Happy New Year

J Well its been a thrilling three months so far, we've made new friends, seen amazing sights and had some truley life changing experiences. We are starting to miss the comforts of home, and of course our friends and family. Whatever your doing this new years, just remember, we've been partying for the last 8 hours as we're that far ahead of you. lol

Thanks for the emails and support, and have a great and safe new years. May God bless you.

P.S. If you spill a drink on yourself, and minutes later someone insists you peed your pants, the worse thing you can do is take them off and attempt to get people to smell them. Memories.

Nerumberg and Munich

M So we left Berlin and headed south to the city of Nerumberg, famous for it´s Christmas market. We dropped our bags off in the lockers in the train station and headed out. We spent a few hours walking around the quaint city with it's cobble stone streets and narrow roads. We saw the beautiful castle, then when the sun went down, which is at about 4:30 here we hit the Christmas market. It was very similar to many others that we have been to, just bigger. We bought a souvenier for ourselves, ate some bratwurst and enjoyed the carollers. Then it was back to the train station and off to Munich.

The hostel we stayed in the first night was right beside the train station which was great. (Wombats) We spent the night doing lanundry, and watching a HOCKEY came in the bar. Nope it wasn't Edmonton playing. Sure we were the only ones in there watching the game, but it was great to see some NHL hockey.

The next day we decided to take the free walking tour. It was very good. We learned a lot about Munich, and our guide, the only black man in Germany so he was easy to follow, showed us many small things that most tourists would just pass by, like a golden line in the road, Dodgers pass, that symbolises where people who did not want to walk past and Hail Hitler walked.

After the tour we walked around Munich. Went to the hard rock cafe and got Jes a shirt. He has 4 now from this trip and we haven't eaten there once :) We found a mall, and decided that it was about time we went Christmas shopping for each other. It was exciting trying not to be seen by the other person. At one point I was at a cash register and Jes was about 10 feet away from me. I turned the other way and was lucky he missed me, or so he says. It was the fastest shopping ever. After an hour and a half we were completely done. Helps when we have a small budget, our stockings we are going to stuff are just our socks, and you spend 24/7 with a person for 3 months you really start to get to know what they would like.
We then moved our bags from the first hostel to our new one. Went grocery shopping and made dinner and relaxed for the night.

A day inside.. we went to a museum of science and technology. It was huge, it took us all day and we still did not complete it. We saw ships, airplanes, hot-air balloons, computer history, astronomy, trains, musical instruments and much more. One of the most interesting exhibits was learning how tunnels are made, specifically how the chunnell (or Eurotunnel) was created.

We then left and went in search of an internet cafe. After much walking, getting very cold, and not having much luck we decided to go to a movie. On the way there we found a cafe. So we used the internet a bit, then watched the Golden Compass, which was the only movie playing in English. The movie was ok, we would not really recommend it though. What surprised us was the number of Germans in the theater. We spoke to one couple who said they only watch the English films as it is the original version, not dubbed.

The next day we took our time getting up then headed to climb the 302 stairs of a church tower for the best view of the city, and to watch the very cheesy glockenspiel. After a little last minute Christmas shopping we were off to find what our guide book said was the best beergardens in Munich, Augustiner Keller. We arrived to find to it all closed up and covered in frost. But there was a beer hall, where we enjoyed appetizers and the biggest beer Jesse has ever had.

After that we went looking for a grocery store. After that huge beer Jes had to pee. There was no where we could find and he was getting desparate. So he went into a littel hall, and was able to use the bathroom and get out without anyone seeing.

We then found groceries, made dinner, pasta again, and went out to use the internet for the rest of the evening. Today we are off to my great aunts place for Christmas. We will not have access to internet for the next week.

We wish all our blog readers a wonderful and safe Christmas.
Chat with you in the new year when we begin the next leg of our excellent adventure.

Deutschland or bust (Berlin)

M Well to sum up Poland before we get to Germany, the second day we spent walking around Krakow. We saw the castle, Christmas market, looked for a phone to call my aunt.. with little luck. Then in the evening we went out with 2 polish and 1 spanish guys from our hostel. We just went to a couple pubs, later they took us to a famous sausage place. We had a great time hanging out with them. The one guy Cuba worked at the hostel and got 5 hrs of sleep as he worked the morning shift.

The next day, onto Germany. Although Krakow is not far from Germany the only trains that are not night trains go through Warsaw which is the oposite direction. So it was a 9 hour train ride and we sat with 3 Americans on the way to Warsaw, and 2 Polish people and an Italian guy who would not stop talking on our way to Berlin, so no sleep for us.

We arrived in Berlin late in the evening. Their subway/train system is VERY complex compared to Prague and Budapests, it took us like the whole week to figure it out. But we were lucky that 2 people saw us and gave us their day tickets that they were done with. Something Jes had done in Prague, what goes around eh?

We were staying at the GENERATOR (yes you must say it like Arnold Schwarzenegger) with 902 beds. We were very nervous as it was far from our first choice, but many places were full. We were plesently surprised. Yes it is huge, but good breakfast, good atmosphere, and very comfy beds. The first night we met a guy from Spain, and a guy from Israel. We stayed up all night talking with them. It was neat learning about life in Israel first hand.

J Our first surprise in Berlin was how much the subway/metro line cost for a day pass, we ended up getting a tourist pass that cost an extra few €s and gave us unlimited use for three days and discounts at attractions. The first day we had planned an outing to a few meseums as Thursday is free entry into state run museums after 2pm. We wrote a few emails, hung around the hostel, and left just after 1pm for the mesuem of modern art.

We arrived at the first mesuem right after 2 and proceeded to walk in and get stopped at the entrance. Apparently, we had forgot that Thursday was spent on a train, it was Friday! The staff had a hard time communicating the fact that it was free yesterday, so he just started telling us "Friday" which at first I understood to mean the free entry was tomorrow, but later, after seeing that we were upsetting him, realized that indeed it was Friday. So in the end we stayed and paid for a three day meseum pass (as we had 5 days in Berlin).

