Backpacking about.

The final hours.

2007-11-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

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.

so... Funny story.

2007-11-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

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?

Down to the last little bit.

2007-11-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

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!

squeak squeak I'm an otter!

2007-11-02T08:37:00.000-06:00

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.

What is it about those 3 days?

2007-10-31T08:31:00.000-06:00

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.

Hooray!

2007-10-28T10:29:00.000-06:00

Swimming! Beaches! Sun!

Also, Colette's card works again. Hooray!

Nice...is nice. indeed.

2007-10-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

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!

No time to waste!

2007-10-21T00:14:00.000-06:00

Well, it was cold and rainy and we had too many other things to do to get up Harder Kulm. And now we're in a rush as we try and beat the French Rail Strike - we'lre leaving super early and off to the train station as I type. France won't have free internets, so i might not post for a few days, we'll see.

and one more thing.

2007-10-19T11:20:00.000-06:00

Hi guys!
I'm feeling a lot better. Still have some bumps, still a little itchy. but they seem to be going away except for a few that just keep popping up. Today I went hiking up the side of a small mountain (Harder Kulm, if you want to look it up in google earth). I didn't make it all the way, we had forgot to pack sammiches. But tomorrow, by jove, We're going to best that pile of dirt and make it all the way to the top!

Soon we're off to Paris. and, of course, we picked the days to be there when the Rugby World Cup is going. and, shocking(!), a rail workers strike. So we'll see if it's even possible to get into Paris Sunday.

On that note, it's been a long fun day, I'm quite tired so I'm signing off. Goodnight, all. Gundehunder!

oh, and one more thing: They Cast Kirk! And Simon Pegg is Scotty!

omg.bbc.

2007-10-18T12:48:00.000-06:00

Um. the BBC sure has some weird stuff on late at night:

For example. (note: don't watch this if you are my mom, my grandparents, or anyone who might not like some really really weird offensive humor)

Also, I'm feeling a little better, Colette is not sick. Allegra is helping, not sure why, but so is sleep. And I still have a fever (again, not sure why)

Our plans are still changing. Now we're going to skip Ireland (and just gonna have to eat a rather hefty ferry cancellation fee) because it seems that the entire nation is booked solid on Saturday night. So, we're doing the beach. for reals this time, in Nice.

So here's how out final (knock on wood) plans are looking:

Paris
Nice
Paris (for a few more days, including the free museum day)
Amsterdam (calming...and they has cat!)
London (TO SEE PATRICK STEWART IN MACBETH!!)
Swansea (to see mike again!)
London to go home.

As it is I'm starting to just feel tired. I want the rest of this trip to be as easy as possible, so we're doing stuff we know we liked and trying to book everything now. I'm sure I'll enjoy the rest of the trip but sometimes I can't stop myself from thinking There's no place like home, There's no place like home.

Speaking of home: What would all of you out there in TV land say to a party at my place (for... i dunno. my birthday. and any other reasons you can think of). the Party would go into the night, at which point the computers could come out and the non LAN-enabled among us could get some sleep while the rest of us duke it out in Starcraft. *coughloserscough* :)

eeeeew.

2007-10-17T07:35:00.000-06:00

Still here in beautiful Switzerland for a few more days! It's been amazing and clear and perfect weather for hiking, but for the last few days I've stayed inside because I have some mystery illness! Oh no!

The day before yesterday we were hiking in Mürren, which is above Lauterbrunen. Really stunning, fantastic views (I'll post photos and more of a story in a bit - other priorities now) and when we got home it looked like I had a few bug bites (very small itchy circular swollen areas, normal skin color) near the knuckles of my left hand. Later that night I noticed a few of these supposed bites on the rest of my arms.

Yesterday I've got more, on both arms/hands/underarms and my neck. They're starting to look a lot more like hives. They're not too dense or too itchy but there are a few on my hands and arms.

They're getting more itchy today, a little more red. some of them (the earliest ones on my hands) seem to be very slowly going away, but more are showing up on my neck and moving down my shoulders in the direction of my stomach.

Also, in the lest few minutes here it looks like colette might be getting some.

So, Katy, Briel, anyone else...Any ideas? We first thought it was environmental, like I was really allergic to something near Mürren, or the coat i bought in Italy had some weird chemical in it (I had not washed it yet when i wore it) But the spreading and Colette getting it has confused us both. Wondering if I should try and get some anti or even pro biotics.

Right. Photos. Ok.

