Florence – Italy – 6-4-2014

                For the past few days we have been in Florence, Italy and that has been something really special. Our hotel is about 2 blocks away from the main center of town with all the big cathedrals and what not. Florence I think has my favorite building. This dome building cathedral I think it is.   I don’t know what about it but it just looks awesome and it’s HUGE.   At some angles it almost looks fake in a way.  I think I have seen this building in a video game or something where it has been digitally designed because it looks so familiar.

                We found this nice little restaurant right by our hotel and went there 2 nights in a row.  The waiter remembered us the 2^nd nice and it was just an overall cool experience.  Real authentic feeling, many pictures of the meals is posted somewhere.

                We decided to buy some wine, cheese and meats and went to a local park to just hang out.  The park was pretty much just locals hanging out.  We were there for about an hour or more just eating and drinking wine. Out of nowhere it seemed like it was dog park time cause at any given time there was about 5-9 dogs just freely running in the park as their owners just chatted up in the shade.  Some of the dogs came by us and hung out for a few minutes.  It was a fun afternoon.  

                By the way, the gelato was BOMBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB

                Next we are off to Rome!!

Cinque Terre – Italy – 6-03 – 2014

                Woke up to a beautiful bright sunny day! Such a perfect time for clear weather since we are basically at the beach all day.  For next few days we are in Cinque Terre, Italy which is a region that has 5 cities or port type cities built right on the water’s edge and the house are in stacked formation as well.  Each of these towns are only a few miles away from each other and normally you can take this coast/cliff hiking path to each town but for restoration reasons the majority of the cliff paths were closed… so we took this cliff side train to each town and then took a boat on the way back to see all the cities from the ocean!

                The pictures just say it all; these towns are just so cool.  There were a lot of tourist around but we went down to the water and lexii went in the ocean for a little bit.  It worked well because when we moved to next city it was as if we were in between tourist groups.

                Our hotel/house was awesome as well! Pictures explain that better than I could describe.  The view was awesome. We were basically living in a little house; we had a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and even a garden area outside where we could sit and what not.

 

Lyon to Italy 6-1-2014

                Last night we got into Lyon, France and didn’t have much time before the metro would close.  So we left the hotel to find this cathedral that looked pretty cool online.  If we had more time and it was light out we would have gone to this huge park that had a free zoo and such but we figured that was all closed at this point.  We hopped on the metro and quickly found the cathedral actually.  That was all cool and dandy, seemed like we had missed some big day festival type thing since there was lots of food/merchant tents set up and now were being taken down.

                We found this street that was packed with people and at this corner were 4 nice dinner places that had tons of outside seating.  It was a fixed price menu for a 3 course meal. There were many tiers of pricing you could choose from.   The dinner was awesome though and so was the wine that Lexii choose.   We finished up in an hour or so and had enough time to get back to the metro and get home. Night

Today we are on a train all day heading towards Italy… more specific heading towards Cinque Terre which is home to these 5 cities that are built right on the edge of the water and are a few miles apart from each other.  Hiking and driving trails are available to reach each city.  We plan on walking to trails over the next couple of days to see each city.  That all is later tho….. for now we will be on a train all day.

                Edit: many many many hours in and still have 3 to go, we are now in Italy though and can already tell a difference in the type of people that are around you.  While on the train, we past some beautiful towns in these huge valleys that were either surrounded by mountains with vineyards, green grass or even snow.  Im assuming we were by the Alps since some signs said that along the way, could be wrong though.

Paris to Lyon train ride 5-31-2014

We have left Paris and said goodbye to Hutton. We hung out all day around the train station since our train wasn’t till 6pm.  Grabbed lunched and checked out a local park and took an hour nap.  The park was packed with people all just relaxing and lying down on the grass chilling.  It was pretty cool to basically just do what any other local would do.

               

               

            *Listening to that song again…*

    *AfroJack– Too Wild (feat. Wiz Khalifa)*

                     ^^^click to hear ^^^

                                I find myself now every time I get on a train I play this song.  The same feeling/effect happens every time.  It’s not so much about the lyrics but just the instrumentals and the echoing of voices that make it such an awesome feeling. 

                                Now to fully experience this… some good headphones (in-ear is best I think)… headphones that really allow you to have a surround sound experience.

                But as I write this I have restarted the song and we were going through a long dark tunnel, the song was building but no joke right when the “drop” happens at :45 seconds the train leaves the tunnel and just instant sunlight and green flat lands everywhere.  The music matched up with the surroundings perfectly.  I look around as I have my sunglasses on so no one can actually see what I’m looking at and I just think to myself “I’m on a bullet train in Europe heading to Lyon, France.  What an experience even if it’s just a train ride.”

THE FRENCH OPEN 5-30-2014

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day in Paris; it was perfect since we have been previously surrounded by rain for days in Amsterdam.  We headed to the metro and were on our way. Hutton would meet us later since his ticket only allowed him to enter after 3pm, matches began at 11am.  We arrive and waited in line to get in just like any other sporting event.  It was a pretty awesome feeling walking through the gates and being handed a French Open newspaper with all the daily action. Too bad I couldn’t read anything since it was in French, luckily the schedule is in a universal language haha Names, times, courts. Today there would be 4 matches on all the active courts, which was about 9 or 10 courts I’d say. Mostly doubles matches with a few singles matches. The outside courts I mean…our ground passes.

                We walked around and just got the lay of the land basically since we didn’t really know who we wanted to see first.  We ultimately made it to a men’s double match cause I mean come on who doesn’t like fast paced hard hitting men’s doubles. Sorry ladies didn’t watch much of you this event haha.  Seeing that red clay was just something else. 

