Barcelona and Amsterdam...it's beautiful here!

Hola! This is Haley and I am reporting about Barcelona, Spain and Amsterdam, Holland.

First, I must share a little story with you all about our dear friend Kirstin: Let me start by saying that we have picked up a few souvenirs along the way and our backpacks are not quite big enough to carry all our stuff. So, what does Kirstin do while travelling? She finds a nice, hot pink trash bag to carry the overflow while we connect between cities. So, we reluctantly leave Cinque Terre and head for Spain. Several trains and buses later, we arrive in Milan to take a plane to Barcelona. Well, here walks in Kirstin, with her big pink trash bag...filled with stuff...in the fashion capital of Italy!! People are walking around with their designer clothes and expensive handbags, and here is Kirstin...sporting her trash bag!

We arrive in Barcelona and soon fall in love with the city. The style of the city is quite different than much of Europe that we have visited so far. Gaudi had a big hand in the architecture in Barcelona and by the end of the trip we knew by looking at the building that Gaudi had designed it. We knew this because Gaudi has a very distinct look. Some of his work seemed as if Dr. Seuss had dreamed it up for one of his books.

One of his buildings in Barcelona is called La Sagrada Familia and it is a cathedral which is unlike any cathedral I have seen.

Gaudi actually died in 1926 before finishing the building and it has been under construction ever since. There have been many architects who have tried to add to this building since his death but can't seem to quite replicate what Gaudi had intended. Walk around the outside of the cathedral and you can see different styles which don't quite match. The building, by the way, was started in 1882 and is not expected to be completed for another 30 to 80 years!

We really liked walking around the city, just getting lost in the little back alleys near our hostel at night (which, we found out later is a very dangerous area, whoops, sorry mom)! The first night we ate dinner in a square called the plaza real and loved it there.

BTW...if you are ever in Spain, have Calamari! It's WAY better here. That is probably because Barcelona is right on the water. On our second day in Barcelona we decided to just relax and head to the beach. It was an interesting experience and let's just say that the women in Europe have no shame...and also save quite a bit of money by only buying half a bathingsuit!!! I won't post a picture of that...you can use your imagination. Our last night in Barcelona was beautiful. We had amazing tapas and sangria and watched a live flamenco dancing show. The traditional culture is so beautiful here and it was cool to get to experience it for a night.

The next day we arrived in Amsterdam. I didn't quite know what to expect from this city before coming here. The red light district is only a small portion of the city and the rest is full of quaint buildings and rivers.

My favorite part from our visit here was visiting the Anne Frank house. Each one of us was moved so much by her story and felt a connection to her while walking through the small annex which held her family and 4 other Jews for 2 years during the 40's. I was very moved by the room which gave Otto Frank's story. Otto was the father of Anne and was the only survivor from the annex. All of the others passed away after being placed in concentration camps when they were discovered in the annex. Otto Frank was separated from his family and when he was released, he searched for his wife and 2 daughters only to find that they had all passed away. He had to move on with his life after the most earth shattering thing had happened to him. He lost everything. But, he was moved to do something with the chance he had been given. He fought against racial and religious injustice for his family until he died. The house continues to preach the message he had lived for and Anne had written about many years ago.

One of Anne's quotes that has stayed with me was written on the wall in one of her rooms. This was written when she and her family hid in a few tiny rooms, windows blacked out, never to go outside, for two years. "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be." She couldn't leave her house because of her race and religious choice. I can't imagine not being able to be in nature and be free. It really makes me so thankful for the life that I was blessed with.

We couldn't leave Amsterdam without taking a few of our signiture jumping pictures...

Amsterdam and Barcelona were beautiful and very memorable. But a few of my lasting memories of this trip have involved a tiny zapper that I had bought a while back because we had so many bug bites. The little pen gives out a tiny shock that is supposed to help the itch go away. Well, we rarely use it for bug bites...instead, we zap Kirstin at any chance we get. The zapper doesn't bother anyone but Kirstin. Lindsay will hug her and zap her in the arm. I walk to the bathroom and on my way back, I'll zap her in the neck. The best so far has been when I asked her to pose on the street in Barcelona and Lindsay snuck up behind her and zapped her on the cheak. I snapped the picture below just when she reacted to the (tiny) zap. As you can see, it brings us SO much joy and it brings Kirstin to scream...let's just say that Kirstin doesn't quite trust us since the purchase of this new toy!!!

Cinque Terre

Hey guys, Lindsay here.

We made it to Cinque Terre! Cinque Terre is an area in Italy made up of five small villages along the coast. The village we are staying in is called Monterosso. As we got off the train I knew I was going to love it here.

Right away, everyone we met was so friendly and helpful. We were a little lost trying to find our hotel and some people stopped us to offer help, since there was a bit of a language barrier, they decided it would just be easer to show us the way. We only had reservations at our hotel for one night so our first mission was to figure out a place to stay for the other three nights. We had heard of a place called Manuel's Guesthouse and thought we would check it out. We ended up meeting Manuel who is an artist that has lived in Monterosso his whole life and runs a guesthouse with his nephew. They were full so instead of just sending us on our way he offered to help us out. He called a few friends of his friends, including Luigi, and ended up finding an apartment for us to rent. How cool is that, we get our own place with a washer, dryer and a kitchen! We have a whole new appreciation for the little things. Not only that, but our apartment is right off of the main street in Old Town Monterosso with a balcony that overlooks the whole street. As we were gettting our keys to our new pad, we ran into the guys we met in Rome. We ended up hanging out with them that night and chatting all about our funny travel stories and favorite places we've been along the way. The next day the girls and I decided we needed a day at the beach to relax after our busy travel schedule. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing than spending a warm summer day swimming and lounging at the beach in Italy with my two best friends. It was perfect.

After a day relaxing we were ready to get out and explore the area. We woke up early and got ready to hike the trail between all five villages. We took the train to the farthest village and worked our way back home. The path between the first village and the second is called Via Dell'Amore (Love Walk). All along the trail couples put locks on the fences and railing to symolize their love.

The hike was amazing, we got a chance to visit the other villages and see some the beautiful countryside. Everywhere we looked there were vineyards, olive groves and views of the Mediterranean.

The trail was about 9 kilometers long and took us through some pretty rugged areas, just to add to the adventure, we got hit by a torrential downpour that lasted at least half an hour.

We loved it, plus it was nice to cool down a bit. Once we got back to our house we were ready to shower and chill out around town.

Our last full day in Monterosso we spent hanging out at the beach, visited the outdoor market and just enjoyed the area. I've really loved the slow pace of Cinque Terre, its been quite a change to the bigger cities we've been visiting. I like not having a list of sites to see or maps to read. As the end of our time here approaches, I'm sad to be leaving, but so happy I got a chance to visit. I'll definitely be back.

Next stop... Barcelona!

Ciao