Gross

So, we are here in Rome out for dinner. As I am ordering my dish, I recognized a meal that I have since several other times at other restaurants. So, me being adventurous I decide to go for it, and I order Trippa alla Romana.

So for those who already know what it is, well then you already know. I had NO idea.

I receive this dish and it looks pretty good, it seemed that I ordered some kind of pasta dish. Oh but I was wrong... very wrong.

I take the first bite, and its very chewy, almost unchewable, and the texture resemble raw lard that I could barely swallow it down. I'm thinking what in the world could this be!!! Corey and I decide to WIKI it as soon as we got back to the hostel.

It turns out I just ate a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.

NASTY!!!!!!!!

If you would like to educate yourself more on trippa, check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripe

More pictures of Florence

OK. here are some shots from our final day in Florence. Enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2670454&id=13906387&l=418e8b6b4c

Florence pt. 1

This is the the first 6 days of our time in Florence. I could'nt do the last day because I'm too tired and will post that a little later. Also watch for pics from our last day in Florence, as well.

Well, we just concluded our 7 day stay in Florence, and I'm proud to say that I think we made the most of our time there.

We left from Venice around 10:00 in the morning and figured we'd have to pay $100 for our train tickets, but actually got them for $60. Once on the train, we settled down with a couple of Italian businessmen who spoke some Spanish. So we had a nice chat about American vs. European culture. Once in Florence we went straight to our hotel, which was very close to the station, and we left our bags and walked over to the main center of town where the massive Duomo awaited us. I think the hugeness of this cathedral and the brilliant green, red, and white marble is one the most impressive things I have seen yet. After some more admiring, we walked south towards to the Arno river and caught a glimpse of the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence (built by the Romans). After that we walked a bit along the river and found another great church, Santa Croce. Here we saw the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli. A storm soon rolled through with considrable fury, so we took shelter and then headed home for the night.

Friday we decided that if we wanted to catch a Florence soccer match, we better get tickets early. So, we walked halfway across town to the stadium to pick up tickets for the match on Sunday. It was pretty damn cold and windy that day, so when we made it back to the center of town we went to the Uffizi gallery to get out of the cold and saw some great paintings and sculptures by some famous artists like Leonardo, Caravaggio, etc. Good stuff.

Saturday we headed for Pisa and spent half a day there taking pictures of tourists doing the typical Pisa pose. Pisa was very nice, but other than the tower, the church and baptistery, there Isn't else much to do. We headed back to Florence and had a glorious 3 course dinner for 13 Euros each. We actually alternated between 3 restaurants each night because they were such a good deal.

Sunday was the Fiorentina (Florence's Series A soccer team) match against Siena. The day before we bought a couple of shirts for the match and we were well prepared. Fiorentina won 1-0, so it was a nice afternoon around Florence. Once again we had dinner at one of our favorite spots near our hotel.

Just a quick story: we ran into another couple from Minneapolis in a Florence restaurant (while we were in Barcelona, 2 of our hostelmates were also from Minneapolis/Duluth. One of the nights at dinner we shared a table with a nice older couple from Manhattan, KS. Later on our train to Rome, we passed by a station in Orvieto and happen to see them again at the station. It just seems strange that in a country full of tourists you end up seeing the same people over and over

Anyways, to round out the last 3 days in Florence, we spent a full day on a tour of Siena, San Gimignano, and the Chianti region. It was real nice to just sit on a bus and get driven around all day. While in the Chianti region we took a great tour of a small organic farm where the owner provided us with free samples of his products, and showed us his wine and vinegar cellars. It was pretty nice. We ended up spending over 50 euros on wine, balsamic vinegar, marmalade, and olive oil.

Tuesday we saw a cool exhibition of Galileo and a bunch of stuff about early astronomy. I thought the exhibition was very well presented and they had some very old relics of astronomy including old maps, paintings, statues, sundials, all sorts of things. The Catholic church really tried to suppress the findings of Galileo and other astronomers that realized that the earth is not the center of the known universe, so much that Galileo had to renounce his own work so we wouldn't be excommunicated or possibly worse. I think we're beyond those days now, but it's amazing the power the church had over everything and everyone during this age. Oh, I should also mention that we saw Galileo's finger. It was sort of mummified and place in a glass case. It rested on a marble plaque that said something about how venerated Galileo was. He was godlike, apparently. The John Lennon of astronomy.


