Back in the Saddle Again

Well, I'm happy to say that I've gotten back into the swing of things and just finished my first week of work as a full-time employee. I was a little nervous about the whole 40 hours a week thing, but I've really enjoyed it. I am not naive enough to believe that every day will be something to rave about, but it really helps to work with such a great team of people and I'm thankful for their support and encouragement.

Ali and I are having a great time as roommates! We've recently enjoyed walking along the golf course, collecting golf balls for our brothers-in-law and watching the olympics after work. We went to IKEA the other night to get some wall decor for my room and Ali was such a trooper; she stayed up late to help me put up every last leaf!

Ali also made one of her favorite dishes for dinner on Wednesday night - "Puttin' on the Ritz". This is a creamy chicken casserole with Ritz crackers on top and she said it was delicious. Dinner was ready when I got home from work and she was so excited to share it with me! She thankfully served herself first and realized soon after that she had accidentally used canned tuna instead of canned chicken... Whoops! We tried to get creative and work around the tuna, but we weren't really getting anywhere. We ended up going out for dinner instead.

Dave, Kristen, Katelyn and I left for Austin yesterday afternoon for a weekend of pure goodness! We always look forward to the time we spend with the rest of our family in Austin and this weekend we celebrated my graduation and Katelyn's 1 year birthday! It's hard to believe she's already 1, but we can't imagine our lives without her! Instead of being in Denton with the rest of our graduating class, Callie and I were in London. Needless to say, we were not able to walk across the stage. So, when I got to Austin this weekend, my dad had a "cap" and my gown from high school graduation and his tassle from his high school graduation in 1967 and a homemade diploma - it was a one of a kind ensemble.

Enjoy some pictures from our weekend!

(Sisterly Love - Jessica, Kristen and me)

(Me with my dad's cap and tassle and my gown from high school)

(He was standing in for the President of North Texas for the day)

(Mom and Dad - with his empty pockets)

(Katelyn clapping to thank everyone for coming to her party and for the great gifts!)

(Katelyn eating her first cupcake - she's obviously in heaven. She loves sharing with mommy too!)

(She's hitting herself to make sure it's reality and not a dream)

All done!

Just call us "Seasoned Travelers"

Saturday, August 9th: We had a lot of things planned for today! Our goal was to be out the door by 8:45, but we ended up leaving the hostel at 9:45 - not a problem. We knew that the "Changing of the Guard" at Buckingham Palace happened every other day in August and September and were hoping that it was going to take place today. We hopped on the metro and headed over to our first stop - Buckingham Palace. We got to Buckingham Palace around 10:45 to wait for the Changing of the Guard to occur. Our travel book said that it was a "40 minute spectacle" and we were excited.

We got a spot right in front of the palace and waited... and waited... and waited. Callie asked Brittany what time it was, and she looked at her watch and at the man's watch next to her and told Callie the time - 11:37. It was supposed to start at 11:30, but we thought maybe they were running late. At 12:00 we began to hear music and saw the guards walking through the street, making their way to the palace. At 12:30, the spectacle began.

It was great to be able to watch the Changing of the Guard, but by this point, we have been there for almost 2 hours, have swarms of people sticking their arm above our heads trying to get a picture, people pushing and stepping on our feet, and it's raining - so we were a little over it. We left the palace at 1:00 and headed to a small cafe for lunch. After lunch we walked over to the theatre to pick up our tickets for the 2:30 showing of the musical Wicked. We got there around 1:45, the doors to the lobby were still locked so we just decided to wait in an outside area. We thought it was weird that the doors were still locked at 2:00 and that there weren't many people waiting in line to get in. We were sure that they would open the doors at any moment. 2:15 rolls around and there are more people in the waiting area, but the doors are still locked. There is a shop in the area that we are standing in that has programs and t-shirts and CDs for the musical for sale with a sign on the counter that says "The shop will open at 1:30", but it's way past 1:30. Callie says, "Are you sure your watch is right?" Brittany says, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure... I looked at that man's watch and my watch while we were at the palace and they both said the same time..." We soon found out that Brittany forgot to set her watch back an hour (London is one hour behind Paris and Munich) and apparently the man next to us at Buckingham Palace didn't change his watch either! So basically, we had been an hour off all morning (we really did leave the hostel at 8:45). So it's really only 1:15, but it's raining outside and we just decided to wait a little while longer because the doors would open at 2:00. Wicked was well worth the wait. It was one of the best, if not the best musical either of us have seen!

