Winding down

Good Afternoon from the road,
We are in the middle of our journey from the Netherlands to Belgium. It has been a great few days. The end of last week we spent in Nice, France which was an extremely nice break from our busy travel schedules. We had two nights there, so we basically just had one full day to spend there. Our first night we stayed in e neighborhood and ate dinner at a wonderful Lebanese restaurant where I had surprisingly good barbecued sheep.

The next day we spent downtown exploring the Old Town and spent a good 4 or 5 hours on the beach. The water was a comfortable temperature and it was just so blue and beautiful. Every time I opened my eyes I couldn't help but smile. We chatted for a while with a family from Melbourne, and just enjoyed a day of relaxation and beautiful weather.

The next morning we had to leave the hostel around 5 in the morning to catch an early train. It's was by far the longest travel day we have had since being in Europe. We took a train from Nice to Marseilles, Marseilles to Brussels, Brussels to Antwerp, Antwerp to Rotterdam, Rotterdam Amsterdam, and finally a tram from Amsterdam to get outside of the city where we were staying. All in al it took a good 13 hours.

Now we are on our way to Brussels just for one night. We plan to go to a bar that we have been highly recommended to visit with beer from all over the world that stocks over 4,000 beers on tap. We also hope to be able to look around the city and get some Belgium waffles because we haven't yet had any on our travels through Belgium.

After Belgium we have two nights booked in a hotel near CDG to make it a little easier on us the day we leave. We are looking forward to visiting the Eiffel Tower and putting locks on the bridge.

And then we make the journey home at the end of the week.

I'm looking forward to going home but it will definitely be hard to go, it doesn't seem like I have been on the road for a month because I find a spot that feels like home in every place i go.Wen you're traveling your friends feel like family because you have no one but those you meet on your journey, and even with goodbyes everyone you meet leaves a lasting impact, sometimes small and sometimes large.

I will see you all soon.

The South of France

We have had a wonderful day in Nice. I am extremely exhausted from being in the sun all day, just letting everyone know that I am alive and well! We have to leave for Holland tomorrow at 5am so it will be early to bed for us. We have a ten bed mixed dorm, hopefully we are able to sleep with everyone else still up and about. I will update and write about the great time we had here tomorrow if possible. 

Au revoir

Yesterday was our last night in Italy. We had a great time in Florence. Our first day we spent at a camping area that overlooked the whole city. We met up with some friends there and ended up spending the entire afternoon and evening with a Hungarian family. They were a family of four on a two week trip to Italy. The four of us ended up babysitting their two kids Ana, and Andrew for a few hours. We played countless games of foosball with them, and they taught us how to count in their native language, and some common phrases. That evening we caught up with their parents again and conversed with them for a while, they thanked us for hanging out with their kids because they are in the process of learning English and it is wonderful for them to be around English speakers. After a day in the sun at the camping area Shelby and I headed back to our hostel because we had to get up early the following day. We wanted to get an early start and a good spot in line for the Academia. We waited in line for over two hours but it was well worth it to see Michelangelo's famous statue of David. It was a moment that gave us all goosebumps. The statue is massive and absolutely immaculate. After the gallery, we visited a mineral shop, walked around all the plazas and got gelato. We ended up walking for a good eight hours. We headed back to the hostel and made the best dinner we could with no kitchen as a farewell supper for us and our friends. We feasted on salad, salami and mozzarella, fresh tomatoes with basil we picked from a plant on the roof, bread, rice, and a bottle of limoncello to top it off. After our farewell Shelby and I went downstairs and made friends with a handful of other hostel guests. I immediately hit it off with a girl from Sydney named Olive. She has just moved to London and is in the middle of a two month euro trip. We spent hours talking to all our new acquaintances, and ended the night with a walk to the Duomo downtown. Olive and I grabbed some gelato and we all just enjoyed one another's company. Yesterday Shelby, Olive, and I took a train out of town to Pisa. We spent a while admiring the tower, took some tourist shots, and went for a long lunch at a cute pizzeria nearby. We enjoyed margherita pizza and Tuscan red wine before taking the train back to Florence. We were absolutely exhausted by the time we got back, and just spent he evening in the lounge area and made friends with a whole new handful of guests. Our time in Florence was really enjoyable, and we met so many great people. Now it's off to Nice! Ciao!

Venice and Verona

It is Thursday afternoon and we just boarded our train to Verona. Yesterday was absolutely amazing, we spent the entire day downtown Venice. We started with strolling down the grand canals, and the side canals, and stopped along the way for some delicious pizza and superb red wine. We spent the afternoon taking pictures and wandering around with no destination.

We bought some fedoras to blend in with the locals and protect ourselves from the hot sun... And we couldn't help but buy these two beautiful dresses we saw walking by a shop window.

We enjoyed fruit while walking along the side streets and exploring the little corners of the city. After we got tired of walking we took a water bus to Piazza San Marco and wandered around there for the afternoon. Once again, our legs grew tired beneath us so we sat down on the water, had a few beers, and wrote out a handful of postcards.

We took the bus back to our campground and enjoyed ourselves and had a peasant's dinner of salami, cheese, and crackers. We woke up this morning and had to check out of our hostel. We went back downtown and enjoyed gelato for breakfast and had a seat at an Internet cafe and had an espresso. We sat there for an hour or so and right when we were getting ready to leave, two guys we met in Paris strolled in. They were some of the few people we really connected with, and it was the best feeling to see them again.

We enjoyed catching up with what the other has been doing since we departed in Paris. We had a bottle of beer with them and then the four of us headed to a park down the road Shelby and I had come across yesterday.

We spent the entire afternoon laying down in the shade with them, talking, and listening to them play their ukulele. After four or so hours we decided we should probably get going and had to sy the dreaded goodbye.


To four of us may be in Florence at the same time, we hope to all go camping together at a place they have researched. It would be great to see some familiar faces again. Enjoyed ourselves a relaxing day with our new friends, and now we are off to Verona.


Ciao!

***

We are on our way to Rome!

We had a pleasant time in Verona. Our hostel was a bit strange. It was a University, and there was a hospital attached. As soon as we arrived a man was being transported out to an ambulance on a stretcher... Not the best welcome. Again, we were supposed o be in a 10 bed mixed dorm but had a private room instead. We were tired Once we got there and just got some food and drinks at a few different places in town. There wasn't much to do around where we were staying, so we just stayed close to home that night.

The next day we ventured into the city. We had no access to Internet so we had no idea where Juliet's house was. We found a map and located the house, it seemed to be pretty far away so we took a bus to the main station and looked for street stops that were close to the house. We hopped on a bus hoping that we were headed the right way. After some map studying we found our way to her house! We didn't go inside, we just wandered around the courtyard, saw the balcony, and took a picture with the statue of Juliet. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, and stopping for wine and water occasionally.

We made it back to the hostel that night and met a couple from Australia we spent some time talking to. We just hung out the two of us and woke up this morning and packed.

We have been traveling all day. We left around 930 this morning for the train station, got ona train to Padova where we had a 2 hour layover. And have just boarded the train to Rome. The ride shouldn't be too bad though, it's only a 3.5ish hour ride and we have chocolate and each other to keep us happy and occupied!

Talk to you in Roma!

Ciao