The modern art museum was very interesting. There were many different exhibits, we made fun of some, fell asleep at some, and enjoyed the rest. Michelle was shocked at the amount of nudity, and I was shocked at the amount of arcade games! Yes, an entire exhibit devoted to these ancient quarter eating machines, we spent almost an hour playing all the free games we wanted, it was so great. Michelle had to drag me out kicking and screaming. (In fact just earlier today we were having a discussion related to Mrs. Packman) lol

We also enjoyed an exhibit by Roman Singer, who blew things up, shot things, threw things in the river, and lit off explosives in his hands. They were mostly videos with a few pictures. I took a few videos of his videos, so Ill share those once we get home. The Mordern Art Museum was a very nice change from the regular art galleries we had been seeing up to this point.

Afterwards we got lost in the great Haupbanhof (main train station), which had trains on the bottom level, the top level, and probably on a few other levels, it was bigger then Edmontons airport, honestly. Once we finally got out of there we headed back to our hostel and met up with Fernando, the guy we had met the day before in our dorm. We had a few drinks in the bar and played pool.

The next day we joined a free walking tour, it was excellent. We saw the Berlin wall, stood where Hitler's bunker was located, walked through the Holocost Memorial (which was the size of a city block, seee picture), Humboldt University (site of book burning), and stopped outside the Berliner dome. Oh and we also froze our butts off, the obvious disadvantage of taking walking tours at this time of year. Once the tour was over we headed straight for another mesuem (free bathrooms, heated, what more could you want?). It was a cool Egyptian Museum, the highlight was of course Queen Nephritis bust (which was a statue of her head basically, not her cleavage).

After warming ourselves sufficiently, we went across to the Christmas market (are you seeing a trend yet?) and had some German susages for dinner.

There was a huge outdoor faire going on around us, it had about as many big rides as Capital Ex, however it was in space of about half that and thus was very cramped and we got out as soon as we could. We then went to the Reichstag, which is like the parliament building, and had this big glass dome on top that had a great view of 1. The city at night and 2. The parliment hard at work below.. thus if the people who are elected to run the country ever forgot who they're working for, they simply have to look up and see the people. Very cool design.

Speaking of design, the architecture in Berlin is amazing, after all, 90% of the place was demolished during WWII so they have replaced or repaired most of it. It is very modern. Oh and did we forget to mention the big T.V. tower? It's nothing special, basically it was the communist government showing they had just as much technology and ability to build big towers as those dirty capitalists.

M What Jes forgot to mention about the TV tower, is that it was build after the Communist government took down all the crosses from churches, and when the sun hit the large golden cross that sits on top of the Berliner Dome (no idea why it was allowed to keep its cross) a big golden reflection shone onto the round T.V. tower and everyone in Berlin could see the cross.

The government was not happy about this, so they told the people that it was not a cross, but a plus sign, a plus for Communisum as they said. Others dubbed it "the Pope's revenge". lol

The next day we started at one of the Berlin Wall documentation site, it also had the church of reconcilation, which we didn´t enter as it had services going on throughout the day. It had more information about life during the existance of the wall, and was situated where the wall stood seperating the French side of West Berlin and the East.

From there we had lunch and headed off to our final museum which was on museum island, a real island in the middle of the city which, as you guessed, is full of museums. The Pergamon Museum was full of ruins from Greece and Turkey, it was huge! Very neat, made us excited about going to those countries. Although we left before seeing the entire place (you can only look at so many statues before it gets old).

That evening we went back to our hostel and hung out with Fernando again and a Aussi/Kiwi couple we had met on our walking tour.

On our last day in Berlin, we went back to the Berlin wall outside Checkpoint Charlie, to take a better look as we kinda flew past it during our tour. We read about the history of it and saw pictures. The story of it comming down is too long to write and many of you probably know it, but it is SO AWESOME. We saw Check Point Charlie which was 1 of 3 American border crossing into and out off East Berlin, then ate lunch at Snack Point Charlie. (cute)

We then went to see another exhibit called the Topography of Terror, which was outside and after an hour of reading and looking at pictures we were very cold, so we did not see the whole thing, but by this point we had a very accurate view of the situation before Hitlers rise to power, the Nazi government, and the rise and fall of the Berlin wall.

J Tuesday morning we headed out toward the train station, and right after jumping on our first S Bahn train/metro we were asked to produce tickets by a pair of plain-clothed officers. Of course if you have been paying attention, you would know that we did indeed pay for tickets and luckily averted the €40 fee/person. We hadn`t been checked up until that point and were beginning to wonder if they even did random checks. Shortly later we were off on a train to our next destination, but we´ll leave that for another post. Caio

A short, memorable time in Poland

J So we went from Prague to Krakow, Poland. It was 8 or 9 hours by train with one change along the way, which is a long day on the train. We had planned well though and brought food and drink, and we passed the time reading, sleeping, and discussing the next leg of our adventure. We were very blessed as our first train, which was 1.5 hrs late, dropped us at our connection point with 15 minutes before the next train to Krakow left, which with a little hussle we made without a problem.

Interesting point: when we first arrived in a non english speaking country (Spain) were we frightened at the thought of not being able to communicate, now however, we just point and attempt to prusuade the locals to remember their English vocab (although we always learn pleasentries and use them, no matter how badly we butcher pronounciation). We always seem to manage, and most people are very friendly, when they aren't.. it's usually because they think we're American. haha

As we arrived in the evening in Krakow, we looked out into the dark and sleet, lifted our bags onto our backs, fixed our touques and mittens, grabbed our carry on packs and started the long haul to our hostel. Going downstairs toward the exit of the train station we walked into a small corridor, with glass doors and a nice black floor-mat on the ground. Strange we thought.

The warm air that hit us, coupled with the smell of baked goods and a faint whisper of music started our jaws towards the ground. As we turned the next corner we saw it, a 30 foot Christmas tree, with decorations, and about 25 smaller ones cleverly placed around little stalls with goods and services at our disposal. Yes the very symbol of capitalism that we forgot we missed so much, a MALL!!!
Krakow Galleria as they call it, what a shock to go from train station, darkness, cold, to this. We later discovered it is at least the size of Kingsway Garden Mall back in E-town.

M We did make it to our awesome hostel that night and were plesantly surprised to find our 10 bed dorm was empty and we had the room to ourselves. We then monopoloized the free internet to do some planning and check email. The next day we were up early and after a breakfast provided by the hostel (Poland was nice and cheap if we haven't mentioned it yet) we were on a bus heading to Auswitch.

