New picture of me :)

All the pictures from Europe

Okay...I FINALLY had time to upload all of my pictures from Europe. I'm not sure if anyone is even still reading this, but click the link below and it will send you to all of the Europe pictures.

Europe Pictures

Enjoy!!!!

When in Rome, do as the Romans do...does that include Oktoberfest???

I apologize for not putting anything on the blog in a while. Italian communications are as good as their transportation system...they both stink!

Since we last spoke, we have been to Rome, Bern Switzerland, and are currently in Münich Germany. Without further adeiu....

Rome:
The Collesium. It is a super cool structure. I got loads of pictures, but I don't have a lot of time to get a lot of them on here. I read about the history and did you know that they had all day events there? They would have entertainers..and if they didn't like them, they would throw them in with the animals? Yeah...sounds like fun!


Sistine Chapel. No I did not sneak my camera into the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and take pictures of the ceiling. ;) I snuck my camera in and took LOADS of pictures of the ceiling. This one just happened to be the best one that I could find quickly. The center of it is where God creates Adam...the FAMOUS picture. Did you know that Michelango painted the ceiling and it took him 4 years to do it? He wasn't even a painter...he was a sculpture. It's pretty amazing.


Spanish Steps. This is the place to be man. If you want to get some cheap cool sunglasses, D&G belts, fake prada purses...this is where to go. It's a good place to get a good tan too!


Bern Temple. We went to another temple. This one is amazing! Here's a pretty sweet picture of it.


Mühlestein Family. So, I decided that I should go visit my distant relatives that live in Switzerland. Here is a picture of me with Peter Sr., his wife Marrianne, Peter Jr., his wife (I can't remember her name), and their daughter Andrea who translated for us. That isn't the order of the people in the picture, but those are their names. The visit turned out to be a blast! They LOVED the book that I gave them with pictures of Utah. They drove us up to the Alps for a drive around their mountain countryside. It was gorgeous!!!


So, where is the LAST place in the world that you would expect to find two Mormon girls?? That's right, Oktoberfest. We decided last minute to come to Münich just so we could spend some time in Germany. Little did we know that Oktoberfest has been running for about 2 weeks and still has another week to go. Yeah, this is picture of us in our Oktoberfest shirts that we bought as a souveigner that we were here! Sorry that it is sideways..at least you are getting a picture! We also have these cakes around our necks that say 'ich liebe dich' which means I love you. Everyone is walking around with them on. Today, we ventured out to the actual area wehre Oktoberfest takes place. Everyone here dressed up in their traditional German attire. Guys are walking around with lederhosen on and the girls are in their dodils (the dresses that you see in the movies of the beer waitresses). It's pretty cool! I witnessed a guy fall flat on his face in the train station from drunkeness. I figured that was a good start to our Oktoberfest experience. We got there to find that it is a HUGE carnival. TONS of amusement park type rides. Of course there is the beer vendors covering every inch of the place. We went on two of the rides and had a blast. Sorry that this is the only picture that I could get on. You'll see more when I get back into town. As we were leaving the festival...we saw an open field with people passed out on it...one guy was throwing up, everyone else was passed out. Then we were walking back to the train station and a guy in front of us looked like he had control of himself just biffed it and landed on the sidewalk on his side. Ah...the memories of Oktoberfest!!!! There are these shirts for sale that say, 'My friends say that I went to Oktoberfest, but I can't remember it.' It's sad but true for most people!!


So...this is going to be my final post on this blog. We are headed to Paris tonight on an overnight train and fly out of Paris on Tuesday morning. Since I have already shown you Paris, I figure that I have nothing else to show. I want to thank you all for leaving me comments on this blog. I can't believe that time has gone by this fast. It feels like my trip just started, but I also feel like I've been here forever!

I will post a link to all my pictures on this as soon as I get back and get a free second! Thanks for everything!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Holli & Jenny

Bonjourno...from Italy

We are rather knockered out here in Florence, so we decided to hit an internet café. It is really cheap and super fast. So...here are some pictures of what we have seen.

Here are my two favorite pictures that I have taken thus far this trip. J'adore le Paris!



