last one!

just ending our last day at the internet cafe.
had a good day in Barcelona...its HOT.
saw all of Gaudi's stuff......the block of discord, la pedrera, sagrada familia, parc guell.
went by Barcelonas futbol stadium then had some paella and sangria!
just wanted to blog one last time.
we have to get up at 4am (it's almost 10pm now) so we're gonna pack and sleep for a few hours.
talk to you all tomorrow!
love
elise & matt

Barthelona

feeling a lot better today but still can't wear my contacts so i'm walking around like a blind bat with my glasses on which are a few prescriptions behind haha.

our flight from Madrid was uneventful then we headed to our hotel on Las Ramblas.
It's one of the nicer ones we've been at with a full size shower!!!
As soon as we got in, we had some Burger King (i know....but we´re getting sick of deciphering menus) and then headed to the Picasso Museum which we both loved.
Dad - see if you can find me some prints of "the Pichones" they were my fave.
now we're headed back to las ramblas to drop off some stuff and then we're gonna go watch the futbol game at an irish pub haha.
auntie jane - i emailed you the flight info with my NEU email, for some reason AOL isn't working on this computer. so i hope you got it.

the weather is beautiful here, and we're near the beach. tomorrow we're checking out Gaudi's stuff.....la sagrada familia, la pedrera, park guell so hopefully it will be nice again.

can't wait to show you all the photos!
love
elise & matt

Madrid

hola!
our flight got into Madrid around 11:30 this morning but we had to leave Rome at 6:15 so it was an early morning!
Got to our hotel which is nice and in walking distance of everything (although we're not really sure what to do here....)
I'm feeling a little better but still needed to rest after our flight and by the time our siesta was over it was too late to go to any of the sights (Prado Museum or Palacio Real) but neither of them were high on our priority list so it's fine with us.
Just had some churros con chocolate and we´re at this cool internet cafe inside a restaurant....you put the money into a slot like a pay phone.

We don't have much time here in Madrid - leave for Barcelona on a 1:30 flight tomorrow- so not sure what we´re doing with the rest of our time.
Probably just tapas y beer.

Only one more stop on this whirlwind tour of Europe. I feel like I´ve been gone forever. London was so long ago! We were looking through our cameras yesterday and half of the stuff we took pictures of I can barely remember seeing haha.
I guess that´s what little rest does to your memory.

I know the language here at least so it makes it a little easier. They have weird Spanish accents though - not like the Latin American ones that I'm used to hearing. (they say "th" where for "c")
I just realized i've been using accent marks as apostrophes this whole time haha. guess you'll just have to deal!

OH and guess what??? it's raining here!
Hopefully the weather in BarTHelona will be nicer because most of the stuff we want to see is outside.

See you all very soon! We both can't wait to be home, we've burnt ourselves out and need a vacation from this vacation. At least I'm unemployed and on infinite vacation! haha
Love
Elise (matt's across the room checking his fantasy team)

On an evening in Roma....

Made it to Rome....our train was delayed from Florence so by the time we got in, we found our hotel and waited until the morning to explore. We started off with a trip to the Colosseum and the Forum which was amazing. From there we went to the Cappucin Crypts which I thought were awesome but Matt thought they were going to be underground with bones lining the walls (those are the ones in Paris that we didnt go to). I wish we could have taken pictures in there because it was so cool the way they made art out of the bones of 4000 skeletons.
After that we saw the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps which were both jammed with tourists.

Grandma - we saw the McDonalds near the Spanish Steps. It was so funny to see it made out of all marble countertops and stuff.

From there, we went to an Italian supermarket to get some bread and cheese for a snack. And then later went to dinner at a little place around the corner from our hotel.
The food is good but yours is better, grandma.

I came down with some sort of cold/cough/conjunctivitis combo which is just lovely! so today I didnt even feel like getting out of bed. But i wouldnt have forgiven myself if I didnt so we went to the Vatican Museum (sistine chapel) and St. Peters. To tell you the truth, i was so sick I dont even think I looked around much but from what i saw, it was really nice. We waited in a line that was probably a mile long for the Vatican. It was neverending!

