Most of our time in Belgium seemed to be spent in the bar. Belgium has so many differents beers that are way better than what you would find in Canada. Most of the bars there carried over 200 types of beer. Delirium had over 2000, unfortunately we didn't get around to trying them all. We did however get to try Westvleteren 12, which has been rated the #1 beer in the world. It has and extremely high alcohol percentage, but all I could taste was deliciousness, thats right deliciousness. Its really hard to judge what the best beer I've ever had was, especially when I tried so many in Belgium. I think it might be my favourite, but my judgement might have been swayed by its reputation.
It was quite a trek to get to the Abby which is supposed to be the only place that Westvleteren sold. We had to take a bus to get there, a bus which we had to call in advance or else it would not come. The time for our bus departure was 11:37am, and the earliest train arrival was 11:20am, in theory it should have been easy to catch the bus. Unfortunately our train was about 11 minutes late, leaving us about 6 mins to run all the way to the bus stop, I would say it was easily over a kilometer. So we had to sprint the entire way or else we would have missed our chance to taste the best beer in the world!! We just made it, I also made the mistake of eating something just before our train arrived. It was a bad idea, I did manage to keep it down which help with really enjoying the beer. We each had 3 of the beers, although it didnt taste like it was 12%, it was, and it made for a nice nap on the train ride back.
Another great thing about Belgium is the chocolate, I didnt have as much as I should have. Every bite was the best bite of chocolate I've ever had. Maybe a bit of an exageration but it was good. Too bad it was so expensive. I had to try really hard to pace myself while eating them.
Something I found interesting in Belgium was that they had 3 official languages. It was very hard to tell which one was spoken where. French was one of them, so I in general stuck to that. They also spoke German and Flemish. I could not tell the difference between the two. It seemed like in the same regions all 3 of the languages were spoken though, not like in Canada where (most of the time) French is in Quebec and English everywhere else.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Parlez-Vous Anglais?
Like in Spain where I seemed learn more about Americans than the Spanish, in France I learned more about Canadians than the French. We went to Vimy Ridge and to Juno Beach, both of which have much Canadian history. Unfortunately at Juno we didn't get to take a tour, by the time we arrived there we had missed the last one. We did however get to go around the museum and learn lots about Canadians and there imput in World War II. After going through the museum I was even more proud to be Canadian than I already was. Vimy Ridge gave me a Similar feeling except this time it was about WWI. We were able to get a Tour at Vimy, which was guided by Canadians. Our particular tour guide even knew some people we knew from Milton. Small world. It was great because the tour was free and they were very informative, they seemed to go out of there way to teach us whatever we wanted to know. At first it was hard to understand why Vimy ridge was such a strategic position, while walking up the hill it seemed to barely have an incline. Once we got to the top we realised that it wasn't actually such a strong position for the Germans to have, just very weak for them not to have. The memorial was huge and impressive, with names of 11285 people who were never found and therefor have no grave. I was really glad we went there, we learned and got to pay respects so close to Rememberance Day.
As for the rest our our France time, we did hit the usual suspects; Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. We didn't get to go to D'Orsay though, I would have liked to see a little more art. We had our French experiences as well, eating lots of crepes, which were enjoyable and addicting, and we went to a Cafe and watched the outside world continue about its business. I got to use my french a little bit, but usually they would speak english back to me, it was a little disapointing, I wanted to practice a bit.
We went to Versailles aswell, and checked out the Palace after waiting hours in the line. Atleast we got some reading done. Kings and Queens have espensive taste, if you can imagine. It was a huge waste though, spending for the sake of spending. Pretty much everything was gold, and if not then it was a priceles peice of art. I'm not sure but I dont think the Kings bed was kingsize I think I enjoyed the massive garden in the 'backyard' the most. The day wasnt great for pictures but it was still pretty impressive. It was funny, we seemed to be eating McDonalds all the time in France, we didnt have a choice unless we wanted to spend more than our budget allowed. It was not a healthy couple of days.
As for the rest our our France time, we did hit the usual suspects; Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. We didn't get to go to D'Orsay though, I would have liked to see a little more art. We had our French experiences as well, eating lots of crepes, which were enjoyable and addicting, and we went to a Cafe and watched the outside world continue about its business. I got to use my french a little bit, but usually they would speak english back to me, it was a little disapointing, I wanted to practice a bit.
We went to Versailles aswell, and checked out the Palace after waiting hours in the line. Atleast we got some reading done. Kings and Queens have espensive taste, if you can imagine. It was a huge waste though, spending for the sake of spending. Pretty much everything was gold, and if not then it was a priceles peice of art. I'm not sure but I dont think the Kings bed was kingsize I think I enjoyed the massive garden in the 'backyard' the most. The day wasnt great for pictures but it was still pretty impressive. It was funny, we seemed to be eating McDonalds all the time in France, we didnt have a choice unless we wanted to spend more than our budget allowed. It was not a healthy couple of days.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
The Siesta and Fiesta City
There was not a whole lot to do in Barcelona, we spent a fair amount of time sleeping and going out. Since we are quite a bit ahead of our schedule, an extra day was added to Barcelona, if only to get a little much needed sleep. We did some walking around, like usual, around town and at one point to a hillside for a nice view. A view we never did find after about 2 hours of uphill walking, it was a disapointing walk back. We went to the Las Tremblas strip, which was interesting if anything. At night you could probably get any drug you wanted without any trouble, people were offering it all over the place, even Charlie, we didnt know what it was so we assumed it was crack. During the day there were these crazy street acts, that were so much acts as people dressing up rediculously and expecting money. There were some magicians and weird songs going on. Even two random dudes crowing at the top of their lungs... what? ya, I don't understand either. We almost gave them money just for how rediculous it was, almost.
The hostel Barcelona in was another small one, which meant easy friends. I think in Spain we learned more about American culture than Spanish. Two of our new friends had many stories to tell about guns in the U.S. The town that they live in has 4 gun stores for every liquor store and they aren't short on liquor stores. They were pretty shocked that me (and all the other canadians in the hostel) wouldn't even know to start looking for a handgun. I bet they wished they had had their guns when ones wallet was stolen, then a camera by the same guy later and finally getting dooped into buying a 200 euro bag of rocks(which was switched with the bag with a computer and cell phone in it). I even met a dude from Ottawa, who at somepoint, I plan to meet with after his return.
