So Im doing my best to type this on a french keyboard... but let me tell you its very difficult. Internet is not easy to come by at a cheap price these days in Paris, and at a whopping 2 euros an hour, this is the best deal in town.
Just wanted to let you all know that Im not dead, and to apologize once more for not updating. I have not had any time to get on the internet... its been really crazy. I cant say when I will have time or if I will at all. I will probably just update all the pictures when I get back to the US on the 28 or 29.
I hope to be able to update soon, but if not, consider this one of my last posts on my trip. Sorry everyone!
Cheers!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Today's My Birthday...
My 21 Birthday to be exact.
I'm in Barcelona, Spain, and I haven't consumed one drop of alcohol. There is something wrong with this picture.
Well, I have spent literally the last 24 hours on the train. Last night Kana and I took a night train from Milan to Dijon, France. From Dijon we went to Lyon and from there to Montpillier and then finally to Barcelona. So I am tired.
Just wanted to give a quick update since I haven't been able to the last few days... All of my hostels up until now have been charging for internet, or there simply was no time to jump on and type up a quick post. So here I am, nearly 2 in the morning, typing one up for you guys... Sorry, no pictures yet. I do have plenty to post, though. I will update this post when I get them uploaded.
Thanks to everyone for reading my blog! As I mentioned before, I changed my return date to the 28...
I will update again as soon as I can.
Cheers!
I'm in Barcelona, Spain, and I haven't consumed one drop of alcohol. There is something wrong with this picture.
Well, I have spent literally the last 24 hours on the train. Last night Kana and I took a night train from Milan to Dijon, France. From Dijon we went to Lyon and from there to Montpillier and then finally to Barcelona. So I am tired.
Just wanted to give a quick update since I haven't been able to the last few days... All of my hostels up until now have been charging for internet, or there simply was no time to jump on and type up a quick post. So here I am, nearly 2 in the morning, typing one up for you guys... Sorry, no pictures yet. I do have plenty to post, though. I will update this post when I get them uploaded.
Thanks to everyone for reading my blog! As I mentioned before, I changed my return date to the 28...
I will update again as soon as I can.
Cheers!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Soo... Update!
Hey everyone!
So its been a while since I've done an actual update, so I will start from our adventures in Switzerland, after leaving Germany.
We decided to do Switzerland kind of last-minute since we both really wanted to see it... So we went to Zurich and did some sight-seeing that Jannett recommended to us. Our first stop was the hostel, of course, which only had pay-internet... And it was a very nice hostel, which pissed me off. 1 Euro for every ten minutes... A total rip-off if you calculate the exchange rates. But we needed the internet to figure out the train times for our next destination: Prague. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Zurich was absolutely beautiful... Our first stop after the hostel was the university, which had a very awesome view of the city. We attempted to take pictures of ourselves but it kind of failed, I think... Well, you can be the judge of that!
We walked around for about two or three hours and then headed back to the hostel to get a recommendation for a restaurant... Of course, all they told us was, "Go to this street. There are a lot of restaurants," despite the fact that we had just come from there. So we hopped aboard the tram and went back, anyways... There were so many restaurants to choose from, including a lovely strip bar, but in the end we went with the Swiss-fondue restaurant with a bunch of pictures of cows. Actually it was a very fancy place, I think a bit on the pricey side... But hey, we had just spent 3 days in Germany without paying for a hostel and getting food for free from Jannett, so why the hell not? The food was very delicious at this restaurant... I'm very glad we went there.
The next morning we got up at 5:30 to get to our 7:15 train, where we would spend the next 11 hours or so on the train... This does not include the 1 hour layover in Munich. But we slept and met some cool people on the train, which made us happy. When we finally arrived in Prague, we were pretty exhausted and slightly frustrated when we couldn't find our hostel. I even called the reception and asked for directions, but it ended in him telling us to get a map of the city and look for the street name. Oh, and he also told us to ask the reception at the hilton, which was right next to the station exit we came out of. I was pretty irritated, given it was nearly 9 at night. We eventually found it and rejoiced. We moved into our room, room 10, and set up our beds and brushed our teeth and chatted with our new roommates, and... Well, there was a mix up, because there were not enough beds and too many people. As it turned out, we were supposed to be in room 12. The most the receptionist did for us was give us two free beers. Crappy Czech beer at that, in a can... Just a side note, I thought it was creepy that we got room 12 because the last 3 hostels before that gave us rooms 212, 12, and 212... And there we were in room 12 yet again. Isn't that creepy? I thought so...
