Agia Marina-Chania-Piraeus Day 8

June 21,2010

Day 8 Agia Marina-Chania-Piraeus

Another earlyish day for me today.  Again I got up and got ready for the beach and then woke Trevor up.  This time we watched the butterflies on our balcony for a while before heading down to breakfast.  Breakfast was just as yummy as the day before.  I couldn't eat quite as much, having eaten way too much the night before.  After eating, we headed back to the room, observed some more butterflies, then headed down to the shore.  Again I managed to grabbed front row seating.  The day was looking really nice, and no clouds in the sky this time.  I decided to hang out on the beach until just before check out time at noon, and then met up with Trevor in our room where we grabbed our stuff and went down to check out.  I headed right back to the beach after we checked out.  Someone had taken our seats by that time, but that wasn't too much of an issue.  I just sat one row back.  Most of my day was spent reading again.  For lunch, we ate the chocolate cake!  It was awesome.  It wasn't too long before we had to go get ready for our bus back to Souda to catch our ferry.  We were able to use the spa showers, since we had already checked out.  I ended up having an issue because I had brought my bag into the shower with me and while in the shower, the lights were turned off and when I tried to leave the shower the other door to the girls change area was open and there was a man there.  Thankfully he moved and so I went to close that door, which turned the lights on again.  I found out my bag was soaked because water had leaked out of the shower.  When I tried to move my bag, it fell and my cosmetics bag spilled all over the floor.  It was a bit of a nightmare, but I finally made it out alive and clean.  We headed down the street to catch the bus that went back to Chania.  It came after a little while and it was packed.  Trevor and I ended up having to sit in different spots on the bus.  I sat by some creepy guy who kept looking at me and talking to himself.  Thankfully the ride wasn't too long.  Once in Chania, we thought we would buy some food for the ferry back, but the stores didn't seem to have anything really good to eat, so we caught the bus back to Souda.  Our ferry was already there.  We went in, again, via the fancy escalator.  This time we got cabins.  Because we didn't want to spend too much money, we ended up getting the gender separate cabins.  When I went into mine, I was the only one there.  In Trevor's there was a man there already.  Our cabins had 2 bunk beds and an ensuite bathroom (with shower!).  So cool!  We decided to wander around a little and to check out our food options, because we were starting to get hungry.  We got to see a bit of the sunset, but because my dress kept flipping up, I opted for the indoor option.  At 21:00 the ferry started moving and their restaurant opened and that's where we had dinner.  I had a traditional Cretan pasta with cream and nutmeg and Trevor had some other pasta.  It was good and filling.  After eating, we decided to separate and head to our cabins, because the ferry would dock at 05:00, so we wanted to get some sleep.  At my cabin, the family that was sharing with me was there finally.  I was in a room with a Grandmother, mother and son (I assume under the age of 12 which is why he was in the girls cabin).  I got into my top bunk bed and got ready to go to sleep when all of a sudden I heard this awful noise.  It wasn't too long before I found out that the Grandmother in the bunk below mine was vomiting.  Her family didn't seem as concerned as I was, so I tried to relax.  Unfortunately, this went on for some time and they even called a doctor to check up on the lady.  Thankfully after a little while, I was able to drift off to sleep.  

 

Agia Marina Day 7

June 20, 2010 

Day 7 Agia Marina 

My birthday!  I can't believe that a quarter century has passed!  It's unbelievable!  How does time go by so quickly as you get older?  I can't even imagine it feeling like it's going by any faster, and from the sounds of it, it does!  Wow.  Anyways, our morning started off wonderfully.  I woke up with no trouble, put on the sunscreen, got dressed and woke up Trevor.  We headed down to the breakfast that was included with the room.  Amazing.  I love buffet breakfasts.  It allows you to try so many things and they all seem to taste so good.  After eating way too much food, we headed straight for the beach.  I wanted to claim a front row seat!  There wasn't any trouble there, seeing that the beach was pretty empty.  Our hotel didn't have a ton of beach space, but it was definitely plenty.  Unfortunately, you had to pay for your seat, so Trevor spent most of the time not in his seat.  In actual fact, the lady only came by once to get money and then never bothered to come back, so I paid for my seat, but later when Trevor came back, he could sit in the seat next to me without paying.  The weather was strange this day.  It started out really sunny, but then it got windy and cloudy and for a while looked like it was going to rain.  Thankfully, Trevor used his quantum mechanics and pushed all the clouds away and by the end of the day it was beautiful again.  I spent all day listening to the waves, reading my book and just enjoying the view.  It was so wonderful.  There were people walking by offering massages, but they were a little pricey, so I decided I wouldn't get one.  At the end of the day, I went into the pool for a while, then headed to our room to change.  On our bed I found a lovely bottle of Cretan red wine and a card from the hotel wishing me a happy birthday.  We got ready to go, and headed down to the buffet supper (not included in our stay).  It was as yummy as breakfast.  I can't believe how much food I ate.  Once stuffed to the brim, we headed back to our room.  I noticed that I had forgotten to hang my clothes, so I stepped out on the balcony to hang them and when I returned, there was Trevor with a cake and candles in his hand!  It looked incredibly tasty.  Unfortunately, after eating the amount of food at dinner that I had, I had no more room for cake.  Luckily we had a fridge in our room, so we stored it there for the next day.  After, I was presented with my present.  So exciting…we're going to Croatia!!!  Not only did I get to spend my birthday on the beach, but my birthday present is a week on a beach!  So awesome!  After all that food and all the excitement (and all the sun), it was time for bed.  Another beach day to get ready for!

