Sevilla is one of those beautiful cities. Just looking at it, it plain looks nice. There are palm trees and plazas with fountains around every corner, rivers and bridges, and sculptures. Its also hot, but its a dry heat so I loved it. On the first full day in Sevilla, we walked around town a bit, and wandered through Alcatraz... ok not really, but I dont have the name of the place in front of me, and it sounds very similar to the prison. If town itself is beautiful, you might say that this place was heavenly. You can see I liked it a lot there. Part of Alcatraz was the building, which was similar to some of the castles in France (except more spanish) with ornate decorations and trims, tiles and mosaics, carvings, things that make buildings look nice. I preferred, though, the outside gardens. Oh my I could wander those things for days and be happy. Parts were more foresty, parts were more grassy (with trees), there were fountains and ponds and small sculptures here and there, and paths going every which way so you could get lost if you arent careful, and PEACOCKS! Babby peacocks too. And they tried to attack us. At least we were convinced they were going after us. Have you seen their beaks, they are sharp. Not something I want in my leg. Eventually we were thirsty and hot enough to drag myself out of there (oh another nice thing about Sevilla are the student discounts... this place normally costs 7 euro, for students it is free. Thats the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh). I dont remember much else we did that day, but Im sure we walked around a little more and ate some food. Probably used the bathroom a few times. Maybe some other stuff.
The next day we met up with Rachels friend Bea, as Amy mentioned, at the semi-circular building in town... again I dont remember its name. I am not good with specifics such as that. Sevilla is beautiful. So was this building. With Bea we walked through the Maria Louisa gardens (ah ha! I remember a name! but only because Amy likes to call them the Marisa Louisa or Maria Lucia gardens), through town a bit, and then grabbed some food at a bar. A resturante is where you pay a lot for food. A bar is what you call a place you get cheap food. I like cheap food. And then! we headed down toward Cadiz, about an hour away, to stay at her familys flat near the beach.
The night we arrived in Cadiz, we stopped by the beach for a little while, just long enough to see a horse race along the coast. It had cooled down a bit by that point, only around 23 C, so much cooler than we have been used to that Amy in fact turned PURPLE. Her entire arms were bluish. This is not uncommon for Amy. Her body tends to do this when she is cold. But, 70 F is not THAT cold, is it? Apparently when you are used to 100 it is. The air was very humid too, and after about 10 minutes outside my arms were sticky and wet. I was just grateful that it wasnt hot out. That wouldve been un-fun.
I dont know if yo u all know this... Im assuming most of you do, because most everyone who reads this knows Amy and I, but Amy has taken French and is pretty darn good at it. She has also taken approximately 6 months of spanish, approximately 6 years ago. Her speaking spanish is the most hilarious time I have had on this entire trip. She is not bad at it... actually she can speak better than a lot of people who have studied it for much longer than she has. I dont know how to describe it other than we spent hours sitting around on the balcony, the four of us laughing until our sides hurt, and then laughing some more.
The next day we spent at the beach. I have an amazing tiger pattern on my back. No it wasnt intentional, but if I HAD thought of it, I probably wouldve done it on purpose. We all got a little sunburned, you could say, other than the spanish one. She tried to convince us that she is white by showing us the inside of her arm, but we didnt fall for it. That was about the color of the "tan" on my outer arm. The beaches in southern spain, by the way, are just as gorgeous as you would imagine. And the sand is very soft. And the water warm. Oh I think I got stung by something in the water because my arm... got... stung. My underarm area. Dont fret too much though, it stopped hurting after about a half hour or so. After hours at the beach, we drove back home. I mean Sevilla. Oops. I want to move to France and Sevilla. We will see about the whole visa thing.... so far our investigations show that its not that easy to move here.
Today we have transfered from Sevilla to Madrid, our last and final and NO MORE AFTER THIS ONE city. Eek! This was our LAST train day. I miss you all out there, but it has been nice to be here without worry other than what to see in the city or when we will catch our train.
I would tell you what we have seen of Madrid so far, seeing as we got to the city around 2pm (and it is now 11pm) but all we have done is sleep and eat. What can I say, we were tired. Tomorrow though, we will start seeing the city. I hope. That would be really bad if we were here for two days and didnt see anything. Naw that wont happen... we still have to see Flamenco!
Hokay, Im going to go back to the room now. Despite not wanting to leave, we do in fact miss you out there. Three more days until we are back in Edmonds, eating Taco Bell and sleeping in our own beds. (Except those of you who are reading this for Rachel... three more days until she heads up to England...)
Adios!
Laura
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Towards our last city....
Tomorrow we take our last train day to Madrid, our last city before we fly home on the 3rd. It is very weird and scary to think that well be leaving and that we wont be in Europe anymore. However, were very excited to see everyone!!!
Im thinking of you Max. :)
In Seville we were able to meet up with Rachels friend Bella, who had an apartment on the beach so we took a mini vacation out the beach for a day and a night. It was gorgeous and fun and a nice change of pace to have a "home". She is really fun too so that helps. And I have for sure decided that spanish will be the next language I learn, very fun and beautiful! Laura will update you more about Seville, because it is beautiful and fun and deserves more writing.
On a sad note, the cleaning lady threw away our food, a souvenir :( and all of our sunscreen EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON OUR BED. Im upset, but thats me.
Time to go! Adios.
Im thinking of you Max. :)
In Seville we were able to meet up with Rachels friend Bella, who had an apartment on the beach so we took a mini vacation out the beach for a day and a night. It was gorgeous and fun and a nice change of pace to have a "home". She is really fun too so that helps. And I have for sure decided that spanish will be the next language I learn, very fun and beautiful! Laura will update you more about Seville, because it is beautiful and fun and deserves more writing.
On a sad note, the cleaning lady threw away our food, a souvenir :( and all of our sunscreen EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON OUR BED. Im upset, but thats me.
Time to go! Adios.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Quick update
So were now in Seville, where we plan to stay for four nights. It is crazy hot here, around 117 degrees. Meaning that well be napping by day and seeing the town by night! ;)
Rachel and I just found out that one of her friends is here, so we may end up meeting with her. Well keep you updated!
