Mike's is great! Wales is fun and so pretty. and it's minutes from going out the door for a bus ride to the airport then I come home!
Bye guys! See you in a day...ish.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
so... Funny story.
Right. ok. How should I start...
For most of this trip we had been running under the assumption that we would be leaving on the 12th at noonish. We had a whole calendar, I had glanced over my itinerary a few times and I'm sure I remember the 12th.
Well, Melissa, you were right!
So, when planning over the final final (for reals this time) schedule we stare in disbelief at the itinerary that has us leaving on the 17th. D'OH! So anyway, we had been planning on the 12th for a while, and we're just about done w/ Europe at this point at well. So with a slight additional fee and a side trip through Detroit we are now leaving the 12th at 1:45 pm and getting into DIA at 8:37pm.
Yeah, so funny story, right?
For most of this trip we had been running under the assumption that we would be leaving on the 12th at noonish. We had a whole calendar, I had glanced over my itinerary a few times and I'm sure I remember the 12th.
Well, Melissa, you were right!
So, when planning over the final final (for reals this time) schedule we stare in disbelief at the itinerary that has us leaving on the 17th. D'OH! So anyway, we had been planning on the 12th for a while, and we're just about done w/ Europe at this point at well. So with a slight additional fee and a side trip through Detroit we are now leaving the 12th at 1:45 pm and getting into DIA at 8:37pm.
Yeah, so funny story, right?
Monday, November 5, 2007
Down to the last little bit.
Hi everyone! We're back in Amsterdam, at the Hotel Annemarie and enjoying their awesome cat and pretty-good breakfast. We got our hardest and longest leg of travel out of the way yesterday, from Nice, France to Amsterdam, Holland. Feeling pretty stellar this morning, after such a hard run yesterday to get here. With that in mind, for all you potential world travellers out here let me post some rules/suggestions for travelling in France via Train:
The Rules. to be presented in no particular order of importance.
1. If there is a high speed option, always take it. Always always.
Overnight trains are fun and all, but if you're going to go along a route with a high speed train and you can wake up early enough the high speed train will almost always get you there at about the same time. Plus, then there's no chance you'll end up on a 35 year old sleeper car with a noisy family who may or may not have been from india.
2. Avoid the homeless people if you can, and ignore them if you must.
Failing that, do not try and outsmart them.
Homeless people are different in the states than in Europe. Here they will walk up to you, ask you for money or pester you. From Rome on, the most effective response I've found was "Nein, Danke". The rationalization goes like this: one can assume that they know the local language, as well as enough english to be able to bother the occational tourist. But, one can assume, that they aren't going to learn German if they don't come from Germany. For the most part this was true, as soon as say No, thankyou in german they would move on, seeing that I wasn't American, and pester a local.
Sometimes, though, you get burned. I was careless after my night train and tired of having to stop and wait for ~7 hours (metric time) in Lille. I tried my usual tactic without really looking up from my book when one especially talkative charismatic and bearded man started asking me in french for some money (see if you can spot my mistake in the last sentence). Right, I was reading a book in english, and he noticed. So in loudly and clearly he says "What are you reading?". Busted. So i try and save myself as best I can, but overall I end up coming off like a real jerk and a stupid american. He cracks some jokes about me in french for all ofthe other people in the waiting room at the bus station to ignore, bothers some more people and then eventually leaves.
3. One guy can destroy a schedule.
This one´s simple. If the guy selling you your tickets mentions something about how he gets off work soon just move on. As soon as he answers the call from his friends and says `yeah I´m at work I´ll be over in just a bit`in front of you you know you´re not going to get where you want to go.
4. Avoid Holiday. This is the most important rule. I know I said there was no order of importance, but this is the one you need to pay attention to.
Holiday seems to be a magical period where everyone outside of france goes to Disneyland Paris and everyone inside of france gets the heck out. The origins of this so/called Hiloday are complex and shrouded in mystery and the fog of time. No one is really sure what this holiday is, if there are multiple ones a year or how long they last or weather it even follows a yearly schedule. However, the result for travellers complex. If your plans were to take 2 high speed trains to a nice, hostel with some free beds these plans will not work. Instead, you will have to wait 2 days until you can get a train out, there will be no more than 3 open hostels for beds under 50euro a night, and instead of riding 2 high speed trains and getting somewhere in about 6 hours the ride will instead take...
