Yes, I am aware it has been a while.

Howdy to the folks back home,
Our trip reached the one month mark two days ago. One month of whittling away a dishwasher's fortune on starchy foods and nights on springy mattresses. One month of sleeping in 17 separate beds and struggling through 5 different languages. And one month to go. Luckily it isn't (as the saying goes) "all down-hill from here". Feeling as fresh as we did when we boarded our train in Sacramento for the east coast and with one month of travel knowledge to boot, we eagerly await whatever awaits our footsteps. If the past month is any indication, the odds are that it will be up at least one flight of stairs.

We have one more night here in Firenze (florence) in the heart of Tuscany, home to the Old Masters of the Renaissance and some of the finest leather craftsmen in the world. We left you last in the center of Basque Spain, and it has been a mighty week (and a half?) spent most notably in the Ligurian Coast of Italy in the five villages of the Cinque Terre. The cinque terre is a land of such indescribable beauty that the words we've tried to use to describe it to other people make us sound like we've gone delirious with backpackers fever (or some similar ailment) so I'll try and spare some of the more grandiose adjectives.

The five towns (from north to south: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manorolo, and Riomaggiore, our home base) lie on a UNESCO protected coastline and are surrounded on three of four sides by some of the bluest, clearest water I've laid eyes on. The fourth side is most commonly bordered by a terraced hillside covered with green vineyards and farmland, layered cottages and rolling hills. Connecting them all is a 6 or 7 mile path along the cliff-face that spirals up the hills and down into the villages, about 5 hours worth of hiking in all. We chose to split our trek up between the three days that we spent there, spending the rest of the time soaking in the beach, eating fresh local pesto, conversing with our guesthouse host Sergio, and sitting on a warm stone bench, drinking cheap local wine and watching the sun set and the moon rise. Pictures will commence. I chose to leave out some detail partially because of time and partially because Emily probably wants to impart a little jealousy on you all as well. Mostly because of time.

There are still some gaps to fill in, but more and more I'm beginning to realize that we have a decently large (and dedicated!) readership who may prefer consistent updates rather than long chunks and then long boring waits, so it is my solemn (fingers crossed) promise to you all that to make up for this short entry that I will post more regularly, with more gusto, and more detail than you imagined possible. And pictures! So many pictures.

To all who helped us get to this point, financially or just with some friendly advice or well-wishing, thank you for an incredible month. Rest well knowing that we are fully in gratitude to you all and are having the time of our lives here on the other side of the world. This slice of pizza is for you..........

The Golden City and the Marvelous Coast

Well my friends...things are, as they say, on the up and up. Matt and I happily left Madrid a few days ago and took a rather uncomfortable night train to Lisbon. Arriving at 9 am we lugged our bags over some pretty steap hills to our hostel..where a hung over and snippy woman let us drop our stuff and told us not to come back until 2 in the afternoon. Tired, hungry and smelly, we strolled the empty streets of Lisbon looking to kill time.
After a breif nap on a bench we made our way downtown, and what a downtown it was. The streets are paved in smooth golden cobblestones intermixed with deep black ones to create wonderful mosaics with different patterns all over the city. I was unaware how significant painted tiles were here until I started noticing buildings completely covered in them - a variety of patterns and bright colors that would warm even the weariest of travelers' hearts.
The next few days were completely wonderful, and wonderfully cheap as well. Matt and I managed to cook most of our meals in the Pension's tiny kitchen and explored the many hilly neighborhoods Lisbon had to offer, catching some great views of the city the higher we climbed. We also managed to see Europe's biggest Aquarium which housed the oceans biggest vertebrate fish, the Sun Fish, a truly strange creature that can be several meters long and way just as many tons...it is very pokey, needless to say. On our final day we took a bus along the seaside to Belem, a neighborhood with THE BEST (self proclaimed and affirmed by others) Pasteis de Nata...tasty tiny warm flakey crusted custard treats covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon...truly deadly.
The next day, we departed on another overnight train for San Sebastian. Finally, a coachette..how marvelous to sleep in a bed on the train...though it arrived at 6:30 in the morning. It was a fantastic trip across the Portuguese countryside in our little compart that we shared with a french family, whose 3 year old Anna was the source of much entertainment and laughter. There is something majestic and intoxicating about seeing a beautiful foreign land pass by your window as you listen to music...for us, it was Seu Jorge singing David Bowie tunes. As the sut set like a juicy peach dripping over the terrain, I knew that I would someday return to this place.
We woke up early in San Sebastian, which turned out to be a blessing. At 7 am there wasn´t much we could do except walk around and hope that maybe, we could find a place to stay. Our first impression of the city wasn´t the greatest...there was trash all over the street and people wandering about, still drunk from the night before. Thankfully, that opinion was quickly turned round.
After trying several pensions...there are about 6 on every block in the Parte Vieja, we found one with a room for us, for 60 Euro per night...well above our budget, but we knew this was going to be an expensive place to stay in Summer. So we took the room, and took to finding some breakfast. By this time, the dirty streets were suddenly clean and the drunks had all gone to bed. We had the city to ourselves and snacked on apples and peanut butter by the beautiful La Concha beach. After finding a good supermarket we bought some baguettes, cheese, and deli meat to dine on for lunch and returned to the Pension to get ready for a day in the sand.
We went to the third beach in town, supposedly less crowded but popular with surfers...Noah, you would have loved it. Warm water, 4 - 6 foot waves, and long rides. The sand was softer than any I could remember digging my toes into, and the water was great. Matt and I spent 3 hours body surfing, bobbing in the waves, and laying on the golden beach. When people say that sometimes you need to take a vacation from your vacation...they mean, get to the beach.
After an early evening nap we were ready to get out and enjoy the festivities of Semana Santa...a week long festival and international fireworks competition. The expensive room was well worth the free entertainment we enjoyed here. First we watching some of a sand castle building contest, then went and heard some really great, slightly trippy music. It was played by a band..no, a symphony, called Tirri Tarra that included a choir. They played kind of rocking, sort of classic, and sometimes new wave (the bad parts) but all and all was really incredible to watch.
Then, we sampled some delicious tapas and headed out toward the beach for the fireworks display. While most of the entrants into the competition are from various regions in Spain (each getting their own night to display) we were there on the biggest night of the festival (Saturday) which meant we got to see China´s fireworks. I´m telling you guys, I´ve never seen anything like it - the craziest, most complex, completely colorful fireworks you could ever imagine. I hate to say it, but they put Sonoma´s to shame...but hey, I suppose I shouldn´t have expected anything less from the country that created them!
This morning we slept in and got ourselves up just in time to see the Giant´s parade...a gathering of about 30 or so giant costume things maneuvered by people perched within them. Each giant danced its way through the streets to musical accompaniment of accordians and various flutes. Trotting alongside them were smaller giants - little kids dressed up sporting enormous paper mache heads - who would bop onlookers in the head with their balloons...pretty funny to watch a giant devil bopping a two year old over and over again, just to be met with laughter. It´s been a bit rainy today but we´re hoping the sun will break through so we can hit the beach again and take some photos of this unusually beautiful city whose french and spanish influences are reflected in the ornate architecture and flamboyantly decorated bridges, monuments. It is no wonder that everyone tells you to come here. Truly, you should.

