blooper.

Its a flickr account, Jordans flickr account, where our pictures are posted. not a piczo site.. sorry if i confused anyone.

Valencia, Spain

Alrighty-roo well i know its been an incredibly long time since i updated and ok i'll admit im a horrible person for keeping you all in suspence. But alas I do not really care as much as you may hope i care, and at this point i do not have enough time to fill you in on all the lucious details of our latest adventures...So here's the abreviated version.
My last post was posted from the small city of Rimini, Italy, which is situated on the adriatic coast. We decided to spend a few nights there after the big city of Rome to chill and relax before we headed to our next big destination.
Last friday we hopped aboard a train from Rimini to Milan, where we hung out for the afternoon and visited the Museum of Science and Technology/Leonardo Davinci. It had large exhibits of Davinci's inventions and such as well as other fun interactive museum-y type things.
Many of the pictures recently posted on the piczo site are from the museum. The pictures of what looks like the Ruins of a city are from Ostia Antica, about which chelsea wrote a few posts ago. All of the pictures of the statues and paintings are from the Vatican Museum and different sites around Rome.
Ok where was I...Sorry this is so unorganized! Im not my super-duper writer self tonight evidently.
After spending the afternoon in Milan we parked ourselves at the train station to await our 7pm night-train to Barcelona. The train was quite an interesting experience and one that none of us our too keen to repeat. Chelsea, Jo, and I shared a 4 bed "room" (i would call it a small closet) with a young lady from Ecuador who spoke absolutley no english at all and her 2 week old baby son. It was fun to coo over the baby for about 30 minutes..then we stared at eachother for another 2 until bedtime, and then we all stared at the walls and ceiling, all thinking about how gorssly hot and uncomfortable we were. At one point, i think it was around 3 am, I went and sat in the hallway for an hour because our room was so, so dry and hot and proping the door open to let a breeze through proved to be a much more difficult task than it sounds.
So, still alive even if rather tired, we made it to Barcelona by 10 am Saturday morning. The city is very fun, with a hundered things to look at every way you turn. Our hostel was located just off of "Las Ramblas". a kilometer long street filled to the brim with people, vendors, music, artists, coffee shops, and what seemed like hundereds of human-statues and other forms of street-side entertainers.
We also toured a large garden on the outside of the city, within which we found a wonderful hedge-maze which proved to be great fun to race about in. What is it about a hedge maze, or any type of maze actually, that makes you want to run through it as fast as you can?
After the maze we took the Metro to see Gaudi's Cathedral, which you will recognize in the pictures as the huge, bizzare, and rather ugly church-like building. It was amazing to see, and Gaudi definitley was quite the architect. I couldnt dream of designing somethig so complex.
So apart from a few details that's been our weekend. Today we took a 4 hour train from Barcelona to Valencia, where we now are. Our hostel here is so beautiful (by far the best we've been in yet) that we've decided to extend our stay by a day, and wont be leaving for inland spain until Saturday. Since we have WiFi access in our room, im sure another update wont be too long in following this one.
Again, sorry my disorganized thoughts and lack of interesting stories. Hope you all are well and happy, I can assure you that we all are, apart from a few sniffles and sneezes here and there..(chels and jonny have both caught little colds but are doing just fine)
Till next time,
-Kait.

email craziness

hey all,
so apparently for some unknown reason my hotmail email address (cdn_eh_@hotmail.com) has been shut down, or someone has broken into it and changed the password. Since i've had it for so long i cannot remember the answer to my silly secret question so i cannot gain accesss. Thankfully I still have my gmail address, ninjajenni@gmail.com working properly. For those of you who still use my hotmail one, shandell I know thats the one you still used, if you could make the switch i'd appreciate it..and as for now I won't be availiable on msn.
Hope your all well and good with you...Tomorrow we are heading to Milan where we will take a night train to Barcelona, Spain - we're very excited! Today is disignated for a little r&r in prep for the trip.
Love you all!!
-Kaitlyn
ninjajenni@gmail.com

WE'RE SAFE AND SOUND.....