I think the part I liked the best about Spain was their siestas, from about 4-6 things shut down and everyone would have a nap. That nap made for late nights, people dont start getting ready to go to bar until atleast 11pm, and get home at 5am. I think thats why we slept in a lot.
Its has been cool meeting people everywhere, but cooler when we run into people from previous cities. We ran into these three sisters on our pubcrawl that we met in Florence a while back. That was nice because we had some instant friends there.
Thats about it for Spain, next I am off to test out my french!!
The hostel Barcelona in was another small one, which meant easy friends. I think in Spain we learned more about American culture than Spanish. Two of our new friends had many stories to tell about guns in the U.S. The town that they live in has 4 gun stores for every liquor store and they aren't short on liquor stores. They were pretty shocked that me (and all the other canadians in the hostel) wouldn't even know to start looking for a handgun. I bet they wished they had had their guns when ones wallet was stolen, then a camera by the same guy later and finally getting dooped into buying a 200 euro bag of rocks(which was switched with the bag with a computer and cell phone in it). I even met a dude from Ottawa, who at somepoint, I plan to meet with after his return.
I think the part I liked the best about Spain was their siestas, from about 4-6 things shut down and everyone would have a nap. That nap made for late nights, people dont start getting ready to go to bar until atleast 11pm, and get home at 5am. I think thats why we slept in a lot.
Its has been cool meeting people everywhere, but cooler when we run into people from previous cities. We ran into these three sisters on our pubcrawl that we met in Florence a while back. That was nice because we had some instant friends there.
Thats about it for Spain, next I am off to test out my french!!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Avoid Clichés Like the Plague
From Rome we went back to Florence, because of what I mentioned earlier, we didn't get to see the David, or any other museum. I shouldn't complain about luck, we have been lucky, but the on day we came back was the day the museums went on strike! ARRGH, I was pretty mad to say the least, Jack almost bought me a gelato to make me feel better. We went up the Duomo anyways to get a nice view, which was the most stairs we've climbed to date, 463, and it was tight! By the time we got back down to the ground the strike for the museum with the statue of David was over. We got in and it was quite worth the trip back, it was huge and difficult to describe. It was easy to see why its so famous though, it makes every sculpture I've ever seen look worse. I snuck a picture in, no flash, no harm done ;). Unfortunately afterwards the other museum never reopened, so that was it for Florence.
We took the second night train of the trip that night, and some Australians that we met scared us by telling a story about their friends who were gassed in the night and had everything stolen! that didn't happen to us, it was the worst sleep ever though. The seats weren't adjustable and there was no leg room. Not to mention the beautiful timing of the ticket checker.
Nice was nice I would say, since we arrived late we hadn't showered yet, it took a French shower and realised calling it a french shower was a faux-pas. It actually was a very pretty city, and we got a perfect day for it, it was warm enough to take a dip in the Mediterranean. There weren't many others swimming, the water was cold enough to frighten a turtle (it was cold). I really like being in a non-english country where i could understand what people were saying. They still spoke to me in english even when I tried my french out. I'll get more attempts when we come back to France. Nice was just a stop spot en route to Barcelona (it would have been 24 hrs in a train!)
Spain here we come
We took the second night train of the trip that night, and some Australians that we met scared us by telling a story about their friends who were gassed in the night and had everything stolen! that didn't happen to us, it was the worst sleep ever though. The seats weren't adjustable and there was no leg room. Not to mention the beautiful timing of the ticket checker.
Nice was nice I would say, since we arrived late we hadn't showered yet, it took a French shower and realised calling it a french shower was a faux-pas. It actually was a very pretty city, and we got a perfect day for it, it was warm enough to take a dip in the Mediterranean. There weren't many others swimming, the water was cold enough to frighten a turtle (it was cold). I really like being in a non-english country where i could understand what people were saying. They still spoke to me in english even when I tried my french out. I'll get more attempts when we come back to France. Nice was just a stop spot en route to Barcelona (it would have been 24 hrs in a train!)
Spain here we come
When in Rome?
We were all pretty excited about going to Rome, especially for the Colosseum. If you can imagine, there is a lot to do in Rome, I think we did a pretty good job at getting most of it in. I wont list everything we visited, but we did go inside the Colosseum and took an audio guided tour. It was interesting and it was easy to picture what was being said because of Gladiator. We also went to the Fontana di Trevi and threw a coin in for good look. Over the right shoulder or it doesn't work, I think its the first good luck trick that we did right so far. We obviously went to Vatican City, which was quite impressive, we were even lucky enough to see the Pope. I would say he was about 10 feet away in his sweet ride. It was kinda cool, and since we didn't understand (or really care) what he was saying we were able to get in a shorter line to get into the Vatican museum, which also led us into the the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately we were allowed to take pictures (even though everybody was), but it was quite beautiful. Now we've seen works from all the ninja turtles, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo and Leonardo. We also went into St. Peters Basilica, which is the biggest in Europe for sure, maybe the world!
We also met some pretty cool guys at our hostel. We played cards with them while drinking wine, and hung out for most of the night. They even joined us for our Vatican City tour. Although it was hard looking at art work with 6 people so we got separated, and by chance met back up in the line to the Basilica.
On one of the days, we took a day trip out to Pompei, it was pretty neat city because it was covered in ash when Vesuvius erupted, keeping it in near perfect condition. Some of it was kind of creepy because it preserved things so well, that you could make out folds in the peoples clothing from almost 2000 years ago. A weird man tried to give us a tour, and we politely told him we weren't interest, so he tried to make us feel stupid. Good try, now we really don´t want to take your tour. Our train ride to Pompei took longer than we expected so we didn't get to go up the volcano, but we really wanted to. I suppose it was a blessing in disguise, it would have cost a lot of money to do the city and the mountain.
Thats all I got for Rome.
Ciao
We also met some pretty cool guys at our hostel. We played cards with them while drinking wine, and hung out for most of the night. They even joined us for our Vatican City tour. Although it was hard looking at art work with 6 people so we got separated, and by chance met back up in the line to the Basilica.
On one of the days, we took a day trip out to Pompei, it was pretty neat city because it was covered in ash when Vesuvius erupted, keeping it in near perfect condition. Some of it was kind of creepy because it preserved things so well, that you could make out folds in the peoples clothing from almost 2000 years ago. A weird man tried to give us a tour, and we politely told him we weren't interest, so he tried to make us feel stupid. Good try, now we really don´t want to take your tour. Our train ride to Pompei took longer than we expected so we didn't get to go up the volcano, but we really wanted to. I suppose it was a blessing in disguise, it would have cost a lot of money to do the city and the mountain.
