Roma

Well this is probably the last little note from me before leaving tomorrow morning. Bethany just left a few minutes ago. She has a crazy 12 hour layover in Dublin... can't say I envy that one! I'm sure she's happy about a final trip to the Guiness headquaters though ;)

Roma

Our first night in Rome we busted out a Rick Steve's self-guided walking tour (Bethany and I refer to him as Ol' Ricky). It was a nightime stroll through several of the Piazzas, including the Pantheon. It was so beautiful to see all the insanely old structures lit up.

The next day we started in the Roman Forum, outside of the Coliseum. I decided that I would have remembered a lot more information from world history class if we had taken a little field trip to the Roman Forum instead of spending so much time on pointless homework.

We saw things that were built before AD, which totally blew my mind. There was even an original door that was over 2000 years old. All the of the structures were huge, but most were only a third of their original size. Like I said, I also brushed up on my Roman history that I either never learned or had been long forgotten.


Coliseum

The Coliseum was so impressive. I don't really know quite what to say about it. The shows that were put on in there just seemed out of a Harry Potter story. They imported animals from all over the world and brought them below stage level. It took 200 men to lift the animals through the floor using a system of pulleys, and the gladiators (prisoners) had no idea where their attackers would appear from. They also elaborately decorated the stage area to reflect anything from a south american jungle to a african plain.

Bethany couldn't believe that the blood of the slain gladiators was bottled and given to the people. They believed it helped cure all kinds of conditions. I saw the bone of a Griffon, which honestly and embarassingly, I didn't think was a real creature. I was thinking they were like mythical birds... but apparently they existed and were some of the many animals brought into the coliseum to fight.

Hopefully that little history lesson will get me some props from mom.

Eating Out

I may have touched on this before, but the wine here is SO GOOD. and SO CHEAP. We've been getting the house wine at each restuarant and its hard not to drink it like water. Every dish I've had in Italy has been so good, even just the little sandwhiches along the way. We found a death-by-chocolate gelato ice cream that Ol' Ricky had recommened and it was so good that Bethany and I re-found it today. It's going to be a shock for my system going back to water and oatmeal :)

Saturday night we went to a quiet little place off the main path. There was a guitar player there was was entertaining some Spanish tourists. He played all kinds of songs, Italian, Spanish and John Denver. At one point the whole place was singing. It was a great way to spend the evening.

Vatican/St Peter's

This morning Stivo and Jess got up really early go to see the Vatican. You will have to ask them how it was since Bethany and I didn't go. Stivo did say that St. Peters was much more impressive not only because of the massive size, but also because the people weren't so picky about talking like they were in the Sistine Chapel. Bethany and I wandered down to Vatican City a little less early and watched the church service in St. Peter's square. We checked out the St. Peters museum and then headed back to town for lunch.

Well I was going to upload some pictures... Me and Bethany at a little lunch table in a Piazza, the pantheon all lit up at night, a coliseum group picture... but you know, this computer isn't up for it right now, so you'll just have to imagine. Anyway, see you all soon!

The last weekend

We just got off our last train and arrived in Rome. We will be leaving from here to go home on Monday. Stivo, Bethany and Jess went to get a snack... I snacked on my peanut butter during the train ride so I decided I'd take advantage of the free internet here at the hostel.

Florence

Well, we made it to Florence eventually, just not quite on time. Our reservations at the famous Uffizi Gallery were at 230 and we made it town about 5. So basically we went to dinner and then to bed because we were all pretty exhausted. The tasty wine from the tap here is cheap but so good, I think it acts as a pretty darn good sleep aid too.

I lingered a little longer downtown to watch the end of the Barcelona/Manchester United game at an Irish pub. There were some really obnoxious Aussie Barca fans that I thought were totally going to get killed by some angry englishmen. I waited around long enough after the game to see if a fight would start, but when nothing happened I peaced out for bed.

Biking

On Thursday I was a little worn out of city sightseeing so I did a bike tour through some of the Tuscan hills. Bethany, Stivo and Jess stayed in town and saw the city and were able to get into the Uffizi Gallery with our reservations from the day before. Bethany broke down and finally bought a souvenir... a cute leather bag. I'm sure she's still twitching from actually spending money on something other than food or transportation so you might not want to bring it up :)

The bike tour stopped at a working winery that had been around for 800 years. I wont get into details but I thought the process was really cool. They also made olive oil there too and people, I could really go on about that but I will try not to bore you with tales of olive oil. Lets just say it's pretty sweet how they make it and the olive oil they gave us to try was SO GOOD, like, biting right into the best olive you've ever tasted, but in liquid form. Thats not a great description, I know, but maybe you get the idea.

