Oslo, Norway!

We have returned!  I hope the picture of Chris with his vacation beard isn't too distracting and you can continue reading:)  After a VERY early flight this morning we landed in Frankfurt and I have been doing laundry ever since:)  Norway was awesome but crazy expensive.  I literally don't know how anyone actually lives there- it's dark 9 months out of the year with freezing cold weather and tons of snow and lunch at McDonald's costs $30.  NUTS.  But for us it was in the 70's everyday and was beautiful.  We took an overnight ferry out of Copenhagen (they called it a ferry but it was really like a mini cruise) and got into Oslo the following morning. 

We explored Norway for the day- they have an Opera House that was designed to look like a glacier sliding into the ocean:

and an ice bar!

It was a -5 degree bar where anything was made out of ice!  The glasses, chairs, walls everything is made out of ice that they import in from Sweden.  They even have to make special drinks that can retain their flavor and not freeze.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city and trying not to go broke:)

It's a beautiful city but I'm not sure I could live there year round- although I could totally be convinced to go back and check out the northern lights.  After our day in Oslo we headed off to the fjords!  Our adoring public (a.k.a. my dad) have been requesting more posts so I will try to make my posts more frequent than a weekly thing- we almost have a double digit following:)

Hope you guys are having a geat weekend!

Helsinki...not HelSTINKY

Hi Again!
Since we can't load pictures and the words aren't as good without the photos we thought we would skip ahead and tell you guys about our favorite port of our trip so far- Helsinki, Finland.   Our very special guest blogger today is none other than da da da dah...Mr. Chris Nealon!   We should start out by saying that our expectations going into Helsinki weren't that high given its reputation for being freezing cold (it is sunny aproximately 9 days out of the year) and being primarily known for it's vast timber forests and wildlife.  Considering I am scared of the dark and animals this wasn't what I thought was going to be the higlight of the trip.  But it was!!  We emerged from the ship bright and early (Chris would like me to emphasize EARLY) to a bright blue sky and warm breezes.  We were able to walk along the sea to the Market Square (they call it kauppatori)- (Finnish people drink the most coffee of anyone in the world- approximately 8-9 cups per day!), so we had to catch up (with alas not a starbucks in sight).  We had a latte and a cinnamon bun, quick stop at the tourist info booth where they fell all over themselves to help us and we were off.  We visited Senate Square,  Helsinki Cathedral, and the Uspeski Cathedral.  The best part by far was that we got to take a ferry across to the "fortress island of Finland" called Suomenlinna.  It was beautiful with plenty of scenic views of the harbor, cool canons scattered throughout, and awesome walking paths across the entire island.  And walk we did.  Chris loves interesting facts (much like Aunt Barbara) and our interesting fact for the day is that Finland is not in fact part of Scandanavia because unlike Denmark, Sweden, and Norway it is in no way connected to the Scandanavian peninsula.  Try telling a Finn that they live in Scandanavia and watch out for a punch in the nose:)  We will upload pics as soon as we can and are very jealous that we will be missing Erin, Noah, and I heard potentially Zach's week long trip to Long Island!  We will miss you guys and I will see you in Palm Beach!  We are off to Stockholm tomorrow and then on to Copenhagen and the fjords of Norway- stay tuned and LOVE times a million!

I was finally able to upload some pictures from Cinque Terra.  The first one was taken at the absolute peak of our hike en route from Monterosso to Vernazza.

This last one is just a little glimpse of the stairs and hiking involved in our climb.  I looked up the hikes rating in Lonely Planet and it said the terrain is "moderate".  I'm thinking of writing a strongly worded letter:)

After Cinque Terra it was on to Tuscany!!  I will get into Tuscany more in the next post but the super exciting thing that happened today is that my work visa came through!!  4 months of emails, translation of all of my diplomas (you know that paragraph of jibberish at the bottom of diplomas that noone ever reads?  well I had to pay someone PER WORD to translate that, 2 trips to the new york consulate, and I am down to my last scheduled fingerprint appointment 2 weeks from monday and I am a licensed teacher in Germany.  I'm so proud of this visa I just may frame it and hang it beside those diplomas:)   LOVE

Hi!  We have returned from Italy!  We road tripped from Frankfurt through Switzerland and straight through to Cinque Terra.  Poor Chris had been working alot leading up to the trip and I did all the planning.  Apparently I didn't do a very good PR job about where we were going because apparently I only told him we were going to a place where "there are five villages connected by a dirt road that you can hike".  Needless to say he was pleasantly surprised when he saw Cinque Terra:) 

During the entire year we avoid exercise whenever possible which is why it's terribly ironic that on vacation we always seem to pick the activities that require an extreme level of physical fitness and then spend the entire time during the activity swearing that this is a new leaf and you're just going to be amazed at how often I'm at the gym when we get home
(e.g. Piks Peak, Mt. Sinai etc.).  Well this trip was no different and we hiked the punishing trail from Monterosso to Vernazza which was beautiful but mainly consisted of switchbacks and steep uphill climbs.  The mudslides a couple of years ago destroyed alot of the trail but if you are super industrious and determined you can still hike the entire thing...we are not and one little piece was enough for us and we were ready for tons of pasta, proscuitto with melon, and gelato. For some reason my pictures won't load but I will keep working on it.    LOVE

Hi! We had a fabulous weekend at the Main Square Festival in Arras, France. We went mainly to see Pearl Jam but got to listen to other great music as well (namely Florence and the Machine who I realized I LOVE).   The festival was in a walled city in northern france and was pretty cool. 

Pearl Jam is about the only band/music that Chris and I can agree on so we were super pumped about seeing them, it's also hysterical to hear "Eddie Vedder" being chanted with thick french accents:)  We found our hotel after about 15 roundabouts in the middle of the night, it was a very white knuckle experience:)

On the way home we stopped at Luxembourg for the day.  Luxembourg is a very fancy and rich country (if you have tons of money and love to shop this is the country for you).  So instead we walked around and explored the place on foot -it was alot of fun and very hot.

I will leave you with the required "Chris sampling the local beer" picture.  Have a great weekend!

Hi! Well I will admit the July 4th in Germany is somewhat underwhelming. My brother Tim and his girlfriend Amy are in town and we spent the holiday eating pork chops and potato salad with no fireworks. If it wasn't for out sling box tv advertising fantastic sales at JCPenny and Old Navy we might have missed the holiday altogether. This is the week that I submitted the last of my working visa paperwork and will officially be able to legally work in a few weeks!! This visa has been such an enormous amount of work/hassle/source of pride that I plan on hanging it on our wall next to our diplomas and marriage license once I no longer have to carry it in my wallet and randomly gaze at it with smug satisfaction throughout the day. There has been a change in my work plans in that I will no longer be teaching kindergarten but rather 4th grade!! You can freak ou if you want, I know I am. The fact is that the school i will be working at ( the one with the 4th grade) has about 10 other American girl teachers that I could see myself being friends with so that's awesome. What's not awesome and incredibly frightening is that I a) have never been a classroom teacher and b) don't know the first thing about 4th grade. Wish me luck. But thar doesn't start until august and I plan on living in sweet denial until then. The next couple of days will be spent playing tour guide to Tim and Amy and then vacation:). Woohoo- if you are reading this please sign in and comment- I need followers people!! I miss you all back home especially since it's July 4th and I should be in long island eating toasted almond ice cream bars and kicking ass and taking names in cranium. Happy 4th of July!!