Across the Pond: Pictures and Stories for Collette

Last day in Switzerland

2008-06-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Last day in Interlaken, we decided we should go out with a bang. Five days from now, I'll be back in the United States. No we didn't jump out of an airplane. After considering it for about 3 seconds, we concluded that you can skydive anywhere in the world (and for a lot cheaper most places than here). That being said, we set out to do something that was specific to the area, "Canyoning." It is really hard to explain, so I decided to upload about 15 pictures from today to help me explain it. At the beginning, you pick out your equipment. They identify you by the random names on your helmet. Brian and I decided to pick each other's helmets to make it as embarassing as possible (or funny, I guess). I picked "Dumbo" for Brian, and he picked "Robocop" for me. That explains the names on our helmets. It was incredible, to say the least. Definitely was a fitting way to end my last weekend in Europe. We're wiped out, headed back to Rome tomorrow morning... Here are the pics.

This is everyone putting on their wet suits. It was about 55 degrees when we started this morning at 9 am. We drove an hour to a canyon named "Grimsel." It took a while to put these bad boys on. They kept us as warm as anything could. In the end, you're swimming in a river that feeds directly from a glacier, there's really no staying warm there.

This is everyone who went on our trip. One of our guides was a skier on the Swiss National Team. These guys were pretty intense. Here, they are telling us about the first part of the trek, rapelling down a 200 foot rock face into the canyon. I've repelled on a wooden wall before. I learned today that wood walls of 40 feet do not compare to 200 foot straight drops of granite mountainside.

Trust me, as soon as this picture was over, my hands were back on the rope. I'm about halfway down here, the photographer zoomed in really close to get my "I'm scared but trying not to appear that way so early in the trip" face.

This is a picture of the wall we rapelled from the bottom.

Task number two, "rock slide" down this waterfall into the water. I didn't really understand until the guy pushed me onto the rock (see below).

This is the mid-rock slide pose. This was one of the smaller slides we did. In total, I would guess there were about six rock slides on the trip.

Next we came to this waterfall which had no slide. Therefore, we clearly had to jump. Below is the action shot of the jump.

I would like to point out the precision in my form as well as the concentration on my face.

Now it starts to get a little ridiculous. We came to another rock slide, and this time, our two guides said we were going to "helicopter." That consisted of one of them grabbing my head, the other grabbing my legs, and throwing me onto this rock, spinning like a helicopter. I think I'm inverted on this picture.

Next came zipline number one. This was cool because it dipped underneath this rock that made it look like you were going to hit it until the last second. I posed really quick before the free fall.

This is Luke and I. Luke is the guide who is on the swiss national team. We decided to strike a pose before the biggest jump of the trip, a 35 foot jump into the base of this waterfall. We were told to jump "out" because the waterfall didn't start until about 10 feet horizontally, so we had to clear some rocks. I made it, barely. Ok kidding, I think I made it just fine.

This is proof that I actually jumped. Maybe one of the biggest jumps into water of my life. Definitely top five.

Next came a zip line where we controlled our release. The guides tied a special knot onto our harness so we could hold our own weight easily.

This is right after I slid off the ledge. I'm holding on here.

And here I let go. Everyone was attempting the backflip, so I decided I should try and fit in.

This is my "oh my gosh we've been doing this for two hours and I just realized how cold the water is" face. Or maybe it's the "that was awesome but I can't wait to get rid of this wedgie" face. Not sure.

Picture of our group after we were finished.

Brian and I went for the head-butt action shot.

Walking out of the canyon into the valley to eat and change into dry clothes, what a day's work.

Blogging from the Alps

2008-06-13T04:57:00.000-07:00

Arrived in beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland last night at about 8 pm. We left Rome at 6:30 am. There were about four trains that were running late, plus at one point, we got on the wrong train and rode it 60 miles in the wrong direction before someone told us. Turns out Genova and Genevria are different places, and although this could be misleading, the train people decided that trains to both destinations should leave at exactly the same time all day every day. But it's all ok, we're here now.

Our hostel is really great. It is part of a larger resort, so we get to use all of the resort's facilities even though we're paying 18 euros a night to stay here. There's wireless internet in the really large common room. There's also a great olympic size swimming pool which I'm attaching a picture of.

The view here is amazing. We're nestled between two lakes in a valley in the alps (Interlaken means "between-lakes" in German). Apparently they speak German here, not "Swiss." Swiss is not a language, I've been told. I guess "American" isn't a language either... Everything here (including food) is expensive. However, the exchange rate is decent. The dollar is actually stronger than the Swiss Franc.

I wanted to fit in with the locals, so I donned the traditional headgear.

This is the river that connects the two lakes of Interlaken

This is the pool behind our hostel. Check out the view!

