Mother, We're Okay

Pat
Amsterdam July 12th-16th
Amsterdam was a unique experience. We stayed in the hostel the Globe and Sports bar. It had good food and an awesome view of the canal from my bunk bed. We were looking out to a busy road with the view of the canal. We had some fun in the window with people walking by the hostel looking up in the window haha! We met up with Dylan and went to the Van Gogh Museum and went to the Heineken Brewery tour with Dylan and some of his friends! The Heineken Museum was awesome we took two of the glasses from the tour and Moe's broke in his bag like a day later haha. We also met some awesome people Parker and Liam who are basically taking the same trip we are. We also met some awesome young woman Roisin, Arlene, and Clara! We had a good time in Amsterdam, but I don't think I will return. We also went to the Ann Frank house and decided to not go in because of how long the line was. I regret not going in but, you live and learn!

Then comes Berlin July 16th-19th
Berlin the land of reunions! Remember the guys we met in Munich, Kory and Kenny? We made plans with them to meet in Berlin we booked the same hostel they did. So when we got there they were waiting for us in the lobby. We checked in and walked into the 50 bed dorm room and those girls we met in Amsterdam Roisin, Arline, and Clara who we thought we would never see again were in the first bunks and we walked into the room! It must be fate we all went out and had a great time that first night! We went to an Irish pub then another bar, and then Narnia haha! The girls had to leave the next day but we did get their contact information this time so we can communicate because they were going to be in Prague part of the time we were there as well! The next day we thought we lost Kenny because he was gone when we woke up so we went to lunch and part of the Berlin Wall Memorial and when he got back we did a tour of the city. The next day we went to the Jewish Memorial on the way we got some Kababs that were awesome. Kenny and Kory had to leave afterward, we tried to convince them to go to Prague with us but they didn't go for it. After the boys left we just hung out then we went and saw the movie 5 year engagement which was pretty funny! Then we were going to take a free walking tour the next morning before we left for Prague but we were too tired.

Prague July19th-22nd
Prague very cool city and home of the hostel Elf which we stayed at. The hostel was pretty sketchy when we walked up to the entrance. The hostel had alot of character and was very nice I would reccomend it to anyone! Parker and Liam were in Prague at the same time as us they were actually on the same train from Berlin to Prague. They were too cool for us though in both Berlin and Prague. We did have some tour buddies though through-out Prague Sarah and Shelby the girls we met breifly in Munich. We had alot of fun though, we did the walking tour together, the pub crawl, going to the castle, and going to the see the orchestra of Motzarts music. The Old City Square was beautiful. Alot of history in Prague very interesting. The day we were leaving was the day Roisin, Arline, and Clara were getting there, so we made lunch plans with them before we left! Roisin, Clara, Moe, and I went to a restraunt in the New Town Square then we figured out that we needed a reservation for the train we were planning on taking so we didn't leave for Berlin till like 430 when we were planning leaving at like 230. So we just ended up hanging out with them in the park near the train station for a while which was actually very nice! The train we ended up taking took longer as well we didn't get to our hostel till like 1230 and we checked out at noon the same day so we literally only used the hostel for sleep and a shower.

Frankfurt July 22nd-23rd
Frankfurt was short and interesting. Frankfurt at least by the train station is not for a family visit. The hostel was very nice though! We were only there for like 12 hours but I was happy with that. Then off to Paris!

Paris July 23rd-26th
Paris was the place I wasn't all too excited for but, I was pleasantly suprised! The Eiffel Tower was amazing and huge! It was an awesome view at night from the top of the Arc De Triomphe! Parker and Liam were in Paris at the same time as well so we actually ran into them in the Louve and made plans to get dinner and go up on the Arc De Triomphe! Well worth the money to go up there and get a great view of the Eiffel Tower and the whole city! We also saw the Cathedral of Notre Dame which was very cool! We did alot of walking in Paris it was exhausting. On Tuesday the first full day we were there we walked to the Eiffel Tower and to the Louve but, the Louve was closed which we have no idea why but it was alot of wasted walking for nothing. The next day we actually looked up where the chipotle was in Paris and went there for lunch then went to the Louve where we ran into Liam and Parker. The Louve is huge just like the Vatican, there is no way to truly cover it in a day.

Now we are in London for the Olympics you will have to wait to hear about that in a few days hopefully thats when we make our next post! Sorry this one was soo late! Peace out!

Moe: Longest delay so far and we're sorry! A lot to share so I also apologize for this being very long.

Day 22- Last day of Brussels. Not important enough to remember. I think we ate food, lunch and dinner. We probably walked around a bit. I was probably bummed because it was cold. Brussels, eh. Saw that live concert in a different language. What an experience... Couldn't tolerate it too much, it was cold and I was in sandals, shorts and a t-shirt. Pack better!

Day 23: Off to Amsterdam! Hostel near the train station, sounds good. Hostel with a great view of the canal, alrighty. Hostel that doesn't appear sketchy, we're in good shape to start off our Netherland tour. Slept, did laundry cause my clothes were beginning to smell like something I hope they never smell like again. Went out to dinner with some of our hostel mates, Dave from England, Marshall from D.C., Arlene, Clara, and Roisin from Ireland. After dinner we grabbed some drinks, sat along the canal and enjoyed a relaxing night.