Lets try something

Not to be one upped, I´m going to attempt to post a video.....

Alright everyone, it´s time for some of MY photos (this is Emily). Matt´s monopoly must end :) Anyways, this is a view of one tiny area in the gardens at Versailles. They actually go for miles and include several small palaces and a venetian canal that Louis XIV rerouted a river to create, also the canal housed a full sized 28 (?) gun battle ship..pretty nuts. So here are some more photos, out of order for our blog timeline but in order in their own timeline..got it?

This was the view out of our hotel room window in Paris.

One of the more elegant metro stops in Paris, and one of the few still holding onto its art noveau style. This was also our connection to the rest of the city.

Ah the Alps, I feel that I´ll never properly capture their magnificence in words or photos. You simply have to be face to face with these mountains to truly appreciate them, to hike along a ridge side trail with the peaks so close you swear you could almost touch them. This was taken on Matt and I´s hike up to Murren, a beautiful Swiss town/chalet/hamlet. This town, and many others are reached by wonderful cable cars, trains, and terrifyingly claustrophobic funiculars...but you gotta do it. Even you mom. It´s an experience you´ll never forget.

I think you get the idea.

Oh my Gaudi!....I had to, sorry. But the point is, this guy was nuts - in a good way. His buildings and concepts behind them are to be admired if for no other reason than they were trying to be something no one had seen before. Plus they´re pretty cool looking, especially if you´re into Dr. Seuss. This is one of the many building in/surrounding the Park Guell...a very cool green space in the middle-ish of Barcelona. While we were there Matt and I saw Woody Allen filming a scene for his new movie with Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem...I took a photo from far far away, damn not having telephoto. It was kinda cool to see, but pretty annoying because they were filming on this awesome staircase the we were forbidden from climbing and pretty much viewing due to the shoot.

The hall of mirrors is infamous, at least if you took art history or saw Marie Antoinette. In reality, it´s pretty cool, but too crowded with people to really get the feel for what it would have been like promonading through the space in the days of the sun king. An interesting factoid - this hall was built because mirror was incredibly expensive and was a sign of wealth, additionally, the king had them installed here strategically because all the aristocrats and got an ego boost from looking at their all important selves

The last photo for now is from the Park Guell, where instead of carving hearts and initials intro trees, they carve them into cacti. You could spot them all over the park and I thought it was pretty neat. Anywho, that´s all for now from me. Matt and I have been in Madrid for a few days now, both sick (with colds), and a bit weary. But we´re staying at a great hostel with free internet, a good kitchen, and dvds in the living room...not a bad place to feel like crap:)

Without Further Ado......A Brief Photo Essay

Chillin on the beach in barcelona.

These photos are out of order, but who cares. This picture to the left is Spiez, Switzerland from the train. This lake is one of the lakes that borders Interlaken, where we stayed for three nights.