5 trains, about 7 hours of waiting and an overall trip time of (drumroll please) 25 hours.
avoid. holiday. at. all. costs.
All of that bring said, we´re now having a good time in Amsterdam. Till Next Time!
The Rules. to be presented in no particular order of importance.
1. If there is a high speed option, always take it. Always always.
Overnight trains are fun and all, but if you're going to go along a route with a high speed train and you can wake up early enough the high speed train will almost always get you there at about the same time. Plus, then there's no chance you'll end up on a 35 year old sleeper car with a noisy family who may or may not have been from india.
2. Avoid the homeless people if you can, and ignore them if you must.
Failing that, do not try and outsmart them.
Homeless people are different in the states than in Europe. Here they will walk up to you, ask you for money or pester you. From Rome on, the most effective response I've found was "Nein, Danke". The rationalization goes like this: one can assume that they know the local language, as well as enough english to be able to bother the occational tourist. But, one can assume, that they aren't going to learn German if they don't come from Germany. For the most part this was true, as soon as say No, thankyou in german they would move on, seeing that I wasn't American, and pester a local.
Sometimes, though, you get burned. I was careless after my night train and tired of having to stop and wait for ~7 hours (metric time) in Lille. I tried my usual tactic without really looking up from my book when one especially talkative charismatic and bearded man started asking me in french for some money (see if you can spot my mistake in the last sentence). Right, I was reading a book in english, and he noticed. So in loudly and clearly he says "What are you reading?". Busted. So i try and save myself as best I can, but overall I end up coming off like a real jerk and a stupid american. He cracks some jokes about me in french for all ofthe other people in the waiting room at the bus station to ignore, bothers some more people and then eventually leaves.
3. One guy can destroy a schedule.
This one´s simple. If the guy selling you your tickets mentions something about how he gets off work soon just move on. As soon as he answers the call from his friends and says `yeah I´m at work I´ll be over in just a bit`in front of you you know you´re not going to get where you want to go.
4. Avoid Holiday. This is the most important rule. I know I said there was no order of importance, but this is the one you need to pay attention to.
Holiday seems to be a magical period where everyone outside of france goes to Disneyland Paris and everyone inside of france gets the heck out. The origins of this so/called Hiloday are complex and shrouded in mystery and the fog of time. No one is really sure what this holiday is, if there are multiple ones a year or how long they last or weather it even follows a yearly schedule. However, the result for travellers complex. If your plans were to take 2 high speed trains to a nice, hostel with some free beds these plans will not work. Instead, you will have to wait 2 days until you can get a train out, there will be no more than 3 open hostels for beds under 50euro a night, and instead of riding 2 high speed trains and getting somewhere in about 6 hours the ride will instead take...
5 trains, about 7 hours of waiting and an overall trip time of (drumroll please) 25 hours.
avoid. holiday. at. all. costs.
All of that bring said, we´re now having a good time in Amsterdam. Till Next Time!
Friday, November 2, 2007
squeak squeak I'm an otter!
I am by no means graceful in the ocean (er. sea) But I'd like to think that my amazing, triumphent even, level of un-gracefulness more than makes up for it. While getting carried around in the surf and, according to Colette, laughing so hard the whole beach could hear it i might have played a little too rough. by the end of it my hand hurt a lot, as well as my toes (which hit countless rocks as i skimmed inches over them with the waves) and my leg was actually bleeding a little. It was so much fun.
And, with my mind on fun things, i decided to do a quick check of ign.com, 1up.com, kotaku.com etc... Mario Galaxy comes out the 13th?! it's a good thing the current budget we're running on might leave us with a fair amount of extra cash at the end of the trip, there's entirely too many good games out there, as Ryan can agree to. For the Wii there's Metroid and Mario. On computer-macheens there's Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, Unreal 3 (possibly...) and all of this train riding has gotten me curious in Railroad Tycoon. And, on top of all of that, Leopard is out.
Then there's Heroes, Weeds, House....
and. I have to work on Riigel with derek, a totally secret and awesome project with Ryan and Jon, and find a job.
