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So we made it home. The travel went relatively well and the trip itself was great. We learned a lot about Italy and ourselves. I'm having a really hard time just telling people how it went, I mean it was two whole weeks, that's really hard to summarize. I'll give a brief description of the entire trip and if anyone has any questions besides what I've said, I'll address those as well.
We flew out on time for Munich. Eric and I got the two very middle seats on the plane. International flights are generally set up like this:

ab defg jk

We were E and F. A little cramped, yes, but Lufthansa has a remarkable amount of leg room and the guy to my right (G) was very courteous. The flight to Munich took about 9 hours and Eric and I didn't sleep at all. From Munich we went through passport control and then headed on to Rome. Our car was there to pick us up and bring us right to the hotel. Not a very impressive room, as you'll see in the pics, but we soon discovered that it was a stone's throw from the Pantheon. Lovely. Rome was definitely one of my favorite places for the trip. We saw so many amazing things that you see pictures of and hear about your whole life, but I was there, I touched them and sat on one of the columns of the Pantheon and went into the Coloseum and walked the streets of the Palantine and the capital of ancient Rome. It was really an incredibly modern city there, mixed in with all of those ancient sites. I liked Rome a lot.
From there we took the train into Naples (Napoli) and then connected on to Sant'Agnello, the small town right outside of Sorrento where we were staying. The entire travel time took about 4 hours from hotel door to hotel door. Our Sant'Agnello hotel was a remarkable improvement, with a lemon grove right outside our window. We did a lot of sightseeing there, had a beer out on the terrace by the sea when we first arrived. The next day we went to Pompei. We absolutely loved it, but let me tell you, as a tourist attraction, it's a tough one. I think it would take the greater part of a day to actually get through the entire city. We were there for about 3 hours walking around and then we'd had our fill. Definitely check out the pictures from Pompei and if you ever make it to Italy, go there. Very interesting stuff. That night we went out to Sorrento proper. It wasn't that great. Only really different from Sant'Agnello in that it was much more loud and crowded. The next morning we went out to Capri on the hydrofoil. When we got there, we took a boat tour around the entire island. It was beautiful. Then we went to the other side, Anacapri, and took a chair lift to the very top and saw some amazing views. The next day we explored Sorrento and Sant'Agnello just a bit more before heading on to Cortona.
We took the train back to Naples for our connection and almost missed the very last train out there, but had a stroke of luck and caught it with about 10 minutes to spare. Travel time from hotel to hotel was a little over 5 hours this time. Our hotel in Cortona was very nice, but very expensive. Luckily we only stayed there for 2 nights. On the other hand, Cortona was one of my favorite places, so maybe not so luckily. Cortona is a hilltown in Tuscany that afforded us gorgeous views of the Tuscan countryside. We took a ton of pictures of the views there, so be sure to check those out. There were also a couple great museums in Cortona that we really enjoyed, not to mention the food...
A couple days later, we headed back to the train to set out for Firenze (Florence). Total travel time was only about 2 hours this time from hotel to hotel. Our hotel in Florence was by far my favorite and a good value to boot! We were about 5 steps away from the Duomo and the owner was crazy nice. Eric wasn't the biggest fan of Florence but I loved it. So many beautiful buildings and sculptures just out there for all to see. The Uffizi Gallery didn't impress us much, we were kinda bored, but I loved the Accadamia (where David is). The sculptures there are just downright inspiring and David was everything I thought it would be. Incredible. There is also great shopping in Florence and that's where I ended up buying a lot of my souveneirs. I bought a leather purse and a leather jacket, along with a lot of jewelry. I got a cold the second to last night we were there and I was kinda out of commission (aside from some light shopping/lunch/dinner) for our last day in Italy. It was kind of a bummer, but Eric and I were both completely pooped by this time, so in a way it worked out. We headed to the Firenze airport around 4:30 am and when we got there, it wasn't opened yet. Eventually our flight headed out almost on time and we connected in Munich again, got into Denver, went through customs and headed home.
It was a wonderful trip. Check out the pics and let me know if you have any questions on stuff I didn't cover. Grazie!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandk (Just so you know, the photos are posted backwards for some reason, from the end of the trip to the beginning. If you want to see them in the correct order, I'd start from the last page and go backwards)

from italy

We arrived in Rome just fine and everything is going pretty well. Rome was great and we saw a lot of the incredible sights, but not even close to all of them. Right now we're in Sorrento but we leave here in a few hours for Cortona in Tuscany. Besides some extremely annoying credit card issues, we're having a good time. I haven't gotten around to uploading any pictures yet, but I assure you there are a lot coming when we get home.
Ciao!

