First Day in Bruges!

Well, it was sad to leave Nice, but now we are in Belgium! It was quite a shock getting off the train. We were still dressed for Nice weather in our shorts and quickly realized that instead of the warm, sunny weather we had grown accustomed to, we were in for three cold and rainy days. We had made a "to-do" list of everything we wanted to do while we are in Bruges and it ended up looking more like a menu: fries, chocolate, beer, waffles, chocolate... So, we set out on our first morning to just walk around the town and get a taste of the famous local cuisine. The town is just what I imagined it would be. It is small, cute, there are only cobble-stone roads, the buildings are cute, the canals are cute. It is just really nice to get out of a dirty city and breath some fresh air while walking around. After walking around for a while we took a beer break shortly followed by a fries break. Then we decided to make our way to a brewery in Bruges, while making a couple chocolate breaks on the way. We took a short tour of it learning their beer process and then got to have a nice, big glass of it at the end. To our expert beer palates, we tasted hints of banana and pineapple. It was really good. The brewery was the Brewery Halve Maan and the beer was Brugse Zot Ale that recently won some award in California. After finishing our beers, we slowly made our way back to the hostel, taking more chocolate breaks of course, to take a nap. Now we are awake and ready for dinner, there is a local place known for their mussels and fries so we might just have to check that out...

We miss everyone and will be home in less than a week!

Pictures of nice

This is us before our scuba. The scuba was fun!!!

This is us leaving Nice for Bruges. We were both sad but we know we will return again!

this is Cap d'ail, a beautiful stone beach. Kali and I exchanged hot stone massages here!

On Cap d'ail beach soaking up the last of the rays. We got a little lost getting there but this is a really cool secluded beach with a great view. There are supposed to be caves you can swim to but Kali and I swam out really far on the coast and never saw caves.... :(

This is us on our favorite beach!!!! Mom you were right I do like the luxurious life and so does Kali, we were meant for eachother and perhaps not for backpacking, but that is a different topic. The chairs here are comfy and there is a beach guy to get you drinks, which we couldn't afford but if we did need him he was totally there for us! Also, this beach is sand (kinda) and not huge rocks, so it is much better on our poor ruined feet! The water here is crystal clear and this beach is not too full like other ones were. By the way it's named St. Jean Cap Ferrat. 

what a view, minus the guy in front of us. 

the beach NO ROCKS!

Nice 2

Hey you guys 

I think everyone has stopped reading this or something because of the lack of comments but I thought I would enlighten those wanting some light about what Kali and I have been up to. 

Well today we went scuba diving if anyone is interested in knowing!!! It was really fun! The instructors were holding our hands or our backs constantly and we didn't go too far down because we didn't really learn the equipment, but how cool is it to just be down there. We both have decided that we want to get certified now, so we never have to do a dive with someone on top of us again. The day before we literally spent the whole day on the beach just laying out and now we are both very burnt, Kali is more than me but both of us are pretty bad off. For our extra day we are planning to just go back to the beach that we went to that day. It is so perfect here, we want to find a way to stay forever and have everyone get to us (haven't got a clue as to how yet...)

We have extended our stay here in sunny Nice for one extra day and are going to Bruges on the 8th. We will be staying in the Lybeer hostel (feel free to look that up). This will be our last hostel of the journey since we will be staying with my Uncle Roy in London which is much welcomed by now. I must say that the hostels we have stayed at have all been EXTREMELY nice. I have no complaints at all about any of them. 

Backpacking has been such an adventure, so much fun and a real bonding experience for Kali and I. I am so glad that nothing has made us hate each other and we have only enhanced our friendship. We have heard stories of bestfriends starting to hate each other during the trip but we have had the opposite. Both of us are ready to have our own room again and not see each other 24/7 but that is only natural after 7 weeks! We also miss our families/loved ones very much and are ready to see everyone again. 

Here's to the rest of our trip and to coming home safely on the 15th!!!

Love you all (or those that are still reading this)

Savannah and Kali

We are in Nice!

