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