I backpacked through Europe

Cinque Terra, Italy

2008-11-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

Note: I didn't take any of these pictures. They are compliments of Katie. Jill and I didn't bring our cameras around with us during the day and a half we were there for fear that they'd get damaged on the beach or trails. We did have Jill's disposable, but I don't have copies yet.

Cinque Terra is 5 small towns set into the cliffs along the coast, connected to each other by hiking trails. The homes are brightly colored and set up on the cliffs. The region is known for their pesto, white wine, and hiking trails. We had some amazing food here - fresh seafood and homemade pasta....and the gnocchi with pesto was my favorite.

The evening we arrived, we sat on this large rock and absorbed their scenery. We walked up the trail a bit and watched the sun set. For dinner, we took a local recommendation on a restaurant. We sampled the locale wine and had fresh seafood with lasagna pasta.

Day 2: Jill woke up early in search of kayaks, but nothing was open yet. We met up when I woke up, got some breakfast, then took the train to the 5th town and laid out on the beach. It was there that Jill found her kayaks. After a couple hours on the beach, we headed to the trails to head back to our town, Manarola (2nd). While on the trail, we passed under olive trees and past vineyards.
We hiked one trail for 2 hours. We thought we were over at least 2 towns. Nope! We had only made it over one town. We decided that a train back was our best bet because it was getting late. It was in the restaurant under our hostel that we had the homemade gnocchi - so good. We headed out early the next morning to Venice.

Pisa, Italy

2008-11-20T08:58:00.000-08:00

The 2 Canadian girls we hung out with each had 2 days worth of travel left on their Eurail passes, and they were kind enough to give them to Jill and me. The girl from florida, Jenny, came with us to Pisa and Cinque Terra afterwards. The guy in the picture above looks like Budzyn (for those of you who know him). I was really surprised that they let people climb the Leaning Tower. I swore that I learned at one point that you used to be able to go inside, but then they stopped allowing people in for safety and preservation reasons.
Below: classic pushing the tower over picture (me)

Below: Jill holding the Tower up

Rome

2008-11-19T12:51:00.000-08:00

Trevi Fountain - this is the end of the second day in Rome (as far as MY pictures go anyway). Note also, we did see the Sistine Chapel, but you aren't allowed to photograph or videotape it.

We had a lovely dinner with our friends and ate gelato. We also went to an Irish pub (in Rome, mind you) and talked to some people from the Netherlands and Germany.

Day 3. I left my camera at the hostel by mistake and Jill's was dead. We took a couple pictures with a disposable, but I don't have copies yet. On day 3, we walked around the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. The Roman Forum wasn't much to look at, but we stumbled upon a free guided tour and learned some interesting things. For example, the saying "all roads lead to Rome" came about because in the center of the forum was a list of the distances of other cities to Rome. Also, the guy who traded the Pantheon to the church...his memorial, a free standing column, still stands in the forum.

The pictures below are of the friends we made the last night. They knew the girls we hung out with from the hostel. The picture below goes along with the conversation about how few American cars there were in Europe and how you'd never see a pickup truck there. I looked around and pointed out the ford 4-door pickup that was 50ft away....so there had to be a picture with it.
Diane and me
Below: our sleeping beauties. Diane fell asleep at the Roman forum and also at the Irish Pub the night before. Jill falls asleep any time she's in a moving vehicle.
Below: this guy was a Scott (former SPRO manager) look-alike

Rome - The Vatican

2008-11-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

The main alter of St. Peter's. I love the picture below; it's one of my favorites from the whole trip. You can see at the bottom, a hand reaching up...it's one of the statues, but I love the feel of it.

Rome - The Vatican

2008-11-19T12:40:00.000-08:00

Above: the halls inside the museum.