This is another picture from Barcelona. Gaudi made this whole park up on the top of the hill. This is just a small picture from it.



Here are some pictures of Venice. I just adore Venice! This is a view of the grand canal in Venice...I had to get a Gondola in there.



Sharae, I got a ton of landscape pictures for you in Venice. In my opinion, it is the most gorgeous city in Italy. Here is a sample of one. It is not the best, but I got tons for you. Jenny and I both want to utilize your sevices to get a sweet painting of our favorite scene!



Here is a picture of Jenny and I at the Hotel Dolomiti in Venice. We decided to splurge and stay at a nice place for a few nights. It was the BEST thing in the world to not have to worry about drunk screaming-fighting girls for two whole days. Hostels seem to gather the best of the best. This hotel is the hotel that I stayed at when I came before. It is really nice.



Look away if you do not want to see a naked man!! They do not let you take pictures inside of the actual museum that the David is in. But, they have a replica less then 500 meters away in a square. This is a picture of David from the square. We went and saw him in real life. It is a treat to see the art that you learn about in art history classes in college. It makes you realize that maybe they are teaching you about the truth all the time. hahahaha.



One last picture, as my time is about to run out and I have a little bit of email to check. This is from "The Old Bridge" in Florence. That is what it is called, but I think that it is cool looking.



That is it for now. I love you all! I hope that all is going well with everyone out there in cyber world.

Arrivederci!

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!!

Welcome to Bar"th"elona everyone! We just got done with a HUGE day of travel. And, the hostel here is amazing. By far the nicest place that we have stayed. And to make things even better...the computer will let me upload pictures. So...tell me what you think.

I am sorry that some of the pictures are sideways. I can quite get them to rotate. Here are the pictures...
1. Big Ben in London
2. Queens Theatre in London, where we saw Les Mis, obviously
3. Screen at intermission
4. London Bridge (and it is not falling down...)
5. Notre Dame in Paris
6. Holli in front of Eiffel Tower
7. Arc de Triomphe
8. Jenny in front of Eiffel Tower
9. One of Gaudis unfinished products in Barcelona
10. One of Gaudis masterpieces that reminds me of a Tim Burton creation

There is another queue for the internet, go figure, so I need to get off as soon as possible. I hope that you all have enjoyed them. I will try to put more on some from Italy when I get the chance. Once again, hope all is well!

Love you all!!!

Another day and still no pictures...

I'm trying a new computer today and it still won't recognize my camera. I have some great pictures for everyone too. First of all, I need to show you all my traveling buddy. She has given this site to all her friends and they want to see her! haha. I'm working on it, I promise.

We are still in Paris. Last night, we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower to get some night pictures of it. We happened to be there when they were doing a little show. They had random lights flashing all over the whole tower for about 15-20 minutes. We got some good pictures of it. I would share it with you, but it's not working. Hopefully soon.

We saw Notre Dame and Hôtel de Ville yesterday. Both of them are spectacular sites. Today, we went to the Arc de Triomphe and walked down the Champs Elysées (where the Tour de France ends it's race). It was kind of a laid back day today. We are headed to Barcelona in about 4 hours. I truly hope that their computers are nicer to my camera then they have been here. I might just do a whole blog of pictures as soon as they will let my camera on the computer. I have PLENTY to share with everyone. Sorry that it's kind of boring right now. Plus, it's the weekend. You should all be enjoying one of the last weekends of summer...unless summer is already over there. If it is...I'm sorry.

That's all that I have to say today to everyone. I hope that all is going well. KO...I've got a clean pair of socks that I anticipate putting on after I've lathered my feet with tons of lotion. Don't worry about that! It's definite that I'll do it.

Au revior from Paris. See you in Bar"th"elona!

Where fry sauce comes from...

Bonjour mes amies!