So with these few unplanned days in Nice I have very little to do here. We been to the beach a lot and I've spent a some time on the internet and meebo. It's been great to talk with you guys, it's a sure-fire cure for any homesickness that might come up.
We leave here tomorrow evening on an overnight train ride to Paris, and then we'll see if we can get up to Holland from there.
And, with my mind on fun things, i decided to do a quick check of ign.com, 1up.com, kotaku.com etc... Mario Galaxy comes out the 13th?! it's a good thing the current budget we're running on might leave us with a fair amount of extra cash at the end of the trip, there's entirely too many good games out there, as Ryan can agree to. For the Wii there's Metroid and Mario. On computer-macheens there's Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, Unreal 3 (possibly...) and all of this train riding has gotten me curious in Railroad Tycoon. And, on top of all of that, Leopard is out.
Then there's Heroes, Weeds, House....
and. I have to work on Riigel with derek, a totally secret and awesome project with Ryan and Jon, and find a job.
So with these few unplanned days in Nice I have very little to do here. We been to the beach a lot and I've spent a some time on the internet and meebo. It's been great to talk with you guys, it's a sure-fire cure for any homesickness that might come up.
We leave here tomorrow evening on an overnight train ride to Paris, and then we'll see if we can get up to Holland from there.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
What is it about those 3 days?
Nov 1 - Nov 3.
In the final (final.FINAL.v3.reallythistime) plan we were going to spend these days in Paris, after we got back from Nice. After looking on hostelworld and realizing everything in paris for those days was either booked, gross or 50+ euro per person. So in our final (final.FINAL.v4.pleasegodthistime) plan we made plans in another B&B in Holland. Some charming small town with a "U" and a mess of consonants in it's name. Checking on train schedules and the only train we can really make there gets there at about 11:30pm. No problem. we've done all day trains before. Shoot off an email, telling them we'll be in around midnight and this morning I get this in my inbox:
"the reception is closed at 21.30 so we cancell the reservation please give your bankaccount so that we can refund the deposit"
Expletive! Back to hostelworld and the problem with Paris hostels seems to have spread to cover just about every place from here to the North Sea. Unless we're willing to shell out 45 Euro a night to sleep somewhere reviewed with "no bedbugs. shower is 2.50 euro for 10 minutes, staff was nice!" and has no Kitchen. No Thanks.
So, we're staying at the hostel in Nice a few more nights. Don't get me wrong... this hostel is really nice, super charming, good breakfast, really nice people. All around A+. It's just the city of Nice. There's an ok beachm sun, old town... but. Something about this place just gets to me. to much chaos or too much dirt or too many people. I can't define it, I'm just ready to move on.
But, hey. At least I've got a nice place to stay. I'm not gonna be bumming it in train stations. and like I said there's good people here. I met a fellow Coloradoan here. Big gamer (CS, and CS:S mostly) from Westminster who had dabbled a lot in graphic design and photography. Nice guy, gave him my card and he's gonna look me up on facebook when he gets home.
Also, I keep wanting to mention this but i keep forgetting. A while ago (the night we were leaving Salzburg) I met a noce old couple from the UK, and the wife looked and sounded - completely and totally - like Ms. Newton from Monarch except with an english accent. I didn't get a photo 'cause that'd be weird. can i haaaav ur picure(!) you look jus lak mah teacher from high school plettyplease!
So yes.
In the final (final.FINAL.v3.reallythistime) plan we were going to spend these days in Paris, after we got back from Nice. After looking on hostelworld and realizing everything in paris for those days was either booked, gross or 50+ euro per person. So in our final (final.FINAL.v4.pleasegodthistime) plan we made plans in another B&B in Holland. Some charming small town with a "U" and a mess of consonants in it's name. Checking on train schedules and the only train we can really make there gets there at about 11:30pm. No problem. we've done all day trains before. Shoot off an email, telling them we'll be in around midnight and this morning I get this in my inbox:
"the reception is closed at 21.30 so we cancell the reservation please give your bankaccount so that we can refund the deposit"
Expletive! Back to hostelworld and the problem with Paris hostels seems to have spread to cover just about every place from here to the North Sea. Unless we're willing to shell out 45 Euro a night to sleep somewhere reviewed with "no bedbugs. shower is 2.50 euro for 10 minutes, staff was nice!" and has no Kitchen. No Thanks.
