PHOTOS ARE HERE!!!

Hey Guess What??!! We actually have photos posted for you to see!!

The link is: http://community.webshots.com/user/charjoy04

Have fun, leave some comments for us!

Goodbye to you all

Today was a day of sadness, sorrow and mourning. Not only because we all woke up feeling about 10 or 15 pounds heavier but because we now had to go home, weigh ourselves and face the facts. Oh and did we mention that this was our last day in Europe? It started at 6 a.m. The train station was across from our hotel and we walked over, lugging our bags one last time. For this, we were rejoicing. We caught the ½ hour train ride to the airport and once there, grabbed one last cappuccino and croissant. Amanda’s flight was leaving about an hour before ours so we said a tearful goodbye (just kidding about the tearful part), took a last group photo and waved until we couldn’t see her anymore. We tried to document the breaking off of Amanda but were sternly forbidden by a security officer. So we can’t show you a picture of her leaving. Actually we can’t show you any pictures. But I guess you’ve figured that out by now. Our flight was 40 minutes late leaving and by this time we had been at the airport for 4 hours and were more than ready to leave so we could…..sit for 11 hours in the plane!!!! YAY!!!!! The flight back was with United, rather than Lufthansa and although we were not as fond of it, we still got heated baby wipes. LeAnne was ecstatic. After an exhausting ride with little sleep we were unable to land in Washington D.C. on schedule and had to circle the airport for more than an hour due to snow on the runway. By the time we were allowed to get off the plane it was 4:30 and we had exactly 7 minutes to catch our connection to LA. But first we were required to claim our bags, stand in the customs line, and recheck our bags. Needless to say, we did not make our connection. Now what? The airport was packed with a crazy mess of people whose flights had been canceled or delayed because of the weather. We wondered if Washington D.C should have been in our itinerary as it looked like we would be staying for a few days. We asked a United ticket agent what we should do and she told us the gate number of the next plane to LA. We rushed halfway across the airport and found them already boarding. Thankfully, we were able to get on standby and saw a few of our fellow Rome airplane buddies as well. Since they were already boarding we figured we didn’t have time for a much needed Starbucks. Unfortunately, once we got on, it didn’t leave for another hour and a half as they had to de-ice the plane and clear the runway again. BUT….. We learned some exciting news!!! A stewardess kindly came up to Char and Nat and shared some interesting information. A certain Mr. Ben Affleck was on our flight!!!!!!!!!! He was in first class though, so we planned and plotted ways to get up there. But there were no empty seats next to him and we were strictly forbidden to use the restrooms up there so we never caught a glimpse. We got into LA and met Grandpa and Grandma Weaver who showered us with delicious food and had kindly brought Char’s car so we could go straight to Natalie’s house. Thank you G’pa and G’ma Weaver!!!!!!!!!! It took 1 ½ to get to Nat’s house where her mom and sis had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for us. After all the talking and catching up we finally crashed after being awake for more than 30 hours.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. We couldn’t have done it without you and appreciate it more than you realize. We also enjoyed reading your comments to us and are glad you liked the blogs.

To all the wonderful people who we stayed with: Escuain Family, Debu Family, Pauline Newbold: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! The times with you were some of the highlights of our trip.

Hopefully by Wednesday the photos will be online for your veiwing pleasure. Please check back for the link.

Farewell, dear fans. It has been a pleasure.

When in Rome...

Wednesday, January 16th
We woke up early again this morning. I'm getting really tired of this early stuff, I'll tell you. This is supposed to be a holiday!! That means sleeping in. Not getting up at 6 am to make a 7 am water bus ride. But we didn't want to miss our ride so we snuck some breakfast from the breakfast bar that didn't open for another hour and a half and headed out, through the pigeonless St. Mark's Square! This isn't fair, even the pigeons get to sleep in. There is something seriously wrong with the world. We made it to the station nice and early and even had time to grab a cappuccino. As I'm sure you all realize now, this means standing at a counter and having it served to you in a cute china cup. None of this fast food "take away" coffee, we uncooth Americans are so in love with. And let me tell you, this coffee is amazing. Take every opportunity to try it.
Our train ride was about 4 1/2 hours long so LeAnne used the time to order another cappuccino in the dining car. When we got off the train it actually took us about 5 minutes to get to our Hotel!! Imagine!! When we got there, the lady kind of gave us a flashback of our hostel in Madrid but ended up being fairly nice. We dropped everything and ran out to see Rome. First stop: Colosseum!! To get there we had to take the metro which is the worst one yet. Everything here is dirty and covered with graffiti. There are only 2 metro lines which doesn't even begin to cover the city and they are jammed with people. Thankfully the Colosseum is right off of one of the few stops. We took lots of photos and goofed off by jumping off the stairs and laughing at Amanda trying to teach Nat how to do a cartwheel. I think by this time we are a little sight-seeing weary but it was still pretty cool. We were too late to go in and it would cost 11 EUR anyway so we decided to move on. The Sistine Chapel was on our list but since no one wanted to spend money to get inside, we realized there was no point in going. Instead, we shopped along the streets picking up last minute gifts and dodging raindrops. After a bit it really started to pour but we were so close to the Fontona di Trevi (I hope I spelled that right) that we kept going. It was well worth it. I don't know much about the history of it but legend has it that if you toss a coin into it, it will guarentee your return to Rome. So we faithfully tossed our last pennies in (*sniff*) and dared each other to jump in. The fountain is absolutely beautiful with a large pool and lots of statues, etc. among the waterfalls. Since Amanda's and LeAnne's boots were totally soaked and each step they took felt pretty squishy, we headed back to get dry before finding some dinner. There's a cute little cafe across the street from our hotel that we decided to try out. We thought we were getting pretty European savvy so when the bread came out we told the waiter that we didn't want it. He informed us that we could either take the bread or be charged a cover charge that would equal the price of bread. What a rip off!! We took the bread and made up for it by asking for butter and then oil and vinegar to dip it in. Our food was delicious and we had our last cappucino and then headed out to this internet cafe where we sit posting our life story for you all to enjoy. We're freezing cold when we could be home in our hotel and all cozy and warm in our pajamas. Hope we at least get some comments for all our efforts.

