Netherlands!!!

FINALLY I am posting my Holland post. Sorry about that. The old computer hasn't been wanting to access the internet. Anywho, Holland was incredible. I stayed with a couple whom Emmy and I had met in Prague (kinda' fun to start the trip and end the trip with the same people)! I stayed in my own little guest house (as pictured here. The white part was the breezeway/my kitchen that connected me to the rest of the house. Gosh I had it rough!). The couple, Zolton and Jose, had three kids, Max, Zee, and Lex, with whom I absolutely fell in love!

Zolton picked me up at the train station when I got in on October 31st, and the first thing we did was find pumpkins to bring back and carve with the kids (they do not have Halloween in the Netherlands). The kids had a blast reaching their hands into the pumpkin and getting all gooey and designing Jack-O-Lantern faces. I think the hardest part of my stay for them was the next night when Zee (the little girl) noticed her Jack-O-Lantern was missing... and we had pumpkin soup for dinner. After the kids went to bed, Zolton gave me a tour of the house... including the large wine cellar.

Jose had majored in wine in college, so they had a rather extensive collection of very nice wines. We had a little wine tasting/drank a few bottles of nice wine after that. It was very interesting because Jose got out all of her text books, so we were learning all about the regions, and soils in which the grapes were grown and we learned all about the flavors and aromas of the wines. Very cool.

The next day Zolton took me up to Amsterdam (about 45 minutes north)! We started with a boat cruise all around the canals... which actually took most of the day due to the beer stops along the way (it was a hop-on-hop-off kind of cruise with many stops). We saw the Rijks Museum (most of which was closed for renovation, so we didn't go in), the Heineken factory, Ann Frank's house, basically we saw the whole city via boat. Quite nice. After the cruise we grabbed some sushi and waited

for the night to begin so we could check out the Red Light District.
This is me outside of "The Grasshopper", one of the most famous "coffeeshops" in Amsterdam. We went in and checked out the place (No worries Dad, we did not partake in the goods they offered). It was actually a really cool joint (No pun intended).

I wasn't sure what to expect, walking by all of the windows at night. I mean, the ladies of the night... Ok, let's be honest. Amsterdam is really a place about which one can blog.

We got back from Amsterdam and decided to get into Zolton's Scotch collection. WOW! If I thought the wine tasting was interesting!! I learned SO much about fine whiskeys. I can now taste how many times a whisky has been distilled, and I learned all about how they get so many different complex flavors. I think we were up tasting until about 3:00 in the morning. It was awesome.

The next day I helped Zolton clean windows at one of his office buildings. And slept. It was a pretty low key day.

And that was it! The next day I took a train to the airport, and flew home. It was a pretty good trip. I managed to sweet talk some Cuban cigars into the country (thanks customs officer) and an earlier flight from Minneapolis (which the lady told me she was not allowed to do since I had luggage arriving on the later flight... but patience and a smile go a long way).

So here I am! Thanks for following my trip! I know you didn't have as much fun reading it as I did living it... but I hope you enjoyed it none the less. Don't stop checking in though! Big developments on a MUCH bigger trip will soon unfold.

Belgium!

Well, what DIDN'T I do in Belgium?! There was the day where my host, Edwin, took me to the trenches in which the Belgian troops held off the German troops for four years in WWI and other war sights like the biggest cemetery where most of the commonwealth soldiers were buried. Then there was the day in Bruges, but I already told you about that.

There was the day I went up to the North Sea. I just walked and enjoyed watching the families on the beach like this one where the father was teaching his son to fish - VERY cool set up they had with 4 lures all along the line. After my walk, another couch surfer came to stay with Edwin. Her name was Sara. She had played as an extra in a film that Edwin's son had produced. That evening the movie was premiering at the local theater, so we all went into Oostend for the event!

The three of us (Edwin, Sara, and I) walked around Oostend for the afternoon as there was a carnival going on. We ordered hot fresh sea snails right on the water's edge (YUM!) to munch while we wandered. The show was quite an event! Red carpet rolled out to the street, exclusive guest list, and they closed the entire theatre complex for the event. Big reception with wines and hors d'oeuvres afterward. Of course I didn't understand the words, but it was a zombie movie and rather easy to follow. Zylkon Zombie it was called.

