Hello all, it is our last night in Paris, it has been a fun couple of days! Once again, our train was delayed from Bern to Paris, so we had to take a different one, and we were upgraded to 1st class! sweet! we saw the end of the tour yesterday, we stood in line for a good four hours, but got to see them cone around 7 times, so that was cool...we saw the louve today, are headed to the notre dame right now, and will go up in the eifle tower tonight!
just wanted you all to know we are safe...we have an 8 hour bus ride tomorrow to get back to London, then back home on the 31st!
miss you!
love sarah, katie and phyll
Monday, July 28, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Switzerland = Beautiful!
This is probably my second favorite country so far, with Italy still in first I think :) We spent two nights in Bern, which for being the capitol city, it's pretty laid back and there's not as much to do at night, we found out...and the concert we wanted to go to ended up being 20 SF...which is like 20 dollars, and that's a little too expensive...so we sat outside of the church and tried to listen instead :) Our full day in Bern we woke up and had a huge breakfast (it was all free!), then had to sit for a bit and let our food digest :), but then we used the free bike rental from the hostel, and biked around the city. We walked around the market, selling fruit, veggies, meat, and of course, cheese :) They have to many types of cheese here, but we've been sticking to Swiss because we know we like it, and it's the cheapest :) We went to the bear pits, where they have two grizzly bears, bern means bear, and is the city's mascot. Then we biked to the Parliament building to get a free tour, and it was closed. Too bad. So we biked to the city's free swimming pool which is right on the edge of the river that runs through the city, and laid for awhile in the sun (we had forgotten to bring our suits with us, whoops), and watched the rafters come down the river...I put my feet in for a little bit, and it is freezing...straight from the mountains. We made our way up to the city Rose garden, which was very pretty, then back to the hotel to make some spaghetti for dinner. When we found out the concert cost money, we walked to the grovery store, and got a small strawberry cake to split instead :) We all had a relaxing night of reading in our room before heading to bed.
The train ride yesterday from Bern to Grindelwald was so pretty...that's when we started getting into the mountains. And once we went through Interlocken, we started seeing Paragliders all over the place...I'd love to do that, but don't want to take all day tomorrow doing it, that would cut into my hiking time :) We had a small moment of panic on the train from Interlocken to Grindelwald, because the train actually splits and one half goes to Grindelwald, and the other half goes to Lauderbrünnen, and we were on the wrong half leaving Interlocken! So at the next stop, we had to jump off really fast and run to the other part of the train...very exciting :) We got into Grindelwald, which is the picture perfect mountain village, the mountains rise up all around it, everywhere you turn there's beautiful scenery, the view is unbelievable....although, I wonder how many buildings would be left if you removed all the hotels...because I swear, that's the whole town. We're staying at the Downtown lodge, which feels like a day camp, and our room has bunk beds, Katie says it feels like we're at summer camp :) But free breakfast, close to the train station, and free entrance to the public pool! And it has a kitchen, so that saves us a bunch of money. We relaxed in the sun yesterday afternoon while waiting for our room to get cleaned (we all got burnt, whoops), then walked to the grocery store and picked up some lasagna and salad for dinner (ice cream for desert :), ate dinner, played some cards, and then went into town at 8 for the street festival, that we conveniently came on the right day for! They close off the main street to cars every Wednesday night during the monthes of June and July, and there are food vendors all over the place, and bands, and traditional music and dance. So we walked around for awhile...there was a band from Florida...Mom said that it was funny that we came all the way to Switzerland to hear an American band :) But then we got to sit for awhile and listen to a family accordian band (loved it!), and then a group of people yodeling (my favorite), and then a band came out, followed by a small band accompanied by a group of dancers all in traditional clothing...that was fun, we had front row seats for it :) It was fun to watch all of the little kids dance around in front of everyone, not even noticing that they're the center of attention...oh, to be a kid again...I felt like dancing :)
This morning we got up and hiked to the Upper Gridelwald Glacier, which was up up up...then once we got to the base, we found out that we had to pay 6SF to climb the last like, 200 meters...well, we didn't bring any money, and we weren't going to pay that much anyway, so we reversed, and hiked the valley on the opposite side, and ended up hiking higher up than we would have been had we gone up the glacier...and it was FREE! :) Very pretty view of the valley. On the way, we saw a giant slug, cows with bells, a dead mole, a HUGE spider (that crawled on Katie's arm, then mom's leg, which she then smooshed...eew), the biggest anthill ever just TEEMING with thousands of them, and even small strawberries we could eat, like the ones we find when we're mountain biking in Wisconson. So all in all, a fun morning :)
We got back, ate the rest of the ice cream we got last night (we deserved it, that was a lot of uphill hiking :), and now we're on our way to the pool to relax a bit and swim. We're in the Jungfrau region, and the mountain near us is the highest point in Europe! And it was on this mountain range that the first ever cable car was built (that one is now retired, since it was built in 1908 :). You can take a train up to the highest point...for 134SF...yeah, I think I'll save that money and say that I saw the highest point in Europe...from the valley below :)
Well, I'm off to the pool! Hope everyone is having a good week! We are going to try to be at the final stage of the tour in Paris on the 27th, so look for us along the route if you're watching the race :)
Smile!
Love Sarah, Katie, and Phyllis
The train ride yesterday from Bern to Grindelwald was so pretty...that's when we started getting into the mountains. And once we went through Interlocken, we started seeing Paragliders all over the place...I'd love to do that, but don't want to take all day tomorrow doing it, that would cut into my hiking time :) We had a small moment of panic on the train from Interlocken to Grindelwald, because the train actually splits and one half goes to Grindelwald, and the other half goes to Lauderbrünnen, and we were on the wrong half leaving Interlocken! So at the next stop, we had to jump off really fast and run to the other part of the train...very exciting :) We got into Grindelwald, which is the picture perfect mountain village, the mountains rise up all around it, everywhere you turn there's beautiful scenery, the view is unbelievable....although, I wonder how many buildings would be left if you removed all the hotels...because I swear, that's the whole town. We're staying at the Downtown lodge, which feels like a day camp, and our room has bunk beds, Katie says it feels like we're at summer camp :) But free breakfast, close to the train station, and free entrance to the public pool! And it has a kitchen, so that saves us a bunch of money. We relaxed in the sun yesterday afternoon while waiting for our room to get cleaned (we all got burnt, whoops), then walked to the grocery store and picked up some lasagna and salad for dinner (ice cream for desert :), ate dinner, played some cards, and then went into town at 8 for the street festival, that we conveniently came on the right day for! They close off the main street to cars every Wednesday night during the monthes of June and July, and there are food vendors all over the place, and bands, and traditional music and dance. So we walked around for awhile...there was a band from Florida...Mom said that it was funny that we came all the way to Switzerland to hear an American band :) But then we got to sit for awhile and listen to a family accordian band (loved it!), and then a group of people yodeling (my favorite), and then a band came out, followed by a small band accompanied by a group of dancers all in traditional clothing...that was fun, we had front row seats for it :) It was fun to watch all of the little kids dance around in front of everyone, not even noticing that they're the center of attention...oh, to be a kid again...I felt like dancing :)
This morning we got up and hiked to the Upper Gridelwald Glacier, which was up up up...then once we got to the base, we found out that we had to pay 6SF to climb the last like, 200 meters...well, we didn't bring any money, and we weren't going to pay that much anyway, so we reversed, and hiked the valley on the opposite side, and ended up hiking higher up than we would have been had we gone up the glacier...and it was FREE! :) Very pretty view of the valley. On the way, we saw a giant slug, cows with bells, a dead mole, a HUGE spider (that crawled on Katie's arm, then mom's leg, which she then smooshed...eew), the biggest anthill ever just TEEMING with thousands of them, and even small strawberries we could eat, like the ones we find when we're mountain biking in Wisconson. So all in all, a fun morning :)
We got back, ate the rest of the ice cream we got last night (we deserved it, that was a lot of uphill hiking :), and now we're on our way to the pool to relax a bit and swim. We're in the Jungfrau region, and the mountain near us is the highest point in Europe! And it was on this mountain range that the first ever cable car was built (that one is now retired, since it was built in 1908 :). You can take a train up to the highest point...for 134SF...yeah, I think I'll save that money and say that I saw the highest point in Europe...from the valley below :)
Well, I'm off to the pool! Hope everyone is having a good week! We are going to try to be at the final stage of the tour in Paris on the 27th, so look for us along the route if you're watching the race :)
Smile!
Love Sarah, Katie, and Phyllis
Monday, July 21, 2008
Edinburgh....yeah, I spelled it wrong the other time :)
Continued from below....
Our second day in Edinburgh, we took a train to Inverness, which was a little over three hours northwest. It was a very pretty train ride through the countryside, but I think all of us were still catching up from our travels and we all took naps :) When we got there we went and asked some questions at the visitor center, walked around a bit, then ate lunch...lunch took FOREVER! I think in Europe they assume that everyone that comes to a sit down restaurant isn´t in a hurry and wants more time to sit, but we´re from the US, we´re not like that! :) So by the time we got done with our meal, we missed the bus we wanted to take to get to Loch Ness to see Nessie (she´s real ;), and the next one left at 3 but then we had to catch a bus back at 4:20 or something like that, and we would have had a grand total of 15 minutes there...then we found out bus tickets were expensive for how long we were going to be there, and a taxi was out of the question...so we didn´t get to go to Loch Ness :( Lesson learned: look ahead at times if we really want to do something so we don´t miss it! (you´d think katie and I would have learned that after two monthes... :) But we got to come home early on the train, and we had one of the best nights of our trip, just sitting back at the flat eating dinner, drinking wine and eating chocolate, and talking until midnight (when we had to let Mom and Sue get to sleep...it was way past their bedtime! :)
The next two days we used our Edinburgh pass to see the city...Katie and I hadn´t done that anywhere yet, so it was pretty cool to actually go in some museums and take some cool tours. the first day we saw a cool art exhibit of Vanity Fair photos which was really cool, and we went on a literary pub crawl of the city with two guides who talked about the great writers from Edinburgh and we walked to different pubs. But they didn't provide us with a free drink at the start, and they were kind of hard to understand, so it wasn´t as good as we thought it would be. The next day we went on three tours...yikes! We must have walked 15 miles that day at least! They were pretty interesting. We took one called Secrets of the Royal Mile which was our favorite. The Royal Mile is the mile that leads between the Edinburgh castle and the palace at the bottom of the hill and is filled with shops and restauants...it was the main street back in the day. But she told us all kinds of neat things about the place that we never would have learned. She showed us a spot outside of St. Giles cathedral where there were stones in the pavement that made the shape of a heart, which is where one of the main buildings of the city (the heart of the city) used to be. Only, that spot is the exact part of the building where the hold was where they would keep people the night before they were hanged down the street, and people used to spit on the building at the prisoners held inside...and to this day, people still spit on the heart on the street! It was cool to learn that, because the day before, a guy spit on it when we walked by and we were standing there, and I remember thinking, well that was rude...but it´s tradition! :) Katie made us go on this Edinburgh Dungeons ride which was the most unscary, ridiculously fake and cheesy fun house walk through thing, and the four of us laughed our way through it...it was just ridiculous, she owes us big time for that :)
We made some really good pasta and watched some tv (so nice to have tv in english!) The next day we slept in, and went to the Edinbugh castle, which was more of a bunch of different buildings inside of a wall enclosure...but we got to see the honors (sword, sceptor and crown) of scotland, and get rained on :) The next day we took the train along the east coast and stopped in a town that had a hike along the coast, which was just gorgeous...we hiked a couple miles out and then went back into town for some food...Mom and I tried what are called Smokies (Dad, you would have loved them) which is haddock smoked over oak chips, and it was just delicious. Sue had some great fish and chips and katie was craving soup :) We headed back on the train and went back to the flat...made dinner (it was a long train ride, the fish was just a snack :) then talked and packed up a bit since we had to leave the next day :(
The next morning we packed up, and just as we´re getting ready to make the long treck back to the train station, Edinburgh decides to give us a nice farewell and rains on us all the way there. Nice wet tennis shoes :) Oh well...got into London, left Sue :(, and Katie, Mom and I got on a train headed for Dover...we were supposed to get in there around 8pm, where we would stay the night and catch the ferry the next morning for France. Well, we were on the train for a half hour, and then we hear that there was a fatality (!!!) at the next stop and we all have to get off. So we wait an hour for a bus, bus comes, we cant fit on that one, wait some more, get on the next one, ride for another hour, it takes us to another train station, wait a half hour, catch a train to Faversham, wait for a bus, then take an hour bus ride to Dover, getting in at 10:30pm...great...so we were not happy...get to our hotel (sneak Mom in because we´re only going to be there for 6 hours and we would have had to buy another room for one more person, I don´t think so), go to bed, get up the next morning at 5:30am and walk to the ferry, there´s not a ferry at7 like the book says, so we wait and get on one at 8...get to Calle, get on a train to Lille...in Lille, find out all the train to Paris are booked for the rest of the afternoon, and there´s no way we will get to Switzerland...so we walk and look for a hostel, but it doesn´t open til 4...so we go get some lunch then go to an internet cafe (all the while lugging all our stuff around, mind you :), book some stuff, go back to the train station, decide to get to Paris to stay that night and get on a train for Bern, Switzerland that left this morning at 7:55am...so we got into Paris last night, got to our hostel around 11, went and got some pizza for a very late dinner, went to bed, up at 6:30am, got on our train, uneventful ride (very pretty scenery though), got into Bern, found our hotel (very quaint and we have very comfy beds and free internet, bike rental, and breakfast!), walked around the city a bit, and it´s now almost 9pm and I think we´ll go make dinner (we had a late lunch :)....so we have had a couple days of hard travel and not much sleep, but once we got into Switzerland and started seeing hills mountains, it was worth it!