2007-10-16T07:37:00.001-06:00

As I said, berlin has history everywhere, and a rainy cold day is the best day to see it all.

But the park was great. here we are looking cute! I bought the hat and scarf at a CA store at Alaxanderplatz.

Panda says nom nom nom! And Colette loved the animals, especially the bird that tried to eat my face.

The Reichtag is pretty cool! I have a lot of photos of it, but for some reason decided to use the blurriest one here. Also, that is me slow motion running, like mike, on the Reichtag grounds.

Leaving Berlin! This is a very cool station, and very cold!

Salzburg was very nice and very green, and here is one of my photos from the huge farmers market.

This was my I-just-had-to-take-it shot.

First photo. St. Peters is HUGE. second photo. Who knew, the Vatican Museum had a memorial to Evil Pac-Man.

This is one of the only photos i took of the hostel we were at in Rome. nice place!

Next time I'll have photos. I promise!

2007-10-15T01:06:00.000-06:00

Hi guys!

So, quick recap, and I do mean quick: Austria, as you read, was a lot of fun as long as you stay away from the kitchy Sound of Music and Mozart stufff. Go hiking, walk around town something like that.

Rome. is. huge. Every corner you turn there's another monument to a pope, saint or roman emperor. Some huge white building that you know you've seen in history books somewhere but can't remember what it's called. For example: We were wandering what felt like some back(ish) streets and stepped into a small little piazza (guh...I may mangle the spelling of Italian, i never caught onto any of the language except for prego). Turns out this little place was the home of the Pantheon. My tourist map would have told me, but it's really strange to just stumble on these things.

But, as grand as Rome was i still felt the same way about it that i felt about Italy last time: too big, dirty, crowded, chaotic, smelly and rude. To cross the streets you don't wait for the cars to stop. you do a quick check to see if you're in any immediate danger of getting run over by a bus or vespa, then you just step out into the street. I'm not exaggerating - you walk across the street, without stopping or looking and just have faith that you won't die. That's really the only way to get around.

The only thing that made it possible to stay in rome for 6 nights was the amazing hostel we were at, The Mona Lisa Hostel. It was a converted apartment in the near the ruins. The great guy who ran it is some wild Japanese guy, probably my age if not younger by a year, named Tomo. The way this company works is one man owns about 9 hostels in Rome, and gets people to work at them for a few months or years at a time. Well, we were lucky enough to stay at one incredibly fun, friendly place that was just small enough to be cozy while Tomo was working there. I really can't speak highly enough of him, one night he even made lasagna for everyone there and a few days later had some left over pizza he shared with everyone. Without this hostel Rome would have been a really stressful place.

To leave Rome we jumped on a 0530 train to Milan. the ride was noting special (except that it didn't smell like an exploded portable toilet like the ride into Rome). Then from Milan to Zurich. And this train side is something everyone on Earth should do before they die. It was the most concentrated dose of natural beauty I have experienced. It comes in waves, getting more and more impressive with each lake, mountain or valley. I took a lot of Photos, but none of them came out that well because photos from trains just dont seem to work. So you'll just have to trust me: If you get tired of Rome (and you will) take a train ride up north to Zurich, then out to Interlaken and stay at the Rugenpark B&B. The food's expensive, and it may be a little cold, But Sitzerland is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. I'm very glad we decided to pay a little more (80 swiss franks a night for a Doppelzimmer) to stay here. We're close to the mountains and have a good breakfast every morning.

So my plans change form day to day it seems. Right now we are thinking of skipping Spain (and our last chance for a real beach). We will probably just got right up to Paris, from there to Ireland and then back to the UK for a few days (HI MIKE!) before jetting off for home!

(as per the title of this post: this computer has a USB plug so we'll all get to see my pictures soon! but it also has a microphone/headphones and webcam so I can use skype and even video skype if anyone's interested.)

