Our last bit of our trip was in Barcelona. We spent 3 days there and by this time in the trip we were getting tired of big cities in general. Looking back we could have done a lot more in Barcelona while we were there but we enjoyed relaxing and pampering our selves by the beach for the most part. We found out that we appreciate the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean more than we appreciate the Mediterranean's tiny waves. After we left San Sebastian we took a train over to Barcelona and wandered around the first day. Amanda's waterproof camera was having some water problems so it decided not to work for 2 days and then on our flight home it started to work again. Oh well we have the mental pictures right!?! We couldn't resist having Tapas which is Spanish appetizers (this is where Kyle tried Calamari for the first time, and liked it!). They had a main blvd that had tons of street performers so we walked up and down and watched the performers. They had the artists that would draw cartoon figures of their customers so that was entertaining to watch. We actually got ours done together on our last day and I guess we should have known he wasnt going to be so good when his sign said "Drawing in 5 mins." Kyles sorta looked like him but Amanda's looked nothing like her. Oh Well.
The first two days we walked around the city and did a lot of site seeing and spent the peek hours of the day at the beach. The beach here didnt have the waves like San Sabastian did and the water was polluted a lot worse than the clean water in San Sab. Throughout the trip we have found that at the worst times Amanda decides to be friendly with people. She would be too polite to walk away from someone if they wouldnt stop talking, where Kyle politely step away. this happened again in Barcelona with a guy that was staying at our hostel. He wanted to go to the "American soda" pub so we told him we would go with. After we showed up we found out it was just the name of the bar they actually dont have american soda but our new friend still ordered what turned out to be a 5 euro glass of small pepsi (7 us dollars) and preceded to tell us the longest story known to mankind about how he ended up in Europe. By the ended of it we had about an hour remaining in Barcelona before we had to start our travels to Frankfurt Germany so after spending in the pub we told him we would meet him back at the hostel and left to finish our gift shopping.
Our last night we walked to the beach which was about a 20 minute walk away and sat to watch the ocean for a bit and we did a lot of reminsing. Our trip was out of this world, one of those things that is hard to explain to someone who wasnt there. We fully recommend everyone reading this takes the time to go to Europe and see the other side of the world, you will come back with at least one new perspective.
We flew out of Barcelona on the third night late and flew to Frankfurt Hahn (located an hour and a half out of frankfurt germany), once we arrived to frankfurt hahn at midnight we took a bus to Frankfurt international that got us there at around 2am. We decided that there was no point in wasting 20 euro a piece to get a hostel for 7 hours so we slept on the airport floor. It really wasnt that bad, probably because we were so tired by that point. Our first flight was I think 10 hours long from Frankfurt to Chicago. Amanda was really excited to watch a movie in English without the dubed voices.....but she ended up sleeping through both. On our second flight from Chicago to Phoenix we got to see tons of Lightning storms on our way so that we interesting to see from above the storm.
We compiled this top ten list of things we accomplished in Europe:
10- Visited a Concentration Camp
9- Rode bikes around all of Europe (including the Aran Islands in Ireland)
8- Walked up the Eiffel tower
7- Walked to the very end of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland
6- Saw the Queen of England on her B-day (and gave her a high five oh course)
5- Went to Nude Beach (or "natural beach) in Italy
4- Saw the Pope give mass
3- Canyoning
2- Hiked the Alps
1- Participated (some more than others....kyle!) in Running of the Bulls
Its been a few days since we have got back from Europe and we are still in shock that it is over. The culture shock was evident from the first few minutes we were in Chicago. In Europe tax is included in the price so when it says 3.30 thats what you pay, no added on tax at the register. So we go to Starbucks in the Chicago airport and Amanda orders a large which was an American LARGE and later Kyle decides to get his own. He goes up and orders a Frap for 4.7 and the guy says ok that will be 5.20. Kyle looks at the guy kinda upset and says 'the price says 4.7, can you explain to me why its 5.20?' the guy simply looks at Kyle and says Tax.....ha we both got a chuckle out of that one because neither of us thought of tax. Reality has set in the we are both broke and its time to put the pedal to the metal. Amanda now is looking for a job and Kyle is moving all his stuff back to Globe for an internship in his home town. We still havent adjusted all the way to the time change, it seemed way easier to switch over when we first arrived to Europe. Phoenix didnt seem to care we were back it has been 115 everyday since we have been back. We would love to further share our stories with anyone who is interested and would also love to offer help WHEN you decide to go on your own Eurotrip. We met dozens of new "facebook" and lifelong friends and now have connections all over the world, we couldnt be happier with how our 50 day trip turned out.
We hope this last blog reaches everyone safe and sound. Love you all!
Amanda & Kyle
Here are our pictures of Spain: (sorry no pictures of Barcelona)
Spain Pictures
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Last of the videos
Random Song kyle made up to kill time
Redos for fathers day
Redo video two
Sing along Switz Hostel
Saturday, July 11, 2009
pamplona, numero dos
this may jump around some, but here is pamplona, una experiencia increible that is almost beyond words. madrid era perfecto, y nos quedabamos (we stayed) en la casa de Breanne who would later accompany us to pamplona with 4 of her friends from seattle- brittany, sam, lindsey and aubrey. so, a group 6 girls and kyle...
we missed our train ( which we had reserved) by 5 minutos o menos. tuvimos que pagar por preferente en el proximo pero nos daron una cena (had to pay for 1st class in the next, but gave us dinner) maybe pull up http://www.freetranslation.com/ while your reading since some of this is coming out in spanish.
we arrive in pamplona and meet up with a couple from texas who tagged along with us to find our way to the city center. there were tons of people and fireworks going off when we got there. and by tons of people, i mean tons of people, all in white and red. we went to the bus station to try and find a baggage drop, and instead found another group that joined us. es bueno que kyle can speak spanish because everything was made so much easier without as much of a language barrier. we all made our way to the antigua part of town where there was a place we could check our bags. on the way kyle felt somebody tug at his board shorts pocket, but it was too hard to open, and the texan felt the same thing, but we all had our stuff in good pockets and taken care of so nobody got anything stolen. we found the bag drop, then after a while found the girls (we had planned to meet at the cathedral) and then we were ready to stay up all night.
here is the scene. imagine the biggest street party youve ever been to, or imagine las vegas. now, times that by 10-20. maybe mardi gras in new orleans may compare, but only in some ways. there were people sleeping everywhere they could, and there were people drinking wherever they could, in the stairwells of the bus station, mixing their wine and coke and hard alcohol, everyone of all ages it seems just wandering the streets. all in white with red sashes and bandanas and usually with wine stains everywhere. with all of these people, there come a lot of trash. trash everywhere. a bottle being broken was probably heard every 5 minutes, and there was no where to look that didnt have trash, but the party still went on. there were bands playing in the streets everywhere with crowds gathered around them, a punk band playing some michael jackson and we're standing on a bench dancing, and our group has barely started drinking, just trying to catch up with the rest of everyone around us. kyle stayed out of that this night, he was weighing running in the morning and decided taking care of the girls would also be easier sober... the american girls, especially blondes, are like a magnet in latin countries, so luckily only half of our group was blonde... ha. a good part of the night was spent with kyle using every piece of foul language he knew in spanish, with breanne doing her part, and amanda chiming in with her ¨NO¨ every now and then. it never felt unsafe, it just got annoying.
so passed away the night, and it started getting light, so everyone was round up and headed to the bull run. the girls all got situated near the end of the run near the stadium, and kyle headed off to find the start of the run.
here´s what kyle experienced. he found the start, maybe 100 meters or so from where the bulls were, i couldnt see them, so im just guessing. i found a group of americans studying for a semester somewhere, and hung with them. one of them had run it before and described what was going on, more or less. i would say a little more on the less side. 5 minutes before the rocket goes off that signals the bulls start, everyone does the prayer of san fermin. 3 minutes, everyone does it again. 1 minute, it all happens again. theres a drunk guy with his shirt off that the police make leave. after the first prayer, people start running up the street. the guy who has done it before doesnt know why. the second prayer, more people start running. third prayer, more people start running. my heart is beating faster just as im writing this and remembering what it was like. theres a small girl, same age as me and we are both standing together as the group of americans has somewhat split up during the prayers. we are a little bit farther up the street than when the first prayer started, and jumping up and down trying to keep our legs fresh. the street is wide enough to fit a semi truck and a few feet on each side, and is going uphill on stone that was washed and cleaned from the night before, so its a little bit slippery. people are lined up everywhere on the sides of the streets on on the balconys that poke out from the buildings towering on both sides, so the street is like a canyon of people, all flowing uphill. i thought the anticipation would be the worst part, and voiced that aloud earlier to the americans. i was wrong. moments before the rocket went off im thinking of what i would do if the girl was still around me, throw her out of the way of the bulls or whatever, but the rocket goes off, and people run... some fast, some slow, some still hopping up and down trying to see. it was like i was jogging, hopping up and down looking back, trying to see where the bulls were, but nothing. then people are running. i still havent seen the bulls, but i start running, glancing back and forward to see where im going and to see where they are coming from. at this point in the run, there is no where to go, its walls on both sides. im running on the left and pushing my way towards the wall as the street slowly curves around to the left. the sea of people has been split down the middle, and it wasnt a wide sea to begin with. all of the sudden the bulls, all 6 of them, each weighing in over 1000 pounds, pass me as im running and shoving my way to the wall, along with everyone else around me... except the person i saw, less than 10 feet away, still in the middle of the street, get run over and slammed to the ground. this all happened in an instant, and i dont know where he went after that. others may have been hit too. after this i jog along with everone else to deadmans corner, where the fence has been closed. we all stand there in a huge huddle, and then, everyone starts pushing to the side desperately.... hadnt all the bulls already passed? yes, they had, but it was now time for the tame speers to run through, but it still scared the shit out of me and everyone else. they open the gate, and i get closed in behind it again. finally they let us through, and i run the rest of the way. i see one of the girls, and a couple of the guys from the group before we ran. i know they made it. im not sure what my heart is doing, its almost like im in shock a little bit. i find amanda and the girls right where i left them.
here is part two, the part i didnt experience. but i saw the blood on the ground. again, less than ten feet from where the girls were, a guy was gored. not just any gore. there are two fences of wood, about 8 feet high, with 6 foot of space in between to seperate the bulls and crowd. one of the bulls, the colorado (red one) was the most damaging of the day, he may have been the one who took out the guy i saw, and he was confused and charging people at the end. but back to what amanda and the rest of the girls saw. amanda saw the bull hit the fence, but she didnt know that when the bull hit the fence, there were two people between his head and the fence. the 27 year old spanish man, visting with his mom and dad and girlfriend, was gored in the side of the neck, severing the aortic vein. he was dead within minutes, and amanda and the girls saw it all, but we didnt know he was dead till later that night. its apparently the first death in a lot of years. doesnt matter though. they saw it, i saw the blood on the ground.
how to describe these feelings. i have no desire to ever do anything like that again. im used to being in control, even in dangerous situations. this, there was no control. i picked the part of the run where the bulls run the fastest because its a straight away, but i didnt know that. put me on a track, and maybe id have a chance, but in a street blocked off from the rest of the world, im just a fly on a window. theres no glory in stupidity. ill say ive run with the bulls, but i wont brag about it. its an experience though, and ill take all that i can from it.
this is to our parents, family, friends. we are completely safe and well, and we love you
God Bless.