We´ll be here for tonight and tomorrow night, then we're headed for Grindelwald which is right in the mountains, so we will get to do some GREAT hiking! (which I know Katie, especially, is very excited about ;) Not much time left :( After Grindelwald, we´re back to Paris for three nights, then in London for two, then we all fly home! Like I said before, whirlwind, but we have been able to see so much!
Even though it´s free, there is a guy that has been looking in here every couple minutes waiting for a computer, so I better go and make dinner since Katie made lunch...lots of love to everyone back home! Can't wait to see everyone!!! Hope everything is swell back there! We miss you already Susie and wish you were here!!
Love,
Sarah, Katie, and Phyll :)
Our second day in Edinburgh, we took a train to Inverness, which was a little over three hours northwest. It was a very pretty train ride through the countryside, but I think all of us were still catching up from our travels and we all took naps :) When we got there we went and asked some questions at the visitor center, walked around a bit, then ate lunch...lunch took FOREVER! I think in Europe they assume that everyone that comes to a sit down restaurant isn´t in a hurry and wants more time to sit, but we´re from the US, we´re not like that! :) So by the time we got done with our meal, we missed the bus we wanted to take to get to Loch Ness to see Nessie (she´s real ;), and the next one left at 3 but then we had to catch a bus back at 4:20 or something like that, and we would have had a grand total of 15 minutes there...then we found out bus tickets were expensive for how long we were going to be there, and a taxi was out of the question...so we didn´t get to go to Loch Ness :( Lesson learned: look ahead at times if we really want to do something so we don´t miss it! (you´d think katie and I would have learned that after two monthes... :) But we got to come home early on the train, and we had one of the best nights of our trip, just sitting back at the flat eating dinner, drinking wine and eating chocolate, and talking until midnight (when we had to let Mom and Sue get to sleep...it was way past their bedtime! :)
The next two days we used our Edinburgh pass to see the city...Katie and I hadn´t done that anywhere yet, so it was pretty cool to actually go in some museums and take some cool tours. the first day we saw a cool art exhibit of Vanity Fair photos which was really cool, and we went on a literary pub crawl of the city with two guides who talked about the great writers from Edinburgh and we walked to different pubs. But they didn't provide us with a free drink at the start, and they were kind of hard to understand, so it wasn´t as good as we thought it would be. The next day we went on three tours...yikes! We must have walked 15 miles that day at least! They were pretty interesting. We took one called Secrets of the Royal Mile which was our favorite. The Royal Mile is the mile that leads between the Edinburgh castle and the palace at the bottom of the hill and is filled with shops and restauants...it was the main street back in the day. But she told us all kinds of neat things about the place that we never would have learned. She showed us a spot outside of St. Giles cathedral where there were stones in the pavement that made the shape of a heart, which is where one of the main buildings of the city (the heart of the city) used to be. Only, that spot is the exact part of the building where the hold was where they would keep people the night before they were hanged down the street, and people used to spit on the building at the prisoners held inside...and to this day, people still spit on the heart on the street! It was cool to learn that, because the day before, a guy spit on it when we walked by and we were standing there, and I remember thinking, well that was rude...but it´s tradition! :) Katie made us go on this Edinburgh Dungeons ride which was the most unscary, ridiculously fake and cheesy fun house walk through thing, and the four of us laughed our way through it...it was just ridiculous, she owes us big time for that :)
We made some really good pasta and watched some tv (so nice to have tv in english!) The next day we slept in, and went to the Edinbugh castle, which was more of a bunch of different buildings inside of a wall enclosure...but we got to see the honors (sword, sceptor and crown) of scotland, and get rained on :) The next day we took the train along the east coast and stopped in a town that had a hike along the coast, which was just gorgeous...we hiked a couple miles out and then went back into town for some food...Mom and I tried what are called Smokies (Dad, you would have loved them) which is haddock smoked over oak chips, and it was just delicious. Sue had some great fish and chips and katie was craving soup :) We headed back on the train and went back to the flat...made dinner (it was a long train ride, the fish was just a snack :) then talked and packed up a bit since we had to leave the next day :(
The next morning we packed up, and just as we´re getting ready to make the long treck back to the train station, Edinburgh decides to give us a nice farewell and rains on us all the way there. Nice wet tennis shoes :) Oh well...got into London, left Sue :(, and Katie, Mom and I got on a train headed for Dover...we were supposed to get in there around 8pm, where we would stay the night and catch the ferry the next morning for France. Well, we were on the train for a half hour, and then we hear that there was a fatality (!!!) at the next stop and we all have to get off. So we wait an hour for a bus, bus comes, we cant fit on that one, wait some more, get on the next one, ride for another hour, it takes us to another train station, wait a half hour, catch a train to Faversham, wait for a bus, then take an hour bus ride to Dover, getting in at 10:30pm...great...so we were not happy...get to our hotel (sneak Mom in because we´re only going to be there for 6 hours and we would have had to buy another room for one more person, I don´t think so), go to bed, get up the next morning at 5:30am and walk to the ferry, there´s not a ferry at7 like the book says, so we wait and get on one at 8...get to Calle, get on a train to Lille...in Lille, find out all the train to Paris are booked for the rest of the afternoon, and there´s no way we will get to Switzerland...so we walk and look for a hostel, but it doesn´t open til 4...so we go get some lunch then go to an internet cafe (all the while lugging all our stuff around, mind you :), book some stuff, go back to the train station, decide to get to Paris to stay that night and get on a train for Bern, Switzerland that left this morning at 7:55am...so we got into Paris last night, got to our hostel around 11, went and got some pizza for a very late dinner, went to bed, up at 6:30am, got on our train, uneventful ride (very pretty scenery though), got into Bern, found our hotel (very quaint and we have very comfy beds and free internet, bike rental, and breakfast!), walked around the city a bit, and it´s now almost 9pm and I think we´ll go make dinner (we had a late lunch :)....so we have had a couple days of hard travel and not much sleep, but once we got into Switzerland and started seeing hills mountains, it was worth it!
We´ll be here for tonight and tomorrow night, then we're headed for Grindelwald which is right in the mountains, so we will get to do some GREAT hiking! (which I know Katie, especially, is very excited about ;) Not much time left :( After Grindelwald, we´re back to Paris for three nights, then in London for two, then we all fly home! Like I said before, whirlwind, but we have been able to see so much!
Even though it´s free, there is a guy that has been looking in here every couple minutes waiting for a computer, so I better go and make dinner since Katie made lunch...lots of love to everyone back home! Can't wait to see everyone!!! Hope everything is swell back there! We miss you already Susie and wish you were here!!
Love,
Sarah, Katie, and Phyll :)
A whirlwind of adventures!
Hello all! Sorry it took so long to update, a lot has happened! Where did I leave off....from a couple of blogs ago....
After our night in Madrid, we jumped on a train from Madrid to Pamplona and got in right after the last bus left the city for the campground we needed to go to...so we caught a taxi around 9:45, and we were hoping the reception was still open...it was, we got there and the party was just starting! The whole place was crazy, everyone gets there early for the San Fermin festival, and there were a ton of tour groups there, so no need to worry, reception was definitely open! The place didn`t get quiet until close to 4 in the morning every morning, so we didn`t sleep much while we were in Pamplona...We spent the next day walking around the city, missed the last bus back that night and had to walk with all of our groceries in the dark back to the campground (for 45 minutes) while it was starting to lightning, and got back just in the nick of time, we sat down and started eating our (late) dinner, and 5 minutes later it started thundering and raining...luckily we were in abuilding near our tent, but everyone dancing to the live band got rained on, and they kept losing power to the campground and the music kept getting cutoff, it waspretty funny to watch :) The next morning we packed up really fast and spent the day at the crazy San Fermin festival! My gosh, Pamplona knows how to party. We checked our luggage for the whole day, then went around the city seeing traditional folk dancing, eating, watched the BEST fireworks display of our lives!, then wandered around meeting people for the rest of the night and going in and out of places that were warm, it was FREEZING there compared to everywhere else we had been in Spain...probably because it was closer to the mountains...we went back and slept for 3 hours at the luggage storage place (what an adventure, we were homeless for a night :), then went to the first running of the bulls of the festival the next morning! AWESOME! It was one of the coolest parts of the trip, we bought tickets to be in the ring to see everyone and the bulls run in, and Katie got some really good pictures and video (that will hopefully get put up on here in the future). No one got seriously injured at the one we saw either, and we didn`t think about running, rest assured :)
We spent the rest of the day on the train t Nantes, France to see the tour. We stayed at the same campground both nights, but didn`t plan on that, so we had to pack up all of our stuff and drag it around with us to the time trial in Cholet...that was fun, you get to see a lot more riders and the atmosphere is really neat...we watched the start for a couple hours, cheered on the American teams, then went and sat in a grassy area near the finish for the rest of the afternoon an watched the finishers...the caravan that comes before the riders go is like one big parade and it`s all the team sponsors and they all throw out free stuff and we all fight over it, grown adults (well, I`m not in that category yet... :) fighting over keychains and bags of pretzels...it`s a funny sight :) The next day we saw the longest plain stage of the tour and we were two kms from the end in the Ville de Chaterouex, and we got there super early and stationed ourselves on a turn so we could see them coming and then continuing along towards the finish...luckily a hotel kept our bags behind the desk (so nice!) and we stood and talked with a couple from Austrailia...so at least we had people to talk to for the 3 hours we waited for the caravan to come...that was fun, and Vittel (a water company) has a `team`of riders that go around and entertain the crowd, and one left Katie his card with a picture on it and gave her akiss on the cheek :) But after waiting for so long, we almost missed getting the camera out when the riders finally came by! But it was 30 secondsof madness as everyone yelled and screamed for everyone, and then they were gone :) We found out that night how exciting a finish it was, and the pack passed the 3 sprinters right after where we were standing...we saw the exact corner where we were on tv that night but didn`t see us :)
Stayed in Paris that night, then went to Brugge, Belgium in preparation to catch a ferry the next night in Zeebrugge...but I called the company, and the ferry was full, and there wasn`t another one until Monday! It was Thursday, and we needed to be in Edinburgh on Saturday! Ah, the joy of traveling and having to replan :) So we figured out a bus to take us from Gent to London overnight, and then from London to Edinburgh all day Saturday...We spent all day Fridaz in Gent, and jumped on the bus at 11:45 that night...we met a really cool guy named Jonathan from Austrailia taking the same bus ride, and he made a not fun situation pretty darn fun :) We had to get off the bus an go through customs at 2am before getting on the ferry, then played yahtzee on the ferry :) Said goodbye to Jonathan in London, waited for 4 hours in the bus station, spent 10 (absolutely dreadful) hours on the bus to Edinburgh, got there and called the lady who would let us into our flat, found out that Mom and Sue missed their flight and were stuck in London for the night (WHAT?!), walked 20 minutes to the flat (wheeling a satchel full of wine that we had bought in Paris for the week ahead, it was heavy), got there, and had one of the best nights in a long time...we got to shower, eat food we cooked, did laundry, and watched tv in English! Went to bed, and Mom and Sue woke us up with the buzzer at 8:45 the next morning :) It was SO GOOD to see them...we talked, had a late breakfast, then hiked the large hill that we could see from the window of our flat that overlooks all of Edinburgh. We had a traditional Sunday dinner that night (delicious but expensive!), then headed back, talked and went to bed...we were all pretty worn out just getting to Scotland (quote from Katie while we were on our treacherous 10 hour bus ride: `Mom and Sue owe us big time...they picked the hardest place in Europe for us to get to and told us to meet them there.` But it was completely worth it :)
More to come on Edinburgh....we just got into Bern, Switzerland, had lunch, gave Katie a nap, now we`re going to go explore since it`s actually sunny out here! It was cloudy and rainy in Scotland the whole time it felt like....so I`ll get on later tonight or tomorrow and let you know about Scotland :)
Congrats on getting your permit Jake! Can you take me for a ride when I get back?! :) Good job on directing Zach, hope the last performances went well! Dad and Jordan, you would love to bike here, it`s gorgeous. Kels, I`m glad you got your email working again, even though I haven`t been on to email you :)
LOVE YOU!!!! Only 10 days until we`re back home, we`re making the most of our last days of this crazy adventure! And we`re introducing Mom to all the joys of international traveling... ;) More soon!
