Greetings from Prague--

--Last destination for Sarah and I in Europe. The city is wonderful! There was some sort of large flood between here and Vienna, so our train yesterday got routed through Bratislava, which is in Solvakia. Yea for another country to the list! lol We got the army dude on board to stamp our passports too! A childish excitement there for sure!

Vienna was wonderful. We saw the Leopold museum, which mind you is one of like 20 some odd that they have there. Anyways it was an art museum and I got to see some 20th century art that was fantastic! It was a nice change from what we'd been seeing in the other cities we've been too (lots of work from artists that have been dead a really long time). If any of you are familiar, we saw quite a few Klimt and Schiele originals, as well as some Walde work, among others. Very impressive pieces. We also met a guy from Seattle on the train who was on a bit of an art adventure himself. He studies art for fun and is a graphic designer in the Northwest. Apparently he thinks hes located a missing Klimt original in some random person's home in Seattle and traveled to Vienna to meet with an auction house appraiser to talk to him about it. Kinda a fun story, but it came from a very odd individual! The people you meet while traveling are always an interesting look at life.

We went to the Prague Museum of Communism this morning, deciding for a bit of history before things are said and done. Really intriguing. Being that communism didn't fall here until 1989, there was some incredible video footage of riots and demonstrations from the 1970s and 1980s.

Next up is to get a good dinner and hang out a little bit before we spend our last night in the airport. I can hardly contain my excitement... lol Both of our flights are really early in the morning, having to clear security for international travel and all.... so we opted to try and save some cash and stick it out in the Prague airport. We're at least hoping for a semi- comfortable seat some place. Mom-- I'm going to try my hardest to sleep on the flight from Frankfurt to DFW, so hopefully I won't be too cranky.. no promises though! :) Love me!! hehe

I guess I don't know much else at this point. Sarah is more than ready to come home. In fact I think she was ready back in Venice... I on the other hand am having a hard time getting my head around it all. 5 months is a long time. I'm ready to see family and friends for sure, but leaving is bittersweet, even if I'm no longer in London. I'd better get ready though cause its coming whether I like it or not!

Yea for 10 hours plane rides across the Atlanic... (ha)
Leigh- leigh

Time flies sooo fast!! We are currently in Venice, Italy... having arrived safely in Civitecchia and traveled to Rome, we spent two nights there and got into Venice about 5:30pm local time yesterday afternoon. The ferry from Barcelona over was a bit... umm... sketchy!!! It was a commercial ferry, as well as a passenger ship and becuase we are cheap college students, we booked a 30 euro seat for the 20 hour ride to Italy. Now the seats were in a room lined up like they were an airplane and just about as comfortable. We met up with two kids that were backpacking from Canada and spent most of the evening abvoe deck just talking and swapping stories, etc. At night though, all of the truck drivers from the 18 wheelers that were on the ferry came up and spent the night in the same area we were in. I have never in my life EVER EVER heard anyone snore as loud as these men. I'm talking take 3 grown men I know, and together they about equal one of these guys. There are a few more stories about this trip, but I'll save those for another time. Just know that we enjoyed the view and that was about it....

Rome was fantastic!! Such a busy day.... and slightly some headaches.... okay big headaches. Turns out after getting off the boat from the hellacious night aboard ship... we mangage through a bit of problems finding the train station and then more problems finding our hostel... only to learn they had cancelled our reservation all together. Sar had emailed them earlier in the week asking to adjust out dates by a day... but we never heard back from them. Apparently, the owner is too busy between his 5 hostels and just doesnt repsond or check his email too often. (?!?!?!?!) Well all 5 hostels were booked and so we wandered around for the next hour and a little more going in and out of every hotel and hostel we come to the Radisson. By this time we were massively tired and severerly on edge. They, of course, had no room either... but they did allow us to use their internet to see what else we could find. It was purely by the grace of God that we happened upon an opening a little bit outside of town. So with that taken care of, we had a nice, long shower and got a much needed good night's sleep. The morning we were off to the Colosseum, Palantine Hill and the Roman Forum. The afternoon we spent in the Vatican and wandering around the city a bit. St. Peter's Basilica was unlike any cathedral I've ever seen. There is no question in my mind now why it is the center of the Roman Catholic Church. Everything about it put Sarah and I in awe.