Although we were only 2 stops away at the time of the subway train crash in Rome which injured 100 and killed 2 and counting, we were completly oblivious to the action this morning and (thank jesus) we are now safe and sound in our snug little hostel room in Rimini, Italy. We thought it best to make this post as soon as possible after hearing the news, as we know it travels fast and thankfully it's still early out there at home, so none of you have to worry too much:)
At the exact time of the crash, (which you can all read about on BBC if you wish) 9 am, we were on the subway, rushing our way to the main Train terminal in Rome, where we were schedualed to depart at 9:30 for Bolonga. The crash happened one stop away from the Train terminal, thankfully our train was coming in from SW and the trains which crashed into eachother were coming from SE. We were eerily close and all looked in amazement at the map this evening as we realized our proximity. So don't worry mom's, obviously, thankfully, we are in good hands:)
miss you all, love
Kait, Chelsea, Jord, Jonny, and Jeanette.

The Cleaning Lady

So last night, after being up for 17 hrs or so, I conveniently forgot to set my alarm clock. As a result we all slept in (not to worry it was the first time since we got to Europe) and we were quite happy reading the morning away. Then in the mist of a good book, and an exciting part (he was just being sent to jail!) a woman walks into the room. She looks at us with a confused expression, we return it. Then she sighs, mumbles something in Italian and walks away. Ok that was odd glad it's over we say among ourselves. No, it wasn't the end; I'm not that lucky. A min or so later she come back in and angrily starts speaking to us (also in Italian and very rapidly).
"Parla English?" I ask as in as polite a tone as I could master considering that she's intruding.
She responded with a rather dirty look and starts to speak faster in Italian. We all look at each other in confusion. Mean while she's pulled her cart in and begun to look around at our mess with an expression of discuses. Again we try to tell her that we don't understand her, no such luck. So Jo gets off her bed, it’s always easier to figure things out from a higher perspective. Then our 'guest' starts to make Jo's bed as she stands just inches away. So we all head out as quickly as possible, feeling rather imposed upon. In any case the crazy, angry, fast-speaking and spacey looking cleaning lady made us head out a little earlier then planed to a village just on the outskirts of Rome.

Said town was the remains of a roman city and was surprisingly intact. I was amazed at how the second floor of many buildings could be walked on and that the only areas roped off were for the protection of the mosaic floors or our own safety. It was very large so I should really consider it a Roman City, port city. It was awesome! We sat on the same seats that the first inhabitants would of in a theater where they would gather for entertainment. We tried to get Jord to stand on the stage and give a good speech but for some reason or another he declined. Then, walking through a maze of old houses, storage areas and markets, we found a neat little kitchen that, in my opinion, was very well designed considering how small the area had to be. Beneath a tree, protecting us from the Italian sun (which burns with intense fury), we sat and had a little picnic. Jord feed a 'stray' cat, the healthiest looking stay I've ever seen. Then tiered from the heat we headed back to our hostel. And so here I sit typing away and planning to hit the beach later on.
Chel

Another check off the "to do before I die" list..

