Dan commented on all the pictures, even with his severed toe tendon!
See http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days for bushels of fun.
As for life in general, Eric and I finally have our new place in a somewhat presentable form. Eric seems to be enjoying Imperial Oil and its oodles of money, and I'm quite happy working for IMV Projects.
I think I'll be updateing my personal blog instead of this one from now on, but it's been a slice!
Sep 17, 2007
Aug 19, 2007
Home again, home again!
We finally returned to Canada on Friday night, and we're staying in the Sheraton Eau Claire in Calgary for 2 weeks while Imperial Oil house-hunts for us. With all expenses paid, we've been living pretty high on the hog! I had a grey-goose martini on Friday night and was convinced that they watered-down the vodka. Then it occured to me that high-quality vokda probably doesn't taste quite as horrible as Mongolian vodka...
Anyway, I'm convinced that we live in the best country in the world. I'll try to think up some deep lessons learned for a future posting.
PS: Some new pictures are up... I highly recommend the Mongolia ones.
Anyway, I'm convinced that we live in the best country in the world. I'll try to think up some deep lessons learned for a future posting.
PS: Some new pictures are up... I highly recommend the Mongolia ones.
Aug 6, 2007
Mongolia at last
Quick post.
First off, Irkutsk wasn't much, and definitely NOT the so-called "Paris of Siberia". Lake Baikal was awesome though, and I think most of us agreed that we might return there. Maybe we'll post more about it later. One thing to mention was that Amber's bag was stolen at our last sketchy internet cafe in Russia. [this is called foreshadowing, read on]. On to Mongolia...
Our border crossing was not that bad (supposedly), it was only around 6hrs or so. We wandered around some shitty Russian and Mongolian towns buying beer and drinking since there was nothing else to do. We arrived in Ulaan Baatar at around 6:30am (half hour ahead of schedule, if there is such a thing as a schedule here).
We checked in our hotel and took a much needed shower. No hot water. Then we napped until 9am because the train was so hot we couldn't sleep. When we woke up electricity was out in our entire block. Sean showered in the cold and the dark. Hehe. I bought some tasty deep fried breadlet that had nuggets of mushrooms and tasty asianesque flavours.
We conquered a bunch of sites here, and then had lunch. Mmm... tasty mutton roast, Mongolian soup, and some tasty tongue. Tried Chinggis beer, which is ok. In typical Hepler fashion, we were offered vodka by some Mongolians (a few shots each: 3 for you, oh you're Canadian, then 4...). We were accosted by friendly children who wanted to try out their English, and then climb on tanks and get their pictures taken. Just about 5 minutes ago some guy tried to pick my pocket. I slapped his hand and then yelled at him. He was dressed in a suit.
Lots of fun! We're going to see a traditional cultural dance and then eat dinner (mmmmm tasty goodness). Tomorrow we leave for the Ger camp (they have airag, fermented mare's milk there!).
Dan.
First off, Irkutsk wasn't much, and definitely NOT the so-called "Paris of Siberia". Lake Baikal was awesome though, and I think most of us agreed that we might return there. Maybe we'll post more about it later. One thing to mention was that Amber's bag was stolen at our last sketchy internet cafe in Russia. [this is called foreshadowing, read on]. On to Mongolia...
Our border crossing was not that bad (supposedly), it was only around 6hrs or so. We wandered around some shitty Russian and Mongolian towns buying beer and drinking since there was nothing else to do. We arrived in Ulaan Baatar at around 6:30am (half hour ahead of schedule, if there is such a thing as a schedule here).
We checked in our hotel and took a much needed shower. No hot water. Then we napped until 9am because the train was so hot we couldn't sleep. When we woke up electricity was out in our entire block. Sean showered in the cold and the dark. Hehe. I bought some tasty deep fried breadlet that had nuggets of mushrooms and tasty asianesque flavours.
We conquered a bunch of sites here, and then had lunch. Mmm... tasty mutton roast, Mongolian soup, and some tasty tongue. Tried Chinggis beer, which is ok. In typical Hepler fashion, we were offered vodka by some Mongolians (a few shots each: 3 for you, oh you're Canadian, then 4...). We were accosted by friendly children who wanted to try out their English, and then climb on tanks and get their pictures taken. Just about 5 minutes ago some guy tried to pick my pocket. I slapped his hand and then yelled at him. He was dressed in a suit.
Lots of fun! We're going to see a traditional cultural dance and then eat dinner (mmmmm tasty goodness). Tomorrow we leave for the Ger camp (they have airag, fermented mare's milk there!).
Dan.
Jul 25, 2007
Russia... more than just Beets, Noodles, and Furry Hats
So we've been in St Petersburg Russia for 2 full days now, and tonight we head on an overnight train to Moscow. My observations thus far:
- The Russian language is much more difficult than one might think after studying it for 3 months.
- People in Russia generally don't like to smile, move out of a person's path, or be pleasant in any way (this is all part of the experience!)
- Food in Russia is much BETTER than you might expect. Last night we had delicious Armenian food, for example, and the Borshcht is to die for!
- Baggage loss on Russian flights is extremely common; but worry not, for baggage will be returned to your hotel within one day (albeit some articles may be missing from said baggage)
- Animal cruelty is acceptable and legal in Russia (this surprised me). It is not uncommon to see an average Joe parading a baby black bear or monkey around for tourist dollars. I asked our guide what happens to the baby black bears when they grow up big and strong enough to beat up thier evil owners, and she told me that the fate of the baby bears "eez not goot".
- Always keep your guard on. Don't look the police straight in the eye or they may harrass you for ID or money, and we hear that the Mafia really does dominate. Another interesting sight we saw today was a man laying on the sidewalk. He looked like someone had just freshly cut out his right eye, but no one seemed to care. (this WAS a sketchier part of town, but still...)
But really, this is a beautifully unique city, and 2 days is not NEARLY enough to do it justice. Besides wandering the side streets, trying to speak Russian, and sampling delicacies, we've seen the Hermitage and two other Palaces between the 4 of us. (one of which included the famous AMBER ROOM; a rediculous Amber stone paneled space within Katherine the Great's Pushkin Palace). And, we have a new travel mate named Sean. He's a Calgarian Nurse, and just splendid to have along. More on him later, I'm sure.
Sorry so short, but we have a train to catch! Please send good vibes, as I will be alone on our over night train to Moscow tonight and don't care to lose an eye.
Amber
- The Russian language is much more difficult than one might think after studying it for 3 months.
- People in Russia generally don't like to smile, move out of a person's path, or be pleasant in any way (this is all part of the experience!)
- Food in Russia is much BETTER than you might expect. Last night we had delicious Armenian food, for example, and the Borshcht is to die for!
- Baggage loss on Russian flights is extremely common; but worry not, for baggage will be returned to your hotel within one day (albeit some articles may be missing from said baggage)
- Animal cruelty is acceptable and legal in Russia (this surprised me). It is not uncommon to see an average Joe parading a baby black bear or monkey around for tourist dollars. I asked our guide what happens to the baby black bears when they grow up big and strong enough to beat up thier evil owners, and she told me that the fate of the baby bears "eez not goot".
- Always keep your guard on. Don't look the police straight in the eye or they may harrass you for ID or money, and we hear that the Mafia really does dominate. Another interesting sight we saw today was a man laying on the sidewalk. He looked like someone had just freshly cut out his right eye, but no one seemed to care. (this WAS a sketchier part of town, but still...)
But really, this is a beautifully unique city, and 2 days is not NEARLY enough to do it justice. Besides wandering the side streets, trying to speak Russian, and sampling delicacies, we've seen the Hermitage and two other Palaces between the 4 of us. (one of which included the famous AMBER ROOM; a rediculous Amber stone paneled space within Katherine the Great's Pushkin Palace). And, we have a new travel mate named Sean. He's a Calgarian Nurse, and just splendid to have along. More on him later, I'm sure.
Sorry so short, but we have a train to catch! Please send good vibes, as I will be alone on our over night train to Moscow tonight and don't care to lose an eye.
Amber
Jul 23, 2007
Oh, Russia...
So here we are in Russia finally, and it's already a very different world than Germany. Our baggage was lost, and it didn't really seem like a very rare occurance. They had a busy room dedicated to others who had lost their luggage. Fortunately this is the part of our trip where we met up with vodkatrain, so we have contacts who can speak russian for us.
Billy (Dan and my father) joined us in Germany for the last week, and we had a blast visiting with Susanne and Hannes in Hannover, and meeting their friend Peter Lindenberg in Berlin, who is a professional artist that makes beautiful work in Berlin. He showed us the artistic world of Berlin, which was incredible and very different.
There are lots of great stories to tell, but I'm too tired to write much more that's coherent right now, but we are alive and well! I'm not sure how often we will be able to write during the next 3 weeks (internet may not be available everywhere that we go), so don't be too worried if you don't hear from us frequently. Pictures may have to wait until we're back to be uploaded, but we'll see!
Dasvidania (or however you write goodbye in Russian),
Eric
Billy (Dan and my father) joined us in Germany for the last week, and we had a blast visiting with Susanne and Hannes in Hannover, and meeting their friend Peter Lindenberg in Berlin, who is a professional artist that makes beautiful work in Berlin. He showed us the artistic world of Berlin, which was incredible and very different.
