Glossary

So, as an afterthought of the trip (and as a way to cope with an 11 hour plane flight home), we thought we would let you in on some of the terms and expressions created and used frequently throughout the trip. You can fully expect that all of these will come home with us, and will be used on a day to day basis, so get used to it. To our valued blog followers, thanks again for reading, and please feel free to use these as your own (our gift to you……Chong, Kevin, we won't call you out).

*Please note that all of these are pronounced with an extremely strong southern accent. Think Huck Finn combined with Pat Neely.

Sauce: This word takes on several meanings, but only has one pronunciation "Tsaused" (silent T, think General Tso's Chicken). First, sweat. ex.) "Running to catch that train got me all sauced up," or "check out that back sauce." Second, alcohol. ex.) "That guy had to know we were all sauced up after we cursed him out." Third, actual edible sauce. ex.) "I want my Kebab with that white sauce," or "Don't get cheap on me with the sauce."

Cane: Pronounced "Khan-KNEE" often raising your voice an octave pronouncing the second syllable. This was used anytime Joe or myself saw a dog. Any dog. It could be an actual dog, porcelain dog, book with a dog on the cover, etc. For those who don't know, "Cane" is the italian word for "dog" and is also one of Joe's dog's names (it has several names). People outside of Italy were a bit surprised/frightened/creeped out when they were out walking their dog, and heard us yell "Caaannneeeeeeee" before Joe took a picture of the dog (he literally took a picture of almost every dog we saw on the trip, apparently surprised that they have those in Europe too).

Dawgs: Not to be confused with the term above, the use of this expression began one fateful day when I dropped the line "My dawg's are barkin'." Most of you know this expression to mean "my feet hurt." Joe, having never heard the expression before, went running with it, and quickly started saying things like "the dawg's are a bit chatty right now," and "my right dawg feels like he got run over by a bus last night" This continued throughout the trip. Nick: "How your dawgs feelin' today?" Joe: "Yippety yap yap yap!!" The words "foot" and "feet" was never used again.

When In Rome: This expression, although extremely common, began being used in Spain (ironically), and was used to justify pretty much anything. For example, "Should we order the snails?" was quickly answered with "When in Rome." Or "should we take this many shots of absinthe?", you get the idea. It was appropriate that we ended the trip in Rome, although this was never planned. As a side note, this is the only expression used during the trip that was spoken without a heavy southern accent.

Rocked Up: This expression literally means "I have an erection." Of course, this term was rarely used in the literal sense. For example, "I'm rocked up just thinking' about that Tiramisu from last night." There was also a remixed version of the popular song "Locked Up," originally by R&B artist Akon, the lyrics of which we will not share.

Tobacchi: Pronounced "Ta-BACK-ee" and used with a heavier than usual southern accent. When we hit Italy, we started seeing small shops with the label "Tobacchi" which we immediately associated with "wacky tabacchi," aloud. We may have (drunkenly) advised some possible locals to stay away from the wacky tobacci while passing these shops. As it turns out, these were actually small mini mart's that sold candy bars, snacks, and bus tickets (although this did not stop our previous usage of the word).

J's: This was the nickname that the "Euro" was dubbed. As the story goes, Joe felt that everyone we met pronounced "Euro" like the word started with a J (for example, Juro). For the remainder of the trip, the word "Euro" was never spoken, it was only referred to as J (for example, "I was going to buy that leather wallet over there but that Indian fella wanted 25 J's for it!!"). The letter J was also expanded on at certain times. For example: Waiter: The house wine is 30 Euro's per bottle. Response: 30 Jiggas?!)

70's Big: This expression is admittedly not created by myself or Joe, but is actually the name of a website (www.70sbig.com) that is all about weight lifters from the 70's who were huge. As you can imagine, we did not use the term strictly for guys who looked like they could bench 400 lb. (in fact, I'm pretty sure the only time we used this one on a guy, it was on a bouncer in Switzerland….I'm not gonna lie, he was huge). It was spread evenly to monuments, dogs (hence, the German Shepard, which in Germany is called a Shepard), girls, meals, etc. To be honest, the majority of people in Europe are skinny; you rarely come across someone who is overweight. Therefore, we needed to start getting creative (Germany example: "This bratwurst is 70's big").

Kebab: Properly pronounced "Keh-BOB" (the "BOB" part needs to be pronounced like the guys from the "Da Bears" SNL skit. Please youtube this if you have never seen it). As it turns out, Kebab and Felafel are the official international tourist food. Every single city we visited had an abundance of Kebab joints, all of which provided good, cheap meal alternatives for budget days. The best Kebab of the trip, however, was tasted in Brussels. Imagine a sub roll filled with heaps of the juicy, gyro like meat, belgian frites (french fries), onions, tomatoes, feta cheese, and white garlic sauce (Tsause). Incredible, and only 3.50 J.