Tuk-Tuks, Typhoons, and Tigers in Thailand

From Strike Zone to Flood Zone

Our 24 hours of travel from Meteora (Greece) to Athens to Cairo to Bangkok was full of delays and raunchy food. Lucky for us and an Egyptian Bride (who wore her huge wedding dress the whole time), we had a half-empty flight from Cairo to Bangkok. This allowed us to each take a row of seats to ourselves, which monumental for sleeping while in the air for 9 hours.

We left the strike zone of Greece to come to the flood zone of Thailand. As we flew in, it there appeared to be hundreds of lakes, but then we realized the Thai countryside below was solid flooding. We soon found out that October is the rainiest month (monsoon season) for Thailand and it has been the rainiest October on record in over 60 years. We both have experienced our fair share of heavy rains but I have never seen water fall from the sky in such a way as our first night here in Bangkok. Sheets of water fell from the sky persistently for over 3 hours as the lightning randomly lit up the city. I now understand what the meteorological term "monsoon" truly means.

We are staying at our first real hotel for the trip! It is like a palace in comparison to all the hostels and inns we have stayed in over the past 7 weeks and the best part is that it is cheaper than some of them. Baan K Hotel is in the center of Bangkok and provides amazing facilities- we essentially have a studio apartment. As much as we love our hostel adventures, it is such a nice change.

Jorie's friend from Bates, Collin, who has been living in Thailand this year and teaching English, gave us a great introduction to the city. Over our first traditional Thai food dinner he told us all about the does and don'ts in Thai culture. He then showed us around a bit... The subway system is the cleanest we have seen (they even do security checks)... Walking down Cowboy Road (essentially the red light district) was truly a shocking experience. I don't know which was more blinding to my eyes- the skimpy dressed Thai women or the sea of neon flashing lights. Thank goodness the nude beaches in Europe someone broke us in for this quick walk through.

At midnight we finally had our Wohelo reunion with our mutual friend Nicole arriving for the weekend with us. It was great to have another friend join us for the weekend and spice things up.

Temples and Tuk-Tuks

The three of us had a fun filled Saturday exploring Bangkok's temples and markets. We started by seeing the Grand Palace and the Emerald Budda. Asia is quite a contrast from Europe... The gothic churches have been replaced with Goddy colorful bedazzled temples, the saint statues have been replaced by Budda's and mythical creatures, and the fall-like weather has been replaced by hotter than hell stickiness. The contrast is great, and like the churches we saw in Europe, the Grand Palace and the Emerald Budda were so beautiful and masterpieces.

Our true Thai experience really began when we decided to take a Tuk-Tuk around to see more temples and the rest of the city. For those of you who don't know, a Tuk-Tuk is a motor bike with a covered cab back (hard to describe) that is a very traditional form of transportation around here. We payed 10 baht (32 baht = $1) for this Tuk-Tuk to take us around for over 3 hours, and he would wait while we went into the temples, stores, and had lunch. Although dicy at times, for example when he would go on the wrong side of the road, the Tuk- Tuk was a blast and we really felt in the center of everything. During our Tuk-Tuk tour we went to the Marble Temple (incredible massive ornate temple), the huge Golden Budda, several hand made clothing stores, a jewelry store (where I caved to the cheap prices), and to lunch. Our lunch was an amazing adventure... It was a traditional Thai place down an alley right next to the river, or I should say it was suppose to be by the river but instead the river, due to the floods, was going through the place. The waiters were actually in waders, and the cooks were wearing rain boots as water rushed over their feet. We hopped from sand bag to sand bag to get to our table. The food was great and for our 3 meals it was less than $4 total.

Before the afternoon monsoon came we went to Jatujak weekend market, the largest market in Bangkok. Large does not even begin to describe this place... We spent 2 hours going down two rows of stalls and probably only saw 1/8 of the place. The market has thousands of stalls and is at least 3 football fields in area... This place had everything under the sun. It was so overwhelming and over stimulating, but so fun.

After being completely over stimulated we relaxed with pedicures, which were beyond needed. The ladies had to work so hard on our feet, as the miles of walking we have done over the past 6 weeks has taken a toll on our feet.

My mom arrived late last night after a long day of travel. We are so excited to have her join us for the next 10 days and then to lighten our load by taking all of our purchases home.

Elephant Kisses and Tiger Bites

At 7 am we hopped in a van heading 3 hours Northwest of Bangkok for a full day of adventure with the animals. We first stopped to see the Death Railroad (a railroad built by the prisoners of WW2 from Burma through Thailand) and the museum to go along with it. Then we drove past sugar cane fields and through rain forests (with monkeys) to the foothills of beautiful mountains where we stopped at an elephant camp. We rode two people per elephant on a strapped-on seat with a guide on the head of the elephant steering the elephant by tickling it behind the ears. It was amazing to be so high up on the elephant's back and to be riding to the unrhythmic gate of the huge creature. While we were riding it began to pour rain, which seemed to make the experience that much more authentic and the baby elephant that followed his mother (me and my mom's elephant) seemed to love it so he could roll around in the mud. After riding for a while we were all offered the opportunity to take the place of the guide and ride on the elephant's head. Jorie was the only one who accepted this offer and she had a blast riding the elephant, but consequently smelled of elephant for the rest of the day.

After riding the elephants we were able to participate in a little show with one of the younger male elephants. This little guy was amazing, as he would take money in his trunk, put it in a bucket, then grab him self a bottle of milk, walk the drink back to us for us to then feed him the milk. As if we weren't already impressed, we then each laid down on the ground and he gave each of us a kiss on the face with his trunk, which was not only incredibly slobbery but also ticklish, and then he gave us a butt massage with his feet. In my opinion it was a true Thai massage and he was rather skilled. We were so entertained by him and loved every minute of it.

We were on an absolute high from our elephant experience while we ate a traditional Thai lunch along the river. The fried chicken, as Annie Riley told me, was delicious!

We then went to the tourist trap of The Tiger Temple. It was an amazing experience that you most certainly could not have anywhere else in the world, both because of the geography of The Tiger Temple but also because it would be a legal nightmare anywhere but in Thailand. There were tons of animals around the Tiger Temple- everything from water buffalo to wort hogs to tigers. There were also lots of Western "volunteers"- aka, tiger freaks. In fact, there were more "volunteers" than actual tourists. There are 99 tigers that live in the complex and they are all tame. We first walked the tigers to a canyon area where we took more pictures than my iPad can even handle (literally it won't take any more pictures). Then we watched the tigers play with each other, wrestling and jumping at each other. They are such big agile playful creatures, but they are not as soft as they look and they do smell. We then went in with the 3 young tigers (2 were 3 months and 1 is only a month) to play and feed them. Within the first minute the feisty boy pounced on my thigh and sunk his teeth in, but with a quick smack to the face like a puppy he was off. Then he did the same to Jorie and then to my mom. After trying it with all three of us and getting the same smack in response he figured out not to bite us. The little tigers were so cute and had the biggest paws ever- their paws were so disproportionate to their bodies. They were extremely playful like puppies until it was time for their afternoon bottle. They sucked down every drop of the milk and were so much more affectionate after eating. The Tiger Temple was quite an experience, and it was great to see and handle these beautiful animals.

So far we are loving Thailand! It is unlike any other place we have ever been. More to come!

Monks, Hairy Beds and Expensive Taxis

We have spent our last three days in Greece on an inland adventure up to Meteora.

Tuesday afternoon we took a bus from Athens up to Kalambaka, Greece. Getting to the bus station was an adventure in itself and it was a miracle that we actually made it to the well hidden and out of the way bus station, thank goodness for the group of ladies who helped us. The bus ride was much longer than we expected, 5 hours of listening to Greek music (less than fun) and hundreds of pages read in our books, we finally found ourselves in Kalambaka. Kalambaka is a small town that looks at two of Greece's mountain ranges and it sits at the bottoms of massive rock formations. The rock formations are geologic wonders and host many monasteries. There once were 28 monasteries built into the rock formations, but today only 6 remain.

We were so happy to get off the bus after the long trip, but were unsure of where we would stay for the night. Within 30 seconds of us surveying the scene and which way we should begin our hotel search, our travel angel appeared- an old kind faced man on his motor scooter. He handed us a brochure of a nice looking hotel and told us 35 Euros. We were in shock and agreed to see the place. Well, our old man did deliver on his promise of a cheap place to stay, however it was not the nice hotel we had seen in the pictures. The place he was offering for the cheap price of 35 Euros was a bedroom above his store.... The bedroom was simple with 3 single beds and with a quick glance it would appear to be just fine. However, with a closer look we could see hair on the sheets, the floor, and just about everywhere, as well as a leaf in the toilet and oh, the light bulbs were all dead... We decided to take the cheap price aware it would be an adventure. We had to go down into his store to pay, and there are no words that could describe his store in a way to do it justice. This small store contained everything and the kitchen sink: belts, chains, nails, mugs, tools, birds (yes live birds) and much, much more. I don't think he had added any products since about 1955 and I think his last customer purchased something soon after that. The amount of dust made our noses go nuts. He fished out some traditional Greek candy as a thank you, I hesitantly put it in my mouth not knowing if the white chalky outside was due to age or on purpose.

Wednesday, we spent the majority of the day exploring the rock formations and the monasteries. We walked for 5 hours and went into 3 out of the 6 still functioning monasteries. The beautiful weather along with the incredible views made it fun to explore. The monasteries were unbelievable- they looked as if they were impossible to reach perched up on top of isolated rock pillars. But back entrances bridges and hundreds of stairs always led to the peaceful residences. The last monastery we visited was the Great Meteora, and it was well deserving of it's name with the most impressive church and the most extensive facilities. The church practically had the whole bible painted on the walls.

We were both running on empty by time we finished seeing the Great Meteora. We arrived to catch the bus 10 minutes early but Greek maybe time was against us, and the bus had already left. With low blood sugar we began walking the 8 km back. Within 10 minutes a car pulled up and offered us a ride, as they had heard our disappointment of the bus leaving without us. We were so grateful for the ride and even learned some more information about the monasteries because the lady was a tour guide.