We just wanted to let everyone know that we made it into Nice last night. It was definitely a challenge getting here. We left our Barcelona hostel early in the morning to catch our train, and while we were at the train station, Savannah threw her back out when trying to pick up her massive backpack. So, for the rest of the day, Savannah had really horrible back pain and I had to carry both of our backpacks. Mine on my back and hers on my stomach. But, after traveling all day, we made it to our hostel and it is amazing. It is the Villa Saint Exupery, you can look it up. When we were booking our hostel room we chose the 11 bed dorm because it was cheapest and the double rooms were going to be over 100 euros a person, but when we checked in we were so excited to find out that we had been upgraded to a double room and we still get to pay our 27 euros a night!! So, last night we took it easy resting in our room and Savannah could finally lay down. It is such a nice hostel, they offer different trips like surfing, wake boarding, sailing, canyoning, and more for people staying there and they have a bar with 1 euro drinks and the best breakfast we have had so far in a hostel. Today we will try to find a sand beach nearby since Nice is all rocks and we can just chill out, which is exactly what we want to do!

Happy 4th of July!!! We miss everyone and look forward to seeing everyone in 11 days!!

Pictures of our Barcelona stay

Montserrat, This was a part of the monastery. You can see the wall and a rail up there but after that point there isn't a rail or a well worn path to the top of the rocks you can see behind it, which is where we decided to hike up to.

This is the part you just saw in the picture above after we climbed to it. A lot of people have camped here and you can tell because of smoke on the rocks. Wouldn't it be great to camp somewhere like this?

Trying to make a fire in a cave; We didn't succeed but here you can see where the smoke has blackened the rock 

I love this picture, I made Kali and them go up faster for for it, I love crumbling structures!

Throwing money into a well, sweet 

Savannah and I taking in the gorgeous view!

More Montserrat; what a view right! while we were up there the wind was whipping around us and it felt so amazing after the struggle to get up there

A little chapel at the beginning of our trek to find the monestery

Another great view

Barcelona's Arc de Triomf. We stopped here on our bike tour! As you can see we all had a good time

A giant mammoth at some park we stopped at on our bike tour, this is a very popular picture to take here. I think I had the easiest time getting up there since my legs are so long. 

The beautiful Barcelona beach!

Gaudi's cathedral that is still under construction and will be for like 40 more years

We stopped for food and sangria at a place on the beach while we were on the tour. Food wasn't that good but I liked the sangria

This picture is from the night Spain went wild! Spain won the Euro cup while we were in Barcelona. The game was really fun to watch and everyone just went crazy after it was over.

We went to this really awesome fruit market and bought smoothies and cherries that were really good

We had a huge Paella plate and 6 of us had plates as full as Kali's here

I like paella too!

This is the Dow Jones Bar we loved it here. This was our second night in Barcelona (night after the game), the bar was slow because everyone was dead from the night before but that is perfect for us since all the prices of the beers and shots go up and down based on the demand for the drinks! So we spent the night looking at the screen trying to see was cheap drink we would have next. Great time!

Barcelona 2

Hey you guys!

Last night Kali and I had so much fun, we met up with some girls here at our hostel and we all went out for dinner and to a bar called the Dow Jones. 2 American girls and 1 Aussie 

For dinner we had a HUGE paella with seafood and it was good, a little expensive but Kali and I have been really really good at saving money. Actually we haven't even taken a cab until last night we did since we were a little lost.

After dinner we headed for the beach (2 seconds from our dinner patio) and had beers to waste time because Barcelona doesn't start until 12. We sat on the beach enjoying the beautiful weather and company before moving on to this bar the americans had heard of. The bar was really cool although quiet since the night before people went wild in the streets all night. The Dow Jones bar is like what you might think, its a stock market of alcohols. If the alcohol/beer hasn't sold in a min. the stock goes down (price lowers) on the screen and turns red with the little down arrow. If the drink is really hot and everyone is buying it up the stock goes up (price goes up) so really the whole night you look to see what is down and buy it up to get a good deal. We had 4 shots for 9 euro one time and thats damn good! Kali and I had paulaner for 2.5 which is exciting since the night before we were paying 5 for new castle at a bar watching the game.