Venice!!!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
This will just be a quick blog to fill you in on Venice!! It was FABULOUS!! Imagine a whole city on top of water; instead of sidewalks you have little waterways to navigate a canoe thru!! Our train left at 9:05 and everyone hated Char for turning on the light and making them get up. Seriously people! This is not Greece! We only have one day to see Venice and do not want to miss this train!!! So after some free vending machine type muffins and powdered coffee to go from the Hotel (hey at least it was free, which is becoming more and more important!!) We snored our way to Venice. Once there, we got to take a waterbus to St. Mark's Square where our Hotel was!! AHHHHHH this is sooooooooo cool!!!! Imagine taking a waterbus everywhere????!!! The Italian man who had the prestigious job of tying and untying the rope to the pier at every stop was quite taken with LeAnne who smiled and nodded at everything he said. Poor guy, he was pretty sad we weren't staying longer. St. Mark's Square is famous for all the pigeons it attracts (and also all the pigeon waste they bring with them) so after we clawed our way thru the birds and asked for directions several times, we found our cute little hotel up a bunch of stairs with no elevator. Poor Nat with the suitcase. So we deposited our stuff and took a vote to get food since we were all hungry and grumpy. On the way, LeAnne tried to buy an Italian sweatshirt at a little stand and asked if they took credit cards since she hadn't had a chance to get more cash out. She also tried to wrangle a deal out of him (5 EUR less) and was informed that he knew of another store that would give her a discount, but NOT him!! After asking where she was from, he gave her this pearl of wisdom, '' Venice is not like Canada. In Venice, if you do not have money you do not buy. In Canada, if you do not have money, you buy anyway. Not good.'' He clearly did not want her business so we moved on. His loss!! We had asked the hotel owner if he could recommend a good spot and he had given us a brochure that advertised every kind of food you could want plus 10% off if you showed them the brochure. As soon as we entered, we could tell we didn't want to be there. Tacky paper party decor covered the ceilings and the menu looked expensive. We sat down anyway and each ordered one of the cheaper things on the menu, a pizza. Nat decided she wanted some more gnocchi like we'd had the last night so she asked for that. When we got the bill, it was more than our hotel bill!!! It included a ''cover charge'' (what in the world is that???!!), a big tip that we were required to pay and a 5 EUR charge for each coke. Everyone was pretty disgruntled, especially since we had passed by so many cute little cafes. Yet ANOTHER rip off to the poor little American and Canadian girls!! We shopped for quite awhile; almost every shop is a glass shop. Their hand made Murano glass is very well known and popular so if any of you receive it as gifts, just a hint: be sure to ooh and ahh alot. :) We finished off the night with gelato and coffee by the water before heading back to the hotel. We are truly in love with Venice.

Leaving Athens and on to Milan!!!!!

Monday, January 14th
We woke up to horrible pouring rain on our final day in Athens. Torrential downpours, with cats and dogs and easily just as wet as any Pacific Northwestern city. So we agreed to catch a cab to the metro station. We're only about a 10 minute walk away but that's more than enough time to make us miserably wet for the rest of the day. Once that was settled and the water mopped off up from the window that was left partially open, we polished off the last of the chocolate covered Belgian waffles that we were saving to take home. Sorry folks! They were delicious and so was the coffee that LeAnne made that no one appreciated. As we were getting ready to leave, the rain suddenly stopped! We were very thankful to be able to save a couple of euros so we took off for the metro station on foot. In Athens, you need to have a special ticket to go to and from the airport because for some reason the regular metro day pass isn't good enough. We only found this out the day before by reading the ultra-fine print on the windows of our metro. This was good because otherwise if you get caught you will have to pay a huge fine, or in our case since we don't have the money, be stranded in a Greek jail. Ha just kidding. But not about the fine part. Some poor Chinese girl didn't realize this apparently and got slapped with a big fin. We were sitting pretty close to her and could hear her pleading with the train guy to give her a break. She was an exchange student from Austria and had all her luggage stolen in Barcelona, including passport and money. She had about 15 euros left in her hand and was just trying to make it back. Unfortunately the train guy didn't give her a break. We felt sorry for her because this could easily have happened to any one of us. Barcelona is not a great place to be in terms of pickpocketing. Several of us had noticed zippers open on our bags after riding in metros and a couple of us had even felt hands in our pockets or purses. This is also where we think Natalie's wallet was lost/stolen. Amanda gave the Chinese girl a bit of cash and we all promised to pray for her on her trip back to Austria, that she would be able to get back into the country without her passport etc. We made it to the train station without any difficulties and spotted a Greek McDonalds! Natalie went for the Greek salad and the rest of us indulged in Big Macs and fries. There is a reason one of us is skinny. Amazingly enough, all our luggage was within the weight limits this time. We were over by a couple of kilos on our previous flight but the check in person had kindly given us a break. Our flight was pretty uneventful. Amanda stole the seat next to the cute guy and Char had to sit by the old man but that was the extent of it.
Once we arrived in Milan, we had to take a 45 minute bus ride from the airport to the central train station. Apparently our hoel was about 300 metres from the station, according to our ever trusty directions. We unfortunately left our tape measures and compasses at home. After walking about 1000 metres, we realized that we were pretty much going in a circle. So we asked directions from a Chinese guy who pretended he couldn't speak English, from an Italian who pretended we weren't even talking and from a store owner who spoke English and gave us very helpful instructions. "Go either right or left, and that's where it is." Why thank you! How come we didn't figure that out?? Finally someone gave us proper directions which confirmed that we were already on the righ track. This was good since it was dark, still pouring rain and we were carrying big backpacks weighing well over 50 lbs each as well as a couple of smaller carry on bags. Not that we were having any problems with the weight. TAKE THAT, certain persons wo shall remain nameless, that think girls can't carry that much! In the words of Natalie, Boom Yakka Shah! We found our hotel about 2 minutes later. It was called simply, The Best. It was pretty good and they recommended a great Italian restaurant down the street. The desk clerk even called ahead for us and the maitre'd was waiting on the street for our arrival! No red carpet, sorry, but everything else was pretty fabulous! We had a dashing Italian waiter, who was a major flirt. Did we mention that he was 50 and slightly balding? He piled food onto our table, stuff that we didn't order and we only hoped the bill wasn't going to have any crazy surprises for us. He got a little grossed out by Amanda's request for fetticine wih grilled chicken and white sauce. Evidently they have some Jewish background an mixing milk with meat is not a good thing. Ha actually we don't know. We all ordered different things and split them. We had Chicken Fetticine, Spaghetti with meat sauce, Spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and mozzarella and Gnocci with blue cheese. Dessert included fresh apricot tart, fruit and cream cups and white chocolate mousse cream puffs. He even gave us a couple for free! Our waiter has the same phone as Amanda and wanted her to bluetooth her ringtone to him. She couldn't figure it out in Italian but managed to set his background as our photo! As we asked for our bill, he brought us even more food! Some Italian fried puff pastry that was very good. We all agreed that this was probably the best meal of our trip and definitely one we had been looking forward to for a long time. So we went back to the hotel and rested our very full bellies.