Sara and I figured, since we didn't know anyone, we could sneak out of the reception (after a couple glasses of wine, of course) and continued exploring the town. Then we met up with Edwin and his whole family (two sons +girlfriends and his siblings) at a jazz bar where we spent the rest of the evening tasting even more Belgian beers and dancing.

The next day was Brussels. Very interesting city. Dirty, but cool! After checking out the market and enjoying a tour of the town, Edwin decided to try and find this little back area of town he'd once wandered into. We walked down some SKETCHY alleys until we came up on this little row of African restaurants. I sat down at a table outside (Edwin went in for the toilet) and within seconds, a really nice guy came over from the other table and asked if I liked peanuts. He had just come from Senegal the day before and had a backpack full of fresh, raw peanuts. He gave me a HUGE pile and said to just ask if I want more. Edwin came back out, and soon our table was full of Congolese, Nigerians, Kenyans, you name it! We ordered dinner and a reggae DJ from Somalia and I shared our meals, eating with our hands. Soon a big man with dreadlocks came out of nowhere with a bongo drum and sat down in the middle of the street. He started playing, and we all danced like crazy! GREAT last night in Belgium.

Of course, now I am in Holland. Oh, what a country. Very wealthy country so everything is very clean and beautifully kept. I am going to wait to post about Holland though because I want to make sure I put up some pictures.
Thanks for keeping up with me! See you soon!

Paris!

Ah, Paris. You tourist town of all tourist towns. I had a lovely time in Paris, but man, are there a lot of tourists! I climbed the Eiffel Tower (here's me halfway) where I enjoyed an espresso overlooking all of Paris. It really was quite an impressive tower. However, not nearly as much of a climb as I expected.

Afterward (there are people begging for money every 2 feet) a guy wouldn't stop bugging me for money for a sandwich. So I took him to a vendor and told him to pick out a sandwich. He was pretty upset and changed his mind to needing money for a ticket to see his family in Bulgaria. I bought him a hot dog. Kinda funny!

Then I strolled down the Champs Elysees and spent the rest of the day in a British pub drinking with an Australian and an Irishman... sure had to go to Paris for that one - haha! Great fun though!!

The next day I went to the Louvre. WOW! What an impressive museum! I got there half an hour before they opened to beat the crowd... however, 500 people had that idea before me. But I did get in before it got too crazy. The Mona Lisa was absolutely incredible. I did not expect to get so close, but I stood right in front and just looked for at least 15 minutes



(which is not east with hundreds of angry Asians shoving you out of the way to get a good flash photo with their oversized Nikon cameras... gosh that drove me nuts. How many people didn't see a single piece of art, just the images on their camera screens? You know, people, you can look up a nicer photo of the piece on the internet if that's all you want). It was absolutely amazing though, really. I got a little claustrophobic after a few hours with all of those people, so I strolled a bit up and down the river. Then I got a complimentary driving tour of the city from the guide from earlier in the trip with Emmy's group who was doing a tour in Paris! VERY cool!!! WAY nice guy!!

I am now in Belgium! I got here yesterday and had a lovely tour of Bruges! WOW!!! THAT is a gorgeous city! By 6pm I had "sampled" six delicious Belgium beers (I think I am becoming a connoisseur... ok maybe not, but it sure is tasty!). I think I like this country.

Interlaken and Luzern

I LOVE Switzerland!! In Bern I went to a couch surfing "meeting" (aka we all met in a bar and had a few together) where I met really cool people from ALL over the world!One girl, Cinthya, from Santiago, Chili met up the next day. We walked all over Bern and had a picnic up on this really beautiful hill before we grabbed coffee at a hilltop cafe.

From Bern I went to Interlaken. WOW! What a beautiful place! I took a rail car up to the top of a beautiful mountain where I hiked all afternoon. This is me in the Swiss Alps having the time of my life!

And here I am looking out over Interlaken from the mountaintop. GORGEOUS!

