This hotel computer is not the easiest to use but I will attempt to blog a little about my trip so far. The flight out here wasn´t too horrible. I actually succeded in getting in an hour nap on each flight which is a huge improvement from my last trip. I took some dramamine before each flight which helped with my motion sickness and making me drowsy so i could get some sleep but i think it might have contributed to my jet lag. We arrvied in Barcelona around 8 in the morning. Took a cab to our beautiful hotel and were told that check in wasn´t until 2pm but there was a possibility that we could check in around noon. We ditched our luggage at the front desk and walked around town for a few ... read more

After my last entry we caved in and went to the biggest tourist trap to guarantee getting a hamburger (and not getting fish)... hard rock cafe. We've been good about eating local cuisine up till this point but I was missing american food. I wanted mustard for my burger and ketchup for my fries. I also wanted salt and pepper on the table. I´ve missed simple things like lettuce in my salad. After dinner we walked across the street to the Hofbrauhas (sp?) the most touristy beer garden here. The place was PACKED with drunk soccer fans draped in flags of their home counties (and hats and mohawks and face paint...) chanting and singing for their home countries. We were happy to hear a small but loud group of americans chanting "U-S-A" when we first walked ... read more

Venice is beautiful but full of tourists. Yesterday we spent close to 5 hours at the Laundromat. Everyone inside was American and had heard it was the only Laundromat in Venice. Alistair wants to open a Laundromat here. They make a killing off tourists. The dryer was horrible and took many cycles to dry... this was after waiting in line with your wet laundry. If our clothing didn't smell to high heaven we would have left. After spending most of the afternoon there we decided to ask our hotel clerk for the best Pizza in Venice and he sent us to the far edge of the island. We felt pretty confident with the large map of Venice we had with us. The city is like a giant Labyrinth. We kept walking into dead ends and kept ... read more

today we walked the city walls. incredible. thanks to everyone who's been reading and sending me messages and comments. i read them all to alistair and ryan. we love hearing about what's going on back home. tomorrow we leave for orebic and korcula. sad to leave dubrovnik but we must move on. dad- you would love dubrovnik. jazz, flan and people painting at the top of the city walls sounds like your ideal. not sure about golf here. might not be wise with landmines... we're on our way back to the jazz bar. it's 10:20pm here which is 1:20pm your time. until korcula...... read more

As my nephew Dylan would say, I'm at the place of "my people". We landed in Dubrovnik around 2pm. I was busy trying to catch up on my journal writing so I missed the landing but Alistair said it was the most amazing landing he'd ever seen. I should catch up on Vienna first though... Yesterday was FREEZING cold in Vienna. When the heavy wind would kick in (which was often) it was hard to walk and was quite horrible. In the morning I told the guys my only definate must do was to go to the house of Mozart. It was pretty cool. The audioplayer was in English and each room's message would play for so long that we'd end up sitting on a bench to finish listening to it. It started on the 4th ... read more