We enjoyed the small quiet town, delicious chocolate cake, and eating our last big of raw greens. Today is a day full of travel... First an hour long bus, then a 4 1/2 hour bus to Athens, then a expensive taxi ride (because Athens is on strike again there is no public transport), now we are waiting for a flight to Cairo (delayed because of the strike), and then to Bangkok.

P.S. We just learned that 92% of Greeks smoke cigarettes.

Things we love about America...

My Dad questioned why I would want to go on this trip and leave, in his opinion, the best country in the world. I tried to explain that this trip would only make me appreciate home more and would open my world up... So this list is for you Papa Grenney and we will continually add to it.

In America...
- the majority of people don't smoke cigarettes (unlike Europe)
- water fountains and clean drinking water always at your finger tips
- Bus drivers and taxi drivers follow most rules (unlike Italy and Greece)
- there are driving rules (unlike Italy, Hungary and Greece)
- Dinner is before 9 at night (unlike Greece)
- you don't have to pay for public bathrooms ( unlike all of Europe)
- the majority of bathrooms have locks and toilet seats (unlike Greece)
- having one common language rather than multiple (unlike Europe)
- that you don't have to hold the shower head (unlike lots of Europe)
- that you can put toilet paper in the toilet (unlike Greece)
- people wait in lines rather than pushing and shoving (lots of Europe)
- strikes don't shut down public transportation (Greece)
- stores don't close in the middle of the day for siesta (although I love an afternoon nap, this really prevents anything being done all afternoon) (unlike Italy and Greece)
- people use deodorant

Strike and Strike-outs

Both of us this whole trip have had high hopes for Santorini (the largest and most populated island of the Cyclades). Jorie was excited for Santorini so she could finally see where 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' and 'Mama Mia' were both filmed. I was excited to see the island after studying it in geology classes in college. To say the least, both of us had high expectations and images in our head of what Santorini would be like... Santorini isn't a mystical volcano land or a city with donkeys rather than cars. After two days of bad weather on the island, it honestly didn't live up to our expectations. But it's still a rather cool Greek island.

Although we were unable to ride donkeys, Santorini has inspired Jorie to maybe make some money off her donkeys at home with some donkey rides at birthday parties and such. Greece has really hurt our budget, so we both might be getting creative with jobs when we get home.

Anyways, after a late Saturday night (due to our midnight ferry ride) we had more of a leisurely Sunday morning. We had fantasized about renting scooters but in reality a car ended up being safer, more practical, and a lot drier with all the rain. We drove up to the top of Ancient Thira which had beautiful views. The island is much smaller than we had imagined and it is very narrow- you can practically see the ocean from wherever you are on the island. It is significantly more fertile than the other islands in the area due to its volcanic soil. From Ancient Thira we could see the black beach and the location of the red beach.

We walked along the coarse black beach until the rain came and then we took cover in the beach front stores of Kamari. In the torrential down pour we drove up to Fira, the capital town of the island. Fira is built on the cliffs that overlook the giant caldera and bay. The views are impressive but the town has little charm. After some window shopping we drove up along the coast to the town of Oia.

Oia is the town that finally lived up to all the pictures and images we had conjured up of Greece. It is a charming town with traditional Greek architecture built into the cliffs of a peninsula. It was awesome! We loved walking around this beautiful village and shopping. We even splurged on dinner at a place that overlooked the bay and back to Fira. Fira looked like snow on top of the cliffs.

Today we had a day of constant strike outs, as nothing went as planned. We woke-up early to go on a boating adventure with the family from our sailing trip. When the driver picked us up at 6:30 AM the family wasn't in the van as planned, and needless to say we had to drive back across the island to their hotel. From that point on the morning was in a total state of chaos, however, Jorie and I remained the calming force. Our relaxed attitude wasn't very contagious with the teen angst of the 14 year old boy constantly battling with his mother. The morning consisted of a serious game (I don't think the mother would refer to it as a game) of lost and found; however, the 14 year old boy was very skilled at the losing part and the finding aspect of the game was not his strong suit. First it was a jacket, then 2 cameras, then a memory card and then a 10 Euro. This game of lost and found monopolized the majority of 3 hours: the mother frantically calling the taxi company that the cameras were left in, then Jorie and the boy going back up the cable car to meet the taxi man, then them not being able to return because of the lost money.... and the list goes on.

Simultaneous to the game of lost and found, we took the cable car from Fira down to the old port. The cable car had incredible views of the caldera and of the town. The family had arranged a private boat to take us out to the volcano, to the hot springs and then back through the bay. We waited for ages for the boat to come, as we thought that the boat might be on "Greek maybe time" (Greece is not a country that really functions with a time focus, my mother would fit right in). As we sat waiting, 4 local men smoking their cigarettes turn to us and casually say "oh your boat is not coming". We thought they were just messing with us because they seem to have very little idea of the situation or any authority to tell us what was going on. But I guess you should never really doubt a local, as it turned out that they had talked with the captain who said the weather was too bad to go. This created an onset of indecisive chaos, where we tried to find another way to go to the volcano. There are way more details than you all ever want to know, the moral of the story is that we ended up right back at our hotel 3 hours later not having gone out on the water.

Our day of striking out continued with trying to find a place to do laundry... We literally walked around for over 2 hours with almost all the cloths we have on the trip trying to find a laundromat... You would think Jorie would have a sixth-sense/built-in homing device to find a laundromat but unfortunately that was not the case. Anyways, after continued frustration we found ourselves eating some of the best falafel and drinking wine coolers.... The pouring rain also limited the rest of our afternoon.

Tonight, just outside the security line at the airport we had our amazing creative budget dinner. Our first course was Greek yogurt, our second course was honey nut cherrios (that we stole from our boat) that we ate in empty yogurt containers, and our third course was a banana. We enjoyed our well rounded meal while we people watched the security line. Luckily, Jorie was given two sporks as a going away gift for the trip and these have been monumental in our budget eating.

In keeping with our strike out day, Athens was on strike today, so our flight was delayed. We sat and played games with the family in a stuffy, crowded airport. When we finally arrived in Athens at 11 PM there was no public transportation due to the strike, so all 5 of us (the family and us) piled into a taxi. The taxi driver definetly didn't know what a defroster was which made the drive a bit sketchy with fully fogged windows (6 people in a small car in pouring rain). And I dont think dotted lines on highways in Greece indicate anything to a Greek driver.... We finally arrived to our hostel just after midnight and for the first time all trip Jorie and I were separated... We are having to sleep in two separate rooms. Hopefully our umbilical cords can stretch for a night.

Recommendation: After seeing 7 Greek islands our favorite was Mykonos. It was classy but still affordable, quaint and charming, picturesque Greece and has great beaches.

Radom things we forgot to tell you about our sailing trip:
- we sailed along side a dolphin which was so cool....
- Jorie is fascinated by the topless beach culture but could not muster the courage to truly 'experience' this first hand
- Greek public bathrooms are the worst because not only do they not have toilet seats, most don't have locks either

Salt Salt Salt

Over the last 7 days we learned to manage sea sickness, we made some of the most challenging sandwiches (trust me it is challenging to make a sandwich in a galley kitchen when the boat is swaying away), and we became acquainted with port life of a sailor.
The adventure continued the last 3 days on the sail boat. After exploring Naxos Island we set sail for some of the smaller Cyclades islands. I will spare you the details, but due to some toilet issues we had to change our course to a bigger island. We ended up at Ios Island, which has a small settlement down by the port and then the larger local population high up on the mountain. By the time we got to Ios Jorie and I needed a break from the group, so we ran to the beach for some quiet time. Ios felt like a ghost town, as most of the shops had closed for the season and there was very little going on. Luckily our mechanical toilet problems got fixed so that we could leave the next day.

We sailed from Ios to a beautiful remote bay in one of the small Cyclades islands. The bay had steep mountain sides with Greek goats wandering the rocky terrain and then a isolate beach. There was a WWII fighter jet sunk in the bay, it was rather eerie to look at the skeleton plane that has sat their for almost 70 years. We enjoyed a beautiful swim in the majestic water. Then we sailed to Katokoufonisia, a very small island with a population of 240 people and probably just as many cats. Because there wasn't tons to do we played cards on the boat and continued to peal through our books.

The weather is very unstable in the Greek islands this time of year, so we had to change our plans again and head back to Naxos rather than to sail on to Santorini. We were all bummed that we couldn't make it to Santorini but a big storm would not make the seas fun. It took almost the whole day to sail back to Naxos, but the wind was good.

Our captain gave us two options of ferries to take to Santorini: Saturday night at 11:00 PM or Sunday at 3:00 PM. He didn't think anyone would be crazy enough to leave so late at night, but we wanted to maximize our time in Santorini so we sacrificed another nights sleep and took the late ferry with the other family from our boat. We arrived into Santorini at around 1:30 AM. We were both so tired, and the 12 year old girl Kaylie said I looked scary because my eyes were so bloodshot from exhaustion. Jorie and I took a bus to the town that our hotel was in and the bus driver pointed us in the right direction, but we had other directions from the lady who runs the place. It felt like the Czech Republic all over again, as the directions made it seem obvious but it was no where to be found. After walking the streets at 2 am with our big packs for a while we caved and called Pension George. Even on the phone with us she struggled to describe how to find the place. We finally collapsed after a long day at 2:30 AM in our hotel room. Although we didn't sleep as well without our swaying boat, we are glad to be on land again.

Touring Naxos

Dramamine is our new best friend! Yesterday, with the help of our new pill, we managed to not get sea sick. We started the morning with a breakfast and a salty swim in a secluded peaceful bay. The water is so clear and refreshing. We then sailed from Paros to Naxos, which are rather close islands. It was a much less windy day and much less rocky which probably helped the reduction in sea sickness.
Naxos is a much bigger island than any of the other ones we will be going to. It is very mountainous and arid. We rented some bikes (apparently we haven't done enough biking this trip), which were about 30 times nicer than our Czech Republic bikes, and rode down the coast. We stopped at a beautiful beach for a swim and some time in the sun. We were able to find a Greek meal deal for dinner and enjoyed a quiet evening.