I will post the final day of Florence in a few days.

Florence (and surrounding areas) Pictures!

Hey everyone, Here are some pictures from Florence, Siena, Pisa and other Tuscan areas.


Check out the link for more:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2666738&id=13906387&l=3c77e4aee4

Milan and Venice Pictures

OK. I am trying a different way of posting pictures. This time on Facebook. This link should work for everyone, even if you don't have a Facebook account.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2657538&id=13906387&l=16103e104d

Catch-up Post: Venice

Even though we were fully prepared for it, Venice thoroughly blew my mind. It was great to step off the train and walk right into the heart of Venice, rather than having to catch a bus or a subway to get to the center of town. This time we had to ride the mass transit ferry to our hostel on the island of Lido. Now whenever I think of our hostel I think of that song...”Lido, whoa ohh wahooah ohhhh”. You know what song I'm thinking of. The island of Lido is actually really nice. It's much quieter then the central island, it's slower paced, food and drinks are cheaper, but it still has the canals and the nice scenery. Once we checked in, we walked to the beach nearby that supposedly has a shipwreck, but we didn't find anything.

Our first full day we headed back on the ferry to the main island. Our first stop was San Marco square. I think the San Marco cathedral and square is one of my favorite spots on this trip so far. The church itself is very interesting inside. It was built in a Byzantine style, which was different than the Romanesque churches of the rest of Italy, and so it feels very different than the other churches we have been in. Apparently the church holds relics from the 4th crusade, as well. So, after admiring the church some more, we headed out to explore the island. We didn't have any particular place in mind to go, so we just walked random streets until we were blocked by water. Eventually we decided to check out the island of Murano, where all the Venetian glassmakers have their shops. After walking for some time, we fortunately came across a shop where we were able to see some glassblowers in action. Pretty rad. We were getting hungry so we took the ferry back to the main island, ate an overpriced pizza, and headed back to Lido.

I did notice that Venice has a lot more tourists and school groups around. It's nice in some respect because you don't feel so exposed as a foreigner, but it can feel like you're not getting the full experience being around so many tourists. I guess it kind of feels like a Historical theme park, with real people actually living there. Anyhow, it's very beautiful and I would love to go back again.

I promise I will post pictures of Milan and Venice within the next couple of days.

Catch-up post: Milan

Sorry to all of those who have following, but we havent been keeping up to date lately. We didnt have easy accessible internet while in Milan or Venice, and we only spent a few days in each city.

So here is an abstract of our time in Milan. We arrived by plane from Barcelona - a much better experience this time around. After a bus ride into town, we had to find a map of the city. We probably walked around the train station for an hour looking for an info desk before finding a map. Once we did, we walked across half the city to our hotel. It actually was a decent place. The guys who ran the front desk basically sat around smoking ciggarettes, playing online poker or Half Life. But they were really friendly and helpful. By the way, after 7 nights in noisy Barcelona, I finally got a full nights sleep!

Our first full day we walked into the city center to check out the gorgeous Milan Cathedral. Did you know it's the 3rd largest church in Europe? Well now you know. After leaving the cathedral, we were tricked into “donating” a Euro for these little rainbow colored bracelets that a street merchant insisted we wear. We tried to get out of it, but he was just so friendly. Oh well. Then we found or way out to Sforza castle, a rebuilt fortress where the original medieval entrance was. Finally we thought we could catch a glimpse of Davinci's Last Supper, but apparently you have to prebook your ticket, and spots are filled up until May! So much for that. We rounded out the night checking out a bar near our hotel. We had a couple of beers and ate some great free happy hour food. The owner was a fun, eccentric guy who played some old 45s of Salsa and Latin jazz, old Willy Nelson, and 60's American pop.

