Takin it Easy. Takin it Slow.

We are still in beautiful Barcelona! Yesterday we slept in because we were simply exhausted from all the trauma. We got up and headed to the train station to see if they could just reprint out our original tickets that we had purchased the day before. We got there and the same woman that helped us the first time helped us again, we thought for sure we could get the tickets because she remembered us but it was not that easy. Her supervisor would not let her because she did not have proof that we previously purchased the tickets. So we asked to see the prices of of a train ticket to Lisbon without a Eurrail Pass, it ended up being 500 euro and we knew that was ridiculous so we said NO. We grabbed a great late lunch and discussed what our plan of action was going to be. We found 300 dollar flight tickets online and chose to go that route. After spending most of the day arranging our departure we just decided to relax in the hostel, eat a light dinner, and maybe go to bed early. Then there were the Germans! 6 guys and 1 girl, they were the entertainment of a lifetime. We ended up hitting it off and they were pretty obsessed with us Americans. They spoke great English so it was easy to communicate. We litterally stayed up all night/morning hanging out with them. We have never laughed so hard in our lives, had such interesting conversations, or been so surprised by how great it is to get to know strangers. I became great friends with the only girl (Tina) and ben had some good convo with her boyfriend. We all had so much in common. They are students at a private University in Germany and there school is on strike so they decided to fly to Barcelona for 50 euros per ticket and have a week of fun in the sun. It was fortunate to get to know them because they really uplifted our spirits and helped us not think about the tragedy of a stolen bag. Their hearts are amazing and we plan to visit them in Germany some day.
We were pretty tired this morning so we slept until we could not sleep any more. We casually got up around 1pm and had some toast for breakfast. Then we decided to walk to the beach which was about a 45 minute walk. When we got there it was completely packed full of locals and tourists we had a hard time finding a place to lay down. We were suppose to meet the Germans there but after searching and searching through the crowds we could not find them. We just relaxed all day enjoying the sun, sand, and big waves. We began to feel our skin frying after 3 and half hours so we headed back to the hostel. On our way we looked at the booths that are owned by local artists and decided that Barcelona rocks in every way. There is a music festival going on so we stopped and listened for a while. We got to hear amazing bands playing some awesome reggae and of course the classic Bob Marley. We were starving so we went to the hostel and cooked our pasta. We are planning to go back to the music festival later tonight and possibly hang with the Germans again. Tomorrow we have no plans except to explore the city and all of its beauty. We would post pics but our cameras are no more (we did buy a disposable though!). We love you.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.--Mark Twain