love sarah and katie
After our night in Madrid, we jumped on a train from Madrid to Pamplona and got in right after the last bus left the city for the campground we needed to go to...so we caught a taxi around 9:45, and we were hoping the reception was still open...it was, we got there and the party was just starting! The whole place was crazy, everyone gets there early for the San Fermin festival, and there were a ton of tour groups there, so no need to worry, reception was definitely open! The place didn`t get quiet until close to 4 in the morning every morning, so we didn`t sleep much while we were in Pamplona...We spent the next day walking around the city, missed the last bus back that night and had to walk with all of our groceries in the dark back to the campground (for 45 minutes) while it was starting to lightning, and got back just in the nick of time, we sat down and started eating our (late) dinner, and 5 minutes later it started thundering and raining...luckily we were in abuilding near our tent, but everyone dancing to the live band got rained on, and they kept losing power to the campground and the music kept getting cutoff, it waspretty funny to watch :) The next morning we packed up really fast and spent the day at the crazy San Fermin festival! My gosh, Pamplona knows how to party. We checked our luggage for the whole day, then went around the city seeing traditional folk dancing, eating, watched the BEST fireworks display of our lives!, then wandered around meeting people for the rest of the night and going in and out of places that were warm, it was FREEZING there compared to everywhere else we had been in Spain...probably because it was closer to the mountains...we went back and slept for 3 hours at the luggage storage place (what an adventure, we were homeless for a night :), then went to the first running of the bulls of the festival the next morning! AWESOME! It was one of the coolest parts of the trip, we bought tickets to be in the ring to see everyone and the bulls run in, and Katie got some really good pictures and video (that will hopefully get put up on here in the future). No one got seriously injured at the one we saw either, and we didn`t think about running, rest assured :)
We spent the rest of the day on the train t Nantes, France to see the tour. We stayed at the same campground both nights, but didn`t plan on that, so we had to pack up all of our stuff and drag it around with us to the time trial in Cholet...that was fun, you get to see a lot more riders and the atmosphere is really neat...we watched the start for a couple hours, cheered on the American teams, then went and sat in a grassy area near the finish for the rest of the afternoon an watched the finishers...the caravan that comes before the riders go is like one big parade and it`s all the team sponsors and they all throw out free stuff and we all fight over it, grown adults (well, I`m not in that category yet... :) fighting over keychains and bags of pretzels...it`s a funny sight :) The next day we saw the longest plain stage of the tour and we were two kms from the end in the Ville de Chaterouex, and we got there super early and stationed ourselves on a turn so we could see them coming and then continuing along towards the finish...luckily a hotel kept our bags behind the desk (so nice!) and we stood and talked with a couple from Austrailia...so at least we had people to talk to for the 3 hours we waited for the caravan to come...that was fun, and Vittel (a water company) has a `team`of riders that go around and entertain the crowd, and one left Katie his card with a picture on it and gave her akiss on the cheek :) But after waiting for so long, we almost missed getting the camera out when the riders finally came by! But it was 30 secondsof madness as everyone yelled and screamed for everyone, and then they were gone :) We found out that night how exciting a finish it was, and the pack passed the 3 sprinters right after where we were standing...we saw the exact corner where we were on tv that night but didn`t see us :)
Stayed in Paris that night, then went to Brugge, Belgium in preparation to catch a ferry the next night in Zeebrugge...but I called the company, and the ferry was full, and there wasn`t another one until Monday! It was Thursday, and we needed to be in Edinburgh on Saturday! Ah, the joy of traveling and having to replan :) So we figured out a bus to take us from Gent to London overnight, and then from London to Edinburgh all day Saturday...We spent all day Fridaz in Gent, and jumped on the bus at 11:45 that night...we met a really cool guy named Jonathan from Austrailia taking the same bus ride, and he made a not fun situation pretty darn fun :) We had to get off the bus an go through customs at 2am before getting on the ferry, then played yahtzee on the ferry :) Said goodbye to Jonathan in London, waited for 4 hours in the bus station, spent 10 (absolutely dreadful) hours on the bus to Edinburgh, got there and called the lady who would let us into our flat, found out that Mom and Sue missed their flight and were stuck in London for the night (WHAT?!), walked 20 minutes to the flat (wheeling a satchel full of wine that we had bought in Paris for the week ahead, it was heavy), got there, and had one of the best nights in a long time...we got to shower, eat food we cooked, did laundry, and watched tv in English! Went to bed, and Mom and Sue woke us up with the buzzer at 8:45 the next morning :) It was SO GOOD to see them...we talked, had a late breakfast, then hiked the large hill that we could see from the window of our flat that overlooks all of Edinburgh. We had a traditional Sunday dinner that night (delicious but expensive!), then headed back, talked and went to bed...we were all pretty worn out just getting to Scotland (quote from Katie while we were on our treacherous 10 hour bus ride: `Mom and Sue owe us big time...they picked the hardest place in Europe for us to get to and told us to meet them there.` But it was completely worth it :)
More to come on Edinburgh....we just got into Bern, Switzerland, had lunch, gave Katie a nap, now we`re going to go explore since it`s actually sunny out here! It was cloudy and rainy in Scotland the whole time it felt like....so I`ll get on later tonight or tomorrow and let you know about Scotland :)
Congrats on getting your permit Jake! Can you take me for a ride when I get back?! :) Good job on directing Zach, hope the last performances went well! Dad and Jordan, you would love to bike here, it`s gorgeous. Kels, I`m glad you got your email working again, even though I haven`t been on to email you :)
LOVE YOU!!!! Only 10 days until we`re back home, we`re making the most of our last days of this crazy adventure! And we`re introducing Mom to all the joys of international traveling... ;) More soon!
love sarah and katie
Friday, July 11, 2008
On our way back to the UK!
Well, the day has finally come that our mom and Aunt Susie leave the US! Katie and I are very ready for a place to call home for a week, where we have mom and Sue, a nice clean bed to sleep in, and a place to cook food! That's one thing about traveling: you definitely don't eat the healthiest all the time, but we get really hungry and eat what we have to even if it means bread and apples all day :)
We will be in Edinburough tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be able to find some free internet to update you all on our adventures of the past week (which believe me, they've been pretty crazy :)
love from Belgium!
sarah and katie
We will be in Edinburough tomorrow night, and hopefully we'll be able to find some free internet to update you all on our adventures of the past week (which believe me, they've been pretty crazy :)
love from Belgium!
sarah and katie
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Spain is hot
Hello everyone! Sorry we haven´t updated in so long! Italy was EXPENSIVE for internet, so we were only on once and spent our 30 minutes booking a hostel for barcelona. I´m never going to take free internet for granted again! Sorry to people that worried about us (especially mom :) we´re safe, don´t worry, be happy!
Recap: we got on our ferry in Patra and spent the night on the ferry to Bari. Arrived in Bari and took a train and a bus to get to Naples. We met two guys from Florida, and one of them is really into all of the same music Katie is into, so they spent the whole ride listening to each other´s ipods and telling each other all of the bands they need to look up...it was like she had found her music soul mate :) We got into Naples and Katie and I walked to the pizzeria Da Michele, which is the one that the woman describes in the book Eat, Pray, Love! Luckily it was a close walk from the train station and it was totally worth it...perfect traditional italian pizza...so so good. We spent that night in the city of Pompei at a campground, basically right across the street from the ruins. We toured the ruins the next morning, which was really neat, but more expensive than we had thought it would be, and we needed more time, because we had to leave to catch our train to Rome. We got into Rome later than expected and hurried around frantically after getting out of the train station trying to find the bus we were supposed to take to get to Camping Fabulous (Carolyn you should have told us where the busstop was, we were freaking out!), we found one of the buses, but it said it stopped at 8:30pm, and it was already 8:45! We finally found the other one, and got into the campground, put up our tent (once again really expensive for just a patch of rough ground that´s not even level), ate some pizza and watched the rest of the Italy game (which they lost, sadly, but it was fun to watch a bunch of crazy Italians yelling at the tv :), and went to bed.
We saw Rome in a day :) It was hot, I was sick of riding the bus back and forth and it was such a big city, that all I wanted to do was get to Tuscany. So we saw all we could: Vatican city (very neat, but it´s hard to take in so much amazing art at once, and there were so many people in the Sistene Chapel that it took away from the experience being there), the Colluseum, walked a whole lot. We were pretty tired by the time we got back (and mad that the pool was already closed, not so fabulous, Camping Fabulous), so we went to bed. The next morning we packed up and were on our way to Florance. We stayed in a campground in the hillsides that was a half hour bus ride out of the city, and so beautiful. The Tuscan countryside has been my favorite part of the trip so far...I want to come back and live there when I´m old :) Let me know if you want to join me :) Anywho, the campground was really nice, we were in the hostel part of it so we had beds this time. They had a pool, but we had to wear these ugly swim caps that they make you buy, so we shared one. We´re in the pool, and we recognize these two girls from our hostel in Perissa, Santorini, that are from MN and we talked to them like, a half hour before bed. Small world! We show up at almost the same time at a campground in Florance! And we met a couple of other girls that day too, so we had some fun for two nights with a lot of people to hang out with. The next day I went for a walk while Katie and everyone else tanned by the pool :) We went to a wine store and tasted some wine, and had fun talking with everyone.
The next day we saw Florance, which was very pretty. The duomo, the large cathedral, is so pretty and perfect from the outside that it doesn´t even look real. It´s all pink and tan and green marble with statues all over the place. Then we were on a train to Cinque Terre! The campground we stayed at there was only 20 minutes by train out of the first city. The first day there we went to the different beaches, Katie braved cliff jumping with a couple guys we met from California, it was pretty high, good for her, I was nervous and stayed in the water :). We had some more good pizza and gelato (we didn´t go a day in Italy without eating pizza and gelato, it was amazing :), and played some cards with some girls back at the campground. We did the whole 12km hike through the 12 towns the next day. Very hot, but VERY pretty. It takes you right along the side of the cliffs between the towns and you get the prettiest scenery in all of Italy. We were tired after that though :)
From Cinque Terre we headed to Marsailles as a stopover town to get into Spain. That day we were either on a train or in a train station from 8am to 9pm...not so fun. We caught the last 20 minutes of the Eurocup final when we finally got to our hostel, which Spain won, so we were mad we weren´t already in Barcelona because we heard it was mayhem with all of the celebrating! We saw Marsailles the next morning before heading to Barcelona, and it was a very cute city, we took a bus to the Notre Dame cathedral on the top of the hill which overlooked everything, katie had a guy come talk to her in French and give her his number, we had a good laugh over that. We got into Barcelona late that night, so we pretty much ate, and went to bed. The next day we moved to a cheaper hostel that is run by an older spanish couple and it was the homiest place we´ve been...it felt like being at grandma´s house :) We walked around the next day, read, and that night we went and saw a flamenco performance! It was only half an hour long, but only 4 euro, and that´s all we could afford! But it was very cool. The next day we walked around some more, read, went to the beach, and then went up to the castle in town where they show a nightly movie, and it was an Iranian movie with Spanish subtitles...so we were trying real hard to understand what was going on. But there was a live band beforehand playing jazz and swing (Jordan, you would have loved it!), and the atmosphere was pretty fun. We were pooped by the time we got back though.