Amanda and Kyle
we missed our train ( which we had reserved) by 5 minutos o menos. tuvimos que pagar por preferente en el proximo pero nos daron una cena (had to pay for 1st class in the next, but gave us dinner) maybe pull up http://www.freetranslation.com/ while your reading since some of this is coming out in spanish.
we arrive in pamplona and meet up with a couple from texas who tagged along with us to find our way to the city center. there were tons of people and fireworks going off when we got there. and by tons of people, i mean tons of people, all in white and red. we went to the bus station to try and find a baggage drop, and instead found another group that joined us. es bueno que kyle can speak spanish because everything was made so much easier without as much of a language barrier. we all made our way to the antigua part of town where there was a place we could check our bags. on the way kyle felt somebody tug at his board shorts pocket, but it was too hard to open, and the texan felt the same thing, but we all had our stuff in good pockets and taken care of so nobody got anything stolen. we found the bag drop, then after a while found the girls (we had planned to meet at the cathedral) and then we were ready to stay up all night.
here is the scene. imagine the biggest street party youve ever been to, or imagine las vegas. now, times that by 10-20. maybe mardi gras in new orleans may compare, but only in some ways. there were people sleeping everywhere they could, and there were people drinking wherever they could, in the stairwells of the bus station, mixing their wine and coke and hard alcohol, everyone of all ages it seems just wandering the streets. all in white with red sashes and bandanas and usually with wine stains everywhere. with all of these people, there come a lot of trash. trash everywhere. a bottle being broken was probably heard every 5 minutes, and there was no where to look that didnt have trash, but the party still went on. there were bands playing in the streets everywhere with crowds gathered around them, a punk band playing some michael jackson and we're standing on a bench dancing, and our group has barely started drinking, just trying to catch up with the rest of everyone around us. kyle stayed out of that this night, he was weighing running in the morning and decided taking care of the girls would also be easier sober... the american girls, especially blondes, are like a magnet in latin countries, so luckily only half of our group was blonde... ha. a good part of the night was spent with kyle using every piece of foul language he knew in spanish, with breanne doing her part, and amanda chiming in with her ¨NO¨ every now and then. it never felt unsafe, it just got annoying.
so passed away the night, and it started getting light, so everyone was round up and headed to the bull run. the girls all got situated near the end of the run near the stadium, and kyle headed off to find the start of the run.
here´s what kyle experienced. he found the start, maybe 100 meters or so from where the bulls were, i couldnt see them, so im just guessing. i found a group of americans studying for a semester somewhere, and hung with them. one of them had run it before and described what was going on, more or less. i would say a little more on the less side. 5 minutes before the rocket goes off that signals the bulls start, everyone does the prayer of san fermin. 3 minutes, everyone does it again. 1 minute, it all happens again. theres a drunk guy with his shirt off that the police make leave. after the first prayer, people start running up the street. the guy who has done it before doesnt know why. the second prayer, more people start running. third prayer, more people start running. my heart is beating faster just as im writing this and remembering what it was like. theres a small girl, same age as me and we are both standing together as the group of americans has somewhat split up during the prayers. we are a little bit farther up the street than when the first prayer started, and jumping up and down trying to keep our legs fresh. the street is wide enough to fit a semi truck and a few feet on each side, and is going uphill on stone that was washed and cleaned from the night before, so its a little bit slippery. people are lined up everywhere on the sides of the streets on on the balconys that poke out from the buildings towering on both sides, so the street is like a canyon of people, all flowing uphill. i thought the anticipation would be the worst part, and voiced that aloud earlier to the americans. i was wrong. moments before the rocket went off im thinking of what i would do if the girl was still around me, throw her out of the way of the bulls or whatever, but the rocket goes off, and people run... some fast, some slow, some still hopping up and down trying to see. it was like i was jogging, hopping up and down looking back, trying to see where the bulls were, but nothing. then people are running. i still havent seen the bulls, but i start running, glancing back and forward to see where im going and to see where they are coming from. at this point in the run, there is no where to go, its walls on both sides. im running on the left and pushing my way towards the wall as the street slowly curves around to the left. the sea of people has been split down the middle, and it wasnt a wide sea to begin with. all of the sudden the bulls, all 6 of them, each weighing in over 1000 pounds, pass me as im running and shoving my way to the wall, along with everyone else around me... except the person i saw, less than 10 feet away, still in the middle of the street, get run over and slammed to the ground. this all happened in an instant, and i dont know where he went after that. others may have been hit too. after this i jog along with everone else to deadmans corner, where the fence has been closed. we all stand there in a huge huddle, and then, everyone starts pushing to the side desperately.... hadnt all the bulls already passed? yes, they had, but it was now time for the tame speers to run through, but it still scared the shit out of me and everyone else. they open the gate, and i get closed in behind it again. finally they let us through, and i run the rest of the way. i see one of the girls, and a couple of the guys from the group before we ran. i know they made it. im not sure what my heart is doing, its almost like im in shock a little bit. i find amanda and the girls right where i left them.
here is part two, the part i didnt experience. but i saw the blood on the ground. again, less than ten feet from where the girls were, a guy was gored. not just any gore. there are two fences of wood, about 8 feet high, with 6 foot of space in between to seperate the bulls and crowd. one of the bulls, the colorado (red one) was the most damaging of the day, he may have been the one who took out the guy i saw, and he was confused and charging people at the end. but back to what amanda and the rest of the girls saw. amanda saw the bull hit the fence, but she didnt know that when the bull hit the fence, there were two people between his head and the fence. the 27 year old spanish man, visting with his mom and dad and girlfriend, was gored in the side of the neck, severing the aortic vein. he was dead within minutes, and amanda and the girls saw it all, but we didnt know he was dead till later that night. its apparently the first death in a lot of years. doesnt matter though. they saw it, i saw the blood on the ground.
how to describe these feelings. i have no desire to ever do anything like that again. im used to being in control, even in dangerous situations. this, there was no control. i picked the part of the run where the bulls run the fastest because its a straight away, but i didnt know that. put me on a track, and maybe id have a chance, but in a street blocked off from the rest of the world, im just a fly on a window. theres no glory in stupidity. ill say ive run with the bulls, but i wont brag about it. its an experience though, and ill take all that i can from it.
this is to our parents, family, friends. we are completely safe and well, and we love you
God Bless.
Amanda and Kyle
Friday, July 10, 2009
He Survived Running of the Bulls!
We are keeping this brief because we are exhausted from staying up at the Running of the Bulls Fiesta all night last night.
Kyle ran in running of the bulls....and survived...no injury. Amanda watched on the side with her 5 new friends from Seattle (one Kyle knew ahead of time) and saw the bulls run right in front of her. The only downer of the experience was that where the girls and Amanda were sitting was where the 27 year old got killed by the bull so it was up close and personal.
We will write a blog later, we havent slept in way too long so goodnight. we love you all!
CNN story of guys gore
Kyle ran in running of the bulls....and survived...no injury. Amanda watched on the side with her 5 new friends from Seattle (one Kyle knew ahead of time) and saw the bulls run right in front of her. The only downer of the experience was that where the girls and Amanda were sitting was where the 27 year old got killed by the bull so it was up close and personal.
We will write a blog later, we havent slept in way too long so goodnight. we love you all!
CNN story of guys gore
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Italy
Its been a few days since we wrote so we are gonna take a few to catch the rest of the world up to date.
After we left Swiss land we headed on an overnight to Rome. It started out really well. We went and sat outside the train station to watch the sunset and we started to talk with another couple that was traveling around. When time got closer we found out that they were in our cabin, so that was kinda cool and random. we were on the top bunks on a 6 bed couchette (sleeper car) and by about 1am we both woke up drenched in sweat and had to get off our bunk...it was extremely hot up there so we didnt end up getting too much sleep on our second overnight trip. Once we arrived in Rome we checked into our hostel and went to tour the Vatican- I was about 3 blocks away from our hostel. We ended up spending all day at there, its huge and has lots of things to soak in. When we first arrived the pope was having a special mass out in the courtyard so we actually got to see the pope in person. We shook his hand.....ok just kidding, but it was still amazing. Once they cleared out the pope and all the other people we toured St. Peter's Basilica we walked around there for probably an hour or more just looking at the amazing art and also where the deceased popes final resting place is. Probably one of our most treasured experiences at the Basilica was attending a mass inside the Basilica...how many people do you know that have gone to mass at st peter's basilica and received communion?!?! we were on cloud 9 after that. Directly after we got out of mass we went to see the Sistine Chapel and Amanda took a lot/way too many picture. In the room with the Creation of Adam (the picture of god and Adam touching fingers) we managed to sneak a prohibited picture it so we thought we were verrrrrry sneaky.
throughout our trip we have been running into people that we hung out with in other cities or roomed with at a hostel somewhere along the line. We had made friends with 6 male med students from Oklahoma in Swizterland and randomly ran into them again at the sistine chapel.
The next day we walked around the Colosseum in Rome and then walked across the street to the giant park (the name slipped my mind at the moment). We didnt get to spend as much time as we wanted in Rome because of scheduling stuff but the time we spent we did a lot of stuff and got to see some beautiful art.
After Rome we headed to Cinque Terre which is 5 cities on the italy coast that are within walking distance of each other...or should I say hiking distances. The first night we decided to just wing it and showed up without reservation, the first town we went to was so small they has no hostels or cheap places to stay so we went to another town called Manarossa. Its the biggest of the 5 towns. Again we got here and couldnt find anywhere to stay that was cheap and saw a group of women with big backpacks walking up a hill. So of course we walked up and asked if they knew of any cheap places. Long story short by the time we got to a motel with them it was too late to book and this local lady offered all 7 of us a place in her empty apartment. so we spent the night with our new 5 friends from Virginia. The second day we spent on the beach and ended up talking with some nice aussies and found out that there are jellyfish in the water. One of the guy aussies actually got stung and had a jelly fish welt to prove it. No thank you. We found out that America does Supersize things and that portions are much smaller in Europe. we ordered a pasta meal and after we finished probably each could have had 3 more helpings.
Today we spent hiking between towns. We caught wind of a nude beach so of course when in Italy do what the Italians do...right?!?!? So we hiked to this ' natural beach' and spent all day running and swimming naked. Here too there were a lot of jellyfish and they seemed to come in packs. We were lucky because when we first arrived we got in the water and swam out a bit just to get out and didnt see or get stung. When we got back we noticed they were all over and people were literally scooping them out and throwing them on the beach. Dad (Dan) you would have been proud of me because (a) I ventured to a nude beach (b) I body surfed all day (c) I didnt get stung or injured while I was there :). It was funny we thought at one point so if we do get stung by a jellyfish on our butt what exactly will we tell people later on.....ha The hike out was tiring but it ended up being perfect. On the way up it got so steep in places that there was a rope attached to a tree so that you could pull yourself while trying to walk straight uphill. We arrived in another one of the towns (Vernazza) and ate our 'dinner'. Our dinner consisted of water....lots of water, gelato (grande size of course)- we decided this gelato was the best we had ever had probably because we were so tired and hot, then pesto pasta, followed by another large gelato cone. On the walk back Kyle got a really bad stomach ache (we arent sure why ;) so we kinda called it a night there.