Char and LeAnne

Sunday, January 13, 2008

We promised each other that today we would actually get up at a good time so we could see some of the sights...but that didn't exactly happen. We felt bad that we were missing meeting so we decided to hit Mars Hill where Paul preached to the Athenians. LeAnne and Char pulled out the Bible once they had climbed to the top of the rock and read Paul’s speech in Acts 17 out loud to Nat and Amanda (and any men of Athens nearby). We drew lots of weird stares but that could be cause we are loud Americans. Mars Hill is actually the rock Areopagos that looks over the Agora. The Agora is an ancient marketplace that was the heart of the city for 1,200 years, founded in the 6^th century BC. This is where Socrates addressed his public, where democracy was born and where Paul preached, as mentioned earlier. We also visited the GIANT flea market in the area that is more like a sidewalk sale. We saw Gucci bags and Louis Vuitton belts…all for the low, low price of $20!!!!! Must not be real???!! We got a chance to see the Acropolis and Parthenon up close today as well as our first Greek Starbucks. (We never fail to find them). The ruins are AMAZING, huge and lots of solid marble everywhere. Some of the ruins are being taken down to be restored and built up again because of the erosion. There was also a giant amphitheatre in the area. We noticed an exceeding amount of bright blue sweatshirts from Land’s End…AMERICANS!!! But we were good girls and didn’t talk to any strangers, although Amanda did get pretty excited when she saw a Denver Bronco’s jacket later on that day. The top of the Acropolis has fabulous views and we were dying to get a glimpse of the little village again. Those Greek postcards you see?? They really are true!! The village of white houses is just too cute. We ordered take out gyros for lunch for only 1.70 EUR and went on our way to see…THE BEACH!! After all, this is what Greece is really about. So, confident in our map reading skills, we stepped onto the train to take the last stop which we were sure took us to the coast. Well, it did, sort of. If you happen to like looking at container ships, this is the place for you. It was the town Piraeus, the major port city and nowhere near the cute little beaches in the postcards. We had been advised earlier to take a tram from Piraeus so we asked for directions, got lost, came back, asked for directions again, didn’t believe the person knew what they were talking about, asked for more directions, got on the tram again and found ourselves heading back to the city after riding along the coast for just a short while. We were on a whole different tramline that wasn’t even on the map. Since it was already getting dark and we had wasted so much time looking already, we just took it all the way back to the flea market stop which had now turned into a ghost town. We had dinner at a place that specialized in live Greek music. Too bad they didn’t specialize in good food. There was just one other group there, guess we should have taken the hint. Always eat where the locals eat, even if it’s noisy!!! During dinner, the kitchen flooded into the dining room and soaked LeAnne’s coat. They tried to serve us bread and butter but we refused to eat it cause we had found out the night before that they charge you 1.50 EUR each for the bread if you touch it, even though you may never have asked for it!! So that got sent back. We then wandered all over town looking for an Internet café and finally got directed to one that was actually open. YAY!!!

Char and LeAnne

Athens: Day 2

Today was a no alarm day. We slept in until one in the afternoon. We went to check out the Acropolis but it was closing so the lady told us to come back tomorrow and it would be free! Great idea, we're pretty much all about free stuff at this point. So we decided to explore the area a little bit and this is where we found true Greek housing! It is beautiful and so quaint. The little village clinging to the side of the Acropolis is called Anafiotika and is considered Athens’s loveliest and quirkiest neighborhood. Its created island style, filled with various dome-topped blue and white houses in a maze of tiny passage ways. We had a blast exploring the place and of course took lots of photos. We then meandered down some of the nearby streets of Plaka, stopping in at various tourist shops for many souvenirs. It was then that we discovered a cute little candle-lit restaurant. We decided we'd love to have dinner there and ended up being the only ones in the entire place because most Greek people eat later. Because of this, our waiter was very attentive. He pretty much watch us the entire time from a corner of the room which was a little disturbing at first until we realized he was trying to time the courses properly. He wouldn't bring our salads until we finished our bread and then didn't bring the main course until we were done with the salad. Everything was delicious and we shared a lamb-and-potato dish as well as some penne pasta, greek salad and bread with oil and olives.

Char

Athens, Greece!

Friday, January 12, 2008
We arrived in Athens today! Although extremely tired from only 3 hours of sleep, stepping out into the warm Athens sun definitely lifted our mood! Directly across from our metro stop is the most fabulous Greek Bakery. We immediately stopped for some baklava even before finding our apartment, This put us in a very good mood indeed! We found our apartment right off (imagine that!) We're getting good at this! But there was one slight problem. We hadn't had any contact with the owner in several days and had no idea how to get a hold of her to get inside. Eventually we got a call from one of her friends but in the meantime we waited on the porch for about an hour and a half! By the time we got inside it was about 3 pm and we all felt like hitting the sack. We decided to put that on hold for a while and go get some food. So first we went out for some (yeah you guessed it) Greek food! Gyros and french fries! Okay so it's fast food but at least its ethnically accurate. And if it isn't, well sorry, I don't want to hear about it! There's a lot of little shops lining the streets around here so we grabbed a bit of food for breakfast and went back to our Greek bakery for some more local pastries. What can we say? We happen to like food! Then we went back to our apartment and crashed. It was a very exciting day.

Side Notes

1. When crossing into the UK, be very nice to the border guy and have all forms COMPLETELY filled out.
2. Penny Lane is NOT in London so don't ask for directions unless you like looking like a fool.
3. French train stations have pigeons flying around inside. Watch your head.
4. French people are very nice to poor lost tourists, even if they do charge you 50 cents to use the toilets.
5. Bathrooms are free in London.
6. It's probably not the brightest idea to ask your hosts if they will be serving tea later on, while you are in the middle of eating a huge meal.
7. London has a lot of Starbucks. Paris does not.
8. In London, it's cheaper to take your Starbucks sandwich outside than to eat it inside. Unless you say it's to go and change your mind after you pay.
9. Phone cards and pay phones are very difficult to figure out. And no not because some of us are blonde.
10. Belgian waffles are amazing.
11. The Chunnel is boring. So is London Bridge.
12. London Bridge is not falling down.

London!!!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Today we woke up nice and early. We were all in a fantastic mood. London here we come!! Luc and Marc Debu drove us to the train station in plenty of time to catch the train. We caught rush hour traffic but no one was worried. We had tons of time, there was no possible way we could miss this train! After all for the first time on this trip, we weren't in charge of anything! We even had time to grab a quick espresso in the station. Then we got all queued up to clear customs. The French officers were nice and kind, dashing even. Obliging us with stamps in our passports and everything. Life was good. The helpful ticket checker looked over our tickets and pronounced everything in order. So we proceeded on [key music here...dun da da dun]. Just as we were about to make our way into the waiting area, someone yelled at us to get back in line. We had no idea, poor, helpless, American tourists. Apparently we have to clear customs for the UK as well as the exiting France ones. No big deal, get back in line. Nope, thats not good enough. We need to fill out entrance forms with our name, birth date and citizenship on it because, you know, our passports don't have that type of information. And the final crucial step, the address of our residence in England. How would we know that? We're getting picked up at the metro stop, we don't need a postal code. Hello! So we put down 'N/A' because we didn't realize that forgery was probably a better option for us. We jump back in line. A lot of people are already through customs. In fact most of them have cleared it. No worries, this should be fine. Besides we like the border control people here in Europe. They're all so nice. They ask us about our trip and wish us well and stamp our passports. So we walk up to the booth and hand over the passports, tickets and entry forms and politely ask if we could have our passports stamped when he was finished. Well welcome to the twilight zone. Border control guys from Britain are NOT nice!!! He snapped back at us to hang on, one thing at a time. He was not obligated to allow us access to his country and in fact he refuses people all the time so we shouldn't expect to get a stamp in our passports. Oh sorry, sir, might you possibly be having a bad day? Yes apparently he was and wanted to make sure everyone shared it with him. Starting be refusing us entry into Britain since our forms were not 100% filled out. Evidently he needed to know the exact address of where we were staying. "What's this 'not applicable'? Where are you going to sleep? A park bench?" We tried to explain the situation to him, but yeah he wasn't in any mood to give us a break. So as a note to all future travellers through France into England, you need to have the full address of where you will be staying. name, phone number and city are not enough. Cell number and metro stops are not usable either. This was a problem for us since we couldn't possibly get a hold of Pauling Newbold for her address. The train checkpoint was closing down and we watched in horror and disbelief as our train slowly pulled away from the station without us. Yes, the same train that there was no way we could miss. Char and Amanda headed off to find a pay phone so we could call the Debus and find out if they possibly had the address. They didn't but said to call back in 5 minutes and they would have it for us. In the meantime, LeAnne and Natalie checked out when the next train was due to leave. Not until 12:30!!! Over 2 and a half hours away! Well the girls couldn't get through the second time to the Debus so after trying numerous times they gave up and started systematically calling all in English and Belgian phone numbers we had in our possession to find A. someone who wasn't at work and B. had the correct address. This was impossible so they decided to try calling the Debus one last time and finally got through! And they had the address. By this time almost 2 hours had passed and we had gone through an entire package of chocolate covered Belgian waffles. So we got back into the queue and fortunately Mr. Cranky's shift was over and we had a nice English border guard who waved us right through and even stamped our passports without us asking.