There are lots of great stories to tell, but I'm too tired to write much more that's coherent right now, but we are alive and well! I'm not sure how often we will be able to write during the next 3 weeks (internet may not be available everywhere that we go), so don't be too worried if you don't hear from us frequently. Pictures may have to wait until we're back to be uploaded, but we'll see!
Dasvidania (or however you write goodbye in Russian),
Eric
Jul 15, 2007
Poznań, Poland's Potatoland
Dzien Dobry!
Eric and I were loving Germany, but finding it very similar to Canada; thus we decided to shake things up a bit (i.e. make traveling more complicated for ourselves) and head to Poland.
We traveled on Friday to a city of 500,000 called Poznań, and the differences were apparent as soon as we crossed the Germany-Poland border. The trains were more like Italian trains (slow, smelly, late, but charismatic!), and of course, the language was COMPLETELY different (sounds like Russian, looks like English, but reads like djghlfkjgfsdkgsk).
As for the food, I learned today that there are three different words for potato in Polish - pyry, kartofle and ziemniaki. The particular region where Poznań is located, Wielkopolska, is also known as "Pyrlandia" - literally "Potatoland". This is not the place to come to dispel stereotypes about Polish food! So far it has been potatos, potato dumplings, quark, borsht, and relatively flavourless cheeses. The beer is somewhat budweiser-ish, which is a bit disturbing after the delicious beer in Germany, but it keeps the costs down at least!
98 % of the people here are Polish and white as could be, or at least it feels that way. Poznań is easily the least multi-cultural city we have been to (as an example, I was brave enough to try a "burrito" here yesterday, which in Poland consists of a crepe "tortilla" filled with chicken and ketchup). Let's just say I don't think I will sample the Chinese food in Poznań! Of course, the 98% Polish population did not occur by chance... it was carefully planned, and well, seems to have stayed that way ever since.
Although the vodka costs the same as it does in Canada, there does seem to be a lot of alcoholics roaming the city (we already have many pictures of drunken Polish men air-guitaring and prepositioning me when we least expected it!). Anyway, we are thinking that Poland is a good intro to what's to come in Russia next week.
Currently Dan is in Denmark, and Billy will be meeting us in Frankfurt on Tuesday... until then, prost!
Amber
Eric and I were loving Germany, but finding it very similar to Canada; thus we decided to shake things up a bit (i.e. make traveling more complicated for ourselves) and head to Poland.
We traveled on Friday to a city of 500,000 called Poznań, and the differences were apparent as soon as we crossed the Germany-Poland border. The trains were more like Italian trains (slow, smelly, late, but charismatic!), and of course, the language was COMPLETELY different (sounds like Russian, looks like English, but reads like djghlfkjgfsdkgsk).
As for the food, I learned today that there are three different words for potato in Polish - pyry, kartofle and ziemniaki. The particular region where Poznań is located, Wielkopolska, is also known as "Pyrlandia" - literally "Potatoland". This is not the place to come to dispel stereotypes about Polish food! So far it has been potatos, potato dumplings, quark, borsht, and relatively flavourless cheeses. The beer is somewhat budweiser-ish, which is a bit disturbing after the delicious beer in Germany, but it keeps the costs down at least!
98 % of the people here are Polish and white as could be, or at least it feels that way. Poznań is easily the least multi-cultural city we have been to (as an example, I was brave enough to try a "burrito" here yesterday, which in Poland consists of a crepe "tortilla" filled with chicken and ketchup). Let's just say I don't think I will sample the Chinese food in Poznań! Of course, the 98% Polish population did not occur by chance... it was carefully planned, and well, seems to have stayed that way ever since.
Although the vodka costs the same as it does in Canada, there does seem to be a lot of alcoholics roaming the city (we already have many pictures of drunken Polish men air-guitaring and prepositioning me when we least expected it!). Anyway, we are thinking that Poland is a good intro to what's to come in Russia next week.
Currently Dan is in Denmark, and Billy will be meeting us in Frankfurt on Tuesday... until then, prost!
Amber
Jul 11, 2007
NEW PICTURES!
Ok, so since the weather is so pissy today, we are hanging out in an internet cafe triple teaming the photo uploading and captioning. We should have Rome, Cinque Terre, and maybe France and Germany by the time you check them out... Check back tomorrow in any case.
In case you forgot already, or are blind and can't see the text "CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS", here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
In case you forgot already, or are blind and can't see the text "CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS", here's the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
Jul 9, 2007
Pouring rain in Europe
It's the middle of July and it's pouring rain like "une vache qui pisse" (french expression for raining hard, which means "like a cow pissing") all over north-western Europe.
You can see here that we clearly should have done Greece and Italy AFTER Germany and France. I wonder how much longer it will last... the pour weather has been in the news almost every day here, and shopkeepers and touristy places aren't making nearly as much money this summer. It will probably also have an effect on this seasons's produce and wine. It feels like Vancouver in October.
Anyway, last weekend I ditched Eric & Amber to meet Sanaee and her mom in Loue, a little village near Le Mans back in France. I stayed in their little castle, complete with two towers and a huge garden, surrounded by walls, but alas, no moat. We had all sorts of tasty foods (including Rillettes, a fantastic combination of fat and sausage) and wandered around the little villages around Loue on Saturday while it was mostly sunny. We even went to a famous Abby to hear Gregorian Chanting!
Dan.
You can see here that we clearly should have done Greece and Italy AFTER Germany and France. I wonder how much longer it will last... the pour weather has been in the news almost every day here, and shopkeepers and touristy places aren't making nearly as much money this summer. It will probably also have an effect on this seasons's produce and wine. It feels like Vancouver in October.
Anyway, last weekend I ditched Eric & Amber to meet Sanaee and her mom in Loue, a little village near Le Mans back in France. I stayed in their little castle, complete with two towers and a huge garden, surrounded by walls, but alas, no moat. We had all sorts of tasty foods (including Rillettes, a fantastic combination of fat and sausage) and wandered around the little villages around Loue on Saturday while it was mostly sunny. We even went to a famous Abby to hear Gregorian Chanting!
Dan.
Jul 3, 2007
Sicily Pictures Captioned!
Hopefully we'll find a computer to upload more soon...
We're safe and sound in the Black Forest (Germany) right now.
More to come,
Eric
We're safe and sound in the Black Forest (Germany) right now.
More to come,
Eric
Jul 1, 2007
Trust in the generosity of others
(the other titles I was contemplating were: "Train Adventures II - Self-Inflicted Pain", and "Karma Rules")
I (Dan) left Eric and Amber a few days ago to head down to Bordeaux to visit Melo and Calvin in their Apart'Hotel (longer term hotel). They graciously let me sleep on pillows in the hall, and despite the infamously horrible smell of Calvin's farts, we had a great time (hehe, sorry man!). To cut to the chase, I will recount only yesterday's climax of adventures, starting with today as foreshadowing.
I had a very lucky train experience today. At 10:30am we woke up from a horrible dream where I got on the train and then realized that I had forgotten my guitar. I guess I haven't told you that I am building a guitar right now. I'll have pictures later, once it's finished. Right now it only has 1 string and 12 un-intonated frets. After slowly lumbering around Melo & Calvin's room, Melo reminded me it was probably time to rush off to my 11:57am train back to Paris.
I tried taking the tram, but since it was sunday, if I took the tram, I would arrive after my train was supposed to have left. So I decided to walk. As it turns out, I began walking with 12 minutes to the next tram, and when I got to the station, there was 14 minutes to the next one, so I gained 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I arrived a few minutes after 12:00 noon. Optimistically hoping that the first train out of 12 or so would happen to be mine, I jumped on literally seconds before it started moving. The train conductor was amazed at my good fortune since it was only due to some confusion with a new guy at the train station that the train was late at all.
So back to yesterday now, where we had another different train adventure.
Melo, Calvin and I decided to visit Arcachon for its beaches and the largest sand dunes in Europe. We couldn't get the ticket machines to buy us tickets to Arcachon (70km away) in time, so we ended up missing the first train and waiting in the station for 2 hours for the next one. It didn't occur to us that this was an omen of things to come.
In Arcachon we sunbathed, rented bikes and rode to the dunes, sunbathed more, and hiked to the summit of the dunes. It was an amazing view: Lush green forests on the left, down a steep sand bank (200m?), and the ocean on the right. A cool breeze rushed up the sand bank carrying only the smallest particles of sand, and a refreshing evergreen smell from the forest below.
After sunburning ourselves, we returned to Arcachon to return the bikes and eat a plate of seafood before catching the last train at 8-something pm. We enjoyed raw oysters, and summoned the courage to down raw clams, raw mussels, and two types of cooked sea snails and finished with cooked little shrimp, prawns, and scampi (langoustines). Unfortunately, I bought a pastis and Melo bought a coffee before leaving, while Calvin ran ahead to buy train tickets.
Melo and I downed our drinks as quick as posssible and headed to meet Calvin at the train station. Unfortunately, what we met was the train leaving. We had a quick conversation with the last guy at the train station who laid everything out for us: no train, no bus, taxi is 140 Euro (210 dollars). After not much thought, I suggested we try hitchhiking back.