 

Pireaus-Chania-Agia Marina Day 6

June 19, 2010                                                                             

Day 6 Piraeus-Chania-Agia Marina 

We had planned to wake up early this morning (sort of, around 09:00), but it didn't quite work out that way.  We got ready then headed to a super market to get some snacks for the ferry.  After buying way too much food, we walked to our ferry.  We had planned to be an hour early for the ferry, but ended up being only about half an hour early.  We walked up to it and were put on a very fancy escalator with chandelier and bell boys.  They directed us to our unassigned seats (we had purchased the super economy seats which really meant that we were in a lounge area with metal lawn chairs and plastic couches along the edges.  At first it seemed super hot, but once the ferry got moving, it was actually quite comfortable.  For most of the ride, we both read.  The ferry was pretty big and the views along the way were so pretty.  The sea was so blue at one point and you could see the sun rays in the water.  I was getting super excited for my birthday beach day!  After the six hour ferry ride, we were there!  We had to do a little investigating to figure out how to get to our resort, but after asking a few questions, we were told to catch the bus to Chania and from there a bus to our resort.  I had thought we would be docking in Chania, but it turns out we docked at Souda, a little ways from Chania.  We grabbed the bus into town and after dealing with the grumpy bus driver, we walked to the bus station and caught our bus to get us to Agia Marina.  This bus was like a coach bus, so it was really comfy.  Once we got off the bus we had to walk a little ways, but finally we were there!  Thalassa Resort.  It was so exciting.  The resort was so pretty!  It looked like the fancy resorts in Mexico.  Our room was really nice too with a balcony and two rooms!  It was amazing!  It was getting late, so we decided to first check out the super markets right across the street to see if there was anything cheap to buy.  When we didn't find anything interesting, we headed to a pizza place and grabbed a pizza to take back to the room.  They offered us a shot while we waited too!  Back in our room, we ate our dinner on the balcony.  After that we headed to bed.  I was super excited about the next day!

 

Thessaloniki-Athens-Piraeus Day 5

June 18, 2010

Day 5 Thessaloniki-Athens-Piraeus

The border crossing at 02:00 was not exactly a pleasant wake up call.  Like last time, we got marched out of our bus and made to stand in a line up.  We probably stood there for 30 minutes waiting for everyone to get stamped.  This part was just the exit stamp.  A few people were having issues.  The guards singled people out and even held onto one girl's passport for a while.  They were eventually okay.  After using the bathroom in duty free, we got back on the bus to drive about 150 m to the Greece side and were marched out of the bus again.  This time it was so that we could get our entry stamp for the EU.  At this stop we started talking to a girl from the States who had been traveling for a while.  It made the time go by much faster, which was nice.  It was a bit cool out, but pretty soon (probably another 30 minutes) we were back on the bus and heading to Thessaloniki.  We got a few more hours of sleep before being awaken at our final destination.  Here, we ended up sticking with the American girl for a while since we were all heading to the train station anyways.  We bought tickets to get back to Athens and then chatted for a while.  She described our method of traveling as "traveling as a sport".  I found that really interesting.  While chatting, we found out she works for Couch Surfing, which was really cool.  We parted ways after a while and Trevor and I decided to head to Goody's to use some free internet before our train came.  We ate some food, used the internet and then caught our train.  This time the train was awful.  It was crowded and uncomfortable.  I don't think the people sitting across from us actually had tickets, because every once in a while someone would come by, mention that it was their seat and then would say nevermind.  The fact that we had people sitting across from us made the whole experience more uncomfortable.  But we survived and made it into Athens around 18:15.  At this point we needed to figure out how to get to Piraeus, the main port of Athens, where we would be catching the ferry the next day.  After finding out that there was a 24 hour metro strike, the route we had planned to take, I managed to find out that you could take the train over there.  So we waited for the train.  It almost seemed like it wasn't going to come, and when I asked the guard standing on the platform, in his broken English, he tried to tell me that that's how it is in Greece.  It wasn't too much longer when the train finally made its way into the train station, thankfully.  Piraeus was a couple of stops away and once there, we went on a hunt for our hotel.  Along the way I bought some delicious looking cherries from a street vendor.  We found our hotel after a few twists and turns.  It was a much nicer hotel than we usually stay at (although the price made it a lot less nice) at least in the lobby.  Once settled into our room we headed to the Anek Lines office to pick up our tickets.  Along the way we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back to the room where we got ready for the next day.

