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

I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back."

friends, countrymen, lend me your ears...
So said Marc antony at the end of Shakespeare's JULIUS CAESAR. Today, we saw not only, the burnging place of Caesar's body, but his house, his nephew's palace, the senate house of ancient Rome, and the very spot where Russell Crowe began that muscular slick-haired Roman butt kicker we all know and love (see the title of this blog).
We started the day at our new hostel--Happy Days Roma. I was skeptical at first, mostly because they charge for breakfast and don't lock their doors, but this place rocks. Molly and I finished off the oatmeal we've been carrying around for two weeks--complete with a few cookies that we found in the kitchen...goood. After breakfast, we took our time getting ready and then headed out into Rome. Our hostel is right on the wall of the Vatican, so of course, we payed old Benedict a visit at the local starbucks...just kidding. Actually, we headed to the colloseum and its surrounding ancient neighborhood across the Tibre river. We purchased the 11 euro pass that gives you entrance into the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, and the old Roman Forum, and had a ball strolling on the same ''basalt stones on which Augustus once walked on his way to the senate'' (according to my book). Starting with Palatine hill, the ancient Pennsylvania Avenue for the emporers of Rome, we were able to see the home of Augustus (which was standing when Christ was born...''I wonder if he saw the star''...we asked). It still had the marble floors and a fresco on the wall, although we also saw some coke bottles and cig butts that I doubt were as old. Behind the palace, we got to see the Circus Maximus--ancient and private chariot track for the emporer's viewing pleasure. We finished off the Palatial neighborhood by checking out the extra-ancient huts of Romulus (supposedly). Remembered as the barbarian child who was raised by a she-wolf with his brother Remus, who grew up to capture the Sabine women and impregnate them, and who eventually founded Rome (which bears his name) with the subsequent babies, Romulus was a cool guy and his huts were a pretty surreal thing to take in. From the hill we made our way into the Roman Forum.
Think Times Square, except with mosaics instead of neon Sean jean ads and columns instead of giant plasma screens. Basically, the forum was the center of life in Rome, and although it seemed small to Molly and me, it was a far-cry from the mud-with-thatched-roof huts the rest of the world was living in at the time. We saw the arch of Titus (erected to honor Titus' defeat of the Jews around the time of the macabees), the oldest bronze door still swinging on its ancient hinges, the spot where they burned Julius Caesar's body (et tu brute?) and the home of the Vestal Virgins (the ancient nuns who kept Rome's eternal flame going...and were chaste or else). Finally, we made our way to the Colloseum where the magic really happened long ago. On the way there, we had our first taste of Roman gelato (Ben=chocolate and coffee, Molly=banana and chocolate) it was great...but not compared to what came later. At the colloseum, we were happy to find out that we could get in very quickly--since we'd already bought a ticket--and that they no longer killed christians there. We toured the place, saw the cages where they kept the lions tigers and bears, saw the cages where they kept the martyrs, saw the booths where important people sat, and finally, saw the cages where they kept the gladiators before they fought. Some pretty cool statues depicted the different kinds of gladiators, and the place was just tough in every way. Soon we headed back to happy days and stopped at a grocery store for some foodstuffs. After we'd loaded up on pasta and nutella (this godly spread that europe loves), we came back and made dinner. after dinner, we went and found an even better gelato stand right on the wall of the vatican (i think the cream has holy water in it) and enjoyed every bite. We've just come back to the hostel...where one of the workers (a peruvian in a cowboy hat name julio caesar..no joke) just handed everyone in the room a heavenly mixture he's calling sangria and some bruscetta or something...i'm not so sure, but when in Rome as they say. Cheers.
ciaou bellas.
ben&molly
ps...pray for me, julio has already hit on molly more than once...i may have to pull a brutus later.

quote for the day
if you are at Rome, live in the Roman style. if you are elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere. --st. ambrose

Journey

We left Athens yesterday around 11 am with smiling faces not only because we had our 4 person room to ourselves but also because we got an interesting discount on the room. We made our way to the ferry port by means of one very congested train to Kiato (1 hr 30 min, i sat on the steps & Ben stood the entire time) and and one very long train to Patras. We casually made our way to the ticket booth, purchased our tickets, then headed for a late lunch/our only meal for the day. We ate at Chick n Chicken, Ben got a burger but it was really a gyro, i got pasta but it was really quiche. We hopped on the ferry at 4.30 and proceeded to play card games until the boat left at 6. We were approached by new travelers who had many questions for us. We read books, watched shows on our ipods, watched movies in silence b/c they would not turn on the sound, and ate icecream for dinner mainly b/c it was the cheapest thing on the menu. Sleeping on a ferry is always an expoerience b/c there is not a spot for us to sleep except on the floor. My head was next to this German guys head the whole night and Ben's head was coincidentally next to what we thought to be a homeless man except he had a 2 liter of coke that he drank standing up over ben the entire night. My german sleeping buddy was very similar to our Asian roommate from paris. YES! He screamed bloody murder in his sleep. I never jumped so high when i heard him continually scream like he was being beheaded. The icing on the cake was when he screamed it startled his girlfriend so much that she screamed this awkward loud panicky shrill. When that happened Ben leaped out of his sleeping bag with his boxerbriefs on, scrathing his head, freaking out, and completely confused (it was 4 am who could blame him), i decided to scream back at them in hopes to wake them up so they would stop. And then, we couldnt help but remember and imitate the Asian shrieker. After the rough sleep we arrived in Bari Itlay where we decided to once again walk with our giant packs on to the train station in hopes to save 3£. Well you all know how that worked out, we walked for 2 miles and then decided we were lost so we took the bus anyway. We got to the train station late and had to take the 3.15 train to the Roma station. After a 6 hour train ride we made it to ROME!!! Our hostel is on the 5th floor of what looks like a giant business building. We are eating popcorn. Did we ever mention how much we love you all? Well we love you.
Molly&Ben

