Hey good lookin, whatcha got cookin?

Well, lindsey said i should post something, so i told her i would post something about how good i look. I think i am extravagantly good looking. In fact i look so good that Joel said i look "almost as good as him". so there you have it, i guess i look pretty good.

A Wasted Day

So this morning I woke up at 9:30 to meet Raphael, the owner of the apartment to pay him and sign the contract. Then I went back to bed and we all slept until 3:15! I figured it was late but not that late! I hat"e that. We all had cereal for "breakfast" and then went shopping for groceries. It was the weirdest store. I had looked it up on the net and knew it was a grocery store, but fromt he street it looked like a Womens clothing store. The grocery part was all downstairs and it was huge. There was so much selection. We bought lots of stuff and walked back.

We started making supper right away so we could go out. We made Stirfry and rice it was aweome.The rice comes in cool little plastic packages that you just put in boiling water for 10 minutes. There is no measuring and no burnt rice on the bottom of the pan. We even bought steel wool prepared for that. The rice that comes out it perfect! Not mushy at all. It is Uncle Bens. I dont know if we have that at home or not cause eric and I always buy the cheap stuff cause we have a steamer.

I did laundry and we all relaxed for a little bit before going out for a walk. Eric and I went on our own. We shopped around fo souveniers for a little bit. Then we went to the fair in between the Jardin de Tulliers and Place de Concorde. It wasnt that exciting but we bought a Paris Paris Paris Paris bag and a large thing of delicious cotton candy and hung out there. Then we walked along the Seine River for a while before heading back. At 10 oclock the Eiffel Tower started sparkling with lights. It looked so cool. It did it for like 10 minutes. I didnt have a camera so I didnt take any pictures of anything. We came back to the flat and now we are goig to watch a movie and then go to bed. Tomorrow we are going to wake up earlier and then celebrate the new year way before anyone at home!

Paris!

Our sightseeing day in Prauge was rough. Not because of the city or the event, but because of the night and the sickness. I managed a bit of sleep between 7 and 10.3o. But right when I woke up I felt extremely sick again. Eric was just as sick as me and Sean was also sick, but not as bad as us. We think it was the coffee the night before. I had made it really realy strong and Eric and I both had 2 cups and Sean had one which is why he was less sick. If there is such a thing as caffiene poisoning I think we had it. Prague is a gorgeous old city though, it is fun just walking around. Our night train to Paris started and ended rough, but we got an ok night sleep.

Our apartment is great. It is tinier than we thought, but it is perfect for what we need. Today we basically just hung out in it. We walked to the Champs-Elysees and went to the Virgin Megastore for a little bit. I bought my first french CD and it is awesome. I had heard them on the radio when we rented the car and had been trying to figure out who there were. After asking, singing and describing them to an employee he directed me to the right one on the first try even though he looked very confused. This apartment has free internet, even though it is slow so I will update everynight. Maybe some pictures if this old compy can handle it. It has windows 98...

Its only 6AM!

So here we are, wide awake at 6am, me and Eric. The coffee was a big mistake. We have not had any sleep at all yet!

So here we are in beautiful Prauge. Yesterday, well I guess it was two days ago now, we spent all day training to Pardubice cause of some train confusion. We thought we might not make it to the game. But we did. Painted bodies and all. It was the best game of hockey I have ever been to. There were so many canadians there! Way more than I expected! Canada won and it was great. I hope you saw us on TV! We were in the left section on the TV 8 rows up. The only ones with painted bodies. Eric was ALL red. LOL. It was so fun.

Today we slept until 2. We went for lunch and by the time we were done it was dark. Pretty sad. We walked around a bit and went into a Giagantic shopping mall. I loved it. The boys regreted showing it to me i think. Then we went to a bar to watch hockey but they shut it off as soon as we ordered food and they played soccer instead. Then we played cards and drank coffee and now we cannot sleep and I feel sick from the coffee. mmmrrggggmmmm

Merry Christmas From Us!!

I hope you love our family photo!

Our Christmas!

The Beautiful Hoarfrost that has lasted for days here!
Pancake Soup
Us at the Christmas Market in Ulm.
Pictures from our Christmas supper out. Not sure what was happening in the last one.

Something From The Question and Answer Mix Up Game

Q- What if Joel loved wearing women's pants?

A- Then I would puke a little bit in the back of my throat.


Couldn't have worked out much funnier than that.

Christmas is Coming!

So its been a long time since I wrote on here because.... well I dont know a good reason except that I am lazy. So.... where to begin.

We are here at Dayna's and it is awesome. It feels the most like Christmas and home out of anywhere we have been. We are glad to be here. We have done alot so far. The first day we met the family and ate lunch with them. It was really nice to meet them. Then we hung out for the afternoon and then went to the Christmas market in Bad Saulagu. It was small but it was nice to see it and the town. I stayed up really late that night baking Christmas cookies. It was awesome.

The next day we slept in really late and it was beautiful. Then we at lunch. Then Dayna took us to a thermal pool thingie (hot springs) and they were so awesome. We stayed there for 2 hours and it only cost 6.50. I felt so much better after that. Then Joel had to come backto shave his face for the ladies and then we went for and amaing raclette supper with Dayna's friends. It was soooooo very very good, and I want one of those machines. We came back home and I baked cookies late into the night.

The next day we went to Ulm to shop in the christmas markets. We sent the boys alone to buy gifts and Dayna and I had fun girl time shopping. I found an amazing sweater and Eric wouldt let me buy it but I forgot I had some money for Christmas. I love H & M, it is an awesome and cheap store. We hung out in the evening, I made more cookies and we watched The Pianist and it was really good. We went to bed earlyish.

This morning we woke up early to go to a brunch at Daynas church. It was really good and we talked to lots of very nice people who had very good english. It was fun. Then we hung out at home watching TV and playing cards and eating cookies. Then we went to a restaurant to have supper. It took a while to find one but it was worth it. It was a cute little place with a cute little old German lady serving us. She was so cool. We loved her so much we took a picture with her! Dayna and I got free Santa chocolates from a guy who probably had a large crush on both of us. The meal was amazing good. We spent lots of time there and it was fun.

Some fun stories for you...
...I baked my wedding ring in the oven yesterday. It was bad but it is not ruined. It wasnt in a cookie but it was covered in cookie dough and it got stuck to the bottom of the pan.
...we found a gorgeous and awesome girlfriend for Joel. We just need him to make a move.

Thats about all. This post sucks but I was really distraced by converstaions and Gross Chef, Klein Chef. It is AWESOME! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Dead goats and hoarfrost.

Hello and Merry Christmas!

I understand yesterday was the Mennville Christmas Program. Sorry to have missed it.

We are in Germany at Dayna's, finally. There is hoarfrost on all the trees (i hope everyone knows what that is, but just to be safe here is an explanation: if there is fog during the night in winter, it freezes on the tree branches and twigs making them all white and sparkling; it is not a woman of questionable morals freezing on a tree branch [check the spelling]) and it is beautiful.

The plan is to stay here for five days, until Christmas day when we take off for the Czech Republic to watch the Canada game. Some interesting stuff happened to us in the last few days, particularly in Marseille, where we were for a day before coming to Germany.

We went to a Morroccan market there, and boy was that an experience. There as a long line up when we got there to get into some kind of compound where there were a dozen (at least) sheep in a pen. Of course i asked what was going on, and didn't get a clear answer, at least not in english. The guy made a throat cutting motion, so i put my hands up and backed away slowly. I didn't know if he was threatening me or if he meant the sheep were being slaughtered, so i figured i should play it safe and get the heck out of there. Later i figured out that it wasnt a threat, because there were morroccans running around all over the place with dead skinned sheep over there shoulders.

