Malaga

Hi all,
After a five hour bus ride yesterday, we are now in Malaga! The bus ride wasn't so bad. We drove all along the coast so there was constantly beautiful scenery. It would have been a little better if the ladies in front of us didn't pull their seats all the way back at the beginning of the trip. Can't complain though, we made it here in good time. The city is beautiful. There are the most luscious palm trees I have ever seen and there are plenty of them. This is the greenest city we've been in, and we decided to spend an extra night here.

There have been huge castles in all the Spanish cities we've been in and our usual plan is to tour the castle in the morning, then hit the beach in the afternoon. This morning the castle was quite a hike. I thought I was going to pass out in the heat but we made it up and rewarded ourselves with some cold bottles of water. The view is always worth it.

After that we headed straight to the beach. We rented some lounge chairs under an umbrella and stayed there a good part of the afternoon. Now we are back at the hostel for some siesta time. Tomorrow is our last day here before leaving the coast and heading north. We are stopping in Toledo before heading to Barcelona. Tonight we're going out for tapas, my new favorite thing. A lot of places will include free beer with Tapas so our bill has been something like 10 euros for the two of us. The only problem is ordering. We can usually decipher one or two words, but it doesn't seem to matter. Dave and I like pretty much everything and the food is always delicious. Anyway, I think I will read 2 pages of my book then fall asleep. Dave is already there and I am jealous. First though, here are some pictures of our time in Spain!

Almeria

I'm sitting on my bed of the Hotel La Perla, deep in the heart of Almeria. Sarah has crashed early. Her notorious bug bites are acting up again and dealing with them is tiring business. There are Spaniards screaming at each other outside our window, but I cant tell if they're arguing or if they're just drunk. Maybe it's both.

I'll admit, I've been into the wine myself, so my love for Spain may be biased. It may be even more biased when I consider that each bottle cost me less than 2 euros. They pretty much give wine away here, which is dangerous for those of us who are used to paying a full hour's work for one decent bottle. How are we supposed to take responsibility for ourselves when such options for irresponsibility are so readily available? Life here is so great that it's not fair for those of us who aren't used to it. The whole thing is just plain dangerous.

But honestly, we've behaved considering our options. In one month, I've only dealt with one hangover. We're generally daytime troopers, using up most of our energy seeing as many sights as possible. By the time evening hits, we're usually too tired to get ourselves into trouble.

We have a tv in our room here, which is always nice. It's tiny, as all European televisions seem to be, but that's ok. I was expecting no frills down here, yet their cable is surprisingly digital. There's no Wifi in the rooms, but lobby Wifi is available, and that's fine with me. Especially when you consider this is our cheapest night yet, and we're not in a crowded hostel bunk room listening to a symphony of snoring. Nope, this is a real hotel, and it comes at the same price as two Big Mac meals back home.

The bus ride here was very cool. Our route weaved in and out of mountainous regions, and we passed by the ruins of many abandoned stone lodgings. Rural areas here are so different from anything we've seen so far on this journey. Instead of perfectly quaint little picturesque towns, we're seeing houses with no electricity and their roofs caved in. It's quite a contrast to what we're used to.

Tomorrow, we'll explore the town a bit with a little beach time once things close for siesta. I'm looking forward to chance to improve on my previously-mentioned farmer's tan, but 'bronzing' may be out of my reach. We'll see.

Southern Spain

Here we are down south! We like it here. It's warm and sunny and the people speak a language we can almost decipher. The funny thing here is that I actually look like a local, until I open my mouth and nothing comes out. That's okay. We are able to figure out the essentials from decoding words and with the limited phrases we know like 'where is the bus station?' and 'two beers please'.

Anyway, we love it. Spain is beautiful, warm and cheap. We are staying in a hotel which I would even call nice by Canadian standards, for 30 euros a night. That's the same price as a 20 bed dorm in Amsterdam with a shared, tiny bathroom.

