So I am in Southern France now. I am currently in Nice, but I have been to Marseille and Monaco as well.

Marseille
Marseille was my first place to go alone. It wasn't bad aside from this creeper who followed me and just men in general. One man wanted me to stay the night, hinted at marriage, and told me he liked my eyes. It was weird being watched and smiled at and invited to dinner and things. I didnt like it. Instead of finding it flattering I felt more threatend then anything. Excluding the men I did like Marseille even though it looked like a once prosperous town that had gone sour. There was a lot of run down parts and graffiti. The churches there were soooo impressive though. There were a lot of beautiful things hidden in with all of the clutter. I also met this nice guy who was from England. He had cycled all the way down to Marseille from northern France. I thought that was pretty cool. One day he just went cycling and cycled 127 miles! I have met so many cool people from all over the world... it is amazing.

Monaco
Monaco was totally my favorite place so far. It was sooooo beautiful. I just walked around and lounged on the beach and talked to a few random people. It was fabulous. You can tell all the people there are loaded though. If I were loaded I would go there too. The whole Frennch Riviera is wonderful, but Monaco had been upkept a lot better then Nice or Marseille and they had beautful flowers and gardens everywhere to make it even more fantastic.

Nice
Nice was probably only slightly behind Monaco in beautym but I disliked it a lot more because I was only really walking around the city for maybe 3 hours and I was lost. Then the one time I asked somebody for help this old man started lecturing me about how if I wanted help I should learn French and that I shouldn't just expect him to speak english, Americans are so arrogant blah blah. I finally found my way home, but I was angry, hungry, and close to tears. I did get to pet a really cute dog though.

Back to Paris...
So there was something else I wanted to say about Paris but I forgot to. The first night I was in Paris I met this guy who was from Dallas who was in the same hostel room as me. It turned out he lived in Highland Park and knew Madison and Vance from KU. Small world, eh?

So tomorrow I head on to Milan where I am only spending one day. I plan to take a bus tour, see the last supper, and go to happy hour(you get free food when you buy drinks at happy hour in Milan). Then the next day I leave for Cinque Terre where I plan to spend 4 days hiking, laying in the beach, and meeting people. Woo!

So I always have other stuff I want to say but I can never remember it... I think I am going to go to the bar (there is one in my hostel) and try Spanish Sangria then go to bed. Bye bye friends!

Hi Friends!
Sorry it has been so long but I really dont have the time or money to update everyday. Most of the touristy things that I do and see you can see in my photos, so I am just going to touch on a few stories.

The Joke We Played on the Germans
So as you probably know I spent my first week with Tina who is German. When we were in Amsterdam we had a group of Germans living in our same room in our hostel. We didnt know if we could trust them or not to leqve our stuff with them and it not get stolen so we told them that we were both American. Immediately they started talkig about really awkward things that we knew they would not have said if they knew Tina could understand. It was an on going joke. Everytime we left the room Tina would translate what they said to me. Anyways one night they all got really really drunk so Tina would say things to them in German and they would freak out. Then she would tell them she told me something in english and that they were hearing things because she couldnt speak english. It was pretty mean of us, I admit, but they were so drunk that I doubt they remembered the next day.

The Rollerbladers
Every Friday night in Paris up to 20,000 rollerbladers rollerblade for 3 hours through Paris together escorted by the police. Tina and I went to see them and they had light up hats and portable boom boxes and would wave and shout when they saw bystanders. Some of them even had matching tshirts. Hardcore. It took about 15 minutes for all of them to pass and they were going really fast!! If you are ever in Paris on a Friday you should see it.

