97 Days, 12 Countries, 1 Kangoo

We proudly present the Fall 2007 European Traveler Awards (brought to you by your local Renault dealer)

The First Category of the evening is for Best Costume.

The nominees are:

• Traditional German dirndls at Oktoberfest
  
• Tuscan winemaker in a blue onesie
  
• Emaciated Santa Claus on the streets of Faro
  

Category: Hardest Place to find a WC

Nominees:

• Amsterdam
  
• Portugal
  
• Madrid
  

Winner: After walking around crosslegged for over two hours trying to hold it in, the Euro goes to Amsterdam.

Category: Most interesting shower experience

Nominees:

• Strasbourg (our first night in the European tiny no curtain showers)
  
• Ghent (ice cold and flooded moldy floors in the bathroom)
  
• Certaldo (electricity randomly going on and off while showering)
  

Winner: Since we spent seven days experiencing the Certaldo shower, the Euro goes to Certaldo.

Category: Best Street Food

Nominees:

• Spicy sausages in Prague
  
• Sweet Waffles in Brussels
  
• Lemon Gelato in Italy
  
• Violet crepes in the South of France
  
• Cheese hotdogs in Paris
  
• Roasted corn on the cob in Madrid
  
• Toasted Chestnuts in Rome
  

And the Winner is: Cheese hotdogs. If you can eat the street food every single day and still want more, that's a winner!

Category: Biggest Disappointment

Nominees:

• Pissing Boy Statue in Brussels
  
• Leaning Tower of Pisa at night
  
• Foot Statue in Rome
  

The Euro this year has to go to the Manneken Pis (Little Boy peeing) Statue in Brussels. Big Let down.

The next category is "Most Picturesque Town"

The beautiful nominees are:

• Halstatt, Austria
  
• Vernazza, Italy
  
• Gourdon, France
  

After much deliberation, the judges have decided on Halstatt.

Category: Ugliest European Car Award

Nominees:

• Ford KA

• Fiat Multipla

• Two wheels in front, one in back Motorcycle (the reverse Mullet of bikes)

Winner: There is no contest here, the clear winner is the Fiat.

The next category is Cars we wish they sold in the U.S.:

Nominees:

• Alfa Romeo 159

• BMW 1 Series

• Kangoo

Since these Euro awards are sponsored by Renault,(and since it took good care of us for 3 months) we have to give the Euro to the Kangoo.

Best Blog Commenter Award

Nominees:

• LAO48 (aka Mom, Linda, Mrs. O, Itty Bitty Kitty Brain)
  
• Pfrancis4 (aka Peter Francis, The Franchise, Franny)
  
• skohn (aka Stephanie Kohn, Anthony, Scone)
  

This one was a race to the finish line. And we have to break the rules and give out three Euros to all these amazing blog commenters. Good job guys!

This concludes the Fall 2007 Euro Awards. Thank you for tuning in and don't forget to tip your waitress.

Moving on... Our Trip by the Numbers!
Days in Europe - 97
Languages attempted - 9
Kilometers driven by Chris - 16,701
Kilometers driven by Steph - 94
Kilometers drivien by Taice - 0
Hotels bed slept in - 62
Number of all-nighters - 2 (Only for the Pats and Carlos y Rodrigo y Gabriel)
Friendly faces from home - 15
Number of times we ate at McDonald's - 7
Run ins with the law - 3
Number of ham/schinken/speck/proscuitto/jambon and cheese/kase/formaggio/queso/fromage sandwiches eaten - 962