Day 24: We're saving any tours and such for when Dylan gets here. He gets here tonight so today was just another food and lounge day. Nothing that stuck out too much. Although our hostel had some amazing burgers. Yum. Dylan arrived! The Irish girls, Marshall, Dylan, Pat and I roamed the streets and walked around the Red Light District. Yeah, I don't see myself going back there. Walked around some more and called it a night.

Day 25- The Irish girls left today =( Bummer. We bought tickets to the Van Gogh exhibit and the Heineken Museum. We decided to spread them out and went to the Van Gogh exhibit. It was real cool to see his stuff, but also a let down because as a person who knows very little about painting techniques, history, and about the artist, it was merely a moment for me to walk around and think "Oh, yeah, that's a cool painting. Yeah, I see how that brush stroke is different from that brush stroke which means he was doing something different. I respect it." Thirty minutes later, I ran out of cliche expressions and we saw all the art pieces. Still very cool to see, though! More meandering and on to the next day!

Day 26- Heineken Museum, fairly legit. Learned how to drink a beer properly. Stole a Heineken glass. Broke my Heineken glass. Lasted a whole day. Didn't even get to use it a second time. More food. More meandering. We walked to the Ann Frank house. Line was longer than most rides in Cedar Point. Enough for me to decide to turn around. I'll watch a documentary on it.

Day 27- We leave for Berlin! As Pat stated, this was our reunion spot. Parker and Liam, two Vancouverites we met in Amsterdam were here but we didn't meet up with them, were in the area. Kenny and Kory, the Vancouverites we met in Munich were here. We intentionally booked the same hostel as them so we could kick it again. Walked into our 50 person dorm and who do we see!? Well, if you are reading this that means you already read Pat's section, making the suspense not really suspensful. The Irish ladies were there! We all went out for dinner and then to an Irish pub. It was great seeing both groups again.

Day 28- Irish girls left again =( Bummer. Again. Kenny went on an adventure so Kory, Pat and I roamed Berlin for a while. We saw the Berlin Wall and read up on it. Crazy to think that the wall was just coming down as I was being created/born. The walls were up in random parts of town to serve as a reminder. I remember reading an article on a couple affected by the Berin Wall. One of the greatest love stories, google Elvira Profe and the Iron Curtain, you'll find it. Met up with Kenny and then we all went to dinner with a guy named Dave from somewhere in Canada. It's slipping my mind right now. Kory, Kenny, Pat and I said goodbye to Dave and wandered to downtown Berlin and saw the Jewish Memorial amongst other things.

Day 29- I don't know what happened on this day...? All I remember is watching Five Year Engagement. In English! That was a plus. Oh! We also said goodbye to the guys =( Kenny and Kory, hope your trip kicked butt. We'll see ya back in North America sometime! We ate at Subway today. I feel like that was fairly significant to share. AH! We went to the Jewish Museum with the guys before they left. I could just rewrite this paragraph, but I'm going to leave it as is so you can visualize the difficulty I had remembering this day. I mean it was essentially forever ago.

Day 30- Travel day! Off to Prague. Not originally planned but we had days to kill before Paris and it was highly recommended by quite a few people. Had trouble with my shower. Flooded the bathroom, got my clothes and towel soaked. Didn't have time to dry it before putting it in my bag. Yeah, awesome smells when we finally got to Prague. Plus I had someone on the train grab my bag because I couldn't get through the crowd and they were disgusted by the drips that got on them. Sorry! Oh! The crowd! We had to stand basically the whole way there! It sucked. That train was so crowded. Oh well, made it to Prague. Hostel looked sketchy, but I'm typing this so I didn't die. Very earthy feel. Felt like I was in a big tree house. One of our hostel mates was a huge Harry Potter fan! Tipped me off about the wax museum that had Harry Potter in the window out front! Why pay for a wax museum when the one thing I would want to see is already right there in the window! Rookie mistake, Wax Museum.

Day 31- Reunion day again! Well Parker and Liam are somewhere in Prague but we also met up with Shellby and Sarah from Minnesota! We did the walking tour which left me unable to process any thoughts afterwards. Way too much info. Barely remembered what city we were in. Saw Harry Potter in the window of the wax museum =) Noice! Saw some cool performers in the Old Town. Old Town and New Town looked gorgeous. I see why so many movies use Prague as shooting locations. More stuff happened but I mainly remember Harry Potter so I'm assuming just food. I did however eat my McDonald's way too fast. Ended with me throwing it up =( It was good, not as good on the way back up.

Day 32-Met up with the girls again. We bought tickets to a Mozart Opera. We went to the castle! Beautiful view! We paid to go up the clock tower (most overrated attraction in Europe, not my words but I will agree, not the view but the actual clock itself). Paled in comparison to the free view from the castle. Got a haircut cause it was turning into a fro then we went to the opera. It was really sweet. Only lasted an hour, my first time in an Opera so if that's how long they typically are then grand! If not, well it was still fun. Went to a pub where we decided to be the cool kids and played Hearts and Euchre. I won Hearts fairly convincingly.