Today the group rented cars and our skipper showed us the island. We saw some extremely old churches (4th century), went to the oldest distillery around, hiked up part of Mount Zeus (the tallest mountain in the island chain) to some caves, and then went to a remote town for a traditional Greek lunch. It was delicious! The roads on the island are very narrow and twist and turn with steep cliff edges, although we weren't sea sick today it is shocking we didn't get motion sickness. I was much more comfortable when I got to drive and was in control.

Our group dynamics have proven to be rather entertaining. Let's just say we are seeing everyone's true colors in these close quarter. Tomorrow we head to a new island... More to come.

Salty Seas

Last night we met up with our Gap Sailing Adventure and today was our first day of sailing!

About the boat:
We are sailing a 50 foot, 2-sail sailing yacht. We use a foot wide board to bored the boat, which makes it truly like walking the plank. There are two helms and then a deck seating area with a table. Within the cabin there is a small galley kitchen, a seating area, 3 bathrooms, 4 bedrooms and the captains quarters. We are staying in a room with bunk beds, and we refer to them as coffins though. There is barely enough room for us both to stand in our room, turning around is out of the question. Our bags are on our beds during the day and on the floor at night. It's defiantly the tightest quarters we have been in yet, but still very nice. The boat is beautiful- it's a new boat but still has a lot of wood finishing and is tastefully done.

Our Captain:
Our captain, Cornelius, is a German 27 year-old balding sailor. He is, well, let's just say rough around the edges. I think the three things he loves most in life are sailing, cigarettes, and alcohol, and I think he loves them all equally as much. He is a very good sailor and has basically been on a boat most of his life. He can completely sail the boat by himself but we can help too.

Our fellow boat mates:
Ray: a single 30 something Canadian guy on his 2 week vacation for the year.
Jenny and Mike: a newly wed Canadian couple who are on their honeymoon.
Kara (mother), Masson (14) and Kaylie (12): a Texas family who is traveling around the world for 6 months... They are doing their school work remotely via the computer and Kara's teaching, and they will return in December and have to take final exams for school. They are in their 4th month of traveling and have some amazing stories.

Last night we met at a tavern in Mykonos. We were briefed on the week and then about the boat. We got to know each other while having drinks and watching the sunset- it was picturesque. Cornelius took us to a traditional nice Greek dinner at the traditional time for dinner, which is 9:30 pm. We are all accustomed to eating this late... But our Captain ordered to show us the Greek ways and we ended up with tons of food, including disgusting after-dinner shots. The dinner was way out of our usual budget. We were up way later than usual but had a good sleep as the boat rocked us to sleep.

Today we had a safety briefing and then set sail. We sat on the bow enjoying the sun and conversation. We sailed down wind most of the day which is suppose to be smoother but after about 2 hour Jorie and I both started feeling sea sick. We remained green the rest of the sail and even after we were on land tonight the sea sickness continued. We stopped in a beautiful bay with turquoise blue water. Although it was rather chilly with the wind, after some encouragement we all ended up getting into the cold water (not as cold as Sebago at the beginning of camp though). The water is so so salty which makes floating very easy. After splashing around a bit we had lunch in the gorgeous setting.

We ported tonight at Paros Island, which is south of Mykonos and a much smaller version. The town is cute but small and much more quiet. It took no time to explore the streets, and we found some great stores and even a good gyro. Because we found that dinner the night before didn't fit our budget we decided to eat on our own, so we had dinner (gyro) and dessert (delicious chocolate cake) for the two of us for a quarter of the price of last night.

We both feel rather queazy and off, but we hope tomorrow we will be able to manage our sea sickness better.

Things we have learned:
- tomatoes are bad for sea sickness....
- bananas taste the same going down as they do coming up (luckily this was not learned from experience)
- there is only about a one inch tide in the Mediterranean
- the topless trend appears to exists throughout the islands... Luckily our boat has not yet decided to follow the in- crowd

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding, yes this is a movie but we witnessed this as well. We were walking to the bus after a wonderful day in Mykonos Town when we heard a ruckus of noise. Our first thought was "oh no, not a riot or strike". But the noise was coming towards us and resembled sounds of New York City. A long stream of cars all with their horns sounding came driving down the hill. Leading the charge was a car covered in decorations with a voluptuous bride who was overflowing her dress and her groom. All the guests of the wedding were loud and excited and it appeared that most of the locals were involve in the festivities. Let's just say I am so thankful we don't have the tradition of making this much noise for a wedding in the US.

Mykonos is amazing, Jorie and I are in 7th heaven. The Island is dry with rolling hills that look over the rich blue ocean. The hillside is covered in sugar cube white buildings with the deep blue accent color. The little town has streets that wined like a labyrinth and it is easy to get turned around on the narrow streets with the surrounding uniform white buildings. Also, there are stray cats everywhere.

We had a blast shopping and wandering for hours. We had to control our urges to buy buy buy. We each bought 2 things for our sailing adventure, including an epic sun hat. We had two rounds of gyros, as well as drinks over looking the gorgeous views. Much to our dismay we did get coaxed into going up to a roof top bar that overlooks the beautiful sunset. Everything in the place far exceeded our budget and we tried to devise a plan to escape but we had no such luck. So we split a milk shake and watched the sunset.

Today we are relaxing on the beach! It is absolutely gorgeous. The water is clear blue and pristine. And there seem to be Greek boobs (both women and men) everywhere our gazes take us. Regardless, we are loving laying in the sun in this beautiful place. We will meet up with our sail boat tonight.

Ruin Cities

In the past two days we tackled two cities of ruins, Rome and Athens. Yes we were rather turbo to take them both on in such a short period of time, but it worked out and was fun.

We left the farm early Thursday morning and took the hour and a half train to Rome. Jorie's roommate, who studied abroad in Rome, mapped out a walking route to take us by all the big must-see places in one afternoon, and this was key to our efficiency (thank you Matt). We started by fueling ourselves at a hole in the wall pizza place- it was delicious. We started our walk at the Colosseum. It was very impressive to see, and it looked just like the pictures... Old, massive and a little decrepit. We walked up to Venezia Plaza (a massive building with statues and guards), then to Argentina Plaza (in the center of the plaza is the Cat Sanctuary with tons of ruins), then to Navona Plaza (a beautiful plaza with a big fountain and statues as the focal point) and then to the Pantheon Plaza. The Pantheon was extremely impressive, it's almost 2000 years old and so well preserved. It was mind blowing to stand inside and to think of people building the massive stone gorgeous building just after Christ. While we were wandering through the crowds of people, I found myself recognizing a familiar face... I was in utter shock to see Dick, our camp handy man, standing at one of the oldest buildings in the world with us. It was so out of context, by the time I register to say hello the crowd had already separated us.
Anyways, we continued wandering through all the shops and fun streets until we reached the Vatican. We pulled out our scarves and covered up to see the Catholic Mecca, St. Peter's Cathedral. The church was massive and decadent. In my mind one of the most impressive things is that what looks to be tons of paintings on the walls and ceiling are actually mosaics. In the 1700's all the painting were transformed into mosaics. The idea of the billions of little pieces boggles my mind.

After a meal deal dinner (good for the money but nothing compared to Kirstie's home cooking) and some gelato, we headed to Trevi Fountain. There were so many people gathered around the beautifully lite up masterpiece. Seeing it at night made it even more impressive.

After feeling as though we had seen all we could see of Rome in one day we headed to the airport... This is where the adventure really begins... And this is also why you travel when you are young. So hostels were looking rather pricey and we were concerned about getting a train to the airport at 3:30am to catch our flight. Being the problem solvers we are, we decided the best plan would be to sleep at the airport. I did some research on the airport and believe it or not I found a website called Isleepinairports.com. Yes it is possible to find just about everything on the web including all the info you want to know about sleeping in an airport. Anyways, the airport did not have as many options of where to sleep as we had imagined. We both have always slept in airports with carpet or padded chairs, but the Rome airport doesn't have either. So we found 4 big plants blocking off a little corner. We each made ourselves a little bed the concrete floor. The floor, as I am sure you can imagine, was hard and cold (the cold factor was the worst part because by the time we woke up we were frozen). We got very little sleep but it was worth it to save the money for one night.

Our flight to Athens was a much more comfortable sleeping environment.

We started out experiencing Athens by having a tasty Gyro for lunch. We took one of my tennis players advise and decided to see Athens via a Segway. We took the Segways for a two hour tour all around the Acropolis, and it was a much faster way to cover a lot of territory and it was so fun. I loved exploring the old world ruins on the new world hi-tech form of transportation, the contrast was amazing. Our tour guide Pluto wa also very helpful and attempted to educate us on the history with his thick Greek accent. Jorie did have one incident where the Segway had a mind of it's own and ran her off the road causing her to fall off- I found it hysterical. I would recommend the Segway Tour to everyone who visits Athens, it's awesome.
We hiked back up to the Parthanon after the tour. It was amazing to see the structures which have been there since 5 centuries before Christ. The views from the top were also impressive, Athens sprawls for miles.

We went back to the shopping areas Pluto had showed us and enjoyed ducking in and out of the much cheaper (than any where else we have been) shops.

We had an amazing Greek dinner of salad and gyros. And then topped it of with Greek yogurt.

It was great to go back to a hostel with beds that were warmer and more comfortable than the concrete floor of Rome's airport.

Now we are off to the Greek islands, first stop Mykonos!

Gettin Twiggy with it

September 28, 2011
Gettin Twiggy with it comes from our time spent liberating the olive trees... We got lots of twigs stuck in our hair.

Our last few days at the farm flew by and we enjoyed every minute. We continued to have amazing meals and indulge on all the home cooked fresh food. Over our time on the farm we never had the same meal twice and although they all had similar ingredients they tasted different from the one before. Although our way of contributing to the meals was to do the dishes, by our last night we were having cooking lessons from Kirstie and found out some of the secrets to her delicious food. We both feel very inspired to cook when we get home, and hope we can figure out how to make it taste the same.