Rachel and I just found out that one of her friends is here, so we may end up meeting with her. Well keep you updated!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Yell and Scream and Make a Scene
So were still in Barcelona, but I thought that there was something VERY blogworthy to tell everyone. So, we went on a day trip to a nearby town, known to be cute and have good beaches. We took the metro there of course, seeing as Barcelona is so large and very tiresome to walk. When we were walking between lines, I noticed there was a couple, mid thirties walking very close to Laura and Rachel, who were each walking in front and to the right of me. (Meaning the couple was on my right). I assumed they were trying to pass them and get through, so I didnt think much of it. However, I did noticed he was staring at Lauras black day bag. I thought this was weird, and being the paranoid, anti stranger person that I am, I took more notice of them. This is very very very good, because next time I looked over, he had unzipped Lauras bag and was about to reach his hand in. Ugh, just writing about it gives me a adreniline rush of hate. So of course I yelled at him, told him to stop and closed her bag. There was not much else we could do besides give them evil glare. Well we probably could of made a scene, but we were on automatic and didnt think of it. Boy do I wish now that when I had stopped him that I had also "accidentally" pushed him down the stairs or something. But anyway, I'm not violent at all of course so we'll move on ;). I saw that they had hung back and were going to take another route, so I figured that was that. But once we got onto the next train, Laura noticed that they were on the same train, just down a few cars. By this time my head had cleared a little and I didnt know what I wanted to do, but I needed to do something. So, I made them walk down with me, where we stood a few feet from them and glared at them for the extent of the train ride, which was conviently only one stop. (They defintely looked like they were avoiding eye contact and looked like they got out just in case we were going to make a scene). My head wasnt cleared enough to do more, like announce to the train that they were pickpocketers, which would of been smart because as we were approaching them it looked like they already had another victim.
Hindsight is 20-20 though and there is nothing I can do now. But yea, we were almost pickpocketed-which would of been a great financial loss on this particular day (had a lot of money for the day trip) BUT we werent and thats what counts. But if I see him again and Im gonna yell and scream and make a scene and hope he doesnt have a knife or something. :)
Hindsight is 20-20 though and there is nothing I can do now. But yea, we were almost pickpocketed-which would of been a great financial loss on this particular day (had a lot of money for the day trip) BUT we werent and thats what counts. But if I see him again and Im gonna yell and scream and make a scene and hope he doesnt have a knife or something. :)
Monday, August 25, 2008
We're in Barcelona!
Our trip across the border was simple and hassle free. Once again our passports were not checked and therefore we did not get a stamp. Meaning we ONLY got stamps for entering Ireland. Lame. They don't speak normal spanish here, it is a very strange mix of french, spanish and something else. But thats ok, we're still able to get by!
We like Barcelona, but sadly its very big. We walked across town yesterday, but pretty much you have to use the metro. There is a bus tour thing overground, technically lame, BUT, it acts as a bus, and a tour, and you can rest in the wind! So we would like to do that but it costs 20 euro, way more euro then were willing to pay. So instead, we walk. Yesterday we saw a melting church, not actually melting of course but its more fun to pretend that it is. There are a lot of shops, and Im trying oh so hard to get the last of my souvenir shopping done- that means you Lindsay! The beach is beautiful, as expected, and I'm trying oh so hard to convince Laura and Rachel that they want to swim with me, but neither of them want to. Because they're lame.
Today were going to go to a cool park and read, to an aquarium (which sadly costs 13 euro but its ok) and then to the beach. Wish me luck on getting them to swim with me! I mean, how many times do you get the chance to swim in the Med Sea in Spain?
Amy
Oh, and ps. It was freaky! One of the guys in our dorm room (sharing Lauras bunk) is from Bellingham!!! And he goes to WWU. It was weird talking about bellingham things, like streets, and Mallards, and Padden with a perfect stranger, in Barcelona.
Oh, and pps. Its possible we may have someone to stay with in Seville, meaning we wont have to pay for hostel. Were not positive, but were hoping! (A friend of Rachels, not a stranger)
We like Barcelona, but sadly its very big. We walked across town yesterday, but pretty much you have to use the metro. There is a bus tour thing overground, technically lame, BUT, it acts as a bus, and a tour, and you can rest in the wind! So we would like to do that but it costs 20 euro, way more euro then were willing to pay. So instead, we walk. Yesterday we saw a melting church, not actually melting of course but its more fun to pretend that it is. There are a lot of shops, and Im trying oh so hard to get the last of my souvenir shopping done- that means you Lindsay! The beach is beautiful, as expected, and I'm trying oh so hard to convince Laura and Rachel that they want to swim with me, but neither of them want to. Because they're lame.
Today were going to go to a cool park and read, to an aquarium (which sadly costs 13 euro but its ok) and then to the beach. Wish me luck on getting them to swim with me! I mean, how many times do you get the chance to swim in the Med Sea in Spain?
Amy
Oh, and ps. It was freaky! One of the guys in our dorm room (sharing Lauras bunk) is from Bellingham!!! And he goes to WWU. It was weird talking about bellingham things, like streets, and Mallards, and Padden with a perfect stranger, in Barcelona.
Oh, and pps. Its possible we may have someone to stay with in Seville, meaning we wont have to pay for hostel. Were not positive, but were hoping! (A friend of Rachels, not a stranger)
Friday, August 22, 2008
Hey there, long time no talk
It has been a long time without internet, which is good and bad. Good for us and not being pulled into this infinite abyss, bad for you because you dont get to know what we are up to. But I have a little time now and thought I would let you know what is up in the lives of the three of us.
