It's part of campin'.

When I was a little girl, my family would go on camping trips. My Dad was, and still is, Joe camper. In the middle of the night night when we had to pee or brush our teeth in a bucket in the morning, my dad would always say with a chirpy smile, "it's part of campin!"

Well, Luke and I have become quite comfortable with this term and have altered the saying to, "it's part of backpacking!". It's our way to laugh off the annoyances and make light of the challenging situations. Since we've been traveling with our packs for 18 days now and visited four countries and nearly 15 cities, its inevitable that we would have several "it's part of campin'" moments. We are currently waiting for our room to be cleaned and are desperate for sleep considering we slept on a bike rack for 14 hours. Yes, you heard me, a bike rack. During our fabulous train ride to Paris, instead of crying Luke made me laugh...and laugh at all our funny experiences thus far. We hope you find some comic relief as well after reading...

Now, for those fellow BUDGET travelers, you can relate to the constant struggle backpacking is. HA.

-getting lost, sweaty, every day
-finally finding our hostel and greeted by HILDA who looks like a short, fat man with a wig who doesn't speak English and apparently has no reservation for us. nice.
-being locked INSIDE our room in two different hostels and cracking the wall just to open the door.
-being herded, no joke, onto the train, losing Luke, and hearing his adventure of stiff arming a girl just to find a seat
-getting yelled at by random people
-breaking my sandal the first few days and having to wear Lukes, size 12, sandals in the showers
-walking through dark alleys with no other choice
-scabby legs due to awful mosquitos
-being nose level with everyones nasty ass armpits
-smelling smoke indoor, outdoors, everywhere!
-taking the wrong bus causing a 2 hour detour in the heat, not fun
-getting off at the wrong train stop
-sleeping with nasty sheets
-paying 3 euro to dry our towels and after 45 minutes they were more wet!
-looking at maps feeling cross-eyed
-motion sickness from the trains
-topless OLD ladies strutting their saggy boobs with large eraser nips on the beach
-random stray dogs

That's enough for now. We could go on for days. My current state of mental imbalance is lacking memory of all the funny stuff I planned on writing. Nonetheless I'm sure its funnier to us and doesn't make much sense to those at home, but it makes us feel better!

Ok, now for a recap on the last day in Switzerland and Barcelona. Switzerland was incredible except for an extremely dissapointing last day. We woke up super early to catch the train to Interlochen to do the skydiving. We said our sad goodbyes to our family and had a sequence of trains and metros to make it to Interlochen. We arrived and called the skydiving company to come pick us up and they had cancelled the jumps for that day due to bad weather. We were crushed and stuck at the train station. We were taking the night train to Barcelona that night so we couldn't go too far; honestly, we were so disappointed about the skydiving and didn't have much motivation to pay to do anything else. Embarrasingly enough we were starving and the paid 20 euros to eat at Mcdonalds because that was the cheapest food we could find! Anyway, we had to go back to Bern (the city our train was leaving from that night) and our day started picking up. We were out of our funk and found ourselves in this amazing downtown shopping area in Bern. We found a place to store our packs for the day and felt much better after that. The downtown was alive with farmers markets, shopping, bars, resturants, and loads of people. We walked, talked, laughed, had some drinks, and enjoyed our day. We were still upset about the skydiving but promised each other we would do it in the near future.

Then we boarded our night train. It wasnt five stars or anything but it was fun! We had a double room with two small beds and a sink. It was strange to sleep on a train but not too shabby. I don't think I slept much even after a dramamine, ear plugs, and a full tummy though. We arrived in Barcelona, found our not so nice hostel, and set out to explore the town. I was exhausted. We took a bus tour of the city; I fell asleep during the tour! I wish I could put picures up because Luke took a picture of me fast asleep on the top of the double decker. opps! We went back to our place, took a nap, and went to get dinner! The food in Spain was to die for. We had tapas and sangria...yum yum. We found ourselves lost in the pouring rain, laughing, and enjoying the new scenery. It was a great night especially since I had taken a nap. The next day we were fresh and ready for the beach! We hated our hostel though so we booked a different one and set out to find it. After a very long and hot walk, we were pleasently surprised and happy we switched. We headed for the beach and went the wrong direction on the bus... 2 hours later and nearly 2oclock by this time we were relaxing on the beautiful Barcelona beach. It was very stressful but we found our way and loved the second half of the day. That night we stayed in the hostel the whole night. It wasn't intentional, but it was fun! It was one of those super young and lively hostels. They had a bar, cheap food, and a sangria workshop. We met other travelers, played pool, and competed in a poker tournament. We both lost but the girl we were playing with was a joke. She was beyond rude, and we both walked away wiht nothing. Ha. The experience was fun though! We spent our last day in Barcelona touring a local market, roaming the town, and again, enjoying the food. Then.... the journey from hell began.