We saved Zloty (as we often do) by not taking the tour and walking our tired butts to the bus station and paying for the guided tour at the site. For those that are not familiar with Auswitch, it was the largest Nazi concentration camp, where between 1 and 1.2 million people we murdered, either through starvation, execution, work, sickness, and of course the gas chambers.
The day aroused many emotions in both Jesse and I. Everything from anger to sorrow, and a general somber feeling throughout the day. It was fittingly a very cold, foggy day, and the most shocking thing we discovered was the shear size of the camp, specificallz Burkenau (Auswitch II). We had a bus ride of 1.5 hrs both ways to the site, and thus had time to reflect on the things we heard and saw. The buildings were for the most part preserved, only some of them being made of wood, most were brick, and only the gas chambers at Burkenau were destroyed by the Nazi's in an attempt to cover up their atrociates.

We saw the terrible conditions where they slept, with insufficient heating, room, and of course food (never mind nutrition). We saw the train tracks which brought deported people groups from all over Europe to be forced to work until they died, or if they were old, young, or sick, were sent immediately to the gas chambers. There were store houses of the belongings of the people who came thinking they were simply being relocated to start anew. We even learnt that musicians were forced to play music all day long to keep up the appearance to new arrivals that this camp was a happy, safe place. They learned quickly, if they lived long enough, that it was far from it.

J We left Auswitch wondering how and why anyone would ever regard human life with such low standards, and if such a horrible place would ever exist again. We thoroughly enjoyed the Holocost Meseum in Budapest, but going to the concentration camp was such a moving, incredible experience, one that we are so thankful we experienced.

We'll have to post pictures soon, but for you to visualize. The 2200 volt electric fences still in surrounding the complex, the brick chimneys of wooden buildings still standing despite the buildings having rotted away, the train tracks leading through the gate into Birkeanu where people were glanced at by "doctors" who decided in an instance the fate of the individual, and at the entrace to Auswitch the sign over the front gate "Work Will Set You Free", still standing as it did so many years ago. Then as you climb a tower, you realise the size of the complex, and the sheer enormity of the number of victims, about 1.1 million people, who were stripped of their citizenship, their homes, carted off in worse conditions then we might cart off cattle.
Then, stripped of their dignity, and finally their lives.

M Well post again asap when we have time about the rest of our time in Poland, from their we moved onto Berlin. Talk to you later. Bye.

Praha / Prague

J Well we've been in the city of Praha as the Czech people call it, or Prague as us silly English speaking folks have decided. It's interesting really, Wien is Vienna, and really every major city in Europe has an anglo-ized name.

Our first night was spent hunting for groceries, finding the post office to send off some postcards (hopefully in time for Christmas) and settling into our new hostel. We booked a double bed, and got 4 singles (quite the room for just the two of us), the breakfast included is warm milk with tasteless cornflakes (gross) and doughnuts. Yes you heard correctly. I mean is it cheaper to buy doughnuts then a toaster, a few loafs and some jam? The strange things you experience staying in hostels, not to mention some of the strange people. So far we've lucked out and only met one weirdo, and hostels are fun because your never lonely, there's always someone nearby, sometimes real close nearby.. do I miss my personal space? A bit.

















Enough of the hostel experience, lets talk about Prague. Firstly, like Budapest.. it had a strong Jewish population pre WWII, and to this day the city is divided, Old Town, New Town, and the Jewish Quarter. We thoroughly enjoy taking trams around the city, and the metro system works well although its not as extensive as London for example, but then again the sights are mostly centralized around the old city (its not a far walk to see mostly everything).


Yesterday we wandered the city, took pictures, hit another christmas market and tried a few local delicacies. Then we went to the museum of communism, which was really neat, it explained a lot of the history that took place here in Prague. Later after dining on some sausages from a street vendor we went to a Black Light show of the musical Cats (no spoken words, although the music accompaning it was completely in English, ha) . The theatre was a bit of a joke but then again (as Mich pointed out) we were in Prague and not back at the Opera house in Budapest (besides the tickets cost half of what the opera did). The show however was quite entertaining, we may see another before leaving as we're here for 5 nights all told.


Today we had a late start, slept in and then went in search of a local computer store, we've been pondering a PDA as internet isn't always free, and worse then that we rarely are able to plug in to upload pictures. However after learning the OS would be in Czech, we decided to wait and see if a better option was available in Germany.

By noon we made it to the Franz Kafka museum, which was quite interesting, especially since nether of us knew anything about him previously. I think I'd like to read a few of his books in the future (he didn't much care for his father, he was confused about his place in the world as a Jew, he was well educated, cinical, oh and strangly.. a lawyer!). We didn't buy any books at the gift shop (of course), being that we brought books from home which haven't seen much light, something which we're hoping to change and soon, especially since we're almost running out of things to do here in Prague. (suggestions welcome)


We saw a bit more of the city afterward, but decided because of the weather to put off the castle until tomorrow. We visited a Catholic church where a wax figure of the infant baby Jesus is kept, they have a little museum devoted to him, and we witnessed a few dozen people reciting the ritual prayer on the cards in front of the "high alter" where the figurine is placed. Afterward we got lost, stopped at McDonalds for a potty break (yes we had to pay, however its not terribly expensive $0.3 - $0.6), and found some strange arcitecture before heading home. We ate the sandwiches we had packed for lunch for dinner, (saving pasta for tomorrow night, boring, but cheap) and jumped in line to use the computer. We're going to try to hit-the-hay early and get to the castle for 9am, as daylight usually only lasts till 4pm now and apparently theres a lot to see on the grounds.

Oh and the iPod, which I just transfered some pictures to, seems to be acting like it might work, it showed me songs and everything, I'm leaving it to suck some juice off one of the PCs here at the hostel. It's broken one day, and working the next, I love to hate it.


In closing.. weird things in Prague:

They smoke in public, in buildings, and in public buildings.

We got dinner at a restaraunt off the beaten track for $18 CND, with drinks, and yet if we ordered two meals at McDonalds in the touristy area.. it would cost the same.

We've mastered "hello", "please", and "yes/no" but can't seem to remember "thank you", which of course is generally the most used word you need to learn. lol

That's all for now.

