As we bid farewell to Europe and to blogging (don`t cry) here are a few statistics from our trip.
9 of Tom´s cousins met
8 Aunts and Uncles visited
7 dogs belonging to those aunts, uncles and cousins
6 Countries visited, and no this does not include the ones we rode a train through, I wasn`t allowed to count those. It was England, France, Italy, Croatia, Czech and Germany (yes, staying one night in a country while waiting for a flight DOES count)
5 Mineral springs tasted in Marianske Lazne. This is the last Czech town we stayed in and they are famous for the huge number of natural mineral springs. So we took our mug and walked around town tasting all of the ones we could find. The best tasted like a very earthy Perrier. The worst tasted like a vat of salty rotten eggs that had been sitting in an iron vat for 5 years. Not my fave. But apparently they have healing properties which bodes well for my aching wisdom tooth, sore heel and swollen right nostril (???).
4 bottles of shampoo and conditioner left in various showers.
3 hours for Tom and I to polish of a .5kg bar of Studentska Chocolate in Prague. You don´t even know how easy it was.
2 Pairs of glasses left on trains, blast!
1 Fantastic Europtrip coming to an end! Can`t wait for home!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Pit Stop in Prague
We are back in Prague after 5 nights in the country and tonight we will catch a train to Marianske Lazne, don't ask me where that is or how to pronounce it! You would think my Czech would have improved a bit being fully immersed in the language for a week, but alas, I have never had an ear for languages.
Last night Tom's cousins took us on a mystery adventure and it was one of the coolest and scariest experiences of my life...luckily it was more cool than scary. We were told to bring a flashlight and then we hiked to the middle of the woods at night...I was already scared. Turns out there is a massive network of caves that date back to 50 000 BC and anyone who wants can just go ahead and explore them, anytime they want. This is where it gets scary. In the middle of the night, we crawled into (on hands and knees)these caves with our flashlights and started to explore. I am mildly claustrophobic, FYI. Once we were about 20 metres in and far enough so I couldn't escape if things went horribly wrong everyone decided it would be a great idea to turn off all the flashlights and just sit inside a cave that was about 1 metre tall. NOT FUN! I practiced some deep breathing and managed to escape alive once we decided to live, but it was scary, I'm not going to lie.
Overall, a very, very cool experience. One of those ones we would never have done on our own. We have been very well taken care of!
Well, off to find some lunch. Tom has already left me to go sit in the main square and grab a beer so I will have to find him first I suppose!
Last night Tom's cousins took us on a mystery adventure and it was one of the coolest and scariest experiences of my life...luckily it was more cool than scary. We were told to bring a flashlight and then we hiked to the middle of the woods at night...I was already scared. Turns out there is a massive network of caves that date back to 50 000 BC and anyone who wants can just go ahead and explore them, anytime they want. This is where it gets scary. In the middle of the night, we crawled into (on hands and knees)these caves with our flashlights and started to explore. I am mildly claustrophobic, FYI. Once we were about 20 metres in and far enough so I couldn't escape if things went horribly wrong everyone decided it would be a great idea to turn off all the flashlights and just sit inside a cave that was about 1 metre tall. NOT FUN! I practiced some deep breathing and managed to escape alive once we decided to live, but it was scary, I'm not going to lie.
Overall, a very, very cool experience. One of those ones we would never have done on our own. We have been very well taken care of!
Well, off to find some lunch. Tom has already left me to go sit in the main square and grab a beer so I will have to find him first I suppose!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Caves
Today we went on a tour of some caves and if I thought it was cold above ground, below ground was a whole different story. Freezing. We tagged along with a high school tour and some imature member of our group set off the alarm because he touched the wall of the cave. You guessed it, Tom. He just haaad to touch the stalagmite! I was terrified I thought the alarm was to let us know that te cave was collapsing!!! Luckily the worst that came from the alarm was Tom getting scolded by the guide, and not us getting trapped 20 feet underground, phew.
Off to uncle number 2 tonight!
Off to uncle number 2 tonight!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Up North...
It's horrible but I don't know the name of the town we are in right now and Tom isn't nearby to ask! We are about an hour north or Prague with his aunt and uncle and cousin in a beautiful small town. We are so lucky to be able to see so much more of the country than we would if we were alone. Today we went for a hike (must be Tom's relatives! Lol) and are now relaxing after a big lunch.