For some reason the markets always smell hideous (actually i know the reason, it is the smell of all the fish that are left out in the hot market for who knows how long - i don't think the ice unerneath is helping any, guys) so of course lindsey walks around with one of seans socks under her nose to filter the smell, which, if you'll remember form some of my precious posts, tells you how bad the smell is.

All in all, it was an amazing cultural experience, especially after the disappointment of not being able to get to Morrocco. Well, i am off for lunch, so i will write more again some other time.

Off to start our Christmas "Holidays"!

Right now we are in Marseille, not seeing very much stuff. Tonight we start our journey to Dayna's place in Germany. Something we are all very excited about. I can't wait to make good meals and bake cookies! So many cookies! Lol.

It doesnt feel like Christmas at all and it is 5 days away. Normally I would be so excited and counting down the days. We all really miss home and wish we could be there for Christmas...

Another Great Day In Barcelona!

Today was very fun. We slept in way too late again. We went back to the same Donar place we went to yesterday, but it was closed, to we waited for it to open. It was only 1/2 hour wait. They donars there are amazing and it was well worth the wait. Then we took the metro to Park Guiell, one of Gaudi´s designs. It is soo cool, tonnes of mosaic tile and the longest park bench in the world. We took the metro, Eric and I to the Poble Espanyol and the boys to the FC Barcelona football stadium and museum. Eric and I didn´t go there because we have already been. The ¨Spanish Village¨ that Eric and I went to wasn´t very good. There was nothing really to see there and it cost 8 euros each to get in. It was just a recreation of 117 spanish buildings, none of which I recognised. It was nice, but it should have been free. There was cool shops we looked around in, but we didnt bring enough money to buy anything good. We walked around and took funny pictures. We spent all of our money on candy and then headed back to the hostel. Even though it wansn´t great it was nice to be on a ¨date¨ with just the two of us.

Back at the hostel we bought groceries and made supper. It was the best supper yet. We made mashed potates with cream cheese, butter, oregano, garlic salt and pepper ( it was half mashed and half chunks but it was all good); fried seasoned pork and a garden salad. It was soooooo very very good. Then we headed out to see a flamenco show. We took the metro to the wrong place and had to go back. We made it to the show with plenty of time. We bought Sangria to drink ( the BEST i have ever had) and enjoyed the show. It was amazing. We only paid 6 euros to get in, because it only lasted 1/2 hour. It was over way too soon. It was my favorite thing we have done here. Now we are going to bed. Tomorrow we head to Marseille with a short detour to the Salvador Dali museum in Figueres. Night!

joel's list of things he hates

Lindsey missed a few things that i dislike so i made a list for those of you who are interested.
in no particular order.....
1.montreal allouettes
2.saskatchewan roughriders (unless they are playing the allouettes)
3.spelling allouettes
4.detroit red wings
5.cbc televison (exception for saturday nights)
6.jocks that are one size too small
7. greek salads
8. the antiques rode show
9. chris chelios
10.trinket shops with pushy pakestani sales men

A Gaudi Day in Barcelona

Not sure how good this post will be cause I am really angry right now. The guys lefts me all alone in Barcelone at night. They were supposed to follow me like normal, but they didnt.

Anyways, now that I am safe and sound ( I walked around with me pocket knife open for a while cause I thought this one guy was following me), today was otherwise good. We slept in waaaaay too late. Then we went to see the amazing Sagrada Familia, Gaudi´s masterpiece church that was started in 1882 and won´t be finished until 2020! Joel and Sean hated it, but they don´t like anything we see anyways, nevermind stuff that I like. I loved it! Then we went on an architectural adventure and saw a few more of Gaudi´s buildings. They are very cool. I really wanted to go in one but it was 16 euros each, way over our budget for the day. We continued walking to Las Ramblas, a cool pedestrain street with lots of human statues and souvenier shops. We bought a few souveniers that i really like. I tried to get Joel to buy something for his mom here, but he thought everything was ugly that i picked out. I guess if it doesn´t look like a weapon or sports items it is ugly. There was a really cute chihuahua dressed up with a clown playing music. It was even wearing pink doggles. Eric didn´t think it was real. Then I headed towards the park and thought the guys were behind me, but they weren´t. So I walked back to the hostel by myself at night without a map. I think they are making supper now but I don´t feel like eating.

Barcelona Graffiti

Alicante was a much needed stop. We didnt do a whole lot there, but after the rough week we had prior, we needed to relax and stay in once place for a few night. I really love that city. I love all the parks and palm trees. I love the huge beach lined with palm trees with the soft fine white sand. I loved the sun! It was so nice to be in the sun, not in the rain!

We arrived in Barcelona a few hours ago, it is pretty cold here. It seems the shorts are going to be packed deep into my bag for the rest of the trip. I am excited about this city though, it is really cool. Lots of things to see! It´s almost Christmas! I am really looking forward to the time at Daynas. It doesnt feel like Christmas AT ALL here. I am not in the spirit at all. Usually I would have been for like 3 weeks!

Alicante, eh?

We are currently enjoying the beautiful sun and beach in Alicante, a mere 15 minute tram ride from my old school, Rio Vida! We found a great hostel for 15 euros a night, with a kitchen, and 4 bathrooms on our floor.

Last night we got invited to the principal´s house for supper. After a bit of confusion about trams and such we arrived, to a candlelit dinner, with christmas music playing in the background! (no bull) His eight (8) beautiful children were sitting around the table, and we were served meatloaf, potatoes, and salad, as well as specially baked cookies by one of the girls for dessert! It was amazing, and it felt really christmassy, which is always good.

We are staying one more night in Alicante, then heading to Barcelona, Marseille, Dayna´s, Czech Republic, Paris, London, then HOME!! Our little trip is almost over. It will be bittersweet to board that plane back to God´s country.

Well, that´s all for now...

pointless entry

Just writting to let everyone know that i am alive, you really dont have to worry. This is not a long post because i have no pant shitting experiences to write about. I guess my feet smell similiar to that little diddy of an experience though. Oh and just so people can have a visual of me, i think that i should note im getting fatter.

Things are looking up in Alicante

So, after a very long series of unfourtunate events, the sun is now shining, literally and figuratively, on our European adventure. The rain clouds have truely been bamboozled by us, and we are much less stressed.

The night train back to Madrid was horrible. We luckly made it on the train at 9:05 to Alicante. Yesterday the Alicante day was horrible. Lots of walking around with our packs confused and very little eating. Our low point was paying 55 euroes to wash all of our laundry and then getting a hostel with access to a washing machine. Unreal.

Today was much better. We went to Rio Vida to visit Eric old school in the morning. The rest of the day we hung out and had Siesta. It was really nice. We still have to go back to the hostel and cook supper tonight, and I´m not sure what else. We are spending tomorrow here as well, because it is cheap and we love it. It is so pretty!

Night Train

Okay, i know lindsey is going to give you the pretty version of the night train, so i am here to set you all straight on how it really was:

As you know, we booked the cheapest seats not realizing that they were just that - seats, and not a sleeper car. The story lindsey wont tell you is how we ended up in a sleeper. First of all some Koreans (or maybe chinese, its so hard to tell the difference, you know?) ahead of us had apparently pulled the same mistake (can you imagine two people, english both their second language, trying to comunicate - oh boy [actually we saw that in paris, it was hilarious, but thats another story]). We saw them all of a sudden getting up and grabbing their stuff off the racks, and lindsey, stressed to the hilt, leaps out of her seat and tackels the smallest one in the back. They both go flying and lindsey demands to know where they are headed. The poor lady is terrified, she nearly wet her pants, and stutters that they got an upgrade.