The scenery was also amazing, like Napa Valley but more ... um... just more. More hills as far as you could see, more little castles and vineyards.

In the city

The city was really beautiful. I wish I could have spent more time there.



I was walking around in the evening and felt like I was in Van Gogh's Starry night painting. There were people holding hands everywhere.. normally I would have felt like puking, but it seemed ok in Florence.

I forgot to mention, the best part about the bike tour though was the price of admission ended up including dinner as well :) We went to a restaurant just above the city that overlooked all the Florence lights. You know me, it was a bit of a romance overload, but what can I say? When in Rome Florence...

Pictures ....

If you can believe it, we missed the train to Florence. Oyyy.... we thought that trains left La Spezia all day, but apparently just at 6 am and 2 pm. So we get to spend a few more hours here in La Spezia. I went to information to ask what sights I could see in three hours and the guy said it was more than enough time to walk through the whole town, if that gives you some idea of how, um, compact it is.

So Im getting the hang of this Italian language thing. Biglietta is ticket. Autobus is bus. Gratzi is thank you and Caio is hello, goodbye and pretty much any kind of greeting I guess. People say prego a lot.. I think it means thank you. Ive been able to get around ok using those words. Oh yes, Cuanto Costa... how much? And of course, Gelato.

Yesterday we stopped in to get some lunch in Porto Venera. It was neat actually. Bethany ordered salmoni and I ordered cheese and we made sandwiches with the bread provided.

Stivo and Jess got some laundry done yesterday in Riomaggiore while Bethany and I meandered along the rocky beach. It was very pretty, but the rocks actually hurt a bit. Jess definitely took a huge spill in front of a bunch of tourists, but dont worry, shes just fine!




Porto Venere



Sangria in Barcelona




Borghetto our (unexpected) county getaway





Snorkling in Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre)







Setting out on the Cinque Terre hike

Pisa, Cinque Terre

Pisa

On Sunday morning we left our neat little B&B in Palermo and flew out to Pisa. Pisa, by the way, is a tiny, tiny very hot town that has a tilted tower and thats about it. We hopped on a tourist bus but missed the stop we were hoping for. Where we got off was probably the only corner of Pisa that had absolutely no tourists. It was a little unsettling. I said if we were in a movie the song "All By Myself" would be playing in the background.

Oh yeah, did I mention it was really hot too? We wandered to the first restaurant we could find and had some really good food. Bethany thought she was ordering some fruit punch but it turned out to be a shot of some kind of red liquor.

We eventually wandered over to the tower, which was infact, leaning. Snapped a few pics, then moved on to La Spezia.

La Spezia (Borghetto)

So we were hot and tired and hopped off the train in La Spezia where we thought our hotel was. But infact, our hotel was in the same county, but a different town.

Oh yeah, and we missed the last bus out to the tiny town. As we were walking around La Spezia trying to figure out where we were staying people were like "Borghetto? Why would you stay there?"

But honestly, I really like it. Its about a 40 minute bus ride from the main town and its way up in the mountains. Its really really quiet but very scenic, like staying in a country town in Colorado. Lots of green mountains. And we are actually getting a lot of sleep for the first time in out trip because 1) even though our window is open there are no sounds on the street to wake us up at night and 2) there is absolutely nothing to do after 930 pm anyway. And the church bells go off at 7 am so we figure we might as well get to bed early.

Cinque Terre

Yesterday we made the treck to the famous Cinque Terre. Its five towns stretched rooted in cliffs. The hike from town to town was very scenic. The first town, Riomaggiore, was very quiet. We actually returned today and are planning on hitting up the rocky beach soon.

The walk to the first town, Via Dell Amore (walk of love), is a nice little stroll. The next walk is longer but then you hit about 300 stairs so we decided to take advantage of the free bus.

Then I did pretty much the stupidest thing ever. The walk to the third town was about a 90 minute treck according to Rick Steves (author of the travel book we are using). So I said, "I wonder how fast we can do it?"

And of course Jess, the triathlete, was immediately speed walking through the trail. Keep in mind, the trail was very rocky, very steep, and it was a very long way down to the ocean below. So Jess led the way, passing people like the were standing still and hopping from rock to rock. I followed, desperately trying to stay on her heels. Stivo and Bethany took a much more pleasant stroll which was probably a lot safer and smarter. But Jess and I made it in 50 minutes, so weve got that going for us.