We left the musical at 5:45 and went back to the hostel to change clothes and back out for dinner at Anexo for paella and tapas. After dinner we went to a bar called 22 Below to celebrate our graduation. Oh yeah, we graduated today. Our commencement was at 5:00pm CST, so we decided to have our own commencement over drinks. No more school. That's weird.

Sunday, August 10th: We love museums! Today we got up and headed over to Buckingham Palace once again, but this time to purchase tickets to get inside to see the State Rooms. This is was a special time to go because one of the rooms is decorated for a party that will take place in September when the Queen gets back from vacation. We were a little turned around when we got off the metro and weren't really sure where to go. We pulled out our map and were staring at it for a little while until a nice old man approached us and asked if he could help us find something. We told him we wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and he pulled out his map which was a little more detailed than ours. He told us the best way to get there was to take a stroll through St. James' Park; from the bridge in the middle of the park, we'd be able to see Buckingham Palace in view on the left and Westminster Palace to the right.

It was such a beautiful view and we were so glad to be able to walk through a park like that. It's nothing like the parks in Texas, that's for sure.

After we bought our tickets for a tour at the palace later in the day, we went over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest museum of decorative (and not so decorative) arts in the world showcasing an exhaustive collection of fashion from the 16th century through today among many other art collections. Afterwards, we went over to Knightsbridge and Belgravia to visit a store called Pandora. If you have ever heard of the store Buffalo Exchange, it is an up-scale version of this store. Pandora resells clothes and accessories on behalf of wealthy women and celebrities whose designer garments have become too voluminous to house. The items were definitely cheaper than those at the designer stores, but still a little too expensive for us - it was fun to look though! Before returning for our tour at Buckingham Palace we stopped by a store called Hotel Chocolat (http://www.hotelchocolat.com/ -they deliver to the US!) to load up on some goodies! Who knew you would need a shopping basket in a chocolate store? After we got our fix and a free chocolate lollipop for our "qualifying purchases" we headed back to the palace to see where Queen Elizabeth plays. The tour was just over an hour (sorry, we weren't allowed to take any pictures) and simply amazing! We were able to see where guests enter for dinners with the Queen, where the dinners take place and all of the preparation that goes on before and during the dinner, and where the guests have coffee after dinner! We also walked through the room where Prince Harry and William were baptized. It was a fun time and a great experience. After the tour we went over to Picadilly Circus which was a little overrated. We took our pictures and were over it in about 10 minutes. Then we took the metro over to Tower Bridge for some more pictures. We stopped by Horniman at Hays for dinner, a huge pub with great fish and chips! After dinner, we took the metro over to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey for some pictures. Big Ben certainly lives up to his name.

We came back to the hostel and looked at our train tickets for the next day to make sure we had everything squared away. This is when our trip really took a turn - for the better or worse, we weren't really sure at this point.

Monday, August 11th: Our train from London left this morning at 6:55 and arrived in Paris at 10:15. Our plans were to take the 1:00 train to Nice and arrive by 8:00 tonight, but when we looked at our tickets last night, we realized they were for the 9:30pm train tonight instead of the afternoon train that we really wanted. We were on our way to the train station we would leave from when Brittany picked up her bag and the strap broke. The frustration was weighing on both of us and Brittany's tears began to fall. Callie held it together and was encouraging all the way to the train station. When we got to our departure station, Callie went to the ticket counter to see if we could change our tickets, but the afternoon train was full and we'd have to wait. We had a lot of time to think about our options and decide what we wanted to do. We could wait at the train station for the next 11 hours or Callie said, "I'm just throwing this out there, but we could always try to catch an earlier flight home..." Brittany quickly responded with, "Callie, that is not an option. We paid for our Eurail pass, we'll have to pay for our first night in Nice if we don't show, and it will cost money to change our flight. It's not an option." Callie said, "That's fine, I just wanted to throw it out there." The longer we waited, the more Brittany was thinking about the cost of staying versus going home early. We thought about how much we'd each be willing to pay to go home early and Brittany began to think of the comfort of her bed. Brittany said, "Callie, let's go home." So Callie called her mom, the great Amy Cuppett! We didn't really think of the time difference and woke Mrs. Cuppett up, but she was a trooper and did everything she could to book us a flight home early. The greatest words we had heard all day were "I got you on a flight tomorrow afternoon at 1:30". We headed to the airport, dragging all of our luggage behind us and finally arrived to Charles de Gaulle, our home for the next 20 hours. McDonald's was good to us, and we are grateful for the inventor of playing cards.