It turned out that our first ride was so easy that we accepted a ride halfway between Arcachon and Bordeaux (I think called Molis). There we tried for an hour maybe, with different techniques and signs, but everyone was going to Arcachon instead of Bordeaux. We figured it would be better to try to find a place to sleep in Arcachon instead of some farmer's field in Molis, so we returned back to Arcachon. Just as we were resigning ourselves to search for some expensive hotel, we were picked up by some friendly French people who loved smoking and Bob Marley & the Wailers who drove us all the way back. They were so nice they wouldn't even accept any payment for the ride.
Lessons learned:
- Always trust in the generosity of others.
- Hitch-hiking is cheaper than taking the train, and a lot more fun.
- Timeliness is its own reward.
Another highlight of Bordeaux was seeing The Snoc (a 'punk' band). They had a cute lead singer, an alligator playing guitar, and a drummer lost in happy drumland.
I'm now in Paris trying to get in contact with Sanaee to see some Gypsy jazz tonight with Jeanne.
Dan.
I (Dan) left Eric and Amber a few days ago to head down to Bordeaux to visit Melo and Calvin in their Apart'Hotel (longer term hotel). They graciously let me sleep on pillows in the hall, and despite the infamously horrible smell of Calvin's farts, we had a great time (hehe, sorry man!). To cut to the chase, I will recount only yesterday's climax of adventures, starting with today as foreshadowing.
I had a very lucky train experience today. At 10:30am we woke up from a horrible dream where I got on the train and then realized that I had forgotten my guitar. I guess I haven't told you that I am building a guitar right now. I'll have pictures later, once it's finished. Right now it only has 1 string and 12 un-intonated frets. After slowly lumbering around Melo & Calvin's room, Melo reminded me it was probably time to rush off to my 11:57am train back to Paris.
I tried taking the tram, but since it was sunday, if I took the tram, I would arrive after my train was supposed to have left. So I decided to walk. As it turns out, I began walking with 12 minutes to the next tram, and when I got to the station, there was 14 minutes to the next one, so I gained 2 minutes. Unfortunately, I arrived a few minutes after 12:00 noon. Optimistically hoping that the first train out of 12 or so would happen to be mine, I jumped on literally seconds before it started moving. The train conductor was amazed at my good fortune since it was only due to some confusion with a new guy at the train station that the train was late at all.
So back to yesterday now, where we had another different train adventure.
Melo, Calvin and I decided to visit Arcachon for its beaches and the largest sand dunes in Europe. We couldn't get the ticket machines to buy us tickets to Arcachon (70km away) in time, so we ended up missing the first train and waiting in the station for 2 hours for the next one. It didn't occur to us that this was an omen of things to come.
In Arcachon we sunbathed, rented bikes and rode to the dunes, sunbathed more, and hiked to the summit of the dunes. It was an amazing view: Lush green forests on the left, down a steep sand bank (200m?), and the ocean on the right. A cool breeze rushed up the sand bank carrying only the smallest particles of sand, and a refreshing evergreen smell from the forest below.
After sunburning ourselves, we returned to Arcachon to return the bikes and eat a plate of seafood before catching the last train at 8-something pm. We enjoyed raw oysters, and summoned the courage to down raw clams, raw mussels, and two types of cooked sea snails and finished with cooked little shrimp, prawns, and scampi (langoustines). Unfortunately, I bought a pastis and Melo bought a coffee before leaving, while Calvin ran ahead to buy train tickets.
Melo and I downed our drinks as quick as posssible and headed to meet Calvin at the train station. Unfortunately, what we met was the train leaving. We had a quick conversation with the last guy at the train station who laid everything out for us: no train, no bus, taxi is 140 Euro (210 dollars). After not much thought, I suggested we try hitchhiking back.
It turned out that our first ride was so easy that we accepted a ride halfway between Arcachon and Bordeaux (I think called Molis). There we tried for an hour maybe, with different techniques and signs, but everyone was going to Arcachon instead of Bordeaux. We figured it would be better to try to find a place to sleep in Arcachon instead of some farmer's field in Molis, so we returned back to Arcachon. Just as we were resigning ourselves to search for some expensive hotel, we were picked up by some friendly French people who loved smoking and Bob Marley & the Wailers who drove us all the way back. They were so nice they wouldn't even accept any payment for the ride.
Lessons learned:
- Always trust in the generosity of others.
- Hitch-hiking is cheaper than taking the train, and a lot more fun.
- Timeliness is its own reward.
Another highlight of Bordeaux was seeing The Snoc (a 'punk' band). They had a cute lead singer, an alligator playing guitar, and a drummer lost in happy drumland.
I'm now in Paris trying to get in contact with Sanaee to see some Gypsy jazz tonight with Jeanne.
Dan.
Jun 26, 2007
Pardon my French, but when in Rome...
Yes, we have been overusing the above two expressions while in Rome and France. There's lots of updating on our travels, so I'll try to let the pictures speak for us (provided they upload properly....fingers crossed!).
Here's an overview of some highlights:
Sicily:
- We went to Palermo, the birthplace of the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian Mafia) and the site of many an epic mob war in the 70s, 80s, and earlier. Despite this, it was a very beautiful city full of nice people. Although we really didn't have time to explore it very well, we did see their catacombs, which is probably one of the creepiest places on Earth. Picture hundreds of dead bodies in various states of preservation (some had skin, eyes and hair still attached, others were just skeletons) all dressed up in clothes and lining the walls staring at you when you walk through the hallways. There was also a dead baby room. They didn't allow pictures inside, which many of you are probably very thankful about.
- After Palermo we went to a small beach resort town called Brolo on the recommendation of a lady at the train station. Unfortunately the only place to stay was a 3 star hotel that included breakfast and dinner (a bit out of our price range). Having no other place to stay, we decided to stay for one night, which quickly turned into 2 nights when we discovered that they had free-flow taps with UNLIMITED red & white wine! Needless to say, we had a noise complaint the first night we stayed there...
- After Brolo we made our way to Acireale, which is a beautiful Sicilian city/town. From there we walked and drove around to various beautiful beaches, churches, eating places, etc. including Mt. Etna (PACKED with busloads of tourist monkeys...uggh!)
Rome:
- Incredible city...there are little bits of history everywhere you look, and the most fantastic food markets everywhere. The tomatoes that you got at the vegetable markets were like heaven...we would usually eat about 2kg of tomatoes per day between the 4 of us.
- We rented rooms at an apartment with a shared bathroom from a very entertaining character. It was called a "bed & breakfast" but should have been called a "bed & no breakfast"...our host was too hungover to make it to breakfast the first night, and then had to go to his brother's wedding for a few nights. He took a few euros off of the price though, so it was all good. While we were there, we met a very nice couple named Mette and Alberto who were from Daenmark and Spain, respectively.
- We met up with Galvin, Vin and David for a couple evenings and had some good food, saw a concert and discussed our respective travels. Galvin's travels are being documented on www.galvinclancey.blogspot.com ...check it out if you're addicted to reading travel blogs!
-We said goodbye to Karen after a wonderful 2 or 3 weeks (not sure...time flies when you're having fun) travelling with us.
Cinque Terre:
- Beautiful place! It is a national park just southeast of Genova in the Liguria region of Italy. We had an apartment with a kitchen, which we used to make delicious Italian feasts every night. We hiked every day for around 10 km or so...beautiful hikes amoung the vineyards that line the terrassed hills along the breathtakingly blue mediterranean...incredible! Andrew, you would be glad to have missed the death marches...
- The Cinque Terre consists of 5 main villages (all hiking distance from one another). We stayed in Corniglia, the center village (pop. 240) which is the least touristy of them (probably due to the 400 stairs that you have to climb to get to it).
Nice:
- After waking up at 5am or so, we tried to take a train direct from the Cinque Terre to Paris, but had to go to Nice to transfer. Our morning train ride included a dirty Italian couple performing disgusting activities on the seats in front of us...not a pleasant way to start a long day of travel! Upon our arrival in Nice, we discovered that only a small portion of the seats on trains are available for Eurail pass holders, and they were all booked except for an overnight train later that evening (on which there were only seats available...no couchettes). BOO Eurail! We were forced to have a day in Nice, which turned out to be very entertaining.
- After a delicious French lunch, we wandered down to the beach. It was probably the most packed beach in all of France, made even more so by the fact that they happened to be holding an Ironman triathalon there that day. 42.2 km run, 180 km bike ride, and some unknown amount of swimming....these guys (and the occasional girl) were unbelievably fit! It really made you feel like a pansy watching them.
- To escape the tourist crowds, we headed away from the beach to the acropolis of Nice. When we arrived, we discovered some awesome bands warming up, people playing soccer and rugby, French hippies juggling and playing with balls on chains (hippie clowns?) and all sorts of random activities. It was awesome! After wandering around and seeing various hammer & sickle logos, we gradually realized that it was some sort of festival being put on by the PCF (Partie Communiste Francais...or the French communist party for the linguistically challenged). There was awesome music though, and no guys with guns confronting protestors, so we decided to stick around for a bit and watch the bands play before catching our night train.
- Also while in Nice, we saw a car hit a very young child (the child seemed to be OK), and then the father of said child open up the door of the car and trying to pull out the old man who was driving it to beat him up. Numerous people came to break up the fight. Yet another exciting event to add to the day!
- On the night train we met a girl from Ireland and a girl from Texas, had some interesting conversations, and then tried (fairly unsuccessfully) to sleep.
Now we're in Paris, waiting to see what adventures lie in store for us! Some pictures are uploaded....check the picture link on the sidebar to our picasa page. Not all of the pictures are up, and they aren't yet captioned, but if you just can't wait to see them, feel free to have a look.