Istanbul-Greece Day 4

June 17, 2010

Day 4 Istanbul-Greece/Turkey border

We got up pretty late this day.  We were obviously tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the long day of walking in the heat.  I woke up noticing a few mosquito bites on me (that would turn into a lot of bites by the end of the day).  I wasn't very happy about that, but nothing I could do about it at that point.  We headed out of the hostel sometime around 11:00 and walked back across the bridge, buying some fruit and a street vendor bun along the way for breakfast.  Almost at the point where we were going to start our touring for the day, I realized I had left my SD card back at the hostel.  Trevor, being the wonderful husband that he is, rode back to the hostel while I waited for him at the gardens near the palace.  When he finally came back we walked over to the palace, but decided not to go in.  We took some pictures and walked around.  We noticed a crow-like bird attacking some cats.  The cats were eating and as we watched, the bird nipped one of the cats in the tail!  He attempted to do it again a couple more times and even stole some of the food.  It was pretty funny.  We walked out of the palace grounds and headed in the direction of the Hagia Sofia.  As we walked we saw a watermelon vendor and the watermelon looked so tasty so I figured why not buy some.  He was being outrageous, charging 4 euro for a little tray of watermelon and I noticed that for one of the women he let her buy it for 2 euro.  I figured I would pay 2 euro, but he wasn't budging for me.  So I sent Trevor in to see if he would drop the price for him.  He wouldn't and then noticed me standing off to the side, he gave me a thumbs up.  I don't know if that was his way of telling me, "nice try working the system".  I didn't like that.  We went in search of another watermelon guy.  While Trevor went off to get some watermelon, I went to mail some postcards.  Trevor came back with the watermelon, that was very tasty and refreshing, and as we were sitting there, we got approached by two guys who were practicing their English.  They asked us a few questions, took notes and then went off.  We decided to check out the mausoleums that were free of charge.  They were really interesting and in one there was a shroud that had covered prophet Mohamed's sarcophagus!  After that we made our way toward the sea.  We just started heading in that direction hoping that we wouldn't get too lost along the way.  At one point we knew we were close, but there were train tracks blocking us.  Thankfully, not much further, we found an underpass.  We then crossed a highway and ended up right near the sea.  There were a bunch of men swimming or hanging out on the rocks, because there wasn't a beach.  We sat down on one of the benches and hung out for a while.  We watched as a cop van came close to us (driving on the side walk) and asked a guy selling tea and cold drinks out of a bucket, for something to drink.  Then one of the cops decided to get a henna tattoo and got a nearby henna guy to go in the back of the police van to do the tattoo.  After that entertainment, Trevor figured we should get some seafood food and we walked along a strip where there were restaurants.  We ended up picking one and ordered some calamari.  As we waited for our snack, Trevor noticed something in the water (we were sitting right along the water's edge).  It took us a while, but figured out that it was dolphins!  There were two and they would surface every once in a while.  They did that for about five minutes until some local boys decided to swim out to them.  After that they were nowhere to be seen.  The calamari was really good and I'm glad that we decided to try some.  It was then time to head back to the hostel because we would have to catch the bus in a few hours and we were quite a ways away.  We started making our way up a hill and passed an area of empty touristy restaurants.  Here I found a cat interested in coming up to me.  He was super cute.  Continuing our way up we found a place where we grabbed a bite to eat.  It looked a little like a kebab place.  We got this sandwich filled with meat.  It was all right, but not the best thing I've ever eaten.  We also grabbed some Turkish delight and a piece of baklava across the street.  All of it was pretty cheap, which was nice.  You could tell this part was a little less touristy.  As we continued up, we realized that we were getting pretty close to the Grand bazaar, and ended up going through it one more time, checking out all the crazy stores.  We went down an area that sold snaps for clothes.  The whole store was different sizes of snaps!  Crazy!  We then grabbed a seat for a little while in the shade just to take a break, but because Trevor and I sat in slightly different areas because of how the shade was, I ended up getting approached by a restaurant owner who called over a son/nephew/friend who was about my age.  I had to explain that my husband was sitting just over there and the guy asked "are you sure?" to which I replied "yes I'm sure" (no, not that clever, but clear at least).  The restaurant guy then gave us free tea.  Trevor refused, so the tea was given to a guy sitting next to us.  I drank mine and then we headed over to the pet area again and looked at the adorable (though not necessarily very healthy looking) animals.  It was then back to our hostel to grab our bags.  We took a few more pictures along the way, grabbed some food and went into the hostel to grab a shower.  After getting cleaned up and using a little internet, we headed back towards the bridge to catch the tram which would get us to the bus station (with a transfer).  At the transfer Trevor grabbed a kebab.  We got to the massive bus station just after 21:00.  After checking in and giving the bus people our bags, we walked around a bit then settled into our seats.  The kebab was disgusting!  It was tasteless!  Definitely not good.  At just after 22:00 we started our journey back to Thessaloniki.  Once again we had TVs on the backs of the seats, though I didn't bother with mine.  We were also offered tea and coffee, a snack and water and pop.  After taking in a little food, it was time to take in a little sleep before the dreaded wake up at the border crossing.

Istanbul Day 3

June 16, 2010

Day 3 Istanbul, Turkey

 We got into Istanbul around 07:00 and found out where to go to catch the metro and started heading for our hotel.  We had to do a bit of money exchange, but we didn't see any exchange places.  I was super grumpy, hot and had to use the bathroom.  Trevor was wonderful and put up with all the complaints during our ride to our hotel.  We ended up having to transfer twice, once that we knew about and the second time because I guess there was an issue that caused the train only to go to a certain point and you had to go to the other side of the platform to catch a train that continued onwards.  It was so packed.  We had to push our way in.  It was definitely rush hour!  We got to the stop that we were directed to and went on a hunt for our hostel which was tricky to find.  We found it, but even then it was hard to know for sure that it was a hostel, except that a bunch of young people were standing outside of it.  We met the spaced out hostel guy who told us that after we tour around we will have beds, though it was interesting how he designated the beds to us.  He pretty much just sort of said 'well these are going to be your beds, I think' not really knowing who was staying and who was leaving.  We had a shower and headed out to explore Istanbul.  We decided to walk over to the main area, near Hagia Sofia.  On the way we saw a man weaving a blanket using an old loom.  It was incredible to watch.  We also saw some criminals in handcuffs being put in jail (we assumed).  That was less cool, especially since we didn't even know what was going on and practically walked right next to the guards and the criminals!  Anyways, along the way we searched for an info place, but had a hard time finding it.  As we walked around and took pictures of the garden area by the Hagia Sofia, we were stopped by two girls who were practicing their English.  They asked us some questions and took our picture and went on their way to find more tourists to practice on.  We headed to the Blue Mosque.  The inside was really pretty with really nice tiling all over the walls and ceilings.  After, we headed for a park bench and I nearly fell asleep, but we got up and started heading towards the Grand Bazaar.  We managed to find the info place then and we grabbed some info on what to see and then headed to grab something to eat (I was hungry).  The food was okay.  We had kofte, which are basically oblong meatballs.  We had tried them before in Egypt.  We also had corba, a lentil soup I think.  It was then off to the Grand Bazaar.  We made it, after a lot of walking.  It was incredible!  It's a huge indoor market.  It has a ridiculous number of shops and you can easily get lost.  Each area seems to have a theme of what it's selling.  You turn one way and you see tons of shops with leather jackets.  Another aisle will have silver, another will have tourist stuff.  After wandering a little I wanted to find the spice market.  It took a lot of effort.  We ended up going by the pet area of the Grand Bazaar, first.  There were tons of baby birds (ducks, chickens, and quail I think).  The hamsters in most of the cages didn't look so good.  The kittens were cute and so were the puppies.  It was crazy how they were selling the animals.  After some time spent looking at baby animals, we were back on the hunt for the spice market and after asking for directions, we made it.  It really wasn't anything exciting, just another area in the market, but this time with spices, dry fruits, Turkish delight (which we tried and it was pretty good).  We kept wandering up and down when all of a sudden I turned and who should be standing  two metres away, but Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from LOST)!  I sort of freaked out and told Trevor to guess who it was which caught the attention of who I assume to be the body guard.  This guy was super tall and didn't look like someone you should mess with.  I panicked and ended up not going up to Daniel.  Instead and I just kept rambling to Trevor how I shouldn't bother him because he probably doesn't like crazy fans.  He seemed really happy and he was with "the body guard", his wife and some other girl (maybe "body guards" girlfriend/wife?)  So off we went on our way.  After a little while, Trevor managed to convince me to go and talk to the actor so we headed back to the place where he had been, but it was too late.  So next we headed for the ferries, because we figured we should go to Asia since Istanbul is the only bi-continental city in the world.  We hopped onto the ferry and took a 10 min ride over and spent most of our time in Asia napping on a bench, grabbing something to eat and then having a difficult time trying to figure out how to get back.  We asked a ticket lady if the ferry was going to a certain place and she said no and told us to take a bus.  What we learned soon after, is that the ferry that was leaving would take us really close to where we wanted to go, just not to the place we had asked about.  But it wasn't until I asked where that ferry was going that we found this out.  Meaning, it makes more sense just to ask where the ferry is going than to ask will it go wherever you want to go.  So silly.  We made it back to the European side by ferry and decided it was time to grab some more food.  We went back to the market and bought a pizza like thing and then went and got ourselves some tea and relaxed a bit.  Finally, we were getting tired, so we headed back to our hostel, on the way grabbing a street vendor corn on the cob.  Here we finished off our evening talking with some of the hostel people in the upstairs lounge area and heading to bed in our packed room.