So we got up the next day at about 8 AM, checked out and left our stuff there for the day. We walked around Prague with some people we met in the hostel... Prague is surprisingly small. But it was really cool. Almost as cool as Amsterdam. I think what made Prague awesome was the castle-cathedral thing. That was really REALLLY awesome. Lots of pictures, promise.
We ended up having about 2 hours to spare so we went to the grocery store and picked up some snacks for the train... I was really grateful that we did, too, because I was really hungry for some reason... Well, I guess massive amounts of walking can do that to you. The train ride from Prague to Vienna was almost 5 hours... We arrived in Vienna with only a phone number and an address to our next hostel. And my prepaid phone was out of minutes (its actually pretty expensive... argh), so we had to rely on a pay phone. As it turns out, there are several "main" train stations in Vienna, and we were at the wrong one in relation to our hostel. So we hopped on the #18 tram, suggested by the lovely information desk (who also supplied a free map, AFTER I purchased one for 4 Euros =\ )... And we met a guy from So Cal who was studying in Vienna and told us how to get to our hostel from the West Train station... And that we needed to be careful with the tram tickets (we did not purchase one, just hopped on since we couldn't find the ticket machine) since the employees check frequently and charge you 70 Euros if you are caught without a ticket. But luckily we made it, scotch-free. We really like the hostel here in Vienna... Its very nice and we get our own bathroom here in the room. Its like a luxury, having your own bathroom...
This morning I woke up at 10 AM. Oh, 10 AM how I love you... We left the hostel by 11 and made our first stop at a local cafe where we had some vienna coffee. It was pretty good, but I think my first choice will still have to be Kona coffee.... After that we walked around. A lot. We used a map a little but mostly just looked to where the giant steeples were on the cathedrals.... I think we visited like 4 or 5... I'm not sure, I lost count. The first one we went up to the top, but it was a bit pricey... 4.50 Euros just to go up there. But the view was awesome. We also took a tour of parliament, only 2 Euros thanks to our lovely student ID cards. That was pretty cool, as well... The architecture here is really gorgeous. I know that I will be coming back to Vienna... On a side note, one of the songs we heard in the hostel bar last night was "vienna waits for you," which I thought was both ironic and cool. No, I really don't have a choice in the matter (coming back to Vienna). This person, not giving me a choice... You know who you are!! =) (Vienna waits for you!) In the square near one of the cathedrals, the first one we went to, there were some interesting people... The first guy we noticed was a mime-type guy except he only made little squeaky noises, like a mouse... Me and Kana laughed at him a lot. Then there was the guy who was acting like a wind-up type doll thing with his violin. It was amazing that he could hold a pose for that long... That was pretty crazy. And of course he would start playing once you put some money into his little box-thing. And then there was the dancer guy painted like a silver robot. But you see those guys in San Fransisco all the time... Oh, and we also went into this really cool museum. I think its the old Palace, but I'm not sure... My favorite displays were the old instruments. I didn't listen to the explanations as much as the music samples. My favorite was track 300... I think the composer, or whatever, was named Robert Schumann or something... It was a piano song. I quite enjoyed it for the rest of the stay at the museum.
By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 7... We checked the train times for tomorrow morning and discovered the shortest trip to get to Venice is the train leaving from the station we arrived at, at 6:20 in the morning... Ugh. So naturally I'm staying up writing this blog for you guys since I feel bad about not giving you a real update in a while.
So, on to the pictures... I have to warn you, there are quite a lot of pictures. More than I expected... I've been doing the ghetto-photography by using my sunglasses as lense filters since they are poloriod and have color variation to make the picture look cool. You may have seen this in one or two of my pictures from Japan, but I have been going crazy since I came to Europe. So, I sincerely hope you enjoy them! I enjoyed taking them... =)
Here are the albums for August 7 - 10, in Germany and Swizterland, and August 11 -12 in Prague and Vienna. The latter has a ridiculous amount of pictures, so no complaining! =)
Headed to Venice tomorrow and then Rome! Woo!
