Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Hello!
We know that we have been slacking on the blog but we have been busy! We spent three days in Vienna which was great! We then traveled on to Salzburg for a night and then today we went on to Venice. It was a long travel day today...not fun! But we are in the beautiful city full of canals now which is really fun. Instead of a bus-metro transportation system they use water boats! We will try to blog more about the past week in the next few days!
Friday, June 25, 2010
prAgue
So I believe that we left you all in Germany. we safely arrived in Prague. However, when we arrived, I was a bit...surprised. You all know that we were quite spoiled with our amazing train station in Berlin--well the train station that we arrived into here in Prague was a bit...dingy. Eric commented later, "That must have been how the people felt when they arrived at the concentration camp," -- ok probably not THAT bad...but definitely the worst we have encountered so far. we even had a problem locating the exit...signage was not it's strong point. really, to be truthful...i don't think it had any strong point. oh well we had arrived and that was all that mattered.
Our next encounter of Prague was this little sidewalk...and by little I mean absolutely tiny. As in you could basically get one foot in front of the other and thats about it. To be truthful i'm not even sure it was a sidewalk...but we made it into one. Amanda said she was nervous she'd trip there. b/c if you'd trip there you'd end up flat on the road ran over by a car. BUT, (Parents: Deep Sigh) we all conquered the sidewalk/curb safe and sound.
We arrived at our hostel about twenty minutes later. This hostel is costing us about 7 dollars a person per night, and we aren't surprise why. :) We walked in and it was very plain and the rooms are a little musty, and it's definitely nothing special. but...it's a hostel and it gets the job done so we are happy. plus our pocketbooks are a little fuller so we are double happy. Ironically...this place has the best showers so far--go figure?
Once we got all checked in we decided to go explore the city. We found our way to the Charles Bridge which has an amazing view. The river is beautiful...and it was probably around 6 or 7 so the sun was going down which made it even better. It also had a great view of the Prague Castle which is settled up on this large hill. Super beautiful. --yes pictures will come. While crossing this large bridge there was this great little violin (and other assorted musical instruments that i'm not knowledgeable enough to name) playing. Amanda really enjoyed them and wanted to tip them. we hadn't made it to a cash machine yet (czech republic isn't on the euro) so she ended up tipping in Euro's. We weren't sure if that was rude but we figured money is money, you can't be picky.
Once we got money and we decided we were going to live the rich life and have a nice little dinner on the riverside. We knew that we would be paying for this wonderful view and atmosphere but we didn't care. After our dinner--I had goulash...i guess here that consists of four little pieces of meat, some sauce, and lots of onion (and that's it), we decided to go walk around some more.
We found this large area that had a big screen up that plays the World Cup games. It is up for the whole time teh games are going--like all five weeks. It was a fun little atmosphere.
The next day we decided to go on the FREE WALKING TOUR!! YAY. lol. It was pretty good like always, however the tour guide we had this time was a little bit silly and animated for our (at least Eric and I's) liking. We then toured the Jewish Quarters. The most memorable thing for me was the Pinkas Synagogue. It has the names of 77,000 Czech Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust listed on the walls. The other part of is has artwork that children who were housed in the nearby concentration camp Terezin (sp?) drew. They had very limited art supplies but they were able to have some. It was interesting to see what they drew. Some had artwork depicting the sad times they were facing (trains, bunks, concentration camp, etc) while others had pictures of betters times (life before camp, what they would do when they were free, etc). Very moving and very sad. We also saw the Jewish Cemetry. Apparently the Jews were restricted to stay in the Jewish Quarter. They eventually needed more space to bury their dead but they weren't allowed it. So they were forced to bury their dead on top of previous dead resulting in a crazy looking cemetry. We were able to walk around in it and it was really quite eery. Afterwards we got gelato...not sure if it's better than ice cream...but still delicious=--and reasonable priced :)
Later that night we went to this Black Light Theatre. It was absolutely fantastic and really fun. I can't even really think of how to describe it but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. They use black light and dancers to put on one heck of a show.
The next day (today) we went to the Castle area. You have to cross the Charles Bridge area to get there so we got to see the pretty view from there. Then once you get across --remember I said the castle is settled up on a huge hill--well then you get to walk up the super steep sidewalks!! yay!! haha not really but it wasn't too bad. got us a little workout in for the day. So when we finally got to the top it was breathtaking. The city is beautiful--i really liked the architecture. So we saw the Old Palace, the huuuge Cathedral, the Prague Castle, The powder tower (use to keep ammunition there), few Basilica's, etc. All very beautiful.
that took us about 5 hours. when we were done we went and got some amazing pizza. pizza is big here apparently. then we hit up the chocolate store--we were going to do the chocolate museum b/c we thought it was free but there was an entrance charge. so us being the smart people that we are decided to just use the money for the entrance fee and just buy chocolate instead. We then went to find this little park we had read about. Instead we ended up in the back of a little cafe. I made the call and decided good enough. We spent about an hour there just basking in the sun (Eric napping in the shade) and enjoying being in Prague. Amanda then decided to override me so we again went looking for the park. I'm really glad she did override that decision b/c we found the park and it was super beautiful. AND it had peacocks in it AND the peacock fluffed it's feathers! how fuN! lol. there was also an all white one--we didn't quite know what that was but we relaly liked it.
Well we are off to Vienna in the morning. We will be staying with Mollie and Amanda's grandma's cousin--who we have never met--but am excited to do so.
Hopefully there we will be able to get some pictures up for you!!
PS: We know that you all like hearing what we are doing....we also like hearing what you are doing back home :) so shoot us a message!!
Our next encounter of Prague was this little sidewalk...and by little I mean absolutely tiny. As in you could basically get one foot in front of the other and thats about it. To be truthful i'm not even sure it was a sidewalk...but we made it into one. Amanda said she was nervous she'd trip there. b/c if you'd trip there you'd end up flat on the road ran over by a car. BUT, (Parents: Deep Sigh) we all conquered the sidewalk/curb safe and sound.