Athens-Thessaloniki-Turkey Day 2

June 15, 2010

Day 2 Athens-Thessaloniki-Turkey

We woke up pretty early, around 08:00 to get some free breakfast.  Waking up was hard after coming into the hotel around 03:00 the night before.  After grabbing a simple, but good breakfast in the completely empty breakfast room, we headed to the train station to find out if we could get to Istanbul, Turkey.  After a tricky conversation and being sent back and forth between windows, we ended up buying tickets to Thessaloniki.  Trevor ran to get some food while I read, waiting for our train.  It was super hot, so it was nice not moving around.  The train arrived and we left at 10:50.  The ride was uneventful.  At first there was a guy sitting across from me, but he moved to another seat and Trevor and I ended up with four seats between the two of us.  We got in to Thessaloniki around 16:00 and went straight to the line to try and get tickets to Istanbul.  First we found out there was a problem with the train so there was no train to Istanbul, but there was hope.  There was a bus.  We headed to the next window that we had been directed to, this time found out the train was destroyed and we were given info to take the metro to a square to buy bus tickets to get to Istanbul and the lady wrote it down (using the Latin alphabet).  When we went to buy metro tickets, I asked the guy where the metro was.  He laughed and finally explained that this (the bus depot) was the "metro" and that they would have a real metro in 10 years.  He told us which bus to take to get to where we wanted and we headed over.  Being silly, I didn't bother to ask the driver to tell us when to get off and we ended up missing our stop and walking over a kilometer back.  At least the walk was along the water.  The view was nice, but the walk was HOT HOT HOT!  We finally made it to the place (with Trevor's excellent sense of direction), and after much discussion, bought the tickets to Istanbul.  We had a bit of time so we wandered a little (not too much, because we were cooking) and ended up in Goody's, a fast food joint, where we grabbed dinner and hung out.  They offered beer with their meals, so of course we ordered a beer.  We sat and chatted for a couple of hours until it was time to head over to catch our train.  We had to be at the bus at 21:30.  We got there early and hung around and finally bordered the double decker bus (so cool!) that would be taking us to Turkey.  We changed our seats at the start so that we could sit at the front of the top level (to watch out the front window), but headed back to our seats soon after because we knew they would be taken at the next stop but didn't know when that would be and I was too anxious to stay.  We were served tea on board, an unexpected pleasure.  All the seats had their own screen/TV, also nice, unfortunately ours didn't work.  No worries, I ended up finishing one of the books I brought along.  After finishing, I tried to fall asleep, but very soon we were at the border.  We were told to unload.  We got our exit stamps from the EU and headed back onto the bus.  I started to settle in when we stopped and were told to unload again.  This time, the Americans and Canadians were sent to a different area and we had to purchase a visa.  Apparently a Canadian has to pay 3 times as much for the visa!  We bought the visas and then back to line up so that we could get an entry stamp into Turkey.  Finally we got back into the bus (it was close to 02:00 at this point) and we got to fall back asleep.  It was quite warm on the bus, so the sleep was not as pleasant as it could have been.

 

Warsaw-Athens Day 1

June 14, 2010

 

Day 1 Warsaw-Athens

 

We had a bunch of time this morning to get ourselves ready to catch the flight to Athens.  We left our place around 15:00, headed to the airport and had plenty of time before our 17:25 flight to Amsterdam.  The flight was good and the snacks they provided were nice (a sandwich, half egg salad and half chicken curry).  They also offered free beer, wine or other drinks.  I haven't seen free alcohol on a plane in a while!  After landing in Amsterdam, we quickly headed to our next gate, stopping near an area where you could sit in lounge chairs and watch planes take off, and checking out the chocolate shop that sold chocolate by the chunk with signs saying "help yourself".  We quickly bordered and were off to Athens.  Again we got fed, different sandwiches this time, but still free alcohol (thank you KLM).  It was a nice flight and the views of Athens and area were awesome.  They have lit highways and you can see them go forever from the plane.  Once in Athens, we grabbed our bags (one of the first ones off the plane) and caught a bus that took us near our hotel (near being just over a kilometer walk).  We passed by a slightly sketchy area with the creatures of the night out and doing their thing and finally got to the hotel.  Our room was huge and we could see the Acropolis from our huge balcony.  We went to bed soon after because we would be up early the next morning.

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Berlin-Warsaw Day 37

May 6, 2010

 

Day 37 Berlin-Warsaw

 

The morning was pretty calm as we packed our bags and headed to the train station.  We had one last thing on the agenda before heading back to Warsaw.  The plan was to buy a piece of the Berlin wall.  It wasn't hard to find.  The pieces were everywhere, attached to postcards.  It was just something we had to do.  Then we headed to our platform.  It was insane getting on the train.  There were people pushing and getting in the way.  It was not fun.  Even once on the train we had to push our way through.  People were crowding the aisles.  Unfortunately this train was a cabin train, so it meant that there was a very narrow hall where you could get from one side of the train to the other.  People decided it was a great idea to stand in the middle even though people were trying to pass.  We finally made it to our cabin.  We ended up having a little girl sit next to us who was probably about 2 years old and she entertained us for the trip.  The ride was okay.  Pretty soon, we were back in Warsaw.  The end of an epic journey. 

