1600 Pictures

Well we made it home safe and sound, and tired. I've finally loaded all our pictures (all 1600+ of them), and its quite daunting to go through them all. Here are some of our favorite photographs and memories

Well I could keep adding pictures forever. I think we both had a fantastic time. Thanks for popping in along the way. Ciao!

Takeaways, 'alf-past, and Revisions

Wow it is nice to be back in the land of the english-speakers again! AND we even have a functioning keyboard today, so this shouldn't be such a headache! We got a little lost looking for dinner after our last post, but finally found the Hard Rock Cafe, where we had delicious bugers and free hot fudge sundaes! We still had more sights to see in Paris that night, so we hopped on the metro and went to Montparnasse, a big office building that has their 56th floor set up as a tourist observation building with views of the Eiffel tower. it was pretty neat, nice to have it in the background of the pictures so you actually know what city we're in! We took the metro back up north (I'm an expert on navigating these subway systems - we haven't gotten on the wrong train once) then to the Moulin Rouge for some pictures. Apparently it's much easier to take pictures there now then when Briana was there last, so she enjoyed it quite a bit.
Wednesday was another long day, with a bit of rain and a tour bus that never showed up. We shopped on the Champs-Elysees and made our way over to Notre Dame, before buying some delicious cake to eat in Luxembourg Gardens, which is apparently where Marie Antionette lived when she said "Let them eat cake!", so we figured it was fitting to enjoy some cakes in the gardens. It didn't stop raining, and we trudged around through a few more shops (including fabric row - Briana was in heaven but it was pretty pricey) before heading to the Eurostar and off to London.
After a lovely foot bath and sleep in our hotel last night, we dashed across London this morning to catch our tour bus to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. We didn't go inside Windsor Castle, just enjoyed the town around it and had some lunch. Stonehenge was pretty neat, apparently it will be crazy next week during the summer solstice so i guess we picked a good time. Our tour guide led us around Oxford, showing us the different colleges (there are 39) and some of the sights where Harry Potter was filmed. It was a long day on the bus, but overall we had lots of fun. We also really enjoyed all the new englilsh phrases we learned, including our favorite "'alf-past". 
Time to head back to our hotel and repack our bags one last time! We're going to the wax museum and then Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night. Oh, and we've leared it's the Queen's birthday on Saturday, so Happy 84 b-day to her in advance! (Yes, she reads this too, we're quite popular) We'll post pictures when we're home on Saturday, but this will be our last official post. Thanks for tagging along with us on another excellent adventure!
Oh yes - Congratulations to Hossa, finally won a stanley cup!

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paris keyboard mentally breaks us

Bonjour. We are writing from Paris tonight and the keyboards are completely mixed up , so this is really painful to type. we are exhausted and on our way to dinner right now, so bear with us. The last few days of our cruise we found a book on greek mythology so Kristin was teaching me all about the greek gods. We had a day at sea which was lovely and relaxing. there was a bit of rain in the morning but the afternoon was gorgous. kristin served me ice cream up on deck and it was a lovely day. we ordered room service to our cabin and watched a movie

• loved dubrovnik - old town - beautiful beach - planning our next vacation there already - our favorite cruise port*
• yesterday we disembarked cruise and spent the day exploring venice - was hot - ate gelato - beautiful artsy fun and creative city, like me
• sleeper train to paris - arrived this am - walked for miles - took k to the second level of eifel tower - rode a sightseeing bus - on our way to dinner than moulin rouge - tomorrow another busy day in paris and late afternoon we head to london

 
this post has made me hate keyboards; computers; as everything is just in the wrong spot: we are going to quit now and find food: will email from london: xooxox  miss you
ps - mom did you ever mqke ,y qppoutn,ent zith jenn§
- translation; did you ever make my appointment with Jenn
 

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Cable car or Donkey?