Quote for the day:

Popcorn is the sentimental good-time Charlie of American foods.--Patricia Linden

Submerged Underwater Breathing Apparatus

hi,

coming to you after a blazing hot day here in Athens. As usual, we started with a breakfast that left us with nothing to report, except saying goodbye to our redhead neighbor (she left us a very sweet note later) and complaining about Ollie, who I introduced yesterday. Although he had a very fetching Australian accent, a neat straw hat, and some rad high tops from the 80s, Ollie became my worst enemy last night and I'm not ashamed to say I dreamed (when I finally made it to sleep) of Ollying a skateboard on his head. He started his slumber by falling asleep before everyone (fully clothed I might add) and doing that grunt/snore that sounds more like farting than breathing. As our lights went off he looked me straight in the eye, turned over, and plunged into a hurtling locamotive of yawping sleep screaming with nose stuck in the air like a beaver looking for bacon. After I could take no more, I sat straight up in bed and did what my dad always did when I fell asleep in church--I stared at him with a dirty look until the force of my eyes woke him up. he looked at me for a second time and guess what happened? he took off his shirt...weird. Next, he started that pass-gas-breathing again and immediately started talking in his sleep--"um'' "oooaaaawwwwtttthhhhg" "notshleeepwingyit" "I hate you and want you never to sleep again"--well not that last one. At this point I was reeling mad, so I got off my squeaky bunk and went to sit in the bathroom for a while...the blessed quiet dark bathroom. Ollie apparently had to use it, because he proceeded to knock on my door, and then left the room when I ignored him. I was able to find some earplugs before he came back, and although I could still hear a faint bee-buzzing snore (which I'm sure was really grizzly in heat)--I eventually drifted off. Ollie was gone before we got up.

Now guess what we did today? SCUBA. In his last message, my dad said "have fun in the mecca of SCUBA" and he couldn't have been closer...but not for the reasons you think. To be honest, I expected to see Poseidon's long discarded pitchfork thing, or a mermaid tail or something, but what we got instead, was a lesson from the world's best divers, a day at a real blue lagoon, and some new friends (pictured above...the cool one is NIKO). We arrived at our scuba shop to a warm welcome by the mrs. clause of the operation (see mr. clause in the picture), and then proceeded to try on our gear (with much fumbling thanks to Ollie...god bless him). Our wetsuits had hoods! that was new. Next, we hopped into an old RAV4 and rode for about 45 minutes to the lagoon you see above, and were treated with some frappe (frozen coffee drink) and strawberry freezy things. After our dive master Stavros arrived--who along with everyone else besides the shop girl, spoke absolutely no English, we put on our gear and jumped in. After a two year dry season, we had a bit of nervousness (esecially in the mask department) and as it turns out, Mrs. Clause had given us a few funky presents for the trip (including a broken fin strap for Molly and two right boots for me). We got over our issues (which weren't issues at all when faced with the beautiful ocean) and began our descent (with many OK signs...a universal code). The water was deliciously cold, and as we reached the bottom, we found lots of colorful fish, a black hole of a cave (that stavros had to drag us out of), and Molly got to feed fish with the insides of one of those spiky urchin things that one of the boys had cut open! After we came up, we were treated to more frappe and another ride back to the shop where they thanked us for coming and made sure to give us stickers and the like. We walked home, had a nice discussion on the way about how to grow as a person, and then made our way back to Monastaraki where we changed and headed for dinner. Which was, some crepes (mine filled with ham, gouda cheese, cottage cheese, and french fries...Molly's with tomato, sour cream, green peppers, gouda, and ham...mmmm). tightly full, we wobbled back to the hostel and I really couldn't tell you what we've done since then. You know when you drive somewhere and arrive but don't remember ever turning or stopping for traffic? The last bit has been like that. Love.

Ben&Molly

Quote for the day:

Relax man--Niko

hella as the greek say

Well,
My belly is full of gyro (a delicacy Adam has been raving about for decades) which we found at a little shop in monastariki square here in Athens. We've eaten there two nights in a row, simply because the gyros are only 2 euros, they don't make us buy a drink, and they allow us to sit on the steps outside to eat meaning we don't have to tip a waiter...awesome. By the way, sorry about the promising we'd write everyday while in Athens...and then not doing that, we found out that you only get one hour for free hear at the hostel and then it's 2 euro (that's another gyro), so we waited until someone new was working the desk (a squirrely Swedish boy in tight blue shorts) and insisted that I hadn't yet used my computer time (aren't you all proud of our morals?). I doubt it. Anyway, yesterday started as any other--with an amazing free breakfast of toast with jam and butter and cappucino with two spoonfulls of sugar (sounds like a Mary Poppings song). We decided to try and see everything in Athens soon thereafter, and started by climbing the hill to Athens' most famous landmark: the Accropolis. following our climb--which included wading through a crowd of old people on a Royal Caribbean excursion (who knew they'd extended the Caribbean to include Greece?)--we reached Accropolis hill where we found out that it costs 12 euro per person to see some scraped up old columns complete with the crains and scaffolding they are currently using to aid in restoration of the old relic. Guess what we did? We climbed a nearby hill and pretended that Zeus really lived in the temple...so obviously mere mortals would never be allowed inside and we weren't missing much. We both wondered how buildings that were around before Jesus could have one day assigned a viewing price of 12 euros in the first place, and then we left the hill with of feeling of blah. We continued from there, down into our home-base neighborhood of Monastiriki. reknown as the trendiest district of Athens we wanted to see what its twisty streets had to offer, and ventured down one that looked particularly overwhelming and shop-infested. we saw a lot of Greek flags for sale, some statues of hercules and his boyfriends, and several evil eye bracelets, but the best handmade craft that we came upon was a nice little ice cream shop. I got dark chocolate and molly got chocolate with cookies. yummy lunch indeed. Tired out by now, we headed back to the hostel to refill our water bottles and chill for a little bit, which ended in us decided how and where to set up a trip to Aeginas today. After our break, we decided to go out to a garden--about 10 metro stops away (we know we're nuts) and it turned out to be one of the best memories of the trip for me. I got inspired while drinking a coke and came up with some great ideas for writing in the future...Molly and I talked about them, and what we've learned about God and the meaning of the word "home" (particularly that it MUST include good plentiful food) for about two hours. The night ended with our first taste of the wonderful Greek gyro. Today started with breakfast, which we shared with our roomate--a red-haired 50something who has literally been everywhere in the world. She goes by Nev, has three kids, is from New Zealand, loves rugby, I could go on...she's cool basically. next we headed to Piraeus port, where we caught the 10 oclock ferry to Aegina--the closest Greek isle to Athens. Lovely in every way, Aegina met us with its white walled red roofed houses, its fishing boats (complete with men mending nets), and its wonderful beaches surrounded by mountains. One of those beaches became our home for the day, where we hung outside a bungalo cafe and rented two chairs and an umbrella for 7 euro...for the whole day! We swam in crystaline water, we avoided sunburn at all costs, we read wonderful books, we laughed at people who walked by, and finally seccumbed to ice cream,that ended up being pretty cheap if not the most nutritious lunch. We came back to Athens around 7, changed clothes, filled our bottles, met our new roomy Ollie (that's all i know), and went straight back to the gyro shop for more goodies. Now we are sitting at the computer and all around us, Greek dancers in funny masks and robes are speaking french through a cheerleader megaphone while girating on the floor to funny Greek music. Maybe I'm just tired but that doesn't seem normal. I mean literally they are wearing white wigs, grey robes, Wizard of Oz shoes, and they are slow-motion breakdancing. pray for us. We love you all. off to post pics.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:

So I start trudgin' down that mountain trail with full pack on my back and think from the thap and steady whap of my shoes on stone and ground that all I need in this world to keep me going is my feet. --Jack Kerouac Desolation Angels

Greece Lightning

hello world
from the oldest nation in the world (sort of), we are very happy to say that we are perfectly able to communicate for the next few days. we weren't able to scuba dive for our anniversary today, as we'd planned, because they aren't taking anyone out this week until saturday...good news though, we'll still be here and are already signed up to go! so we modified our plans a bit and took the metro (we snuck on haha) to pitraeus station and searched for a ferry that would take us to the only close Grecian island for a day at the beach. Come to find out, the ferry costs a bit of money, and as it was already 1 oclock in the afternoon, we settled for searching out the only beach Athens must have. In order to get there, we tried communicating with several Athenians including but not limited to: our receptionist here at the hostel (a snobby Englishman), the chain-smoking mole-faced lady at the ferry office (who said she spoke English but only knew the word no apparently), an old man at a bus stop (who kept saying "you want swimming?" with a smile and a breast-stroke motion in the air), and a teenager (who was a bit more clever, but wouldn't take his ipod headphones out and ended up confusing us all the more because he couldn't hear). Finally, we managed to get on a bus labeled 904 (the old man's suggestion) and talked the driver into taking us to the beach by saying "sea" repetitively for at least 5 minutes. After we found the "sea" and jumped off the crowded bus, we found the beach to be a collection of rocks with boys in speedos diving headfirst into some very questionably choppy waves. Nervous about breaking our necks with the speedo boys, we decided to walk for a little while and eventually came to a moderately sandy stretch that suited us pretty well. As you might see in the pictures, Molly and I both ended up pretty sunburned, so the day was a hit afterall. We layed on the sand/rock beach tanning, writing, and listening to this new girl we found on itunes before we leaft--jessica leah mayfield. It was a great anniversary all in all, highlighted by the wonderful dinner we managed to cook ourselves at the end. We left the beach to find the ingredients for our dinner at a very greek supermarket--full of dangling octopus tentacles and strange cheese--but eventually found some pasta and salmon that molly cooked up quite nicely. We were able to eat on our porch...that's right we have a porch with a view of the acropolis from our room...and it was unbelievable. My favorite parts were when we went back and forth with 10 things I love about you and dancing in our room (I bet your minds are in the gutter but they shouldn't be it was just plain fun). Now we're alone in the basement on a very nice computer that is all in Greek, and I will be trying to decipher the funny fraternity looking symbols well enough to load some pictures. We love you all. Cheers.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day
Its all Greek to me. --anonymous confused person

2 years of BLISS

hello sweet people,
Hey its molly here just writing a little post. We are in BEAUTIFUL GREECE (athens) and celebrating our 2 year anniversary!! Ben is making a couple of local phone calls trying to set up a scuba diving excursion. Our hostel is the most amazing place i have ever stayed in. our room is huge, it had a private bathroom, two french doors that open up to a big porch that over looks the city and you can see the Acropolis (with couches and a table), we are on the 5th floor with a kitchen in the room, it is quiet, and our bed rocks! We already love Greece and we haven't even fully experienced it yet. We have already been helped by multiple friendly people that have led us in the right direction. We ate cheesy eggs, toast, and cappucino for breakfast (FOR FREE). Did i mention how stinkin' beautiful our room is and that i am obsessed with my husband of 2 years? Ok well i could on for a lifetime about how happy i am but you would probably stop following this blog so i will stop. Thanks for supporting us and loving us unconditionally!
LOVE LOVE LOVE
MOLLY&BENJI

p.s. we will write another post giving the details of our day..so no quote for now!