 

'Til the next one…          

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Berlin Day 36

May 5, 2010

 

Day 36 Berlin

 

Claudia ended up getting us a private tour of the Reichstag, the German government building, because one of her friends works for one of the MP's!  We headed over to meet her, went through security and met up with her friend.  He spoke English, thankfully, and took us on a tour of the government buildings.  They were really cool.  There was a ton of art in the buildings and I think we ended up going into three buildings because they are all connected underground and with pedways.  The stuff looked really cool and one of the coolest, and more mysterious, pieces of art was an area that had a brown box for each MP that ever served in the German parliament with their name, the years they were MP and the party they represented.  One of the boxes was black with no name or year or party and our tour guide said that you can interpret it as either Adolph Hitler's box or as all the government people at the time of WWII since there was no government per se (at least no MPs).  Very crazy.  There was also a piece of a tunnel which was said was the tunnel that someone went through when they burned down one of the buildings.  It was really interesting.  There were other crazy pieces of art like in one court yard that had water in it, there was a sidewalk that lead out to the middle and on the walls there were pairs of statues walking up the walls (they were horizontal), or in another courtyard was a garden that had soil brought there by each MP (I think when there was democracy in German again) from all parts of Germany and it was allowed to grow as is (no pruning or anything).  I think it was to represent the coming together of Germany.  We also went inside the Reichstag which has a cool funnel thing in the top of it.  It was a very cool tour.  At the end, Claudia went back to work while Trevor and I headed to another museum that would explain more about the Berlin Wall.  When we got there, we read through a bunch of info which got me very up to date on Berlin Wall info.  We took some pictures of the wall there and then headed to the East Side Gallery.  This was cool.  A whole bunch of artists painted a big chunk of wall (I think it's over 1 km long).  They each got an area to decorate and they went nuts.  There were some amazing pieces of art.  It was awesome.  We took a bunch of pictures.  After a very enjoyable walk along the wall, we headed back to Claudia's to wait for her phone call.  Around 20:00 we headed out and met her at her research lab and then walked over to the bar where she worked before.  We walked by an area where there are apparently squatters and a bunch of artists living and they put out their art for everyone to see.  It was interesting, though slightly intimidating.  It was a pretty run down apartment building and you walk into the courtyard where there are a bunch of metal sculptures.  The lighting was dim and eerie.  We looked around then kept going to the bar.  On the way, we saw a bunch of prostitutes all dressed the same (as if they had a uniform) and in warm jackets (it was cool out).  Finally we made it to the bar.  There were so many beers to choose from and we got a beer each as well as some traditional German food.  We had a great time.  After a fun dinner we headed back to Claudia's to say our good-byes because we wouldn't see her the next day.  That's how the final night ended.

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Amsterdam-Berlin Day 35

May 4, 2010

 

Day 35 Amsterdam-Berlin

 

We had an early start to the morning to catch our train from Amsterdam to Berlin.  Today was our last day that we could use our Eurorail pass.  After having to write all the trains that we took using that pass, I counted 68!  Once we arrived in Berlin, Claudia, Trevor's roommate from Seattle, was waiting for us on the platform so that she could walk us to her house where we would spend the next two nights.  The walk was a short one.  We talked for a bit and dropped off our stuff and then we separated because she had to go back to work.  We decided to head for the Jewish museum and the Berlin wall.  We started walking and ended up passing the Reichstag without knowing what it was as well as the main gate.  We found the Jewish museum.  The area above the museum is covered in blocks of concrete of various sizes.  Some were a metre taller than me.  It was really cool because you could totally play hide and go seek or other fun games in there.  It would be awesome.  Anyways, we headed to the museum.  It was free of charge.  We read some really sad info about WWII.  We then headed out in search of the wall.  We finally found a small chunk of the wall in the middle of downtown and took some pictures.  We realized here that the city is actually covered in small chunks of the original wall with a path made of bricks showing where the wall stood.  I had no idea how crazy the Berlin wall actually was!  I guess I didn't pay enough attention in social class.  We decided to follow the path that showed where the wall was and ended up walking to the Charlie Checkpoint, the place where the American soldiers were stationed.  That was crazy.  The booth, like a border crossing, is still there.  After this we headed to meet up with Claudia.  We walked around and found a restaurant where we grabbed a pizza and beer and chatted and then headed back to the apartment.  Claudia headed back on her bike while we caught the metro (not called metro here).  Back at her apartment, we chatted for a bit and then went to bed.

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Amsterdam Day 34

May 3, 2010

 

Day 34 Amsterdam

 