We flew into Alicante a few days ago and today we took a bus south to Almeria where we will stay two nights. After that we're not sure. We will head south until we get tired of beaches, then a few more stops in Spain before moving onto Italy and Greece! (providing we can get in and then out of Athens). Anyway, that's all for now, time for siesta.

Love Sarah

The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.

Everytime I (Dave) find myself in a new country, I say to myself "Wow, this place has got to be my favourite country I've visited so far." Well it's happened again.

To get back on a route that makes sense, and to see most of what we want to see, we had to catch a plane to Spain. Gregg found us a cheap flight from Zurich to Alicante, and we pounced on it.

We hadn't really planned on making it this far South in Spain, but I'm glad it happened. A few days ago we were stomping around the snowy Alps, and today we went swimming in the Mediterranean.

There's not much English, but we can usually decipher signs and the people we've met have all been patient. This morning we remembered the Spanish word for 'breakfast' (desayuno, I think) and ended up drinking the best orange juice we'd ever had. No problem.

This place is the most affordable place we've hit. Tonight we'll be sitting on the rooftop terrace of our hostel for a few hours, sipping on unlimited Sangria for the price of three euros each. Then the hostel owner will bring whoever wants to come (which will most definitely include us) to a local bar that will serve us unlimited sangria and beer until the night is over. For five bucks.

We'd love to stay here forever, but there's a storm a brewin'. It only rains here something like 15 times a year, but three of those days will be this week. Our plan is to retreat along the coast. We're hopping a bus tomorrow morning, and hope to land in Almeria sometime in the afternoon. It's another beach town, so I look forward to frightening more Spaniards with my god-awful farmer's tan.

I should mention, the photo displayed was taken on top of the giant fortress that looks over Alicante, known as Castillo de Santa Barbera. Beside Sarah, in the distance, you can spot the local bull fighting stadium.

I missed siesta today, so time for a late one. Until next time!

Switzerland

Hi friends,

It is our last day in Switzerland today, and the end of our extra long, mid way break. Tomorrow we fly to the south of Spain for some warm weather and beach going. Quite the contrast to our mountain tops and hovering 0 temperatures. We have a lot of travelling to do in the next month, and probably won't spend more than 2 or 3 days in any location, we will have lots to post about. Also we will be looking into a new camera in Spain so there will be plenty more pictures. Until then, here are some crazy pictures of our lives in Switzerland. 

This was our first day where we actually left the house. We took a train into Grindelwald, then a Gondola up First mountain.

Once up the mountain the view was gorgeous. We took a zip-line down part way, then had a beer in short sleeves in the sun.

  On the way back we stopped in Bern, which is the capital of Switzerland. We didn't spend much time there, but took a walk through the old town.

The following day we took a gondola up another mountain and had lunch at this little cafe overlooking the mountains and water. The weather was a bit hazy so the mountains look more mysterious.

Yesterday we took another day trip into Weesen, before heading into Elm for lunch. The scenery was beautiful and weather was actually pretty warm.

Then we took another gondola half way up a different mountain, then hopped on a chair lift to go to the peak. Then back down half way for lunch.

This time we rode these fantastic mountain trikes down just as the sun was starting to set. An amazing trip down through the mountain.

Anyway, that's Switzerland. On to Spain tomorrow where we will have some pictures of us in shorts an t-shirts! (Hopefully) Until then!

Love Sarah

Swiss Alps

Hi everyone.

This blog will probably be a little short as it is late at night here in Switzerland and I may have to pee. Our lives have drastically changed since our last blog post. Instead of burning a hole in our sweatpants, we are climbing mountains! Real, actual mountains. Barbie and Gregg had bought us an all day train pass for today, and we were able to tour around the country a bit, which, by comparison, is about the size of New Brunswick with about half the fun things to do. I kid. I wasn't sure what we were going to do today, as I was mostly, if not all asleep when the planning was happening last night. I literally had no idea where we were going when I got on the train, but choose to keep it like that.