So, we're staying at the hostel in Nice a few more nights. Don't get me wrong... this hostel is really nice, super charming, good breakfast, really nice people. All around A+. It's just the city of Nice. There's an ok beachm sun, old town... but. Something about this place just gets to me. to much chaos or too much dirt or too many people. I can't define it, I'm just ready to move on.
But, hey. At least I've got a nice place to stay. I'm not gonna be bumming it in train stations. and like I said there's good people here. I met a fellow Coloradoan here. Big gamer (CS, and CS:S mostly) from Westminster who had dabbled a lot in graphic design and photography. Nice guy, gave him my card and he's gonna look me up on facebook when he gets home.
Also, I keep wanting to mention this but i keep forgetting. A while ago (the night we were leaving Salzburg) I met a noce old couple from the UK, and the wife looked and sounded - completely and totally - like Ms. Newton from Monarch except with an english accent. I didn't get a photo 'cause that'd be weird. can i haaaav ur picure(!) you look jus lak mah teacher from high school plettyplease!
So yes.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Nice...is nice. indeed.
Hi guys! I write to you from the Villa Saint Exupery in Nice, France! It's warmish here and there's beaches and it's awesome! Very comfortable and friendly place that we're staying at because Colette helped renovate 3 years ago when she was last here.
So, Paris was fun. We were up in Monmarte (er... spelling french words is like playing darts for me) and saw the Sacre Cour and the Gallerias Lafayette a few other sights around town. We had planned 3 nights in Paris, then some time in Nice then more Paris time. But plans changed because we couldn't find any cheap places to stay in Paris to book once we got back. So 3 days is all we get of Paris.
Which, honestly, is ok by me. I saw it last time, and it's expensive and cold. So now we're here, and just finished booking the last night of hostels and the Eurostar Chunnel ride back to the UK! We're done with booking and planning! All is well... except for one major thing.
In the process of booking the Eurostar tickets Colette's bank timed out when talking to Eurostar's site. Eurostar just said it didn't work, we tried again and eventually we somehow managed to apparently kill Colette's card. From the bank's perspective it looks like someone was trying to brute force a payment through over and over, so her security thought someone stole it (when the same thing happened to my card with this site my bank didn't notice...).
Anyway, the numbers they gave her to call don't work. They aren't being very good about answering email and now it's looking like any further attempts to fix this might get her card killed forever. All is not lost, since Colette's parents have offered to wire us the money we would need if worse comes to worse.
But today we spent the day at the beach!
Also: don't expect many (any?) more photos. I love posting them, but I'm numbering 1000+ photos on my camera, and the shitty computers/connections I'm using just can't seem to handle it without me investing a good few hours on just a few photos. Sorry guys!
So, Paris was fun. We were up in Monmarte (er... spelling french words is like playing darts for me) and saw the Sacre Cour and the Gallerias Lafayette a few other sights around town. We had planned 3 nights in Paris, then some time in Nice then more Paris time. But plans changed because we couldn't find any cheap places to stay in Paris to book once we got back. So 3 days is all we get of Paris.
Which, honestly, is ok by me. I saw it last time, and it's expensive and cold. So now we're here, and just finished booking the last night of hostels and the Eurostar Chunnel ride back to the UK! We're done with booking and planning! All is well... except for one major thing.
In the process of booking the Eurostar tickets Colette's bank timed out when talking to Eurostar's site. Eurostar just said it didn't work, we tried again and eventually we somehow managed to apparently kill Colette's card. From the bank's perspective it looks like someone was trying to brute force a payment through over and over, so her security thought someone stole it (when the same thing happened to my card with this site my bank didn't notice...).
Anyway, the numbers they gave her to call don't work. They aren't being very good about answering email and now it's looking like any further attempts to fix this might get her card killed forever. All is not lost, since Colette's parents have offered to wire us the money we would need if worse comes to worse.
But today we spent the day at the beach!
Also: don't expect many (any?) more photos. I love posting them, but I'm numbering 1000+ photos on my camera, and the shitty computers/connections I'm using just can't seem to handle it without me investing a good few hours on just a few photos. Sorry guys!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