Vienna - Gluehwein (hot wine), lights and more...

M Monday, our second day in Vienna. We started the day with the 3.5 euro buffet at our hostel. Then we went off in search of some beautiful rose gardens and a labyrinth. We did finally find them, but they closed in November. :( We then went to the major Christmas market and walked around. The lights were beautiful, the red-bull hot-wine concotion was not!

After getting into the Christmas mood we decided to see a movie at the English movie theatre.. Fred Claus. It was good for a laugh, as it had Vince Vaughn and Kevin Spacey in it.


Tuesday.. a relaxing day. We started by sleeping in, then writting in some christmas cards. Then Jesse got a much needed hair cut and shave, done with a real straight edge blade. He looks good, and he's actually happy with it! Jes always complains about his hair cuts. I guess now we just have to fly to Europe every time he needs one. We then went for a chinese food buffet. First time we've had Chinese food since leaving Canada.


Then off in search of another garden at the Palace. After much searching we did find it, and it was ok; the fountains were turned off, and there were no flowers in bloom, but there was some very nicely shaped hedges, and Christmas lights.





Then we hit happy hour at the music museum (half price on Tuesdays after 5pm). Very cool. You learn history of famous Austrian musicians like Mozart and Beethoven. There is an interactive floor that talks about sound and how it travels. There is a place where you stand in front of an orchestra on a huge screen and you conduct them. I thought it would be funny to make them play really really fast, but after about 30 seconds they just got mad and quit playing. One area had all sorts of sounds like people laughing, street noise in New York, people playing tennis etc, you can pick which sounds you want and make your own CD. Of course they make you pay for it, so we didn't buy ours, but had a lot of fun playing around making it.

After the museum we got a bite to eat and walked around looking at the amazing Christmas lights down town. We then got on the trusty #2 trolly that goes in a loop around the main area down town to look at the lights and sights at night. We got chatting with a lady on the tram who was asking us for directions. Luckily someone who spoke English well realized that we were giving her wrong directions and informed us that trusty #2 tram was heading outside the city as it was done for the day. If it wasn't for her who knows when we would have noticed and if we would know how to get back. With her guidance we managed to get back to the hostel to use the internet and chat with our roommate a bit.

This morning we were up bright and early and on a train to Prague. I really enjoyed the scenery and looking at the small towns we passed along the way. In many ways the buildings, in the towns anyway, look a lot like Romania. Once settled into our hostel we mailed our cards out, after getting a little lost trying to find the post office. Then did some grocery shopping and came back for a relaxing night at our hostel. We will be here for then next 5 nights, or so we have booked. This hostel has a deal where you get the 5th night free, so we will see after a day or so if we will for sure take them up on it :)

Bye from Prague

Bye Romania and Hungary

M Romania..

Well we stayed in Medias, Romania until Nov. 26. Jes worked all that week on renos/building an old existing house in the small village of Lunca. He really enjoyed the company of the 3 or 4 guys he was working with. Every morning before leaving they did a small bible study, and while working they would sing/whistle worship songs. Jesse had a lot of fun joking around with them and they did well communicating despite only one Romanian knowing English.

I did all sorts of odd jobs throughout the week. Some mornings I had no clue what the day held, but there was always something! I helped prepare for christmas crafts with the kids, went out to a village and helped to run street kids outreach programs, one day I sorted a huge clothing donation with our good friend/roommate Monica, then the next day after it had been picked over we resorted it into boxes. Then, joined by a fellow canadian, Grandma Noreen - who I know from volunteering at Kids Kottage, we organized and counted 987 pairs of winter boots. Wow what an amazing donation! CAIRD, the organization we were volunteering with, will be going into Moldova and delivering 650 of the boots there. The rest to Romanias.

Romania was really like a retreat for us even though we were volunteering. We just met so many really awesome people and were really encouraged by the experience. We stayed an extra day as Jes got pretty sick with a stomache bug, but we were very thankful it happened when it did and not in some 16 bed hostel.

Our next stop.. Budapest.


Budapest

J So we left Romania with big hugs and our friend Moni (Monica) escorted us to the train station (knowing our track record for missing trains thus far) but we activated our EuRail pass and started the 9 hour train ride.. it seemed long as we stopped for some time at the Border, but no problems with getting into Hungary, and at long last we arrived in Budapest.

That first night, after checking into our very cool hostel called the Loft, which yes, is a Loft.. we went for a walk. No toques, and for some reason I wore only 1 of my jackets.. one word.. BBBBRRRRRR. As we stood between Buda and Pest (yes at one time they were two seperate cities divided by the Danube river) we marveled at the beautiful city and the many bridges connecting the two halfs. Oh and we froze. So the next morning, we bought toques and stopped by the very cool open air market. It's not a heated building basically and there are dozens of stands where people sell fresh fruit, meats, and snacks (mmm strudel).

We spent the afternoon checking out the Jewish Muesum and Synagogue, and from there to the House of Terror, which is a building which was used during WWII by the Nazis and afterward by the Arrow Cross government and finally the Soviets. It now is home to a very cool, large, interactive and thorough Museum about life during those years. Our only regret was only arriving an hour and a half before it closed so we were a bit rushed.

We also stopped at the Opera house, which was beautiful, but we decided to pass on the tour which was about 14 CDN as we pondered going to our first Opera!

Back at our hostel we met some cool people, the feel of the little hostel (a total of 18 beds) made for a cozy and intimate feel, our first night we were treated to authentic Hungarian grub, oh and they had cool movies going all the time. We watched Transformers and Anchor Man.

The next day we made our way to the Castle Hill district in Buda, we saw Matthias Church (which had a neat mini museum inside) and beside it the Fisherman's Bastion. If we hadn't mentioned it to this point, the one big disadvantage of traveling at this time in the season, is that almost every church or castle you get excited about visiting.. is under construction. I'm sure my friend Searle the scaffold man is going to love some of the pictures we took. lol

We also toured the parliment buildings from the outside, and got held up for half an hour as diplomats and fancy pants people arrived in tour buses, apparently they needed a big crowd of angry tourists behind a police line to make it look offical. They explained in perfect Hungarian why they felt the need to prevent us from getting back to our bus stop, of course the thing about Hungarian is we had no idea what any of it meant, which made for an interesting time in Hungary. lol

M Later we went to one of Budapests famous baths (they do wear bathing suits in these ones). There were 3 outdoor pools. The first pool was warm, not hot, but had many neat features such as jets that bubbled up and made it look like it was boiling. In the middle there are jets that creat a strong current, and you jump in and spin around like a washing machine. It may sound weird but it is tonnes of fun. The second pool is a cold pool for lane swimming. The last was the best it was a huge hot tub with water pouring out of statues so hard it made for an awesome massage.