We arrived at our hostel about twenty minutes later. This hostel is costing us about 7 dollars a person per night, and we aren't surprise why. :) We walked in and it was very plain and the rooms are a little musty, and it's definitely nothing special. but...it's a hostel and it gets the job done so we are happy. plus our pocketbooks are a little fuller so we are double happy. Ironically...this place has the best showers so far--go figure?
Once we got all checked in we decided to go explore the city. We found our way to the Charles Bridge which has an amazing view. The river is beautiful...and it was probably around 6 or 7 so the sun was going down which made it even better. It also had a great view of the Prague Castle which is settled up on this large hill. Super beautiful. --yes pictures will come. While crossing this large bridge there was this great little violin (and other assorted musical instruments that i'm not knowledgeable enough to name) playing. Amanda really enjoyed them and wanted to tip them. we hadn't made it to a cash machine yet (czech republic isn't on the euro) so she ended up tipping in Euro's. We weren't sure if that was rude but we figured money is money, you can't be picky.
Once we got money and we decided we were going to live the rich life and have a nice little dinner on the riverside. We knew that we would be paying for this wonderful view and atmosphere but we didn't care. After our dinner--I had goulash...i guess here that consists of four little pieces of meat, some sauce, and lots of onion (and that's it), we decided to go walk around some more.
We found this large area that had a big screen up that plays the World Cup games. It is up for the whole time teh games are going--like all five weeks. It was a fun little atmosphere.
The next day we decided to go on the FREE WALKING TOUR!! YAY. lol. It was pretty good like always, however the tour guide we had this time was a little bit silly and animated for our (at least Eric and I's) liking. We then toured the Jewish Quarters. The most memorable thing for me was the Pinkas Synagogue. It has the names of 77,000 Czech Jews that were murdered in the Holocaust listed on the walls. The other part of is has artwork that children who were housed in the nearby concentration camp Terezin (sp?) drew. They had very limited art supplies but they were able to have some. It was interesting to see what they drew. Some had artwork depicting the sad times they were facing (trains, bunks, concentration camp, etc) while others had pictures of betters times (life before camp, what they would do when they were free, etc). Very moving and very sad. We also saw the Jewish Cemetry. Apparently the Jews were restricted to stay in the Jewish Quarter. They eventually needed more space to bury their dead but they weren't allowed it. So they were forced to bury their dead on top of previous dead resulting in a crazy looking cemetry. We were able to walk around in it and it was really quite eery. Afterwards we got gelato...not sure if it's better than ice cream...but still delicious=--and reasonable priced :)
Later that night we went to this Black Light Theatre. It was absolutely fantastic and really fun. I can't even really think of how to describe it but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip so far. They use black light and dancers to put on one heck of a show.
The next day (today) we went to the Castle area. You have to cross the Charles Bridge area to get there so we got to see the pretty view from there. Then once you get across --remember I said the castle is settled up on a huge hill--well then you get to walk up the super steep sidewalks!! yay!! haha not really but it wasn't too bad. got us a little workout in for the day. So when we finally got to the top it was breathtaking. The city is beautiful--i really liked the architecture. So we saw the Old Palace, the huuuge Cathedral, the Prague Castle, The powder tower (use to keep ammunition there), few Basilica's, etc. All very beautiful.
that took us about 5 hours. when we were done we went and got some amazing pizza. pizza is big here apparently. then we hit up the chocolate store--we were going to do the chocolate museum b/c we thought it was free but there was an entrance charge. so us being the smart people that we are decided to just use the money for the entrance fee and just buy chocolate instead. We then went to find this little park we had read about. Instead we ended up in the back of a little cafe. I made the call and decided good enough. We spent about an hour there just basking in the sun (Eric napping in the shade) and enjoying being in Prague. Amanda then decided to override me so we again went looking for the park. I'm really glad she did override that decision b/c we found the park and it was super beautiful. AND it had peacocks in it AND the peacock fluffed it's feathers! how fuN! lol. there was also an all white one--we didn't quite know what that was but we relaly liked it.
Well we are off to Vienna in the morning. We will be staying with Mollie and Amanda's grandma's cousin--who we have never met--but am excited to do so.
Hopefully there we will be able to get some pictures up for you!!
PS: We know that you all like hearing what we are doing....we also like hearing what you are doing back home :) so shoot us a message!!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The best post of the blog EVER ;)
So, I am going to vainly attempt to beat mollie's blogging, but I just got ahold of my mother via skype. This could turn into a two-part blog since I am not that gifted at doing two things at once. Starting where Miss Mollie left off - Mondays are an unofficial official German museum holiday and therefore myself and definitely Eric and Mollie were dretfully disappointed that we couldnt spend the 8 hour tourist day (aka our work day) in as many museums as possible. On the way to our failed museum visit atttempt (The Modern Art Gallery), we did happen to learn one of the funniest tidbits of knowledge I have heard during our trip. There are these very pretty pink pipes with very pretty purple structure supports underneath that circle all around the city about 20 feet in the air that carry...wait for it....wait for it...the citys sewage, yep, literally crap. haha I think I had a five minute laugh over it. Maybe you will get lucky and have a five second laugh.
