another quick post to say hello and we are on our way to lisbon with yet another train marathon. got the benfica tickets...now we just need to make all our train connections!!! fingers crossed!! barcelona was amazing..still need to post about orvieto and rome! i promise i will do that when i get more time. but yes, barcelona has been one of my favorite cities so far. ok, off to our first train...oh by the way, it was about 72 degrees and sunny yesterday!! woo!!!! hope portugal is the same...

very quick...we are doing well...taking crazy amounts of trains!! we are trying to make it to lisbon for nov. 28th for the benfica vs. ac milan game!!! that is our next goal...i just bought tickets so all goes well...we should be there. we are in barcelona...which is so far very nice!!!! big happy birthday to dan who is 20 today!!!! (or yesterday) and a quick thanks to bob trucchi for having an amazing connection for us in orvieto italy!!! (more on all this later!!) we got to see a glimpse of the pats game today!! woo!! ok must go! hopefully more soon!! hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!!!!!

so quick recap...last night we went to a great christmas market in a small town nearby. we drank hot wine, listened to a band dressed as santas play christmas music, and looked at the crafts and food. it was a great night. then today we went on a hike up a mountain with one of kiras moms friends. it was through a rural village and up a mountainside and at the top was a nice view of lake garda.

GOOD NEWS!! we were able to recover most of the photos!!!!!! so without any hesitation lots of photos!! the older ones are towards the bottom. we have a lot of beautiful ones, but like i have said before i cant seem to figure out how to rotate them...so here are the nice horizontal ones...




heading down the mountain...that in itself was a blast...kira and i spent a lot of times on our behinds......
on our way up during the hike we took



vin brule (hot wine) at the christmas market! thats kira and her amazing mom!
the christmas market in a small town next to kiras moms...it was one of our favorite nights so far....beautiful! but picture is a little blurry....
kira and ryan on the roof at kiras moms wonderful house!!
great farmers market in verona! free samples! and TONS of great things!
meat stand at the market in verona...more free samples!
lake como! theres george clooneys house! there was some forest fire or something to the right..so its a bit hazy....and then our memory card was full so we relied on mom and dad for more pictures of this area...
some serious sinful gelato!
great sunset in italy overlooking lake garda in the italian alps from a castle rooftop!
dad lookin sharp in our alfa romeo....and a bottle of tasty italian wine!
another great italian sunset over grand canal in venice
colors didnt come out too good in this one..but better view of the grand canal...
one of the many spectacular views in cinque terre
team europe crew in cinque terre!
our rooftop breakfast in cinque terre italy!
he is the ultimate backpacker....he carrys all our food for the 3 of us...hes our personal sherpa. he can even bungy a pizza to his backpack....crazy!
our first taste of food in italy...not too shabby! great appetizer with the family in milan...mmm...
our great lasagna dinner at the strangest people hostel ever....and shortly after this wonderful meal.....the deleted picture fiasco unfolded.....
our picnic in rotterdam
this was a nice picture..but in the recovery process i guess some of it was lost..but we will take it! they were standing on the edge of a canal in rotterdam holland...
dave, the owner of ned kellys....and his new sparkling taps!
ned kellys crew! in the hague holland. (the bar matt used to work at)
coming to a bench near you!.....
great clouds and waves on the beach.....
dan on the beach in holland...not going to try and spell the name of the town..but the pier jets way out into the water and has shops and a casino...very nice....
nice picture of dan and i.....no funny faces in this one.....well.......

we made it!!!! wooo!!! we met up with kira and headed to her moms house and had the most amazing meal and LAUGHED a lot. it is so great to be here...we might not leave! im going to try and post some pictures maybe...and possibly try and rescue the other ones!! fingers crossed! verona was beautiful yesterday, we walked a lot, found a great farmers market with lots of free samples (woo!) and hung out in a cafe for about 2.5 hours trying to plan our last weeks! we are going to do florence, orvieto, rome, possibly capri, then nice, barcelona, southern spain then algarve. exciting, but going by way too fast! we might go to a christmas market today in riva del garda, where kiras mom lives, and then a free concert so hopefully we can get our butts in gear and head there. we all slept late today and it was great! we need that every once and a while. going to go try and rescue pictures...we got the card reader at a great little camera store in bologna and the guy sent us to his friends restaurant to eat lunch where we proceeded to once again eat ourselves into a food coma. but it was SO good, lasagna bolognese, soup, homemade desserts, warm bread....mmm....