...Today the beauty of Rome took my breath away. Im not sure what I was expecting, but this city was definitley more... I don't think i've ever felt this way about a city before. being such a small-town girl, i've always valued but never really appreciated what a large city has to offer. Rome was entirely different and I believe one of the only cities where I could spend an entire day, or week, simply sitting with a sketchbook. To say that it's beauty caught me offgaurd is an understatement. I was prepared for the hustle and bustle, and consequently the frustration, that has usually been found in our city visits thus far, and I found much more.
As we climbed the long set of steps out of quite a seedy and smelly subway station in downtown Rome, things were much as i expected. I hated the smell, the taste of cigarrete smoke and exhaust, and the feeling of always being on-gaurd. Looking up, however, I noticed the sunshine cascading down toward us from the city above. Although it partially blinded us as we came closer to the top, our eyes adjusted and the people pushed and shoved around us as our little traveling family stopped and stared with chins raised high. The huge and mighty Colloseum towered before us, appearing quite like a scene on the most beautiful of postcards. After a few moments I dared to look away and take in the rest of my surroundings. More people were mulling about than I have seen since Venice. Intermixed in the crowd were vendors selling plastic swords and sheilds, and people dressed up like Gladiators were posing with happy tourists(..check out the pictures, don't we look happy???). It was a livley scene. We dahsed across the road which stood between us and the commotion, and wandered our way through the maze of people and around the outside of the hugh building. We hadnt gotten far, however, when we were stopped by an incredibly friendly tour guide who was more than eager to give us every reason as to why we would so highly benefit by skipping the apparent 45 minute line-up and taking her tour with "a true archeologist", for the small amount of only 10 eruo plus the price of admission. We kindly thanked her and stepped away, determined to save our pennies, and got a good 10 minutes through the rediculously long line up when we realized that there was a good chance none of us would ever get this opportunity again. We looked at eachother and darted out of the line up, and ended up paying, yes i'll admit it, 21 Eruo each to have a tour through the Colloseum. However our ticketes allowed us to attend 2 other tours for free around Palatine Hill, so I feel it was quite worth the money. I enjoyed it much more than I believed I would.
There is just something about standing in a square and being surrounded by so many buildings that represent such an important time in History. It's amazing, and all of those elementary-school history lessons and "Diana Wearing" on tape or whatever her name was, finally came to life before me. On a more recent note it was very interesting to see some of the exhibits after completing a semester of World Mythology last winter. The history really is astonishing. That we saw the exact spot from where Marc Anthony gave his speeches to the throngs of angry Romans, that we actually walked along the same road as Ceasar. Quite cool, you have to admit. Even if I am going a little overboard on my excitedness, it is quite cool to say the least.
Hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves, although i'm sorry to say nothing can be quite as breathtaking as seeing it all with your own eyes.
We were amazed again upon entering the Pantheon, one of the most amazingly built buildings i've ever seen. Standing inside and looking up at the huge dome above you is bizarre, it almost made me dizzy. The history of this building is quite interesting too, but i'll leave you to look that up on your own, or feel free to wait and ask us later.
The grave, if you can call it that, more like a displayed casket, of Raphael (the artist), is also at the Pantheon and was quite interesting to see. I find it almost weird that the remains of a human who died in 1520 were only a few feet from me. As amazing as his art was, one has to ask the question of why millions of people a year are so interested in starting at his casket.
Anyyway so today was a long, wonderful day, and our feet are sore and our minds full this evening. Tomorrow we're headed to the Vatican, and thanks to our beautiful hostel's location about 15 by train from the city, we're waking at the crazy hour of 6:15am to get out there in time. Apparently arriving after 8am isnt worth arriving at all as the line-ups get so long, and I can promise you I do not know how much longer i'll keep my sanity if I come all this way and do not get to see the Sistene Chapel. I plan on spending at least as long as I want staring at that ceiling, and I'm not quite sure yet how long that will be.
Love to you all - I'll bug chelsea to do the next update and give her a chance to catch up to my mad typing skills:)
-Kait
PS, just to all those wonderfully concerned mothers (and we're so thankful you are!) out there, there's been an update to our plans. After Rome we'll be heading to the small city of Rimini on the adriatic coast of Italy before heading to Milan on the 20th of October to catch our night train to Barcelona. We've decided to spend a few more days in the country here mainly because we found a hostel that looks absolutley gorgeous on the ocean and in a lovely little town, and we (well especially I) feel like we really, really need some REAL "down-time" before heading to the next big city. by down time i mean I plan on eating three DECENT meals in one day and perhaps sleeping for most of the rest of it... :) Thankfully we'll again have a private room, and the hostel has a fully equipped kitchen at our disposal, which is rarer than you'd imagine it being over here. I've had just about as many cold cut sandwiches as i can possibly handle....but thats another story:)

Another check off the "to do before I die" list..

