Jess and Rob's European Adventure

Innsbruck, Austria

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 16:49:53 +0200

Saint John’s, Canada

Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:54:14 -0230

Dublin, Ireland

Sun, 05 Jul 2015 17:10:00 +0100

Prague, Czech Republic

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 13:00:00 +0200

Team #9, we're at 10.5 L. Bring on the competition

Munich, Germany

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 12:19:24 +0200

Innsbruck, Austria

Sun, 28 Jun 2015 12:10:00 +0200

Some view

But first... let me take a selfie

Started from the top...

Our "we've been lost for an hour" faces. Its ok we finally figured out where to go so we then celebrated with bananas and water

At our awesome Austrian meal. Consisting of sausage. Sausage. Sausage. Sauerkraut. Beer and more sausage

Verona, Italy

Sat, 27 Jun 2015 21:00:00 +0200

Venice, Italy

Sat, 27 Jun 2015 09:00:00 +0200

Verona, Italy

Fri, 26 Jun 2015 07:30:00 +0200

Bari, Italy

Thu, 25 Jun 2015 08:10:00 +0200

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:00:00 +0200

Kotor, Montenegro

Mon, 22 Jun 2015 14:20:00 +0200

This may be our favorite country so far! Its essentially switzerland but south

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 08:00:00 +0200

Last night we crossed the adriatic sea, ready for our first day in Dubrovnik

Bari, Italy

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 14:00:00 +0200

Rome, Italy

Wed, 17 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Rome, Italy

Tue, 16 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Well recovering from a late night before we pulled ourselves out of bed, returned the car then set out to see the Colloseum and forum. We were dumb and didn't get our tickets ahead of time and ended up standing in a 30 minute line. 4 hours sleep + hangover + hundreds of people + 30 degree heat = no fun. Once we got the tickets it was excellent! Such a cool structure. The forum is also amazing and we found a small part of the garden where no one else was but it had an amazing view of the colloseum. We then decided it was food time and noticed a sign for an irish owned bar just down the street. So we had to go. And we got nachos. #wheninrome? After lunch we desperately required a shower and a nap. After which we went out for supper and the "small spot on the side street" logic for finding good authentic food completely failed us and we ended up having nasty pasta. Not only was that a disappointment but we then decided to walk to the trevi which turns out is undergoing restoration until the fall..... heart BROKEN. We did get some good gelato so that's an upside. Karen notes: -colloseum, still awesome -forum, same -ate shitty food -trevi closed -we still love gelato

Rome, Italy

Mon, 15 Jun 2015 23:50:00 +0200

Well we drove from Milan to Rome. Took a pit stop in Pisa, but to get there got slightly lost and ended up driving through a small Italian town, which actually turned out to be better. Pisa itself was very underwhelming, we took a few pictures and left. Drove for about an hour and found a small town where we decided to stop and have supper/lunch. It was probably the best pizza we will have in italy. The it was straight to Rome. We took in the beautiful countryside all the way down. But once we got to rome...... it was a total nightmare. Since the car company had A. Screwed up in not giving us the GPS we had ordered, causing us to take 1.5 hours to find the train station and then another 45 minutes trying the drop off spot because the guy in rome told us it wouldn't be in the station (well it turns out its in the station). Through all that we ended up putting the car in a garage overnight and returning it the next morning. But that night we definitely needed a few drinks so we made some friends and drank some beers at the hostel bar and the bar around the corner. It was a great night but we got very little sleep that night.

Of course we go to the irish pub in rome for lunch

Milan, Italy

Sun, 14 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Milan was a whirlwind! Not a lot of time but we certainly made the best of it. We headed out from our airbnb apartment to see the Duomo, the plan was to go inside but... a torrential downpour started fully equipped with thunder and lightning, so we took shelter in a Ferrari merchandise shop. After the rain let up we went in search of our favorite map (use-it.travel), really cool maps made by locals for budget travellers like us! We had one in brussels and lived by it. But we couldn't find one so we got a hostel to give us all the info we would need. That led us to the best gelato ever and a look around the Milan castle. Then it was lunch time so we headed to an area that was recommended to us, found a small restaurant and got lasagna and a burger. During our meal the rain started again so we ordered some of robs new favorite beer (la chouffe) and waited it out. Or at least that was the plan but that rain just didn't want to stop so we sucked it up and got to the closest metro and went towards the science museum. Of course we went in the museum, which was such a good decision. Along with many many other neat things they had da vincis inventions displayed, so as engineers would, we read and analysed each of them. Then down to the canal for apervitos which are just the coolest. 10 euro cocktails from 6-9 and you get unlimited buffet. So that was supper. We went to three spots. The first was not great but for cheap food we were down. The second was on a boat and had amazing food so we filled up there. The third was a wine bar where the owner kept filling our drinks free of charge (we left with 2 homemade bottles of wine for 5 euro).

Oh right we've been in Milan. Molecular drinks, Duomo, torrential downpour, ferrari shop, gelato, castle, appervito and super cheap wine, but tomorrow its onto Pisa and Rome (rob is driving.. please save us)

Milan, Italy

Sat, 13 Jun 2015 18:10:00 +0200

Luzern, Switzerland

Fri, 12 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Lucerne, Switzerland

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Best.day.yet. We hiked up Mount Pilatus, its about 2100 m at its peak. The trail we took said it should take about 4 hours, we did it in 5.5 but that was with two half hour breaks. The first break we stopped halfway up to admire the view and have a snack. After that break we had to walk through trail that intersected a herd of cows, one refused to move so we had to find a way around him because neither of us wanted to mess with a great big moo cow. Farther up we found a small stream with the coldest and freshest water ever, so of course we filled up our water bottles and splashed some on our faces to help us make it the rest of the ways up. About 30 minutes from the top we found a patch of snow so we obviously had to have a 5 minute snowball fight! The final 30 minutes were torture. The entire time we could see the top and we just wanted to sit down and eat a burger. Well we made it and immediately crashed to the ground. A lady who spoke a different language (maybe German? We dont know) thought we were hurt and we had to convince her that we were fine. A few other people, some english and some definitely not came up to congratulate us. One man let us know he was watching us make it through the last 30 minute struggle and was cheering us on (thanks pal!). We finally decided to stand up and find somewhere that we could have a burger and fries and beers, but as we did we heard yelling. At first we thought it was just someone trying to echo their voice off the mountain but then realized the person was shouting for help. The screaming was terrifying, we were on the other side of the restaurant area but we could see about 50 people running towards the cliff to help. By the time we got over there the screaming had stopped and the man was safe. We're not entirely sure what happened but we're glad hes okay!! We finally got our burger and fries and beers and they were so delicious, to be honest they could have been garbage and we still would have loved every last bite. To get down we took the cable car, which was cool, not as cool as hiking up though. Now its time to order a pizza and chill out. Karen notes: -we hiked a mountain -someone almost died. He didnt tho.

Hiking mount pilatus today!!!!!!

At the bottom...

2128 meters to the top

5.5 hours later at the top

Saying our final goodbyes to Switzerland, next stop.. Milan!