"Say you're happy now...."

Christine:

I just wrote a whole post from my iPhone and it completely deleted. So once more with feeling...(Liz: heh. Awesome.)

I am only going through the trouble of posting from my phone, on borrowed Internet, from the german airport we our camping out in, because our dear friend and frequent commentor has demanded it. I hope this is what you were expecting Erica :)

I think it goes without saying that my spelling and typos will be awful right? And the formatting might be funky, because iPhone?

We made it to berlin despite volcanic ash and a ferry strike that almost kept us from reaching our flight in Athens.

We adored East Berlin and wish we could have spent more time there. We managed a city tour. We visted the Jewish memorial center. We went on an alternative city tour, and met a nice girl from New York named Carrie. We saw squatting areas, grafitti and artist hang outs. It is like touring the set of Rent if Rent was sponsered by coca-cola. Maybe coke is alternative and bohemian outside of the USA.

(Liz: And they were playing Nickelback. For serious, ya'll. We also went to the East Side Gallery, which was just recently restored for the 20th anniversary. The original artists came back if they were available- very cool. And in the realm of the decidedly not cool- this big company built a huge complex in front of the wall, and they asked that part of the wall be moved so they could have a view of the waterfront. And the city complied. Evil company, spineless mayor.

After our tour we went to get dinner, which ended up being seriously delicious falafel pitas. We knew it was legit when the mysterious sauce that I was very worried was mayonaise ended up being garlic. Nom nom nom. Two things of note: 1) Christine and I each had three cans of coca cola light. One euro each! Epic. 2) Christine finished her pita, thought about it for thirty seconds, and went to get another. Pita shop dude- long look- "Where you from?" -- not the same without c's impression! Anyone curious will just have to get the reeenactment at home.)

Our last city was Amsterdam. It was an especially fun city because they were gearing up for a huge festival called Queens day (Liz: the queen mum's birthday, as far as we can tell. I want to know how she celebrated, but I'm already miffed that it didn't involve giving me cake.) They had live music and even carnival rides. (Liz: Death-defy!)

We were lucky enough to be joined one night by our travel buddy Rebecca. I think it is only because of her that Liz and I managed to brave an Amsterdam carnival ride. It was like a Viking ship ride, except it spun and went upside down. Crazy way to see the city. (
Liz: Totally thought we were going to die. Or get the contents of someone else's stomach in our hair. Didn't happen, and thankfully so, because I would have had to shave my head, and I'm not so sure I have a pretty scalp. )

We joined in fully with the festivities on the eve of queens day. (Liz: We went out- at nightime! Crazypants, I know. Though I'm not so sure it counts when it stays light until after nine because we're so far north.) There were several outdoor concerts. (Liz: Because of the aforementioned light, there was a lot of non-commital dancing going on, a la the overbite. For ref: see When Harry Met Sally.) The next day we discovered the party did not end when we went to bed. The city was littered with trash and broken glass. We should have known what a big deal this day was going to be. On the 29th they must have set up like 4 public urinals on each corner of the city. (Liz: There seems to be an incredible amount of effort to get men to not pee on buildings. I myself never have the urge to pee on buildings. Y-linked trait, perhaps?)

That brings me to my favorite Amsterdam trivia. Apparently there have been public urinals for years but no public restrooms for women. So a whole bunch of women who were fed up having "to pay to pee" demanded the government to give them equal access to public toilets. The goverment refused. In response, 300 women gathered on a canal bridge, pulled down their pants and peed in rebellion (Liz: Ah, right. I retract my y-linked comment.) They then told the government that this would happen every week on a different bridge if public female toilets were not created. The government built public toilets. Of course they have since been locked up because they "feared for women's saftey" (I suspect the upkeep was too much). I would be thoroughly entertained if another such peaceful (though unsanitary) rebellion would strike Amsterdam again.

Liz: So now we are sitting in the terminal a little after midnight, and we have four hours to kill until we can check in. Maybe we should watch Glee again, becuase Home was weird, we missed a lot of it because we were watching in the hostel's bar, and it's thematically appropriate.