One thing that is taking some getting used to is the temperature! After 3 weeks of thirty degree heat in the south we are now slowly adjusting to the 13 degrees here! I am freezing! There had better be some sunshine when we get back to Vancouver!
We have had some of the most amazing food in Czech and the best part is how afordablw it is. In Prague we went for dinner and my meal included a chicken breast and a pork chop sandwiched between two gigantic potato pancakes for about $6 Canadian! Tom had half a duck for the same. So tasty.
One thing that is taking some getting used to is the temperature! After 3 weeks of thirty degree heat in the south we are now slowly adjusting to the 13 degrees here! I am freezing! There had better be some sunshine when we get back to Vancouver!
We have had some of the most amazing food in Czech and the best part is how afordablw it is. In Prague we went for dinner and my meal included a chicken breast and a pork chop sandwiched between two gigantic potato pancakes for about $6 Canadian! Tom had half a duck for the same. So tasty.
Friday, June 18, 2010
In Prague...
Just Czeching things out... That's right, I went there!
Day two in this lovely city and it is raining! I suppose it has finally caught up to us. Europeans don't do anything half assed, the food, the wine, the history, are all a cut above the rest. This goes for rain as well.
What is this 'rainy Vancouver' you speak of? You want rain? We'll show you rain!
Sure, we may have them beat when it comes to duration and overall amount of rain, but the 2 days on this trip that it has rained (yes I am gloating) have been absolute downpours! There was no way I was digging through my bag to find the unused raincoat in the bottom (it has just been so sunny! ) so we are now sitting in a mall waiting for tom's cousin to get off work.
The time we have spent in Prague so far has been fantastic. I am loving this city. Great food, great atmosphere, beautiful setting, just great. Tom is happy too because you can get half a litre of beer in a restaurant for about $1.50!
We are very lucky here in Czech because for the remainder of our trip we will be well taken care of by Tom's extended family. And He has been trying really hard to translate for me so I don't just sit around smiling and nodding! Although he is using my lack of language skills to his advantage. I asked him to find out from his cousin where the closest mall or shopping was and he simply said 'nah, don't want to'. What's a gal to do?
Zatim Naschledanou ( that's goodbye for now!)
Day two in this lovely city and it is raining! I suppose it has finally caught up to us. Europeans don't do anything half assed, the food, the wine, the history, are all a cut above the rest. This goes for rain as well.
What is this 'rainy Vancouver' you speak of? You want rain? We'll show you rain!
Sure, we may have them beat when it comes to duration and overall amount of rain, but the 2 days on this trip that it has rained (yes I am gloating) have been absolute downpours! There was no way I was digging through my bag to find the unused raincoat in the bottom (it has just been so sunny! ) so we are now sitting in a mall waiting for tom's cousin to get off work.
The time we have spent in Prague so far has been fantastic. I am loving this city. Great food, great atmosphere, beautiful setting, just great. Tom is happy too because you can get half a litre of beer in a restaurant for about $1.50!
We are very lucky here in Czech because for the remainder of our trip we will be well taken care of by Tom's extended family. And He has been trying really hard to translate for me so I don't just sit around smiling and nodding! Although he is using my lack of language skills to his advantage. I asked him to find out from his cousin where the closest mall or shopping was and he simply said 'nah, don't want to'. What's a gal to do?
Zatim Naschledanou ( that's goodbye for now!)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Things that make me very happy...
1) getting stamps in my passport. I was very dissapointed when they didn't give us a stamp when crossing the teeny section of coastline that is Bosnia and Herzegovina.
2) Kittens! There are cats everywhere in Croatia and where there are cats there are kittens and where there are kittens here is Kate . We saw a little black kitten the size of Sawyer's head. He ran away from me.
3) hot dogs. Now there is a mystery meat I can sink my teeth into!
4) pasteries filled with chocolate or Nutella. There is no way you can go wrong with that combo. The best were in Rome, my mouth is wattering just thinking about them.
2) Kittens! There are cats everywhere in Croatia and where there are cats there are kittens and where there are kittens here is Kate . We saw a little black kitten the size of Sawyer's head. He ran away from me.
3) hot dogs. Now there is a mystery meat I can sink my teeth into!