Hello again! Briana just awakened from her siesta with a bit of a headache, so the blogging responisbilities are back to me! We forgot to talk about our great "participation in cruise activities" on our very first day! They had an adults-only paper flower making class, that we knew we had to try! Our cabin now has some lovely pink and blue flowers as decoration. This afternoon - Painting ceramics!
We made it to our first greek port on Wednesday afternoon. Katakolon is near the ruins of Olympia, but we decided not to pay the big bucks for a hot tour bus to the ruins, and went shopping instead! The whole town is only 2 streets along the waterfront, but it kept us occupied for much longer than expected. I made Briana climb another hill then, to the overlook behind the town. That night we splurged on the 2 euro service fee for room service and had an early night before our big day in Santorini and Mykonos.
Briana had neglected to mention that the port in Santorini is basically at the bottom of a cliff, and the only way up is by cable car or donkey. She didn't speak too highly of the donkeys after Egypt so I sucked it up and got in the cable car. There was definitly some handle gripping, and I warned her that the way down was going to be much worse for me! (We ended up walking down the donkey trail, which I think she enjoyed a lot less). We just wandered through the twisty streets looking for things for my little photographer to take pictures of, and we found a bead store that made us miss our momma!
We spent the afternoon back on the ship while it headed for Mykonos, getting there around 6pm. We did more wandering (and more shopping) and the super-navigator managed to get us to the famous windmills for pictures at sunset. This was definitly our latest night yet, it was almost 10pm before we were back in our cabin!
We were up early again this morning to go into Rhodes, which is the top european destination (according to the sign in the port!). The main attraction is the old walled city, and we made our way through more twisty streets. We both decided it reminded us a bit of Disneyland, the fantasyland part i think. Our Destination this morning - The Palace of the Grand Master. We'd seen it mentioned in a book and thought it sounded too good to pass up, and reminded us of somewhere our dad would like to go! It was pretty impressive, and we were able to walk through a lot of it, i think it was a castle belonging to some of the Knights Templar but I'm not sure on that point. Another afternoon of shopping (don't worry, we mostly just look at things....), they seem to specialize in designer knockoffs, especially perfumes (only 3 euro for lots of nice ones!).
Our expensive internet time is winding down, so it's off to our painting and some cards before dinner. I'm hoping to keep Briana awake long enough to go to the show on the ship tonight, but my odds aren't looking good!
Ciao for now!

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Ahh the smell of pure alcohol in the morning

Hello everybody! Its Briana posting today (so please excuse the bad grammar and spelling). Since you last heard from us we had an early train trip from Naples to Rome on Sunday morning, we arrived into Rome around 8am. Made the trek from the train station to our hotel, dropped off our bags for the day and headed out to see the Colisseum. We splurged on the entrance fee and Kristin did an "audio tour", while I took pictures. She shared some of her new knowledge with me, so it was a pretty good way for us to see it. It was already pretty hot and we headed over to the Forum and Palentine Hill and wanted through the ruins. Thankfully there are fountains of cool drinker water inside the Forum, it was already pretty brutally hot. From there we wandered through Rome for a while, then took a break with 1Euro milkshakes  (Kris had tiramisu flavored milkshake) at Mcdonalds. I found a store that sold pretty envelopes, which was very exciting for me. We strolled through some more piazza's and then on to the Trevi Fountain, which was a favorite spot in Rome for both of us. We through our coins in over our shoulders, and then we were on our way to the Spanish Steps. We were hot, and our feet were aching at this point, so we hopped on the metro to take us back to our hotel. We had a quick power nap at the hotel (siesta), then walked around the corner from our hotel to a little italian restaurant for an early dinner. We both had pasta which was delicious, and Kristin had tiramisu for dessert. Then we headed back to our hotel for an early night.
Monday morning when we got up they seemed to be cleaning the hotel lobby (which was literally 4 steps from our room) with pure alcohol, so we had to hold our breath during the check out process. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel, then trekked back to the train station. We boarded our train to Venice (about 3 hours). We arrived in Venice about 12:30pm, and right outside of the train station in Venice is the Grand Canal, which was really neat. Pretty short walk from there to the cruise port, and then a bit of waiting to get checked in and onboard. We are sailing on the Costa Fortuna. We explored the ship for a while, then it was time for dinner, and an early bedtime.
Tuesday we ported in Bari about 12:30, and we went out and did some wandering and some shopping. It was much different than the ports in the Caribbean, where the port becomes overcrowded with cruise guests. We had some amazing (and HUGE) gelato late in the afternoon, and then came back on board.
Today we are porting in Katakolon this afternoon. We are going to do some exploring and shopping. We just bought some cards from the gift shop, so we can play some pounce later on.
Tomorrow is Santorini and Mykonos, then the day after is Rhodes. We will try to do a post after Rhodes.
The internet onboard is pretty expensive (dad - we will send you the bill), so we have to keep them short and sweet.
Well I feel like I should do some hockey cheering now, so I guess "Go Chicago"....
I suppose thats it for now. Love you all lots, miss ya, wish you were here!! XOXOX
 