Paris
Paris was beautiful, like last time but now we got to explore more than just the tower. We met up with Rachel, as mentioned, late on the 13th. On the way to go find her at the metro station nearby, Amy and I ran across some amazing street performers who could do handstands and flips and hip hop like no one Ive seen. We did find her after a little bit of confusion... which is good because I wouldve hated to call her parents to tell them that we lost their daughter in Paris. The hotel we stayed at was ok... I probably wouldve had a better opinion of it if the lady who ran it werent such a b$%c& but I wont delve into that. For those of you who havent been there, Paris is pretty large and city like. Not overwhelmingly huge (at least the city center area isnt) and we did manage to walk across it in the pouring rain one night from the eiffel tower to our hotel. It was fun, but I wouldnt recommend it on a daily basis; plus, Im pretty sure my cold started the next day... just saying. Anyway, we didnt so much go into all of the sites we are supposed to go see. We tried, I promise, but I think the stars were aligning against us. The friday we were there was a bank holiday, which we didnt realize until we were wondering why a lot of shops were closed, and after searching quite a bit for the Catacombs (due to a faulty map we were directed to a prison, which is close but not quite the same thing) we found them to be closed for the holiday. The Louvre also closed early. So the next day we went back to try to see the catacombs before catching our train to Rennes. Not a good idea. The Saturday after a bank holiday. We waited in line for an hour and a half, just to have to give up once we were about 15 minutes away, because we had to go catch our train. Maybe we didnt go inside the big stuff, but we did see it from the outside and got to lay by the river eating ice cream, which to me is just as good if not better.
St Marcan, near Mt St Michel, Nearish to Rennes
Our trek to St Marcan was an interesting one to say the least. Long story short, we ended up in a town about a half hour away from the one our hotel/B&B was in with no way to get there (no trains, the buses had stopped, and no ferry). After walking around the town, and every hotel being full, we were literally talking to a car rental place to rent a car just to sleep in for the night. Luckily we got ahold of our B&B before we did that, and they told us to go to Dol (nearby) and they would pick us up. Oh holy day! The couple that run the B&B are a nice older english couple who decided to do this with their time after retiring and are super sweet, and the town that the B&B is in was barely a town, mostly surrounded by farms and fields. The buildings were quiant little stone buildings that looked like they literally came out of a movie.
Mt St Michel is a monestary on top of a random hill of metamorphic rock (i believe) surrounded by tide flats. The man who runs the place drove us out there (getting up to 90mph on small country roads... now we're talking!) and back. Lovely people! When we got to Mt St Michel we wandered around a bit, went into the monestary (where there was a service going on because it was Sunday) and decided to go to the Alligator Bay down the road (a sort of reptile zoo). You will have to ask Amy and Rachel more about that because I stayed outside when they went in... but I will tell you that there was LARGE tortoise humping going on. mmmhmm youre interested now, I know it.
Oh and one of my favorite parts- the B&B served breakfast all fancy like. In a dining room. With specific seats for each room. And juice and coffee and croissants and rolls brought out to you. Yeah. And it was the earliest we got up on the trip, other than for the 3am bus Amy and Rachael and I had to catch early on. And the 5am time we had to be off the train in Paris last time we were there. But other than those...
Blois, in the Chateaux district
France has a lot of castles. We saw a few of them. I like castles. Because Im running lower on time, I will start skimming a little more. Sorry. Anyway, we went to see the last residence of Leonardo Da Vinci, where he passed; got to see inside of his house, some of his inventions, the underground passageway that connected his place to the castle, his gardens, things like that. That man is genious, btw.
We also went to the largest castle in Europe, the grounds of which cover an area the size of Paris. The chateau is magnificent, with paintings and carvings everywhere. Lots of Kings and Queens were quite ugly. But regardless, we got to see the bedrooms of said kings and queens, as well as lots of other rooms. Chambord (the castle) has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms... as well as lots of fields and forest with wild animals. Now thats my kind of a house.
Ack i should go soon! We also saw a light show at the Blois castle. It was cool.
Carcassonne
And now we are to our last location in France. We are staying within the walled cite, which is very cool. Walking around, the streets are small and windy and have shops on all sides. We spent some time yesterday after sunset walking around the edge, overlooking the city, and today was spent mostly inside around. We are good at killing time.
We leave tomorrow for Barcelona.
I have to go, but hope fully will have more internet later
Laura
Paris
Paris was beautiful, like last time but now we got to explore more than just the tower. We met up with Rachel, as mentioned, late on the 13th. On the way to go find her at the metro station nearby, Amy and I ran across some amazing street performers who could do handstands and flips and hip hop like no one Ive seen. We did find her after a little bit of confusion... which is good because I wouldve hated to call her parents to tell them that we lost their daughter in Paris. The hotel we stayed at was ok... I probably wouldve had a better opinion of it if the lady who ran it werent such a b$%c& but I wont delve into that. For those of you who havent been there, Paris is pretty large and city like. Not overwhelmingly huge (at least the city center area isnt) and we did manage to walk across it in the pouring rain one night from the eiffel tower to our hotel. It was fun, but I wouldnt recommend it on a daily basis; plus, Im pretty sure my cold started the next day... just saying. Anyway, we didnt so much go into all of the sites we are supposed to go see. We tried, I promise, but I think the stars were aligning against us. The friday we were there was a bank holiday, which we didnt realize until we were wondering why a lot of shops were closed, and after searching quite a bit for the Catacombs (due to a faulty map we were directed to a prison, which is close but not quite the same thing) we found them to be closed for the holiday. The Louvre also closed early. So the next day we went back to try to see the catacombs before catching our train to Rennes. Not a good idea. The Saturday after a bank holiday. We waited in line for an hour and a half, just to have to give up once we were about 15 minutes away, because we had to go catch our train. Maybe we didnt go inside the big stuff, but we did see it from the outside and got to lay by the river eating ice cream, which to me is just as good if not better.
St Marcan, near Mt St Michel, Nearish to Rennes
Our trek to St Marcan was an interesting one to say the least. Long story short, we ended up in a town about a half hour away from the one our hotel/B&B was in with no way to get there (no trains, the buses had stopped, and no ferry). After walking around the town, and every hotel being full, we were literally talking to a car rental place to rent a car just to sleep in for the night. Luckily we got ahold of our B&B before we did that, and they told us to go to Dol (nearby) and they would pick us up. Oh holy day! The couple that run the B&B are a nice older english couple who decided to do this with their time after retiring and are super sweet, and the town that the B&B is in was barely a town, mostly surrounded by farms and fields. The buildings were quiant little stone buildings that looked like they literally came out of a movie.