Each of the five towns are all very picturesque. But there were A LOT of tourists, mostly Americans clutching the Rick Steves book. It was a bit of a turnoff. I enjoyed the hiking and scenery more than the actual towns which had mostly little touristy shops. Dont get me wrong, the views were STUNNING and Im so glad we decided to visit.

Portovenere

Today we went to Porto Venere, which is kind of like the 6th town in the cliffs, but Rick Steves didnt cover it so there were not nearly as many tourists. It was just as beautiful though.

I think everyone has enjoyed this part of the trip. Its been a chance to recharge before we hit the final leg of the journey in Florence and Rome.

Palermo

I dont have too much time, since Stivo and I found the only internet cafe in town and it is hellaciously expensive. We do want eat dinner tonight afterall!

We arrived in town late Thursday night. I regretted recommending the book Twilight to Stivo, since the book is about 450 pages and she promply clocked me with it at the airport when a mosquito landed on my shoulder.

In most cities weve been in, or Ive ever been in really, theres been things like road regulations and laws for driving. Here, not so much. There are hardly any lines on the road. The good thing is apparently you can just walk out in front of cars and they will stop. Dont worry parents, we arent doing anything too risky, just following the lead of the locals :)

No one really speaks english here. Ive been able to get by with my terrible spanish and people get the idea. Stivo is a little better but we are basically on our own. It hasnt been to bad. Kind of fun finally being in a place where no one understands us... other places we could not understand them but we knew pretty much everyone knew what we were talking about on the bus or subway becaue they all knew english. I said "knew" a lot just then, sorry. In a hurry!

We took a bus to the beach today and it was soooo beautiful. You could see the bottom and the water was the perfect temperature. We were surrounded by stunning cliffs.

The particular part of the beach we selected was like Sicilain teenybopper central. There were so many sets of braces and lots of making out, I really felt like I had AARP stamped across my head. It was good people watching though!

Yesterday we toured the town. Found lots of churches and cobble stones. At night we were kind of wandering around and stumbled upon all these people our age, tons of them, covering block after block. Eating, drinking and smoking. It was really cool. Of course we couldnt understand anything anyone was saying. One guy came up to our table and started.. I think.. flirting? Like I said, not sure. His friends pulled him away, and I decided no matter where you are, the international language of being drunk off your ass will always be deciphered.

Anyway, off to Cinque Terre tomorrow!

Leaving Barcelona?

We are supposed to leave Barcelona this evening, so hopefully that will go a little more smoothly than leaving Paris. We fly to Palermo, Sicily tonight.

Yesterday we went to the beach, it was really nice. The water was freezing but Jess braved the coldness and swam out to a rock island a ways away from shore. She said there were all kinds of sea creatures swimming on the otherside, but none of us would know. I did swim for a while, when I finally warmed up to the water it felt really good. There were little specs of gold in it which was really pretty.



I think that was my first European beach experience. Its WAY different than any American beach Ive been too. It seemed like the older men loved the tiny swim suits. A lot of women went topless but everyone was pretty much used to it.

After walking all around Bacelona the last two days my feet are pretty much hating me at this point. We arent really on speaking terms at all actually.

Pictures
So I added a few pictures to the other blog entries. Im just going to put a few more below here because it might be faster and the hostel people are starting to stir.

Parc Guell


The Barcelona Pier



Out in Barcelona


Paris

One Week In

Leaving Rotterdam
On Sunday evening in Rotterdam we ended up a dinner party with some young people from all over. There were some folks from The Netherlands, Chile, Argentina and Russia. I was talking with one girl who was in her first year of med school and she was teaching me all about the German/Dutch school system. Essentially you take a 3-day test at age 12 which determines what type of school you will attend for the rest of your education career. I thought it was pretty interesting and I want to write more on it, but I also gotta get the rest of our travels in this blog before I get kicked of our Barcelona hostels free internet.



With Yanni



Dinner

Paris
We left early Monday morning on a train out of Rotterdam bound for Paris. I guess I wasnt expecting too much, I had heard it was dirty and that the people werent very friendly. But I LOVED it! It was a gorgeous day which probably helped. We did part of a self guided walking tour that my tour book had and then stopped for some crepes for lunch.

Stivo and Jess went to the Louvre for about an hour and ran around like crazy trying to find the Mona Lisa and take pictures of everything they could to look at later. I wandered down to the Eifle Tower which was really beautiful.