The True Life of a Traveler

hola!
Well we are in Barcelona and it is 2am. The past 2 days have been the longest days of our lives. We made it to Montpillier yesterday around 6pm and set foot to find a hostel so we wouldnt have to sleep in the train station. We thankfully found one but it was unfortunately in a sketchy part of town! It was an old convent turned into a hostel, many weird people stayed there and it was very stressful getting a room. Once we settled in we locked our bags to our beds and headed out for a much needed dinner. We found this cheap pasta place and had a great time eating there. After we were done we had time to kill so we decided to walk around the city. We saw this huge black dog that seemed to have an owner because he had a leash, ben put his hand toward the dog so the dog could sniff him (like we would do in America) but before he even got a foot away the massive black dog freaked out and bit Bens hand. He wasnt tied to anything and we thought he was going to chase us so we booked it screaming at the top of our lungs he was frantically barking like a wild wolf. Now we dont think he has an owner! Trying not to freak out we walked around the city a little more but Bens hand was bleeding and i desperately wanted him to clean it so we headed back to the weird hostel/convent. Bens hand seemed fine with only 2 puncture wounds that he said were not putting him in pain. That night we settled into bed hoping that nobody would show up to be our roommate. We began to read our books before bed when we suddenly heard a dog fight outside our window..luckily we were on the second floor...then the dog fight turned into a guy fight and it really started to freak us out. Ben didnt trust the hostel so he slept with our most important bag in his bed. It was so hot in our room i couldnt even sleep. We both got 2 hours of sleep before heading to our train for Barcelona.
We arrived in Barcelona, we spent 40 Eruo unexpectedly on train reservations to Lisbon but we werent too upset about it because we knew it was the last leg of our journey and we had to get there to catch our flight on the 24th. We got to the hostel and i checked my emails when i heard that my aunt had passed away. I know my dad must be in a lot of pain and i want him to know how much i prayed/thought about him today. Dad, i wish i was home to comfort you and let you know how much i love you. you are in my prayers! After checking emails i headed for a nap in a 12 person room full of men. It was kind of uncomfortable but i got over it, i was just happy to be in SAFE hostel and location. We got up around 4pm to take showers (co-ed bathrooms..Yikes!) and then headed off to explore the city and grab some dinner..we were starving because we forgot/didnt have time to eat all day. We had an amazing and cheap dinner and then headed down one of the most amazing streets in all of Europe, La Rambas! They have lots of places to eat, pet shops, street performers, awesome archetecture, and many other interesting things! We made our way through the street and headed to a boat dock overlooking some of the ocean. We sat on the dock and looked at all the beautiful Spanish people. We started to realize that our trip was coming to an end and we are not going to have much money when we returned! Ben stopped us midconversation and began to pray...all i remember him saying was Lord bring me and molly even closer together and allow us to not have any materialism as we return home, thank you for providing and giving us good health and safety. After that we headed to the beach for fun! We got there and it was a sandy beach full of artistic locals that were enjoying life. We sat down and began to equally enjoy ourselves and our conversation. Ben did a little journaling, i took some cool pictures, and we just watched the sun set. As we sat there many Arabic men asked us if first we wanted beer, then if we wanted hash, then if we wanted coccaine! We said NO in a very polite way and went on with our fun conversation. One man was extremely scary looking and would not leave us alone he got in our faces as we kept saying no. We deciced we had enough of the beach and we wanted to bounce.
Now the SCARY story...
We have this amazing purple patagonia bag that has been our life support on this trip. We havent gone anywhere without it and we kept everything in it except for our passports and money..those are always strapped to our bodies. Ben normally carries it and when we sat on the beach he put it directly by his right hand and right leg as usual. We have been obsessively careful with our bags always checking on them. When that man offered us the drugs and wouldnt leave he was to our left standing over us. The bag was on our right! We decided to leave the beach, got up, and realized the bag had been stolen! We quickly ran all over the beach asking everyone if they saw the guy steal it. The people said.. "O yes that happened to me before so now i lock my bag to my body"... "O yea we saw the guy steal our bag and we chased him and got our bag back"No one was helping us until these 2 men who were eating at a little place off the beach told us they watched the entire thing happen and they saw him take off with it in the streets (Of course we are NOT in Kentucky and no one cares! They saw the entire thing happen and didnt even care!!!) they told us we had no chance of getting it but to make sure and check the garbage cans. We ran in the direction they pointed and looked in every trash can for 1 hour. We just constantly prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed some more. By now it was 12am and we talked to a guy who worked at an outdoor bar, he said the same thing happened to him and it happens everyday to most people..."They are Professionals"... he told us to file a poilce report. We ran into many police officers all telling us where the station was. We made it to the station completely exhausted and began the report. There were so many tourists and locals in there crying and freaking out that we just felt lost. The bag had both of our cameras, our Eurrail Passes and train tickets to Lisbon, all of our souveniers, and my sunglasses. I am writing this blog mainly for prayer. Ben is on the other computer trying to figure out how to switch our flight from Lisbon to Barcelona, we are out of money so we feel helpless, and we have no options. On our walk home we realized that we are not mad but that we are just travelers and that this is the life of a traveler. We have spent the past 39 days trying to stay safe and keep our crap together, this could have happened 20 days ago and we would have missed our entire trip but instead it happened the last 3 days, we can only be positive for the grace God has shown us. We are 2 crazy Americans trying to make our way through this continent and the only bad thing is a dog bite and a few stolen items. Ben and I have never been more close than we are now, not to mention the amount of Love we have for eachother that has grown through this journey. We are only happy to have been barely singed and nowhere near burned. We feel the presence of the Lord constantly on us, it is even hard to explain. Please Pray... We LOVE you.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
Be gracious to me, O God for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose Word I praise, In God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
Psalm 56:1-4

P.S. Even though we have been completely violated we cannot seem to let go of the fact that we LOVE it here? We love this city, even though we have seen little of it. The people are truly beautiful, as is the beach, and the creative buildings. We are weird we know but we totally want to come back.