...Today the beauty of Rome took my breath away. Im not sure what I was expecting, but this city was definitley more... I don't think i've ever felt this way about a city before. being such a small-town girl, i've always valued but never really appreciated what a large city has to offer. Rome was entirely different and I believe one of the only cities where I could spend an entire day, or week, simply sitting with a sketchbook. To say that it's beauty caught me offgaurd is an understatement. I was prepared for the hustle and bustle, and consequently the frustration, that has usually been found in our city visits thus far, and I found much more.
As we climbed the long set of steps out of quite a seedy and smelly subway station in downtown Rome, things were much as i expected. I hated the smell, the taste of cigarrete smoke and exhaust, and the feeling of always being on-gaurd. Looking up, however, I noticed the sunshine cascading down toward us from the city above. Although it partially blinded us as we came closer to the top, our eyes adjusted and the people pushed and shoved around us as our little traveling family stopped and stared with chins raised high. The huge and mighty Colloseum towered before us, appearing quite like a scene on the most beautiful of postcards. After a few moments I dared to look away and take in the rest of my surroundings. More people were mulling about than I have seen since Venice. Intermixed in the crowd were vendors selling plastic swords and sheilds, and people dressed up like Gladiators were posing with happy tourists(..check out the pictures, don't we look happy???). It was a livley scene. We dahsed across the road which stood between us and the commotion, and wandered our way through the maze of people and around the outside of the hugh building. We hadnt gotten far, however, when we were stopped by an incredibly friendly tour guide who was more than eager to give us every reason as to why we would so highly benefit by skipping the apparent 45 minute line-up and taking her tour with "a true archeologist", for the small amount of only 10 eruo plus the price of admission. We kindly thanked her and stepped away, determined to save our pennies, and got a good 10 minutes through the rediculously long line up when we realized that there was a good chance none of us would ever get this opportunity again. We looked at eachother and darted out of the line up, and ended up paying, yes i'll admit it, 21 Eruo each to have a tour through the Colloseum. However our ticketes allowed us to attend 2 other tours for free around Palatine Hill, so I feel it was quite worth the money. I enjoyed it much more than I believed I would.
There is just something about standing in a square and being surrounded by so many buildings that represent such an important time in History. It's amazing, and all of those elementary-school history lessons and "Diana Wearing" on tape or whatever her name was, finally came to life before me. On a more recent note it was very interesting to see some of the exhibits after completing a semester of World Mythology last winter. The history really is astonishing. That we saw the exact spot from where Marc Anthony gave his speeches to the throngs of angry Romans, that we actually walked along the same road as Ceasar. Quite cool, you have to admit. Even if I am going a little overboard on my excitedness, it is quite cool to say the least.
Hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves, although i'm sorry to say nothing can be quite as breathtaking as seeing it all with your own eyes.
We were amazed again upon entering the Pantheon, one of the most amazingly built buildings i've ever seen. Standing inside and looking up at the huge dome above you is bizarre, it almost made me dizzy. The history of this building is quite interesting too, but i'll leave you to look that up on your own, or feel free to wait and ask us later.
The grave, if you can call it that, more like a displayed casket, of Raphael (the artist), is also at the Pantheon and was quite interesting to see. I find it almost weird that the remains of a human who died in 1520 were only a few feet from me. As amazing as his art was, one has to ask the question of why millions of people a year are so interested in starting at his casket.
Anyyway so today was a long, wonderful day, and our feet are sore and our minds full this evening. Tomorrow we're headed to the Vatican, and thanks to our beautiful hostel's location about 15 by train from the city, we're waking at the crazy hour of 6:15am to get out there in time. Apparently arriving after 8am isnt worth arriving at all as the line-ups get so long, and I can promise you I do not know how much longer i'll keep my sanity if I come all this way and do not get to see the Sistene Chapel. I plan on spending at least as long as I want staring at that ceiling, and I'm not quite sure yet how long that will be.
Love to you all - I'll bug chelsea to do the next update and give her a chance to catch up to my mad typing skills:)
-Kait
PS, just to all those wonderfully concerned mothers (and we're so thankful you are!) out there, there's been an update to our plans. After Rome we'll be heading to the small city of Rimini on the adriatic coast of Italy before heading to Milan on the 20th of October to catch our night train to Barcelona. We've decided to spend a few more days in the country here mainly because we found a hostel that looks absolutley gorgeous on the ocean and in a lovely little town, and we (well especially I) feel like we really, really need some REAL "down-time" before heading to the next big city. by down time i mean I plan on eating three DECENT meals in one day and perhaps sleeping for most of the rest of it... :) Thankfully we'll again have a private room, and the hostel has a fully equipped kitchen at our disposal, which is rarer than you'd imagine it being over here. I've had just about as many cold cut sandwiches as i can possibly handle....but thats another story:)

Has Europe Changed Me?

So to answer some of you questions I did indeed cut off my hair. It was a very entertaining process. Firstly it involved finding a picture of a hair cut I wanted. Not a problem we, us girls, all wanted to get a fashion magazine from Italy anyway so between bus and waiting for a train in equally we looked through three popular mags in a language that none of us understand. This slightly baffled the boys who have know idea that all girls magazines are all adds and photoshoots anyway so when you can read them you still don't. So I found a cut I wanted and the only thing in my way was a salon. My original intent was for Kait to cut it but my choice was a complicated cut that required a razor, so that was a no go.