This is the church of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. It is an unfinished architectural masterpiece by Antoni Gaudi, who has many beautiful buildings in the Barcelona area.

This is Emily and I in front of the Tour Eiffel in Paris.

The Notre Dame.

Emily in full gear in Interlaken.

The Swiss Alps.

The beach in Barcelona, a great place for a dip.

The view of Barcelona from Guell Park, primarily laid out and designed by Gaudi.

Bern, Switzerland.

The Eiffel Tower at dusk.

Emily in the Alps.

Buenoth Ding Dong Diddily Diath

We have ventured forth from the lands of the Bonjours, the Guten-Tags, Dankes and Merci´s. No more Sil vous plaits or whichever combination of all of those they speak in Switzerland. No señor, we are now safely in the country where a man can look another man in the eye and say...¨vamanos, amigos¨. (Although in this particular part of that country, they happen to work in a bit of French to confuse us and to spit in the face of Castillian Espanol. Beautiful Calalunya, we are at thy mercy.

Barcelona is the first stop on our trip in which we didn´t have a hotel booked before arrival. A night train from quaint Bern, Switzerland had us in at 9:00 in the morning, and I (for one) hadn´t really slept a wink. Neither of us were that excited about the trek through town with baggage in tow in search of accomodations, but thats just part of Living La Vida Loca here in Espana. We found a decent (though more expensive than planned) room on the fourth floor of a building, and being no stranger to stairs, we took it for the night so that we could spend some time exploring.

Barcelona may be a large city, but the good bits are all fairly close together, and easily accessed by subway. After learning our mistake in Paris, we sprung for a three day metro pass to prevent 10-15 hour aimless walks around the city. So far it has been the best place to find good, cheap food, and we have been filling our stomachs with delicous Tapas, Paella, and Sangria. Today we woke up after some serious lightning storms last night that kept me awake in a stuffy room with no window and went out in search of a place to spend our next two nights here. This was real adventure: the two of us with no way out, a city full of booked hostels and pensiones, everything we own on our back, trying to find a room in the rain using a foreign language.

Needless to say, we ended up safe (don´t worry families) in a good-enough-for-us cheap-enough-for-us place in a great side street in the Barri Gothic, the best neighborhood in town. Now we´re feeling cocky because we´ve booked trains to Madrid and Lisbon and a few hostels ahead to save ourselves from spending another day like today, but all in all it was a great experience.

Now to turn a page back, I´ll tell you about Switzerland.

Interlaken is a town of about 15,000, nestled at the base of the Alps and between two beautiful green lakes. In the summer, it is a backpacker and adventure seeker Mecca due to its quick access to skydiving, hiking, ice climbing, canyoning, and just about every other way to almost kill yourself for lots of money. We were there to rest though, so some slight hiking was just good enough for us. The Alps, as expected, are huge. Kind of like a reverse Grand Canyon. Interlaken, in its prime, is generally about 20 percent backpackers, most of whom speak English. This worked to our advantage, because we never quite got a grasp on which tounge was being spoken by the locals. The hostel was a great place to meet other people, and after drinking with the Irish (something I´ll warn you about), playing Euchre with the Canadians, and explaining Fraternities to the Aussies, we were very pleased to have had some company for a while. I might have left stuff out, but Emily plans on posting a bit as well, so I´ll save some for her.

Pictures will come soon, we´ve yet to find another good place to upload from, but you can count on getting some sometime in the next week or so I´d say. I know it has been a while since any substantial post but the fact of the matter is that we´re awfully busy exploring and have other things (like food) that we´ve got to spend our money on. We are sorry, and we will do our best.

Thats all I can think of off the top of my head, I´m fighting off a cold and heading off in search of peach nectar and falafel for dinner, but we head to Madrid in two days, and then catch a night train to Portugal after that. Adventure will ensue, something will go wrong, most things will go right, and I´ll fill you in on the best of them.

The hills are alive.......with something or other

Hey all, reporting from the base of the Eiger, the Mounch, and the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps and life is beautiful. Ill be posting pictures eventually but access is limited. Actually, time is limited, im not sure if i have time to type much but i promise we will post again soon. Switzerland is great and we are camping at a great hostel and meeting some fun people. We go to bern tomorrow and catch a late train to barcelona tomorrow night, so we'll be there next time we talk to you. sorry so short
auf wehdersehn

Bonjour American Pig-Dogs

Hey folks- still getting used to the European keyboard so bear with me........

Paris is fantastic! We've spent three satisfying days walking nonstop around the city, and it has been one of the coolest places I've been in my life. Our hotel is in beautiful Montmartre, minutes away from the Sacre Coeur. We wake up every day and get fresh almond crossiants from the local Buloungerie, and purchase baguettes and fresh local cheeses for our picnic lunches. We've seen nearly every landmark in the city, including the Louvre, Arc D'Triumph, and the former royal estate of Versailles. Our French is passable, but we can get through a meal with it and it is a lot of fun trying. We leave for Switzerland on Friday after spending tomorrow celebrating Emily's birthday with a boat ride and a trip up the Tour Eiffel. I don't have much more patience for this keyboard, so I'll just add pictures. Au Revoir!