Tuesday, August 12th: The thought of our comfortable beds was dancing through our minds all night as we slept on the the hardwood floor at the airport. We woke up when everyone started arriving at the airport and got some strange looks. Sure it was a little dirty and very uncomfortable, but we really didn't have another option. We checked in at 10:30am and dropped off our bags and were thankful that we didn't have to deal with them for the next 14 hours. We waited patiently for our flight to start boarding and the time finally came to head back to DFW, stopping first in Boston. Our flight from Paris to Boston had a lot of children on it. 6 of them were right next to us. We are thankful that they weren't annoying, and were just plain cute.

We were supposed to arrive in Boston at 3:20 pm and catch our connecting flight to Dallas at 5:35 - we thought we had this in the bag. We sat on the runway in Paris for over an hour, delaying our arrival in Boston until 4:05 pm. We waited in multiple lines, and in each line Brittany said to an American Airlines employee or a TSA employee "Our flight leaves in ___ minutes, is there any way to bypass the line and get to the front so we can catch our flight?" The response was pretty much the same "I can't do anything for you; you'll have to wait just like everyone else; No." We both prayed that we would catch our flight. We've said before that we know that the Lord is in control and His plans are better than ours, and we knew everything would work out the way it was supposed to - we were just hoping it would be the way we imagined. We got to the final line at 5:25, 10 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. Brittany said to three different people "Our flight leaves in 10/7/4 minutes. I just need to get through security to tell them that we are here, can I please get to the front of the line, our gate is right on the other side!" One man responded with, "Ma'am, there is nothing we can do. If American feels like you need to be expedited through the line, they'll let us know. For now, you will have to wait just like everyone else. We could read on the board at our gate that our flight was boarding, but security was in our way and there was obviously nothing we could do or say about it without getting arrested. With 2 minutes until our flight left, we finally got to the other side and sprinted to the counter. Brittany said in a panic, "We are supposed to be on this flight and did everything we could to get here on time. Can we still get on?" The AA rep sighed and said, "You were the two we were waiting for. The doors are closed and it's not possible to get on this flight. You'll have to wait for the 9:00 flight this evening." Let the cry fest begin. We were both just emotionally and physically drained and called our parents to let them know we wouldn't be in Dallas at 8:45 anymore. Brittany was doing one of those cries where she was gasping for air and couldn't really breathe and her Dad was trying really hard to understand what she was saying. He calmed her down and reassured her that everything would be okay. He said, "There is not a thing you can do. I know it's frustrating, but you just have to deal with it and know that you'll get home tonight. Just go get yourself a burger and a drink and cool off. Or how about you get you some baked beans? They have great baked beans in Boston!" Brittany said, "Dad, I'm pretty sure they don't have any baked beans at the airport." He said, "I know what you can do! Get you a bunch of baked beans and eat them all. And when you're on the flight you just start farting and after each fart you say 'That's for that shuttle driver. That's for the lady at the ticket counter. That's for the rude employees." This made us both laugh. Our parents always have a way of making us laugh during frustrating times. We got a bite to eat and sat down when a mom walked up with 4 kids, ages 7,5,3 and 1. You could tell that she had a long day and her kids were still energetic and sleep was not on their minds yet. We started talking to them and soon found ourselves reading to them, coloring with them and racing them down the aisle. The mom, Sharon, informed us that her husband had been with them at the beginning of the trip to visit family, but had to go back early for work. They were supposed to catch an 8:00am flight to Dallas that morning, but were on standby and the only flight they could get on was the same flight as ours. Her children were precious, and very well behaved so we decided to give her our numbers so she could call us when she wanted a much needed night out with her husband. She was overcome with joy and was so thankful that we were serious about our offer. We understand now that the Lord kept us in Boston to give Sharon a little break, and to add some joy to our frustrating day. With Callie being a nanny, and Brittany working with 2 year olds each Sunday, we've both learned that children always have a way of making you smile, no matter how bad your day has been. We are thankful for the spirit of those children and the joy they brought to the end of our emotional day. We finally arrived to DFW at midnight and were greeted by Callie's family and Kristen, Brittany's oldest sister. We are thankful for them and were so excited to see their smiling faces holding up "Welcome Home!" signs.

