The morning of the 8th was our last day in Europe and we spent it in Paris. We only had the one day, so we headed straight for Notre Dame. After viewing it, we made our way over to the Louvre and spent about two hours roaming it. From there we headed on over to the Eiffel Tower. Miles didn't want to go up because he doesn't like hights, so Aaron and I made our venture to the top. I had to close my eyes on the way up because I felt panic kicking in...lol! I don't handle hights very well either, but just went for it. The views from the top were just great. When we finished we decided to have one last going home meal, so we could spend the rest of our euros. I would loved to have spent more time in Paris, but after that we called it a day. And that concludes our Tour La Europe. Thanks for reading!

few more pics

On the morning of the 5th, we were off and running by 6:30am to catch the early train to Pamplona. When we finaly did arrive, we set out in search of the towns center so that we could get our bearings down and have an idea of where the festivities would be taking place. (the thing you got to realize in europe is that in almost every country you can communicate with ease, because the majority of people seemingly have some understanding of english. However, we found out quickly that Spain was the exception to the rule. The spanish people didn't even attempt to understand us, and that made it somewhat difficult for us to get around.) Fortunitly for us, we located somone in Pamplona as soon as we got there who knew enough broken english to point us in the right direction. In fact, he explained to another man what we were wanting, and the other fellow willingly walked us all over town showing us where the run would take place. Even though neither of us could understand what the other was saying, we found our common ground through hand gestures and nods. After we parted ways, we grabbed a bit for lunch and discussed where we would sleep for the next two nights. (Durring the week of San Fermin it is impossible to find an empty bed unless you book one way in advance, and if you were lucky enough to actually find one the rates are five times what they would normaly be.) My suggestion was to do what the rest of the the bedless people were doing and just throw our bed rolls out in the center of the town park, but for safty reasons no one else was on board...lol! So we jumped on a bus and headed to a campground outside of town. Every Australian on a walkabout must have known about that campground because we shared it with about two thousand of them. On the morning of the 6th Aaron and I woke early, so that we could have enough time to clean up and catch the transit into town before the San Fermin opening cerimonies began. Miles wanted to spend the day relaxing, so he stayed behind at the campground. When we arrived down town the streets were filling up quickly with people dressed in white with red sashes. We started to work our way into the crowed, pressing our way to the center. We had to pass through several check points where police officers were going through bags and pating people down. They were taking things from poeple to keep them from throwing them onto the crowds, such as: Sangriea, mustard, ketchup, eggs, etc. Once I figured out what was going on, Aaron and I quickly worked our way back out of the center in hopes of not getting plastered with anything nasty. We found a nice area off to the side and watched as the gun fired off. It was quite a spectacle of white and red garments, sprays of liquids into the air, mustard and katchup everywhere, people dumping water from balconies, Ambulances and police officers speraticly hauling people away, and poeple doing stupid and crazy things. Once it was over, Aaron and I worked our way through the nasty sticky crowed of people and did one last walk through on The Way Of The Bulls. We walked it so that I could get one last look at the route, before I got after it in the morning. After we were finished in town, we went back to the campgrounds for a nice swim, and spent the rest of the day relaxing with Miles. On the morning of the 7th, we woke at 4:00am so that we could catch the earliest bus to town. Our friend Liz whom we met up with in Granada took an overnight bus up to Pamplona to watch the run. At the bus station Miles stayed and waited for her while Aaron and I went on since I had to be thier by 7:00. At the running course Aaron and I found a nice place for him to view the run, so we dropped our packs where he could keep an eye on them and still watch the run. From there I worked my way past the barricades onto the course. It didn't take long before hordes of people packed into the course area. I talked for a while with other runners and watched as anticipation was building up. Before the gun went off the police did one last sweep through the mass of people trying to remove all the drunks from the course. BOOM! Off went the first gun! You could see and feel the emotions and adrenaline come pouring in over the runners and spectators. Some of the runners already started running at this point, but I kept my ground and waited. BOOM! Off went the second gun! Now people really started moving, and me as well. I ran for a distance and watched over my shoulder as the bulls quickly approched. The next thing I knew, the man in front of me took a nose dive into the pavement, causing me to trip up landing on top of him, driving my knee into the pavement as well (Rule number #1 in the bull run, if you go down stay down or risk getting gored). As I layed there, I turned to my left and watched the bulls running franticly by while the participants were jumping and leaping out of the way. It was over and my first thought was "Wow, send some more"! From there I limped my way up to Aaron, where we grabbed our packs and set off in search of Miles and Liz. Regretfully we didn't have much time to spend with Liz, but we did manage to squeeze in lunch. After that we hoped on the train, and were off to Paris.