We left Barcelona this morning, waited in the train station until 3:30 to get on our train to madrid. They don´t have any regional cheap trains between major cities in Spain like they do everywhere else, and the reservations are really expensive. We were hoping to get to the south of Spain, but now I´m almost glad we didn´t have time for it because it would have cleared us out for money just to take the train down there! We have free internet at the hostel here, so that´s why you´re all getting a book right now :)
We´re going to tour around the city tomorrow morning, and then jump on a bus to Pamplona to a campground outside of town where we´ll be until the night of the 6th. Then we´re going to go see Running of the Bulls on the morning of the 7th, then make our way up to Nantes, France, to see the Tour de France the next three days! So it will be quite a busy next week. Then we need to be in Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 11th to take a ferry to Scotland to meet up with Mom and Auntie Susie! (I thought we were done with ferries, and was glad, but this is way cheaper than having to fly there, so I guess I´ll have to deal with it one last time... :)
That was the past 10 days in a nutshell :) I loved Italy, and all of the good food we ate. And it honestly was so pretty to take the train through. Katie still loved being in Greece, but I would have traded that for more time in Italy, hands down. Our clothes finally got washed tonight too, so that´s one of the highlights of the day :) I won´t take clean clothes for granted anymore either :) Well, we have to go figure out our bus time for tomorrow...hope everyone is having a GREAT summer so far! Live it up! Time has flown by here, I´m sure it´s the same for everyone back home too. Send some good vibes to our brother Jake, who will be taking his dirvers permit test soon...last one to have to teach how to drive Mom and Dad :) Katie and I will help with the teaching when we get home :)
Big hug from Spain! We miss you!
Love Sarah and Katie
Recap: we got on our ferry in Patra and spent the night on the ferry to Bari. Arrived in Bari and took a train and a bus to get to Naples. We met two guys from Florida, and one of them is really into all of the same music Katie is into, so they spent the whole ride listening to each other´s ipods and telling each other all of the bands they need to look up...it was like she had found her music soul mate :) We got into Naples and Katie and I walked to the pizzeria Da Michele, which is the one that the woman describes in the book Eat, Pray, Love! Luckily it was a close walk from the train station and it was totally worth it...perfect traditional italian pizza...so so good. We spent that night in the city of Pompei at a campground, basically right across the street from the ruins. We toured the ruins the next morning, which was really neat, but more expensive than we had thought it would be, and we needed more time, because we had to leave to catch our train to Rome. We got into Rome later than expected and hurried around frantically after getting out of the train station trying to find the bus we were supposed to take to get to Camping Fabulous (Carolyn you should have told us where the busstop was, we were freaking out!), we found one of the buses, but it said it stopped at 8:30pm, and it was already 8:45! We finally found the other one, and got into the campground, put up our tent (once again really expensive for just a patch of rough ground that´s not even level), ate some pizza and watched the rest of the Italy game (which they lost, sadly, but it was fun to watch a bunch of crazy Italians yelling at the tv :), and went to bed.
We saw Rome in a day :) It was hot, I was sick of riding the bus back and forth and it was such a big city, that all I wanted to do was get to Tuscany. So we saw all we could: Vatican city (very neat, but it´s hard to take in so much amazing art at once, and there were so many people in the Sistene Chapel that it took away from the experience being there), the Colluseum, walked a whole lot. We were pretty tired by the time we got back (and mad that the pool was already closed, not so fabulous, Camping Fabulous), so we went to bed. The next morning we packed up and were on our way to Florance. We stayed in a campground in the hillsides that was a half hour bus ride out of the city, and so beautiful. The Tuscan countryside has been my favorite part of the trip so far...I want to come back and live there when I´m old :) Let me know if you want to join me :) Anywho, the campground was really nice, we were in the hostel part of it so we had beds this time. They had a pool, but we had to wear these ugly swim caps that they make you buy, so we shared one. We´re in the pool, and we recognize these two girls from our hostel in Perissa, Santorini, that are from MN and we talked to them like, a half hour before bed. Small world! We show up at almost the same time at a campground in Florance! And we met a couple of other girls that day too, so we had some fun for two nights with a lot of people to hang out with. The next day I went for a walk while Katie and everyone else tanned by the pool :) We went to a wine store and tasted some wine, and had fun talking with everyone.
The next day we saw Florance, which was very pretty. The duomo, the large cathedral, is so pretty and perfect from the outside that it doesn´t even look real. It´s all pink and tan and green marble with statues all over the place. Then we were on a train to Cinque Terre! The campground we stayed at there was only 20 minutes by train out of the first city. The first day there we went to the different beaches, Katie braved cliff jumping with a couple guys we met from California, it was pretty high, good for her, I was nervous and stayed in the water :). We had some more good pizza and gelato (we didn´t go a day in Italy without eating pizza and gelato, it was amazing :), and played some cards with some girls back at the campground. We did the whole 12km hike through the 12 towns the next day. Very hot, but VERY pretty. It takes you right along the side of the cliffs between the towns and you get the prettiest scenery in all of Italy. We were tired after that though :)
From Cinque Terre we headed to Marsailles as a stopover town to get into Spain. That day we were either on a train or in a train station from 8am to 9pm...not so fun. We caught the last 20 minutes of the Eurocup final when we finally got to our hostel, which Spain won, so we were mad we weren´t already in Barcelona because we heard it was mayhem with all of the celebrating! We saw Marsailles the next morning before heading to Barcelona, and it was a very cute city, we took a bus to the Notre Dame cathedral on the top of the hill which overlooked everything, katie had a guy come talk to her in French and give her his number, we had a good laugh over that. We got into Barcelona late that night, so we pretty much ate, and went to bed. The next day we moved to a cheaper hostel that is run by an older spanish couple and it was the homiest place we´ve been...it felt like being at grandma´s house :) We walked around the next day, read, and that night we went and saw a flamenco performance! It was only half an hour long, but only 4 euro, and that´s all we could afford! But it was very cool. The next day we walked around some more, read, went to the beach, and then went up to the castle in town where they show a nightly movie, and it was an Iranian movie with Spanish subtitles...so we were trying real hard to understand what was going on. But there was a live band beforehand playing jazz and swing (Jordan, you would have loved it!), and the atmosphere was pretty fun. We were pooped by the time we got back though.
We left Barcelona this morning, waited in the train station until 3:30 to get on our train to madrid. They don´t have any regional cheap trains between major cities in Spain like they do everywhere else, and the reservations are really expensive. We were hoping to get to the south of Spain, but now I´m almost glad we didn´t have time for it because it would have cleared us out for money just to take the train down there! We have free internet at the hostel here, so that´s why you´re all getting a book right now :)
We´re going to tour around the city tomorrow morning, and then jump on a bus to Pamplona to a campground outside of town where we´ll be until the night of the 6th. Then we´re going to go see Running of the Bulls on the morning of the 7th, then make our way up to Nantes, France, to see the Tour de France the next three days! So it will be quite a busy next week. Then we need to be in Zeebrugge, Belgium on the 11th to take a ferry to Scotland to meet up with Mom and Auntie Susie! (I thought we were done with ferries, and was glad, but this is way cheaper than having to fly there, so I guess I´ll have to deal with it one last time... :)
That was the past 10 days in a nutshell :) I loved Italy, and all of the good food we ate. And it honestly was so pretty to take the train through. Katie still loved being in Greece, but I would have traded that for more time in Italy, hands down. Our clothes finally got washed tonight too, so that´s one of the highlights of the day :) I won´t take clean clothes for granted anymore either :) Well, we have to go figure out our bus time for tomorrow...hope everyone is having a GREAT summer so far! Live it up! Time has flown by here, I´m sure it´s the same for everyone back home too. Send some good vibes to our brother Jake, who will be taking his dirvers permit test soon...last one to have to teach how to drive Mom and Dad :) Katie and I will help with the teaching when we get home :)
Big hug from Spain! We miss you!
Love Sarah and Katie
Friday, June 20, 2008
Pictures below:
Are from Amsterdam...I told Katie that I just screamed tourist :) The rest are bikes there, street performers, a cute little kid playing with the pigeons :) And Katie being goofy on our night train to Copenhagen :)
More to come!
More to come!
Whoops...today is our last day in Greece :)
Sarah speaking:
Last post was our last night in Athens...now we're sitting at the tourist center taking advantage of the free internet before we have to get on our ferry that will take us to Bari, Italy at 6pm. We'll arrive there at 8am (gaining an hour, woo hoo!), get on a train at 1:30 for Naples, probably go eat pizza at the famous pizza place from the book Eat, Pray, Love, and then visit Pompei the next day before heading to Rome.
We were on the island of Santorini the past 5 nights. 4 were spent on the island, last night was spent at the Athens airport :) Our ferry got in at midnight (how inconvenient is that!), so we hooked up with a couple from Austrailia that is traveling for a YEAR (and we thought 2 and a half months was a long time!), and scoped out a spot in the airport and tried (and failed) to sleep. Oh well...that means we'll be more tired tonight and hopefully sleep on the ferry. The 4 nights we were in Santorini were great though! The island wasn't necessarily what I expected...I think I built it up in my mind too much. But we had a good time one day renting a 4 wheeler and exploring the entire island,we got to see an amazing sunset in Oia too. Then we spent the next two nights in Perissa, and our hostel was a 6 minute walk from the beach...Katie was overjoyed :) We spent the entire next day at the beach (I hung out in the shade a majority of the day, we both got a little burnt (but Katie did wear sunscreen mom :) We climbed to ancient Thera the next morning (very hot but swimming felt so good afterwards!), then caught the ferry back to the mainland that afternoon.
Our funny story from the night before: we decided to switch to the 24 bed dorm in the basement because it was only 4 euro per person! Our bunks were way in the back the furthest away from the door, so we were completely thinking we were going to have this great night's sleep...well, we were woken up at 4:30am to the worst snoring we had ever heard in our life! But both of us felt too bad to go wake him up since we had never met him before, so we just had to deal with it for a long time until he finally rolled over :) Katie actually got out of bed and videotaped him :)
Thanks for all of the good vibes and for following our adventure...this computer won't let me upload pictures, but I'll try to do that asap...Sorry Anne, we didn't get to see any princesses :( But I'll keep an eye out at the next castle we go to...hi to all the schobels!!!!
Way to use the bikes Missy...we'll have to get together when I'm back in town to catch up! Sue, you have fun with Jordan at the concert...make sure to take some pictures for me! Hi to Dale!
Well, we have to go board our ferry...I got homesick a couple of days ago, and I'm glad that I get to be home come August! And you're right Mom, we will need a vacation from our vacation...that's why you and Susie are coming ;) Tell her good luck in the half marathon! Tell her I'll run one with her in the fall so I can get back into shape :)
Off to Italy! We'll have some pizza, pasta and gelato for you all! (That's all we plan on eating the whole time we're there ;)
LOVE,
Sarah and Katie
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Last night in Greece...tomorrow on to Santorini!