This going home thing is very strange. We're definitely happy to go home, where the good cheap food, TiVo, our rooms, and you all live. But it's sureal, much like the beginning of our trip- like it's not really happening. We haven't had a last day, because we still had trip things to do- catch that train, fill in that form, get to London, write this, journal if my sleep schedule complies. And we've spent such an incredible amount of incredible time together- it will be beyond odd to have that be over. I'll have to decide when to wake up all by my lonesome. Christine won't always be there with a reliable stash of cookies (not always reliable, I have been known to eat all of the chips ahoy) Ah well. We'll just have to do it again ;)

From both: we look foward to seeing all of you. Send good vibes so we get our flights! If you would like to see us in the next week, having a TiVo full of any televising show from the last two months will help! Bye. Love to everbody!

Mamma Mia, Here we go again....

Liz:

We are a city, many mysterious countries, another city, and three islands away from where we last wrote. And there's a spewing volcano between us and our next destination- only kind of metaphorically. So lots to update you on.

Salzburg-- pronounced Salz-borg (city) as opposed to the Salz-berg (mountain), which we also visited. Confusing to us plebes. We were there for awhile, which meant two days of doing basically nothing-- for recuperating purposes. Though Christine did heroically find a German-speaking doctor for herself, and managed to get a prescription after a lot of animated miming. I, meanwhile, was sleeping (Christine- only at the beginning, when I couldn't find the English speaking doctor. Liz coordinated with the hostel to help me find a German speaking physician). I feel quite bad about that. Besides the doctor outing, we also managed to go get some vaguely dodgy Indian food, and some less dodgy but not out of the woods Italian food. Most importantly, we watched Sound of Music, which was AMAZING. I had forgotten just how hysterical Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer are together-- all snarky and dry and adorable. She has *perfect* timing. And Christoper Plummer is downright dreamy.

Por ejemplo:

Captain von Trapp: It's the dress. You'll have to put on another one before you meet the children.

Maria: But I don't have another one. When we entered the abbey our worldly clothes were given to the poor.

Captain von Trapp: What about this one?

Maria: The poor didn't want this one.

or

Captain von Trapp: Now, when I want you, this is what you will hear.

[blows whistle]

Maria: Oh, no, sir. I'm sorry, sir. I could never answer to a whistle. Whistles are for dogs and cats and other animals, but not for children and definitely not for me. It would be too... humiliating.

Captain von Trapp: Fraulein, were you this much trouble at the Abbey?

Maria: Oh, much more, sir.

Captain von Trapp: Hmm.

[starts walking away. Maria blows her whistle and the Captain turns around]

Maria: Excuse me, sir. I don't know your signal.

Go watch it, watch it right now. We'll wait.

Ok, so. Sound of Music took place in Salzburg, and they actually filmed on location. So, naturally, we went on a Sound of Music tour. Our tour guide was this gleeful mix of Eddie Izzard's humor with Jon Lovitz's voice. He acted out bits of the movie for us, Maria in this ridiculous, melodramatic falsetto-- quite fun. We drove past the facade of the Von Trapp house and the lane where the kids hung in the trees (Is it possible - or could I have just imagined it - have my children by any chance been climbing trees today?), took pictures in front of the gazebo- in which we were not allowed to have a little frolic because someone busted their hip in the process, saw the abbey, went inside the church were Maria and the Captain got married, and had Apfelstrudel in Cafe Braun. Lots of strudel was consumed in Austria. Important trivia: the Von Trapp family did not walk over the Alps to Switzerland. Switzerland is 500km in the wrong direction. If they had walked over the Alps, they would have ended up in Germany at Hitler's personal Alp retreat. Hopped on a train to Italy instead. Hollywood lies and cheats and steals, but oh how we love them.

We had a terribly busy day, because after that we went to the salt mines-- and Bavarian mountains, which we belatedly realized were in Germany. Very sneaky, taking us out of the country like that. The salt mines were great fun-- sort of like a central European Disneyland. There was a ride on a little train into the mine, where you had to straddle a bench, and we felt like our kneecaps were going to be lost in the tunnel. Not for the first time in our European travels, I wondered how Nate (Liz's 6'8'' cousin) would possibly manage. Europe is height-ist. Also featured at CE Disney: two giant slides into the abyss, which we were instructed to get on in German, and kind of thought we might die, and a ride across a salt lake which was cool- but Fran and Warren (dear family friends) had told me about a similar trip- and I had made it into some great voyage in my head, which this was not. Later that day, more dessert, and thoughtful consideration of buying some traditional Austrian dresses-- very cute, and we officially never want to look at the clothes we brought on our trip ever again. We will give them to the airplane to burn for fuel on our way home, and apparently make dresses out of airplane blankets, as we did not invest in dirndls.