We worked on liberating the olive trees the past three mornings. We tackled the trees that seemed to be fully engulfed in vines, blackberry's, and rose bushes. All the prickers did not bowed well for our arms and legs, which looked like they had been in a serious cat fight. But it was extremely satisfying to find the olive tree after clearing away all the other vegetation. Our last tree we worked on for two hours, and the vegetation around it had been growing into a thick mess for over 28 years (before Kirstie moved to the farm). Kirstie was rather impressed that two young American girls plowed through so much work on the olive trees.

We also continued our other chores of feeding the animals, walking the dogs (who became our new best friends) and watering the garden. On our last day we also helped stack a massive wood pile, which we are sure will make Jorie's dad very proud.

Two afternoons we went on adventures... On Monday we hitched a ride into San Casciano (the closest big town) with Kirstie and Granny/Robin. San Casciano is a cute town with lots of fun streets and lots of local social life. It was nice to be in a non-touristy town for a change. On Tuesday we tried to tackle the Italian bus system again and go to Siena. Kirstie packed us the best lunch to eat on our journey. Getting there was smooth without a problem, however, getting home was more challenging. We got back after dark again and we had yet another angel help us, this time it was Pascal, as he picked us up at the bottom of the hill so we wouldn't have to walk in the dark.

Anyways, Siena was amazing, it was our favorite city in Italy (I should say so far because we are on our way to Rome now). The city is built on more of a hilly landscape which allows you to have views of the city and countryside. The streets are narrow and winding with tall stone buildings with shutters. There are lots of plazas, but the most notable is Piazza del Campo which is built like an amphitheater with a clock tower as the focal point. It was great people watching on the plaza- people laying on the incline looking up at the clock tower, kids playing kick the can, and tons of people with gelato. We of course couldn't resist the gelato and it's a good thing we didn't because it was the best ice cream so far this trip! The Siena Duome Cathedral was incredible and we can go as far to say it was the most impressive church, both inside and outside, that we have seen. We were in awe of the detail and the spectacular art work. We went nuts with the camera but the pictures don't do it justice. This church should be on people's bucket lists....

Our last afternoon at the farm we did some more print making, had some cooking lessons, and enjoyed Granny and Kirstie's company.

The whole week was a dream come true, it was the perfect way to see Italy. We had an amazing deal on the farm- we lived in paradise with a wonderful family and outstanding food in exchange for 4 hours of work a day. This morning we left the farm heavier, both our bags from added olive oil and our bodies from indulging on olive oil. We were sad to leave but hope to make it back to the farm for olive harvest season someday.


More lessons from traveling:
- Finding someone to take your picture is a serious art.... We have had so much trouble with picture taking in Italy. We practically did an entire photo shoot with one women to only discover later that she infect never pushed the button. The key is so look for people with a similar camera, but even that doesn't aways work.
- Italian men are not shy about starring.... We've even been getting honks from tour bus drivers. Also, While in a Internet Cafe we had a man take pictures of us on his iPhone... This creeped us out.

Lessons from Granny:
- a baguette is actually called a "husband banger"
- a joke: "what did the bra say to the hat?", "You go on ahead and I'll give these two girls a lift"

Life at Hilltop Farm

Life at Hilltop Farm is absolutely amazing, a taste of paradise. Delicious food, beautiful views all around, amazing weather, peaceful environment, rewarding work, meaningful conversations and best of all wonderful people. I could not be happier here, we are so lucky to be able to see Italy this way.

Each day we enjoy two walks with Charlie and Auzy (the dogs), we feed the chickens and rabbit, we water the plants and we do the dishes; these are our daily responsibilities. For our farm work, which we do from 8:30 to 12:30 (with a tea break), we work to "liberate the olive trees". It sounds more dramatic than it is... Suckers, blackberries, and vines tend to grow around the base and up into the olive trees. This extra vegetation can be very constricting to the olive trees and it also gets in the way during harvest season (which is in about a month). So we are working to free the trees by using an ax-like tool, clippers, saw and various other tools to cut off the suckers and vines. Some trees have very little growth around them and take less than 5 minutes to clean up. But then there are trees that are covered in vines- these trees take up to a half hour to free. The vine covered trees are so satisfying to free, as it is a massive puzzle as to how to untangle them. I have learned that Tarzan isn't completely unrealistic... Both Jorie and I have hung with our full body weight from some vines and they don't budge because they are so incredibly strong. Tarzan in Tuscany- I never thought that was possible. Anyways, we are building up calluses but the work is rewarding.

It doesn't seem like we are working all that much because well we aren't and tea time always breaks up our work time too. Tea time is so wonderful, we both wish we had it in the states. It's a great opportunity to take a break but also to socialize.

We have been eating like kings here. Although Kirstie isn't Italian, she is a phenomenal Italian cook. Everything is so fresh and so full of flavor. And the secret ingratiate to it all is olive oil- Hilltop Olive Oil that is. They produce the tastiest olive oil, and it makes me realize what poor quality olive oil I have had my whole life. Jorie and I are getting lots of ideas of meals to cook when we get home and Kirstie even taught me the secret to chopping vegetables! Not only is the food amazing but is it's also so special to take the time to sit down all together for both lunch and dinner. We have the most lively conversations and have gotten to know each other quiet well in this short period of time.

Being at the farm has also been a great break from our constant travel. We have enjoyed the simple pleasures of not having to pack everyday, not having to lock our bags all the time, sleeping in the same bed, getting away from all the cigarette smoke, and being in more of a routine.

It's hard to want to leave paradise but we have ventured out to take advantage of the surrounded Tuscan towns. Friday afternoon after working on the olive trees, we set out for San Gimignano. We caught the bus at the bottom of the hill (about a 20 minute walk from the farm) to Poggibonsi and then another bus to San Gimignano. Let me first start by saying that the roads that connect these villages weave through the Tuscan hills and the bus drivers are fearless. All the drivers seem to have had a history of some form of race car driving and on top of this they love to multitask (talk on the phone, text, give change back to customers who have bought tickets). Also the busses don't slow down when they come to towns with narrow roads with lots of blind spots, instead they just lay on the horn and assume they will win if anyone dares to come around the corner. The bus rides just add to the adventure.

San Gimignano is a beautiful medieval walled town on top of a hill with spectacular views of vineyards and olive farms. There are several towers that also provide beautiful views. The small streets are lines with cute old stone shops. There was a festival going on when we arrived (we apparently have epic timing for festivals) so we followed the loud music and came to the big square where firemen were jumping out of the second story windows onto an inflatable mattress thing. The crowd loved it and the firemen kept rotating through. Our bus ride back was even more eventful than our sickening ride there. We first thought we were going the wrong direction, then a bus driver wouldn't let us on the last bus back to our stop, so we ended up in Florence. While problem solving in Florence our angel appeared in the form of Rudy! Rudy (one of Kirstie's sons) had luckily been hanging out with friends in Florence after school and was about to take the last bus home. We made it back to the farm by 9:30 in the pitch black.... Camp has trained Jorie and I well because we were just fine walking up the rocky hill in the dark.

Saturday we ventured to Pisa and Lucca by taking a series of busses and trains. This time we managed to master the Italian system without feeling motion sickness and we got back before dark. In Pisa we did the obvious- we saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Lucca is quaint with a lot more character than Pisa. We enjoyed the markets, the shops and the cafe's in this cute walled town. Although exploring was fun, we were excited to head back to the peaceful farm.

We could have ventured out again Sunday, but we are both so happy on the farm we decided to have a relaxing day. Kirstie taught us how to print make, so our creative juices have been flowing all day. It is amazing to work in their studio- it is like a epicenter for creativity. The whole family uses the studio for all there different artistic pursuits, and they are all so talented. We are constantly unveiling more of each of their talents, everything that we use seems to have been made by one of them. For example, the beds we sleep in were made by Pascal, the knives we use Oliver made, the blankets around Kirstie made, and the windmill in the studio (someday to provide power for the house) is Rudy's project. It is amazing to see how inventive and creative they are.

Only 4 more nights in Hilltop paradise, oh how sad we will be when we must leave...

September 25, 2011

Pants off to the Duomo

Tuesday night we spent on the train going from Budapest to Vienna and then Vienna to Florence. To keep within the budget I had purchased normal seats rather than a sleeper car, some anticipated 12 hours on the train in an upright position not very conducive to sleeping. What we thought was going to be a sleepless night turned out to be a interrupted sleep full night. We were lucky to find ourselves in a train car with only 3 out of the 6 seats full, this allowed for us to recline the seats into a an almost flat position which connected them to the other almost flat seat. Although I do not have my brothers ability to basically sleep sitting up, both Jorie and I found the train to be conducive to sleep.

We arrived in Florence just as the sky was beginning to lighten and the sun was about to come around the corner of the earth. We were wandering the streets of Florence before the rest of the city was up, it was amazing to have the city to ourselves for a few hours before it became a zoo of people. We stumbled upon the Duomo and we able to admire the huge church with no one else around (very rare). The first time I saw the Duomo was when I was 12 with my mother, ever since then I have held it up as the most impressive church because of my memory of it being so grand and like nothing else I had seen up until that point. The Duomo is still incredibly impressive but my perspective of it is completely different now. Jorie and I have seen so many breathtaking churches in the past three weeks. They are all unique and special in there own way, but most on the outside are architectural artworks and then the inside is where the fine detailed are expressed in painting, sculpting, gilding and woodwork. However, the Duomo is the exception to this, the outside is overwhelming with the amount of detail on such a massive scale. You could spend years looking at the intricate details on the outside. The inside is much simpler and not very distinct, that is apart from the dome itself (which has breathtaking paintings that look like they are alive).

Anyways, more on the Duomo later. We continued to wander until we found a wonderful cafe across from Santa Croce Square. It was rather picturesque as we ate and sipped tea as the mopeds went by. The markets were in full swing after breakfast... In the other cities we have been in the markets have been colored with all varieties of fruits and vegetables and have a wafting smell of fresh bread. Although we did walk through one market like that in Florence, the majority of them where colored instead with all shades of browns and blacks and smelled of amazing leather. There is everything you could ever want made out of leather in these markets. We could resist, we shopped (in the sense we went into tons of stores and refrained from buying). As we walked the crowed streets our eyes constantly wandered to the gelato shops (I felt like my brother Peter) and we plotted which one was the most deserving of us. A friend, Annie Riley, suggested that we pick one food and try it in every country we go to and then at the end report on which country has the best. She suggested fried chicken, we have decided ice cream!!!