Salzburg,The Land of Salt

2007-10-11T11:53:00.000-06:00

Guest writer Colette here, to tell the tale of Salzburg, Austria.
I think that we are not people who can handle all things always. We rode the over night train from Berlin to Austria , sitting up. The alternative was beds, theoretically, but they were not offered as an option at the station, and we did not press, though as our backs and legs grew sorer and sorer, we realized we should have. In town, at 9 am, we found our bus to the hostel and got on, relieved to be on our way to the fantastic hostel of legends from Andrew's last stay here. The first impression: the nice park in the front had been dug up for a parking space.
Inside, the receptionist told us that we could store our bags, but there would not be an open space until 1. So we went out, tired, hungry, tired some more, but it was an unfathomably beautiful day, so then we hiked. We climbed somehow up to the castle, and looked down, and saw incredible country sides, and future hiking opportunities, and we dreamed about someday living in a breathtakingly sweet town like this.
We were out until 1, and returned to get moved into our rooms, we found top bunks to move into, and began, as you do if you have been without a home for a time, to nest. We put out or sheets and et up our pillows, and... fell asleep. Mightily. Andrew insisted he was not sleepy. I heard him snoring softly, drooling just a little in a matter of minutes. The night was a preamble to the following, with loud banging and a group of clearly drunk kids pounding down the hall but we both called it a fluke as we went down to an elaborate and perfect breakfast. That day was cloudy, but we went out and found me some yarn and Andrew a new book because he is a freak and read through his two books in a matter of days.
That night, two new guys moved in, they spoke only Japanese, but there was no evidence of trouble until we got in to our beds and suddenly an incredible cacophany began. They managed to take turns snoring in the most unhealthy and loudest way possible. I am not usually so light a sleeper when I am tired, but I could not even close my eyes for the noise. 11 o'clock rolled around and withit the return of the drunk kids from the other night. They were breaking glasses, knocking over chairs, screaming in German, banging on our door and throwing things. At 5 am, against my feeble attempt to stop him, Andrew went out and spoke to the desk clerk who instructed him to "punch the guys" . Honetly, if I had known that that night, I would ave gone and punched the desk clerk.
So it continued, and in th morning we dragged ourselves to breakfast, I was shakig with anger and exhaustion and I drank my tea without seeing. Andrew and I decided to tell the desk people and try to get them to do something. I didn't know what. We went to the desk, on the way, seeig the kids and their teachers and the kids. I think I burst into tears. The desk people started bwing and apologizing in that way that only Germanic peoples can. It was absolute shame, and i couldn't help but practically yell at the kids every thing that happened. The teacher were bright pink with embarrassment. They knew the kids were out of control, but couldn't do anything but apologize and tell us they were leaving.
The desk people apologized further and offered us a private room. Yes. We said.
So for Andrew's birthday, we cut our hair, Andrew called his mom, we showered in an actually clean bathroom, and then we went out to eat at a really nice place. We got our first really descent sleep in weeks, and in the morning we went hiking on a most beautiful mountain which needs pictures to tel, o when we have USB port, we will show you what we mean.
We're in Rome as Andrew told you, we leave day after tomorrow for Switzerland where we hope to hike mre because we are people who like cold and rural. The cities will kill us if we let them.
Also tomorrow is our two year anniversary. It's one of those mile-marker things. I think we might go out to a jazz club and some gelato. For my part, after two years, I am as and certainly more in love with him than I was the first day I met him. Corny, but honestly, it is what I know and I wouldn't let him go for the world.
Rome is for later. I think we are starting a fan club for our Japanese host Tomo. He is... unreal. it will involve pictures.
Until next time kiddos,
Colette

Not in greece, after all.

2007-10-07T12:01:00.000-06:00

Hi guys!

So i'm now in the mona lisa hostel in Rome! We had some eurail to ferry planning issues when thinking of going to greece, so then decided on southern italy. That was expensive so, here we are at a totally hip place in the middle of Rome, free breakfast and internet (but on a computer with no usb plugs i can find for my camera).

And I've got a bit of catching up to do! Berlin was so interesting. we got in tired, as usual, and while walking around you just stumble upon bits of history. we were at the "three little pigs hostel" which seems to be an old old renovated hospital. totally creepy, very Half life 2, and full of great international guests. We were within a 5-10 minute walk of potsdammer plaz. Our second day there we walked just north of the platz and discovered a strange groove in the sidewalk. Following this, we discovered that this groove runs much of the city - it's actually a marker for the location of the berlin wall.

history is very present there. Down the street from the platz was a memorial for the jewish Europeans killed in WW2. down further is the Brandenburg gate, and just past that is the Reichstag.

It's a hard place to be - I certainly dont want to bash Germany - but Berlin is a tough reminder of some of the darkest moments of recent western history.

While taking a break from the city we wandered through the park and stumbled on the Berlin Zoo. It was just the break we needed, and spent the whole day there. Expect lots of pictures of animals when we get back!