While at Cinque Terre we spent most of our hours on the beach, Im not impressed with the Mediterranean sea, it doesnt compare to Oregon or Hawaii waves. There was actually a few nights that we thought we were going to have to sleep on the beach because we couldnt find anywhere to stay but luckily it all worked out in the end.
Tomorrow we start our journey to Spain but wont actually get there till the following day. We heard that a trip to Pamplona will be really hard to do because everything is booked but hopefully it will come through.
We have to find a computer to put the Rome pictures and Cinque Terre pictures so come back to this blog later to look for the link.
Spain is our last country so its a weird feeling to almost be done. Neither of us wants to come back to the real world but we know its inevitable..
Happy Fourth of July to all who read and we love you
ITALY PICTURES
After we left Swiss land we headed on an overnight to Rome. It started out really well. We went and sat outside the train station to watch the sunset and we started to talk with another couple that was traveling around. When time got closer we found out that they were in our cabin, so that was kinda cool and random. we were on the top bunks on a 6 bed couchette (sleeper car) and by about 1am we both woke up drenched in sweat and had to get off our bunk...it was extremely hot up there so we didnt end up getting too much sleep on our second overnight trip. Once we arrived in Rome we checked into our hostel and went to tour the Vatican- I was about 3 blocks away from our hostel. We ended up spending all day at there, its huge and has lots of things to soak in. When we first arrived the pope was having a special mass out in the courtyard so we actually got to see the pope in person. We shook his hand.....ok just kidding, but it was still amazing. Once they cleared out the pope and all the other people we toured St. Peter's Basilica we walked around there for probably an hour or more just looking at the amazing art and also where the deceased popes final resting place is. Probably one of our most treasured experiences at the Basilica was attending a mass inside the Basilica...how many people do you know that have gone to mass at st peter's basilica and received communion?!?! we were on cloud 9 after that. Directly after we got out of mass we went to see the Sistine Chapel and Amanda took a lot/way too many picture. In the room with the Creation of Adam (the picture of god and Adam touching fingers) we managed to sneak a prohibited picture it so we thought we were verrrrrry sneaky.
throughout our trip we have been running into people that we hung out with in other cities or roomed with at a hostel somewhere along the line. We had made friends with 6 male med students from Oklahoma in Swizterland and randomly ran into them again at the sistine chapel.
The next day we walked around the Colosseum in Rome and then walked across the street to the giant park (the name slipped my mind at the moment). We didnt get to spend as much time as we wanted in Rome because of scheduling stuff but the time we spent we did a lot of stuff and got to see some beautiful art.
After Rome we headed to Cinque Terre which is 5 cities on the italy coast that are within walking distance of each other...or should I say hiking distances. The first night we decided to just wing it and showed up without reservation, the first town we went to was so small they has no hostels or cheap places to stay so we went to another town called Manarossa. Its the biggest of the 5 towns. Again we got here and couldnt find anywhere to stay that was cheap and saw a group of women with big backpacks walking up a hill. So of course we walked up and asked if they knew of any cheap places. Long story short by the time we got to a motel with them it was too late to book and this local lady offered all 7 of us a place in her empty apartment. so we spent the night with our new 5 friends from Virginia. The second day we spent on the beach and ended up talking with some nice aussies and found out that there are jellyfish in the water. One of the guy aussies actually got stung and had a jelly fish welt to prove it. No thank you. We found out that America does Supersize things and that portions are much smaller in Europe. we ordered a pasta meal and after we finished probably each could have had 3 more helpings.
Today we spent hiking between towns. We caught wind of a nude beach so of course when in Italy do what the Italians do...right?!?!? So we hiked to this ' natural beach' and spent all day running and swimming naked. Here too there were a lot of jellyfish and they seemed to come in packs. We were lucky because when we first arrived we got in the water and swam out a bit just to get out and didnt see or get stung. When we got back we noticed they were all over and people were literally scooping them out and throwing them on the beach. Dad (Dan) you would have been proud of me because (a) I ventured to a nude beach (b) I body surfed all day (c) I didnt get stung or injured while I was there :). It was funny we thought at one point so if we do get stung by a jellyfish on our butt what exactly will we tell people later on.....ha The hike out was tiring but it ended up being perfect. On the way up it got so steep in places that there was a rope attached to a tree so that you could pull yourself while trying to walk straight uphill. We arrived in another one of the towns (Vernazza) and ate our 'dinner'. Our dinner consisted of water....lots of water, gelato (grande size of course)- we decided this gelato was the best we had ever had probably because we were so tired and hot, then pesto pasta, followed by another large gelato cone. On the walk back Kyle got a really bad stomach ache (we arent sure why ;) so we kinda called it a night there.
While at Cinque Terre we spent most of our hours on the beach, Im not impressed with the Mediterranean sea, it doesnt compare to Oregon or Hawaii waves. There was actually a few nights that we thought we were going to have to sleep on the beach because we couldnt find anywhere to stay but luckily it all worked out in the end.
Tomorrow we start our journey to Spain but wont actually get there till the following day. We heard that a trip to Pamplona will be really hard to do because everything is booked but hopefully it will come through.
We have to find a computer to put the Rome pictures and Cinque Terre pictures so come back to this blog later to look for the link.
Spain is our last country so its a weird feeling to almost be done. Neither of us wants to come back to the real world but we know its inevitable..
Happy Fourth of July to all who read and we love you
ITALY PICTURES
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Quick Note before Rome
We are sad to leave Switzerland because it was our dreamland but we are headed to rome in a few. We posted the rest of our Switzerland picture hey dont have captions yet so lookagain later if you want to know where exactly it was.
Last of Switzerland
Kyle dancing on the Train ride to Switzerland. He was dancing to 'I know you want me' by Pitbull
Kyle took this video of him riding a bike
Last of Switzerland
Kyle dancing on the Train ride to Switzerland. He was dancing to 'I know you want me' by Pitbull
Kyle took this video of him riding a bike
Monday, June 29, 2009
A little bit from Kyle
Amandas asleep, and im awake so i figured id write a little bit. im so behind on my written journal im not even sure where i would start in it, so i gave up. we went on a little hike today that once again started with a huge walk uphill and ended with a huge walk down hill. my legs are shot from these three days in semi-isolated switzerland. the first night we were here i went on about a 40 minute run to Murren, which starts with the uphill i was talking about. i think its at least an 800 foot elevation change between gimmelwald and murren, so that was fun. and then the next day i went on a hike with the couple we met the night before, Ian and Amanda. Amanda actually went to nau for a couple years and we had one of the same profesors we both hated on (dr. funk, psychology teacher) and Ian is a PRM major. anyway, i hiked with them, and ran back. My Amanda was tired, so let her sleep and i shouldve woken her up, but she can be scary in the mornings. once i got back we went and hiked to murren, again. and today we did another hike that took us by murren, but this one had a waterfall we walked under, and we ran into a guy doing trail work and talked with him for a bit... he could speak 7 languages. makes my one and half seem like next to nothing.
kinda sad were leaving tomorrow, i havent enjoyed the view from my window as much as the one here, and i dont really think much can compare. theres 30minutes left until quiet time, so im going to go play the piano for a bit... just kidding. some kid just jumped on and started playing mary had a little lamb.
ok, pictures and such will hopefully come soon, goodnight everyone.
kinda sad were leaving tomorrow, i havent enjoyed the view from my window as much as the one here, and i dont really think much can compare. theres 30minutes left until quiet time, so im going to go play the piano for a bit... just kidding. some kid just jumped on and started playing mary had a little lamb.
ok, pictures and such will hopefully come soon, goodnight everyone.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Paris, and den.... Switzerland!
Paris actually turned out to be more or less perfect. We got in on the plane, took the hour bus to actual paris, found the subway, found tickets, found our hotel, which turned out to be right above the subway stop, and everybody that we had any interaction with was super nice. for some reason everything went more or less right... weird huh?
we went on the new europe tour and saw a lot of the sights and got some good history stories from our guide, who was wearing plastic bags as he walked around because of the blisters on his feet... quite the trooper. we missed out on the louvre while we were there because it was closed the day we were planning on going, but whats the use in seeing everything, right? then you never have a reason to come back. we did see aladin and jasmine though... not really sure if it was jasmine, but she was wearing a blue dress sitting on a park bench making out with some guy. we took a picture like the paparazzi.
we went along with a guy from our tour group (his name was Kyle, what a cool name!) and headed to the eiffel tower. climbed the steps as far as we could, and took the elevator the rest of the way to the top... not because we wanted to, we just had no choice. we walked around the top, which was cool because when Kyle (me) was here i didnt get to go to the top. we met an aussie from tasmania, Neese, and we all went down to the second level and saw the sun set. you know, just an everyday occurence in paris, eh? we all wandered around, found a pizza place and ate, the said a revoir (im sure i butchered the spelling)
so the next day was a little bit rougher, we slept in and made our way to the traing station, not after finding some crepes that were reallyyyyy good. at the train station we ended up finding an alternate route to interlaken... prolly because amanda made a sacrifice to the travel gods along the way by breaking her card... and Kyle danced on the train to music in his head.
interlaken- we got here at night, so we had no clue what was around us, but when we woke up in the morning... no words. we went to our other hostel just down the road, then headed and rented kayaks for the lake- bought some good bread and cheese and meat, as well as chocolate. that must have been what drew the bee that stung Amanda in the foot. good thing Kyle is always prepared and had the bee sting stuff. it was a perfect sunny day when we started, and stayed that way most of the time, until we had to head back. it was kind of choppy, but still fun.
Last night entailed this... Amanda decides to NOT bring a jacket as we walk downtown, and it gets cold. Great idea number one... get in Kyles jacket, with him still in it. great idea number two, zip up jacket. this is actually the end of the great ideas. we walked like that for a bit, and amanda decides to zip down. it gets caught in her shirt. it reallz gets caught in her shirt. she starts laughing uncontrollably. ti doesnt help. she has to go pee. kyle trys to get out. he cant. shes still laughing. we sit down. kyle finally gets out, amanda has his jacket...hmm. maybe more on this later.
today is just going to be a short description, but we went canyoning. jumping of waterfalls, rapelling, and sliding down cliff faces. there were 3 girls from our room that went with us, and then a couple, and two other guys in our group, which was the cool group. check out the photos, eh? the experience cant really be described.
k, goodnight Yall
we went on the new europe tour and saw a lot of the sights and got some good history stories from our guide, who was wearing plastic bags as he walked around because of the blisters on his feet... quite the trooper. we missed out on the louvre while we were there because it was closed the day we were planning on going, but whats the use in seeing everything, right? then you never have a reason to come back. we did see aladin and jasmine though... not really sure if it was jasmine, but she was wearing a blue dress sitting on a park bench making out with some guy. we took a picture like the paparazzi.
we went along with a guy from our tour group (his name was Kyle, what a cool name!) and headed to the eiffel tower. climbed the steps as far as we could, and took the elevator the rest of the way to the top... not because we wanted to, we just had no choice. we walked around the top, which was cool because when Kyle (me) was here i didnt get to go to the top. we met an aussie from tasmania, Neese, and we all went down to the second level and saw the sun set. you know, just an everyday occurence in paris, eh? we all wandered around, found a pizza place and ate, the said a revoir (im sure i butchered the spelling)
so the next day was a little bit rougher, we slept in and made our way to the traing station, not after finding some crepes that were reallyyyyy good. at the train station we ended up finding an alternate route to interlaken... prolly because amanda made a sacrifice to the travel gods along the way by breaking her card... and Kyle danced on the train to music in his head.
interlaken- we got here at night, so we had no clue what was around us, but when we woke up in the morning... no words. we went to our other hostel just down the road, then headed and rented kayaks for the lake- bought some good bread and cheese and meat, as well as chocolate. that must have been what drew the bee that stung Amanda in the foot. good thing Kyle is always prepared and had the bee sting stuff. it was a perfect sunny day when we started, and stayed that way most of the time, until we had to head back. it was kind of choppy, but still fun.