Lindsey takes off like a shot, i honestly didnt know she could move that fast, and she heads off to find the conductor. Meanwhile, sean joel and i are sweltering in our seats behind what must be the only boiler left on trains (it was weird, i could have swore that the train wasnt running on coal, but there was the boiler) wondering if we should go after her or pretend we didnt know her. The Korean/chinese people were giving us pretty dark looks, so we decided to play stupid, and said she was from the USA, which seemed to work.

Well, long story short, we get the sleeper car, and everyone sleeps ok.

It's all downhill from here.

Please take note how the Jealous Mutterings section has changed to Condolences.

So last night we though we got a major deal by paying 6 euros for a sleeper car. Well suprise, suprise, just out luck. The 6 euros was for second class seats in the hottest, most uncomfortable train seats ever. I almost paniced so we paid 23 euros each for a sleeper for 4. The room was hot, but at least it had beds. It stank like nothing else. 4 bodies, all in need of a shower and NO clean underwear. I MADE everyone put cucumber melon antibacterial handwash on their feet to keep the stink down. It worked ok. The sleep was decent.

Today we arrived in Lisbon, Portugal at around 8 their time. We locked out bags in a locker at the station and looked for a tourist info kiosk. We got a map of the city and searched forever for a terrace with a great view of the city. We found 1 euro bowls of soup for lunch. They were bright yellow but they tasted good. Not sure what was in there. Then we toured the castle for a while. Bought groceries and ate them. Went to a closed monastary. It was cool thougth. We saw the discovery monumnet. Layed on grass!!! It was great. Been a while since we could do that! Then we seached for an internet cafe. Tonight we take another train back to Madrid. It will be the tiny hot seats. But that all we can afford. Not sure how me and Eric are going to make it through this trip finacially. We didnt budget good enough in the beginning. We are cutting lots of stuff out and eating barely anything. And we will have to camp as much as we can. This is going to be rough...

My legs hurt

Well, after sleeping in the red box for two and a half nights, my rear is permanantly damaged. The bed we got last night was amazing, soft as a cloud, as lindsey put it.

I was the lucky driver of the car, and my nerves are shot. I knew it would be stressful driving in europe, but i feel lucky to escape with my life. Joel looks like he has a severe case of scoliosis, he was cramped at the best of times, never mind for twentyish hours a day.

Sean of course enjoyed it, he is so short that he just lay down on the seat and went right to bed. I wonder what people thought when they saw us in the mall parking lot in the morning, windows all fogged up.

Well, i´m nearly out of time, so i´ll sign off.

Madrid is cool.

Ok, finally we are in Spain where the keyboards are basically decent. The french ones were messed up.

Our third night sleeping in the car was BRUTAL. We finished walking around Bordeaux around and found a place to park in a Atac Supermarket around 8. We played cards and drank out of a 5 litre keg of wine we bought for 3.95. It tasted like sour grape juice. Pa-thet-ic. We were basically homeless. We were also starting to reek of sour B.O. I woke up at least 75-95 times during the night. Four people slept in a 4 x 8 foot box for 3 days. We lived in a car. For three days. We ate in parking lots and people laughed at us. Out of 72 hours we had the car, we spent at least 68 in the car. Its all about the experience I guess.

Then came the train from hell. Yesterday we dropped of the car as soon as possible when we woke up and hopped on a train to Irun in Spain, just across the border. We had to wait for four hours in the train station and all we could find to eat was chips and pastries. It was brutal. Then we hopped on the train, which was really nice. Very clean and tonnes of leg room. We were excited. About 2 hours into the journey the train stopped, which was basically in the middle of nowhere. 45 minutes later we were informed the train would not be leaving for 2 more hours because it broke down. WHAT?!?!?!?!? NOOOOOO! At least they gave a free sandwich and drink for our troubles. We were supposed to arrive in Madrid at 10.30, we got there at like 1:30. We were tired and stressed. We had just slept in a car for three days and our spines were twisted into knots. We were in a new city and our hostel was far, no buses in sight and no taxi was willing to take 4 of us. It was an all time low. I would have paid 5 years salary to be at home in my bed, my little dogs sleeping by my feet. I guess we looked pathetic enough and a taxi driver finally took us to the hostel.

We got to the hostel at two, showered ( we were so greasy the water beaded off of us, like it would a ducks feather, and my hair was so greasy the shampoo didnt lather enough) and went to bed. The beds were awesome. It was like sleeping on a could. Wonderful . SLeep was not long enough though cause we had to be packed up and checked out by 11. Today in Madrid we went to two art museums, mostly paintings, and hung out in the parks. It was a good day. I love the Spanish, so friendly and full of life. In a few hours we will hop on a night train to Portugal. It should be an ok sleep, and Lisbon sounds like an awesome city! Our days look brighter.

Speaking of brighter, I think the train from hell last night tricked the rain clouds and they lost us, because today was a beautiful day. Blue skies and sunny. Hopefully they will take a long time to find us!

I Woke Up In A Car

So we did rent a car, for three days. Its lots of fun, but we feel poorer than ever. The first day we stopped at the french version of lilac resort and played mini golf. It was free cause we had to clean all the leaves off of the course. We tried to tent, but I went to the car in the middle of the night because I couldnt sleep on the cold ground. Eric was the only one who stayed in the tent. We visited Sarlat and some caveswith prehistoric paintings. We slept in the car last night, it was awful. But today we visited Carassonne, an amazing medivel city. Now we are back in Bordeaux and we are sleeping in the car again tonight. Rough. Tomorrow it is Espagna!

This keyboard sucks bad.

rain rain on my face, it hasnt stopped raining for days

Here is a little skit i wrote, i hope you like it:

Raincloud (somewhere over mexico): hey, the duecks are in bordeaux, i am going to head over there.

Wind: good idea, lets ruin their vacation. We had a nice day off while sun took our place yesterday while they were travelling, but its time to go back.

Raincloud: Race you there!

That is what we think happens nearly every day.

We are in Bordeaux for the next couple of days, and it is slightly warmer than Brussels, but still raining. We were thinking of renting a car and driving around then tenting at night, but it doesnt look like that will happen for a while now.

Sean and Joel have developed what we think is a deadly fungus on their feet, it is starting to get gangrenous (is that a word? i think so) It smells like a cross between the whisky shits and a rotten turkey, so they have gotten into the habit of sleeping with their feet in plastic bags, which i think only helps the fungus to culture, but at least they can get some sleep in fresher air.

Sean thinks his laundry bag may smell worse, but it hasnt stopped him from rewearing all of his socks and some of his underwear (Sean if you are reading this its time to do laundry buddy).

Sean seems to have the worst luck out of all of us, he has also developed a severe case of dysentry, and is drinking a daily concoction of water, salt and sugar to keep hydrated and his electrolytes up.

Joel, on the other hand, isnt getting enough food in him to even have anything in his bowels to move (Lu, what do you feed this kid at home? i think we should have an offering in church to help pay for your grocery bills. he has also told me that he doesnt have to mow the lawn at home ever, and that instead you do it. that seems a little backwards to me. i can talk to him about it if you want.) He drinks a lot of water to ward off the hunger, but he has lost about 40 lbs, which is quite a bit for a thin boy like Joel. I think i will start preparing him some gruel in the evenings so that the sound of his rumbling stomach (combined with the foot fungus) doesnt keep us all awake at night.

Well, thats all for now...

Bordeaux

Ok...we are all the way in Bordeaux and it is not very cool yet; This keyboard also sucks. I will post more when the keyboard is better.

Brussels is better than the veggies

This is going to be very short becase this keyboard is THE WORST. Even the period is out of place. WHO DOESNT USE THE PERIOD?? ARGH...

