Futbols & Castles --- An Intro to Europe

***NEW Pixagogo links***
- North Island New Zealand: http://www.pixagogo.com/5044795169
- Italy: http://www.pixagogo.com/9064555761
- Bavaria: http://www.pixagogo.com/5060535219
- France: http://www.pixagogo.com/8058575421

Apologies all around for the huge lapse in making a post on our blog but it has been a crazy month since our last entry. There is so much to update that it is hard to start writing an entry that encompasses so much...it has only been a month, but a wild 30 days to say the least.

We left off rounding out New Zealand at the hostel we were working at, meeting some great people that came and went, watching as many World Cup games as possible and getting geared up for Europe as best we could --- a daunting task with so little time! Before we left New Zealand, a country that is just mesmerizing in so many ways, we had two final days with our Kiwi family in Christchurch - Nanny and her 3 wonderful kids: Bella, Felice & Max. We touched down in Christchurch to find the area was in full-blown winter, a kick in the pants after having shipped back ALL our warm clothes a few days before. So we borrowed some clothes and hung out with the gang for our final days. The best part of our short visit back in Christchurch was getting up at 6am to watch the US-Italy game at this huge bar that was playing the games all day and night.

(for more New Zealand pics, check out our pixagogo link: http://www.pixagogo.com/5044795169)

As Nanny drove us to the airport in Christchurch we were expecting the following flight pattern into Rome: Christchurch - Dubai - Rome ... long, but only one layover before arriving into Italy. Now, let us tell you what REALLY happened: Christchurch - Sydney - Dubai - Milan - Rome. Well done, Emirates! Thanks for the heads-up! They had not printed the two layovers in Sydney and Milan on our paper tickets and the entire ordeal ended up lasting 26 hours in the air alone, not including all of the layover time and wacked out time changes we endured! The other wonderful tidbit to point out was the lack of entertainment we had on the long 15 hour flight from Sydney to Dubai. Only 8 rows on the massive jet were without entertainment and you better believe the old Global Prancers were nestled into one of those eight! Throw in a massive arm rest-hogging Aussie to our left and you got yourself a really long, hard 15 hour flight. The worst part was that Emirates made no concessions for the 8 rows that were without entertainment...they just tried to please us with countless bottles of wine --- fine for awhile, but come on...we wanted to watch some TV!!!

Utterly exhausted from carrying around our kilos of camping gear to boot and from the massive shift in temperature from a freezing, snowy New Zealand to a whopping 42C/114F in Rome, we landed in Rome registering about a zero on the excitement scale. Fighting our way through a few airport scams, we finally started heading to our crappy hostel and the euros have not stopped flying out of our pockets ever since!!! No, but seriously, we would NEVER recommend to anyone to arrive in Rome after having already been on the road for 7 months. Rome - and to a large extent, Italy and its citizens - requires an enormous amount of energy and smart, strategic planning to enjoy your visit. The circumstances in which we found ourselves in - having been on the road for 7 months already and just spending 4 months in a country that will bend over backwards to make your stay enjoyable - Rome came across as just "okay". We are very careful when we jump to this conclusion because we do not want you all to think we did not enjoy ourselves...but like we mentioned, with the circumstances the way they were, it was just okay. Being fare to Romans, they are bombarded in the summer with pushy NON-Italian speaking tourists that want to see it all and we know it is tough for the city to shine with these elements. And we would NEVER judge a country - and its people - by its most touristy city!!! That is ludacris and similar to if a European visits New York and judges our entire country by the Big Apple. Unfair! But with all that said, Rome just ended up looking like a big flock of hot, unhappy people running themselves crazy to "pack it all in." By the end of our time we could barely decipher the difference between the Pantheon (actually an amazing sight and one of our favorites), the Colosseum and the Roman Forum! It all started looking and sounding the same and we were just totally drained! Maybe someday we will return to Rome and take a different look at its unmatched historical ruins and the story that is Roma! That would be the fair thing to do...

And yes, we did most all the touristy things to do except for the famous museum at the Vatican...seriously, who would honestly wait in a line for 5 hours!!! There better be heaps of free chocolate and beer for something like that!!! And wine!

But we must give credit to some special family members that contributed to our most memorable and pleasant experience in Rome. Jill found out months before that she has distant cousins from small town Potosi, Missouri, now living in Rome. Trina, her husband, and two children own Biblioteque, a beautiful Ayurvedic tearoom in the heart of Rome. What a gem!!! We went to visit Trina and the kids for the day where they lavished us in healthy, scrumptous Indian cuisine. The tea room is gorgeous and serene and set up as a cafe and also a breathtaking studio where yoga and workshops take place. We thoroughly enjoyed our leisurely day with them chatting about family and walking the less crowded streets of Rome. Thank you Trina for a wonderful afternoon!!!

So as you can tell, after a jetlagged-infused tour of Rome, we needed some down time and found it in a place called Cinque Terre, or the "5 Lands". This is a stretch of Liguarian coastline that is just the most pleasant of places. Five little villages built into the coastal cliffs - some set up high, others descending down into the sea - these villages are rapidly becomming one of Italia's major tourist destinations. We stayed in Vernazza, the second - or fourth, depending on how you look at it - village and spent 5 wonderful nights taking in all that the area had to offer. The villages are connected by hiking trails and the steep slopes are covered in terraced vineyards...an impressive sight in an of itself. The wine itself is actually nothing to go crazy about - especially after the white wines we had in New Zealand - but when you mentally picture the work it must take for these villages to harvest these grapes and work in such an environment...each sip gets more and more perfect! The food was also an improvement to Rome where finding something unique is like scaling Mt Everest...except from family!!!(thanks again, Trina!) Our days in Cinque Terre were filled with lots of hiking, relaxing in the beautiful, picturesque villages, eating gelato and sipping on wine. We even hesitated telling you all about Cinque Terre in fear that it will get even more touristy than it already is...but what the heck, you all deserve to know! We ourselves have some of you to thank for recommending this place...you guys were right, it was utterly amazing and romantic!!!