Long is the only word for the last few days

Hey Americans!
It has been a very long few days of traveling in countries that do not speak English. We miss all of your redneck little voices badly. I think we left off in Amsterdam where we sat typing as quickly as we could because the Middle eastern men who owned the place were freaking us out. From there, we made our way to the train station and worked out a place on the five oclock train to Milan. We were forced to pay 40euro (oh the pain!) for a sleeper compartment--because the seats were all taken--but it turned out being a blessing in disguise because we slept well. The ride took about 14 hours and we not too miserable except for the fact that we got through most of our wonderful books (twilight-breaking dawn, and harry potter 4 haha) and sweated a little. Things only started getting sticky when we were woken up at 130 in the morning by German police yelling at our bunkmate to come with them. We found out later that he was later arrested for trying to jump the border and they were pretty happy to have found him. A big danka to them from us! Our two other roomates were an old man with alzheimer's who kept asking if we'd seen his ticket and a very hairy German cyclist. All was well until we were woken up for the final time by italian border patrol yelling "GIVE ME YOUR MARIJUANA!". Scared out of our daylights, we fumbled out of bed and were barely able to talk him into turning around so Molly could put her pants back on. They checked everyones' bags and we were finally set loose into Milan--not too much worse for the wear.
Day 2: Milan is a big boring place--at least on Sundays. We walked out of the train station with the fact that we didn't catch our next train until 9 oclock that night weighing heavily on our minds. We sat down at a curb in front of mCdonalds hoping for a place to spend some of the day and the janitor who was washing the curb started yelling at us to get up...he proceeded to spray my backpack with his hose. We spent the rest of the day sitting in similar spots and walking aimlessly. At one point we find a nice little Italian park where we sat and watched some people playing soccer almost all day. We finished the day waiting for our trains and I spoke in broken Italian (who knew) with a funny old man who kept meowing like a cat and telling us to eat spaghetti in Rome.
Day 3: We spent the night sitting in seats that we didn't have to pay for ( thank you Eurail pass!) and decided they would be pretty uncomfortable until we realized they slid down into beds! The night went well except that every hour on the hour someone came in demanding our tickets. "TICKETS PLEASE!" We arrived in Brindisi Italy and scurried around town hoping to find the ferry office that would give us the free ferry passes we had heard about...but it didn't--they flat out refused. So, we went to another Italian town that was rumored to have a ferry to Greece, Bari italy, and we got a little luckier. In Bari, we found that ferry tickets to Greece haven't been free to Eurail passholders for over three years, and that the book I've been consulting at every corner hasn't been updated since 1979..yikes. Anyway, we found tickets for 32 euro..not bad...and boarded the ferry that lasted until 12noon today. Before we boarded we had some awesome pizza and the best ice cream i've ever tasted by the way.
Day 4: Today, we arrived in Greece, having found a spot to sleep inside the ferry illegally (we were supposed to be on the rainy outdoor deck), last night. After we arrived, we made one of Molly's longterm dreams come true by taking a bus to a cute little beach that you will see in our pictures if this computer cooperates. We love you all, sorry this is so rushed, our train is in 20 minutes!
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day"
I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.--the white rabbit--alice in wonderland

Last day in Paris to First day in Amsterdam

So I've been letting Ben write all these blogs because I'm a little lazy & because we all know he is a superb writer. But I miss writing so here I am. Two days ago we spent our last day in Paris with a little bit of a rushed morning. We tried to sleep in as late as possible but our sweet Asian roomies decided to get up before 7, we ignored their noise for as long as possible until we forced ourselves to get up before we missed breakfast. After breakfast we checked out of our hostel and checked into our new hotel which was actually cheaper than the hostel (for good reasons). We were so exhausted from our few days of busy Paris that we crashed until 2pm. We wanted to give Versailles another chance but decided it was too much of a hassle and after walking around the city for 2 and half hours we grabbed an early dinner in a rather sketchy Chinese restuarant. We took our time eating and leisurely walked to the Louvre because after 6pm students get in for only 6 euros. Oh wait! I almost forgot... we went to the Louvre earlier that day around 4 because we heard that if your a European under the age of 26 you get in for free. As you can assume we pretended we were British and Ben used his "perfect"British accent to talk the ticket guy into letting us in for free but the ticket guy spoke perfect english and we think he knew Ben was bluffing. We laughed a lot about it and decided to come back at 6 for the cheaper price. The Louvre is so AMAZING!!! It has the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the dying slave, and just tons of old art that was endless and fascinating. We stayed there for 2-3 hours and then decided to take a nice stroll to the Eiffel Tower because it lights up at night. On our way we were obsessed with finding a Patisserie, unfortunately none were open because it was past 8pm. On the bright side we found an English speaking restuarant that sold cheap French wine, so we grabbed a bottle and headed for the romantic center of the world. When we got there we saw a good seat but we knew we didn't want to settle until we found the perfect seat. We kept looking and kept looking until finally there was this park bench that showed every detail of the Eiffel Tower with nothing to obstruct its view. We opened the bottle, sat back, and enjoyed the magic. I've never felt so in awe, it was like every dream I ever wanted to come true. I was literally in Paris at night sitting in front of the Eiffel Tower with the LOVE of my life, drinking amazing french wine....IS THIS A JOKE???? I'm so happy!
The following day we wanted to get up early but we just couldn't so we went down late for breakfast which was advertised as FREE. So we indulged in our "free"breakast and it wasn't even good..two cheap baguettes & two small croissants. When we were done the hotel manager who also served us told us it cost an entire 10 euro! We were shocked & handed him the money because we needed to pack. When we checked out of the hotel we had a "small"confrontation with the hotel manager. Well the confrontation turned into a fight and lets just say we ran out of there but we left the hotel manager feeling really guilty "for spending our only food money for the day on his rip-off of a breakfast". After that extravaganza we traveled all day to Amsterdam. We could have taken the expensive route for 52 Euro but no we decided to take the cheap route for 6 Euro and 3 extra hours of confusing Belgian trains. When we finally got to Amsterdam we were pretty amazed by the beauty of the city. Dreadlocks abound, they put mayonaise on the fries, and there are more canals than Venice.
This morning we of course slept in. Then we caught the 1pm free tour. Our guide was pretty disgusting and even though the city is beautiful and interesting he made it seem less (lets just say he had hygeine problems). We will be starting our 3 day traveling trip to Greece tomorrow, so if we do not blog its because we are still on a ferry. Sorry about the lack of pictures apparently the Dutch keep their USB's under lock and key (our pics from the Eiffel Tower are amazing so the first opportunity we have we will post them). We are finishing our day with a big meal and just taking time to get to know Amsterdam.
Love You
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
I too am not a bit tamed--I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world. --Walt Whitman

