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Friday, January 10, 2014

No abla espanol was all I knew of the local lengo (day 15)

So today was amazing. We woke up at a reasonable time and had an American breakfast at another hole in the wall by our hotel. We ate outside because our Australian friend from yesterday was meeting us there. (The day before me and Kody had offered for him to go sightseeing  with us because he was here all alone and we felt bad). Well after our breakfast we took a 45 minutes, extreme leg workout walk up a giant hill till we finally made it to Olympic stadium. The Olympics were there in 92 so things were kind of old but still cool. Well so we thought from looking through the gated doors.... Then we were smart and went around the corner a little and found out whoops its open to the public where you could eat at a cafe and look down at the field. 


See us and Australian friend looking down to he field. Well after exploring the little area we saw people on the field and were all "well that's freaking cool lets go down there and feel awesome". Well we exited and walked around to the "entrance". Well where we thought the entrance was the gates were closed, and the part behind us was a wall. Kody looked  over and down and there was the entrance attached to a parking lot guarded by a security person about 20ft below us. We walked to the edge where a hill and this wall met and well...hopped it. We snuck down the hill and then oh so confidently walked right on to the field of the Olympic stadium...so naturally we went picture crazy. 





There were workers on the field and they didn't say a thing, but hey no abla espanol. Well after exploring the field we found the underground locker room, weight room, and practice track. It was amazing, well since we couldn't go out the way we came, but we also didnt't want to make the huge walk we just walked up the steps of the seating and then hopped a little gate by the cafe. Where the security guard was hard core staring and started talking into her walky talky...so we fast walked to the door and ran like hell. Then we made the amazing treck down the hill got some lunch and explored. These are the things we saw! 







So, in order as shown. On our exploring we saw their version of the arc de triomph, played with giant bubbles, saw a cool fountain with dragons, sat on a mammoth outside the zoo, and found Christopher Columbus. 

After that it was getting late and we parted our ways with our Australian friend, and headed for dinner...at Hard Rock Cafe. I know it's getting old but we had to get kodys drum sticks. After dinner we headed for the mall to get me something form Spain, but they have everything we have and I don't want to buy something I can get at home that's just silly. So we headed home and now are watching toy story!!!



So, tomorrow is our last day. It's kind of a bitter sweet feeling. We will see how it goes!!

Love and kisses,
Jo and Ko 














First day in Barcelona (day 14)

This day was good, and sorry there won't be pictures, but we went on a walking tour with a group and got to learn all the history of the city. Compared to the amazing tour we went on in Berlin, this one was a huge let down. And I'm sure it's just because the history in Berlin is so much more amazing, but our tour guide also wasn't as amazing. But we did make a new friend from Australia. He was super nice and hung out with us the rest of the day! We then had a traditional Spanish food from this hole in the wall down the street from our hotel. It was so good! We didn't expect to like it as much as we did, but actually we wouldn't mind having it again!!


That basically sums up our day...sorry this is boring :/

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Leaving Nice (day 13)

So there is really nothing to say about day 13. We woke up and had a check out time of noon and a train departure time of 12:24. So we slept in packed up and went to mc Donald's for an early lunch and then headed to the train station. We were on a train (sitting first class so very comfortable) for four hours. Then we got off in some other town in France and only had about 30 minutes. In those thirty minutes we left the train station to go to the ATM across the street because we didn't have anymore cash, whoops. Well when we went to withdraw money we typed in the amount, asked for a receipt, and it said please take your card and no money came out!!!! I went into the bank and tried to explain to the man (who didn't speak English) that it didn't give me any money, and he said "it can happen". Wow cool. Super mad till we talked to Frances who checked our account and said we weren't charged. Whew close one. Then we got on another train for 3.5 hours, where we were starving, so I hate to admit that we spend 7.5 euros on two mini things of Pringles, and one can of coke. I wanted to cry but we were hungry. The whole train ride to Barcelona we watched "the internship" it was hilarious and kept us entertained the whole trip. When we arrived inbarcelona we took a cab tour hotel and checked in. Face timed our families and then hit the hay. 


Not that exciting of a day :)

Jo and Ko 

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

A full day in Nice (day 12)

This was really our only full day in Nice. We slept in till 10 just to relax and decided to walk a couple blocks down the beach to get to castle hill. Where we went all the way to the top to take in all the amazing views of he city. We have never seen a place more gorgeous, and would love to come back here with more time, and when it was a lot warmer. 

Here are some of the photos we took from on top of the hill! 








Oh and we also stumbled upon a park area where there was the scary high jungle gym thing that of course Kody wanted to climb!!