By the time we got to Madrid we had all agreed to cut Lisbon out of the equation, we were clearly just too worn out. From the Madrid station we set out in search of a hostel so that we could drop our packs and set out on the town. For some reason we were having no luck at all finding a place to stay, so after a couple hours of searching, an overnight train ride to Lisbon wasn't sounding to bad. After we had almost convinced ourselves to jump back on the train, Aaron some how was able to locate a hotel that still had a room left. Once we got in and booked our room we inquired as to why all the hotels were full. The attendent told us that it was gay pride day, and that the festivities were about to start. Also, there would be a parade later followed by a concert. By the time we did leave the hotel and head out, the srteets were already starting to fill up. In fact, the main roads were already closed off to traffic. Besides that, there were so many spectators out watching that it would have been impossible for anyone to get through even if they wanted. We didn't hang around for the parade, but what we did see was interesting enough...lol! From there we toured around town, did a little shopping, and grabbed a bite to eat. That night back in the hotel we discussed what our plans would be for the next day. Since we had cut out Libon, and felt it was still to early to head to Pampalona (I was off on my days, the bull run doesn't start until the 7th not the forth), we decided to spend one more day in Mardid. On the 4th we all celebrated by sleeping in...lol! we did however make it in time before the hotel quit serving breakfast. Continental breakfast at the hotel included eggs and bacon, and it was just what the doctor ordered. After that we set off for the train station to make reservations for the next day to Pampalona. Once we made our reservations we combed the city for about three hours trying to find a laundry mat. We only found one because we ran into a couple from Arkansas who had a guide book with one in it, it's funny that none of the locals even knew they had one. All I knew is that we were down to our last thread of anything resembling clean clothes and we wern't about to give up until we found one. the rest of that evening we just took it easy and relaxed in Madrid.

just a few pics!

When we got to Malaga we noticed a hostel right across the street from the train station, so we headed over to get a room for the night. I'm not sure what sparked the intensity between Miles and the hostel attendent, but for some reason they were firing off about each others ability to speak english. when we finally did get to our room, I heard Aaron blurt out "Thats two for Mat and three for Miles". I didn't realize he had been keeping count of how many times we had been in some type of confrontation...LOL! When we did settle in I had huge doubts as to wheather or not it was even a hostel, you see up to this point all the hostels had been filled with the costant flow of young people comming and going, but this one apparently was some type of retierment home. Trust me when I say that there wasn't much flow of comming and going, and I was quite confident that Miles wasnt going to get turned away for not meeting the age requirements...LOL! The next morning of the 2nd we hit the first train to Granada. Miles had a friend living in Granada that he wanted to see, a young lady by the name of Liz. Liz had recently taken a job there as a nanny for an eight month duration, and was one month into her contract. Before heading over to spain Liz was working as the youth minister at the chuch Miles was attending, so thats how he knew her. Liz was a delightful young lady just full of energy and since it was her day off, she became our own personal tour guide. We spend most of the day exploring around in an old palace right at the edge of town. The palace was built hundreds of years ago by the Muslims, and the details that went into it were just astonishing. That evening we were just plain beat, infact the moment i hit that pillow back at the hostel I was out. The next monring of the 3rd it was raining on our the way to the train station which was actually quite peaceful. When we cought the early train to Madrid, we wern't really sure at that point where we wanted to go. We had had talked about heading on over to Lisbon, but because of time restraints it requires to take a few over night train rides and at this point none of us were really up for that.