Now I am in Luzern, Switzerland. Another BEAUTIFUL city. This is Lukas, my couchsurfing host, and me. When I got here he took me for a Vespa ride around the city and up to a beautiful outlook where we could see the Alps and the city. What a host! After that we went to dinner at his friends' house. Cheese fondu! YUM!

After dinner the four of us went out to a hookah bar where Lukas had a friend DJing. It turns out bars in Switzerland don't have a set closing time, so we stayed out until about 5am. What a blast! This is me with Isa and Melody.

Off to Paris in the morning! Thanks for keeping up with me!!

Bern, Switzerland

I don't have any new pictures yet, sorry.

I have been enjoying Bern very much. I explored the town on Tuesday, enjoyed seeing the bears for which Bern is known, walking along the river and checking out the place. Yesterday I went into town and stopped to listen to this REALLY good acoustic guitar duo that was playing under a shop awning (it was raining). They started playing a fast "Volare". I couldn't keep my feet still so I asked a homeless man if he knew how to Salsa! He sure gave it one hell of a try! Great start to my day!!

I met up with a guy from Jordan for coffee - very interesting guy! Youngest of 12 all doctors (or at least have PhD's) all over the world. All 12! And get this, his dad dropped our of high school and his mom never finished the 4th grade! (Sorry Dad.) We met up with a Swiss girl and hung out all afternoon around town. Then last night I went out to a bar for a couch surfing meeting. Very cool! There were travelers from ALL over the world just hanging out together, sharing philosophies and cultures. CRAZY how small the world becomes when you start talking to people. It turns out the guy from Jordan had a brother (and now a nephew) that went to the University of Iowa for med school... at the same time I was there!!! How nuts is that? I come to Switzerland and meet up with a guy from Jordan, and it turns out I went to school with his brother!!!

Fun Stuff! Ok, I'm off to grab a bite and get this day going!!

Pictures of Venice!

This is my FAVORITE picture of the entire trip. This is Emmy in our water taxi on the way to our hotel in Venice!

This is a view of Venice from the top of the big bell tower.

This was the crazy Venetian mask maker. Boy, that was cool!!

I thought this picture was hilarious. This was on the island of Murano. The island known for its glass work.

These are some of the beautiful houses on the island of Burano. It was a Venetian island known for lace-work and colorful houses.

Ok, I think I am all caught up now. Phew! What an un-orderly blog!

Berne, Switzerland

Well Berne is lovely. I spent the whole day walking and writing and enjoying the sights. I have found out that my host, Fabian was not kidding when he said that not many people holiday in Switzerland because of the prices. I found a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup today (yeah, regular pancake syrup) for the equivalence of over 30 American dollars! Yeah. I had a carrot for dinner.

So now, pictures, man, I am bad about that!

This is me hiking in Italy. A pretty little break in the woods where we found the grazing cows.

This was my host, Andrea. This is where he got his milk! It was a little cooler in a shed next to a cow barn! Just put in a couple Euro and put your glass jars under the spigot for FRESH milk!

This is the display I made for our bread one night. MAN this guy cooks A LOT! I mean, he cooks like Dad does for Sunday Night Supper for EVERY meal! And there were only two of us, so I was eating A LOT! (Quite delicious though!)

What a trip!

Today was VERY eventful (which when traveling from A to B is never good). Got in here about 7 hours later than expected, rather creeped out and smelling like Sri Lanka. (No, I didn't go there. Was just creeped on by "David" who was doing all he could to marry me in 2 hours before I got on my trian so he could move to America. Nothing bad happened, just freaked out.) But after a series of false travel information leading me to places I don't want to go, smelly weirdos, wrong phone numbers, bad directions, improper monetary systems (I thought the Czech Republic was the only country that didn't take Euros... whoops! Good luck with that train ticket) and a Mom that rocks above all (and her internet), I had a great day (all's well that ends well) after I got here. My hosts, Lisa and Favian, are VERY nice and very cool. Their flat is beautiful, and I feel really at home.

And now, as promised, pictures.