4) pasteries filled with chocolate or Nutella. There is no way you can go wrong with that combo. The best were in Rome, my mouth is wattering just thinking about them.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Sitting in a cafe in Dubrovnik writing on my iPod. I ordered a Coke and Tom has a beer. The beer was cheaper than my coke!
Yesterday we had an unfortunate food experience. We got into Dubrovnik at around noon and set out for lunch and sightseeing. We grabbed a couple mini pizzas from a bakery and sat down in the shade to dig in. Everything was going well until I started to look closer at the ham on my pizza... It wasn't ham, it was Spam, or the Croatian equivalent to spam 'shudder'. It was horrible. Tom tougher it out, picking off the more obviously gross bits. Me, I had to pull the whole top of my pizza off and try and finish off the crust without thinking about what had been on it. We had to get gelato after to ease the pain.
Today we took a quick ferry to a small island off the coast and spent the day swimming and exploring the fort, monastery and garden on the island. It is stinking hot here so we try not to venture to far from the water!
Tomorrow we set out for Split where will will catch an overnight train to Zagreb. From there we catch a bus to Prague that takes, oh, 12 hours.
Wish us luck!
Yesterday we had an unfortunate food experience. We got into Dubrovnik at around noon and set out for lunch and sightseeing. We grabbed a couple mini pizzas from a bakery and sat down in the shade to dig in. Everything was going well until I started to look closer at the ham on my pizza... It wasn't ham, it was Spam, or the Croatian equivalent to spam 'shudder'. It was horrible. Tom tougher it out, picking off the more obviously gross bits. Me, I had to pull the whole top of my pizza off and try and finish off the crust without thinking about what had been on it. We had to get gelato after to ease the pain.
Today we took a quick ferry to a small island off the coast and spent the day swimming and exploring the fort, monastery and garden on the island. It is stinking hot here so we try not to venture to far from the water!
Tomorrow we set out for Split where will will catch an overnight train to Zagreb. From there we catch a bus to Prague that takes, oh, 12 hours.
Wish us luck!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Korcula
Another day, another Dalmatian Island, life is rough. We found the campsite last night after a 30 minute walk with packs (why I indulge Tom is still beyond me). We set up camp, and went for a lovely dinner on the beach after a quick dip in the ocean. It was a swealtering hot day today and since I am still recovering from that burn I was waering as much of my full coverage clothing as possible, not fun!
Korcula is another bautiful town with crystal clear water and friendly people, but we are tight for time so tomorrow it is off to Dubrovnik!
WE are currently looking into options for getting to prague from Croatia. Right now it is looking like an overnight train and a 12 hour bus ride....soooooo fun!
Korcula is another bautiful town with crystal clear water and friendly people, but we are tight for time so tomorrow it is off to Dubrovnik!
WE are currently looking into options for getting to prague from Croatia. Right now it is looking like an overnight train and a 12 hour bus ride....soooooo fun!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Burnt to a crisp in Croatia!
Lesson number 6
No matter how glamorous or exotic lounging on the beach in Croatia may sound, the end result will be the same....one very sunburned Kate and Tom.
We have been in Croatia now for 3 days and it is fantastic! The people are friendly, the scenery is amazing and we are getting the best nights sleep thanks to readily available cheap accommodation! Whenever you arrive to an airport, bus depot, marina, there are a dozen or so people who will come up to you and ask if you need accommodations. So for about 15 euros per person per night (pennies compared to Italy!)Tom and I have been in fully private, clean and quiet apartments. It is beyond amazing to not be woken up by
a) a deflated air mattress
b) the traffic from the highway behind your tent
c) the crazy person in the next bunk who wont stop snoring! (ok, it´s Tom, that one I cannot seem to escape)
Fantastic!
The one thing we are quickly realizing, is that aside from accommodations, Croatia is not that cheap! The food, wine, sightseeing trips are pretty much on par if not slightly higher than Italy. And the shopping, so sad, but it is also much more expensive. A watch I bought in Italy for 2 Euros is 10 here. So I guess I will have to curb my shopping, which is probably a good thing because I don´t think Tom´s bag can hold much more ;)
We are on Hvar Island right now and are off to another island tomorrow, not sure which one yet. So far it has been far easier to find internet here than in Italy so I will write again soon...you lucky reader you.