Last night entailed this... Amanda decides to NOT bring a jacket as we walk downtown, and it gets cold. Great idea number one... get in Kyles jacket, with him still in it. great idea number two, zip up jacket. this is actually the end of the great ideas. we walked like that for a bit, and amanda decides to zip down. it gets caught in her shirt. it reallz gets caught in her shirt. she starts laughing uncontrollably. ti doesnt help. she has to go pee. kyle trys to get out. he cant. shes still laughing. we sit down. kyle finally gets out, amanda has his jacket...hmm. maybe more on this later.
today is just going to be a short description, but we went canyoning. jumping of waterfalls, rapelling, and sliding down cliff faces. there were 3 girls from our room that went with us, and then a couple, and two other guys in our group, which was the cool group. check out the photos, eh? the experience cant really be described.
k, goodnight Yall
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
paris and ireland, abbreviated
here are the rest of the pictures from ireland and our short trip to paris.... we walked to the top of the eiffel tower, prolly like 20 000 steps.... at least :]. We spent the rest of the night with an aussie and canadian....
update soon
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Random Videos from Trip
Stay tuned and come back to this blog we will post more videos on her as we go. Enjoy!
This video was when we went on a walk with our friends in England and took bread but the ducks were too far away. Also there were a million bugs and Jerome lured us into getting attacked by them....thats were the video starts.
This is a video of us/Kyle driving in Ireland on the left side of the road. He loves to sing to Amanda. He was singing Jason Mraz 'Im yours'
This is a video of a street performer in Ireland that was playing the violin and the guitar on his foot (sorry so short, we took a picture also)
Video in Ireland of Kyle enjoying Bulmer Cider and good music (Sweet Caroline/Amanda Jane :) and Return to Sender)
Video of our walk from in Cork we translated so you can enjoy Amanda on our walk home after the pubs:
Kyle: Get out of the street!
Amanda: yah
Kyle: its taking freakin video
Amanda: ahaha
Kyle: Amanda.....!
Amanda: ah-zzzzzzzzzzz!
(no one was harmed in the making of these videos)
This video was when we went on a walk with our friends in England and took bread but the ducks were too far away. Also there were a million bugs and Jerome lured us into getting attacked by them....thats were the video starts.
This is a video of us/Kyle driving in Ireland on the left side of the road. He loves to sing to Amanda. He was singing Jason Mraz 'Im yours'
This is a video of a street performer in Ireland that was playing the violin and the guitar on his foot (sorry so short, we took a picture also)
Video in Ireland of Kyle enjoying Bulmer Cider and good music (Sweet Caroline/Amanda Jane :) and Return to Sender)
Video of our walk from in Cork we translated so you can enjoy Amanda on our walk home after the pubs:
Kyle: Get out of the street!
Amanda: yah
Kyle: its taking freakin video
Amanda: ahaha
Kyle: Amanda.....!
Amanda: ah-zzzzzzzzzzz!
(no one was harmed in the making of these videos)
Ireland Part Two: Freckles everywhere!
Amanda says she feels right at home in Ireland because everyone has freckles!
Aran islands was a good get away from the city, and a good follow up to the cliffs of moher... once we got there! driving has been an experience in Ireland, with street names and direction signs either being hidden/and or non existent. somewhat stressful, i know KYLE's mother (hi mom!) would have a great time riding around with us! the good thing about roundabouts is you can go in as many circles as you want till you've decided what street it is you want to get lost on next. they have high speed limits for the narrow roads around the countryside.
so, aran islands. we wake up wayyy too early in the morning, look at the directions and then proceed to drive all over galway before finally getting out. we made it to the ferry in some town that starts with an R and ends with os a mhil, or something like that, and we didn't have to run to catch it! until, just kidding, Amanda remembered the sun roof was left open, and of course Kyle was the lucky one who got to runnnnn to close it before the ferry left.
Amanda passed out and lightly snored (she never believes it when Kyle says she does) for the 40 minute ferry ride over. once we got there, we were bombarded with offers to rent bikes, so we picked the first place we saw. ate some lunch, and headed away on our journey. we went to the biggest of the islands, which is something like 8 miles long and 3 miles wide, so not much. we picked a road to follow, and it ended up being the the one we wanted in the first place, so the map gods must've been feeling some pity on us. we started riding up a nice sized hill, and ended up walking, especially since Amanda thought it would be hilarious to push Kyle off the bike, and then he couldn't get back on. There was ruins of a lighthouse at the top, and you could see a lot of the island. we walked around for a bit and climbed on as much as we could find and then hid in a shed while the rain passed over. Kyle has been hitting his head on everything in europe due to the short people everywhere so amanda got her first taste of hitting her head on the shed, she is now more sympathetic to me when it happens. it's amazing how many walls built from stone there were, they literally covered the whole island. from there we took a little single track trail that led us through the maze of walls to a cliff edge where we couldn't see another soul. we actually saw very few people the whole time, and it was nice to ride around. Amanda learned how to ride on rocks, and Kyle felt like his bike was going to fall apart on him the whole time, even if it looked brand new. he may have bent the wheel a little bit trying to jump it.... take a look at the pictures when they get up!
The ride back seemed to be more wavey (is that the right term Josh?) so we both took the opportunity to close our eyes and sleep. Once back we made our way to Limerick where we planned to stay the night. On our way we passed a rainbow that was headed right to the road in front of us. Unfortunately we got out and searched for gold or €uro but no luck there. Boo. Once we arrived in Limerick we ate at our hotel and watched a world cup qualifying soccer game and then crashed early. The next day we walked around the town and bought an umbrella for the freak rain storms. The town was very easy to walk around with a lot of shopping stores for all the money we have to spend.
We are currently in Cork Ireland which is on the East side of the Island about an hour or so below Dublin. When we arrived we just missed the world championship street performers which was two days prior. So we were bummed we missed out on that, the good news was there is another music festival here at the pubs around town so we have spent our nights listening to artists sing and enjoying the people around. Everyone have been very friendly too us asking us about our trip and suggesting places for us to go. We are staying at a hostel on top of this hill so the hike after the pubs can get tiring. Amanda decided the first night it was a good idea to sprint up the hill to get it over with....she hasnt done that since.
We got to see Blarney Castle and kiss the stone yesterday, Kyle decided to head butt the stone and has a mark on the forehead...we arent sure if that is good luck or bad. When you kiss it they make you lay down, grab some poles, and then lean your head into a hole so its not as simple as we thought. The castle and grounds were gorgeous. We took the lake walk after we toured the castle and saw some beautiful landscape and got to see how extensive the property was. We left and went to a supermarket and got some food so that we could make dinner back at the hostel. We were craving food that wasnt from a restaurant so dinner was delicious. We will post pictures when we get to a computer that allows us to do so.
The weather today is beautiful so I imagine we will go find something to do around town. Hope life is treating everyone well in the States.
Goodnight!
More Pictures!!!
Ireland Part Two
Aran islands was a good get away from the city, and a good follow up to the cliffs of moher... once we got there! driving has been an experience in Ireland, with street names and direction signs either being hidden/and or non existent. somewhat stressful, i know KYLE's mother (hi mom!) would have a great time riding around with us! the good thing about roundabouts is you can go in as many circles as you want till you've decided what street it is you want to get lost on next. they have high speed limits for the narrow roads around the countryside.
so, aran islands. we wake up wayyy too early in the morning, look at the directions and then proceed to drive all over galway before finally getting out. we made it to the ferry in some town that starts with an R and ends with os a mhil, or something like that, and we didn't have to run to catch it! until, just kidding, Amanda remembered the sun roof was left open, and of course Kyle was the lucky one who got to runnnnn to close it before the ferry left.
Amanda passed out and lightly snored (she never believes it when Kyle says she does) for the 40 minute ferry ride over. once we got there, we were bombarded with offers to rent bikes, so we picked the first place we saw. ate some lunch, and headed away on our journey. we went to the biggest of the islands, which is something like 8 miles long and 3 miles wide, so not much. we picked a road to follow, and it ended up being the the one we wanted in the first place, so the map gods must've been feeling some pity on us. we started riding up a nice sized hill, and ended up walking, especially since Amanda thought it would be hilarious to push Kyle off the bike, and then he couldn't get back on. There was ruins of a lighthouse at the top, and you could see a lot of the island. we walked around for a bit and climbed on as much as we could find and then hid in a shed while the rain passed over. Kyle has been hitting his head on everything in europe due to the short people everywhere so amanda got her first taste of hitting her head on the shed, she is now more sympathetic to me when it happens. it's amazing how many walls built from stone there were, they literally covered the whole island. from there we took a little single track trail that led us through the maze of walls to a cliff edge where we couldn't see another soul. we actually saw very few people the whole time, and it was nice to ride around. Amanda learned how to ride on rocks, and Kyle felt like his bike was going to fall apart on him the whole time, even if it looked brand new. he may have bent the wheel a little bit trying to jump it.... take a look at the pictures when they get up!
The ride back seemed to be more wavey (is that the right term Josh?) so we both took the opportunity to close our eyes and sleep. Once back we made our way to Limerick where we planned to stay the night. On our way we passed a rainbow that was headed right to the road in front of us. Unfortunately we got out and searched for gold or €uro but no luck there. Boo. Once we arrived in Limerick we ate at our hotel and watched a world cup qualifying soccer game and then crashed early. The next day we walked around the town and bought an umbrella for the freak rain storms. The town was very easy to walk around with a lot of shopping stores for all the money we have to spend.
We are currently in Cork Ireland which is on the East side of the Island about an hour or so below Dublin. When we arrived we just missed the world championship street performers which was two days prior. So we were bummed we missed out on that, the good news was there is another music festival here at the pubs around town so we have spent our nights listening to artists sing and enjoying the people around. Everyone have been very friendly too us asking us about our trip and suggesting places for us to go. We are staying at a hostel on top of this hill so the hike after the pubs can get tiring. Amanda decided the first night it was a good idea to sprint up the hill to get it over with....she hasnt done that since.
We got to see Blarney Castle and kiss the stone yesterday, Kyle decided to head butt the stone and has a mark on the forehead...we arent sure if that is good luck or bad. When you kiss it they make you lay down, grab some poles, and then lean your head into a hole so its not as simple as we thought. The castle and grounds were gorgeous. We took the lake walk after we toured the castle and saw some beautiful landscape and got to see how extensive the property was. We left and went to a supermarket and got some food so that we could make dinner back at the hostel. We were craving food that wasnt from a restaurant so dinner was delicious. We will post pictures when we get to a computer that allows us to do so.
The weather today is beautiful so I imagine we will go find something to do around town. Hope life is treating everyone well in the States.
Goodnight!
More Pictures!!!
Ireland Part Two
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Ireland!!!