Day 33- Bye Minnesotians! Today was travel day? We met up with, guess who....the Irish girls! for lunch. Some confusion with our train so we had two hours to kill in the park right outside the train station. Clara and Roisin joined us. I wasn't one to complain. What happened on the train though, possibly ruined my life for good. So we're searching for a seat, no luck. I'm thinking it's going to be like our train to Prague, and I was getting worried that we would have to stand the whole time again. No thank you. We find two empty seats! Lucky us. I go to sit down, and one of the kids stop me. "Someone got too drunk and threw up in that seat..." Ah, decision time. I didn't want to stand so I pulled the sacrifice move. I let Pat take the clean seat, pulled out my poncho and sat in the puke covered seat. Oh, the smell. Chewing gum, a book, and a concentrated effort to keep my mind on the pleasant things in life helped me survive. Made it to Frankfurt with only my life scarred for good but still in tact. Frankfurt was nice, kind of dirty. For a second I thought we took a wrong turn. From the train to our hostel it was strip club, strip club, massage parlor (assuming happy endings were part of the package), strip club, restaurant, and another strip club. The hostel was nice.

Day 34- Off to Paris! Two trains that were packed. No way we get a good seat on this train. So we thought. We grab lunch, casually walk to the train. It's there early, we looked perplexed but walked on. Our gameplan was to abandon trying to find two seats next to each other and just take the first two that didn't have a reservation. As soon as we get on, two seats next to each other, not reserved. Not too bad. We were told we would have to pay to reserve the seats once we get on to the train. First conductor didn't charge us. Hour later second conductor wants to see our reservations and wants us to purchase them, explained what happened, he let us slide. Not gonna argue. Made it to Paris...France...I have an unnatural dislike for France. Don't know why. Wasn't bad. I'd visit again. Went from hating it to feeling indifferent about it. It was very beautiful though.

Day 35- Still in Paris, Eiffel tower, cool. Burnt car that exploded near our hostel while we weren't there before we even arrived in Paris but we're gonna make it seem like we were right next to it when it happened, that was interesting, we took pictures. Warm weather and consistent sun!! I forgot that that could still happen. I got a sandal tanline, pretty sweet, not gonna lie.

Day 36- The Louvre! We were gonna go yesterday but of course, it was closed. The only day of the week it's closed, a Tuesday! Come on, France! Make it Sunday or something easier to predict for those who don't research these things, which really only leaves Sunday! Monday would've been understandable. Potentially Saturday. But Tuesday? Well today is Wednesday so we got to see it today. Too many things, everything was written in French. I took a picture of a couple things. I'll post those later if anyone who understands the French language would be willing to translate those, I would be delighted. Again, I'll probably have to watch a documentary on the Lovure to understand half the things I saw. Saw the Mona Lisa. Really? People were almost climbing on top of each other to get a solid picture of it. I mean I joined the climb ten minutes later but whoa! Lost about forty lbs due to sweating as well. Dear Louvre, You're hot. Sincerely, Guy Who Perspirates Enough As It Is. Chipotle!!!! Ate at Chipotle. Met with Parker and Liam. Went to the Arc. Saw the Notre Dame. Saw Eiffel Tower at night. Beautiful.

Day 37- Off to London! I need a shower. I'm smelling super funky. Nothing happened today. We got into our hostel, I slept all day. Pat read a book. We ate food. Olympics!!!! We will get in there! I will wear some combination of Red, White, and Blue. Maybe a star and a stripe if I can manage it. Didn't pack anything with a star on it =( We will try to post much sooner than the end of the trip. I think I said that the last couple of times so worst case scenario, expect to hear about the rest of our trip when we're back in the states. Best case, we post after London. Slightly in the middle case, we remember to post while we're in Spain. Now that you just finished reading a book, uh, we miss you and we love you! See y'all in two weeks.

Not much has happened so we figured we would wait and make one sweet post rather than posting multiple times about nothing. Or we kept putting the whole posting thing off and kept waiting for the next day.

Moe: Day 14- First day in Venice, kind of. We ended up in a town just outside of Venice called Mestre, we arrived fairly late. Very small town, closest to the suburbs that we have seen. We ate at a local pizza place, not much to see. We went back to the hostel and watched a movie and called it a night.

Day 15- We decided to spend the whole day in Venezia. The train ride was not very long at all. Our plan when we got there was to find some fairly cool souvenirs, maybe find an artist, if possible (sooo difficult (sarcasm hidden in that parenthesis)), and find some nice places to eat. As soon as we left the train station, we walked maybe 25 meters to our left and there was the first artist we saw. We continued to explore the town and it was beautiful. You can see why there are so many artists just in the area because there are many things worth capturing on a canvas. I mean, the city view of Firenze still won, but this came awfully close. The canals, the gondola tours going on (40 euros a person! No thank you), the alleys even looked interesting! Everything was beautiful. And on a hot day the breeze sweeping in from the sea, city on water, surrounded by more water, felt amazing. We ate some great food, saw some great things, and I ended up buying two paintings from the guy at the entrance. Pat bought one from this other artist (there were probably about 10 that we saw) and it was fairly nice. Our apartment back home will be quite sophisticated for two college students. Called it a day, figured out how to get Netflix to work here in Italy, watched Transformers 3, remembered how obnoxious my laugh was. That movie was funny.