The last night there we visited the Reichtag. This was the perfect end to Berlin. This building, which has been at the center of German politics for the last hundred plus years is now home to the German equivalent of a parliament. on the roof of this reconstructed building is a stunning glass dome. In here is a complete history of this building and all the times it was rebuilt. It was really an incredible feeling - to stand here looking at reminders of Germany's hard past (including Russian graffiti carved into the stones 60 years ago) and really get this feeling of optimism and a bright present and future.

So, we watched the sun set there.

Tomorrow I will post about Salzburg, that's it for now. I will be in Rome for 6 nights.

Quick update

2007-10-04T10:16:00.000-06:00

Hi guys!
Berlin was great, Salzburg is gool, german kezboards are terrible (as are traditional german toilets).

Internet here is 3 euro an hour so no long posts. Gonna unwind on a beach foe a week in Greece, Iäll post when intenretäs cheaper.

Amsterdam

2007-09-26T11:53:00.000-06:00

We've arrived in Amsterdam! I love this place - it's comfortabe, pretty, calm and just feels right. Except for a few things; for those of you getting Colette's email I'm of the same mind regarding some of the people here. For those of you not getting it ... as much as I like the idea of the coffeeshops and redlight district insofar as it representing a free an tolerant society these things contribute to people doing very very stupid and overall annoying things (mostly the coffeshops).

But as I've said before. We left Wales, which we both loved and spent a few days in London. here's some quick photos ofthat leg of things to keep me kinda caught up. First - Colette getting very excited about all the pretty things in wales. Mike outside of Salt, where we got very good fish and chips in Mumbles, Wales. Me in front of the giantest bear EVAR. This was at "Harrod's", a huge over-the-top mall/high end deparptment store in london which I'm sure has lots of photos on Flickr you should look at. And one last photo from London we took as we were hiking around (probably 5 miles that day alone - what'd i say in the last post? don't remember)

So that brings us to now. As I said.... Amsterdam is so pretty! The rain here can never decide what to do. One minute it is suny and warm out, then it's either cloudy, rainy, windy, cloudy and windy, windy and sunny, rainy and windy and sunny... you get the point. It changes faster than in the mountains at home, as amazing as that is. Everything is so green, too.

It's a little hard to remember specific things (no, my memeory isn't "hazy" not is my judgememnt "cloudy", mom) it's just that so much has happened and we've spent about 60% of our awake time walking. I even have blisters on the tips of my toes.

On the ferry over from the UK we met a great Candian family who were makign the exact trip we were. They were the perfect little family, all smart, pretty, interesting. The father liked cars and taught his kids how to pronounce dutch and the kids read complicated books on the train. It was very surreal and they were very Canadian. But they helped us find our station and get to Amsterdam Centraal. When we got into town we got immediatly lost. It feels like a small town, but it goes on and on. We wandered and looked for our hostel until it started getting dark and almost fell over from a combination of lack of sleep and food. Finally, we found the right series of landmarks to jog Colette's memory and I spotted the place.

We're Staying at the Hotel AnneMarie. It's a cute little place with free internet in the quiet part of town. This is the part of town I'd like to live in one day. Parks, nice people, bikes and art museums all over.

Of course, no city is all pretty things and nice people. The Red-light district may be the most famous part of Amsterdam but it's really not the most welcoming. I suggest anyone visiting here spend most of their time in and around the 2 parks "Museum Plein" and "Vodelpark" (we are staying right off the Museum Park).

And I'm concluding this with one quick story as well as a photo: We saw a cat that we can only assume was high today. It sat staring at the corner of a wall, and kept trying to rub it's face on it but ...missed. and the concluding photo:

Oh Yeah.

London

2007-09-23T13:07:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone!
London's been a bit of a trip. right now we're staying in a cool hostel that just opened. It's build in a 350 year old courthouse, jail and police station. We're in the police station part and it's got some uber-modern furnishings (for a hostel) and brightly colored walls that add a very interesting feel.

Today we visited the British Museum and the Tate Modern. I got lots of photos from the British Museum but as soon as I took my camera out in the Tate I got some looks and a man came over and told me to put my camera away, ''...they have cameras everywhere''.

Today we probably walked about 5 miles to and from museums and transit stops, setting up our ferry ride to Amsterdam tomorrow. at 6 am. ech.

London's a nice place, but it's easy to feel lost in this noise and the pace of things over here. I'm looking forward to Amsterdam and the smaller towns we'll visit after that.

Also, i'd post more photos but the cool hostel we're at doesn't have interwubs so we're at some sketch Internet cafe here and I'm feeling anxious just putting in my gmail account ;).