No matter how glamorous or exotic lounging on the beach in Croatia may sound, the end result will be the same....one very sunburned Kate and Tom.
We have been in Croatia now for 3 days and it is fantastic! The people are friendly, the scenery is amazing and we are getting the best nights sleep thanks to readily available cheap accommodation! Whenever you arrive to an airport, bus depot, marina, there are a dozen or so people who will come up to you and ask if you need accommodations. So for about 15 euros per person per night (pennies compared to Italy!)Tom and I have been in fully private, clean and quiet apartments. It is beyond amazing to not be woken up by
a) a deflated air mattress
b) the traffic from the highway behind your tent
c) the crazy person in the next bunk who wont stop snoring! (ok, it´s Tom, that one I cannot seem to escape)
Fantastic!
The one thing we are quickly realizing, is that aside from accommodations, Croatia is not that cheap! The food, wine, sightseeing trips are pretty much on par if not slightly higher than Italy. And the shopping, so sad, but it is also much more expensive. A watch I bought in Italy for 2 Euros is 10 here. So I guess I will have to curb my shopping, which is probably a good thing because I don´t think Tom´s bag can hold much more ;)
We are on Hvar Island right now and are off to another island tomorrow, not sure which one yet. So far it has been far easier to find internet here than in Italy so I will write again soon...you lucky reader you.
Friday, June 4, 2010
What are you sinking about?
Since we have not spent a lot of time in hostels we are getting to know a different crowd of people in the campsites. Mainly German campers. The Germans love to camp...who knew? I would say that at all the campsites we have been to about 80% of the people are German. It is still really hard for me to not think of the German coast guard ad when I hear someone from Germany speaking (google it if you have not heard it!....Is that bad?
Another Roman Adventure!
The following was written on my iPod. Please excuse the huge number of spelling and grammar mistakes!!!
We just finished off another jampacked day in rome. Saw the Trevi fountain (huge!), forum, coloseum, pantheon, everything! But even with all that, yesterday was our big exciting day.
We had a late start to the day, packed a lunch and headed out to the catacombs. So cool! Over 500 000 people were buried there at one point and 4 underground levels cover 20km. We only got to see the first level but pie guide made it pretty sweet. He was an older Philipino brother who was unintentionally hilarious. We were divided into groups by languages and the best part came when our guide, in an urgent tone, called out to our group, " we must hurry. The Germans are
Coming!"
Very very nice man . he bought Tom and me a cappuccino (from the coolest machine ever ) later on.
After re catacombs we took our fist bus back to town and were
PlAnning to just head back when we saw a huge crown growing around st Giovanni church. Turns out the pope was going to be making an appearance. We decided to stick around and were about 100 metres away from the front with an unobstructed view. Then they opened a gate and we managed to get about 15 meters away from the front! Now, I have to warn you, this is shaping up to be one of those"and then... And then" types of posts, so bear with me. So there we Are, 15 metres away from were the pope will be any minute now and Tom turns to me and says,
"looks like rain"
RAin is an understatement.
What happened next can only be described as an absolute torrential downpour, worse than I have ever seen in Vancouver! Me in my goodie and Tom in shorts and a tshirt( what else) were absolutely drenched within seconds. Wihin the minutes that the rain started we realized that they were going to hold mass in the church instead and were about to head home soaked and dissapointed, until someone near us opened up the gate and people everywhere started rushing the church . Tom and I said what the heck and joined in, pushing nuns and priests out of our way as we scrambled for A spot in the curch (just kidding, it was the nuns who pushed us, they really wanted to see the pope).
Excuse me as I take a sip of my Italian wine, this is exausting!
Ok, so we are now soaked, and pressed up against the side of this enormous church wondering where to go because some peoe are leaving and others are still scrambling to get in. Then, someone again opens a gate and we all rush into the front covered area of the curch ( where the swiss guards were during all this I do not know! ). Now we are soaked and standing in the massive foyer of this church wall to wall wih people. Then they let us in and we end up listening to thr pope deliver mass in the most beautiful churches I have evr seen, from about 50 meters away. Words cannot describe how cool our day was.
As we made our way home at 9 that night, freezing, starving, and feet acching (when do they not), we knew we had pretty much the best day in Rome ever!
Phew, well, off to sorrento tomorrow! And it is now time for some bruchetta.