By the time we went back to the Duomo to go inside, the line was rapped around half the church. Ice cream occupied our wait time... When we got the enterance of the church the security guard wouldn't let us in in our shorts. We scrambled, I tied my jacket around my legs and Jorie whipped out her shopping bag with her new pants and asked where she could change. The man pointed us to just inside the enterence, we expected there to be a bathroom there to change in. Oh no, it ws just the side of the enterance, so in a complete giggle fit I blocked Jorie as she changed. Yes, Jorie Ohlson dropped her pants in the Duomo, it was so funny.

After lunch we took caught the bus to San Casciano Val di Pesa, our new home for the next week. We were a tad bit nervous because lately we have heard more negative things than positive about WWOOFing (the farming group we went through). We were both so ready to be in the country and get our hands dirty but we had so many questions as to what the next week would look like. we were both also very excited to meet Kirstie and Pascal, the two owners of the olive farm.

This is getting long so more about the farm later...


Randomness...
- we hate the smell of cities...
- Jorie calls a bathrobes, a night jacket.
- we found peanut butter before boarding the train, this felt like a gift from God. Why is it that America is the only country that really likes peanut butter?
- why aren't there female taxi driver?
- it feels like just about everyone in Europe smokes... Don't they know it's bad for you?
- we have started to find ways around paying for bathrooms everywhere... We now feel more like seasoned travelers.

Under the Tuscan Sun

The bus ride to San Casciano was only about 35 minutes. Kirstie, and her mother Robin, who is visiting from New Zealand, picked us up at the bus station. Within 5 minutes Kirstie had won our hearts over by buying us ice cream. Also, we instantly felt connected and conversation flowed naturally, as they made us feel so welcome and comfortable. We drove the 15 minutes out of town and up a massive hill to their farm. It is absolutely picturesque Tuscany- olive trees and grape vines being farmed all over the hillsides and old villas scattered around.

Pascal and Kirstie live in a old villa on top of the hill with their 700 olive trees around. On the ground level there is a apartment with 3 bedrooms, a bathroom, a laundry, a sitting area and a kitchen. Jorie and I each have our own bedrooms in the apartment, more space than we have had in weeks (sleeping in separate bedrooms is stretching our umbilical cord). Our rooms have incredible views of the countryside.

On the farm besides the olives there is : a big vegetable garden, fruit trees (pomegranate and fig), 2 horses, a bird, a fish, a rabbit that lives with 6 hens, a rooster who is scared of the rabbit, and 2 wonderful retrievers. Charlie, the black retriever, and Auzy, the golden retriever are brothers and the best of friends. It's wonderful to have dogs around again. We found ourselves instantly attached to them. One of our jobs while we are here is to feed the dogs, chickens, and rabbit. So Charlie and Auzy are bonding with us quickly.

Kirstie, New Zealand born, came to Italy to study art 28 years ago. Pascal has spent most of his life on the farm. They have three children- Rudy (17) and Oliver (19) who are still at home and Ana who is at university in New Zealand. The family is so down to earth, thoughtful and generous. Also, they all have so many hobbies and are all artists of some form. Kirstie is a painter and printmaker, Pascal is a weaver, lute maker and hot air ballon pilot, Oliver is a jeweler, knife maker and medieval sword fighter, and Rudy plays the piano. Robin, the grandmother visiting from New Zealand is an amazing gardener. The whole family is so lovely and interesting.

Shortly after arriving we took the dogs for a walk, and it was beautiful. We came back just as the sun was setting and creating one of the most spectacular skies, this sunset competed with Sebago Lake ones. We had a delicious feast for dinner and talked for hours.

Today we started the day off with walking the dogs and feeding the animals. We worked from 8:30 to 10:30, had tea and then from 11:00 to 1:00. We did odd jobs around like picking up the dropped figs, working on the compost pile, cleaning the chicken house, raking,etc. It was wonderful to be productive again and to get out hands dirty. Plus working in the Tuscan sun is gorgeous.

We had another feast for lunch and talked for ages again. We had a peaceful afternoon of reading, writing and talking.

Jorie and I feel to lucky to be here... We are in paradise with the nicest family! More to come....

Bubbling Budapest

In the past two days we have cranked through Budapest, we saw everything we wanted to see and more in this short time. I am still amazed that we can still be going at our turbo speed, I hope we can keep this up for the next 2 months.

Let me start by giving you a little bit of an overview... Budapest is a beautiful city, there is lots to explore on both the Buda and the Pest side of the Danube River. Most of the buildings around the city look very old but they have actually all been built within the past 150 years (new for Europe's standards), this is because the city has been hard hit by many wars throughout its history (WWII destroyed tons of the city). Also, the architecture in the city is very eclectic, this is due to the wide variety of outside rulers/empires that have controlled the city. There can be renaissance, baroque and communist style buildings all next to each other... It is very bazaar. For that reason the city is very inconsistent - one block you can be on what feels like a high class western European street and then the next it feels like Big Brother is watching you and is extremely seedy. The city has a huge homeless population as well. It is apparent that Hungary is a post-communist country... parts of the city are stark and cold, some areas appear to be in a time warp, most locals disregard rules, the Forint (Hungarian currency) has been subject to inflation, many government run programs are highly inefficient, and supposably bribery is still actively used to get what you want, including good health care. Although Budapest may not be the best place to live because of the post communism era they are in, it is a wonderful place to visit.

Our first afternoon in the city we were lucky to attend the Budapest fall festival. The festival shut down one of the largest streets in the city and extended for over a mile. There were tons of food vendors, local crafts, performances (lots of traditional Hungarian dancing and singing) and tons of games for the kids. I found their games to be very creative.... For example, they had two huge hay bails and the kids had to race pushing the hay bails. The festival ended in Hero's Square (for those of you who have seen Avatar, this is supposably where a seen was filmed) where there was a horse race. I think all of Budapest was gathered in this square to watch the race, so it was so packed that we couldn't see a thing. The festival was such a great way to get submersed in the culture of Budapest right off the bat.

We took the underground back to the center of the city, this detail may seem superfluous but the underground was a experience. It was a complete time warp... We only went 15 feet under the street to where an old fashion looking tram with leather handles and wooden rails was, and there was also a small wooden ticket office and the tickets looked like ticket you receive at a carnival. It felt like the very first underground. We came to find out that it is in fact the second-oldest underground in the world!

As the light was perfect and the sun was setting, we climbed (390 stairs) to the top of St. Stephens Basilica Church. The view of Budapest was incredible! We could hear the singing of the 6pm mass as we climbed down the stairs. The inside was yet another impressive church. It amazes me how every church we see is completely unique and spectacular in it's own way.

We then explored the other two famous streets on the Pest side of the river. For our first afternoon in the city we covered so much territory.

Yesterday, we started our day by exploring the Great Hall Market. The first floor of the building is an entire fresh food market, similar to Naschmarket in Vienna, as there are so many smells and such vibrant colors from all sorts of fruits and vegetables. The second floor of the market was all local crafts and cooked foods. After breakfast at the market we crossed the river to the Buda side and climbed Gelert Hill, which provided another view of the city. We spent the rest of the morning on a walking tour with a local Hungarian, Suzy. Suzy was full of energy, had a spicy personality and gave us tons of history. We ended the tour at another impressive church- Mathias Church on the Buda side. There was not an inch of the walls inside that were not covered with ornate and intricately painted design... Yet another unique church. Our heavy Hungarian lunch weighed us down for quite some time while we wandered the streets. In the evening, we went to the Szechenyi Bath House. We spent two hours floating and relaxing in the large pools, hot tubes, saunas, steam rooms and medicinal pools. It was extremely relaxing after walking for 7 hours that day, but we both were prunes after. To counterbalance our heavy lunch we had dinner at a hummus bar, which was our favorite food in Budapest.

Today we spent most of the day at the House of Terror Museum which focuses on the Nazi and Communist rule within Hungary. We learned a ton and were so impressed by the place.

While in Budapest we stayed at a Hostel called Bubbles in Budapest. Basically a 3 bedroom apartment that had been converted into a 16 sleeper hostel. The owner was extremely nice and helpful, she prides herself on being a community hostel... This means all the guests tend to hangout together... This is nice in theory but this becomes less appealing after a long day when you are forced to socialize for hours when all you want to do is sleep. Our first night we tried to watch a movie but we were interrupted by this Irish Psychology professor, who was socially awkward, going through a midlife crisis and was using alcohol as a copping mechanism. Besides the weird Irish Professor the other guests were very interesting and nice people.

We had an amazing time in Budapest! We are now on a 3 hour train to Vienna and then an overnight train to Florence. We will be spending the next 8 days on a farm outside of Florence. We are both excited to have some country time and to be staying in one place for more than 2 nights.


Facts we learned from Suzy:
- the Danube is the second longest river in Europe- it goes through 10 countries
-65% of Hungarians are Catholic
- Hungary has been part of the EU since 2004
- their only natural resource is water
- the average Hungarian meal is about 2000 calories
- Hungarians invented the rubrics cube, ball point pens, and the first computer
- the Hungarian language has 44 letters in the alphabet
- the average income in Hungary is 400 Euro's a month- another result of the communist occupation

Wien! Aka Vienna

Vienna is an incredible city! It is full of history but also full of life... the people are assertive yet polite - we had many locals come up to us and offer their help within about 10 seconds of not knowing where we were, they were extremely good at recognizing that confused tourist face. There is tons to see, lots of great shopping, awesome food, lots of English speakers and even some free bathrooms.