Eric
Here's an overview of some highlights:
Sicily:
- We went to Palermo, the birthplace of the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian Mafia) and the site of many an epic mob war in the 70s, 80s, and earlier. Despite this, it was a very beautiful city full of nice people. Although we really didn't have time to explore it very well, we did see their catacombs, which is probably one of the creepiest places on Earth. Picture hundreds of dead bodies in various states of preservation (some had skin, eyes and hair still attached, others were just skeletons) all dressed up in clothes and lining the walls staring at you when you walk through the hallways. There was also a dead baby room. They didn't allow pictures inside, which many of you are probably very thankful about.
- After Palermo we went to a small beach resort town called Brolo on the recommendation of a lady at the train station. Unfortunately the only place to stay was a 3 star hotel that included breakfast and dinner (a bit out of our price range). Having no other place to stay, we decided to stay for one night, which quickly turned into 2 nights when we discovered that they had free-flow taps with UNLIMITED red & white wine! Needless to say, we had a noise complaint the first night we stayed there...
- After Brolo we made our way to Acireale, which is a beautiful Sicilian city/town. From there we walked and drove around to various beautiful beaches, churches, eating places, etc. including Mt. Etna (PACKED with busloads of tourist monkeys...uggh!)
Rome:
- Incredible city...there are little bits of history everywhere you look, and the most fantastic food markets everywhere. The tomatoes that you got at the vegetable markets were like heaven...we would usually eat about 2kg of tomatoes per day between the 4 of us.
- We rented rooms at an apartment with a shared bathroom from a very entertaining character. It was called a "bed & breakfast" but should have been called a "bed & no breakfast"...our host was too hungover to make it to breakfast the first night, and then had to go to his brother's wedding for a few nights. He took a few euros off of the price though, so it was all good. While we were there, we met a very nice couple named Mette and Alberto who were from Daenmark and Spain, respectively.
- We met up with Galvin, Vin and David for a couple evenings and had some good food, saw a concert and discussed our respective travels. Galvin's travels are being documented on www.galvinclancey.blogspot.com ...check it out if you're addicted to reading travel blogs!
-We said goodbye to Karen after a wonderful 2 or 3 weeks (not sure...time flies when you're having fun) travelling with us.
Cinque Terre:
- Beautiful place! It is a national park just southeast of Genova in the Liguria region of Italy. We had an apartment with a kitchen, which we used to make delicious Italian feasts every night. We hiked every day for around 10 km or so...beautiful hikes amoung the vineyards that line the terrassed hills along the breathtakingly blue mediterranean...incredible! Andrew, you would be glad to have missed the death marches...
- The Cinque Terre consists of 5 main villages (all hiking distance from one another). We stayed in Corniglia, the center village (pop. 240) which is the least touristy of them (probably due to the 400 stairs that you have to climb to get to it).
Nice:
- After waking up at 5am or so, we tried to take a train direct from the Cinque Terre to Paris, but had to go to Nice to transfer. Our morning train ride included a dirty Italian couple performing disgusting activities on the seats in front of us...not a pleasant way to start a long day of travel! Upon our arrival in Nice, we discovered that only a small portion of the seats on trains are available for Eurail pass holders, and they were all booked except for an overnight train later that evening (on which there were only seats available...no couchettes). BOO Eurail! We were forced to have a day in Nice, which turned out to be very entertaining.
- After a delicious French lunch, we wandered down to the beach. It was probably the most packed beach in all of France, made even more so by the fact that they happened to be holding an Ironman triathalon there that day. 42.2 km run, 180 km bike ride, and some unknown amount of swimming....these guys (and the occasional girl) were unbelievably fit! It really made you feel like a pansy watching them.
- To escape the tourist crowds, we headed away from the beach to the acropolis of Nice. When we arrived, we discovered some awesome bands warming up, people playing soccer and rugby, French hippies juggling and playing with balls on chains (hippie clowns?) and all sorts of random activities. It was awesome! After wandering around and seeing various hammer & sickle logos, we gradually realized that it was some sort of festival being put on by the PCF (Partie Communiste Francais...or the French communist party for the linguistically challenged). There was awesome music though, and no guys with guns confronting protestors, so we decided to stick around for a bit and watch the bands play before catching our night train.
- Also while in Nice, we saw a car hit a very young child (the child seemed to be OK), and then the father of said child open up the door of the car and trying to pull out the old man who was driving it to beat him up. Numerous people came to break up the fight. Yet another exciting event to add to the day!
- On the night train we met a girl from Ireland and a girl from Texas, had some interesting conversations, and then tried (fairly unsuccessfully) to sleep.
Now we're in Paris, waiting to see what adventures lie in store for us! Some pictures are uploaded....check the picture link on the sidebar to our picasa page. Not all of the pictures are up, and they aren't yet captioned, but if you just can't wait to see them, feel free to have a look.
Eric
Jun 21, 2007
Safe and sound in Cinque Terre
Internet's expensive here, so I'll keep things short. Unfortunately we haven't been able to upload pictures in awhile, and I think we won't be able to until Paris (sometime after Sunday June 24th). There are LOTS of pictures to upload....tonnes of great adventures.
Rome was wonderful, but like any big city, it's nice to get a break. We decided to take our break in the tiny village of Corniglia (pop. 240) in the Cinque Terre (pronounced CHINK-weh TAY-reh) region of northern Italy, just South-East of Genoa along the coast. The whole region is stunning and has lots of great hikes....5 villages to explore that take at most a few hours to walk between. There are a fair number of tourists here, but they're a different breed...there are no giant tour buses full of monkeys, and the rule of the 20 minute walk gets rid of most of the irritating ones here (hiking is pretty much a necessity for our village). We have a wonderful little apartment with a kitchen, so we've been going to the markets and making our own delicious meals. And did I mention that it's surrounded with vineyards?
Sunday we head to Paris (possibly after a brief bouillabaise stop in Marseilles), where we will meet up with Sanaee! Stay tuned...
Eric
P.S. Thanks again to everyone for your comments...it's great to hear from you all even if we don't always respond!
Rome was wonderful, but like any big city, it's nice to get a break. We decided to take our break in the tiny village of Corniglia (pop. 240) in the Cinque Terre (pronounced CHINK-weh TAY-reh) region of northern Italy, just South-East of Genoa along the coast. The whole region is stunning and has lots of great hikes....5 villages to explore that take at most a few hours to walk between. There are a fair number of tourists here, but they're a different breed...there are no giant tour buses full of monkeys, and the rule of the 20 minute walk gets rid of most of the irritating ones here (hiking is pretty much a necessity for our village). We have a wonderful little apartment with a kitchen, so we've been going to the markets and making our own delicious meals. And did I mention that it's surrounded with vineyards?
Sunday we head to Paris (possibly after a brief bouillabaise stop in Marseilles), where we will meet up with Sanaee! Stay tuned...
Eric
P.S. Thanks again to everyone for your comments...it's great to hear from you all even if we don't always respond!
Jun 15, 2007
The Vatican
Originally I was going to write a very long post/rant about the Vatican, but for politeness sake (and self-censorship), I will keep it short, but with some poignant comments. To begin this story, I'll relate a couple of events that lead up to the Vatican 'climax'.
First, we conquered the Colliseum (along with throngs of other tourist-conquerors). The outside of the Colliseum was very impressive, but only a fraction of which was original. During various revolutions and earthquakes, much of the Colliseum was destroyed and dismantled as it was treated as a very accessible marble quarry... especially for the Vatican, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We learned a few interesting tidbits, such as the up to thousands of wild beasts that were killed every day left parts of Africa extinct of these animals (tigers, lions, etc), and that the meat of these animals was given to the Roman people. This was a special treat, since the people normally didn't eat meat at all. They also had elevators in the center of the Colliseum to be able to simulate landscapes that would benefit the carnivorous animals, and surprise the gladiators.
Next, we got a free tour with some nominally history student (based on how entertaining he was, there were some questions as to whether he was an actor or comedian) of the Roman Forum (or the 2% that's left of it). During this tour, he highlighted all parts of the Forum that we would have glossed right over, such as the toilets with their brushes (hint: the brushes weren't for cleaning the toilets), or the reason that no Roman statues have hair on their arms or legs. Trust me, it would be naive to assume that it was difficult to carve arm hair onto statues ;-) Supposedly the ancient Romans would bathe up to three times per day by rubbing themselves with olive oil, and then patting themselves with sand, and then scraping it off with a thin bronze tool, which happened to rub off the many Roman hairs. I bet they smelled marvelous afterwards.
This guide was so entertaining we decided we would try to hire him for the Vatican tour. Unfortunately, ancient Roman fate decided that we would be unable to find him the next morning and end up sitting in a line for the Vatican museum to open for 1.5 hours talking politics to some Israelis. I must have done tolerably, because they invited me to Israel.
Here is where I will become brief, and let you read between the lines. Here are some to help get you warmed up:
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
For the mathematical among you, there is something special about those lines, can you guess? I might bestow my bongo point upon you (except if it's bongo, because he can't get his own points back).