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Living the high life in Capri

Hello again, its been a busy few days since the last post but it's been some of the best ones because Briana arrived safe and sound on thursday morning! We've been enjoying all the shopping everywhere we go, and both got a little bit of sun on our shoulders today in Capri.
I had lots of fun showing Briana all my favorite spots on Ischia, the day went by too fast! I took her to Sant Angelo and Lacco Ameno, and treated her to dinner at the hostel restaurant. You would think after all my stories about how long meals take she would have known what to expect, but I guess I didn't explain it well enough! I thought she was going to fall asleep under the table like one of the dogs...but Lorenzo made me a pesto pizza which was amazing, so I enjoyed the last meal there!
Friday was an early morning heading off to Capri at 8am, and we were a little overwhelmed when we got to our hotel and they served us welcome champagne and walked us up to our room. They were very apologetic that we only had a view of the rock wall behind the hotel, but you get what you pay for! (Even this view was very VERY pricey for us). We explored most of the town and the designer shopping that we couldn't afford, and walked around one edge of the island, down many many stairs (Briana complained alot, until we discovered that it was a circle path and we didn't have to walk back up!) and saw lots of rock caves that looked like they would make perfect homes for dragons! Briana was still a little jetlagged and I've got a super sore throat and cough so we went back to the lovely hotel and went to bed very early, after watching some news (we've decided we're not very good italians but we'll make great senior citizens!)
After almost 12 hours of sleep, we were up bright and early this morning and I dragged Briana off on another walk to Villa Jovis, where Emperor Tiberius had a summer home. We decided we needed to see some of the coast, so took a boat tour around the island. We stopped at the blue grotto, and it's just too painful to describe here how they would bring rowboats to our bigger boat and take people into the grotto 4 at a time (for an additional 12 euro)....we skipped that part, was too touristy for us, and sat in the sun on the boat. Once that hour-long ordeal was over, the rest of the trip around the island was lovely with great views, different than what we'd seen from on the island. We headed back to the hotel with a gelato and a cone of cherries, then caught the ferry into naples. We trekked up to our hotel (i impressed Briana with my map reading skillz) and found the McDonalds next door! We couldnt afford food on Capri, so we were both pretty hungry by this point!
We've just come back from some naples shopping after dinner, where I introduced briana to my favorite Italian store, Carpisa. It's where i bought my wallet, and i pretty much buy something everytime i go in. I think she liked it too, judging from the big lime green carpisa shopping bag next to me! Time for bed now before an early train to Rome.
Miss everybody lots! can't wait to show some pictures when we're back!

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Almost worked!

Apparently I can only post 2 pics at a time...

Making Panzerotto
Aragonese Castle

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Last try

Temple of Jupiter in Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background
Amalfi

Sorry for any sideways pictures, Briana didn't cover that in her blogging lesson!

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Pictures, attempt 2

There isn't too many of me, those ones are on Courtney's camera!

Festival in Lacco Ameno
Negombo spa

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Time flies when you're having fun!

