http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/katenian/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from katenian en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:01:41 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:01:41 +0000 Hi everyone Kate here Stumbled upon this list of 100 Wonders of the World today. I'd like to visit all 100 and I'm on my way there After this next trip I will have visited 24 out of the 100...not too shabby for being 24 years old I made this graphic of which ones I've been to and which I will have been to after this cruise. I've visited the ones with red dots already am about to visit the http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/Spring-Valley/blog-463653.html Well Merry Christmas to everyone We know that vacations in January are AWESOME because Thanksgiving Christmas and New Years make the wait MUCH easier...time just flies byWe had an amazing Christmas surrounded by family friends and topped off with an awesome Charger's win against the TitansWhich reminds me of a very important point. We will be spending Super Bowl Sunday innnnnn........ Por http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/Spring-Valley/blog-462906.html We're heading out againI just bought our plane tickets today for our second trip to Europe together.A lot of people are asking how we can afford this. Well I did win MY ticket through STA travel but besides that it's a lot of saving and a lot of sacrifices.As the years go on Ian and I sit back and watch as many people we know move out andor get married. It's tough because most of them got to http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/blog-423714.html Time to dust off the old travel blog and write. Why Because I'm going somewhere. Where Well London. Where else Not sure. Why Keep reading.STA travel is a studentyouth travel agency who helped Ian and myself tremendously last summer when we booked our backpacking trip. Leslie our travel agent helped recommend hostels rail passes places to visit and more. We still feel guilty about not ev http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/blog-407349.html Soo we have been back from Europe for 4 months now. Wow. It's still hard to believe all the amazing places we traveled to this year 18 countries in all. Now 2009 is about to begin and while we probably won't embark on any crazy new travel adventures I'm sure they won't be far from our minds.Here's some interesting things I've noticed since I've been back. Just little random funny things that http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Diego/blog-358172.html So today is our LAST in Europe...not counting tomorrow which is full with a bus a train and two planesYesterday we toured the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren two verrrry beautiful areas around Galway. The cliffs were absolutely amazing and we lucked out with pretty good weather. We haven't had true sunshine here yet and its raining today and I wish we had because there is so much green t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Galway/Galway/blog-315930.html Hey allToday we went on a day trip with Galway Tour Company. We were a little afraid because it was raining but it ended up being alright. A bus picked us up around 10 AM and we drove to the county of Mayo yes like the condiment where we stopped at Ross Errily Friary ruins of a friary that has been around since the 14th century. Great place to take photos and walk around it almost felt like http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Galway/Galway/blog-315427.html Greetings from the land of Leprechauns We arrived in Dublin Ireland yesterday after another hellish morningafternoon of early wakeups metros trains and planes. Although we complain less because nothing can compare to the Interlaken to Barcelona adventure you have all read about. Anyways I digress. So Ian has already been here and done that but its new to me The city itself is very inter http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-314715.html Bonjour These French keyboards are WAY weird so be prepared for typos. So yesterday was my 23rd birthday I couldn't have asked for a better place than Paris to celebrate However the day started off rather rough. We had a 545 AM flight from Madrid which meant waking up at 3 AM to leave our hostel on the airport shuttle by 330 AM. The shuttle got us to the airport around 4. We checked in gr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-313516.html Hola from Sevilla Spain I spent 3 hours yesterday at the Kodak shop uploading important pictures from my memory card to a CD so here are the fruits of my labor This should be over a months worth of stuff so in no way is this everything...but it should give ya a taste of our trip Read the captions to know more about each picture. Enjoy http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-311372.html Well walking around the city today we made a connection to our hometown It turns out Balboa Park in San Diego is almost a replica of the park we encountered today that was made for a world fair expo. And Balboa Park was made for a world fair expo around the same time. Why they would copy Spain we are thinking maybe having to do with San Diego being discovered by Spanish explorers Hm. I am so gl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-311727.html Ian hereWell so far no bulls but plenty of spanish and aw so sweet to the ears it is It is so nice hearing a language I can speak. I feel fluent now that I can understand pretty much everything that is said to me. I never realized how comforting it was to be able to understand what is going on around you. Ok well for me Barcelona was summed up by two events. 1. 3 guys walking past us while we http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-311384.html Oy Vey. We are here safe and sound in Barcelona Spain but not without many mishaps and hiccups I guess you could say. Well here is how it started. We found a train itinerary that would have us in Barcelona last night from Interlaken. We got to the station about 5 minutes before the train left and it is about 5 minutes walk from the Bed and Breakfast. Then Ian realizes he didnt turn in the ke http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/blog-310125.html Hello Ian here I am finally writing one of these again cause I managed to get alone time and snuck away from kate. She feels when I write I take away from her writing because you all are so riveted by mine. Kidding...Well we haven't written in awhile due to being busy and all but that is a good thing Here in Switzerland there is the most breathtaking sights in nature that one can see. It is am http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Interlaken/blog-309784.html Hello Let me first say that Cinque Terre is AMAZING. We have a GREAT room with a balcony overlooking the teal blue water. Yesterday we took a hike to Monterosso which was challenging but beautiful. Then we came back by train haha and went swimming in the ocean for a couple hours. The water is so clear and the perfect temperature. I could have stayed in for hours longer. Then we had dinner at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Liguria/Cinque-Terre/blog-307884.html I figured I would give you guys a little glimpse into our daily life...what is it like to live out of a backpack and move around so much you ask VoilaWe usually wake up around 9 AM. Sometimes earlier if we have to catch a train. If it is our last night wherever we are we tend to pack the night before so as not to wake our roommates in the morning. Then we either check out and hop on our train http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-306685.html Ciao We left Rome yesterday and arrived in Florence or Firenze. Our hotel truly is amazing...its a cheap 2 star budget hotel that I think we nabbed for like 20 euro a night. Our room is at the top floor and it has a door to the rooftop terrace. It isnt our own terrace everyone can use it but its nice to have access to it from our room. The best part is it overlooks the Duomo which is one of http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Tuscany/Florence/blog-306675.html Ciao from Roma ItaliaWow so we never had time to write about our anniversary night in Venice...but it was THE most romantic night of my life...and one of the BEST nights of my life in general. We started out with a great and fairly inexpensive 3 course dinner at a quiet little restaurant. We had lasagna spaghetti salad pork chops calamari and a really yummy rose wine Then we walked aro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Rome/blog-305909.html Kate Helloooooo from Venezia Thats Venice to you...haha. We got in at 9 PM yesterday after 12 hours of trains...yikes We shared a train with these really cute kids. One of them was crazy. Ian Ok I Ian am going to tell this part cause I made a new best friend. Let me tell you about him. He is from Vienna but his parents are Nigerian and the most distinguishable thing about him is his laug http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Veneto/Venice/blog-303923.html Haha. Not really hungry but rather IN HungAry. Our hostel is okay...we are safe and sound. Today we walked around the city of Pest...see Budapest is really made up of 2 citites...Buda and Pest. We went to some thermal Turkish style baths today and that was a lot of fun. It looked like the baths in England except cooler cuz you can actually swim in them. We did quite a bit of walking around saw http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/Pest/blog-302852.html