Rome

Our last stop, Rome, was definitely one of my favorite European cities. We were expecting the sites to be pretty amazing, but it was the cute streets and charming, energetic atmosphere that surprised me and won me over in the end.

While in Rome we spent time touring the world's smallest country, the Vatican, and truly enjoyed the Sistine chapel and Raphael rooms. St Peter's Basilica was just massive. The ruins in Rome were pretty amazing too. It's crazy to see a 2000 year old church and a new one on the same block, and to imagine the many gladiators that fought in the Colosseum.

We also found the Italian food in Rome to be much better and enjoyed our last few days of pasta and my favorite - eggplant parmesian! (I know, I'm a little obsessed with food) We did our last pub crawl, and spent our last day drinking wine in a beautiful park. Rome was a perfect end to our European adventure.

When in Rome...............

Hang out in St Peter's Square

Accidentally stumble upon a castle

Cool off in the Valentino fountain... see if anyone will follow your lead

Meet locals and tourists on the Spanish steps

Have fresh squeezed orange juice in front of the Pantheon

Catch the swimsuit competition of Miss Rome

Join the tourists in St Peter's

Tour the Colosseum

Have Gelato at the Trevi Fountain

Take a break at the park

Thanks to all those who made this trip possible. Stayed tuned for my next adventure TBA.
Ciao!

Florence

Our next Italian city was Florence. Florence was a big, concrete, sweaty city after the quiet alleys of Venice. Florence did have it's charms though, we just had to look a little harder. Being the primary center for the Renaissance Florence had tons of museums, that after a long frusterating wait in line did have some beautiful pieces in them, most notably "David" by Michelangelo. He basically has a museum dedicated to the one peice and it is truly beautiful. (All the girls swore they'd hang a picture of him on their walls).

My favourite memories from Florence though are of the bicycling tour of Tuscany that we did. We had a great group of people, all Americans and Canadians, and biking through the rolling hills of vineyards and olive trees was truly breathtaking. For a short break we visited a vineyard that was owned by a Prince and produced some of the best Chianti wine. The tasting was delicious, we only wished we didn't have 20 km of biking to do afterwards. We also finally tasted some great Tuscan cooking, complete with Tiramisu for desert. A perfect day!

View of Florence

Tuscany bikers!

Yum, grapes!

We finally made it up the hill!

Florence bridge full of Gold shops

Venice

After our short stay in Spain we were on to our last country, Italy! The Italians (especially the men) were very friendly, although a bit more inhibited than the Spanish. They truly do live life with zest.

We spent most of our time in Venice getting helplessly lost between the narrow streets and canals. Venice is a pedestrian paradise as it is small enough to walk to every corner, large enough to entertain you for days and best of all, no cars! Of course Kim and I were hopelessly romantic again and had to splurge for the gondola ride. It's not really Venice without it! The ride came complete with singing and acrobatics by the drivers. We also enjoyed hanging out in the beautiful San Marco's square where the live bands were battling for your attention with Mozart and Strauss.

We were a little disappointed here by the Italian food. I was expecting a lot being a pasta and pizza addict and it simply wasn't all that amazing. The gelato however, was a different story. Venice had the best ice cream I have EVER had..... I'm salivating just thinking about it.

First View of the Grand Canal

San Marco's Square

Is Kim hula dancing?

Enjoying the Gondola ride

Another cute canal

The pigeons might actually outnumber the tourists

Venice by night

Barcelona

Our next stop was Barcelona. I was surprised at the huge difference between France and Spain. We went from quiet and classy to loud and full of energy. The minute we got off the train there were people everywhere and everyone was shouting and laughing. Apparently the Spanish people have been partying ever since the fall of their dictator Franco in '75. I don't just mean the students and tourists, I mean the mothers and fathers, grandmas and grandpas. They are all up into the wee hours of the morning laughing and having a good time. It's amazing to just be a part of that energy.

The sights in Barcelona were very different also. We went and saw a many of Gaudi's art nouveau buildings and they certainly were original and very interesting. His last work, the Sangrada Familia isn't projected to be finished until 2082, a mere 200 years after it was began, and is truly amazing. Throughout our Europe trip we saw many street performers, each big city has to have the token Sphinx and tin man, but Barcelona definitely took the prize for the best street performers. They had any kind of human statue you could imagine, a tree, winged sorceress, skeletons riding bicycles, you name it. And even more performers - magic shows, break dancers and even tango dancers. Alongside all the street performers people sell souvenirs, fake Gucci bags and live chickens. Yeah, I don't wanna know what they do with those. We also checked out a local market, reminded me of Asia with a few more health precautions. Of course we also enjoyed tapas and sangria, and I even met up with Candice (my French friend I met in Hawaii who is now living in Barcelona) and she let us in on some local secrets.

I think my favourite thing about Barcelona was just the total randomness. Just walking down the street was always an adventure. People would pull up next to you with a stereo and ask you to salsa. Good times.

MMMMM, Sangria

No Eurotrip is complete without wine on the train!

The Sagrada Familia, not your average Catholic church

Naturalist architecture designed after forest foliage

Hangin at Park Guell

Spanish peppers!

Let's Tango

First fruit shake since Asia, how I miss those

Columbus monument

Anglet - Basquing in Basque Country

Our next stop and last destination in France was Anglet, a small town on the Southeast coast of France just near Spain. I was keen to visit one of the only surfing destinations in Europe. As for the surfing, it was cold and the waves were pretty small but it was great to get back in the ocean again just the same. I guess it was a tiny reminder of how lucky I was in Hawaii as far as having great conditions to surf in all year round, but we did find that there was much more to explore in Anglet than waves.

Our hostel was great, full of many interesting Europeans (although most of them not French), nestled in a pine forest and complete with it's own bar. The food was also excellent. Moules and fritz were my favourite but we enjoyed all sorts of seafood in the cute restaurants lining the beach. the beach itself was 4 kilometers long and very beautiful at sunset.

While in France we had hoped to visit a vineyard and this was our last chance. We found only one in the area and it was certainly an adventure to get there. After a train ride we had to take a bus, basically a minivan into the little village that housed the vineyard. Not only did they not speak English in this area, but many of them spoke Basque instead of French so that was a bit tricky. We tasted delicious wine at the vineyard and bought a few bottles for later but the tour itself was pretty short. We did enjoy getting some peace and quiet in the Jardin au public for a while.

Our last highlight of Anglet was the fireworks on the beach. You're going to think I'm a fireworks lover now, but these were probably the best ones I've seen yet. They were accompanied by a movie about one of France's great leaders, that we only partially understood, and great music. It was a lot more artistic than anything I've seen back home and sharing a bottle of Basque wine made it all the more enjoyable.

Moules and Fritz
Shore of Biarritz (the resort beside Anglet)

Sunset at Anglet beach


Basque villiage

Back in Canada!

Okay so, I guess anyone still keeping up with this blog has probably noticed that the entries stopped about half way through the Europe part of our trip. Whoops! Like I said before, expensive Internet and dwindling time meant the blog got put on the back burner. For better or worse, I now have no excuses as I am back in good old Canada. I'm in Prince George hanging out with the family, trying to unpack and figure out what it is I'm going to do with my life now. I will slowly try to get in touch with everyone again. In the meantime I am going to try and finish up the trip blogs a little belated! Hope to hear from and talk to everyone soon!