Mt St Michel is a monestary on top of a random hill of metamorphic rock (i believe) surrounded by tide flats. The man who runs the place drove us out there (getting up to 90mph on small country roads... now we're talking!) and back. Lovely people! When we got to Mt St Michel we wandered around a bit, went into the monestary (where there was a service going on because it was Sunday) and decided to go to the Alligator Bay down the road (a sort of reptile zoo). You will have to ask Amy and Rachel more about that because I stayed outside when they went in... but I will tell you that there was LARGE tortoise humping going on. mmmhmm youre interested now, I know it.
Oh and one of my favorite parts- the B&B served breakfast all fancy like. In a dining room. With specific seats for each room. And juice and coffee and croissants and rolls brought out to you. Yeah. And it was the earliest we got up on the trip, other than for the 3am bus Amy and Rachael and I had to catch early on. And the 5am time we had to be off the train in Paris last time we were there. But other than those...
Blois, in the Chateaux district
France has a lot of castles. We saw a few of them. I like castles. Because Im running lower on time, I will start skimming a little more. Sorry. Anyway, we went to see the last residence of Leonardo Da Vinci, where he passed; got to see inside of his house, some of his inventions, the underground passageway that connected his place to the castle, his gardens, things like that. That man is genious, btw.
We also went to the largest castle in Europe, the grounds of which cover an area the size of Paris. The chateau is magnificent, with paintings and carvings everywhere. Lots of Kings and Queens were quite ugly. But regardless, we got to see the bedrooms of said kings and queens, as well as lots of other rooms. Chambord (the castle) has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms... as well as lots of fields and forest with wild animals. Now thats my kind of a house.
Ack i should go soon! We also saw a light show at the Blois castle. It was cool.
Carcassonne
And now we are to our last location in France. We are staying within the walled cite, which is very cool. Walking around, the streets are small and windy and have shops on all sides. We spent some time yesterday after sunset walking around the edge, overlooking the city, and today was spent mostly inside around. We are good at killing time.
We leave tomorrow for Barcelona.
I have to go, but hope fully will have more internet later
Laura
Friday, August 15, 2008
Paris, take two
We have made it to Paris, without complication, and met up with Rachel. Lots of walking around. I dont feel like writing a long post, but I thought some of you would like to know that we are alive and well. Perhaps we will write more later, but we leave Paris tomorrow and I dont know if we will have cheap internet at our next place.
L, A + R
L, A + R
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Because we can...
Well update you, AGAIN!
Laura and I are packing up and were gonna start our adventure at 1020, with a series of trains that will get us to Paris by 6. If all goes as planned, that is, there a couple sketchy close trains, and weve bought a ticket for the last, so hopefully we dont miss it!
Have we mentioned just how amazing having the eurail is? It has paid off ten fold. We plan on calculating savings when we get home, but we can tell that having to pay 5 euro once and awhile for a reservation is much better than the 140, 70, 105, etc. euro train tickets that we would have had to pay. Theyre each like that, meaning that yes, definitely this has paid off!
Well I should get ready, cause we cant miss our first train cause we only have a 10 minute layover! (As I put it, I use "When will we land?", and "How long is our layover?" oops!)
If I remember right, France is the messed up country, keyboard wise. Will we right another coded message, or will we take the effort to right it out, as readible! Youll have to wait and see!!
Laura and I are packing up and were gonna start our adventure at 1020, with a series of trains that will get us to Paris by 6. If all goes as planned, that is, there a couple sketchy close trains, and weve bought a ticket for the last, so hopefully we dont miss it!
Have we mentioned just how amazing having the eurail is? It has paid off ten fold. We plan on calculating savings when we get home, but we can tell that having to pay 5 euro once and awhile for a reservation is much better than the 140, 70, 105, etc. euro train tickets that we would have had to pay. Theyre each like that, meaning that yes, definitely this has paid off!
Well I should get ready, cause we cant miss our first train cause we only have a 10 minute layover! (As I put it, I use "When will we land?", and "How long is our layover?" oops!)
If I remember right, France is the messed up country, keyboard wise. Will we right another coded message, or will we take the effort to right it out, as readible! Youll have to wait and see!!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
And JSUK...
I figure we can do a "live" update as well, seeing as were signed in and all...
Right now it is wet outside, which is sad. We plan on walking around some more and reading and writing and drawing, all the usual, once the sun comes out. Until then, were doing laundry, using the internet (what a surprise) and me, Amy, is TRYING to convince her evil big sister that she does, in fact want to play cards, board games (theres a lot of new interesting foreign ones here) or playstation 2 (its set up for free and a few of them look REALLY fun). Even though its amazing to be out in nature in the Swiss Alps, it is also nice to relax in our hostel, which has amazing views, like what summer should be!
Guess what! We went swimming in Cinque Terre on the last night of our stay, and we left our clothes out overnight. To no ones surprise, they werent quite dry yet the next morning and we had little choice but to put them in a bag and carry them to our next destination. Seeing as were doing laundry, we had to open said bag. UCK UCK UCK. They stunk soooooo bad. We stuck them in the washer, along with other clothes. And now Im pretty gosh darn sure that EVERYTHING in the load smells, half of our clothes. Darn. I blame the washer though...Ive never had something come out of the washer so NOT clean. Yea, well thats a unfortunate side note. Well keep you updated as this story develops.
Well now Im going to grab Lauras arm and drag her to play games with me because there is a man standing really close looking like he wants to use the computer, yes, laura there is another computer but he doesnt look like he knows.
No Laura, you will not go use the other computer, you will play games with me!
Ok, last note, I have a new favorite smiley face, but sadly its only really easy to use here.
รถ
Ok, well thats our update. Tootles.
Right now it is wet outside, which is sad. We plan on walking around some more and reading and writing and drawing, all the usual, once the sun comes out. Until then, were doing laundry, using the internet (what a surprise) and me, Amy, is TRYING to convince her evil big sister that she does, in fact want to play cards, board games (theres a lot of new interesting foreign ones here) or playstation 2 (its set up for free and a few of them look REALLY fun). Even though its amazing to be out in nature in the Swiss Alps, it is also nice to relax in our hostel, which has amazing views, like what summer should be!