It wasn't until we got to the Cinque Terre, my braids had come out by this point, that I got it cut. It was our second day there and we had just hiked, mostly uphill, for two hours in the poring rain when we reached the fourth town, Vernaza, and we had our hearts set on gelato. Conveniently there was a great shop close to where the hike comes into town and although we were the only ones in the joint we happily consumed, well cold and wet, our icecream treats. That's when it called to me. From across the street its voice cried out, like the holy grail to the crusaders, a salon, the only salon in town and it was within my reach. It beckoned, I followed. Soon I found myself walking through the door way, a little nervously, and asking one of the ladies if she spoke English. Her answer; No. Would I let a simple thing like that stop me, Never! I pulled out a crumpled photo of the desired product and asked "Quanta Costa?". She made a single of cutting with her fingers, gave me a figure, and somehow got across that they could do it right then and there. Cool, I though, you don't get into salons that quickly at home. Then this other lady, with foils in her hair, comes up, points to herself, and signels me to fallow. Up to that point I had no fears as to what I was getting myself into, however as I followed her to the sink I couldn't help but wonder if she actually worked there or not. A min or so later I was sitting in front of a rather large mirror with a ponytail of my hair cut off. There was no turning back. Meanwhile a nother local came in to the shop and started talking to my hairdresser. Although I couldn't understand a word I could get by the hand gestures, yes she stopped cutting my hair in order to speak, that they were surprised at how much I was getting cut off. In the end I came to the conclusion that she did work there as my hair turned out alright and no one stopped her from loping it off.

Well I wasn't finished there, just yesterday (Oct 11) I picked up some hair dye and colored it a dark brown. No worries I'm sure there will be plenty of time to see pictures. Sorry Pappy but I just had to cut it after all I think all those little braids left a lot of damage.

On a more trip orientate note we are now in Rome and have yet to be mugged (knock on wood). We're at a hostel on the beach and are just on the outside of the city. So we spend the next 4 days here. So that's that and I'm sure we'll have more to write about tomorrow, today's been just another travel day.
With love,
Chel

day...hmm i lost count.

hey there.
So yesterday we made our way from the Cinquo Terre to Orvieto, a medium-sized hill town in central italy, just an hour north of rome on the train.
It's quite a change from the mediterranean sightseeing, but beautiful in its own way. we took a tour this morning that took us underground to caves used by the first inhabitants of the city over 2500 years ago. It was very interesting.
We're staying in a quaint little bed and breakfast situated on one of the main cobblestone streets, and we're just enjoying the small town atmosphere before we head out for 5 nights in (big and scary) Rome. we're actually only planning to spend 2 whole days in the city, the other's we'll use for day trips to Pisa and elsewhere.
I'm just coming out of a little bout with a flu bug, sent me into quite a high fever for most of the night last night. i'm blaming it on not enough rest, water, or nutrition. It's so easy to live off Gelato and Pizza in this country, but our bad choices are catching up to me! More fruit, less ice cream is a law im now sticking to:)
Thanks for the comments and emails, keep them coming:) it's funny how one can feel lonely while surrounded by so many people. Your communication is appreciated:)
love to all,
-kait