Okay story time again... So in the morning when we were leaving to figure out the metro and head out for the day, a man that was staying at the same place started talking to us and we kinda put 3 heads into figuring out the whole transportation deal. His name was Connor and hes from Ireland, on business in Rome for the European Union where he works in the Environmental sector of things... mainly dealing with rivers and lakes. Anyways... really nice guy. He ended up tagging along with Sar and I for most of the day. It was really interesting to talk to him about things from his persective and his life experiences. The guys been Everywhere.... I know Mom and Dad are probably sitting there  thinking that he was sketchy and that this wasn't our smartest move, but I assure you we were and are perfectly safe. He was just a nice guy and a traveler like ourselves. Anyways... back to the story... in St. Peters... my camera kept having issues... Numerous battery changes and memory card issues... which was getting me a little irritated. So outside Im telling Connor this and he goes "thats what happens when you use a Protestant camera in a Catholic Church!" Okay now we all know by now that I'm not the best story teller in the world... but this was probably the funniest thing I've heard thus far. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. (ps-- he was an Irish Catholic!)

Venice has been Beautiful! Theres not just a whole lot to do other than walk around... so we've been doing just that... Being near the water is so relaxing and it seems every turn is a picture perfect scene.

Tonight we are headed to Vienna... more from Austria in a day or so!

Ciao!
Leigh- leigh

Olah! So can I start off by saying that Sarah and I have fallen in love with this place! Barcelona is Fantastic! The city is perfect.. mountains, beach, friendly people, great weather and shopping! I don´t know if any of you follow football (soccer) over here, but last night Barcelona beat Arsenal (one of the two biggest teams in England) to win what I think is the European Cup. No matter what it was, the city went just INSANE last night!!.. till like 5am insane. Fireworks, drinking in the streets, chanting, screaming, blow horns; aka: pure Chayos! It was incredible! The team flew in today and paraded around the city. Let me tell you, these people know how to throw a celebration! We grabbed a sandwich and went down by the port to watch it all! I wish I would have been on a balcony to take pictures to bring home! Such an overwhelming atmosphere!! Needless to say, both Sar and I have decided we are Barcelona fans for the next 48 hours or so! lol

This morning/ early afternoon we checked out the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Awe insipiring. It was designed by an artist/ architect named Gaudi, and this cathedral was his life´s work. It was started in 1882 and is still pretty far from completion, but amid the construction they allow visitors to enter and check out the site. WOW... The designs are based on things in nature so its unlike any "cathedral" in existence today. There are no straight lines or symmetrical shapes anywhere. It was massive too. There are eventually going to be 12 steeples, for the 12 apostles. Search it on google if you get a chance becuase my pictures won´t do it justice, even though I tried! It was really, really cool to be in a cathedral when it was being contructed becuase so many of the great ones have been standing for hundreds of years already. I hope to come back and see this one if it gets completed in my lifetime. To see a man´s entire life work still continuing long after his death was so humbling. I think that is the mark of a truly successful life and one that was filled with purpose.

Tomorrow evening we have booked a spot on a ferry to Italy! We will cross the Mediterranean overnight and wake up in Civitavecchia, and then grab a short train to Rome! Sar and I are both soo pumped about the boat adventure and the gellato awaiting us! We didn´t get to the Picasso Museum today, but for sure will in the morning before we leave. Neither of us can stand to miss that! I guess thats about all for now! More from Rome in a few days!

Love to all!
Leigh-leigh

Bonjour!

Well sort of... I´m in Barcelona, Spain now and have been through Paris! I know I have a littl bit to update you all on!

Paris.. haha well I guess I should start back in London at the Waterloo station on Sunday afternoon cause there is definitely a story here. So our train on the Eurostar (Chunnel train to Paris) is supposed to leave around 2pm from the station. We are there an hour early to check in and what not. Now take into consideration that Waterloo is one of London´s busiest stations, with above ground trains going all across the British Isles and International trains going to Brussels and Paris... along with it being one of the busiest and biggest underground stations... okay... We are in the station grabbing lunch and over the loud speaker we hear something about all trains in the station are docked until 8am. No trains will be leaving until then due to blah blah blah... We both look at each other and are like ``uh crap!!`` So off we go to the Eurostar area, which is set on a lower level that you take an esclator down too... From the top landing we just see a huge swarm of people EVERYWHERE... bags, kids, strollers, CHAYOS... so we figure our way down there and some guy that works there, we found out later was a janitor, tells us that the announcement doens´t affect the Eurostar and we´ll still be able to leave as planned. ``Phew`` Okay so what in the world are the people doing... The announcement comes on again, so we decided to make our way through and ask around a little more. Granted we have our two huge packs on and each with another small bag with things to occupy us on the train... Swarm of people slowly part the waters and we find out that there is a fire one on one of the tracks and there is a gas leak in the warehouse... so all trains, including ours, are really NOT going anywhere until further notice. Now we have a cheap hotel and Mimi Moll waiting for us in Paris... umm what next?! First stop was to an internet cafe in some random basement across the street to check and see if we could find a cheap flight that would equal the Eurostar reimbursement... Negative. ``crap again`` So we head back to the station and decide that she´ll sit with the bags and write while I take my book and go stand in this really really really really long ling to try and get on the next available train to Paris. I´m half way to the line when I hear over the announcement something about a train to Ashford for passengers that absolutely MUST get to Paris today... (And OF COURSE we fit in this cateogry.. lol) so I run back to Sarah (sort of run.. through the crowds) and she had heard it too... I bound up the stairs and took off running across the station to the local train tickets window... I grab two tickets to Ashford for a train that departs in ... 20min... sprinting back across the station I yell at Sarah from like 15 feet away to get her things we gota get NOW... so off we go, back up 2 flights of stairs to the main level and across the station, packs and all, and across the major road to the Waterloo East station...  we squeeze onto the platform in time for the train to pull up exactly 3 minutes later. WE GOT SEATS! lol the isles... everything was just nuts... 1hr 30min later we are in Ashford and a whole team of Eurostar staff are making a isle and directing all of us to the security area. Just about the time we get to the esclator going that direction, they start only allowing 15people up through at a time ``what??`` we manage to squeeze into the second group and at the top they opened a second security line right as we appraoched and they directed us to go on through... and we kept going... Next, the lady at passport control looked at our passport as we run by to i guess just see that we had one and told us to keep going... so we continute booking it... FAST.. across the terminal and passenger skywalk.. right onto the Eurostar!!! Announcement from the loud speaker again.. this train will be leaving shortly, we thank you for your patience... so we´re thinking year okay... after they load ALL those people on.. ugh.... WRONG. 5 minutes later the train left the station and we were in a car with 60 seats and only 8 passengers! We arrived in Paris a mere 1hr and 30min after we were supposed too!! Grace of God I´m telling you. What a day... lol