Below: Paintings by Raphael
Below: Raphael's the School of Athens
Inside St. Peter's, below is the Pieta of Michelangelo

Rome - Vatican museum

2008-11-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

Above: The Scraper

Below: Artemis
Below: the Laocoon Group
Below: really awesome statue. Really, I just like the great picture I took of awesome statue....lol
The mosaics are extremely detailed and made with tiny stones. This one decorates the floor...

Rome - to and at the Vatican

2008-11-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Apparently, this building is in the book Angels and Demons...
Below... straight shot view of St. Peter's

Another Panorama from inside St. Peter's Square. I took a video of it as well...
The bottom is a view from inside the Vatican Museum, which is around the block from the complex.

Rome

2008-11-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

I'm a horrible blogger and traveler ...I have no idea what this building is.

A couple pictures of the Tiber. We're on our way to Vatican City. It was such a beautiful day.

Rome - Pantheon

2008-11-19T12:05:00.000-08:00

Above: the oculus. I couldn't get a good picture of it. If you aren't familiar with the Pantheon, it has a dome that's walls get start thick at the bottom and get thinner at they approach the oculus. The oculus is that hole at the top of the dome that is the only source of light. The construction of this dome somewhat of a marvel. In the panorama below, you can see some of the coffered ceiling.
The statue below is above Raphael's tomb.

This last picture is of St. Peter's from a distance, taken on our walk there. The river is the Tiber.

Rome - Monument and Pantheon

2008-11-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

I looked up the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II on wikipedia and found out a bit more about it. It houses an unknown soldier, commemorating the loss of soldiers during WWI. Also, apparently the citizens of Rome think it's too large and pompous. It has the following nicknames, "the wedding cake," "false teeth," and "the typewriter."
The Pantheon. Originally a pagan building, it was traded to the Christian religion by a man who wanted to erect a memorial to himself. The fact that it was handed over to the Christians is why it's still in such good condition - they didn't destroy it because it was theirs.

Hugs for the Pantheon!

Rome, Italy

2008-11-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

For the most part, these are just miscellaneous pictures of interesting buildings. Notice that there are palm trees. I was not expecting palm trees there.

The picture below is the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II. It honors the "first king of a unified Italy" (wikipedia.com).

Rome, Italy - Trevi Fountain

2008-11-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

The fountain is overwhelming. I knew it was large, but actually being there strikes you with awe. I can't figure out why the picture below is always sideways on my computer, but I can't flip it on here, so just turn your head to the side.

You throw one coin over your should into the fountain to return to Rome...a second coin grants you a wish!

Rome, Italy - Spanish Steps

2008-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Views from the Spanish Steps. Below is the shopping district with the expensive, totally out of my price range stores.

I'm a big fan of the panoramic pictures...
This is Trajan's Column - carved in a spiral around the whole column are the emperor's victories. I know I learned about it in art history, but I had to look up exactly what it was about before I posted the pictures.

Rome, Italy

2008-11-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

Pictures from the first walk around the city. I loved that you walk among all that history and architecture - and it's all been preserved (more or less). Below are a couple pictures from the street of the four fountains. The bottom picture is an obelisk at the top of the Spanish Steps.

Rome, Italy

2008-11-19T08:59:00.000-08:00

Lame, I know...but I was taking pictures of signs to show where we start at a new place. We had to do a bit of searching to find an available hostel. Shortly after finding a place to stay, we made friends with 3 girls (2 were from Canada and the other from Florida - they also had just met). So we spent the majority of our time together. It was kind of funny that we grouped up the way we did.
These pictures are of the little circle that we passed through a lot. It was our gateway to the interesting areas of Rome - the sights, restaurants, and shops. Every street is cobble stone. I still can't figure out how women wore high heels without spraining their ankles daily.

halloween

2008-11-07T13:51:00.001-08:00

Okay, so it's not part of Europe, but my mom wants to see how our costumes turned out. We are She-ra and He-man.

Barcelona - WATCH THIS VIDEO

2008-11-03T22:02:00.000-08:00

Barcelona

2008-11-03T21:58:00.000-08:00

In America, when we light off fireworks, they're lit from a barge a safe distance away from the spectators. In Barcelona, not so much. In fact, you let them rain down on you and your children.

