No post yesterday because we spent the whole day looking around for things. First we spent the morning looking for FM transmitters in the pouring rain for the iPod. The radio stations
Here are horrible. They will play a good song, and then another song of a completely different genre, and then they will talk in the native tongue for 10 min. Not cool. Anyway, both Ryan and Jon have mp3 players on them, and we were looking for a way to play their tunes through our radio. No dice.

Then we left for Plitvicka Jezera National Park, which is supposed to have an amazing collection of pristine lakes connected by waterfalls which you can view from an extensive network of walkways. We got a little lost, though, in Karlovac, a town which saw massive fighting in the Homeland War. We drove past a lot of shelled houses. We finally got to the park and starting looking for our hotel in the rain. After finding it, we checked in and drove down the highway to the worst cafeteria ever for goulash slop. The town reminded Ryan of Preston, Idaho from Napoleon Dynamite. It was close.

The next day it was still raining hard, so we gave up our plans to go the park. (sigh) We left the hotel; the weather was 44° F. We drove—in the rain—for about an hour. Nothing to see but green grass and pine trees, grey sky and pavement. A few sheep. Then we entered a 3 mile tunnel through the mountains. It was like a warp zone; we came out the other side into a different world of sun, sagebrush and 84° temperatures.

Anyways, now we are going to have lunch in Trogir, a little coast town on the way to Split, where we will catch the car ferry to Hvar Island and our beach apartment.

Blog you later,
Dan

That’s right. I’m back.

It has been a long day of travel, but we’re trucking along. First thing this morning we snuck James and Jon out of our Munchen hotel and got on the U Bahn to pick up our rental car. The directions were vague, and I insisted that the car agency was down a long garden path into a park. We saw lots of little pretty huts with satellite dishes, but no Europcar. Turns out I was wrong. The agency was in the other direction. Who knew? It was cloudy and I couldn’t use the sun as a reference. James almost mutinied, but I told him to put his head down and power through.

Anyways, eventually we set off for Salzburg, making a few excursions up some back roads in the Bavarian Alps where we saw the house from Heidi. We also saw some cows mounting and almost bought some Tyrolean hats. Around 3 pm, James noticed he hadn’t been fed yet. I told him to put his head down and power through. (Jk. I commiserated; one time I was on vacation and they wouldn’t let me eat, either.) When we got to Salzburg, we had a hard time finding the tourist area, but eventually made it to the beer hall. Jon and I had to drink double beer because Ryan and James refused to do their share. It was like the Coors Brewery all over again—but with sausages.

Then we drove through the Alps as the sky darkened. It was spectacular, any pics can’t do it justice. You could see many chalets perched on hillsides from the autobahn, but we couldn’t figure out how the homeowners got up there. By the time we got into Slovenia, including a wrong turn into a Volkswagen convention at a casino and a little ribbing by some drunken border officials :“amigos, where are your documents?” (while he had them in his hand)—we got into Ljubljana.
Hopping little town. Locals and tourists of all types wandering everywhere. Jon and I saw some Slovenians singing along in a horrible accent to Sean Paul. Then another car drove by and a drunken partier puked on the sidewalk. Our hotel is interesting: under complete renovation; it feels like we moved into an unfinished house. But it is clean and the clerk is very friendly.

Ok it is after midnight, and we have to be up at 7 30 to move our sweet Opel Vectra before we get a ticket. Post ya later.
Na Svidenje.

We got to the airport and couldn't find them for a while, but then we found a internet cafe'. We saw Jon's post that they were in the airport center. They are in good spirits dispite the ordeal. Yes! The trip goes on...

Dan and I just ate so we are now waiting a little bit longer before we leave to meet up with the other two.
Also if you anyone didn't notice I now have a video link on the bottom right of our BLOG home page. There a few fonny ones I got of Dan while he was staring at maps on the subway. I got some shots of the people who were surfing in the park. (Just like a wave pool!) Also there are now some clips of me at the museum standing in front of the blue screen like the weather man!
Here is the direct link to the videos page -->


I took this pic of the moon at the museum. Looks real doesn't it?
Also Dan is trying to make beer...

Dan said: In the words of Jimi Hendrix: ladies and gentlemen thankyou very very much! Your comments are awesome THANKS!

So today we spent a day in the rain checking out the outside of the Heidelberg Castle. After an hour at the internet café we bought some cheap umbrella’s and hiked our way up the hill to see it. My shoes & feet got wet but it was worth it. It was half falling apart but still giant and awesome. Wish I was a knight for sure!

After that we wasted time and drank some pilsner’s at a little restaurant by the river under a big umbrella and heater. It was refreshing to get out of the rain for a bit. Then we got on the train and that brings us to NOW. On the ICE train going 260 km an hour.

Also I am listening to a pod cast of Chris and Albert from the Uconn radio show. I put it on my iPod and have listened to a few times on this trip alone. Excellent show and weather forecast!

Dan is doing crossword puzzles but with numbers, I forget what it’s called. We almost had our first argument. He dropped my iPod and then put it in his mouth and bit it to be funny. I’m not laughing. Grrrr… Anyways, soon we will get to the hotel and sleep.
Cheers, -rYaN-

Gutenmorgen, Ryan here.
Well here I am riding on the ICE train. We are going from Hamburg to Heidelberg. It gets up to about 200 MPH but we are probably only going 70 at the moment. It’s about a 5 hour ride so I'm typing this now and will post it when we arrive.

Earlier in the day was good. We went down to the Elbe River and checked out the little village and houses on the hill side walking through twisted roads and many many stairs. . It was light rain off and on so we were damp but not soaked. To dry off for a bit we went to a restaurant by the water at about 1:00pm. I had tomato soup and a pilsner. Dan had crab soup, eel soup, and cognac. Needless to say he will never have eel soup again. It may have mad him sick later on… Hmmm… Last night was going to be our long night out with no where to stay, but plans changed... Dan felt ill at about 3:30pm (probably allergies, not enough sleep, or the eel soup) so we figured it would be good to find a room. Since it was raining and we had no real plans on what to do all night. We found an internet connection at the top of a parking garage by the train station and reserved a room at hotels.com with the laptop. Later we ate some Brazilian food. Steak, chicken, and pork on a bed of veggies. (No mayonnaise this night. :@)) We then went back to room and slept.

This morning we packed up, ate breakfast, and also met a nice woman from the UK who worked the dining room. We then took the bus to the train station and that brings us here… Sorry if this is long, I don’t have anything to do and the train ride is another 4 hours.

Tschus,
-rYaN-