A relaxing day in paris

Oui Oui
how many of you are already laughing? We spent our second day in Paris today and were fortunate enough to see some wonderful things! We snagged four baguetts a piece this morning at breakfast and then decided to take the train to Versailles, taking the metro to the train station--so as not to repeat our marathon from yesterday. When we arrived at Saint-michel train station, however, we found out that Versailles (the palace of Louis XIV if you didn't know) was closed today...for some strange reason. Well, at this point we were already down in the center of Paris, very close to Notre Dame, so we decided to have a look. As we approached, we cried "Sanctuary" and ran for our lives as gypsies chased us into...oh sorry that was my imagination. In reality, we sat down out front and debated back and forth about whether to eat our bagguettes or take pictures (which I'm sorry to say haven't been able to make it onto our last two posts..more on that and the stinky guy later), and then when it began to pour the rain we went inside. As we wandered around the gigantic cathedral, we noticed several souvenier machines, some confessional booths (which are face-to-face now...weird), and a lot of rosary wielding old ladies...Momma Iva would have laughed a lot. Molly questioned the legitimacy of a church that felt Okay about selling souvenier medallions and Mary action figures, and I can't say I didn't feel the same. After Notre Dame, the rain had stopped and we finally devoured our snacks in its backyard with a cycling couple who made us laugh because they were both macho..and they were proud of it. We then decided to use our normal mode of transportation and walk to Sacre Cour, Paris' other famous church, in Montmartre--the trendiest and most northernly neighborhood of the city of lights. We arrived on the church's front steps and were immediately accosted by some men from Senegal who began weaving bracelets onto our wrists and then asked us to pay for them. Staying true to our stingy selves, we said no...then said no again...then had to say we didn't know where we would even find the money to eat tonight...so they went away. We got some ice cream and laughed about our white lie, and then climbed the steps to the beautiful church, where I got my first taste of holy water (not literally although I wanted to). The nuns sang like French birds and we loved laughing at all the funny people. Finally, we made our way through Montmartre and got to take some really cool pictures of normal French people on scooters, painting, or making out in an alley. The original Moulin Rouge was at the bottom of the hill, but as soon as we realized it was a strip club, we took off pretty quickly. The street around it was even more risque, so we briskly made our way out of the area and walked back to our hostel. Now we are on the computer of the smelly Chinese guy who I mentioned last night and he is sitting right outside enjoying a bottle of wine with the one who snores. Oh yeah, and we found out that "screams-in-her-sleep" is snorry boy's sister, but in all honesty they are really sweet people and have been so nice to let us use their computer. We tried to load our pictures from yesterday and today, on here, but everything was in Chinese so it was a no-go. We will back-load them in Amsterdam I promise. Hoping all is well at home...
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. --Confucius

je' m'appelle claude....ja boo beee floo.

Bonjour, comment allez-vous...everyone...
We are in Paris as of last night and have spent an amazing 36 hrs experiencing what it is to be French, or at least in France. We've had French Fries, spoken French, and French kissed...it has been tres bon!
So yesterday we left England (and I can't say I was sad to kiss the snobs at our hostel goodbye), and to do so, splurged on a metro ticket (remember our looong hike the day before?). We went through Victoria train station in the center of London, on a two hour train ride to Dover--famous for its white cliffs and being the traditional port for crossing to France. After finding an amazing deal on the ferry, thanks to our Eurail passes, we boarded the ferry...think small cruise boat complete with casino games, a restaurant, duty free shopping, etc. We ate apples from breakfast and fell fast asleep instead of indulging. After the ferry ride, we found ourselves in Calais France, a port town on the north shore, and proceeded to the train station--not by bus, as would have been the smart choice--but by...you guessed it...FOOT! We walked for about thirty minutes and finally found Gare du Calais (we thought it was a movie theater the first time we passed it) and boarded the train that left three minutes later, to Lille. From Lille train station we made our way to Paris, and now the real action of the day started. By this point, it was about 8:00 and we were both exhausted, starving, and thirsty. Due to the walking fiasco in Calais, we decided to spend the 3 euro to ride the subway to our hostel--st. christopher's. On the subway, I'm sorry to admit, I got a bit touchy and slightly nudged...Ok pushed..a frenchman (gold chain on neck and baguette in hand). He bellowed a few choice words (excuse HIS french) and then proceeded to hock a loogy at me, right there in the station! Of course I was all politeness and Christian demeanor because I've been raised right...really the nerve! Finally, we made it to the hostel, had an expensive cheeseburger each and retired to our room full of one very stinky asian, one very snory asian, one asian who screams in her sleep (no kidding) and a very nice aussie who has cool tatoos.
After a night of screaming, snoring, and stench (as I mentioned), we were happy to leave the room a bit early and load up on free carbs thanks to St. Christophers bar breakfast. While we ate, we discovered this package that looked like peach jelly on the outside but was really Chocolate heaven spread on the inside...a baguette never tasted so perfect. Of course, we stuffed several of these packages into our bag (along with several baguettes for lunch) and left on another free tour (as in previous locales). The tour was great! We were led around by Fraser from Scotland, a smoking swearing skinny man, who knew suprisingly a lot about Paris. We were able to see the Seine River, Notre Dame cathedral (I think I saw our favorite hunchback on the roof), the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and even the Louvre (which we are planning on walking through on wednesday). After our tour, Molly and I fell asleep in the shade of a statue of Winston Churchill and stayed that way until around 3:30 when we decided to see some of those wonderful monuments up close. Our first stop was the eiffel tower, and Mrs. Kathy will be happy to know that we got several amazing pictures (one actually French Kissing) in front of the icon of Paris. From there, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe--a monument that Napoleon built for himself after conquering somewhere (short man syndrome if you ask Fraser)--and took several more pictures..some of which are very triumphant. Finally, we made our way to this computer by walking...that's right we walked...I know you're suprised. It was the longest walk I have ever experienced, so long that it took a good 3 hours and brought us from one end of France's biggest city to the other. We were famished about half way and happened to find this questionable thai restaurant selling pork raviollis cooked in a microwave from the 80s with orange rice...for only 4 euros! So we split it, and although I'm sure I ate some paper and dragon skin somewhere in there, we are full and the hot sauce made it taste good...or at least spicy. We finished our walk and are now a bit slap-happy as I'm sure you can tell. Our night is about to be concluded on the banks of the Seine wearing barets and drinking champagne! au revoir mes amies.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:

Have you ever been to France?... I have travelled through several of its provinces. In some of which half the population are lunatics, whereas in others they are too cunning by half; in some parts they are quite good-natured and rather simple-minded, while in others they cultivate their wits. But wherever you go, the principal occupation is love, the second is spreading scandal, and the third is talking nonsense. --Voltaire

Brighton

hello all...
I'm quite tired at the moment and Molly's already asleep (or reading twilight maybe). I'm up preparing for our journey to Paris tomorrow via Dover port in South England. Speaking of South England, we took the hour train to Brighton Beach today, as you see in the pretty pictures, and enjoyed some time in about the most layed back way you can in up-tight England.
Once again we woke up a bit late today (just sooo tired!), and decided to go visit the only beach worth visiting in jolly old England (because we aren't too fond of the people in our hostel and wanted to keep it cheap today without hanging around with them). So, with the thought that we'd use our Britrail passes (free train travel), and have a day in the sun, we set off for Paddington station after stuffing as much breakfast as possible into our stomachs and bag. After about 40 minutes (a new record!), we arrived, only to find out that: first, London has more than one train station...and second, that Victoria is the one we should have been trying to get to. A seven mile walk in total, we finally made it to the right train and made our way to the beach. Think Huntington Beach in California without so many skateboarders, with a few more tea shops and sweaters...it was awesome! we took some sweet pictures, hung around (not in) the water for a while and had a heart-to-heart on the rocky beach, and then walked down the boardwalk where vendors of every color and size were selling knick-knacks. Finally, our hunger got the better of us and we found a 2 for 6.95£ deal at Yate's restaurant..it was...good. Now gratefully full, we made our way back to London, rewalked the 7 miles and here I sit, exhaustedly poking out the ingredients of this blog post. Wow I must love you guys. No, I do. Tomorrow we're headed to Paris via a train, a ferry, and another train and I'm anticipating messing things up somehow so pray for me.
Ben&Molly
Quote for the Day
The whole strength of England lies in the fact that the enormous majority of the English people are snobs --George Bernard Shaw

London

We woke up and got a filling breakfast before we headed off for our big day in London. While ben went to exchange money I decided to grab 4 Croissants & 4 apples from our free breakfast line & shove them in our bag for a later snack. After breakfast we hopped on the tube (the subway) to Hyde Park where we joined a free tour of London, the royal side. Through the tour we were able to see the changing of the guards, Buckingham Palalce, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and Westminster Abbey. There were many stops along the way where we learned the history of London's Royalty. We even got to see the home of King Henry VIII, Winston Chrchill, and Nell Gwyn.
When the tour ended we decided to cross the River Thames and look for the tube to go to Cheap side where the Globe Theater is located. Once we reached Cheap side we walked through a street of perfection. There was food on every corner & a market that had free samples of cheese, breads & dips, more cheese, & things I've never heard of. Ben got his first taste of Turkish Delight & it was beyond expectations, lets just say Heaven in your mouth. After we walked through the market we came to a river front sidewalk that led to the Globe Theater. After OOOing & Awwwing we went in to get tickets for Romeo & Juliet but unfortunately the show was at 2pm & not at 7pm like we thought. Even though it was a bummer we chose to use the money towards better things like food and MORE turkish delights!
After filling our hungry bellies full of Paela & Chorizo, the Croissants, & the Turkish Delight we decided to go to a little place called Camden. Camden is basically a mix between China Town, The Highlands, and every punkers dream. There were crazy vendors on every street corner, many selling t-shirts, my favorite was a shirt from the movie The Goonies, it was a picture of Sloth and it said Sloth Loves Chunk! It reminded me of home & made me laugh a little. We got tired of being harrassed on the street so we slipped into a bookstore and read random book covers until we were tired and decided to head back to the hostel.
London is pretty great but if you ever come here be prepared for big crowds, busy people, and lots of tourists. The tube is full of pushy people & it is very simialr to NYC but a tad bit busier. A funny thing is the performers in the tube. We heard a Jamican style man playing Bob Marley 'No Woman No Cry' today & it made us laugh because we thought about that one night Ben & Adam decided to play the guitar & the bongos at 3 in the morning singing No Woman No Cry at the top of their lungs (Sam & Carley remeber it too well)!
We like our hostel in the sense that the atmosphere is nice, the beds are warm, the breakfast is Free, but on the downside the people we have met thus far here are WEIRD!!! We think there are like third graders staying here or something because we see young kids running around everywhere. The showers & bathrooms are all co-ed & the people aren't very nice about it. Plus Ben doesn't like dropping logs while girls are in the same room as him. Overall everything is AMAZING! We are honestly having the time of our lives & we love to laugh at all the random new people we meet. We migth head to Brighton Beach tomorrow or we might just sleep in and check London's east side, who knows!
We love you
Ben&Molly