Hello all,
Today was Athens in a day :) We left the hostel at 9am and didn't get back here until almost 6, with only a 45 minute lunch break, so we were busy busy busy! The Acropolis was cool, except that it's been under construction since 2000, so there's scaffolding in all of our pictures, but if you can look past that, it's amazing to imagine what everything looked like way back when, and how they constructed everything to last so long without the use of modern machines! We got to go in a museum and saw all sorts of cool artifacts that were found at the site, and they came up with some really creative ways to do things we take for granted, like time speeches, and keep their wine cool, neat :) Last night we treated ourselves to dinner at a cafe, and even though the food was really good, we decided it wasn't worth the 20 euro we spent, and we're better off eating a large cheap lunch from now on, and having a smaller dinner before bed. That's what we did today, and we each had two of the most AMAZING gyros ever for lunch! SO good, and we loved every bite...of both... :)
Ok, our ferry ride...insane. We got on, and it is more like a mini cruise boat, so we staked out a spot on the deck loungers thinking that would be more comfortable than sleeping on the concrete floor on the deck below. So that meant that in order to save them, we had to spend all day near them, hence, we were in the sun the whole two days...I lathered on the sunscreen (Katie was loving it, she spent a lot of the time tanning :), and tried to read or write in my journal in the shade. The other bad part was that everyone smokes everywhere, so it was hard to get away from that. And we met a few other travelers while up on the deck, one guy who was traveling for 5 monthes, a couple of girls from Austrailia, and then this guy who was probably the most negative person we've met on the trip, and maybe one of the most I've ever met...he complained about EVERYTHING, and was one of those people who doesn't know when not to talk to them when they want to be left alone...kinda annoying and it's hard to be by yourself, you can't get off the boat :)
Bedtime comes along, so KAtie and I start setting up our sleeping bags on the loungers, locking our bags up beneath us (every other deck passenger was doing the same thing, so don't worry mom :), and just as we're getting into our bags...it begins to rain :) We're like, WHAT? The guy on the boat said it never rains! This, of course, gave our negative friend one more thing to complain about...so we had to move to a spot over by the bathrooms on the lifejacket boxes, and tried to sleep there, but it was rattling a lot and loud (it reminded me of trying to sleep on the floor of the bus during my long soccer trips...not good ;), and I didn't sleep much...around 6am, we moved back onto the loungers, and slept for a couple more hours until people started moving around on the deck and going in the pool and stuff...then it was another long day in the sun...
We got into Patras, and these other people we met while getting off the ship were going to find a budget hotel...but it would have been like, 16 euro a person, and katie and I had found a camping site that looked really nice on the website (we checked the website that day on the ship), so we were like, well, let's just do that, it's only going to be 6 euro a person. So we wait for and get on the bus (Really funny, all of the city buses were Mercedes coach buses :), and talked to the guy on the bus for awhile and he says it will drop us off right in front of the campground. So it does, and we get off, the bus leaves...and the campground is closed...it's dark, and we're 30minutes from anything in the main city...great...so we start walking into the campground anyway to see if we can find anyone, and this guy stops us right as we're going in, and is like, the campground is closed, we are repairing from the earthquake (apparently it hit patras more than a lot of other places), and we're like, we have nowhere else to go! So he's like, there's another campground down the road, come on, I'll drive you there...okay, I know we're not supposed to get in cars with strangers, but this guy was old, nice enough to offer,and obviously the owner of the campground we were at. And he has a nice truck...so we get in,kinda nervous, drive 5 minutes down the road,and he drops us off by a sign that says Campground 500 meters. So we start walking, and thankfully it's a lit road,and all of the houses look very nice, but we're kinda nervous we're going to get there, and this campsite will be closed to, and now we're farther out without other options, and these dogs keep jumping up and barking at us from behind the fences as we're walking by, but we finally get to the campsite, pay, and she leads us to our spot.
Now,we're thinking that it will be like the other ones we've been to, where they just have a big field for the tents...but this is more of a camper campground and apparently they are really full for a Thursday night. She points to a spot between two trees that is just large enough for our tent, and right in between two other tents, the couple next to us is just looking at us, and it was really akward. And we were tired and hungry, so got some fries at the restaurant (the cheapest thing on the menu), and by now it's almost 11:30, so we just went right to bed. Got up the next morning, walked to the bus stop, got to the train station, and headed for Athens! So a crazy couple of days, but it was a great adventure, and makes for a good story to tell :) But next time it's late and we're looking for a place to stay, we'll just go to the budget hotel :)
We're off to watch the Greece soccer game at a bar...hopefully it's an exciting one! Hi to all, and don't get too wet, we heard everyone is having a lot of rain it seems. LOVE YOU ALL! Talk to you soon!
Sarah and Katie
Today was Athens in a day :) We left the hostel at 9am and didn't get back here until almost 6, with only a 45 minute lunch break, so we were busy busy busy! The Acropolis was cool, except that it's been under construction since 2000, so there's scaffolding in all of our pictures, but if you can look past that, it's amazing to imagine what everything looked like way back when, and how they constructed everything to last so long without the use of modern machines! We got to go in a museum and saw all sorts of cool artifacts that were found at the site, and they came up with some really creative ways to do things we take for granted, like time speeches, and keep their wine cool, neat :) Last night we treated ourselves to dinner at a cafe, and even though the food was really good, we decided it wasn't worth the 20 euro we spent, and we're better off eating a large cheap lunch from now on, and having a smaller dinner before bed. That's what we did today, and we each had two of the most AMAZING gyros ever for lunch! SO good, and we loved every bite...of both... :)
Ok, our ferry ride...insane. We got on, and it is more like a mini cruise boat, so we staked out a spot on the deck loungers thinking that would be more comfortable than sleeping on the concrete floor on the deck below. So that meant that in order to save them, we had to spend all day near them, hence, we were in the sun the whole two days...I lathered on the sunscreen (Katie was loving it, she spent a lot of the time tanning :), and tried to read or write in my journal in the shade. The other bad part was that everyone smokes everywhere, so it was hard to get away from that. And we met a few other travelers while up on the deck, one guy who was traveling for 5 monthes, a couple of girls from Austrailia, and then this guy who was probably the most negative person we've met on the trip, and maybe one of the most I've ever met...he complained about EVERYTHING, and was one of those people who doesn't know when not to talk to them when they want to be left alone...kinda annoying and it's hard to be by yourself, you can't get off the boat :)
Bedtime comes along, so KAtie and I start setting up our sleeping bags on the loungers, locking our bags up beneath us (every other deck passenger was doing the same thing, so don't worry mom :), and just as we're getting into our bags...it begins to rain :) We're like, WHAT? The guy on the boat said it never rains! This, of course, gave our negative friend one more thing to complain about...so we had to move to a spot over by the bathrooms on the lifejacket boxes, and tried to sleep there, but it was rattling a lot and loud (it reminded me of trying to sleep on the floor of the bus during my long soccer trips...not good ;), and I didn't sleep much...around 6am, we moved back onto the loungers, and slept for a couple more hours until people started moving around on the deck and going in the pool and stuff...then it was another long day in the sun...
We got into Patras, and these other people we met while getting off the ship were going to find a budget hotel...but it would have been like, 16 euro a person, and katie and I had found a camping site that looked really nice on the website (we checked the website that day on the ship), so we were like, well, let's just do that, it's only going to be 6 euro a person. So we wait for and get on the bus (Really funny, all of the city buses were Mercedes coach buses :), and talked to the guy on the bus for awhile and he says it will drop us off right in front of the campground. So it does, and we get off, the bus leaves...and the campground is closed...it's dark, and we're 30minutes from anything in the main city...great...so we start walking into the campground anyway to see if we can find anyone, and this guy stops us right as we're going in, and is like, the campground is closed, we are repairing from the earthquake (apparently it hit patras more than a lot of other places), and we're like, we have nowhere else to go! So he's like, there's another campground down the road, come on, I'll drive you there...okay, I know we're not supposed to get in cars with strangers, but this guy was old, nice enough to offer,and obviously the owner of the campground we were at. And he has a nice truck...so we get in,kinda nervous, drive 5 minutes down the road,and he drops us off by a sign that says Campground 500 meters. So we start walking, and thankfully it's a lit road,and all of the houses look very nice, but we're kinda nervous we're going to get there, and this campsite will be closed to, and now we're farther out without other options, and these dogs keep jumping up and barking at us from behind the fences as we're walking by, but we finally get to the campsite, pay, and she leads us to our spot.
Now,we're thinking that it will be like the other ones we've been to, where they just have a big field for the tents...but this is more of a camper campground and apparently they are really full for a Thursday night. She points to a spot between two trees that is just large enough for our tent, and right in between two other tents, the couple next to us is just looking at us, and it was really akward. And we were tired and hungry, so got some fries at the restaurant (the cheapest thing on the menu), and by now it's almost 11:30, so we just went right to bed. Got up the next morning, walked to the bus stop, got to the train station, and headed for Athens! So a crazy couple of days, but it was a great adventure, and makes for a good story to tell :) But next time it's late and we're looking for a place to stay, we'll just go to the budget hotel :)
We're off to watch the Greece soccer game at a bar...hopefully it's an exciting one! Hi to all, and don't get too wet, we heard everyone is having a lot of rain it seems. LOVE YOU ALL! Talk to you soon!
Sarah and Katie
Friday, June 13, 2008
GREECE!!!
Well everyone, we're safe and and sound in Patras, Greece! the ferry here from Venice took 30 hours...ohmygosh, I never want to be on a ship for that long again...unless it's a cruise and we have a cabin :) We left Freiburg on Tuesday after some much needed recoup time. We got into Venice late, so went right to the campgound, had some pizza and went to bed...we were woken up at 6am by these puppies from this house right across the street (I think they're part of the owners of the campground or something) jumping all over our tent! What the heck! So I (Sarah) jump out of the tent and katie shields them from coming in, and I try to shoo them away but they think I'm playing and they're jumping all over me and biting (puppy bites) at my legs and stuff (good thing I had jeans on when I was sleeping) and I walk over to the house where they're from, and they're all basically hanging on my legs, and there's a woman inside sweeping the floor, and I'm like, Are these your dogs? And she doesn't understand English, and she comes outside and they're still biting at my pants and she kinda shoos them off of me like it's no big deal and they go over to their food dishes...thankfully no holes in the tent, so it's okay Dad :) Time on the watch: 6am...thanks a lot puppies... :) It's useless to go back to sleep for an hour, so we pack up, wait for the bus to come, get to the train station on the island of venice, and have to walk a ways to get to teh port. By the time we get there and get our deck passes (16 euro a piece but all the upgrades are way too expensive), it's like, 9:45 and there's nowhere to store our luggage before the ship leaves at 2, so we take turns going into the city. So we got to see Venice for like, an hour each :) But it was cool, and we were there in the morning before it got super busy, and we at least got to see the gondaliers (sp?). We didn't get to eat any gelato while there though, so we can't wait to get back to Italy after being in Greece to eat some :)
No time left on the computer here at the info place, so more to come when we get to our hostel in Athens!!! We miss you guys, and thanks for the posts! (although, we're already out of Germany Laura, but we did like Munchen a lot :)
Love from Greece!
Sarah and Katie
No time left on the computer here at the info place, so more to come when we get to our hostel in Athens!!! We miss you guys, and thanks for the posts! (although, we're already out of Germany Laura, but we did like Munchen a lot :)
Love from Greece!
Sarah and Katie
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Freiburg: What a welcome relief!!
Hello all! Sarah speaking...
Well, since we last spoke, we were still deciding between Vienna and Munich...and after realizing that the Euro Cup was being played in Vienna, and Katie's friend Nick had no room for us and there was no way we were going to find any open hostels or hotels, we decided Munich it was! So we got up that morning and walked to the top of the Prague version of the Eifel tower, which was really cool because it was a super nice day and we could see the entire city and point out landmarks of what we had seen the day before. Then we walked back down and over to Prague castle, but there were a ton of people there and we couldn't really figure out what was the actual castle, it's like a big complex of buildings so we saw the cathedral, and then we realized that we were a long way from our hostel and had to start making our way back quickly in order to make our train! So we crossed the famous Charles bridge (one of the oldest still standing in Europe), admiring all of the beautiful artwork, wishing we could buy some (it was actually pretty cheap), realizing we had no way of keeping it from getting ruined since we were traveling for two more months :), and basically jogging to get back to our hostel in time!