cornelius

Last night I went to the best show I've been to in a while. It was Holy Fuck (Canadian) opening for Cornelius (Japanese). Insanely good show. Both bands were so high energy and just had the best music, I couldn't believe how good it was. I'm cursing myself for not bringing my camera because Cornelius is one of those groups that do the whole spectacle for you, synchronized video and lights, it was amazing. They actually call their show "The Cornelius Group: Sensuous Synchronized Show." I highly recommend getting a copy of his new album, Sensuous. It's kinda hard to categorize him and explain his music, you just have to hear it. He's been around for ages but I just love this new album. And the backing band he had was super cute too. Imagine the Beatles but Japanese and with a video/light show (and completely different music). Anyways, it was great.
What else...Eric and I are prepping up for Italy. We leave on Tuesday and are actually more prepared than my mind keeps telling me. I feel like we have so much to do but really all that's left is for me to buy a raincoat and then just pack. And clean the house a bit. I'm so ready to be there. I need a break from work, friends, kitties, house, etc. It'll be nice to be in a different time zone for awhile, good for the soul.
My plan is to try and blog a bit and post some pics while we're there, but I don't know how realistic that is. I know there are tons of internet cafes but, aside from the likelihood of us actually reaching one of those, I don't know if they'll have the right software or USB capabilities for me to upload pics...We'll see. If not, I promise some kind of website displaying our pictures when we get back.

the wedding

It's been a little while, I know. Like I said, we were booked up most of last week with wedding stuff. The rehearsal/dinner was ok, Eric and I practiced our usherly duties and then headed out to Old Chicago's for the dinner part. After that we went back to our place and had Elgn and his friends over for whiskey and cigars for his lat night of freedom. It was supposed to be a boy thing but it was at our place and I don't have any girl friends, so there I was. It was an okay time, Elgn's friends from Kansas came as well as his father. I crashed early when they all started talking about guns and computers.
The next day was the wedding and they couldn't have had better weather. It got to be around 80 degrees and the skies were perfectly blue. Eric and I were in a few of the pictures and then the wedding finally started. We were perfect ushers, I'm sure. The rehearsal was fun but we were exhausted and headed out around 10:30. Overall a smooth and happy occasion.
Sunday Eric and I had the day to ourselves. It was gorgeous outside, record highs for this time of year. We went on a bike ride early in the day and ended up biking around 8-10 miles (I think) and I got a healthy sunburn. Later in the day we went out to a restaurant we've been meaning to try since we've been here-The Med. We went several times and it was always a 45 minute wait so we never stuck it out. On Sunday afternoon, however, we got right in and it was a great place. It reminded me a lot of Noche in the Highlands in Atlanta. Me, Eric and Baran always used to go there on Sundays back in the day. Now we have a replacement. Shortly after that I really started to feel the effects of my sunburn and was ready to call it a day.
Monday I found out that my boss is changing my position at work. Usually I'm in the front area, checking patients in and out. Now he wants me in the back area, basically shadowing him while he treats patients and writing everything down in the patients' files. It's thrown a cog in the wheel of my Life Plan. I like this part of the job much better than the job I had before. It's making me rethink if I want to quit just yet. Nothing settled for sure yet, but it is definitely an improvement. Now I just need a raise.

So we're all caught up. Now I'm just trying to tie up loose ends with the Italy trip. We leave on Tuesday and I've gotten some lists written out for packing and instructions for Baran while we're gone. Other than that (and packing), I suppose it's just a waiting game.