Thats all I got for Rome.
Ciao
Monday, October 22, 2007
Wanna buy a hand bag?
The next Italian stop, Florence. Florence (or Firenze, I don't know why we Americanize the names of Foreign countries so much... I can pronounce Firenze) is a beautiful city, we were lucky because with our hostel we got a free walking tour of the South side of the river. We got to see the Duomo, a huge dome which was built without the use of scaffolding with a dome within a dome. After the tour we wandered the north side, the Tuscany area, and got lost. At least we thought we were lost because it took us a long time to find our way out, and the view we were hoping for never really came. We did however get to climb through some bushes to get a glimpse of Florence from a hill top. Good times. One the second full day of our visit, we made the trip to Pisa. Guess what? we saw the tower of Pisa. It was pretty cool, it definitely looked like it was about to fall the entire time. We wanted to go up but it was ridiculously expensive. At one point I decided that i needed to have a piece of Pisa Pizza in Pisa, I did and it was delicious. Andrew and Jack each had a piece of my piece, so I guess that's a piece of a piece of Pisa Pizza in Pisa. (say that five times fast) . We also heard that Florence was known for its big and delicious steaks... I wish we could afford that. Speaking of buying things, the markets were crazy, tons of people all over the place, and they were all selling the EXACT SAME THING!! Your options were; purses, sunglasses or watches, then five feet later, purses, sunglasseses or watches. It was quite funny, because we didn't understand how the people selling would watch us say no to one guy selling watches then ask us right afterwards. My answer was usually "I have a watch thanks" and their quick reply was "why not two?". We escaped without buying anything.
On the third day, we wanted to do a bike tour, so we could get the nice views, see all the vineyards and go up into the mountains. Problem was, at least for me, that they were at least 70 euros for the tours, little steep for me. Luckily we found one where you could do a self guided tour for only the price of the bike, and they give you all the routes you can take with good places to stop for food. We did that and it was a good choice, the total kilometres was about 67 km. Jacks bike was the only one where the computer worked. We were definitely sore after that, but we got some great views and some good exercise. Unfortunately when we got back we found out that all the art galleries and museums that we wanted to go to were closed on Monday, and we had already booked our hostel for Rome. We hadn't even seen Michelangelo's David yet. With some skillful rearranging we worked it so that on our way to Nice, we can stop in Florence, do everything we missed without adding any extra time to our trip. Swish.
We went out one night with a bunch of people from the hostel on one of the nights. It was a pretty good time, our hostel was full of english speaking people so we had no troubles communicating, and they had no troubles explaining drinking games at the bar. We played a darts drinking game, and in case anyone was wondering... the Milton boys dominated. But seriously, it was fun and since it was early in our visit to Florence we made some friends for the next couple of days there too. Some of which I don't think we ever got their name.
So there's my Florence entry, but its not the last.
On the third day, we wanted to do a bike tour, so we could get the nice views, see all the vineyards and go up into the mountains. Problem was, at least for me, that they were at least 70 euros for the tours, little steep for me. Luckily we found one where you could do a self guided tour for only the price of the bike, and they give you all the routes you can take with good places to stop for food. We did that and it was a good choice, the total kilometres was about 67 km. Jacks bike was the only one where the computer worked. We were definitely sore after that, but we got some great views and some good exercise. Unfortunately when we got back we found out that all the art galleries and museums that we wanted to go to were closed on Monday, and we had already booked our hostel for Rome. We hadn't even seen Michelangelo's David yet. With some skillful rearranging we worked it so that on our way to Nice, we can stop in Florence, do everything we missed without adding any extra time to our trip. Swish.
We went out one night with a bunch of people from the hostel on one of the nights. It was a pretty good time, our hostel was full of english speaking people so we had no troubles communicating, and they had no troubles explaining drinking games at the bar. We played a darts drinking game, and in case anyone was wondering... the Milton boys dominated. But seriously, it was fun and since it was early in our visit to Florence we made some friends for the next couple of days there too. Some of which I don't think we ever got their name.
So there's my Florence entry, but its not the last.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Drive by shooting.
On the way to Salzburg we made an amazing discovery, the seats in the cabins could pull out almost flat, therefor, we had a bed for that trip. I used it to its fullest and slept the entire ride. Since we were coming back into German speaking territory, we went to another beer hall played a few games inspired by the movie beerfest. We were trying to bounce our coins into Litre sized drinks on a relatively soft table. It didn't make us drink a lot, but it did mark up the table... I covered them with napkins, good as new. The game did however intrigue some older people around, although it was simple, it was difficult to explain in another language. I would have to say that we didn't do a whole lot in Salzburg, but it was a very pretty City, we got another spectacular view from the top of a fortress. There were mountains in the distance, which had dangerously jagged peaks and snow caps. I think we all kinda wished we had more time there to hike up one, but that might have taken over a day. We did meet up with Jack's girls for some drinks. We played cards had some fun, but I think it will be the last time our paths cross on this trip. I guess that was about it for Salzburg.
We had and unexpected surprise (is there any other kind?), on our way to Venice, our train went right through part of the Alps. We just kinda looked out the window to see these huge mountains approaching. the mountains were so steep, even the sturdy footed bridges looked like the might stumble. We were even lucky with a cloudless day, the only thing that scratched the blue sky were the white jet streams. It was tough to take pictures when the train was flying by though. It was definitely a cool way to head to Venice.
We eventually arrived in Venice, which was neat, we just did what you expected, took a boat ride, walked through the square with all the pigeons, and wandered aimlessly through the streets. It was fun, but I am glad we didn't stay too long though. There wasn't a whole lot I wanted to do there. There were a lot of pretty views though.
Florence next!
We had and unexpected surprise (is there any other kind?), on our way to Venice, our train went right through part of the Alps. We just kinda looked out the window to see these huge mountains approaching. the mountains were so steep, even the sturdy footed bridges looked like the might stumble. We were even lucky with a cloudless day, the only thing that scratched the blue sky were the white jet streams. It was tough to take pictures when the train was flying by though. It was definitely a cool way to head to Venice.
We eventually arrived in Venice, which was neat, we just did what you expected, took a boat ride, walked through the square with all the pigeons, and wandered aimlessly through the streets. It was fun, but I am glad we didn't stay too long though. There wasn't a whole lot I wanted to do there. There were a lot of pretty views though.