Our second day we decided to check out Milan's “little Venice” neighborhood. It was supposed to have nice footbridges over little canals...it was NOT worth the stop. Sure the all the buildings are beautiful, and all that, but a little Venice it's not. So by the time we made it back to our hotel (by walking), we were famished. That night, We went out around our hotel looking for some cheap eats once more. We ended up finding this Kebab place that sold pizza. We ordered this promotional combo which included a slice of pizza (we thought), fries and a can of Coke for 6 Euros (a great deal!). We ended up getting a full pizza, fries, and a coke. We thought the cook made a mistake, so we high tailed it out of there before they noticed. It wasn't that great of a pizza, but for 6 Euros I enjoyed it like it was.

The next morning we went back to the train station and headed east to Venice. More on that soon and pics of Milan and Venice will be up shortly.

Pictures of Barcelona

Check out more pics of Barcelona here:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=264744869/a=138263262_138263262/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Corey Melanie Barcelona

Hey everyone, It's Wednesday night and we've been in Barcelona now since Saturday. We took a bus from Valencia; it was about 4.5 hours. It didnt seem like that long of a ride because the bus was really comfortable and the view was great.

We've been all over this city in about 4 days. Our first day we saw the Sagrada Familia church and much of Gaudi's other buildings. and later we tried to check out the ruins of a Roman temple and the city history museum, but both are closed on Mondays. Instead we just walked around the old section and admired the old building and shops. We were able to see the ruins the following day, and got to see the foundations of the Roman city Barcino, directly under the museum. Yesterday we walked up this huge hill to Park Montujuic (probably didnt spell it right). anyhow, it was very cool and very high above the city. The views were tremendous. We then walked down the other side of the hill and saw the Olympic stadium and the national Catalonian museum from the outside just in time for sunset. because we came down on the other side of the hill, we had to walk quite a ways back to our hostel. We're pretty proud that we've only used the Metro once in Barcelona. Our quads are Olympian sized. We walked a ton again today - this time West of the city up to a a hillside park of which famed Catalonian architect Anotoni Gaudi did much design work. We took the metro back down to the hostel and then caught The Watchmen at the local theater - in Spanish. So I'll have to see it again. That's all for now. We still have a couple more days here to explore, and we'll be posting pictures of Barcelona very shortly. Hasta Luego!

Pictures of Valencia!!

FOR MORE PICS CHECK OUT:







http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=264713129/a=138263262_138263262/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Hello Valencia!

Fri, March 6th

Valencia, Spain

Overall, it's been a pretty nice 4 days here in Valencia. Our first full day it rained all day, so we bought a 2 day pass to the City of Arts and Sciences. This place is like 3 football fields long and houses a science museum, an I-max theater, and a performing arts center. All the architecture is amazing. It looks like something out of Star Trek. Anyways, after trudging through the rain we decided to drop over 50 Euro for a full days pass to the museum, the Aquarium, and 2 tickets to an I-max film about the Alps. It was nice to be out of the rain, but we still ended up soaked on our way back to our hostel.

That evening we were able to meet our hostel mates, a really nice couple from Sofia, Bulgaria. Apparently they get 30 days of paid vacation to use whenever they want. Pretty nice. Oh, another funny story: The hostel innkeeper Jason is actually from Des Moines! So it's been nice catching him up to the news back home.

Yesterday we walked to the beach – very pretty. Later in the afternoon we walked back down to the old party of Valencia and saw all the old churches and monuments.

We've been pretty good with our money so far, but it's awfully hard when every block there is a Churreria wafting deliciousness your way. Thus far, I think the majority of our expenses have been on Churros, and Espresso.

Today we were planning on either taking a ferry or plane to Ibiza, but a single day plane ticket costs over 200 Euro, so I think today will just be a chill day. We'll probably hang out with Jason again and commandeer his internet connection.

We'll post some pictures from Valencia soon. Be sure to check them out.

Hasta la proxima!

more pictures of Paris and Madrid

We added some more pictures and created some captions so you know what you're looking at.

Click the link below (or copy and paste):
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=264669124/a=138263262_138263262/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

Adios!

