September 8

hey everyone,

made it back home last thursday with no problems. 22 hours of travel. so i watched the new harry potter 2 and a half times and reread my journal which is good because i haven't written to you in so long i thought id close out the trip with this letter. i dont think i told you about praha in the czech republic so ill start there. in the travel book we had they called the praha the hidden gem of central europe. they were right. there was so much history there. praha was the only city in western and central europe to not be bombed during ww2. the nazis set up a museum there that was supposed to be in memory of the jews, who hitler thought he was going to make extinct. so they put a bunch of artifacts in the museum.its crazy to think that they actually planned for this, thankfully it never happened. we went to the biggest club in central europe one night, five floors with different music on each floor but it turned out to be pop music on one and techno on all the rest, pretty lame. we saw a concert a different night, Franz Ferdinand, i never heard of him but was pleasantry surprised they sounded a lot like the strokes. theres a lot more to tell but itll go better with the pictures we took, also trying to think of everything we did is kind of depressing because i want to go back so badly.

in Munchen, Germany we went to the haupfbrau house. the oldest brewery in the area. we drank steins of beer that weighed about 10 pounds, and watched traditional german dancing and log cutting and beer pounding. picture clark griswald going up on stage dancing with all the guys in lederhosen, everyone in the crowd was swaying back and forth with stein in hand havin a jolly old time. Another day we went to dachou the concentration camp just outside of munchen. this was a sad, educational day. we saw the prisons the bunks the bathrooms, the ten foot high electrified fence and the incineration building. no one in the camp knew that there was an inceration building because it was hidden around the corner of a forest. they told them that they would going to get a shower and shoved them in this room with fake shower heads and pipes along the walls and ceiling then when the room was full, they shut the doors and dropped in the gas bomb. within an hour they began throwing the bodies into the incinerators in the next room over. very sad to think about. no one ever escaped from dachau, not only was there electric fences and guards in 20 foot towers, but the way they deterred anyone from leaving was to tell them that if anyone tried to escape the nazis would shoot 50 of the people in there room, which would be all of there closest friends, so no one tried because their friends were all they had.

i got cut off on my last email so this the continuation of the last.
moving on to our final destination in amsterdam, netherlands. wut a free city. you can do anything you want there except drink on the streets. this was the only city in europe that we visited that didn't allow drinking in public, but everything else is legal. we stayed in a hostel in the heart of the red light district aka THE FILTH. i wont go into too much detail about there if you want to know, feel free to ask. i will say that after 5 nights in the filth we were ready to get out. outside of the redlight district, amsterdam is a really nice city, more than half of the population rides a bike. a really ancient, cheap bicycle. i guess it has to be because bicycle theft is huge there. the average bike there has probably changed owners about 100 times. we had a few guys ride up to us and ask if we wanted a fixed bike, this obviously means stolen because 5 minutes later the same guy would ride by but on a different bike. the entire city has bike lanes wher e the riders go faster than the cars on the street. bikers have the right of way in every situation whether its pedestrians, cars, or even the trams, they stop for no one. i saw a couple of walkers get plowed by a biker, i imagine this happens all the time. we all had some close calls but learned where we could walk very quickly. we went to anne franks house in amsterdam. i always thought the annex was an attic but it turns out its a really big house. the worst part of it was that they never went outside even once in over 2 years. it was very sad, after going to all these cities in europe to think of how much the nazis effected everyone. theres still a few pieces of graffiti around so you know not to forget all the pain and suffering they inflicted and that there are some of these horrible people still around, but i think it also brought a lot of europe together, just like in new york city where after 9-11 everyone went through so much suffering that everyone had something in common, some kind of sadness, but then after a while of healing, everyone unites to become stronger and closer than anyone had been before.
thats the end of this story, 6 weeks in the life of one savy traveler. i recomend everyone go see the world for themselves. although we took about 5-600 pictures, it just doesn't do europe justice, you gotta see it for yourself. talk to all soon and next stop, hopefully in the next year or so will be another story comin from Suda Americana. thanks for keeping in touch, it means a lot hearing from friends and family when you feel like your in a whole other world.
ciao, adios, arrivaderci, aurevoir, and goodbye

love
Andy

August 14

hello family

i have no idea how to say anything in greek except for yamas!!! that means cheers. they have a whole other alphabet. where to begin. i think i last wrote to you all in florence so i'll start with roma. this is the most amazing city ever. 58 million people. there's new and old buildings everywhere and a few blocks of ruins scattered throughout. we saw the tomb of the unknown soldier which is the biggest building in roma. enourmous pillars and carvings everywhere. the colloseum was crumbling, a piece fell while we were there, that may have been staged though. we tagged on to a tour group while we were there to get a little history instead of just looking in amazment. we camped for two or three nights there, it's a little cheaper but a little dirtier, as well. i can't wait to get home and take a real shower and a poop on a clean toilet. i'm getting pretty used to the hole in the ground but it's hard to squat after walking all day long. i thought you would all want to know about that. i dont think we'll take any pictures of the holes.

