiter asked me if i had a boyfriend. i dont think i have mentioned this but i have been hit on by many a waiters since we got to greece and it is starting to make me question why just the waiters notice me. who knows.

tomorrow we are doing trevi fountain and the spanish steps. so much to see in rome that we wont make it to other parts of italy but i think we are enjoying some consistency for a little while.

hope all is well in the states!

a few thoughts

these are things i meant to say before and just forgot...lets see what i can think of now.

*a greek thought my last named sounded greek - i have to say i was excited about that since i just want to be greek now.

*we had some of the BEST baklava ever at this local joint near our hotel in santorini. i wish i could have brought some home with me to share with you but it probably wouldnt travel well.

*we have mastered ferry night travel - we got our spot at 6 pm for the night in a booth so we wouldnt have to sleep on the nasty upper deck (since that all we paid for) or the floor in front of other people.

*we have successfully reached a state of delirium usually only reached under extreme exhaustion. i think its our way to deal with frustration, either be loopy or sad...loopy is more fun.

i cant think of everything i wanted to say because of that delirium. we are in bari until 4pm (10 am eastern standard time) then we are making our way to rome. so far, greece is still beating italy in my favorite list but really i cant really judge that yet. thanks for reading my ramble - LOVE YOU GUYS!

my new favorite place

Greece.

i have to say that greece has made the travel, which turned into 41 hours instead of a mere 37, completely and utterly worth it. the train ride was a little rough though because we went through 3 countries (slovakia, serbia and macedonia) that didn't take our eurorail pass so we ended up paying in 2 out of the 3 countries (macedonia was a little oblivious). if you ever decide to take a train in serbia (for any reason) don't do it. im pretty sure the train moved at about half pace the whole time we were in the country and i felt like they did passport control every 30 minutes (on an over night train so sleep was a bit sparse). here's how our trains worked leaving czech:

czech through slovakia to hungary. hungary to serbia. serbia through macedonia to thesolaniki, greece. thesolaniki to athens.

because of our slow moving train we were supposed to have missed our connection to athens and we made friends on the train that were going to let us sleep on their floor for the night but by the grace of God there was a train leaving about 20 minutes after we arrived in thesolaniki and we made it to athens about 2 hours after we had expected. after a brief nap that morning in our hostel we adventured to the acropolis and the parthenon. what an amazing thing to see! i really enjoyed it. we got to roam around the hill pretty much freely and go into zeus and aphrodite's caves. im pretty sure we went the opposite way of everyone else so we felt like we were alone until we got to the top. the top was amazing and HOT. you could see so much of athens and so much of the history. we didnt have any kind of tour so we didn't always know the specifics of what we were seeing but it was great anyway. i have to say i heard so much about athens being dirty - from americans and greeks - and i think because i was expecting the worst, i was pleasantly surprised. i mean it's pretty much a big city but the people were great so that helped. we ended up roaming athens another day because we got a late night ferry to paros (greek isle) which was also fun to just got to roam freely without an agenda.

paros is amazing. it's one of the more quiet islands but exactly what we needed after so much travel. we got there about 1 am without a hostel but i knew there would be people off the boat willing to negotiate. we got a great deal on a sweet hotel - private shower, balcony, tv, refrigerator and AC! we spent most of our time on the beach reading books and lounging - rough life, i know. 2 nights total.

onto santorini. santorini is MUCH bigger and much higher. it is the result of the active volcano not too far away and has totally different landscape and experience. we once again found a hotel from getting off the boat and negotiated (without knowing it) the price we would pay for a basement. no ac but a fan and there was a pool. i have to say we didn't know what part of the island we wanted to stay on so we didn't really know where we were going but they promised us a room and at a pretty good rate so we took it. since we arrived here around 4 pm we decided to take it easy and do laundry/go grocery shopping. the next day we lounged on the beach with umbrella and chairs. surprisingly, it was the first time i got sunburned - to be a redhead on the greek isles i have done pretty well. after we went back to the hotel to shower off we made arrangements to make our way to italy and see the beautiful white buildings of santorini.

as we were walking, noticing all the restaurants with great views of the sunset were WAAAAAAAY out of our price range we were stopped by a man named nikos. he was a waiter and for some reason wanted us to take up a table at the restaurant to have a drink and watch the sunset - knowing very well we weren't getting dinner. i have to say we had a great view of the sunset so i can't complain and nikos was funny so it wasn't a bad deal. some australians noticed that we hadnt gotten our food yet even though they came way after us so that was funny to explain how we kinda got tricked into it but we didn't lose anything from it so why not. from there we roamed and took more pictures and found (recommended by a local) a cheaper place to eat. traditional greek food never gets old. YUM!

today we are bumming around santorini - a little shopping/beach bumming - until midnight when our ferry will take us back to athens. we have another long trip ahead of us to get to italy but once again i think italy will make it worth it. i have honestly LOVED greece - probably my favorite non-spanish speaking country. italy has some high standards to beat, we'll see what happens.