Anyways, mollie filled you in on the rest of monday. Today (Tuesday), we slept in!!!! Excitement all around from us :D Mollie very nicely went and got breakfast so that her elder sister could enjoy a bit more of a sleep in. Our chosen plan for the day was to visit Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. The tour left at 11 am, and we arrived at the destination at 12 pm. We had an excellent tour guide (who actually worked for the same tour company as the others, but this was not a 'free' tour) who guided us around the camp. We took the same route as the prisoners who were sent there -- same train, same walking path, same arrival gate. It was interesting because the path to the camp was right smack dab in the middle of a residential area and the tour guide said the town was situated the same way back in the 30's and 40's. The camp was actually the first permanent concentration camp (not work camp, death camp), it had over 200,000 prisoners over the 9 years it operated with 53,000 prisoners being murdered there, mostly by gunshot, some gassings and a lot of exhaustion deaths. The camp was originally made for the German communists political criminals but eventually housed jews, eastern european undesirables, homosexuals, and gypsies. At the end of tour, our guide informed us that this camp was especially meaningful for himself as he is 100% German and his fathers side was in the SS and his mothers side were prisoners in the camp.
Afterwards, we ventured back to the hostel, where I managed to take a nap aka pass out for about three hours. The other two were doing other important things aka eating and reading. I also managed to get some 'football' watching in. Maybe, Ill start to understand it by the end of the trip.
Tomorrow morning, we take off for Praha (Prague) where will will be staying for three nights. Some of the highlights are the castles, historical religious sites, and the beer gardens. In that order.
Anyways, mollie filled you in on the rest of monday. Today (Tuesday), we slept in!!!! Excitement all around from us :D Mollie very nicely went and got breakfast so that her elder sister could enjoy a bit more of a sleep in. Our chosen plan for the day was to visit Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. The tour left at 11 am, and we arrived at the destination at 12 pm. We had an excellent tour guide (who actually worked for the same tour company as the others, but this was not a 'free' tour) who guided us around the camp. We took the same route as the prisoners who were sent there -- same train, same walking path, same arrival gate. It was interesting because the path to the camp was right smack dab in the middle of a residential area and the tour guide said the town was situated the same way back in the 30's and 40's. The camp was actually the first permanent concentration camp (not work camp, death camp), it had over 200,000 prisoners over the 9 years it operated with 53,000 prisoners being murdered there, mostly by gunshot, some gassings and a lot of exhaustion deaths. The camp was originally made for the German communists political criminals but eventually housed jews, eastern european undesirables, homosexuals, and gypsies. At the end of tour, our guide informed us that this camp was especially meaningful for himself as he is 100% German and his fathers side was in the SS and his mothers side were prisoners in the camp.
Afterwards, we ventured back to the hostel, where I managed to take a nap aka pass out for about three hours. The other two were doing other important things aka eating and reading. I also managed to get some 'football' watching in. Maybe, Ill start to understand it by the end of the trip.
Tomorrow morning, we take off for Praha (Prague) where will will be staying for three nights. Some of the highlights are the castles, historical religious sites, and the beer gardens. In that order.
Photos on Facebook
Since we are still paying for internet, I have just made a highlight real of some of our photos from London through Berlin. The album is under my name on facebook, "ole olson". I will try to explain the photos, some of the places have funny names that I can't type without our little refrence guide, so I may just make some of them up. I hope you all enjoy!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Germany
Well Im writing this at the end of our second day here in Germany. Yesterday we did something really out of character and did a free walking tour. yep--just kidding. Those dedicated blog followers will know that we have done one in every city that we have been in. There is a company called NewEurope that does these tours in many major cities across Europe. They work on a tips only basis so you get to decide what the tour was worth. So we did that in the morning and met some fun other people from Washington. On the tour we learned about various assasination threats on Hitler. We saw the Jew Memorial which was really neat. Again, pictures will come soon. probably at the next hostel.
After the tour we decided to go back and see the Holocaust museum which is located underneath the Jew Memorial (underground). We went in and they had a timeline of the history and then had different postcards, notes, letters, diaries, etc., that were written by various Jews in concentration camps. It was quite interesting to read all of these. Then they had a couple of rooms dedicated to different Jew families and showed all the different spots in Europe that Jews had been murdered in. I, by now we all know that it is safe to assume "Mollie", really liked the first half of the museum, but found the second half a little dry. I "might" have fallen asleep while sitting in one part waiting for Amanda and Eric to catch up with me. I think that Amanda has made it her personal goal to soak up every little, tiny, bit of knowledge that she possibly can on this trip. Not sure how I feel about that =) but she does keep us all motivated to keep going to the museums.
After the Holocaust museum we decided to head back to the hostel and get some lunch. Our hostel is in a great location. FINALLY!! It is right by the train station. And by train station I mean....mall (yes we went shopping there), grocery store (two of them--we like this b-c we think that they have lower prices due to competition), various cheap fast foodish options, and then finally yes an actual train station. We then (with a little prodding by Amanda) continued on to our next Museum. The German History Museum. --by the way i apologize for the grammer but this keyboard is sure strange. So the German History Museum--it overall was pretty good. Thez had some great things on display that was interesting to see. Part of the Berlin wall was in there and lots of little interesting tidbits of German information.
After the museum we came back got dinner and then decided to go meet up with the pub crawl that is offered by the New Europe tour group. This however is not free, but was onlz 10 euro so it was not too bad. It was nice to have people with us who spoke the language and knew where we were going. We decided to do this with the other group of Americans that we had met. As much as the three of us love each other I think that we were all very open to the idea of getting to hang out with people other than just overselves. They were a lot of fun. We all had a good time. We went to four different pubs and then decided to graciously bow out before the group hit up the local club.
Today we got up and, naturally, went to the train station for breakfast. When we got back to the hostel we had to spend some time fixing our reservation with the hostel b-c they messed something up. It was a bit annoying but we got it all figured out so life is good.