Hiking in the Italian Alps with my first couch host, Andrea.

More of the Alps. I loved the cows, they actually all had different toned bells! It sounded SO cool!! Like a farm-sized wind chime!

I'll have to post more later... I think I fried my computer charger and I am out of batterie... what else?

And the trip shifts!

Boy, have I missed a lot of blogging!
For starters, sorry I will not be able to post pictures, but I cannot use my own computer where I am, so those will have to wait until my next stop where I have wifi.
Anywho, Vienna was the place we went next after Durnstien. WOW! If I thought that hotel was nice in Prague... I decided I was a movie star staying in Prague and that I owned the city. I'll have to post pictures of that place. Everything was modern art, the shower, the sink, the lobby, bar, restaurant- very cool! Also the whole mini bar in the room was free, and they had free green apples all over. Ok, so we did a day tour of Vienna, saw the Sisi museum, and of course ate a delicious, gluttonous dinner. The best part of Vienna was the concert we went to. It was a classical concert, but it was SO much fun! The orchestra was small and FULL of energy. There were dancers for some songs, some opera songs, and all sorts of fun little things therein. Very entertaining.
Then there was Vienna! Oh, how beautiful that was. We again had a day tour (a walking tour) and got to watch a real Vennisian mask maker make masks! Oh, it was so cool. We took a crusie down the main canal also. The next day we went to the islands of Murano and Burano. Murano is known for its glass work, and Burano is known for it's colorful houses and lace making. Of course not much lace is made there anymore, but I did see a group of old ladies sitting in the street (I was wandering around little back streets and alleys) and one of them was making somthing of lace while she gossiped with her old lady freidns. It was really neat.
Wow! I cannot believe I summed up those two cities in such short spaces! Woo!
Ok, so yesterday Emmy and the gang left to return to America. I hopped a boat and a couple trains and made my way to Torino, Italy (home of the 2006 Olympics) where I met my host for the next few nights. He gave me a very impressive tour of Torino - this guy is SMART! Like, genius smart. He knew EVERYTHING about ALL of Torino. Incredible and very interesting. Then we hopped a train and drove out to his home on a small farm 50km north of Torino. His home is beautiful. Andrea (my host) bought this three story house a year ago and is remodeling the whole thing (six bedrooms, two full kitchens, three full baths) all just to host as many couch surfers as he can. Talk about a generous person! WOW! Today I am going to help him paint a room, and sometime (maybe in Swizerland) I will be able to post pictures of this beautiful place!
Thanks for keeping up with me!!!

Durnstein

Wow! This trip only continues to get better and better! We are in Durnstein, Austria and heading to Vienna today. This first picture is the view from our hotel room window for the last three nights. GORGEOUS Danube River.

The day before yesterday (Friday) we took a tour of Stift Melk (which in English is the Monastery of Melk). It was SO beautiful. Very interesting place. I believe it was the oldest monastery in Austria. It is also a very elite school now for elementary and high school education.

After Stift Melk (I just love the sound of that. Makes me laugh.) we took a cruise down the Danube - wow. That was gorgeous. This is Em, Phyllis, and I on the ship. We had a blast trying some Austrian beer and a drink called Sturm which is a very sweet drink. It is wine that is still fermenting. Tastes like a fruit juice but packs a punch!

Then we walked around the town of Krems before we had a delicious dinner in Unt (yes, that is German for "and." Kinda' funny when you're reading a map Durnstien, Unt, Krems). I was absolutely delighted in this one man band who sang the Beatles quite well!

Yesterday I biked with a fellow on our trip, Steve, about 15 miles down the Danube - WOW what a ride that was! We were along the water a while then wound our way through all the tiny towns and vineyards. Really cool. Then we all went on a tour of a winery, which was awesome, and got to do a wine sampling. Then we went to this neat restaurant and had huge cheese platters for dinner (and a big hot pork platter, but I obviously didn't partake in that one).

Thanks for checking in! Hopefully there'll be internet in Vienna. If not, see you in Venice!