a whirlwind

so my first thought when i try to write this post is "how did i get here?" it's a LONG story!

so back when we left england we took a train from london to dover, england (about 2 hours) to take a ferry to calais, france (1.5 hours). all this wasn't so bad - the ferry was actually more like a cruise ship so i was impressed but then, we'll just say the rain set in. we get to calais to try to make a train to cologne, germany in order to meet up with a friend for the night (a free place to stay), only to find out that there are no more train to cologne for the night (5 pm was too late to get there) AND there's no hostels in calais so we have to go to lille. we had no plans to go to lille and no way to get in touch with bastian to let him know the plans. our thoughts are that surely there is internet in lille if there are hostels right? WRONG! the first thing we do when we get to lille is look for a place to stay because by that point it was about 8 pm. the best rate we found was at a 1 star hotel (use your imagination!) but we take it because it fits the unexpected budget. then we set off to find internet and food. come to find out that they have never heard the word "internet" before and don't know what im saying because no one speaks english. out of frustration we decide to go for mcdonalds for dinner (and i even screwed up that order...goodness). by the end of the night we decided that france was our new F word. the next morning we catch a train to belgium to get the connector to cologne - finally we find internet and civilization where people don't think we're lunatics. from there cologne is our final destination. after a struggle with our travels we decided to spend an extra day in cologne and not make our way to munich or berlin because we're so sick of transportation.

our two days in cologne turned out to be pretty delightful. we had this hostel that we think used to be this guy's house and he was too lazy to get a real job so he turned it into a hostel - it was actually really nice though. we had some struggles getting in touch with bastian once we got to germany but finally on our second day we were able to meet up with him and get the grand tour. we got to go to a CHOCOLATE FACTORY! it was like willy wonka, so much fun with free samples of lindt chocolate. we also got to eat german food and drink german beer all chosen by bastian. he was a great guide and we ended up having a great time.

from cologne we've made our way to prague where the city is beautiful but the people are all a little sour that there are about 9 tourists to every 1 local. we have taken the tour of the prague castle and wandered around town yesterday but it was cut short due to a minor migrane on my part. after a quick nap i was back in business. we went out to a bar with a new hostel friend last night which was fun to see the night life - just a drink then we called it a night. today we started to do a walking tour of old town but for kelley it got cut short due to shoe malfunctions. i finished the tour and tried to give her the quick version through my pictures. tomorrow we're off to greece - well a 37 hour TRAIN RIDE and we'll make it to greece on wednesday. it's gonna be a doozie but we bought new books today so hopefully we'll make it. i think greece will be totally worth it!

london

we arrived in london on friday. our hostel is great! (google palmer's lodge in london if you're interested in checking it out!) we wandered to primrose park which had a great view of the city and a great place to sit and relax for a little while. saturday we planned to visit my friend emily in bath but the bus got all messed up...pretty much because we missed it thinking it was amendable but that was not the case. i ended up buyin a whole new ticket to get to bath and then it told kelley the bus was full so i ended up going alone. it wasn't a bad trek to make and it was kinda nice to adventure alone. it was so great to see emily and i loved the city of bath. it had great architecture and was preparing for a floral competition so there was flowers everywhere! i would definitely recommend visiting bath if you get the chance but try to stay longer than 3 hours like i had to because of the bus mix up.
sunday we adventured to the national gallery and saw picasso, monet, van goh and so much more! then we went to the british museum and were amazed at the amount of artifacts they have from egypt, greece/italy and asia. we even saw cleopatra's mummy and tomb - how they got there...probably a luting or something (just my assumption). it was really interesting and both were free so that was a plus. OH i even ate fish and chips (i dont normally like fish but i had to while in london).
today we hit all the big tourist sights like big ben, the house of parliment, buckingham palace (waited over an hour for changing of the guards that got RAINED OUT about 5 minutes before...BUMMER)we also saw london bridge which (if we saw the right now) was a disappointment and completely overshadowed by the tower bridge. we did quite a bit of walking and tried to avoid paying too much so we saw the london eye and shakespeare's stage but we didn't want to pay to go in for a looksy so we just took pictures from the outside. london is a great city and too much to do in 4 days (which was more like 2 for me) so i guess i might have to come back.
next off to germany!

let the european adventures begin

so kelley and i finally made it to europe after a few short delays in the airport. the first of which was pretty much no surprise to me, i got stopped for the extra security check because there's either something about my last name or my mug shot of a picture on my passport. they took a full body image of me - a little awkward but it was no full body search so i was alright with it. the next delay was a HUGE surprise to everyone on the plane. it started catching speed down the runway, faster and faster and then slower and slower...that's not supposed to happen. turns out there was a VALVE loose or broken on the right wing that they needed to fix...seems a little late for that but then again earlier enough that we're all around to complain about it. it ended up taking 2 hours (as we sat on the plane) which demolished our 2 hour layover in london to catch our connector to dublin so that just set us back in general. we ended up sleeping in the london airport on and off for about 4 extra hours and drowsily made it to dublin.