Being overseas experiencing different cultures has made us realize how thankful we are to be Americans and how thankful we are for the American culture. We are thankful for readily available tap water and free public toilets. We are thankful for cheap food and our cars and much, much more!

The Lord has taught us so many things on this trip and it has been exciting to share our joys, frustrations and life lessons with you. If you remember one thing from your experience of living vicariously through us over the past month, we hope it is this: There is a blessing in every situation. It may be obvious, you might have to search for it, or you may never know what it is, but it is there. We hope you always know that the Lord is in control and is constantly providing for you. He knows how much you can handle and he will continue to encourage you to trust in Him and to remind you that He has much more wisdom than you will ever have. Be in awe of our King who created the world and everything in it. Be overcome with joy that this same King loves you and has intricately woven every detail of your life, past, present and future, and will continue to love you, provide for you, comfort, and encourage you for the rest of your life.

Lunch with the Pope Meister

Monday, August 4th: We got up around 9:30 this morning, went to the common area for some delicious breakfast (we are staying at a bed and breakfast) and then got ready for the day. They have Nutella everywhere overhere and Brittany is officially addicted.

Good News! Our parents responded to the call and deposited money into our bank accounts. We are so thankful for them and their love for us!

Our day really got started around 11:15 when we took the metro to Vatican City. Rome is unbelievably hot. We would compare the heat to Texas, but we've also heard that you guys are setting some record highs down there and it's not that hot here.

The line at Vatican City was about a 3 hour wait. We decided to pay 35€ for a guided tour that would allow us to not only understand the things we were looking at, but also allowed us to wait 45 minutes instead of 3 hours. We are so glad that we paid the extra 20€. Our tour guide is from Rome and is so proud of her city. She knew so much about all of the stuff we saw! She gave us some background on specific portions of the Cistene Chapel. Through his paintings, Michelangelo made fun of and/or was getting back at the Pope at that time who forced him to paint the chapel. There is a scene on the ceiling of God's butt and it was positioned so that each time the Pope looked at it from where he was sitting, the first thing he would see was God's butt. Another painting was of an angel giving a hand gesture which back then was the equivalent of giving someone the finger. Insteresting. We also learned that Michelangelo didn't use female models, but instead used male models for the females in his paintings.

So all of his paintings of females look like the females on American Gladiators - they are ripped. After the Chapel, we went into St. Peter's Basilica - it was huge and unreal. Our guide showed us where the Pope comes and goes for the Chapel, where they put the chimney thing to announce when a new pope has been chosen (white smoke = a pope has been chosen; black smoke = a pope hasn't been chosen yet) After finishing in Vatican City, we took the metro to the main train station to wait for our train. We played gin (a card game, not a drinking game) for 1 1/2 hours and it was fun. Brittany is really competitive and kept losing so it was not a fun time for her.

Tuesday, August 5th: Last night we befriended an Italian man in our cabin - Fernando. Brittany enjoys striking up conversations with random people and she decided to ask Fernando some basic questions - your favorite color, music, past time activity... Somehow they started talking about the internet and she said "What are some of your favorite websites?" His response? "Hot sights. Do you know hot sights?" He proceeded to tell us about the porn sites that he likes to visit. It was by far one of the most awkward moments either one of us has experienced (and we have experienced a lot of awkward moments). We responded with a lot of awkward laughter and quickly changed the subject. We got to the train station around 6:30 and ran into one of our classmates who had just gotten back from Berlin. We rushed home to shower and get ready for our office visit at 8:30. First we visited Siemens and it was terribly boring. Schneider Electric is way better. Then we went straight to EADS (they are the largest European aircraft makers and compete mainly with Boeing). It was a nice office and we got another free lunch! SA-WEET!