Not Leaving Paris
So, um, we were supposed to leave Paris on a flight out at around 750 pm. We were probably slightly over confident in our ability to navigate the subway system since we had been doing it without problems in every city so far.

We left ourselves about 90 minutes to get there, even though Information had told us it wouldnt be more than an hour when it was busy.

Unforutnately we got a little mixed up. First, we got trapped at one particular station and could not find the right train OR an exit to get out. We wandered/ran through the underground system for a very long time before we found any kind of information booth that could help us.

Then we found the train. Jess hopped on the first one but the doors started to close and one of the subway guards came up to me to make sure I didnt get on since it was too late.

Stivo and I watched Jess roll away and, um, got a little nervous. Jess said when the doors closed everyone was staring at her because they knew exactly what had just happened.

So Stivo and I got on the next train a few minutes later. Someone on the bus told us that we actually had to make one more train change before the airport. This made us really nervous because we didnt know if Jess knew this. Luckily someone had helped Jess too and she was waiting for us at the next station.

We arrived at the airport, but checkin closed 40 minutes prior to departure. We arrived 37 minutes prior to departure.

Stivo had already checked in but Jess and I hadnt. We decided Stivo should go ahead to Barcelona in case there was some kind monetary penalty for missing the flight and we knew Bethany would be waiting for her when the plane landed.

There was a 95 euro charge for Jess and me but luckily our next flight was delayed and they waived that fee. Good thing too, because I probably would have cried and really embarassed myself.

Since the flight was delayed we didnt get into Barcelona until about 2 am, finding our way to the hostel about 3.

Barcelona
As it turns out Bethany had gotten delayed out of Dublin and so Stivo and Bethany had to find their way to the hostel separately. But we all made it.

Yesterday we got some great lunch and went to Parc Guell and Montjusuit to see the city at sunset. It was really nice. Then we hit the town for a bit.

Thats it for now. Im doing the extremely abridged version since Im getting looks of death from other people at our hostel that want to use the free internet.

Field Hockey and The Netherlands

Leaving Amsterdam

On Saturday we went to a few more Amsterdam sights.

We went to Anne Frank's house, the line to get in wrapped all the way around the building, but it was well worth it. When she was living there in hiding she was about 12. In addition to excerpts from her detailed diary, they also displayed things like her wall of pictures of famous people (Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, etc) that she had glued on to brighten up the place, as well as pencil lines on the wall where her father had kept track of Anne and her sister's height through the years. It reminded me of my own room as a 12-year-old.

It was about time to get moving after that. We packed things up at the Tourist Inn and waved goodbye to our lady friends in the red-lit windows across the street and made our way toward Amsterdam Centraal.


Amsterdam


Utrecht

We hopped a train for Utrecht to go visit Raisa, a player on the Wake field hockey team. She lives in a quiet suburban area that was really beautiful. Her mom borrowed some bikes from the neighbors and we got our own private bike tour around the town. We saw Raisa's old school and where she used to play field hockey. It seemed like we fit in much better once we had a bike.



In front of Raisas house

Raisa's dad used to play basketball so I was asking him about that, because when I think of countries where basketball is big I don't usually think of The Netherlands. He said it was like the 8th or 9th most popular sport there, behind soccer (the most popular), field hockey, tennis, volleyball and some others. But he played it from when he was 16 until 40 and then coached some women's teams too.

We also had Raisa explain to us the difference between Holland and The Netherlands. She said they were the same, but 'Holland' was what her grandparents said and 'The Netherlands' is what everyone else said. So there you go, in case you were wondering too.

Her mother made us veggie lasagna and for an appetizer we had a cut up melon with cream cheese and pistacio nuts. I think we were all three a little skeptical of the melon at first, but it was SO good. Her family was so nice to us and we talked for a long time after dinner. It was so peaceful it was almost hard to leave!



Rotterdam

Now we are in Rotterdam staying with one of Stivo's former Maryland teammates.

We went to see a men's field hockey match this morning. The weather was pretty, um, uninspiring (read: cold and wet), but the game was entertaining. I'd never seen men's field hockey before so it was pretty interesting for me, though our hosts said it was really boring game.


at F.C. Rotterdam

Right before halftime all these young kids lined the field with their hockey sticks and soccer balls. When intermission started they all ran onto the field and starting hitting with each other. Then they squealed when the sprinklers came on and ran around some more. It was really cute!



We are getting ready to head to Paris for a few hours tomorrow afternoon and then fly to Barcelona. I hope to write some more on Tuesday. Hope everyone is well!