After we were there for two hours, we decided to walk a long the beach  and find somewhere to eat. Everything in France is just so exspensice, we settled for subway :). It was amazing. After that we really just relaxed the rest of the day with no plans and no schedule it felt great. Then we went to hard rock for some free refills and food we knew we licked, and also to get kodys drum stick. :) called it an early night and got on iTunes to rent a movie! We rented in internship, but it didn't actually download till after midnight, so I guess we will be watching it in Barcelona. Oh well :) 


Love and miss everyone at home!!

Jo and Ko 







Monday, January 6, 2014

First day in Nice, if you can call it a day (day 11)

So we rode that uncomfortable train till 7:00 am where we got off in Milan. We had to take another cab becUse our next train left out of their other train station, which I thought was good because the train station we arrived in was so gross and creepy! We went to the next train station and it was so nice and had a mc Donald's. We sat there the whole time waiting for our next train at 11:43 and had hot cakes! We were a little weirded out though because this was like weirdo kid hang out. Like it was crawling with them! We farkeled and played speed till it was time to go! Where we sat on the same type of train for 4 more hours! When that one arrived we had less than 10 minutes to get off, find the departure board and get to our next train (safe to say we made it!). The ride into nice was amazing riding along the French Riviera! I was amazed. 




 we arrived in Nice at 4:30 and checked into our Super nice hotel on the beach! 


But Kody thinks the hall way in our hotel looks like a dirty motel....I would have to agree. 



After we checked in we decided to walk down the beach and get dinner! We hadn't eatin since mc Donald's so we were so hungry. And of course we had pizza, good pizza. And then walked along the beach at night and headed home for an early relaxing night to maybe FINALLY catch up on sleep!!!


Well nighty night. Be up at 2:30 am to see the NCAA national championship game!!

Jo and Ko 



Rome day three and a midnight train (day 10)

On our last day in rome we woke up early again, to shower (since we knew we would be sleeping on the train that night) got breakfast and then set out for our last day. Our train left at midnight that night so we had saved a lot of stuff we knew we wanted to do in Rome for the last day so we didn't end up board in the train station for a million hours. So after we ate breakfast we realized it was pouring outside so we kinda took our time getting ready. Once we were ready we took our luggage down stairs to check out and leave our bags in their baggaget room. We were off to the colosseum! 



It kind of sucks because we have noticed they do all their construction and upkeep of these things in the winter, but it was still amazing to see. We went on the first and second floors and then saw people standing on what was left of the stage. Kody wanted so bad to get on it and to go in the underground tunnels, because his grandparents had done it! We walked around forever trying to see how we got there and finally someone said it was 100 euros a person to go in those two places and that was just too much, so we said we would have to come back. That's when we walked out of the colosseum, and out of no where it was a down pour. Not a sprinkle to a rain to a pour just went straight to pour. It was freezing and our shoes and socks were instantly soaked. So we ran for the metro and took it back to our hop on and off bus to ride around the city while it calmed down. When it finally did we headed to Palatine hill. It was so huge and the old architecture was amazing!!!! And when we got to the top the view was amazing!!! (Minus the construction) 


We explored this area for about 2.5 hours killing time and looking at every part we could. That's when the wind got very annoying and Kody found it hilarious. 


This was me walking around for a good 45 minutes and couldn't see. After we finished the hill we once AGAIN went to super pizza for lunch :) and rode to this amazing island with a church and some restaurant on it. Where there river parted around. The river flow was so great it was crazy and apparently had knocked down the same bridge after being re built three times!! We also watched a Morgue truck show up and pick ups body....that was really creepy! Then we headed to our hotel because we had done everything we could! Then we thought, where could we get stuff to drink have wifi and eat some good food...HARD ROCK CAFE we only paid for one Pepsi and ended up with two glasses with like 6 refills, got two salads and the appetizer sample. It was  an amazing 3 hours lol. Then we headed to our hotels here we sat bored because we still had an hour and the train station was literally across the street and we would rather be here then there. Well then kody said I should check the ticket...where I found we were not leaving from the trains station we arrived (the one across the street) but the one more across town that was under construction and hard to get around. Whoops had the hotel call us a cab to take us so we weren't late. Got there in perfect time and got on the train. We were on this train for 7 hours during the night and it wasn't a bed it was chairs that faced the person across you with 6 people in one room weird. Totally uncomfortable and was hard to sleep so that was an amazing night. 


Nice day 1 coming soon! 

Jo and Ko! 