Paris was a blast! The Musee´d´Orsay was my favorite part. Granted the line took 2 hours.. but Van Gogh is worth that to me for sure. For anyone who has been to Paris, you can appreciate what all we mangaged to squeeze into a single day: Morning started off with walking to the Sacre Coeur and walking up to Montemarchre, which is the artists´ hill in Paris. (spelling is a little off on this one...) then back down for lunch at the Louvre cafe right on the Seine. After lunch we walked from the Louvre to Notre Dame and took it all in... After that came the hunt to find the Saint Chappelle chapel. (The island on the Seine river where both of these are located is my Favorite spot in Paris!) The chapel was unlike anything I´ve EVER seen. Its stained glass walls on all sides... breathtaking. A king built it to house precious relics of the Christian religion, but much of it was destroyed during war. Next came the trek to the Austerlitz train station to try and book our night train here (Barcelona), a nice dinner outside on the Boulevard... and then back on the metro to the Louvre, where we got off and started walking... and did we walk! All the way down the Champs Elysees (spelling again!...) to the Arc de Triomphe at dusk. What a sight to see! The first night we were there we saw the Eiffel Tower, so no worries.. .it wasn´t forgotten!

That brings me to the here and now. Sar and I did laundry and took showers a little bit ago. We are kinda using tonight to take a bit of a breather and catch up on the world via the internet and get some much needed sleep. Barcelona is an incredible city already. The night train was a fun experience! We shared a car with two girls from Kentucky that got a grant to go around and see the art museums of western Europe. It was fun talking to them and trading stories and info. Tomorrow we are off to see the Cathedral Sagrada la Familia and to see the Picasso Museum, as well as a little afternoon sunbathing on the beach. I can´t wait.

I hope all is well with everyone back home. Time is flying, but wow... what a trip! There are, of course, many more stories.. but too many to type on here right now! I have to save some for in person!!!  Take care!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

Already nicely pink in the Mediterranean (and about time....),
Leigh- leigh

Picking up again...!

Its Sunday morning about 10:45am GMT (local time) and we are killing a few minutes before heading to meet our train to Paris. We're going to spend two nights in Paris with Mimi Moll, the friend I visited in Oxford last weekend, and are then off on a night train to Barcelona. After two nights in what I hear is a fabulous city, we're taking a ferry across the Mediterranean to Rome, where we'll spend three nights. From Rome, we'll take a short ride north to stay in Venice for a night and then off again on a night train to Vienna. After a short night in Vienna, we'll make our final leg complete with two nights in Prague before flying out the morning of the 27th! I know it sounds exhausting, and don't kid yourself, we already are... but just the two cities we've been in so far have been well worth everything. There is so much to see and learn and appreicate. I still can't believe I'm actually here/ going to be there. When we were in the National Gallery, looking at the real works of Sezanne, Picasso, Monet, Seurat... its like a dream almost.

I'm looking forward to seeing Paris in the Spring the next few days. I hear its the best time of year! Well I'm signing off from London now. I wanted to give an outline of our stops since I forgot to tell Mom and Dad last night on the phone.. and for anyone else who wants to follow along!  

Update me with emails if you get a chance!
Love- Leigh!