Even though it was raining, we decided to head out of the hostel after eating and changing rooms.  Today we decided to check out the Van Gogh museum.  At first it looked like we would be waiting in line for a VERY long time.  I went to line up while Trevor checked out what we could do to bypass the mess.  When he finally met up with me in line (which was probably 15 min later) I remembered that you could purchase tickets at our hostel that would let you bypass the line.  So Trevor ran to the hostel while I continued to stand in line in the rain.  Trevor finally came back with the tickets and we went in.  Trevor had to give his backpack to coat check (stupid regulations) which meant that he ended up carrying his laptop around the entire time.  After standing in line there (thankfully inside where it was dry and warm) we went into the museum.  I have to say I was a little disappointed by the amount of Van Gogh paintings.  They made it seem like they had a lot of paintings because the museum was three floors, but in the end there were a lot of paintings by people that were influenced by or influenced Van Gogh.  It was interesting seeing Van Gogh's paintings, though.  It's funny how all painters seem to paint the same things early on in their career, but thankfully at some point they are able to find inspiration to do their own thing.  After finishing up in the Van Gogh museum, we wandered around and grabbed some food at an Italian place which at first glance appeared to have great deals on pizzas and pastas (only 5 Euro!)  Once we got hooked on the price, we found out that you have to order a drink to get the cheap food.  Now, thankfully, it ended up being cheap for us even with the purchase of a drink each, but many of the other people that came in after us ended up getting a little upset because the restaurant wasn't up front about the fact that you had to purchase a drink.  Plus, one of the waiters even told a group of young guys (probably 18 year olds just out of high school who were from Canada) that they didn't have to buy a drink.  We weren't very happy that we were told we had to when they didn't.  But a few minutes later another waiter came and said that they had no choice and had to buy drinks.  It was stupid, really.  Very tourist unfriendly!  Anyways, we ate and then headed out toward the Red Light District to see the Sex Museum.  This was an interesting museum, even if a little crude (they had paintings on the walls that farted and a mannequin that flashed you when you walked by).  The museum had a lot of artifacts with sexual paintings or carvings and of course porn and it explained the progression of sex in the public eye.  It was definitely eye-opening.  After this we went and grabbed some street vendor fries because they looked so delicious, and finally made it into the Red Light District.  We wandered around a bit.  Some of the ladies were out in their windows even though it was pretty early.  I got myself a burger at Febo, which is a place that looks like a giant vending machine McDonald's.  You put coins into a slot and select your burger and take a nice warm burger out of the little window.  Apparently it's not a good place to eat at because the high school kids pay for a burger, open the little window and spit in the burgers, but I wanted to try this novel thing anyways.  Hopefully no one spit in my burger.  After wandering around a bit more, we headed back to our hostel where we spent the rest of the night hanging out in the lounge, meeting new people and watching TV on the laptop.  

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Amsterdam Day 33

May 2, 2010

 

Day 33 Amsterdam

 

We grabbed some breakfast in the hostel and then headed out for another adventure.  I didn't mention how much Amsterdam reminded me of Venice with all its canal systems, although there was also a good mix of car traffic as well.  Day 2 in Amsterdam was actually not spent in Amsterdam.  We headed out of town by train to a little town that had the M.C. Escher museum.  It wasn't a pleasant day (rainy) so I'm glad that we decided to go indoors.  It was unfortunate, because yesterday the sun had poked its head out in the afternoon, but there was to be no sunshine today.  Anyways, the museum was actually pretty cool and since the art was quite a bit different than any art museum we had seen up until this point, it ended up being a lot easier to appreciate.  There was even a section with Science centre type experiment explaining the art.  It was cool.  We finished up at the museum and then headed back to Amsterdam.  Not knowing what to do next, we headed to the Heineken Brewery for the Heineken Experience.  We've been to the Atlanta's The World of Coca-Cola and it was pretty similar to that, just with alcohol.  It takes you through how the beer is made and you get to see some of the bottling.  It tells you about how it became popular and showed the different bottles it use to be stored in.  We got to eat some of the ingredients and drink some wort and of course we had beer at the end as part of the tour.  It was interesting.  I've noticed that ever since we moved to Europe, I have acquired a taste for beer.  That's good, because we ended up getting 3 glasses with the tour (and it was an expensive tour, so we had to drink the beer to make it worth it!)  It was still raining by the time we got out of the tour, so we headed back to the hostel.  We ended up staying in for the night, with the weather being like it was.   

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Brussels-Amsterdam Day 32

May 1, 2010

 

Day 32 Brussels-Amsterdam

 

We had breakfast again at the hotel and headed over to the train station, which was a quick 5 minute walk.  Only one train today, all the way to Amsterdam.  I was pretty excited to see what this city had to offer.  We got into Amsterdam and the first thing we had to do was deal with a bunch of lines.  The day before had been Queen's Day, a huge celebration day, and there were tons of people in Amsterdam.  You should have seen the aftermath of this party.  There was orange garbage everywhere!  There were Heineken cans all over the streets and silly string in the trees and some deflated orange crowns.  It was insane.  It's too bad we missed the party, but there weren't any reasonably priced hotels left by the time we thought of it.  Maybe next time.  Anyways, even though the weather wasn't looking great, a lot of people were outside.  After getting a print out of where we were heading (for free out of this info machine that was pretty cool) Trevor knew where we had to go and what tram to take, but we had to get our transit tickets.  So, Trevor went to buy some.  He had to get a number for the line and figured that he'd get a number for the info line too (who knew there would be lines to get to either?) and we waited for over half an hour until Trevor finally got the bus tickets.  Now we had to find where this bus was.  Thankfully that wasn't too difficult.  After a bit of a tram ride, where we found out you have to scan your ticket when you go in and when you get off the bus, and a bit of a walk, we made it to our hostel.  The first two nights we would be in a 12 person room on a double bed (that was nice) and the last night would be in an 8 person room.  We climbed the 5 narrow flights of stairs (reception was 2 floors below ground level and we were on the third floor) and waited as our beds were made and then we finally headed out the door to do some exploring.  We decided to check out the Anne Frank Haus which was actually really well put together.  It was sad.  We had to wait in line for a bit to get in, but I figure it was worth it.  Then we headed toward the Red Light District.  It was still light out and man was it crowded!  There were so many people.  The Red Light District looked nothing like I had imagined.  I thought it was going to be a sketchy back street with all the prostitutes in their windows and the whole "alley" tinged red.  It ended up being a huge area around canals (like in Venice) and sure, there were sex shops everywhere and a few girls in the windows, but definitely not like I had thought in my head.  Plus, the number of "coffee shops" and fast food joints overwhelmed the number of sex shops anyways. We ended up having dinner at a place called Walk to Wok which was super busy and ended up tasting really good.  It was a place where you picked your noodles, the meat and the sauce and they made it for you fresh.  Then we walked around and headed to a fair that was going on, checked stuff out and headed back to the hostel.  We were one of the first people back in our room.  I think we're getting old!     