Anyways; there is not much to do in this city; but eat of course. I hade some more awesome waffles today and aldo very good chocolate! (this keyboard is so dumb you have to use shift for the nunbers, also while I am at it the aqwzm,;. are also out of place, there is a q where the a should be)

anyways, tommorow we are off to France... i really cant stand typing here...

Amsterdam Conversations

So Berlin was awesome. We left it with lots of things missed. It was also the coldest place so far, and we didn't really bring clothing for really cold weather. I know at home it is really cold, but at home you have warm homes and cars to be in. We are out in the cold all day. We went to the Berlin Zoo and it was AWESOME! We saw rhinos and pandas and gorillas and kangaroos and lions and tigers and bears, oh my. The penguins were awesome as well, they can swim wicked fast.

Then to Amsterdam. We only really did stuff yesterday and it was fun. First we went to the Anne Frank museum, its the house they hid in, and it was very cool. Then we went to the Van Gogh museum and saw like 200 of his paintings. He is definatly my favorite! Then we went to the house of Bol's, which is a liquer company. The smell and taste tests were cool, but it wasnt worth the admission price. We were quite cheesed the Heineken Experience is closed for renos so that was supposed to make up for it. Then we head to the Hemp and Marijuana Museum. It was interesting, but don't worry, there were no free samples. We all stayed clean and respectable.

Today we went to Madame Tassauds in Amsterdam, a wax museum. It was dissapointing. Not worth the money. We ate donairs for lunch and then headed to Brussels, Belguim. A nice shopowners let us use his phone and we quickly found our hostel. Eric and I forgot out Let's Go Europe in Amsterdam though, which really sucks. Hopefully we can find a new one somewhere.

After checking into the hostel, which took nearly 2 hours, felt like it at least, we went in search of food. It took forever to find a waffle van, but it was worth it. The waffles were AMAZING. Then we had fries, which were nothing special. The best fries in the world come from the red Smokies van across from my work. I have never had anything that amazing, in the pomme frites sence. That pretty much brings us to right now. I will probably go to sleep early because I am bored....I know its sad. I get bored easy.

Berlin

So we made it to Berlin late last night. Today we took a free walking tour, and it was excellent, we learnt LOTS about the city. We will probably be here for two more days cause there is just so much stuff to see. I have like 3 minutes of internet time left so thats all for now.

We are also sad to see no one enjoyed our photos...

More Older pics

1. Streets of Pompeii
2. Deads in Pompeii
3. Mt. Vesusius... The Volacno responsible
4. Amazing Neapolitan Pizza.
5. Sean and Joel stretching their legs.
6. Taking a rest in Olympia
7. My favorite Olympian torso.
8. Seans Large Cone
9. Geoff and the crew!
10. Eric thinking he is skydiving on the top of Mt. Vesusius, below is Naples or something.

Pictures!! Finally!

For fastness sake... I am just going to number these
1. Beheading of a snowtenburgger.
2. Rothenburg
3. Hair on a tree in a bush in Rothenburg
4. Me and My new scarf and the snow... taken today!
5. Snome (Rome..Collesuem, Arch of Titus and Palatine Hill)
6. Leaning Tower of Schnisa
7. Snowtenburg (Rothenburg)
8. Schiffel Tower
9. Me kissing a pidgeon friend in Venice.
10. Buon Natale .. Merry Christmas!
11. Our new friends, Matt and Caitlin
12. Snowball fight!
13. Snowing in Germany
14. Eric and the Big Apple
15. My only pic of the Pope
16. Figure it our for yourself
17. Eric sneezing in Orveito, Italy
18. Sunset in Cinque Terre. I can´t believe I saw that with my own eyes. God is truly amazing!

To all the Bomber fans who have loved and lost...

I would like to start with a moment of silence and a big stringy lugey directed at all of the riders fans.

Now, on to happier things:

We are presently in Rothenburg ob de Tauber, where it was snowing beautifully on one of the first mild winter days. We are actually just about to leave, on to Berlin.

Some of you may not know about Rothenburg, so i will tell you a little bit about it. First, a bit of history:

Rothenburg was a quiet little city, quite rich, until the 30 years war, back in the 1600s. Now, the 30 years war was labelled as a religious war, between protestants and catholics, but as with most wars, it was really about money.

One day, after defending the city successfully for quite some time, some idiot walked into the powder storage room with a lit torch. Well we all know what that does, and a portion of the wall around the city was destroyed. The invading army ran in, and the townspeople quickly came up with a plan. They were and still are quite well known for their winemaking, so they filled up a draught of just under 1 gallon. The enemy general was a cheap drunk (although i suppose a gallon of wine is quite a bit, even for a German) and once inebriated, proposed a bet. If there was anyone in the city who could drink the whole thing in one go, the city would be spared. The old town mayor stepped up to the challange. As legend has it, he drank the whole thing, saved the town, passed out for three days, then lived to the ripe old age of 80 (nearly twice the average life expectancy back then.)

Sadly, it was not the only time the city was attacked, and they ended up paying off different armies until they were flat broke. It seemed bad at the time, but because they were so poor, they couldnt afford to build any modern houses, and that is the reason we visit the city today.

Anywho, we stayed at a beautiful pension (a tricky word that doesnt mean an old folks home, but rather the home of an old person that has been converted into a hotel), that served an amazing breakfast. I know Lindsey will tell you all about it, so i will instead tell you of the severely old lady that ran the place.

She was the stereotypical grandmother, hunched back, white hair in a bun, little glasses perched on her nose, and friendly as can be. Our room was on about the hundredth floor of this grand old house, and she must have lived on the 99th, because when we rang the doorbell on the first night, we waited about 2.5 hours before she got to the door. Why did we wait so long?, you might ask, well ill tell you. Sean and Joel both caught a glimpse of the buxom granddaughter through one of the lit windows, and refused to find another place. It ended up being quite nice, (they never did meet the granddaughter, but we did see a number of chastity belts featured in the criminal museum, and im guessing they wouldnt have had much luck with her anyway) and we are sorry to see it go.

Well, i will hopefully write again from Berlin,
Auf Weidersehen

Germany!!! .... Is Awesome!

So after a wonderful time in Interlaken and a great time meeting some amazing new friends we spent Saturday on the train to get to Rothenburg ob de Tauber in Germany. We had to go on like 5 different trains to get here but it was worth it! Rothenburg is an amazing medivel city. Within the walls there are NO modern building, only restored old ones, most of which are 500 some years old. We went to a medivel crim museum and learnt lots about the laws back in the day. They were alot harsher than today. Like if a baker baked his bread too small or too big, even by an ounce, he got put in a cage and dunked in a well for as long as he could stand. Sometimes they would go more than he could stand and he would come up dead. I would hate to have been the baker. We ate lots of awesome German food, which really reminds us of home. I bought an awesome scarf today. It is beautiful. The rest of the time we walked around Rothenburg and enjoyed the old city, bought lots of cool souveniers. The place we stayed at was awesome too. The rooms and the bathrooms didn´t feel like a hotel or hostel, it felt like someone´s house. The beds were really comfy. The breakfast was amazing and free. They gave us so much stuff we could finish it all (Buns, fruit, meat,cheese, cereal, milk, coffee, scrambled eggs, cookies, yogurt!) Today it snowed large,fluffy snowflakes and Eric and I tried to catch them in our mouths. It was fun. Joel and Sean are WAY to cool to do stuff like that. We also had a snowball fight and build little snow buildings, mostly of the sites we have seen so far. I will try to post some pictures in a few minutes! (YAY! I know you have been holding out for so long)

Today we are going to see some castles and then taking a night train to Berlin. I really hope there pics work!