Over the past two days our wandering throughout the city was extremely productive. We became pros at the underground and also walked a ton. Although neither of us are big horse people we both made our mothers proud by attending the Spanish Riding School morning training session. It was well worth it... To start with, the Hofburg complex is an incredible building.... When I think of horse shows I think of an arena like the National Western Stock Show in Denver, dusty with florescent lighting and bleachers in a huge stadium type place. Well Hofburg was polar opposite of that; a beautiful stone structure with wooden chairs above the arena which was pristinely raked and 3 of the most stunning chandelier mounted into the most intricate crown molding ceiling. The setting itself was worth the entrance fee. That particular days training for the horses was not very elaborate but it was still amazing to see. Basically it was like horse ballet... They moved the horses in the most graceful way making it look completely effortless. The horses even grape-vined and hopped. After a while of watching it I had to remind myself that what they were doing was not easy or natural. I was impressed by the training so I am sure the actual performance would have been incredible.

After exploring the inside of St. Stephan's Cathedral, which was beautiful, we hiked the 340 spiral staircase stairs up to the south tower. Although we were very dizzy it was well worth it to have a view of the city. The shopping around Stephansplaza and the Old Town was awesome, and Jorie and I even made our first purchases and spent a lot of time window shopping.

The Belvedere Palace and Gardens were gorgeous and fun to walk around. We also walked through the Botanic Gardens which was lacking in comparison to the palace gardens. The most impressive of all the Palaces and Gardens was the Schonbrunn Palace. Everything within the palace grounds was decadent and on such a massive scale. We spent over two hours wandering through the gardens and probably only saw half of the garden. There were hundreds of little paths you could take in every direction which all led to small gardens with statue focal points. For once we subjected ourselves to getting lost willingly, and we got lost in 3 different mazes they had within the complex. It was rather fun. For our lunch we had the largest and the best pretzel ever while looking over the gardens and the palace. We only spent a few hours at Schonbrunn but we could have spent an entire day.

Hostel Wombat was right next to the Naschmarket, so we spent lots of time taking in the colorful market. During the day one side of the market is overflowing with all types of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, flowers, bread, meat, etc... I had never even seen about half the fruits before. Then at night the other side of the market turns into a popping restaurant seen with loads of people out to enjoy the outdoor eating. Our last night in Vienna we decided to splurge on a dinner in the market, so we got dressed up and scoped out the best looking food. We ended up at a delicious place called TeWa with very fresh but light food (which is a nice change compared to the heavy Austrian food). We tried Sturm, which is a fall drink that is basically wine fermented for a long time, it is very fruity but very good. Our attentive and helpful Austrian waiter recommended that we go to Cafe Central to have the world famous Vienna Sacher Torte, chocolate cake. We took his advice but discovered that the chocolate cake must be more of an acquired taste, we preferred the Zanoni Ice Cream which is the best ice cream in Vienna.

We had very weird/ extremely talkative roommates in our hostel... The first night we had 3 Brazilian girls and an Australian girl (who had basically followed us from our Hostel in Bratislava). We saw a lot of Brazilian bums, let's just say we tend to be a lot more modest than the Brazilians. We then had a Latvian girl who had never left her country until now and was like a deer in the headlights. We also had a German roommate who was a know-it-all and asked more questions than even I do. We found ourselves trying to avoid them for fear they would cling to us and never shut up...

There is so much to see an do in Vienna... We didn't go to any of the famous museums but we enjoyed getting to know the city in our relaxed and wandering manor. Vienna was amazing and now we are off to Budapest on the train.

Other random things:
1. We have been mistaken as locals several times and also as sisters a lot...
2. Vienna has lots of really amazing street performers...
3. Gourmet is the best grocery store for meal deals followed by Billa...
4. The Vienna public transportation system is very efficient but they are not very good at monitoring if people actually purchase tickets.
5. Absolutely nothing is open on Sunday mornings in Vienna... Sunday store closers are strictly enforced.... This made finding breakfast a challenge.


Other things we have learned about traveling:
1. Eyewitness Pocket Map and Guide for the specific cities are the best tool... They provide little blurbs if info, some pictures to catch your interest and helpful hints.
2. The iPad and iPhone are so so helpful while traveling for a long time.... Thank goodness for apple.
3. The best way to find reliable hostels is hostelworld.com.

To Bratislava and Back

Guess what? Since we haven't been on bikes in the past 48 hours, we haven't gotten lost once!

After 8 days of getting to know the Czech Republic, Wednesday morning we said good-bye to the beautiful country and headed for Austria. We were only in Vienna for about an hour when we decided to fly by the seat of our pants and add another country to the list.... Our hostel didn't have availability, so we took it as a sign to adventure some place else. We hopped on a bus to Slovakia, and arrived in the capital, Bratislava within an hour and a half. Lugging our bags through the streets of Vienna, on the subway, on the bus and then through the streets of Bratislava was by far the hardest part. Our bags are only 30 lbs each but now we are wishing we had packed even lighter.

We stayed in Hostel Possonium, which to put it nicely was a bazaar place (Jesus was the hostel desk manager was at least very entertaining). On our first venture into Bratislava the skies opened up and we got soaked. We wandered the streets, ducking into stores frequently to avoid the rain. While stopping for a hot drink I discovered that Hot Chocolate in Slovakia is actually just a melted chocolate bar, it was so so rich. Our overpowering craving for a burger lead us to what we thought was a sports bar... After having a burger each for 7 Euros we concluded that we were eating in the Slovakian version of Hooters, instead of orange they were wearing stripes.... Oh well the food was cheap.

Today we explored Bratislava more but we were bored of the city rather quickly... The most exciting thing that happened was we were asked to be in a movie... So Jorie and I acted out a tourist seen in front of the castle... So I guess now we are going to be movie stars in a Slovak movie. Over all Bratislava was rather weird and felt like a ghost town.

We caught the afternoon bus back to Vienna... Vienna is such a happy and lively city in comparison. We were so excited to get back to a lively fun place. This evening we went to the Opera!!! We were both dressed up and in a little bit of a rush to get to the Opera house, so we grabbed our favorite, meal deal for dinner, and ate our sandwiches as we walked down the streets of Vienna... It was hysterical. The Opera was an amazing experience... The architecture of the famous Vienna Opera was spectacular and well worth seeing. Both Jorie and I had never been to an Opera, so we didn't really know what to expect but it was very enjoyable and quite an impressive art. We wandered Naschmarket, which is such a popping and fun place... We both found ourselves staring at all the delicious food... We are now back at our hostel, Wombat, planning out tomorrow's adventure and so excited for all there is to see. Wombat is the nicest hostel we have stayed in yet.


Other random things we have noticed...
- On the boarder of Czech and Austria there is a shopping center called Freeport! Yet another Maine reference....
- Austrian women are very good at riding bikes in skirts.
- We have seen lots of Austrian men wearing headbands... Apparently that is in...

Tour de Czech Comes to an End

So today was our last day of biking... It was not a problem free day nor was it very graceful, but in my opinion we conquered the day. We biked for 7 very long hours and were exhausted and dehydrated by the time we finished. But we biked the whole way! I will spare you the play-by-play but will give the highlights and let's call them lowlights....

After a very restless nights sleep (I think because the town was haunted), and a bazaar breakfast, we got started on a very hilly day of biking. Any hesitation I had to go fast down hills before (from my previous bike accidents) was forced to disappear today. Most of the day we had extremely hilly terrain and we did a lot of very intense mountain biking. I had some close calls on some roots and rocks as we were flying down the steep banks. Jorie and I both had never done such intense mountain biking (seemed harder than Colorado divide trail) but we became experts by the end of the day.

We had another beautiful day of weather with clear skies and very sunny. There are many signs of fall on the countryside here, we even biked through a lot of fallen leaves. Our bike route today was along the Czech-Austria boarder. We biked right up to what is left of the Iron Curtain, and it was very interesting to see the remittence of the Cold War. The farther south we rode there were less farms and more vineyards.

Similarly to previous days we had our fair share of getting lost... We had one wrong turn that resulted in us ending up in Hardegg (it was the first town name in Czech that we could actually pronounce but we didn't need to because we weren't suppose to go there), which consumed far more than an hour of time and forced us to walk up a 4 km hill. Our other detours for today were not as painful or out of the way but still seemed to be time consuming.

At one point, we put our bikes down to stopped to check to see if we were on track, as we were looking at the map we heard the most dreadful noise... At first I hoped it was just a snake but no we were not that lucky. We looked down to see all the air out of Jorie's front tire to be gone.... It was as flat as a tire can get. It was so surreal, we both couldn't believe it, we couldn't help but laugh. We were on a dirt road with farm fields all around us, so there was no hope that our helpful Czech man would reappear. I tried to simulate exactly what the Czech man had done on day one... It wasn't working so well when along came, not one but a couple riding by. Luckily I had put my bike in the center of the path, so there was no way they could ignore/ escape us. They did not speak a word of English but we have gotten rather use to that by now. The man had a very hard time trying to fix it and he seemed to be getting very frustrated with it because he was yelling a lot in Czech. But then another couple came (I actually have no idea where these people came from on a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of nowhere). The two men duked it out and got the tire back in order, but they couldn't get the pump to work well enough, so they sent us to the nearest town to find a compressor. We thought it would take us hours to find one but luckily we found an open garage and a man working away in his workshop. We really lucked out with this flat tire.

When we were almost to Znojmo (our destination) we had to stop and ask for directions yet another time (side note, thank goodness we are females and are good about stopping to ask for directions). We apparently picked the wrong person because Jorie was stuck talking to this creepy man who wanted to practices his English for what felt like an eternity.

Znojmo is the biggest town we have seen since Prague, but is rather rough around the edges. We were elated to get to our clean hotel after such an exhausting day of biking in the sun.

We have enjoyed our time in the Czech Republic and feel we know the countryside almost intimately. We are excited to be done biking and head to Vienna tomorrow.


All the wildlife we have seen on the past 4 days of biking (much of which has been through forests):
- a small and very dark squirrel... Rather scary
- a hare... Yup, that's it

Lessons we have learned while in the Czech Republic:
- pay the extra money for a guided tour
- my dad is right, everything in life in moderation, that includes biking.... So if you want to bike somewhere don't bike more than 25 miles a day and only bike for 3 days.
- also, when picking a bike tour pick someplace like Iowa rather than San Francisco....
- "This is the Czech Republic- lock everything!"- our hotel manager at the first Inn
- Czech's love porn... There are over 40 channels on the TV in our room
- Czech's also love smoking cigarettes... ANYWHERE
- do NOT expect people to speak English anywhere besides Prague

The Czech Republic is beautiful and we hope you all can someday see it, but will hopefully not get to know as intimately as we have.