Debacle at the Airport (Bonus Post!)

Monday Mar 2nd

so let me tell what a stressful experience it was coming to Valencia; unbelievable!

So we wake up, dress, and check out of the hostel, everything so far is just fine a dandy. We have all of our information in hands ready to check in at the airport. It turns out there is a 10KG weight limit on all carry ons! AARG so we check in both of our rolling bags. However, its not as easy as you might think, we need to get out of line go down the hall and turn the corner to actually purchase the check baggages! 20 euro each! There goes our budget for the day. So we are paying for the luggage..... But then.... we forgot our laptop! And we didn't want it in are checked baggage so they can bang it all around and potentially break it. So we run back, as if is any way we could get our bag back to get our laptop....so we wait and we wait, finally someone is willing to help us (meanwhile the clock is ticking and our plane is about to board). So the dude says, go across the hall, turn the corner, go downstairs to the Arrivals, wait until someone leaving comes out of the doors so that you can get in and go to belt number 13. Ok, this was told to us by an airport official, so we thought it was ok. He never mentioned AT ALL that we needed to check with the guard BEFORE sneaking into the baggage claim area. YEP, so corey and I wait until someone leaves and we book it so that the doors don't close on us.....and all of a sudden we have a guard chasing us yelling to stop. BUT we had a perfectly good explanation about way we were doing what we were doing. BUT the prick didn't even let me get one word in! He said come outside and explain it to be there, so we get outside and still he doest let me explain, he just goes on about security and safety and blah, blah, blah. He hasn't even heard our story! I keep saying I'm sorry, sincerely sorry, and So finally I to get start explaining (by the way this is all happening in Spanish). I feel that I'm not explaining myself very well and so I ask if he speaks English, He says very little, I would prefer Catalan, well F* n I can barely get the Spanish right, and you think I'm going to speak to you in Catalan, Get out of here! Finally, he only lets me back into baggage claim to get our bags, which I did! And I was passing the Ass I even say thank you! And he just stood thinking that he is high and mighty guarding the baggage claim area. Good for You!

So we get out bags and our laptop. But we have to go back to the check in area to RE-check our two bags. Unbelievable! So we did, and we get to our gate and make the plane on time.

Thank god.

Our final days in Madrid

Hello again. It's been a few days since we last posted. We've been quite busy.

Wednesday:

Museums, kick ass tour with our buddy Jorge.

Thursday:

Royal Palace, so we all pumped to check out the royal palace, especially after hearing Jorge talk about all day yesterday. But, CLOSED! So it was closed for Official Royal Business. So we did get to see the Royal procession, as the king and queen made their way to the palace (check out the pictures). So all in all, it was definitely worth it.

Then we checked out the church next to it...cool. We then walk around the royal gardens (they were also closed...bummer). We then made it all the way up (all the way up a massive hill) to the Temple of Debod. This was a 2200 year old Egyptian temple given to Spain as a gift. Very sweet.

Then we went looking for the restaurant Finos y Finas mentioned in our MadridCard books. But with no luck, fortunately, we landed on the vegetarian/organic buffet Viva la Vida. AWESOME!

It was a beautiful sunny day that we got some ice cream and sat down in the middle of Plaza Mayor and just basked in the sun.

At the end of the night, Corey wimped out and wanted to stay home. boo.

FRIDAY

10am: A guided tour of Old Madrid. This adorable little old lady took us around to see the 12th to 17th century buildings, plazas, walls, etc. If you want to know more read a book, or just ask Corey. He'll tell you all about Arab vs Christian Madrid, while I smile and take pictures.

So then we started our trek up north. We stopped at the archaeological museum, the natural science museum, and then we made it all the way to the Real Madrid soccer stadium, Very Cool! they are the football with the most wins EVER! We saw their trophy case, very impressive.

so then we took the metro back to downtown, had some tapas y canas and then finally we got to see a Flamenco show at Cardamomo.

To be continued....im tired and we need to wake up tomorrow to check out of our hostel and catch our flight to VALENCIA!