This post should keep you guys good for the next couple of days, right? Well, it better... And now I'm going to bed since its midnight and I have to be up at 5. Ugh...
Cheers! (as they say in London...)
So its been a while since I've done an actual update, so I will start from our adventures in Switzerland, after leaving Germany.
We decided to do Switzerland kind of last-minute since we both really wanted to see it... So we went to Zurich and did some sight-seeing that Jannett recommended to us. Our first stop was the hostel, of course, which only had pay-internet... And it was a very nice hostel, which pissed me off. 1 Euro for every ten minutes... A total rip-off if you calculate the exchange rates. But we needed the internet to figure out the train times for our next destination: Prague. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Zurich was absolutely beautiful... Our first stop after the hostel was the university, which had a very awesome view of the city. We attempted to take pictures of ourselves but it kind of failed, I think... Well, you can be the judge of that!
We walked around for about two or three hours and then headed back to the hostel to get a recommendation for a restaurant... Of course, all they told us was, "Go to this street. There are a lot of restaurants," despite the fact that we had just come from there. So we hopped aboard the tram and went back, anyways... There were so many restaurants to choose from, including a lovely strip bar, but in the end we went with the Swiss-fondue restaurant with a bunch of pictures of cows. Actually it was a very fancy place, I think a bit on the pricey side... But hey, we had just spent 3 days in Germany without paying for a hostel and getting food for free from Jannett, so why the hell not? The food was very delicious at this restaurant... I'm very glad we went there.
The next morning we got up at 5:30 to get to our 7:15 train, where we would spend the next 11 hours or so on the train... This does not include the 1 hour layover in Munich. But we slept and met some cool people on the train, which made us happy. When we finally arrived in Prague, we were pretty exhausted and slightly frustrated when we couldn't find our hostel. I even called the reception and asked for directions, but it ended in him telling us to get a map of the city and look for the street name. Oh, and he also told us to ask the reception at the hilton, which was right next to the station exit we came out of. I was pretty irritated, given it was nearly 9 at night. We eventually found it and rejoiced. We moved into our room, room 10, and set up our beds and brushed our teeth and chatted with our new roommates, and... Well, there was a mix up, because there were not enough beds and too many people. As it turned out, we were supposed to be in room 12. The most the receptionist did for us was give us two free beers. Crappy Czech beer at that, in a can... Just a side note, I thought it was creepy that we got room 12 because the last 3 hostels before that gave us rooms 212, 12, and 212... And there we were in room 12 yet again. Isn't that creepy? I thought so...
So we got up the next day at about 8 AM, checked out and left our stuff there for the day. We walked around Prague with some people we met in the hostel... Prague is surprisingly small. But it was really cool. Almost as cool as Amsterdam. I think what made Prague awesome was the castle-cathedral thing. That was really REALLLY awesome. Lots of pictures, promise.
We ended up having about 2 hours to spare so we went to the grocery store and picked up some snacks for the train... I was really grateful that we did, too, because I was really hungry for some reason... Well, I guess massive amounts of walking can do that to you. The train ride from Prague to Vienna was almost 5 hours... We arrived in Vienna with only a phone number and an address to our next hostel. And my prepaid phone was out of minutes (its actually pretty expensive... argh), so we had to rely on a pay phone. As it turns out, there are several "main" train stations in Vienna, and we were at the wrong one in relation to our hostel. So we hopped on the #18 tram, suggested by the lovely information desk (who also supplied a free map, AFTER I purchased one for 4 Euros =\ )... And we met a guy from So Cal who was studying in Vienna and told us how to get to our hostel from the West Train station... And that we needed to be careful with the tram tickets (we did not purchase one, just hopped on since we couldn't find the ticket machine) since the employees check frequently and charge you 70 Euros if you are caught without a ticket. But luckily we made it, scotch-free. We really like the hostel here in Vienna... Its very nice and we get our own bathroom here in the room. Its like a luxury, having your own bathroom...
