Justin and I were counting the different modes of transportation we've used on this trip so far: plane, metro, train, car, bus, ferry, and now we have a new one, ATV. Neither one of us had ridden one before, and Justin actually had no intention to drive until she was forced to. We got a group of fellow hostelers, 7 of us total, to go on an ATV caravan around the island. We only had 4 people with drivers licenses, Justin being one of them, so she had no choice. We rented 4 ATVs from our hostel for 15 Euro per ATV for 24 hours and 2 people per vehicle. I had the song "Born to Be Wild" stuck in my head all morning! I sure felt like a biker chick in my helmet, dress, leggings, and flip flops. After a quick tutorial on how to make the things go and stop, we took off on our adventure. We started on one side of the island at the Red beach and drove all the way around to the other side. It was an exhillerating experience. The views were breath taking. There is only one major road and it winds around the cliffs and through the 2 major towns of the island, Fira and Oia. We took lots of photos of the Caldera, which is the spectacular inner U shape of the island and is steep cliffs, crystal blue and teal water, and the famous white houses with blue rooves hanging off the side of the ridge. It took us about 2 hours to make it to Oia on the other side, and we stopped for lunch and had Gyros. We had been freezing our tails off the whole way, so we had to pull some tables out into the sun and defrost. The weather has not been as warm here as we would have liked. When the sun is out and the wind is blocked or slow, it's beautiful and we quickly strip down to our bikinis, however it's usually short lived periods and we have to put our long sleeves back on. We found a beach in Oia after we ate that was perfect. It was a secluded black sand beach cove that was protected from the wind. We had to park the ATVS and hike down to it. We soaked up as much sun as we could before bundling back up for the ride home. Originally, the plan was to watch the sunset in Oia, but there is no way we would be able to survive the hour long ride back home after the sun was down. It was an amazing day, and we were both so glad we did it. We have met a great group of people here at the hostel and have had a blast with them. J and I had been craving the hostel social life a little bit. We had some good weather yesterday and all of us went to our beach for the day. Layed in the sun on lounge chairs and ate burgers on the beach. It was fantastic. The weather is not as good today; it's really windy, so we are going to take a bus to Fira and walk around the city. All for now!
~Michelle
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Athena for a Day
Well, we made it to Greece! J and I took a very early 6:30am flight on Easy Jet, which involved packing in a whirlwind at 3am, leaving the house at 4:30am to speed walk over a mile to the train station and take a taxi to Orly Airport at 5. We could have eliminated some of the stress this morning by packing instead of drinking 2 bottles of Bordeaux wine and rocking out to Justin Timberlake last night, but where's the fun in that? It's amazing how quickly a 3 hour plane ride goes when you are watching the back of your eyelids.
We were exhausted when we landed, but the excitement and overwhelming stimulation of being in a new foreign country got our adrenaline going. We found our hostel with no problems, ditched the bags, and headed out again. We walked in the direction of the Acropolis which is only about 15-20 min. walk from our hostel. Along the way we came across a huge market that had meats, fresh sea food, produce, nuts, herbs, etc. The meat section was a little unnerving for us, as we are so accustomed to our meats being disguised as 'steak', 'drum sticks', and 'chops'. I'm not personally a big fan of my food looking back at me, but it was definitely a cultural experience.
We got our workout today by hiking to the top of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is perched in all its glory overlooking the entire metropolis of Athens. If you can just look past the scaffolding and block out the hundred other tourists up there, you can picture yourself as Athena or Aphrodite wearing nothing but a toga, eating olives, and sipping wine. After the exhilarating hike, we decided to treat ourselves to some authentic Greek cuisine: tzatziki (thick dip made of plain yogurt, garlic, and cucumber) and pita bread, cheese saganaki (fried cheese), and spanakopita (puff pastry stuffed with spinach and feta). We are planning on going to bed at a decent time tonight because we have to catch a ferry to Santorini at 7:25am. We are really excited for some beach time. It was cloudy and cool today, but I am fully confident that Greece has gotten the memo that we have arrived, and the sun will be shining brightly for us tomorrow. All for now!
~Michelle
We were exhausted when we landed, but the excitement and overwhelming stimulation of being in a new foreign country got our adrenaline going. We found our hostel with no problems, ditched the bags, and headed out again. We walked in the direction of the Acropolis which is only about 15-20 min. walk from our hostel. Along the way we came across a huge market that had meats, fresh sea food, produce, nuts, herbs, etc. The meat section was a little unnerving for us, as we are so accustomed to our meats being disguised as 'steak', 'drum sticks', and 'chops'. I'm not personally a big fan of my food looking back at me, but it was definitely a cultural experience.