Eeep! how has my 3 weeks gone by so fast??? only 2 more days of classes left (they moved our Thursday morning class to Wednesday afternoon so people can make it to Rome for flights easier) I'm still trying to decide what things I have to show Briana when she comes, there is just so many beautiful places here!
We made it to Amalfi on Sunday, and it was worth every penny! Our boat left at 8 am, dropped some people off in Capri, then took us over to the mainland. There was a tour guide pointing stuff out along the way, but she definitely talked (and told jokes) in italian and german more than english. The coastline was so pretty (I'll post some pics when Courtney gets up, don't want to disturb her), and it was about 11:30 when we got to Amalfi. We had 2 hours to explore before we went to Positano, which was a little farther up the coast. It was pretty too, but everything was really expensive and the town was a little too small to entertain us for 2 hours! It was 6:30 before we got back, so we were all pretty tired, even after napping on the return boat trip.
Somehow I ended up being the only one to get all their assignments done on Saturday, so I had for 10:30 onwards yesterday to lounge around and make everyone jealous! I spent a couple hours up on the terrace, then went to the beach with some of the non-pharmacy students and swam for the first time while I was here! Unfortunately, I managed to burn myself (similarly to how I did in Dominican...) but it's faded nicely this morning!
We had our last cooking class last night, and it was the best one yet! They taught us to make gnocci (pasta made from potatoes), pesto, AND tiramisu! They make it all seem so easy....but I think the pesto sauce is definitely doable, I'm planning to plant some basil when I get home! After dinner (around 10:30....I don't know how I'll go back to a normal eating schedule!) Lorenzo was chatting with us and telling a few of us about how they name their pizzas. Each one is named after a family member or friend who's asked for a new type of pizza. He told us that I we suggested one, he would name it after us, so I immediately suggested a pesto pizza, and he loved the idea! He said he'd name it the Kristina pizza (My name doesn't quite exist in italian...way to go mom and dad :p) and that it would definitely be on the menu when pharmacy students come next year! I'm planning to take Briana to their restaurant for dinner on Thursday, so I might ask him to try it out then!
Anyways, time for my breakfast of nutella and white bread while I get ready for our presentation this morning! I'll post pics shortly! Miss you all!

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And I thought homework was hard in Edmonton....

It always seems like the days left for homework are the sunniest ones! Assignments came fast at the end of the week, and we'd already planned an adventure to Herculaneum and Pompeii for Thursday and Friday, so today has been work, work, work! At least I could sit up on the terrace in the sun. I'm getting pretty close to done now, so hopefully I can enjoy my boat trip to Amalfi and Positiano tomorrow.
The highlight of Wednesday - we finally got the pesto pasta for dinner! It was so delish, I'm definitely going to order it tonight! Its a real treat to get to order your favorite meal of the week of the menu on the weekends, and the family restaurant is one of the most delicious and affordable places we've been.
I won't bore you all with the details of our school thing on Thursday, but I will say that it finished early so we were off to the Circumvesuviana train and Herculaneum much earlier than expected! The train station was a little rough, lots of grafitti but the trains ran often and it only cost Courtney, Susan, and I about 15 euro round trip. I have to say, if you only have time to visit one place, pick Herculaneum over Pompeii! Lots of our classmates went to Pompeii last weekend, so we've been hearing how amazing it was all week. Herculaneum just had so much more of the impressive painting and tilework intact, and wasn't as overwhelming as Pompeii. Pompeii was also super  busy, so that might have had something to do with it. We stayed overnight in Pompeii, and had the most amazing sleep at our bed and breakfast. Huge room with 3 beds and a giant bathroom...AND the shower had a door!!! (Our current shower at the hostel is just a showerhead in the corner of the bathroom, you just huddle up against the wall and try not to get your towel wet on the back of the door...) It was called Il Bassotto, which must translate to the dachshund, cause all of there logos had a weiner dog on them, nd there was even a live one that visited our room!
After Friday morning in Pompeii, we went back to Naples and Ischia Porto for some more shopping, and a delicious meal of chicken mcnuggets (we were craving normal food, and couldn't eat more pizza) and I was exhausted by the time we got back. hopefully the boat trip tomorrow makes up for my lack of activity today!
Only 5 more days until my little sister gets to come join m on my lovely italian island! CAN'T WAIT!!!