This morning I woke up at 10 AM. Oh, 10 AM how I love you... We left the hostel by 11 and made our first stop at a local cafe where we had some vienna coffee. It was pretty good, but I think my first choice will still have to be Kona coffee.... After that we walked around. A lot. We used a map a little but mostly just looked to where the giant steeples were on the cathedrals.... I think we visited like 4 or 5... I'm not sure, I lost count. The first one we went up to the top, but it was a bit pricey... 4.50 Euros just to go up there. But the view was awesome. We also took a tour of parliament, only 2 Euros thanks to our lovely student ID cards. That was pretty cool, as well... The architecture here is really gorgeous. I know that I will be coming back to Vienna... On a side note, one of the songs we heard in the hostel bar last night was "vienna waits for you," which I thought was both ironic and cool. No, I really don't have a choice in the matter (coming back to Vienna). This person, not giving me a choice... You know who you are!! =) (Vienna waits for you!) In the square near one of the cathedrals, the first one we went to, there were some interesting people... The first guy we noticed was a mime-type guy except he only made little squeaky noises, like a mouse... Me and Kana laughed at him a lot. Then there was the guy who was acting like a wind-up type doll thing with his violin. It was amazing that he could hold a pose for that long... That was pretty crazy. And of course he would start playing once you put some money into his little box-thing. And then there was the dancer guy painted like a silver robot. But you see those guys in San Fransisco all the time... Oh, and we also went into this really cool museum. I think its the old Palace, but I'm not sure... My favorite displays were the old instruments. I didn't listen to the explanations as much as the music samples. My favorite was track 300... I think the composer, or whatever, was named Robert Schumann or something... It was a piano song. I quite enjoyed it for the rest of the stay at the museum.
By the time we got back to the hostel it was about 7... We checked the train times for tomorrow morning and discovered the shortest trip to get to Venice is the train leaving from the station we arrived at, at 6:20 in the morning... Ugh. So naturally I'm staying up writing this blog for you guys since I feel bad about not giving you a real update in a while.
So, on to the pictures... I have to warn you, there are quite a lot of pictures. More than I expected... I've been doing the ghetto-photography by using my sunglasses as lense filters since they are poloriod and have color variation to make the picture look cool. You may have seen this in one or two of my pictures from Japan, but I have been going crazy since I came to Europe. So, I sincerely hope you enjoy them! I enjoyed taking them... =)
Here are the albums for August 7 - 10, in Germany and Swizterland, and August 11 -12 in Prague and Vienna. The latter has a ridiculous amount of pictures, so no complaining! =)
Headed to Venice tomorrow and then Rome! Woo!
This post should keep you guys good for the next couple of days, right? Well, it better... And now I'm going to bed since its midnight and I have to be up at 5. Ugh...
Cheers! (as they say in London...)
Friday, August 7, 2009
Photo albums
Here are links to the photo albums for the last couple of days.... Well, last week actually but I haven't got July 27 - August 2 up yet. Soon, though...
Here is August 3 - 6, and the sex museum for those of you who don't mind seeing a little erotica.
I will edit this post later with July 27 album.
*EDIT*
Here is the album from July 27 - August 2. Sorry I didn't get it up sooner, but I had to upgrade my Picasa web albums account so that it would hold more than 1 GB of pictures. And I figured it would be worth it since I have filled that thing up so fast already, and since my first 3 days in Europe involved massive-amounts of picture taking... Yeah. Enjoy!
*/EDIT*
Here is August 3 - 6, and the sex museum for those of you who don't mind seeing a little erotica.
I will edit this post later with July 27 album.
*EDIT*
Here is the album from July 27 - August 2. Sorry I didn't get it up sooner, but I had to upgrade my Picasa web albums account so that it would hold more than 1 GB of pictures. And I figured it would be worth it since I have filled that thing up so fast already, and since my first 3 days in Europe involved massive-amounts of picture taking... Yeah. Enjoy!
*/EDIT*
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Hey Everyone! Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam!
So I wanted to let you know that I'm not dead... Very well, in fact. Actually, I'm a bit irritated since I am posting this from the hostel computer rather than my own laptop... For some reason my wireless connection isn't working. I have a feeling its because I've been neglecting the window's updates, but since I can't connect to wireless I can't update... And the stupid assholes here won't let me directly connect to the internet. Tomorrow I will probably be able to do it, though, actually...