So after that I couldn't really do much else so I went back to the hotel to lay down. I finally decided I couldn't watch anymore italian MTV so we headed out to find internet and maybe some food. Matt really wanted to see the Pantheon but we never made it. Our flight to Madrid is pretty early tomorrow morning so this is our last day in Roma.

We saw a place near our hotel that sells just arancini so I think we might get some of those! mmm

Madrid tomorrow, and the day after that we fly to Barcelona for 2 days and then home!
Our flight gets in to Logan around 1:30pm for those that were asking.
talk to you all soon!
love
Elise (Matt always makes me write these things while he sits there and checks his fantasy baseball teams)

Firenze!

Our overnight train was pretty fun. We had dinner in the dining room cart which was pretty nice and then had a sleeper car. Fun experience but since we're catching another train tonight, we have no hotel to nap/shower in. We love Italy so far though. Our train came in pretty early so we walked around a bit, had a cappuccino then went to see David at Academia (somehow we didn't have to pay to get in either which is a plus b/c there isn't much else to see there). Matt changed his mind....now he wants to be a sculptor instead of a painter. From there, we walked down to the Uffizi which had a HUGE line and we decided we'd seen enough art so we went to the Science Museum next door. They have a bunch of Galileo's stuff....telescopes, globes and stuff.....plus they have his middle finger in a jar. haha. They had a room with all old surgical supplies which was pretty cool to see how things have changed.
After that we had some Pizza for lunch then decided to climb the stairs of the Duomo.
All 463 of them!
I thought I was gonna pass out haha, and when Matt got to the top he almost had a heart attack because it's so high up and he's not really a fan of heights. But we're glad we did it, an awesome view of Florence from the top.
We thought that deserved some gelato so we each had a cone, now we're resting at the internet cafe and checking on our comments (we love to get them!)
Our train to Rome is only a few hours and we get there around 7:30PM.
Not sure how much exploring we'll do tonight, but I'm sure there's time for more gelato.
Ciao!

Elise & Matt


oh and paulie - you know what i started singing today?? Me sca pala peepee (thats probably spelled wrong haha) We used to always make Papa put that Pepino the mouse tape on in the car. hahaha

Off to Florence!

We're in paris still just killing some time before we head on an overnight train to florence. Today we woke up, headed to the Eiffel Tower which was mobbed with people there were only 3 working elevators (usually 4) and the line for each one looked about 3 hours each! so we decided that we didnt have to wait in the long lines since we had a nice view of the city last night at the huge church on the hill. Its finally nice out but it got hot and waiting in line in the heat with no water would not have been fun! We had another very expensive lunch after we saw the tower and now we're just killin a few min before we go do some laundry then get on the train.

Tomorrow we have a full day in florence and then an evening train into rome. Hopefully the rain stays away!

Peacceee

Matt + Elise

L'addicion Si vous plait

that's the only thing we know how to say in french haha

paulie - i've put those bowls (the orange and yellow ones??) in the microwave hundreds of times and not once have i had a problem. but yea, things do get hot when you are HEATING them up lol.

is dad rocking the nokia100??? haha

last night we didn't make it to the Eiffel Tower but had a nice dinner on Ile St. Louis (matt had escargot and cremé brulee)

today we went to Versailles. it's ridiculously huge. it would probably take 4 hours to walk through the entire garden.

it's still raining here by the way!

After Versailles we went to Montmarte for the view (thanks to Rick Steve's suggestions) and I got a couple pictures of the Moulin Rouge.

we've pretty much been living off sandwiches and ice cream. I just had Nutella gelato....SO good.

tomorrow we're finally going to the tower and doing laundry (yessss!!!!) and then catching a night train to Florence.

i miss my hairdryer and showers that you can actually turn around in.

excited for Italy & Spain though (at least I can speak the language in Spain)

also - if anyone is free on the 25th to either pick us up at the airport or pick me up at Matt's apartment it would be much appreciated =)

love,

Elise

Paris

Yesterday we started off with a canal cruise in Amsterdam which was okay. We ended up on one of the boats that didn't have an open back so couldn't see much through the windows. After that, we headed over to the Heineken Brewery which we both thought was really cool, of course because it has to do with beer. There's some lame virtual reality rides (including one where you're a coachman leading horses through the city delivering beer) but you got 3 beers along the way plus a free gift. And Matt found another token for an extra beer so we made out like bandits. From there we had to catch our train to Paris on the Thayls. We're riding first class so it's pretty nice. They gave us dinner (we're not sure if it was supposed to be cold or not....but it was) and a few snacks. We didn't get into Paris til about midnight so we just found our hotel and went to bed.
This morning we got up and walked from the Notre Dame all the way to the Arc de Triumphe and stopped at the Louvre in between (snooooooore). Matt kept telling me I wasn't appreciating the art and all of a sudden he wants to be a "painter"
good luck to him