Guess what! We went swimming in Cinque Terre on the last night of our stay, and we left our clothes out overnight. To no ones surprise, they werent quite dry yet the next morning and we had little choice but to put them in a bag and carry them to our next destination. Seeing as were doing laundry, we had to open said bag. UCK UCK UCK. They stunk soooooo bad. We stuck them in the washer, along with other clothes. And now Im pretty gosh darn sure that EVERYTHING in the load smells, half of our clothes. Darn. I blame the washer though...Ive never had something come out of the washer so NOT clean. Yea, well thats a unfortunate side note. Well keep you updated as this story develops.
Well now Im going to grab Lauras arm and drag her to play games with me because there is a man standing really close looking like he wants to use the computer, yes, laura there is another computer but he doesnt look like he knows.
No Laura, you will not go use the other computer, you will play games with me!
Ok, last note, I have a new favorite smiley face, but sadly its only really easy to use here.
รถ
Ok, well thats our update. Tootles.
Just for you, Dad! (p.1)
By popular demand (ie our father) we are now releasing previously unpublished journal entries about the trip. This is a once in a life time event (or maybe twice or three times), people, so hold on to your horses, tighten your tie, and sit back! This is going to be amazing. No Joke.
So I thought that it might be a good idea to just go through and remember things that happened in various cities, what the people were like, how cool it was, or things like that. Im not sure how this will turn out, because like you, I have not yet seen what comes to follow. If it is boring and terrible, I apologize ahead of time. It sucks for you, but at least I didnt have to read it myself. And we can all take solace in knowing that fact. So lets begin maybe?
Dublin...
"We just got back from a walking tour of the city with Paul, one of our dormmates. It took us about 9 hours or so, but was quite nice and worth it. We found a park and as we were wandering through it heard snippets of music playing. So we wandered over to find out what it was and found a small orchestra getting ready to play- it was sunny out, so we stayed on the lawn and listend to 5 or 6 songs, until the sun got covered and we decided to wander off. We wandered through all of the tour that would have taken us through the various sections of the city- such as the Cathedral area, the medeival, etc. And instead of paying to see it, we just walked it ourselves. Dublin has some good character to it, but Ill admit it, Im tired"
Dublin was a nice city, but theres not much to pull me back to it. The people are quite friendly and multiple occasions strangers stopped to help us with directions, not because we asked for them but just because we had a puzzled look on our faces. Plus, who doesnt like an irish accent? It has a nice mix of city and park, of new and old, but really there are other cities that, in my opinion, do it better.
Edinburgh...
Because there I dont have anything really coherent in my journal, Ill just plain out tell you that this may have been my favorite city so far. The city itself is beautiful, filled with old buildings and history. We had another adventerous entrance into the city, which is both fun and scary, knowing that our opinion of the city was dependent on how smoothly we could find our hostel. We arrived by plane, with no idea how to get into town, and once there, where our hostel was. Luckily for Edinburghs sake, we were able to find a bus to town, and it only took asking 2-3 Scottish men where to find our hostel. This was good for us thus far. We were mesmerized by the town we were in, not expecting our hostel to be right on the Royal Mile, like a castle itself. I defintely suggest doing the free walking tour... it gives a good sense of the history of the area, plus you only have to pay as much as you want (good for us, bad for our tour guide- ok, not really, we liked our tour guide and gave her the most we have given any of them). I honestly wish we had spent another day there, 1 and a half probably wasnt enough. Lauras rating: 2.5 thumbs up! If anyone choses to go to Scotland and see Edinburgh (which we recommend), we also recommend the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Sky, two places we have not been, but most people we came across in Edinburgh had, and they recommend it to us. We plan to go and see those in the future ourselves. (Also, this is for another post because we DID go there, but the Lakes District is just a short distance away, and therefore is easily easily easily included in the same trip- but well tell you more about that later).
Rostock
Im going to describe the town as if you havent read our previous post on Rostock, seeing as I havent read it since I wrote it! The town of Rostock is on the northern coast of Germany. From the center of town, it is a short train ride to the actual coast (a town called Warnemunde), with sand and water and everything. In the center of town, there are docks and a boardwalk. As we heard later in Berlin, "Rostock is where the Germans go for vacation, not foreigners". We definitely noticed this as true, seeing as there were very few non-Germans. The town itself doesnt have that much to offer, and we would not recommend a stay here. A day trip to the beach in the north of Germany definitely sounds like a good idea, and therefore Rostock could be a good destination for a day trip. Maybe, maybe you should look up stuff on the internet instead of just relying on us.
It was rainy and overcast during most of our stay, and began to rain while we were on the beach. We personally did not mind, in fact we thought it nicely reminded us of home. To get a feel for the area: "We took the train to Warnemunde to go to the beach. The town, about 15 minutes north of Rostock, is cute. It has shops along the wide sidewalks with clothes, smoking fish, crepes, and more. We bought raspberries for €2 and made our way to the beach. It was an actual beach! Dunes and kms of sand!"
A quick unrelated excerpt from Lauras journal:
"Tonight Amy and I got to freaking ourselves out by thinking of people hiding in the bathroom, or movement out the window or in the hall. We shouldntve gotten ourselves on that, but its hard to stop once you start. Like Pringles. Which are delicious"
Amys explanation...As you may remember we arrived into town around 9 or so pm, this is late for check in to a lot of hostels and we were worried that it may be closed. What worried us even more is that we had no idea how to find our hostel. We asked a woman at information, a couple with a young son, and eventually and old man who spoke a few words of English who walked us to the door. By the time we had arrived it was dark, and check in had already closed. Luckily the man still checked us in, and showed us to an empty room. We had been alert while walking outside, because it was dark and we were lost...reasonable. Therefore when we got to the room, we joked about people in the windows, strangers, noises, etc. Then we walked through the empty, large hostel to the bathroom. Luckily we have yet to watch that backpackers hostel horror movie, imagine the nightmares wed have then!
And on the pringles- were addicted. Theyre expensive here, but they are oh. oh. oh so delicious. This needs no further explanation.
Ok, so here is our first attempt to give a further in depth feel into the places weve been, as requested. Tell us what you think and if this isnt what you had in mind, tell us and well write something new!
So I thought that it might be a good idea to just go through and remember things that happened in various cities, what the people were like, how cool it was, or things like that. Im not sure how this will turn out, because like you, I have not yet seen what comes to follow. If it is boring and terrible, I apologize ahead of time. It sucks for you, but at least I didnt have to read it myself. And we can all take solace in knowing that fact. So lets begin maybe?