So here's a little recap of the last couple of days:
I arrived in Hong Kong on August 1 really freaking late at night... I barely missed the last airport shuttle to my hotel so I had to take a taxi. But since everything is bloody cheap in Hong Kong, my cab fare was no exception. Besides... I was very impressed with the view from the window of the taxi cab. Everything was so tall and lit up... And there was a lot of it. I knew Hong Kong had a lot of buildings, but I wasn't prepared for just how many there were exactly. I really wish I could post some pictures, but I think I will be able to post them tomorrow... So please be patient! For those of you who are facebook friends with me, I already have the pictures from Hong Kong posted.
Hong Kong in the day time was pretty interesting as well, I have to say... Everything was so incredibly cheap. For a meal I paid 32 Hong Kong Dollars, which is about 4 US dollars. For a plate of fried rice and two cups of tea. It was very delicious. I think my one regret is that I did not eat more of the food... But I chickened out for a good part of the day and didn't leave my hotel room. I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer size of Hong Kong, and I was mesmerized by the view from my hotel room. Thanks to my good friend James from the Helpdesk for getting me a discounted rate at the Marriott! My room was on the 31 floor... I have some pretty fantastic night shots of Hong Kong that I can't wait to show everyone.
Since my flight to London was really early in the morning I decided to just stay up all night... I would have had to get up at 4 AM to be ready to leave at 5 and get to the airport at 6 for my 8 AM flight... Woo! And I knew it would be easier for me to sleep on the plane if I did that anyways. Sure enough, I was out before the plane even took off. And lucky for me I had an entire row to myself so I could sprawl out.
I arrived in London approximately 12 hours later, at about 2:30 PM London Time. I was a bit unsure of what to do once I got there, since Kana would already be there waiting for me... So I got my luggage and looked around for some sort of phone. I ended up buying a SIM card, which I later learned would not work in my phone anyways since it was locked, but I was able to use it for a prepaid I bought the next day. Anyways, Kana eventually found me and I met her friend Alex, who is going to be studying at her University this next year. He drove us around and took us back to his house, which is in FREAKING WIMBLEDON! We drove past the famous tennis courts and I was gawking the whole time... Then we drove for about 5 more minutes, on the same street, and pulled into this secluded driveway behind an automatic gate... There were two houses that were inside the gate. Both were part of his property. We went outside while he and his gorgeous greek girlfriend prepared dinner for us, along with something called Pips, or Pimps... its a traditional english summer drink. Its similar to sangria because you put fruits in it. And our first meal in London was sushi and this english drink. And wine. The house was really beautiful... Me and Kana totally scored, being able to stay in such a freaking awesome place like that...
The next day Alex took us to the station and we made our way to our hostel, dropped off our stuff, and then went to King's Cross to book our Eurostar tickets. We still had to pay for those, but we ended up getting a discount because of our Eurail passes. After that we ate some Italiano and explored London... Saw the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye, etc... I will post pictures soon! This morning we got up at about 6 so we could get to Kingsbury on time to catch our 8:30 train for Brussels and then head on over to Amsterdam. We are now in Amsterdam, and I have to say... This is a very beautiful town! I wasn't expecting this at all... I don't really know what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. We are staying on the third floor of our hostel and the stairs are so freaking steep. It makes me glad that we are backpacking and not carrying around giant suitcases.
Anyhow, I just wanted to give you guys a brief summary of my last couple of days... Tomorrow we will head to Germany to stay with Kana's friend Jannett for a few days. I think we will make a brief stop in Switzerland, too, but its still up in the air. After that, we'll go to Prague and then to Vienna.
If any of you want to know my phone number for my prepaid cell, just send me an e-mail and I will respond to you as soon as I can with that.
By the way, I am going to change my flight from the 24 to the 28... I just need a couple of more days, I'm thinking. Plus Kana ended up booking her flight to leave the 28 anyways and I really wanted to leave at the same time as her. And since my ticket is flexible, it shouldn't be a problem. I will let you guys know more of the details when that time comes closer.