We stopped for breakfast near Notre Dame....little did we know it was the most expensive breakfast we'd ever eaten. 2 measly cappucinos and crepes for 26 euros. quite outrageous.

We hopped on the metro from the Arc and are on our way back to the hotel to rest a bit before going to see the Eiffel Tower at night. (It's about 6pm now)

Tomorrow I think we're going to go to Versailles......but I really want to go to Disneyland.
Matt doesn't think it's a good idea.

Til next time-
Elise & Matt

The 'Dam'

looks like the rain is following us around!
we spent the morning shopping in Brussels then took a train to Amsterdam around 1pm. Thanks to Auntie Jane, when we got here we had a few more rides on the tram with her ticket so we headed to the Ledesplein (i don't know how to say it OR spell it haha) using that.
We got to the Tulip Inn safely after dodging some cars, 100s of bikes and a few trams. The room is nice but we only spent a minute at the hotel because we wanted to get out and see the sights!
First we walked over to the Anne Frank House which was nice. I'm glad I just finished the book last week, everything was fresh in my memory. After that we just walked around and saw some of the canals. Now we're heading over to the Red Light District to see what it's all about and then possibly taking a canal cruise but we might wait til tomorrow if its still raining.
Not sure what we're up to tomorrow but our train leaves for Paris sometime in the evening so we have a good couple of hours in Amsterdam. We're thinking of going to the Van Gogh Musuem but we'll see.
EVERYBODY rides bikes here but I think it would be a death sentence if either one of us tried to get on a bike and make our way through this city so I think we're gonna skip it this time.
Au revoir.
See you in Paris! (or maybe tomorrow if we've got some minutes left at the easyinternetcafe haha)
Love,
Elise

Belgian Beer

the beer here is very awesome and very strong!!!! Chimay and Duvel are matts favorites and elise loves hoegaarden!!! Belgium is awesome, wish we had more days here!!! the 'Dam' tomorrow!!! although the subway here is terrible compared to the tube! also have attached a photo of the menneken pis!

Belgium

i was napping when matt was blogging earlier. got up at 6 to catch our train)
brussels is really nice but i never know what language they're speaking. some speak french, some speak dutch but neither of those help us because we don't speak either!
our hotel is really nice here. the room is about 3 times the size of our room in london.
we're about to go try some belgian beers and lambics and find some truffles.
we saw the Manneken Pis earlier (the statue of the little boy peeing)
that's probably the only thing Brussels is known for besides the beer, chocolate & pommes frites (french fries served with mayo)
happy mother's day mom & grandma! (although my mom lives in the stone age and won't see this)

paulie - where did you get a wii?? can't wait to play. what games did you get?? our apt. is gonna be awesome!!

meloser - hope you had a fun birthday full of bowling and beer! i celebrated by seeing daniel radcliffe...hah

we'll keep you posted - off to Amsterdam tomorrow!
love
elise

London Day 3 / Brussels Day 4

We werent able to get to the internet cafe last night since we were tired but we have arrived in Belgium and it is very cool (although typing on this french keyboard sucks. all the keys are moved around) yesterday was another rainy day in london, but it was fun. The play with harry potter in it, was very strange, but good. nothing like harry potter at all, very R rated. The british museum had some nice things and it was similiar to the Smithsonian. Yo Sushi was awesome, with plates just streaming by to take. This morning we got on the eurostar and headed to brussels. We toured the 'Grand Place' and we tackled the lqnguqge barrier at lunch with muscles and fries (famous here) the main square is beautiful here (picture) had some good belgian beer and a belgian waffle for desert (awesome) well this keyboard is awful and frustrqting, will post more later

the rain followed us to belgium!!!