More From Interlaken

It has only been a night's sleep since I posted last, but now I have lots of time! (This keyboard also sucks and won't let me press enter, so I will separate paragraphs another way i guess). So... right now I am sitting in the laundry room waiting for it to be finished, I just paid 5 swiss francs for 50 minutes of internet (thats about 4.75 canadian i think) also if there is a "z" where a "y" should be in words, that is because thez are switched around on this kezboard. I am trzing mz best though. I think zou can stilll make out the words! I am all by myself cause the others went to cilmb a mountain, but I stayed behind cause my knee has been acheing and I don't want to muff it up again. Not fun. So today I think I am going to (other than do laundry) walk around the town, pehaps buy my last years christmas present (a watch, I still haven't found one I like until now!) Buy some souveniers. You can get Swiss Army knives with free engraving, so I will probably get my bro one, but he can have it when he is older cause I dont want him knifing people. With his energy, it could be dangerous. I think he will like that it has his name on it. You can't find much stuff with his name on it cause it is spelled weird (but cool, cause I picked the spelling out. Your welcome Korey! I made you cool. It was all me. Remember that for when you are older. Love you!) ---Anyways, there is also a spa here that I will go to, it looks amazing, and we get it for free because of the hostel we are staying at. The hostel was a bit more pricy than others, but thats because it has awesome stuff like that. Our favorite hostel so far. We met this really nice young Canadian couple in Italy, and we met up with them again on the way here, and also at the hostel, and they are in our room! The best thing is, as we suspected and today we found out, they are Christian!!! So we have lots in common. We really like them.--- Thats about all the rambling from me today.... as for us and how we are doing .... my knee is ok, but my feet, especially one heel hurts lots, most in the mornings.... eric never complains about anything and is completly happy, he keeps winning all the card games which is aggravating...seans feet also hurt lots, he sings all the time, dances too. Its like his body can't stop moving to the music, I tried telling him to be careful because of what dancing leads to......Joel is hungry, all the time, its hard to keep up with a 6'2" growing boy! he also doesn't fit in any beds and all the blankets are too small for him, thats ok though cause sean often keeps him warm at night. he breaks things everywhere we go, the more expensive ( a 2000 euro murano glass chandalier) the more likely he is to break it!.... We are having tonnes of fun though and getting along great! We are starting to miss home more because of the Christmas decor and stuff. But we did buy our own decoration that we but up everywhere we go, it says buon natale, which means merry Christmas in Italian. Well, I am almost out of time and I need to tend to the laundry!

Interlaken

Interlaken - Means interlake... and we feel soooo at home here!! Some Venice Highlights: (this keyboard sucks) - feeding the pidgeons in Piazza San Marco. Also throwing seed by people so the birds flocked around them. I think I made a lady cry -walking around the confusing streets - watching glass blowing on Murano - Low lights: -waiting for the bus, they were normally 10-20 min late.-the cold and the wind Anyways, we just got to Interlaken, Switzerland and it is amazing. The air feels like home. We even saw snow and sang our national anthem! And crunched the snow under our feet. A good sound. We might stay an extra day cause we love it so much!

Venezia!!

So after almost a full day of traveling yesterday (and a full day of being cold) we made it to Venice. I love it so much!! I love walking around and looking at shops. I have to hold myself back so much because there is lots of beautiful glass I would love to buy. It would be hard to carry back though. Oh well... I will still get something.

I know at home it is colder than here, but Italy is way colder than I expected. I am so cold everyday. I didn't think I would need a scarf and toque and mitts but I think I am going to buy them. We decided to go to Germany now though, because it will be way colder than here. I am tempeted be buy another jacket. A nice black one with fake fur trim like I was going to buy at home anyways.

Internet is really pricey here, so I probably wont blog for a while. Tomorrow we will still be in Venice. We are going to the island or Murano to watch glass blowing and to buy lots of glass stuff!! Heheheh. Then we will head to Interlaken, Switzerland - Munich; Germany - Romantic Road, Germany - Berlin, Germany. I am sure we will get a post in before the end of that. We will probably have to redo that calender.

Cinque Terre

Yeah, we are still alive and kicking out here. This will be brief as I am extremely hungry and internet is $$$$$$$.

Wednesday... we saw the Pope, he is much less scary in person. Then we headed to Orvieto, a city on a plateau. It was wicked cold that day. It took us a while to find a place to stay. We bought tickets for Orvieto Underground and ate at a cafe, which was really cheap. Then we took the tour, and our guide was really good. She did the tour in Italian and Engligh bc of a mixed group, but it was still really good. We only saw 2 of the 1200 caves that have been found. They think they are nearly 4000. Then we ate supper and played cards until bed.

Thursday... We checked out of the hotel and left our bags there. We walked around the edge of the plateau, with amazing views of the country side. Orvieto is a very nice town, with narrow cobble stone streets and old buildings. It has a medeival feel to it. I could have stayed there longer. We paid way to much to walk down some well, and then we had an expesive supper that we thought would be cheap because we got 5 euro off. The did give us free dessert though. We got our bags and we headed to Pisa, via Florence. We got there late so we decided to stay overnight. We walked in a circle before we found a cheap place to stay. We ate really good pizza there for supper.

Friday... We slept in too late so we only had 45 minutes to walk to the leaning tower of Pisa and walk back in check out by 11. It is like a 20 minute walk each way so we had about 5 minutes to see the tower, which is all you really need. The tower is mediocre, but it's something you should see if you are in the area, and Joel hadn't. We ate at McDs and missed our first train to Riomaggiore, in Cinque Terre. Once there we looked for a place to stay. All the places were closed, but we waited like 20 minutes and there were all open again. We checked a few places that were 25-30 euro each a night, and thought we would have to shell that out. We finally found a place for 17.50 each, but they made it sound really bad, like a simple room with 4 beds and a bathroom. Really it was an apartment with a two big room, a bathroom, and a kitchen with a stove and fridge! It also has a HUGE balcony! The only thing that sucks is that the heater doesnt work that great and you have to walked a bunch of stairs to get there. But I love it. Best deal yet I think. After we settled in we walked around the town a bit, and on the coast. Its so beautiful here. Then we went back to cook soup! It was soooo good. We had bread with it and it was amazing. We were all packed full for once.

Saturday (Today)... We made scrambled eggs and fried potatoes for brunch and went out to hike the Cinque Terre, which are five towns nestled on cliffs connected by walking paths with amazing views. ( Terry, you would LOVE it here) The first two paths were easy and had great views. We ate gelato in the third town (they had cinnamon, it was AMAZING!!!!). The third path was probably the hardest, but it was also really nice. It was also the longest. We made it to the fourth town just in time to watch the gorgeous sunset on the dock. It was one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen. We didnt hike to the 5th town (which is supposed to be the hardest hike). We took the train back you our town and went on the net! Now we are leaving to go make more soup for supper!! (For those who want to know, the soup had carrots, potatoes, onions, diced tomatoes, beef boullion and sausage! So good!) Mmmmmmmmm.....

4 Minutes

I only have 4 minutes of internet left so..

Today we went to the christian catacombs and they were awesome. We saw the 2000 year old Appian way they still drive on today. We saw the stairs Jesus walked on but we didnt cause you had to do that on your knees are we are not catholic. Then we ate supper and the boys are watching a movie. We walked lots today. We also slept in very late. Thats all!

Vatican City!

Just a side note before I begin... I am really glad to see all the comments, wellwishings and so on that everyone is leaving... Are our travels that boring?