Catching up

The Ferry
On Thursday night we went to a Thai Restaurant in London to celebrate Stivo's birthday. The green curry was soooo good. Then we hopped on a huge ferry and headed for Holland. I can definitely say the green curry didn't seem as quite good once we got about 5 hours into the boat ride.



Our cabin on the boat

We continued Stivo's birthday celebration on board. We ran into some guys having a Stag-do party, which they told us, is the English term for bachelor party. Hen-do is their version of a bachelorette party.

Everyone had a pretty good time. One guy with the group was a boxer from Liverpool. He was pretty far gone. I think he spilled my drink at least twice. When I got up to get a wash rag to clean off the table I joked to the bartender that we had a drunk Englishman on our hands. He said, "That's the worst kind."

In the morning I snuck out for breakfast before we docked and found the boxer still in the cafeteria, still very, very drunk. He started to pick a flight with some 15 year old kids from Holland and then was finally taken out of the room by security.

When we got off the ferry we found him in handcuffs and all his friends waiting to get him out. A security guard on the boat told me he was going right back to England..

Boingy
Stivo woke up on the ferry exclaiming that her "boingy" really hurt, which is Stivo's word for uvula. Her glands weren't swollen, but that thing in the back of her throat was pretty big. The pain I think got a little better by the end of the night but I think we might have to go in search of Benadryl or something (we think it's allergy related since she was sneezing all through London).

She also wanted me to see if there were any doctors/nurses reading the blog who might know why her boingy is swollen. So there you go.

Holland

Rotterdam

We took a train to Rotterdam to meet Stivo's friend, but as it turns out she wasn't able to meet us until the evening. We left the train station and wandered into what looked like the only open breakfast place. When we walked in we were greeted with the store owner telling us our feet were too dirty to come in. I think we all three had a "Dorothy, you're not in Kansas anymore" moment.


In Rotterdam

Then we went back to the train station where we hopelessly searced for an internet cafe with no luck. They charge for restroom useage which wasn't too promising either. We did stop in a burger king and get a huge bacon cheese burger (again, no breakfast food) since Stivo and Jess hadn't eaten.

We got a lot of stares and strange looks before we decided we should probably just go to Amsterdam. I felt like people were angry at me for messing up their uberclean streets. I could see it in their faces as they zoomed past on their bikes (more on this later).

Amsterdam
We found a hostel in Amsterdam that had availability and was reasonably priced. When I was looking at our Rick Steve's travel book after we checked in, I noticed that our hotel was actually in the Red Light district, just a mere minute from the Erotica Museum.

We were exhausted after very little sleep on the ferry ride and being stared at all morning in Rotterdam, so we definitely passed out for a few hours when we got there.

We went to dinner at a tasty Italian restaurant. Jess and I shared some apple pie for desert which was pretty tasty, though apparently not Italian.

We walked to the Van Gogh museum to catch the evening hours exhibition. I really, really liked it. The starry night painting (the second overlooking water, not the cafe one), was really strikingly beautiful in person. The prints just don't capture all the colors and texture.

We were certainly out of place in the museum. Jess and I had put on shorts since our long pants were dirty. It was high 50s- cool 60s and I don't think Europeans where a lot of shorts even when it is actually hot outside.

I definitely had a moment inside the museum where I noticed I was standing around all these fashion-modelesque dutch people with tastefully fitted high-style outfits and there I was in my bermuda shorts and flipflops (none of those around either), probably smelling pretty bad and clutching the Rick Steve's "Best of Europe 2009" book in my hand. Think I gave my tourist identity away?

Then we walked for about 2 hours trying to find our way back. We ended up having to go to the train station and retrace our steps. Luckily Jess spotted the friendly glow of the redlights across the street from our hotel and we made it back.

Bikes
So the field hockey coach at Wake tells her players from Holland to "get on your bike and ride to Holland" when they aren't running fast enough. Now I truly understand why that joke works.



In Holland there are THOUSANDS of bikes. And THOUSANDS of people riding them everywhere. This was so strange to me. The bikes are nothing special, most look pretty old school or second hand. But the people on them are dressed very very fasionably and most are chatting on their cell phones as they whiz along the bike lanes.

After you've accidentally walked through a bike lane once, you pretty much will have a irreational fear of bikes for the rest of your life. As we were trying to avoid it again, I asked "where is the bike lane?"

Stivo replied, "this whole damn town is a bike lane!"