NICE!

Pretty much all you need to know is that Nice is more than nice its AMAZING!!! We stayed in a cute little hostel/hotel that was located right on the beach. We knew that the sun would break our appetites a little bit so for the last 2 and half days we lived on 2 loaves of bread, nutella, and strawberry jam (i know what you're thinking.."Bread and Jam, Bread and Jam!!"). But it has worked out quite nicely because we spent the majority of our days on the beach and trying to catch up on sleep. We spent our first 2 nights burning up because on night #1 our AC broke and we were on the 5th floor with only one window...Andrè was in his underwear again, the 2nd night we had a fixed AC but an annoying the same old Canadian man...aka Andrè...decided to turn it off at 2am because ''fresh air tastes better for sleeping, eh?'' or that's what he said anyway (adam and andrew could relate this guy to Carl, yes he was that horrible!!!). It didn't really matter how much we slept because we just relaxed all day on the French Riviera! The water was just gorgeous and you could see straight to the bottom of the ocean floor. We watched all the french people, tryed to avoid all the old naked women and their speedo husbands, and laughed at the kids who were parasailing because they were having so much fun, it could only put a smile on your face. We spent our nights walking around the city and listening to old men play the accordian while watching all the rich people eat their pasta and drink their enormous glasses of French wine. We walked along the promenade as the sun began to set and watched all the locals fish, roller blade, or run as if training for a triathlon. As it began to get dark we would sit on the beach and share drinks as we laughed about this crazy adventure we've been on. We told stories about our past and laughed about missing home and the comfort of a bed that was big enough for the both of us. We had a late night last night becaue we kind of lost track of time but we luckily didn't oversleep our alarm and got up in time to make it to the train station by 7:30am. We planned to make a reservation for the 10:20am train to Barcelona but they only allow a certain number of Eurail Passholders to board the train and it was overbooked. We kind of freaked out but went to plan B which was to hop on a train to Montpellier and take the train to Barcelona tomorrow morning. Now we are in the process of trying to find a place to stay for the night and are contemplating sleeping in the train station or on the beach? Pray that we find a cheap hostel because that would be ideal!
Barcelona or bust
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day
Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. --Jack Kerouc