Colette wants to say some stuff too!
I just wanted to mention that we are truly a couple of Hoopty Froods, because throughout all this, we still know where our towels are. I hate to say it Mike, I ... kinda miss Wales.
Bye for now!
The Us

Per your request.

2007-09-21T06:40:00.000-06:00

Here ya go! some photos. There's an amazing park near mike's place and i missed my chance to take good photos yesterday. today is all gray and rainy, but it was very nice yesterday.... ah well.

The photos above are from trafalgar square. It's not so much a square as a collection of streets and an open area with REALY BIG statues in front of a museum. There's also a park nearby but I dind't pull out my camera for it - even when we saw a pelican.

Those Londoners know how to build some cool skyscrapers

I don't remember what this is. Saint P- something. could be -eter or -aul. don't remember. it was HUGE.

Saw some weird zimbabwe stuff, and this sign at the airport. took these for melissa

So, sorry there are so few of these. I took them mostly while hiking around London and wasn't taking out my camera because I had way too much stuff in my satchel since i didn't have my bag. I'll try and take more now that i can keep just a few things on me at once.

also. I'm going back to spend a day in london tomorrow before heading to Amsterdam. I'll hit a few parks, see some more things up close and see the Tate Modern

Milhouse

2007-09-20T09:34:00.000-06:00

as in: everything's coming up Milhouse.

Mikesland (Wales) is full of good luck! our bags are here and we're all clean and dressed in not-plane clothes.

So we're going to stay here for a few days, and then go to Amsterdam. We think. we'll play it by ear now that we can since we have backpacks!

everything's dumb.

2007-09-19T16:44:00.000-06:00

So, ok. well, we're not dead.

But this trip so far has been just about the longest streak of bad luck I've ever had. Starting with our first plane breaking down - we were worried about missing the connection but they fix it just in time. most of the way through the flight the pilot comes on the PA and tells us tat he was reading his watch wrong, and we'd have ~10 minutes (from wheels down) to cross the airport and make the plane. We make it, but turns out our luggage didn't.

Yep, we were in London with only what we had in our carry on. I was wearing a t-shirt, sandals and had a few books, my passport, camera, DS and mp3 player with me.

I bought a Vodofone sim card - which has yet to pick up a signal anywhere except the vodofone store. We got a bus to Victoria station and walked to King's Cross, where our hostel was. It wasn't on our small map and was a good bit further than we had guessed (about 3.5 miles) through the middle of the city. London is beautiful, though. It turned out to be 5 pounds more than was posted on their website (that's 10 dollars for you keeping track at home). We called NWA to figure out where our bags were and they told us to show up at the airport the next day at noon.

My cell phone alarm didn't go off because the battery somehow dropped from literally full to dead during the night - I can only assume it's because it was searching for vodofone all night - and my charger is in my pack. I slept for 14 hours, but we still made breakfast and it was pretty good. We left from kings cross station on a train back to Gatwikck (trains are awesome but expensive) expecting to get our luggage. and...guess what.... they have no idea where it is. Amsterdam and Heathrow were the best guesses. KLM/NWA says they'll ship it to an address we put, so we put down Mike's and head back.

On the train back to king's cross station we decide to go instead to Victoria station (since they have buses to Swansea) We get off at the closest station - still 3 miles away. As we hike it gets colder and wetter. But on the way we see St. Paul's (huge) and the outside of the Tate Modern (can't wait to go inside!), Big Ben from a long ways off and Buckingham Palace (pretty). All of this hiking, by the way, is being done in flip flops since my good shoes are in my pack.

We missed the 3pm bus to Swansea (of course) and take the 5pm, 22 pound bus to Mike. They said it would get there at 11:30 and we call Mike (payphone - where I lost 70p in the process) to get him to pick us up. On the bus the upright and closed orange juice I bought spilled all over my DS games. The last stop on the bus is 10pm, and wait for Mike with no phones in a cold, seedy bus station with drunks and scary guys for an hour and a half. Mike gets here, had a warm dorm room, cookies and some of the nicest people I've ever met. YAY MIKE!

I'm probably forgetting some more bad stuff Colette could fill you in on, but there's my trip in a nutshell. All ...uh. 36 hours? so far. Enough badluck. I'm here now to start things off on the right foot by telling all of the good things now.

The good stuff: Parts of London are Very Pretty. We were walking past a park and all of a sudden there's one of the biggest most beautiful buildings I've seen. 10 minutes later and there's a better one. St. Paul's is HUGE. The graphic design here is a lot of fun, Almost all of it is white type on a red background. the main company that does this is vodofone, but I see white/red ads all over the place. in the train station I stopped still and could actually count 7 signs with white type on a red back and a few more variations of that with serif type or white on purple. King's Cross station looks like "Dark City" it's canyons of crooked brick houses with tracks running down the middle.

