Sorry we have been SO bad about updating our blog- we have had zero time to! I guess this is a good thing though. Thank you for all the blog posts- we enjoyed them a lot! *Dad- these pics on here aren't ours- they are where we have been though and yes, we have some of our friends and Mom- we have some together- haha! We are having an AMAZING time! I don't know how we will ever be able to show/tell our experiences. Today we are in Florence, Italy. We have loved every part of our trip, however, I must say we were glad to get out of France b/c we'd had enough of bread and the french language! Nick and I seperated from the group (that went to a bar) last night and saw Florence at night.... lovely. We didn't wait long to try REAL Italian pizza and gelato! Ymm. Early this morning we saw a leather demo and I bought a bracelet of the country flags we are visiting- my big buy of the trip. Then we headed up a hill that gave us a view of all Florence and had a small church. We visited the 3rd biggest domed cathedral- Duomo. The dome is beautiful with painted biblical scenes. The style in Florence is very different- more paint on their cathedrals. We then walked to see the real David, but the line was WAY too long- so we decided the fake David that is the same as the real was good enough for us. We walked along a bridge with shops over the water and took some pics... we have SO MANY pics! Also our Contiki group has a facebook group- so we will have some of our new friends. Everyone is really nice- Nick and I started to think with an Australian accent because all but 4 are Austrailian-- so we are now calling our jackets jumpers and restrooms toilets. TONIGHT we go for a Tuscan dinner- pasta!!!

I don't have too much time before the bus comes so I will give a quick recap since London.

Paris was HUGE- our feet hurt sooo bad at the end. We saw almost everything though. The Eiffel Tower, Louvre (with Mona Lisa), Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame and ate lots of CREPES with nutella and bananas (Nick likes just sugar:). We saw the Moulan Rouge- glad we did it, but lots of topless women- ya get over it fast though! There were other acts too- like a gymnastic act and swim with snakes.

Bordeau- Nick and I took a walk around the town at night while the rest of the group went to the bar (don't know how they go out every night till 5am!( The best part of it was just walking around the river and seeing the most beautiful fountain with "sea" horses- my fav fountain yet. We ate Subway to save money and get away from french food.

We visited a few castles- Chateau Chamboard and also a town in a walled city- Carcassone- so much history and unbelievable size!

Barcelona (Thanks Ann for your Spanish message!) I actually whipped out a lot of Spanish and was the only one in our group that knew Spanish! Barcelona was very different than we imagined. Gorgeous marine town with sail boats and bridges. We ate tapas on a pier. We walked La Rambla (most famous street in the world- although thought it was a little over-rated... just a bunch of shops on a pedestrian street with everything down to bunnies for sale). We did go out with the group at night to a bar and danced- LOTS of fun. Spanish bars don't get go'n till 1am so it was a late night. Trying to speak Spanish to the cab driver after that was kinda embarassing! We also saw lots of Gaudi works- I like it a lot. Including, the house without any right angles- I made Nick go see! We saw Flamenco dancing- my favorite and ate gazpacho, flan, and meatballs. The dancers were so amazing- they pound so hard on the floor with such passion- AMAZING AMAZING!

Nice, France- FRENCH RIVIERA!!! We climbed up to the top of the Chateau to get coastline pics. Then tried to lay out on the beach, but only lasted a half hour... I was blowing away! But it was sunny- Nice has 300 days a year of sun- I want to move there! It was a cute town. Not too many sites to see, but walking the town was nice. We went out to a place called Wayne's bar with the group and got front row seats to a live band. Wayne's in known for its table dancing!!! SOOOOO much fun, but kinda hot! We danced for 3 hours on tables!

Monaco- 2nd smallest country in the world- we took a group photo with the entire country in it! CRAZY. Nice area- rich- Donald Trump can't even get citizenship here! Its a 1 million NON-refundable application for citizenship! We ate at a palace for dinner *a chicken dish and afterwards went to the Monte Carlo casino- not at all like Vegas- its QUIET and the ceiling looks like the Louvre- fancy painting.

THE DRIVE ALOND THE FRENCH RIVIERA IS THE BEST DRIVE IN THE WORLD. Its hours next to the beautiful coastline with small towns in the valleys between hills. I couldn't believe my eyes!

Pisa- Its a leaning tower- haha- that's it... we got some cool pics pushing and kicking it.

Lots of our meals are pretty much all you can drink wine- so we are getting SO SPOILED!

Tomorrow we drive to ROME and the next day will tour the Vatican and hopefully have time to see the Colloseum. Italy is just so cute! Lots of little streets and nice people. After our day in Rome we start our cruise over to GREECE and will then spend 3 days on the Greek island Corfu. We are going on a boat around other Greek Island and then to do extreme water sports one of the days.

Miss you all! Love from Italia!

Kristen