I've been trying to upload pictures... its not working! So frustrating. Rome is officially my favourite place on this trip so far! You should all go. Seriously. First of all, it is very pretty, also there is tons to do, and the history is so cool and so so old! You see things from like 800 BC, all the way through the emperors and Bible times and Michelangelo's time up to Mussolini's time... pretty much all of history, right here! We did a tour of the Sistine Chapel today and some of the other Vatican museums; it was unreal. Then we took a tour of the Palentine hill where the emperors lived and saw the Roman Forum which was even more unreal. The best of all, though, was probably going to the Mamertime museum where we saw the place Paul and Peter were emprisoned. You can see the hole they were thrown through, graffiti on the walls from prisoners from that time. The place is at the bottom of a valley and of course the cell is deep underground so the idea was that when the Tiber river flooded, the water would come into the cell and drown the prisoners. When water was coming into the cell, Paul and Peter were so calm that the guards didn't understand it. They shared the gospel with them and the guards converted to Christianity, and Paul and Peter baptised them right there in the cell with water that was filling up their cell! I can't believe I got to stand where they stood. This, and everything we saw and did today is stuff i will never forget! I'd better get going though, we leave early early tomorrow morning for Corfu in Greece so lets pray that warm weather holds because we can't wait to hit up the beach!
Truckloads of love,
Starr

Roma

Wow, so I'm super tired but I'll try to take a few minutes just to update you all on what we've been up to. We left Florence on Sunday, and made our way to Rome. There was some question as to how we were going to do this, as the trenitalia (that's their rail company here) workers were apparently going on strike. As it turned out though, only the little short distance regional trains weren't running, so we just had to catch a bus to a different station and take a different kind of train- it all worked swimmingly. The Termini station in Rome is huge, there is like a mall in it and restaurants and everything! We soon realized that the hostel we had booked wasn't actually in the city of Rome, it was in Ostia, which is kind of a suburb. This is a little bit too bad, since we have to ride the train for half an hour just to get into the city, and then we still need to take the subway to wherever we'd like to go from there. We just got transportation tickets that are good for three days, however, so its not too bad. The hostel itself is really nice- it is new and we have a huge room all to ourselves (there are three empty beds). We even have an ensuite bathroom! The hostel is right on the beach, but unfortunately the beach is quite dirty. Ostia is kind of a poor town, and the location of our hostel is pretty much in the ghetto! haha. So there is quite a bit of garbage on the beach, its not exactly the type of place you'd want to lounge for the day. (Don't worry though Dad- we feel very safe! :) ) So we'll leave the beach lounging until we get to Greece- there is tons to do in Rome! On our first day here (yesterday) we went to the Colosseum which was sooooo cool. You walk up the steps out of the metro stop, and there it is- this huge monument you've seen in pictures and on tv all your life! We took an English tour which was very cool, I'm glad we did it because there are no signs or anything on the inside, so if you didn't take a tour or at least get the audioguide you'd probably pay €9 just to wander around the place for half an hour wondering about what you're missing out on because of your lack of knowledge. (trust me, we've experienced this!) The tour price also includes a tour of the Roman Forum, but they only go at certain times and we had missed the ones for that day, so we just walked around the city for a few hours. It was so beautiful! We went past the Roman Forum (which we will tour tomorrow) and a whole bunch of other historical buildings/monuments. We got some pizza at a little pizzeria (where they sell it to you by weight) and by then it was dark enough to do some night sightseeing! We went to a few of the fountains (there are so many) including the Trevi fountain, which was so pretty! Everything was light up and there were tons of ppl, including guys selling everything from roses and postcards to bubble blowing guns and little mouldable smiley face ball things (does anyone ever buy these???) There are tons of squares everywhere, and its pretty easy to stumble upon a place and suddenly realize that you've seen pictures of it on postcards. Today we went to Vatican city and went into St. Peter's basilica, which was pretty cool. We wanted to see the sistine chapel as well but because of a long story we're going to do it tomorrow instead. We came back to the hostel for supper tonight (they have a bar/restaurant where you can get pasta and coffee and such) and since then we've just been doing laundry, trying to figure out our next hostel etc. I'm pretty excited that we just booked 3 nights at the Pink Palace on Corfu in Greece! :) We'll be in Rome all day tomorrow and we'll leave here on Friday. I think that this is possibly the coolest city we've seen yet! I feel as though you could spend a lot of time here going to museums, parks etc., checking out concerts and restaurants, shopping (I haven't done any here yet! Pretty impressive, no?), and checking out the night-life. (Which we aren't able to do because the trains stop running early but we're not too heartbroken over this). For some reason, my feet are sore tonight, even though we probably did half as much walking today as we usually do. Maybe it was the standing on the crowded metro and trains?? Love you and miss you all.....
Starr

Firenze- hooray for culture!