vatican city was incredible, it's hard to put anything we saw into words but i think we took about 80 pictures in the church alone, even that doesn't do it any justice you gotta see it in person!!! after roma we took a train to bari on the tip of italy then caught a 11 and a half hour ferry to corfu. this is a true paradise island. we've rented 4 wheelers 2 of the days for only 10 euros all day, and we went kayaking and snorkeling on another day. all good times but the party here begins at around 9 pm and just doesn't stop. there's a greek drink called uzzo, tastes just like good and plenty. they have an uzzo circle where everyone sits around and watches some greek dancers, then rounds of uzzo shots are poured and dumped into our mouths about half of it actually gets in the mouth, then dr. george, the owner of the place, goes around smashing plates on your head. it's a crazy fun night. tonight there is a toga party. that's all i can think of right now, it's still pretty early in the morning, about 1200, ha ha.

we saw some meteors but not to many, i sort of forgot to look up 2 of the 3 nights, all together i saw about 10. hope all is well in the states. i guess the olympics began yesterday and we're right next to it i heard that a hostel there costs 70 euros compared to what weve been spending 25-30 euros a night, there's no way were going over there.
talk to you later, next stop is in venice.

love you all,
andy

august 4

bonjourno mi familio.

my current location is in the heart firenze aka florence. i wish the names of cities were not translated throughout the world, it's kind of confusing. we were thinking about posing in some speedos, you'll have to wait to see the pictures. they are everywhere on the beaches. we just left the cinquoterre which translates to the 5 towns. that was amazing, really small villages on the northern coast of the mediterranean in italy, i took a boat ride to see all five and got off at the riomajorre and walked around and had a gelato, mmmm good. most every town there had between 400 and 1000 permanent residents, they all knew each other, and picked the tourists out with no problem. the pictures show that the towns are literally cut out of the mountains and the trains going thru are only seen at the stops, otherwise it's tunnels the whole way. we stayed there for 3 nights and now onto firenze.

i wish i knew how to speak italian, cause it's really fun to make up words that sound like you know what you're talking about. today we just walked around the city and looked at some enourmous statues, they're everywhere, every door, lamp post building, window, and street has some type of art ingrained into it. it reminds me a lot of paris, but the people are friendlier and there's a better aura around town. it rained today for about 15 minutes and everyone just stepped aside from where they were going and stood around until it passed over, pretty funny, i guess that happens a lot here. as soon as it was done everyone got right back to what they were doing. we're staying in a little hotel room tonight for 20 euros a piece and tomorrow were gonna go to a place called camping michaelangelo. sounds like fun even if it does rain.

warm beer sucks!!! i tried it once, never again, so we've been drinking super cheap vino. 1.50 for a bottle, i wish i liked it more. tomorrow we're going into a chapel called the duomo, it looks like a cross from the sky, looks like a pretty historical building started in the 13th century and it took 150 years to finish. then were going to a museum called uffuzi, i think, to see some works of all the famous teenage mutant ninja turtles, you know michaelangelo, donatello, leonardo, and maybe rafael. that's about it for me for now. our next move is to roma in 2 nights. i can't wait to see if the meteor showers turns up here, you guys should should come for the show, if not i'm sure john will take some time lapse pictures with his digital camera.

arrivaderci,
Andino

july 28

viva la barcelona!!! hola mi familia. what a place. its about 85 degrees and the mediterranean is a refreshing dip. we got to a hostel yesterday and man do they like the night life. every city in europe allows drinking on the street just like vegas, we went to a pub crawl last night then i got lost in the city for about 2 hours. but even that was fun. falafel are the perfect on the go meal, but im still not sure what kind of meat is in them, i think its veal.

paris was unreal, we went to the louvre for 4 hours but you could really spend about a week there to see it all. we only saw 25%. egyptian heiroglyphics, old tombs, artifacts, french and greek statues, tapestries the size of the side of a house, gold everything, and paintings that look like there looking right back at you. i think the mona lisa was staring at me the whole time i was in the room. there must be atleast 100,000 exhibits there. we also saw napolean's three room apartment that was decked out in gold. we hiked up 52 floors at the eiffle tower and stopped 2/3 of the way up because the line was gonna take to long but there are beautiful views of the city everywhere you look. the french are actually quite friendly, especially the guy we stayed with xavier and alex´s cousin linzie.

today im gonna meet up with my peruvian amiga, karin, we´ll probably spend 4 or 5 nights in barcelona, all on the beach, where people are a lot more revealing about their bodies, i'm sure you know what i mean, topless and speedos everywhere. chau for now.

love,
andres

bonjour!
we made it to paris. now everything is 1000 times harder to figure out, the keyboard is even different. we met up with alex's cousin here, so that should help. i think that i can email you once or twice a week but it's only by chance that we can find the internet. we have to laugh at ourselves everytime we try to go anywhere because it is so difficult. we went and saw big ben and parliament and buckingham palace in london yesterday and tomorrow we're gonna check out the eifel tower and the louvre. we got cut off in line for conan obrian by 8 people, but we saw so much in new york. it would be awesome if you could forward this to the fam because i dont get much time to be on the ish. i'll write again when we get to barcelona in 2 or 3 days.

aurevoir for now,
andy

july 22

hey, we're still in new york right now and i am totally amazed at everthing i see. everyone here is actually really friendly unlike everything i had ever heard. weve had a few celebrity sightings like tony danza, al sharpton, and were pretty sure we saw daniel baldwin, you know, the no talent baldwin brother. were gonna try to get conan obrian tickets for tomorrow so well have to wait in line at rockafeller plaza at 700 am. i cant get over how ginormous this city is. we leave for london tomorrow at 11 pm. talk to you again later

love ya
andy