And Then There Was Cinque Terre

We left you in Florence but we are now in Nice after a long day of train hopping. 2 nights ago we spent a beautiful night walking around Florence! After dinner we decided to walk up to the Michelangelo Pillazzio {spelling may be wrong?} to see the sunset overlooking the entire city. On our way we crossed this amazing bridge where there was a proffessional photo shoot going on. The model looked so glamorous, there was so much equipment we had to walk on the street to get around it, and i think the photographer was a guest star on americas next top model, but that could be my immagination making the situation a bigger deal than it really was{typical}. We leisurely made our way up to the site that looked over all of Florence where we sat on these steps that was a very popular hangout spot for locals and tourists. We had a blast laughing at all the different people we saw. As the sun began to go down the mood changed a little as we enjoyed a nice beverage together and we reminisced on the trip remembering all the amazing places we have been! We just completely fell in love with Florence and had the time of our life getting to know the beautiful city. We ended the night with a bag of popcorn while getting to know the hostel worker guy and this awesome girl from Quebec who was traveling all of Italy with her mom.
The next morning we were awakened by our lovely room mates again! They were actually anything but lovely, they were the most inconsiderate people i have ever come in contact with. They banged every door and talked so ridiculously LOUD. Lets just say we were a little crabby because it was our day to sleep in? We forced ourselves out of bed where we began to discuss our budget for the rest of the trip...YIKES...slim pickins. We helped ourselves to some eggs in the kitchen and began to ponder what to do for the day. We decided to head to the train station and see if we needed a reservation for our train to Nice? We ended up not needing the reservation and it dawned on us to see how far away the Cinque Terre was, we found out it was only 2 hours and 30 minutes away! We said "why the heck NOT?" and ran back to our hostel to get appropriate clothes for the day. By the time we got on the train it was 2pm and we made it there by 4.30, we were a little bummed for not thinking to do this earlier but we were happy to have this amazing opportunity! If you dont know, the Cinque Terre is 5 small towns along the coast and you can hike between and along them all. We got there ready to hike and found out it costed 5 euro per person and the entire reason we did this little adventure was because it was FREE! We decided to it our way and take the train to each town because we get free passage with our Eurail Passes. We looked around the first town Riomaggiore but decided we were ready for town #2 after soaking in the amazing beauty. We got to town 2 and took rick steves advice by walking around the city. Lets just say we got a bit distracted! There was an opportunity for cliff diving {my dream}!!!! Ben did it first of course because i am a chicken and he just had a blast. at first i said i wasnt going to do it because we were on a time crunch, i did NOT wear a swimsuit, and i was also a little scared, but then i realized i may never come here again and this trip is once in a lifetime...so I JUMPED!!!! It was the most amazing feeling ever not only was the view to die for but i could see all the way to the bottom of the ocean floor while ontop of a 40ft cliff!!! We are crazy and random but we realized right there that the train ride was worth that one experience. We quickly ran out of time and had just enough for one more town. We hung out in town #5 for a while and gazed at the beauty and then headed to town 1 in order to catch the last train home. We had 30 minutes to sit on a cliff and gaze at the beauty as the sun began to set! It was pretty much the best day ever and we are ready to go back! We made on the train and finally arrived in Florence at midnight.
Today we ate a quick bite and headed to Nice, the French Riviera, the South of France, and the train took what seemed like forever but now we are here!!! Our hostel is funny, we are on the fifth floor of a hotel and our room is so short we hit our heads on the ceiling beams. It is cute and very French! We are sharing our room with this crazy old Canadian guy that answered the door in his whitey tighties {if i never see a man in is underwear again i will be a happy woman}. Love Love Love You All!!!
Ciao
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
"Divers are Thrivers! Jumpers are Fist Pumpers"--Benny Boo Boo Boo Boo Boo!!!

Firenze

We're in Florence! I'm sitting in the hostel workers bedroom right now at a computer that is playing the same techno song over and over again, it is so loud that i can barely concentrate enough to write this. We left Rome yesterday around 11am after a small breakfast at the hostel. We made it to Florence around 2.30 and as we carried our oversized packs we began to look for our hostel without a map. We ended up finding it within 30 minutes of walking...pretty good considering the amount of times we've gotten lost on this trip! On the train approaching Florence, we realized that our hostel would be expecting us to pay 60 extra euro for linens, breakfast and internet, and so we approached the guy at the desk pretty nervously. When he asked for the extra fee, I simply said ''we're on a budget so we don't need linens, breakfast, or internet.'' Suprisingly that worked!...and as you can see, they're pretty lenient about the internet. haha. Last night, we decided to take the advice of our travel book, and checked out this local and completely un-touristy little Italian restaurant. Located right outside the old medieval gate to Florence, the little place was arranged like a small mess hall (we shared a table with a lady who ate legumes) and was full of people that looked like they were straight out of the godfather..I'm talking suspenders, stained v-neck tshirts, mustaches, big hair, the whole bit...it was awesome. Molly and I strolled in with our travel books in hand (we are such tourists) and ended up getting two plates of pasta for 6euro...what a deal! We were able to snap a few pictures before we strolled out to finish the night sitting by the river Arno. This morning, we were rudely awakened by the newest members of ben and molly's annoying roommates club. Three people left our room at 6 am, banging and clanking some kind of junk together as they went...oh sorry they started banging and clanking at 6 and didn't actually leave until 8. We were so mad. I can only assume that the fat guy laying in one of the beds (in his underwear), right now, is one of them, but my eyes were so crusted over with sleep deprivation that I only saw his backwards hat this morning. Anyway, by the time the disturbers were gone this morning and we were able to crawl out of bed, it was about 11 oclock and we helped ourselves to some eggs that we hope were theirs. After breakfast, we went and saw michealangelo's David. I can honestly say it was worth the money, and the lecture I got for sneaking a few pictures (NO PHOTO! ERASE THAT PICTURE!). From David, we headed across the river to find this fort that our friend from work recommended (thanks michelle) but unfortunately it was closed because someone named Veronica got murdered there...they're investigating it don't worry. We were disappointed to miss the view that the fort apparently provides, but we were able to see the beautiful neighborhood where it sits. From there, we snagged some gelato according to michelle's recommendation, walked around for a while, took some modely pictures of each other on the beautiful medieval bridge that leads to the other side of the river, and then ate some pizza to finish up the day. Now we are here, looking over our shoulder constantly because we shouldn't be on the computer. Love you guys...gotta run.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day
The Creator made Italy from designs by Michaelangelo. --Mark Twain