We had taken a beautiful train ride through the mountains to arrive at this fantastic little village that looked like a post card. (In fact it was a post card, and I bought 3) We then took a gondola for about half an hour before we could even say we were close to the top of this particular mountain. After a few glasses of wine last night, Dave had agreed to ziplining down this mountain, despite his increasing fear of heights. Although he tried to put it off when we were up there, we were determined (also we had pre-bought our tickets). It was about an 800 meter drop, however it looked much steeper when staring down a mountain that was 7100 feet above sea level. It was a great experience and Dave managed to only slightly wet his pants. At the bottom of the zip-line there is a rewarding bar where we enjoyed a couple of beers. After sitting down we quickly realized how warm we were. We could actually still see our breath but the sun's rays were so warm they we ended up stripping down to our last layers. I wore a tank top that had not seen the light of day since our 30 degree weather in Germany. After heading down the rest of the mountain it was winter again, and we were forced to put back on our borrowed winter coats from Barbie and Gregg.

Anyway, so far Switzerland has been (obviously) awesome and tomorrow we are being taken into Zurich, which is the closest town to where we are staying, at about 20 minutes by train. We will have more to update I'm sure and will keep you all posted.

Love Sarah

Pictures and Things

Hi all,

It is our last day in Angers and we will be sad to leave. The non-stop sweatpants and TV watching have been a welcome taste of home, and a relaxing break from the hustle and bustle we are normally used to. We have also eaten like kings. It has been so nice to have an actual kitchen and I realized how much I actually miss cooking and doing dishes. At the same time we are excited to move on to Switzerland, however not so excited about the 12 hour train ride it will take to get there. Anyway, I had meant to post fantastic pictures of our trip so far, but with our camera situation, or lack there of, I will post a variety of pictures taken from Dave's iPhone and Bryan's camera. Enjoy.

These are our Canadian/Australian friends we met in Berlin. Somehow we ended up at this fantastic, mostly outdoor bar when the plan was to head to a Berlin famous club. We were pretty happy with the decision. 

This is Amsterdam, where the streets are lined with rivers and bicycles. These pictures are actually taken in the Red Light District, where off in the distance there are live sex shows and windowed ladies.

  This is Paris. Our hostel was a short walk from the Eiffel tower and we spent a fair amount of time there. The first picture is of the Louvre, and the second is at Gare de Lyon, just before meeting Dave's uncle Gregg for dinner.

 These are some of the hives I got during the trip. It may be hard to see but I have about 30 little dots on my arms alone. The itching has finally subsided and the dots are disappearing. 

This is Angers. We had a picnic of bread wine and cheese in the park the second day we were here. Somehow the baguette has made it into all of these pictures, but that is not all that surprising considering most of what we have eaten has been bread and cheese on this French adventure. 

This was our Thanksgiving meal, a week late but who cares? Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, yams and vegetables. And who can tell if a pie is from the bakery if it still comes out of the oven?

That's the best we can do for now. I still have this ridiculous secret hope that our camera will be found, but we will get a new one soon. Until then you will have to go on your imaginations my friends. I will write another post upon the entry into Switzerland, when I have more to write about than baguettes and sweatpants. (We love you Taryn and Bryan! Most fantastic hosts ever)

Much love,

Sarah

Angers

Angers our haven. Angers, we can sleep here. We use a kitchen. We have a full bathroom. We have English-speaking Taryn and Bryan. We have a computer filled with American tv. And we have an endless supply of red wine. Angers.

This stop has been much different than our others. The city is small, so our usual morning-till-night touring was all accomplished in about two hours yesterday. Our theme for the past several days has been 'rest' instead of 'lets go'. And it's been gravy.

In fact, it's shortly after 4 and I just woke up from a nap, which has become a daily ritual for me here. Sarah is still sleeping.

I'll admit that we were feeling the burn of constant travel by the time we got to Paris. Sleepless nights in crowded hostels had started to add up. But now we're in Angers, an intermission to our European travels.

Life is good here. We've been eating well, and drinking better. Last night we made a Thanksgiving feast, one week late but who cares. We eat cheese meals too, and baguettes a plenty. But tonight we're going to pretend we're home. Burgers.