-Matt

Day 2 in London

We planned on getting an early start on the day but didnt end up waking up until about 11. We decided to hit the Tower of London first, which was really cool and the crown jewels were crazy. It took us a couple of hours to get through all of it and by then we were starving so we decided on Wagamama (popular chain noodle bar here, but one just opened in quincy market in boston) It was really good! We are starting to get upset with no free refills on soda!!!!!!! Especially when theyre about 4 USD each. After lunch we headed over the new millenium bridge and went into the Tate Modern which didnt have the slide exhibit elise was hoping for but there was some crazy abstract art there. Some of the paintings were weird and looked like i could have painted them when i was 5 (1 line down the canvas) We saw some Monets and headed to Maddame Tussauds wax museum which was expensive but awesome. Got some pics with the celebs (wish i could post some but the USB thing here isnt workin) The ticket cost 30 pounds but it included a ride on the London Eye (huge ferris wheel over london) which was also really cool. We wanted to goto a pub for dinner but they were very crowded with the after work crowd and many had private events so we settled for a place called 'Little Frankies' American Italian Restauraunt. Whata joke. 'BBQ Chicken Lasagna' thats not even American. They also tried to be american by playing some oldies. But the food wasnt too bad and now we're just hangin at the internet cafe near trafalger square and we'll prolly hit up a pub before we head on back. British Museum and Theater tomorrow followed by Yo! Sushi for dinner!!!!!!

Stay Tuned.

Oh ya, its still raining

-Matt and Elise

Day 1

we made it to London! our flight wasn't too bad but neither of us really got much sleep on the plane and when we got here it was already 6:30 am and we couldn't check in yet.
We mostly walked around. Saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, & Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross (for all you Harry Potter fans!). We just had dinner (fish and chips!) and of course it's raining so we decided to stop in and check our email.
Our hotel is nice (Hotel Elysee) but the room is TINY. can barely move around in there but it's only for a few days then we're off to Brussels! don't worry - i'll bring back chocolate (if i don't eat it all by the time we get home)
The Tube is really cool, much nicer than the T. I think tomorrow we're going to go to the British Museum, Madame Toussads & the london eye.
Well i'm sure Matt is posting mostly the same stuff right now but he's across the cafe so I can't tell.
I'm sure we'll be checking back in soon so leave us comments!
Love & Miss you all!

We Made It!

Well we got into London about 7:00am London time, had a pretty uneventful flight with nothing but crappy movies. We couldn't check into our hotel right away so they stored our bags and we left for Westminster Abbey. After we toured the abbey we headed for Buckingham palace and were lucky enough to catch some of the Changing of the guard ceremony even tho we couldn't see much since there were so many people. We snapped a few photos of the beefeaters and were on our way. Walked on over to Trafalgar square and watched people get attacked by the millions of pigeons. By that time we were exhausted from not really having slept and with all the jetlag so we checked into our hotel. Went up the death trap of a 'lift' and entered our room which is the size of a queen bed. It was spotless tho so we were happy. We decided to nap for a couple of hours and then head out for dinner. We are now in an internet cafe near kings cross (elise got her photo with Platform 9 3/4 from harry potter) and will probably head to a pub before an early sleep since we're tired.

It has been off and on raining all day and looks like it will be the same the next few days, London has weather like Seattle.

Couldnt upload any pictures right now since the cord is at the hotel but hopefully next time!

Either windsor castle tomorrow or more of Londons Sights

Stay Tuned.

Peaccccce

-Matt

Leaving Tomorrow!

So we're leaving tomorrow and we hopefully have everything packed and ready to go. We're trying to pack as light as possible since we'll be moving our bags around quite a bit. I'm using my backpackers pack that i use for hiking and Elise is using a small rolling suit case. We're not bringing clothes for everyday and we hope to use a laundromat about halfway through. Should be an interesting experience!

So stay tuned for a post from London and hopefully if the internet cafe allows, we'll post some pics.

Peaceeee!

-Matt

1 week from today!

1 week from today and we'll be gettin on the plane to london!

Still got alot to do. We gotta figure out what we're packing, get some last minute stuff etc. Hopefully I have enough money and we're not broke when we get to spain. London will be the most expensive but I think we can get by just fine.

Peaccccce