We then went with our new American friends (who are conveniently staying at the same hostel as we are) and walked to Ka Dum--Amanda informs me this is spelled wrong but thats what it sounds like so we will go with that. On our way we stopped so some of the group could get lunch. Amanda and I spotted ice cream and decided that today was the day. We talk about ice cream (and by we, I mean ME) about everyday. Amanda and Eric have given me grief b-c I keep seeing it being sold on the street but will refuse to pay the obscene prices that they are charging. Its normally not that great of ice cream and they want 3.50 euros for it. That is about 4.30 US dollars. For those of you who dont know I might be a big frugal. So I have abstained...that is until today. Actually when I saw the ice cream I decided that regardless of hte cost I was getting some. It was a nice day, perfect for eating ice cream. So when I walked up to the counter I saw the God had rewarded me for my patience. Giant, delicous waffle ice cream cones for 1.80 a piece. Amanda and I each got one, for the same cost as what we would have paid for one in the other countries. Mollie-1 point. Ok...kind of a lame story. SO back to Ka Dum.
It is a a large shopping area that is home to the department store Ka De We. That IS actually spelled right--use your imagination with the pronounciation. SO this store is huge!! When u first walk in all you see are purses purses purses. Loius Voitton, Prada, etc. They were all very reasonably priced. NOT. but it was fun to look at. This department store is seven stories tall. There was literally like an employee about every 10 feet. If Amanda was still next to me we would be able to impress u with the number of employees that are currently working at all time. I believe that it is over a thousand. I will get an exact figure for you. I know regret telling Amanda to go away while I wrote this =). Oh well. But it is huge. I cant even describe how large it is. But everything is incredibly expensive. So the first floor is purses-accesories, second floor is mens fashion, third is womens, then the fourth was babies, then the fifth was like a cooking-pots-pans-house stuff floor. The best floor was the sixth floor. They had like a WHOLE grocery store up there. Thez had every type of meat that I have ever seen, and then some. They not only had whole chickens, but they also had whole little minature chickens. There was also an extensive line of chocolates, bakery goods, cheese, etc. Really mind blowing. Then on the seventh floor they have a huge restaurant--oh and if that wasnt enough they also have various little restaurants throughout the whole store. So it was quite the place. We spent the most time on the sixth floor, --the food floor for those of you who forgot already. It was really fun to walk around and see.
We then decided to come back to the hostel and watch the World Cup game at this outdoor park thing. I however decided that Id rather read the last 20 pages of my murder suspense book instead, so I stayed in. I ended up learning that for some reason the game wasnt being played, so I was even happier with my choice. #
Later tonight we will be taking the S Bahn, the public transportation here, to go see the longest strip of the Berlin wall that is still standing. Then we are going to see the Reichstaf. U can go up in this huge glass dome and see the city, should be beautiful.
Well...Thats all for know!
After the tour we decided to go back and see the Holocaust museum which is located underneath the Jew Memorial (underground). We went in and they had a timeline of the history and then had different postcards, notes, letters, diaries, etc., that were written by various Jews in concentration camps. It was quite interesting to read all of these. Then they had a couple of rooms dedicated to different Jew families and showed all the different spots in Europe that Jews had been murdered in. I, by now we all know that it is safe to assume "Mollie", really liked the first half of the museum, but found the second half a little dry. I "might" have fallen asleep while sitting in one part waiting for Amanda and Eric to catch up with me. I think that Amanda has made it her personal goal to soak up every little, tiny, bit of knowledge that she possibly can on this trip. Not sure how I feel about that =) but she does keep us all motivated to keep going to the museums.
After the Holocaust museum we decided to head back to the hostel and get some lunch. Our hostel is in a great location. FINALLY!! It is right by the train station. And by train station I mean....mall (yes we went shopping there), grocery store (two of them--we like this b-c we think that they have lower prices due to competition), various cheap fast foodish options, and then finally yes an actual train station. We then (with a little prodding by Amanda) continued on to our next Museum. The German History Museum. --by the way i apologize for the grammer but this keyboard is sure strange. So the German History Museum--it overall was pretty good. Thez had some great things on display that was interesting to see. Part of the Berlin wall was in there and lots of little interesting tidbits of German information.
After the museum we came back got dinner and then decided to go meet up with the pub crawl that is offered by the New Europe tour group. This however is not free, but was onlz 10 euro so it was not too bad. It was nice to have people with us who spoke the language and knew where we were going. We decided to do this with the other group of Americans that we had met. As much as the three of us love each other I think that we were all very open to the idea of getting to hang out with people other than just overselves. They were a lot of fun. We all had a good time. We went to four different pubs and then decided to graciously bow out before the group hit up the local club.
Today we got up and, naturally, went to the train station for breakfast. When we got back to the hostel we had to spend some time fixing our reservation with the hostel b-c they messed something up. It was a bit annoying but we got it all figured out so life is good.
We then went with our new American friends (who are conveniently staying at the same hostel as we are) and walked to Ka Dum--Amanda informs me this is spelled wrong but thats what it sounds like so we will go with that. On our way we stopped so some of the group could get lunch. Amanda and I spotted ice cream and decided that today was the day. We talk about ice cream (and by we, I mean ME) about everyday. Amanda and Eric have given me grief b-c I keep seeing it being sold on the street but will refuse to pay the obscene prices that they are charging. Its normally not that great of ice cream and they want 3.50 euros for it. That is about 4.30 US dollars. For those of you who dont know I might be a big frugal. So I have abstained...that is until today. Actually when I saw the ice cream I decided that regardless of hte cost I was getting some. It was a nice day, perfect for eating ice cream. So when I walked up to the counter I saw the God had rewarded me for my patience. Giant, delicous waffle ice cream cones for 1.80 a piece. Amanda and I each got one, for the same cost as what we would have paid for one in the other countries. Mollie-1 point. Ok...kind of a lame story. SO back to Ka Dum.