We got our workout today by hiking to the top of the Acropolis where the Parthenon is perched in all its glory overlooking the entire metropolis of Athens. If you can just look past the scaffolding and block out the hundred other tourists up there, you can picture yourself as Athena or Aphrodite wearing nothing but a toga, eating olives, and sipping wine. After the exhilarating hike, we decided to treat ourselves to some authentic Greek cuisine: tzatziki (thick dip made of plain yogurt, garlic, and cucumber) and pita bread, cheese saganaki (fried cheese), and spanakopita (puff pastry stuffed with spinach and feta). We are planning on going to bed at a decent time tonight because we have to catch a ferry to Santorini at 7:25am. We are really excited for some beach time. It was cloudy and cool today, but I am fully confident that Greece has gotten the memo that we have arrived, and the sun will be shining brightly for us tomorrow. All for now!
~Michelle
Friday, April 17, 2009
Bikinis in a week? Yikes!
So, we have come to a realization that Cadbury, French bread, and Hefeweisen does not look good in a bikini. We booked our flight to Athens, Greece, and it leaves on April 23. Less than a week from today!! We will stay one night in a hostel in the city and take an early morning ferry to the beautiful island of Santorini. Needless to say, the pressure is on to get our bikini bodies ready. We're talking serious damage control here! Today, we went for a 5 mile, 2 hour hike with our backpacks on in the rain and wind. There's no time for messing around; sissy workouts won't stand a chance against international delights we've devoured in the last 5 weeks. It's after 2pm and all we've eaten is cream of wheat and carrot sticks. I'd say we're making progress.
Yesterday, J and I went to an adorable little town called Tubingen that was highly recommended by our host family. It was a picturesque classical German town, and we were totally romanced by its charm. We did, however, find ourselves much less prepared than we typically are for a day excursion. The weather has been beautiful, so we didn't even think to bring a jacket and ended up freezing our tails off. We also went into the town with only 17 Euro between the two of us and no debit cards because we weren't planning on running across the cheap sun dresses we've been searching for all week. But do you know what we did bring?....umbrellas and ponchos! Those came in handy for the torrential downpour that occurred right as we were leaving. There has definitely been a learning curve on this little adventure of ours... always carry an umbrella, bring more money than you think you will spend just in case, and picture yourself in a two piece before downing a plate of Schufnudln.
-Michelle
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Ouch!
What do you mean my shoes are causing blisters?!
So M and I had the bright idea to walk to the next town, Waldenbuch, yesterday. It only took us about an hour and fifteen minutes (45 mins. less than we initially thought) walking at a semi-brisk pace. We made it to the town after exploring wonderful, little paths through the forest. The scenery here is amazing. We arrived with no problems. Once we got to Waldenbuch, we had one thing on our minds: the Ritter Sport chocolate factory (well, of course. Why else would you walk miles? =) ). We found the factory with minimal issues. Yes, we did ask someone a question in German (see, our skills are developing...). We indulged in some chocolate samples and a shopping spree.
This is where the adventure begins. On our walk home, we decided to take another path up to the main street. In typical M and J style, we ended up getting a little turned around, but as always, we ended up exactly where we needed to be. We started on our forest path and were walking at a just-downed-a-chocolate-bar, must-meet-someone-in-less-than-an-hour-and-half pace. We came to a couple of forks in the road, no problem. Noticed some trees we hadn't seen, no problem. Noticed an entire field we hadn't seen, a little problem. Strong and wrong, we continued down this unknown path. Now mind you, we had to meet our host mom, which meant catching a bus and a train. As we came out of the forest clearing, we noticed a town. Ok, definitely wasn't Weil im Schonbuch. Once again, in German, we asked how to get to our correct town. It ended up working out (as is common with this wonderful trip). We just had to walk up the steepest hill, which is delightful after walking a total of 2 1/2- 3 hours in the sun and shoes that cause very expensive blisters (yes, I officially trashed my shoes and now they're mad...revenge is on). End result: we most likely walked about 10 miles, have enormous blisters, showered, dressed, and snacked all in less than a 1/2 hour, caught the bus, and watched a cute movie...oh, yes, we're wearing flip flops today!
