Today we went to the mountain retreat of Montserrat. It is an old benedictine monastery about 2500 feet above sea level. We spent all day checking out the monastery and hiking around the beatiful mountain side. We went to one chapel that was flanked with a walking trail full of turn of the century statues and reliefs dedicated to the different ( Read more... )

I guess I will do another combined days post. Nothing much exciting during our visit to Milan. Milan has a very impressive cathedral, some very expensive shops, and not much else. We ended up going to the airport really early since we were bored sick of the place. Anyway, Barcelona turned out to be much better. A city with history and outstanding ( Read more... )

Well, the last two days have been break days after six days of constant travel. We arrived at Vicenza around noon and headed to the military base here. It was nice to have some cheap American fast food and relax at the base. Well, we were only going to spend a few hours here, but my dear brother managed to leave his money belt in the bathroom and ( Read more... )

As I mentioned I made it into the campground pretty late. The idea was to do Venice over two days, but as I'll explain later that didn't quite happen. We made it into Venice a little before noon and then immediatly got lost. Venice had a sense of glory long gone to it. All the paint was just a little two faded, and everything just a little bit to ( Read more... )

Florence was interesting. I will definately have to come back since I missed the two most important sites. We got into our campsite at around 1030 PM, and our two person tent was actually quite nice since it was lockable, had real floors and real beds. Since it was soft sided it was also much cooler. The site itself was really interesting also ( Read more... )

Assisi was a very nice change of pace from Rome. While still touristy it had a certain mark of simplicity and more authentic Italy than Rome did. The hostel we stayed at was real nice with an interesting chap from England, and a guy from Utah who wasn't Mormon. As far as the city itself everything seemed to be uphill both ways. Once you got to the ( Read more... )

I have very limited time at this terminal so this will be quick. Vatican city was very cool. We first went to St. Peters where we got on a very nice free tour. We decided to skip his vatican museum tour which he hawked at the end, but he was very good. The vatican museum was amazing. It seemed like miles and miles of paintings, tapestries, and ( Read more... )

We got into Rome at around 1030 PM and got to our hostel at around 1130 PM since we had a 40 minute bus ride in between. I must say I was impressed by the brutal efficency of Ryan Air. Non reclining seats, 3 seats across on both sides, charging for all drinks and snacks, and even having a lotto. As far as the hostel we stayed at the stargate hostel ( Read more... )

Hello everyone. Much has happened since my last post. The biggest event is of course graduation. I somehow made it through four years. Who would have thought. All I will say about the entire expierence was that it was stressful but worthhile. Right now I am starting another project which is my very own Euro Trip with my brother. I just flew in this ( Read more... )

My time here behind the gray walls is slowly coming to an end. As of this moment I only have one final left and then I will have completed the academic requirement. I completed the physical requirement a few weeks ago. It has been quite a ride over these four years. One day I will be courageous enough to spend a weekend and read this journal from ( Read more... )