It is a a large shopping area that is home to the department store Ka De We. That IS actually spelled right--use your imagination with the pronounciation. SO this store is huge!! When u first walk in all you see are purses purses purses. Loius Voitton, Prada, etc. They were all very reasonably priced. NOT. but it was fun to look at. This department store is seven stories tall. There was literally like an employee about every 10 feet. If Amanda was still next to me we would be able to impress u with the number of employees that are currently working at all time. I believe that it is over a thousand. I will get an exact figure for you. I know regret telling Amanda to go away while I wrote this =). Oh well. But it is huge. I cant even describe how large it is. But everything is incredibly expensive. So the first floor is purses-accesories, second floor is mens fashion, third is womens, then the fourth was babies, then the fifth was like a cooking-pots-pans-house stuff floor. The best floor was the sixth floor. They had like a WHOLE grocery store up there. Thez had every type of meat that I have ever seen, and then some. They not only had whole chickens, but they also had whole little minature chickens. There was also an extensive line of chocolates, bakery goods, cheese, etc. Really mind blowing. Then on the seventh floor they have a huge restaurant--oh and if that wasnt enough they also have various little restaurants throughout the whole store. So it was quite the place. We spent the most time on the sixth floor, --the food floor for those of you who forgot already. It was really fun to walk around and see.
We then decided to come back to the hostel and watch the World Cup game at this outdoor park thing. I however decided that Id rather read the last 20 pages of my murder suspense book instead, so I stayed in. I ended up learning that for some reason the game wasnt being played, so I was even happier with my choice. #
Later tonight we will be taking the S Bahn, the public transportation here, to go see the longest strip of the Berlin wall that is still standing. Then we are going to see the Reichstaf. U can go up in this huge glass dome and see the city, should be beautiful.
Well...Thats all for know!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Amsterdam
Mollie----
So as we arrived into Amsterdam the first thing that we noticed was that the sun was out!!! So far we have been gone for about 2 weeks and it has been cold about everyday. So i just noticed that the kezboard here switches the z and the y. Therefore zou will just have to adjust because it is waaz to hard for me to do so. Anzwazs. we also noticed that when they say that biking is huge in Amsterdam they werent kidding. When we walked out of the central train station we first saw this three story bike parking ramp. yes, seriously. we will try to get some pictures up soon.
Anyways then we checked into our little hostel and then went about walking around the city and found some lunch. We walked around and enjoyed teh sunshine. Amsterdam is very interesting. I say this because it seems like the Trams, Cars, Cyclist, and Pedestrians all shared both the sidewalks and roads. Oh, and the cyclist have the right of way. So basically u cant walk on the streets because of the cars trams and cyclist, but you cant walk on the sidewalks b-c all of the mopeds and bicycles are parked on them. Therefore, the biggest mystery of Amsterdam emerged...where are teh pedestrians supposed to walk? We never quite figured it out. Anywazs. then we went and saw the Anne Frank house which was really neat to see. We went later at night to avoid the crowds and it was a good choice. The next day we went and again did the free walking tour that we have come to know and love. Mason was our tour guide and he had a great sense of humor. Amanda especially found him hilarious. He showed us three different generations concoctions that the Amsterdammers had created over the years to prevent people from....peeing in street corners. yes-seriously. pictures will come. The tour guide said that it is to fight the unending battle between men, beer, and nature. Basically what these do is when someone tries to urinate on it, the urine is reflected back onto the urinator....bahahah...evil laugh coming from the Amsterdam government.
oh btw in Amsterdam you have to pay .50 euros to go to the bathroom. Nothing is free in Amsterdam. We loved the canals in Amsterdam. They were sooo pretty and really added a lot to the city. Has anyone noticed that Im attempting to get the y and z's in the correct spot?
AFter the walking tour we decided to go the library was 8 stories tall, huge, and beautiful. At the top it had a restaurant and u could go outside and see a great overview of the city. Oh there was also a bar in the library... we were thinking that this was something the Americans should possibly integrate in our society haha.
Speaking of alcohol...apparently it is legal to drink in the streets here. We have seen a lot of it. It is rather interesting. Especially when your in London and the World Cup game is of England and the US. The Londoners reallz get into it.
We also did the infamous walk down the Red Light District. Again, interesting, but strange. Apparently the government is trying to decrease the number of windows that are being operated out of by 95% within a few years I believe.
We left the next day for Berlin. Our train ride took about 6.5 hours and we have arrived and checked into our hostel here. It was conveniently located right next to the Train Station that we came into the city on. It is literally in like the train parking lot area. Pretty nice for us. We ventured backed over there for dinner and found some good ole Pizza Hut and McDonalds. We got 15% off our food for staying at the hostel we are at so SCORE for us. haha.
Tomorrow we are planning on again doing the free walking tour. Then we will probably see where some of the Nazis, Stasi, and Gestapo people did some nasty bad stuff. Once I learn more about it...I will fill you in.
Shout out to the Muir and Olson families--love and miss you!
So as we arrived into Amsterdam the first thing that we noticed was that the sun was out!!! So far we have been gone for about 2 weeks and it has been cold about everyday. So i just noticed that the kezboard here switches the z and the y. Therefore zou will just have to adjust because it is waaz to hard for me to do so. Anzwazs. we also noticed that when they say that biking is huge in Amsterdam they werent kidding. When we walked out of the central train station we first saw this three story bike parking ramp. yes, seriously. we will try to get some pictures up soon.
Anyways then we checked into our little hostel and then went about walking around the city and found some lunch. We walked around and enjoyed teh sunshine. Amsterdam is very interesting. I say this because it seems like the Trams, Cars, Cyclist, and Pedestrians all shared both the sidewalks and roads. Oh, and the cyclist have the right of way. So basically u cant walk on the streets because of the cars trams and cyclist, but you cant walk on the sidewalks b-c all of the mopeds and bicycles are parked on them. Therefore, the biggest mystery of Amsterdam emerged...where are teh pedestrians supposed to walk? We never quite figured it out. Anywazs. then we went and saw the Anne Frank house which was really neat to see. We went later at night to avoid the crowds and it was a good choice. The next day we went and again did the free walking tour that we have come to know and love. Mason was our tour guide and he had a great sense of humor. Amanda especially found him hilarious. He showed us three different generations concoctions that the Amsterdammers had created over the years to prevent people from....peeing in street corners. yes-seriously. pictures will come. The tour guide said that it is to fight the unending battle between men, beer, and nature. Basically what these do is when someone tries to urinate on it, the urine is reflected back onto the urinator....bahahah...evil laugh coming from the Amsterdam government.
oh btw in Amsterdam you have to pay .50 euros to go to the bathroom. Nothing is free in Amsterdam. We loved the canals in Amsterdam. They were sooo pretty and really added a lot to the city. Has anyone noticed that Im attempting to get the y and z's in the correct spot?