-Dave

Last night in Paris

So apparently none of you slackers speak Czech, so I've switched the language of the blog links and whatnot to English.

It's 1:20 am here on our last night in Paris. We spent the evening with my uncle Gregg, and made up for some Parisian life that we missed while spending time trying to find our camera.

We met up at one of the six or so large train stations, then wandered down to the water where our restaurant was floating. We ate in a boat, and the food was marvelous. It was nice to eat something that wasn't a sandwich or a slice of pizza. Don't get me wrong, I will always love you sandwiches and slices of pizza, but there are other foods out there and they can be delicious. And better-looking.

Then the three of us (my aunt Barbie couldn't make it) opted to hoof around a bit of Paris we hadn't seen. We winded through the Latin quarter and ate ice cream cones where they shape the ice cream like roses. We eventually ended up in front of Notre Dame, where we ended our night and hopped in a cab.

We are back in our hostel now. Since we left for dinner, our two 20-year old female room mates have since made themselves comfortable here. Their luggage bags seem to have exploded, and there is girl paraphernalia in every inch of this room. I expect to wake up to drunken giggles sometime around 4, so maybe I'll get some sleep before that happens.

Angers with Taryn and Bryan awaits us tomorrow. Oh, the sweet glory of familiar faces!

-Dave

Life in Paris

I have been neglecting writing in this blog because I didn't want to admit the devastating news that happened yesterday. It appears as though our camera was stolen. I don't really know how this happened, but it seems to be the case. I don't even care about the camera itself, at this point I am just dying for that memory card. Tomorrow we visit Taryn and Bryan in Angers and the plan was to upload all of our pictures onto a memory stick, but it seems like we are a day shy of that. We are debating buying a new camera, or sticking to the one on Dave's phone. Either way, yesterday we took a hard hit. We've left our contact numbers and emails with the hostel, police and the areas 'objects trouvé' but as of now it doesn't look good.

Anyway, enough about that. Dave and I have found a new hostel. This one doesn't have a ridiculous, 5 hour lock out period and the staff is much nicer. They even had a Canadian shout out by playing some Alanis Morissette when we walked in. It's also nice to be in a different area of the city. Our last hostel was about a 15 minute walk from the Eiffel tower which was great. I'm not even sure where we are this time. Dave just told me what subway to get on. We haven't done a whole lot today. We checked out of our old hostel and went on another camera search before heading this way to this new, much better hostel. I think the plan is to go to Versailles and then later we are meeting Dave's uncle Gregg for supper and drinks. Yesterday we checked out Champs Élysées but it was freezing cold so we didn't stay long. The weather was been pretty cold and windy since leaving Germany. I used to head out in shorts and a tank top everyday, but now I am wearing jeans and a jacket. Lame.

Tomorrow we get to go visit Taryn and Bryan! We are very excited about that. It will be so nice to not have 10 other people in and out of our room all the time, turning on lights and watching TV in the middle of the night. We have gotten some good use out of our ear-plugs but sometimes it's just not enough. Alright. Time to shower and get on with this day.

Love Sarah

Vive la France!

Smoking hasn't looked 'cool' to me for over a decade. But damn these Europeans make it look good! Should I start? Nah. I'd probably just look Canadian doing it anyway.

-Dave

La Paris!

Dave and I have finally arrived in France! It only took 7 hours, 4 trains, 2 subways, a 10 minute walk in the wrong direction, then a 20 minute walk in the right direction. Our train arrived in the northern end of the city, and our hostel is in the southern end. We weren't able to see much of the city from the underground subway we had to take, but as soon as we got above ground, the first thing I saw was the Eiffel Tower on my right. It was a welcomed breath of fresh air after a day of traveling, and almost an hour of breathing underground subway air.