                I further checked out the newspaper and finally recognized a match that would be awesome to see,Tomas Berdych was going to be playing on the outside court 2 (biggest court that wasn't considered a stadium court), it was noon and he was the 3^rd match to go on. (1^st match started at 11), so we figured we would go over there and watch the Men’s doubles going on before and get good seats for the upcoming singles match.   Basically what we do when we go to our electronic concerts and want a good spot for the NEXT DJ, we sit thru the previous act so we are all ready to go for our “favorite dj”.  WELLLLLLLL let’s just say we weren't the only ones with this bright idea.

                Now let me say first that over all the experience was awesome and once in a lifetime possibly and Lexii and I are very appreciative that my mom bought these tickets for my birthday. Love you mom!

                With that said let me continue with our “bright idea.”  We waited just about 2 hours IN LINE outside of court 2 just to get inside to watch.  Now you would think they would have TVs outside the courts so people in line could at least watch the match or EVEN see/hear the score….welllllll they don’t have that.   It was miserable yet awesome at the same time.  Imagine whatever the worse line at whatever amusement park you have ever been before and you have what we waited in.  Now that being said it is still awesome because the end result will be watching an awesome match at the French Open in Paris…Not many get to say that.  We are 8 people from getting let in. They are basically only letting single people in because no one I mean NO ONE is leaving the court because they all wanna watch the matches going on.  Finally Lexii and I get in but don’t get to sit together for the remaining for the 2^nd match (Mens Doubles). It wasn’t too bad since we were about 6 seats away from each other and were court center and 3 and  5 rows up. Being that close was so dope.  Eventually the man next to Lexii left and I swooped his spot, now being 3^rd row from the court.  It is now 3pm and singles is about to begin.  Originally we were going to meet Hutton at 3 but there was no way we were going to leave these seats now and we also had no wifi to communicate with Hutton.  We watched the first 2 sets and then it began to rain.  Rain delay was in an effect.  They covered that court so fast; it was something to watch for sure.  Lexii and I totally forgot to bring an umbrella just in case and decided to leave and find cover and hopefully hutton.  We eventually found hutton, the rain delay was over and play continued. We went and watched a mix doubles match on a distant court and then left the French open to head back to the hotel to prepare for the night to come.

               

  We went to the Latin District again and hit up many bars and got cheap drinks such as beer and wines as we either played pool, danced, talked or even met some locals and socialized.  Once again thanks to Hutton being able to speak French allowed so many more open doors for us.  Lexii and I can handle everything on our own but with Hutton in the group for a few days it really gave us another view on the vacation and going out to the bars and experiencing some other aspects of Europe. Fun night, made it to the metro in time and got home.

Back to Paris for the French Open and Hutton 5-29-2014

I have come to really enjoy Paris, for some reason it has started to feel like “home base” on this trip, even though from here forward I will never be in Paris again. 

                So we united with David Hutton and decided to go out on the town and hit up the Latin District. Not eating all day because of the trains we were hungry so we hit up this street in the Latin District that was just packed with people and lights were everywhere, it was roughly 10:30pm.  We got this gyro type food that was bomb.  Some kind of sauce mixture of sweet and spicy in a long French roll with lettuce and this meat, all topped with French fries.  So so so good.  We then continue to a random bar that just looked inviting from the outside and had Hutton order some beers for us.  Let me tell you having Hutton being able to speak French was awesome.  We got some beers and were just chatting and relaxing after the long day, then a while later we realize what time it was and that if we didn’t get to the metro before it closed we would be screwed since we were not close to our hotel or Hutton’s hostel.  We chugged our beers and headed towards the metro, along the way ofcourse taking some #selfies with the amazing buildings of Paris.  Ultimately finding that the metro in fact was closed and closed a while ago, we thought it closed later but forgot it wasn’t considered the weekend so the times were not the same.    We checked out the maps and Hutton gave us the 411 on which way to go to get home.  We went separate ways and attempted to walk to our hotel.  We walked for about 30 mins and said forget this lets get a taxi.  Got a taxi, got home (20 min drive later), we would of walked for another hour and half if we had walked.

Amsterdamn to Paris

Today we are taking multiple trains to get us back to Paris so tomorrow we can attend The French Open 2014.  While walking around the train station I realize my suitcase just got a lot heavier or has seem to have newly added drag.  My wheels are tearing apart.  What’s funny is now that the “outer shell” has broken off my suitcase is rolling faster than before. WINNING…

SNACKS ANYONE BETWEEN TRAINS? YESSS THATS A PRE-MIXED DRINK IN A CAN!!!!

the artwork on the train routes are nonstop! haha

On better news, we are meeting David Hutton in Paris tonight as he is going to stay there till Sunday.  Not sure if he is staying with us one night or not yet but either way he is looking into French Open tickets and he may be attending with us.  We will know tonight or not If he gets a hold of these “visitor afternoon pass or visitor evening pass”  and if he does hopefully he grabs us two as well since the evening pass is for main courts 5pm and on for only 15 euros…. Too bad we don’t know the schedule since the majority of my day I have no wifi to check and also play is currently going on at the French Open. 

EDIT (hoursssss many many hours later) – wellllll we finally made it to the hotel after walking in wrong direction.  Now 10 pm and have not heard from Hutton… im so tired, such a long day…. I don’t know what we are doing tonight

EDIT 2 (10:10pm)  O my god we god WIFI…it’s a fricking miracle! And somehow Hutton called the hotel and he is now meeting us here at this hotel…. We have no idea how he called…   This day is just ughhhhhh hahaha     I need a shower!   A private shower…. Not the publicishhhhh shower in Amsterdam.