After the pools we walked around and saw a park with people skating, but the skate rental shop was closed so we could not join in. We had to change hostels the next day as we decided to stay an extra day and ours was full. Luckly we found one without trouble.

We went to the Holocost museum. It was very sobering and informative. That evening we pretended like we were not backpackers and dressed up as best we could and went to see an opera in one of Europes most famous opera houses. It was beautiful inside. The opera was good as well. We saw Madamme Butterfly. Apperently all opera´s are in their origional language which we knew going in, so it was in Italian. But there is a screen above the stage with subtitles in Hungarian. So we missed out on the exact plot, but we got the basics. From what I could gather it is almost the exact same story as Miss Saigon, only the woman is from Japan not Vietnam. They had two intermissions with tasty little treats and beverages (which were suprisingly affordable). Oh and the music from the orchestra was wonderful.

On our last day in Budapest we went up to Hero´s Square and walked around a castle, we also went back to the market for more of these tasty little oranges and struddles. We did some window shopping down the main pedestrian street, then headed to the train station.
Our next destination.. Vienna, Austria.

We arrived in Vienna last night. We had tried booking a hostel, but everywhere was full, so we decided to use our gift certificates for Best Western, it wasn't exactly cheap, but what a comfortable bed!!! Included was this awesome breakfast buffet too. After settling in we wandered the streets trying to find an affordable place to eat. A little off the beaten track we found it, Schnitzelhaus! (Mmmm schnitzel)

Today we moved over to our hostel where we will be for the next 3 nights. We walked around downtown and saw St. Stephens Cathedral, this huge church with catacombs in the basement. We took the tour of the catacombs and saw huge underground rooms full of bones of people, some of which had died during the black death (plague).

We then wandered the streets and stumbled upon the palace. Beautiful. Then wandering a bit more we found our first christmas market of the season. It was really neat, but everything was way over priced, we did enjoy some hot wine, a wild boar sandwich, chirstmas music and holiday decorations.

We hope all our faithful blog readers are doing well. Bye for now.

more pictures added!

Check back to previous posts because we're adding pictures to them, yaaay!

Buna (hello) from Romania

M Last Friday we left Barcelona and flew to Bucharest Romania. Our adventure to Toledo was nothing compared to this one. We landed and because Romania is now a EU country we were asked no questions at the border. Awesome. We made our way with the help of some locals to the train station and got on a train to Medias, the city where we will be volunteering and going to a wedding. After 5 hours of traveling we knew our stop was close. Then the train stopped and we looked out into the darkness at what seemed to be just a rail yard. No lights, signs etc. We wondered why the train was stopping. But then it started up again and we noticed new people had got on. oh no.. was that Medias??? We asked a lady nearby "Medias"? She responded "Da, Medias" and pointed back to where we just left from. We had missed our stop.

So we waited until the next stop and hoped off. We got tickets for the next train heading back to Medias, which was 2 and a half hours later. We then went to a restaurant that would not serve us food (despite our efforts). So we found a stand selling junk food and enjoyed a banana and a bag of popcorn for supper. Finally we were back on our train. This time we made sure to let the locals around us know we needed Medias. They helped us to know when to get off, and this time when we pulled up there were lights. I guess we were sitting near the front of the train not the back which would have seen the dark. Then we got in a taxi and showed him the address we were to go to. He dropped us off and we went up to the gate and rang the door bell. We waited and waited with no luck. Jesse jumped up and thought about jumping over the gate, but not being 100% sure we were at the right place, or if this place had a dog, or if Jesse would break a bone jumping over we decided against it. So we decided to start walking until we could find a taxi or hotel. We ran into a wonderful lady who did not speak English, but understood "taxi". She then used her cell phone to call us a taxi. She was so trusting she even asked me to hold her purse while she called.

The taxi took us to a hotel. It was 10:30 at night by this time, so all the internet cafes were closed. Peter, the man who runs the organization we are volunteering with had sent me his cell phone number by e-mail, but of course I did not write it down. So we slept at the hotel with no hot water, sheets that felt like paper towel, smelled like smoke and alchohol, but did have a lovely free breakfast. The next morning we spent 2 hours walking around Medias looking for an internet cafe. No luck. They are all closed on Saturday. Our hotel did not have internet, so we went to a 4 start hotel and tried to bribe them to let us use their internet, they said only if we stayed the night. So we prayed and hopped in a taxi and headed back to the address where we had been the night before. Were we ever happy when a girl opened the gate and said in English are you the people who were suppose-to come last night? Then we saw Peter come out of the house. I guess the doorbell was broken the night before but had been fixed that morning. So it was rough start in Romania, but has been amazing since.

On Sat. night they had a welcome reception for all the Canadians who were in town for the wedding (one of the orphans I had worked with was marrying a Canadian). We even knew a couple who was there, small world! The wedding the next day was BEAUTIFUL. At Romanian receptions people get up and sing songs to the couple and the rest of the people listen.. if they want. Lots of talking while people were singing, but that is normal we are told. Being here has been like a retreat. We have our own room, and free laundry, but more than that the people are just amazing. Just as I had remembered. We feel so welcomed, and we can really see God working through people as they pray and work with the orphans and street kids.
Jesse has spent the week building a house in a village near here with a couple Romanians, and 3 guys from Vancouver. I have helped sort and count donations, and helped with the street kid program. They teach the kids how to read and write, play games, make crafts, do dramas, sing worship music etc. In one of the families who has taken in 2 orphans the mom is pregnant and having a very difficult time. She just got out of hospital and is on complete bed rest. Yesterday I spend the day making meals that her husband can freeze and reheat. I have been out there twice, yesterday with Jes. They are wonderful people, and we plan to get together with them at least once more before we leave. We were at their house until midnight last night. I am sure Jesse and the husband will be tired as they work today.

