Roman Holiday

Hello everyone, it's Eugene Blogging you all from Rome :) and it's my turn to blog about our trip. The 8 hr train ride from Nice, France to rome was a neck cramper. When we stepped off the train we were greeted by are long awaited tour guide aka Sara Dermody, who was waiting for us for 2 hrs :( but that's how the cookie crumbles sometime. The five days of are nine days we stayed in Rome was at a nice and quite bed and breakfast 5 min metro ride outside the center of rome. The first night Sara took us out for are first suppli's, which was amazing! it is a deep fried rice ball with mozzarella cheese melted in the middle and was so tasty that after my first bite, I went into a food coma. It's the best thing to eat in rome for only 1 euro. After suppli's we headed toward the coliseum where my mouth dropped with amazement, this is we're it all happened, it was a place were people's death's were entertainment for audiences. As we walked past the coliseum, I imagined the tens of thousands of people pouring into the coliseum to find a seat to watch the gladiators fight for their lives. The second day we walked around sight seeing the roman streets and around every corner their was history and people from all walks of life. Later in the day we headed back to are bed and breakfast and hung out talking about the next three days ahead of us. The third day we headed toward the typewriter or some call it the wedding cake because of its resemblance to both names. Once in side we walked around the museum and hung out for a few hours to escape the heat. All the walking around built up an appetite for all of use so we headed to a small pizzeria for some pizza mmmmm. What I thought was interesting is you don't pay per slice but by the weight of the pizza. Colleen and Sara have been to Rome before so it wasn't anything new to them. As we ate our pizza we ended up watching people for 2 hrs walk around lost looking at their maps and feeding the pigeons. After we headed back home to rest and drink wine and make are very own pasta with baked eggplant with mozzarella melted on top. The following day we headed out early to explore the coliseum, palatine hill, and roman forum which I would say that they all were nice to see but the coliseum was by far the coolest place I have ever laid my eyes on. Our tour guide Sara was a huge help in answering any questions Which was awesome to learn all the history behind Rome. Thanks again Sara. Later that nigh we all went out for dinner at a small family owned restaurant that reminded me of Bucas Italian resturant on Howard street in the city. The old heavy set man working the register was the owner, I could tell because of all the photos of him on the wall with people he or italy thought are important. As Colleen and Sara were getting drunk of their small bottles of wine i couldn't help but notice that italians talk as if their arguing and then making up by laughing over and over again. Through out dinner I would mention to the girls that my but was sweating and over and over again they thought I was playing so as we headed to the front to pay the bill I could hear Sara giggling and Colleen shout out OH MY GOD your ass Is drenched in sweat. As I stood their embarrassed both of the girls couldn't stop laughing which drew attention to me and my sweaty ass. Remind you all who are reading this the inside was packed with people and oh, wait the front of the place with tables outside were too. okay okay you all can light it up because I'm sure that someone notice two girls following me laughing with their cameras pointed at my drenched ass. So that was the last night we had with all three of use together. So me and Colleen are here in out tent resting and spending the last few days in Rome by the pool soaking up some sun and then it's off to Florence. Till next time from Florence love jean and coco :)

Nice is Nice..... Not overused or anything

Hello followers, sorry couldn't help myself with blog title lol. But Nice is actually wonderful! Our Hostel was okay(we just had a bad experience because of our not so mannered roomies).What we loved about it was
how there are a lot less tourist then there were in Barcelona. One of our favorite things to do was sit along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and eat gelato. Yum yum. Other things we did while in Nice was walked to the far part of the city to see some museums, Matisse art gallery, and the contemporary art gallery where I got to see my first piece of art by Andy Warhol!!! Another day we traveled to Monaco to see the Monte Carlo casino(we were gonna gamble but it didn't open till 2) and to see where the grand prix is held. And of course this is still a vacation and we are tourist so we went to the beach, got a crepe and drank wine all the time :) Next we are off to Rome to meet up with my sister Sara for 5 days and then travel north to Florence and Venice. I'll try to post again soon. See you all in less the a month!!!! Love Colleen and Eugene