Highlights:
First, we conquered the Colliseum (along with throngs of other tourist-conquerors). The outside of the Colliseum was very impressive, but only a fraction of which was original. During various revolutions and earthquakes, much of the Colliseum was destroyed and dismantled as it was treated as a very accessible marble quarry... especially for the Vatican, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We learned a few interesting tidbits, such as the up to thousands of wild beasts that were killed every day left parts of Africa extinct of these animals (tigers, lions, etc), and that the meat of these animals was given to the Roman people. This was a special treat, since the people normally didn't eat meat at all. They also had elevators in the center of the Colliseum to be able to simulate landscapes that would benefit the carnivorous animals, and surprise the gladiators.
Next, we got a free tour with some nominally history student (based on how entertaining he was, there were some questions as to whether he was an actor or comedian) of the Roman Forum (or the 2% that's left of it). During this tour, he highlighted all parts of the Forum that we would have glossed right over, such as the toilets with their brushes (hint: the brushes weren't for cleaning the toilets), or the reason that no Roman statues have hair on their arms or legs. Trust me, it would be naive to assume that it was difficult to carve arm hair onto statues ;-) Supposedly the ancient Romans would bathe up to three times per day by rubbing themselves with olive oil, and then patting themselves with sand, and then scraping it off with a thin bronze tool, which happened to rub off the many Roman hairs. I bet they smelled marvelous afterwards.
This guide was so entertaining we decided we would try to hire him for the Vatican tour. Unfortunately, ancient Roman fate decided that we would be unable to find him the next morning and end up sitting in a line for the Vatican museum to open for 1.5 hours talking politics to some Israelis. I must have done tolerably, because they invited me to Israel.
Here is where I will become brief, and let you read between the lines. Here are some to help get you warmed up:
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
For the mathematical among you, there is something special about those lines, can you guess? I might bestow my bongo point upon you (except if it's bongo, because he can't get his own points back).
Highlights:
- The majority of ancient Roman marble (and works of art) is in the Vatican
- The St Peter's Basilica is the most impressive (and thus expensive) church I have EVER seen, of any religion. It includes giant frescoes that cover it's 6 acre interior, which upon closer inspection just happen to be mosaiks of tiny little colored tiles. I wonder with whose money they paid for that?
- The Vatican must have the largest loom ever made to make some of the largest tapestries ever made.
- Does jewel encrusting a bible make it more holy?
- At 13€ per person entrance (present), and with 4,267,014 visitors in 2006, the Vatican museum makes around $83 Million CAD per year. Holy...
Dan.
Jun 13, 2007
The Cheese Stands Alone
Coming to you fresh off a 10 hour train ride to Rome! Cheese doesn't travel well on trains; we left about 2 pounds of sweaty parmesan leftovers in the train station in hopes of a mouse finding it.
Sicilia was awesome... we stayed in two small Sicilian towns: Brolo and Acireale. We saw a HUGE live volcano, we laughed, Dan cried, we frolicked among lemon groves, we ate sea urchin, we had a lot of raisens and pine nuts in things, we speculated about the mafia status of swanky Italian men, BUT we had no internet access we could hog up for long enough to upload the photo evidense. new pictures will be up when we can put them up! and a better post to follow as well.
until then, we are in Rome and have some apparently gongfoolery to attend to!
When in Rome (had to say it!)
Ambrrra
Sicilia was awesome... we stayed in two small Sicilian towns: Brolo and Acireale. We saw a HUGE live volcano, we laughed, Dan cried, we frolicked among lemon groves, we ate sea urchin, we had a lot of raisens and pine nuts in things, we speculated about the mafia status of swanky Italian men, BUT we had no internet access we could hog up for long enough to upload the photo evidense. new pictures will be up when we can put them up! and a better post to follow as well.
until then, we are in Rome and have some apparently gongfoolery to attend to!
When in Rome (had to say it!)
Ambrrra
Jun 6, 2007
Poo in a toilet
Greek is surprisingly intuitive. Take the title for example. One of the most useful phrases in any language, is "Where is the bathroom". Well, in Greek, it is pu ine toillette, which is pronounced "poo in a toilet". How intuitive!
On the same digestive tract that we're on, I'd like to highlight some of great foods we had. I know that many of you are probably drooling just waiting to hear about them. In particular, Karin has been especially demanding to hear of all the tasty foods we've been eating, so I will spend a great deal of time on these tasty treats!
If you recall the photo of Sketchy McSketcherson (see our flickr page, and keep clicking NEXT at the bottom of the page until you see his photo), we had an excellent meal there.
On the same digestive tract that we're on, I'd like to highlight some of great foods we had. I know that many of you are probably drooling just waiting to hear about them. In particular, Karin has been especially demanding to hear of all the tasty foods we've been eating, so I will spend a great deal of time on these tasty treats!
If you recall the photo of Sketchy McSketcherson (see our flickr page, and keep clicking NEXT at the bottom of the page until you see his photo), we had an excellent meal there.
- Greek salad with exceptional feta (they put a chunk of it on top of the salad).
- Mussel saganaki, with another tasty cheese (sorry don't know the name of it).
- Taramosalata (fish egg puree, kind of like humous).
- Dolmades, served warm, with a hint of ouzo or fennel.
- Octopus in olive oil and vinegar (Amber loved them, the first time she's liked octopus).
- Tasty fresh bread to sop up all the sauces of the aforementioned treats.
- ALFA beer (another Greek beer). Lager, better that Bud (obviously), but not as great as homebrew.
However, the best foods in Naxos (not in Athens) were agreed upon by all:
- Greek salad with young feta (a spreadable chevre-like cheese).
- Greek/Arugula salad, with local Ximo...something cheese. It had a light dressing.
- Rooster in tomato sauce (Dan & Eric's first bite of cock, pardon me). It was flavourful like only stewing hens could be. Much better that crappy chicken you buy in the supermarket.
- Augergine with cheese (again, that local Ximo...something cheese), very tasty. Eggplants are something of a specialty here, or at least it happened to be eggplant season.
- Gyros from "Moustache's: Fresh is Better" (Dan's particular fav despite having fries snuck in them). Most touristy places have french fries, some sort of unfortunate British influence.
- Aforementioned octopus from Sketchy's.
- Aforementioned dolmades from Sketchy's. His actual restaurant was called "Cafe Ouzeri Limaiaki" (my rough transcription from Greek to Roman alphabet).
And of course, there was a ranking of all of our favorite Ouzos. In usual scientific styling (not to be confused with the European Styling that usually involves some sort of ridiculous yellow sunglasses, perhaps with perfectly round lenses, and incomprehensible Engrish on the back of jeans that might say "Nobody's perfect except the Captain"), we decided to rank them on a scale from 7-11.
- Ouzo Pliomariou - 10/10.5/10 Better aroma, a little bit of an alcoholy taste.
- Ouzo Tsantali - 10/10/10 Excllent overall.
- Ouzo Naxiotiko - 8/8/7 Worse smell, worse taste, not as sweet, more bite.
- Ouzo D'Artemis - 8.5/9/9 Nice aftertaste, but that was about it.
- Ouzo Mini (worse than Pliomariou, not ranked because we had already drank it all by the time we got the ingenious idea to rank them)
Anyways, from the classy pu ine toillette in Greece, we will have dov'e [in a] toillette in Sicily (that's Greek for the same).
Dan.
Back in Athens
We're back in Athens now. We'll be enjoying the beautiful scenery and local music and tasty foods tonight, in addition to the sketchy neighborhood. The sketchier the neighborhood, the better deals to be had.
On our boat ride over, we thoroughly enjoyed two bottles of Ouzo and a bottle of red wine. We are now all proficient in Italian, or at the very least, drunken Italian.
Dan et al.
On our boat ride over, we thoroughly enjoyed two bottles of Ouzo and a bottle of red wine. We are now all proficient in Italian, or at the very least, drunken Italian.
Dan et al.
Jun 4, 2007
More Pictures Finally!
Here's the address to our new photo site. We will likely be using both picasa and flickr since some internet cafes support one and not the other, etc...
The latest pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroundtheglobein100days/
Previous pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
Footloose and Monkey-free
Well, after being down with an evil Grecian cold for 3 days, I'm now having a awesome time on ol' Naxos. The tomatos are amazing!
It really is a lot easier to get things done in Greece; the sketchiness has decreased significantly since leaving Turkey. This does take away some of the sense of adventure, but I find it much easier to just RELAX i.e. just kick back with a couple of tomatoes and a bottle of wine without fear of whether that man over there will think I'm a prostitute for wearing a skirt. Dan, Mom and Eric are more into Ouzo- they have it with breakfast and dinner most days.
We rented 2 scooters and 4 Dumb and Dumber Helmets on our second day here- this really is the best way to see the island, which get more interesting with every scoot. Olive and citrus are plentiful in the interior, and there is a tonne of amazing beaches. We've certainly met some characters, which will be described in the picture captions. Dan should have the new photos up on our flickr site today some time.
sorry so short but I'm off to the beach!
Amber full of tomatoes
It really is a lot easier to get things done in Greece; the sketchiness has decreased significantly since leaving Turkey. This does take away some of the sense of adventure, but I find it much easier to just RELAX i.e. just kick back with a couple of tomatoes and a bottle of wine without fear of whether that man over there will think I'm a prostitute for wearing a skirt. Dan, Mom and Eric are more into Ouzo- they have it with breakfast and dinner most days.