AFter the walking tour we decided to go the library was 8 stories tall, huge, and beautiful. At the top it had a restaurant and u could go outside and see a great overview of the city. Oh there was also a bar in the library... we were thinking that this was something the Americans should possibly integrate in our society haha.
Speaking of alcohol...apparently it is legal to drink in the streets here. We have seen a lot of it. It is rather interesting. Especially when your in London and the World Cup game is of England and the US. The Londoners reallz get into it.
We also did the infamous walk down the Red Light District. Again, interesting, but strange. Apparently the government is trying to decrease the number of windows that are being operated out of by 95% within a few years I believe.
We left the next day for Berlin. Our train ride took about 6.5 hours and we have arrived and checked into our hostel here. It was conveniently located right next to the Train Station that we came into the city on. It is literally in like the train parking lot area. Pretty nice for us. We ventured backed over there for dinner and found some good ole Pizza Hut and McDonalds. We got 15% off our food for staying at the hostel we are at so SCORE for us. haha.
Tomorrow we are planning on again doing the free walking tour. Then we will probably see where some of the Nazis, Stasi, and Gestapo people did some nasty bad stuff. Once I learn more about it...I will fill you in.
Shout out to the Muir and Olson families--love and miss you!
Friday, June 18, 2010
Paris/Amsterdam
Well we had two quick days in Paris where we were busy from sun up to sun down. The first day we got there we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and set off to find the Arc de Triumphe. After a decent lenght walk we found the big ole structure. It was pretty neat--they had a flame that is always lit underneathe it (to honor the body of an unknown soldier) and the three of us contemplated whether the US had "borrowed" this idea. Regardless, it was pretty cool. However, even more interesting then the Arc itself was the circle of traffic that surrounds the Arc. There are no lane lines and it is a roundabout. The traffic entering the roundabout actually has the right of way--which makes for a very interesting sight. Apparently there is an accident there every 20 minutes and your car insurance is not valid in that circle of town. When I (Mollie) learned this I wondered why anyone would even attempt to drive there. Anyways, the three of us spent about 10 minutes just watching the traffic and the close call accidents. The pedestrians actually have a tunnel underneathe the ground to the get the Arc so they don't have to mess with the circle. haha...i just pictured all the crazy tourists trying to navigate their way through that traffic...it'd be pretty funny.
Then we moved on to the great Eiffel Tower. It really doesn't seem all that big until you get underneath it and it takes you a while to walk the lenght of it. It's (cliche) really quite amazing and beautiful. We walked around for a while on the front lawn. ALl of the area around the Eiffel Tower is surrounded with tons, and I mean TONS of men that are trying to sell you little models of the Eiffel Tower for 1 euro. They are SOO annoying. One comes up to you literally like every three minutes. My patience wore out rather quickly and I spent much of my time thinking about about what I would say to them if I was the polite and refined lady that I am :). Speaking of annoying people. There were also many Bosnian ladies that would come up to you and say "Do you speak English?' If you said yes they would hand you this little notecard with some scam for $$ on it. I also had many responses for them, but instead decided to behave and just say no.
After walking around we decided to pay and go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Again, amazing, beautiful, and also slightly scary trip to the top. You go up in this little elevator and you feel like nothing is around you. I had the most problem with this as it kinda just got to my stomach a little. Amanda and Eric were just fine. I kinda felt like I was on Wonka's crazy elevator that moves in all directions. But when we finally got to the top it was such a great view of the city of Paris. We followed the typical tourist role and took our pictures and stared in awed. Definitely worth the ticket price!
Later that night we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. Again very beautiful.
Oh we also mastered the metro (or tube as Eric preferred to call it) system while we were there. It was busy no matter what time we took it at. Whether it be 3:00 in the afternoon or 11:45 on a Wednesday night.
The next day we again took advantage of the free tour and saw the city of Paris. Oh we also saw Notre Dame while we were there. When we walked in they had this loud super intimidating organ music playing, but it was really beautiful. We walked around that and I was quite impressed. It was by far the largest church that we have been in yet. --Amanda is questioning me saying she thinks Westminster Abbey might have been the largest, but I'm the author, therefore I'm right. :) Who knows...they were both big and quite beautiful. How they were able to build something like that waaay back then is quite impressive.
Then we spent some time enjoying the city of Paris, aka taking a nap on the grass in front of the Capital building. We were actually waiting for it to be six because we had heard that students got in for free at the Louvre. Imagine our disappointment after waiting all that time and when we finally went to get our free tickets we found out that it was actually Friday night, not Wednesday night. Oh well. WE saw the Mona Lisa as well as the Venus de Milo (i could have spelled this wrong). WE also saw a lifesize castle moat. That was pretty cool.
Then we walked home. By this time my feet had literally fallen off. We actually figured out how many miles we walked this day and it was at least 15 miles. AT LEAST!! It's a lot-trust me.
The next day we started off for Amsterdam. We had our first near disaster by deciding to put the alarm clock with me (mollie) in the top bunk. Let me play this scene out for you. Mollie squirms around in the night, the alarm clock falls and crashes onto the hard floor. The batteries fly in every direction, and, there is no acting alarm clock anymore. So, when 5:15 rolls around, the time we are supposed to get up to make the jaunt to the train station, the alarm clock fails us. We wake up at 6:15, and in a chaotic rush quick get a cab and pack in lightning flash style. But--we did make it. Oh we rock!