Day 17&18

Day 17, Friday, October 6, 2006
Today was our first day on the beautiful Italian Riviera, also known as Cinquo Terre National Park. We are staying in a very small, very high village called Biassa, about a 12 minute bus ride from the first village in the Cinquo Terre. The drive reminded us very much of that high, twisty part of the Port Alberni highway on Kennedy Lake, but much steeper and much more spectacular. The Mediterranean Sea loomed far below us, and grape vineyards covered the cliff sides from the sea to the highway and above. How the farmers gather those grapes is an entire story and description in itself, and I’ll just let you look at the pictures and imagine for yourself.
My first impression of the little villages in the Cinquo Terre was that they much resembled their inhabitants, looking and feeling old and fragile, and full of history and many happy stories of days gone by. The colorfully painted buildings are built so close together that they appear to be leaning on each other for support, and are huddled closely to their small harbor mouths on the edge of great cliffs covered in vineyards springing up almost instantly behind them.
Our first few minutes took us on the path between the first and second villages, oddly named Via dell’Amore (walk-way of love). I say oddly because if I were to imagine a walkway which deserved the name Amore, I would not picture this path. It begins with an iron like gate, with an iron heart bent into shape situated above. Mostly under the cover of a tunnel, graffiti and thousands of names scratched by lovers of the past entirely cover almost every inch of wall space on the left, and on the right the view of the ocean is lovely but often interrupted by the distracting graffiti, the man playing the accordion which echoes loudly throughout the walk, or by the hundreds of couples walking hand in hand and trying to pretend like they are having the most romantic moment of their lives thus far.
It makes you wonder how the path came to own such a name and how it looked and felt years and years ago and how that differs from what it is today.
The trail from the second town to the third was much more pleasing and much more rugged. It twisted and turned on the edge of the steep cliffs, and there were many points of interest and places to stop and take lovely photos along the way. The flora and fauna of the area are quite lovely, many bright pink and purple flowers, lizards, and beautiful little birds hopping about. The hot sun sparkling off the Mediterranean and the cool ocean breeze act together to create the perfect atmosphere for an afternoon stroll along the vineyard covered hillsides.
We spent several hours on the sandy beach of Monterosso, where we succeeded in adding significantly to our tanned shoulders, before heading back on the train to our lovely little hostel.

Day 18, October 7, 2006

We awoke to overcast skies this morning, and we gathered around our small window wondering if our plans to spend the day finishing our hiking and soaking up the sun would be ruined. Once buddy at the front desk assured us it most definitely would not rain (perhaps only to get us out of the hostel for the afternoon), we headed out hopefully with our swimsuits and sunny dispositions in tow.
The first drops splashed over the brim of my hat about 6 minutes after walking out the front door. By the time we were on the rugged trail at the point we left off yesterday, we were giggling about how funny it would be if it really started to pour and we were way out in the middle of no where on a slippery path that would most likely turn into a complete mud puddle if given the chance.
Haha. We weren’t laughing half an hour later. Or an hour and a half later, when 5 sopping, hungry tourists stumbled onto the street of Vernazza. The rain was bouncing off the sidewalks and everything else, and every nook and crany out of the rain was jammed with red and blue poncho’d people, sighing and exclaiming in various languages about what “bad luck” this was. We looked at each other, and without another word set out to find the nearest Gelato shop, where we satisfied our craving and spent a half hour watching the people rush about on the streets. We had no intention of considering the day ruined, and bounced from shop to shop collecting picnic lunch items and a few other various odds and ends, until we were completely positive the rain was here to stay. We then decided that a cozy afternoon at the hostel with a bountiful supply of yummy food and good movies was sounding very appealing, and we made our way back to town #1, Riomaggiore. That’s presently where we are actually, tucked away in small Coffee shop, sipping delicious cappuccino and waiting for our bus. Besides being decidedly damp, I’m feeling good that we got our beautiful hike in today, (much more spectacular than yesterdays, just wait until you see the pictures!) and I’m quite happy about how our afternoon has turned out.
Tomorrow we’ll coming back here and hopefully finding and internet point to upload these stories as well as reply to some of your emails.
Our time here in Italy is rapidly running out, and I feel as if we’ve barley scratched the surface of this beautiful country. But, that just leaves a reason to come back I suppose… And I’m quite sure I will one day. Our itinerary takes us from the Cinquo Terre on Monday, when we will make our way south to the hill town of Orvieto, where we are spending 3 nights before heading finally to Rome for our last 5 days. From there we will see the city sights as well as take a day trip to Pisa and wherever else our feet take us.
Love you all, I can’t believe how soon I will see you. I’m finally excited to be here, but almost equally as excited to return home to you and share all of these stories in person as well as hear your stories of this fall as well. Take care
Ciao!
-Kait