This is the crazy different kinds of money we deal with. Upper left is US dollars of course. Bottom is Swiss Francs, and Upper Right is Euros. Money never looked so funny...

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I wrote this post, and then went out into Interlaken a little longer. At some point during the day, we decided it would be a good idea to jump off a mountain. They call it "the canyon swing," but I think it in no way resembled a swing. I've included some pictures and a couple videos to prove how stupid I am. The jump was 85 meters, or about 300 feet. The free-fall was incredible, and the swing afterwards was a great view. It had just finished raining, and the sun poked through the clouds. Couldn't imagine a better view. I knew I wasn't going to skydive or anything here, citing the high expenses (and using that to cover up a little fear). I like this as a nice extreme compromise though.

As we were driving by, the lady shouted "and this is where you'll be jumping." My mouth dropped.

This is the peak we started driving towards, I love that you can't see the top.

This guy jumped first, and he had no reservations.

After watching the first guy, I had some reservations myself.

This is the video I took of Brian jumping (from the top). He carried his camera along with him, a risk I decided not to take (heck, I was already jumping off a mountain into a river gorge...)

Once Brian got to the bottom, it was my turn. He kindly took this video for me.

And if all of those pictures and videos weren't enough, there was this guy on a harness in the middle of the gorge who took pictures for us. I don't remember much about the jump, but these pictures made me laugh. This thing was really high.. I mean really high. Enjoy the pics, I'll post something else when we get back to Rome Sunday (six more days left in Europe!)

Excited for the Swiss Alps

2008-06-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

We’re headed to Interlaken, Switzerland this weekend. There is a huge festival there (the Greenfield Festival if you feel like Google-ing it) with bands like Linkin Park and the Offspring. We probably won't go to the shows, but it'll be a cool atmosphere to say the least. I figured I'd throw some pictures on here that I've stolen offline so you have an idea of where we're headed this weekend, I'll try and post some more while we're there!

(more photos from the trip, click below)

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/brycestuck/Study%20Abroad/?albumview=grid

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/brycestuck/?albumview=grid

Hanging with "His Holiness"

2008-06-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

Saw the Pope this week, we went out for some pizza and gelato. We discussed the war in Iraq, Barak Obama, and the Sex and the City movie. His thoughts are "bad, bad, and worse," in case you wondered.

But seriously, we went to the papal audience on Wednesday. Basically, 10,000 people show up in St. Peter's Square to get blessed by the pope (or Il Padre, as they say). It was sort of like a rock concert, which was surreal. Also made me wonder if these people go this crazy in church? I doubt it. It was scorching hot and sunny that day, so I was a little uncomfortable. We dressed up all nice in our cleanest clothes for the pope (Yes mom, my shirt and pants were ironed. Ok, they weren't "ironed," but they also weren't wrinkled). I was really glad I went, but was glad it was over when it was. The pope spoke in five different languages when we were there, and some Cardinal announced the University of Dayton School of Business was in attendance, which was kind of cool. Most of us are staying in Rome this weekend to save a little dough. My roommate Brian and I are headed to Interlaken, Switzerland next Thursday morning (early, so basically midnight Wednesday in the states). We're really looking forward to the trip, but also looking forward to this weekend in Rome. Went to the Vatican today by myself to walk around and watch tourists. Realized when Katie was leaving that we didn't see "La Pieta" (Michelangelo's famous sculpture) last time we were there because we rushed out to see the Sistine Chapel before it closed. So I went back today. I didn't bring my camera, so here's a picture I got off the internet, in case you're unfamiliar with the sculpture.

It was really cool to see, that's for sure. Apparently, they're shooting the sequel to the Da Vinci code in Rome right now, and this girl from UD saw Tom Hanks today. He cut himself on set (according to the papers), so filming stopped temporarily. How cool is that? I haven't seen anyone famous besides the pope yet. This picture above was taken by a guy from UD who was sitting next to me. Look how close the pope got to us! That's all for now, I'm sorry for the distance between posts, I'll try and come up with some cool stuff this weekend, maybe go hunting for Tom Hanks...

Back to the Week Schedule

2008-06-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Back from Florence!

Took a ton of pictures, and rather than uploading them slowly on the blog, I switched things up a little bit.. The first link is studying abroad so far (Capri, Sorrento, Positano, and Florence).. The second link is the 113 best pics from the trip with Katie. Feel free to peruse whenever, the website (photobucket) is like a picture blog site, and has different ways to view the pictures.. Feel free to play around with it and email me if you're confused.

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/brycestuck/Study%20Abroad/?albumview=grid

http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm317/brycestuck/?albumview=grid

Just booked train tickets to go to Interlaken, Switzerland June 12th-15th. It is known as the "extreme sports capital of the world" and is very popular with people who are reckless. Looking forward to going with just my roommate Brian, the last weekend before I come back home. Pretty homesick over here, but still looking forward to Switzerland!