We just finished off another jampacked day in rome. Saw the Trevi fountain (huge!), forum, coloseum, pantheon, everything! But even with all that, yesterday was our big exciting day.
We had a late start to the day, packed a lunch and headed out to the catacombs. So cool! Over 500 000 people were buried there at one point and 4 underground levels cover 20km. We only got to see the first level but pie guide made it pretty sweet. He was an older Philipino brother who was unintentionally hilarious. We were divided into groups by languages and the best part came when our guide, in an urgent tone, called out to our group, " we must hurry. The Germans are
Coming!"
Very very nice man . he bought Tom and me a cappuccino (from the coolest machine ever ) later on.
After re catacombs we took our fist bus back to town and were
PlAnning to just head back when we saw a huge crown growing around st Giovanni church. Turns out the pope was going to be making an appearance. We decided to stick around and were about 100 metres away from the front with an unobstructed view. Then they opened a gate and we managed to get about 15 meters away from the front! Now, I have to warn you, this is shaping up to be one of those"and then... And then" types of posts, so bear with me. So there we Are, 15 metres away from were the pope will be any minute now and Tom turns to me and says,
"looks like rain"
RAin is an understatement.
What happened next can only be described as an absolute torrential downpour, worse than I have ever seen in Vancouver! Me in my goodie and Tom in shorts and a tshirt( what else) were absolutely drenched within seconds. Wihin the minutes that the rain started we realized that they were going to hold mass in the church instead and were about to head home soaked and dissapointed, until someone near us opened up the gate and people everywhere started rushing the church . Tom and I said what the heck and joined in, pushing nuns and priests out of our way as we scrambled for A spot in the curch (just kidding, it was the nuns who pushed us, they really wanted to see the pope).
Excuse me as I take a sip of my Italian wine, this is exausting!
Ok, so we are now soaked, and pressed up against the side of this enormous church wondering where to go because some peoe are leaving and others are still scrambling to get in. Then, someone again opens a gate and we all rush into the front covered area of the curch ( where the swiss guards were during all this I do not know! ). Now we are soaked and standing in the massive foyer of this church wall to wall wih people. Then they let us in and we end up listening to thr pope deliver mass in the most beautiful churches I have evr seen, from about 50 meters away. Words cannot describe how cool our day was.
As we made our way home at 9 that night, freezing, starving, and feet acching (when do they not), we knew we had pretty much the best day in Rome ever!
Phew, well, off to sorrento tomorrow! And it is now time for some bruchetta.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Church Bells
I have decided that Vancouver needs more church bells. There is nothing better than sitting in the middle of a city and hearing churchbells start to ring. Such a fantastic sound! Who do we need to write to get this?
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
When in Rome...
My aching feet! Huge day touring the Vatican Museum and St Peters Cathedral (I should mention that I cannot find the apostrophe on this keyboard...so any mistakes and very formal sounding speaking is not my intention!). I had no idea the museum was so big. It was so great to finnally see the Sistine Chapel in person. On thing I have realized is that I have a definite limit when it coems to seeing things. We were in the Vatican museum for about 4 hours and that was rushing through some things! I think the pooint at which everything begins to meld into one is around the 2 hour mark. Tomorrow we are going to head out to the Catacombs, I am really looking forward to them, I hope they are kind of creepy.
The campsite in Rome is like no campsite I have ever seen. It is huge and has a pool, 2 hottubs, 2 bars, a restaurant and market, ping pong, you name it. I convinced Tom that I needed a few nights in a real bed and not on my air mattress which has a definite slow leak (mornings are rough!). So we are spending three nights in one of the cabanas that is basically a delux tent with beds...heaven! Aside from the fact that it backs onto the freeway, it is sooooo nice.
Off to dinner now....as long as I live I will never get sick of pizza....ever.
The campsite in Rome is like no campsite I have ever seen. It is huge and has a pool, 2 hottubs, 2 bars, a restaurant and market, ping pong, you name it. I convinced Tom that I needed a few nights in a real bed and not on my air mattress which has a definite slow leak (mornings are rough!). So we are spending three nights in one of the cabanas that is basically a delux tent with beds...heaven! Aside from the fact that it backs onto the freeway, it is sooooo nice.
Off to dinner now....as long as I live I will never get sick of pizza....ever.
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