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Brussels Day 31

April 30, 2010

 

Day 31 Brussels

 

We had breakfast this morning in our hotel, it being included.  That was a nice change.  It was pretty decent.  Then it was off to the Atomium, another Expo monument.  It was a giant molecule monument that looked pretty cool.  Trevor wanted to go inside and I had no idea what was in it, so I said sure.  We ended up waiting in line to go up inside this monument for probably over half an hour.  At this point I still couldn't figure out why we were going inside.  Finally we were in the elevator that took us up to the top atom.  This ended up being a viewing floor which was similar to any viewing floor for tall structures.  You could see Brussels.  It was neat, but nothing like some of the other tall structures we've been in.  We then started our decent which ended up being quite boring.  It was suppose to be sort of like a museum that talked about the World Expo and what its purpose was, but the displays were old and the information repetitive.  Had we known, we wouldn't have bothered going inside.  Oh well, live and learn.  Once out of the structure we decided to go for a bit of a walk around the park area which led us to the Planetarium.  We went in and Trevor ended up talking to guy who did a similar thing at this Planetarium as Trevor did at the Telus World of Science (the star shows).  They chatted for a bit and then we headed back to the centre of Brussels where we found the main square with some really cool buildings (or rather, art on the buildings).  We looked around and checked out some of the chocolate stores (they looked so yummy) and we passed many waffle places (Belgian waffles!)  Next attraction was the Manneken Pis, a small statue of a boy peeing into the fountain.  When we saw him, he was dressed as a soldier.  Apparently he has many outfits, including a Santa Claus outfit at Christmas.  By this point I was starving and definitely acting like I was crazy (I'm blaming it on low blood sugar) and thankfully Trevor was willing to deal with the crazy lady.  We found a Quick, a fast food joint we had wanted to check out, not for lack of trying I might add.  Here is where we found out that apparently you have to pay to use a bathroom, even if you order!  Outrageous!  Neither of us was happy about it.  We even went to the McDonald's to find a free bathroom.  Nope, couldn't use it there either (without paying).  Not cool.  So we returned to the square figuring the info place could tell us a place to pee for free.  They suggested eating at a café and using their bathroom.  So that's what we did.  We grabbed a seat at one of the cafés in the square (outside so we could catch the view) and bought ourselves beers and enjoyed the luxury of free toilet use.  I wasn't feeling great, I think I had caught something again, so I decided to head back to the hotel while Trevor went crazy around the city.  I ended up reading and writing postcards and we called it an early night when Trevor got back, after watching some shows on the laptop.

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Paris-Luxembourg-Brussels Day 30

April 29, 2010

 

Day 30 Paris-Luxembourg-Brussels

 

We took it easy this morning.  We ended up having a late breakfast at a nearby Asian restaurant and then we found a seat on a bench near our hotel.  We read for a while before it was time to head to the train station.  We went back to the hotel to grab our bags and then headed over to the train station to catch the train to Luxembourg.  Once in Luxembourg, we left our bags at the baggage storage and walked toward the centre of town.  We stumbled upon a fair and ended up indulging (a little too much) in the yummy food.  We started off with chocolate covered fruit (I had white chocolate covered strawberries and Trevor had dark chocolate covered banana) as well as having chocolate crêpes.  We wandered a little and I found a pasta place that had all kinds of sauces to choose from and it was super cheap so I ended up buying that too.  So much food, so little time!  After we finished eating, we decided to head away from the fair to explore the town a little, but there didn't end up being too much to see.  We found a grocery store and bought some snacks for the train ride.  We found some amazingly red strawberries and when we tried them, they were incredible!  They were the best strawberries I had ever tried!  After eating our strawberries, we ended up back at the fair and finally decided to head back to the train station to catch our train to Brussels.  To get there, we went through a park that was very pretty.  It was a nice walk back.  We caught the train and headed to our next country.  We made it to Brussels quite late and unfortunately we weren't sure which way to go to get to our hotel.  Trevor went in search of internet while I hung out with our bags.  I had an interesting view of a sleeping homeless man and a man who I believe was hallucinating, explaining to "someone" that he was strong.  Thankfully he was at a safe distance from me.  A guy walked by and noticed that I was hanging out by myself and approached me asking if I needed help.  He said he had been in my position many times.  He was from the U.S, but I think living in Brussels.  Trevor ended up getting back before the guy could really help us, but at least he was nice and not creepy like the other people around.  Trevor found internet and we headed to the hotel, which ended up being about 150m from the station.  We got to our very cramped little room and headed to sleep.

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Paris Day 29

April 27, 2010

Day 29 Paris

Today was suppose to be our last day in Paris, but due to hotels being ridiculously expensive in Luxembourg, we decided to stay an extra night in Paris and make Luxembourg a day trip.  Today we headed to the train station to exchange earlier reserved tickets to Luxembourg.  After getting that all straightened out, we headed to the Louvre.  We had a quick snack in the McCafé (that looked out over a room in the Louvre) and Trevor explored in the Apple store just outside the entrance and then we made our way in.  Again I got in free (so awesome!)  Our priorities here were the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  First we headed to the Mona Lisa (very well marked for easy access.)  Throughout the museum there are signs that tell people that they can take pictures, but no flash.  When we walked to the Mona Lisa, all you could see was a crowd of people and flashes going off constantly!  I guess there's a reason why there is a glass case in front of the painting.  We took some pictures and headed to Venus de Milo.  On the way we found an Argo medallion, the French version of the Prime Meridian, on the floor in the museum.  Once at Venus de Milo, a similar situation to Mona Lisa was happening.  We squeezed our way into the crowd and took some pictures.  We then planned out what we really wanted to see.  My feet were aching (keep in mind this is day 27 of go go go action on our part and even 24 hours in a train isn't enough to rest my poor aching feet!)  We picked out the things to see and headed to each.  I have to say that I think the best way to see a museum, or at least to appreciate it, is to see only one per month.  I no longer had the patience to look at everything in the Louvre.  We managed to appreciate a few things by the time we left the museum, but there was so much more we missed.  Next, it was off to the Arc de Triomphe.  The craziest thing about the Arc was the insane traffic circle surrounding it!  I have no idea how people knew when to get in or out of the circle.  There were no lines on the street indicating lanes.  It was a huge free-for-all.  I'm glad we took the metro!  Off we went next to see the Moulin Rouge, took some pictures, and thinking we still had some time, Trevor wanted to head to a Planetarium.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  We figured it was time to try another exotic culinary dish, frog's legs, so we headed to the restaurant I had read about.  It was really expensive, but luckily someone at the restaurant pointed us to a different restaurant (same owner) that specialized in frog's legs, La Grenouille (frog).  It was a very cute restaurant with all kinds of kitchen tools as chandeliers.  We ended up having frogs' legs (and like they say, they taste like chicken).  They were tasty, but small.  As we headed back to the hotel, Trevor and I were still having a craving and ended up getting sushi and calamari at a nearby restaurant.  So tasty!  We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Paris Day 28

