They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard!

July 28th, more than a month later I finally put the pictures online. I guess getting mono played a part in sitting down and going through all the pictures and adding comments to them. Mono sucks but I don't feel too too bad so I guess it could be worse. Let's just hope I can get rid of the mono before school starts.

The image gallery on my site was pissing me off so I just decided to delete the whole thing and go with Google. You can't go wrong with Google. They have an awesome service called Picasa which lets you edit, upload and store pictures for free and it's super easy to use. So no need to keep talking, onto the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.hofmaenner

Sorry for the wait, and I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Five weeks gone just like that. As cliché as it sounds, it really feels that I was just only packing my bags yesterday to leave for my trip. I had the best five weeks of my life in Europe and am so glad I was privileged enough to go. It was an invaluable experience and I would just like to thank those who helped along the way like my parents and all my relatives!

It's going to take a while to adjust to not waking up every morning in a new city and country and having that exhilarating feeling of exploring. But even harder to give up than the new places, is going to be making new friends with amazing people from all around the world. Never have I met so many new people in such a short time who are such great people. To all those who have never traveled extensively, do yourself the biggest favor you can and GO TRAVEL!

I promise by the weekend all the pictures and videos from the ENTIRE trip will be online and accessible to everyone!

It's sort of my fault that I havent been updating the site but the Italian government didn't help things either. I guess since the Madrid and London attacks the government requires all public internet users to register, so it was a pain in the butt to have to give them my passport and drivers licence everytime I wanted to get online......but......

I'm in Barcelona now! This place is as crazy as the stories that I've been hearing. They say that New York is the city that doesn't sleep but I bet Barcelona could take that title anyday. You know its bad when your walking home from the bar or club and the sun is rising! I honnestly now understand why this country shuts down for siestas!! The hostel I'm staying at is super nice right off of Las Ramblas in the Platza Real. I'm writing this from the balcony window looking down onto the square that has palm trees, fountains, little restaurants and lights designed by Guadi.

Today we went the to Sagrada Familia church, the apartments designed by Guadi and the park designed by him up in the mountain. The view from the park was unreal. You can see ALL of Barcelona from the mountain and not to mention that the architecture was totally unreal. Barcelona is my favorite city so far and I still have 3 more nights!

For once the weather has been nice (knock on wood). We went to the beach the first day which is definatly over rated but its a beach so you can't really complain. Las Ramblas is a adventure in itself at night, well in the morning. You can't walk more than 20 feet without being offered every drug by super sketch guys and prostitutes who grab your arm and try to take you away.

I've been hearing horror stories from everyone on the road about this place but I feel completely safe here and as long as your smart about stuff I really don't think its a problem. To be honnest, Barcelona has the biggest police presence of any city in Europe that I've been to so far. It's awsome to be in Europe for the world cup too. Everywhere we go the games are on and tons of people are out celebrating and supporting their teams. It's a shame that soccer is pretty much non existant in the states.

Well I'm going to go shower and get ready for another loong night of entertainment. I know I keep promising pictures but uploading on wifi sucks because its so slow and none of the internet cafes or hostels allow you to connect USB so its hampered my progress. I'll try to upload some of the best pictures tomorrow and see how it goes. Until next time....

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It's been a while since I have had a chance to update the site because I can't find wifi. It's rained almost everyday since we left the states but it finally cleared up on the ferry ride (24 hours from Venice to Corfu) and we got some sun.

I wish I could upload some of these pictures but they won't allow you to connect anything to the computers. Lets just say if you tryed to do anything like this in the states it would be illegal or you would have to sign 20 medical release forms. The booze cruze and cliff diving was insane.

We pretty much scaled straight up the sides of coral reef cliffs and jumped anywhere from 10 to 45 feet. It's hard enough climbing up the cliffs sober...I have no idea why the hell they provide alcohol. (yes mom everyone is safe). The cruize also took us to a bat cave and a secluded beach that was walled in by huge cliffs. The weather was really nice in the beginning and of course it began raining on our return trip but at least we got to see the sun.

Tomorrow we are going to take mopeds around the island and do some sightseeing or take the four wheelers out. If your ever in Greece you have to stop by Corfu it's awsome.

Im having an amazing time even though the weather sucks ass. Im wearing a hoodie and jeans with shows and its almost june. We got a couple bottles of wine and walked around looking for wifi after seeing the sights. Im sitting right on the top of a bridge overlooking a canal in venice. Its so surreal. I'll be sure to update the pictures as soon as I can fing a good wifi spot that isn't really slow.

Go the image link thing most of the Switzerland stuff is up and like 2 of Munich. Theres some really cool stuff from Munich that I will put up later but I dont have time now.

I got 4 hours of sleep the night before we left and I haven't slept yet and its two days later at 10PM. I've been up for 36 hours straight......

I will never use connecting flights ever again in my life. Ever. Oh and northwestern and KLM are the most incompetent companies ever. They lost Eric's luggage somewhere between Amsterdam and Zurich and we ended up waiting around for 6 or 7 hours because they kept telling us it was on the way.

Well it wasn't. They are delivering it tomorrow by taxi because they are retarded. I need sleep badly. Tomorrow should be better because I'm going to mail home a shit ton of stuff from my pack because I over packed and my pack weights way way too much.

Here's the BAGGAGE CLAIM FROM HELL...

The only cool thing today was seeing some family that I haven't seen in forever.

(PS - I smell bad)

Packing sucks. Waiting sucks. Leaving rocks.

30 hours to go.....

I drew up a map of where we are going because I realized its not listed anywhere.

(Click to make it bigger)