P.S. The picture at the top where Molly looks CRAZY is for her dad, he wanted her to get a pic acting goofing infront of the guards. Unfortunately they changed the rules and this was as close as she could get. It was still fun! Love you pops!!!

Quote for the Day:
So this was told by our tour guide today..."Winston Churchill has had a few too many brandies at a very ritzy party, and one of the wives of a member of Parliament has just been snubbed after trying to talk politics with him. Offended, she says, Sir if I was your wife I would poison your tea! Churchill looks at her for a moment and then slurs in response, If I was your husband, madame, I would drink that tea!" --Churchill/ Anna the tour guide

the bird and the baby

Oi, cheers everyone,
Still in England, in fact we've just had our first real day in London and it was great! This is Big Ben speaking...and I want to start off by thanking everyone who's admitted to reading this thing, and kept in contact, because we would be a bit homesick by now without that! That's not to say we're hurting for Louisville after only a week and some, but it's getting a little empty in my belly and everyone speaks differently...We just miss you guys.
Now that the mushy part is over, here's what happened on thursday the 21st of May. Let's go backwards for a change. We've just entered the hostel and plopped down at the computer, which is free, a great change. After checking our facebooks and getting several encouraging, gushing messages, I'm writing the blog and Molly is...wait a minute...oh still looking at facebook. ha. Ok so before we got to the hostel, we had a 3 mile walk from Paddington station (the namesake of paddington bear). During the rather cold walk(we forgot sweatshirts), we saw a fox on the sidewalk, and didn't get lost for once! We were coming from Paddington because we had taken an hour long train ride from Oxford --the famous college that I convinced everyone I know I was going to for a while. ha again. Anyway, at Oxford, we walked around the oldest college town in the world (mentioned in the Canterbury Tales for crying out loud), saw a LOT of preppy boys that looked like Prince William, and ended up at the Eagle and Child Pub. The "Bird and the baby", as it's known to Oxfordians, is this quaint little pub on gyles street boasting mostly beer battered things to eat, and bad beer and things to drink. Fish and chips flowed like milk and honey, and we were even able to sneak a peak at the Rabbit Room, the famous meeting spot of the Inklings (C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, etc) during the 20s and 30s. I was in heaven. Before we went to Oxford, we slept in until about 1 oclock--thanks to running all over in the rest of Great Britain and Ireland--with only a brief wake up for free breakfast. I'm a little confused at this point, but I think that covers it mostly.
watch out for ballocks
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse -C.S. Lewis

Unexpected Friends & Stonehenge Rocks

Hello love,
So we slept in on tuesday & left Scotland for Bath England at around 11 am. We pretty much traveled on the train all day until 6p.m. When we got there all we wanted to do was eat, so we checked into our hostel as quickly as possible. When we went to our room we met 2 new roommates. The guy was Dan, a professional musician that lives in New Orleans. He was super talkative and hilarious! The girl was Zoe, a Canadian who has been traveling Europe for 3 months. She was totally helpful & gave us tons of tips for the road. After meeting them we grabbed a bite to eat at Solo, this posh Itlaian place that was surprisingly inexpensive & tasty! After eating we hung out in our hostel's lounge where we met up with Dan & Zoe. For the rest of the night we laughed & made jokes, exchanged stories, & pretty much just had a blast getting to know great people. We took the party up to our room because we were all in the same place & laughed about our other roommmates, a couple from California & 2 mystery girls that Dan thought would definitely be the loves of his life, judging by their suitcases (straighteners and twilight books strewn about). Turns out the girls weren't the love of his life & we laughed until we finally fell asleep. We all woke up at the same time & ate breakfast together.
The tour to stonehenge is 14 pounds for the bus ride and 6 pounds to enter the actual site. We decided that was overpriced and we wanted a cheaper way. So instead, this morning, we took a train to a Salisbury, which turned out to be a cute little city, then we hopped onto a bus to Aimesbury. At Aimesbury we decided to walk a little over 2 miles along a highway to Stonehenge. We saved about 20 pounds and we got to enjoy the beautiful country side of England while we walked.
(Ben here now): Stonehenge basically made me drool because it was awesome and reminded me of every nerdy book on Merlin that I've ever read! Basically Stonehenge rocks!(PUN INTENDED). As we approached the 12000 year old stone circle, surrounded by wooly sheep and smelly tourists, you could feel the magic in the air, and after the two mile walk Molly mentioned, we were happy to pay the 12 pounds to get in. As we walked around the circle we were provided with an audio guide that told us all about the history and the make up of the ancient site. Apparently, the 45 ton stones (the weight of 16 elephants) were either carted all the way from Wales to Aimesbury in southern England by prehistoric strong men, OR as I choose to believe, they were brought there as a commemoration of an ancient battle by Merlin himself! They line up with the sun, and on the summer solstice, create this magical shaft of light that would make a bald man's hairs stand on end. (see pics below)
After Stonehenge, we made our way back to Salisbury by bus. As we walked through the town Ben decided he was hungry for everything. So we got a luch special at Dominos and split a 7 inch pizza that only cost 2 pounds. He then decided he was still hungry and made me stop in Mr. Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. We got a chocolate banana and a bunch of gummies that added up to be 1 pound. That candy shop was pretty much the most amazing place we have ever been! We had some time to kill before we headed back to Bath so we layed on the neatly cut grass in front of the Cathedral. All the locals go there to hang out and it was very entertaining. We relaxed & got some sun for about 30 minutes & took the train back to Bath. Once we were in BAth we got our bags and got back on the train to London. On the way to the station we had the chance to see Dan again & say our goodbyes & good-lucks.
We are in London now and our hostel is so AMAZING!!! It has free internet, free breakfast, all hard wood floors, double beds, cool people. We got a sandwich for dinner for only 2 pounds which is nice.
We are not sure who is reading this because the blog will not let us read comments or allow comments to be posted so if you have any words of encouragement or just that you're reading this thing & we are not writing it in vain give us a shout on facebook!
We LOVE you all so much,
Ben&Molly