So with Cinque Terre being stellar and Rome just okay, we left Italy with anticipation for our return later this fall but also huge excitement to leave the Italians who can be rather tough to deal with. We got on the train heading for Nice, France and were greeted by a completely full train! We barely made it on and squeezed our 6 bags by one of the bathrooms and stood for almost half of our 4 hour ride. We do not know what sort of booking system they have on these trains (apparently not much of one) but a sweaty, standing room only jam session in the back was NOT worthy of the 40 Euros we spent to get to Nice! Wow!

(for more Italian pics, check out our pixagogo link: http://www.pixagogo.com/9064555761)

As we mentioned in our last blog...we booked a car through Renault's Eurodrive program and were planning on driving Germany and France for 25 days while camping in the countless number of campsights throughout western Europe. So after we grabbed our little Renault Kangoo (kind of goofy looking but it gets the job done) in Nice, we made a B-line for Munich and the World Cup. We did, however, camp two nights before getting to Munich and it was a real shame we did not end up staying longer in both places. One was Lago di Como, or Lake Como, and the other was Verona, the fictional setting for Romeo and Juliet. Both places seemed like wonderful areas to visit and Verona especially made an impression. It is known as a "Little Rome" and we can see why. The architecture was romantically inspiring and the whole vibe of the city - much, MUCH more relaxed than Rome - was amazing. Tom successfully talked Jill (although she wanted to spend her life there) into departing and keeping to the plan that was World Cup MANIA 2006!!! (smile)

The drive from Verona, Italy to Munich, Germany should be a freakin´ UNESCO World Heritage sight as far as we are concerned! Wow...northern Italy, the Dolomite Mountains were amazing and then, BAM, Austria is like driving in New Zealand but with Audi A8's doing mach 3 on the autobahn instead of sheep crossings and kiwi fruit. All joking aside, Austria's landscape is very similar to the lands in New Zealand and we were so disappointed that we could not stay longer in the gorgeous area. Once we arrived into Bavaria and specifically Munich, we set up camp near Starnberger See, a huge lake to the SW of the city and were just a short train ride away from the madness of the World Cup.

Describing what we experienced the next 4 days is a tough task because we were just totally and utterly blown away by the people of Bavaria and specifically...the way in which they hosted the world's greatest sporting party. We felt completely at home in and around Bavaria and our time there was completely satisfying. Our first day in the city was the same day as the Germany-Italy semi-final game. Although the game was in Dortmund, you could have easily been fooled that the game was about to take place near the famous Hofbräuhaus beer garden. The energy of the German faithful was so passionate that within minutes we had German flags painted on our cheeks and arms, German shirts on our backs and singing "Deutchland, Deutchland" songs and something about "making it all the way to Berlin!!!" (where the final was to be played). Oozing energy and patriotism...we catapulted ourselves to the sight of the 1972 Olympic games and Olympia Park, headquarters for anyone and everyone to view the big semi-final game on one of the several big screens that played the game.

***By the way, many are saying that the 2006 World Cup is by far and away the most successful Cup to date and places like Olympia Park - a place that people without tickets can still feel a part of the atmosphere - are some of the countless reasons the Germans pulled off the best Cup ever!***

Olympia Park was unlike anything we have ever seen. Flags appeared as kalideoscopes waving in every corner of our eyes, beer and sausage aromas abound while songs and chants engulfed our hearts with feelings of love and acceptance. It was what the World Cup is all about...people from every nation coming together to celebrate life and the love of a sport - a sport that although it can cause us to cry and do things that are ludicras in normal circumstances - something that proves to be special to us all. We were devastated when the wryly Italians pulled out a goal in the 119th minute, an absolute heroic turn of events for an amazing game. The proverbial bubble that was encompassing the entire park for the game erupted with that goal as hundreds of Italians began what can only be described as a NASCAR event that instead of vehicles circling a track, it was red, green and white dressed Italian men and women running throughout thousands of German faithful chanting things that made absolutely no sense to us! The poor, poor Germans all held their heads low as they filed out of the park and left another potential World Cup title on the table for another country to embrace. To sum it up, the Germans are one amazing lot of people and we can only hope to return to this great nation someday very soon to be in the presence of lovely people.

(for more Bavarian pics, check out our pixagogo link: http://www.pixagogo.com/5060535219)

After Munich we slowly made our way to the eastern side of France and into the Alsace region. It is a gorgeous region with countless numbers of little German styled villages spread throughout thousands of hectars of vineyards. We spent a few days in the capital of the region, Strasbourg and are now in the heart of the Wine Route d'Alsace, in a sweet village called Kaysersberg. We took in the final of Italy-France in the town square on a TV set up for the game and were devestated for the locals as once again, the Italians found a way to pull out the victory. The Cup is over, but our hearts are still full of what it stood for and what it meant to all the people that poured energy and passion into each and every game.

(for more French pics, check out our pixagogo link: http://www.pixagogo.com/8058575421)

We now head for Switzerland to visit some friends we made in New Zealand and to enjoy the countryside. Hopefully it won't be another month before our next post...