Ireland will be one of our longest stops on our trip. We each chose a place that we really wanted to see and Amanda's top pick was Ireland and Kyle's was Spain. We flew into Dublin late after we went to the queen's celebration. Once we arrived we took a short bus ride and then a 2 minute walk to our hostel. The hostel staff was extremely nice and helped us with anything we needed. Our roommates turned out to be a good match for us. A couple was from Brazil but studying in London. The other two roommates were two guys from Spain. Kyle had a good using his spanish skills and talking to all of them. So we couldnt have asked for better roommates. We ended up only walking around the first night kinda getting use to where things were.
The second day we woke up and made our way to another NewEuroTour. Our tour guide was very nice and gave us the complete history of Ireland and Dublin. We got to walk around and see: Dublin Castle,Dubh Linn, Dublin’s Medieval Walls, Viking Remains (she explained that they didnt wear the cool head gear and that from as far as they know they werent as tall as we think,below average size for a male today), Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, The National Library, Famous Writers, Temple Bar, Ha’Penny Bridge, Spire of Dublin (created for the millenium celebration and cost a bunch of money for a sphere), City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen’s Green, 1916 Easter Rising. On our way to the Guinness factory we walked through an outdoor shopping area, we stopped for probably 10 minutes to see these two male high school guys juggle the ball for money on the street. It was amazing they called it freestyle and said that they are on youtube under ireland freestyle. After we watched them for a bit they stopped for a break and we went up to talk to them. They said they both dont play soccer and that they saw a freestyle video 15 months ago and thought it was cool so they picked it up. They said that they can make more money performing in an hour or two then they would at a job and they love it.they showed us their backpack with the money from the day and it was completely full!
After the tour we planned to walk to the Guinness storehouse but by the time we got there it had just closed. After our week in ireland we will be returning to Dublin to fly out and plan to see it then.
The next day we walked to picked our rental car and then slowly but surely made our way to Galway. Its located on the West coast of Ireland, kinda a straight shot over from Dublin. We decided its in the best interest of our lives to let Kyle drive while we are in Ireland. The reasoning behind that is you drive on the right side, speed limits are funky, roundabouts instead of stoplights, and Amanda can be spacey :) Kyle did a great job driving over to Galway and when we arrived we found out that the week we were there the town will be hosting a music festival at local pubs. The town is perfect for walking so we parked our cute little ford fiesta (ha) and walked to the center and got some traditonal Irish food; kyle had a bunch of breakfast food stuffed on one plate, including black and white sausage which is one regular sausage and one sausage sauteed in blood. Amanda had traditional Irish stew that was delicious and very large. After dinner we walked to a pub and listened to live music all night. The performers were very good, they played a lot of oldies and some irish music. Everyone has been very friendly that we have met, they ask where we are from and then offer suggestions right away so its been great.
The second day we got up and drove an hour to the Cliffs of Moher. Its one of those breath taking sites that I hope everyone gets a chance to see. Its cliffs that range from 400 ft to 700ft above the ocean. In the distance we could see the Aran Islands where we will be going tomorrow. We walked along the cliffs and took countless pictures (sorry there are alot!). We crossed the Private Property sign and the Do not proceed sign to get a closer look....the good thing was no one else was paying attention to the sign either. We walked all the way to the end of one of the cliffs and were some of the only ones to keep going to the end. The walk one way way probably 3 miles along the edge of the cliffs and cow pastures. At the end was a old watchtower or lighthouse (not really sure). It had no roof but it was still pretty well intact! It started to rain on us when we were just getting to the end so on the way back we had a damp walk along the coast. At points we crossed into the cow pasture because the trail along the cliffs was too close to the edge and the wind was blowing too hard to chance anything.
By the time we got back we were pretty spent from the rain and walking so we drove home and are about to go out to eat. There are some more bands playing tongiht so we might check them out but we have an early day tomorrow so we arent sure. Tomorrow AM we are getting on a Ferry to the Aran Islands (another spectacular place to see scenry). We have till the 22ndin Ireland and then we are off to France. So far the trip has been awesome we are both so weird that we fully entertain each other everyday.
We will take some pictures of the hostels so that you all can see what its like to be on the road!
Goodnight!
Here are the links to the last of England and up to date Ireland pictures. We will put captions on them later to make them less confusing.
England
Ireland Part One
The second day we woke up and made our way to another NewEuroTour. Our tour guide was very nice and gave us the complete history of Ireland and Dublin. We got to walk around and see: Dublin Castle,Dubh Linn, Dublin’s Medieval Walls, Viking Remains (she explained that they didnt wear the cool head gear and that from as far as they know they werent as tall as we think,below average size for a male today), Christ Church Cathedral, Adam and Eve Church, The National Library, Famous Writers, Temple Bar, Ha’Penny Bridge, Spire of Dublin (created for the millenium celebration and cost a bunch of money for a sphere), City Hall, Trinity College, Leinster House, Chester Beatty Library, St. Stephen’s Green, 1916 Easter Rising. On our way to the Guinness factory we walked through an outdoor shopping area, we stopped for probably 10 minutes to see these two male high school guys juggle the ball for money on the street. It was amazing they called it freestyle and said that they are on youtube under ireland freestyle. After we watched them for a bit they stopped for a break and we went up to talk to them. They said they both dont play soccer and that they saw a freestyle video 15 months ago and thought it was cool so they picked it up. They said that they can make more money performing in an hour or two then they would at a job and they love it.they showed us their backpack with the money from the day and it was completely full!
After the tour we planned to walk to the Guinness storehouse but by the time we got there it had just closed. After our week in ireland we will be returning to Dublin to fly out and plan to see it then.
The next day we walked to picked our rental car and then slowly but surely made our way to Galway. Its located on the West coast of Ireland, kinda a straight shot over from Dublin. We decided its in the best interest of our lives to let Kyle drive while we are in Ireland. The reasoning behind that is you drive on the right side, speed limits are funky, roundabouts instead of stoplights, and Amanda can be spacey :) Kyle did a great job driving over to Galway and when we arrived we found out that the week we were there the town will be hosting a music festival at local pubs. The town is perfect for walking so we parked our cute little ford fiesta (ha) and walked to the center and got some traditonal Irish food; kyle had a bunch of breakfast food stuffed on one plate, including black and white sausage which is one regular sausage and one sausage sauteed in blood. Amanda had traditional Irish stew that was delicious and very large. After dinner we walked to a pub and listened to live music all night. The performers were very good, they played a lot of oldies and some irish music. Everyone has been very friendly that we have met, they ask where we are from and then offer suggestions right away so its been great.
The second day we got up and drove an hour to the Cliffs of Moher. Its one of those breath taking sites that I hope everyone gets a chance to see. Its cliffs that range from 400 ft to 700ft above the ocean. In the distance we could see the Aran Islands where we will be going tomorrow. We walked along the cliffs and took countless pictures (sorry there are alot!). We crossed the Private Property sign and the Do not proceed sign to get a closer look....the good thing was no one else was paying attention to the sign either. We walked all the way to the end of one of the cliffs and were some of the only ones to keep going to the end. The walk one way way probably 3 miles along the edge of the cliffs and cow pastures. At the end was a old watchtower or lighthouse (not really sure). It had no roof but it was still pretty well intact! It started to rain on us when we were just getting to the end so on the way back we had a damp walk along the coast. At points we crossed into the cow pasture because the trail along the cliffs was too close to the edge and the wind was blowing too hard to chance anything.
By the time we got back we were pretty spent from the rain and walking so we drove home and are about to go out to eat. There are some more bands playing tongiht so we might check them out but we have an early day tomorrow so we arent sure. Tomorrow AM we are getting on a Ferry to the Aran Islands (another spectacular place to see scenry). We have till the 22ndin Ireland and then we are off to France. So far the trip has been awesome we are both so weird that we fully entertain each other everyday.
We will take some pictures of the hostels so that you all can see what its like to be on the road!
Goodnight!
Here are the links to the last of England and up to date Ireland pictures. We will put captions on them later to make them less confusing.
England
Ireland Part One
Sunday, June 14, 2009
More of England- Huntingdon and the Queens Bday
After our short trip to London we look a side trip to see a friend of Amanda's from NAU in Huntingdon. Its about 40 mins outside of London. Our friend Becky's husband is stationed on an air force base. The first day that we were there they picked us up from the train station and went out to eat at a local resturant. They treated us to our first English meal at a cute little Pub. After the meal they took us to their home that was a 5 minute walk to a lake nearby. After settling in we went to walk around the lake. It was absolutely beautiful! lots of green like Oregon. With the pretty senery, we soon found a tonnnnnnn of nats and other bugs that swarmed us. In our picture we all have hoods on because the bugs were so thick in some spots. :) We took along some bread to feed the ducks but the ducks and swans were always on the islands in the middle of the lake so we never got the chance.
The following day Becky had no work so she took us around her area. We walked around the Garden of Surprises in Burghley. Its about 30 minutes away from Becky's house. It was really gorgeous, it had the garden of surprises which was a bunch of different little nature activities like a mirror maze (Kyle and I played tag in it and it was more difficult than expected), lots of water and fountains, a cool sundial that predicted the time, date, etc. The whole garden is hidden from the road and is on countless acres. After the garden we walked through the Sculpture Garden which displayed local artists pieces of nature and other original pieces. It probably took us about an hour or longer to walk through. It looked like it was out of a movie! (check out of the pictures). At the end of the walk there was a pond with plenty of ducks to feed but of course we had no bread this time.
Later we met up with Becky's husband Jerome and went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. This was our first experience with Europeans that were not very fond of Americans regardless of how much we tried to be polite. They weren't too bad just you could feel the vibe they didnt want us there. Its different adjusting to European restaurants with the expensive bottled water and then no refills and stuff like that. So we can understand when we ask for things we arent use to they take it as us being snobby. Regardless the food was really good.
The last day in England turned out to be quite fun. It started with all four of us taking a train to London and some of the underground subway being closed again.ha All Kyle and I could do was laugh and say whats new?!?! It was the Queens birthday so their was a parade (which we missed) but we did walk around the park right next to Buckingham palace and then at 1pm we watched from the street planes and jets fly over the palace and give the queen a show. We could see her in front of the palace standing with family watching so that was a once in a lifetime experience. There were tons of people there. A lot were dressed to the T, wearing suits and formal dresses. It was nice to see how much the country respects her.
After we left the queens celebration we went to Convent Garden which is also in London. Its a neat area that is full of very talented street performers and small mom and pop shops to browse. We saw a bunch of musical performers and magic trick exhibits. We probably walked around there for a few hours and then Kyle and I needed to get back so we didn't miss our flight to Dublin.
Our saviors from the chaos were Becky and Jerome. They were extremely generous to us the whole time making us feel at home and treating us to almost everything. It was so relaxing being out of big city life and having faster transportation then walking :). We even enjoyed their small cats...minus Kyle's allergies to them, he sounded cute when he laughed though. The cats were funny to watch run around so it kept us entertained. We meant to take a picture of their view from the back yard but it was quite impressive. It was wide open green fields with tall trees in the distance. Something you imagine in postcards or pictures.
We are currently in Ireland and loving it! We will write and add pictures soon. Stay tuned
Goodnight world and love you all!