During our two hour walk when we were trying to find the hostel we decided we were kind of like Fred Flinstone trapped in an episode of the Jetsons. We were meandering along in our prehistoric cargo pants and flip flops on the side of the road while all these beautiful people zoomed by on bikes from the future as they talked on their state-of-the-art super Blackberrys, speaking a language that sounded so foriegn. But once we got used to it was kind of fun to take it all in.

Though I won't be surprised if when I get back home I scream and jump off the sidewalk into a ditch if I see a bike coming towards me.


Bikers ruining my amsterdam picture

Leaving London

Well, if any of us were worried about getting exercise on this trip, we are, um, not worried anymore. We’ve walked for almost two days straight. Jess showed Stivo and me how speed walking was really done. She’s really good at it… and she does it in flipflops. Impressive!

Last night we saw Wicked which was pretty great. The lead character was really really talented. I think everyone liked it.

We stopped for a drink afterwards to start celebrating Stivo’s birthday. We had some interesting conversations with the locals. One in particular was pretty annoying, but I could tell if I just humored him a bit we might get a round on him. It worked, but I was happy when he left for sure!

Then we hurried to the “tube” (subway) to catch the last train. We were a little horrified to see they had already shut the place down. We’d even checked the times at tourist booth!

Then we started on a 90 minute bus/walking adventure. We had to make some inventive bathroom breaks, but other than that it was a pretty direct route. We did get to take a ride on a double decker bus, so we got to check that off the list at least!

Today we went to see West Minster Abby and Big Ben and then took a break in St. James Park. There were all kinds of people there – school kids, tourists, homeless, business people napping on the grass in suits. It was really pleasant!

The temperature has been comfortably cool but it’s been gray. I think everyone is excited to move on to our next destination. We leave for Holland tonight on an overnight ferry. More soon!

Oh yes, and Stivo is making me run this correction. It was actually Jess who suggested that the Queen could easily be taken out, not her!

London

So after a 7 hour cramped plane ride we were finally dumped at the London Gatwick Airport early, EARLY this morning. We stood in the customs line, listening to the loud americans (including us) chattering on about the flight, food and who they met on the plane, while the Brits stared and rolled their eyes at how obnoxious Americans were.

Anyway, we spent the day walking. I'd like to say we planned it, but it actually just happened that we stumbled upon the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We got there at 11 and there were all these tourists just standing there. Stivo and Jess were dissapointed about the Palace. Stivo commented that the Queen could EASILY be knocked off because the place itself was only a few stories and it seemed like all the windows were pretty visible. Jess pointed out it was probably not great to say that in front of hundreds of policemen with huge weapons. So we moved on.

We caught the royal band playing as we walked further. We were happy we got to see them play up close and without all the tourists around. But then it kind of got to be annoyning because wherever we walked, we ran into more redcoated men with huge hats, big guns and horses, followed by the immediate hoard of camera crazy tourists. Eventually we walked up to Picadilly Circus just to get out of the way of all the new horse crap that was being created.

Picadilly Circus is like Time Square I think. Big billboards.. umm... stores... traffic... people. Yeah, I didn't see what the big fuss was about. Then of course I wanted to see the Soho area which Rick Steves' had tabbed London's Redlight District. But it was the middle of the day, didn't look to redlight-y. We did by tickets there to see Wicked tonight which I'm pretty excited about. I'm trying really really hard to supress my geekiness about the book. I just told Jess and Stivo it was about the Wicked Witch of the West though of course I could have dorkily talked about the backstory all the way back to the hostel (20 minute trip).

Pictures soon. My 20 minutes at the internet cafe is about to run out!

Leaving

Can't believe I'm leaving in a few hours! I stayed up working late last night to get everything done and clean at the office. I don't know if this is normal, but my mom taught me that the most important time to clean is right before you go out of town. I'm sure the people from my office don't quite get why I happily work in a pigpen for months on end but then after we say our goodbyes they return the next day to actually see woodspace on my desk and everything off the floor.

Of course I do this on the off chance someone may wander into my office while I'm gone. God forbid they think, 'oh gosh this place is SO messy and SO unorganized," which is what they think when they walk in and I'm in there. But at least if I'm there they eventually see my smiling face through all the piles of paper. I like to think this softens the impact.

I did my no-purpose-epic-unasked for "Web 2.0" presentation. Scott asked me if I had a power point presentation to accompany it. Darn! Knew I missed something. Anyway, I'm sure no one in the office will read the 15 page guide book (though it is mostly picutres!), but at least I had something to give them before I left. I'm calling it their souvenir, because they sure ain't gettin one from overseas.

