World Tour Beach Volleyball.....WHAT!!!

Saturday - Beachvolleyball!

Can you believe we got tickets to see world champion beach volleyball players at the Swatch Fivb Beach Volley World Tour 2006! This was one of the biggest highlights for me (Louise); I loved every minute of it! Our Swiss friend, Stefan, told us about this tournament going on and Brian and I were definitely in, no questions asked. There were only 5 of us Canadian's who went but we had a blast! It was hosted in a small touristy part of Switzerland called Gstaad, about 3 hours away. Gstaad was a beautiful town that actually looked how we pictured Switzerland to be like! It was very cottagy and basically in the Alps! Very cool, we'll have to go there again!


In the morning we watched the girls semi finals; it was Brazil against China 2. That was pretty exciting and a really good game and luckily Brazil ended up winning! The other semi final was USA against China 1, unfortunatley we missed that game but USA won. So we were able to watch USA against Brazil in the finals later so that was awesome! While we were waiting for the finals we watched the guys play as well. We saw Germany against Brazil 3 and unfortunately Germany won...haha (I was cheering for Brazil). Next was guys Brazil 1 against Brazil 2 so that was great. Brazil 1 (the gold team) were the olympic champions before so that was very cool to see them as well! Then we saw the 3rd place game with China 1 vs. China 2. and that was a pretty good game too.

Then finally near the end of the day it was the girls finals of the tournament. It was so awesome because I have seen both teams play each other and other teams on television before; so to watch them in real life was incredible! Also USA (gold) and Brazil (blue/orange) have played each other 6 times this yeah so far and USA has won all of them! So it was going to be a good game because most people were cheering for Brazil! What an awesome game it was!



In the end USA won in 2 sets but it was a really close and exciting match to watch! It was great because we had front row seats and were in a really good location but then to take pictures at the end it was hard because they were facing the other way. But you get the jist of it! If anyone was watching this on tv. you might have seen Brian and I. The camera man kept putting one of the camers right in our faces...about a foot way! haha It was extremely annoying because he kept the camera there for about 5 min's and I was trying to take pictures...we think he was just trying to be funny but who knows!


Overall we had a fantastic day and enjoyed every minutue of it even though we all are incredibly sunburned from the scorching sun all day!

Cards and Hacky Sack...

Trip to Salzburg, Austria:
Saturday afternoon - Sunday afternoon

Salzburg is famous because the movie The Sound of Music was filmed there. Because of this there is a Sound of Music tour but we were unable to do this because it is a whole day event. Instead we viewed the old and the new parts of town (the difference was very obvious) and then we hiked up to Europe's biggest and oldest castle that is still standing on the top of a hill in Salzburg. The castle was very cool and there were different activites children and adults were able to do, set up inside the castle.

New Salzburg and The Castle

Next Mike, Pat, Brian, and I set off to find a real Austrian meal that wouldn't cost a fortune. Finally when we were about to quit looking we accidently stumbled accross a small, quiet beirgarten (beer-garden) that looked decent. Seriously it was amazing! We all had the best food that we have had in a long time! We even took pictures of our wonderful experience.

That night we went to the main beirgartens to watch the soccer match. It is seriously the best way, other than being at the game of coarse, to watch a game. There were tables after tables in front of the biggest screen in front of a beatiful building. Then behind the tables were rows of stadium like seats of more and more fans. It was crazy and absolutely fantastic! Sorry the picture on the right didn't turn out too good...I think you get the idea though!

Sunday morning we went to an amazing park filled with really cool buildings and so many different gardens. There was also a band playing in the middle beside a neat fountain. It was just a super nice place...and of coarse there was an open grass area for the guys to play hackie-sack! By the end of this year I will be good at hack as well!

So far everywhere we have been we have had great accomodations. The hostels have been pretty decent considering they are for backpackers, so they don't have to be real nice and we always find pretty cheap ones. Almost every night of this trip we stayed up late playing cards, all we do now if we have any spare time, like in hostels or on trains or just killing time outside, we play cards or hacky sack; it's pretty sweet, we will be pros by the end of the year!

We ALMOST Went to the OPERA!

Trip to Vienna, Austria: Wednesday night - Saturday Morning
Wednesday night we took a direct train to Vienna, arriving Thursday morning. Because it was a night train we didn't have seats we got couchettes (beds) to sleep on instead. Most people enjoy that option so they are able to get a good sleep...I (Louise) hated it thought. Our little cabin area of 6 bunk beds was boiling hot and so cramped that I literally got maybe 2-3 hrs. of sleep while I watched Brian sleep the night away! Other than that it was a great idea for everyone else on this trip with us. There were about 15 of us traveling on this trip together this time.

Here is a picture of an
uncomfortable couchette
we each had to sleep on!

Thursday morning Brian, Pat, Mike, Andy and I went sightseeing all over Vienna, viewing all of the main attractions that we could fit in. Vienna is full of beautiful parks that are absolutely huge and wonderful to relax in. So we spent some time sleeping in a park and then went back to our hostel to clean up and change for the Opera. (It was a fantastic hostel by the way, super clean, spacious, and safe.)