After our stroll along the Mediterranean we stopped and did a liitle shopping, then headed back to the hostel and cooked up big pasta dinner (man did that hit the spot!). truth is we hadn't really had a lot of sit down meals, just grabbing a little of this and that on the go (the result of which I was starting to see and feel around the waist line. I had probably dropped about ten to twelve lbs). On the morning of the 30th we decided to head on over to Barcelona. In the major metropolitan areas the trains are in and out constantly, which made it easy to catch one anywhere, and at any time. However, in the smaller areas it doesn't work quite like that, and we found out the hard way. Nice only had two trains to Barcelona that day, and since we never really plan ahead we missed the first, and the second one was already full. As a result we spent the day train hopping trying to get as close to the Spanish border as possible. That evening we decided to call it a day in the town of Montbellier. Since it was a little after eleven when we got there, we went ahead and found a little corner in the station to bed down. The moment we set our packs down, two backpackers from Austria came over and invited us to travel with them down a few towns to a smaller station. They had planned on sleeping there as well, but they were worried about the armed officials that had been pattroling it. since we really didn't feel like being hasseled either, we went ahead and joined them and jumped back on the next train out (They seemed a bit excited that we were joining them. I think maybe because of the safety in numbers). We finally exited at the small town of Narbonni were Aaron found us an empty waiting room in the station, so we all piled in, lowered the blinds, pulled out our bed rolls, and "Wa La" instant suite for the night. A couple other stragglers were in and out trying to get a little shut eye, but other than that it was a nice peaceful nights rest. We woke up about 6:30 on the 1st because travelers were moving about in the station. Once we got our stuff packed we walked a little ways into town and pick up a big bag of day old croissants for next to nothing, then went back to the station and talked one of the attendances out of a couple cups of hot water for instant coffee and breakfast was served. When we arrived in Barcelona we set out to see the sights. Its main attraction was a cathedral whos construction started 120 years ago and they estemated another 50 before its completion. It was quite a sight! Barcelona reminded me of NYC, a lot hussle and bussle of everyday life, and yet not so overwelmed with tourism to make uncomfortable to get around. From Barcelona we headed out to Malaga hoping to catch a train from there to Granada in the morning.

After a long night’s sleep followed close on the heels of a five hour nap, we woke up like grizzlies from a winter long hibernation. That morning of the 28th we woke revived and ready for the day. We had one thing left in Rome that we wanted to see and that was the Pantheon. Even though we were checking out of the hostel, they were kind enough to let us leave our packs until we got back. The transit we were riding wouldn’t take us all the way there, but the short ten minute walk from where it did drop us off was actually refreshing. The Pantheon definitely lived up to all expectations! (I guess I really should have read up on some of these historical objects before visiting, so that when asked by Aaron “what so significant about this?” I can give a better answer then “its really old”…lol!) From there we went back to the hostel grabbed our packs and headed out for Pisa. When we got to Pisa we had about a mile walk from the train station to the tower. The tower was a little difficult to find because it was nestled right in the heart of the city. However, when we did turn the last corner, the plaza opened up like vision to the very spot where it sat (Pictures just don’t do it justice; I just wanted to stand and stare. It was remarkably fascinating!). From Pisa we headed on up into France. Unfortunately for us, we exited at the wrong station that night so we walked to the next town to catch our train. When we got there it was 1:00 in the morning of the 29th and the next train wasn’t leaving until 5:00, so we pulled out our bed rolls and joined in on the slumber party that was already taking place on the station floor. When we finally did get back on the train we decided to take a little venture, so we exited at Monte Carlo at 6:00 in the morning and strolled through the empty town. We walked right down to the harbor and found a bench to sit on for an hour and watch the sun rise. On our way back to the station a police officer who had watched us earlier with suspicion marched over and asked to see our passports. From there we decided to spend the day relaxing in the French Riviera town of Nice. When we got there we unloaded our packs at the hostel we found (which was formerly a monastery, but sense converted), took a short nap, and went for a stroll along the Mediterranean.