Wednesday, August 6th: Today we got up and headed straight to Dachau. The whole place was just covered in a heavy spirit. The original gas chambers, crematorium, and watch towers are still there. It was so moving to be in this important place and see where people suffered. It was depressing, but we are glad we were able to go.

Then we came home for a few hours and relaxed. At 6 pm, we all got dressed up and went to dinner at Hofbrauhaus, a famous German brewery and restaurant. It was a blast just hanging out with the class! They all got pretty drunk, but it was still fun to see our relationships grow. We have really enjoyed these people.

Then we came home and realized that we completely forgot that Thursday existed. We accidentally omitted it from our travel plans and had no where to stay Thursday. We were able to extend our stay at A&O for one night. We have learned that the Lord's plans are always better and more thought out than ours. We called it a night around 2 am again this morning knowing that we would be able to sleep in while the rest of our class went to the airport at 3:45 am.

Thursday, August 7th: Today was hands-down one of the most relaxing days we have had. We slept until 9:30 and got up just in time to catch the end of our free breakfast. We started laundry around 11 or so. It was great that we had today to kind of re-group. Laundry definitely needed to be done. Callie fell asleep around noon and woke up around 2 pm. We got dressed and went to Subway for a late lunch. It was de-lish! Then we went to the train station to correct our ticket situation. The 6:40 am train was booked and we were forced to take a 3:17 am train instead. Yikes! After this, we went to a park nearby and played another card game - Phase 10. It was fun and relaxing. We called it a night around 10:30 pm.

Friday, August 8th: We caught a cab from our hostel to the train station at 2:15 this morning. Our train left at 3:17 and we traveled for a solid 6 hours and arrived in Paris at 9:50 am. We ate breakfast and planned our itinerary for London. We had to go through UK Customs in order to get on our train to London and Brittany was stopped by the guard. She said "Do you have handcuffs in there?" Brittany didn't understand her. "Do I what?" "Do you have these in there?" (as she pointed to her own pair of cuffs). Brittany laughed nervously and said "Uh... yes. They are not real. Uhhh, it was a joke?? Do you need them?" She said no and we were on our way. We were in different carts for the train ride. Callie sat next to a nice man and Brittany sat next to a guy who smelled like poop. We arrived in London at 3:30. We had plans to settle in at the hostel, Callie was going to take her last test of her college career, and then we were going to go to the National Art Gallery to listen to a free jazz concert. Sounds good huh? Well, our plans didn't turn out the way we planned - story of our lives. Brittany forgot to print off directions to the hostel, but she figured she had the address and we are in a country that speaks English, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find it. WRONG. We got off at what we thought was the closest tram station to the hostel and were told to go "down this road and to the right." Perfect. We walked for a while and asked some more people. "I don't know where that is, sorry." Hmmm.. We asked some nice police officers. They pulled out their map book and pointed us in what we thought was the right direction. Nope. We ended up walking for a good 2 hours with at least 75 pounds of luggage dragging behind us and on our backs. We were unknowingly close to the end of our adventure and our fuses were about to blow when we ran into some Austrailian girls. They asked where we were headed and we told them. They were headed to our hostel and they each offered to carry one of our bags. These girls were definitely God-sent. We were almost to the hostel when one of Brittany's wheels to her luggage broke. It was a blessing that it happened at this point in the trip and not at the very beginning - for that we are thankful. We finally made it to our hostel. It is really nice and we are very pleased with it! We took showers and walked down the street to the local grocery store. We got some prepared chicken pasta and dessert and took it to the park to eat and people watch. It was a great way to end our day.

We came back to the hostel and Callie took her test and then we updated the blog. Maybe we'll watch a movie in the TV room because it's free here. We are going to try to visit London on 50£... We love games.

You can't cut in front of a nun!