Today we got up to try to get to the Uffizzi Art gallery as early as possible, since yesterday as we walked by there was a huge line-up. Well we didn't end up getting there until 10.30, and the line up was huuuuuuuuger than yesterday! We later found out that this was because instead of opening at 8.15 like it usually does, it had been closed for a meeting and didn't open til 10.45. Luckily there were some cool girls to chat with standing right in front of us, so we waited in line for 2 hours.....it was definitely worth it! I saw artwork that I've seen prints of all my life! El Greco, Michelangelo, Rafael, Da Vinci.... wow it was super cool. After the gallery, we were starving so we found a cute little restaurant and I had some pasta (yum!) Then we found a market which was super fun to shop in! The funniest part though was when Stephanie and Sheri were looking at sunglasses that these guys were selling when suddenly, wham, they closed up their tables and collapsed their stands and ran around the corner! we were like 'umm...... where are they going?' and then we turned around and saw the police strolling by! So apparently these ppl don't have business permits and/or their sunglasses are stolen! I am really enjoying Florence, I cannot wait to tell you guys about it and put some pictures on here. Tonight we're goign to go to a concert at a church (mezzo soprano, violin, organ) that we think is free, so that should be fun. Maybe we'll hit up a gelato stand on the way there??
love love love
Starr

Ciao

Hey everyone! I'm already overtime on my computer usage here, but I thought Id let you know that we made it safely to Florence tonight. This morning we left Monterosso, I'll tell you all about that later, and we to Pisa to see the tower. We seriously took pictures for an hour! haha it was so fun though, the tower is really funny when you actually see it. Then we got on the wrong train and went to some little town about an hour and a quarter out of Pisa, turned around and went back to Pisa, and then finally got to Florence. By then the info. booth was closed, but we found our hostel anyway only to find that it was full!! So we're in a little place right on the same street that is actually pretty nice, it just is more like a hotel and doesn't have breakfast or the fun, meet-people, hostel atmosphere. So in the morning we'll go back to the hostel to see if they have room for us tomorrow night, and then we'll go explore Firenze! Italy is so cool, I love it so far, but I really wish I could speak Italian! Ill be even more lost in Greece.....

yes, we're alive and well!

Wow, where to start??? I realize that its been like two weeks since my last blog entry....sorry :) Its becoming more and more difficult to find a computer at our hostel, especially one with free internet which is what we had for the first couple of weeks of our trip. now we're spoiled and it seems like such a rip off to pay 3 euro and hour and to have a keyboard that is really weird and takes forever to type on... still worth it though to stay connected to everyone!
Since Madrid, we've done A LOT, but time has been flying by soooo quickly. We went to Barcelona for a couple of days and it is definitely one of my highlights thus far on the trip! We were staying right downtown, close to "La Rambla", a street where people walk, there are street performers, and about a million little booths selling flowers. We got to see some friends that we'd met in Lisbon who were going to school in Barcelona, so that was really fun. On our last day there we went to the beach--it was 18 degrees and so very beautiful! We didn't have time for any sunbathing, since we had to catch a train, but seeing the mediterranean was definitely exciting.
On Friday, we left Barcelona and took a bus to Andorra. It continues to crack us up that we actually went to this country that barely anyone has heard of and which ended up being really difficult to get into/out of. (There aren't any trains and the buses only run on certain days... we almost had to go all the way back into Barcelona before we could get to France, and Andorra is right on the French border!) The best thing about the place, aside from the skiing, is that they don't have any taxes, so there are lots of rich ppl there and apparently it's where you go to shop. We went into a lot of sweet clothing stores, but we're pretty much out of room in our bags, so we didn't buy anything. Good self control eh? Anyway, we spent 3 nights there with a friend of Stephanie's named Todd who is teaching English to all the little Andorrans. We had a nice relaxing time there, getting to sleep in every day :) There's a real ski-resort atmosphere everywhere there, because pretty much everyone who goes there as a tourist goes to ski. I wanted to snowboard so badly! I may have looked into going, except that they haven't really had any snow this year so it probably wouldn't have been very good. One day we went up to a little town called Ordino (about a 15 minute bus ride) and we went for a hike up the mountain, which was really fun! It was so beautiful!
From Andorra we took a bus to Toulouse, there was kind of a snow storm going on but it cleared up just in time for us to go through the mountain pass, and so we got to see some gorgeous scenery there, too. We hadn't booked a hostel there, and since our train was a bit late the tourist office had already closed when we got into town! There was a very helpful man at the train station, who gave us a bunch of numbers he found on the internet, but all we succeeded in doing was to pay over 10 euros for the really stupid payphones without even getting ahold of anyone! After finally figuring out where the hostel was from a receptionist at a hotel, we got there and found it full (apparently its reading week in France, too) but the woman there called a cheap hotel for us and they did have room for us. It was quite the adventure. I have to say though, I was kinda expecting ppl in france to be snobs, and they aren't at all! We haven't met any mean ones, really. We went to Carcassonne for Valentine's day, which has was midieval city and is really cool, but unfortunately it rained, so we didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped. It was still fun though, we ate veggie soup, rabbit, and crepes and a little family-run restaurant.
From Toulouse, we headed to Nimes for 3 nights, which was really fun. We saw the sights, met another Canadian girl who we hung out with one night, and stayed at a hostel that felt like a camp, which was cool, but which also was wayyy up on the hill, not so much fun!
I'm almost out of time....
Yesterday we came from Nimes to Nice, and we are loving it so far!! I think the other girls have probably described it more, but today we went to a parade because their Carnival is on right now. It was over and hour long, and really fun. I have never seen so much silly string in my life, though! Its been raining today but not too much so its not going to keep us in, we'll go see the lights of the city tonight which is something we really enjoy doing.
I can't wait to put some pictures on here! We'll be in Nice two more nights, and then we're going to Italy! ahhhh!!!!! I'm always thinking of and praying for you guys at home, I miss ya!
starr