Bush Whacking on Bikes

So we had hoped that today we could keep our blog entry on the shorter side, but unfortunately I don't think we will be able to achieve that goal....

Although our legs are a bit sore and our fannies scream when we sit on our bikes, today posed to be much more challenging mentally rather than physically....

Our itinerary today revealed that today was going to be extremely hilly. If we thought the first day was hilly and they didn't even give us a warning on that one, than today was going to be insane. So we decided to start our day with a little public transportation. Oh no, denied! The bus driver would not allow us to bring our bikes on board. So back to square one, biking.

We were lost within minutes but tried to remedy our mistake using our map. We found ourselves in the deep woods, for all the Wo- girls out there, they were way more dense than camp (I know, hard to believe). Both of us are rather fond of the woods, but then there was a chainsaw man.... He was just minding his own business cutting down trees, but the sound of the chainsaw was rather frightening as we rode along. We both felt like it could be a seen out The Blair Witch Project or something like that. Anyways, we got back on track, but it took us about 10 km of riding to go 5 km on the map. Also, the days description of hilly was not a joke, rolling hills and lots of them.

Things continued much the same as they have in past days, lots of poor directions, lots of guessing but beautiful landscape and awesome weather. Our next big boo- boo happened when the directions from our tour company were cut off the page.... So we were missing the last 4 or 5 words. We looked at our map and followed that instead... We followed a small paved path, much like the other ones we have taken. The path was up the longest hill ever with about 4 false summits. When we reached the top, the path turned into gravel (which has happened a lot) and then the path just became grass, and then just a massive field! It was beautiful, we could see all the surrounding towns and all the farm land. We had two options, go back about 5 km to where we went wrong or make our own path down through the field. We went with the latter. So we peddled down the massive field, which for those of you who have seen Sound of Music, looked a lot like the opening seen when she is singing the Hills are Alive with Music. We then walked our bikes through a huge pine stand on a very steep slope. After the pine trees there was dense grasses and shrubs that we bush whacked our way through. We both felt like it was NOLS all over again but with bikes. While bush whacking we got covered in stinging neddles. We came to a farm path where we both took a moment... Frustration had finally reached us. With our stinging arms and legs and a lack of forward progress we found this one harder to laugh off. We followed the farm path and much to our dismay it took us back to the exact spot we had started. The full circle had taken us over an hour and was probably 8 km.

We took the only other turn possible and then found ourselves at a town that was completely off our route and only 10 km from Telc (where we stayed last night). More mentally defeated and frustrated than physically tired, we decided to throw in the towel. It was already 2:30 and we had another 50km to go, at this rate there was no way we would make it there by dark. We called our tour company and after feeling incompetent, arranged a car.

While driving with Anton, the old man who owns the hotel we stayed in last night, we came to 5 road closures that even puzzled the local. The drive took over an hour and would have been crazy to bike.

Vranov, the town we are staying in, is the smallest town we have stayed in yet, which means that no one speaks a word of English here. Also the town seems to be haunted/ deserted. Our hotel is the weirdest one yet but it will do for the night.

We just had a wonderful dinner and have recovered from our interesting day. Not quite sure if our dinner was pork or chicken, but it satisfied our hunger from yet another day full of adventure. Day four of biking here we come!

Back in the Saddle

The bike adventure has continued!

Getting back into the saddle, or should I say torture devise, was rather painful. But we were luckily to have another great day of weather and beautiful countryside to look at. Within 3 minutes of setting off biking we were already confused by the directions. They read, " go to Trebon Square, go straight, then turn right at parking lot, than left, follow YHT, then turn left and then right". And let me tell you that your guess is as good as mine and you are reading this thousands of miles away. We still have never seen a sign for YHT and have no idea what it is. We did a good job guessing and were on our marry way. It only took a few more minutes until we were faced with more challenging directions. This time we knew we had to turn right but there were 3 path options to the right.... See the challenge. This one took us a long time to figure out. We knew we would have to cross a bridge after 2 km on the path, so we tried every path for 2 km. All the paths were very rough terrain so it was slow going... We couldn't find a bridge down any of the 3 paths. We decided to try to continue down our original trail, it worked! We found a bridge.

Eventually we reached a fork in the road- the way we were suppose to go led to a serious of small towns in a very hilly region, while the other direction lead to a big town where we knew there would be busses/ trains. This is when we decided to take matters into our own hands. We had already ridden more than 25 km, not including all the times we had gotten lost, and the big town was another 15 km away. I was starting to not feel so well due to dehydration (I had already had 2 1/2 full water bottles but for those of you who know me know that is not enough), so we headed for the big town of Jindrichuv Hradec (which we obviously had no problem pronouncing when asking for directions). We started by following a country road but by the time we got there it was practically a highway (which made for interesting riding).

After practicing our sign language again with the local Czech people, we found the train station. Jorie had an interesting time trying to tackle communicating were we needed to go but we eventually got tickets for a price well worth it. Our confusion only really increased from here.... The train people showed us to a truck rather than a train... We put our bikes in the back of the truck and then thought we would get on a train or bus. No we were wrong again (for all you Wo-girls and SMA girls out there reading this, please don't ever try this). A older Czech man who was giving us instructions at a mile a minute in a language we don't know eventually got his point across that we were suppose to come with him in the truck. We rode in the truck through beautiful country side to a town a few miles away where there was a train. The truck driver man pointed us to the train, we hopped on and crossed our fingers it was going in the right direction. Jorie and I were loving this adventure! We arrived at what looked like a deserted train station and were told to get off until our next train. When trying to figure out where we were on the map, an attractive guy appeared out of no where and explained this to us. We took our next train and again were told to get off at a town that was not our stop... This time we boarded a bus. The bus took us through more gorgeous countryside. We were dropped off in Telc, the town we are staying in! Amazing right! We are mastering the Czech transportation system.

Telc is yet another picturesque town. Our hotel is great, just what we need. However, our bathroom is on the weird side... It has mirrors on all the walls and doesn't have an enclosed shower, so you basically are forced to watch yourself shower. Also, the shower is the kind where you have to hold the spout head and spray yourself down- the combination of that and no enclosure made for a very wet bathroom in the end. Let me tell you it's a bazaar experience but I found shampooing my hair to be 10 times more fun in a mirror.


We wandered the town and had a great dinner topped off with ice cream! I have noticed that crocs are in here, its kind of like camp in that respect.

Off the Beaten Path - Czech Countryside

Oh how our adventure has truly begun now!

Yesterday, September 9th, we were picked up in Prague by Ave Bike Tour company. When I booked our bike tour I knew it was a local Czech company and it seemed to be on the small end of bike companies.... But I don't think I really understood how small Ave was until Pete, a flustered Czech man kind of resembling Einstein, picked us up. Pete was driving his personal car and did not really speak English. We hopped in the car not having any idea what was going on. Our state of confusion continued... 2 1/2 hours later we arrived in the town of Cesky Krumlov and to our surprise Pete unloaded our stuff at Pension Gardena (the Inn we stopped at) and we didn't have to do any biking for the day.

We were rather relieved that we had one less day to bike. It was great to be in a small town in the country and get a break from the busy city. The Inn manager didn't think it would be possible for us to explore the whole town in one afternoon, apparently he doesn't know our turbo touring. We explored every inch of the town with time to spare. We toured the local castle, with a cool tower that over looked the town and countryside. We also wandered through all of the castle gardens which were very peaceful. We went into at least 5 toy stores- Cesky Krumlov makes wooden toys which were very cool. From the advice of the Inn manager we tried two authentic Czech restaurants which both had huge portions for very cheap and high quality food. We ate so much!

Today was our first day of biking and we did a lot of biking, more than we bargained for.... We had no idea it would be this hard and we were clueless to how hilly the Czech Republic really is! Yikes! Note to all our friends out their who may be interested in doing a bike tour in Europe, GO TO HOLLAND!

Lets give you some background- Pete gave us a map and step by step directions for each day....seems manageable when both of us are NOLS Alaska alum and we have a great sense of direction. This was our first misconception. Also, we figured that our 60km day of biking wouldn't take longer then 6 hours (logic being we both can run a 10 km in about an hour). Wrong again! It actually took us 9 hours and they were painful hours.

From the very beginning of leaving our Inn we had to go up a huge hill which lasted about 4 km- starting the day walking the bikes is never a good sign. Shortly we entered onto a winding road through the country side and forest. It was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed a state of shear bliss for about 3 hours of riding. We loved the amazing Czech country side, the great weather and actually getting some exercise. It was a combination of some roads but also a fair bit of mountain biking with lots of rough terrain.

We had had good luck with the ambiguous directions of turn right in the town, these are small towns but there is more than one right in every town. But we were right on track and having a great time when we came to a bridge crossing but unfortunately the bridge was closed for repairs. There were lots of Czech people boozing under the bridge and we immediately became their entertainment. We didn't have very many options... We checked the bridge out, disregarded the signs, and discovered it was missing more than half of its floor boards. We carried our bikes up stairs and then balanced across 2x4's across the bridge- it was rather frightening. Then we had to carry our bikes, which were rather heavy, up a huge flight of rock stairs and over a barricade.

We thought there was smooth sailing ahead.... Until Jorie got a huge flat tire. This was no let's just pump it up flat tire. After taking the entire tire off, working with the pump and putting it back on, things were still not looking good. Thank goodness we were on a main road, where surely someone was bound to help. Oh no, wrong again, we flailed our arms at bikers, car drivers and motorcyclists as they went by, but we were blatantly ignored. While sitting contemplating our options and eating our leftover breakfast (first bit of food), Jorie got stung by a wasp. Finally, after about 45 minutes, a gift from God- a Czech man stopped to help. He tried everything we had already done and couldn't seem to figure it out. On his last try of inserting a new tube, it worked. We were so excited! Thank goodness for this nice man!