On the train, we overheard some old English guy loudly dissing Americans and how they speak. Char went over to stand up for her country and apply for English lessons, while Nat recorded it on the ever present video camera. It was hilarious! Apparently the one guy is some semi-famous recording artist/stand up comedian. Look him up. Earl Okin. He gave us his myspace address, so if you happen to ever need that, just let us know. We also have his autograph now woo. He has performed for lots of famous people including Queen Elizabeth, etc. and he knows on of the Beatles. After a lengthy discussion on American politics, including who had the better chance, Obama or Hillary Clinton, he left us with a gem: According to people in the UK, Canada is best known as the United States the way it should be run. HA!

Finally made it into London. We decided to leave our luggage at the train station and go see some of the sights before going to Pauline's house. The exchange rate is horrible!! it's about 2 US dollars for 1 pound! It cost us 6.5 pounds for each bag left. We took the metro to a tour place and got a full bus tour of London. Our passes are actually good for 48 hours, so we can get off and on as many times as we want. It actually includes a boat tour and several walking tours, as well. We thought this was a cool idea since we don't have much time and wanted to see everything we could! The tour also has headphones with lots of info about the places we were seeing that come in many different languages. We chose English. Ah! How beautiful our native tongue sounds! Although we have to admit, sometimes it is as hard to understand as a foreign language, they speak with such a different accent! Since we only had a couple of hours before we were going to Pauline's house, we thought we would just stay on the bus and see everything quickly and then the next day we could take advantage of the get on/get off part. This was a great idea until we noticed that a certain street had more Starbucks than downtown Seattle. Not sure how this is possible but we thought that is would be the perfect opportunity to try out our on and off passes. :) It all worked our perfectly and then we caught the metro back to the British Rail System. Pauline lives out of the city a little bit so we had to take another rail system to get out there. Since it was the evening rush hour the rail line was pretty well packed. Standing room only. This was not good idea for the drunk old men standing next to Amanda and Char. They were falling all over their luggage and kept inviting us to hang out with them at a local pub. We felt that they had had enough to drink and didn't need to spend the evening having more so politely declined. When they got off one of the men held back and came to apologize for their behavior and admitted they'd had too much to drink. Hmmm. We hadn't noticed. Once we got to the train station in West Wickham, Pauline was here to pick us up. Char got to sit in the front seat and definitely felt that sitting on the left side and not having a steering wheel in front of her was strange indeed. When we got the house Pauline had an AMAZING hot meal all ready for us, which we gobbled down. We get pretty excited about home cooked meals! Don't worry, we tried to be polite and even took a stab at holding the cutlery the correct way. She also has the craziest shower system. It's all electronic so there's a power button in the shower and you control the heat with little dials. The weirdest thing is that she has a remote so that you can turn on the water for your bath from your room and have it all ready before you get there. The next day we hopped onto the bus again and spent the day seeing sights such as Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery Museum, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace was closed to visitors this time of the year but we got to stand at the gates and keep our eyes peeled for glimpses of William and Harry. Sad to report, we didn't see either of them but we did get to see a bunch of guards parading around with white gloves. They hide out in these little booths on the palace grounds that are about the size of a coffin only upright, and come out occasionally to stretch their legs. This is to the great delight of the throngs of people clustered at the gates. Evidently watching guys in gray trench coats and white gloves march in a 3 meter by 3 meter square is incredibly exciting. I didn't realize. Unfortunately, London lived up to its reputation of being rainy and wet so Char and LeAnne broke out the plastic garbage bag ponchos, supplied by our tour company, to the great embarrassment of Natalie and Amanda. We also spent some time walking across the Tower Bridge (which is beautiful and much more exciting than the London Bridge which was just a bunch of boring steel) and even took a ride in the London Eye! This Ferris wheel is the largest in the world and I think hold around 20 people per pod. It takes half an hour to circulate and you get some wonderful views. We also left an umbrella somewhere in London so if anyone happens to be passing through and sees a polka dot umbrella, it quite possible belongs to us. That night we met up with some of the local young people for a Mexican dinner including Ruth and Nancy Nunn as well as Antonia Newman. They were all lovely and it was great getting to know them just a bit. Antonia's grandparents are Gordon and Pearl Hayhoe so she has spend many summer months at the cottage some of our parents spent time at as young people. The next morning we had to be up by 3 a.m. to catch our plane to Athens, Greece. We felt horrible about Pauline having to drive us at such an early hour but she was super nice about it. She has been a wonderful host and treated us so incredibly well. We would have LOVED to stay longer!!

Antwerpen: Diamond Capital of the World

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Today Pieter and Sofie picked us up an hour earlier to catch the train to Antwerp where we were planning to meet up with Marc, Bonnie and Jamin. It happened that their train was late so at our connection we were able to get on their train and ride the rest of the way with them. The day was spent taking crazy pictures of the group and with LeAnne and Nat gazing longingly at the hundreds of diamond shops along the way. Unfortunately, no Belgian boys appeared with proposals. If you do happen to own a diamond, it was probably cut in Antwerp because 50% of the world's diamonds are.