So it's been a little while since we've updated and we know you've been sitting on pins and needles waiting to hear from us. Well get ready to live because a lot can happen in a little less than a week!

Monday, July 28th: Today was our last day in Paris and I think that's where we left you hanging... We did hang out with our friends from A&M - Keith, Jordan and Eduardo. We met them at a metro station and walked to Montmarte/Sacre Coure where we overlooked the entire city! It was a great way to say goodbye to one of the greatest cities ever.

We went inside the church there and Callie got in trouble for not having her shoulders covered. The nice little man at the entrance gave her his sweater to wear while she walked around - it was a double edged sword because she had to wear the sweater inside a building that was at least 95 degrees. Anyways, the church was both very old and beautiful.

After this, we all split and the two of us went shopping and bought a couple of things. We met back up with our A&M friends at the Louvre and were supposed to go grab a bite to eat, but we were just too tired. We decided to go back to the hotel to take a nap and said to meet back up at the Eiffel Tower around 10:15 that night. After our nap, we met up with some of our classmates and went to the store to grab some wine, bread and cheese because we are pretty much French by this point. We all headed over to the Eiffel Tower as it started to rain. We got there right as the lights started flashing. We sat on a bench underneath a tree and drank wine and ate bread, but the cheese was nasty. We offered it to a homeless man, but even he refused. Our A&M friends never showed, and we found out later that they didn't come because it was raining - we say, you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore. We walked across the street to get some crepes and met another one of our classmates there. We all just sat around laughing in the rain - this time was one of the major highlights of our trip so far. Our friend Preston wanted to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower and offered to pay for our tickets if we went with him and we definitely never turn down free stuff! So the three of us enjoyed a view from the 2nd floor (the 3rd floor was closed) and it was incredible! Just seeing that view really confirmed that we could live here, no problem.

We took a cab home and packed for a trip to Munich.

Tuesday, July 29th: We woke up at the crack of dawn and got on a bus headed for the train station. It took a total of 8 hours to get from Paris to Munich, but it didn't feel that long so that's a plus. On the train we played a game where one of our friends, Chris, picked an animal and we all asked yes or no questions to figure out what it was. Sounds a little childish, but those are the best games. We all laughed more than we have this entire trip and obviously had a great time! A bus picked us up at the train station in Munich and brought us to A&O hostel. It's very nice, but no A/C. We took a 2 hour bus tour of the city, but we were all pretty tired and didn't pay too much attention. The bus dropped us off at a beergarden and we had dinner and beer. When in Germany, do as the Germans do! The place was packed; there had to have been at least 1,000 people there. It was an outdoor venue filled with wooden picnic tables, and lots and lots of people!

We came home to do some laundry while the rest of our group drank the night away.

Wednesday, July 30th: We woke up very early this morning and started our day off with a tour of the BMW plant. We had the cutest little German man as our guide! He is so proud to be German and to work for BMW. This visit was a lot more interesting than the Peugeot tour. The group was either super hungover or tired (we fell under this category) so Dr. D'Souza cancelled our visit to the U.S. Consulate which was scheduled for that afternoon. We came home and took a nap, studied for a little bit and then walked to Subway (just like the one in the states) with our friend Kelly for the sub of the day, turkey! We rode the tram to the center of the city and shopped for a while. Then we came back to the hostel and studied/didn't really study for our test tomorrow. Our group is just really fun to hang out with and we are glad that the Lord has given us the opportunity to share a little bit of our hearts with them.

Thursday, July 31st: Today was a fun day! Today was also our friend Maegan's birthday (We were able to call her and leave a fun birthday message) - Happy birthday Maegan! Anyways, we woke up around 8:30 this morning grabbed a bite to eat downstairs and headed down the street for a visit to Ernst & Young. This was the nicest corporate visit we have been to! We arrived to bottles of coke and "coke light", cookies, coffee, and tea. They were speaking in terms that the two of us didn't really relate to and it translated into gibberish. All of the speakers were some of the nicest people we have met on our trip and we were thankful for that. After their presentation, they treated us to lunch. We're not talking the equivalent of Jason's Deli boxed lunches, we are talking beef, chicken, cheese sticks, stuffed jalapenos, eggrolls, and much more! It was such a treat! After we left Ernst & Young, we had 1 hour to prepare for our final exam. It was probably one of the hardest exams we've ever taken in our college career, but we finished and later found out that we each got an "A". Be proud mom and dad, be proud. We went back to our room to pack for our trip to Italy and headed for the train station.