I am in Paris right now. So, there's been a slight change of schedule. We couldn't get a reservation on the overnight train to Barcelona tonight. So we are 'stuck' in Paris for an extra day. That means that we have one less day in Barcelona. Have any of you been there before? We know that we want to hit all the stuff that Gaudi has done. But that is all that we know. Any suggestions? With all that being said, we had to do some minor changing of our schedule (not all of the trains we wanted were available). With only a day in Barcelona, we will now travel all day on Monday and Tuesday to make it to Venice. That just stinks, but we have no other option. AND, we got to squeeze in Münich. Oktoberfest here we come!!!!!!!

And the moment that you've all been waiting for...sorry, no pictures again...the history behind fry sauce. Of course this is all speculation...we just ate at this cute little cosy café. With my frites (fries) they squirt a blob of mayonnaise, then a blob of kethup right on top of it. Just mix it all together and you get fry sauce. There you have it. Fry sauce came from France!

Sorry again about the pics. I should be able to upload some in Barcelona. Hopefully. I wish you all well.

Au revior!!!!

London...Men in suits...

I think that I have discovered why the British aren't big fans of Americans. As soon as rush hour begins, roughly around 4:30 in the pm, people come out with free newspapers for everyone around town. They stand mainly around the tube (subway) stations entryways and they hand out the free newspapers to everyone who will take one. It is like the pamphlets that people hand out in Vegas that no one really wants. We happened upon one of these newspapers yesterday. They seem like ligit newspapers, but they are tabloids to the max. A lot of people take these papers. So the information that they are getting about Americans is from tabloids. Sure makes you feel good about yourself eh?

So, obviously I'm in a big business city right? But let me just tell you...the men in suits is hot!! Almost every man is in a suit. It usually consists of a black or navy blue suit (full suit mind you, with jacket and all) then they wear a pastel shirt with a nice tie. Let me just tell you that walking down the street is a GREAT site! Man has the USA gotten a bit slack on their dressing standards. If I'm really lucky, I can see a man in a full suit on a Sunday at church. But here, every man is in one. I think it's time for the men that I'm associated with to upgrade their dressing standards!

We were a bit knocerked (rather tired) from all the walking we did yesterday, that we didn't do much today. We walked down Portobello Road (it's busy on weekends, so not much action today), we saw Big Ben, Parliment (with the protestors across the street), Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. Then we ate a picnic lunch at the park next to Buckingham Palace. Nothing much else today. We leave at 10 pm, your time, for Paris. I'm excited to get out of the UK. It's time for the foreign portion of my trip!

Hopefully I'll write from Paris, if not...then Bar'th'elona will be the place.

Cheers!

Les Misérables

We got back from Les Mis a few hours ago. I have seen it 4 times now and this is the BEST production that I've ever seen. It made me cry quite a few times. I've never cried before, but this time is just hit me. It was amazing! Oh yeah...minor detail, they bumped our Upper Deck (meaning the very top) seats to stalls (on the ground floor). We were right in the middle of the whole room. PERFECT location to see Les Mis. It was amazing! If you've never seen it, you should. I thought I heard that it is coming to Capitol Theatre this fall. Go see it! By the way, my all-time favorite part of the musical was the totally wasted lady on the third row. She started talking in her normal voice with 10 minutes left of the show. Everyone around her was trying to shush her up; "SHHHH!!!" "Be quiet!!". I guess that she really had to use the water closet. And the whole theatre heard about it while she walked there. I found it amuzing and quite annoying really.

I'm in London now. We will be here all day tomorrow and then EARLY Friday morning we will be heading to Paris. Ahhh...j'adore Paris! We saved £100 by taking a super early chunnel ride to Paris. It's really early, but it will be worth it. I might hit an internet café on Friday, but we'll see. But yeah, London is London. Jenny and I have both been here before, so we're not too keen on seeing everything there is to see. But I will show you what I can.

I'm at a computer that won't let me upload pictures again, so no pics this time, sorry. I hope that everyone is well. I'm glad that you all enjoyed the Hoffermations. I hope that you are repeating them to yourself every night before you go to bed. Because you and I both know that your chest hear is bountiful!

Cheers from London!

Pemberly!!

So, the only reason that we came to Manchester, was for Pemberly (Lyme Park) from Pride and Prejudice, the A&E version. You men, most likely won't understand. But here are some pictures from it anyway!