We also had our first REAL Belgian waffles and they are AMAZING!! The concept is kind of like the Krispy Kreme donut...the first time someone told me about them I thought, "don't all donuts taste the same? How could Krispy Kreme's really be THAT much better, really?" But when I had one...WOW!! I WAS HOOKED!! So it's the same with Belgian waffles, they are much better than I can describe. You'll just have to try one for yourself! And get the hot fresh ones with sugar on them, they really are the best. They try to tempt you with chocolate and other stuff but don't fall for it. Only get the plain ones. We didn't get much shopping done but it was great just looking around the town and hanging with the Debu's. We had lunch at an Italian pizza place and each had our own pizza! I think I may have had more than one seeing as how I ate parts of other people's too. *sigh* I'm afraid it's going to take more than a treadmill for me when we get back. Luc and Annie invited us over for dinner again that night and Annie had kindly gone to the grocery store to fill our Belgian chocolate orders. Unfortunately they were out of the ones we all wanted to bring back to you folks at home but she found some other ones that promise to be good too!! After all, is chocolate EVER bad???!! We also spend the last night at their house seeing as we had to get up early and catch the train for....ENGLAND!!!

Char

Monday, January 7, 2008

Pieter and Sofie picked us up from our cute little Bed and Breakfast, bright and early, say around 10:00. We all caught the train to Brugge. Only about a 25 minute ride from where we were staying, Brugge is the lace capital of the world. They have some of the most amazing handmade lace you will ever see! Some lucky people have been chosen to receive some as souvenirs. Mom, if you're reading this, don't get your hopes up, sorry! A large part of Brugge is actually built on water and has many canals. It has been called the Venice of the North or as the Belgians say Venice is the Brugge of the South. This city was once a thriving town, specializing in lace and tapestries, but some of the canals were sanded over with sediment and so the large boats could not get in. All the rich people left the town when the industry died, leaving only the poor people. They couldn't afford to rebuild newer and more modern buildings so most of the original architecture was left as is.

So after seeing a lot of architecture, Amanda needed a bathroom immediately. So we went to a little cafe since it was pretty close to lunchtime. Although with us it doesn't have to be anywhere near a mealtime to eat. Amanda had an upset stomach and we were trying to heal her with large does of Pepto Bismal but apparently this wasn't the brightest idea since she puked it all up. The rest of us enjoyed our first Belgian waffles and some delicious soup. After lunch it was time to hit the shops! Pieter and Sofie couldn't handle our love of shopping and split off from us. We managed to score some pretty sweet boots as well as some of that previously mentioned lace and other souvenirs. LeAnne would like to take this opportunity to mention that anyone connected to her should not be expecting anything. Her backpack is full and postcards are the only thing that will be purchased from here on out. After shopping, we took Pieter and Sofie out to Pizza Hut and caught the train back.

One thing we really love about being here is that we are not in charge of anything! The Debus ahve everything figured out for us and we haven't had to pore over any metro maps or guidebooks in the last 24 hours! Can't beat that!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Today we said our woeful goodbyes to Cheryl, Catie and Maria and then quickly recovered to our happy selves again knowing we were on our way to BELGIUM! Once again we almost missed the train. Why is it that we can never get anywhere on time??? We did make it and enjoyed the quick hour train ride to Lille. Upon our arrival Char remembered that we had not clarified which train station we were coming into. OOPS! Thanks to Grandparents Weaver, Natalie whipped out her phone numbers and we found a phone booth to call the Debu's. Would help if we could figure out how to use them??!! Suddenly some blonde guy came up to us and asked us if we were trying to call Belgium?? Bart!!!!!! Oh you have no idea how glad we were to see him! Meeting up with the rest of the family we drove to their house where we had a wonderful day. First of all a prayer meeting in Dutch and English, next Breaking of Bread, and then a quick word in 2nd Timothy. After meeting we had our first home cooked meal in 3 weeks!! OH SO WONDERFUL. I'm pretty sure they thought we had not eaten in 3 weeks, the way we were inhaling it. As Char was shoveling in beef stew, Belgium fries (not French fries), rice and warm apple sauce, she asks "ARE WE HAVING TEA AND CRUMPETS LATER?" let me tell you.....she has not lived that down since!!! We love Char!! Ok, so moving on, we DID indeed have tea and crumpets and they were delicious! You guys should really be jealous now because we also had BELGIUN CHOCOLATES!! Yes....we bought some for souvenirs. Unfortunately, it is almost gone. HA! We figured our suitcases were too full to fit it in. No worries, the cheap key chains from Morocco (made in china) that we bought for you will fit just fine. :)

Ok, this is Char here, defending herself!! I DID ask if we were having tea later (I admit that was BAD timing) but only because Bonnie had told me how wonderful it was and I didn't want to eat too much at lunch if we were. So there. Back to Amanda.

After tea, we had a reading/snoring meeting.... we couldn't help it! Full bellies and comfy couches are just too tough. Ok so we didn't really snore. Just a little head bobbing in total agreement of what they were saying in Dutch. After the reading meeting came Sunday School. We kind of like this new format! Mark and Bonnie's 2 year old twins sing amazingly and know the hymnbook better than us! NO JOKE! It was also very sweet to hear them say John 3:16 in Dutch by heart. WOW! We feel dumb. Guess what came next? MORE FOOD!!! I love to eat! Bonnie Debu made an incredible potato soup along with cheese, bread, fruit and many other things. Treadmills here we come!! Last big event of the night was going to see a World War 1 memorial called the Menen Gate. It is a huge white arch that holds 52,000 names of the British and British Commonwealth soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. Every night at 8:00 they play "The Last Post" in memorial of them. Even the Queen goes once a year. Quite incredible. We then wandered through the town with Pieter (Sofie's husband) as our guide. He knows an amazing amount about the local history. Apparently, Ieper was destroyed by the Germans in World War 1. The city was left in heaps of rubble and the Germans were forced to rebuild it. The citizens were able to choose between several options of rebuilding and they chose to have it rebuilt exactly how it was before the war, rather than as a modern city. Everything has been restored back to its former glory, including the gold on the outside of some of the buildings and statues. There are also medieval buildings and with the original ground levels too. I have to say the medieval people were quite smart in some ways. Because they had to pay taxes on how many square feet their house was on, they built the house on a very small base and then each floor above stuck out farther than the story under it. Unfortunately, this made it so that the tops of the houses were practically touching and since everything was wood, pretty much everything in town burned down if there was ever a fire. That part wasn't smart. Everything looks as if it is hundreds of years old but in reality it has been recently built. And that's your history lesson for Sunday, folks.

THANK YOU!!!

Hello fans!!

We just wanted to let you know how MUCH we appreciate all of your comments and prayers!! The comments make us laugh and we can feel the prayers every minute. We often look at each other and say ''Someone must have been praying for us right then!!!'' We are truly sorry about the no pictures, Char's computer has only been able to connect to the internet once and it took forever just to upload one. We will keep trying tho!!

