londonderry bridge is falling down? ;o)

well i certainly hope not! i gotta drive over that thing tomorrow! hehehe

so when we were in paris, my internet time ran out and so i had to stop midsentence. so now i am in northern ireland, which is actually mucho better to write on cause the keyboards are not french weird ones!

woot!

so budapest was cool, public baths and then merrily getting on the train before realizing that oops! oiur bags were in the left luggage spot, and that we better go get them or else we'd be hooped! so we ran (which was quite the effort) to get them and then back to the train and made it to vienna in one piece.

a bottle of wine and some laundry done, we hunkered down for a night in austria. the next day was cold again, but only windy and kinda raining, not snowing like munich.

apparently vienna is a very popular place for italians, and, like we couldnt get a train to there from italy, we couldnt get a train from there to italy. so. what did we do? go to zurich of course!! overnight train to zurich (where i scored a free bottle of austrian wine for helping the wine maker make his bed on the train) and then a wee walk around there ( in the frigid frigid snow) had coffee that was sooooooo expensive - switzerland is expensive, the swiss frank is worse than the euro, almost as bad as the pound. so our two coffee's were equivalent to something ridiculous like $18 CND or something. ridiculous.

but, as jake always says, marginal utility. better to have $18 coffee than no coffee at all when its zero degrees and you got no sleep. true story.

after our jaunt in central europe, it was back to more temperate climates in italy. venice, the cinque terra and florence, each for two nights. venice was nice, very touristy, but st marks was beautiful, and we managed to skip the 2 hour line - oh yeah! hiking in the beautiful cinque terra was great, so scenic, and busy enough in off season. then florence, where we couldnt get a train to bordeaux, so we stayed two nights instead of one. and . . . we went horseback riding! in the pouring pouring rain. it was expensive, 95 euro each, but two hours on a horse, and a true italian meal (complete with chianti wines) in a 13th century castle, and then a cappuccino in a little town that im sure will come back to my brain one day! since it was so rainy, they only took us horsebackriding for one hour. jake especially was MAD, so we got 25 euro back each, which was excellent.

then it was a mad dash to the train station for the overnight to nice, and the full day on the train to bordeaux.

bordeaux!!! with ali and lisa and audrey!!!! how fun! we went to a real french party, and then saw the beach with the biggest sand sunes in the world, and then had a real french lunch with bordeaux wine, and then a real french dinner as well! a totally great couple of days. then we saw bordeaux the next day and took the train to paris.

ahhh paris. what an amazing city! we were so fortunate to have the use of jake's friends step dad's apartment on ile st louis. our own little place, with a kitchen. unfortunately, my allergies and the cold id been fighting kicked into super high, and i got really sick, but because of our amazing place, we were able to stay for a week and recover - most excellent.

we did and saw so much in paris, and had such a great time, that it would take hours and pages to describe . . . . *sigh*

after paris we went to amsterdam, and spent a couple of days there before taking the bus to london, where we stayed for the night before taking the bus to bath.

bath was great, right when we arrived, we were lucky enough to get on another bus to stonehenge! so we saw stonehenge, on our anniversary! thats right! april 12th was me and jake's one year anniversary :o) was a totally great day. stonehenge and bath, and a great english pub for dinner :o) wonderful!

saw bath the next day and took a bus to bristol, and then the following day to cardiff, and from cardiff the train to fishguard, and now we are in ireland!

we rented a car yesterday and drove from dublin, through tynan town!!! to armagh, and now we're in derry, after seeing giants causeway.

free internet at this hostel (which is kick ass by the by, tell me if you're coming to derry and i will recommend!) but jake wants to get on too, we are alternating while watching the green mile and eating uber good pizza that we made by sprucing up 88p tesco cheese and tomato pizza :o)

yup yuppero, so thats me for a while, not all details, but enough hopefully!

we've been travelling for 7 weeks and one day, and have 18 days left, most excellent indeed. having a wonderful time, still in love, and loving life :o)

en Paris!

sooooooo, i actually did write something when we were in munich, but then i didnt have time to post it, and then i just deleted it - sucky.

so yeah, it has been forever since i posted anything, and i know that at least some ppl are worried, so here i am, all safe and sound.

we have been in paris since monday evening, and will be here till monday morning - a full week! the longest we have been anywhere! we will miss our late morning leisurely breakfasts and our slow pace, but be assured, we still know how to see a city in a day!

so much has happened i dont know where to begin . . . after athens we went to delphi for the day, which was great, really cool to see all that. then to patra the next day for the ferry to bari, italy. we slept on the floor of the ferry cause 'deck' really does mean DECK yah, EW that sucked, but then we got to sit on a train, and then a bus (for 5 hours!) and then another train, as we made our way to pompeii via taranto and naples. slept in the shadow of mount vesuvius, and then saw the ruins all day. what an amazing place! i definitely reccommend it!

north to rome. the vatican was amazing. st pauls is beautiful, and we were the first people on top of the dome that morning, what a great moment. walked all through the museum twice before leaving. the sistine chapel is wicked, but the map room is almost as good, and totally adds to the whole experience. it was one of our favorites for sure.

next day was a walking day - trevi fountain, piazza novella, the park, piazza del popolo and the best gelato of my life. wondering why all the damn irish were wearing green????? oh yeah, it was st patricks day :oP hahaha, totally behind on that one! italy lost to ireland in six nations rugby in rome.

march 18 was colusseum, roman forum, palantine hill . . . all very cool old stuff. until paris, rome was bar none our favourite city. the clouds started coming in, so we headed back to our apartment and did more laundry and at more pasta :o)

next day was lazy'ish. chilled out, went to see an aquaduct, caught the train to munich, only cause there wasnt one to vienna.

next few days were a blur - - - rome (via overnight train) to munich (snow and twice to the beer halls). munich (via overnight train) to budapest (public baths