Firenze (Florence) at a glance

2008-05-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hey from Florence! Quick post today and a couple pictures. Yesterday we saw the duomo, it was awesome. This morning I saw the statue of David by myself, and it was even better. This thing is seventeen feet tall. It dominates the entire hallway it is in. Apparently you aren't supposed to take pictures, but I snapped six before anyone told me. Oops. Headed back to Rome tomorrow. I'll post more then.

Weekend Recap

2008-05-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

For whatever reason, pictures were uploading really fast today. I uploaded about eight of the weekend in Sorrento. I'll try and narrarate the weekend's activities below each picture.

This is the convertible taxi we took while we were in Capri. Every taxi on this island is a convertible. The ride wasn't too expensive, five of us rode from Anacapri (the central market in the island) back to Marina Grande, where we rented our boat.

This is Brian, Kelly, and I on the first day in Sorrento. We were winding our way down the mountain towards the coast (on our scooters) and saw a nice spot for a picture. We were impressed that Kelly kept up with us on the scooters and that Andrew, instead of Kelly, got in the scooter wreck. That was a good day.

This is me diving into the blue waters off the coast of Capri. Action shot brought to you by our sponsors, American Eagle (see the outline of my body), and Old Spice. But really, someone took this while I dove in. After this, we swam through the "green grotto" which is a cave where everything around you looks green. We took an underwater camera with us, but have to develop the film on our own. Hopefully those pictures turn out. This was one of the highlights of the weekend. We rented three boats to take about 18 of us around the island. They were comfy and the "captains" spoke very little English. Most people told me it was the best part of their weekend, hands down.
This is at the "English Inn" in Sorrento. We found a bar/pub that plays American music all night, so clearly Dayton people were all over it. I didn't stay here too long, but I did stay long enough to see a sixty year old Italian woman's birthday party. She came over and tried to ask us if we would help take the decorations down, but Andrew decided to give her a birthday kiss instead. It was very funny, and she ended up buying Andrew a bottle of wine. Funny fact, that was the second sixty year old Andrew had kissed that day (he kissed some housekeeping lady by the coast earlier, for literally no reason).

This is me at Pompei. In the background is THE Mount Vesuvius. I was imagining what it would be like to be buried under thirty feet of volcanic ash in this picture. That is my pondering face.
This is everyone who rented the boat with us in Positano on Friday. We got to drive this boat (see me at the wheel in the background!?). It was awesome. We drove out to these three islands off the coast, and they turned out to be the islands called "Siren" from the Odyssey. There's a little nugget for the literary buffs. Anyway, we rented this boat and drove around for a while. No one wanted to jump in except me, so we pulled to a stop in the ocean, only to see that there were a ton of jelly fish around. A girl from UD had already been stung that day, so we moved the boat two or three more times, and at every stop, we saw jellyfish everywhere. I jumped anyway, I'll only be able to do that once. Didn't get stung, and it was incredible.

This is my famous scooter. I got the girliest baby blue scooter they had. Although by the time I was done with her, she was fully intact. This was maybe the smartest fifteen euros I've spent in Italy so far. We had so much fun. Brian took a video of me driving this thing, so maybe I'll try and upload that this week. It was pretty safe (Mom), because they made us wear helmets. Finally got the hang of it after two hours, I'd love to try riding one in the States, where people actually respect the laws.

The final picture is Brian, Andrew, and I at Pompei. Vesuvius is in the background. It was a really beautiful day. We walked around here on Friday morning (with a tour guide who was very informative) for about two or three hours. I was very ready to not walk anymore after this. I learned a lot, and kind of hoped Vesuvius would erupt while we were there. The last eruption was in 1940, and all the experts say that the volcano is far overdue for another eruption.

So that was the weekend. I hope the pictures did it some justice. If I see that other people have better pictures, I'll attempt to put those up. Another week of classes here. A nice thing though is that I only have one class every day. People are talking about going to Florence this weekend, and I might jump on board for that. Haven't seen the pope yet either, maybe I'll see what he's doing tomorrow morning. Gotta go eat, thanks for reading!

Still in Sorento, no pictures yet

2008-05-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

After seeing six comments on the post two days ago, I feel bad not posting again.

Today we went to capri. I think I could easily say it is the most beautiful place I've ever been in my entire life. It is an island off the coast of Italy, and is just breathtaking. We got there at 11 am (about 15 of us went over), and took a bus to the 'centro' markets in the middle of the island. We then took a convertible taxi back down to the marina, which was crazy. We rented these two boats to take us all around the island. The boats had beds covered in beach towels, so we could lay on the boat as it took us around for two hours. We swam in a grotto (cave) and Brian took pictures with his underwater camera. I'm loving this weekend trip, but am definitely worn out.