Anyways, this morning Eric woke me up at an unholy hour to go see the holy city. We left the hostel just after 9 and headed to the Vatican Museum. We stood in the longest line we have ever stood in in our whole lives for about 1 1/2 hours before we got in. It was packed, grossly packed, with people. It takes forever to get to the Sistine Chapel, but my favorite part is probably the mummy in the Egyptian room. I couldnt stop looking at her. She is so well preserved. You can still tell what she looked like. So creepy. After the long walk and listening into other peoples tours we got to the Sistine Chapel, which is very nice, but I stop short of saying amazing.

After that we went to a little pizza place by the Vatican, it was very good. I had amazing oven potatoes there. Then we entered another insanly long line to get into St. Peters Basilica. That place is amazingly huge and intracate. It is pretty cool. Then we walked in the tomb of the Pope's and saw Jean Paul II's grave. They guys went all the way up to the dome, 551 steps, and I went shopping for souveniers. I didn't buy much though, but it was fun. Then we came back to the hostel, had pasta for supper, and now we are at the laundomat waiting for our laundry. You can only handwash for so long before something needs a good machine cleaning. Tonight we are going to go hang out at Piazza Navona, where there used to be a staduim that they filled with water and held mock naval battles, to hang out. Tomorrow we are doing odds and ends things that we haven't seen yet. Like the bones of 4000 monks and the christian catacombs and 28 steps that Jesus walked on! They were steps that were brought here from somewhere by some dude's mom, not sure where from exactly, but they were steps to Pontuis Pilate's house and Jesus walked on them the day of his sentancing. SO COOL! Some Catholics climb these stairs on their knees and say prayers off of little cards...but I'm not Catholic, so I am going to walk them just like Jesus did!

More Roma

Today was lots of fun! We slept in late and headed back to the collesuem to continue our tour. We waited for about 30 min then a very loud Canadian guide came and took us to to Palatine hill. It was a very good tour. The palace that used to be there is UNREAL. So huge! Then Eric and I gave Sean and Joel a very patchy tour through the Roman Forum, from what we remembered from last time. After that we were all starving and bought pizza by the kilo. It was the best yet! Then we went and saw the AMAZING 2000 year old Pantheon. Then we searched for Giolitti, the most famous gelateria in Rome. The gelato was AMAZING from there. Best yet. After that we walked around the Trevi fountain and Spanish Steps some more. We also went to the most lavish McDonalds in the world by the Spanish Steps... it sells gelato! and has a salad bar! and a coffee and pastry place! and its probably the only McDs in the world to have a mosaic! We didnt eat there though. We came back to the hostel and made pasta. There are like 30 10-12 year old kids staying here. They are so annoying and loud. They come in just after 8 everynight and scream their faces off. I think they are from England. I wish they would leave soon.

Side Note: I know I promised pictures, but I didnt realize I would be kicked out of that hostel because they had no room and had to move to another hostel where I could put pics on. I am really sorry. I have no Idea when I can do it again. Maybe in a few days.

Roma!

We are finally in Rome! This morning we left Naples on the 10:22 train and arrived in Rome 2 hours later. I read the entire ride so it passed really quickly. I had a minor scuffle with a nun that wouldnt let me move someone elses stuff up to the rack so I could sit in my seat. It was odd. When we got to Rome we took the metro to our hostel and checked in and paid. It is the cheapest yet. Our last two nights are only 10 euros!! It is pretty nice. The rooms are basic but clean. The bathroom smells like pee cause people dont know how to flush and the pee sits in the toilet. I explained to the boys that all you have to do is give the button one hard shove, and the Sean called me the Toilet Queen. He still doesnt know how to flush it, though, and I do!

After we got to the hostel we went to the Colusseum. It is pretty cool. The outside it cooler than the inside, cause there is nothing left on the inside. We paid 21 euros for a guided tour and to get in. Tomorrow we will continue the tour at Palestine Hill and the Roman Forum. That part will be awesome. We went back to our hostel to change into warmed clothes and took the Metro to the Spanish Steps. It was packed with people, as usual. We sat there for a while and the walked to the Trevi Fountain. It was packed, as usual, as well. We all bought gelato and it was amazing. I got Coffee, Tiramisu and Foir De Latte, some sort of cream. Then we walked around that area for a while and ate pizza. Then we got some more gelato after Eric had a confrontation with and old lady. We went to the same place and I got coffee, chocolate, and the cream one again... so it was like having a mocha! They were the best combo. I usually eat them seperate but I could eat these ones together. After that we came back to the hostel and the guys are making supper right now. We are having rice and pasta sauce, which is a suprisinly good combo. It should be ready soon!

A Disappointing Day.

So after the very revealing last post, I will fill your mind with disappointing stuff.

We woke up early this morning, excited about today. We packed our stuff and headed to the port. We got to the port and paid 15 euros for a ticket to Capri. It was a gloomy windy day. I should have known. About 5 minutes into our ride I realized that the blue grotto would not be accessable today. But there we were on our way to C apri. The ride was fun, it was like jumping the waves with a boat. All the Asians on board laughed and cheered everytime we hit a big wave. I think someone even clapped one time, like it was on purpose. It was awesome.

So when we got there, they told us the blue grotto was closed and it would not open today. ARGH. So we took the funicular fun car up to the top of Capri Town and explored for the afternoon. We ate gelato there and watched some filming of an Italian movie. It looked lame. We went back down to the bottom and headed back to Naples. Capri is a gorgeous island. I would love to spend a week there. I guess we will just have to come back sometime!

Then we headed to the National Archaelogical Museum. We bought audio guides because the labeling sucked. It turns out the audio guide labeling sucked as well. There was some cool stuff from Pompeii, but it really felt like we were walking through after hours. Half the stuff was closed and we only had an hour. We spend about 45 minutes there and then headed for the hostel. It was pouring rain. We waited for the rain to let up and quickly walked to the metro.

We were going to go to Rome tonight, but we decided to spend another night in Naples and leave for Rome in the morning. I love the Eternal City!

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothin but the Truth.

Well hello everyone. I hope everybody who reads our blog, enjoys every bit of it. I even hope you enjoy Eric's lies. His lies seem to go well with Joel's gut busting humor, and lindsey's ability to summarize the events of each day. What is my role in all of this blog posting business? the truth is I don't know. I hope you enjoy this post about a literall turning point in my life.
It was a cool evening in Olympia when we all decided to go for a little walk down the street, not realy knowing what exactly what would happen. Im very glad i did not know what would happen, for if i did i would not have walked any further down the street. As we walked down the street, we saw and smelled the gyros that were being made, and i wondered what the side effects might be if we continued to eat only greek salad and gyros. Perhaps all the grease would make us ill, or maybe, the oil on the salads would result in exploding the size of our acne.
A simple gurgle in my gut sent the signal to my brain that i had to release some of the gas that had been developing inside of me. So as any normal male homosapian would do, I gently pushed with the muscles in my stomach, hoping that the uncomfortable feeling would go away. Let me just say the result is not exactly what i expected. Yes i did release gas, and yes, the feeling inside did pass; however, a new feeling outside of me definately surprised me. It was the feeeling of shit. I SHIT MY PANTS. In fat the word "shit!" came out of my mouth and i instantly stopped walking. Eric turned a round and just kind of looked at me while joel snickered and lindsey just started laughing. Eric really did not think i was serious, but i like to be honest, so i just told the truth, I shit my pants.
By the end of the night, i was wearing clean shorts. Thankfully i did not have to change my pants, and i fortunately there was a shower in our room for me to rinse off in.
Well i hope everyone enjoys this post. have a great day.

Mt. Vesuvius and Pompei!!

WHOA! TODAY WAS AMAZING....

Last night we hung out at the hostel and ate our first Italian pizza. They were amazing. And cheap! We had to listen to the two most sickening people in the world while we were eating them though, this American guy and an Aussie girl, both thought they knew everything about travelling and they always tried to have a better, more extreme story than anyone else. It reminded me of the SNL skit..... "Yeah, well have 17 cousin that live in outer space so i guess I am just a little bit better than you"..... ARGH!