Our hostel is strange. The staff is unfriendly and there is a 'lockout' period for 5 hours during the day. Nobody seems to know why. However it forces Dave and I out on the town instead of reading on our bunks. Today we visited the Louvre. Or at least part of it. After a couple of hours we were so tired and hungry we had to split. There are some crazy things in that building. I saw with my own two eyes some things that were over 5000 years old. A little crowded in there though. There were about a billion people there to see the Mona Lisa. It's a great painting and all, but the massive, incredibly detailed painting on the opposing wall saw no love. Except for Dave and I. We tended to stick to the exhibits with less people around them, taking only a glimpse at things like the Mona Lisa. Tonight we have a supper date planned under the Eiffel tower. Ah la vie.

Anyway, Dave is itching for his phone back so we can book a new hostel and there is a full beer in front of me I have yet to drink. More later my friends.

Love Sarah

Rain in Belgium

It's our first full day in Belgium and it is a rainy one. Our original plan was to stay in Bruges and didn't decide to stay in Brussels until we got here. We booked a room at the Manhatten Hotel and it's my favourite place we've stayed so far. Not only do we have a private room after a 3 night stay in 20 bed dorm, but it has a baclony, bathtub and television! We have only ever had a TV in one place we stayed. It was our first night in Cologne and there was one English, news channel. This time there are four glorious English channels, all BBC and two of them are still news but it's been fantastic to lay in bed watching TV while it's raining. The first two weeks of our trip was nothing but sun. All of Europe experienced temperatures 12-15 degrees above average and the sky was blue and sunny every day. Then a couple days ago it started to get cloudy and rainy, which mixed with the lack of sleep I got in Amsterdam, has me feeling a little sick. Mainly just a headache with a bit of a stuffy nose, but still a nice excuse to relax in a hotel room while it's raining.

Hopefully it does stop raining this afternoon. We are only here two nights before heading to Paris so I'd like to get out and explore. People speak French here, which has been a fantastic change of pace for Dave and I. The language still sounds a bit foreign, but we can at least understand when people are speaking to us. The food here smells amazing. Europe in general smells delicious, and most of our money has gone to food. I keep eating then waiting to be hungry so I can eat again. I still haven't had a Belgium waffle though. The breakfast this morning was a little disappointing. It seems like whenever we've had included breakfast at a hotel, it's mainly a variaty of meat and cheese with buns and bread. This morning for breakfast, I had a salami sandwich and it was 8am. Far from the delicious waffels I expected.

This entry has taken me far too long to write. French keyboards are even more confusing than German ones. I am suddenly taken back to the third grade when I first started having to write papers on the computer. I am constantly staring at the keyboard and excessivly using the backspace button. I think I have to go find some waffles after all this waffle talk. My salmami sandwhich has worn off and it's time to eat again.

Goodbye all!

Love Sarah

20-bed dorm in Amsterdam

Here is where we try to sleep.

Okay, I think comments have been enabled now. Let me see.

Amsterdam

Hi everyone,

After Dave's sad attempt to writing an entry in the middle of the night, I thought I would offer a proper description of our time in Amsterdam thus far. As Dave mentioned we are staying in a 20 bed dorm, by far the largest dorm we've been in but so far it's been pretty good. We arrived at the train station yesterday afternoon and despite looking up directions to our hostel in advance, still found ourselves pretty lost. Fortunately getting off the train in a new city being completely confused and disoriented is something we have both grown accustomed to. Amsterdam is beautiful. There are several canals flowing through the city making it near impossible not to be beside water. I highly suggest you google map the city if you don't already know what I'm talking about.

We found our hostel in good time and were designated a bunk. After throwing our very heavy packs down we went down the street to grab a Heineken. We are about 3 minutes to the Red Light District and it is far unlike anything we have at home. There are 'coffee shops' everywhere with 'smoking rooms' in the back and pre-rolled, massive joints for sale at the front for 5 euros a piece. There are also sex shops every 10 feet with plenty of women on display in the windows. We knew all of this going in to this city, yet still seems surreal when we're actually walking down the street. Next year they are making all marijuana sales illegal to tourists and I wonder what this will do to their economy. At the same time I feel like this beautiful city is being overlooked by the people coming here to get a good high. The women in the windows and the overabundance of sex shops is distracting when next to the beautiful waters and bridges that really make this city unique, and frankly, it's a little disgusting looking at sex shops and windowed ladies when it's in the middle of the day. Don't get me wrong though, Dave and I certainly enjoyed the night life. We purchased some legal joints and walked around the city until were lost and confused with had no idea how to get back to the hostle. Tonight we are going on a Red-Light pubcrawl which will be a great experience.  I haven't been on a pub crawl since my first year of university, but in this city, it almost seems like Frosh week all of the time.