-Justin
So M and I had the bright idea to walk to the next town, Waldenbuch, yesterday. It only took us about an hour and fifteen minutes (45 mins. less than we initially thought) walking at a semi-brisk pace. We made it to the town after exploring wonderful, little paths through the forest. The scenery here is amazing. We arrived with no problems. Once we got to Waldenbuch, we had one thing on our minds: the Ritter Sport chocolate factory (well, of course. Why else would you walk miles? =) ). We found the factory with minimal issues. Yes, we did ask someone a question in German (see, our skills are developing...). We indulged in some chocolate samples and a shopping spree.
This is where the adventure begins. On our walk home, we decided to take another path up to the main street. In typical M and J style, we ended up getting a little turned around, but as always, we ended up exactly where we needed to be. We started on our forest path and were walking at a just-downed-a-chocolate-bar, must-meet-someone-in-less-than-an-hour-and-half pace. We came to a couple of forks in the road, no problem. Noticed some trees we hadn't seen, no problem. Noticed an entire field we hadn't seen, a little problem. Strong and wrong, we continued down this unknown path. Now mind you, we had to meet our host mom, which meant catching a bus and a train. As we came out of the forest clearing, we noticed a town. Ok, definitely wasn't Weil im Schonbuch. Once again, in German, we asked how to get to our correct town. It ended up working out (as is common with this wonderful trip). We just had to walk up the steepest hill, which is delightful after walking a total of 2 1/2- 3 hours in the sun and shoes that cause very expensive blisters (yes, I officially trashed my shoes and now they're mad...revenge is on). End result: we most likely walked about 10 miles, have enormous blisters, showered, dressed, and snacked all in less than a 1/2 hour, caught the bus, and watched a cute movie...oh, yes, we're wearing flip flops today!
-Justin
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Happy Easter
Happy Easter to everyone! We're currently in the land of people who know how to truly do it up right. The entire country pretty much shuts down Friday through Monday for holiday. Because of our ignorance to this, we have spent our fair share of time at bus stations waiting for buses that never show up (I guess EVERYONE gets the days off). Luckily, nature is always awaiting and our adventures have led us to enjoy the beautiful scenery surrounding our home in Weil im Schönbuch (a town in the county of Böblingen, outside of Stuttgart). I highly recommend people type the town into GoogleEarth to get an idea of what we're dealing with. It's absolutely beautiful! The towns are so cute here. Picture shades of green and brown patchwork broken up with small little doll-house-looking villages. The homes have A-frame roofs with terracotta or brown colored tiles, stucco exteriors with dark brown wood planks outlining the windows and creating the stereotypical German looking cottage. (Interestingly, these cottages have a huge amount of solar panels. We're talking serious amounts of energy.) It's amazing!
Monday M and I might walk to one of the neighboring villages and check out a Ritter Sport chocolate factory. In case anyone is wanting the food update: we have now moved to a craving of Cream of Wheat and Ovaltine. Yup, who would've thought after mowing down Cadbury chocolates, then bread and reds, then Hefe Weizen (by the way, it looks like our fest adventure has cured us of that)? We figure we're going through phases during our stay in almost every country. The fact we can say this is very cool!
-Justin
Monday M and I might walk to one of the neighboring villages and check out a Ritter Sport chocolate factory. In case anyone is wanting the food update: we have now moved to a craving of Cream of Wheat and Ovaltine. Yup, who would've thought after mowing down Cadbury chocolates, then bread and reds, then Hefe Weizen (by the way, it looks like our fest adventure has cured us of that)? We figure we're going through phases during our stay in almost every country. The fact we can say this is very cool!
-Justin
Fruhlingsfest
Yesterday, Justin and I got exposed to one of the infamous German fests, the Fruhlingsfest. This is the Spring equivalent to the Oktoberfest, and yesterday was the kickoff to the month long event. Our host parents, Jeff and Hope Call, took us down there to meet up with some of their coworkers. We took the subway, which was packed, and everyone got off at the same stop. The fest is set up in the fairgrounds in downtown Stuttgart and the place was absolutely packed. Everyone was dressed in their Fest-best ranging from miniskirts and heels to full-blown lederhosen getups. We were very impressed with the set up; the carnival rides, games, and food venders were similar to a State Fair in the U.S., but on a much grander scale like a permanently established amuzement park would have. The smell of "wurst" and fried snitzel was in the air, which was hot and sticky. It was one of the hottest days Jeff and Hope had ever experienced in their time in Germany. We decided to pass on the gut-tossing carnival rides, and headed straight for a beer tent.