April 27, 2010

Day 28 Paris

We grabbed some hot drinks served free of charge in the basement in the hotel.  It was then time for our first destination: the Catacombs.  We had to wait in line for about 45min, but the time passed quickly because we ended up talking with the people behind us who were from New Zealand.  The Catacombs were crazy!  You had to walk down quite a few stairs and then had to walk about 400m in a dark tunnel before getting to some pretty cool stone carvings on display.  Finally we got to the bones.  It was insane.  There were bones stacked on top of one another in piles about 6 feet high.  In each pile there were usually 2 or 3 rows of sculls.  It went on for probably 500m or more!  It was incredible.  I thought it would be way creepier than it was.  I managed to take some pictures.  It was awesome.  As you left the Catacombs, they asked to check your bag because apparently people sometimes steal sculls!  Trevor had made a joke about it earlier, but I just thought he was being silly.  Turns out, he wasn't.  Next, we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral where we ate lunch in the square in front.  We went inside and saw some nice stained glass and statues, but the line to get up to the top was too long and we figured we wouldn't have enough time.  So we headed next to the Panthéon where the original Foucault pendulum was.  It is also where a lot of famous people are buried including Marie Curie, Victor Hugo and others.  It was pretty cool.  I was able to take advantage of being under 26 and an EU citizen here and got in for free!  Next, we headed to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, another item in Trevor's Geek Atlas.  It was pretty cool, but I was already tired of museums and I was tired of walking, so I'm pretty sure I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have.  Finally, it was time to head to the main attraction in Paris, La Tour Eiffel.  We got there and we were like pros (having been there once before, before heading to Egypt).  We stood in line and made another friend.  We talked to this girl who was going up by herself while her family waited for her.  She was visiting from England, though she was originally from Croatia.  She was super nice and super nervous about going up to the top.  Trevor and I ended up buying tickets to go to the very top (level 3) while she decided, because she was afraid of heights, that she would only go to the second level.  We rode up and took a bunch of pictures, said our good byes and then Trevor and I headed for the 3^rd floor.  That floor was a lot smaller and super crowded.  Here you could buy champagne to drink (at 11 Euro a glass!)  The view was cool.  We decided to head back down, which meant waiting in line for the elevator that only took you to the second floor.  We decided to hang out here for a while again and take pictures of the sunset (very romantic).  While re-exploring the second floor, who do we bump into?  None other than the people we had talked to in Hendaye who were heading to Paris at the same time as us!  We then waited in line to get down to the ground, but in the elevator decided to stop on the first floor to look around.  It was a cool floor and we would have eaten at the restaurant, but it was way too expensive.  We took the stairs down from here and again bumped into the guys from Hendaye.  At the bottom, we decided it was time to eat and found ourselves a cute café that had a blocked view of the Eiffel Tower.  It was very enjoyable.  We headed back to the tower to take some last minute pictures and unfortunately due to me not feeling well we ended up heading back to the hotel (although it was 23:00 by this time!)  Trevor stayed up doing a bunch of hotel bookings for our next leg of traveling.  Then, off to bed to get ready for the next day of craziness!

Porto-Hendaye-Bordeaux-Paris Day 26 and Day 27

April 25-26, 2010

Day 26 and Day 27 Porto-Hendaye-Bordeaux-Paris

Today was spent relaxing mostly.  After saying good-bye to our fuzzy friends and checking out of the hotel, we had a wonderfully filling breakfast for super cheap again, although not as cheap as the day before.  After that we went on a hunt for stamps.  I thought it would be like the last countries where the tobacco shops or other type of stands would sell them.  I don't know if they did because someone told us about some post office that was open Sundays and holidays, so we headed there instead.  Turned out that on the outside of the post office was an automatic stamp dispenser.  It was cool (the smallest things amuse me).  So I bought my stamps from the dispenser, sent my postcards and then we were off to the park in front of the city hall where Trevor and I both read for about an hour and a half.  I guess it was more like a square with a few chairs under a few trees, but it was very pleasant none-the-less.  After, we headed down to the water after walking through some backstreets and climbing down a bunch of stairs.  The views were very nice and the weather was especially warm.  According to some of the signs around, it was about 25 degrees!  We then went in search of a grocery store, bought a bunch of food and headed for the train station.  We had 2 trains to catch today.  Once was a 5 min train to the other train station in town and then we caught our 12 hour train ride to Hendaye.  The train ride was uneventful.  The sleep wasn't great, but at least we saved ourselves a hotel night!  Once in Hendaye, we went to check if we could get to Paris by today.   We could get to Paris, it would just be at 21:00.  We figured that was good enough for us, so we bought the tickets.  We talked with some people in the line after who were also going to Paris and they had managed to get tickets to get to Paris earlier, but we decided to stick with our tickets.  We ended up having a delay once we got to Bordeaux, where I spent most of my time reading.  Trevor went grocery shopping and tried to find power for his laptop.  And finally after a ridiculous amount of time spent in trains, we got to Paris.  Next difficulty: finding a hotel.  Because of the uncertainty of making it to Paris by today, we hadn't booked anything, but Trevor had sort of picked out an area that was cheaper and we headed there (Voltaire metro stop).  We found the hotel that Trevor had been looking into and after attempting to speak French and ending up having some guy translate for us, we managed to get a room for cheaper than originally mentioned (even though you had to "rent" sheets!).  Unfortunately, I can't say it was a nice hotel, but it was a place to sleep.  There was suppose to be internet, but it wasn't connecting and the lady didn't want Trevor touching the connection, so tonight we couldn't do anything on the computer.  Later I heard the people in the next room swearing about how stupid the lady was.  Oh well.  It was time to rest before the insanity of Paris.