We made it onto our 1:16 train to Munich with a couple minutes to spare...we were running through the train station, had to go to the international ticket office to purchase a ticket from Prague to the border since our pass wasn't valid for the Czech Republic, then we ran to the train, and the doors closed a minute later :) Stressful at the time, but fun looking back on it. The rest of the train ride was as eventful as getting on! First off, it was the worst train we'd been on yet, and it was super crowded so we scrunched in between some people with all of our luggage. We met a guy from Texas who had been in China studying for two weeks, and he was so relieved to meet with people and be able to speak English since he hadn't been able to talk to anyone for two weeks! Cool, except all we wanted to do was sleep :) So we played some cribbage and Katie was the polite one and was the more talkative of the two of us :) Then we found out that someone had pulled the fire alarm on one of the cars, so we were delayed for over an hour getting to our next stop...which meant that we missed our connecting train and had to wait for another one once we got there. Then when our connecting train got there, we assumed it was the right one because it was the only one listed above us on the platform, and we were like, cool, it came 5 minutes early!....wrong train... :) So we had to get off three stops later, and sure enough, the right train came rumbling along 5 minutes later to that stop :)
We sat with a couple of guys who went to school in Colorado and our friend from Texas, and the three of them talked about all the extreme sports they like to do the whole time. They swore too much for me, but I was polite to them because they had been the ones to inform us that we had gotten on the wrong train before :) So we got into Munich two hours later than expected, called Nathan, met him on a stop on the underground, and he led us back to his humble abode. He lives in an efficiency, so with us sleeping on the floor, we took up the whole room :) But he was very nice about it and didn't complain about us :) We had our first tastes of German beer at the bar near his apartment (which I actually didn't mind!) and ate a burger and fries for a very late dinner, then went to bed.
The next day Nathan gave us a tour of the city, which was cool, not as many cool buildings as Berlin, but they have a big park that I liked. He showed us where he studies, and told us a cool story about one of the main buildings. In 1943 there were this brother and sister who studied there and developed this underground group that opposed the ideals of the Nazi regime. They wrote letters and flyers back and forth secretly for a long time, and then one day, the brother and sister decide to make everything known, and go to the main campus hall in between classes at 9am one day and throw copies of all the letters and flyers they had made, everything they had saying that people needed to oppose what the Nazis were doing, and that it was bad, and so all of these letters are all over the floor in the main hall. Well, someone saw them do it, and turned them in, and they were beheaded for their ideals and actions by 3 pm that same day. So as a memorial to them, there were stones made to look like strewn letters built into the floor of the hall and the sidewalk outside of it. It made me wonder if I would ever have the courage to stand up so strongly for what I believed in, or what it would be that I would stand up for...
We saw people surfing on the river that runs through the park, there's a spot where the water rushes pretty fast out from under a bridge and creates a natural wave that's perfect for surfing, so there were maybe 10 guys taking turns surfing on it...it was funny because there was a sign saying that surfing was forbidden there because it was dangerous :) Oh well, I guess they can only injure themselves.
There were more "nakies" (naked people, this is what Nathan called them which we thought was hilarious when we said it :) sunbathing in places in the park, and he said that there would have been a lot more had it been nicer out...so we were thankful that it was a cooler day :) We got some kabobs (Katie's favorite) for lunch, then let Nathan study and Katie and I went to see the Olympic stadium. It had some VERY cool architecture, and there was an African fair going on, so that was cool to walk around and see...once again, cool things to buy, but no money and no space...so we took pictures :) It was supposed to rain all day, and started looking cloudy, so Katie and I went to the store and bought stuff to make spaghetti and we had a late dinner with Nathan, then decided to go to a really neat beer garden in the middle of the park. So we get there, and find out it closed early, so he's like, well, let's just go to the gas station because I have one other kind of beer I wanted you to try, and then we can just go back and play cards in the apartment. So we jump back on the underground, and when we get out at the stop where the gas station is, we walk over to the steps going up, and water is pouring down them, it is absolutely pouring rain (it reminded me of that part in Titanic when water is pouring down the stairs :), only, not that much water), so we run up the stairs and across the street, get the beer, run back down to the station, take the train to Nathan's stop and are like, okay, it's probably 200 meters back to his apartment, ready to run? And we sprint through the pouring rain, Nathan's ahead of us screaming like a little girl whenever he hits a big puddle that we can't see, I'm cradling my beer like a football and katie and I are laughing the whole way :) We were soaked, but it was my favorite part of the day. We played some yahtzee, cards, then went to bed.
Got up the next day, said goodbye to Nathan, and jumped on the train to spend the rest of the day on them, switching between three different ones to make it to Freiburg. Katie and I got some kind of food poisoning or something, because we both feel sick, so it wasn't the best day we've had so far. But once we got to Julia's, and she was so welcoming, it made it better. We watched the Portugal/Turkey game at the bar where Julia works, then came back and went to bed. I still didn't feel good this morning and didn't think eating a big breakfast was the best thing, so Katie and Julia went with her roommates to this cute cafe (which I'm sitting here being jealous of, you all know how much I love to eat!), and I think we're going to go see a movie or something this afternoon, then watch the Germany Euro Cup game tonight on a big screen at a nearby park that they set up for all the games of the Euro Cup, which should be pretty fun. We were looking forward to a couple of days where we didn't have to do anything, just relax :)
We have liked Germany. It's a fun language to listen to, and Nathan taught us some German like how to say please, thank you, and you're welcome. The Bavaria region where Munich is located is cool, because people still walk around in laderhosen (I don't know how to spell that :), and traditional dresses and aprons :) And soccer is EVERYWHERE here! German flags are all over to support their team, soccer is used in every kind of advertising...it's awesome :) I wish I could see a game, but it's too expensive and it's fun watching it in places where there are a lot of people cheering :)
We're probably heading to Verona, Italy tomorrow, then spending a night in Venice, and taking the ferry from Venice to Patras, Greece on Wednesday, where we will hopefully spend the majority of our time there eating cheap gyros and lying on the beach :) Katie took the camera with her to breakfast, but we'll hopefully post some pictures sometime today...
Three weeks down, 4 weeks til Mom and Auntie Susie get here, and 7 til we're home! It's gone by so fast already, I can't believe we've been to 7 countries already! We miss you guys, thanks for the posts and e-mails, we love hearing from you :) Keep enjoying your summers! Everyone bikes here, so remember, if gas gets too expensive, be like a European and jump on your two-wheeled friend! :)
LOVE FROM EUROPE!
Katie and Sarah
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Prague... I'm in love!
Katie at the keyboard...
As to the title, I mean I'm love with the city (don't worry mom, I did not fall in love in a day with a handsome European man and I'm not dropping out of school to move to Europe quite yet) :) It's been almost a week since our last post and we've seen so much since then! Here's a quick rundown...
After leaving Brugges, we jumped on a train to The Netherlands and spent the day in Amsterdam. We spent way too much money to store our packs at the train station, there were a ridiculous amount of bikes, beautiful canals and architecture, lots of graffiti, the red light district was... interesting, we saw the Anne Frank house (which was very moving), we didn't smoke any weed (although I was tempted to try a space cake), and we ate some flat caramel Belgium waffle things... delicious!
Then we jumped back on a train... however this was a night train that was taking us up to Denmark. We boarded at 7 pm and didn't arrive in Copenhagen until 10 the next morning. We shared our compartment with a lovely lady named Hilly who informed us that we were going to be in the city at the beginning of the National Bicycling week and she was going to be biking across the country. The compartment was a little cramped and hot at times, but I had no trouble sleeping and liked the rocking motion of the train whereas Sarah woke up quite a few times when the train would make random stops. We actually camped for the 2 nights in Copenhagen... I had no problem with this considering the forecast looked good and the campground was right over a hill from the beach. When we got there, we set up the tent and went directly to the beach where we stayed most of the afternoon. We had a lazy day, walked around a bit, and ate some pizza and ice cream for dinner. The next day we went into the city to see the sites. We had planned on renting city bikes because they were free and only had to put down a deposit. However, after arriving in the city, we discovered that they were all rented out. This was fairly disappointing because we'd been walking so much already the past few weeks that our legs really needed a break. We explored the city for most of the day and saw some great parks and plenty of historical buildings. We randomly walked by a church where we heard beautiful music so we went into listen and there was a rehearsal going on with a large choir and full orchestra. We spent some time sitting in a few parks and treated ourselves to an Italian buffet for dinner because we were famished.
The following day, we woke up bright and early, prepared to catch a 9:30 train for Berlin, but found after arriving at the station that the train didn't run at that time until later in the summer so we had to sit at the station for a few hours until the next one. We bought large containers of chocolate milk and played Yatzee for awhile (I won the first game, but then Sarah ended up getting double Yatzee on her last turn of the second game and won hands down!... she started crying out of pure joy and the fact she had just previously said she was a horrible Yatzee player). At this time, a drunk homeless man came walking up to our table. We talked with him for a little while at first, but felt slightly uncomfortable when we started following us around and yelling at us. It was at this time that we escaped to the bathrooms and snuck out when he wasn't looking and went to our train platform so he couldn't find us (Again, don't worry mom. There were a lot of people around and we were entirely safe).
After arriving in Berlin, we had a little trouble finding our hostel. At one point I asked in a little restaurant, but no one spoke English. Everyone was very nice and willing to help so in the end, I had about 5 people trying to give me directions in German and all I could do was nod my head like I knew what they were saying. Luckily, a nice man came in a few minutes later and was able to translate the directions. After finding our hostel (which was in a really nice and well-off part of town). We ended up going to a Greek restaurant (which is kind of weird considering we had just arrived in Germany), but the food was excellent. It was my first time trying a Gyro and I must say that I loved it. Unfortunately, we ordered a bottle of water which ended up costing 4 euro which is ridiculously expensive. Berlin was a great city and very rich in history (especially from the time of WWII). We saw one of two remaining sections of the Berlin wall, the Tiegarden park right in the middle (in which we walked by a field of all naked tanning men), and went to the top of the Reichstag building which is a glass dome with a 360 degree view of Berlin. I had my first doner kebab and it is now my all time favorite food. The last day there, we went to a concentration camp 40 minutes north of the city and it was an extremely moving experience. Unfortunately, we were on a time crunch to catch our next train so we didn't get to read all the stories and descriptions.
We made it on the train to Prague with just minutes to spare. I think that the train ride was my favorite by far because we were in a valley with big hills on both sides and went along a river for most of the ride. There were little old towns and villages all along the river and some castles and homes on really high cliffs. We met a girl named Susan on the train who gave us tips for Prague and she'd never been to the United States, so we shared some info on our country as well. The train station at Prague was a little sketchy and the information desk was closed when we arrived, but we eventually found our way to our hostel. We're in a 6 bed hostel (3 bunk beds), but the hostel isn't fully booked, SO WE HAVE THE ROOM TO OURSELVES! It's great to get a little bit of comfort and privacy and we'd be paying $$$ if we had booked just a double room. We made some spaghetti for dinner, washed our clothes in the sink, and went to bed. This morning, we went on a walking tour of the city. There are so many buildings dating back to before the 1400s and also a great deal of history under the rule of communist USSR. Tomorrow we're going to see Prague Castle and the Charles bridge and then jump on a train to either Vienna to visit my friend Nick or Munich to visit my friend Nathan.
We'll see where the wind blows... as for now we're having a great time and meeting a lot of fun people. We miss everyone and hope everything is good back at home!
As to the title, I mean I'm love with the city (don't worry mom, I did not fall in love in a day with a handsome European man and I'm not dropping out of school to move to Europe quite yet) :) It's been almost a week since our last post and we've seen so much since then! Here's a quick rundown...
After leaving Brugges, we jumped on a train to The Netherlands and spent the day in Amsterdam. We spent way too much money to store our packs at the train station, there were a ridiculous amount of bikes, beautiful canals and architecture, lots of graffiti, the red light district was... interesting, we saw the Anne Frank house (which was very moving), we didn't smoke any weed (although I was tempted to try a space cake), and we ate some flat caramel Belgium waffle things... delicious!