We visited the Mirabell Gardens on our own (-- where they filmed bits of Do Re Mi). It was really gorgeous-- lots of flowers in bloom. Magnolias everywhere. But the best part was the playground, where we found a crazy treacherous slide and lovely hammock chairs. The tower leading up to this slide went on forever. The pictures don't do it justice. You have to visit Salzburg, and see for yourself. We said our goodbyes to each other and flew down. I went down first, and besides some screaming, made it out ok. Christine managed to vault herself off the slide, skidding to a stop a few feet beyond. She would win the playground slide Olympics-- very aerodynamic, that girl. Nice form. (Christine: I really thought I was going to die, I had my eyes closed the entire time).

We never managed to see anything of Mozart in the city-- though we did eat the chocolate/hazelnut creme/marzipan ball things which were quite delicious. Our excuse is that we saw some Mozart things in Praha and Wien, and we hummed Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to ourselves while walking over his bridge. But, as a few of you know and seem to heartily approve of, we stayed in to watch Glee. We miss TV, ok? Elphaba and Melchior were on. Our hands were tied. Rather, our butts were glued to our hostel beds until we saw our Glee.

Elisabeth Braun I might be in the city of Mozart, but I stayed in last night to watch Glee. I am not ashamed :)

April 15 at 3:03am via Facebook for iPhone · Comment ·

Gillian Drake, Deborah Smith, Charlene Stratton and 6 others like this.

We had great roommates our last night in Salzburg, which was too bad, as we had to abandon them at 3am to go catch our 4am train to Budapest. We didn't get to stop there, which I was bummed about-- I wanted to go find my shtetl. From Budapest, we went on to Belgrad, then to Thessaloniki, then to Athena. All in all- a little over 40 hours traveling. Egads. Very disorienting, because we didn't know exactly where our train went. We think we went through Bulgaria overnight, and ended up in Macedonia. Now we have a bunch of Serbian and Macedonian stamps in our passports, and we don't have stamps for places we have actually been. We are none too pleased about that. Macedonia is beautiful though, so I'll give them a pass. And we met some nice Serbian high schoolers, so they get a pass as well.

We arrived in Athena, and met up with Norma and Julie. That is when we found out about the volcano-- cryptic notes from Dad not withstanding. Lisa and Kristen (Christine - my Aunt and cousin) were supposed to meet us on this trip, but were grounded by volcanic ash. We are so very sorry! I was really excited to meet the two of you.

I won't go into detail about Greece for now because the computer is dying, it's one in the morning, they turned the lights off in the lobby we're sitting in, and Christine already fell off the couch she's perched on once (Christine: I was sleeping not that klutzy) -- maybe we'll wait until we make it to Berlin (or you know, tomorrow morning)-- which actually seems like a possibility (knock on wood). I'll just say that we are having a lovely time, Norma and Julie are wonderful travel partners, and we've been to Athena, Mykonos, Delos, and now we're on Santorini. It's completely gorgeous here- maybe even beautiful, Eric. We want to Pocahontas dive into all this turquoise water.

Christine (the next morning) -

We spent the first day in Athens. We were driven around by an interesting taxi driver who went on about the wonder of the Soviets and a deal between the Vatican and the CIA (Liz: Interesting is a very kind description. He talked about how much he liked the Soviets-- not communism, the Soviets. And he tried to claim that Dionysus was the god of thieves, as opposed to Hermes. Liar pants.). But we made it to the Parthenon and then the new Acropolis Museum, which was very cool and not nearly as passive agressive as I expected about the British Museam having so many of their artifacts. They just kept mentioning that a certian missing artifact was at the British Museum in every other display. (Liz: I waved to the Evzones for you, Grandma, while driving out of Athena.)

Next we took a very choppy boat ride to the island of Mykonos. We stayed there for a couple days. The highlight was visting the island of Delos (the mythical birthplace of Apollo and Artemis).