The island of Capri was gorgeous. Everything was really expensive, so we didn't eat there or anything. We're back in Sorrento now, resting and showering before dinner. The Italian soccer league championship is tonight, and Roma is in the game! We're hoping to find a restaurant where we can watch, but we'll see. Everything is expensive here. I can't imagine how much money I would be spending if I drank with everyone else. I'm glad I don't, I can experience more that way (and remember it!!!) We met a few people from Ohio today, which is always fun. I hope I can post pictures tomorrow back in Rome, I have some crazy ones, and a video of me on the scooter. Madness. I'm being just as safe as the Italians mom. Gramma's Martie and Rose, I'm taking in the sights and taking pictures to tell you all about it when I get back. Grandpa Bob, I'll never forget some of the sights and smells... Never. Trey, if you listen hard enough, I'm yelling from across the Mediteranean, Atlantic, East Coast, and Midwest at you. Stop committing so many errors. You know you miss my aggressive base running. I'd say something here to Andy, but he is clearly too busy in Florida to take a second for a break :)

More on the trip as soon as I can!

Sorrento

2008-05-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today we got to Sorrento, Italy, which is about 3 hours south of Rome on the coast of the Mediterranean. This place is beautiful. I'm attempting to upload pictures now, but am at a shady internet cafe, so we'll see what happens. We went to the beach (which was rocky) and swam in the sea for a little while. Then we walked back up the cliffs to the city of Sorrento and rented mo-peds, or vespa scooters. It was a ridiculous amount of fun. We rented them for three hours, and it only cost fifteen euros. I didn't crash mine, which was a good thing, and more than I could say for my friend Andrew, who hit a street sign and a wall. He won't tell us how much he has to pay in damages, but I think it was pretty significant. After he wrecked, two of them headed back so Brian and I were left with our scooters. We headed south down the coast towards Positano, and winded through the mountains on our scooters. It was so fun. People here drive like maniacs, there are no traffic rules, everyone passes eachother at will, and you could have cars passing in the wrong lane with no warning or consequence. It was so fun, and after a couple hours, I think we got the hang of it. People are going out to dinner now, so I think we're going to try and catch up with them, this place is gorgeous, I hope the pictures work. More tomorrow, we're headed to Pompeii.

This picture took twenty minutes to upload, but is an aerial view of Sorrento. The mountains in the back are where Brian and I drove the scooters.

More pictures tomorrow hopefully!

Finishing classes and looking forward to the weekend

2008-05-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

So it's Wednesday and my third day of classes (and first week) is over. We head to Sorrento (in southern Italy) this weekend as a group. The University sponsors one trip on the weekend, and it's this weekend. I hear Sorrento is warmer than Rome (it's been raining ever since Katie left on Sunday) and there are beaches there.

My roommate Brian and I are talking about renting mo-peds and cruising around down there. We want to fit in, so we're going to try and hit as many Americans as possible (just kidding). My classes are good so far. It's difficult to squeeze two classes that are normally three months long into five weeks. We were in class for 7 hours the first day and 8.5 yesterday. Luckily, we just have 2 and a half hours today, a light day before we leave tomorrow.

Different people are taking different combinations of classes here, so other people have class from 2-7pm today. Luckily, I'm not one of them. I bought stuff to make beef quesadillas at the supermarket. I'm 100% sure that I purchased ground beef, but it looked like it does in America, so we're taking a chance for dinner tonight. Our stovetop is one that you turn on the gas and have to light yourself with a lighter. This has been a constant source of comedy for my roommates. Usually, they come back late and decide to make eggs (scrambled eggs are universal) but cannot figure out how to light the stove. I can hear every word from my room, and it's kind of a nice side entertainment.

We don't have much television here. There is a small TV in our dining room that has maybe five channels. One of them is CNN in English, but it isn't on all the time, a little confusing.

I'm bringing my camera to Sorrento this weekend, hopefully I'll have some visually stimulating images for the blog next week. I feel like after posting pictures, a blog post with just words leaves a little to be desired.

Getting Settled and Saying Goodbye

2008-05-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday in Roma. Come to think of it, I guess it's Sunday in America as well, just not as late... Katie left Europe today, and fittingly it rained as she departed. We barely made it to the airport in time, and I'm not even positive she made it on the flight. Last I saw, she was sprinting off with some guy from American Airlines. I think he took care of her, which is a relief.

I'm back at the Residence, waiting to use the stove to cook a hot dog. I don't know how interesting the blog will be if Katie isn't here. I'll update it with pictures of weekend trips, but I don't think I'll update it daily. I can call people more easily now, so I'll try and catch up with some people on the phone...

