ciao bellllllllllaaaaaaaaaaa!

ciao from roma!

today is our second full day in Rome. The ferry over from Barcelona was INTENSE. We didnt get any sleep and everyone was smoking right there on the ship, standing next to NO SMOKING signs. haha. and then we got off the ship and we were basically just standing on the port, with no idea what to do. Luckily a guy from vancouver teamed up with us and we found the train to Rome. So far we love it here. All the food ive had here has been fantastic, more flavor than anything else ive ever tried. The pizza is thin and not greasy and the esspresso is the best in the world! seriously! We wanted to do something fun for ourselves and so we asked around and decided to cut our hair! Emily went drastic and got it cut short and dyed violet black! it looks greatttttttttt! i just got mine trimed and styled and i feel like its the best haircut ever! maybe just because were in italy? anyway, yesterday we walked to the Colosseum and it was sooo amazing! Its really annoying that there are all these people selling stuff outside it though and they constantly harrass you! Then there are these really nasty looking ladies and they try to use there little babies to pull at your heartstrings and get you to give them money...let me just tell you, it doesnt work! Today were going to the vatican and the sistine chapel. Im prepared to be totally blown away. Also, weve decided to come home after italy. so after rome were just heading up to florence and then venice and then im heading to oregon to look for a job and start saving up money again :) miss you guys!

caio spain!

Hi ya´ll :)

Today is our last full day in Barcelona. We had originally planned to hop on over to Madrid but we´ve kinda decided it´s time to move on to another country. Scheduling was getting crazy and expensive, and we suddenly found a ferry to take us from barcelona to rome that was the cheapest option! AWESOME! Barcelona has been an amazing experience though. We saw a band and flamenco dancers perform the other day and it was not like any dancing i´ve seen before. The dancer had so much passion and obviously loved this dance, there´s alot of stomping and hand clamping and i litteraly just sat there with my mouth open. On Valentine´s day it was gorgeous and the sun was shining and we walked to the beach! It seriously reminded us of Hawaii and we got homesick for like a second...and then it passed because we remembered where we were! haha. There was a gorgeous boardwalk with tons of people rollerblading, biking, dogs were frolicking..it was magical people, magical. Barcelona was also the site of the olympics one year so they still had a village and all of this modern setup from that time. It was like we were in another world, it was weird. For Valentine´s dinner we had the most DELICIOUS SCRUMTIOUS FANTASTIC WONDERFUL YUMMY seafood ever. It consisted of prawns, mussels, lobster, fish, and calamari! all grilled and amazing. it´s funny because a year ago i would have never touched any of that stuff but i´m all over seafood now...weird. that´s what hawaii does to you i guess! today we´re heading over to this cute bookshop we´ve heard about and once again getting lunch from the beautiful market (La Boqueria) probably fruit salads that have pretty much every fruit you´ve ever heard of and then one thousand that you haven´t even seen before. I´ve also seen on the travel channel that spain has this wonderful hot chocolate drink that´s really thick and they dip churros in it, and we´ve seen that alot around here so we´re making sure we get that before we leave to italy.

When we get to Italy on the 18th we´re spending four days in rome and then we´re gonna take really cheap regional trains all around the country, probably going to florence, milan, bologna, and venice. We´re beyond excited!! anyway hope all is well wherever you are!

love, Tara

aribaaaaaaaaaaa!

Hey guys! it´s been awhile! the rest of our time in paris went really fast! we visited the notre dame cathedral the pompidou center and the latin quarter and basically spent most of our time trying to keep warm :) yesterday we arrived in Barcelona, Spain and we fell in LOVE! this city is clean, the people are friendly, and the buildings are so gorgeous. we haven´t done much sight seeing yet but today we went to an open air market right next to our hostel. I´ve never seen so many fresh fruits, meet, fish, bread, vegetables and chocolate! The colors and smells were amazing. we will be going back everyday to take advantage of the amazing cheap food!! we were also really happy to find a starbucks here. i know, it sounds lame, but other coffee is really expensive and tiny. starbucks at least has drinks worth the money. we ate an authentic spanish dinner our first night. tapas (mushrooms, and a seafood salad) and seafood paella with sangria to drink!!! yuuuuuummmmm. there are flower stands everywhere on the streets and tons of street performers, which were actually crappy. haha it´s also much warmer and even sunny here. good because more cold weather and we might literally drop dead. we had a bad night last night because we were basically in a room with an alcoholic who was yelling, turning on lights, peeing on himself...you know all that disgusting stuff. but barcelona is so amazing that we weren´t too fazed and are just moving rooms. anyway, i miss you guys :( let me know how you are!

love,
Tara

pair-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

hey guys!

GUESS WHERE WE ARE NOW? PARIS!! yeah thats right. today was our first full day and we can check the eiffel tower and the arc du triomph off our list. I've been to france before so i wasn't as in awe as i was the first time but it is still soo amazing to get to come here AGAIN, i can't get over it! Our last day in london was perfect. We went to see Wicked, which got cancelled the day we were supposed to see it because of weather. It was the first musical i've ever seen and i absolutely loved it. If it ever comes anywhere where anyone is, go see it, you won't regret it. and Mom, you would love it especially. :) we have to see a muscial in Portland. anyway, the next day we were scheduled to leave for paris very early so we woke up at 4 and started our journey to the airport only to fing that weather by the airport was bad and all flights were suspended! we had to drag our suitcases uphill through snow, one of the hardest things we've done in our lives, and we had to wait awhile in the airport. Surprisingly, we weren't really upset at all though, we are seriously so happy to be in europe that any disappointment is really nothing compared to our entire experience. Our hostel in Paris is GIANT and so nice. we love it here, i'll be able to use the internet alot so i'll be updating my blog again soon. as alwayyyys. i love and miss you all and wish you were experiencing this with me. <333 (look vidushi!) hhahaa

so, it's snowing!

Hey guys! we're at our next hostel in Brixton, London. It's kind of like a huge cozy house with a really awesome scottish bar underneath. We're just relaxing during our second week in london and just going to a few places we didn't get to see yet. We went to the science museum yesterday and plan to go to the National Gallery tomorrow. But anyway, more importantly, ITS SNOWING IN LONDON FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 6 YEARS. People here are freaking out, but it's really not that bad. It's not even really cold and the snow is beautiful and fluffy and makes everything look like it's straight from an English story book :) we have booked our hostel in Paris for 7 days and have book our flight and hostel to Barcelona for seven days after that! So it's france and then spain so far. we're really excited and proud of ourselves for making this happen.
Tonight we are seeing the musical 'Wicked' look it up if you're not familar, Emily has already seen it 3 times and is obsessed with it! It will be the first musical i've ever seen, so i'm prettttttttttty excited!

anyway, i miss everyone and i probably won't update until paris!

love love! cheers!