Love to you all,

Girls In Europe

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Today our day didn't really start until 3 pm!!! We slept in and took our time getting ready for a nice meal in Paris. We wandered around Paris for about 2 hours looking for a specific restaurant that Amanda's parents had highly recommended and once we got there certain individuals felt that it was too much money to spend. So a few of us settled on crepes for a snack while we wandered around looking for the perfect place. All the while, Natalie had high heels on and by this time her feet were killing her. *sigh* ...all in the name of beauty. So in order to preserve Natalie's feet we just settled for whatever was there. It ended up we had dollied up just for a bread and soup shop. oh well. Since we hadn't visited anything that we wanted to that day, we figured we at least had time to see the Notre Dame Cathedral. We got there in the middle of a service where the priest was reading off of a book or something and there was some singing too. We had no idea what we were listening too so after a few pictures we took the metro back and purchased lots of food to fall asleep with. Amanda got her first real sushi, raw fish and all!!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Today we rose early so we could make the most of Paris!! We started out at the Louvre Museum so we could see the Mona Lisa!!! There was a big crown around it and 3 guards because apparently it has been stolen before. The Louvre is humongous, I think I've heard that it would take around 5 days to go through the whole thing. We only saw 2 floors of one small wing before we were burned out on art! It was beautiful though and the Mona Lisa's eyes really do follow you wherever you go!! Creepy! After that we had lunch at a charming little French café where the waiter treated us very well. The food was delicious and Natalie got some French onion soup that was out of this world!! For all the bad things I've heard about french people and how rude they are to Americans, they have been really nice and helpful! We definitely don't stand out here tho, and don't get near the attention which is nice! We like blending in and pretending we are french. Unfortunately, our scruffy clothes and shoes kind of give away the fact that we aren't. What I love about Paris is everyone is dressed SO NICE!! Everyone from the men to the tiny kids are dressed in the top fashions. The clothes here are very expensive tho. We met up with Maria (who had stayed home with catie cause she was sick) and walked to Champs - Elyesses (the street of lights) which is the main drag in Paris. At night it is beautiful because the street is lined with trees that are draped in lights. We followed the street all the way down to the Arc de Triumph which is the huge arch representing the finish line if Tour de France. On the way we stopped at...Starbucks of course and the BIGGEST Sephora EVER!! Once we got to the Arc de Triumph Cheryl and LeAnne were ecstatic with joy and we took tons of pictures. The thing is HUGE!! We then took the metro back home to check on Catie and make dinner again. Catie was much better by then and so Char and Cheryl went out and got....... FRENCH HAIRCUTS!!!!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!! It was so beautiful and the hair is fabulous!! Cheryl got hers coloured black and it is very short with these french looking spikes. It looks like a type of mullet. Because Char can't speak french there was a miscommunication with the stylist and she accidently chopped all of Char's hair off and gave it a tousled look, oh well, it looks very cool! You won't even recognize these girls!! Cheryl, Char, Natalie, Maria and LeAnne then went in search of an internet café We finally found one but they were closing in a few minutes so we didn't have time to blog. On the way, we had gotten directions from many different people so going back home proved to be very difficult. We started walking and walking and walking and nothing was looking familiar. Finally we hopped on a random metro only to find that we were far from home and that the metro we were on was not going where we needed. After taking many metros we finally got home hours later!!!! Everyone then fell asleep watching the old Pride and Prejudice that Catie had brought. It was an eventful day indeed. P.S. The haircuts?? just kidding, they are very normal and cool. :)

Thursday, January 3, 2008 PARIS

We got off the night train at 7:30 am to find ourselves in a cold, unwelcoming train station. Hello Paris! Let me tell you, the night train is something we are glad to be done with! Imagine 12 hours in a cramped seat that does lean back pretty far but if you dare recline back much the person behind you speaks angry french. Of course none of us actually knew what these words were but the tone of voice....yeah, we can definitely understand that!!! So back to the train station. It was FREEZING cold and we immediately missed our warm country of Spain!! There is no where to sit and relax, it is an outside station but eventually Amanda spied an expensive looking restaurant By that time we would do anything for some heat because we had just found out our apartment wouldn't be ready until 10:00 am!!! We settle into some chairs with all our baggage under the disapproving eye of the french waiter and ordered a croissant and coffee. The prices are ridiculous! Hello Paris again!! While we waited, some of the girls went to get directions to our new apartment. The one we had reserved previously did not have working hot water so the owner had kindly found us another one. The adventure to find it was amusing, seeing as LeAnne knows about 5 words in french and that's the best we have!!! But once we found it we fell in love with it and settle in. Catie and Maria arrived at noon and after that we went grocery shopping to stock our new pad!!! Moms, listen up.....you won't believe this but....WE COOKED DINNER!!! yep, that's right. We cooked. We had noodles with butter and cheese on them, fruit salad, bread and I don't remember what else. Anyhow, it was good. The food shops here are delightful, we are surrounded with bread shops, meat shops, fruit and veggie shops and tons of pastry ones too. It is a blast going to shopping for food! Whenever we feel like it we can run across the street and buy a rotisserie chicken for 5 Euro, a fresh croissant or a long loaf of bread. After dinner that night we decided to visit the Eiffel Tower which was AMAZING at night! It is all lit up and sometimes the lights blinks so that it sparkles. We were all beside ourselves with excitement that we were actually in Paris and touching the tower!! It costed us around 3 Euro to climb the stairs to the second floor but after that you had to pay for an elevator to go to the very top. So we settled for the second floor and most of us were extremely thankful that we were not allowed to climb any additional stairs cause we were already hurting!! After coming down some of us knew we needed to immediately replenish some of those calories we had burned up so we bought french crepes. YUMMY!!!!!!!!

Barcelona = Gaudi

Antonio Gaudi architecture is AMAZING !!!! If you EVER go to Barcelona, you MUST look some of his work up because Barcelona = Gaudi. Unfortunately, only Amanda and Char knew that and so no one else in the group knew or cared who this Gaudi person was. We did manage to drag them to the Sagrada Familia Temple which most of them admitted was way awesome and about four of us paid the Euro to get inside. This temple was started in 1882 and Gaudi worked on it until his death in 1926. Even after all this time it is still under construction. There were cranes everywhere and the inside especially had a lot of work to do. So once we oohed and awed we had to hit the gift shop where we picked up many very cool items, some of them may come to you in gifts. :) After them temple experience we joined the rest of the girls outside and tried to persuade them to come to Parc Guell. This is actually a housing development Gaudi started but never finished and is now an enchanted garden. No one was too interested so Amanda and Char decided to venture out on our own. It was well worth the effort!!!!!! This park is so incredible I can't try to explain, so if we ever get photos up (hehe) you can see for yourself. In this park there are benched and walls everywhere covered with small coloured bits of tile in awesome designs that would have taken months!!! We had to climb a HUUUUUUGE hill to get to the entrance and even tho there were some escalators in certain parts we were still crazy out of breath by the end. Ok, we admit we're out of shape but that motivated us to hit the treadmill once getting home!!!! We were so excited to start taking pictures of everything and so Amanda turned on her camera (the only one we had with us) but it wouldn't turn on!! Her batteries had died!! In a panic we ran everywhere in search of a gift shop. After getting mixed directions from lots of spanish speaking folks we finally found one and got the precious batteries. Meandering around the park was a fabulous experience because there is something new and different at every turn. At the main entrance is a big lizard made out of cement or stone and then covered with all the tiny tiles. Char wanted her picture taken by a beautiful wall and while she was posing 2 italian guys ran up and asked if they could have it taken with her...which means more cute guys to add to our growing list. Actually, judging by all the Italians we have met, we are a little nervous for Italy because so far they have been the most forward and the hardest to get rid of!! So that was our experience with Gaudi and Char is thinking maybe she would like to become an architect..... Amanda and Char