Well, that's it. I'll possibly post photos tomorrow after my first shower with shampoo and soap on this trip.

So now that's 5 things!

2007-09-10T22:45:00.000-06:00

One week from now and I'll be half way through my flight (wait - with layover not quite but almost!). so exciting!

So I've been running through a massive to-do list. 17 things on there, broken down into 6 categories (portfolio, money, cleaning...). Today I got through 4 of them, so I think I'm just ahead of the curve here. One of those is to make a list of addresses for people who want postcards! so, again in bold in case you were skimming:

e-mail me your mailing address and any special instructions if you want a postcard!

If you don't have my email - well you should - but ask for it in the comments. I'm going to insist on an email since I can just look at the whole list and star/unstar them as needed. Special instructions can include anything. From getting your postcard in a specific country/language to licking the back in place of a signature. anything goes - no questions asked I will attempt to accommodate you! (also: tell your friends if they want postcards to email me)

and if the only people I get to send postcards to is my grandparents ... well, I guess I know who my real friends are! *cry!*

Oh man, the internet is awesome.

2007-09-03T10:27:00.000-06:00

Lazy labor day, I wake up pretty late. Colette and I realize we still need our eurail passes. So we jump online, and within about 10 minutes we've logged on, bought the passes for both of us and are having them shipped to my home address (in 5 days or less)

I grew up with this technology, but sometimes I'm still shocked at how hard it would be to get things done without it.

Anyway... it's 2 weeks till I leave now! I'm now running in piggy bank mode - trying to spend as little money as possible (and work as many hours as possible). Oh right. except for that 2 gig XD camera card just got. $40 at radio shack and now I can take 2500 3 mega pixel photos. *glee*

Almost Moving Day

2007-08-18T10:08:00.001-06:00

We're almost moved out of the apartment in Boulder, and after this I'm going to be living with my parents for a month before the flight. It hasn't been very interesing but but has been busy these past few weeks. We're trying to organize some last minute
Colorado stuff, like hiking, swimming in boulder creek and doing things that are best done in Colorado.

For example, a few days ago we went to the butterfly pavilion. That place is pretty tiny, but a lot of fun, I had forgotten. A lot of the photos I took there really worked well, even though the lighting was a little wonky - both the lights and the darks had a habit of blowing out weird. anyway I'll post some small photos from that trip:

and also: Mothra.

On the way home we got one of the more intense storms I remember having in Colorado. All this rain and lightning is making me excited to move away from here where it's a more common occurrence.

In betwixt working and going places I've been packing. This was taken a few days ago - it's a little better now in that half of this is donated and half is in boxes.

And I'm getting ready for the trip too. I picked myself up a Mars Backpack and it fits pretty well. Got some very very nice La Sportiva Ventures - waterproof (!). I think my last big purchase is going to be a Eurail Pass. Then, hopefully, it's just saving money.

Edit: Holy crap one month even from my last post. Well, I'm leaving in just under another month. And I will be posting more in Europe.

It begins.

2007-07-18T20:55:00.000-06:00

Last night I took the major, no-turning-back-now, step to taking a backpacking trip in Europe with Colette. I bought airline tickets. Even just a few hours before I bought them I was wondering, worrying and waffling about weather I should even go or not.

I always wind up talking myself out of spending money, or of going on trips. It's happened a lot, trust me. So, as I was thinking about postponing this for a year (which means indefinitely) I came to a realization, this has been something important to me for years. If this trip doens't happen I'll be thinking about how I should be there the whole fall. Even if i travel to somewhere else, like Hawaii, Seattle or New York I'd still be thinking about this trip. So, price of airline tickets be damned, I decided, it's now or never. Take one for the team. Go get 'em boys. all for one and one for all! or something to that effect.

So, with this big step out of the way it's official. I'm going to go backpacking in Europe. We leave on September 17th at 2:15pm for Gatwick Airport. We'll get back into the states at 5:53pm on November 19th.

Before I leave I plan to post occasionally about planning, the gear I'm getting and where I'll be going. Then the posting will begin in earnest. Derek, Ryan, I like both of your blogs a lot. so I'm going to be posting a lot of picture heavy things just like you guys. And hey, what are you using to host your photos you post on the blogs?