My my my Barrrrrcelona

As we sit in bed before we head out for our last night in Barcelona, Spain we can't even begin to tell you how lucky we feel for this experience. Barcelona is definitely one of the most beautiful city's we have ever seen. The old architecture and cathedrals are one of a kind here and actually all over Europe. Our first and last day we spent at the beach and we have never seen so many people crowded together just soaking up the sun. The days in between we explored all over the city day and night ( and by this I mean we walked everywhere). I loved going down random alley ways just to see what each one offered; a lot of the time you do see the same little shops selling the tourist things, but the farther out of the main city you got the more you can start to see some of the culture. La Rambla is the main strip in Barcelona which is the main tourist trap but still a beautiful part of this big city. We even tried to go out one night and party like the Catalonia's do but us Americans in no way can keep, especially till 5 am. Pretty sure that's why they take a siesta lol. By far our favorite place we visited was Parc Guell or Guadi Park, which was absolutely beautiful. You will really never see anything like it  with the mosaic art everywhere. As with our hostel and as always our room hopping we finally stayed in a place long enough to meet some pretty cool people. First was the manger ( who just actually quit.. long story there) Facundo. It was fun hanging out with him day after day and learning about Spain culture and South American culture because he is from Argentina. Then there was Bri and Adam (our roomies) who we got to spend their last couple of days with and watch the Euro cup final between Spain and Italy. And as I´m typing this we have a few new friends  just hanging out in the the common room sharing beers. Barcelona is a beautiful city and we have decided we will make a trip back one day but we would also want to explore out side of the city to experience the real culture of Espana. We leave for Nice, France tomorrow for some more adventures. Love you all- Colleen and Eugene

Light the Fires

Hey guys I know it's been a few days. Just been traveling between London and Spain and finally sat down to write a post. We are in Barcelona right now but what my post is going to be about is the Leeds Olympic torch relay festival. As soon as we landed in London it pretty much rained the whole time but a day before the festival it let up a little and we had our fingers crossed that it would be the same way for the festival. Well we got lucky and it was so sunny even a little warm compared to what we had gotten used to. The main reason we went to the festival was for a band I wanted to see called Friendly Fires ( thanks Molly for introducing me to them last year !) So we arrive at 1 and bands didn't start playing till 3. The lineup was Little Comets, Tribe, and Friendly Fires. We slowly make our way to the front on the stage thanks to my persistence and Eugene's braveness . One thing we were not expecting to see was the Olympic torch be ran trough Leeds. That was definitely a once in a life time experience for us and we were so excited to be there for it. After that Friendly Fires preformed and they were amazing and I converted two new fans( Sara and Eugene)! As always here are some pictures below from that day. Thanks for reading and be prepared for one about Barcelona next.

Coaching Aroud

Over the last couple of days we have taken the bus( or coach as they call it here) to a few different cities. Our first
stop was Manchester. We started at Hatters Hostel which was nice but we had to switch rooms the two nights we were there because of a reservation mix up. Our one full day in Manchester was poring rain so we stopped at a Primark for rain boots, scarf, and umbrella. We then went to the people's history museum which was really fun because of how hands on it was. Because of the rainy weather at night we stayed in and played monopoly. I won once and Eugene beat me once. It was nice to just be able and sit down and play a game with out distractions or worrying about other things we maybe needed to do.
After Manchester we headed to Leeds which was a much much much shorter bus ride compared to the 6 hour one from London. We thought Leeds was a beautiful city compared to Manchester with all the different kinds of markets they had there . It was also nice that the sun decided to peak out for a bit too. A perk about England is that a lot of museums and Art galleries are free. We went to an art gallery in Leeds and the artist they were showcasing was Fiona Rae. I like her art work because the colors, pop culture, and anime blend together well. As for tomorrow Sara is coming into town and we are heading to the Olympic torch relay festival and seeing one of my favorite bands Friendly Fires. I'll be sure to post a whole blog on that event. Love Colleen and Eugene

We made it UK

Hi everyone! So as you can see we made it to the UK ok :) The flight actually went by pretty fast which was nice, I think the hardest part for me was actually leaving my family. I don't think I realized, until the few days before we left, that I have actually never left my family for more the a week maybe two. What was a nice surprise though was when we landed Sara was there waiting for us. She helped us get to our hostel (which was actually a really nice hostel) and took us out for dinner. Eugene I had fish and chips, yum yum yum, and of course a beer. For our first day it was pretty stress free and nice. Today we are heading to Manchester for a couple days before the Olympic touch relay festival. Miss you and love you all- Colleen and Eugene

On our way

We really can't believe its only 3 days away from our big trip. Yesterday we drove down to LA to spend the time with my dads family and fathers day with my grandpa and my dad. Luckily when you have someone to travel with the time can fly so the drive down wasn't so bad. I was pretty surprised that we didn't hit a lot of traffic for it being a saturday and we didn't leave the bay area till 1. One place we stopped at that I haven't been to in forever is Dewar's; Its a famous ice and taffy shop in Bakersfield, CA.  I'm not a fan of taffy but they make the most amazing taffy I've ever tasted. My favorite is their Peanut Butter taffy! Anyways we are off to fathers day lunch now. Hope you all have a Happy Fathers day and post again soon.
Colleen and Eugene

I'm back!!!!

So last summer I kinda gave up blogging and became super busy just being me. But now I'm back in action with my partner in crime, best friend, and boyfriend Eugene. In one weeks time we will be leaving to Europe and backing through a few different countries, for his graduation gift and my once again Intaxication Summer. In order to stay in touch and for people to keep up with our travels we will be blogging. So here is the first official update and hope you will be able to follow along. Stayed tuned to see what places we will be visiting and be sure to anticipate tons of photos !