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Just to let you know why we are so behind on our blogging, because we know the throngs out there are waiting with bated breath for the latest installment of our journeys. We have been having some difficulties with finding internet access, not for lack of trying though, we would have you know. We have traversed Europe and back attempting to find an internet café, simply to post our blogs for your viewing pleasure. Anyway its all good. Wednesday, we were woken up very early in the morning, with loud banging on the door, as chronicled by Char on the previous blog. We headed out to check out the amazing city of Barcelona, stopping first at a local bakery type place that...wait for it...served TAKE OUT coffee!!! This was a very good start to our day! We meandered down to the Mediterranean Sea and touched it because this is something you have to do if you are not a local. Some people thought about swimming and some of us thought about helping them out with that idea, with a gentle shove. No worries, we all stayed dry. After walking around for awhile, we decided to check out the Gaudi Cathedral that Amanda and Char had been pleading to see all week. It was amazing! More on that later. We also went to the Picasso museum and the Chocolate museum but didn't actually go inside since no one felt like shelling out the cash. So we thought that with the money we saved we could, you know, go shopping! Some store owner gave us all communist symbol pins. He actually pinned them on our jackets for us and we didn't actually check them out until we left. We thought that it might not be a great idea to walk around supporting such things since we weren't 100% sure what they even said. "Everyone! Easy pickpocketing here!" for all we know. Back to our hotel we went to collect our bags so we could catch our 6:00 train to Paris. Once there we had a horrible shock! We found out from some cute boys from Seattle that smoking is not longer permitted inside buildings in Paris as of January 2nd! This was a huge disappointment as I'm sure you can imagine. Ha just kidding. We were ready to eat our meals in peace without second hand smoke everywhere. The REAL shock came when we pulled out our tickets to double check the time of departure. We found out that our train was actually leaving in exactly one minute!! Understandably we all freaked out! We had mistakenly read 16:40 as 6:40. So we made a mad dash down to the train station to try and get our tickets changed to see if we catch the 9:00 train that Catie and Maria were on. We met up with the Brown boys and their cousin Marc at the station to return some socks and other items we left at their house. We rapidly blabbered out our dilemma to Marc and asked if he could translate for us to change our tickets. He and Natalie dashed off to see what we could do. Within about 5 minutes they were back. Apparently there was a train leaving right that minute and they were holding it for us!!! So we ran through the terminal hauling our overstuffed backpacks and dufflebags, with a man in a walky talky thingy following behind us, supplying updates to the train, "They are on the stairs right now!" Anyway we made it on board and the train left about 5 seconds later. We were supposed to change to a night train in Narbonne, France but with the later train we were actually able to catch the night train at an earlier stop somehow. So we made it onto our correct train and sat behind some lady with really smelly perfume. And talked to the French guy from London across the aisle. We think he was a Christian because as he left he was wearing a sweatshirt with something about Jesus being #1.
LeAnne

Some time with a spanish - canadian family

Monday...More hostel lady stories... she is crazy!!! She overcharged for the boys room by 90 Euro!!!! After they told us what they had paid for their room, we told them that was crazy! So they went to try and get some money back. After standing in the hallway arguing with her for well over an hour and with the help of some other outraged hostellers who had received the same treatment, she refunded 70 Euro We were happy to just take that and get out of there as we girls had to catch the 3.15 train to Barcelona. We quickly went out and saw some of the Madrid sights. The Palacio (the royal palace, used for some ceremonies) was beautiful. We also went to Rotiro Park and played on the cool swingy things and stopped by the Bull Fighting Pen even tho it's not the season for such a sport. We were hoping to at least get a glimpse of the inside but an American Circus had taken up residence!!! So instead we took crazy photos by the statues (and got a lot more gawking from the locals- nothing unusual!). Cheryl and Char entertained themselves by kissing the cheeks of the Matador (bull rider) statue and Catie and Amanda swung from the hoofs of the horses poised over them. After retrieving our luggage from the hostel, we casually made our way over to the train station to catch our day early trip to Barcelona where we met up with Nathan and Kyle Brown along with their cousin Marc Escuain. It was awesome to meet up with them, we were so excited to speak English!! From there we took an hour train ride to Girona, where the home of the Escuains is located. Upon arrival, we were greeting by the rest of the Escuains and their guests who were all present for a little New Year's Eve celebration. There was lots of yummy food and champagne for everyone!!! We tried caviare, mussels on bread, pork skin and keish to name a few things. Before we go any farther we should introduce the Escuain family to you! Santiago (but he goes by Santi cause he thinks his full name is too spanish sounding) and Cathy. Santi translates B. Anstey's books into spanish, of course that was a surprise to Santi for find out that he had B. Anstey's daughter in his living room!!! WHAT??!! YOU'RE AN ANSTEY!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!! Cathy's maiden name is Anderson and she met Santi at Otter Lake in the early 70's or something like that. The eldest is Marc who picked us up at the train station with the Brown's. He later saved our life. More on that later. Next is Andrew who has the same camera as Natalie and is a master with technology. Next comes Roger who actually forsook his spanish roots and moved to Canada a couple years ago to become a trucker. He just happened to be visiting at this time and was the one to make sure we cleaned up our plates. :) We were super impressed with his “Trucker on the Roof” show. (Slideshow of pics from his trucker life set to the Fiddler on the Roof song). The last one we met is Ricard who is very intelligent and knows multiple languages. He also wears a housecoat during all hours of the day and tried to redeem himself by telling us to feel how soft and fuzzy it was so that we would understand why he likes it so much. Nathan doesn't want anyone in America to know but he also wears one he borrowed from his cousins. There are a couple other kids, I think, but those are the family members we were privileged to meet. FYI.... *GIRLS IN THE USA/CANADA WANTING HUSBANDS*..... ALL THESE WONDERFUL GUYS ARE SINGLE EXCEPT FOR RICARD!!! We suggest you hurry and if you need any reference information, we are happy to supply it. So we just have to say that the Escuain family went above and beyond for a bunch of crazy girls they didn't even know. The hospitality was out of this world!!!!!!!!! The New Year was brought in by singing hymns in three languages all at once....Spanish, English and Catalan! Pretty awesome!! Us girls and the Brown's tried to sing them "You are my all in all” but ended up forgetting the words halfway through. Santi also said some very nice words about being a Christian in this world and we prayed too. What better way to start 2008??? Char and Amanda stayed up until 4:30 a.m. trying to download the promised photos but to no avail!! So sorry!! We will soon be in Paris and are supposed to have an Internet connection there. During the night, Natalie and Cheryl went into the kitchen for an innocent drink of water and were in for a surprise!!! Please read the following interview done by Char and Natalie. Char: Hello Nat! I hear you had quite a scare on New Year's Eve?? Pray tell! Nat: Well....upon entering the kitchen for a drink I peered through the musky darkness to see a leg with a hoof attached. It was partially covered with a cloth!! Char: And how did you feel upon seeing this supposed part of a creature? Nat: My heart was palpitating very rapidly and I was totally freaked out!! Char: What was your immediate reaction? Nat: I grabbed Cheryl's arm and gasped, ''WHAT IS THAT?????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!'' Char: Did Cheryl help you out in any way? Nat: She oinked really loud!!! OINK OINK!!! Char: That would not have helped much!! Nat: No, it did not. Well folks, upon eating breakfast the next morning Roger showed us that it is cured and just sits in the counter waiting for people to carve off of it. Pretty harmless. After breakfast we packed up to catch the train back to Barcelona where we met up with Catie Councell and her friend Maria at the latest and greatest hostel of ours. (This was January 1, 2008). Nothing was open because of the holiday so we just wandered around and drank Starbucks. Some of the girls found an internet café to catch up on blogging while Char went to bed early cause she's the latest on getting sick. During the middle of the night, LeAnne, Cheryl and Natalie were awakened by loud banging on the wall. Char was also in the room but had passed out and absolutely nothing could wake her up. The other girls lay there waiting to see what would happen next. Cheryl was very mad to have been woken up like that and was about to give them a piece of her mind when all of a sudden she chickened out. This was because Char was not awake to protect her. So they held their breath while the guys came to the outside to the door and banged on it and yelled. Finally the scary guys went away and all could sleep peacefully. Until the next morning when Catie, Amanda and Maria banged on the door to wake us up and we thought it was the same people so everyone once again lay in total silence. But they managed to get us up and we spent all day in Barcelona, a marvelous day it was. But that can be saved for another blog.