So I just went to look at Steph's blog, and I realized that she's pretty much the most amazing blogger ever. I realize that I haven't exactly been putting details into my entries, and they're probably a little confusing sometimes because I forget what I have and have not written, so I just thought I'd tell ya that if you really want to know what we've been up to, read Stephanie's blog! The link to it is at the very bottom of this page.
:)

Well we'be been in Madrid for 5 days now, and we're not sure when we'll be leaving! The plan was so head to Barcelona tomorrow, but Sheri-Lee is quite sick with an allergic reaction to something, and the doctor recommended that she not travel for at least another day, so here we'll stay! We can hardly complain, Elaine and Brent are spoiling us rotten, and we are just loving staying in a safe, clean house with super fun people!
Today, I got to go to a football (soccer) match!!!!! It was Real Madrid vs. Llevanta, and it wasn't actually a terribly good game, but it was so fun just to be there. About 2 hours before the game started, a friend of Brents' showed up with these two tickets that he couldn't use, so Brent took me!! He said, "It'll be just like home, you'll be out with Brent!" hehe. Anyway that was a real experience. I've done such a variety of cool things here in Spain which has been so great; everything from seeing old castles and medieval cities to eating Spanish breakfast at noon and tapas at midnight, to sipping cappuchinos in the Ritz hotel and eating dessert at the Hard Rock Cafe. Plus seeing Real Madrid play!! I think I'm in a state of unbelief, actually, at how blessed I am to be here right now.
These pics are of a few different things. Steph was victorious after having climbed about a million stairs in the gardens at Sintra, when we finally got to the 'top'. I enjoyed some 'Kono Pizza', a delicious food that definitely will come to Canada: its Pizza in a cone!! yum. There's a picture of the Real Madrid Stadium empty, from when Steph and I went on a tour of it, and also a picture of it full of people and players earlier tonight! I love the picture of me 'with the team' haha. Notice Beckham and Ronaldo standing behind me there :P There's a picture of the the S Club hammin' it up in a Museo de Jamon, where they sell ham and other meats, but mostly ham. That's all pig legs behind us!! Its called jamon iberico and its a cured meat that last forever and is very expensive. It tastes pretty good too. We went there for tapas with Brent and Elaine (basically that's just the word they use for snacks, where you order plates of stuff to share and stand around eating it.) They also took us to the Hard Rock Cafe for dessert, it was great.
Well its almost 3 in the morning here, so I should really be getting to bed. Hopefully we can go to Barcelona on Tuesday, and then to Andorra for the weekend. Good luck to everyone writing midterms at home! I think of you all often.
love love love love love love love
starr

some pictures!

Alright, so one of the great things about staying here at someone's house is that I can put some pictures on my blog!! I'll quickly tell you what they are. Starting from the bottom of this last group of pictures (from feb. 1st), the first 5 were taken at Sintra, a little city about 45 minutes by train from Lisbon. I think Sheri talked about this place in her blog. The girl with us there is Claire, a girl from California who we met in our hostel. The next picture, which I accidentally put on there twice (sorry I don't know how to fix it!) is of an ancient Roman aqueduct that we saw in Segovia today. It was soooo cool!! They were very smart- they channeled water from the mountains all along the top of this thing in a big trough which has a slight grade to it so that they could get water to their towns. Its so neat be shopping in some trendy store, and then walking out, looking down the street, and seeing this thing! Modern life goes on in ancient surroundings everywhere in Europe. The next 2 pictures up were taken on our boat tour of the Rio Douro in Porto. It was a lovely day, and the tour was so much fun! Then we see the main building on the Plaza Mayor (main square) in Pedraza, another town we went to see today. It is a medieval walled city, with narrow streets and arched wooden doorways... so cool. Standing in the square felt very much like being on a movie set! The next picture up is from the castle in Segovia, which is your typical fairy-tale castle. It was so so so fun to be able to go out with Elaine today to see these places where we'd never have been able to go by train or bus. She's amazing! Hope you're all doing well,
xoxo
Starr