(Liz: I learned a few of the less obvious Greek letters to facilitate getting around, but then no one believed me when I said what things were. It was really entertaining.--

Me, semi-quietly in my only mostly convinced voice: 'This is Alegra. See that's a lambda and the p is a ro. And that one is probably a gamma because it makes me think of Mr. Azhar.'

Julie, poking her head in the restuarant 'Alegra? Is this Alegra?'

Random dude nods yes.

Julie, asking other people at the restaurant 'Alegra?'

People in the restaurant say yes.

Julie, 'It doesn't look like Alegra.')

Now we are at the Island of Santorini. Lisa, I do not know how much you would have like this island. The majority of the island is on a huge cliff including our hotel which is practically hanging over the ocean way down below. My mom/Julie rented a car and has been driving nice and slowly around the cliffs at the extreme annoyence of the Greek drivers who do not even stop at their own stop signs. (Liz: Which are all in English! We think only the tourists are supposed to stop.)

We went down one scary road to a port and stopped to take pictures. I had just a 2 second time period to wonder how so much water got on the land before a huge wave came crashing from behind us over a Little Mermaid rock soaking all of us. (Liz: And then Julie asked Christine and me to go back down near the rocks to pose. One of the times we could tell she was joking.) (Christine: I didn't realize she was joking, I said "no!")

There has been lots of wine drinking while we have been here. It has facilitaed many stories. Norma and Julie will have many stories coming home and we have a quite a few interesting ones to take with us on the rest of our travels. Liz learned a ridiculous amount about our family and the traditions and/or rituals (there was a very heated debated about this), specially our very competiive Easter egg toss. Liz took the chance to ask all the questions about Catholics that I couldn't answer while we were touring every Cathedral in Western Europe (and Liz explained all sorts of random pieces of Judaism in return. Julie was terribly impressed that some mitzvot [good deeds] were good deeds and not sins). Amusingly Norma couldn't really answer the questions any better. Aparrently the Holy Spirit relationship to the Holy Trinity and Catholics is not supposed to be understood (My History of Religion teacher is getting an angry letter, 2000 words on the relationship between the Holy Trinity compared between Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, "in the words of a not so famous magician, come on!"). And I heared some fun stories I had never heard before from Babysitting to Lobster Fests to Radio call ins. Last night we ran out of wine, when my mom/Julie acting like she was going to split it poured a generous amount into her glass leaving a paltry amount for my Grandmother/Norma, who paused in the middle of her story to glare at Julie as a her wine glass was only filled by a few drops. Mom/Julie explained that sometimes the wine glass just tips accidently, there is no controlling it (Julie - we are talking the difference between 1 inch and 1/2 and inch here not drops!).

It is very luxiourious here because we are staying in hotels with Norma and Julie (Liz: Christine has picked up this entertaining but useful habit of calling them by their first names ever since Switzerland). Liz and I our not quite used to it. Mostly the fact that our rooms are cleaned while we are out and we can't find anything when we get back (they do not really clean the rooms at the hostels).

We are hopefully leaving for Berlin tomorrow. Volcano ash willing. Hopefully the Greek gods have decided we have been good to them here (especally at helping the Greek economy) and will allow us to finish the rest of our trip. (Liz: We've been giving them proper respect everywhere we go. Asking their permission for things and such. Making sure not to leave anyone out. It's all good.)

To Lisa and Kristen - I am so sad that you guys couldn't make it out. We (Norma and Julie included) miss you and hope we will be able to do somethig with you soon. We wish for no more volcanos in your future (though we generally wish that for everyone).

A note before I come home: in case you haven't picked up on it from my writing.... I now totally talk like Liz. I can't quite explain it. It is a kinda of pause between the sentences I am saying. I am completly aware of it. No need to point it out. We have been staying together for 2 months and telling shared stories to people we meet so it is to be expected. I do not know if it will go away or if I plan to speak with Liz pauses for the rest of my life. I still pronounce words with an accent from another planet though (Liz: or Wisconsin), so I don't think anyone will get Liz and me mixed up, but we will see when we get home. Maybe by the end of the trip Liz will start pronouning 'museum' as 'museam' (Liz: What just kills me is that she can't keep straight which is how she says it, which is how she spells it, and what it actually is. She says 'muse-ay-um.' I will never say muse-ay-um.). (Christine - Liz thinks that, we will see...)

