whew! so we finally have decent access to the internet! sorry its been so long, but cutter and i have been having an AMAZING time running everywhere around western europe, and though are constantly out of breath and sore, have seen sooo many beautiful things and met so many interesting people that i think we may just happen to miss our flight home haha. but we have made it to nice, having arrived after a full day of train rides from barcelona yesterday, and it is everything we thought it could be. we walked up the promenade today and to the harbor on the other side of the bay, and the weather and everything looked just like that picture i posted! people are really nice as long as you attempt to speak french, and we have been meeting about 5 new people a day it seems. actually, as we got to our hostel last night, we instantly recognized 3 different groups of people who were totally unrelated to each other: one we had travelled with on the first train we took out of lisbon a week ago, another group we met at a station in malaga, and another person who we had hung out with in madrid! so its great feeling that even though we are almost halfway around the world (or 4,095 miles east of philadelphia i learned), we can run into people we know! and its been an exciting trip too, having ridden a double decker tour bus around barcelona- one of the greatest cities ive been to with something going on everywhere and tons of people- and then jumping a train without a reservation with some other travellers to get from marseille to nice, and a whole lot more that ill have to update you on later! we have been sitting with different people too on trains, and i made friends with a local guy who is studying in canada this summer, and cutter made friends and learned some french from a really cool 30 yr old customs officer who used to be a barcelona cop. also, we have run into a girl from broomfield where my apartment is near boulder, a guy who is from florida but going to go to denver university next year, and a girl who used to work at a denver hospital, so its been a real small world experience. but we have to go as a line is forming, so we are heading to monte carlo tomorrow for the day and then swimming here in nice the next day, before going to zermatt, switzerland for 3 days on our way to paris. love to all and will update whenever the chance presents itself!