Then we jumped back on a train... however this was a night train that was taking us up to Denmark. We boarded at 7 pm and didn't arrive in Copenhagen until 10 the next morning. We shared our compartment with a lovely lady named Hilly who informed us that we were going to be in the city at the beginning of the National Bicycling week and she was going to be biking across the country. The compartment was a little cramped and hot at times, but I had no trouble sleeping and liked the rocking motion of the train whereas Sarah woke up quite a few times when the train would make random stops. We actually camped for the 2 nights in Copenhagen... I had no problem with this considering the forecast looked good and the campground was right over a hill from the beach. When we got there, we set up the tent and went directly to the beach where we stayed most of the afternoon. We had a lazy day, walked around a bit, and ate some pizza and ice cream for dinner. The next day we went into the city to see the sites. We had planned on renting city bikes because they were free and only had to put down a deposit. However, after arriving in the city, we discovered that they were all rented out. This was fairly disappointing because we'd been walking so much already the past few weeks that our legs really needed a break. We explored the city for most of the day and saw some great parks and plenty of historical buildings. We randomly walked by a church where we heard beautiful music so we went into listen and there was a rehearsal going on with a large choir and full orchestra. We spent some time sitting in a few parks and treated ourselves to an Italian buffet for dinner because we were famished.
The following day, we woke up bright and early, prepared to catch a 9:30 train for Berlin, but found after arriving at the station that the train didn't run at that time until later in the summer so we had to sit at the station for a few hours until the next one. We bought large containers of chocolate milk and played Yatzee for awhile (I won the first game, but then Sarah ended up getting double Yatzee on her last turn of the second game and won hands down!... she started crying out of pure joy and the fact she had just previously said she was a horrible Yatzee player). At this time, a drunk homeless man came walking up to our table. We talked with him for a little while at first, but felt slightly uncomfortable when we started following us around and yelling at us. It was at this time that we escaped to the bathrooms and snuck out when he wasn't looking and went to our train platform so he couldn't find us (Again, don't worry mom. There were a lot of people around and we were entirely safe).
After arriving in Berlin, we had a little trouble finding our hostel. At one point I asked in a little restaurant, but no one spoke English. Everyone was very nice and willing to help so in the end, I had about 5 people trying to give me directions in German and all I could do was nod my head like I knew what they were saying. Luckily, a nice man came in a few minutes later and was able to translate the directions. After finding our hostel (which was in a really nice and well-off part of town). We ended up going to a Greek restaurant (which is kind of weird considering we had just arrived in Germany), but the food was excellent. It was my first time trying a Gyro and I must say that I loved it. Unfortunately, we ordered a bottle of water which ended up costing 4 euro which is ridiculously expensive. Berlin was a great city and very rich in history (especially from the time of WWII). We saw one of two remaining sections of the Berlin wall, the Tiegarden park right in the middle (in which we walked by a field of all naked tanning men), and went to the top of the Reichstag building which is a glass dome with a 360 degree view of Berlin. I had my first doner kebab and it is now my all time favorite food. The last day there, we went to a concentration camp 40 minutes north of the city and it was an extremely moving experience. Unfortunately, we were on a time crunch to catch our next train so we didn't get to read all the stories and descriptions.
We made it on the train to Prague with just minutes to spare. I think that the train ride was my favorite by far because we were in a valley with big hills on both sides and went along a river for most of the ride. There were little old towns and villages all along the river and some castles and homes on really high cliffs. We met a girl named Susan on the train who gave us tips for Prague and she'd never been to the United States, so we shared some info on our country as well. The train station at Prague was a little sketchy and the information desk was closed when we arrived, but we eventually found our way to our hostel. We're in a 6 bed hostel (3 bunk beds), but the hostel isn't fully booked, SO WE HAVE THE ROOM TO OURSELVES! It's great to get a little bit of comfort and privacy and we'd be paying $$$ if we had booked just a double room. We made some spaghetti for dinner, washed our clothes in the sink, and went to bed. This morning, we went on a walking tour of the city. There are so many buildings dating back to before the 1400s and also a great deal of history under the rule of communist USSR. Tomorrow we're going to see Prague Castle and the Charles bridge and then jump on a train to either Vienna to visit my friend Nick or Munich to visit my friend Nathan.
We'll see where the wind blows... as for now we're having a great time and meeting a lot of fun people. We miss everyone and hope everything is good back at home!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Brugge, the most romantic city in Belgium...glad I'm here with my sister... :)
Belgium Chocolate soccer balls in Brugges
Sarah trapped behind bars next to the canal in Brugges
Sarah in front of a little peeing boy sculpture
in Brussels (it is very famous)
Getting ready to devour Belgium waffles
St. Nicholas Cathedral in Brussels
Canals of BrugesUs hanging out in our cool tent
Guiness Storehouse... our first sips of GuinessMy friend Joe Keane in Galway who gave me a tour of the city and taught me Gaelic
Sarah and the shore of WicklowOur new friends at the top of the hill in Wicklow
Sister time overlooking the countryside and Irish sea
The sisters and cousin Carolyn at a sculpture in Dublin
Carolyn and I pretending to kiss statues of famous Irish men
On our bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher... the background is the Burren countryside
T
The Tower Bridge of London and the London Eye
In front of Parliment
Just kidding, Katie is Awesome :)
We finally got pictures uploaded! (Sorry, we had a hard time labeling them and getting them in the right order so it's kind of a mix and match puzzle with the picture to the description) Enjoy!!!!
We're here in Brugge, and we both like it way more than Brussels...although, we were running on no sleep again yesterday while walking around through Brussels so that could have been part of it :) We spent the night of the 26th at the airport in Dublin since our flight left at 7:35am and we didn't want to miss it because we overslept our alarm, so there was no sleeping at all that night. We played a lot of cards and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to keep ourselves awake :)
Our last day in Ireland, the 26th, we took a day trip from Dublin and went to Wicklow, a 45 minute train ride south in very pretty countryside and right next to the sea...katie wanted to jump from the train into the water, but I assured her it was probably cold and we should wait until we get farther south :) But guess what? We met more boys :) These 4 were from Texas, and neither of us had plans, so we left from the train station together and started exploring. We walked to the highest hill for a great view of the sea and then down to a cool lighthouse. Katie took of her shoes and was trying to out run the waves, but ended up with very wet jeans. Later, we found some delicious chicken and chips (french fries) with salt and vinegar. The boys invited us to go on a Pub crawl around the Temple bars, but we unfortunately had to decline to grab our packs from the hostel and catch the last cheap bus to the airport.
Brussels was pretty in the main square where all of the big old buildings are, but otherwise there's graffetti all over everything, even churches, and the rest of the city wasn't very pretty. But we had our Belgium waffle drenched in chocolate sauce and strawberries...it was heaven in a bite :) DELICIOUS! And we savored every bite...it probably took me 20 minutes to eat it, and you all know how fast I usually eat :) But after that, we were tired and just wanted to get back to the train station to catch the train to Brugge...
By the time we checked into our hostel in Brugge last night, all we wanted was to go to bed. That was our first night in a mixed dorm, but it didn't matter because we went to bed before everyone got in, and we were up and gone by 10:30 this morning and everyone else was gone or still sleeping. So we ate some breakfast at the bar downstairs, loaded up our stuff, and walked the 2km to the campground just outside of the main city centre of town...it felt longer than it was :) But it was a nice little area, and we got the tent all set up (we were having a little trouble so maybe you should have helped me more Mom...but katie, yeah, I know, I camp way more than her! So she would brag after that it was because she was in future problem solvers...hehe) :), ate some lunch, then washed some clothes in the bathroom sink...we had a lot of fun with that, Katie said it was like we were back in the "old days", I was like, it's because we're cheap and can't afford a washing machine! :)
Then we walked back into Brugge...my back has started hurting a little bit, so I'm going to start wearing the top of my main backpack around my waste as a large fanny pack instead :) I don't care how dumb I look, it felt so much better than having to wear my daypack on my shoulders! Brugge is very pretty, all cobblestone streets, and canals winding through the city. Every church is gorgeous. And it's so funny...they say that in Dublin you can't go a block without seeing a pub...well, in Brugge you can't go a block without seeing a chocolate shop! Killer! We stop at every window and drool :)
Tomorrow we're catching the morning train to Amsterdam, and then the plan is to reserve an overnight train from Amsterdam to Copenhagen once we get to the train station tomorrow morning...hoping there are sleeper seats available for us! Then after Copenhagen we'll be heading to Berlin...
We'll keep you posted the next time we get to an internet cafe...Jordan said gas is expensive there...boo! Everyone bikes around here and takes the train...we should implement more of that in the US :) Mom, stop using our blog for your social network...it's called e-mail! :) just kidding...no, but seriously :)
But keep posting everyone, we LOVE to read them and have contact with people that speak english :)
LOVE YOU ALL! 2 MORE MONTHES OF THIS CRAZY TRAVEL BUSINESS!!!! Keep sending us good vibes! :)
Love Sarah and Katie
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Back in Dublin
Katie speaking:
Hello to all! So our poor cousin Carolyn had to go to the hospital yesterday. She was in a lot of pain and it took over 4 hours to get seen and cost £66. Sarah and I, being the insensitive cousins we are, stayed the morning in Galway to go to the street market and walk around the city a bit more. It was a beautiful morning and the harbor was gorgious! There were tons of swans, giant fish, and it was very nice and sunny. Then we jumped on a train back to Dublin and decided to put our backpacks in a locker at the train station so we didn't have to find our hostel right away. We are trying to be as thrifty as possible to we insisted to the locker attendant that we could fit our huge packs in a medium sized locker because it was cheaper. After a lot of pushing and shoving we succeeded and saved £3 :) Then it was off to the Guiness Storehouse! It was a self-guided tour up through lots of exhibits on how the beer is produced. There was some tasting and the top is a 360 view over Dublin. You could see mountains in the background on one side and the sea to the other side. It was a sunny day and the view was so gorgious! You also get a pint of Guiness at the top! Both Sarah and I have never had it before, so we weren't sure what to expect. I loved it straight off the bat... it is thick and tastes like roasted coffee and chocolate. Sarah hated every sip she had to take, but made herself drink the entire thing because it was part of the entry fee. I would have gladly finished it off, but she declined and suffered through it. We met some nice men from Greece who were following the Bruce Springstein concert tour through Ireland (hilarious!) and they gave us some great travel pointers. Surprisingly, we were both very tipsy afterward (4pm) and were stumbling around the street for awhile!
Carolyn was smart and booked a room for us at the Travelogde last night. It was the cheapest thing we could find because it was the weekend, but it was a really nice hotel and we had our own room and it was AMAZING! We finally had our own space with the comforts of home! We had soup and baggettes, watched some TV, and just relaxed. Carolyn flew home this morning and Sarah and I are now back at a hostel. We explored a bit more today and found a music festival going on in a nearby park. Then we went to the National Gallery which had many famous and interesting paintings.
I must note that we have been very good at budgeting so far (only because Sarah keeps tabs on all the spending and £££). I'm always asking if we can split an ice cream cone or get a good meal and she insists that it's just too expensive. So we bought noodles, sauce, peppers, and chicken stuffed pancakes and made them at the hostel tonight. It was actually a great and filling meal, but we're splurging on some chocolate for dessert. She keeps saying that we can eat the famous foods in each country (Belgium waffles, Beer in Germany, Pizza in Italy, Gyros in Greece, Hot Chocolate in Switzerland). We're also going to start camping pretty soon which I'm hesitant about, but we aren't lugging the tent and sleeping bags around Europe for nothing! We're running out of computer time so it's time to wrap up! We're just going to go back and have some hard cidar at the hostel and watch a movie!
Sending love and luck from Ireland!