When the morning of 27th rolled around, we decided to spend our Sunday service with none other than his holiness (The Pope). So, we tanked up on the continental breakfast provided by the hostel and then hopped on the first transit to the Vatican (Normally the Vatican is closed on Sundays, but as luck would have it, it’s tradition for them to open up to the public on the last Sunday of every month, and free of charge as well). When we arrived at the first entrance we were quickly turned away. Apparently they won’t let you in without sleeves, and since Miles and I were wearing cut offs, we weren’t allowed in. From there we decided to try a different entrance, only to meet with the same demise. As I was looking around trying to find a different point of attack, I guess one of the attendances step away because when I turned back around Miles was already on the inside waving us to come join him. Although we didn’t get to see Michelangelo’s painting, it was definitely worth sneaking into…lol! From there we headed on over to the Coliseum, then up to Palatine Hill. By that point we were all so physically tiered that we decided to go back to the Hostel for a break. When we did arrive at the hostel we stopped for a little lettuce, shrimp, and mayonnaise pizza then off for a little power nap only it ended up being about a five hour snooze.

Our second night at the Tent wasn’t as bad the first. Besides the fact that it wasn’t as cold, the extra blankets were just enough to make it bearable. In the morning of the 24th (which by the way is Miles birthday) we woke early so that we could catch the early train to Zurich. And I must say that the views from the train that morning were just remarkable. Before we arrived in Zurich I called to let my friend Garry know that we were on our way, and he agreed to pick us up from the train station around six that evening. We arrived in Zurich around noon, which gave us six hours to spend on the town. We spent our time walking around, viewing the sights, tasting the local cuisines, and sampling chocolates (mmm…mmm…good!). Zurich was a lively city and definitely a place I’d like to return. We did however run into one little incident at the train station when Aaron was accused of not paying enough to use the bathroom (truth is he had actually over paid). We left hearing the distant murmurs of “Stupid Americans”. When we finally met up with Garry, he took us back to his place where he and his wife treated us with the greatest of hospitality. They fed us until we were stuffed and then put us up for the night. We woke the next morning of the 25th to COFFEE (man do I miss coffee in the mornings…lol!), and probably the best tasting croissants I’ve ever sunk my teeth into. After we finished breakfast Garry took and dropped us off in old Zurich. From there we decided to spend our last few remaining franks before we headed off for Venice. We could only think of one thing to end our memories of Switzerland with and that was more chocolate. The train ride to Venice seemed like forever, but the views through the Alps sure made it worthwhile. When we did finally reach Venice we had no luck whatsoever finding a hostel, but Aaron somehow managed to find us a hotel at a reasonable rate (up to this point we’ve managed to keep our budget down to about $30.00 a day U.S.). That evening we sat down for a genuine Italian spaghetti dinner, and then walked around like any average tourist. The streets and alleys went off in every direction with no apparent rhyme or reason. It didn’t help that I had lost our map, but fortunately we managed to find our way back to our room. The next morning of the 26th we had planned on waking in time to get an early jump on the crowds, but when the alarm went off we were all feeling the weight of being fatigued and slept in for a few extra hours. When we finally did get up and going we headed straight to the train station to make reservations for an afternoon ride to Florence (up to this point we hadn’t had to make reservations, we just jumped on any train at any time we wanted. Unfortunately the Italians required it and stuck it to you on the reservation charges). When we got to the train station the tourists were pouring out of that thing like crazy. After making our reservations we went and hopped on the local water transit and took a ride through the canal. Well worth it! We exited at San Marco Plaza, took few snap shops, and waded through hordes of tourists. Going through those narrow streets and alleys when it’s elbow to elbow with people made me a little leery to make quick turns for fear of taking out a few of them with that big heavy pack on my back (Miles had actually done that in Munich and knocked a bicycle in a car…LOL). I enjoyed Venice, but not too sure if it’s a place I care to go back to. It was just simply too crowded! (Oh, and Walt if your reading this I fried your charger…LOL!). Florence was an amazing city! The attractions worth seeing in Florence were all within walking distance, and man did we hit hard. It took us about three hours to see what we wanted to see; in fact we by chance happened upon a fascist protest on the march. The street they were marching down was lined with a police barricade incase a riot broke out. I snapped off a few shots when a store clerk behind me said “I don’t recommend that, you might bring attention to yourself”. Though I wanted more shots I figured it was probably in my best interest to put the camera away. After the protesters had cleared the streets we sat down to a large cheese pizza (its official, we’ve dined on spaghetti and pizza in Italy…LOL!) The reservation line at the train station was horribly slow, but once again we made ours just in time to catch the 8:10 to Rome. Florence in a nutshell “It lacked nothing in beauty and culture, and the lack of over crowdedness do to tourism made it a delightful venture (definitely one of my favorites!)”. When we arrived in Rome it was around 10:00pm, so we went right to work locating a hostel. The first one we went to was booked, but they called around and found us one nearby. It sure was nice ditching those bags; once we did we went out to the patio and chatted up a conversation with some Californians we had met about twenty minutes earlier. Needless to say that didn’t last long before the weight of the day caught up with us and we decided to call it a night.