Barcelona

2008-11-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

The crazy parade! We're walking around with our two new friends and we notice that people start covering the heads and faces with scarves. We joke about it because we had no idea what was going on. We shortly found out because the parade started. Those dragon floats were back and accompanied by drum-lines and people lighting giant sparklers. Sparks were shot out into the crowds and people actually dance amongst the sparks in the street. That was the reason everyone covered their heads. So we followed suit and danced in the sparks.

Barcelona

2008-11-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

This is one of the floats. They're all dragons and there are giant sparkler fireworks shooting off of each of them.
The parade was followed by a concert. The performers were great. They played a great set of American music that included Rolling on a River and a Michael Jackson medley. The guy jumped in our picture.

More from the parades. The third night brought a more elaborate parade. We hung out the third night with two girls studying in Madrid - one from Scotland and the other from Canada.

Barcelona

2008-11-03T21:33:00.000-08:00

This is the first bar we went to. Its thing was that you could pick the music. There were headphones all along the bar, and we hoped you could listen to your own choice of music - unfortunately you couldn't.
Below is Jillian at a tapas restaurant. The food was not good. It was so disappointing.
Now, the positive part of Barcelona was the festival that was going on while we were there, La Merce'.
The second night in Barcelona, we stumbled upon this bizarre parade. You'll see in the next couple pictures the floats and later on the video.

Barcelona

2008-11-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

One of those posing pictures. Here, I'm posing on this really cool bridge that leads to nothing more than a mall...actually, a mall with a couple bars and a nightclub in it. The bridge itself was a draw bridge to accommodate the tall sail boats. It was dark when we finished shopping, and the way the lights from the bridge hit the water, you could see swarms of fish.

The first night, we went on a pub crawl - which was a first for both of us, and I don't think I'll ever go on one again. It was too cheesy and yucky. It was, however, entertaining and it was the last time we got dressed up for the remainder of the trip.
This was the ninja that went on the pub crawl. He was there to protect us. The "guides" of the pub crawl were explaining to the girls that we should be careful and keep our purses close because of thieves. The ninja illustrated their point by pretending to steal Jillian's purse off her arm (which she had a firm hold of)....Jillian almost punched him as a reaction.

Barcelona

2008-11-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying that Spain was my least favorite place...in fact, I was beyond glad to leave. Everyone who was native to Barcelona was ridiculously rude to us. That said, we had some good times there.
The first picture is of Jill in our room at the hostel in which we stayed the first night. Not the biggest room, but it was just the two of us so we had privacy. The second picture is the view of Las Ramblas from our balcony. Las Ramblas is a strip of multiple "Rambla" streets that is the main district for food and shops. Once we got our bearings, we mostly wandered the side streets and smaller shops.

This is our boy Christopher Columbus, above. Below is just a picture of a Rambla de Mar, and as you could read on the sign, "the gateway to Barcelona's largest leisure area." Below that is a picture of the docks.

Paris

2008-10-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of the Lourve at night. We were so tired by the time we left the museum.
We took a walk along the river on our way back to Marty's
The city at night
You can see the blue Eiffel Tower in the background

This is Marty, who put up with us for 3 days. Thanks Marty!

Paris - Lourve

2008-10-24T13:21:00.000-07:00

Outside the Lourve. I took a bunch of pictures of the artwork inside, but I'm assuming no one really wants to see pictures of paintings, so I'm not posting those.