The following day Becky had no work so she took us around her area. We walked around the Garden of Surprises in Burghley. Its about 30 minutes away from Becky's house. It was really gorgeous, it had the garden of surprises which was a bunch of different little nature activities like a mirror maze (Kyle and I played tag in it and it was more difficult than expected), lots of water and fountains, a cool sundial that predicted the time, date, etc. The whole garden is hidden from the road and is on countless acres. After the garden we walked through the Sculpture Garden which displayed local artists pieces of nature and other original pieces. It probably took us about an hour or longer to walk through. It looked like it was out of a movie! (check out of the pictures). At the end of the walk there was a pond with plenty of ducks to feed but of course we had no bread this time.
Later we met up with Becky's husband Jerome and went out to eat at an Italian restaurant. This was our first experience with Europeans that were not very fond of Americans regardless of how much we tried to be polite. They weren't too bad just you could feel the vibe they didnt want us there. Its different adjusting to European restaurants with the expensive bottled water and then no refills and stuff like that. So we can understand when we ask for things we arent use to they take it as us being snobby. Regardless the food was really good.
The last day in England turned out to be quite fun. It started with all four of us taking a train to London and some of the underground subway being closed again.ha All Kyle and I could do was laugh and say whats new?!?! It was the Queens birthday so their was a parade (which we missed) but we did walk around the park right next to Buckingham palace and then at 1pm we watched from the street planes and jets fly over the palace and give the queen a show. We could see her in front of the palace standing with family watching so that was a once in a lifetime experience. There were tons of people there. A lot were dressed to the T, wearing suits and formal dresses. It was nice to see how much the country respects her.
After we left the queens celebration we went to Convent Garden which is also in London. Its a neat area that is full of very talented street performers and small mom and pop shops to browse. We saw a bunch of musical performers and magic trick exhibits. We probably walked around there for a few hours and then Kyle and I needed to get back so we didn't miss our flight to Dublin.
Our saviors from the chaos were Becky and Jerome. They were extremely generous to us the whole time making us feel at home and treating us to almost everything. It was so relaxing being out of big city life and having faster transportation then walking :). We even enjoyed their small cats...minus Kyle's allergies to them, he sounded cute when he laughed though. The cats were funny to watch run around so it kept us entertained. We meant to take a picture of their view from the back yard but it was quite impressive. It was wide open green fields with tall trees in the distance. Something you imagine in postcards or pictures.
We are currently in Ireland and loving it! We will write and add pictures soon. Stay tuned
Goodnight world and love you all!
Friday, June 12, 2009
End of Amsterdam, onto Brussels, and then England
Amsterdam turned out to be a pretty interesting place we did a lot of people watching throughout our days. The bikes we rented there were a lot faster and didnt weight quite as much so we were in heaven. We did the math and think that while we were in Denmark we biked probably 12 miles a day for 3 days soooooo 36 miles in 3 days- yaaaaa buddddddddy! Anyways, we met up with Amanda's uncle who was in town for a river cruise and sat had coffee with them before they had to go to a boat meeting so it was good seeing family. After we ate lunch we went to the Anne Frank house and walked through where she hid with her family and read some of the journal entries. Its hard to imagine being as young as she was (in her teens) and being so level headed, she talked of never letting her parents she her down and always having a smile on her face. There was a good quote at the end of the tour that another concentration camp survivor wroteabout Anne Frank that I thought sumed up the experience so look at the pictures for it. the Anne Frank house became more personal when you were able to be in the living quarters she was in and see how quiet and isolated her family and others had to be.
We left amsterdam and headed to brussels in the late afternoon and we got picked up by our Couchsurfing host after she got out of yoga. While we were waiting we went to a bar called Deliruim Bar and it had 25 beers on tap and 2,500 beers available in bottles, it was amazing and tasty. We had a chocolate, strawberry and cherry beer and of course Amanda's favorite stout. After our bar adventure we went to a gas station and sat outside to wait forour host and felt what it is like for people to walk by you wondering what you were up to. We pulled out the deck of cards and I (Amanda) Dominated in a game of Polish poker. Once our host got there she took us to the college district of Brussels and we ate a really good italian meal. Kyle was saying that she looked like his cousin Katie and she was absolutely amazing. We loved staying with her. We found it interesting that everyone spoke French around the town of Brussles. The next morning she dropped us off downtown when she went to work and we wandered around for a while and then went back to our favorite Deliruim Bar to get out of the rain and to waste some time.
We caught the overnight Bus from Brussels to London that left the station at around 10pm. We both slept most of the way but by the end were very tired of all the stops for customs and all that junk. At one point Amanda lost her passport and while we were getting questioned she realized it so Kyle used his nifty track skills and sprinted back to the bus. He luckily found it right on the floor where we were sitting....Amanda was very thankful. The customs officers asked a million questions and probably thought that we were brain dead because we had just woke up. The conversation went like this:
custom officer- "where are you staying in England" Amanda and Kyle "at a friends just outside of London" Officer-" what city" Kyle and amanda- "uh we dont know the name, but the first night we will be staying in a hostel in London" Officer-"whats the name of the hostel" kyle and amanda- "we cant remember" officer- "address?" kyle and amanda "no clue" So none the less we sounded like we were up to something, but after a little more talking to them they let us through- thank god!
Here's the kicker. We get to London at 6am and we buy a ticket to the Subway (good plan so far...) we walk to the underground subway and its SHUT DOWN because the workers were protesting the exact 72 hours we were going to be there. So we tried to get on a bus that was overcrowded and confusing. And eventually we hot footed it to our hostel that was a few miles away. We ended up sleeping on their couches till we could check in at 2pm and then after that we went to a local bar and watched the England qualifying soccer match for the World Cup 2010, that was cool because the whole bar understood soccer and were diehards like Kyle and I.
Our hostel in London was probably the worst we have been to but really wasnt too bad. We were on the sixth floor with no elevators (not really a big deal) and the people that stayed over the weekend took the keys so we had to ask the reception person to walk us up to our room everynight. Its been kinda fun at the hostels though because we have met some really cool people. Our roommate in Berlin was the best we could ask-super cool guy from Tronto. And here we met a guy from Germany that was really nice and was actually going to the Qualifying England soccer game (50 pounds per ticket!!!).
The next day we went on a tour where we saw the following:
• Buckingham Palace • The Changing of the Guards • Churchill’s War Cabinet Bunker
• The Houses of Parliament • St. Martin-in-the-Fields • Westminster Abbey
• Trafalgar Square • Nelson’s Column • Wellington Arch • St. James’s Park
• 10 Downing St. • Horseguards • Whitehall • Big Ben
The queen wasnt at buckingham palace when we were there but Prince Charles was in his residence so we got to see the royal flag above his mansion. Our guide told us some really funny churchhill quotes that you will have to ask us about indivually. one was something along the lines of a lady came up to him and said "if I were your wife I would posion you so you would die" and he responded "lady if you were my wife I would gladly drink it" ha. Big ben was impressive like we thought but overall the walk was beautiful and the tourguide was great.
Check out the pictures! we will label them when we have a chance. The tour was really good we liked our guide named Pip. After the tour we took a bus up to our friend from NAU (Amanda and Kyle's undergrad college) and have been staying with them ever since.
Its getting late so we will post on the rest of england later we have done a lot of amazing things in the countryside of England so I dont want to leave anything out.
Here are the links to all the pictures from Amsterdam Brussels and England:
Amsterdam and Brussels
England
Hope all is well. Goodnight!
We left amsterdam and headed to brussels in the late afternoon and we got picked up by our Couchsurfing host after she got out of yoga. While we were waiting we went to a bar called Deliruim Bar and it had 25 beers on tap and 2,500 beers available in bottles, it was amazing and tasty. We had a chocolate, strawberry and cherry beer and of course Amanda's favorite stout. After our bar adventure we went to a gas station and sat outside to wait forour host and felt what it is like for people to walk by you wondering what you were up to. We pulled out the deck of cards and I (Amanda) Dominated in a game of Polish poker. Once our host got there she took us to the college district of Brussels and we ate a really good italian meal. Kyle was saying that she looked like his cousin Katie and she was absolutely amazing. We loved staying with her. We found it interesting that everyone spoke French around the town of Brussles. The next morning she dropped us off downtown when she went to work and we wandered around for a while and then went back to our favorite Deliruim Bar to get out of the rain and to waste some time.
We caught the overnight Bus from Brussels to London that left the station at around 10pm. We both slept most of the way but by the end were very tired of all the stops for customs and all that junk. At one point Amanda lost her passport and while we were getting questioned she realized it so Kyle used his nifty track skills and sprinted back to the bus. He luckily found it right on the floor where we were sitting....Amanda was very thankful. The customs officers asked a million questions and probably thought that we were brain dead because we had just woke up. The conversation went like this:
custom officer- "where are you staying in England" Amanda and Kyle "at a friends just outside of London" Officer-" what city" Kyle and amanda- "uh we dont know the name, but the first night we will be staying in a hostel in London" Officer-"whats the name of the hostel" kyle and amanda- "we cant remember" officer- "address?" kyle and amanda "no clue" So none the less we sounded like we were up to something, but after a little more talking to them they let us through- thank god!
Here's the kicker. We get to London at 6am and we buy a ticket to the Subway (good plan so far...) we walk to the underground subway and its SHUT DOWN because the workers were protesting the exact 72 hours we were going to be there. So we tried to get on a bus that was overcrowded and confusing. And eventually we hot footed it to our hostel that was a few miles away. We ended up sleeping on their couches till we could check in at 2pm and then after that we went to a local bar and watched the England qualifying soccer match for the World Cup 2010, that was cool because the whole bar understood soccer and were diehards like Kyle and I.
Our hostel in London was probably the worst we have been to but really wasnt too bad. We were on the sixth floor with no elevators (not really a big deal) and the people that stayed over the weekend took the keys so we had to ask the reception person to walk us up to our room everynight. Its been kinda fun at the hostels though because we have met some really cool people. Our roommate in Berlin was the best we could ask-super cool guy from Tronto. And here we met a guy from Germany that was really nice and was actually going to the Qualifying England soccer game (50 pounds per ticket!!!).
The next day we went on a tour where we saw the following:
• Buckingham Palace • The Changing of the Guards • Churchill’s War Cabinet Bunker
• The Houses of Parliament • St. Martin-in-the-Fields • Westminster Abbey
• Trafalgar Square • Nelson’s Column • Wellington Arch • St. James’s Park
• 10 Downing St. • Horseguards • Whitehall • Big Ben
The queen wasnt at buckingham palace when we were there but Prince Charles was in his residence so we got to see the royal flag above his mansion. Our guide told us some really funny churchhill quotes that you will have to ask us about indivually. one was something along the lines of a lady came up to him and said "if I were your wife I would posion you so you would die" and he responded "lady if you were my wife I would gladly drink it" ha. Big ben was impressive like we thought but overall the walk was beautiful and the tourguide was great.
Check out the pictures! we will label them when we have a chance. The tour was really good we liked our guide named Pip. After the tour we took a bus up to our friend from NAU (Amanda and Kyle's undergrad college) and have been staying with them ever since.
Its getting late so we will post on the rest of england later we have done a lot of amazing things in the countryside of England so I dont want to leave anything out.