I am joining a lady to a nearby village this afternoon to work with the kids. Being here again and seeing the people who are SO poor, but so happy really reminds me of how much we have at home. I am amazed at the things we take for granted such as smooth paved roads that we like to complain about. Yesterday we pushed our van out of the mud as it had been raining. Jes and I are unsure exactly what day we will leave, or where we go from here, but we will update everyone once we know. We plan to leave some time next week.

A tale of two.. wait, three cities.

J Madrid, the true Spanish capital, where the Royal Palace will amaze, the monuments and fountains abound, and there are hundreds, nay, thousands still walking the streets into the wee hours of the night. Some bars don´t close until 6am, but keep in mind that many close around 2,3 pm and don´t reopen until 7 or 8pm. Being that we´re here in the fall we don´t really understand the dedication to the siesta, but we thoroughly enjoy the tradition, usually with a light nap or at least putting our feet up, walking from here to there all day really puts a strain on our tootsies.

M Go to WEM and find Europa Bullavard then look up. That is Madrid, only on a huge scale. The buildings are awesome. The weather has been about 15 to 18 degrees, for those who want to know. We enjoyed looking at the wonderful architecture, and joined one of those "hop on hop off" bus tours that you would think of in London. We got some culture at an Art Museum, the Prado.

Our worst experience (besides bed bugs!) to this point was the day before we left for the English Village, we spent most of the day looking for a place to stay when we got back. It´s off season, so we did not forsee a problem, but apparently November 1st (the day before we returned to Madrid) is a holiday in Spain, and there was also a "football" game on, so everywhere was full. We went to an internet cafe, with no luck, then went door to door hoping that we could find a place. We were making plans to leave our lugage at the airport in a locker and stay up all night at an all night club, when, thanks be to God, we found a place.

J Yes our start in Madrid was rocky, between the accomodation situation, and then going to the Prado and not getting the audio guide (3.50 euro each) and then finding out that the fee was only for earbuds, you see the first exibits we saw were in English as well so we figured why spend the dough, in the end we spent about 3 hours doing self interpretation of most of the paintings. It was still a lot of fun, Madrid has an energy that is hard to explain, and the Plaza´s and mazes of streets, we got lost often, but enjoyed wondering and exploring.

We decided before leaving for Barcelona that we would spend one night in Toledo. A small city only half an hour outside of Madrid. It was recommended to us by a few of our new Spanish friends. We´ll, what a long and tiring day that turned out to be.

M We got to the train station and got our tickets, no problem. Our ticket had a picture of a train on it with the number four underneath, so naturally we went to platform 4 and waited for our train to be ready to board. We noticed that after announcing the trains on the intercomm they would also announce in English, so we thought there would be no problems. We waited, and waited, and about 5 minutes after our train was to leave we reassured ourselves that Spanish trains were never on time. Half an hour after our train was to depart we realised we had missed it. Luckily after paying a service fee and waiting another hour we were on another train to Toledo.

We were just minutes from arriving in Toledo when we realised we hadn´t written our hostels information down. No problem we thought, we just need to find an internet cafe and look it up. After taking a bus into town, we asked at an information booth where we might find one, the nice lady replied that there was only one cafe in the whole city, and it was on the other side of town. Back onto the bus, we went off in search of this lone internet cafe. After much walking we finally found it, but it was closed. After a few arguements and a few more dozen blocks of carrying our packs we found one. Half an hour later we lugged ourselves into our hostel.

Oh did we mention that the streets in Toldeo are not flat? Either up, down, or both. Oh and cobblestone to boot.

J Despite our problems we enjoyed the hostel which was really a hotel, two single beds unfortunately but a private room and bathroom, the little comforts you take for granted at home. We walked the narrow and as Mich said, vertical streets of Toldeo. What a beautiful little city. We had a typical dinner at a small restaraunt, followed by drinks at a hip cafe, that had about a half dozen people in it (we ate at 7, and were at the club by 9, which is normal for home, but way early for Spain).

Thankfully our return to Madrid and subsequent flight to Barcelona went as smoothly as we could have hoped, and we found our hostel with minimal headache (compared to the Toledo fiascao anyway).

M Last night we slept here in Barcelona, and we were apperantly lucky that we had a place to sleep, as the streets were full, and I mean FULL of crazy Scottish Soccer (football) fans. It is out of control! There are also many police, even special ones we think are probably riot police standing around just in case. Why? Because tonight Glasgow plays Barcelona, the hostel guy says it is always like this when Scottland, or England comes to town.

J Barcelona is a much newer city, it feels a little like Madrid but doesn´t seem to have the same charm in my opinion. It still has plenty to see and shops and fountains galore. We spent the day at the Zoo and seeing a few meseums. I also have to confess that I´ve been to McDonalds two nights in a row, I fell in love with a Gelat i Cafe (coffee and ice cream) that they have here. Michelle is letting me indulge though as we´re doing a lot of walking these days, and they´re small.

M There is a big street that we walk down that is full of people, buskers, and pet shops. Yes pet shops. Lots of birds and rabbits are sold up and down the street. Well we are off to eat dinner. It is 8:15, so the resturaunts should be open now we hope. Eating here in Spain is usually lunch at 2pm and dinner at 9pm, so many resturuants don´t even open until 8pm. Good night all.

an English Village

J So we´ve just returned from a week of speaking, eating, walking, and speaking some more. The poor Spainiards were just terrified at the beginning, but after a few days, and many meals later they had made friends, improved their spoken language and thier comprehension. By the end of the week us Anglos (english speakers) were really comfortable and wishing the program lasted longer, while the Spainiards were relieved it was over, being mentally exhausted and ready for a week of detox.

Publeos English was an awesome adventure, the personalities of the people made it so much fun, between discussions ranging from religion, nuclear power plants, and roller coasters to plays and skits there was never a dull moment. Our master of ceremonies Akemi and the program director Pablo made the week run smoothly, and assisted in making us comfortable. By the end of the 8 days we had spent at least 1 hour with every Spainiard in a one vs. one session, we also did teleconference and individual phone calls. The area around the site (the hotel) and the town La Aberca were beautiful, and we enjoyed walks during the days, and dancing at the bar till the wee hours with our new amigos.

