ROMA!!!

Wow, Rome. I mean it was the basically the beginning of it all, and is considered to be the Capital of the World by many. I'm pretty sure all i have to say is Collesium, Pantheon, Forum, Spanish Stairs, Vatican City, Sistene Chapel, the Pope, Fountains, I mean it had everything.

Vatican City and Inside the Colessium





As of now most of what i can remember about Rome is having to watch all of the people that i had become so close with over the last month drive away on a bus to catch thier flights back to the States, and wondering where the hell i was going to live that night, because my friend that was intended to meet me in Rome was unable too. I was absolutely alone in a country where i didnt speak the language and had no idea where i was going to sleep. Looking back on it now it was actually a really great experience but i have to admit at the time i was really kinda freaking out. I ended up finding a hostel called colors that was quite nice and fairly priced. (you like the ryhme there...its tricky) I was scared at first going from such posh hotels the last months surrounded by 40 people my age that spoke my language and lived in the same country as me. Also, guided by a two people that were with us the entire time and could fix any problem you had. But, i found that the hostel life is actually quite fun and very safe. Everyone there is in the same boat as you and there is a general rule that no messes with your stuff cause they dont want you messing with theirs. I was a little unprepard though with things like laundry and towels. I guess they dont provide towels in hostels and i sure didnt find that out til i was sopping wet getting out of the shower looking for a towel. Of course i improvised because there was a blow dryer attached to the wall. (side note: it really takes a lot longer than one might think to dry your entire body with a blow dryer...lesson learned). The second day was great, i strapped on the ipod and covered Vatican City, the Sisten Chapel, the Fountain, and the Pantheon in about 5 hours. You can definately cover more ground when traveling alone, and you get to have some pretty interesiting convo's with yourself as well as stangers. That night my two roomates were going to a pub crawl and i decided that i didnt have anything better to do so i went along. It turned out to be an absolute blast and I met an Englishman, a guy from Scottland, several Aussies, and a couple fellow Americans. The cool thing is that everyone there is again in the same boat as you and just want to meet people so it makes it really easy to make friends fast. All around it was great and i made it to the airport no problem the next day to fly back to London where i have been for several days, with a 4 day side trip to Newquay...Ill tell you about that next time though.

My new mates and I on the pub crawl:



I almost forgot too, on our last evening/night in Rome myself and everyone else in our group decided that we were going out with a bang in Rome so we sported Toga's to the Colessium, Dinner, and eventually the roof top bar of out hotel. It was night to be remembered and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend the last month in Europe with.

Sportin' the Togas:



PS - If you ever doubted the fact that you can buy a beer at McDonald's I have the truth and the answer is YES!!! No idea the brand but this is definately a McChicken, McFry, and an not so cold (of course we are in Europe where nothing is cold) McBeer!

Wow, so I just read my blog and realized that a lot has happened since the last update. I really tried to keep this up to date, but once i got deeper into Italy i had quite a struggle with the computers all being in Italian and not uploading photos correctly. I guess I'll try and start from where i left off. I believe it was somwhere around the Feast of the Redeemer in Venice (man that seems like a long time ago).

Anyway, the Feast of the Redeemer was absolutely out of control! It was the most people ive ever seen in one place at one time.

This is how packed it was and my flash only went so far but it was like this for a solid square mile if not more!!!



The firework show was amazing and being that we were all deprived of our Fourth of July this year we were a little over excited. Excited to the point that we started singing a little remix to the song Proud to be an American and i dont really think the Venecians around us liked that very much. I guess i gathered this because some guy came up to me and started yelling at me in Italian (i think) and i was of course standing up for myself when all the sudden at third guy (we call him the squirrel master - from the movie Half Baked) came out of left field and cleaned this guy out. It was kinda scary cause one second this guy is there and then in a flash was gone. The Venice police even showed up and arrested one of them. Anyway, definately woke up the next morning and my roomate said it best. Feast of the Redeamer 1, Dustin and Johnny 0.

Ok, on to Florence. By this time in the trip all the cities and churches we had visited were starting to blur together. I call it power traveling now because we covered so much ground in such little time. The first few nights in Florence I honestly didnt travel to far from our hotel in fear of getting lost because every street in Florence looks exactly the same. Until you find the Duomo which is what pretty much every thing is based off of. If you dont know the Duomo is the 4th largest church in the world and is absolutely overwhelming the first time you see it. On the Third day though the fun really kicked into overdrive because my good friend Tay and I decided to rent scooter and see the rest of the city. I have to say that the 25 Euro we spent was definately on of our top 4 best purchases of the trip. The other three are as follows. 1) The Pontoon Boat in Lucerne (that will never be topped), 2) The Vinyard we visited in Tuscany (but ill get there later), 3) the dinner in Paris next to the Notre Dame Cathedral and 4) these freakin' awesome 50cc scooters that we took on the highway on accident in Florence.

You better get out the way when you see me on the highway



It was by far the most dangerous thing we did on the whole tripp and thats why only Tay and I participated cause we both had previous riding experience. Nothing compared to this though. In Florence, well Italy in genral people drive like freaking cRaZy! there are traffic lights and the lanes are marked but no one seems to pay attention to them. Tay almost got taken out about three times from a Truck, a Bus, and a Minin that pulled out infront of us. Whew, we made it all right though. Eventually, we found this road that took us up to the top of a smaller sized mountain just on the other side of the river from Florence. The view from the tope was amazing and you could really appreciate the size of the Duomo from there.

The View



Also, we found this little cafe' up there where we both grabbed a noon'er and talked about how the only thing that would makes this better would be to have our two amazing g-friends on the back of out scooters. Then, the craziest thing happend. Because I girl friends couldnt be there i started singing "You cant always get what you want" by the rolling stones. there had been no musice for a good half hour when all the sudden out of this cafe' about 15 min. after i was singing it the same song started Blarring!!! It was more than weird so we both decided to bounce. The scooters though definately gave me a new appreciation for Florence and I would recommend anyone who goest there to try it out. Plus, I have video of me ramping off a road block as well if anyone wants to see it...lol.

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that by this time in the tripp my beard had gotten pretty burly and I was dared to do somthing with it. So of course in true Kansas style I decided to go with a handle bar mustache which was a huge hit, except our tour guide Marc couldn't even look at me with out laughing.

Thats right mom and dad this is what you son looks like with a handle bar stache (Dont worry I dont think it will ever happend again :)



PS - No i did not start smoking on this trip, but it does complete the look i was going for :)