Today the plan is to go on a bike tour with the ausie that we met last night and after that chill on the beach

Barcelona 1

Well Spain won!!! Yay, we partied last night and had a great (safe) time, don't worry Dave. We went to a bar and watched the game and then joined a mob that were swinging on lamp post and screaming "Espana". We screamed and jumped up and down then decided that was getting old so we went to our hostel and hung out for a while before bed at 12. 

We loved Madrid and saw sights like the Prado Museum, we thought was not near on the level as the Louvre, and we saw a famous fountain, it was nice. We loved the Hostel! Always hot showers and very safe! Our roommates were smelly guys but we saw them 2 times and only for a little while. 

Today we are going to explore Barcelona and have a great time I'm sure!

Love you all!

We made it

We made it to Spain we are checked into our hostel (it´s really nice, only 4 beds in the room) and we are on our way out to explore. Madrid is really slow paced and nice compared to the busy smelly Paris!

Love,
Us

PS Kelly
why haven´t you talked to me about acl?????

We are leaving!

Hey all,

Today we leave Paris. The phone numbers listed before are French so we won't be using them anymore, so don't call. We will have our phones from the USA with us but only for us to use as emergencies. Mainly contact will be kept by internet when we can get it. 

Love you all and hopefully we will hear from all of you soon.

Savannah and Kali

Hi guys!

Hey Y'all,

Good thing Travis reminded me to blog or I would have never came back! No, really though Kali and I have been very busy for the past while with going out and having fun, fighting off men, and planning the next leg of our trip, oh yeah and we have school but that is not really taking that much time!!!! 

So here is what we have planned for the next leg, since I'm sure you don't want to hear about all the boring stuff we have been up to (like huge city wide music festivals). We booked a hostel in Madrid named MAD where we will stay the 27th and 28th of this month, yes we leave on Thursday night for Madrid!!!! Then we take a quick train to Barcelona where we spend 4 nights a well acclaimed hostel named Mambo Tango. We booked both on hostelworld.com so feel free to check up on the places (mom's and dad's) to make sure you guys think they look good. 

I must say Kali and I are ready to move on from here. We have gone through a lot, seen a lot and laughed a lot but everything comes to an end. We love Paris it is such a great city to visit and experience. I agree with most people now when they say "Paris would be better with out the Parisians". They are ok but I don't think anyone can compare to Texans, I hope some other city will change my mind though. 

This week we have a 5 page paper to write and an oral presentation for our art class and for French we just finished the 3 test series we were meant to take and now only have one day left of that class. For art we start presentations tomorrow and we (Kali and I) are making our presentations on Thursday (the last day of class). I am writing my paper over a painting at the Louvre that I love The young Martyr (the one that Kali and I both found to show each other, previously posted) and Kali's paper is over Murder of Agamemnon. 

By the way everyone since we leave on Thursday night we are shipping our phones on Wed so whoever wants to talk by phone needs to do it soon!!!!

I'm taking my computer with me the whole time so hopefully we will be able to blog sometimes and email.

Love Savannah

Weekened in Normandy Pics

At Mont St. Michel, the monastary gardens

My, Savannah, and Me at Mont St. Michel

Mont St. Michel is famous for their "Normandy Omelette," which is really just a very airy omelette of eggs and creme freshe

Savannah and Me in front of Mont St. Michel

At Pont Du Hoc, all of the bomb craters were formed from WWII

Me sitting on some rubble, I think from a German gun post, at Pont Du Hoc

The aggies of the group doing a gig 'em in front of the the cliff that James Earl Rudder scaled on D-Day

Me, Lily, Savannah, My, and Diana at Pont Du Hoc

Mont St. Michel

At Omaha Beach after visiting the D-Day museum in Caen

At the American Cemetery

Freedom Memorial at the American Cemetary

At Pont Du Hoc, standing in a bomb crater from World War II

Pics of Picnic, Orsay and BoatCruise

Olympia 

Stary Night 

The Moulin Rouge 

The 14 year old Dancer

Picnic in the park

My, and Kali and Me! lol

My love next to Kelly of course, and my dad and mom too... 

The Seine

Notre Dame at sunset