Quote for the Day:
Don't be afraid to go on the odd wild goose chase, that's what wild geese are for! -- Bear Grylls.

Story Time

Hello All,
Today we spent a rainy Monday in Edinburgh, but loved every minute of it. We started the day with an 80 Pence breakfast at our hostel, which consisted of really thick milk covering some cocoa-puffish cereal. After that, Molly fell back asleep for a little bit and I dove into a Bear Grylls book that I am loving and hoping I can get him to sign when he calls me to hang out in England. After our "nap", we left Castle Rock to go see if we could find some cheap knick-knacks, and ended up finding a free walking tour that was led by a man in a pink hat named Grant. Cheerful and dramatic, Grant guided us through Edinburgh's history, it's architecture, and even it's ghosts, leaving us with some amazing stories, two of which I'll share now.

Our first story is about a little white dog named Greyfriar Bobby (see pic). Bobby was owned by a nightwatchman at Greyfriar cemmetary, who aquired him because at that time, nightwatchmen were required to own and be accompanied by a dog. Even though Bobby was a tiny little fluff, he followed the watchman through the cemmetary loyally and until his owner died lived happily as a ferocious police companion. When the watchman died, two years later, Bobby was left to wander the graveyard. He sat on his master's grave everyday for a week, and then a month, and then fourteen years, eventually dying--having stayed with his master in Greyfriars every day of his life. Now Bobby is commemorated with the statue that you see (the most photographed one in Edinburgh), and a gravestone that reads "May his loyalty inspire us all".

Next, we have a story that is a bit less PG. Maggie Dickinson was a poor, but reasonably upstanding citizen, when her husband left her and she was forced to find a job in the house of a local nobelman. She took a liking to the nobelman's son, who also liked her, and eventually became pregnant by him. To save herself from certain punishment (for adultry), she hid the pregnancy for seven months, continuing to work hard in the nobelman's house. The work soon wore on Maggie and when her pregnancy progressed too far to stand it, she miscarried. Maggie took the body to the Leithe River to toss her dead baby in, but could not do it and dug a shallow grave by the River's shore. The next day, with Scottish weather being what it is, the grave melted away to reveal the child's body, and Maggie's secret was eventually discovered. She was arrested and condemned to hang for adultry. The story goes on to recount how at her hanging, she was pronounced dead, loaded into a herse, and as the herse driver sped her to the graveyard, she sat up exclaiming that she was not dead. Because Scottish law supports double jeopardy, she was allowed to go free--eventually marrying the nobelman's son, bearing him four children and living for forty more years. We ate dinner in the pub that she went on to own, tonight.

Tonight we're hanging out in the hostel with everyone here, and are hoping to make it to Bath tomorrow, if the trains of Britain permit.
We love you all so much.
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day:
rain rain go away--children's song.
see pics below***

Edinburgh

Hey Everybody!
I am currently sitting in the "quiet lounge" of our new hostel, Castle rock. The rest of the hostel seems to be dedicated to drinking, watching movies, kissing on the couch, drinking, pool, or sipping. Not kidding. But in all honesty, we really love it here, it has suits of armour on the stairs, paintings of dragons and other scottish things, and even a movie room (which I've already mentioned).
We arrived in Scotland today after a bus ride, a ferry ride (which we almost snuck onto but got caught because I'm a chicken), and two train rides (which we actually snuck onto because we're awesome). Edinburgh turned out to be the most amazing place either of us has been thus far, and if we hadn't have been really tired and hungry when we arrived, I would have probably danced and maybe bought a kilt or something. Hopefully that will come tomorrow. we explored the city as we walked to our hostel, which is across from Edinburgh Castle, then ventured down to a little shop that claimed to be "the best family owned restaurant in Scotland" it was great...Burgers as big as my head (and we all know that's pretty huge). After that we went and climbed this mountain called Arthur's seat, (I'm assuming like King Arthur's throne, but someone's bum may have inspired the name for all we know). The hike took about two hours, and we got to experience some amazing views including 360 degrees of Edinburgh skyline, some huge cliff faces and a nice glimpse of the ocean. I even got to rock climb a bit which was great. Chocolate was a great capstone for the night, as we stopped and bought a "take away" brownie from a local shop, and took it away--to our hostel--for a snack while watching a movie. We now find ourselves using a drunk girl's laptop, sitting next to an asian guy. Tomorrow we are planning on sleeping in for the first time this trip and then taking our time exploring this amazing city.
We love you all and apologize that we cannot figure out how to view your comments...or maybe you just don't care to comment...anyway
Ben&Molly

Quote for the day:
FFFRRRREEEEEDDDDDOOOOOMMMMMM! --William Wallace

see pics at the bottom too****