Bonjour from Avignon! We have finished our whirlwind adventure in Spain and we have landed in Provence for a few days. We had such an amazing time in Barcelona! There was so much to see and we managed to see a huge amount of it along with staying up all night with the New Zealanders from our bustling hostel. If ever you find yourself in Barcelona, if you do nothing else, go to the La Sagrada Familia - quite possibly one of the most amazing pieces of architecture we have ever laid eyes on. Chris and I are now both rabid Gaudi fans - any prints or books we can find we are hunting for when we get home. We really can't buy anything here because we have to carry it(shipping things home is crazy expensive), so we are just making lists of things we will have to find later. In Barcelona, we stayed in a hostel in which every room held 12 people and it was packed. It was so fun and we met people from all over - lots of New Zealanders here for a big rugby tourny starting in France next week. We treked around town all day and usually started dinner around 10pm with drinks until 3am or so. Very noctornal these Spanish folks - my kind of town :) After a few days of that, we were ready to chill and so we took a day train up to Avignon in the South of France. The only room we could get on such short notice was in a hostel that seemed to cater to 18 year old German kids. Needless to say we departed this morning and paid a bit more for a little pension in the middle of town. We are going to stay here two more nights relaxing and enjoying the beautiful sunshine before heading to the madness of Paris. Enjoy our pics or the beach outside San Sabastian in the Basque country, one silly one of me from inside the tower in La Sagrada Familia, us outside the buliding and a few snaps from the Park Guell (also designed by Gaudi). Take care and more from us later! Later- BDS & CSS

Hola again from Spain -
We are now in beautiful San Sabastian and we are having a wonderful, relaxing time. We are staying with our friends Javier and Maria in their beautiful apartment in the center of town. It is just one block from the beach! They have showed us all around this great city and we have had fantastic food and wine in their favorite places. Yesterday we had a bit of rain, though Chris and I still went running down the boardwalk. Then we went shopping with Javi and Maria so that we could make them dinner last night. It is always interesting to try to buy groceries in another country. We had a wonderful lunch (the octopus was amazing - good suggestion) and took a bit of a siesta before we headed up to the highest point in the city to look at the view. The beaches and the scenary are so amazing here, I highly recommend it to anyone. Then Chris and I made our hosts dinner and we chatted until late in the evening. Today we ventured down to the beach since it was sunny again and soon we are off for a drive down the coast. Tomorrow night we catch an overnight train to Barcelona where we will stay in a hostel for three nights - 12 person mixed dorm room style this time. We will be sure to update you all from there, but for now, enjoy our pictures of San Sabastain and our hosts.
Take care!
BDS & CSS
PS: Note the pictures of our travel dragon - he was supposed to accompany us on our trip, but the pictures here are the last before he made his escape. He now sleeps with the fishes after he jumped off Chris's shoulder into the sea :(

Hello from Spain! We are having quite the whirlwind adventure already! We spent three days and two nights in Madrid and really got the flavor of the city. We walked the entire old town, went to the Museo del Prado and all the old historic buildings. We walked over to the Imperial Palace and, though it was closed for tours that day, we still got to see the grounds and the gardens. The main area where our cute little hostel was located was right in the center of everything and it was really nice to have our own room and bathroom to sleep and get over our jetlag. We seemed to fall right into sleeping until noon and staying up very late with the rest of the population. Though we did fall into some very bad tourist food, we managed to find a couple places with very good wine and tapas. I think the key is to go to places where the menu is not translated into English. The Plaza Mayor is very beautiful and the area around there had some great little bars and restaurants. Our last night we ventured out to the discos, as well as going to see some Flamenco at a little club in Huertas. Finding food was a bit of a challange sometimes (too late, too early, never know what to expect) but overall it has been really fun. We finally called Javier on the 20th and decided to take an overnight train to San Sabastian. Last night we got on our train at 10:45pm and ended up (after a bit of confusion) in a sleeper car with six bunk beds with a very nice brother and sister from Israel. It was a bit hard to sleep and in the middle of the night a young American couple joined us in our car. Finally we fell asleep and finally woke up 15 mintues before our stop in San Sabastian. It turns out that this weekend one of the biggest film festivals in Europe is in San Sabastian! Leave it to Chris and I to just luck into that one. When we got off the train, Javier picked us up at the station and took us to his home right downtown, just five minutes walk from the beach. Javier and his wife Maria have a 7 month old daughter named Rothia (can´t spell for sure) who is just the cutest little girl in the world. They have a beautiful home and have invited us to stay as long as we like. Since we arrived at 7am, we went back to thier place and slept until lunch. Javier came home and took us out to lunch to a place that he says is the best tapas in town - wow, now I understand what the guide books were saying about all the great food! We are now going to venture around town and go to the beach and enjoy the sunshine. Hopefully all is well at home and we will be sure to write more later. I have attached some pictures to give you a flavor of our trip so far!
Take care -
BDS & CSS

Hey Everyone -
Well, in fine Chris and Blythe style, it is almost midnight and we are still trying to pack. Never knew it would be so hard to fit 9 weeks worth of stuff into a pack of reasonable size. We may be sending things home as we go :)
We keep trying to remind ourselves that they do sell clothes, shoes, laundry soap, etc over in Europe. Who would have thought?
Our airport shuttle will be here at 5am and we are so ready for this adventure. Keep us in your thoughts and drop us a line from time to time.
See you soon!
Lots of Love -
Chris and Blythe

Two weeks and counting and we are getting excited!
We are starting to realize that we are going to get on a plane soon and we need to get it together. Chris and I have some much work to do and so little time to do it! I need to finish up in the lab, he needs to see a lot of people for work, we both need to figure out what we are bringing, AHHHHHHHH
We just can't wait to be in Spain - I think we might both sleep for a day once we get there :)
Just a couple more weeks!
-BDS and CSS