Some roomates and I are headed to the Hard Rock Cafe to watch Game 7 of the Cavs vs. Celtics playoff series. Should be a good time, I miss American sports a ton...

As a "sign-off" for the trip with Katie, I think I'm going to upload a ton of photos of stuff we saw, stuff we loved, stuff we hated, stuff that made us laugh, stuff that confused us... Enjoy the pics, thanks for reading, pray for Katie's safe travel.

this was taken as we were wandering around Rome, it was a sweet street, and we kept trying to take a picture with Katie on my back, but since we had no one to take the picture, we settled for this pose

my wingspan = a smart car

katie and I at la piazza di san pietro (st. peter's square)

Under the Arc de Triumph in Paris... Derf asked who's Triumph it was celebrating, I heard some British people talking about Napoleon, so I'm gunna go ahead and assume they were right

This is St. Michel church, just up the river from Notre Dame.

Me and the pretty girl found a stranger to take our picture on a bridge over the Seine

This is Katie and a moose... or a deer... or an elk... She asked me not to put this picture online... sorry katie :) I had to

our good friend Mona

For a short while, Katie and I posed like statues for fun

my turn

You lose track of what day it is in Europe.. easily

2008-05-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

So today is Saturday, and it's been about a week since I last posted. We left France (which was SO fun) and got to Italy. We stayed at this cool bed and breakfast, but they had no internet, and we didn't really stop to go to an internet cafe, there was too much to see in the city.. I'll post some pics and give some quick highlights to the week.

Before we left France: We went to see Notre Dame and St. Sulpice (from the Da Vinci Code). They were pretty cool. Then we saw the church of the Sacre Couer, or Sacred Heart. It was so beautiful. I lit a candle for Gramma Martie and we watched about three hundred people as they sat on the steps and overlooked the entire city of Paris. It was really awesome.

We then walked around Montmartre, which is supposedly the most romantic neighborhood in Paris. It was really nice, and we stopped for an overpriced dinner. It was ok, not as good as Le Marmite, the best restaurant ever.

We ate some gelato on the steps of the Sacred Heart and then went back to the hotel. The next day was our last day/travel day/craziest day of perhaps my entire life. Long story short, we were late for our plane and they still let us on. Very thankful for that. Before we left though, we went to the Gardens of Touilleries (pretty cool) and the Orsay Museum. At Orsay, we saw a couple famous paintings, including Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

Once in Rome, we went to the Coliseum the first day. We don't really know much about it, but it was cool to see. They charge you a ton of euros to go into any attraction in Rome. The upside to that is that there aren't that many attractions, because the city itself is really pretty. We didn't stay in the prettiest part of the city, so we didn't see "beautiful Rome" until yesterday.

Thursday we went to the Vatican. I would say this was our best day in Rome. We went to St. Peter's Square (Piazza di San Pietro), inside St. Peter's Basilica, up to the top of the dome (where I took pics I'll paste below), and into the Vatican Museums. Part of the Vatican Museums was the SISTINE CHAPEL. You had to walk about an hour and a half through twenty museums before you got to the Sistine Chapel, it's the Vatican's way of making sure you REALLY want to see it. And we did. You can't take any pictures in there, but Katie and I stared at the ceiling for at least a half hour. It was truly beautiful. We've seen nineteen nuns in Rome so far, I've been keeping a close count. I don't want Katie to go, but she insists that her body will shut down if she doesn't have Applebees in the next 48 hours. Ok, so she didn't say that, but I wish I had some boneless buffalo wings right now.

We walked around Rome for five hours straight yesterday, covering at least half of the city. We saw the Trevi Fountain, Circus Maximus, and the Pantheon (we saw a ton of other stuff I can't spell too).

We've eaten loads of gelato, and I had whipped cream on mine last night, it was sooo good.

this is a statue of a baby strangling a duck at the Vatican...
the first car looks like a Tonka truck

this is Katie and I on top of the cupola of St. Peter's Basilica

This is the picture I took of St. Peter's Square, it looks like a postcard

I took this picture for John and Sean, but then Kate asked about speedos, so yes, I have seen a few

This is Katie and I at the Coliseum

Day Five: Hello France

2008-05-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

So we got in late to Paris, people associated with international flights don't seem to be too keen on schedules or keeping to them. Regardless, we got to Paris about midnight two nights ago and had our first "crisis." We got to the metro station (similar to London's underground, Paris' is a subway called the Metro), and the machines were in French to sell us tickets. No problem, we hit a little icon and bam, we've got English. So we go to buy some tickets, and they don't take Euros... like.. the cash. They say they'll accept the coins (euros come in one and two euro coins as well), but we didn't have any of those. No big deal, right? I mean, we've got credit cards. We try those, but the reader won't read them. Now Katie starts to get a little exasperated. She was right, the language barrier would prove to be difficult. We aimlessly walked around for about thirty minutes, trying to figure out what to do, not being able to read any signs, and finally we asked a guy if he could speak english. He spoke very little, but pointed us to an information desk about a half mile down the terminal where a little spoke enough english to help us. Then we got on the metro, found out our directions we received were bad, and it took another hour to get to the right hotel.

