Visitors! FINALLY Visitors!

Hello All--

This may very well be our last post from Ireland... our families are here (my mom and dad, and Josh and Laura) and we're setting off to travel around Ireland again for a week tomorrow. After that we're headed to London for two days, then back to the Warm sunshine and scorching beaches of Minneapolistown.

We'd love to hear from any of you as to what kind of crazy parties you'll be throwing us upon our arrival home. Thursday December the first, we'll be in in the afternoon. Friday evening I think will consist of Gopher Hockey... Wisconsin I think that night... other than that, parties. We'd like parties.

I hope all is well with all y'all out there. We'll see you soon.

--John and Justin

"THE LOUVRE IS CLOSED ON TUESDAY"

Greetings again, friends.

Well, our trip to mainland europe is done. It was a helluva time, filled with mystery and intrigue, with sexy parties at every stop.

Since we spoke last, we went on a three day Fritsch-Bender. Four Fritches, three days. It was a Fritsch-a-Palooza. It was the Fritsch German Tour 2005. etc. After leaving Prague (where we finally got an email from Eva) we headed towards Jena (pronounced yena, not Jenna or Gina, etc.) where Eva goes to school. Spent a drunked night there with her 'friend' Andy and his cohorts, playing pool in a bar in the middle of a park. Spent the next day with Eva walking around her charming little college town before taking an afternoon train to Frankfurt to see Anton and Beate. Did dinner with them, and got a wonderful nights sleep there in Morfelden. The next day was off to Trier (the oldest city in Germany) to see Anna, where she recently got a job as a pediatrician in a hospital. Finding her there was not the easiest of jobs, but it was ultimately successful. Again, a great time and good night's sleep was had by all.

The Following day we hopped on a train headed northward to every college person's main attraction in Europe, Amsterdam. Spent two days there. There were no pictures taken. Only a couple of deeply coded messages were leaked from the Heineken Experience.

From Amsterdam, we made our way to Brussells. By that time, I was deathly ill. Really needed to go to the hospital, but didn't know how my insurance worked, so I didn't. Had a good time in Brussells despite the weather and my ailment. The had really great monuments to both world wars in the city that were cool. Belgian waffles for breakfast in the afternoon. We stayed in a hotel in Brussells. I've never been so happy to stay in a hotel. Hostels suck. I know I'm young and I'm not supposed to need privacy, but hostels suck. ( and sidenote: Angry British guys who go to bed at 9:30 in Amsterdam also suck)

We went to the train station early sunday morning to catch a wonderful eurostar train to Paris. Problem #1, eurostar trains don't go to paris. Problem #2, all trains to paris are full. Problem #3, Jerk-ass who works at the information booth is in a bad mood. Forget about Parisians hating Americans, I think this guy in Brussells had a stick larger than the eifel tower stuck in his ass. Screw you guy, wherever you may be. We went to another ticket window and got a train to Charles De Gaul airport, gave some angry glances to ticket guy #1, and were on our way.

Finally, Paris. Everything we hoped it would be. Except for the doctor who didn't speak english.
Another hotel there, it was worth it. I spent monday in the hotel recovering, while john made his way around town looking at the sights. The next day, awoke early ( I had my first breakfast in 5 days) and made our way to the Louvre to spend half the day looking at the greatest art museum in the world. (see above heading)

Spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, seeing Notre Dame, the eifel tower, palaces, gardens, where Laura went to school, etc. Ended our trip with a dinner at a medocre french restaurant.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

thanks to all who let us crash during the trip.

later y'all, we'll be home in two weeks.

A much Needed Update

Hello and Good day to y'all--

Writing to you from our wonderful (read:cheap) hostel in Prague. We are spending our second and last night here by staying in and drinking some local beer, taking it easy after a long day of walking around town.

So here's a trip overview so far. We have free internet in this place, so sorry if this gets a bit long winded.

After our time in Venice (as outlined earlier) we moved on to Bologna to meet up with our amazing host Bethann McDowell. It was particularly nice getting of the train and seeing her and Drew's smiling faces waiting for us to arrive.

Our time in Bologna was great. Bethann's roomates were extremely accomodating of the Americans sleeping on their couches. Waking up with the smell of strong italian coffee on the stove. We ate almost every meal together as a group, serving from the same big pot of food. ...and they can cook. Delicious. We spent about 5 days there, wandering around the city, a traveling bazaar, the church on the hill, the Juvi-Milan match, and John's birthday.

On the night of the 31st (John's Birthday for those who don't know), we had a party at Bethann (&all's) apartment. Great fun had by all. Kept going to the wee hours of the night, finishing off bottles of wine as quickly as they were opened. Unfortunately, the plan also included getting up at 6:30 for a train to Zurich. Ouch.

We then went on to Zurich, the banking capital of Europe. We payed for it. Everything was really expensive there, so we basically ate street food and big free breakfasts at the hostel. Speaking of, this hostel was by far the best we have stayed in in our lives. It was nicer than our college dorms. Cleaner and quieter for sure.

