Hola amigos!

Hey guys and gals!


Nigel and I made it safe and sound out of Israel and into Jordan and we are now traveling around Europe...we are in Spain at the moment!


On our second day in Israel we took a day trip to Bethlehem and saw the spot in the church where Jesus was born and then we tried to catch a bus to the Dead Sea but apparently none of them run there right now because of the fighting and taxis were too expensive so instead we hiked up the Mount of Olives and had a grand view of Jerusalem. That night we went to the New City or East Jerusalem which is full of fancy shops, restaurants and bars. It was a major contrast to the poor Muslim part of town we were staying in. We took a bus the next morning to Eilat (poor Nigel had to sit in the aisle for the 5 hour ride because they overbook the buses) and then had the joy of crossing over the border into Jordan. Once we got there we realized that there weren´t any more buses running that day from Aquaba to Petra, where we wanted to go. We ended up sharing a taxi with a French couple and the third driver we had along the way (they kept switching up) hooked us up with a cheap hotel in Wadi Musa which is right outside the site of Petra. The next day we went into Petra and walked all around the old city that is built totally into the rock faces. It is pretty amazing what they were able to build back then. We hiked up to the top where the monostary is and we also saw the building where they filmed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. We were exhausted after walking the 10km and went back to the hotel and had a nap. We met an Aussie guy and ended up having dinner with him and then we all went to the Cave Bar which is 3000 years old and supposedly the oldest bar in the world. It was all built into the rocks and the tables were in the tombs. The beer was freaking expensive because the alcohol taxes are so ridiculous. The next morning we got the taxi back to Aquaba to head back to Egypt. We thought it would be cheaper and less of a hassle if we took the ferry directly from Jordan to Egypt rather than go through Israel again and walk across the three borders but the boat ticket ended up costing us way more than we expected and the super fast ferry was not fast at all. We finally arrived in Egypt and it was total mayhem at the port. We bought our bus ticket to Cairo and then had to wait while families boarded the bus with everything they owned. It was like everyone was moving house! There were people carting around refridgerators and tables and chairs...it was insane. A lady wearing the full veil befriended us on the bus and she tried to explain in broken English why everyone was going to Cairo that day and why they all changed into their best clothes before we arrived eventhough it was 11pm but I didn´t really understand. We finally made it to Cairo...it had been the longest day of traveling! Our hotel room in Cairo was enormous and really nice. The next day we went to the markets and wandered around and had our last kebab dinner and then at 1am I left for my 4am flight...Nigel was flying out the next afternoon and still arrived in Europe at the same time I did because of my layover, no fair.
We arrived in Frankfurt Germany and only stayed for the one night. It was nice to be back in a civilized country with real food, the only thing is our hostel was located on a street surrounded by sex shops and prostitutes...you dont get that in Egypt! The following day we took the train to Munich and booked into a hostel and then went straight to Dauchau, the concentration memorial site... it was my second time of going there and it was still just as depressing. On our way out of the memorial we met an Aussie couple and they offered us a ride back to town which was only like 20 minutes away. We took them up on it since it looked like it was going to pour down at any minute. Sure enough as soon as we got in the car it started pissing down hard and then it started HAILING the size of golf balls! Nigel and I hadn´t seen rain in almost 5 mths so it was quite different. The couple driving us started to argue about whether or not to pull off the road and then we got lost for a few hours but we eventually made it back to the city! We went and had a beer in our hostel bar and then met up with them for dinner. It was still pouring down rain and we weren´t quite sure where we were going but we stumbled upon the place NIGEL had found (he made me write that) in the guidebook, Beethovens Cafe. It had live music, good atmosphere and the food was cheap eventhough it was a really good meal! The next day in Munich there was a festival so the streets were packed with performances and food stalls, it was awesome! We left that night on the overnight train to Paris. We were planning on going to Italy but because our Eurail pass doesnt include Switzerland we would have had to pay a shitload to cross through there...kinda pissed us off. But oh well! We arrived in