Today we woke up early to head to Mt. Vesusius. We were informed we could not stay another night at this hostel, and if it didnt change by night we could stay there again. So we had to pack up ALL of our stuff and store it in a closet. Then no one knew about the 25 euro Campania Artecard that paid for all the transport and admission to Pompei and stuff. Some old man nearly had a heart attack trying to scream instuctions at me that were not the right ones. Finally we found a very very very nice man that sold the card and explained everything nicely to us. Then we took a train to Ercolano and took a taxi as far as we could up to Mt. Vesusius. Then we walked a brutal, steep 500 meters to the crater. Which was cool. It was filled with stuff, not as deep as a thought, and way larger. There was an amazing view of Naples from up there as well. There was steam coming out of the crater and everyone and a while you could smell the rotten egg sulphur smell. Sean said he could hear it whistling but I think he was just hearing Eric.

After that we took the train to Pompei. It was very AMAZING. Everything is so intact. It is was bigger than I thought it would be. It really is a city! We only had two hours which wasnt enough so we basically power walked for the whole time. We saw lots of amazing builings and really eerie casts of people suffocating from the ash. You can see the pain on their faces. We also got to see a large stadium, still well preserved. It was awesome. I reccomend that very highly to anyone that come to Italy. So not we are at a new horrible hostel and we might just get killed in this neighborhood. But I am hungry so here we go!

Oh, Hell

Bonjourno,

Well i know lindsey already told you about the hellish bus, but she didn't tell the half of it! First of all, the bus was red! (freaky!) The bus driver also had a really large fork on the dash, and as he careened around curves and especially through mountain tunnels, he laughed maniacally.

Any-hoo, yes, we are finally in Italy, and i can read the signs. I feel as if i am fluent in every language but Greek after being there for a month, because i can read everything and i know some words. I will miss gyros, but i suppose the pizza won't be half bad.

Naples is very near Pompeii, that name of which some of you will recognize as the city that was buried by Mt. Vesuvius, the largest active volcano in Europe. It is said to be active every thirty years, and the last time it erupted was in 1944, so it is overdue, however experts claim that it is relatively safe to ascend.

Well, i believe everything i read (as should you, especially when it is from a reliabe source, such as myself) and i'm planning to climb it in the next 2-3 days. However, as we pulled up into Naples (doesn't it sound a lot like 'nipples'? I think so) we heard it rumbling ominously. I'm not sure if the sky was really cloudy with blackish clouds, or if it was smoke and ash, but i'm not worried (remember the experts).

Anyway, i've already been to hell and back on the bus so this can't be that much worse.

Well, i'll check back in with you later, see ya!

Italia! Finally...

So we ened up staying in Olympia until yesterday, the 6th, so we can still use our Eurail passes on the 5th of January for the Chunnel to London. We visited the museums and hung out. Joel ate his first Greek salad. We all got sick, well not Joel, from eating too many gyros. Sean...... well I will let him explain himself. It was fun,but we were glad to get moving.



Yesterday we took 2 trains to get to the port. On the second train the conducter must have had head trauma, or had a child with head trauma with him because for the whole two hours he did not stop blowing the horn. He might have gone 5 minutes at the most without doing it. He must of taken great pleasure too, because they were never the same length. One lasted nearly 30 seconds! I just wanted to jump out and walk the rest of the way. Anyways, we made it there and boarded the GIGANTIC Superfast ferry to Bari, Italy. After some confusion we found a place and stayed there all night. I probably had the worst sleep of my life there. Hard, rattling floor, lights on, stupid disco pumping very loud music 30 feet away. Needless to say I was a grumpy bear today.


From the port we all packed into a bus like sardines and got a lift to the train station. From there, some complete idiot told us to take a train to Taranto, where we were told to board a 4 hour bus (I HATE BUSES WITH ALL OF MY BEING) to Naples. 4 hours. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArhg. It was like looking into hell. Just as hot and almost as long. This driver had also suffered from some serious head trauma because he decided to weave of the highway and do a loop in every small town he saw along the way. We finally made it to Naples, starving and frustrated. We wanted pizza but McDonalds was the first place we saw. It was gross and the coke tasted like watered down melted carmels. Anyways, we are here at the wonderful Hostel Bella Capri in Naples and reading to sleep and start tomorrow when we will head for Pompei. I will probably post pictures tomorrow.

Olympia!

Olympia is GORGEOUS! The ruins here are the best preseved we have seen, and everything is so green. This is probably my favorite place so far. We even got to walk in the original ancient Olympic stadium. It was a very cool feeling!

Yesterday we basically spent the day lazing around and trying to get here, to Olympia. We finally arrived at just after 10 at night and some man offered us a room for 15 euro. It is called Pension Poisidon and it is very nice for 15 euros each a night. The town of Olympia is also very nice. The side walks are wide and flat and about 2 inches higher than the brick roads. I LOVE IT! We walked through the ruins today, but didnt go early enough to make it to the museums. Everything was free today though. We keep lucking out and getting stuff for free. Tomorrow we will pack up and go see if we can make it into a few musuems before we leave. Tomorrow we are also heading for Italia! You might not hear from us for a while. I will try and sit down and post a bunch of pictures sometime soon, I promise!

Delphi

So we got up somewhat early today and took the 3 hour long 10:30 bus to Delphi. We were dumb and didn't get off the bus at the site so we had to walk up and down hill from the other side of town. We ate lunch first, and just was we were finishing up, it started to rain. We quickly got to the site and bought tickets to the museum. The only thing is the museum closed in 20 minutes. We rushed through it, and realized we still had 10 minutes so we went again. (It's small). They finally kicked us out at three so we went to the ruins parts. We hid in the bathroom for a while, the rain let up a little bit so we protected our electronics ( mostly from the Asians, not the rain) and trudged on. There are some pretty spectacularly preserved things there, like the ampitheatre and the stadium. It was very cool. We stood at the top of the ampitheatre and made Eric go to the bottom and talk to us. It worked good. The acoustics were impressive! We walked for a long time, up and down hill and made it back to the bus stop 15 minutes before it was supposed to leave, but the bus was 1/2 hour late. Eric, Joel and I had to sit at the very front, and discovered there is no smoking on the bus, except if you are the driver and you chain smoke! The bus ride was bearable. Wew vistited Geoff for the last time and came back to the hostel to make supper. At 10 pm. We had eggs and dry salami and it was very good and filling.

Tomorrow Dayna leaves and we go to Olympia. We are almost out of this country! It was great, but it time to leave. We are running out of things to do. Sometimes it feels like we are making up stuff to do.

Hydra

Today we woke up VERY early, at like 7:30. I am sooooo wiped now, but we still need to go out and pay Geoff a visit. It is also raining here in Athens. Not cool.

But something that was very cool today was the Island of Hydra. We took and awesome high speed ferry called a hydrofoil to Hydra. It took about 1.5 hours. It is a small island with one very unique aspect, there is no cars or motorbikes/scooters allowed on the island. The only vehicles allowed are a few public service trucks like a garbage truck (the only vehicle we saw). All of the rest of the trasport is done by donkey/mules/ponies. It was a very nice place to just wander around, looking in people's courtyards and stuff. We played alot of Uno and ate really good pizza. We also visited the Hydra Historical Museum. It was pretty cool. There also had a very cool place to go swimming, you could swim into a cave, but we didn't bring out suits. It was a gorgeous day, we were sweating in the sun. We met an guy from Calgary and a guy from Ireland. They both said Hydra was their favorite island, but mine is still Santorini. Well... thats about all for now. I need like a week to rest my knee... it is still killing me and I am scared I am wrecking it.