On that note, I just had to pull out my dictionary to look up "souvenir" because I'm on my old computer that apparently doesn't support spell check in the blogger window. In case you were wondering, I spelled it "souvernier" which is how they spell it in West Tennessee. Again, it all comes back to the mother, who made me "sound out" the words to figure out spelling. Works great unless you speak redneck huh mom?? Oh, happy mothers day by the way :)

Tennis

It's 9 a.m. and I've already done three loads of laundry. That's what I call a productive start to the day.

Yesterday the men's tennis team totally ruined my plans for a simple mini-work week by freaking advancing to the NCAA Sweet 16. I mean why this year?? Honestly, they've only done it one other time EVER in the history of men's tennis. Oh well. Scott already committed to covering them while I was gone ... though I told him there was an 80 percent the team would lose in the second round. Oh well!

I knew as soon as I booked the trip to overlap the NCAA Championships that this increased the probability that the team would be playing in final rounds of the tournament by , oh I don't know... 300 percent or so. That's just the way things work right? The head coach should be singing my praises and offering me a raise for putting the wheels of fate into motion for them. Because if there was a way to put off the trip until after the Sweet 16, for sure, the team would have lost in the first round of the tournament. No question.

Yard Sale

Oh so the yard sale. Well, the good news is I was the highest seller. The bad news is I made just about 30 bucks. Great for me, not so great that no one made more than that. Really the only reason was one of our friends came by and bought a brand new pair of sunglasses I had, um, acquired (Ok, an ACC Football kickoff gift. Don't even start! They were men's glasses. And unless this is 1969, which I don't think it is, the ACC should be ashamed for making such blatant gender assumptions anyway.).

But of course my friend bargained and he got a good deal on them. Whatever, jerk!

Anyway, assuming his check doesn't bounce, I'm happy with that little bit of extra cash.

The Grind

Gosh, coming up on the last few days of work before the big trip. I was feeling a little worried, since my field hockey media got canned a few weeks ago (after I was 60 percent finished with it), that I might lose my job when I came back if I didn't have any evidence that I've actually been working the past few weeks.

So, as usual, I decided to create a completely unnecessary and miserable situation for myself. The past few days I've been constructing a facebook page for Wake Athletics. Now, this could have been really, really simple. But obviously, I had to make it really hard. I have been researching a lot of Deacon history for the page and now I have lots of priceless old photos spread all over my desk that I really should file before I leave.

Besides that, I decided to give my coworkers a little presentation on "new media" for our staff meeting on Monday. What's that? Why no, we've never had a presentation at a staff meeting, but I thought the day before my three week trip to Europe would be a perfect time to start the tradition. Come again? Oh well no, my boss didn't ask me to do it... I just ummm... decided to. Again people, it's all about job security here. Did you know we are in an economic recession? After three budget meetings in one month, I finally figured this out.

So I'm now a bone-e-fied expert on blogging, twitter, facebook etc. and I intend to talk with coworkers on Monday about how much better our office can be at all of those things and then promptly leave the country.

Yard Sale Update
It finally stopped raining for a while yesterday. Bethany, the host of our "20-something" yard sale, just got a second-hand lawn mower and was attempting to mow a lawn for the first time in her life. I got a text from her saying it wouldn't start. I asked her if she plugged in the spark plug and primed. Check, check. Since it was already 8 p.m. I dashed out there to see if I could help since we figured the rain would start up again the next day.

I watched her crank it a few times with no luck and then asked, "Is there a reason why you're not holding down the safety bar on the handle?" To which she replied, "what's the safety bar?"

And then of course I started it with one crank. She told me not tell anyone.

Larabars

So I had a big shopping spree with my hard earned craigslist $40. I picked up a big assortment of protien bars, thinking that these could serve as a meal replacement if needed. Most of the hostels we booked have free breakfast so at least I won't have to worry about that. As a back up I did buy some instant oatmeal which I HATE, but it has fiber in it and is better for you than a hershey bar for breakfast I guess. I also bought some gum, which I never chew in normal life but always seem to set new world records consuming it when I travel.

My fave protien bar right now are Larabars. They are all natural. No really, these are pretty much natural. They only have about four ingredients, kind of like those old school Breyers Ice Cream ads... you know, only ingredients you can pronounce.

I also stared at the peanut butter selection for a long time. Is peanut butter considered a liquid? It's not exactly solid. .... Or liquid. I remember having that discussion in sixth grade science about Jello, but don't remember reaching a conclusion. Darn my sixth grade self and her extremely short attention span! But I decided I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if airport secruity tossed a perfectly good jar of PB in the trash because of its somewhat liquid nature. So I passed.