Hello to all! So our poor cousin Carolyn had to go to the hospital yesterday. She was in a lot of pain and it took over 4 hours to get seen and cost £66. Sarah and I, being the insensitive cousins we are, stayed the morning in Galway to go to the street market and walk around the city a bit more. It was a beautiful morning and the harbor was gorgious! There were tons of swans, giant fish, and it was very nice and sunny. Then we jumped on a train back to Dublin and decided to put our backpacks in a locker at the train station so we didn't have to find our hostel right away. We are trying to be as thrifty as possible to we insisted to the locker attendant that we could fit our huge packs in a medium sized locker because it was cheaper. After a lot of pushing and shoving we succeeded and saved £3 :) Then it was off to the Guiness Storehouse! It was a self-guided tour up through lots of exhibits on how the beer is produced. There was some tasting and the top is a 360 view over Dublin. You could see mountains in the background on one side and the sea to the other side. It was a sunny day and the view was so gorgious! You also get a pint of Guiness at the top! Both Sarah and I have never had it before, so we weren't sure what to expect. I loved it straight off the bat... it is thick and tastes like roasted coffee and chocolate. Sarah hated every sip she had to take, but made herself drink the entire thing because it was part of the entry fee. I would have gladly finished it off, but she declined and suffered through it. We met some nice men from Greece who were following the Bruce Springstein concert tour through Ireland (hilarious!) and they gave us some great travel pointers. Surprisingly, we were both very tipsy afterward (4pm) and were stumbling around the street for awhile!
Carolyn was smart and booked a room for us at the Travelogde last night. It was the cheapest thing we could find because it was the weekend, but it was a really nice hotel and we had our own room and it was AMAZING! We finally had our own space with the comforts of home! We had soup and baggettes, watched some TV, and just relaxed. Carolyn flew home this morning and Sarah and I are now back at a hostel. We explored a bit more today and found a music festival going on in a nearby park. Then we went to the National Gallery which had many famous and interesting paintings.
I must note that we have been very good at budgeting so far (only because Sarah keeps tabs on all the spending and £££). I'm always asking if we can split an ice cream cone or get a good meal and she insists that it's just too expensive. So we bought noodles, sauce, peppers, and chicken stuffed pancakes and made them at the hostel tonight. It was actually a great and filling meal, but we're splurging on some chocolate for dessert. She keeps saying that we can eat the famous foods in each country (Belgium waffles, Beer in Germany, Pizza in Italy, Gyros in Greece, Hot Chocolate in Switzerland). We're also going to start camping pretty soon which I'm hesitant about, but we aren't lugging the tent and sleeping bags around Europe for nothing! We're running out of computer time so it's time to wrap up! We're just going to go back and have some hard cidar at the hostel and watch a movie!
Sending love and luck from Ireland!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Correction: The Cliffs of Moher :)
Sarah Speaking:
So I've slept with earplugs since starting college, as most of you know, and I always wake up to my alarm. But two mornings ago, I apparently (according to Carolyn who was sleeping right across from me), heard the alarm go off, opened it, shut it off, and went right back to sleep :) So she doesn't wake me up because she thinks I just want a little more time to sleep, and we wake up an hour later a miss breakfast...which is free...you don't pass up free food here! Even if it is just tea and bread with jelly! Shoot! So then last night, I give the alarm to Katie and say it's her responsibility to get us up, and we had to be to a tour at 10, so we couldn't sleep through it this morning. Katie is a new wearer of ear plugs, I think that's the only way to get sleep in a 10 bed room in a hostel with people coming in at all different times of the night. So apparently (again according to Carolyn who was sleep right below her) the alarm went off, and Katie slept right through it :) Luckily, I woke up at 8:30 and we weren't late :)
We went to the Cliffs of Moher today, which is basically (according to my friend Kelly Smithers ;) the picture on the postcards that you see when you see Ireland. They were beautiful. And the bus ride went through the Burren, which is the rocky landscape that is characteristic of Ireland, and it was so neat to learn about the history behind all of the castles and tombs that had been standing there for thousands of years. It rained when we got to the cliffs, but that didn't dampen spirits in seeing it. Very worth the money we payed to take the tour. And it was really funny, on the bus ride back I think the busdriver had a cd in or something, but it was all of these different songs of different genres sang by an Irish singer with Irish instruments. So picture the songs "closer I am to fine", "Pave paradise and put up a parking lot", and "I would walk 1000 miles" all sang like an Irish song...it was pretty funny to listen to :)
We got back here and made pasta which we had picked up at the grocery store last night, and ate a lot...so I'm very full right now. But again, when there's food there, I'm going to eat it on this trip :) Carolyn isn't feeling very well :(, so she's upstairs lying down...we're all kinda tired, so I think we'll shower and play some games tonight :)
WOW! Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that we're really here...I'm in Ireland! It's very green and I love their music and Irish accents :) Dublin tomorrow, then on to Brussels on the 27th! Then begins the rest of the summer!
Thanks for listening...miss you all! Love from Ireland!
So I've slept with earplugs since starting college, as most of you know, and I always wake up to my alarm. But two mornings ago, I apparently (according to Carolyn who was sleeping right across from me), heard the alarm go off, opened it, shut it off, and went right back to sleep :) So she doesn't wake me up because she thinks I just want a little more time to sleep, and we wake up an hour later a miss breakfast...which is free...you don't pass up free food here! Even if it is just tea and bread with jelly! Shoot! So then last night, I give the alarm to Katie and say it's her responsibility to get us up, and we had to be to a tour at 10, so we couldn't sleep through it this morning. Katie is a new wearer of ear plugs, I think that's the only way to get sleep in a 10 bed room in a hostel with people coming in at all different times of the night. So apparently (again according to Carolyn who was sleep right below her) the alarm went off, and Katie slept right through it :) Luckily, I woke up at 8:30 and we weren't late :)
We went to the Cliffs of Moher today, which is basically (according to my friend Kelly Smithers ;) the picture on the postcards that you see when you see Ireland. They were beautiful. And the bus ride went through the Burren, which is the rocky landscape that is characteristic of Ireland, and it was so neat to learn about the history behind all of the castles and tombs that had been standing there for thousands of years. It rained when we got to the cliffs, but that didn't dampen spirits in seeing it. Very worth the money we payed to take the tour. And it was really funny, on the bus ride back I think the busdriver had a cd in or something, but it was all of these different songs of different genres sang by an Irish singer with Irish instruments. So picture the songs "closer I am to fine", "Pave paradise and put up a parking lot", and "I would walk 1000 miles" all sang like an Irish song...it was pretty funny to listen to :)
We got back here and made pasta which we had picked up at the grocery store last night, and ate a lot...so I'm very full right now. But again, when there's food there, I'm going to eat it on this trip :) Carolyn isn't feeling very well :(, so she's upstairs lying down...we're all kinda tired, so I think we'll shower and play some games tonight :)
WOW! Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remind myself that we're really here...I'm in Ireland! It's very green and I love their music and Irish accents :) Dublin tomorrow, then on to Brussels on the 27th! Then begins the rest of the summer!
Thanks for listening...miss you all! Love from Ireland!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Greetings from Ireland!
Cheerio!
This is Katie typing. We're currently in Galway, Ireland which is on the Western coast. We haven't posted anything in a few days so here's a quick recap...
London was a lot of fun besides being deliriously tired. We walked around for about 5 hours and saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Shakespear Theater, London Eye, the Parliment Buildings, Big Ben, Westminster, St. James Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace. We took lots of pictures, but didn't take any tours because we're waiting for when we return with Mom. I must mention how CRAZY expensive London it. The pounds are the same amount as dollars, but with the poor exchange rate, it was double. You couldn't get a decent meal for under $15! I think we were too tired to even think about eating at that point. Funny story at the hostel the first night... We went to bed at 7 and set the alarm for 8:30 (check out was at 10 and we had to catch our train out of Paddington Station at 12:30). So never hear an alarm clock go off, but I wake up and look at my watch and it it 10:58! I frantically jump off the top bunk, say 'good-morning' to the girl awake in our room, and shake Sarah awake yelling that we need to grab our stuff and that we're going to miss the train! Sarah stands up, walks to the window, pulls open the shades, and it is pitch black out. Turns out it was 10:58 pm... oops! So I felt really dumb and went back to bed. We got up and made all our trains to Bristol where we met up with our cousin Carolyn who has been studying in Swansea, England for the semester. We jumped on our flight to Dublin where we arrived yesterday and checked into our hostel which was very nice. We watched a futbol game of Manchester United vs. Chelsea in the lounge and at the end, tons Irish children showed up and just went crazy screaming! It ended in a sudden death shootout which was pretty exciting to watch. Hopefully we can go to an actual game sometime because Sarah really wants to (except they're crazy $$$). We toured Dublin this morning and off to the cliffs of Moar in the morning! More to come later because I'm being kicked out of the computer area!
This is Katie typing. We're currently in Galway, Ireland which is on the Western coast. We haven't posted anything in a few days so here's a quick recap...
London was a lot of fun besides being deliriously tired. We walked around for about 5 hours and saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Shakespear Theater, London Eye, the Parliment Buildings, Big Ben, Westminster, St. James Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace. We took lots of pictures, but didn't take any tours because we're waiting for when we return with Mom. I must mention how CRAZY expensive London it. The pounds are the same amount as dollars, but with the poor exchange rate, it was double. You couldn't get a decent meal for under $15! I think we were too tired to even think about eating at that point. Funny story at the hostel the first night... We went to bed at 7 and set the alarm for 8:30 (check out was at 10 and we had to catch our train out of Paddington Station at 12:30). So never hear an alarm clock go off, but I wake up and look at my watch and it it 10:58! I frantically jump off the top bunk, say 'good-morning' to the girl awake in our room, and shake Sarah awake yelling that we need to grab our stuff and that we're going to miss the train! Sarah stands up, walks to the window, pulls open the shades, and it is pitch black out. Turns out it was 10:58 pm... oops! So I felt really dumb and went back to bed. We got up and made all our trains to Bristol where we met up with our cousin Carolyn who has been studying in Swansea, England for the semester. We jumped on our flight to Dublin where we arrived yesterday and checked into our hostel which was very nice. We watched a futbol game of Manchester United vs. Chelsea in the lounge and at the end, tons Irish children showed up and just went crazy screaming! It ended in a sudden death shootout which was pretty exciting to watch. Hopefully we can go to an actual game sometime because Sarah really wants to (except they're crazy $$$). We toured Dublin this morning and off to the cliffs of Moar in the morning! More to come later because I'm being kicked out of the computer area!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
AHHHHH!!!!!!
katie and I haven't slept since leaving madison at 8 yesterday morning...we're going to sleep now...
ran around london baby!
love you all!
ran around london baby!
love you all!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
T-1 Day!!!
Well, we got all packed, and katie's already complaining about how heavy her 30 pound pack is...and wants me, the sherpa, to carry it ;) we'll probably be getting rid of some of our stuff tomorrow morning... :)
We can't wait! Nervous, excited, nervous, excited...LONDON BABY!!!!
We can't wait! Nervous, excited, nervous, excited...LONDON BABY!!!!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
T-2 Days!
Final packing and preparing! We have the tent and sleeping bags ready so we're prepared for both hostels and campgrounds...some of the things we're looking forward to: freedom!, seeing the sights, seeing our cousin Carolyn, visiting Ireland right away, celebrating both of our birthdays while there, since we couldn't see each other on either of them :( Things we're not looking forward to: the super long plane ride, paying a lot of money for food, getting adjusted to the time difference.
Almost ready to leave! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Almost ready to leave! WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Friday, May 16, 2008
T-3 days!
We've been waiting for this since mid-February when we bought our round trip tickets to London and knew there was no turning back! We can't wait! Thanks to all who have supported us in living the dream :) We couldn't have done it without you!
Each of us had a "theme" song that we thought fit well with our summer:
Sarah: "Steer" by Missy Higgins
"Now you finally know that you control where you go you can steer...."
Katie: "Across the Universe" by The Beattles
"Sounds of laughter shades of life are ringing through my open ears , exciting and inviting me..."
We now would like to invite you along to share in our journey! Please post comments, we'd love to hear from the people we love back home, and would love to know what you are up to! Cheers!
Each of us had a "theme" song that we thought fit well with our summer:
Sarah: "Steer" by Missy Higgins
"Now you finally know that you control where you go you can steer...."
Katie: "Across the Universe" by The Beattles
"Sounds of laughter shades of life are ringing through my open ears , exciting and inviting me..."
We now would like to invite you along to share in our journey! Please post comments, we'd love to hear from the people we love back home, and would love to know what you are up to! Cheers!
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