Day 16- I believe this was our travel day to Munich. We left around 10 30 to make it to Verona. From Verona we were going to hop on a train at 1pm to Munich but the machine wasn't working so we had to wait in the line. We ended up missing the 1pm and had to wait till 3pm. The frustrating part about it, apparently we didn't have to wait in the line at all and we just had to go on the train and show them our pass. Wasted 2 hours at a McDonalds. We finally made it to Munich, met some of our fellow dorm mates (kind of easy to do when you stay in a 40 person dorm). Biggest dorm we stayed in. Although the hostel was real close to the train station, we had to take a taxi because we had paintings and it was pouring rain. First rainfall of the trip and it was a doozy.

Day 17- 40 person dorm, kind of hard to fall asleep in. We had to check out, and check back in but we had to wait till 3pm. So we decided to try to ship our souvenirs home. I was hoping to spend maybe a total of 30 euros for everything. We went to the post office, no box big enough. We went to the hostels, no box big enough. We went to several places throughout the area, no box big enough. Went back to the post office, they suggested wrapping the paintings (couldn't tell us the first time around, huh....) so then everything finally fit. Two packages...72 euros....okay. We went back to the hostel after lunch to check back in and I was going to take a nap since we were moving to the 8 person dorm. 8 people, 3 snorers. How we managed to avoid loud snoring this whole trip, I don't know. Even in the 40 person. But 8 people, 6 since Pat and I don't snore, and 3 of them. Perfectly positioned in the room to make it seem like a choir of snoring people. Like there was surround sound speakers all over playing a snoring soundtrack. I exaggerate, but I couldn't take a nap. Plus the room was a billion degrees. Oh yeah, Munich was cold compared to Italy. Real cold. We bumped into a Bachelor party later on in the evening...Bachelor party won as I drank myself to sleep. I told myself when I left the US that I would not get to a point of incoherency ever on this trip. I'm afraid to report that I became incoherent during this bachelor party. Thank you Pat for guiding us home.

Day 18- Checked out again. Today we were going back to the 40 person room. Moe's head hurt. We took a walking tour today. It was pretty cool, and also really cold. Met some guys from our hostel and after the tour we went exploring with them for a bit. River surfing! We saw surfers surfing in the Isar River! That was really cool. We grabbed a late lunch with the guys before my eyes shut for a nap. I think I napped. I'm gonna assume I napped. We got ready and went to check out the night life with the guys we met earlier, Kenny and Kory, and some girls that were staying at the hostel. We went to the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus. They serve you a litre of beer! Ate some pork knuckle and downed two litres of beer. I also decided to borrow the mug without the intentions of returning it. Two countries down, five or six to go! We checked out some of the clubs before calling it a night.

Day 19- We did not think that we would have to check out since we were staying in the same room, just changing beds, but we had to check out again. So frustrating. We used today as a relaxing day. Maybe this was the day I napped for a while. I forgot what we did today, but it just hit me. Today was the day of failures. We had 4 goals. 1) Buy a new power converter 2) Buy a new book 3) Figure out our train schedule for tomorrow and 4) Food. Stores close on Sundays. First two were impossible without breaking and entering. It wouldn't have been theft because we would have left the money on the counter. We met some girls from Minnesota and got dinner with the girls and Kory and Kenny. 35mm Restaurant in Munich was really good. We finished the night with some rounds of Euchre and went to bed.

Day 20- Travel day! So excited... We bought a converter and some books. We got on our train, made it to somewhere, where we had trouble getting onto the next train. No fear, because 80 trains go to the same place almost every hour. We waited about an hour and got on a train heading to Brussels. I kind of damaged one of train doors, decided to leave the train with a memory of me I suppose. Made it to Brussels and it was even colder.

Day 21- We wandered for a little bit. Brussels is pretty much our relaxation destination. Not planning to do much here. If anyone has suggestions of things that we MUST see, let us know. As far as I know, if we do miss something in Brussels, I don't think I will be that bothered. I'll be able to sleep peacefully at night. We have one more night here before we head off to Amsterdam, where we will meet Dylan! For now, I'm going to go back to reading and contemplate whether or not I should buy some pants tomorrow.
Tip for potential backpackers: Pack pants.

Pat:
Hello everyone it has been a while. Our trip is still moving pretty smoothly and we are still having new experiences and meeting new people! We went to Venice, and it was very beautiful but I'm glad we only spent one day in the city. Moe and I bought another painting which we are excited about. The artist I bought it from was very entertaining and we ate at a Gino's pizza in the city which I believe is better than the one at home.