Most random day ever.

hello
so I guess it's like 5am there, sorry we weren't able to post last night...some girls are trying to go to Poland, couldn't make the computer work for them, started crying (WE HAVE TO SLEEP OR WE'LL BE MISERABLE TOMORROW). I guess someone neglected to tell them that they are still in Europe and it's awesome. anyway, they took forever and our nerves couldn't take the drama. So, we've just woken up from our last night in Rome, and let me tell you, it followed a pretty amazing day. We woke up to our usual nutella and buttered toast--not the healthiest meal, but definitely enough calories to last until dinner, which is usually necessary. After eating, I finished Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels (great but sad), while Molly primped, coiffed, curled, touched up, and beautified herself. Haha she'll kill me if she sees that. So we left our hostel without much of a plan, only to see a few things we'd neglected previously. First we headed for the Pope's botanical garden and ended up walking for about an hour down a busy street. I'm still not sure if the Pope actually has a botanical garden or not, but we eventually found a pretty bench overlooking most of the vatican, where we refueled with some apples we'd picked up along the way (doused in nutella of course). From the bench, we made our way over the river and headed for the pantheon. Since the ancient temple is a bit of a walk from the other side of the river, we had the chance to get a little insight into Roman culture...we just about became Vespa roadkill a few times, we saw millions of old men with half sipped espresso and half smoked cigarettes lounging outside the many cafes, and of course we got stuck behind countless nuns and similar old ladies who simply had to scuttle through the narrow streets side by side with arms locked (basically a living road block). we arrived at the Pantheon around 1 oclock. from the outside, we were able to take pictures and enjoy the ancient building constructed by Hadrian when it was still illegal to be a Christian! As we ventured inside, we saw the amazing and ornate decorations, but also something I found pretty cool--Raphael's tomb, one of the stops in the new Tom Hanks movie Angels and Demons. From the Pantheon, we made our way to another of Tom Hanks' stops, a statue called the Ecstacy of St. Therese. Her story goes like this...nevermind, unsutable for our blog, look it up on wikipedia. Basically, she found God irresistable. I've learned about that statue in just about every humanities class I've ever had so the experience was pretty neat. From there, we decided to go see a movie and went to try and find one in English. We were in luck! In Republic square we found a theater showing Terminator Salvation in its original version (with Italian subtitles), but since it wasn't until 655, we had some time to kill. We searched fruitlessly for a Pizza place (they all took siesta from 3-530), but finally found one that was willing to serve us. Although we were too cheap to buy bottled water (we sat our nalgenes right on the table), the pizza was reasonably filling and good. From there, the adventure really began. We had heard about this ice cream, about 2 miles away, that is supposedly every chocolate and ice cream expert's dream come true, so of course we wanted to try it. We had exactly an hour before our movie, so we basically ran across Rome for what turned out to be a little mud-pie looking chocolate pile on some tin foil. We weren't exactly imitating St. Therese, but it was good. We raced back to Republic square, saw our movie (great action!), and came out to find Rome all lit up, once again. Our walk home was uneventful, until we got back to our hostel and I talked molly into getting more of our favorite gelato. I'm laughing right now to remember that although we'd already had gelato once yesterday, we went and stood in a 30 person line for more, but its true and it was worth it. We walked back, slowly licking, and soon found ourselves waiting on the Poland girls. Hope that mad rush of a day wasn't too confusing. oh yeah, we have this cool room mate from Quebec, who we originally didn't like, but now we do. We all introduced ourselves last night, and she's one of those cool Canadians who speaks French, so it was very fun when she would say...''how you say...?'' when trying to explain something. We originally didn't like her, as I mentioned, because we thought she had been moving our stuff everyday but as it turns out, that was the maid. We love you guys...have a good day....we're going to Florence...we love Rome...bye
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day
Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind. ~Seneca

