watch out for my wake

When I left Turkey there were bombings. After Hungary, anti-government riots. Germany, a train wreck... It's good to be home. Here's some teaser picts - more to come on snapfish.




Me, in Sienna, Italy.











Me, on top of St. Peter's, Vatican City.














Me, near Parliament, London.

Yes, for the first two weeks of my trip I was "that girl" taking pictures of herself in front of all the sights. It was time to meet up with a traveling buddy...







Turkey. Lots of cats. This cat was beloved enough to warrant a sign saying "do not disturb."
And no, my traveling buddy was not a cat.


I wish more carpet shops were open air.




Croatia is the homeland of the cravat. Strangely, however, the national uniform is the speedo. Croatians are superstars at Even, Aggresive Tanning®.


Kellogg is taking over the world. Really.












The long arm shots are much better with a partner.

They have really big houses in Vienna.










And really fun toy stores in Prague.















And really big and fun beers in Munich.

So it's come to this...

Friday night, and I'm watching "Celebrity Duets" on Fox, where Cheech Marin just forgot the words to "Hit Me With Your Best Shot."

At least I survived all of our tornados (tornadoes?) in Chicago tonight. Makes the duets that much sweeter.

Hi, we're in Prague

and you're not.

Neener.

Reader's Digest: Italy

It's time to convey the two weeks in Europe... in brief. Part 1 - Italy.

Our trip to Milan, was a doozy. Chicago to London (worst airport ever), London to Lisbon, Lisbon to Zurich, and Zurich to Milan. We spent the night in Milan and ate at the only restaurant open at 10 pm. That was the first place we tried out the "drink the house wine" theory. They had red wine ON TAP. Literally, one tap for beer, one tap for wine - crazy.

Next day we trained it through Genova on our way to Vernazza. The town of Vernazza is the second largest in the Cinque Terre chain of five.

Map of the region

Vernazza was beautiful and wonderful. Although there were a lot of tourists, the character of the townspeople really came out.

Jen on the path to Monterosso, Vernazza in the background

On our first full day, we took the 2 hour hike to the largest of the towns, Monterosso. The hike was pretty tough due to the mountains. We had to go up the side of the mountain for a long way, then accross toward the town, then back down to sea level. After an afternoon of sunbathing, we huffed and puffed our way back.

Grapevines on the hills above Monterosso

I think the best part of Vernazza was sitting in the piazza after dinner to drink wine and people-watch. We were usually there until 11 - 12.

The piazza in Vernazza at night

The following day, we hiked to the middle town, Corniglia. It was an easier hike and we were able to enjoy a nice lunch there. We hung out the next day until training it to Venice. We heard that Venice was a place that we definitely had to see, but not really worth staying in for more than a day. So, that is exactly what we did.

A gondellier overcharging tourists for the view we got from the water taxi

It turns out we were there during the weekend of the yearly Ragatta, but we were going to miss the actual day.

Jen and me in St. Mark's Square

We made our way back to Milan and ended out stay in Italy in the same hotel (if not the same room) that we started in. And yes, we did go back to the same restaurant with wine on tap.

Like I said, this was a very brief account of our week there. There were many little things that would make this post unbearably long. Hopefully we can share more as we see you.

Zdravo

I go halfway around the world to hang out with Kellogg folk?!? Small world. I spent most of yestderday cruising the islands around Hvar, Croatia with a bunch of guys from Andrik's world. (I'm not entirely sure about names, but I think the guys that said they knew Andrik from his program were Dave Sweeney(?) and Ben (really tall, dark hair).) After five weeks on the road, it was really nice to hang out with some Americans for a while.

Anyway, I'm here in Croatia for another week before heading up to central Europe. It's fabulously beautiful here, and I highly recommend travelling through here soon before it gets much more touristy. But I am hoping for some cooler weather up north - my poor freckled skin can't take many more beach days. :P

Many picts to come when I am home (I think I'm up to around 500 or so...).