Friday, August 1st: We were awakened by the conductor this morning at 5:45 and she informed us that we would be in Florence in 30 minutes. We had some time to kill before we were able to check into our bed and breakfast so we got some breakfast at the train station and played cards - gin if you were wondering. We walked to our B&B where we were greeted by Matteo and Alessio, the two owners of Antica Posta B&B. Originally, our room wasn't going to be ready until 11:00 but they informed us that our room was already prepared for us - what a blessing! The place was super cute and very nice! We definitely recommend Antica Posta B&B if you ever visit Florence!

We showered and headed out to explore and ended up a little lost - but what's an exploration without getting lost? We ended up seeing everything we wanted to see and the city is just beautiful! We saw Piazza Pitti, Ponte Vecchio, Galleria Degli Uifizi, Piazza Della Signoria and more! We walked for about 5 hours, but it was fun and definitely worth it.

We treated ourselves to a cab ride back to the B&B. We napped for a couple of hours and then got ready to go out. We took a 30 minute bus ride to Piazzale Michelangelo. It is the highest point in Florence and overlooks the entire city! We were able to see the view as the sun was setting and it was gorgeous!

We hit up some shady folks for some street side souveniers and met a friend, Mustafa. We were his "sisters" and for his sisters, he gives good deals! After we got our gifts, we walked over to "Ristorante Michelangelo" where we enjoyed pesto pasta, bruschetta and gelatto as we looked over the city. Life in Florence is slow paced and low key and we definitely enjoyed it.

Saturday, August 2nd: We woke up at around 11 this morning and stayed in our room for a little bit while we added up how much money we have spent so far. We'll just go ahead and keep that number to ourselves... In the words of Callie, "Realizing how poverty is looming in your future is not a fun way to start your day." We walked to the train station knowing that our day was only going to get better! We stopped at an internet cafe on the way to e-mail our parents telling them we loved them and asking if they could transfer a couple hundred into our bank accounts - we still haven't heard back - interesting... they responded so fast to our previous e-mails! After this, we walked around for a few hours and realized we had seen all that we knew there was to see. We got on a bus to go back to the Michelangelo look-out, but ended up riding for an hour before anything started to look familiar; we never made it to Michelangelo. We got off at the main train station and walked back to the B&B to shower and get ready for dinner. A friend of Brittany's used to live in Florence and shared with us a couple of her favorite restaurants in the city. Callie decided to do something different with her hair. She had seen an ad earlier in the day of a little girl with short, very curly hair, and she decided that she wanted to see if she could make her hair look like that - Not one of the best ideas she's ever had...

(This is what Callie was going for)

(This is what Callie got...)

(This was Brittany's reaction)

While Callie was fixing the worst at home perm remedy ever, Brittany voiced that she was really craving Mexican food. Callie said, "Brittany, we are in Italy, I'm pretty sure we won't find any Mexican food..." End of story... so we thought. So we took a cab to a little Piazza and looked at some handcrafted artwork before we ventured out to find one of the restaurants Brittany's friend suggested. We got some very vague directions and just started walking. We turned down a random street and saw some bright lights and heard a lot of noise. We get closer and realize, IT'S A MEXICAN RESTAURANT! The restaurant is called Tijuana and it was the best Mexican food we have ever experienced! Tex-Mex has nothing on Tijuana in Florence! We definitely recommend this restaurant if you're ever in Florence! We had strawberry margaritas, chips and salsa and guacamole, and chicken enchiladas and a chicken burrito - is your mouth watering yet? The food definitely had an Italian touch to it and it was amazing! A guy named John from New Zealand asked Callie to take a picture of him and his friend (a local). John was old and Leo was a straight-up creeper so we had to cut the conversation short and said it was nice to meet them and to have a good night.

We took a taxi home and packed up our bags for our trip to Rome tomorrow.