We slept in pretty late, seeing as we had about 10 hours of combined sleep the first four nights combined, and ventured out into Paris. Before we went out though, we decided to take the hotel manager's recommendation for lunch, and here's what we got.

that was katie's salad.. she loved it

this was my half-chicken, it was the most delicious thing i've eaten outside of America, and rivals most things I've eaten at home...

So our first meal in France was awesome, seriously we talked about it the rest of the day. After eating, we ran into an American couple (older people) at the restaurant. They were from Florida and visiting Paris before they went to see their son, who was studying in Rome. Their son's roomate was Tony Blair's daughter. First of all, co-ed roomates are funny to me, but to have the former prime-minister of England's daughter as your roommate would be CRAZY.

After talking with them, we went to the Louvre. This is the biggest museum on the planet. OK, so I don't know that for sure, I'm just saying. It was about five football fields long by five football fields wide. There is so much famous stuff there I cannot begin to explain it, so I will show you pictures.

This is in front of I.M. Pei's glass Pyramid, which is actually the entrance to the Louvre

oh and this little gal here is the mona lisa, found her hanging out with no one even remotely trying to see her!

ok so I lied, there were two hundred people trying to see her, but Katie got close! (see below)

Katie just hanging out with Mona...

this is me next to a giant cup

I'd upload more pictures of the cool stuff (I think Katie and I took about 200 combined at the Louvre), but it takes about a minute to upload each picture, and I have little patience. So I'll continue to talk about what we did the rest of the day.

After the Louvre, we went back to our hotel and sat down for about fourty five minutes.. Walking around the Louvre was tiring, so the break was great. Then we left the hotel, and decided to chance going to the Eiffel Tower. We had heard it's cool to see the lights turn on, and it was about dusk, so we hopped a Metro and headed across the Seine. We got there, and walked through about the half mile park below the tower (or Tour Eiffel, as the French call it), and as we were approaching, the lights turned on.. It was just after sunset, and was pretty sweet.. There were people making out in the grass all around us, and Katie took pictures of every one of them. Then we got to the base of the Tower, and quickly decided we had to go up as high as we could. There are four pillars at the bottom, and we smartly (sarcasm) chose the one without an elevator. We said screw it, and walked sixty flights of stairs to the second landing. That was a hike, and Katie was a trooper. Below are some pics from the night.

This is Katie just leaning on the Tour Eiffel, no big deal

and that's us, re-enacting the birthday card that Katie's roomates gave her, except this one isn't photo-shopped

Like I said, I could upload photos all day, but it takes a while, so I'm going to stop now. Day one in Paris was awesome, maybe our best day in Europe so far.

Day Four: Recap of London, pictures, and heading to Paris tonight

2008-05-10T06:44:00.000-07:00

Katie and I by the River Thames at night
Katie found a cool blue door, mom asked that we have pictures with people in them, so I obliged
This is the courtyard at Westminster Abbey, taken from the cloisters, made me think of Phil Grefrath, he'd love this grass...
The one and only. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) was nowhere in sight, Katie checked.
This is Picadilly Circus, the Times Square of London

Last night was our last night in London, thank the Lord. Katie and I are both excited to get out of the dorm-style european hostels. The place and the people were friendly enough, people there just don't put much priority on sleep.

We head to paris this afternoon, grabbing a train to the airport in a couple hours. We're staying at a real hotel there (thanks gramma rose), so there should be more resting going on than in London.

Today we woke up, checked out, and went to a park. Katie didn't sleep well last night, so she grabbed a nap while I watched a soccer tournament next door, which was being emceed by a radio DJ. Let me tell you, THAT was entertaining.

Recap of London highlights:
Things we loved:
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
Thames River
The parks
Things that were overrated:
Buckingham Palace

We loved London, we really did. We're excited for Paris though. I've already lost some stuff, but Katie's still talking to me, so that's good too.

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Pray for travel, and that our hotel is sleep-friendly.

Day Three: Wimbledon has big houses

2008-05-10T06:36:00.000-07:00

Today is saturday, but I'm updating for Friday because we didn't make it to the internet place. Thursday we went to the Tower of London, which is this huge castle by the river Thames. There are SO many things there. The coolest was definitely the queens crown jewels. There were tons, and we got to see them. You aren't supposed to photograph them, but I was feeling rebelious and did anyway.