The beer tent was huge and packed with drunk "festers". Of course it was loud, crowded, and sweltering hot in the tent, but it was the place to be. There was a live band playing American songs, and everyone was singing along and dancing on the tables. Because the beer was only served in one size mug, 1 liter, it was not long before we were joining them. After a couple hours, we had had enough and decided to go check out what kind of greasy goodness the food venders had to offer. We decided on splitting a rothwurst and some schpfnudln cooked with sourkrout and ham pieces. I also got a chocolate covered banana from another cart that had pretty much any type of fruit (strawberries, coconut, pineapple, chili peppers) covered in chocolate. We also stopped by a cart on the way out that sold carmelized, roasted nuts. I would say (minus the carnival rides) we experienced everything the Fhurlingfest had to offer. It was fun, but I think I've had as much fest as I can handle.
Prost!
~Michelle
Prost!
~Michelle
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Afternoons in the Beirgarten
All I can tell you about Stuttgart, as of now, is there is an amazing family, the Calls, that lives here that has opened up their home to us, and it also has some fantastic beirgartens. Our afternoons since we arrived have consisted of sitting either outside on a patio or laying on the grass soaking up the sunshine and sipping locally brewed hefeweisens. Yes, I have been drinking beer. Suprising to those of you who know how I despise carbination, I know. You just cant come to a country that is famous for its beer and not partake in the marriment. We went to the Schombach Bruahous, a well known brewery in the area. We sat outside on the patio and sampled a variety of different "weisens" (Krystal-, polar-, hefe-). We ended up hanging out there and drinking and talking for 4.5 hours! Let's just say the walk home was a lot more fun than the walk there! Today we went into downtown Stuttgart and ate our picnic lunch in a large park that conveniently happens to be a beirgarten as well. The weather was absolutely beautiful. Probably about 80 degrees; not a cloud in the sky. We sported t-shirts today; however for the sake of everyone around, we did not reveal the sasquatch situation hidden under our pants!
This week is perfect timing for being in Germany. The Fruhlingsfest starts this weekend and is the spring equivalent to Oktoberfest. We plan on joining in on the festivities and learning a bit more about German culture and tradition. We bought a special pass that will let us use all of the public transportation in, around, and out of Stuttgart from Fri-Mon for 15.80 Euro for the 2 of us. We plan on being in the city all weekend. We are going to check out the Ludwig Castle tomorrow, then possibly check out the Stuttgart Friday night scene. Hopefully it has a bit more to offer than Augsburg. That's all for now!
~Michelle
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Sprechen sie Englisch?
Yep, we were meant to venture of the beaten path and into the unknown. Yesterday we arrived in a city we had never heard of until the day before we left. It couldn´t have gone any smoother. Even when the man at the front desk of our hostel didn´t speak english and couldn´t find our reservation, we didn´t once panic. I would say for two girls as organized and analytical as us, that is definitely huge growth. He did find our reservation, to the relief of eveyone involved, and we have a nice private double room. We went out on the town last night. There are lots of young people here, although we found ourselves in a club that could very well been our stomping grounds in Reno. The music is the same anywhere you go thanks to the U.S. dominance of the music industry. It´s also amazing to me that as soon as you tell a guy you are American he immediately wants to talk politics. I´m sorry, but discussing Obama in a nightclub is not my definition of a good time.
Thankfully a lot of people we´ve run into "sprechen sie Englisch" because our German is even more limited than our French. The most common response it "a little" when we ask, but we´ll take what we can get. We haven´t ventured to try weinersnitzl, bratwurst, or the famous German weisbeir yet, but we have enjoyed the German custom of drinking in the streets in the afternoon. We had a picnic of german salami, cheese, multigrain bread, olives and cream cheese stuffed peppers, grapes and a rum cocktail we mixed "hostel style" and ate sitting on the cobble stones of the main plaza in town. We decided to stay an extra night so we have some more time to explore. Then we will head to Stuttgart on Monday.
Auf wierderseheh for now.
~Michelle
Thankfully a lot of people we´ve run into "sprechen sie Englisch" because our German is even more limited than our French. The most common response it "a little" when we ask, but we´ll take what we can get. We haven´t ventured to try weinersnitzl, bratwurst, or the famous German weisbeir yet, but we have enjoyed the German custom of drinking in the streets in the afternoon. We had a picnic of german salami, cheese, multigrain bread, olives and cream cheese stuffed peppers, grapes and a rum cocktail we mixed "hostel style" and ate sitting on the cobble stones of the main plaza in town. We decided to stay an extra night so we have some more time to explore. Then we will head to Stuttgart on Monday.
Auf wierderseheh for now.
~Michelle
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Change of plans
So a change of plans. In typical J and M fashion, we have decided Augsburg fits in the budget- Munich definitely does not. This realization came about after the tickets were purchased (gotta love that!) Well, an adventure is what we wanted and what we shall receive. Here goes Augsburg...