Julie and Norma have been terribly patient, but we want to see more of Fira before we leave-- so we will deal with pictures later. Hopefully.

PS:

Liz: By the way, we are here at your urging. We heard your calls, gentle readers-- which made us giggle, and they were repeated to Norma/Nana/Christine's grandmother and Julie/Christine's mom, who were also quite entertained. There were dramatic reenactments and everything.

Kelly Laffey blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog blog!!!!!! Erica and I are dying over here.

Yesterday at 6:15pm · Comment · · See Wall-to-Wall

Rachael Lavi

Me too!!!

Yesterday at 6:18pm ·

Gillian Drake

Me as well

6 hours ago ·

With permission from the Juju Gods and Goddess...

As you all now know (Liz: because the story of our travels is so terribly enrapturing) we spent the last few days in Bellenzona, Switzerland. What you don't know is we almost did not make it...

We arrived at the Miedling train station in Vienna 20 minutes before the train was to depart to discover our train was not there, but at another train station (Liz: which, by the way, we had stopped at on the way. We felt très ridiculous). We booked it back to the metro and waited 5 very long minutes for the tube to arrive. After four very long stops (Liz: staring at our watches, tapping our feet, trying to contain the crazy) it had officially hit 10:25, the time our train was supposed to leave. Right before the doors opened we promised each other we would go for it because we might just be lucky.

With our 30+ kilo backpacks on our backs, our overstuffed 'mini' backpacks on our front, and grocery bags and shoes hanging from our arms and hooks on our bags, we ran up the escalators; right into a bus station...

We ran around the bus station confused, and Liz yelled out to the pretzel guy standing in our vicinity "Train Station!?" He pointed across the street, the very busy street.

We ran to the edge of the street, which was filled with cars. I told Liz not to risk dying. Liz informed me that she did not plan to (Liz: Dying would not facilitate the goal of getting on the train). Once the green walking man turned on, we made another mad dash through a construction site and up another flight of stairs, our front bags knocking against our knees.

We got to the top and there was our train right in front of us "Zürich 466" in huge letters. I am too paranoid to test my luck so I ran right onto the first wagon with the first class. Liz joined me, and questioned the sanity of trying to move to second class through the hall on a night train (Liz: Nope- I just wanted to chill out. Chesty cold + asthma + staircases + 45ish kilos of stuff that I really felt like abandoning + running like our very lives depended on it= standing still for five minutes thank you very much) . But we were not getting off the train. We gave each other out of breath high fives. And slowly tried to squeeze ourselves through multiple wagons.

I was pretty annoyed when we were stopped in one hall because of a women with her bike, but it turns out I should thank her. The only reason the train was late was because some travelers were trying to store their bikes in the hall and stopping traffic. The Austrian train officials eventually kicked them off. (Liz: Oh ill-fated bike people, we wish you the very best of travels.)

We got to our cabin, again Harry Potter style and cramped, but this time we had wised up. The people sitting in our seats are not confused, they don't have reservations. We kicked them out of our seats and ended up in a cabin for six with only three other girls.

Liz determined that the only reason we made it is because of the good juju we have been collecting all over Europe. We have been rubbing statues and throwing coins in fountains and all sorts of things. I think it was the drooling hog in Florence that pushed us over the edge. (Liz: We were feeling distinct drool vibes on the train. So we took a moment to thank the keepers of the Juju, lest we incur their wrath. I've read myths. I know stuff. And Christine spread out her hands, palms to the sky [cabin ceiling and fluorescent lights], and I cracked up- wheezily.)

The rest involves extensive talk of my extended family and there is no family tree included and my spelling is horrible. You have been warned.

April 8th: Switzerland...

Waking up in Switzerland was something. There were huge mountains everywhere and there was even a truck with a picture of swiss cheese right outside of our window. (Liz: And thus started the Sound of Music soundtrack in our heads. There is something very wrong with the grammar in that sentence.) We took a beautiful train ride to Bellinzona and got picked up by my cousin Diana. Actually I think she is my mom's fourth cousin or something like that but I am going to go with cousin.

For those that don't know, my family originally comes from the Italian section of southern Switzerland, and I still have family there. We have had different relatives from different generations visiting Switzerland or Los Angeles for several decades. Recently: Diana, Nicola and Giovanna came and met the American half of our family this past summer (at a huge 4th of July party-- how's that for an American welcome?).