We rented 2 scooters and 4 Dumb and Dumber Helmets on our second day here- this really is the best way to see the island, which get more interesting with every scoot. Olive and citrus are plentiful in the interior, and there is a tonne of amazing beaches. We've certainly met some characters, which will be described in the picture captions. Dan should have the new photos up on our flickr site today some time.
sorry so short but I'm off to the beach!
Amber full of tomatoes
May 31, 2007
All the Monkeys
Dan's first post here. It's a long one, so if you just want to skip it and get to the good stuff, head here: http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days there should be a bunch new pics in a half an hour or so.
After a dull flight to London, I spent almost 10 hours waiting around in the LHR airport. The highlights were:
1. A family (mom, dad, young child) who were trying to get into Russia or Tajikistan on Aeroflot (russian airlines). They wouldn't let them board the plane because the mother didn't have a valid visa. The father was arguing for the better part of 4 hours; he had supposedly pre-contacted the consulates and because he had a valid visa, his wife didn't need one. I left before seeing the the resolution of this problem.
2. A midget wasn't allowed on the plane with his 'excessive' luggage. So in the 10 minutes before his flight left, the midget was busy running around, jumping up and down, and yelling at the baggage guy, while clothes flew in an aggressive fountain into a large plastic bag (his makeshift suitcase). It was as funny as I've described, and I'm not kidding, LHR has some ridiculous policy of one carry-on per person that they enforce like England's God-given right to hard-boil or deep-fry the very vitamins out of all its food.
I met an old South African guy on my flight to Athens. He had been robbed at gunpoint in his home one night. Crime is definitely a problem in SA like no other. His friends told him he was very lucky because he wasn't murdered or raped. He couldn't understand how you could call someone LUCKY who had just been robbed, regardless of the outcome. Anyway, onto more light notes:
We met up with Karen, Amber's mom at the airport, and we've been drinking ever since!
I think I speak for us all when I say Greece rules (of course, neither me nor Karen were in Turkey). The people here all speak English and are very friendly. They have incredible amounts of awesomely tasty food, and cheap Ouzo. So far we've tried two different types of Ouzo, and a mouth-wash like substance called Kitron, made of citrus leaves and alochol and sugar (it's pretty damn good, if only it didn't look like green mouth-wash), three types of beer, and have yet to try three more bottles of wine (two of which were a gift). ALFA beer and Mythos (both Greek beers) are good, much better than Canadian or Kokanee. Amstel is OK, but nothing special.
There was an entertaining event that led to the naming of this post. We left our dismally sketchy hotel (room 41 had fleas, according to Amber and Eric), and headed for the exciting Parthenon, Acropolis, etc. After a nice promenade, full of colorful Greek graffiti, we arrived in the midst of a touristic spectacle. Amber seemed a little agitated with the throngs of photo-snapping gapping tourists and made the LOUD proclamation "Let's get away from all the Monkeys". Sometimes inner monologues should stay inner.
They wanted to charge 12 Euros per person ($18/person) to see all these old sites, so we figure we'll probably hit this up in the early morning before our flight to Palermo when the Monkeys are still at bay.
There was an entertaining 70 year old Swiss guy on the ferry over to Naxos (the island we're staying on) who spoke French. He was an ex-geotech surveyor for dams and water-related stuff who had worked in Greece for years, and he told us about all sorts of highlights on our island, and some of the other ones. He suggested, in French, that Eric and I should ditch the girls (Amber and Karen) and rent a place on the island. "The 'mamas' are the ones who rent the places, and once you have a place, the 'dames' will flock to you" [rough translation]. He was also somewhat crazy, but very entertaining, with other comments such as "You're from Canada, are you Quebecois? No? Well, hmm, you should be."
Naxos is awesome, and I know at least some of you at home will be jealous at our predicament. We've spent a number of meals and hours of drinking and siestas trying to come up with the solution to our life-stopping quandary: Should we walk around the island clockwise, or counter-clockwise? Please make us a suggestion, we may have to spend another few meals and Ouzos on this life-altering decision, with healthy breaks in the sun and crystal clear turquoise Mediterranean sea.
(BTW, Karin, we have stumbled across an entire BAY FULL OF UNI!!! Those are sea urchins for the rest of you, the tastiest of all of the sea creatures. And lucky us, but it just happens to be a full moon, when their eggs are the fullest and most succulent! Hope you are enjoying day old fish in Ottawa. Love, Dan!)
Our plan for the next few days will be to rent scooters (or maybe a car) and bomb around the island, including the natural springs (that the Swiss guy told us about) and its' olive groves and beaches.
There's lots more to write about, but I'd rather spent more time acquiring stories than writing about them.
Hope you all are enjoying your cold summers and long hours of work. Hahaha!
Dan.
After a dull flight to London, I spent almost 10 hours waiting around in the LHR airport. The highlights were:
1. A family (mom, dad, young child) who were trying to get into Russia or Tajikistan on Aeroflot (russian airlines). They wouldn't let them board the plane because the mother didn't have a valid visa. The father was arguing for the better part of 4 hours; he had supposedly pre-contacted the consulates and because he had a valid visa, his wife didn't need one. I left before seeing the the resolution of this problem.
2. A midget wasn't allowed on the plane with his 'excessive' luggage. So in the 10 minutes before his flight left, the midget was busy running around, jumping up and down, and yelling at the baggage guy, while clothes flew in an aggressive fountain into a large plastic bag (his makeshift suitcase). It was as funny as I've described, and I'm not kidding, LHR has some ridiculous policy of one carry-on per person that they enforce like England's God-given right to hard-boil or deep-fry the very vitamins out of all its food.
I met an old South African guy on my flight to Athens. He had been robbed at gunpoint in his home one night. Crime is definitely a problem in SA like no other. His friends told him he was very lucky because he wasn't murdered or raped. He couldn't understand how you could call someone LUCKY who had just been robbed, regardless of the outcome. Anyway, onto more light notes:
We met up with Karen, Amber's mom at the airport, and we've been drinking ever since!
I think I speak for us all when I say Greece rules (of course, neither me nor Karen were in Turkey). The people here all speak English and are very friendly. They have incredible amounts of awesomely tasty food, and cheap Ouzo. So far we've tried two different types of Ouzo, and a mouth-wash like substance called Kitron, made of citrus leaves and alochol and sugar (it's pretty damn good, if only it didn't look like green mouth-wash), three types of beer, and have yet to try three more bottles of wine (two of which were a gift). ALFA beer and Mythos (both Greek beers) are good, much better than Canadian or Kokanee. Amstel is OK, but nothing special.
There was an entertaining event that led to the naming of this post. We left our dismally sketchy hotel (room 41 had fleas, according to Amber and Eric), and headed for the exciting Parthenon, Acropolis, etc. After a nice promenade, full of colorful Greek graffiti, we arrived in the midst of a touristic spectacle. Amber seemed a little agitated with the throngs of photo-snapping gapping tourists and made the LOUD proclamation "Let's get away from all the Monkeys". Sometimes inner monologues should stay inner.
They wanted to charge 12 Euros per person ($18/person) to see all these old sites, so we figure we'll probably hit this up in the early morning before our flight to Palermo when the Monkeys are still at bay.
There was an entertaining 70 year old Swiss guy on the ferry over to Naxos (the island we're staying on) who spoke French. He was an ex-geotech surveyor for dams and water-related stuff who had worked in Greece for years, and he told us about all sorts of highlights on our island, and some of the other ones. He suggested, in French, that Eric and I should ditch the girls (Amber and Karen) and rent a place on the island. "The 'mamas' are the ones who rent the places, and once you have a place, the 'dames' will flock to you" [rough translation]. He was also somewhat crazy, but very entertaining, with other comments such as "You're from Canada, are you Quebecois? No? Well, hmm, you should be."
Naxos is awesome, and I know at least some of you at home will be jealous at our predicament. We've spent a number of meals and hours of drinking and siestas trying to come up with the solution to our life-stopping quandary: Should we walk around the island clockwise, or counter-clockwise? Please make us a suggestion, we may have to spend another few meals and Ouzos on this life-altering decision, with healthy breaks in the sun and crystal clear turquoise Mediterranean sea.
(BTW, Karin, we have stumbled across an entire BAY FULL OF UNI!!! Those are sea urchins for the rest of you, the tastiest of all of the sea creatures. And lucky us, but it just happens to be a full moon, when their eggs are the fullest and most succulent! Hope you are enjoying day old fish in Ottawa. Love, Dan!)
Our plan for the next few days will be to rent scooters (or maybe a car) and bomb around the island, including the natural springs (that the Swiss guy told us about) and its' olive groves and beaches.
There's lots more to write about, but I'd rather spent more time acquiring stories than writing about them.
Hope you all are enjoying your cold summers and long hours of work. Hahaha!
Dan.
May 27, 2007
Rhodes...Touristy, but so worth it!
Or "Rhodos", as the locals call it. Here are some pictures of this awesome island. Every day brings a medieval castle adventure for Eric and I. We are staying in the "Old Town", or the area of Rhodos that is in the original area of fortification. I can't believe that people still live here. Every walk we go on is like something out of the movie "Labyrinth", only without David Bowie's crotch stealing the show.
There are a tonne of tourists, however, and that is the one aspect that takes some getting used to after Turkey. The strategy that has been working for us, involves exploring the touristy areas at less-busy times (i.e. early evening), and stick to ghetto areas during peak daytime hours (these areas tend to have the REALLy interesting bits anyway).