Stivo and I discussed packing a bit today. She is pretty much doing the opposite of what I'm doing... she's taking a whole lot of clothes to potentially fit in any situation or scenario. After reading the gospel of Rick Steves I'm going to try and do this thing with very minimal stuff. The way I figure, people will pretty much know I'm a tourist from the HUGE BACKPACK I have on my back. But maybe if huge backpacks are in style in Europe and I do fool them, they will probably figure out I'm not from the area when they talk to me in their native language and I can't talk back.

If I feel totally underdressed I can always make a mall run. There are worse things in life I suppose.

Getting Ready for Europe

The other day I found my old blog from my travels in Australia.

I was one) surprised it still existed in cyberspace and two) slightly embarrassed that I went into detail about drinking and flirting with random men. I guess since I wasn't (and still am not) a heavy drinker or a huge flirt these things were very new to me and thus occupied most of the brain space in my 19-year-old head. And the drinking age in Australia was 18, so don't freak out.

On to the point. It really jarred my memory to see all the writing and pictures. I wrote a lot of things I had completely forgotten about... like five dollar pasta and steak in downtown Sydney. So good.

So I figured I should probably do the same for this upcoming European excursion. I'm not actually in Europe yet. Just here in Winston-Salem trying to make a few extra bucks before the trip. Here are some of the things I've been up to.

Craigslist
I had my first experience selling something on craigslist. It was a dresser/night stand combo that I bought at a yard sale last year. Still in good in condition. I decided I liked having all my clothes in my nice big closet anyway, and while I could have easily held on to the night stand, I thought I should sell them together.

Here's the picture that I feel won people over. It has a framed photo of Johnny Depp on top. I honestly think that helped.

I published the photo and the dimensions of the pieces, thinking that would eliminate any questions people might have. But they were very curious as to what it was made of. My response was, "um, not sure."

I listed the price as $40, which I thought was very, very reasonable for the set. A couple came by and offered me $35. I suggested $38, though I knew the extra two bucks would buy me another Larabar on the eurotrip so I wasn't happy about it. Then they made up some excuses and I felt bad because I knew they didn't have the money. But I don't have a lot of money either. So that's how I sleep at night.

So after some completely pointless and useless inquiries... people asking if I could sand it, deliver it, hold it etc., someone finally came by today. He handed me cash and carried it out and drove it away. It seemed so easy.

Now I'm 40 bucks richer but my bedside lamp, alarm clock and tissues are all on the floor now. Small sacrifice.

Yard Sale
So a few of us are having a yard sale. I'm not counting on this too much, just because about every two months I give stuff to Goodwill. I scraped up a few DVDs I can part with as well as some clothes and shoes. I might make $5. Which would be 5 more than I started with I guess.

I did think this was worth noting. We were exchanging emails today and Bethany Davoll (joining us halfway through the Europe trip and host of the yard sale) came out with this detailed explanation of a multi-person yard sale. I was impressed.

Okay this is typically how multi-people yard sales work out:

(P.S. you already knew I was a planning fool, and now you will find out my mother is as well, and has passed along these tips)

Use the label of your choice to put your price on, and then put your initials on that label. Colors can get too complicated and it is usually cheaper to find white. When a person goes to pay, we will have a notebook with our names, and jot down the amount sold under the right person’s name. At the end of the day we will tally how many sales we each have, and split out the money based on what we sold.

To lay things out we can spread blankets on the lawn for most items, and group like items/price levels together. One blanket could be all t-shirts for 50 cents, one all pants for $2, etc as well as misc. areas. For items such as jewelry, cds and what have you I have one small card table, and we may be able to steal something from work. We know people. Because the labels will have our initials, we can mix together our items and not have to worry about keeping them separate.

If anyone has rope/clothes line, we can put some up on my front porch to hang dress clothes, jackets etc. I believe I can find some poster board here, and we can put a sign off South Main, and one off Broad Street and then Vintage pointing them to my house.

I have been to a few yard sales where people also sold brownies for 25 cents so if anyone is feeling crazy feel free to do that.

We will need change, especially quarters and small bills, I can try to see if I can borrow some from our petty cash but I’m not sure how Shawna will feel about that… if anyone has a roll of quarters for change that would be great. We have a money box here I can bring. Now is the time to get rid of your Harris Teeters grocery bags… bring them over and we will use them to bag up people’s stuff if they want it.

Sweet right? Hooray for people that are much more organized than I am.