Geoff.... here we come!!

It doesn't feel like Halloween!

If I didn't know what day it was, I wouldn't know it was Halloween. We thought of trick or treating, but scared of what we might be handed in this area of Athens.

So last night we went our for supper with Terry, Eloa and Kelly Ann. T&E paid so it was great! The food tasted good as well. Then we made our way to Lykavittos hills, took the funicular fun car up and saw an amazing nighttime view of Athens. The Acropolis is all lit up and looks so pretty at night. After that we came back to Omonia Squars and visited Geoff again, I got strawberry and lemon gelato. They were both soooooo good. It was already really late so we came back to the hostel and went to sleep. We woke up in the middle of the night to say our goodbyes to T, E and KA before they left. They should be landing in Winnipeg right as I type this!

Today we wanted to go to Delphi, but didn't wake up quite early enough to get there with enough time to make it worth it, so we went to Halkida on the island of Evia to see the current change. It took us forever to get there, lots of waiting around and stuff. But when we finally made it there, the current change was almost happening! There is a channel between the island and the mainland and at it's narrowest point there is a very stong current that changes directions every 6 hours or something. It wasn't quite at dramatic as we expected, but we did see the current almost stop, but it took a long time to start going in the other direction, so we bought beverages at a cafe and played Uno for a long time. When we checked it again the current was going very strong again, but in the other directions. We missed one bus back cause I was in the washroom so we had to wait around for a long time. But lucky for us the train to Athens came about 2 minutes after we got there, so no waiting around. We played Uno again on the train. When we got back to the hostel, about 11 we ate pasta and sauce for supper. It was delish but I am very tired now! Tomorrow we are heading for Hydra hopefully!

Good News!

I just fixed our comment section, Jealous Mutterings, so now ANYONE can comment without signing in. We expect a flood of comments now, so you have no excuse.


Anyways, more about what you don't want to hear, I am not writing lots today because I am tired of typing already.

Yesteday we went to the National Archaeolgical Museum. It was pretty cool, LOT of stuff. But after a while everything blends together. They have a mindnumbing amount of old stuff there. I enjoyed all three hours though. They guys didn't quite as much! Then we ate gyro and went to Athen's biggest park for a while. We walked around and then played Uno until almost dark. We hung at the hostel for a while and had supper at McDonalds for the first time. They don't have amazing greek chicken sandwiches anymore but they still have good wedges with sauce. Then we made the nightly trip to visit Geoffrey the Gelato man. I love gelato. We played Uno and stayed up very late.

Today we shopped lots and bought tonnes of souveniers to send home with Terry and Eloa tomorrow. Today is their very last day in Athens. Soon we are going up to Lykavittos hill for a good panoramic view of the city.

Did I forget to mention Dayna made it here safely? Well she did. I hope she is having fun. I will probably not post pictures for a while so you have to stare at words. Your welcome.

Hi, my name is Joel...

... this is my first post ever, so far it is going good. Europe is fun(what were you thinking?) i don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said already. Eric is full of lies, he has rarely ever blogged any thing that is close to truthful. contrary to popular beleif i'm not homesick. Do not tell Eric this but Lindsey pays me 10 euros a week to act homesick so that Eric can practise his pathetic prenatal skills. The guy offered to go out and get me a pack of camels to help me sleep! Woah there Eric that is not how to treat scared and worried people. Tobacco and nicotine is rarely the answer. The one shred of truth that mister lie face has written so far is that Sean is actually desperatley searching for love. He does it in the most retarded ways to. You would think the average person would know bettter than to tell the flight attendant that she is the bomb, but no, the poor lovesick kid grounded us in Dublin for six hours while the police did a background check on him and the flight attendant. We also have to pull him away from the friendly young women on the corners of the streets. what a guy. anyway i have to go convince sean not to get emotionally atatched to the exchange student from Moscow thats working at the coffe shop.

Back Home: In Athens

Yes! We are finally back in Athens and it feels like coming home.

Anyways, the day in Thessaloniki turned out to be pretty good. We relaxing and walked around and hung out. We also decided the square of every city/town is our favorite place to hang out.

The next day we walked halfway to the bus station and decided it was too far so we took a taxi. We took a bus to Litochoro, the town at the foot of MT. Olympus. It wasn't a clear day, so it was hard to see the mountain well. Litochoro is a very nice town, very picturesque. It looks like a resort town. The town square was our favorite part. We quickly found a hotel for 15 euroes each and settled in there. We ate at a cafe for lunch and hiked up towards the mountain. We stopped at a little closed cafe and hopped over the fence. We were all standing by the fence, looking over into the valley when we heard a large crash. We looked in the direction of the crash and saw Joel laying on his back, with a lamp post clutched in his hands and in between his legs. I guess he had attempted to climb it, two feet on the fence and his whole weight hanging on the platic lamp post. He had to take a 10 minute time out to recover.

The mountain path we took was actualy a cement aquaduct. It had a cool view of the mountain and led to the source of the aquaduct with was also several very pretty waterfalls. We walked back and the guys took a much steeper trail up the mountain, and I was gimped by my knee so I sat at the bottom and waited, feeling foolish.

The rest of the night we walked around the town, made sandwhiches for supper and played cards. We also met a young couple from oregon. In the morning we bought pastries and took a taxi to the bus station. There we caught a train, which we were supposed to take to the next town but the guys couldn't figure out how to open the door and we were stuck on the train to the next town. We had to wait 20 minutes in the rain until another train came to take us back. From Katerini we took a 5 hour train to Athens, and then walked to Hotel Lozanni. Kelly Ann and the parents were already there waiting for us. We ate gyros and I did laundry. Then we went out for gelato. I got Bounty and Coconut. SO GOOD!

Eric and I took 2 hours to get to airport to pick up Dayna. We got on the subway at 11 planning to make it there for 11:30. Her plane was due just after 12. Well the train we were on decided it was done for the night and stopped 4 stops before the airport. Then a woman said we could get on the train going to other was and go 2 stops back and take the bus because it was 24 hours. Another man also told us that. After we got there, the man there siad we just missed the last bus. We were soooo mad. We had just went so far back and the taxi was going to be that much extra. But then we saw a bus that said airport but the guy wouldn't let us on. ARGH. We waited there for a long time before we finally asked someone and she told us to go wait on the other side! We had missed like 3 buses on that side cause someone else told us to wait there. That bust was pulling up just as we were getting to the other side so we had to run and flag that one down as well. It felt like it took forever to get there. Finally we made it to the airport, almost and hour after Dayna got there, 1 1/2 hours after we planned to get there. We took the bus back, way cheaper than the planned taxi, and walked 20 minutes back to our hostel. We got to sleep just before 3.

We slept in late, like 11:30, but it was ok cause it was actually 10:30 because of the time change. Today is Ohi (No) Day in Greece, so the parents were scared all the sites would be closed. We walked there anyways, and it turns out, instead of everything being closed, everything was FREE because of the holiday! YAY! So today we explore the Acropolis and the Ancient Angora for free! I am really dissapointed because the Acropolis Museum is closed, and it sounds really cool. After that we had lupper in Plaka (gyros) and Kelly Ann and I bought awesome sweaters. Her's is black with dice and mine is black with stars.

Then we walked back to the hostel and now I am writing this. Tonight we will probably just hang out and go to get gelato because it is amazing!

Pics

This man tried to accost Sean.

Oia Santorini

Joel and Eric in Oia
Delos

Not so tall now, eh Joel.


This man is incredibly unhappy. I feel like this lots.

Meteora

Monastary

Me in my awesome nylon skirt they hand out there.

More Meteora

This is how I feel right now.