Florence next!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Eastside
Since I am behind in my blogs, I am going to cram the Eastern Europe part together. The first Eastern destination was in Prague. It was a very nice city, we climbed 287 steps to the top of a Church tower, which gave us a nice view of everything. We also climbed Peltin hill aswell (we've done alot of climbing) and had another beautiful view of the City. Everything was really cheap in Prague, especially beer. 500 ml Beers in the store were under a dollar, and even in the bar we were paying just over a dollar. So we figured it would be a good place to do our own little pub crawl, we went place to place and even found a New Orleans still bar with a huge black guys singing some blues without a microphone, and his friend playing piano. They were very good, we even went back there for dinner the next night. Also from Prague we left on a day trip to Plzen to take a tour of the Pilsner Urquelle brewery. Birthplace of Pilsner beers. The gave us some unfiltered right from the barrel Pislner Urquelle beer. I liked it alot more than the bottled stuff. Overall Prague was a nice place to stay.
We headed more east to Polland next, and stayed in Krakow. This was one of our worst train ride I would say, we did not have a seat for the first 3 hours of our ride. the train was so crowded we had to stand in the aisle and attempted to read. It was worth it though because Krakow has been one of my favourites so far. It is one of the only cities in Polland that was not destroyed by Nazis. Apparently they liked the look of the town so much that they didnt want to destroy so they just took it over. So all of the old buildings were undammaged. Everything was pretty cheap there too, the eastern part of our trip has been nice on the budget. We also went to Auschwitz, which was definitely the saddest part of our trip. Its where the first concentration camp was, and also the biggest one. It was very strange to be standing where hundreds of thousands of innocent people died and suffered. We walked through the living facilities and they had little room, most of them starved to death. It was pretty sad. It was definitely a necessary stop, i think we all learned a lot and made me appreciate more than the numbers we hear, that they were all individuals. I think thats enough depressing stuff for now.
We went back to Krakow and checked out the old communist section of town, old square concrete buildings, with parapets for snipers to hide behing on the roofs. It was kinda cool to see, although very ugly. I've been finding more and more beggars in the eastern countries, they come very close and don't mind making you feel bad. Our tour guide told us that even though they look really sad and pathetic, she sees them at bars and in restaurants later in the night. So I did my best to ignore them.
Over a Beer or so our trio decide that Budapest would be our lazy city. Most of our trip so far has had very little down time, just one thing to the next. Our hostel was very small and had kind of a family feel to it. So we made a few friends right away, also for the third time I think three of Jack's friends from school happened to be in the same place as us, so we had a few more friends there too. Those are some of the reasons we decided to make it our relax city. Its cheap here too, I think it will be our last City where we will be well under budget. We stayed an extra day for that reason. We did fair amount of walking the first day, and checked out the buda side of town. Surprise, surprise we climbed up a hill to get a nice view, which we did get, right along the river. Budapest is known for their Spas so we went to one, they call them baths, but they are more like swimming pools with hot tub temperatures. It was very relaxing, and they had fountains with warm water you could stand under. It was just like a massage. It was just what we needed, and it was pretty much half way through our trip. We made another change in plans, now we are no longer going to Vienna, we were told by Jacks friends that there wasn't very much to do there, so we are going to Salsburg intstead and meeting up with them there also.
I'll try not to leave it so long till my next post, its easier for me to do a little at a time aswell.
cheers everyone
We headed more east to Polland next, and stayed in Krakow. This was one of our worst train ride I would say, we did not have a seat for the first 3 hours of our ride. the train was so crowded we had to stand in the aisle and attempted to read. It was worth it though because Krakow has been one of my favourites so far. It is one of the only cities in Polland that was not destroyed by Nazis. Apparently they liked the look of the town so much that they didnt want to destroy so they just took it over. So all of the old buildings were undammaged. Everything was pretty cheap there too, the eastern part of our trip has been nice on the budget. We also went to Auschwitz, which was definitely the saddest part of our trip. Its where the first concentration camp was, and also the biggest one. It was very strange to be standing where hundreds of thousands of innocent people died and suffered. We walked through the living facilities and they had little room, most of them starved to death. It was pretty sad. It was definitely a necessary stop, i think we all learned a lot and made me appreciate more than the numbers we hear, that they were all individuals. I think thats enough depressing stuff for now.
We went back to Krakow and checked out the old communist section of town, old square concrete buildings, with parapets for snipers to hide behing on the roofs. It was kinda cool to see, although very ugly. I've been finding more and more beggars in the eastern countries, they come very close and don't mind making you feel bad. Our tour guide told us that even though they look really sad and pathetic, she sees them at bars and in restaurants later in the night. So I did my best to ignore them.
Over a Beer or so our trio decide that Budapest would be our lazy city. Most of our trip so far has had very little down time, just one thing to the next. Our hostel was very small and had kind of a family feel to it. So we made a few friends right away, also for the third time I think three of Jack's friends from school happened to be in the same place as us, so we had a few more friends there too. Those are some of the reasons we decided to make it our relax city. Its cheap here too, I think it will be our last City where we will be well under budget. We stayed an extra day for that reason. We did fair amount of walking the first day, and checked out the buda side of town. Surprise, surprise we climbed up a hill to get a nice view, which we did get, right along the river. Budapest is known for their Spas so we went to one, they call them baths, but they are more like swimming pools with hot tub temperatures. It was very relaxing, and they had fountains with warm water you could stand under. It was just like a massage. It was just what we needed, and it was pretty much half way through our trip. We made another change in plans, now we are no longer going to Vienna, we were told by Jacks friends that there wasn't very much to do there, so we are going to Salsburg intstead and meeting up with them there also.
I'll try not to leave it so long till my next post, its easier for me to do a little at a time aswell.
cheers everyone
Time to catch up
Well this should be fun, I haven't written in a while. Well after Copenhagen Germany. We started in Berlin. It was certainly a City with a lot of history, and history that was easier to relate to because it was fairly recent. We got to see what was left of the Berlin wall, which was cool because it was covered in artistic graffiti, a lot of the graffiti was about unity or about the wall itself. Someone had also written that the loved Josh, I assumed that Josh to be me so I took a picture. We took a free walking tour the next day and that worked out really nicely. In the free tours the tour is working for tips, so they'll do what they can to make it good. The guy we had seemed to know a lot, it was worthwhile. We were able to cross off most of the tourist attractions with just his tour. We saw where Hitlers Bunker was, where he killed himself. Also the Jewish memorial, and Checkpoint Charlie. Charlie doesn't mean anything, its just the army way of saying 'C', Alpha, Bravo, Charlie etc. With taking this tour you got a discount on the pubcrawl at night, so we did that, met a bunch of Canadians and probably had too much to drink. That made for a slow morning for me at least.
