Europe day 7-9

I appologise for the lond delay bettween posts. Internet was hard to get in italy for cheap, so we only used it when needed.

Rimini was a fun resort town right on the beach. the hostel was cool; probably used to be a hotel and kept a 60s feel with the colors and furniture.
We mainly layed on the beach which looked to be fully set up for the upcoming tourist season with rows and rows of beach umbrella holders. would be quite a site to see in full season. we also tried to get a bus to the nearby city/state/country of San Marino, which is the oldest country in the world; but the busses ran too sparatically for us and we had to ditch the idea. so we just put in more beach time.

we met some people from london there on our last morning, and it was good to talk about things we knew!! plus got some info about other towns from them.

Then after two days in rimini, we hopped a train and started for Rome.

Europe Day 4, 5, 6

To start off, Venice is definetly one of the most visually astounding cities i have seen, if you take away the crowds. We started day 3 (after sleeping in) with a boat ride right into venice. my last experience here was not a good one, so it was great to finally see the city in good light. I liked the 15 min boat ride in along a 'water highway', it lets you into the city in the most fun way, and its a great buildup of anticipation as you see it coming closer. The boat drivers are amazing here. they just cruise into these little spots with such grace, where i am sure i would have rammed straight into the walkway. its like they can control the boat within inches.

getting around venice is not an easy task. there are no straight roads, most zigzag around and end in either big squares, sudden dead ends or into the water.
it makes for an interesting walk, but is hard to follow on a map. so for the most part you just try to head ina general direction and you should be good.

we got to see some pretty cool old churches with amazing paintings on the walls that have to be hundreds of years old. we also went to the top of a 100 meter tower that looks out over all of venice, pretty cool. its fun seeing all the red brick roofs and all the rooftop patios.

I think my favourite part of the city are the small streets and bridges that are deserted. its just a wonderful place to see.

on day 6 we headed out by train to Rimini, a costal town on the east side of italy. Trains are hot, stuffy and hot here. Did i mention they are hot?

We got to the town at about 6 and after catching rides on multiple busses (a few that ended) we found our hostel.

Europe Day 1, 2, 3

Starting out with a flight to London england at 9:50pm, we began our 48 hours of no sleep travel. We landed in england at 9:30 am after a night of not sleeping on the plane and enduring 2 children crying right next to us during the last hour of flight. We trained into london and left our bags at a train station locker and wandered around for a few hours. We made our way to the KLondon tower and the Tower bridge, which were great if we wern,t so dead. The weather kinda sucked, it was cool and rainy, which ruined our plans to sleep in a sunny park somewhere. Having enough by about 4pm we headed back to our bags (nearly forgetting them) and hopped on a train to the next airport, waited in the airport over night for a 7am flight (airport floors suck to sleep on), then flew to Bologna Italy. Taking a bus then a train then a bus, we made it to our current hostel and crashed in our beds for a nice 3 hour nap followed by food and a 12 hour sleep.
The hostel here is one of the best iàve been at, with nice showers, private trailer rooms, a restaurant, market and you can see the city of venice right from the hostel. a boat goes right from the front gate into venice. a very nice setup.

Coming next: day 3 and 4 in Venice!!!

Europe Trip 2007 - Day One

Well its been quite a busy week here. This past weekend I got to enjoy my sister-in-law Rachel's wedding to Nathan (see link to the right). It was a great wedding, as well as the few days before and after. I got to hang out with Nathan's friends for two nights, met some cool people there, won $80 at a casino and got to watch nathan get dressed up like a girl. All in all an eventful time! The wedding was like nothing i've been to before. The cerimony was nice and short (thanks Joe!) and the reception was a pot-luck, which was a great idea by Rach and Nathan. Definetly came with a sense of community; everyone coming together, providing food for each other, enjoying the night. It was great! I'll link some photos with this post later today.

But on to more exciting news. Today we leave for europe!!!!!!
Me and Danielle are going to be flying out to europe tonight for 6 weeks. Staying in England for a day, we then get to hang out in an airport all night and grab an early flight to Bologna, Italy and train over to Venice to start our adventure. From there we have no plans, no itinary, no clue. I think this is the best way to travel! This way you're never late for your plans, you don't have to rush and you will probably see things you didn't even think about!!

So watch this blog for updates (as many as I can when I get to a internet cafe). This is going to allow me to update more of you faster than emails, which bodes well in 6 euros-an-hour cafes.

Photos::