Dublin...
"We just got back from a walking tour of the city with Paul, one of our dormmates. It took us about 9 hours or so, but was quite nice and worth it. We found a park and as we were wandering through it heard snippets of music playing. So we wandered over to find out what it was and found a small orchestra getting ready to play- it was sunny out, so we stayed on the lawn and listend to 5 or 6 songs, until the sun got covered and we decided to wander off. We wandered through all of the tour that would have taken us through the various sections of the city- such as the Cathedral area, the medeival, etc. And instead of paying to see it, we just walked it ourselves. Dublin has some good character to it, but Ill admit it, Im tired"
Dublin was a nice city, but theres not much to pull me back to it. The people are quite friendly and multiple occasions strangers stopped to help us with directions, not because we asked for them but just because we had a puzzled look on our faces. Plus, who doesnt like an irish accent? It has a nice mix of city and park, of new and old, but really there are other cities that, in my opinion, do it better.
Edinburgh...
Because there I dont have anything really coherent in my journal, Ill just plain out tell you that this may have been my favorite city so far. The city itself is beautiful, filled with old buildings and history. We had another adventerous entrance into the city, which is both fun and scary, knowing that our opinion of the city was dependent on how smoothly we could find our hostel. We arrived by plane, with no idea how to get into town, and once there, where our hostel was. Luckily for Edinburghs sake, we were able to find a bus to town, and it only took asking 2-3 Scottish men where to find our hostel. This was good for us thus far. We were mesmerized by the town we were in, not expecting our hostel to be right on the Royal Mile, like a castle itself. I defintely suggest doing the free walking tour... it gives a good sense of the history of the area, plus you only have to pay as much as you want (good for us, bad for our tour guide- ok, not really, we liked our tour guide and gave her the most we have given any of them). I honestly wish we had spent another day there, 1 and a half probably wasnt enough. Lauras rating: 2.5 thumbs up! If anyone choses to go to Scotland and see Edinburgh (which we recommend), we also recommend the Scottish Highlands and the Isle of Sky, two places we have not been, but most people we came across in Edinburgh had, and they recommend it to us. We plan to go and see those in the future ourselves. (Also, this is for another post because we DID go there, but the Lakes District is just a short distance away, and therefore is easily easily easily included in the same trip- but well tell you more about that later).
Rostock
Im going to describe the town as if you havent read our previous post on Rostock, seeing as I havent read it since I wrote it! The town of Rostock is on the northern coast of Germany. From the center of town, it is a short train ride to the actual coast (a town called Warnemunde), with sand and water and everything. In the center of town, there are docks and a boardwalk. As we heard later in Berlin, "Rostock is where the Germans go for vacation, not foreigners". We definitely noticed this as true, seeing as there were very few non-Germans. The town itself doesnt have that much to offer, and we would not recommend a stay here. A day trip to the beach in the north of Germany definitely sounds like a good idea, and therefore Rostock could be a good destination for a day trip. Maybe, maybe you should look up stuff on the internet instead of just relying on us.
It was rainy and overcast during most of our stay, and began to rain while we were on the beach. We personally did not mind, in fact we thought it nicely reminded us of home. To get a feel for the area: "We took the train to Warnemunde to go to the beach. The town, about 15 minutes north of Rostock, is cute. It has shops along the wide sidewalks with clothes, smoking fish, crepes, and more. We bought raspberries for €2 and made our way to the beach. It was an actual beach! Dunes and kms of sand!"
A quick unrelated excerpt from Lauras journal:
"Tonight Amy and I got to freaking ourselves out by thinking of people hiding in the bathroom, or movement out the window or in the hall. We shouldntve gotten ourselves on that, but its hard to stop once you start. Like Pringles. Which are delicious"
Amys explanation...As you may remember we arrived into town around 9 or so pm, this is late for check in to a lot of hostels and we were worried that it may be closed. What worried us even more is that we had no idea how to find our hostel. We asked a woman at information, a couple with a young son, and eventually and old man who spoke a few words of English who walked us to the door. By the time we had arrived it was dark, and check in had already closed. Luckily the man still checked us in, and showed us to an empty room. We had been alert while walking outside, because it was dark and we were lost...reasonable. Therefore when we got to the room, we joked about people in the windows, strangers, noises, etc. Then we walked through the empty, large hostel to the bathroom. Luckily we have yet to watch that backpackers hostel horror movie, imagine the nightmares wed have then!
And on the pringles- were addicted. Theyre expensive here, but they are oh. oh. oh so delicious. This needs no further explanation.
Ok, so here is our first attempt to give a further in depth feel into the places weve been, as requested. Tell us what you think and if this isnt what you had in mind, tell us and well write something new!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
In the Swiss Alps...
Were not quite sure where we left off exactly, and its a little too difficult to go back and see, so were going to assume it was Florence, and if not...well then, we embarrassed ourselves!
Ok so after Florence we went to the Cinque Terre region, which is gorgeous. Like, actually yes everyone who says it is is telling the truth, it is gorgeous. We did relatively little here, we camped in a town called Deiva Marina. We relaxed on our beach, swam a lot, and we relaxed on some other beaches...swam some more. We walked along the coast for awhile too. We never quite made it into the forest, because on the day we planned to do that, we went to Genova first to get a ticket. This was supposed to be an easy task, but train wise and connections and all that good stuff meant that we didnt get back home until dinner. No problem, what did we do? We ate dinner then went to the beach and swam a little. Overall, this was a very good place to stay! We recommend it.