The Guidotti family (our Swiss cousins) live on a big piece of land with several houses. We stayed at Giovanna's house and Diana joined us for the weekend. Diana's mother, Yvonne, was nice enough to not only cook us a good meal but a vegetarian meal (Liz: Melt in your mouth cauliflower with cheese, all crispy and delicious on top. And special Swiss Italian risotto. Nom nom nom.) Paola stopped by, and gave us some friendly teasing for not learning Italian. We showed her though-- we perked up as soon as they said gelato. We informed her that we knew not only gelato, but pizza, pasta, Parmesan, mozzarella, Fragola, Vino, Cioccolato, Buongiorno, Ciao and Shugura. That would be many kinds of food, good day, hi/bye and the name of my cat (which I probably spelled wrong and means epic disaster apparently).

Diana took us for a tour of Bellinzona and then back to the Giovanna's for another great meal that Nicola joined us for. Nicola took out the map "like Norma" he informed me. Apparently Norma/Nana (my grandmother) took out "like 15 maps" during their stay last summer. He explained to us the geographical, political and ethinc make up of Switzerland.

April 9th.

The next day I wandered out to the balcony to find everybody chatting from the various houses.

Nicola took the day off and he and Diana took the two of us on a tour of Lugano. It is the financial district and Nicola made sure to point out which buildings were banks- "that's a bank, that's a bank, that's a bank." Nicola by the way works at a bank in Lugano (Liz: The best bank!).

We hiked up some huge hill past some cute rabbits that Nicola made sure to point out to me before informing me they will be very tasty dinner soon (Liz thinks Animal rights is just not translating right and I should use something else in order to avoid this mocking from the Europeans).

We then went to the village where my Great Great Grandmother was born. Everybody there remembers Traci or at least Teresa (my aunt who made quite an adventurous trip there before there were things like cell phones and email). We chatted for a while with Anita's, my Great Grandmother, cousin Ivo and Elisa Franci. We talked about family, politics, the Italian Mafia and meat of all things (again with the mocking). I think my Great, Great Aunt Lydia/Lidia would be happy to know that she made quite an impression from what I can tell. Ivo Franci says that more of the Giovanonis (the Los Angeles side) need to visit and to say "Hi and good health to all the Giovanonis".

April 10th

Diana and Giovanna took us to a band festival where there were all kinds of people dressed up in funny outfits. FYI: Living with Giovanna this weekend, who does not speak English and I do not speak Italian, I have discovered that our translations books are useless for conversation. Giovanna, Liz, and I have learned to communicate in a form of charades. And it has worked out much better for us.

Nicola joined us and I finally got to meet his long term girlfriend, Elisa (who is cutely, perfectly matched with Nicola-- [Liz: She likes his food- they're meant!]). We all went for a round of mini golf, joined half way through by Giovanna's boyfriend Daniela. (Liz: Christine kicked all our butts.)

On our way home, I asked if we were going to stop at the supermarket for food needed for dinner. The Swiss that spoke English burst out laughing and had to immediately explain to the others. Aparrently we are very American girls. I did not understand at all. Nicola took pity and explained that we are not in America, the grocery stores do not stay open forever. But it is only 6pm I countered. Apparently on a Saturday that is considered staying open forever. Still giggling we got into the car. But not before Liz spotted Nicola's tiny, tiny golf-cart sized car. We got our own giggle over that and were joined when our shock at the size was translated.

We had a completely Swiss meal, as Liz's Aunt Kim predicted, Raclette. A delicious meal that includes heating cheese. I got to meet Ivo, Diana's father. He has a message for my Great Uncle Bob. I am pretty sure it is a little tongue in cheek and that Bob is probably not reading this blog so if one of my Giovanoni relatives could let him know next time you see him. Ivo says "Bruta Bestia."

The Guidotti's gave Liz and I some chocolate with some for "Norma and Julie in Greece" of course. We will see if it will last our 30 or more hour train trip to Athens (we consumed that chocolate bunny Giovanna gave us in the train ride to Austria). They wanted to give us wine for them but at the sight of our backpacks thought better of it. We said our goodbyes for the night.