Here are the links to all the pictures from Amsterdam Brussels and England:
Amsterdam and Brussels
England
Hope all is well. Goodnight!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
riding on trains...
it kyle's second experience, and amanda's first... once we finally got to our overnight train. the day started with us trying to get out of the place we were staying. the guy was nice enough, but it was just like we didn't click somehow. we went out on the town our last night in arhus, and there was some down-under thing goin on, crazy aussies, so we just listened to the live band they had. rode our bikes home, amanda's toes froze, and we get back to our room, and the blanket is gone. the guy we were staying with was really minimalist, but we at least thought he had his own blanket... anyway we bounced out of there in the morning, and made it to the train station, and ended up missing like 3 trains- the first one by a minute, the second one because we got on the cars that wouldn't hook up, the third on because kyle was gettting a sandwich and we thought the train was leaving later. finally got on the train, and got to our other station with 20 minutes to spare and made it on the overnight train. we sat in what we thought was our place, and found out it wasn't, but Amanda thought it wasn't the right train and started getting ready to run again, but we were really only a few cars down.
We're glad we moved, we ended up sitting with a character named Claus Michael, as well as a Finnish dude. Claus was a multiafaceted being on his way to Amsterdam for business- hash industry of course. he was very entertaining to talk to. the finnish guy was funny to, he was always saying 'um, how do you say..." his best line of the night was when we were talking about what they thought of Obama and he says-
" At least Obama can write. Bush couldn't even read."
hilarious.
we arrived in Amsterdam, and hell started for a little while trying to find the hotel. We hope this learning curve gets easier. we got settled, went and ate, rented some bikes, found some guys in tuxedos with an airpump for amanda's bike, took a tour of the red light district. That's something you have to see for yourself, there's too much to explain there.
We've only been away a week and some days, it's like time is going really slow and fast at the same time. We've seen and experienced so much, but we've have so much more time left.
That's all for now folks. email us, we like to hear whats going on in the crazy states.
We're glad we moved, we ended up sitting with a character named Claus Michael, as well as a Finnish dude. Claus was a multiafaceted being on his way to Amsterdam for business- hash industry of course. he was very entertaining to talk to. the finnish guy was funny to, he was always saying 'um, how do you say..." his best line of the night was when we were talking about what they thought of Obama and he says-
" At least Obama can write. Bush couldn't even read."
hilarious.
we arrived in Amsterdam, and hell started for a little while trying to find the hotel. We hope this learning curve gets easier. we got settled, went and ate, rented some bikes, found some guys in tuxedos with an airpump for amanda's bike, took a tour of the red light district. That's something you have to see for yourself, there's too much to explain there.
We've only been away a week and some days, it's like time is going really slow and fast at the same time. We've seen and experienced so much, but we've have so much more time left.
That's all for now folks. email us, we like to hear whats going on in the crazy states.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Århus flippin rocks
This is gonna be a quick blog but with amazing information in it ;)
We have been in Århus (pronounced ar-hus) for 2 days now and we will leave tomorrow. So far we love it here. My (Amanda's) Aunt Mary recommended this city since she was here previously. We decided to come to a smaller city rather than Copenhagen because we just got done with big city Berlin and wanted a little bit different of a feel- it was a great choice. The money here is in 500,100, 50 kroner paper bills and the rest is in coins (50, 20, 10, 5, 1, .50). The public transportation was really expensive but they have bikes that you put a 20 Kroner in and its free to take off the lock. The only thing is to get your money have you have to return it to a designated spot. So FREE BIKES! they are clunkers but they work magically! We have rode our bikes everywhere. our host lives about 3 miles out of the main city so there and back each day - at least. We have wandered around downtown (looks alot like Heidelburg germany) and along the canal. Tomorrow we are going to hit up the old town which was recommended to us. Everyone here speaks english, Kyle and my joke is that even the bums speak 3 languages and I only speak one......eeekk haha
Our host is really nice, a social worker (has three jobs). We went to the store and bought some noodles and bread to save money and havent been eating out very much to try to keep from spending money.
The weather here is like 50's and goes between being overcast and sunny all day. today it got cold on us and started raining so that was a little cold on a bike but it beats walking in the rain.
It was nice riding the Eurail over here because Germany and Denmark both use Wind mills to generate electricity. We have kinda realized how much the US is missing out on, examples would be the wind power and the bikes, easy and it makes sense - also helps out the people!
Kyle and I have realized that everyone in Denmark is beautiful and very kind. Sign me up! We leave tomorrow morning for Copenhagen we are going to spend a day there and then head on the overnight train to Amsterdam where we will be meeting Amanda's Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn. Exciting stuff.
No new food adventures in denmark but we are about to go out to eat so maybe in our next blog we will have some to talk about.
We will post a link to our denmark pictures on this blog once we are in Amsterdam. So stay tuned and come back and look later.
Here's the link to our itinerary: Eurotrip let us know if it doesnt work!
PICTURES of Denmark
Peace my loves!
We have been in Århus (pronounced ar-hus) for 2 days now and we will leave tomorrow. So far we love it here. My (Amanda's) Aunt Mary recommended this city since she was here previously. We decided to come to a smaller city rather than Copenhagen because we just got done with big city Berlin and wanted a little bit different of a feel- it was a great choice. The money here is in 500,100, 50 kroner paper bills and the rest is in coins (50, 20, 10, 5, 1, .50). The public transportation was really expensive but they have bikes that you put a 20 Kroner in and its free to take off the lock. The only thing is to get your money have you have to return it to a designated spot. So FREE BIKES! they are clunkers but they work magically! We have rode our bikes everywhere. our host lives about 3 miles out of the main city so there and back each day - at least. We have wandered around downtown (looks alot like Heidelburg germany) and along the canal. Tomorrow we are going to hit up the old town which was recommended to us. Everyone here speaks english, Kyle and my joke is that even the bums speak 3 languages and I only speak one......eeekk haha
Our host is really nice, a social worker (has three jobs). We went to the store and bought some noodles and bread to save money and havent been eating out very much to try to keep from spending money.
The weather here is like 50's and goes between being overcast and sunny all day. today it got cold on us and started raining so that was a little cold on a bike but it beats walking in the rain.
It was nice riding the Eurail over here because Germany and Denmark both use Wind mills to generate electricity. We have kinda realized how much the US is missing out on, examples would be the wind power and the bikes, easy and it makes sense - also helps out the people!
Kyle and I have realized that everyone in Denmark is beautiful and very kind. Sign me up! We leave tomorrow morning for Copenhagen we are going to spend a day there and then head on the overnight train to Amsterdam where we will be meeting Amanda's Uncle Joe and Aunt Evelyn. Exciting stuff.
No new food adventures in denmark but we are about to go out to eat so maybe in our next blog we will have some to talk about.
We will post a link to our denmark pictures on this blog once we are in Amsterdam. So stay tuned and come back and look later.
Here's the link to our itinerary: Eurotrip let us know if it doesnt work!
PICTURES of Denmark
Peace my loves!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
PICTURESSSS
Alright so we finally found the cord for our camera. Here is the link to the pictures so far: Germany and Denmark Pictures
In future blogs we will just post a link with the most recent pictures. Enjoy! and let us know if there are any problems.
In future blogs we will just post a link with the most recent pictures. Enjoy! and let us know if there are any problems.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
musicaltrainsbilingualbums5kstroll
we will break down out title in this blog. Its an overall glimpse to how our day was :)
I started this blog sitting on the stairs outside where we plan to stay for the night because we couldnt figure out how to open the door. We are couchsurfing with a guy name Lasse (fellow social worker and musican) and he was gonna be gone for the day so he left Kyle and I the key. He did say have fun getting the door open but we thought no biggie.....ha! its been 10 mins and not even a jiggle.
moving on...This morning was our last morning in Berlin, we went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews and walked around the exhibit for about an hour or so. It was a very touching but sad way to end our trip but none the less very important. In the memorial one of the exhibits showed family photos before the genocide and then broke down what happened to each of the family member after the war was over (ex: survived or died and location). Kyle found about a 1000 Nowak's and I found two Kroy's in the directory at the end.
After the memorial we went to the train station and got helplessly lost before finally making it to the main hub where we got on the Eurail to head to Denmark. We were both falling into our respective roles of older and younger siblings, so im sure you can imagine how pleased we were with each others company. Liz, Kyle makes you look like an angel older sibling and Kent, Kurt- eh...Amanda's trying. Honestly we must have had some bad karma coming to us because stuff was not going our way. So our Eurail train went from Berlin - Hamburg - Padborg - Federicia - Aårhus. Each of the dashes are for a train change..................The trip from Berlin to Hamburg was easy then we missed the next train by 4 mins so we waited two hrs and then got to Padborg. The station wasnt actually called Padborg so once we got there we waited for our train to take off again and it never did. I got off the train to look for water and left Kyle to watch our bags, I round the corner and see the Federicia train and its about to leave. So sprint to the train screaming for Kyle to get our bags and as he gets off the train he asks the a worker if that is the Federicia train and the guys response was RUN RUN RUN(in danish). As we round the corner the train takes off and Kyle starts waving this hands in the air and the guy stops to let us on (the Lightrail in Phx would have never stopped to let us on!). Our last train change was once we got to Federicia and we waited for the Aårhus train to show up and needed water really bad. I again so search for water and find a store (flippin sweet!)....except we are in denmark and its on the Kroner and not the Euro.ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so then I look for a bathroom....2 kroner to use that, then I gave up and went back to meet Kyle.
To sum up our experience, we get to Aårhus and see another train pull up next to us that says Hamburg - Aårhus (no train transfers!) so we just spent all days running around because we caught suck at train stuff.
Once we got out of the train station in Aårhus we needed the directions that we wrote down on how to get to our hosts house, we realized that we left our date book on the train that we were frantically running off of to catch another. So we had no phone number or direction and 25 lb bags to carry around. Fantastic! We go to a motel and use their internet to mapquest the directions and walking distance was 5KM. really?!?!?!?! So of course being in such good shape and all we jogged the whole way there....NOTTTTTT. We walked, laughed, whined, peed on the side of a busy road (Amanda finally found water and chugged it so she had to pee and couldnt hold it, she chose a not so dark corner on what turned out to be a frequented intersection at midnight), and actually enjoyed ourselves.
So far we have really liked Aårhus, it is kinda like Flagstaff AZ but bigger. Sorry if we rambled but we thought we would share with everyone how fun and adventurous our day was.
Madre Kroy your cookies and jerky have saved our bottoms a few times! L-i-f-e-s-a-v-e-r
I started this blog sitting on the stairs outside where we plan to stay for the night because we couldnt figure out how to open the door. We are couchsurfing with a guy name Lasse (fellow social worker and musican) and he was gonna be gone for the day so he left Kyle and I the key. He did say have fun getting the door open but we thought no biggie.....ha! its been 10 mins and not even a jiggle.
moving on...This morning was our last morning in Berlin, we went to the Memorial for the Murdered Jews and walked around the exhibit for about an hour or so. It was a very touching but sad way to end our trip but none the less very important. In the memorial one of the exhibits showed family photos before the genocide and then broke down what happened to each of the family member after the war was over (ex: survived or died and location). Kyle found about a 1000 Nowak's and I found two Kroy's in the directory at the end.
