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Where are those Krafty Kansans
Hey all, Brian and Maria here in sunny (hot) Florence. It has to be about 90 degrees today. We arrived yesterday from Venice just in time to check in to our campsite, the same campsite the Krafty Kansans had previously stayed at in Florence, and then headed towards Piazzale Michelangelo to watch the Championship game of the World Cup Italy vs France. As you may or may not know by now Italia won 5-3 in a shootout after a 1-1 tie that lasted through a 30 minute overtime. France scored th efirst goal on a penalty kick not but 5 minutes into the game. The crowd was understanbly quiet and disappointed after days of build-up for the game. It was not long before the Italians responded with a header off a corner kick in around th 15th minute that whipped the crowd into a frenzy. There was defintely an uneasy mood in the crowd before that goal that showed they were still in the game. Needless to say the shootout didn't ease the tension until the final goal hit the net. With each goal the crowd got louder and more excited. The Italians previously poor record with penalty kicks made the 5 goals out of five shots that mcuh more exciting. They defintely desrve the win and championship just as much as Maria deserves her fiv euro from the Krafty Kansans for picking Italia to win all the way back in June. She says it was an easy decision as she has always had a slight Italian bias. (Part of the reason we returned to Italy in the first place). "It's a beautiful country with beautiful people, a beautiful language, and more than beautiful menu" -Maria (needless to say she is enjoying the food, and even though our budgets don't quite allow us to eat out all the time she doesn't seem to pay very close attention to that fact).
OKay maria here taking over, i know our journal entires haven't been as beefy as the beginning, but brian and i havent really been seeing much of the tourist sites as much as we have been wandering around and enjoying the culture. Lots of design related converstations, and just hanging out, like the good ol times. While in lagos we enjoyed the beach, and Greece didnt end up to be the best planned part of our trip. See athens turns out, is pretty much a s***hole. Basically, not what we expected, although we arent quite sure what that was either. We were sure that the greecian islands would be great, as we REALLY enjoyed our time in Lagos on the beach. But it turned out that we didnt realize the time management involved in planning the island adventures. most people take a ferry to any of the islands, which can be anywhere from a 4 to 12 hour excursion, and of course, another hidden travel fee. Turns out Corfu, seemed fairly easy to get to, however upon arriving after an 8 hour bus ride, two short ferry rides later, that a good 3/4 of the people at the hostel all got the Flu and the only times the bus back to athens happened, was every other day, which (like i think i have said in an earlier journal entry) would have forced us to leave the night of the final World cup match. (thank god we didnt, and were able to take our lemons to make lemonade) by catching the 24 hour ferry to venice. We were able to spend a day on the beach, but it was really hot, and about every 15 mins, we felt like we were getting a whiff of vomit, which seemed more than likely the possibility, because the day before a guy that had just returned from Corfu, (in athens) was telling us about the kids getting sick on the beach. Needless to say, its not exactly how you picture your time on the beach to be. Def. a laughable part of our trip once we look back on it in a couple of years (once our wallet starts to recover from the damage that was greece). The only highlight of our time in Corfu, was an unexpected night of planned activities, which included a "free dinner buffet" (supposedly how everyone got sick in the first place, in fact we sat a table with 5 other spaniards, 4 of which had the flu and were eating a plate of rice, and a bowl of soup, recommended by the doctor) and featured a Magician, from Romania, that was "surprisingly good". Actually he was predictably very corny, which was nice to get some laughs in after all the failed plans we had earlier in the day. We also met two really nice guys from the Netherlands, that we had dinner with, a few drinks, and then managed to kick their ass repeatedly in a seven game winning streak in fooseball aka table soccer. Before we had played them, they were talking themselves up about how they won a bunch the night before, and im sure they didnt expect an innocent little couple from america to come to the table with such a high calabur of play. We actually have our neighbor Dave smith to thank for that, as he has a table back in lawrence, and we spent many nights playing our own version that we like to call goofy ball there. So all in all it was a good night, and more eventful than many of the nights we have spent, sleeping at airports and on overnight busses, ferries, and trains of the recent weeks. (We do that to try and help avoid paying for a place to stay, although it doesnt seem to be helping out too much). Tomorrow we leave for milan to catch our flight to london, where we will again, sleep in the airport just to catch a flight out the next morning to austira. Flying here is incredibly cheap, but i guess the trade off is, you fly completely out of your way in one direction, just to catch a cheap flight to the actual city you want to be in. Oh well, its all just memories in the book i guess. We hope this expanded journal entry has quenched your thirst for what we have been doing here. And i would love to upload more pictures, but i just found out about 10 mins ago that i think i lost the thingymabob that i used to plug in my memory card to upload the pics. OOPS. dont worry, i will be home in less than a week, and will give you all the final touches to our trip shortly there after. Its been a great time here, but honestly I cant wait to get back to the comforts of home, especially my dog, and oddly enough my job (i miss working?!?! weird i know, im sure the first week back at the job will be a tougher transition than i expect) and most importantly, American food. while ive had great meals here, really all i want is a fat philly from pepperjacks. Most of my time here is spent thinking of food. Even though ive done a lot of walking, i might want to start thinking more about exercise once i get back. hehe.
As always thanks for following. It makes brian and i feel popular (well maybe mainly just me) but we love to know we have support from all our family and friends back in the good ol US of A.
we believe that we have repped our country to our greatest ability.
Brian says i need to stop typing now. so i will
bye bye
love you all
maria and brian.
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