That was cool in itself, but then we decided to go to Wimbledon, where the tennis tournament is. Wimbledon itself is a suburb of London, and it took us about an hour on the Underground to get there. We utilized this time for a much needed nap.

Once there, we wandered through neighborhoods and asked the friendly British people where the heck we were going. We finally found it, and went to the store to buy Katie's little brother something, but everything there was ridiculous. A tshirt was £24, which is almost $50! We then took the underground back to Hyde Park, the biggest park in London. We got an ice cream cone and laid around four about an hour or two. We've been to 20 parks here, it's awesome.

Then we went back to London Pub, our favorite food hangout we've found. Ate there, and headed to Picadilly Circus at night, and took some pictures. There were seriously 100,000 people outside. They close the streets so people can drink. We walked past this gay bar, and there was a huge line, so we didn't go in. There was a guy with makeup and a green speedo passing out fliers. Katie declined to introduce herself to him.

I'm going to add pictures on Day four's post...

Day Two: Lots of famous stuff

2008-05-08T16:40:00.000-07:00

Today is Thursday, and its about midnight here, therefore its 6 pm in Missouri and 7 pm in Ohio. We went a ton of places today, and I'd love to post some pictures, but there is no USB port on this computer, so they'll hopefully be up tomorrow.

Today we saw...
Big Ben- pretty sweet. it was the first thing we saw when we came out of the subway stairs. it sits right on the river, and is really intricate. Trey, it reminded me of the movie 'The Three Mouskateers,' how's that for an old school movie reference
The houses of Parliament- wouldn't be as cool if they weren't attached to Big Ben
Westminster Abbey- the sweetest part of the day probably. Huge church where lots of people were buried. We saw a bunch of kings and queens bones, or at least the boxes that hold them. Katie got kicked out for illegal flash photography... ok so she didn't, but a few people almost did, the security there was pissed. It was really pretty from outside and inside. Cool cloistered hallways with some sweet courtyards inside.
Buckingham Palace- super over-rated. No fuzzy hat guards that we could see. Katie said, and I quote 'Man, the queen got jipped.'
London Bridge from way far away- it was far away
The River Thames- really pretty at night, we walked along the shore for a couple miles at least
London Pub (again)- we found a place we like
Oxford Circus- huge shopping district. didn't buy anything, but it was packed with people.
Hard Rock Cafe- ate some american food.

some more stereotypes that we've found to be true. Everyone here smokes. Everyone. They don't expect you to tip at meals. Everyone drinks all day. They try and hand you free stuff at seemingly every corner.

we bought a three day subway pass for £17.40, or $35. We used it about nine times today, which means it already paid for itself (almost twice over).

last night was rocky, but hopefully we're used to the time change now. tomorrow's docket includes wimbledon, the tower of london, st. pauls cathedral, london bridge closer up, and hopefully a few more things. tomorrow is our last full day in london.

the money here is really cool. they use pounds and pence, and they dont have bills for one or two pounds, they just use coins, and cool coins at that.

the weather was beautiful again, we're getting spoiled here. people seem to think it rains all the time here. katie and i love parks now. when you don't want to go back to your hostel, parks provide a sweet place to sit and do crosswords for an hour to rest your feet, and everyone else goes to parks to. we watched a pickup soccer game today, almost laced em up and showed these Brits how we ball in america, then i remembered i suck at soccer.

goodnight america

Day One: These people don't waste time

2008-05-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

So after an eight hour flight and a delay in there, we made it to Heathrow airport at about 9 am.. got to our hostel about 10:30, and they told us our room wasn't ready until 2:00! This place looks ultra-shady from the outside, and is only semi-shady on the inside. I'll take what i can get.. our roommates are foreign, or at least the one or two we ran into..

I'm going to throw some pictures on here later tonight, but am at an internet-cafe type place and cant upload directly from my camera (thanks trey for letting me borrow it!)

We saw platform 9 3/4 today, from Harry Potter. It was really cool. A pigeon almost bit my head off, but Katie karate chopped it. Everything is really expensive. All the stereotypes are true so far. The buildings are beautiful and most look like castles. They DO drive on the left hand side of the road, which is weird when you have to cross the street. Not everyone here speaks English, which was kind of surprising, a lot of people with poor English.

We went to Picadilly Circus today, which is like the Times Square of London. That was cool, and then we walked to Trafalgar Square, which is this huge courtyard-ish area outside the national gallery. A few fountains and some SWEET buildings.

Went to starbucks, ordered something new, picked up the wrong thing. Turns out it was coffee. English people don't seem to understand my English. Maybe I should take some classes.

We're headed to dinner and then to bed early, don't wanna get hit with too much jet lag.