Rome day two (day 9)

Our second day in Rome was much better than the first. We got up early (like 7am to eat breakfast and headed straight for the Vatican). When we got there we didn't have to wait in any lines since we had our pass and got into St. Peter's basilica and took an audio tour.



 It was so huge and we got to see where the pope spoke and all this cool stuff! Took a ton of photos and then some old lady blessed me when I yawned while listening about one of the statues. Woops. After that we had to wait for the next tour of the Vatican so naturally we were board and took photos. 



We were just standing outside waiting when it started to rain. And since I was the only one In a rain jacket I had to put the camera under my jacket. So I looked like a lovely pregnant lady the rest of that day, which Kody found hilarious and said maybe we will get to cut more lines! Well when we got into the Vatican it was huge and there were people everywhere! We went through all the halls and saw all the paintings and sculptures and some of the garden from above but they were closed because of the winter. 


The last thing we did was go into the Sistine chappel to see the famous painting on the roof. Where we found out we couldn't take pictures and me and Kody were so confused how we were going to get to show people that we actually went. So when we got in Kody went into shock because he thought the room was a domb and it's not. And I was shocked because the famous part of the painting where the fingers touch wasn't in the middle of the room and didn't look bigger or any more significant than the paintings all around the room. So me and Kody looked some more snapped a secret photo on his phone 😳 and then had to follow the line out. 



All together we were at the Vatican till 2 in the afternoon. After the Vatican I wanted to go see the trevi fountain. So we headed to super pizza by our hotel and ate it while we walked. We were headed to the trevi found, Well the lady who had given us our passes circled it on our map for us so we headed there it was a subway ride and a long walk up a huge hill till we got to a fountain...in a park completely under construction. So not only was this NOT the trevi fountain but the fountain we were sent to you couldn't even see. I was so mad! Well when we asked a man walking through the park he showed us where the real fountain was (which was right by where we were before we came to this one) and we headed that way. While walking down the street actually near the trevi fountain, we were stopped by a group of girls outside a hotel and we asked "if we spoke American" and the only thing going on in my mind was this is why people think we're stupid. But we said that's where we were headed so they followed and it worked out because me and Kody finally got a photo of the both of us! 


After making our wishes we got real gelato and ate it on the side of the fountain.




 It started to rain so once again we headed to our room for an early night! The I looked at Kody and told him it was ridiculous we were in our room so early in ROME. so we decided to go have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe so Kody could get his drum sticks. We had fajitas and they were amazing! They also are the only place that gave free refills. It was Pepsi, but I didn't even care it was great. And then a bartender messed up and drink and they give them out instead of throwing them away so we got a free drink! When we got back to the room (at 10:00 this time)  I decided to search through the channels one last time to find something in English I found a channel that said in the corner of the tv "American idiots'" and it was playing Paul blart mall cop, IN ENGLISH. I was a little offended but also super excited me and Kody just got to enjoy a movie and understand it. 


We called it a night and got to watch the movie from the beginning. It was great!!!


Jo and Ko (day three in rome and at 1 in nice coming soon!)

Friday, January 3, 2014

A day in Munich (day 7)

Sorry for two posts at the same time, but we haven't had internet for over 48 hours so be sure to read our post from our last day in Berlin! 

We arrived in Munich today at 7:30 nothing really was open so we walked to a convenient store to get some apple juice while we just hang out in the train station! Too bad we got carbonated apple cider....it was so gross and we were so mad! We wanted to go to the your office to see what we could get done in 12 hours at Munich but they didn't open till 9 so we just sat around. At 9 we headed there and really the main thing we could do was get the hop on and off tour so we paid for that. Then realized the first bus didn't leave till 10....so another hour of just waiting around drinking awful apple juice. We should learn to read German. But when the first bus came we hopped on and rode it around a full circle once just so view everything. This took 2.5 hours but we did see a lot of cool things! 
And we kind of lost our minds because we were just so tired!




After the bus made the complete circle we started to ride it again so it could get us as close to the hard rock as possible. Here we had lunch and Kody was able to get his drum sticks he collects. It was amazing food and we had a chocolate milk shake!!


 So that was a plus after that we walked through the Christmas markets the shopping centers, their famous cathedral and some stores. We also went to their main beer houses!!



 It was starting to get dark so we headed to catch the bus on it's last time around...this was good because we were tired and cold! And me and Kody found it a nice nap lol 

See Kody passed out on the bus! After it made it's first circle it dropped us back off at the train station. We got an apple and some grapes and now are just relaxing for a boring 2.5 hours waiting for our train to leave. Our train tonight is 12 hours total! Gonna sleep a lot! (Well I guess by the time I actually post this it will have already happened so I'll let you know)!