The Parisian Men (Boys)
One night Tina and I went out looking for the Bastille (which turned out to be right infront of us, we thought it was a building, it was really a monument) and we ran into these two guys, who then decided to follow us to Notre Dame. You can see pictures of them online. If Tina were not there I would have lost them immediately, and I kind of wish we had. They kept putting their arms around us and telling us that they were rich because they had 13,000 euros and that we must come back to Paris and visit them. They were just kind of half annoying and half charming until they told us to get off the train at the wrong stop which made us walk two miles and then they kep talking about giving us a present (which we werent sure what that is and luckily never found out). They finally left us once we pointed down a dark ally and said that was where our hostel was, but not before giving us each two wet sloppy kisses on each cheek. Bleg.

Count of Monte Cristo
Today I took a boat out to the prison that is in the Count of Monte Cristo. It was perhaps my favorite thing I hqve done so far on this trip.

Movie Extra
This is my last and favorite story and it just happend this afternoon. There was a large crowd of people heading up a street and I thought there must be something really good up there so I followed them. I couldnt see anything spectacular but I figured there would be something good soon. We were climbing these stairs and I realized that at the top there were two cameras. Then I was just confused until after I walked past them (I was the last one) and all of the people just stopped waiting for more instructions. I though perhaps they were filming a movie and I asked so,eone and they said yes! I didnt ask whick movie, which was dumb, but I may be in the background of some film. I would be able to spot pretty clearly because I was in the back and separated from everyone else. If only I had asked the name...

Bleg. Navigating through dutch on this computer is a slight challenge. So I am in Amsterdam! The deadly 38 hours of traveling wasn't as horrid as I would thought it would be and now I am pretty much caught up with sleep. Amsterdam is amazing! Everyone here is super friendly and they all speak english really well. Mostly Tina and I have just been walking around the city and taking pictures and meeting people and eating. Last night we went to the Red Light District which was really bizarre, but cool. All of the women were wearing next to nothing and stood in small individual boxes with neon lights shining on them. Sometimes they danced or did something sort of provocative, but sometimes they just sat there and talked on their cell phone. There were a lot of "naughty" shops and shows in ther area that were interesting to walk by, but I think I would probably freak out if I went in. Also last night Tina and I went to a "coffeeshop."I didn't smoke or eat anything except for a juice, but Tina had a hash muffin. That was interesting too. I'd never seen one before. I'm glad we went in there and to the RedLight District even if we didn't partake in anything like that just to see what it was like.
Today we did things slightly more innocent. We ate breakfast at our hostel and then went on a free walking tour for students that was three hours long. It was really good! I enjoyed learning about the history of Amsterdam and the Dutch people, who I learned are all about tolerance and money. We got some amazing Turkish food for lunch. Tongiht we're going to this art gallery, club, bar, coffeeshop (just coffee), live music venue place that was in my guidebook.
Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Rijksmuseum and the Hieniken (I don't know how to spell that) Brewery. Then we're leaving for Brussels where we are only staying for about 3 hours, then we're going on to Paris!
I want you guys to know what's going on with me, but I want to know what is going on with you too. Please e-mail me at ame2001a@hotmail.com to let me know what you're up to.
Miss you all!!!

My Itinerary!

Amsterdam- arrive in Amsterdam by plane @ 2 pm on the 20th, leave Amsterdam on the
22nd

Paris- arrive in Paris around 9 pm on the 22nd, leave Paris in the morning of the 27th

Marseille- Arrive in Marseille the evening of the 27th, leave in the morning of the 30th

Monaco- arrive early in the morning on the 30th, leave the morning of the 31st

Milan- arrive around noon on the 31st, leave the morning of the 1st

Cinque Terre- arrive around noon on the 1st, leave on the morning of the 5th (Monterosso,
Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore)

Venice- arrive around noon on the 5th, leave the afternoon of the 7th

Florence- arrive in the evening of the 7th, leave the morning of the 11th

Sorrento- arrive around noon on the 11th, leave the morning of the 12th

Pompeii- arrive around noon on the 12th, leave the morning of the 13th

Rome- arrive in Rome around noon on the 13th, leave Rome the morning of the 16th

London- arrive the morning of the 16th by plane