In Zurich (as with every city) we spent a lot of time just walking around getting a feel for the city. I want to live there. Badly. Everything was so clean, the people seemed very friendly, good food, etc. We also spent a good deal of one day in the Kunsthaus, the art museum there. They had a really impressive collection, with an emphasis on swiss impressionists and modernists. They also had some great Rodin and Monet works.

From Zurich, we unfortunately had to part ways with Drew. He went straight to Paris for 5 days or so, while we continue to wander around the east.

We ended up spending about 8 hours in munich on a layover between Zurich and Prague. Note to anyone traveling by Eurail: Getting drunk before taking a night train is a BAD IDEA. Sleeping is not an option. Our parents would be happy to know that we went to Hofbrauhaus and mingled for a while during our stop. We were also able to find the restaurant that we had eaten in 7 years ago when we were last in Munich. Ah Memories.

So about the night train. We though having a few drinks would be a great idea. Get a little sleepy, fall asleep quikly on the train. So after a few drinks of "5 star American Bourbon," we went to sleep. Wonderful. Then the first ticket takers woke us up. Crappy. More sleep. Then German border guards woke us up. Crappy. More Sleep. Czech Border guards. I can hostestly tell you dealing with an angry Czech Border guard while you're half asleep is no fun. After rifling through my belongings "you don't have anything you shouldn't? No Drugs?" and emptying my pockets, I was free to sleep again, until, of course, the last set of ticket takers came through. All in all: we decided no more night trains.

Prague has been fun, but a little to fresh in my mind to write about it now. I hope everyone reading this is well. We'd love to hear from you, as always.

Later on,

Justin

ZURICH!

yo yo yo from John and I

we're now in Zurich, an amazingly, though slightly expensive city. Not much time to write, just wanted to let everyone know that we're alive and kickin it. Drinking beer and enjoying life.

From here we're off to Munich for a day then moving on to Prague. I'll write from someplace not so expensive.

Good to hear from all of you... keep those messages coming y'all.

later on down the road.

--Justin and John

Greetings from Bologna

Hey all-

We've arrived in Bologna and are staying with Bethann McDowell, kickin it Italiano styleee (that is, looking like schmuks in our jeans and t-shirts, blabbering in english).

Last couple of days we were in Venice. I was amazed. The city seemed so unchanged from it's inception. No cars. Lots of people. Tons of good food. Unfortunately, also lots of fog.

Spent most of the time there just wandering around in the tiny like walkways between buildings trying to figure out where the hell we were. Good fun.

Although I don't have much time right now (I'll expand on all of this a bit later) I did want to mention the amazing art exhibit that we went to. Way out on the end of Venice is a large park area that constantly holds a world review of sorts of modern art. Some 20 countries have their own buildings on this land that rotate their galleries once a year. We saw some of the most provacative, interesting, funny artwork. Honerable mentions go to the "idiot wind tunnel" from Russia, Hungary's "An Expeeriment in Navigation" and the American exhibit "The Expanding Empire"

check out labiennale.org for more info. Super cool.

until later y'all Ciao.

And Finally, we're off

All-

Thanks to all of you that responded with our desperate plea for ideas on our trip. You've been very helpful. (Save the bickering about Copenhagen and trains. I want you two to know that you're argument ruined Copenhagen for us. So we're not going. Jerks.)

As of tomorrow morning at 9:30 we'll be on a train heading to Dublin to catch our flights and be on our way. Our last couple of days here in Galway have been less than spectacaller, with Gale force winds and rain. Who's bright idea was it to come to the west coast?

We're headed out for a short night out on the town tonight for a few last cheap pints of guinness and some fish and chips.

We'll definately be writing on the blog from many stops on our trip, so keep it on the same bat channel while we're away. (they had on the original Batman movie here the other day. Pure Genius)

Peace and love to all y'all.

-Justin

...btw, it sounds like we're leaving Galway for good... not the case, but when we return our families will be here (Josh and Laura, and my mom and pop) so the events will be a bit different.

Great Football, Good Beer, Terrible Vodka

All--

Writing to you again from our favorite internet cafe here in Galway. They're beginning to know us here... that's not pathetic right?

I just wanted to write a quick note about many of our evenings here. Tonight there were a number of champions league games all across europe (the best football clubs from every coutry with a premier league) We watched Chelsea ( a London club) absolutely destroy a club from Seville, Spain. Watching this match I came to a new realization. I don't hate the Yankees as much as I once did. Here, we love to watch matches from Chelsea, Liverpool, Bayern-Munich, Inter-Milan, Real Madrid... etc. These are the Yankees from their perspective Countries. and you know what? They're really entertaining. Sport is supposed to be entertaining. So, as glad as I am that the Yankees are not going to the World series this year, my hatred has subsided.

...And yes Phil, that was aimed at you. Libraries are cool and all... but really.... who the hell gives a shit about libraries? Lame.

anyway, in regards to the title of this post, you all should be happy to know that we have been drinking a good deal of good beer around here. In the pubs the cheapest beer is Guinness and the cheapest whiskey is jameson... (just a note: the most expensive beer/whiskey is Bud/Jack).

and for you sexual anthropologists out there... the vodka that we (and many of the people roaming the streets) have been drinking is called 'Kinsey.' Funny to me... perhaps not to everyone else.

Bis Spater alles.

--Justin

...John says 'ello.