After Venice we have completed our tour of Italy but we head to Munich Germany. We spent four nights in Munich the first night we met some cool people from Australia Amber and Jackie but, we didn't feel like doing much so we just went to bed. The second night we met some cool mates from England. They were staying in the same hostel and I first met Nick at the bar in the hostel ironically named "Jaegers" hostel. His brother is getting married soon, so Moe and I hung out with them during there Bachelor party it was a great time! We went to another pub then a club! Great group of guys. The third night we met some guys Kenny and Kory from Canada and we went out with them and Amber from Australia and some others from Ireland and Korea. We went to the famous beer hall and then to a club. That day we went on a walking tour and saw most of the city with Kory and Kenny. It was very good done by a student currently at the university who is originally from Philly. She was very good. After the tour Kenny, Kory, Moe, and I went and checked out the surfers who surf in the river all year long! It was fascinating we watched for probaly 45 min. We talked with Kory and Kenny and they are going to be in Berlin the same time we will. So we are going to meet up there as well, real nice guys. The next day we figured out which train we were taking to get to Brussels and we went to buy a power converter and some books. To our suprise it was Sunday and the stores were closed. We met some girls from Minnesota Sarah and Shellbey which they already knew Kenny and Kory so we all went out to dinner. The next morning before our train left we had to go to the stores and get the converter and books that we couldn't get the day before.

Then we were off to Brussels a long day of travel on Monday didn't get to our hostel till 10pm got settled then went to bed. Our second day at Brussels was uneventful and a day of rest. We are staying in Brussels a little longer than I think we should have. On the other hand we are very excited to be going to Amsterdam in two days and meeting up with Dylan!!

That is all for now. We will either attempt to post after Brussels or after Amsterdam. We miss you all!
Tsusch!

Pat- Tuesday we are in Naples and there is not much on our list to see in Naples. We see there is a sign in the hostel to take day tours to Pompeii so we decided that we would to that Tom and that today would be a relaxing day. So we woke up late and went to lunch. Then in the common room some people were watching The Man In The Iron Mask so we sat down and watched it as well. We met some nice young ladies and we asked them to go to the pizza place the workers at the hostel recommend which was very good! Then when we returned home from dinner and booking our next train ride to Pisa for the next day we went back to the hostel. Some other guests were watching the Aviator so we thought why not, lets make it a Leonardo Day.

Wednseday- We woke up had some breakfast then went to Pompeii for the tour with about 8 others from the hostel. It was awesome to see all the history and learn about their culture and understand why they built everything the way they did. It was very educational and well worth it. Then we got back to the hostel and had to pick up our bags and leave right away to make our train. The train ride was like 7 or 8 hrs but we got 1st class seats! I don't know why they were the same price as the regular seats but we took full advantage. We made it to Pisa and checked in. Overall Naples great experience and Pompeii was awesome.

Thursday-Saturday- It was nice to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa and try some good Pisa shops as well as experience Italy beating Germany in the semi-final for the European Cup! The city was so alive and almost a riot after the game it was a good experience I wish I would have been intoxicated for it but none the less very interesting. Moe and I were pretty bored here and there was no air contitioning in the hostel. Recommendation, don't stay in hostels with no air conditioning and if you go to Pisa only stay a max of two nights. We did have a very good 1 on 1 table tennis tournament you can ask Moe who won later. Pisa overall a pretty good experience good pizza and the European football match!!
Saturday- we arrived in Florence at 12 noon and we couldn't check in till 2 so we were lucky and stumbled upon a wonderful pizza place named Bondi half way between the train station and our hostel. We were so happy that this hostel had air conditioning!! Later that night we decided to walk around to find a place to eat and find a good place to watch the European football game the next night. We decided to go to Michelangelo's Piazza which is up on a mountain overlooking the whole city. We had dinner at Michelangelo's restraunt right next to it and it was a nice view, but awful food, don't eat there. You definently have to see the Piazza though! It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! This view and the Vatican are the two coolest things that I have experienced on this trip so far. There was a musician there as well playing the guitar and singing it was just a very amazing atmosphere.

Sunday- We had breakfast then went and saw Duomo which is a very big church in Florence very detailed. Then we went to the pizza place that the Jersey shore was based out of when they were in Italy. It was pretty good pizza but it was a cool atmosphere. Later that day we just walked around the river and I saw a piece of art that I wanted to get, but I didn't have enough money on me so I asked him if he would be there the next day and he said of course. That night we asked some young men where the best place to watch the game at so we followed them to like a park right by the river where they set up a projector and like half the town was there watching. There had to be close to 800 people just watching this one screen! Even though they lost to Spain it was still an experience it was really cool.
Monday- We got up and went through the flea market and then went to lunch at the restraunt we went to the first day Bondi. Its really good I have the address if anyone wants to know. Then we went back to the square where the artist was and I bought the painting it was done by Marcello a very nice guy I got a picture with him you will see it soon. We decided to take a nap and then go back up to Michelangelo's Piazza again which was breathtaking, again!
That's it for Florence it was a great time! It is a must see if you are in Italy!!

Moe: Okay, we're going to try this post again. We did one yesterday (we apologize for slacking, but we're not really sorry) but when we tried posting it, only one sentence showed up.