A funny coincidence though- I dont know if weve mentioned it before, but we sat next to a mother daugther duo on the train from Venice to Sorrento (they got of in Rome), it was funny but nothing special. Well surprisingly, we ran into them again on the train from Sorrento to Florence! We didnt ask why they were on that train, however we did make note of the coincidence and talk a little. They mentioned seeing us in line to buy our tickets and at McDs as well. Well, the final straw happened in Deiva Marina. We heard these two British women walking by (did I mention they were British?), when we looked up out of our tent we saw that it was the SAME mother daughter duo. I instantly yelled out to them and they came by for a visit, and we ended up hanging out with the daughter for an hour or so. We compared trips and realized that they also happened to stay in the same place as us in Venice (which is where our train departed from the first time we ran into each other), that they had gone to Sorrento after a night in Rome- why they were on the same train, but that they were ending their trip so no more coincidences! Speaking of running into people, this isnt the first time. We met a man in Edinburgh on a walking tour (Rachael, you remember the Pennyslvanian, right?), well we ran into him AGAIN in Berlin, on another walking tour. It was quite freaky! Talking about FREAKY, lookalikes. We may have mentioned Jeffreys (our brother) lookalike- met him in Florence, acted, looked (profile), talked, etc like Jeff. It was as if we were talking to Jeff! Similarly freaky, we saw someone who looked exactly like our cousin David in Sorrento. He didnt speak English, otherwise we would of sworn it was him. We were sitting playing cards, and he hung out nearby for a half hour or so and biked by a few times- enough to be sure that IT IS HIS TWIN.
Well I guess I should move on...
Switzerland! We went to Interlaken for 3 nights, and met a slew of very nice asians- very popular asian tourist destination. Its gorgeous, we went on free boat tours, walked around and read and ate near the shore. Laura is LOVING the mountains! Which works very well for here, Grindelwald, where we will be staying for the next three nights. Up in the mountains. We plan on "hiking", it will be hiking, but with a lot of stops to sit and take in the beauty, read, relax, eat, etc. A whole day adventure. Right now were cooking some food, and it may be ready, and seeing as Im starving Im gonna go!
We have free internet here so take advantage of it! Message or email us, and hopefully well update more regularly here.
Oh, and BTW, this is the last city before Rachel joins us in Paris. Were very excited!
Ok so after Florence we went to the Cinque Terre region, which is gorgeous. Like, actually yes everyone who says it is is telling the truth, it is gorgeous. We did relatively little here, we camped in a town called Deiva Marina. We relaxed on our beach, swam a lot, and we relaxed on some other beaches...swam some more. We walked along the coast for awhile too. We never quite made it into the forest, because on the day we planned to do that, we went to Genova first to get a ticket. This was supposed to be an easy task, but train wise and connections and all that good stuff meant that we didnt get back home until dinner. No problem, what did we do? We ate dinner then went to the beach and swam a little. Overall, this was a very good place to stay! We recommend it.
A funny coincidence though- I dont know if weve mentioned it before, but we sat next to a mother daugther duo on the train from Venice to Sorrento (they got of in Rome), it was funny but nothing special. Well surprisingly, we ran into them again on the train from Sorrento to Florence! We didnt ask why they were on that train, however we did make note of the coincidence and talk a little. They mentioned seeing us in line to buy our tickets and at McDs as well. Well, the final straw happened in Deiva Marina. We heard these two British women walking by (did I mention they were British?), when we looked up out of our tent we saw that it was the SAME mother daughter duo. I instantly yelled out to them and they came by for a visit, and we ended up hanging out with the daughter for an hour or so. We compared trips and realized that they also happened to stay in the same place as us in Venice (which is where our train departed from the first time we ran into each other), that they had gone to Sorrento after a night in Rome- why they were on the same train, but that they were ending their trip so no more coincidences! Speaking of running into people, this isnt the first time. We met a man in Edinburgh on a walking tour (Rachael, you remember the Pennyslvanian, right?), well we ran into him AGAIN in Berlin, on another walking tour. It was quite freaky! Talking about FREAKY, lookalikes. We may have mentioned Jeffreys (our brother) lookalike- met him in Florence, acted, looked (profile), talked, etc like Jeff. It was as if we were talking to Jeff! Similarly freaky, we saw someone who looked exactly like our cousin David in Sorrento. He didnt speak English, otherwise we would of sworn it was him. We were sitting playing cards, and he hung out nearby for a half hour or so and biked by a few times- enough to be sure that IT IS HIS TWIN.
Well I guess I should move on...
Switzerland! We went to Interlaken for 3 nights, and met a slew of very nice asians- very popular asian tourist destination. Its gorgeous, we went on free boat tours, walked around and read and ate near the shore. Laura is LOVING the mountains! Which works very well for here, Grindelwald, where we will be staying for the next three nights. Up in the mountains. We plan on "hiking", it will be hiking, but with a lot of stops to sit and take in the beauty, read, relax, eat, etc. A whole day adventure. Right now were cooking some food, and it may be ready, and seeing as Im starving Im gonna go!
We have free internet here so take advantage of it! Message or email us, and hopefully well update more regularly here.
Oh, and BTW, this is the last city before Rachel joins us in Paris. Were very excited!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
A brief history
Caio! So Im aware that it has been quite some time since you have heard any details from us, other than the fact that we are alive and dont have time to actually write a post. Arent you excited that you get some more information?! You should be!
Last you heard about was Amsterdam, I believe, so I will start after that. We made our way to Rostock, Germany, where only germans go (or so we were told). We had some fun (ie difficulties) finding our hostel, but after the help of a lovely family who spoke minimal english, and an elderly man who spoke the whole of 5 words in english, but told us to follow him and took us directly to the front door of our hostel, we made it... about a half hour after check out had actually closed. Luckily the guy still let us check in! In Rostock we spent a day wandering the city, walking along a boardwalk by a river, and a day out on the beach by the sea. Rostock has very similar weather to Edmonds... so ... it was cool and windy, but still beautiful. On a side note, we also bought some raspberries there that were De-licious! One of the nights we heard some music coming from nearby and wandered to it. There was a festival going on with live music, people, festivities, you know. It was an unexpected good time. At one point it started raining, i mean downpouring and everyone ran under cover except amy and I... needless to say we got sopping wet and very happy.
Ok, after that we went to Berlin. I LOVE berlin. It a great city, and we stayed in a cozy guesthouse with about 7 or 8 fun people, and Anderson who ran the place. We played cards and went to see Hancock while there with another set of sisters that we met on the first night; on the second day we went to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp just outside the city- which was eerie and sobering. You should go to a concentration camp if you ever have the chance. The next day we did another free walking tour of the city and saw the sights. I give Berlin a thumbs up.