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An Adventure to the Aragonese Castle

Hello everybody! The Internet has been out at our hostel since Sunday evening, but I finally gave in and brought courtney's iPhone over to our classroom to try to do an update. It's tricky to type on, so I hope the spelling isn't too bad. After a rainy, cool day on Sunday, the last 2 days have been sunny and beautiful! Classes have been interesting this week, learning about some of the external factors that dictate what food can be produced in a country. We watched a movie about jamaica and how dairy farmers there were put out of business due to the import of powdered milk. It's all a little depressing, makes you feel like the banks control the world. Anyways, we're doing an assignment where we figure out the origin of all the ingredients in our food, so it should be interesting. Tomorrow we're going into Naples to work with the Italian pharmacy students.
When I talked to Mom and Dad on Sunday, I realized I hadn't explained who Lorenzo was very well! The hostel we're staying at is run by the Colella family, and they have 3 sons (Guiseppe, Amerigo, and Lorenzo) who each run one of the 3 hotels/hostels they own. There is a restaurant at the main hotel where they give us dinner for free on Sunday-thursday, and the food is just amazing. Every Monday night we have cooking lessons there, and yesterday they taught us to make panzerotto (a deep friend potato croquette with cheese and ham), pizza dough, and homemade pasta.  It all seems like such simple food to make, and Lorenzo's pizza is probably the best we've ever had. I've got my fingers crossed that we're going to learn to make their amazing pesto sauce next week!
Yesterday Courtney and I went off to explore Ischia Porto and the Aragones Castle right after class. We decided to splurge on the 10 euro to go into the castle, and spent a couple hours exploring it. We both decided that the torture chamber alone was worth the money, there were some pretty creative machines in there. They also had both male and female chastity belts on display, I'd never realized there was a male version! It was an amazing day, and I should have some good pictures. We stayed there for dinner, playing the odds that we hadn't had fish for dinner at the restaurant in a while and that it would probably be on the menu. Boy, did we guess right! Apparently they had deep fried anchovies, so we definitly made the right decision!
Guess I better do some homework, sorry for the lack of e-mails!

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The Queens of Epomeo!

We accomplished our goal on Friday and we're the first ones of the group to climb the Mountain! Mount Epomeo is the highest point on the island, and the trail led right to the top lookout where you could see around the whole island. We took the bus to the highest town, then hiked for about an hour to get to the top. I was wishing for Dad or Briana to take pictures cause I just couldn't do it justice, but i did my best! After that hard work, we needed a day at the hotspring spa. It was pretty windy and rained a few times, but aside from the wet towels it was a very nice relaxing day. We were hoping to go on a boat trip to Amalfi and Positiano today (Sunday) but it is very very windy and the boat didn't go. Oh well, quiet day to work on some assignments and plan next weeks activities!
I had my first true italian Tiramisu last night, and it was the most amazing I've ever tasted. I guess I've never had Victor Bongo's tiramisu, but i'm pretty sure Lorenzo's would beat it! Courtney and I shared pizza and pesto pasta, which was also so amazing. It was weird to be able to order off the menu at the family restaurant, usually they just serve us all as a group (which would be why I tried swordfish) but it was an amazing meal. It takes forever to eat a meal though! We got to the restaurant at nine, after Lorenzo finally picked us up, and it was midnight before we were done our food and ready to go! At least we didn't have to getup early today.
Mmmm breakfast cake! time to go snag some!

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A uncomfortable fish-uation....

Hello everybody! I can't believe I've been gone for a week, it seems like i've only been here a few days, but we do SO much everyday that each day feels like 2! We're done our first week of "classes", and most people have taken off for weekend trips so it is lovely and quite around our hostel today. We got to sleep in and have all the bathroom time we wanted, since there is only 3 of us sharing the 2 bathrooms that are usually for 14 people!
 