Day 14, October 3, 2006

Well it feels like it’s been much longer than a day since I wrote that last post, and although my mind feels like it’s been weeks, my sunburned shoulders and achy feet are telling me it has only been one day we have spent so far in Venice.
We arrived yesterday, mid-afternoon. It took us a few minutes of gaping and turning about in circles on the steps of the Venice train station before we were able to move past the initial “yes, I am actually in Venice” shock. The view (as you’ll soon be able to see from the pictures, once we upload them that is) was picturesque, much like out of a painting or a movie…Well, minus the hundreds of tourists mulling about, anyway.
Once we were oriented and had harassed the nice but definitely overly stressed lady in the tourist office enough for one day, we found the boat that would take us to Lido and awed some more at the awesome bridge, the awesome buildings, the awesome fact that we were sitting beside the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy, and it was all just as marvelous as it could be (well, besides the fact that steven wasn’t there to share it with).
It didn’t take long to find the street with our new home away from home on it once we arrived on Lido, and soon we were being shown into and around a beautiful 3 bedroom suite in a classic Italian Villa (of which we also have pictures), by a silly and wonderfully nice little man. He made certain that we knew that the gate was a little sticky, that BBC came in clearly with a few adjustments to the TV (in case we needed to watch “English news”), and that we were welcome to everything and anything in the kitchen and that the washing machine was a little complicated, so if we needed to clean any clothes we should just give him a call at home.
We were very appreciative of his kindness, however we were practically dancing in place by the time he had finished. The late afternoon shade and the situation of the back yard caused it at that moment to be absolutely swarming with mosquitoes, and I watched in horror as they flowed through the very open doorway to where we were standing in the hall. I don’t think I have ever seen Chelsea run as fast for anything (well maybe besides a nice cold Coca Cola) as she did for her bug spray once our tour had finished and our little host was paid and had left. It was too late though, and today we are all suffering from it.
This morning was quite an exciting morning as we had so much time to do whatever we wanted with. We decided first to head down to the beach, across the remarkably narrow Island. We turned left at the end of our street and in 5 minutes found ourselves in the middle of miles of sandy warm beach. The peaceful Adriatic Sea lay in front of us, and it only took mild coercing on Chelsea and Jo’s part to get us all out and swimming (all except Jord, who preferred the warm sand and a good book to the chilly ocean). Afterwards we lied in the sun for only an hour, but are all pink to show for it. Then we bustled back to our little home where we made a scrumptious lunch before we headed into the big city for the afternoon.
We got nicely lost on our first excursion into the maze of Venice, and marveled at how many people there were, at how narrow the streets were, at how beautiful the buildings were, and at how many ice-cream and t-shirt stands we passed. There must have been 20 of each. We made good use of the former though, and tested out several more flavors of wonderfully homemade Italian ice cream.
We finally returned to our Island with sore feet and some even pinker cheeks☺. My hair is still sticky with salt water and my skin smells like sunscreen, but I don’t care. I’m deliciously tired and am excited to see what our second day in Venice will bring.
We miss you all ~ God Bless
-Kait

PS. I’m planning to upload this blog tomorrow morning (Oct. 4th) from a small interent café just down the street. Afterwards, Im not sure how long it will be until we have access again. We’re headed to the Cinquo Terre from the 5th until the 9th, and then we’re either going up to Bologna, or down and into some of the small hill-towns north of Rome. We will keep you posted when possible, and until then know that we are thinking of you, and muchly appreciate your prayers and emails. Ciao;)

Day 13, October 2, 2006

We have just left the small town of Aquilea, Italy, and our now on the train heading to Venice. We enjoyed our time in the little town very much, and although we are excited about Venice, we’re hesitant to spend any significant amount of time in the large cities. We are staying at “The House in Venice”, which is a guesthouse on Lido, an island just 10 minutes by public motorboat to St. Mark’s Square in central Venice. We have a reservation for three nights, and I believe that will be just long enough to let ourselves get significantly lost and find our way back again, hopefully coming across some interesting sights, sounds, and tastes along the way. We experienced real Italian Gelato yesterday at a small café where we stopped for a lunch of Brie and Tomato Paninis. At just 1.5 Euro per cone it was a wonderful way to escape the warm and muggy, mosquito infested afternoon.
Thanks for all of the great comments. It’s become a tradition to gather around the ole’ laptop and laugh at all our silly friends and family back home have to say. Keep it coming, we appreciate the love☺.
Once we’re finished in Venice we are headed to the Cinquo Terre, where we have reserved 4 nights at a very decent looking hostel in the western hills of La Spezzia. I’m very excited, and although we most likely will not have Internet access we will most definitely update and upload and all of that lovely stuff once we’ve moved on.
Take care everyone, we miss you!
-Kait, etc.