Now that we´re back in Madrid, we´re really missing our private rooms, the buffet breakfast and 3 course lunch and dinners. We´re also missing the people we met, and the amazing time we had. We highly recommend the program, and look forward to returning one day.

Ireland, blarney stone and civil war

J Glasgow was a nice little city (second biggest in Scotland), we scored a 4 bed doorm-room to ourselves, it had an onsuite and T.V. with 7 channels. Needless to say we wish we had more then the one night in the place. We visited St. Mundo's relgious museum and the Necropolis which sits behind the Cathedral, it was quite the spooky graveyard, built on a hill, back in the days when many of the diseasesed surcame to the "black death". We also enjoyed visiting the Kelvingrove Gallery/Museum and walking all over Glasgow (although it had a tube system, it really only had one line that went in one direction or the other).

We flew from Soctland to Northern Ireland on our first EasyJet flight. It went smoothly, and to our amazement we didn't go through any customs or immigration. We arrived in Belfast and were dropped in front of the gates to the Queens University, only a block from our hostel. Unfortunately (thanks to bad directions from the hostel) we walked around in a big circle for 15 minutes before finding our way. Luckily a friendly student saw us and offered directions.

After ditching our gear we walked around the campus and not finding a grocery store we settled for some traditional Irish garb at a place called Maggie Mays' and took in a foregin film from the Queen's Film Theatre. The Film was called Yella, named after the German woman in it who is trying to get a new job while escaping her maniac husband, it was neat.

The next day we left from Belfast on a 1 day Paddywagon Tour. Our driver Joey, who was a local, entertained us with singing and stories the whole day. We saw the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, the Giants Causeway (very cool) and the city of Derry. We took a walking tour in Derry and learned about the "troubles" and the history behind the war between the Unionists and Republicans that had been boiling over since the late 1960's. It was the site of Bloody Sunday (we all know the U2 song), and there is a memorial there to the 13 people that died that day (and many more in the days, weeks, and years to follow). Joey shared his thoughts on growing up in the area and how the situation affected him and his family. There was a lot of information to assimilate in the few hours that we had, but it was only the beginning of our education on the civil war.

We met a couple of Aussies the next day and went on a Black Cab tour, it was very interesting as we gained a viewpoint which was different from the one we recieved on the Paddywagon tour. We saw the murals, the "peace" wall, and learned about the two communities who fought with each other, killed each other, for decades. Although there has been a cease fire called and many strides toward peace since 1998 when the Good-Friday or Belfast agreement was signed. Our driver grew up in all the violence and hate, and it was amazing to learn how he grew up in fear. It made us very aware of the blessings we have in Canada and thankful for all we have.

We spent the majority of the rest of the day with our two new Aussie friends, we also saw a bit more of Belfast and did some shopping, and then we left Paddys Palace (which wasn't quite a Palace really, look for our reviews on hostelworld.com, our username is canadiantraveljunkies2969).

We jumped on the 8pm bus to Dublin, the bus ride was a little bumpy, our driver was a maniac and the roads in Ireland (never mind the fact they drive on the left) are narrow, and constantly winding, and not smooth. Luckily we had gravol handy. At about 11pm we arrived in Dublin. We had entered the E.U. without being asked to produce our passports, or declare the vegtables in our bags. Amazing.

We hiked across town to our Hostel and fel asleep. Despite the 16 beds in the room our bunk-mates didn't keep us awake, the constant traffic and pub-goers did however. Luckily it was only one night in that room. The next morning we took a Taxi to Paddy's "Palace" Dublin and headed out on a 3 day Paddywagon tour of Southern Ireland.

Our first day we visited Clonmacnoise, the site of an ancient monastery. Then onto the coast and a beautiful city called Galway. We did some shopping, did our first load of laundry while on the road (first laundry goes to Grandad and Eileen, thanks) and got to know the people our on bus . We had a nice meal in the local pub while watching some Rugby, and then walked home through the pubs and buskers.

The next day we visited the Burren, which was a stone expanse that went for miles and had caves underneath (which we did not see unfortunately). Here's a poem I found about them..
The Burren, where there are no trees to hang a man, not enough water to drown him, and if you finally succed in killing him, it's too rocky to bury him. Later that day after lunch we visited the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. After a short ferry ride and some more of the winding and narrow roads we reached our destination for the night, the town of Killarney.

We watched as South Africa beat England in the final of the 2007 Ruby World Cup, it was awesome, the atmosphere, the cheering and of course the fight that broke out on the patio.
We spent the rest of the night at another pub that had traditional Irish music and dancing, we stayed up late and partied with our new friends from the Paddywagon.

On our last day of the tour we visited the national parks nearby via a Horse and Buggy, and then we stopped at Blarney Castle. Michelle kissed the Blarney stone, and I did not. It was wet from the stream of tourists kissing it, and that was the final nail in the coffin. It didn't help that to get your lips on the rock you had to lean over and basically hang off the castle to kiss it, mind you the safety bars meant you probably wouldn't fall to your death, but I figured I already had "the gift of the gab" anyway, and didn't want to find out how well the bars had been fixed to the rock.

We arrived back in Dublin and had made a friend named Katlynn(a fellow Canadian from Vancouver). We finished the day off with a trip to the Arlington Hotel where we enjoyed music and dancing by 5 professional dancers that did their own mini version of the Riverdance! A few pints of Guinness later and we were off to bed with Irish ballads in our heads.

We'll give you an update on our time in Dublin later, it's 11pm and time for bed. We're here until Wednesday when we leave for Madrid, Spain. Goodnight fellow travellers.

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

J On our last full day in Edinburgh we walked up to Calton park which has the royal observatory and allows a great view of Arthurs Seat, it also has some cool roman columns and some tower which was a monument to some dude, but alas they wanted to charge us £3 to get in so we took a picture and left.

We used the city bus system today, went to Portabella beach, which was very nice, took a walk in the sand with our bare feet. Then we got lost going this way and that on the bus system, an all day ticket was £2.5 or $5 compared to £9 or $18 for a tour bus system that takes you to all the major sites. Still we enjoyed ourselves, I bought a Hard Rock Cafe T and Michelle bought a bra from a department store. We spent the evening at a local pub listening to traditional music (live) and chugging back a few strongbow. I had too much to drink, ended up sick later on, and suffering a hangover the next day. I learned a lesson.