So we got everything figured out and even got on the right train. WE arrived in Amsterdam and it was a super nice amazing sunny day. WE haven't had many of those. WE have actually worn our sweaters (we each only brought 1) EVERYDAY. ick....we are ready for some nicer weather. WE have had a few nice days throughout hte trip so i won't complain too much i suppose.
Anyways...amsterdam--we loved it. the canals made everythign soo pretty.
But I'm almost out of minutes so we will continue the adventures of Amsterdam in our next blog. Our train for Germany leaves in about 2 hours so the next post will be from there.
Mollie
Then we moved on to the great Eiffel Tower. It really doesn't seem all that big until you get underneath it and it takes you a while to walk the lenght of it. It's (cliche) really quite amazing and beautiful. We walked around for a while on the front lawn. ALl of the area around the Eiffel Tower is surrounded with tons, and I mean TONS of men that are trying to sell you little models of the Eiffel Tower for 1 euro. They are SOO annoying. One comes up to you literally like every three minutes. My patience wore out rather quickly and I spent much of my time thinking about about what I would say to them if I was the polite and refined lady that I am :). Speaking of annoying people. There were also many Bosnian ladies that would come up to you and say "Do you speak English?' If you said yes they would hand you this little notecard with some scam for $$ on it. I also had many responses for them, but instead decided to behave and just say no.
After walking around we decided to pay and go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Again, amazing, beautiful, and also slightly scary trip to the top. You go up in this little elevator and you feel like nothing is around you. I had the most problem with this as it kinda just got to my stomach a little. Amanda and Eric were just fine. I kinda felt like I was on Wonka's crazy elevator that moves in all directions. But when we finally got to the top it was such a great view of the city of Paris. We followed the typical tourist role and took our pictures and stared in awed. Definitely worth the ticket price!
Later that night we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. Again very beautiful.
Oh we also mastered the metro (or tube as Eric preferred to call it) system while we were there. It was busy no matter what time we took it at. Whether it be 3:00 in the afternoon or 11:45 on a Wednesday night.
The next day we again took advantage of the free tour and saw the city of Paris. Oh we also saw Notre Dame while we were there. When we walked in they had this loud super intimidating organ music playing, but it was really beautiful. We walked around that and I was quite impressed. It was by far the largest church that we have been in yet. --Amanda is questioning me saying she thinks Westminster Abbey might have been the largest, but I'm the author, therefore I'm right. :) Who knows...they were both big and quite beautiful. How they were able to build something like that waaay back then is quite impressive.
Then we spent some time enjoying the city of Paris, aka taking a nap on the grass in front of the Capital building. We were actually waiting for it to be six because we had heard that students got in for free at the Louvre. Imagine our disappointment after waiting all that time and when we finally went to get our free tickets we found out that it was actually Friday night, not Wednesday night. Oh well. WE saw the Mona Lisa as well as the Venus de Milo (i could have spelled this wrong). WE also saw a lifesize castle moat. That was pretty cool.
Then we walked home. By this time my feet had literally fallen off. We actually figured out how many miles we walked this day and it was at least 15 miles. AT LEAST!! It's a lot-trust me.
The next day we started off for Amsterdam. We had our first near disaster by deciding to put the alarm clock with me (mollie) in the top bunk. Let me play this scene out for you. Mollie squirms around in the night, the alarm clock falls and crashes onto the hard floor. The batteries fly in every direction, and, there is no acting alarm clock anymore. So, when 5:15 rolls around, the time we are supposed to get up to make the jaunt to the train station, the alarm clock fails us. We wake up at 6:15, and in a chaotic rush quick get a cab and pack in lightning flash style. But--we did make it. Oh we rock!
So we got everything figured out and even got on the right train. WE arrived in Amsterdam and it was a super nice amazing sunny day. WE haven't had many of those. WE have actually worn our sweaters (we each only brought 1) EVERYDAY. ick....we are ready for some nicer weather. WE have had a few nice days throughout hte trip so i won't complain too much i suppose.
Anyways...amsterdam--we loved it. the canals made everythign soo pretty.
But I'm almost out of minutes so we will continue the adventures of Amsterdam in our next blog. Our train for Germany leaves in about 2 hours so the next post will be from there.
Mollie
Sunday, June 13, 2010
London
We have been in London now for three days. We have done LOTS of walking. Like a lot, a lot. I (Mollie) swear that we have been putting in like a solid 15 miles a day, but Amanda and Eric assure me that it is really only about 7 miles. Regardless, its A LOT. But we have seen sooo much. They have the most amazing parks here that are absolutely HUGE!! You really wouldn't believe how large they are unless you were here to see them yourselves. but they are huge and they are really beautiful. Lots of joggers and cyclists that use them. In fact, they even have seperate cycling lanes on the rodes (Mom you'd love it!).
We took another free tour by another engaging tour guide. We think that he might have had a small case of ADD but it actually made the tour even that much more interesting. We were there on the Queen's Birthday. Her second birthday mind you. Her first, real birthday is actually in April, but since it's generally rainy then they also celebrate her birthday again in June. So the area around Buckingham Palace was packed!! So that was interesting to see! We have also stopped at the other royal residences which were amazing. We have also gone to a few different museum's which had lots of art (which we tried to appreciate as much as we could!)--Actually there were some really amazing pieces of art. But we did all decide that we could never be the employees who's job is to simply sit in the rooms and make sure that no one destroys anything--quite a boring job.
We have continued being economical and doing grocery runs....London sure is expensive!!
Tomorrow we will go to the Tower of London and the Churchill Museum. I expect the Tower to be quite interesting and am very excited for it--which I'm sure you will all hear about later!
The next day (Tuesday) we leave for Paris!