Anyway, I'm finished my glass of wine (Cheap Greek wine tends to be quite murkey and grapejuice-like, yet so tasty!), and internet is expensive, so that is all.
Tomorrow= ATHENS, then Dan and Mom will be here! We are SO stoked to share this experience with them. I can't wait.
Thanks for the comments everyone, it's so nice to hear from friends and family when we are so far away!
There are a tonne of tourists, however, and that is the one aspect that takes some getting used to after Turkey. The strategy that has been working for us, involves exploring the touristy areas at less-busy times (i.e. early evening), and stick to ghetto areas during peak daytime hours (these areas tend to have the REALLy interesting bits anyway).
Anyway, I'm finished my glass of wine (Cheap Greek wine tends to be quite murkey and grapejuice-like, yet so tasty!), and internet is expensive, so that is all.
Tomorrow= ATHENS, then Dan and Mom will be here! We are SO stoked to share this experience with them. I can't wait.
Thanks for the comments everyone, it's so nice to hear from friends and family when we are so far away!
May 25, 2007
Safe and Sound in Greece
Yasas!
As some of you may have heard, there was a bombing in Ankara a couple of days ago. We are alive and well away from Ankara!
In fact, we are now in Greece. After a not-so-glorious day in the "backpacker's" hangout that is Olympos, and an absolutely GLORIOUS 2 days in Patara, we took a quick hydrofoil ferry from Fethiye (Turkey) to Rhodes (Greece) this morning. See pictures for more details!
In a nutshell, lessons learned for future trips to Turkey:- Turkish Breakfasts are truely the most complete meal: Cheese, tomato, cucumber, black olive, bread, an egg, jam (rose jam is preferable), yogurt, and nutella.
- Never pay more for things in Turkey, always pay less (more money= more ripped off!)
- No matter how sketchy it seems, things always tend to work out in the end.
- Never underestimate the genuine kindness of people in small towns.
- If you want to actually get a feel for Turkish culture (and make some lifelong friends in the process), small towns are WAY better than big cities.
- Anything described/marketed as a "backpacker's _______" basically means "here you will get drunk with other travellers and experience no Turkish culture in the meantime!"
- Stick a 20 minute walk in front of anything (even if it is as gorgeous as Patara, Turkey), and you cut out 95% of the crowds found at equally beautiful destinations. (I think this is true to all countries, not just Turkey!)
Well, it's bedtime in Rhodes soon, and we have many a medieval fortress to explore tomorrow (Rhodes, in case you didn't know, is supposedly the best surviving example of medieval fortifications in the world. it really is cool so far!)
Love from Eric and Amber, full of souvlaki and Ouzo :)
As some of you may have heard, there was a bombing in Ankara a couple of days ago. We are alive and well away from Ankara!
In fact, we are now in Greece. After a not-so-glorious day in the "backpacker's" hangout that is Olympos, and an absolutely GLORIOUS 2 days in Patara, we took a quick hydrofoil ferry from Fethiye (Turkey) to Rhodes (Greece) this morning. See pictures for more details!
In a nutshell, lessons learned for future trips to Turkey:- Turkish Breakfasts are truely the most complete meal: Cheese, tomato, cucumber, black olive, bread, an egg, jam (rose jam is preferable), yogurt, and nutella.
- Never pay more for things in Turkey, always pay less (more money= more ripped off!)
- No matter how sketchy it seems, things always tend to work out in the end.
- Never underestimate the genuine kindness of people in small towns.
- If you want to actually get a feel for Turkish culture (and make some lifelong friends in the process), small towns are WAY better than big cities.
- Anything described/marketed as a "backpacker's _______" basically means "here you will get drunk with other travellers and experience no Turkish culture in the meantime!"
- Stick a 20 minute walk in front of anything (even if it is as gorgeous as Patara, Turkey), and you cut out 95% of the crowds found at equally beautiful destinations. (I think this is true to all countries, not just Turkey!)
Well, it's bedtime in Rhodes soon, and we have many a medieval fortress to explore tomorrow (Rhodes, in case you didn't know, is supposedly the best surviving example of medieval fortifications in the world. it really is cool so far!)
Love from Eric and Amber, full of souvlaki and Ouzo :)
May 19, 2007
More pictures uploaded!
Unfortunately, blogger is in Turkish when you access the webpage in Turkey (makes sense, I suppose), so I can't figure out how to put a permalink to the pictures. Here's the address again:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days
Our cave-house is still wonderful (I have found my calling as a troglodyte), but Sunday we go to Olympos where we will live in a tree-house (what's next?). Cappadocia (where we are now) is incredible...our pictures don't do it justice. We aren't able to upload our latest pictures, but we went to one of the many underground cities here and it was very impressive. Although they were inhabited by Christians fleeing from people who wanted them dead during the first couple centuries A.D., the underground cities were originally built long before that by an unknown people (it is believed that they may have been the Hittites or the Sumerians around 3000 or 4000 years ago). The amazing thing is that some of these underground cities once housed as many as 60,000 people on up to 7 different stories, and had ventilation shafts, kitchens, stables (these were near the ground level), churches, sleeping quarters, etc. They are still around today and you can visit them...truly a marvel of engineering. If you are claustrophobic at all, I would avoid them...Amber was a real trooper and just barely made it through (think dark tunnels 20 meters underground that you have to crawl through). Pictures of them will be posted soon.
Enjoy our pictures so far (by the time you view them, they should all be captioned!)
-Eric
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days
Our cave-house is still wonderful (I have found my calling as a troglodyte), but Sunday we go to Olympos where we will live in a tree-house (what's next?). Cappadocia (where we are now) is incredible...our pictures don't do it justice. We aren't able to upload our latest pictures, but we went to one of the many underground cities here and it was very impressive. Although they were inhabited by Christians fleeing from people who wanted them dead during the first couple centuries A.D., the underground cities were originally built long before that by an unknown people (it is believed that they may have been the Hittites or the Sumerians around 3000 or 4000 years ago). The amazing thing is that some of these underground cities once housed as many as 60,000 people on up to 7 different stories, and had ventilation shafts, kitchens, stables (these were near the ground level), churches, sleeping quarters, etc. They are still around today and you can visit them...truly a marvel of engineering. If you are claustrophobic at all, I would avoid them...Amber was a real trooper and just barely made it through (think dark tunnels 20 meters underground that you have to crawl through). Pictures of them will be posted soon.
Enjoy our pictures so far (by the time you view them, they should all be captioned!)
-Eric
May 17, 2007
When in Uçhisar...
All I can say is: Thank goodness we are out of Istanbul! Although Eric and I had a wonderful final day there (with a cruise up the Bosphorus, a hike, and the most delicious dinner EVER at Saray), the pick-pocketing and general sneakiness of people was souring our spirits!
So we hopped on our flight to Kayseri, followed by a 1hour mini-van ride to Uçhisar in the unique Cappodocia region of Turkey. And Man o' man we feel like we just got off of a spaceship, it is so different here... we are in LOVE. I am in love with the people here first and foremost (e.g. curious locals who approach us as we wander the streets, just wanting to invite us for teas and chat, etc.). Eric is loving living in a cave here (Uçhisar is primarily a troglodyte town), and waking up to delicious breaskfast feasts of Cheese, meats, tomatos, cucumbers, olives, yogurt and breads. The scenery is spectacular and made up of strange rock formations called "fairy chimneys" (they look like gargantuan penises!). Our cute cave dwelling is carved into one of these penises, and is the perfect cool escape from the hot hot sun. We have been hiking everyday too, which is one of our favourite activities besides eating things.
Anyway, I won't go off TOO much about our state of bliss- internet is expensive and slow here. I tried to post our pics, but no dice. Maybe when we get somewhere more inhabited. BUT, if these trogodytes continue to feed our Kebap and Turkish delight additions, we may never leave!!
Love from happy and healthy Eric and Amber
So we hopped on our flight to Kayseri, followed by a 1hour mini-van ride to Uçhisar in the unique Cappodocia region of Turkey. And Man o' man we feel like we just got off of a spaceship, it is so different here... we are in LOVE. I am in love with the people here first and foremost (e.g. curious locals who approach us as we wander the streets, just wanting to invite us for teas and chat, etc.). Eric is loving living in a cave here (Uçhisar is primarily a troglodyte town), and waking up to delicious breaskfast feasts of Cheese, meats, tomatos, cucumbers, olives, yogurt and breads. The scenery is spectacular and made up of strange rock formations called "fairy chimneys" (they look like gargantuan penises!). Our cute cave dwelling is carved into one of these penises, and is the perfect cool escape from the hot hot sun. We have been hiking everyday too, which is one of our favourite activities besides eating things.
Anyway, I won't go off TOO much about our state of bliss- internet is expensive and slow here. I tried to post our pics, but no dice. Maybe when we get somewhere more inhabited. BUT, if these trogodytes continue to feed our Kebap and Turkish delight additions, we may never leave!!
Love from happy and healthy Eric and Amber
May 13, 2007
Pictures from Istanbul!
Just spent over an hour uploading these, so I really don't feel like writing any more...I've included captions, so have a look!
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days
May 12, 2007
Safe and Sound in Istanbul!