These are the best pictures that I could get. They were doing construction on half of it...so I couldn't get full pictures. Totally depressing...but at least I got to see it right? This is the staircase that Mr. Darcy runs down when he's hurridly trying to catch Elizabeth Bennett before she leaves his estate. Ahh...just being there made me want to watch the movie again. Totally romantic area!



Well...that brings me up to date on my trip. I hope that I find everyone well. Please leave comments on my blog and let me know what you liked about it. It's my only form of contact with my "Utah World". If you're reading, let me know it. Plus...why didn't anyone tell me that Steve Irwin died??? I read it in the paper this morning on the train ride to Pemberly. That is just crazy insane!!! Well, there is a queue again for the internet, so I best be getting off and giving someone else the chance to check their email. Love you all and I hope that you're enjoying your life as much as I am. Yes, I believe that you can enjoy your life as much as I am in Europe. Just do something that you wouldn't normally do and that will be reward enough.

For you ladies at work that are watching the blog...I found this on the wall of my Manchester Hostel that I'm staying at and I COULDN'T resist putting it up for you!!

GET IN MY CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!!

Preston England

For those of you that aren't of my religion, I went to visit the LDS temple in Preston England. It is gorgeous! Here is just two pictures from the area.





That is all that we did in Preston. But I just wanted to share the beautiful area that we went to!

Cheers!!

Edinburgh

I can officially, leave all of you a real post! I have about an hour, so I'm going to try and get as much put on here as possible.

Scotland is AMAZING! Jenny and I walked about 10 miles in Edinburgh. We got rained on as we were trying to find out hostel. I travelled with my glasses, so I couldn't really see We ran into this sweet little Scotsman playing his bagpipes and he directed us on where to go. Our hostel was JUNK! It was the biggest dump. The guys that ran it were super nice. There was this guy from Poland that kept flirting with me and Jenny. I figure it is because Jenny is this skinny blonde. haha. Our hostel was on the Royal Mile, which is PERFECT location in this city. We walked all around the Edinburgh Castle the Royal Mile, and Princess Street. It was so odd, there were HUGE groups of men around during the day, then huge groups of women during the night. We actually ate Haggis at dinner. Looks nasty, doesn't it? Let's just say, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. It gave me the creeps just to know what it's actually made of...made me shake everytime I took a bite. I lasted for about 3 bites. Anyway, at night, they were celebrating the end of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. so they had a 50 minute firework show coming out of the castle. We stood on the bridge nearby and watched it. The USA could learn a few things from them. 50 minutes??? That doesn't happen in the USA...unless you're at the Stadium of Fire. They had fireworks that looked like water was pouring out the castle. It was really sweet. The wind was blowing SUPER hard, which made it freezing, so we started heading back to our hostel. We almost reached our hostel when the finale started. And we could still see part of it from where we were. It was really cool. Here's the best picture that I could get of the Scottish grass Sharae. I hope that it will suffice.

Hello Wee Mates!

Well, I made it safe and sound. You'll have to excuse me if I mispell anything, not all of the keys on this keyboard work...they're a bit sticky. I'm in Edinburgh, Scotland. Jenny and I have decided that Scottish men are hot! haha. Maybe it's just the accent. I tried to upload some pictures for you, but the computer won't let me. Hopefully I will be able to upload some in a few days. The area around here is GORGEOUS!!! And, they drive on the wrong side of the road and wrong side of the car. We almost got run over about 15 minutes ago because we weren't paying attention to the traffic. My bad. I don't have time to type much more...there are a few people in queue (line) for the computer, and they're not a very patient bunch. I will try to type more to you later this week. But know that I'm here and safe!

Cheers!!!!!!!

Tomorrow starts the AMAZING journey!!

Wow, I can't believe that the trip is here already. It's crazy when you start planning for a trip like this. You know that you're going to go, but it doesn't seem real. Even today, it still doesn't seem real. But the time is upon me and I'm ready to go! I'm going to attempt to stay awake all night tonight so I can crash on the plane tomorrow. I will be flying for too long. I bought some noise reduction headphones at Target last night. That will help me to sleep so much better on the plane.