it was a very Popey day

not quite sure what Popey means, but I can't seem to get the Pope out of my head...probably because we started the day by seeing the man himself. By the way, he is old and his eyes are crossed a bit..haha (sorry if you're catholic). We woke up and ate buttered bread with nutella (aka delicious hazelnut chocolate spread)--the butter we borrowed, and the nutella we bought yesterday at the grocery. After breakfast, we headed down the street into the Vatican and were greeted by a nice little suprise. We had wanted to hear the Pope speak while in his neighborhood, but had failed to get tickets yesterday, and had lost hope. Never lose hope in the pope. When we entered St. Peter's square, there he he was cruising around in this white mercedes jeep thing that Molly has been calling his chariot. on his way to give one of two blessings a week, this semi-rare appearance was very interesting. People were freaking out (crying, waving, taking pictures, one lady even grabbed Molly's arm and physically moved her) just to be in his presence. We took the opportunity to visit the Vatican museum, since everyone who was anyone was listening to his holiness and we really just wanted to see some art. In the museum, I saw my first mummy, my first michealangelo, and if I can help it, my last completely touristy attraction of Europe (wow people like to push around here!). the Sistine Chapel was awesome, and the fact that Michealangelo could have not only created such an amazing work of art at 33 is astounding, but add that to having to get around a giant turtle shell and an orange mask while doing it, and you see why they make such a big deal about it. Yes, we saw the adam and God touching fingers part! We moved from the chapel to st. Peter's basilica. Our tour book probably said it best by saying ''to call St. Peter's vast is like calling God smart''. It is just a gigantic church with amazing art as its decoration. We were even able to see a statue of peter that was in the original church in the 4th century (complete with worn down feet where thousands of worshippers have kissed and rubbed his callouses away). Although we couldn't find the entrance to the crypt (where peter's tomb lies), we still really enjoyed the beautiful building that was obviously created as an act of worship for our Lord. After the Vatican, we had some Roman pizza (our usual hawaiian, amazing) and then headed for a rest at the hostel. After a bit of a nap we cooked the rest of our pasta from yesterday and added just a bit too much of julio caesar's peruvian spicy stuff (more on that later). We were able to eat with some people from Colorado and Ohio, which was nice, and Molly gave me most of her supper, which was nicer. The spices just about ate the lining of my stomach and I almost threw up after dinner, but at least Molly had fun with what came next--turns out, she gave me her dinner because we had agreed to go get gelato afterwards. We again visited our awesome new favorite ice cream shop (aka gelato)...it was great as usual. As we licked, we walked to the trevi fountain (one of my favorite sights so far). There were these guys trying to trick everyone into accepting their offer to take a picture for them, and then print it on the spot for money. We didn't fall for their scheme, but we had a lot of fun watching the Irish woman who did demand her 10 euros back for the dark polaroid they had printed for her (you couldn't even see the fountain in the pic). We tossed coins in (to ensure our return to Rome), and then walked to another fountain I wanted to see (the one featured in the new movie angels and demons...where the guy almost drowns). Finally, we walked back to our hostel after a long but great day. Love all of you...and really miss you too. Ciao
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day
Anybody can be the Pope. The proof of this is that I have become one. --Pope John XXII