Day 7- If any of you choose to go backpacking, here's a tip. Schedule relaxation days. Today was definitely a solid relaxation day. We slept in, mozied around, and watched a movie in the common room. We met some other travelers watching a Leo movie and we went to dinner with them. We got to eat the best pizza in the world (yeah, that's not true). It was really good (Florence had better pizza) and I highly recommend it (writing as if we just left Napoli). Pat and I went to the train station after dinner and we booked our tickets for Pisa. We got hit on fairly aggressively by two guys, which was awkward, but an experience no less. No means no, they eventually got the hint. Back at the hostel, we watched another Leo movie. As Pat said, it was a Leo kind of day.

Day 8- We went to Pompeii and wow, amazing to see and learn about a culture that was ahead of its time. We went back to the hostel and said our goodbyes. Up to this point (we're in Florence right now) we have stayed in three (now five) hostels. The one in Napoli was the friendliest and my personal favorite so far (still true). Hostel On The Sun or H.O.T.S, which led to some funny signs posted around the hostel, was a sketchy looking hostel from the outside at first. But hands down, best one so far. The rooms weren't bad, the facilities were great, the staff was as friendly as can be. Highly recommend booking here if you choose to stay in a hostel and choose to visit Napoli, home of the best pizza in the world (Florence).
So we're off to Pisa. We got here late, ate a small snack before bed and this place has no air conditioning. Prepared to sweat, not really.

Day 9- I woke up smelling like a smell I never want to smell again.Thankfully deodorant is a very handy invention because I really didn't want to take a shower in the morning. I also had a major Harry Potter withdrawal moment when I woke up. Had a dream about the Triwizard Tournament (Book 4, Goblet of Fire for the amateurs out there who aren't familiar with the books, in which case you should consider reading them, you will enjoy them). We went to go see the Leaning Tower of Pisa and we took the infamous leaning-on-the-tower/pushing-the-tower-back-up/pushing-the-tower-further-down/squatting-the-tower/anything-involving-using-the-angle-of-the-tower-to-create-a-funny-photo photo. Pat took one and I figured that was already well past our cheesiness limit and I refused to take one. Although there were probably about 70 others that we saw. I "accidentally" got into about 40% of those pictures. So I'm in roughly 28 pictures (I used a calculator) so I should be mildly famous by the time I get home. We ate food and watched the game and had fun with the locals on our way home. So glad Italy won the semi final game! Back to the hostel with no air conditioning...Got to play guitar and had a conversation with some friendly folks and a drunk guy.

Day 10- Why did we book three nights here?! We're bored. I bought Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix today! Increased my mood almost instantaneously. That boy be doing some crazy stuff in those books! I won the first game of Ping Pong which is really all that matters. Pat then wanted to make a series out of it. Normally a series should be best of 3, but seeing as I won 2 of our first three games, Pat decided to make it "first to be up two wins in the series." Naturally, I agreed so Pat wouldn't get salty about losing and of course Pat won due to this new way of making a series (Usually we both proofread before posting but I'm not gonna let him proofread before posting this, so don't comment to him on me commenting about his sore-loserness and yes I realize this comment also makes me a sore loser but sometimes you gotta fight fire with fire, but really you shouldn't but I'm not deleting this so, that's settled) (and if you comment on me commenting, well you're rude). So "Pat won" and then Oliver played. He kicked both of our butts and he said he "wasn't good".....What a chach, he clearly played in an organized league. Just come out and say it don't let us get our hopes up that we're playing a fellow novice, very much like ourselves. Dude had a crazy serve and was too intense for me to enjoy the game at all. He was the drunk guy I had a conversation last night! Ate food, had better pizza here then in Napoli (Florence still better) so, best pizza in the world, new location, Pisa (but really Florence).

Day 11- We finally get to leave Pisa! It wasn't that bad. Just a fricken hot room made me feel that much worse. Short train ride to Florence. We wandered around and made it to this pizza place. Best pizza we have eaten so far (yeah). Florence, home of the best pizza in Italy, from what we experienced. We went to the Central market and then we were able to check in our hostel. We walked around and ended up in the Michaelangelo Piazza. Great overview of the city, it was gorgeous. We ate dinner there, great view, crappy food. I tried some Italian wine. Yeah, I don't like wine. I know it was better than any wine I've had before because I didn't gag on the first sip. So, use that as a reference. Wine previously tried by Moe, gagged, wine in Italy tried by Moe, able to fight the urge to gag. We stayed in the Piazza for a little bit and when nightfall hit, wow. Took some pictures of the night scene but it won't do it complete justice. This was beautiful.

I'm tired so I'm going to wrap these two days up quickly.

Day 12- Saw the Duomo, met a cool artist that we talked to. Pat wanted one of his paintings, told him be back tomorrow. Got some food from the Jersey Shore pizza place. It was okay we beat the rush. I couldn't get a picture of the undies that they hung up because no pictures allowed but I secretly snapped some, rebel. Went back took a nap. Met some locals, led us to a sweet spot to watch the game. Lot of people, Italy lost, lot of sad people. Went back fell asleep.