The food here however, hasn't been great. Usually we have been surviving off of sandwich shops and pizza places, as it offers delicious foods quickly and cheaply. When it was time to grab some supper last night, we did as always and I got a sandwich and Dave got hot dog. I had high hopes for my sandwich. They had a large rotating spit of chicken (souvlaki), which is what I pointed at when ordering. Despite my pointing, he still took out some dry, cold meat from under the counter and put it in the oven to warm up. I've gotten this same sandwich many times before and it's always been fresh meet with a delicious homemade garlic sauce. The sauce last night however, was warm garlic mayo, which had me throwing it up a few hours later. Dave's wasn't go great either, even though he got his food from a different place, his hot dog had chunks of what we guessed to be bacon fat on top of it, then also some mayo substance for a sauce. This morning I woke up early and took a walk down the street to see the pizza shops had slices in the window which were clearly from the night before, sitting there without any refrigeration or heat. Needless to say, we did some grocery shopping this morning and will be very careful of what we eat for the next few days.

Other than that though, we love Amsterdam. The scenery is the most beautiful we've seen next to Prague, and the city is a perfect size for walking, with the train station in the center always offering a point of reference. Also it's been nice to get away from the constant German. Although Dutch doesn't sound much different, there is plenty of English in Amsterdam.

If there is anything interesting happening at home please let us know! We are starting to grow a little homesick. We miss our friends and family, and we miss having a home. Every time we sit down to have a beer we think of you guys and how much better it would be if you were all here!

Much love,

Sarah

P.S. Happy birthday to Alexander Keith! We will surely miss the celebration and hope our Nova Scotian's can have Keith's for us!

It's 4am in Amsterdam. I'm lying on my top bunk in a dorm with 20 other people. Sarah and I spent the last two nights in a 6-bed dorm, but we were all alone. Oh how life was grand. With 20 people, there is always somebody snoring, somebody shuffling through a noisy bag, somebody coughing. Someone near me blew their nose while I was typing that sentence. Adding to this nighttime entertainment is the motorcycle traffic out our open window or occasional blarings of window-rolled-down techno music. Okay, I should stop complaining. The city is fun. Our location is awesome. We are a two-minute walk from the red-light district, which is a lot less seedy than I'd expected. Single male tourists are all so happy here. Well I guess I should put away my iPhone, put in my earplugs and try and get more sleep so that I'm not a mess in the morning. -Dave

Bye bye Germany

Hello all,

Today is our last day in Germany and while I will miss the never ending supply of beer and sausage I will be glad to move on and see something new. We have been in Europe for nearly 2 weeks and with the exception of 4 days in Prague, we have spent the entire time in Germany. Tomorrow we move on to the Netherlands, then Belgium after that. Cologne was probably my favorite city we visited in Germany. There was lots to see and do, but we could actually walk from one side of the city to the other in about 45 minutes. I know this because this is what we did this morning. Although nothing was open today as it's German Unity Day. There was lots of drinking and partying yesterday that lasted until early this morning, however today seems to be rather dead. None of the shops are open and the streets were empty until late this afternoon.

In other news, Dave and I have both developed what seems to be a form of hives. Mine started in Berlin and were mostly on my arms, while Dave's started in Cologne and were mostly on his legs. Very strange, however after a short game of charades with a German pharmacist, I was able to obtain some form cream which worked well for me, and is now being used on Dave. I have been terrified of getting bed bugs but I looks like we got something different. Very thankful about that.

Other than that I guess I have not much else to say. Will keep you updated as we enter Amsterdam tomorrow!

Much love,

Sarah