A Day In Prague and

Well Golly! We sure have had a time since last I wrote! Yesterday we had tour of Prague. First by bus, then by foot. It was really something. On the bus we saw some really neat things like this, the Gestapo headquarters during WWII.
And this, a statue of Good King Wenceslas (or Saint Wenceslas as they called him in the Czech Republic). We also later went to the cathedral where Wenceslas (and about a dozen monarchs) were buried. Well, not exactly buried, I mean they were in the church still, but... you know.

We got off the bus and toured the Prague Castle. It is almost an entire town really, more than a castle. The "Pink House" (as our tour guide called it) where the president works is located in the castle/city as well as many historic sites and the cathedral I mentioned earlier.
We also got to see the oldest vineyard in Czech Republic. This picture is of our Prague tour guide, Vladimir, and Phyllis, a lady on our tour, trying some grapes we snatched from the vineyard (shhh!).
After the tour Em and I wandered around and found this really neat pizzeria down some tiny little back alley. We got some delicious local beer (as we have been sampling every day) and we each got a 32cm mixed mushroom pizza (apparently we don't know how big 32cm is... it was huge... not that we didn't each pound the whole thing!). After walking around Prague for a couple more hours, we went to a concert at this beautiful church. It was really something. Then we grabbed some dinner in our executive lounge (and some more beers) and I hit the spa before bed. Yes, I figured I'd better take advantage of the water back/neck massage, and water foot massage, and steam room, and sauna, and waterfall, and pool that shoots water at you to make it feel like your swimming laps when you're stationary, and the "chill out room" (a room of pillows, candles, and completely surrounded in draped lace) because I know darn well I'll never get a chance at anything that nice again!!

So, today we drove from Prague down to Durnstein, Austria (no, we did not "throw another shrimp on the barbie). We are RIGHT on the Danube, and WOW! If I thought the last hotel was nice!!! Our view is... oh my. It is breath-taking. I don't know if you remember my view from my room in Tasmania (probably in the second post I ever put on this blog) but the view from here makes that look like the view from a prison cell! I could go on about how beautiful and charming this place is, and GOSH could I go on about the food (uh... wow. That's all I can say. Words are insufficient for the incredible food we are eating), but this blog is LOOOONG enough. So, thanks for keeping up, and I hope we can post more soon!

Touch Down in Prague!!

We had a primarily uneventful trip over the ocean. With 10 ladies in tow(we met 6 over here, so there are 16 total). There was some serious worry when we were in Amsterdam trying to catch our connecting flight to Prague. We had only ten minutes before boarding by the time we got our boarding passes, and got stopped to go through airport security all over again... but (as you can tell by the title of this post) we made it! This first picture is of the "Tequila-Leyria," as Emmy called it, in the Minneapolis airport. Needless to say, we felt obligated to drink margaritas. Yum!

This next shot is of Em and I just off the plain in Prague. The rest of these are beautiful views of Prague as we drove to our hotel. Also (this one is for Dad) there was a stone Moi in a school yard! Pretty cool.

The hotel is NICE! We are staying at the "King's Court" in Old town Prague. This is the bed. The shower is way nice, one of those rain showers, and there is a lounge with complimentary food, and drinks. But not the cookies and water you get at Comfort Inn, there are sandwich platters, pastries, chips, cookies, and water, soda, espresso made fresh, wine and beer! You'd be sorely wrong if you think Emmy and I stopped anywhere else first.And of course the view is great. This is outside our window. I walked around for an hour or two and checked out the little local farmers' market. It was very cool. Full of wax figures, wooden spoons, homemade sausages, and chain-smoking tweens. Em and I are off to dinner now. I heard word of salmon and good wine... and it is rumored to be a 4 course meal... we are going to sleep well tonight!

Thanks for keeping up with us!!

Hey-O!

Woops! Looks like I didn't really do the blog thing in New England, did I?

Anyway, new adventure! This time I promise to post updates at least once a week. I am leaving tomorrow for Europe with my Grandma (Emmy). We are traveling with her cronies for ten days, and then I will be staying on in Europe while Em goes back to the states. Hope you'll enjoy keeping up with me! I can't wait to get this adventure started!!