Courtney and I have been doing lots of exploring, we've been to most of the towns on the island but the one we went to the first day is definitly our favorite. It's called Lacco Amena, I'm going to try to post apicture of the "mushroom rock" that it's famous far. We're planning to go back there this afternoon, they have a music festival on with some very pretty lights up all over the streets. We also went to Sant Angelo, which is a very tiny little town right on the edge of the sea, and had the best margherita pizza so far. We're planning a trip back just for the pizza! We going to wait for a while though, they're repaving the road down to it so you get fresh asphalt stuck to your shoes when you walk it. We also went to Cassiamicola, but it is not as nice as either of the other 2.
 
Yesterday was our big adventure into Naples for the tour of the University and Hospital Pharmacy. We had to catch the ferry at 7, so it was a very very early morning. The male italian pharmacy students were very excited to see us, they especially liked one girl named Nichole and we're bringing her coffee and treats. After the tour they took us to the compounding lab and we had to make some senna capsules, which wasn't as bad as we thought is was going to be. They set us free after that, and we have fri-sun to do whatever we want to. Courtney and I poked around in Naples for the afternoon and did some shopping, I used my birthday money from mom and dad to buy a nice blue leather wallet from the "turtle store" that we've been to at least 4 times already! Trying to post a picture of it too! Then we managed to find the cheaper/slower ferry back to the main port on Ischia....it was a bit of work, but it's amazing what I'll do to save 8 euro! We found a restaurant there and had our first dinner on our own. My spaghetti was good, but just not as good as what we get some nights at our hostel!
 
Speaking of food....the fish-uation. After trying the swordfish and only eating a bite, Courtney and I decided we were done with fish. Then for the main course on Tuesday night....they bring out just a fish on a plate....still with the head, tail, eyes, everything! We said we weren't hungry, cause there wasn't a chance of us eating it! We feel so bad not eating food they give us, they are such a nice family and really treat us well....but we just can't eat anymore fish!
And updating the gelato flavors....I tried peach, coconut, wildberry yogurt, and hazelnut in the last 2 days! the coconut and peach were amazing, and so was the berry one....
 
Anyways, I think it's time to try to find the natural hotsprings and spend the day soaking our tired bodies....poor little feetsies have done sooo much walking, I'm very glad I invested in some good shoes!

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Buongiorno à Italia!

Ciao! Mi chiamo Kristin. Ho ventiquattro anni. Io studio farmacia!
 
That is what i've learned so far from our Italian language classes, plus conjugating a few verbs, but our teacher is really good and easy to learn from even though he speaks no english. We've had 2 classes so far, but have our last one today. Class doesn't start until 1 today, everything closes from 1:30-4:30 (for siesta!) so our teachers thought it would be nice for us to have some mornings to go to more of the shops. We're going into Naples on Thursday and touring the university and hospital.
 
I think I've walked more in the last 3 days than in the last 6 months! Courtney and I walked to the next town over, called Lacco Amena, the first day to explore and shop. It took us 4 hours to get there and back (including shopping and gelato time). We're planning to do a tour from Forio on Sunday which goes over to the mainland and stops in Amalfi and Positano, and maybe go to the natural hotsprings one day too.
 
The food so far is interesting....the fresh fruit from the market and gelato is amazing, but some of our dinners have been not so enjoyable. Luckily, the first course is always pasta so I can easily fill up on that. We had swordfish the first night, I gave it a chance but just don't like seafood that much! I think they fed us veal and peas last night, but I'm not really sure! I'm just very afraid they're going to serve us rabbit....apparently they have "rabbit pits" where they "farm" rabbits, I'm staying as far away from them as possible!
We're trying as many different gelato flavors as we can, so far I've had banana, stratiatella (cookies and cream), tiramisu, and nocitiella (nutella flavour).
 
Mmmm bonuses of getting up early: Hot shower and fresh fruit salad (which dissappeared quicky!). Thanks for all the e-mails and I'll post again soon!

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Hello from Forio!

