Finally

We are in Amsterdam now. This city is absolutly beautiful, and having bikes makes this trip so much better. Jerry and Loes, the two who I am staying with, own an amazing fitness center and cafe on the northern part of town. Yesterday, they threw together an impromtu family reunion and invited alot of family from all over Holland to the cafe. I got to meet so many new people. We've been hanging out with my cousin Jordy a good bit. He took us to a cafe for a friends birthday party, then we went up to a club. I finally got to meet Jeffry and Zoe, two of my other cousins. I had no idea that there were so many relatives over here that I did not even know. Anyways, it is awesome here. The real reason for this post: Pictures, so here they are...

This is the first thing that we saw when we arrived in Dresden. It is a bombed out theater that is attached to the train station. It's completely out of place, but cool as hell none the less.

Next up is a picture of one of the funniest people on Earth... The German, AKA Sandra. She was a foreign exchange student at Brown a couple years back, and made a reputation for being crude as hell. She was our tour guide of Dresden. Sorry for the dark picture, I was having some problems with the metering on my camera.

This is a really cool courtyard in Dresden. I guess it is a palace of some sort. I don't know, Sandra just refered to things at "That famous old thing." Ha.

Another shot of said palace.

This was one of the highlights of our trip. Right around the corner from our hostel was the COOLEST bar ever. It was completly themed off of "The Big Lebowski." It was freaking awesome.

Another very cool thing in Dresden was a Science Museam. They had everything from the first steam engines to a 1:1 replica of Sputnik. The coolest thing was an electricity demonstration in which they produced model lightning with a huge bank of capacitors.

Next up, in Munich, is a shot of one of the best meals ever: 1L of the best beer on earth + 1 of the biggest pretzels I have ever seen.

Our next stop was Milan... but that city freaking sucked. So much so that I didn't even feel it necessary to take out my camera while I was there. So, the next pictures are of quite the opposite, one of the most beautiful places on Earth: Cinque Terra Italy. It is a group of five cities connected by a number of hiking paths. It lies RIGHT on the Mediterranian. First up is a shot of Pawl in our "hostel." It was more like a honey moon suite with a bunk bed thrown in the corner. We shared this place with a couple of cool Kiwi's.

This is a shot from the window of our "hostel."

Here's one for mom. You can see a "Pace" flag hanging out a window in the distance.

A larger shot of the city we were in.

The Sea

This is a beach that almost killed me. I went swimming out here... it wasn't easy. The beach isn't really a beach like you would normally think of. Instead of sand, it had boulders. I went out, and was doing fine. It was when I decided to swim out to a large rock in the distance that my troubles started. It was a bitch to get out to, and when I got to it, it was covered with barnicles that cut me like crazy. I had to get on it to rest though. After sitting on it for a couple of minutes, a mammoth wave came up and tossed me off, so I started to swim back to shore. Getting back on to land was harder than getting off, because the waves just slam you into these rocks. After a good bit of struggling, I got back up. My reward, an eye full of some fat old lady taking off her shirt as soon as I get my head out of the water. Great.

An awesome shot that Schwartz got from another path while I was swimming.

The Pier at night. We met some cool people out here.

This is officially the best long exposure shot I have EVER taken.

Our city from the start of the path.

The path led all the way to that bit of land jutting out to the left of this picture... we followed it all the way. My feet still hate me for it.

Of course, the rickety old bridge.


A shot of the second city from the trail.


The third city


The third city... from the trail.

The "HI MOM!" picture. I am an idiot for not wearing a shirt when we were hiking. I still have two straps from my backpack burned onto my back.

Schwartz's "HI MOM!" shot. He's smart, notice the shirt.


Good sunset picture on the pier.


Wine was cheaper than water here, and those rocks were such a good meeting place.



Another rediculous sunset shot, with random guy in the distance.


DRUNK PEOPLE + Pawl.

On to Cologne. This is a picture of the oldest building I have ever seen. It was build by the Romans in 50AD. It was eventually just turned into a public bathroom.

The Dom.

More photos to come. I have been leaving my camera at home in Amsterdam because the weather is kinda shitty right now. I'll probably put up some pictures from here when I get home.