-Justin
P.S. We now may be posting only after we have actually arrived somewhere...
-Justin
P.S. We now may be posting only after we have actually arrived somewhere...
Au revoir Paris...for now
So a little catch up: hopefully you all got the link to view our pics. If you didn't, let me know and I can forward you that. Also, we haven't had a consistent internet connection so I haven't been able to return emails or send out some info. Sorry about that; I plan to catch up once we have a steady computer situation and a keyboard that is American-inspired (the French keyboard is very different).
We've been in France since last Tuesday (so this definitely takes the cake on land squatting...Killarney has nothing on Paris). We've seen some of the tourist sites (i.e. Eiffel Tower, Louvre (yes, I had a moment with Mona Lisa) and Gardens, Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, had lunch and wine at the Chàteau Versailles (pretending I was Marie Antoinette- pre-beheading), and had another moment at the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise with Jim Morrison). In addition to doing the tourist stuff, Angela has been the most amazing host. We got to experience a ballet/opera qt the Opèra National de Paris-Bastille (note: if you wait in line about 3 hours early, you can get a €80 ticket for €5, but you may have to stand up the whole time- definitely worth it!) And did I mention the copious amount of food and wine consumed?! Cadbury chocolate has nothing on the reds, breads, and cheese! (I don't know how these people stay thin.) Speaking of "these" people, I have never met people as friendly or helpful as the French!
Other time has been spent...well, eating (Angela is a great cook, picnic-lunch packer, and knows all of the good restaurants), getting through cat allergies (she has 3 cats), and fighting colds. We're definitely not the easiest home squatters. Our time here has been amazing and we are so appreciative that we got to experience this (so thanks to those that helped make this trip possible =) ). Thank you Angela!!!!!
That brings me to our next plans. Yesterday we purchased our tickets to Germany! I should add that we purchased round-trip tix (and just when Angela thought we were leaving... =) ). We're starting in Munich. We have a friend that may be joining us from Spain...Stacy get it together...we'd love to party down with you. We'll probably be there for about 3 days and then we're not sure. Amsterdam was the original plan, but it's very expensive to get and stay there, so that's out.
I think we may be getting anxious for Italy and Spain... places where we can speak a little of the language (although my French, which was obsolete beforehand, has improved. I can now say about 4 phrases!) But first we must experience German...if it's one thing that we've figured out, it's that we are now confident with our navigation skills! We are definitely a power team!
Au revoir et baisers
-Justin
We've been in France since last Tuesday (so this definitely takes the cake on land squatting...Killarney has nothing on Paris). We've seen some of the tourist sites (i.e. Eiffel Tower, Louvre (yes, I had a moment with Mona Lisa) and Gardens, Notre Dame, Luxembourg Gardens, had lunch and wine at the Chàteau Versailles (pretending I was Marie Antoinette- pre-beheading), and had another moment at the Cimetière du Père-Lachaise with Jim Morrison). In addition to doing the tourist stuff, Angela has been the most amazing host. We got to experience a ballet/opera qt the Opèra National de Paris-Bastille (note: if you wait in line about 3 hours early, you can get a €80 ticket for €5, but you may have to stand up the whole time- definitely worth it!) And did I mention the copious amount of food and wine consumed?! Cadbury chocolate has nothing on the reds, breads, and cheese! (I don't know how these people stay thin.) Speaking of "these" people, I have never met people as friendly or helpful as the French!
Other time has been spent...well, eating (Angela is a great cook, picnic-lunch packer, and knows all of the good restaurants), getting through cat allergies (she has 3 cats), and fighting colds. We're definitely not the easiest home squatters. Our time here has been amazing and we are so appreciative that we got to experience this (so thanks to those that helped make this trip possible =) ). Thank you Angela!!!!!
That brings me to our next plans. Yesterday we purchased our tickets to Germany! I should add that we purchased round-trip tix (and just when Angela thought we were leaving... =) ). We're starting in Munich. We have a friend that may be joining us from Spain...Stacy get it together...we'd love to party down with you. We'll probably be there for about 3 days and then we're not sure. Amsterdam was the original plan, but it's very expensive to get and stay there, so that's out.
I think we may be getting anxious for Italy and Spain... places where we can speak a little of the language (although my French, which was obsolete beforehand, has improved. I can now say about 4 phrases!) But first we must experience German...if it's one thing that we've figured out, it's that we are now confident with our navigation skills! We are definitely a power team!
Au revoir et baisers
-Justin
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