Paris and got a hotel room which was cheaper than the hostel in Munich where we had gotten dorm beds and shared a room with 40 other people. I had forgotten how beautiful and how big Paris is! We went to all the sites...the Eiffel Tower at night which is romantic :) and the Saucre Couer, Notre Dame, the Louvre where we saw Mona Lisa which is alot smaller than imagined, and the Garden to Tuilleres and the Arc de Triomphe. It was the anniversary of some French war on that day so they were having a parade and some kind of ceremony under the Arc which was exciting to see. We spent two nights and three days in Paris and then we took the overnight train to Venice. We wandered around Venice for a few hours (its been Nigels favorite place so far) and then took the train on to Florence. We spent the night in Florence and did some laundry and stayed in a very religious hostel. The next day was the worst day we had. We went and saw the large Church in town and then went to see Michalangelo´s statue of David. The line was really long but we thought it would go faster than it did....we were wrong. Nigel waited in line for THREE and a half HOURS to see a naked guy and also pay 10 euros to get in! I took off and went bikini shopping while he waited hehe. Since we waited so long, or I should say since Nigel waited so long, we didnt want to get out of line so we decided to miss our train and take a later one to Pisa. We went and saw the leaning Tower of Pisa which is pretty cool and definitely is leaning (refer to photos if you dont believe me). We went back to the train station to catch our train to Rome. As we were about to board we were told the train wasn´t going...apparently there was a twenty four hour train strike and the only small sign notifiying everyone of this was in Italian so all of us dumb travellers were standing around like what the hell? By missing the earlier train from Florence to Pisa we had missed the last train to Rome....damn David! There was a bit of a protest that went on in the train station that we watched but in the end we all ended up spreading out our sleeping bags and spending the night in the station. At 5:30am the next morning we boarded the first train to Rome which was ridiculously overcrowded by everyone who had been stranded because of the strike. We arrived in Rome and then we couldn´t find our hostel for ages and we ended up walking with our packs forever, I thought I was going to die. Our hostel was actually a building where they used to house the Olympians so it was huge and unwelcoming. The next day we did a hop on, hop off bus tour of Rome and went and saw the Colosuem, Fountain de Trevi, Roman Forum, and all that good stuff. Our second day there we went to Vatican City and saw Pope John Paul II gravesite and the huge Saint Peters Basillica. We caught an overnight train to Nice, France and spent the day there on the beach, which is quite pretty, and then caught another overnight train to Barcelona. We met a young American couple in the train station and went with them to a cheap hotel and then went and walked around the markets and beach and Las Ramblas where the street performers all hang out. Because we had spent two nights sleeping on trains we passed out really early and slept straight through to the morning. The following day we did some more siteseeing and then met up with the couple for dinner. It was quite funny because we kept seeing places we wanted to eat and then when we sat down outside they told us the menu we had read was only for inside so we ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant that only served pasta and pizza. The food was crap but the sangria was yummy and it was the guy Mikes birthday that day and at midnight it turned into Nigels birthday so we celebrated! We hung around Barcelona the next day and then caught the train to Alicante...we decided to go there by asking the ticket guy where in Spain he thought was beautiful. We spent the day getting to Alicante and wandered around the streets at midnight when we arrived, searching for a hotel. Alicante is a cute smaller town with a really nice beach which we spent the whole next day on and had yummy lunch in a small pub. That night we went out to the bars and drank and danced til 4am then had KFC, Nigels favorite :) There were more bars and more people than we´d ever seen! Today we are going to see the castle here in Alicante and then we are catching the 6pm train to Madrid then going onto the French border town, then on to Paris, and on to Belgium...it´ll be like a 24 hr train trip, fun fun. We only have six days left here in Europe so we are going to Belguim, Amsterdam, Berlin and then back to Frankfurt where we fly out. Time has gone so fast and so has our money! Its been a blast though and Nigel is really happy he got to see Europe as well.
Well if you read through this entire thing then you deserve a prize :) Hope you all are doing great and I will see some of you soon!
xoxo
R&N