Toodles, everyone!
So here's a little recap of the last couple of days:
I arrived in Hong Kong on August 1 really freaking late at night... I barely missed the last airport shuttle to my hotel so I had to take a taxi. But since everything is bloody cheap in Hong Kong, my cab fare was no exception. Besides... I was very impressed with the view from the window of the taxi cab. Everything was so tall and lit up... And there was a lot of it. I knew Hong Kong had a lot of buildings, but I wasn't prepared for just how many there were exactly. I really wish I could post some pictures, but I think I will be able to post them tomorrow... So please be patient! For those of you who are facebook friends with me, I already have the pictures from Hong Kong posted.
Hong Kong in the day time was pretty interesting as well, I have to say... Everything was so incredibly cheap. For a meal I paid 32 Hong Kong Dollars, which is about 4 US dollars. For a plate of fried rice and two cups of tea. It was very delicious. I think my one regret is that I did not eat more of the food... But I chickened out for a good part of the day and didn't leave my hotel room. I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer size of Hong Kong, and I was mesmerized by the view from my hotel room. Thanks to my good friend James from the Helpdesk for getting me a discounted rate at the Marriott! My room was on the 31 floor... I have some pretty fantastic night shots of Hong Kong that I can't wait to show everyone.
Since my flight to London was really early in the morning I decided to just stay up all night... I would have had to get up at 4 AM to be ready to leave at 5 and get to the airport at 6 for my 8 AM flight... Woo! And I knew it would be easier for me to sleep on the plane if I did that anyways. Sure enough, I was out before the plane even took off. And lucky for me I had an entire row to myself so I could sprawl out.
I arrived in London approximately 12 hours later, at about 2:30 PM London Time. I was a bit unsure of what to do once I got there, since Kana would already be there waiting for me... So I got my luggage and looked around for some sort of phone. I ended up buying a SIM card, which I later learned would not work in my phone anyways since it was locked, but I was able to use it for a prepaid I bought the next day. Anyways, Kana eventually found me and I met her friend Alex, who is going to be studying at her University this next year. He drove us around and took us back to his house, which is in FREAKING WIMBLEDON! We drove past the famous tennis courts and I was gawking the whole time... Then we drove for about 5 more minutes, on the same street, and pulled into this secluded driveway behind an automatic gate... There were two houses that were inside the gate. Both were part of his property. We went outside while he and his gorgeous greek girlfriend prepared dinner for us, along with something called Pips, or Pimps... its a traditional english summer drink. Its similar to sangria because you put fruits in it. And our first meal in London was sushi and this english drink. And wine. The house was really beautiful... Me and Kana totally scored, being able to stay in such a freaking awesome place like that...
The next day Alex took us to the station and we made our way to our hostel, dropped off our stuff, and then went to King's Cross to book our Eurostar tickets. We still had to pay for those, but we ended up getting a discount because of our Eurail passes. After that we ate some Italiano and explored London... Saw the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye, etc... I will post pictures soon! This morning we got up at about 6 so we could get to Kingsbury on time to catch our 8:30 train for Brussels and then head on over to Amsterdam. We are now in Amsterdam, and I have to say... This is a very beautiful town! I wasn't expecting this at all... I don't really know what I was expecting, but this definitely wasn't it. We are staying on the third floor of our hostel and the stairs are so freaking steep. It makes me glad that we are backpacking and not carrying around giant suitcases.
Anyhow, I just wanted to give you guys a brief summary of my last couple of days... Tomorrow we will head to Germany to stay with Kana's friend Jannett for a few days. I think we will make a brief stop in Switzerland, too, but its still up in the air. After that, we'll go to Prague and then to Vienna.
If any of you want to know my phone number for my prepaid cell, just send me an e-mail and I will respond to you as soon as I can with that.
By the way, I am going to change my flight from the 24 to the 28... I just need a couple of more days, I'm thinking. Plus Kana ended up booking her flight to leave the 28 anyways and I really wanted to leave at the same time as her. And since my ticket is flexible, it shouldn't be a problem. I will let you guys know more of the details when that time comes closer.
Toodles, everyone!
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