Paris

2008-10-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

Detail of the artwork on the Arc de Triomphe
Detail of the artwork on the Arc de Triomphe

View of the city from the Seine River
Notre Dame Cathedral is on the strip of land that is in the center of the frame

Paris

2008-10-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Distant view of the Palace of Versailles from the Garden

View of the palace (Versailles still) from the Garden

Daytime pic of Jill with the Eiffel Tower
I had to take a picture of this sign (even though it's been beaten up a bit). Avenue des Champes-Elysees and its surrounding streets house the most expensive stores known to man. I walked past Gucci, Prada, Channel etc and people are walking around with shopping bags from these stores like it's completely ordinary.
Arc de Triomphe...in the center of one of the busiest traffic circles lies at the end of the Champes-Elysees

Paris - Versailles

2008-10-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

The gardens continued. For some reason, my pictures are posting in reverse order. Here you can see one of the fountains, which were unfortunately off the day we visited. You can also see how far back the grounds span. A great deal of the area is a maze of shrubbery. Apparently there are a couple houses tucked away back here that were used for the royal affairs.

Paris - Versailles

2008-10-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

The gardens of Versailles

Paris - Versailles

2008-10-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

The first two pictures are from the hall of mirrors - the mirrors along the left wall reflect the light from the windows along the right wall. Very. Ornate.

And Jillian and I are just stupid. A few people chuckled when they walked by us as we took those photos.

Paris - Versailles

2008-10-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

We took a day trip out to Versailles. It's absolutely insane to think that people actually lived there at one time. My house is the size of a small city and it's made of gold and silk - no big deal.

Paris

2008-10-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

These pictures are all from around the area surrounding Montmarte.

Okay, again I am missing pictures from things we did. I'm missing all the pictures from the Catacombs - really cool but morbid. Also, I'm missing pictures from Notre Dame. To be posted when acquired.

Paris

2008-10-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

We landed an hour outside the city. The first picture was taken from the bus ride through the country into the city. The second picture is of the Fountain St. Michel in the Latin Quarter. This is where we met up with Marty, a friend we stayed with who is on a study abroad. We got settled in and headed out for something to eat. Somewhere along the way, Marty took us on a detour and told us to look to our left when we passed the edge of the upcoming building. Through a clearing of buildings, we had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing (the picture is, however, horrible...Jill has better pictures that I'll be getting soon). Never mind dinner, we had to go check out the Eiffel Tower. Its usually illuminated gold, but in celebration of the E.U., they had blue lights shining on it and the E.U. stars on the front, as you can sort of see. The view from the top was beautiful - you can see all the lights around you. The last two pictures are of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, Montmarte. The church sits on the highest land point of Paris. We trekked uphill and upstairs for what seemed like forever. The view of the city from there was worth it. After taking a rest, we walked around a little shopping district and had lunch. Note: our diet in paris was primarily pastries and crepes.

Dublin - Guinness Tour

2008-10-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

I tasted guinness in the tasting lab. I also waited in line to learn how to pour guinness the proper way...that's right, I'm now certified in the art of pouring guinness. At the top of the storehouse is the sky bar, featuring a 360 view of Dublin. The last picture is of the Lifey at sunset. Notice the bird in flight I managed to capture.

For lunch, we ate at the oldest pub in Dublin - The Brazen Head - and had stew.

Okay, now, I don't have any pictures from day 2 in Ireland because they're on Jill's camera. We took a trip to the country and walked around Killkenny. It was cold and rainy (in true Ireland style), but we still sat outside for a snack. This place was really cute - it had colorful pillows and blankets to keep warm. We had warm homemade pie with whipped cream. That night, we had Mexican food (lame, I know) and went to the bar with some American girls who were also staying at our hostel.

Dublin - Guinness Tour

2008-10-16T19:07:00.000-07:00

We got off the bus to tour the Guinness Storehouse. The girls with us were from London, but are originally from the Czech Republic and Slovenia. They were Jill's roomates at the first hostel.

Dublin, Ireland

2008-10-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

We sat next to an Irishman on the plane ride. He was really nice and helpful - gave us tips and whatnot. I guess Dublin is a bit shady and is recovering from a heroin problem (makes you feel really good about me being there, huh mom?). We landed around 6pm on a Friday night and didn't think ahead to book a hostel as everything might be booked, which was the case. We were sent from one place to another before we finally ended up at the Oliver St. John Gogarty...pretty much where we started.