We took another free tour by another engaging tour guide. We think that he might have had a small case of ADD but it actually made the tour even that much more interesting. We were there on the Queen's Birthday. Her second birthday mind you. Her first, real birthday is actually in April, but since it's generally rainy then they also celebrate her birthday again in June. So the area around Buckingham Palace was packed!! So that was interesting to see! We have also stopped at the other royal residences which were amazing. We have also gone to a few different museum's which had lots of art (which we tried to appreciate as much as we could!)--Actually there were some really amazing pieces of art. But we did all decide that we could never be the employees who's job is to simply sit in the rooms and make sure that no one destroys anything--quite a boring job.
We have continued being economical and doing grocery runs....London sure is expensive!!
Tomorrow we will go to the Tower of London and the Churchill Museum. I expect the Tower to be quite interesting and am very excited for it--which I'm sure you will all hear about later!
The next day (Tuesday) we leave for Paris!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
A Taste of Ireland
Top: A glacial lake in the country
Middle: St. Patrick's Cathedral
Bottom: Us Drinking! Just a couple though...
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Dublin Day 2
We started today off by going on a walking tour of the city of Dublin. It was a free tour led by an 18 year old who was incredibly knowledgeable about the history and culture of Ireland, and most importantly VERY funny! I (Mollie) thought it was going to be a quick one hour overview tour of the city but it actually turned into 4 hour, very in depth tour of the city. We all really enjoyed it! We saw City Hall, Dublin Castle, learned about Red Hugh and his escape from the Castle, This paragraph about the tour would be 10 pages long if I told you everything we learned...but unfotunately I'm too lazy to type it all and lets face it, you probably wouldn't read it anyways. :)
We then decided to go back and tour some of the sights that we saw on our own. We went back to the Dublin Castle and saw the chapel inside. We also toured the Chester Beatty museum which seemed to have many of it's attractions closed, but since it was free we weren't too disapointed. We then went and saw St. Patricks Cathedral. There was a beautiful park outside. We then went inside and saw all the different artifacts that it had to offer. It was huge!! Jonathon Swift, was a man who wrote a book about selling Irish babies to the English for food in order to solve all the economic problems of Ireland. The book was a satire and represented a lot of political ideas that to be honest, I really don't completely understand. But so basically that means he was not serious--so don't get any ideas. Anyways, he was buried in the cathedral so we saw that burial plot.
On the way home we decided that we would be a bit economical ourselves and purchase dinner and bring it back to the hostel to cook it. So we had the gourmet meal of frozen pizza & Dorito's. Yes...we are experiencing lots of culture :). But we did have some Irish stew for lunch which was very delicious.
After dinner we retreated back to our lovely little hostel room in order to get a quick nap. We were then going to hit up a pub crawl which started at 7:30. However, we were a bit more tired than we realized and ended up deciding to post pone the crawl to the next night and instead went The Purty Kitchen for a drink or two. We then went and walked around the Temple Bar area. Tomorrow we decided that we will do a musical pub crawl...educational and fuN!
So far we are all having a great time. We haven't gotten too lost and I guess I (Mollie) am pretty impressed with ourselves so far. However I am a little worried about Amanda's tendency to not look both ways before she crosses the street. Good thing mom's not here b/c she probably would have already had about 5 heart attacks-I know that I have. Don't worry mom--I'm looking out for her :). You would think something so basic that you have been taught since you were 5 years old would be easy to remember, however I guess when you are in a new country everything flies out the door.
We have also met some very interesting people! Definitely one of the perks of traveling in a small group! Hope everyone is doing well in the states!
---Mollie
We then decided to go back and tour some of the sights that we saw on our own. We went back to the Dublin Castle and saw the chapel inside. We also toured the Chester Beatty museum which seemed to have many of it's attractions closed, but since it was free we weren't too disapointed. We then went and saw St. Patricks Cathedral. There was a beautiful park outside. We then went inside and saw all the different artifacts that it had to offer. It was huge!! Jonathon Swift, was a man who wrote a book about selling Irish babies to the English for food in order to solve all the economic problems of Ireland. The book was a satire and represented a lot of political ideas that to be honest, I really don't completely understand. But so basically that means he was not serious--so don't get any ideas. Anyways, he was buried in the cathedral so we saw that burial plot.
On the way home we decided that we would be a bit economical ourselves and purchase dinner and bring it back to the hostel to cook it. So we had the gourmet meal of frozen pizza & Dorito's. Yes...we are experiencing lots of culture :). But we did have some Irish stew for lunch which was very delicious.
After dinner we retreated back to our lovely little hostel room in order to get a quick nap. We were then going to hit up a pub crawl which started at 7:30. However, we were a bit more tired than we realized and ended up deciding to post pone the crawl to the next night and instead went The Purty Kitchen for a drink or two. We then went and walked around the Temple Bar area. Tomorrow we decided that we will do a musical pub crawl...educational and fuN!
So far we are all having a great time. We haven't gotten too lost and I guess I (Mollie) am pretty impressed with ourselves so far. However I am a little worried about Amanda's tendency to not look both ways before she crosses the street. Good thing mom's not here b/c she probably would have already had about 5 heart attacks-I know that I have. Don't worry mom--I'm looking out for her :). You would think something so basic that you have been taught since you were 5 years old would be easy to remember, however I guess when you are in a new country everything flies out the door.
We have also met some very interesting people! Definitely one of the perks of traveling in a small group! Hope everyone is doing well in the states!
---Mollie
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Dublin!!! Day One.
Well after about 20 hours of being in an airport or airplane, we are all now safe and sound in Dublin. We have strolled the streets and had some sandwiches to kill time until we were allowed to check in. We might as well be in a non-english speaking country, Everyone can understand us, but we struggle to understand them. We plan on spending the rest of the day recovering from our travels and plan to begin the tourist stuff tomorrow. On another note, I feel Joey would feel very much at home here with the high Ginger population...it may be at about 2%!!! That is all for now.
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