Char

Sunday continued

So meeting was great. We didn’t realize that it was going to be such a long continuous thing so we were kind of holding on until the end of the hour for bathroom breaks. Not anyone else though. Every single person walked out of meeting at least once. Also all the girls wore pants and since it was absolutely freezing, we were more than a little jealous! After meeting they made an announcement in Spanish and then looked expectantly at us, we managed to decipher that they wanted to take us out to lunch. We all walked down the street to this huge mall and went to a Chinese buffet. There’s something a little funny about a couple of Americans, some Bolivians and a Canadian going out for Chinese in Spain! LeAnne accidentally ate OCTOPUS!!!!! She mistakenly took some salad that she thought was just vegetables and didn’t realize what she was eating until she had taken a huge bite of it. Upon closer examination, she realized the purple roots she thought she was eating still had tentacles attached!!!!! Needless to say, the rest of the salad was not finished. The other girls thought this was pretty hilarious but they weren’t the ones with the mouth full of squishy stuff. After the meal our hosts wanted to know if we would like to go shopping at the mall. Silly question! OF COURSE we would like to go shopping!! We went thru several stores and ended up at the grocery store since we all like food pretty well. After that they volunteered to drive us all the way back to our hostel instead of just to the metro stop. We were happy not to have to ride the metro back and thought we could just sit back and relax. Wrong! The car LeAnne and Char were riding in apparently wasn’t used the weight of foreigners and kept dying on the hills! We were a little freaked out especially since it was heavy traffic and we kept rolling back down the hills. We never actually hit anyone, for which we were very thankful but we came very, very close and had a more than our share of car horns. Glad to be out of the car, we decided that we really needed to see some people who spoke English, so we thought we would change our tickets to go to Barcelona and see the Brown boys. We hopped on the metro to go to the train station and were able to change our tickets with no problems. As the only non spanish speaking girls in our group, Amanda and LeAnne were elected to speak to the hostel lady and let her know we would be leaving a day early. We had learned earlier from our Italian buddy Simon, that the owner understands English very well, but prefers to use rapid-fire Spanish in an attempt to confuse poor, unsuspecting tourists. Stomping our feet, saying 'no comprende' every time she tried to use Spanish and a little attitude was all it took. After five minutes all details were taken care of. We went back to our favorite Turkish place and got some dinner and even free dessert from the owner who obviously remembered the five cute Americans/Canadian. Back at our hostel, we met up with the Councells and their friends. Apparently we girls were a little too loud and excited to meet up with friends for our hostel lady. She actually opened up our door twice to poke her head inside and tell us to be quiet. Okay this is the end.

LeAnne

Paris

The girls are great and thorougly enjoying the City of Lights. Unfortunately, they have been unable to locate internet access, so will catch everyone up as soon as they can re-connect. Stay tuned. :)

Random side thoughts

1. Came up with a new pick up line. You start by asking the guy ¨how do you say ´can I have your phone number´(in whatever language they spoke)¨ and then when they said it, you give them your phone number! Worked like a charm!


2. Tried to come up with our own language so people would stop staring at us! Amanda is very successful at coming up with unique languages. It didn´t cover us up all that well though.


3. We have succedded at blowing out several outlets and converters. Blow dryers suck. We really smelled up the wonderful Esquine´s house with our straightener this morning. But have had some good laughs about that. Maria blew the entire hotel room´s power outlets. Good times!


4. Graffiti is popular in Barcelona, and we hope to practice it when we get home. It´s actually quite unique and pretty!


5. Gilatio is definetly a good comfort food for us all. Its good breakfast, noon, and evening!


6. Pizza without sauce is never worth seven euros. Just get bread instead!


7. Boys break hearts.


8. Buying multiple metro passes is stupid. All you need is one.


9. Spain´s metro system is actually not usually this dirty. Their cleaners are on strike.


10. Passports are important. Don´t forget them on the trains.

The death of love.

There was a smile on everyones face as we hurried towards the grocery store. Tomorrow was NATHAN BROWN´S birthday, and we had many exciting plans to carry out. One of the plans were to buy the most excellent, delicious, decadent cake we could find and COVER it with love. HOWEVER all of our plans were crushed when we got HIS call saying that: " we probably aren´t gonna come hang out tonight..."

::crash::

(NATHAN-- that was the sound of our hearts breaking into little peices.)

And so that was how the evenings serious of unfortunate events began to transpire... beginning with the call, and continuing on through: 1. Being ripped off by the guys who sold us our dinner. 2. Getting lost trying to find an INTERNET cafe so we could vent our frustrations of being stood up by the cousins and NATHAN BROWN on the eve of his day of birth! (seriously? seriously!) tears. many many tears were wept in this loss of entertaining company.
Thankfully, with the combination of a candy store, starbucks, and some good carbs we ate away our sorrows. And so we thank you Nathan. Thank you for giving us those extra POUNDS.


Now on a more serious note, today was a very interesting, lovely day. Catie Councell and her friend Maria Wilson took a train from Madrid to B. today. They arrived at the hotel before we did and had many trecherous tales of manuvering the streets of Madrid after New Years...However, once arriving at the hotel they blew out the lights in one of the rooms trying to use a blowdryer. What we girls go through to look pretty.

All the girls agreed that New Years Eve was wonderful. All ushered the year 2008 with prayer and the pop of champagne.

Barcelona has beautiful archetecture and cozy little streets. We like it eversomuch!

we don´t like nathan.

Guest Writer: Miss Catie Councell