France!

So France was awesome, but getting there- oh my gosh. Let me just try and explain our travel day.  First off, Tina and I usually have no idea what we are doing, but we have gotten pretty good at the railway, so I thought we would be okay.  France is the first country where people do not speak English- problem number 1. Problem number 2- on our first train (first of 4) we realized we had 10 minutes to buy our bus ticket to take an hour bus ride to our 3rd train.  It took us forever to buy the bus ticket because we could not communicate to the lady which bus, then when we had them she could not communicate to us where the bus was.  We finally made it on the bus, rode it for an hour, and then had FOUR minutes to catch our train.  I literally texted 10 people in the US in the middle of the night their time trying to get our train platform, but some nice lady on the bus called for us.  So we caught the train to Paris.  We get to paris around 5- which is PRIME time for the metro.  We had to squeeze in (literally) everyone is pushing, its so stressful, and then i hear my name being yelled.  Tina's pack got stuck in the doors of the metro.  The alarm went off and it happened again. The metro was totally thrown off schedule because of us- we looked so dumb. we finally got to our hostel, and both cried- an hour later we were belly laughing. but dang it was a stressful day.  All that to say, backpacking is not easy;)

BUT Paris was awesome.  We were only there for a day, the day that the Louvre is closed, so that was no fun, but we got to go to Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, and St. Chapelle- which in my opinion is the prettiest church I have ever seen. We spent the entire day walking the city and ate awesome crepes.

Nice was also incredible.  The water was SOOO blue and beautiful. We love being on the coast.  We also took a bus and spent a day in Monoco- which is where Monte Carlo is, and it was so much fun.  France is beautiful, and the coast is just incredible.  On our train ride yesterday to Spain we were on the coast of France a ton of the time and it was red rocks and blue ocean and just BEAUTIFUL!

We made it to Barcelona and love it! on Wednesday we are going to Ibiza, am island off the coast of spain.  We are having the best time- miss and love yall so much!

bec

This is what we look like when we travel... 

In Paris- St. Chapelle- most beautiful church I have ever seen

 Nice!!

 Nice!

Nice!

Switzerland!

Switzerland is the most beautiful place I think I have ever seen.  I have never seen a place so green, such pretty mountains, or such clean cities.  It is soooo pretty here. We had a tid bit of a shock when we got here though- Switzerland is EXPENSIVE!! The first night we were here we went to find a restaurant and we couldn't find a meal under 30 franks, which is about 35 dollars.. so after searching and searching we gave up and went to mcdonalds (low point) but we walked in there, and a burger, with no cheese, no fries, and no drink, was 13 franks.. For the first time in my life, mcdonalds let me down.  We sadly found out the cheapest eating was at the train station, so we would get the amazing pretzel things at the train station for dinner- we laughed every time.

other than that, switzerland is my new favorite place.  Every morning we woke up and took a train or bus to a different mountain and went on some of the best hikes of my life.  We would basically spend all day hiking and then explore the city at night. One hike we went on was the coolest hike ever- we hiked 3 hours up to this chair lift, and Tina decided to take the chair lift up the rest of the way and we were going to meet at the top.  I kept hiking, it was about 2 more hours, and i hiked ABOVE the clouds to blue sky and it was just one of the prettiest things i have ever seen.  I took about 200 pictures, and at least 50 of myself with the background (cool i know) but it was just AWESOME.

Tonight was our last night in Switzerland so we decided to go to a restaurant and get cheese fondue.  It was pretty good, but i definitely miss the food in Italy.

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow!!

MISS yall more than you know.

bec

my hike solo... yes i took a picture of myself;)

Lucern!

our cheese fondue!

Goodbye Italy!

Italy has just been amazing.  Since we left Greece, we have been in Italy- Venice and Lake Como.

Venice was awesome- i have never seen a city like it.  It is crazy that the streets are made of water and people get around by boat.  We loved it so much.  We especially loved our trailer home we stayed in, shared with the very special married couple who smokes like they drink water.  Tina's eyes would water all night because she couldn't handle it.  It was very exciting, considering it was the first place we went after the hotels with my mom that had free breakfast, robes, and slippers.  It was so funny and we still laugh about it.  That is what makes backpacking in Europe.

We then headed north to Lake Como Italy, which is where George Clooney lives!  It is BEAUTIFUL.  It is a lake surrounded by mountains.  The first day we hiked all day and it was gorgeous.  The next day we took a site seeing boat to Bellagio, the cutest lake town I have ever seen, spent the day there, then took a bus home.  Today we just hung out by the lake most the day and spent time in the town. 

We ate pizza every night in italy, it is something I will miss for sure.  There is no pizza like they make it here!

We leave tomorrow for Lucern, Switzerland.  We are going to freeze our butts off, but we are so excited!! After that we are going to Paris, then heading to Nice and are probably going to stay on the coast and work our way down to Portugal through Spain.

Love and miss yall so much, and please let me know if you have any prayer requests, we have sooo much train time;)

 George Clooney's house!!

our mobile home..

 Veince!!

 Veince

Our hike in Lake Como

 hiking..

 Our site seeing boat ride to Bellagio..fancy smancy

 Bellagio!!

Greece is absolutely amazing.  We ahve been here for about 3 weeks, and we have been to Athens and 3 different islands:  Zakynthos, Santorini, and Mykenos.  I have never seen anything like Greece.  It is beautiful!! We have hiked up a volcano, seen a red, black and caribbean style beach, and explored some of the coolest towns ever.  Having my mom here has been amazing.  I can't believe she is leaving Thursday. It has been so much fun with her here, and she knew exactly where to take us in Greece.  I feel like i was seeing the movies sisterhood of the traveling pants and mamma mia in real life.- Greece is a must see, its AMAZING! and the food is so good.

Thursday me and Tina are headed back to italy!  We are going to Venice until Sunday, and then Lake Como until Thursday.  We are so excited tostart using our Eurorail and to go back to Italy!  

RIght now Tina and I are reading through the Old Testament and it is so cool to be in, or at least close to, some of the places that we are reading about.  

If you have ever been to Europe and there is a place we need to see, e-mail me!!! I don't want to miss a thing!

Love and miss yall!!

 the Parthenon

 For my Theta sisters... duh

 The hike up the volcano!