Clocking the Kilometers. Also known as "where we were when"...
We reached 6,000 kilometers: Statue Park on the outskirts of Budapet
7,000 kilometers: Rovato on the A4 Autostrada on the way to Bellagio from Verona, Italy
8,000 kilometers: North of Pisa on the way to hike Cinque Terre with Tara and Steve
9,000 kilometers: Driving into Rome to meet Carlos at the Vatican
10,000 kilometers: Outside Marseille on the way to Barcelona
11,000 kilometers: Driving to Madrid on the A2
12,000 kilometers: On the way to Lisbon after sitting in traffic for 1 1/2 hours and only going 6 kilometers
13,000 kilometers: With Steph, Dave and Caleb on the way from Lagos to our retirement community
14,000 and 15,000 kilometers: 17 hour drive from Lisbon to Cannes
16,000 kilometers: Last big drive with the Kangoo from Cannes to Paris

And on to the pics!
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=184308425/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152
Thanks for coming along for the ride, we hope you enjoyed sharing this wonderful experience with us. Look for our next web venture, the Chris and Taice wedding website. YAY!

Random thoughts on Vienna:

The coffee in Austria so far is get the blue ribbon. It’s dark and foamy and the perfect compliment to the wide assortments of Austrian pastries. It seems mandatory to stop every day around 3 PM for a piece of cake and cup of coffee. Our favorite desserts seem to be the ones served in a bath of warm vanilla custard – they are sooo good!

People are so friendly, it’s hard to get used to as a cold hearted New Englander. We met a guy trying to get to Russian who was stuck in limbo for 10 days at our hotel. I think he would have been content to sit in the breakfast room change smoking and chatting to anyone who would listen. And then there was Mike We met Mike at an Australian bar trying to watch the Patriots game (they had the 49ers game on instead!!!). He is originally from Cleveland but has lived all over the world through the military and settled in Vienna about 10 years ago. After 1 hour of talking he gave us every which way to reach him in case we ever want to move to Vienna and stay with him (and his wife and four cats) for awhile. Thanks Mike!

Wienerwald, aka Wienerworld. Do I need to say more? A restaurant named Weinerwald. It’s great! And staying in a hotel room where the sign brightly shines into your room in neon green is even better (Kenny Rogers Roasters anyone???) We did have a faint wireless internet signal from that bedroom window, so we spent hours staring at the Weinerwald sign as the Red Sox won the World Series! WOOHOO!

Summing it up… the desserts are sweet, the people even sweeter, and the Red Sox’s World Series win…the sweetest of them all!

And we stumbled upon some street dancing, a bridal party pulled their limo over to dance in the rain:

And on to Budapest, Buda and Pest, Pest and Buda:

There is no air quality control here, or at least not on the 6 lane divided highway we strolled along everyday walking into and out of the city. Pest is much bigger than we imagined and still has that “covered in soot” feel to it. Okay, so I hated it, let’s be honest. (This is Taice talking by the way).

I think we are billionaires in Hungrary. It was such fun to throw down a 20,000 bill like “BOO YAH” take that. Yes, it was only equivalent to about 100 US dollars, but it was nice to feel like a high roller for once.

It wasn’t all bad… we really enjoyed Memento Park, a park outside the city that is now home to a slew of communist statues. It’s a really interesting and thought provoking place to stroll around.

Budapest also has a very large and old indoor market place, the only one like it that we have seen so far in our travels. It looks like a train station from the outside but on the inside the first floor was full of many food vendors selling meats, spices, cheeses, produce and sweets. The upstairs was loaded with handmade embroidered shirts, souvenirs and knick knacks. The fried dough is very good here.

Since we were in Budapest for Halloween, we attempted to ‘taste the nightlife’. We seemed to be foiled at every turn; either by a horrible karaoke singer, a non-existent waiter, exceedingly hot indoor temperatures or especially by an old man playing the synthesizer next to our table. We eventually needed to give up because the subway stops running at 11.

Here is a link to our pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=183858789/a=7226152_7226152/t_=7226152

Looking for feedback:

• Should Chris keep growing his hair (and beard)?
• Are you as tired of our outfits as we are?

And for those of you who are upset about the lengthy gap since our last entry, we do apologize. The Internet does not seem to have caught on in Hungary and Italy as much as it did in Germany. But fear not – we will have an entry on our first week in Italy very soon.

Miss you all
-Taice and Chris