Day 13- Woke up late, found the artist bought the painting. Moe met an artist but dang he charged too much so Moe's looking for another artist. Ate lunch at the best pizza place, took a long nap, read some Harry Potter (I need to slow down already near the end, at this rate I will probably end up buying more than half the series over here). Ate some dinner, stole a cup, no we borrowed the cup with the intentions of not knowing how to return it, went back to Michaelangelo Piazza, shocked and awed, it was great again. Ate some gelato, I'm sad because I haven't eaten gelato everyday. Sorry for the delay in posting but not really. We'll try to do the other one after only a couple days and not a week.

Ciao!
Moe and Pat

We have delayed in posting mainly due to traveling and preferring to catch up on some sleep. So here is some insight on our last few days in Rome.

Moe: Day 5- Luckily, we were able to use Saturday as a chance to catch up on some Z's. Sunday morning, we headed out to a Roman Baptist Church. We went too early for the English service and caught the Italian service. After that we decided to really go see the Pantheon. When we arrived we were a little annoyed at the local who told us the Pantheon was just the area and not the building. I say this because on that Friday, when we went to go see the supposedly non-existing Pantheon and asked the local for directions to the non-exisiting Pantheon and he told us the non-existing Pantheon was a non-existing Pantheon and described the area we were in, we had lunch at a place. And at that place we apparently were staring at the back end of the non-existing Pantheon. So we decided to go check out the front and it was brilliant. Thank you again, local, for confusing us, whether for personal joy or accident, it was unappreciated. Some sad news for our trip, we went to go see the Church of Bones right after the Pantheon and they closed as soon as we got there! The lady rushed us out and told us they were making a quick renovation and it would be open tomorrow. =( We will just have to return to Rome again sometime.

The night helped heal our disappointing morning. We took a power nap and Matt, our hostel mate, invited us to check out where he has been eating dinner. It was a very nice restaurant near the Colloseum and Roman forum. We then walked around the city and bumped into a crowd watching the Italy vs England match. It was amazing just even being there for a little bit. Matt hadn't seen the Trevi fountain or the Spanish steps so we walked to both of those. He was a great guy to get to know. We said our goodbyes and departed.

Pat and I walked to a local pub and after our experience on Friday, we figured maybe a one drink rule should be implied. We watched the rest of the game and bumped into some of the people we met on Friday as well as met a bunch of other cool people traveling. We went to a night pool party and had an awesome time. Met some cool Australians some Roman locals and some other folks from the states. It was a good send off for our last night in Rome, so we thought.

Day 6- Hectic. Traveling is hectic. I remember at the airport, Pat and I were thinking how people were always in a rush for traveling. Just show up early and boom, you're good to go. Well we needed to go to the Vatican before we left Rome so what better time to go then right before we left? We walked to the meeting point with all of our bags because our hostel was out of the way. So we checked out. We figured the hostel at the meeting point would allow us to keep our bags there. Not the case. And we got to the meeting point early but apparently that was just a meeting point to buy a spot for the tour not the actual meeting point for the tour. The actual meeting place was a little before noon right outside the Vatican, across town.... And the only metro that would get us there in time was leaving in thirty minutes. So we booked it to the Termini, I went to go check in the bags since the line was a billion people long, maybe only 12. Pat went to go buy the metro tickets. We rushed to the train and barely made it on.

So we made it to the Vatican! So beautiful. And our tour guide, Marc Anthony, was filled with knowledge. 1100 rooms just in the museum. If we were to spend 30 seconds on each piece of art in the museum, it would take us 7.5 years to get through it all. I would continue to share what Marc shared but my mind would potentially explode trying to recollect all the info. The Vatican, wow. But, we finally left Rome later that night and now we're in Napoli! Home of the best pizza in the world! Trying that tonight homies!

Pat: Hello, everyone who is reading this. On Sunday we walked to a church about 20 minute walk from our Hostel which we read online that there would be an English service at 1030 but we sat in the end of the 930 service which was Italian and we started the 1030 service but they were speaking Latin or Italian as well so we left after 2 minutes after we realized that there were no English services. So it was a good start to the day. Then we decided to go see the Pantheon which two days before we couldn't find. We found it it was very cool to see I am glad we went back, but it was sunday and there was a church service so we couldn't go inside. After that we went to the church of bones which we were told by multiple people its a must see. But to our surprise it was closing as we were walking up the steps to go in because they had to clean for showing the next week. So thats pretty much strike three for us and it was only like 2 in the afternoon and we were starving. So we decided to cut our loses and take a nap and go out to the pub again. After our nap we went to dinner with our Hostel roommate matt who was super nice and helpful. After dinner we went took a stroll to the spanish steps again because Matt didn't see them yet and on our way there was a huge crowd of people at like every plaza watching the Italy England European football game it was nuts! So after the Spanish Steps Moe and I went to the pub and Matt went back to the hostel. At the pub there was a pool party which was very cool and interesting. Overall our day went from disappointing to exciting so it was a good day!