Friday morning we were up bright and early and off to the Island of Skye, on a bus, with 27 other people and a Scottish man in a kilt! Looking back it was an amazing adventure but we wish we had done it over 4 or 5 days because we spent a long time on the bus, as Skye is pretty far away.

The first day we saw an ancient battlefield known as Culloden, where after King James I was defeated the English decided to stop any further uprisings and began what is now called the Highland clearances. Basically it was an all out genocide of the Scottish highland people, they were raped, murdered, and forced to flee. Then, as the English started to realise the potential for wealth that sheep rearing could bring, they started systematically removing highlanders from their homes, taking titles and politely asking them to leave, otherwise moving in with force to kill and destroy. It was a very sombre experience learning these things, and realising that what happened in Ireland could never have happened in Scotland because the Scottish had been brutalised so that they would never pose a threat again.

The second day of our tour was spent exploring the island of Skye, we weren't' fans of the fairie-tales for which there were many, but the landscape and history was interesting, and the views as we drove up these tiny mountains (or big hills) were breath-taking. After an amazing day, three dozen pictures and a hike straight up the side of a mountain (to see the Old Man of Storr), we settled down and had dinner at the local neighbour hood pub. We made some friends on our bus, but also met two travellers that were working out of the Hostel, one an Aussie and the other a fellow Canadian. They answered many questions we had and got us pumped up for Ireland!

The last day seemed like a long one, being that we were spending most of it on the bus again. We saw Castle Doune, used in Monty Python and the quest for the Holy Grail. Clencoe where 38 people (from the MacDonald clan) were murdered by order of the English for signing a document 5 days late, and finally we saw the awesome William Wallace monument, which was pretty cool looking from the outside, but alas we didn't have time to go on the tour of the structure, not to mention saving another £6.50.

It was an very enjoyable 3 days, we learned a lot, saw a lot, and sat on the bus at lot. lol
Back in Edinburgh, we scored a bed in a 10 room dorm that only had 3 couples in it, which was very nice. We met a very friendly Aussie couple and talked their ears off for most of the night, made ourselves some pasta, showered and hit the sack early. We had a great sleep and now as I sit and write this Michelle is hauling our bags and checking us out of the hostel.

Next up, we're onto Glasgow! Only for the night though, as we have a flight with EasyJet to Belfast tomorrow. We'll probably post again somewhere in Ireland. Caio

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Haggis!

J Yesterday we arrived in Edinburgh Scotland, it rained most of the day and we chose to see the castle immediately. Which, in hindsight, was a bad idea. They cancelled the guided tours because of the rain, which for the UK was pretty sad, esp. since it was a light drizzle that dried up an hour after it began. The castle was really cool though, and we spluged on audio guides so we had some idea of what we were looking at. Basically the low down is that there were many, many sieges on the castle, Scotland and England traded ownership of it over the centuries, and many many men died in its shadow. Also, dogs. Interesting enough there is a dog cemetery within the walls of Edinburgh Castle.

We spent the rest of our evening in search of a cheap meal and we found it.. in a mall. It gets worse, we headed there to use the loo (and I'm proud to say I haven't paid for a bathrooom yet). After relieving ourselves we decided we were both starving and we couldn't afford to wonder around the medievel city any longer without sustinence. As the mall was closing in a mere 20 minutes and the security guards were moving in fast, we had a choce to make, fish and chips (again) or McDonalds. Yep, we chose the golden arcs. Mind you the menu was pretty different from what we were expecting, and they pimply 15 year old that took my order had no idea what I meant when I asked for "iced tea".

We wondered the dark streets back to our hostel and cuddled up on a couch for a relaxing evening. We watched Nepoleon Dynamite. Amazingly we enjoyed ourselves, probably because we expected nothing from the movie, having seen it already. For some strange reason though we noticed things we haden't before and found a lot of humor in the one day cult classic. We retired to our 16 bed dorm-room and attempted to get some sleep. Tomorrow, I'll be shopping for another pair of ear plugs (lost mine) and a second eye-shade. With 16 people in one room, and people going to bed as late as 2 and getting up as early as 6:30.. you can imagine that sleeping was quite a chore.

M This morning we got a bit of culture while we wandered through the National Scottish museum. It is HUGE! We didn't even see it all when we became a little museumed out. Our feet sore and tummy's grumbling. We went to the supermarket and were able to enjoy lunch outside in a park as it was SUNNY. Yes can you believe it sunny.

Edinburgh has catacombs beneath the city, so we went on a tour of them this afternoon. They have scary ghost tours, but I didn't want that, so we just took the normal ones. It was very interesting.

Then with sore feet we decided to be a little crazy and do a hike up to Aurther's Seat, the highest point overlooking Edinburgh. After following a path which we thought was it and going up up up, the path started to come down down down. At the bottom of that we saw what we are pretty sure was the way up, and a short flat path back to the road where we were before going up up up. We both took one look and decided forget it. We when up another smaller, but still big with beautiful views hill for a few pictures. We then walked back to the grocery store to buy some food. By the time we reached the hostel we were exausted. We ate our dinner then went back to the movie room and watched "About a Boy".

We are now typing this listening to a large group of crazy Scottish "football" aka soccer fans chanting and yelling outside. We assume they are at a nearby pub. There is no Rugby on tonight so they must be football fans. We've been told there is an under 25 game on.

Good night from Edinburgh! (Not sure if we will sleep with these crazy soccer fans) :)

Rugby

M Sorry the pictures are all out of order. I wanted to just correct a few things in Jesse's post :) First, my Grandad's wife is Eileen, they live in Walkington, not Walkerton, it is very close to Beverly which is just beside Hull. We will be leaving Tuesday morning for Edinburgh, not Friday. We have a hostel there for 3 nights. Then we will be going on a 3 day tour of Scotland, which looks like a blast, leaving early Friday morning. That's all we have planned for now.
Jesse has become quite interested in Rugby since being here. The world cup is on and England beat Australia today so there is much excitment around here. He is currently watching the New Zealand vs France game and learning all the ins and outs from my grandad.
Cherio from England.

A Picture is worth..