The next day Giovanna and Diana had breakfast with us and took us to the train station. They waited till our very late train arrived "it was coming from Italy" Diana informed us. And then we were off. We learned yet another Italian phrase "Buona viaggi."

Final:

The Guidotti's were so very wonderful and welcoming to Liz and me. We had a complete blast and I learned not only more about my extended family but my own family back home in Los Angeles. Ivo has promised to come and visit soon and he and anybody else that chooses to visit is welcome and very much anticipated! The Guidotti's say hi to all the Giovanonis back home.

Liz: Again, thank you so much for hosting us! You all were perfectly lovely, and I'm so happy I got to meet all of you. It couldn't have been more fun. I just wish I could explain bizarre English grammar better!

Spike (Nicola's huge cat) sends his regards...as he eats Giovanna's cat's food.

The hills are alive...

Hello everzone. Christine speaking here.

I am using mz cousin Giovanna's email and it has some letters and commands in funkz places and I cannot find one of the letters.

Liz and I woke up in our night train to mountains that could onlz mean we have arrived in Switzerland.

We are stazing with mz wonderful cousins in Bellonzona. If any of my family has any comments (I found the Y) they would like me to pass on, post it on the blog!

Ciao

Let's all congratulate us with another cup of tea

My choice for Christine's Birthday Song

Christine's Choice

(In the alternate universe where Christine and I aren't thousands of miles away from the closest Baskin Robbins, this cake would be being consumed right now. But for the record, Christine is Team Cookie and Ice Cream.)

This is all to say, it's Christine's Birthday today! And also Easter and a traveling day, so really her birthday is going to be celebrated later. But we did get out fancy shmancy hotel in Wien (--Thanks for all the help, Dad!), and we keep finding things we love about it-- for instance, we can leave our stuff in the shower- and I'm dead serious when I say that is a luxury. (Christine- "Everything smells good here. Do you think they put something in the pillows?") They offered us water when we came in the door. There were complimentary little coconut creme filled wafer thingamobobers waiting for us in our room. Awesome.

Christine would also like it to be made very clear that if there is any chocolate intended for her at the family Easter celebration today, it best be stored until she returns. Don't cross her. She was on a train for most of her birthday.

Anyway, we just left Prague. Czech is basically impossible to pronounce and letters don't seem to have much at all to do with the sound of the word. I think I managed a "Cau" or two when I realized it was Czech and I was not overhearing Italian tourists. I tried really hard with "dekuji" (thank you) but I'm never sure enough about my pronunciation and end up with an incomprehensible whisper. Also, new currency! Thank goodness for iPhone currency converters.

Prague is gorgeous, and we had lovely clouds the whole time. I'm afraid all my panoramic and architecture pictures will be in shadow because I was always putting my focus on the clouds. I wish we had more time there-- I definitely felt like we were rushing through things. We rubbed the right plaque on the Charles bridge, so we'll go back to Prague someday.

Whitney (a friend of ours from home that is currently au pairing in a town- sorry, village- in Germany) came to join us! Many thanks to Erica for that! She couldn't get a ride out today, so we're hoping she found some lovely people in her hostel to hang out with. Or a groovy international church for Easter services that gave her chocolate. Or perhaps she slept, which would have been a capital option as well.

Prague highlights:

*There was an Easter festival going on, so Old Town square smelled like fire, sweet roasting things, and sugar all the time. And we bought these delicious cylindrical sugar bread concoctions for a few meals.

*Two fantastic new europe guides.

*Story about the Velvet Revolution: Students and other Czechs would jingle keys during their rallies to symbolize the unlocking of their country and their freedoms. Keys kick locks' behinds.

*The John Lennon Wall, which was already awesome, and then when Christine and I posed for a picture, this teeny tiny dog decided he wanted to diva it up a little too.

Christine speaking....

Happy Bunny day to all! And I hope you are all enjoying chocolate no matter the reason.

I am hungry and I am off to enjoy a birthday dinner in Austria. I will blog again once I am officially 23. Which is not for another 6 or so hours (adding in time difference and everything).

Happy birthday to Caroline my Godmother and birthday buddy. And a very merry unbirthday to everybody else!

This is either peace in Swedish or someone really likes only one of the twins from Harry Potter.

Peace/Fred