After Berlin we headed to some of the Bavarian Cities, to try to get off the regular tourist path. We went to Nuremberg first, It was cool because it was where the trials of all the high ranking Nazis took place for the crimes against humanity. We got to go into the courtroom and see some of the trials on video. Most of them got the death penalty, some got life imprisonment and one of to somehow escape with only a few years. A bunch of them didn't even make it to trial because they had already committed suicide. We also went to the Nuremberg museum, which was mostly about Hitler and the Nazis. It was interesting to see that Hitler was not very successful in life before his rise to power. We also got to stand where he stood giving speeches for the Nazis rallies. It was a little eerie.
The next destination was Wurzburg, It was time for a little relaxation time, so we just had a few beers, sat outside and enjoyed the nice views of a relatively small city. Although because of our laziness we decided that we would rent some bikes the next day and tour the city that way. It was cool because we went to the top of a castle and could see everywhere.
Our next destination was Rothenburg. Another Burg city.... or wait, we missed our transfer on the train and ended up in Treuchlingen, oops. We quickly as we could found a hotel and negotiated (with bad English and bad German) a reasonable price. It was nice to have a room with less than 8 people in it. That night was a good night to have a good rest, because the next city was Munich, which meant Oktoberfest!
By the time we got to Munich it was mid-afternoon. Too late to get a good spot in one of the tents at Oktoberfest, so we did a quick city tour. In the spirit of the fest our minds were easily swayed into stopping in to a beer haus, and having a litre. Litre beers hit you hard, we found our way to another busier beer house and decided to get some more practice in for the next day, three drinks in and we were feeling good. It was easy to fall asleep that night. We got up for Oktoberfest early enough, and arrived at 10:30am.... we barely got a spot. It was a German holiday, Re-unification day, so there were already a bunch of Germans drunk before 11. At first it seemed like it would be tough to meet a lot of people because you were cramped and you didn't want to leave or else you might lose your spot, and if you don't have a spot you don't get served beer. But people came and went and we made a lot of friends quickly, drinking games and drinking songs. Andrew and I realized the next morning... we forgot to eat... all day. I didn't know i was capable of not eating. It definitely lived up to my expectations. Thats where we ended our Germany tour. Onward and upward... and eastward.
After Berlin we headed to some of the Bavarian Cities, to try to get off the regular tourist path. We went to Nuremberg first, It was cool because it was where the trials of all the high ranking Nazis took place for the crimes against humanity. We got to go into the courtroom and see some of the trials on video. Most of them got the death penalty, some got life imprisonment and one of to somehow escape with only a few years. A bunch of them didn't even make it to trial because they had already committed suicide. We also went to the Nuremberg museum, which was mostly about Hitler and the Nazis. It was interesting to see that Hitler was not very successful in life before his rise to power. We also got to stand where he stood giving speeches for the Nazis rallies. It was a little eerie.
The next destination was Wurzburg, It was time for a little relaxation time, so we just had a few beers, sat outside and enjoyed the nice views of a relatively small city. Although because of our laziness we decided that we would rent some bikes the next day and tour the city that way. It was cool because we went to the top of a castle and could see everywhere.
Our next destination was Rothenburg. Another Burg city.... or wait, we missed our transfer on the train and ended up in Treuchlingen, oops. We quickly as we could found a hotel and negotiated (with bad English and bad German) a reasonable price. It was nice to have a room with less than 8 people in it. That night was a good night to have a good rest, because the next city was Munich, which meant Oktoberfest!
By the time we got to Munich it was mid-afternoon. Too late to get a good spot in one of the tents at Oktoberfest, so we did a quick city tour. In the spirit of the fest our minds were easily swayed into stopping in to a beer haus, and having a litre. Litre beers hit you hard, we found our way to another busier beer house and decided to get some more practice in for the next day, three drinks in and we were feeling good. It was easy to fall asleep that night. We got up for Oktoberfest early enough, and arrived at 10:30am.... we barely got a spot. It was a German holiday, Re-unification day, so there were already a bunch of Germans drunk before 11. At first it seemed like it would be tough to meet a lot of people because you were cramped and you didn't want to leave or else you might lose your spot, and if you don't have a spot you don't get served beer. But people came and went and we made a lot of friends quickly, drinking games and drinking songs. Andrew and I realized the next morning... we forgot to eat... all day. I didn't know i was capable of not eating. It definitely lived up to my expectations. Thats where we ended our Germany tour. Onward and upward... and eastward.
Friday, September 28, 2007
I suppose our Norway experience didnt quite end where my last blog ended. We stopped In Olso for one night, we didnt do a whole lot there. It was nicer than I had expected. What would a Europe trip be like without seeing some hookers. Well it was our first ones in Olso, I dont think I have ever actually been close to one before, but we had to walk right by them to get to where we wanted to go. I tried to keep a straight face walking by, I failed... they didnt like it that much I dont think. For the next couple of days (including the one in Olso) they were mostly travel days. We had our next stop in Copenhagen, which was kind of nice I was glad I can say now I have been in Denmark. There was this crazy part of the city called Christiania. Its kind of a town within a city. The difference about this town was, there are no laws. From talking to one of our hostel roommates, it seemed like a place we had to go to. It was very sketchy area, not that I didnt think it was safe, but there was graffiti everywhere, I'm sure there we alot of drug deals going on as well. This place is basically a social experiment, they have an agreement with the city of Copenhagen. I'm not sure why they have it. But it was neat, garbage cans on fire for warm, people just hanging out and some playing music. I'm glad we stopped in. That night we had a few pints, and left for Berlin in the morning. This part of the trip was pretty much the first time we were worried about finding a place to stay. It had been very easy up till here because most of the stuff was already booked. Thank you Jack and Andrew. Lately we've been trying to book things online at internet cafes and we've been having trouble finding places. Maybe because the hostel online system is garbage, or maybe because we are waiting untill to late to book. I hope we learn our lesson though, but its difficult to learn when there havent been any real consequences, just scares. I think we are going to try and book things as soon as we know where we'll be and at what time. So far we haven't had to sleep in the train station... yet.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
No Other Way
I didnt really know what I was getting into going to Norway, I didnt really know what we were going to see. But I wouldnt be able to do it any differently. We had our first over nighter train into Norway, this was after a flight from dublin to Oslo. Oslo seemed boring and we didn't hear of anything much to do. I'm glad we didnt stay. Our train ride was pretty good actually, we got to save a night on hostel bills, and did traveling that we would have to do anyways. We arrived exhausted though because we didnt sleep that well, and our hostel for the next night wasn't even open so we couldn't drop off our stuff. But we eventually made it. Our first day in Bergin, we didnt do a whole lot, just walking around and exploring the city, even had a little nap. Later in the day, with the help of a Bergin tourist information staff, we found a way to take a fjord tour, with using our eurail passes. saved us quite a bit of money. We went to a decent place to eat, which was cheap aswell (relatively speaking, Norway is one if not the most expensive place to live in europe). I had fish, which i assumed to be fresh because there were tons on fishing boats in the harbour. I got up the next morning not really knowing what to expect. A fjord is basically a river, I'd just learned that. It was even more beautiful than Ireland was. These 1.6 kilometer high mountains shot straight up right beside the water, and right beside our ferry. It was incredible, but it got better, we had an hour train ride that is said to be the best train ride in europe, and as far as I could tell, I would have to agree. The train took us right through the mountains, with waterfalls everywhere you look, huge rock faced cliffs and valleys with just a few houses in it. We would come out of a tunnel to an even more amazing view than the last valley. Then we were able to use our eurail pass to get back to bergen. I'm really glad we did it. We even climbed the mountain right next to bergen the next morning.