Next city! Salzburg was cute and touristy. Looking back on it now, I appreciate the cooler weather, but at the time it wasnt that great. Not bad, dont get me wrong, just not great. The hills are gorgeous. We spent one day in Salzburg, wandering around, doing some much needed errands; they have a small natural history museum that we went into as well. The next day was much cooler- we went out to the largest ice caves in the world! It required a train ride, a shuttle, walking 20 minutes uphill, a cable car, and 20 more minutes uphill, but it was well worth it. They dont have lighting in the cave so it was lit by candles that people carried around. My favorite part may have been all of the people with large jackets on while all i had was a thin long-sleeve shirt, rolled up, and I was fine. From the top there were gorgeous views of a town below, a castle, the fields, and mountains. GORGEOUS.
Moving on for the sake of time and money: we finally moved to the heat! We were in Venice for a couple days, camping. We walked around the city- which is cute and quaint and lovely- for one day, and spent a lot of time by the pool on the other day. It was heavenly. And hot.
As was Sorrento, near Napoli. Again we lounged around by the beach, got badly burned (but its ok), and played cards in the shade of a patio with a light breeze going by. We didnt go into Naples other than to get some train tickets (while in line we played a game of blocking this guy who was trying to sneak up the line... it was very satisfying when he never made it past us! muahaha!). We had quite the time trying to leave Sorrento... first we missed our stop on the bus because it didnt take the exact same route as the last time we were on it, then we were in the middle of practically no where (at least it was as good as so to us) and had to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Oh let me tell you that to get to naples to get on our train we had to take a bus, then an hour and a half commuter train, and at this point it was about and hour and a half from the time our train left. So we were a little worried. Finally we got to the commuter train... which was late and had exceptionally long (10 minute) pauses at a couple stops. Needless to say, we missed our train to Florence and had to get back in line, and buy new reservations (because italy requires reservations for a lot of their trains). This time we had to pay 20 euro each (as opposed to 5 for the last reservations) because it was a faster train. Haha. Our train to florence left on time, but somehow got about 2 hours delayed by the time we were in rome... luckily it caught up a little and was only an hour late to Florence.
Here in Florence we have thus far wandered around the city a little, as well as made our way outside of the hussle along some very cute country roads. I like it. Today I think we are going to try to make it out to the north and hopefully find a place to sit and read or draw for a while. And tomorrow we head to Chinque Terre!
Ok we should probably head out soon! Talk to you all later!
Laura and Amy
Last you heard about was Amsterdam, I believe, so I will start after that. We made our way to Rostock, Germany, where only germans go (or so we were told). We had some fun (ie difficulties) finding our hostel, but after the help of a lovely family who spoke minimal english, and an elderly man who spoke the whole of 5 words in english, but told us to follow him and took us directly to the front door of our hostel, we made it... about a half hour after check out had actually closed. Luckily the guy still let us check in! In Rostock we spent a day wandering the city, walking along a boardwalk by a river, and a day out on the beach by the sea. Rostock has very similar weather to Edmonds... so ... it was cool and windy, but still beautiful. On a side note, we also bought some raspberries there that were De-licious! One of the nights we heard some music coming from nearby and wandered to it. There was a festival going on with live music, people, festivities, you know. It was an unexpected good time. At one point it started raining, i mean downpouring and everyone ran under cover except amy and I... needless to say we got sopping wet and very happy.
Ok, after that we went to Berlin. I LOVE berlin. It a great city, and we stayed in a cozy guesthouse with about 7 or 8 fun people, and Anderson who ran the place. We played cards and went to see Hancock while there with another set of sisters that we met on the first night; on the second day we went to Sachsenhausen, a concentration camp just outside the city- which was eerie and sobering. You should go to a concentration camp if you ever have the chance. The next day we did another free walking tour of the city and saw the sights. I give Berlin a thumbs up.
Next city! Salzburg was cute and touristy. Looking back on it now, I appreciate the cooler weather, but at the time it wasnt that great. Not bad, dont get me wrong, just not great. The hills are gorgeous. We spent one day in Salzburg, wandering around, doing some much needed errands; they have a small natural history museum that we went into as well. The next day was much cooler- we went out to the largest ice caves in the world! It required a train ride, a shuttle, walking 20 minutes uphill, a cable car, and 20 more minutes uphill, but it was well worth it. They dont have lighting in the cave so it was lit by candles that people carried around. My favorite part may have been all of the people with large jackets on while all i had was a thin long-sleeve shirt, rolled up, and I was fine. From the top there were gorgeous views of a town below, a castle, the fields, and mountains. GORGEOUS.
Moving on for the sake of time and money: we finally moved to the heat! We were in Venice for a couple days, camping. We walked around the city- which is cute and quaint and lovely- for one day, and spent a lot of time by the pool on the other day. It was heavenly. And hot.
As was Sorrento, near Napoli. Again we lounged around by the beach, got badly burned (but its ok), and played cards in the shade of a patio with a light breeze going by. We didnt go into Naples other than to get some train tickets (while in line we played a game of blocking this guy who was trying to sneak up the line... it was very satisfying when he never made it past us! muahaha!). We had quite the time trying to leave Sorrento... first we missed our stop on the bus because it didnt take the exact same route as the last time we were on it, then we were in the middle of practically no where (at least it was as good as so to us) and had to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Oh let me tell you that to get to naples to get on our train we had to take a bus, then an hour and a half commuter train, and at this point it was about and hour and a half from the time our train left. So we were a little worried. Finally we got to the commuter train... which was late and had exceptionally long (10 minute) pauses at a couple stops. Needless to say, we missed our train to Florence and had to get back in line, and buy new reservations (because italy requires reservations for a lot of their trains). This time we had to pay 20 euro each (as opposed to 5 for the last reservations) because it was a faster train. Haha. Our train to florence left on time, but somehow got about 2 hours delayed by the time we were in rome... luckily it caught up a little and was only an hour late to Florence.
Here in Florence we have thus far wandered around the city a little, as well as made our way outside of the hussle along some very cute country roads. I like it. Today I think we are going to try to make it out to the north and hopefully find a place to sit and read or draw for a while. And tomorrow we head to Chinque Terre!
Ok we should probably head out soon! Talk to you all later!
Laura and Amy
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