Monday- Today was a rough day as well waking up early to get to the Vatican and trying to get our tickets ready to go to Naples. We were rushed all morning to get on the train to the Vatican. Luckily we made it and it was the best thing so far!! It was absolutely amazing and I am so glad we were able to make it. Then after the Vatican we came back and had to wait at the train station for hours before our train left for Naples at 845. We were exhausted and the train wasn't to pleasant. We arrived in Naples at 1145 and looking for a map to get to our Hostel (that was already booked thankfully) We got there and went to bed. Ciao.

Moe and Pat

Moe:
Day 3- This is where stuff goes all over the place. Mixture of seeing some wonders, disregarding warnings, suspicious men in costumes, beautiful women, a boat, breakdancing, and more. It was a very interesting mix of things that it was odd how they all fit so well together.So let's attempt to dissect this day.

We woke up fairly early and smashed on some breakfast. We made some friends from Finland and Germany while we were in the internet room looking up directions to our new hostel. With a general idea of where it was, we decided to set out to see some sites. We made our way to the Colloseum, and wow, it was beautiful! I even got to slap it, touch it, hug it. We even tried lifting some of the rocks nearby. You'll see the pictures, they were stunning. When we were about to head back, we realized we were not too far away from some other things we were planning on seeing. We headed to the Venezia and on our way there, we met Olivia (cough cough pat got googly eyes cough cough). She told us about a pub crawl that was happening later that night. We said it sounded interesting we might be there, but we continued on our path to see some history. We passed the Roman forum, a church that had these carvings (video of me talking about it but you can't really see the carvings) of Jesus and him going on the cross and at the end was a small church which was very beautiful. We stopped in and prayed. We apparently missed the Pantheon but we were in the vacinity of it and found a restaurant near the fountain de Trevi that was so good. Best pizza I have ever had. A bunch of other cool things that we saw, it was amazing. I love Roma!

So we treked back to our original hostel to pick up our bags and made the rigorous journey with two overstuffed bags to our new hostel. After gaining about twenty lbs of muscle in each calf we settled in and took a nap in our nice air conditioned hostel. I woke up pretty late and Pat was waiting anxiously for me to get up. We weren't sure what to do that night and the flyer for the pub crawl was sitting in front of us. We eyed it and decided to go. This is where things get a little fuzzy. We met at the Spanish steps which were beautiful and made our way to the first pub. They had 20 minutes left for the happy hour, so yeah. After not being irresponsible and of course pacing ourself we ended up at another pub where we did not take a free shot and we did not win a shirt for the amount that we did not drink. I repeat we did not do any of that. However, I continue. We met some cool people, Alex, Olivia, Hannah, Stefania, Stefan, Jack, Oliver, Jenny. By this point things were getting slightly fuzzy and we ended up on a boat party. The boat party was awesome, it was near the Vatican and it was beautiful. Apparently "sober" me is quite the breakdancer as me Jack, and this other guy we bumped into entertained the crowd for a little bit before I went and taught some people how to salsa, marangue (thank you Michal Hamilton!) and someone retaught me to cha cha (thank you Stefania!). The walk back was annoying and we got locked out of our hostel till 5am and Pat was such a treat on our way back.

Needless to say, yesterday was filled from beginning to end.

Day 4, yeah, we had a headache from some unknown reason. We also felt slightly sick for the same unknown reason. Had trouble eating. But Sunday proves to be a better day. We may be able to make it out to the Vatican amongst other things. My friend, Matt Robinson, who studied abroad in Rome, shared some places to eat and things to see that definitely sounded interesting. So tomorrow sounds like it could be as eventful as Friday. Thank you again Matty!

Pat: Well there is only one way to say this I got a little too intoxicated last night. Yesterday was a very eventful day we went and saw the colloseum and the ruins as well as a beautiful fountain that is just amazing. The Colloseum was one of the main reasons that made me want to come to Europe and it didn't disappoint, it is truly one of the marvels of the world. While we were at the Colloseum when we were getting ready to leave, there was a group of 4 men dressed as Roman soldiers and asked us if we wanted to take a picture so I said yes thinking it was like Disney World, where the characters take pictures with the kids for free. But no, not here they scamed us into paying ten Euro's each for a couple of pictures. We learned our lesson no pictures with people dressed up in a costume. Then after our sight seeing we grabbed our bags from the hostel and walked to the next hostel where we booked the rest of the nights that we will be in Rome. The best gift we received since we have been here was that it is air conditioned which makes for alot better sleep. I had a great time sight seeing and an even better time going to the pubs last night and ending on a boat which was awesome. We met some pretty cool people through the festivities last night. The two I remember most are Olivia which she was from michigan and is staying in Rome for the summer she was very cool and Oliver who lives in England so I got his name so we can meet up with him when we get to London. Very eventfull day yesterday and today was a very needed day of rest since I was hung over and was nice to not spend alot of money since we only had one meal today which was dinner because my stomach was upset all day. Overall a very successful start to our Europe trip!!!

Moe and Pat: Overall, the past two days were a great experience. Yes, even today. We are excited for the rest of this trip and what is in store for us. We have two more days left in Rome, and we have come to learn a valuable lesson, "when in Rome, do as Romans do."