we had big plans for dublin...but none of it came true due too exhaustion and the many delays. the hostel was nice though and the town of dublin was great so we'll have to explore before we go back to the states. today we made our way to london and tomorrow we're going to bath, england to see my friend EMILY! (she's a friend from study abroad in ecuador so im super pumped to see her!) we also might get to see stonehenge which would be sweet - just adding to my wonders of the world list. well we're off to dinner in london.

my 21st birthday was definitely one of my favorite birthdays of all time! i know most people think of 21 as a big deal but so many great things happened that i didn't even expect and i can say i remember them all (unlike other people).
#1 unexpected event my friend are so good to me that they surprised me with a beer and a candle at midnight! definitely a good time after not eating since 6 and i was the only one drinking haha but it was so sweet of them to show up to celebrate!
#2 unexpected event...I SOLD A PHOTO! so now the story behind it all. i love photography and traveling so i decided to hang up some photos at a local coffee shop for the months of may and june. it was kind of a hassle to get everything up and situated but it finally worked out. then i was at work the other night and someone told me a photo was missing but i hadn't heard anything about it so i assumed the worse that someone may have stolen it. come to find out ON MY BIRTHDAY that the missing photo was actually sold to a girl from South Africa! I was STOKED and nothing less. A photo taken in Peru, sold in the United States, is now hanging up somewhere in South Africa - how flippin sweet! #3 great thing - lunch with a sweet friend. it may not seem that out of the ordinary but i loved hanging out and getting to catch up one on one.
#4 exciting event - i got to continue planning my trip to EUROPE with another sweet friend.
#5 greatness - i got to talk to everyone in my family (immediate anyway) and that hardly ever happens in one day so i loved that! and i got to talk to great friends from home that i hadn't gotten to catch up with lately.
#6 amazingness - SALSA and SANGRIA! i got a huge group of people that i love together to go salsa dancing! it was half off paella (a spanish dish of deliciousness) and half off sangria. one great thing about it being my birthday is that i didn't have to pay a penny and i got everything i wanted and more. dancing was so much fun too! the hispanic men were so willing to teach me and my friends how to dance and make up twirl! that is my favorite part, twirling, so of course i wore the perfect dress - red and sassy!
#7 sweetness - my mom sent me my favorite flowers - star gazer lilies - and caroline got me my other favorite - sun flowers - with a balloon! danielle made me a fun fetti cake so that's how we finished the night, with a slice of cake and a glass of water.

so i dont really know what else you could ask for on a birthday.

so much love

so, i have to say, the first close friend of mine i heard about getting married kinda freaked me out, im not gonna lie. the fact that we are OLD enough for all that just seems so bizarre, in a good way, to me. when i think of people who get married i think of grown ups and careers and living with boys...nothing that i want to do at this point in my life but that's what makes me different from quite a few of my friends these days.
a friend found me on facebook recently that i didn't recognize because i didn't know the name. come to find out it was a friend from high school who had gotten married since the last time i saw her...however many years ago. and then that same day i found out that one of my close friends in college got engaged this past weekend after another friend had just gotten engaged liked 3 weeks ago. this is the same week of MY 21st birthday! all these yougin, but i must say i am happy for them! not to mention, of course, the wedding that i am a part of at the end of june! so weddings seem to be the hot topic for so many friends these days. i will be there to support them but i don't see myself at the alter any time soon.

i've got adventures of my own to go on first!

rock concerts + organs (the instrument)

so tonight, my friend and i decided to create our own adventures. the first adventure we had been planning for a while, eating at subconscious (a sketchy sub joint on hillsborough st). it was actually delightful until i spill my drink everywhere. one good thing about sketchy places, not many people eat there so i didn't have to worry about embarrassment.
the next adventure was going to a Decemberists concert. i personally only went because i like their opening band, Blind Pilot, so i had no idea what to expect from the decemberists. i dont even really know the words to explain the decemberist all i know is that i came up with a conclusion by the end of it all:
- rock bands that use organs (the instrument) just end up sounding down right creepy.
all the songs without the organ were awesome and they even had some girls from other bands helping out with amazing voices but the organ/dark light combo just distracted me too much and made me feel like i was in a horror movie or something. but i will say, overall the show was entertaining so what more can you ask for?
my latest adventure (my roommate just came up with as we speak) is digging for dinosaurs that she didn't believe existed until about 2 mins ago. oh how i love new adventures!

so many new adventures

so the world of blogs...this is me. the main intention of this blog will probably end up being my travels, wherever i may go, but im sure everyday thoughts will be posted as well. the month of june will hold so many new adventures/celebrations that i will have so many things to talk about!
starting july 1st i will be gallivanting through europe with my friend kelley and of course my good and loyal friend GUMBI. i am stoked about that and can't wait to share my stories. oh ps, Gumbi travels with me since the Spring of 08 so get ready for some sweet pictures with him.

signing off for now.