Let me start by saying that our night at the Tent proven to be quite a shock to us. They handed us four blankets a piece when we arrived and Miles questioned them on why so many. Well when the night rolled around we font out in a hurry. It was remarkably cold! Oh and did I mention it was cold…LOL! It was warmer outside of the tent then it was on the inside brrrr! We got up early the next morning of the 23rd because we had a big day planed. Our first destination was to Dachau to visit the concentration camp. What an experience just knowing the atrocities that had occurred there. The crematory left us in a humbled state of mind. Once we left there we headed out for our next destination of Neuschwanstein to visit the famous Cinderella castle. Somewhere between the two destinations we ran into a slight altercation on one of the trams. While Miles was quizzing a German student on American music a German man let into him abruptly about playing the music on his Iphone to loudly and demanded he turn it down. For some reason his rudeness just set me off, and after a brief exchange of word and less then friendly looks the tram stopped at our exit and ended our standoff. When we got to Fussen, we cought a taxi up to the Castle, and man was it worth the trip. It was a last minute plan to go, but left us with no regrets. Fortunately we made it in time for the last tour of the day. The views were remarkable! When we left, we made the full trek on foot back to Fussen. From there it was back to the Tent only this time we went back to the front desk and requested more blankets…LOL!

Our hostelling night in Prague was more peaceful then in Berlin. Once we got up and going in the morning of the 21st we decided on Salzburg as our next destination. The train station that morning was quit a happening place, we found a book store there and purchased a new travel book since I had just lost the one we had the previous day. The trip to Berlin was a long one and required multiple train jumping. The first train stopped in the middle of nowhere because the rail was under repair. It was interesting watching the mass exodus of people pour out of the train and cram into the busses they had waiting for us. We were packed in them like sardines; In fact I was stuck in the stair well with my face smashed against the glass. After what seemed like a forty minute bus ride from hell we arrived at the station and continued on to Salzburg. When we finally arrived we set out to find a Hostel for the night but they were sold out so we settled for a camp ground right out of town. The next morning of the 22nd we showered up packed our gear and headed out to down town Salzburg. It was a beautiful town full of historic sites just the way you’d imagine it in the movies. Once we were finished seeing the sights we boarded the train and set off for Munich. We arrived in Munich sometime around noon. the streets of Munich were packed with tourists and regulars and we stood out like sore thumbs toting our big huge backpack, I bet mine weighs close to 50lbs. when we stumbled upon the Munich Hard Rock Café’ and I remembered that my older brother had requested I pick him up a T-shirt, So in we went to look around. After about five min of looking for the perfect shirt I looked up just in time to see Miles turn with his pack on and bump into a shelf full of glass cups (need I say more). When I looked up from the shattered mess he had already made a bee line out the front door, I didn’t take me long to follow suit no way I was taking the rap on that mess)…lol! (sorry Walt, no shirt for you). We spent about four hours looking around before those packs started to wear us down, at that point we decided to find where we were going to bed down for the night so that we could ditch them and move around more freely. We went to check on the price of the hostels, but the first one we came to told miles that he was too old, so off we went to find the tent. Once we figured which tram to take we boarded it and met up with a group of Irish kids heading to the same place, they were more than glad to lead us there and the conversation they offered was more than enjoyable. The Tent! What can I say about the tent? It was about three tent set up on the outskirts of Munich which provided sleeping quarters for backpackers at a low low rate; of course you had to find an empty place on the floor amongst several other weary travelers.