I had also expect more of a language barrier in Norway, everyone there seemed to speak pretty good (well). They were also very friendly, one guy went out of his way to help us find our hostel. I was half-expecting him to take us to a dark alley and rob us, but he just invited us to the cafe he worked at for a coffee or beer, and that was it(we never did end up going). It was really great there, the only downsides were its prices and the weather. One canadian dollar was about 6 Norwegen Krones. An average dinner there was about 200 krones, we did feel rich carrying around over a thousand krones tho... but felt very poor after we stayed there. Statiscally it rains about 270 times a year, it rained all four days of our stay.
We headed to Olso after, and that was it for Norway.
I had also expect more of a language barrier in Norway, everyone there seemed to speak pretty good (well). They were also very friendly, one guy went out of his way to help us find our hostel. I was half-expecting him to take us to a dark alley and rob us, but he just invited us to the cafe he worked at for a coffee or beer, and that was it(we never did end up going). It was really great there, the only downsides were its prices and the weather. One canadian dollar was about 6 Norwegen Krones. An average dinner there was about 200 krones, we did feel rich carrying around over a thousand krones tho... but felt very poor after we stayed there. Statiscally it rains about 270 times a year, it rained all four days of our stay.
We headed to Olso after, and that was it for Norway.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Fighting Irish
When we first arrived in Ireland, I did not see the beauty that I hadheard about. We bussed in from the airport and got to see a fair amount of Dublin. Instead of beautiful, it seemed a little run down. We arrived kind of late, so we didn't get a lot done our first day, but we went out for an Irish pint. We did a few touristy things the next day, we checked out the Guinness Brewery Shop. Which was fairly entertaining, a little expensive for what you get, but we did get a free beer and a view of all of Dublin. We also checked out Trinity College which we heard was a beautiful campus. It was. Since we've been spending so much money lately we tried to keep it cheap by making cheap dinners while in Dublin. We still had five more days in Ireland, and we'd seen everything we really wanted to in Dublin, so we made a decision to take a three day tour! It turned out to be a very good decision.
At 8 a.m. our bus departed for our tour, and we didn't really know what to expect to get out of this. We definitely didn't expect the tour guide that we had. Authentic Irish character, he would sing over the P.A. system on the bus, he would say words like fick (which means to see in Gaelic) but he wouldn't use it in that context, so he was pretty much swearing over the p.a as well. There were people in there 60's at least on our bus as well. So it was interesting. He even made us switch seats every once and a while to ensure that we met everyone on our tour.
Despite his interesting and funny way of communicating with the passengers, he was quite informative as well. We learned so much about Irish history, and wars that I didn't even know occurred. I think i have discovered why they are called the Fighting Irish, they have been fighting the English for over 800 years! and they never gave up. I found the subject very interesting, mostly in that Britain seems to have kept it pretty quiet. Britain, in trying to take over Ireland, put the Irish through some pretty inhumane things, such as starvation, burnings and executions of the Irish people. There is still a lot of hate for England in some places of Ireland.
We also got to see some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Since our bus took us out to the country and to the coast, we got to see things we would never have experienced in Dublin. We went to see ruins of a monastery with few high-crosses for gravestones. Only 70 still exist in the world today. Also we got to see the Cliffs of Moher, Which may be the most beautiful view i have ever seen. The cliffs looked to be about 300ft tall on the most western part of Europe. Everything out of the City had so many shades of greens. Greens I've never seen before, I don't think i have ever look at grass and been amazed but the colour was so brilliant that I couldn't help but be impressed. I think I will put up a picture because it is hard to describe. The best part about Ireland has been the views, we even went to ruins of a castle that is said to be the best view in Ireland, you could see for miles. I got a lot of pictures there too.
Ireland wouldn't be Ireland without having a few beers, so we had a few, then a few more. It was a good time and we got to meet several people from all over. Some Australians, some... Americans... some Germans and polish. It was quite an experience, it was just too bad to make some friends and then just say bye to them the next day.
We are now back in Dublin and our plane leaves tomorrow for Oslo, so we have been recovering from our lack of sleep. Last night we just watched a movie, that came out in Canada about a month ago. We felt like we were ahead of the times. It was 'Superbad', hilarious.
Time for me to fick off,
Jesus, Mary and Joseph (trying to sound Irish)
cheers
At 8 a.m. our bus departed for our tour, and we didn't really know what to expect to get out of this. We definitely didn't expect the tour guide that we had. Authentic Irish character, he would sing over the P.A. system on the bus, he would say words like fick (which means to see in Gaelic) but he wouldn't use it in that context, so he was pretty much swearing over the p.a as well. There were people in there 60's at least on our bus as well. So it was interesting. He even made us switch seats every once and a while to ensure that we met everyone on our tour.