20 hours ago I was bummed to leave Barcelona but very excited for Paris. If we only knew what was in store for us, you would have found us on a flight back to Vegas. Not really, but close. We tried to make a reservation for the night train the day before but the guy behind the counter said we couldn't. He gave us strict directions to follow that would lead us to Paris very similar to the other night train. So, we set off on a three hour metro train to Cerebere. This is where we were supposed to catch a different night train. Well apparently the train was completely full, but they told us to wait, speak to the controller and get on a different train. There was alot of people in our same situation so we weren't too scared but no one had any clue waht to do. We were told to just get on the train and you can reserve your seat once your on. LIES! we sat down all right but at the next stop, the train was full and people without a reservation had to stand. It was a nightmare. We stop a different station and they said that if your trying to go to Paris, you need to get on a different train at a different platform. We ran to the other train and ran into the same situation except now we had no clue where we were and the French people didn't want to help us. We hopped on the bus, found two seats, and tried to fit in. Again, there was lots of people doing the same thing we were. Well this was the night train to Paris, a 12 train ride. We were happy to know we were headed in the right direction but confused and frustrated mostly. Sure enough we were kicked out of our seats in no time. We had to stand. We were so tired that we were literally laughing, we couldn't believe it. It was embarrassing too because people thought we just hopped on the train and were trying to rig the system or something. Then we found out there were fires some where in France and all the train systems were messed up so people were jsut jammed into random trains. That was us. We stood for about 30 mintues and finally said screw it. We were deteremined to find somewhere to sit considerign we had 11 more hours to go. We found a bike rack area. It was pretty much filled with bikes and luggage but we were determined to make it work. The nice lady next to us had a comfortanle bedroom and asked her cabin worker to bring us some blankets. Thank god for her... literally! We were able to atleast sit, until we were joined by 3 other people who had apparently already claimed the bike rack. We said please and smiled and made it work for all of us. I think people started feeling bad because they brought water and pillows for the other guys. WE never thought we would be so happy to sleep in a bike rack. I took a picure of Luke and look forward to posting it. Luke cut his leg on the bike brakes, and I had tire marks, but, we slept a little. We kept looking at each other saying this is crazy, and "its part of backpacking". We arrived around 930 this morning to paris and found our hostel. Were still waiting for our room to shower and take a long nap. We plan to go explore tonight and have a fun filled day planned tomorrow. It was crazy and we are so happy to finally be in Paris and sleep. We are exhausted, feeling a little sick, but ready for more! We are however, getting more ready to settle down in Ireland and not live out of a backpack anymore.

The best part of this whole journey is that I get to experience this with my best friend. I get to flirt and laugh everyday. He makes me feel pretty and protected. He's fun, adventurous, and patient! After being long distance for three years, we are soaking in the time together. We aren't sick of each other and so happy to share this wonderful journey as a couple. I feel stronger already and happy its still the beginning. Thanks for all the prayers and support, we still need it!

Ok, this is far too long. I'm proud if you have read this far down! Are plan is to sleep, and then vist most of the famous sites in Paris. Tomorrow night we are going on a date. Like a real date! We are going up the Eiffel Tower at sunset and then splurging on a nice dinner. We are even getting dressed up which doesnt happen when you backpack. Then were headed to Brussels, Amsterdam, London, and finally, Ireland. It's going by so fast!

We miss everyone at home!!!!!

Kates