We continued on our way, and within minutes missed a turn, due to a lack of road signs, which seems to be consistent all around here. This led us to a steep and long climb, which may have been the largest hill in the Czech Republic. When we got to the top we discovered our mistake.... 45 minute detour. From this point on the signage only got worse making getting lost very easy. No one in these small towns speaks English, nor is very inclined to help, but we found a few nice souls that we practiced our sign language with.

With the end in sight we hit another bump, or should we say hole in the road. A crucial bridge was missing due to construction. Luckily we found a near by foot bridge to get across the river. The last 10 km were luckily flat (for the Czech Republic) and we got to the town of Trebon by 6:30. Our butts were so sore and tired of being in the biking position, and we were so hungry and so dirty.

Oh how it has been an adventure. Who would have thought that 38.6 miles would be so hard. Jorie and I are still friends after this trying day and we have managed to laugh it off. We both are happy and safe, but our butts are sore from the more than 38.6 miles we did today. Hopefully the next 5 days of biking will go a little bit better. I hope this brings everyone some comic relief.

Oh yeah after eating so much food, a random lady handed me her baby while she got her stroller out... Apparently I look trust worthy enough to hold a baby but not enough to stop to help with a bike.

In closing, A valuable lesson in physics, what goes up must come down and what goes down must go up. This pretty much sums up biking in the Czech.

Things we forgot to tell you about Prague

- Czech restaurants charge you for condiments like salt and pepper, ketchup, mustered, etc.
- 49% of the Czech population is atheist, yet they have so many churches and synagogues. Because there are not enough people who use the places of worship, the churches and synagogue are being turned into stores, restaurants and other gathering places.
- The Band Rolling Stone paid for the lights to light up the Prague Castle.
- The sugar cube was invented by the Czech.
We have thought of more but of course now we can't remember them all.... Maybe more later.

Czechperts - Prague

We have spent the past two days exploring the beautiful city of Prague! Everywhere you look in Prague there are gorgeous old buildings and yet another spectacular church. The city is full of history and amazing views.

We flew from London to Prague on Tuesday night. Getting from the airport to our hostel was an adventure with the language barrier and public transportation. We are staying at the Mosaic House Hostel in New Town Prague. It is a new sustainable hostel established in 2010, it is modern, clean and the staff is very helpful. We are staying in a 6 person dorm... For the first two nights we had 2 Australian girls and 2 American girls, both of whom were so nice. Now we have 2 boys from Brazil and 2 from Chile. It is so fun to meet other travelers and hear about their adventures.

We walked for 9 hours yesterday and managed to see just about every historic building, statue, bridge, church, square, etc. We partook in a free but amazing walking tour with a guide named Kathryn. Kathryn was an awesome tour guide.... Captivating, informative, a wealth of knowledge, funny and an English speaker! We learned a lot of history (my dad would have soaked it all up)... The city of Prague has been invaded and taken over by outside forces for most of it's history. Kathryn's grandmother who lived in Prague her whole life (from 1911 to 2002), lived in 8 different counties because of how many times the city was taken over. The history is very complex and extremely long, so I will spare you. We saw way too many places to list but the highlights were: Old Town Square, Jewish Quarter, St. Virus's Cathedral, Old-New Synagogue, the Loreto Church, Prague Palace and Charles Bridge.


Today we continued our walking trend but explored on our own. We wandered the streets, shopped, and went back to the places we missed yesterday. We started by exploring the Botanic Gardens, amazing architecture is more of the Czechs forte rather than gardening. We went to the Patagonia store here for a little taste of home. We splurged on lunch and had a completely authentic Czech meal: beef dipped in cream, beef goulash, and some unidentifiable food that tasted a little like stuffing in block form. We walked across Charles Bridge in the pouring rain and got soaked. St. Nicolas church was our protection from the rain until the storm past.... It was beautiful! We have enjoyed a more relaxing evening.

We have still managed to spend very little money... Food in Czech is very cheap which makes it much easier to stay in budget. We ate breakfast for $2 total this morning. Jorie is obsessed with looking for meal deals...

Interesting things about Prague:
- Czechs drink the most beer per capita than any where else in the world... And we have found that every waiter, no matter what time of day offers you beer multiple times. If you say no they look at you so funny. Also beer is significantly cheaper than water.

- There is a clock in Old Town Square that has every day of the year and a Czech name to go with that day. According to law, you are suppose to name your child the name on the day of their birth, however this is no longer enforced.

- The oldest synagogue in Europe is in Prague.

- Czech's invented the microwave.

Bumming Around England

We have had a wonderful past 5 days in England, it has been the perfect start to our trip. We have been able to get acclimated to life abroad and get into the groove as travel partners. It has also been nice to start in an English speaking country and one that I am familiar with....

While in England, which should be one of the most expensive places we are going, we managed to only spend 104.02 pounds each, which is $168.58, over 5 days! And we still met all our basic human needs and still saw everything we wanted to see.we have found these meal deals at the local grocery stores... 2.50 pounds for a sandwich, fruit and a drink. We are very excited about how great we were with money while here.

Sunday we had a relaxing day at The Temple, my uncles country home in Stoke by Nayland. We slept in, went for a 2 hour walk through the country side with my uncle Veere, had a delicious lunch and spent time with Eddy and Cosmo (David's two sons). The country side of England is so beautiful and all the villages are incredibly charming.

Sunday night we headed back to London. Uncle Veere showed us his new home which they are moving into this week.

Monday we were so productive! We spent the bulk of the day hopping on and off busses seeing all the historic and famous parts of London. Jorie and I had a blast in Hamley's, the largest toy store in England, we spent almost an hour exploring all 7 floors. We had lunch at a classic pub where Jorie was excited to have fish and chips. The National Gallery, London's (free, yeah) art museum, was so impressive. We both were overwhelmed by the volume of art and in amazement by the depth of their collection. Not only did some of the art date back to the 1300's but we also saw some of the worlds most spectacular and famous pieces of art... Monet, Degas, Seurat and van Gogh were some of the artists work we saw. We were lost in the museum for hours but could have stayed there for days longer. St. Paul's Cathedral, which we went to after the gallery, was a piece of art it self. The cathedral is so grand and had incredible detail. We saw tons more throughout the day but these were the most notable and the places we spent the most time.

After a long day of walking around the city, we went to Billy Elliot the play. We had front row seats, which were surprisingly the cheapest tickets. It was awesome to be so close because it felt like we were in the play. It was a great play, the kids were so talented!

Today, it was extremely rainy and gross, Jorie said it was similar weather to hurricane Irene. We explored Notting Hill and went into some great shops.

Jorie's sneakers, flip-flops, and water bottle all went missing today, which was our first big glitch. We search everywhere but couldn't find them. But we did find an old pair of Cosmo's that were being thrown out, they fit Jorie perfect! Bumming around Europe on Cosmo's shoe string!

The rest of our day has been consumed by travel... A taxi to the bus station, a bus to Standstead, and now flying to Prague.

That's all for now....
Photos to follow, once we master the iPad and foreign Internet.

P.S. London is the leader of attractive men thus far...

How Devine

1. Allison has been a klutz the past 24 hours... She has fallen down the stairs at Uncle Veere's, out of a tree but luckily not out of the row boat. But no worries, she is not slowing down.

2. After sleeping 12 hours Jorie still fell asleep on the drive to Stoke by Nayland, where Uncle Veere's country home is, and where we are spending the weekend.

3. The weather has been excellent - warm, sunny and blue skies.

4. We went for a great walk through the English country side today with David. There were delicious wild blackberries along the path and we even came across a 1930's War themed wedding at the local church (which was built in the 1500's). We also came across a tree that's center was burned out, Jorie and Allison climbed into and David took loads of pictures.

5. We picked tomatoes from the garden for tonight's incredible dinner. David and Veere have been amazing hosts and have spoiled us. We are enjoying every second of being treated like royalty before we head off to all our hostels.

Greetings from London, England

First Entry on the iPad... This could get very interesting and be a finger work-out....

Allison's entry:
I began my journey flying from Denver to Boston; it was rather uneventful apart from making a friend on the airplane.... Jorie picked me up at the airport and we went into the city to kill some time and see our camp friend Reed. We departed Boston on Iceland Air to Reykjavik, Iceland. We fit right in heading to Iceland because the majority of the people were blond hair blue eyed; however we didn't have a clue what most of them were saying. The flight was surprisingly short (only 4 1/2 hours), so we didn't get much sleep. The Reykjavik Airport was modern, clean and a well oiled efficient machine. Everyone went through customs and another round of security, even if you were just connecting. Jorie discovered how fast and how much water I can drink after multiple security checks when all liquids had to be disposed of...
We had very little time before our next flight to London. This was another surprisingly quick flight (just under 3 hours). Both of us were very tired when we arrived in London. We took the train into Paddington Station and then a taxi to my Uncle Veere's office and then to Uncle Veere's home. We had our first snack for the day, chatted with David and then headed out to explore. We walked for miles today and really got a feel for London. We walked up from Chelsea through Hyde Park (which was a popping place), to Buckingham Palace, to Big Ben, to Westminster Abbey and across Westminster Bridge to London Eye. We went to the evening service at Westminster Abbey which was incredible. The church is a true piece of art and is so rich in history, there was so much to look at even if you weren't into the service (which I was). Jorie was just very excited to see where the royal wedding took place.
We took the tube home because our feet were killing from all the walking. We were both starved and exhausted, so we had a wonderful pizza on the roof top of a place in Chelsea. We are now back at Uncle Veere's very nice home and so thankful to have a bed to sleep horizontally in.

Our first day of traveling was a huge success... Jorie is very into the accents, I apparently have a hyper sense of smell, and we are both having fun. We are both excited to get some serious sleep!

Jorie's entry

Things Jorie has already noticed about London:
1. They drive on the wrong side of the road.
2. They have very practical taxi cabs.
3. There are lots of bulky men running though the city with backpacks...
4. There are lots of women with bright pink hair, I am not going to try this one at home.
5. Everyone speaks another language.