We only waited in line for about 15 mins for cheap standing room tickets to see the opera and after we paid for our tickets the horrible, judgmental, rude "entrance police" ruined our night. They decided that they didn't think my sandles were "beautiful enough" so I was not allowed in. I was wearing my nice summer dress and everything and most other people were wearing regular clothes or garbage and they got in because they had better shoes on. I was wearing flip flops, so if you had on anything other than flip flop sandles you could get in. It was even fine to wear strap sandles...it was so lame...I was really mad and Brian and I gave them a peice of our minds but we didn't get in. :( It was sad. Instead Brian and I went to a nice pub to watch the soccer game which was really fun and we had a great time. Apparently the Opera sucked and was very confusing and disturbing so I am happy with the turnout now!

Opera Building and Fountain outside Opera

Friday morning most of us went to the Schloss Schonbrunn (Schonbrunn Palace) which was amazing! It was a summer getaway palace that consisted of garden after garden, with fountains, a zoo, a maze, and other buildings to see. We didn't go inside the palace or the zoo but it was my favorite attraction there.

Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens

Then we went inside the Kirche Am Steinhof (Steinhof Church) which was absolutely incredible. It was Brian's favorite Cathedral yet out of all of the different ones we have seen so far.

Next we saw the Hunterwasserhaus apartments, designed by a crazy artist (don't know the name); which was pretty neat. Brian and I didn't really like the style of the building or the structure of any of the architect's work we saw but it was cool.

The last attraction we saw was the Schloss Belvedere (Belvedere Palace) and that was really cool. The building itself was neat on the outside and kind of sub-par on the inside but it is now an Imperial Picture Gallery full of amazing 19th - 20th century paintings. We loved this style of paintings and spent a lot of time there...until it closed. Even though the experience was cut short it was worth it for sure.

Belvedere Palace

Friday night we found another pub to watch another soccer game at
with a bigger group of our friends...soccer's great!

Pat, Andy, and Brian - Park and Louise, Mike, and Pat - Huge Fountain

Next blog posting will be our adventures in Solzburg, Austria.

The Statue of David...Very Cool!

Saturday night we pulled out our tents and sleeping bags and camped at the Michelangelo camp ground. By the way if you are going somewhere in Italy and are planning on saving money by camping, definitely look for a Michelangelo campground. Then Sunday we waited in line for over 3 hours to explore the Galleria degli Uffizi; which I guess was one of the main attractions to see. This gallery took almost 3 hours to view...it was such a huge building. Uffizi consisted of room after room of paintings and statues by famous artists and of famous people. It contained art and different experiments by Leonardo Da Vinci. We all thought that this was the best part of the gallery, but it was very cool overall. Sorry we have no pictures to show you for this one because we were not allowed to take pictures in the gallery.

Picture of the Duomo and a bridge in Florence

Next we went to Galleria dell 'Accademia; which was very similar to Uffizi because of the styles of paintings throughout but...Accademia had the Statue of David, from David and Golliath, which was extremely cool to see in real life. We were unable to take pictures in this gallery as well but we all snuck a picture of David anyways! It was too hard to pass up!!

So which one is the real Statue of David and which one is the copy??? That is the question.
(Sorry that the statues are naked...we
didn't create them we just took the pictures)

Well that was our trip to Florence, Italy; we hope you are enjoying our postings so far and we will continue to keep them up to date as much as possible! Here are 2 more photos of this beatuful city.

"Sleeping" at a train station...NOT RECOMMENDED!

Well we had another amazing weekend in Italy. Brian and I went to Florence (Firenze) with our friends Mike, Patrick, and Andy and we had a fantastic time. Our trip was planned less than a week before we went so we were unable to book times for any museums or galleries but it was worth it none the less. Also we were unable to get a night train there so we had to attempt to sleep at the Chiasso, Switzerland (on the Swiss/Italian boarder) train station on the benches outside. Obviously that did not workout as planned and we were running on little to no sleep when we arrived Saturday morning.

Even so we stayed awake and enjoyed the beautiful city, exploring every option of events that were possible to do without waiting in line all day to see. We were able to get into the Palazzo Vecchio which I think was incredible and possibly my (Louise) favorite attraction out of everything we saw all weekend. There were no statues or famous paintings throughout it but every room was decorated and designed differently...the ceilings were amazing. We loved the unique structure of the building and the furniture/items left behind to view. Here are a couple pictures to help describe how wonderful the Palazzo Vecchio was.

After that self-tour we were motivated for climbing the gigantic tower, the very tall building connected to the S. Maria del Fiore (Duomo) that we were unable to explore. The tower was not as exciting as I expected but it was fun none the less. We climbed the 400 and some stairs to reach the top; getting a fantastic view from 4 different points during the climb. At the top we were able to see one of the best views of the whole city which was really cool. Here is a photo of the tower and a great view of Florence.