I got a blessing from my brother Trent a few nights ago. After that experience, I feel more prepared and ready to go! I have been blessed to have fun...and trust me....I will!!!!!

I took this picture last night of everything that I want to take on my trip. If any of you are REALLY bored, try and name all the stuff that I'm taking. hahaha. If you're really that bored, then I worry for you. :D

Like I've stated before, I really hope that I will be able to keep you updated on my trip. I may just suck it up a few days and go to an internet café if the hostel internet isn't working up to par. I think that's about it...I can't really think of anything else to say and I'm just rambling. So, I will say Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen, arrivederci, adiós, and I hope all of you have a happy and safe September!!!!

XOXO

5 days....is that it???

There's 5 days until my trip and I'm starting to get really really excited. Last week, I was watching my second favorite TV channel, "The Food Network" and Rachael Ray was doing her $40 a day show in Paris. I watched the whole show and realized, "Wow, I'm going to be there in less then a month!" That is when it really hit me that I'm going to Europe. It still seems surreal and it probably will until I actually step on to Scotland soil.

Yesterday, I packed up my backpack with everything that I want to take and tried it on for size by walking around for a little bit. The pack weighed in just shy of 25 lbs. There's a reason why my oldest brother calls me Brutus!! But I'm going to re-evaluate and see if I can lessen the weight just a bit. I need to make room for LOADS of Swiss chocolate that I want to take home. It's a good thing that I'm going with a fellow Massage Therapist! We can work out each others Trigger Points (knots) at the end of the day.

For those of you that are new to the blog, I exhort you to leave comments on any of the posts. hahaha. That will be the main way that I will be able to keep in touch with everyone whilst I'm away. I'll try to post before I leave on Saturday. Man...that's going to be a LONG travelling day. :p

YEA....it's getting so close!!!!

12 days!!!!!

I am 12 days away from my wonderfully exciting trip! I am getting very excited! Last night, Jenny and I sat down and made reservations at our hostels. The dates that I posted earlier are exact. Those are the exact times that we will be in those particular cities.

Good news...we can bring MP3 Players on the plane!!!! I'm stoked to have my music on the plane. Most of the restrictions that were placed were temporary. Only the liquid thing still stands, which is totally understandable.

It looks as if all of the hostels, minus Nice, Venice, and Florence, will have internet access. Looks like I will be able to keep you all up to date on my trip. Hopefully I won't have to wait in too long of lines to get some good pictures out there for ya.

Things are slowly starting to fall into place for the trip. I went shopping for some small things to bring on the trip this last weekend. Now I just need to load up my pack and walk around for an hour or so to see if it's too heavy or not. Less then two weeks and I'll be outta here.

WOOT WOOT!!!!

Almost exact dates & 17 days to go

Hello, Bonjour, Hola, Ciao, Hallo, and Bonjour again. Here are the exact dates and cities that we will be in:

Sept 2 - 3, Edinburgh, Scotland
Sept 3 - 4, Preston, England (at the temple)
Sept 5 - 6, Manchester, England
Sept 6 - 8, London, England
Sept 8, Paris, France (just waiting for an overnight train to Barcelona)
Sept 9 - 11, Barcelona, Spain
Sept 12, Nice, France (just waiting for an overnight train to Venice)
Sept 13 - 15, Venice, Italy
Sept 15 - 17, Florence, Italy
Sept 17 - 19, Rome, Italy (overnight train to Bern)
Sept 20 - 22, Bern, Switzerland (Attend the temple and visit the Mühlesteins)
Sept 22 - 26, Paris, France

If any of those dates change, I will let all of you know. But this is what is planned so far. I had to cut out Zürich and Münich, but maybe they'll be squeezed in somehow.

For all you Mühlesteins that are reading, I received an email from Peter Jr. today. He welcomed me to visit them on the 21st in the afternoon. Since they speak broken English and Ruth speaks French...do any of you have suggestions of phrases that I can say to them? Since most of you speak German...I need help!!

