October Camping Trip

Enjoying the great outdoors with some friends and family. But we got concerned when we came to a portion of our path that said we were entering an Open Range Hunting Area.... None the less the adventure continued. We hiked and chatted. Then came back and sat by the fire and enjoyed more conversation and of course lots of food (smores of course!)

Greece

Greece was our FAVORITE part of the trip. Even though it started out a little shakey in Athens when our hotel was in the hood! But when we got to the islands after an 8 hour ferry ride it was AMAZING! With the weather perfect! In the sun you were baking, but in the shade you felt good, and cool nights were perfect for romantic walks. Our first island Santorini was our favorite. We walked along the cliffs, rode donkeys, watched the sunset, and ate Gyros like they were going out of style. Naxos was our next island and it was a cute island. We actually found an outdoor movie theater, now most of the time you don't go to the movies while on vacation in another country. BUT we were in Greece and they were playing a movie that was filmed in Greece, and the best part, it was in English, so we saw Mama Mia. We were also able to walk at night along the wharf and sit and talk about the future. The last stop was Mykonos, which was the perfect spot to finish up a long vacation. We chilled at the pool during the day and in the evening we went to the beach and talked for hours. After 7 days in Greece Nat was all gyroed out so she decided to take a bite out of the extra skin on my face:) Then we started our journey home. After 23 hours of traveling we finally arrived back in Chicago.

Italy

We loved Italy, even though it was the hottest place on Earth! We landed in Venice and walked around the city on water, and when we got tired of that we took a ride on a Gondola! Venice was great, we saw the sites, ate the food( Natalie kept the Gelato shops in business all by herself;). We went to the Vatican City, a famous square were people let pigeons land on them (that's nasty) Venice was great, we even sat down and had a romantic diner by the canal. The only problem with Venice is that everything closes down about 10:00. When that happens you have to find your way back to the buses, in the dark, through a series of winding pathways. We felt like mice in a maze. After Venice we drove about 7 hours down to Rome. In Rome we saw the Spanish Steps, the Trevi fountain, the Roman ruins, the Forum and Steve's personal favorite the Colosieum. We were so busy enjoying the town that we almost got stranded when the trains stopped running an hour earlier than they were supposed. But thank goodness for Nat's quick thinking and Steve's panicky screaming, we made it safely home on the LAST bus of the night!

Spain

We landed in Barcelona. Our first hotel was about 30 miles out of Barcelona near a town in the mountains called Montserat. It was gorgeous and we took a cable car up to this city on the mountains, literally on the mountain! Steve was a punk on the cable car, he wouldn't even look out the window;) After that we booked another hotel in Spain. The funny thing about Spain is that there was never any resturants opened when we were hungry. While in Barcelona we went to Las Ramblas, the 1992 Olympic games site, and the beach. The city was nice, but really HOT. After that we drove south along the coast to the city of Valencia. it was nice as well, however the people there were pretty rude and we still had the problem with finding a place to eat that was open! We returned to Barcelona and chilled out for a day before leaving to Italy!

Prague, Czech Republic

We continued on to Prague. We all loved this place. The weather was nice and warm. The buildings and views were outstanding! We went to see a castle and Steve and I tried to break in! This was also the place to get a "eurodog", a hollowed out piece of french bread with a hole in the top and a hotdog put in the center. Yummy!