Sunday, August 3rd: We are sad to say farewell to Florence today. This is officially our second favorite city we have been to. We woke up at 7:00 in order to catch our train at 8:30. Our train ride was just under 2 hours, the shortest trip we've had so far. We've gotten a lot of feedback from friends and family about the number of guys we've met, and questions like "Where are all of the girls over there?" Well, we met our first girl-friend today and her name is Sarah. She is from New Zealand (she doesn't know John) and has been traveling all over Europe for the past 6 months! She was very nice and we were glad to meet her. We arrived in Rome, but Rome was not the final destination for our train. We've learned that the train stops for about 2 minutes, and 2 minutes only - they really don't care who you are. So we had a short amount of time to get off and everyone was crowding the aisle leaving us no way to get out our seats and off the train. Callie said "The next break I see, I'm just going to push you into the aisle so we can get out." Sounds like a great plan. The break in the line is upon us and Callie pushes Brittany, just to pull her back very quickly and said, "You can't cut in front of a nun!" Brittany is thinking, sure you can - you snooze, you lose. We let her pass and quickly found another break and cut in front of Joe Shmo and were safely off the train. Once we arrived to the train station, we waited in line for about an hour to reserve our seats back to Munich. Apparently, if your train has to go through a country not selected on your Eurail pass, you have to pay a pretty penny. The countries selected on your Eurail pass must be bordering countries and we selected France, Spain, Germany and Italy. Done. Well Italy doesn't touch Germany (Switzerland and Austria decided to squeeze their way in there, rude) so we had to pay 78€ to get back to Munich. If you are a math whiz and have been keeping up with the value of the U.S. dollar, you just realized that we paid close to $120 to get back to Munich. It was a frustrating experience, but there is a positive in every situation. The lady who booked our seats from Munich to Florence never asked to see our passes and assumed we had a global pass (allowing you to travel to any European country) and the conductor didn't catch it, so we saved 60€ on our way to Florence because we should have been charged then too. After the drama, we arrived at our B&B known as "Alice in Wonderland" around 12:15. We said we would arrive around 11 when we booked our room, and when we finally arrived, no one was here. Callie is smart and looked underneath a potted plant for a key - BINGO! She opened the door and yelled for someone, but no one was there. She found fruit-filled croissants, made a mad dash for them, and ran back to the door step and closed the door. We inhaled our "lunch" and put the key back when we heard the elevator coming up. We were greeted by Maxi, the owner of the B&B. Our room is just precious - not air conditioned, but precious! We dropped off our stuff and ran back out the door to start our sightseeing. We took the metro to the Coliseum - it was incredible! 11€ to see the coolest, oldest place in Rome was a bargain! No pictures or words can do it justice.

Then we hopped back on our sightseeing tour bus "Ciao Roma" to see the rest of the sites we had planned out. Vatican City is closed on Sundays. We called the Pope to let him know we would be there today, but he already had company and he asked us if we could visit on tomorrow. We agreed. We enjoyed McDonald's for dinner - did you know they have curly fries over here? Well, they do. We came home, showered, rested for a little bit, and then walked around to find some gelatto. We found a little place and sat outside to people watch and talk for a little bit and then came back to the B&B.
Update: I know you're thinking, "Update? Already?" The answer is a solid "Yes." We told you earlier that Alice in Wonderland didn't have A/C and we also confirmed that Callie is smart. Callie noticed an A/C box in our room, but we couldn't figure out how to turn it on. When we arrived today, Callie told Maxi that she read something about A/C being available upon request, but he said that there were no rooms with A/C available for tonight. Well, the receptionist left at 11 tonight so no one is here except for the other guests. Callie noticed a remote to an A/C box in the main room that looks like the box we have in our room. She decided to see if the remote would work on the box in our room... AND IT DOES! The Lord totally provides and we are just so grateful! We really have realized that we are most grateful for the things that once seemed so little in the states that our now big things since we have been here - escalators/elevators, A/C, English speaking people, French/German/Italians that have English as a second (or third, fourth, fifth) language, showers that don't require shower shoes, and many more blessings!

We are also grateful for each of you! Love y'all and will see you soon! Up next - Munich, London, Nice, Dallas, TX.