That's all that I have for today. Thanks again for all the posts...keep them coming. It's nice to know that people are actually reading this site.

G Love...& 21 days to go

This has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with my Europe trip, but...

My friend Jake and I got to meet G Love from G Love & Special Sauce. If you've never heard of him or his band...are you missing out. He explained his music as Hip Hop and Blues. It's pretty sweet music.




In case you haven't heard, there are some new restrictions on flying due to what happened yesterday on Great Britian. It's pretty crazy stuff. If the regulations don't change by the time I leave, it looks like I'll be stuck watching the stupid movies they show on the plane for 12 hours, with no MP3. Yeah...I'm not too excited about that. But then again, I'd rather be safe on a plane then not.

Only 21 days to go and there is still some major planning to do. I appreciate all the comments that you guys have posted. I'm going to try and post the actual dates of where we are going to be, just for your FYI. Or, in case you really want to come out and join us, you can meet up with us for a city or a country. Everyone is welcome.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Boof #2...and 22 days left

This post is dedicated to Boof #1...my dear sister Britty...hahaha.

So I got a perm a few days ago hoping that it will enable me to do my hair faster while on the trip. What do you all think? Since my hair is as straight as can be, it is quite the change to have this massive poof of hair all around. I'd like to know your opinions of it.

The more I look at this picture, the more I realize how I'm starting to look older. I can actually notice the wrinkles on my face. About a month ago I found my first grey hair too. Ah...does that mean that I have to start acting grown up? I sure hope not.

Remember to bookmark this page so you can refer back to it easily. Also, leave me your address so I can send out postcards from your 'dream' city or some random place.

Hugs and Kisses to all that read this. Some only get hugs...sorry fellas!

Here's a picture from my last trip. I walked where my father walked and I will get to do it again! WOOHOO!! By the way, this is the Bern Switzerland Temple.

23 days to go...

Good Morning/Afternoon one and all! A friend of mine came up with a BRILLIANT idea yesterday. He suggested that I have a blog of my trip to Europe...thanks Nic! Then all of you can know where I am, what I'm doing and seeing, and be wildly jealous of my travels. hahaha. So, I'm going to try and keep this as up to date as possible. Most of the hostels that I plan on staying at have free or cheap internet access. I will do my BEST to keep you all updated on where we are. I will try to upload photos too, depending on the computer that I will be using at the hostels. If I haven't posted anything by September 10th, then you can pretty much bet that I can't get the internet to work. You can stop trying to look after that date, unless you really want to read my ramblings before the trip over and over and over again. Will you really miss me that much that you would do that? Yeah, didn't think so. :)

So far, we have our airline tickets, our BritRail Pass, Eurail Pass, Les Miserablés tickets for London, and reservations at the Preston England Temple Patron Housing. We are pretty set to go. Now we just need to make our reservations at the hostels that we will be staying at. Hopefully we will have that done by next week.

That is about all that I have to say for today. If I think of anything brilliant to say, then I'll add it. As of right now, no one knows about this site. So technically I'm writing to myself about my Europe trip. Man, do I feel like a selfish person right now.

This site will be a good place for all of you to keep in touch with me while I'm out there. Leave me comments on my posts and I'll read them. I'm not planning on checking email while I'm out there. Too much of a hassle. Alright, enough of the blabber....

Here are the cities that we are going to visit. Let me know if you have been to the city and what there is that is super cool to see. Or, if you wish to visit sometime in your life, what you would want to see.

Edinburgh, Scotland
Preston, England (specifically for the temple)
Manchester, England (specifically for Pemberly from the A&E version of Pride and Prejudice)
London, England (specifically for Les Miserablés)
Paris, France
Barcelona, Spain
Nice, France
Venice, Italy
Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
Bern, Switzerland (specifically to meet the Mühlestein's and for the temple)
Zürich, Switzerland (specifically for shopping for real chocolate)
Münich, Germany (specifically for shopping)
Paris, France again... (only because it is the most ROMANTIC city in the world!!)

Let me know what you want to see, and I'll try to visit it myself and get a picture of it for you.

Well...until next time friends!