Doin' great.

Vatican city was AMAZING, especially St. Peter's basilica. It was extremely touristy, but enjoyable nonetheless. This history there is unreal and you can feel the power as soon as you enter the city. Ev downloaded all of the Rick Steve's audio tours and we learned alot about the meaning behind the Sistine chapel as well as the basilica. I feel very blessed to have been able to pray here.  Rome in general is an amazing place, so much to see, so much to do and definitely so much to eat! The cafe over here is addicting along with the gelati and the pizza. My favorite so far is pizza with artichokes, prosciutto, mushrooms, mozzarella and a fried egg. We have tried the traditional and most famous dishes according to our guide books and visited the best gelati places in Italy. Everyone told us to try lemoncello, but we weren't the biggest fans, we are going to give it one more chance before we leave Italia.
We are currently on a vineyard in Naples, staying at Ev's friend Jack's amazing apartment. He is stationed here for the Navy. Naples or Napoli as the Italians call it is not what I had imagined, it is a city and it is VERY dirty and unsafe. It is mainly controlled by the mafia, and as we drove to Jack's place we saw hookers on the highway along with mounds of garbage. This is our down time before we head to Berlin, Brussels and Amsterdam. Yesterday we went to Pompei and got to see the ruins from when Mount Vesuvius erupted 2000 years ago, there were still bodies that had been encased in ash that you can see. We learned that they had an equivalent to fast food shops there where you could still see the granite counter tops and the wholes in them where they kept the food. It was unreal to think that people inhabited this village 2000 years ago and had a similar but more simple way of life than we do today.
It was so awesome to skype with my cousins and my family yesterday. I still can't believe how fast time is flying by. Everywhere has been beautiful in it's own way. I have been thinking of extending my time here so that I can visit Sweden, I figure that changing my flight is easy enough and I feel my trip wouldn't be complete without visiting where my ancestors are from.
Tonight we catch an overnight train to Venice, where we switch trains and head to Berlin on an 8 hour one. I am tired just thinking about it! But very excited to move onto a new place. Thank god for skype, I got to catch up with my parents, Kev and D yesterday and Erin and Rory :) so glad that everyone is happy and doing well. I am not sure when I can update again, but I will do the best I can. I am even two weeks behind on my journal!! lol xoxo

just keep swimming...

sorry I haven't been keeping up with this, it is so hard to find the time. but since my last update I have been to Nice, Marsielle, Monaco in Southern France, Interlaken Switzerland where I went canyoning and hiking in the Alps oh and got to celebrate Swiss day!! we visited my friend Eddy from nj there, insane party town. right before Swiss we were at the Aviano airbase visiting another friend of mine from home. He was sooo accomidating and took such good care of us, it was refreshing to not have to worry about locking up our valuables or wearing flip flops in the shower. thanks Makis! right now I am in Rome, we have been to Venice, Florence and are seeing Vatican City today. i have been praying alot over here :). In Barcelona a few weeks ago I had a breakdown and wanted to go home, its not easily to live like this but i am fine now, actually looking into working for a hostel in Spain for a month or 2. we have met sooo many people who came here and started working and never went home. Don't worry Ill come back eventually ;) there are soooo many Aussies over here that backpack 3 to 6 months at a time. idk how they do it. the title of this post has helped me and Ev when times have gotten hard. love n miss you all xoxo