Long Time No Blog

Yes, I realize it's been virtually an eternity since my last blog post and my time allowed to write at the moment could not even begin to do justice to the multitude of events, travels, and experiences that have compiled since...

In the time I do have (which again, isn't much... hopefully more tomorrow), I can tell you that on March 20th (almost a month ago already!?), Ellory arrived in Cork and since the 31st, we have been backpacking around Europe together. We began by flying from Cork to Amsterdam (via Liverpool, England) and have since "Eurailed" our way through the likes of Holland, Brussels, Brugges, Paris, Lyon, Marseilles, Nice, Genova, Cinque Terre, Pisa, and are now staying with our good family friends, the Thavises (John and Lori) in Rome. And we've done our best to see EVERYTHING! I'll have to write more about some of these locations and stories when time allows, but it's been awesome, crazy, stressful (at times), beautiful, and incredible.

But for now... I must just say that after being in a different city virtually ever night, spending hours and hours on trains, showering whenever we get the chance, and spending desperate 10-minute intervals of internet use at a time, it feels AMAZING to be here in Rome with good friends, amazing food, great conversation, and a warm bed for a few days. Tomorrow we'll probably sleep in (for a change) and then begin to see Rome (hopefully with a personal guide - Lori!). But, as I said - this is the first time in 14 days with a reliable and free source of internet so I expect to write more over the next couple days and maybe even upload some pics (again - maybe. haha).

So - we're here in Rome, we're safe and in great hands, and Rome should be a nice place to relax, rejuvinate (after the nightmare that was the France rail system - more later), and enjoy yet-another fantastic European city.