Despite his interesting and funny way of communicating with the passengers, he was quite informative as well. We learned so much about Irish history, and wars that I didn't even know occurred. I think i have discovered why they are called the Fighting Irish, they have been fighting the English for over 800 years! and they never gave up. I found the subject very interesting, mostly in that Britain seems to have kept it pretty quiet. Britain, in trying to take over Ireland, put the Irish through some pretty inhumane things, such as starvation, burnings and executions of the Irish people. There is still a lot of hate for England in some places of Ireland.
We also got to see some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Since our bus took us out to the country and to the coast, we got to see things we would never have experienced in Dublin. We went to see ruins of a monastery with few high-crosses for gravestones. Only 70 still exist in the world today. Also we got to see the Cliffs of Moher, Which may be the most beautiful view i have ever seen. The cliffs looked to be about 300ft tall on the most western part of Europe. Everything out of the City had so many shades of greens. Greens I've never seen before, I don't think i have ever look at grass and been amazed but the colour was so brilliant that I couldn't help but be impressed. I think I will put up a picture because it is hard to describe. The best part about Ireland has been the views, we even went to ruins of a castle that is said to be the best view in Ireland, you could see for miles. I got a lot of pictures there too.
Ireland wouldn't be Ireland without having a few beers, so we had a few, then a few more. It was a good time and we got to meet several people from all over. Some Australians, some... Americans... some Germans and polish. It was quite an experience, it was just too bad to make some friends and then just say bye to them the next day.
We are now back in Dublin and our plane leaves tomorrow for Oslo, so we have been recovering from our lack of sleep. Last night we just watched a movie, that came out in Canada about a month ago. We felt like we were ahead of the times. It was 'Superbad', hilarious.
Time for me to fick off,
Jesus, Mary and Joseph (trying to sound Irish)
cheers
Friday, September 14, 2007
Water of Life
So its on to Country number two!
We left fairly early Wednesday morning to catch our train to Edinburgh. We arrived there at exactly 3:00, I'm not sure if it was coincidence or if British trains are always right on time. Scotland is very beautiful, and its way different than anywhere I've ever been before. The buildings architecture is quite a bit different, and the stone used is very unusually, it looks like they have been burnt. And the countryside was also different, rolling hills with hay fields, and I see where all the sheep and Scots jokes come from. Fields are full of them. It was interesting to see hay bails next to salt water.
Edinburgh was more of a compact city, at least as far as sightseeing goes. there hasn't been a need to take a bus anywhere, which is nice on the wallet. At first i found myself walking in the middle of the streets thinking they were walkways, but the roads are all stone. They aren't flat or smooth, i would guess it would be like constantly driving on the rumble strips.
On Thursday we had probably the best day so far. We had a nice day with a cool breeze, so we hiked up to see Arthur's Seat at the top of a huge hill (seemed more like a small mountain, took us over an hour). We could see everywhere and the landscape was amazing, it was worth the long hike for sure. After that we toured the nearby Castle, which is perched on the ledge of a cliff (no wonder they never lost a battle there). We also took the whiskey tour. We learned about scotch and took a few taste tests, we learned that whiskey(whisky here) comes from 'water of life'. I cant remember right now what Latin word it came from but you get the idea. So then we went out for dinner after and went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel. We got to meet a few people, a bunch of Canadians, (enough to sing the anthem loud enough for the whole bar to hear) I was slightly embarrassed... but what the hell, when if Rome right? I don't think i get that saying. But also with the pub crawl we got to experience several bars and several different kinds of beers. And thanks to a new friend who inherited a large sum of money some of our drinks were free!!! it was the most expensive day so far tho.
On Friday we took it easy, and spent very little to make up for the day before, but it was fun too. I am quickly learning that each hostel will have its own unique feel. I kind of assumed that they would be pretty much the same. But the atmosphere here is way different than London. Its like everyone here is a family, which wasn't that fun at first because we weren't part of the family. People stay in this hostel for months and months at a time. So its more of a permanent home for them. But they are friendly and once we had a few drinks in us we were all talking and having fun. We also had a fairly lucky coincidence, Jacks had friends who happened to be visiting as well and staying in the same hostel, which gave us some instafriends there too.
Edinburgh seems like a place that you could stay for a long time though, i see why this hostel is so tight.
That's about it for now,
cheers
We left fairly early Wednesday morning to catch our train to Edinburgh. We arrived there at exactly 3:00, I'm not sure if it was coincidence or if British trains are always right on time. Scotland is very beautiful, and its way different than anywhere I've ever been before. The buildings architecture is quite a bit different, and the stone used is very unusually, it looks like they have been burnt. And the countryside was also different, rolling hills with hay fields, and I see where all the sheep and Scots jokes come from. Fields are full of them. It was interesting to see hay bails next to salt water.
Edinburgh was more of a compact city, at least as far as sightseeing goes. there hasn't been a need to take a bus anywhere, which is nice on the wallet. At first i found myself walking in the middle of the streets thinking they were walkways, but the roads are all stone. They aren't flat or smooth, i would guess it would be like constantly driving on the rumble strips.
On Thursday we had probably the best day so far. We had a nice day with a cool breeze, so we hiked up to see Arthur's Seat at the top of a huge hill (seemed more like a small mountain, took us over an hour). We could see everywhere and the landscape was amazing, it was worth the long hike for sure. After that we toured the nearby Castle, which is perched on the ledge of a cliff (no wonder they never lost a battle there). We also took the whiskey tour. We learned about scotch and took a few taste tests, we learned that whiskey(whisky here) comes from 'water of life'. I cant remember right now what Latin word it came from but you get the idea. So then we went out for dinner after and went on a pub crawl organized by the hostel. We got to meet a few people, a bunch of Canadians, (enough to sing the anthem loud enough for the whole bar to hear) I was slightly embarrassed... but what the hell, when if Rome right? I don't think i get that saying. But also with the pub crawl we got to experience several bars and several different kinds of beers. And thanks to a new friend who inherited a large sum of money some of our drinks were free!!! it was the most expensive day so far tho.
On Friday we took it easy, and spent very little to make up for the day before, but it was fun too. I am quickly learning that each hostel will have its own unique feel. I kind of assumed that they would be pretty much the same. But the atmosphere here is way different than London. Its like everyone here is a family, which wasn't that fun at first because we weren't part of the family. People stay in this hostel for months and months at a time. So its more of a permanent home for them. But they are friendly and once we had a few drinks in us we were all talking and having fun. We also had a fairly lucky coincidence, Jacks had friends who happened to be visiting as well and staying in the same hostel, which gave us some instafriends there too.