After the memorial we went to the train station and got helplessly lost before finally making it to the main hub where we got on the Eurail to head to Denmark. We were both falling into our respective roles of older and younger siblings, so im sure you can imagine how pleased we were with each others company. Liz, Kyle makes you look like an angel older sibling and Kent, Kurt- eh...Amanda's trying. Honestly we must have had some bad karma coming to us because stuff was not going our way. So our Eurail train went from Berlin - Hamburg - Padborg - Federicia - Aårhus. Each of the dashes are for a train change..................The trip from Berlin to Hamburg was easy then we missed the next train by 4 mins so we waited two hrs and then got to Padborg. The station wasnt actually called Padborg so once we got there we waited for our train to take off again and it never did. I got off the train to look for water and left Kyle to watch our bags, I round the corner and see the Federicia train and its about to leave. So sprint to the train screaming for Kyle to get our bags and as he gets off the train he asks the a worker if that is the Federicia train and the guys response was RUN RUN RUN(in danish). As we round the corner the train takes off and Kyle starts waving this hands in the air and the guy stops to let us on (the Lightrail in Phx would have never stopped to let us on!). Our last train change was once we got to Federicia and we waited for the Aårhus train to show up and needed water really bad. I again so search for water and find a store (flippin sweet!)....except we are in denmark and its on the Kroner and not the Euro.ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, so then I look for a bathroom....2 kroner to use that, then I gave up and went back to meet Kyle.
To sum up our experience, we get to Aårhus and see another train pull up next to us that says Hamburg - Aårhus (no train transfers!) so we just spent all days running around because we caught suck at train stuff.
Once we got out of the train station in Aårhus we needed the directions that we wrote down on how to get to our hosts house, we realized that we left our date book on the train that we were frantically running off of to catch another. So we had no phone number or direction and 25 lb bags to carry around. Fantastic! We go to a motel and use their internet to mapquest the directions and walking distance was 5KM. really?!?!?!?! So of course being in such good shape and all we jogged the whole way there....NOTTTTTT. We walked, laughed, whined, peed on the side of a busy road (Amanda finally found water and chugged it so she had to pee and couldnt hold it, she chose a not so dark corner on what turned out to be a frequented intersection at midnight), and actually enjoyed ourselves.
So far we have really liked Aårhus, it is kinda like Flagstaff AZ but bigger. Sorry if we rambled but we thought we would share with everyone how fun and adventurous our day was.
Madre Kroy your cookies and jerky have saved our bottoms a few times! L-i-f-e-s-a-v-e-r
Monday, June 1, 2009
you have freckles on your fingers...
we'll apologize in advance, but the z key and y key are switched on thess keyboards... so there may be some fun spellings coming up.
we've been in berlin for 3 nights now, and it's not possible to completelty describe everything we've seen. here is a list of things, and maybe some commentary if it comes to mind.
train from frankfurt- figuring out where to sit. note:reserve seats on holiday weekends!
grumpy german ticket service personell who dont 'spechein sie englisch'
finding a hostel- without an address. luckily we had directions.
our first night we just walked around and saw quite a bit, we just werent really sure what it was we were seeing. yesterday was the one probably one taht hasnt quite sunk in yet.
we went to a working concentration camp, Sachsenhausen (sp?) outside of berlin. it was about 6 or so hours for the whole thing with travel and such, but for a bit over 20 bucks it was well worth it. our tour guide was Adam, and we had him again toda
back to the camp. first to note, it was not a death camp like auswitz (please ignore spellings, i onlz have so much time) but a working camp where the germans used prisoners for producion of supplys and such for war. not having much knowledge of concentration camps, we left the day knowing more and experiencing more than we could've really imagined. Reality kind of hit Kyle more near the end of the tour when he found a death list from the camp and he looked up his name- there were about 40 nowak's listed, and maybe a total of 70 or so of names similiar.
as we walked to the camp, the same walk that the prisoners took, we walked through the town of orienanburg, and we were asking ourselves what would we have done back in that time, or what would our familys have done. we asked ourselves that all day, and the only way to really answer... let's just hope that we never get the chance.
heres a quick list of things that come to mind when thinking about the camp
brainwashing on both sides
public execution
roll call, twice a day
standing room
beatings
death trench
fake doctors and getting shot in the back of the neck when you thought your height was being measured against a wall
boot testing track
brothel-used to turn prisoners against each other
revolt of 18- biggest revolt
suicide and alcoholism of ss gaurds from looking in the eyes of 20 plus people at a time before they shot and killed them.
and i could go on.
our ady in berlin was a bit lighter today, and we walked around on the free tour... saw the hotel where michael jackson dangled his baby out of the window, stood on the dirt parking lot that 'commemorates' hitlers bunker where him and his mistress slash wife killed them selves with cyanide, as well as his german sheperd. we also saw the sqaure were the books were burned, and a view into the empty chamber below filled with empty bookshelves with enough space for 20,000 books.
it's amazing that so much history exists in this city, and how the whole world has been affected by some of the happenings here.
We haven't killed each other yet, finding our way out of train station on the local system is the closest it's been. Amanda was done with carrying her pack around, and Kyle was frustrated with wandering around not knowing what was going on... and of course the one person we decided to ask decided to not remember how to speak english... i feel.
k, goodnight for now, we'll write soon. write us!
we've been in berlin for 3 nights now, and it's not possible to completelty describe everything we've seen. here is a list of things, and maybe some commentary if it comes to mind.
train from frankfurt- figuring out where to sit. note:reserve seats on holiday weekends!
grumpy german ticket service personell who dont 'spechein sie englisch'
finding a hostel- without an address. luckily we had directions.
our first night we just walked around and saw quite a bit, we just werent really sure what it was we were seeing. yesterday was the one probably one taht hasnt quite sunk in yet.
we went to a working concentration camp, Sachsenhausen (sp?) outside of berlin. it was about 6 or so hours for the whole thing with travel and such, but for a bit over 20 bucks it was well worth it. our tour guide was Adam, and we had him again toda
back to the camp. first to note, it was not a death camp like auswitz (please ignore spellings, i onlz have so much time) but a working camp where the germans used prisoners for producion of supplys and such for war. not having much knowledge of concentration camps, we left the day knowing more and experiencing more than we could've really imagined. Reality kind of hit Kyle more near the end of the tour when he found a death list from the camp and he looked up his name- there were about 40 nowak's listed, and maybe a total of 70 or so of names similiar.
as we walked to the camp, the same walk that the prisoners took, we walked through the town of orienanburg, and we were asking ourselves what would we have done back in that time, or what would our familys have done. we asked ourselves that all day, and the only way to really answer... let's just hope that we never get the chance.
heres a quick list of things that come to mind when thinking about the camp
brainwashing on both sides
public execution
roll call, twice a day
standing room
beatings
death trench
fake doctors and getting shot in the back of the neck when you thought your height was being measured against a wall
boot testing track
brothel-used to turn prisoners against each other
revolt of 18- biggest revolt
suicide and alcoholism of ss gaurds from looking in the eyes of 20 plus people at a time before they shot and killed them.
and i could go on.
our ady in berlin was a bit lighter today, and we walked around on the free tour... saw the hotel where michael jackson dangled his baby out of the window, stood on the dirt parking lot that 'commemorates' hitlers bunker where him and his mistress slash wife killed them selves with cyanide, as well as his german sheperd. we also saw the sqaure were the books were burned, and a view into the empty chamber below filled with empty bookshelves with enough space for 20,000 books.
it's amazing that so much history exists in this city, and how the whole world has been affected by some of the happenings here.
We haven't killed each other yet, finding our way out of train station on the local system is the closest it's been. Amanda was done with carrying her pack around, and Kyle was frustrated with wandering around not knowing what was going on... and of course the one person we decided to ask decided to not remember how to speak english... i feel.
k, goodnight for now, we'll write soon. write us!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Beginning of our Journey-Schwetzingen and Heidelburg Germany
We finally made it after a very long flight, of course Kyle and I were unable to sleep for most of the flight so we knew we would crash eventually.....and we did. The meals on the flight were ok, Kyle got the normal one, I got the mush that tasted d-i-s-g-u-s-t-i-n-g, I guess I learned my lesson not to choose shredded beef on a plane. HA! Josh and Katie, friends Amanda knows from Seattle are currently living in Schwetzingen, which is about an hour away from Frankfurt, where we flew in. It was a blessing for us because it was a slow integration for us.
We went to Schloss garden and walked around for a few hours. We probably only walked around half of it because it was so big. Really beautiful though, lots of fountains and statues. We got some great pictures of it.
After the gardens we went out to try some German beer and Schnitzel, both of us were impressed with the Schnitzel and Amanda was thoroughly impressed with the the meter of beer that we ordered! We had a really funny waitress, she was sassy as all get up so it was really fun. After dinner we all went out to a Irish Pub that had Karaoke and sang the night away. It was funny because most of the songs were American songs and the German's were rocking out to them. Kyle sung twice and Josh was telling us that German's love to hear Americans sing and both times Kyle was singing it went from a loud bar to completely silent, so that was kinda neat.
On our second day Josh and Katie took us to nearby Heidelburg and walked around the beautiful downtown and people watched for the most part. There were restaurants everywhere, probably more restaurants than clothing or shopping stores. We ate at a really good pizza place and then got gelato ice cream. We are starting to learn a little bit of German. We learned to say excuse me because Amanda has run into millions of people ("ent-shool-da-gen-zie!!!").
We will post pictures as soon as we can, we need to buy the cord to plug into the computer cause we forgot it. So far we have really loved Germany it reminds us a lot of Oregon. They have some unusual German rules. In the grocery store this lady cut in front of us to get to the front of the line and kyle and I were thinking "man that's rude" but it was explained to us that if a person only has one item its normal for them to cut the front of the line....what a good rule!
Alright time for dinner, we are headed to Berlin tomorrow so we will update you soon. Miss and love everyone!
We went to Schloss garden and walked around for a few hours. We probably only walked around half of it because it was so big. Really beautiful though, lots of fountains and statues. We got some great pictures of it.
After the gardens we went out to try some German beer and Schnitzel, both of us were impressed with the Schnitzel and Amanda was thoroughly impressed with the the meter of beer that we ordered! We had a really funny waitress, she was sassy as all get up so it was really fun. After dinner we all went out to a Irish Pub that had Karaoke and sang the night away. It was funny because most of the songs were American songs and the German's were rocking out to them. Kyle sung twice and Josh was telling us that German's love to hear Americans sing and both times Kyle was singing it went from a loud bar to completely silent, so that was kinda neat.
On our second day Josh and Katie took us to nearby Heidelburg and walked around the beautiful downtown and people watched for the most part. There were restaurants everywhere, probably more restaurants than clothing or shopping stores. We ate at a really good pizza place and then got gelato ice cream. We are starting to learn a little bit of German. We learned to say excuse me because Amanda has run into millions of people ("ent-shool-da-gen-zie!!!").
We will post pictures as soon as we can, we need to buy the cord to plug into the computer cause we forgot it. So far we have really loved Germany it reminds us a lot of Oregon. They have some unusual German rules. In the grocery store this lady cut in front of us to get to the front of the line and kyle and I were thinking "man that's rude" but it was explained to us that if a person only has one item its normal for them to cut the front of the line....what a good rule!
Alright time for dinner, we are headed to Berlin tomorrow so we will update you soon. Miss and love everyone!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Dear dedicated followers,
We hope to be done packing tonight and are super excited to leave on our adventure Wednesday afternoon. We wanted to attach the itinerary of our trip so that people could know where we are or where we plan to go.
Trip Itinerary: http://www.eurotrip.com/trip/45-days-europe
Trip Itinerary: http://www.eurotrip.com/trip/45-days-europe
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)