back on our own! we headed to bologna today..in hopes of eating some traditional bolognese spaghetti..but our hostel seems to be in the middle of nowhere so we will see how that goes and then let you know hopefully how tasty it was. our memory card is full on the only working camera we have so we have to find a store to buy one probably tomorrow...these siesta times are crazy! i think then tomorrow we will head back up to verona, spend a night there and then...........KIRA! we will be meeting up with her sometime on saturday...that is going to be unbelievable. i havent seen her in so long...and i dont think she has seen dan in like 10 years. so plans after that...probably head to southern italy like florence, rome and maybe naples..then maybe nice france for a day then barcelona and southern spain..then portugal...then home! crazy!! now off to figure out the crazy bus schedules here and find this gelato place that has like 100 different flavors...oooohhhh.....spaghetti and gelato....i know your jealous....

just a quick note to let you all know we are still alive and well!! we havent been able to get to any computer with mom and dad, but here we are their last night and i have to pay a lot to use this stupid thing! it has been lots of fun getting spoiled and seeing italy with the family. we got to see great sunsets in venice and on the lakes near the italian alps. looks like meeting up with kira is going to happen!! im soooooo excited!!! but im off to go try and plan where we will be heading tomorrow. mom and dad are leaving soo early in the morning, so we are going to stay in and sleep a little then be on our way to...somewhere. food has been really good. of course i couldnt go a blog without mentioning food! homemade pasta, gelato...mmmm...hopefully more details and possibly pictures to come soon!

just a quick post..we went to one of the famous budapest baths today..it was definitely different.. the building is from the 16th century and very beautiful and the hot baths felt good on our very sore muscles after that hike. it was mostly older people, old men playing chess on the side of the pool, and just seemed like a lot of local people go there. they have medicinal baths, sulfur baths, steam rooms, WICKED hot saunas....it was pretty cool. tomorrow we are taking a night train to venice...that is unless this supposed train strike that is happening in budapest tomorrow doesnt throw us off too much. keep your fingers crossed for us! then from venice to milan to meet the parents! next post....italy!!

PICTURES!!!!! (in no particular order......)


the boys!



sunset on the mountains in interlaken...beautiful!!

us (finally) after our hike up the mountain!! triumphant!!

getting stir crazy on the train.....

dan and ryan being daring in the middle of the champs d'elysee (spelling??)

us being....the mature adults we are.......

the square in brugge...belgiums most romantic city.....it was my favorite...until...interlaken switzerland!

belgian bowling....dan, rayan, and manu!

smallest helicopter ever!....and apparently more insane to jump out of than an airplane because the helicopter stays still while you just drop....

this part.....oh my god..........i cant explain the feeling i had........

yes, thats the eiffel tower...way in the back....paris people wouldnt take a picture of all 3 of us..we had to take matters into our own hands.....

the england crew! i cant believe how big she got......

the eiffel tower all sparkly for all saints day! sorry its so blurry!

yikes!! where do i begin?!?!? im sorry for not blogging...we have not had computer access at all since belgium..and let me tell you! a lot has happened since belgium! and when i say a lot, i mean 4 countries!! id prefer to skip paris because it was well, it was paris. the people were rude. and we had a ticket mishap that ruined our first day. however, with our not-going-to-let-anything-get-us-down spirits, we did paris in 2 expensive days. ha! and we got to see a crazy homeless man rub little butter packets all over himself as if it were soap...hilarious. then, we took a train to switzerland. ahhhhh....beautiful switzerland, by far my favorite place so far. and worlds away from paris, people were nice!! it was so clean and absolutely breathtaking....we stayed at a great place with a fireplace and a huge saint bernard. it was wonderful........we did an amazing and very strenuous (that spelling cant be right..is it?) hike up a mountain and had a spectacular view and then went to hooters for some...wings.....and quick side note.....um..............dan and i went skydiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my dream came true!!!!! it was well worth the money. i got to skydive in the alps. it was absolutely the most amazing thing i have EVER done......im going to try and post pictures. cause, you just need to see it to believe it.

then after another ticket incident (all stemming back to the paris incident......that damn woman....long story.......) we took a train from switzerland to vienna austria. we only spent a little while there before jumping on another train to......budapest!! woo! we made it and well if we dont do anything here....besides what we just did tonight....i will be happy. and yes, you guessed it, it has to do with......food! so we checked into our lovely little hostel run by a nice couple and they tell us about an all you can eat hungarian buffet 5 blocks away. no time was wasted. and we ate ourselves.......well......we honestly had a hard time walking the 5 blocks back. it was sooooo good. and the desserts! wow......shouldve taken pictures....crap. i think that is the quick version of the past few days. we are heading to italy on wednesday night to meet the rents! and i cant believe how fast things are going by....pretty soon we'll be home! going to try and post pictures now.....