After what feels like days of traveling, I'm finally settled into my hostel in Forio! The night/day in the London airport seemed to go on forever, and we were pretty happy to be in a real bed in Naples last night. Courtney, Susan, Jenn, and I spent the morning exploring Naples (which doesn't seem to be as dirty everywhere as people think - we found some pretty fancy places. The best part was the 1000+ spinning bikes set up in the square in front of a huge church.....we figured it must be a fundraiser or something, but it was very odd! We met most of the other people in our class at the ferry terminal, and our instructors were waiting to lead us through the twisty streets to our hostel. It is VERY nice, and Courtney and I managed to get a double room all to ourselves. She and I went out exploring this afternoon and oh my goodness I'm going to spend WAY too much money in Europe! Everything is so nice and different and pretty cheap now that we're out of the big city (Briana - I will have a shopping tour planned for the afternoon you get here).
We're waiting for dinner here, I guess this is what they mean by Italy time - they told us it was supposed to be at 7:30,and it's 8:12 now.... Courtney and I found a yummy gelato and pastry shop that we've decided we have to go to everyday andtry something different, so thats the after-dinner plan. Hopefully I should be able to post often while i'm in Forio, assuming I get used to this gel keyboard! Thanks for the e-mails and birthday wishes!

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and she's off

This is Briana posting on behalf of Kristin. Kristin left from Calgary yesterday to London, and emailed me this afternoon to let me know she has checked in safely to her hostel in Naples. Tomorrow morning she will be taking a ferry to the island of Ischia, which will be her home for the next 3 weeks. Hopefully we'll have a post from Kristin in the next couple of days! 11 more work days until I leave to go join her in Italy!

Fiji!

Well I'm off to Fiji on Thursday! I am going on a travel agent fam trip, so it will be a "work" trip. I will try and update when I can, and hopefully you guys can keep me updated on Round One of the Playoffs! So here's a quick itinerary:
Day 1: Saturday - Arrive in Fiji at 5am. 3 Night Mamanuca and Southern Island Captain Cook Cruise.

Day 4: Tuesday - 1 Night at the Pearl South Pacific hotel. In the afternoon - Ziplining!

Day 5: Wednesday - Spend the day at the Sigatoka River Safari Base. 1 Night at Outrigger on the Lagoon Resort.

Day 6: Thursday - Spend the day at the ShangriLa Fijian Resort, and the night at the Intercontinental Fiji Resort.

Day 7: Friday - Spend the morning at Castaway Island. Afternoon at Malolo Island Resort. Then on to Mana Island Resort for 2 nights.

Day 8: Saturday - Transfer to Matamanoa Island Resort for mornin and then to Tokoriki Island Resort.

Day 9: Sunday - Transfer to Malolo Lailai Island

Day 10: Monday - Transfer to the Sofitel Resort for afternoon training.

Day 11: Tuesday - Evening flight back to LA. Connect in LA and back to Edmonton.

So thats pretty much all I know for now. I probably wont update until Tuesday-ish (not sure what that means with the time change and the dateline), since we are doing the cruise right away. Wish you all could join me! Looking forward to sharing some pictures when I'm back!

We booked our trip!

Well today Kristin and I (pictured above) finally booked the European Escapade we have been dreaming of for the past couple of years.

The opportunity came up for Kristin to travel to the island of Ischia, a small island off the coast of Italy, for three weeks for a pharmacy course. I talked her into it, and soon I had the wonderful idea that I needed to join her in Italy after her course so we could tour Europe together.

Kristin is going to be leaving for Italy on the 6th May and I will leave to join her on the 25th. We will come home together on the 12th of June. What are we going to do with our time, you ask?

Well with so much to see in Europe it was hard to decide, but here is what we are oh so excited about:

• Ischia, Capri, Bari & Naples (Italy)


• Rome


• Greek Islands: Mykonos, Santorini, & Rhodes


• Dubrovnik, Croatia


• Venice


• Paris


• London
  

We are hoping Kristin can use the blog during her three weeks in Italy to keep us all up to date, and hopefully once we meet up we can continue to use our blog to keep in touch with all of you. We hope you will subscribe to recieve email updates when we post (enter your email address on the right).

As the date gets closer we will most a more detailed itinerary. We hope you'll join us on this adventure by reading along!

- Kristin & Briana