Leave a message if you like, props to Dave Fortener for recognizing the Seinfeld quote in the last post. Hopefully there will be pictures up tonight when we get back from dinner. Miss you all!

T-Minus 24 hours to liftoff

2008-05-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

So we leave tomorrow morning for London. That's less than a day from now, and I haven't started packing. Problem is, I probably won't get to start until later tonight anyway. Beyond that, my parents came this weekend and I got a SWEET backpack for my trip. Since my birthday is while I'm over there, they gave it to me early. It has roughly 3.4 million compartments, including one for my used razors (who shaves on a plane anyway?) Ten bucks to whoever can guess what that last line references. But seriously, it has so much storage. I can't begin to describe everything this bag can do, the magical powers are endless. Anyway, it should make the trip a lot easier.

So I'm off to UD to film a video for club tonight (maybe I could post it on here!) and catch up with some friends before I peace out to the motherland. Once we're over there, I hope to update the blog every night, so if you care at all, feel free to check it a bunch.

"The Pond" means the Atlantic Ocean (apparently there's been some confusion)

2008-05-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

I was umpiring little league baseball last night, and I told my "boss" about the trip to Europe. When I tell most people about the trip, they "oooh" and "aahhh" for a few minutes, ask me where I'm headed, and that's about it.

So I tell this guy Pete about the trip, and he says, "well are you prepared to go?" I thought he meant, excited, or maybe had I planned everything. I told him yes, and then he asked what I thought my chances were off getting robbed or mugged. I told him that a ton of people had warned me of this, so I figured pretty small, I'm not going to be carrying much around with me at any given time, so I told him not very good.

He then went on to tell me he thought the same thing, and that he had heard all kinds of rumors of people getting robbed while in Europe. I've heard a bunch of stories too, but he went on to say "have you ever heard of people getting robbed on overnight trains?" I said no, and he went on to tell me this rumor that people on overnight trains get gassed in their compartments, and then robbed of everything they've got. While he was telling me this, I was thinking two things:
1) Who the heck would this ever happen to? and...
2) Why the heck is he telling me this?

Turns out, it actually happened to him! Pete was on a train from Paris to Rome (which was the original plan for our trip, until we changed plans to fly easyJet), and people had warned him that overnight trains got gassed and robbed all the time. He said he laughed at the idea, but slept right in front of the door of the compartment. Sure enough, he woke up the next morning and everything was stolen. I'm not sure how he knows he was gassed, but he seemed pretty convinced. This story may be the only thing that doesn't excite me about Europe.

I put it in the blog because it was funny more than anything.

We leave in more or less four days, and I'm at the nervous stage. The farthest from home I've ever been is California, and I was only six then. There's a lot of planning that goes into these kinds of trips. Before I sat down to plan this all, I thought travel agents were pointless, but now I can understand why they're in business (I bet the internet kills their income though...)

So four days till we leave, I'd love some pointers or funny stories about stuff overseas, I'm a rookie here...

"Time after Time" is such an underated song...

2008-04-27T20:53:00.001-07:00

So here I am, blogging... I'm headed to Europe in about eight days, and figured that I could:
a) Write emails and letters to about 10 or 12 people every day
b) Pay like a dollar a minute and call everyone while I'm in Europe
c) Blog and send everyone the link, saving time over there...

I chose option C. I'm really all about saving time, especially when I don't get to go over to Europe very often (or ever again!) I'm really stoked to go, and figure I'll post one or two times before I leave. That way, if anyone has advice for stuff I should/shouldn't bring, or other pointers, then they could just post a comment. Makes sense?

So here's quick pre-trip and trip itinerary...
May 1st- SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER
May 4th- Andy graduates from UD, our little boy is all grown up now...
May 5th- My last YL club in Oakwood before I leave. I'm giving the talk (resurrection.. eesh pressure).
May 6th- 10:00 am, Katie and I leave Dayton airport for chicago
5:00 pm, leave Chicago for London (Heathrow)
May 7th- 6:00 am, land in London, drop our bags off at hostel, start adopting the local accent
May 10th- leave London, fly to Paris
May 13th- leave Paris, fly to Rome
May 18th- tell Katie goodbye for FIVE WEEKS, start my studies
May 23-26th- Weekend Trip to Sorrento
June 19th- fly back to the U, S, and A
June 20th- head to YL camp in Virginia

So that's the quick sneak-peak. Hopefully, I'll be able to use this blog to post a ton of pictures. I love taking pictures, and Katie loves them even more. So this will be a photo hub with a quick explanation of what's going on. I hate that I have to leave Oakwood for the month before camp, but I had to seize the opportunity.

If anyone has thoughts on what we should see, what we should skip, what we should eat, what we should stay away from at all costs, I'm all ears!