Edinburgh seems like a place that you could stay for a long time though, i see why this hostel is so tight.
That's about it for now,
cheers
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mind The Gap
I am going to try and keep this relatively short. I know i find it pretty hard to read too much of this kind of thing.
So its my third day overseas, and its great. I'm still in London but we leave tomorrow for Edinburgh. So far it has been a blast. Pretty much going nonstop. Barely even stopping for sleep, literally. Our flight arrived at around 4:30 London time. And we didn't get any sleep on the plain. That made for a very long day. We had a pretty long walk to the hostel, but on the way we happened to walk past Buckingham palace, and at 4:30 am, there was no one there. I don't think too many tourist get to see it like that. As the struggle to stay awake continued throughout the day, we got a fair amount done. We got to tour the British museum (several hours), had a traditional fish and chips dinner and explored a lot of the city. Settling down in the hostel took a bit too. But we all crashed pretty hard that night. We were pretty well rested for the next day so we decided to walk to see Big Ben to save on outrageous subway costs. Here they call it the underground, more commonly the tube. It's 4 pounds to ride it one way, which is about 8 bucks Canadian. Mostly we got to see the must sees. so we saw Big Ben, London Bridge, Westminster, Trafalgar square, tower of London and the London bridge. And yes i had the song stuck in my head.
I think see all the sites are neat, but i don't think they are all that interesting to read about. So i will try to stick to cultural differences. Mostly it was similar, i thought the music was going to be different but in the club the music was exactly what you would hear in Canada. Clubs are the only places to drink later in the night, so you cant do a late pub night here, its closes at 11pm. Also even as obvious as it seems it is difficult to cross the street. Habit dictates for me to look to the left first, then the right second. We haven't been too close getting hit yet, but i think we finally have it figured out... right as we are about to leave. Also everything is more technologically advanced here. well at least in common places. Like grocery stores have electronic voices that tell you what line you should go to, and when you should go there, make it so if you you were there first you will get helped first. and the underground and buses were the same. they tell you where every stop is and even little warning about the gap between the train and the platform. 'Mind the gap' it says,little too often actually. Gets kinda annoying, but its kind of our little joke now. Anyways i am out of Internet time! so I'll write in another few days
josh
So its my third day overseas, and its great. I'm still in London but we leave tomorrow for Edinburgh. So far it has been a blast. Pretty much going nonstop. Barely even stopping for sleep, literally. Our flight arrived at around 4:30 London time. And we didn't get any sleep on the plain. That made for a very long day. We had a pretty long walk to the hostel, but on the way we happened to walk past Buckingham palace, and at 4:30 am, there was no one there. I don't think too many tourist get to see it like that. As the struggle to stay awake continued throughout the day, we got a fair amount done. We got to tour the British museum (several hours), had a traditional fish and chips dinner and explored a lot of the city. Settling down in the hostel took a bit too. But we all crashed pretty hard that night. We were pretty well rested for the next day so we decided to walk to see Big Ben to save on outrageous subway costs. Here they call it the underground, more commonly the tube. It's 4 pounds to ride it one way, which is about 8 bucks Canadian. Mostly we got to see the must sees. so we saw Big Ben, London Bridge, Westminster, Trafalgar square, tower of London and the London bridge. And yes i had the song stuck in my head.
I think see all the sites are neat, but i don't think they are all that interesting to read about. So i will try to stick to cultural differences. Mostly it was similar, i thought the music was going to be different but in the club the music was exactly what you would hear in Canada. Clubs are the only places to drink later in the night, so you cant do a late pub night here, its closes at 11pm. Also even as obvious as it seems it is difficult to cross the street. Habit dictates for me to look to the left first, then the right second. We haven't been too close getting hit yet, but i think we finally have it figured out... right as we are about to leave. Also everything is more technologically advanced here. well at least in common places. Like grocery stores have electronic voices that tell you what line you should go to, and when you should go there, make it so if you you were there first you will get helped first. and the underground and buses were the same. they tell you where every stop is and even little warning about the gap between the train and the platform. 'Mind the gap' it says,little too often actually. Gets kinda annoying, but its kind of our little joke now. Anyways i am out of Internet time! so I'll write in another few days
josh
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Lets try this again
This is my second blog about the same thing, I wasn't very happy with my other one so I decided I would start a new one. I am hoping this blog will mostly be about the adventures I hope to have overseas. I'm sure there will be plenty of them. I am heading to Europe on September 8th, 2007 at 4pm with two of my high school friends Jack and Andrew.
We have been planning this trip for a long time and it is approaching very quickly. I am getting a little bit nervous wondering if i will have everything ready in time. I have the main things organized now, as usual I left some things to the last minute. For example my passport only arrived a few days ago, where most people have theirs months in advance. In fact my friends were quite worried I wouldn't even be able to come. But that worry is over now, my main concern right now is the fact that I am packing all my belongings to move to a new place. So everything is being packed carefully so I don't put something that i need in the bottom of a box that I wont see again until I get back from my trip. Also the little things keep piling up too, like the watch I have right now is too expensive to risk losing in Europe, so a new cheap watch is on the list and sunglasses and shoes that will last and... well it keeps going.
I am definitely starting to get very excited though, only 18 days away. I keep thinking about how surreal it will feel in the airport, and the excitement that will build on our 7 hour flight. I still can't put myself arriving in London, where nothing will be familiar and the only two people I will be able to rely on are just as inexperienced in traveling as I am. I can't wait.
We have been planning this trip for a long time and it is approaching very quickly. I am getting a little bit nervous wondering if i will have everything ready in time. I have the main things organized now, as usual I left some things to the last minute. For example my passport only arrived a few days ago, where most people have theirs months in advance. In fact my friends were quite worried I wouldn't even be able to come. But that worry is over now, my main concern right now is the fact that I am packing all my belongings to move to a new place. So everything is being packed carefully so I don't put something that i need in the bottom of a box that I wont see again until I get back from my trip. Also the little things keep piling up too, like the watch I have right now is too expensive to risk losing in Europe, so a new cheap watch is on the list and sunglasses and shoes that will last and... well it keeps going.
I am definitely starting to get very excited though, only 18 days away. I keep thinking about how surreal it will feel in the airport, and the excitement that will build on our 7 hour flight. I still can't put myself arriving in London, where nothing will be familiar and the only two people I will be able to rely on are just as inexperienced in traveling as I am. I can't wait.
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