Hey everyone! No good pictures yet (but some great ones forthcoming), so I'll make this short and sweet. Amber and I are safe and sound in Istanbul, there is not a cloud anywhere in sight, and it's warm but with a nice cool breeze. The hostel that we are staying at is right in the middle of the Sultanahmet district, mere blocks away from the Ayasofya (or Hagia Sophia in Greek), the Blue Mosque, Topkapi palace, and the other big tourist sights of Istanbul. The city is ancient, very beautiful (or "çok güzel" as they would say in Turkey), and has a surprisingly western feel to it thus far. We explored the Sultanahmet district briefly last night, but we were pretty jet-lagged so we didn't do anything in detail. Today we are going out to see the sights and take some pictures!
We'll write again once we've actually gone out and experienced the city a bit. I'm very excited!
Eric
We'll write again once we've actually gone out and experienced the city a bit. I'm very excited!
Eric
May 8, 2007
A "Formal" Introduction by Eric
Hey everyone! Eric here to give you guys a "formal" introduction to our blog.
For those of you who are not familiar with what we have been up to recently, I'll fill you all in. I just recently graduated from the Materials Engineering program at UBC, and got a job offer in Calgary that starts at the end of August. My girlfriend Amber has been graduated for the past year and is currently working in Calgary. My brother Dan is still in Vancouver working and living at the Hepler Hotel. His latest project that is consuming all of his time is that he is starting up a brewery with Andrew.
Since my job doesn't start until the end of August, I decided that it was time to set myself free and do some serious travelling before becoming a corporate slave. Not wanting to be apart for any longer, Amber decided that it was high time to leave her job behind and come join me in my adventures. We started making a list of all of the places that we wanted to go, and quickly realized that we couldn't possibly see them all in the mere 100 days that we have alloted for this adventure. After making some very difficult cuts from our list, we decided upon a travel plan unlike anything either of us had ever experienced before. Hearing our plan, Dan knew that he could not sit idly by as we travelled the world, and decided to take an extended leave of absence from his work to come on most of the trip. He was far from alone in wanting to join us on our adventures, and we expect to be joined by Amber's mom, my father, Karin, Galvin, Sabrina and others. If you are reading this blog and find yourself gripped by a sudden urge to join us, or will find yourselves in the same countries as us at the same time, we would love to meet up with you...please send any of us (Amber, Dan or myself) an E-mail or leave a comment here.
Those among you who are not yet familiar with the details of our trip are probably getting curious as to what sort of trip could possibly lead to 2 people leaving their jobs behind in order to join. So without further ado, here is an outline of our proposed travels:
Can't wait until 3 days from now!
Eric
For those of you who are not familiar with what we have been up to recently, I'll fill you all in. I just recently graduated from the Materials Engineering program at UBC, and got a job offer in Calgary that starts at the end of August. My girlfriend Amber has been graduated for the past year and is currently working in Calgary. My brother Dan is still in Vancouver working and living at the Hepler Hotel. His latest project that is consuming all of his time is that he is starting up a brewery with Andrew.
Since my job doesn't start until the end of August, I decided that it was time to set myself free and do some serious travelling before becoming a corporate slave. Not wanting to be apart for any longer, Amber decided that it was high time to leave her job behind and come join me in my adventures. We started making a list of all of the places that we wanted to go, and quickly realized that we couldn't possibly see them all in the mere 100 days that we have alloted for this adventure. After making some very difficult cuts from our list, we decided upon a travel plan unlike anything either of us had ever experienced before. Hearing our plan, Dan knew that he could not sit idly by as we travelled the world, and decided to take an extended leave of absence from his work to come on most of the trip. He was far from alone in wanting to join us on our adventures, and we expect to be joined by Amber's mom, my father, Karin, Galvin, Sabrina and others. If you are reading this blog and find yourself gripped by a sudden urge to join us, or will find yourselves in the same countries as us at the same time, we would love to meet up with you...please send any of us (Amber, Dan or myself) an E-mail or leave a comment here.
Those among you who are not yet familiar with the details of our trip are probably getting curious as to what sort of trip could possibly lead to 2 people leaving their jobs behind in order to join. So without further ado, here is an outline of our proposed travels:
- Turkey: Amber and I will fly from Calgary across Canada, over the Atlantic ocean and across Western Europe, touching down in Frankfurt, Germany before continuing on to Istanbul (was Constantinople...) in Turkey. We will spend a romantic couple of weeks seeing the hustle and bustle of Istanbul, the weird and phallic rock formations of Cappadocia (pretty much in the centre of Turkey), and relaxing on beaches along the beautiful Turquoise coast (so named because of the colour of the water) located in the south west of Turkey.
- Greece: From the turquoise coast, we will take a ferry to the Medieval fortress on the island of Rhodes, and get on a flight to Athens. It is in Athens that we will meet up with Dan, and Amber's mom Karen will also join us. After a brief visit in Athens, we will take a ferry to one of the picturesque Greek islands (possibly Naxos or Santorini) to soak up the sun, the delicious food, and the ouzo.
- Italy: Before we decide that we will never work again, and settle down to live in Greece for good, we will take a flight from Athens to Palermo, the main city on the Italian isle of Sicily. After a few days of eating, drinking, and dodging Mafia hitmen, we will slowly make our way up the west coast of Italy to Rome. Once in Rome we will drag Karen, kicking and screaming because she wants to stay in Italy for ever, to the airport to catch a plane bound for Canada. After our tearful goodbyes, we will continue up the western coast of Italy towards France. At some point here (probably in Rome) we will meet up with Galvin for some delicious Italian feasting.
- France: After a healthy dose of Bouillabaisse and sun in Marseilles and the French Riviera, we will probably head north to Paris and party with Sanaée. The plans for France, Italy, and subsequently Denmark and Germany are not set in stone and may change during our voyage depending on who we meet along the way.
- Denmark: Dan would like to visit some friends of his in Denmark, but Amber and I will probably stay in France or Germany instead.
- Germany: Ahh, the ancestral homeland at last! My father Bill will probably join us for our adventures in Germany, which will have to include a visit to the Hammerstein castle (the castle of my mother's side of the family, who was German nobility). Our visit to Germany will not be strictly pleasure, and will likely include a detour to Munich, where we will conduct very important research into the local breweries to assist Dan in starting his. Berlin will be our final stop in western Europe, after which things begin to get quite interesting.
- Russia: From St. Petersburg, Dan, Amber and I begin a 9,000 km train voyage across Asia. We are doing this portion of the trip with Vodkatrain (http://www.vodkatrain.com/), and will travel in a group of 15 people across Russia, Mongolia and China, with locals in each of the major stops to keep us out of trouble. In Russia, we will have stops in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk, and Lake Baikal, before entering Mongolia.
- Mongolia: We continue our train journey to Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. From here, we set out to spend several days in a mongolian Ger, living with Mongolian nomads, riding horses and camels and drinking airag (mare's milk that has been fermented until it contains alcohol). We will then return to Ulaanbaatar and continue on the train to China.
- China: The final destination of our trip is the Chinese metropolis of Beijing (formerly Peking, of Peking duck fame!). Here we will see the great wall, the forbidden city, and eat everything from duck to scorpion to dog. When we have had our fill on the 100th day, Amber and I will fly back to Calgary across the Pacific ocean, thus completing our circumnavigation of the globe. Dan may remain in China for a bit longer.
Can't wait until 3 days from now!
Eric
May 3, 2007
Blogs about Food and Buildings
Well, someone had to break our blog's seal and since I am feeling rather blah in my cubicle of grey, I figured I am the perfect candidate today.
It's funny how many people have this sketchy, war-torn picture of Turkey engraved in their brains.
For example, old engineer at work today: "You're goin' to TURKEY? " [shakes his head in disapproval] "You couldn't catch me anywhere near it- too dangerous, especially for a young lady."
Perhaps I shouldn't have taken offense to this, but I couldn't resist a friendly rebuttal of "Well, would you visit New York if there were a war in Cuba?", to which he laughed, shook his head and wandered out of my office. Such a silly question from a silly little girl!
Anyway, Eric and I are excited to determine how much I am worth in goats and camels . (In Istanbul, a man offered Eric's friend a camel and two goats for his girlfriend; we think we can beat this offer). Eric's Uncle Charley posed an interesting question, "Is 2 goats and 1 camel a competitive offer for a woman in Turkey?"
Anyway, we will be updating soon with the odd short story or picture to confirm that we are alive and that I have not been traded for livestock.
Until Istanbul (8 days),
Amber
It's funny how many people have this sketchy, war-torn picture of Turkey engraved in their brains.
For example, old engineer at work today: "You're goin' to TURKEY? " [shakes his head in disapproval] "You couldn't catch me anywhere near it- too dangerous, especially for a young lady."
Perhaps I shouldn't have taken offense to this, but I couldn't resist a friendly rebuttal of "Well, would you visit New York if there were a war in Cuba?", to which he laughed, shook his head and wandered out of my office. Such a silly question from a silly little girl!
Anyway, Eric and I are excited to determine how much I am worth in goats and camels . (In Istanbul, a man offered Eric's friend a camel and two goats for his girlfriend; we think we can beat this offer). Eric's Uncle Charley posed an interesting question, "Is 2 goats and 1 camel a competitive offer for a woman in Turkey?"
Anyway, we will be updating soon with the odd short story or picture to confirm that we are alive and that I have not been traded for livestock.
Until Istanbul (8 days),
Amber
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