After I saved this as a draft and now that it's been a day I decided to add that I have never sent that many homeless an d crazy people in the train station in Munich. They were weird some were drunk, some guy tried to steal my grapes! It was awful  and I hated being there!!


Second day in Berlin (day 6)

Today was amazing, but we only did one thing. It was an important thing though. We woke up at 9am got all packed up and took our bags downstairs.  Today we got a tour of the concentration camp right outside of Berlin. It was a great tour. Neither me nor Kody had ever been a place like this before. But, our tour guide made it a great experience for us. He made itsoinformative and shoed how important it is for us to visit these places to help remind everyone around the world what could happen. It was a lot to take in, but it was a lott hat me and Kody never realized we didn't know. The tour took 5 hours and we were walking, it was outside, and it was 25 degrees. But totally worth it! I would have a lot Erie to say about this, but I wouldn't want to bore you with a history lesson. 


After our tour it was dark by the time we got back to Berlin. We knew we had a 10 hour train ride that night so we went to subway got a foot long to eat half now and the other half later on the train. After we sat and ate at subway to. Kill time we decided to make our way to the train station. And I have gotto. Say third times a charm. We were there super early, yes, but that was cause we had nothing else to do not because we were nervous. We sat in a booth in the eating area of the train station odor 3 hours (boring sounding I know) but we played spped, go fish, farkel battle and a card game Kody made up the night before  on the train. Time went by pretty quickly so that was awesome! When our train finally arrived we had this routine down. Walked in got our bags under the bed (because of course we were the bottome bunks again) laid our purse/backpack behind our heads and got our pillow and blanket out and were ready to go to bed. The lady came by to check our tickets and then asked for our visas...I handed her my passport and she said "I am not police, I need your visa..." Me and Kody freaked we don't have visas...then she clarified she needed the VISA I paid with the verify it was us. That was a close one. But we had two other couples in our room with us so no creepy men. Everyone got settled and lights out within the first 20 minutes. W were super greatful and actually slept through the whole night and woke up at 6:30 to get off the training n Munich at 7am just for the day!!! (Our day in Munich will be posted shortly!)


Jo and Ko 

Rome (day 8)



So back to that train ride. We were stuck in the middle beds and we were sharing a room with a group of four friends. So they had the two beds on top and the two on bottom. So when we walked up to our cart they asked us if they could lay our beds down to have a couch so they could hang out, but it was 9:30 and me and Kody were so tired! So we told them we were ready to go to bed, but if it was easier for them we could sleep on the top beds and they could have the middle to make it a couch. They agreed and me and Kody just passed out on the top bunks! But first we took some photos :) because Kody thought I was funny that I had enough room to sit up on the bed 



And here is one of Kody modeling his bed. He thinks he's funny. 

Well we woke up at 9 and were in Rome. We were so excited because this was a city we were most excited about...and as of today it was kind of a let down. We got to our hotel and couldn't check in till noon. So we walked down the street to this place that still had breakfast. We had an "American" breakfast and it was amazing! 


But something a little weird. We asked for apple juice and this is what we got..

Green apple juice. It was a little different but we were so thirst it was amazing. Well kody said he likes it better than apple juice at home not just cause he was thirsty. After that we decided to go get our rome pass so we paid to gets n the metro and take it the this square it said one of their offices was. We walked around the square for 1.5 hours and asked two cops and no one could tell us where it was so we just gave up and went back to the hotel. After we got to the hotel we decided to clean up since we spend the past two nights on a train and then went to find another office to get our rome pass. We walked this time to see apart of the city, and it felt pretty amazing out side! 



After exploring we finally found one of. Their offices. By then it was about 3:30 and the sun was gonna go down inal most an hour and we didn't get to see the highlights of the city!! So we decided to get on the hop on and off bus just to see where everything was and get a quick look at the highlights for our first day! 


This is us really excited hhaha

But we got to see the colosseum, the front of Vatican City, and finally Kody saw a Ferrari in Italy....




After that we goto ffo the last stp that was closest to our hotel and got some walking Italian pizza to take back to our room (I mean you can walk and eat your pizza not that the pizza walks lol) 


The pizza was so good and just what we needed. But we are probably going to call it a night early so we can get up early tomorrow so go and see that Vatican. I know ibis was a lot of pictures but I feel like we haven't been able to post in so long!! Also the day two berlin  and the day in Munich were also just posted so you can look at those too!!

Jo & ko