Let me clear something up: this is not a B&B. It was the worst hostel we stayed at...we only stayed there one night (way overpriced). We stayed across the river on a recommendation the next couple nights. We hung out at The Temple Bar the first night. We hung out with a couple girls from Spain and a guy from...I want to say Honduras. The group of people at that bar was really eclectic - young, old, everyone. Some middle aged men jumped in one of our pictures, and we found out that one of them lives in Birmingham.

The rest of these pictures were taken while on a bus tour. Definately worthwhile because everything was spread out.

London - Running to catch a plane

2008-10-16T18:21:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from the day we left London. We pretty much jogged past Westminster Abbey to see Buckingham Palace and then jogged to the bus station. I regret that we didn't have enough time to walk around Westminster, but I was excited that I saw Big Ben. Buckingham Palace was totally overrated. We saw the guards, but it was training or something weird.

We had to get a picture with a double decker buss before we left.

The bus ride to the airport was death for me. I didn't have time to eat breakfast, which gives me a headache...and then the bus driver kept tapping his breaks. I really thought I was going to have to ask the bus driver to stop so I could throw up. I wasn't the only one suffering though. Of all the random people we met on our trip, we met a retired NFL player, just 26 and spending a few months traveling alone. He was hillarious - maybe one of our favorite people we met.

London - Second night

2008-10-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

I took a really lovely nap the second night. While I slept, Jill made friends with some Italians and a guy from Ecuador who lives in Switzerland. When Jill woke me up, we decided to stay in for the night. Jill drank a bottle and a half and then cut this guy's hair. Apparently, he usually gets haircuts from anyone willing or he'll do it himself. Jill's apprenticing to be a hairdresser, so this was probably the best haircut he's had yet (even though she was not sober).

London -St. Paul's Cathedral

2008-10-16T18:08:00.000-07:00

London -St. Paul's Cathedral

2008-10-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Jillian and I hung around here for quite a while. We both really liked the feeling of the building. We sat on the steps for a while and people-watched.

London - Royal Courts of Justice

2008-10-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

This building houses the supreme court...and it's pretty. I love all the old architecture. The handy thing about London is that they try to keep you from getting hit by oncoming traffic by painting "look left" and "look right" on the road. Still, each of us almost walked in front of traffic half a dozen times a piece.

London - Inside the Tower complex

2008-10-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pictures is the one of the bridge framed by a arch

London - Inside the Tower complex

2008-10-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

The first building is the white tower (the one with the weapons). The second is the one which houses the crown jewels - which we did see, but you can't take pictures. The guy featured in the last three pictures is my best friend. We walked past him, like, three times before he called us out for walking around like we were lost.

London - Inside the Tower complex

2008-10-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

The first couple pictures don't need captions. Now, the pictures of the locales: The second guy - the guard with the fuzzy hat...not good at his job. I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to even blink in your direction, but this guy was paying attention to what was going on in front of him. The last guy is my favorite because I caught him mid Captain Morgan pose.

London - Inside the Tower complex

2008-10-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

Motes! We walked through the White Tower, which is where all the weapons are currently on display. It's also where the picture of the chapel was taken.

London - Tower of London and Tower Bridge

2008-10-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

We took some of these pictures the first day, but were too late to go inside.

London

2008-10-16T11:27:00.000-07:00

The memorial for something I can't remember. We found London's China Town, which was huge. We also found their gay district the first night. For dinner we shared fish and chips and meat pie. We went to the bar the first night with a couple guys from London, a Mexican and his daughter and her boyfriend. After ditching them, we danced to some really bad American music.

London - Thames, Phone Booths, and our hostel

2008-10-16T11:21:00.000-07:00

London

2008-10-16T10:50:00.000-07:00

Still in Detroit

2008-10-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Me and Jillian (my travel buddy) on the plane before takeoff