July 2009
13 posts
There's no place like home...
So, we’re back. After some 75 days abroad, Wendy and I touched down at YVR last night around 2130. It was a pretty grueling travel day: waking up in our hostel at 4 a.m. in order to catch the early train to Heathrow, followed by a 7-hour flight to Chicago and then an 8-hour layover in O’Hare because our plane to Vancouver was delayed. Anyway, we’ll try and post some revelatory summation pieces...
Europe: by the numbers (so far)
Many of you are aware of my love of the side bar. If our trip were an article, the side bar would look something like this:
“Loads” of laundry done in a hostel sink: 9*
Extended conversations had with people whose names you only learn when saying goodbye: 73*
Shitty novels read due to extreme lack of choice at hostel libraries: 6
Games of Rummy played: 369 *
Games of Rummy won by...
Day of cycling around Rotterdam + Night of squash...
And in case anyone is wondering, I totally lost. My best score was 6 to 11.
-Luke
Viennese magic beans
My apologies for the tardiness of this post; we are now in Berlin, but adequate time to describe one special night in Vienna has eluded me until now.
Vienna is known for nothing if not its classical music. Though few composers were actually born in the city or even in Austria, something in the air (or the sausage) has encouraged musical genius, as exemplifed in works by such artists as Beethoven,...
Czeching out...
I’m currently the only one awake in Cody’s flat. As I sit on the floor of his bedroom, wrapped in a sleeping bag, and reflect on our time in the Czech, all the other castaways are subtly snoring away (even Wendy).
The last few days have gone by in a haze of Czech beer, new friends, narrowly missed trains and a lot of table football (or foosball, if you prefer). Cody Powell has been a...
“I don’t know if it’s the tits or the beard, but whatever it is,...”
– Martin (Cody’s British roommate), on why he’s unattractive to Czech gypsies.
Prague blog snog...
We’re only four hours in, but the Czech capital has been good to us. Some friendly Canadian ex-pats saw the flag on Wendy’s backpack and gave us directions to our hostel, some friendly old men in a pub invited us in for a beer when we stopped to check the score in a Wimbledon semi-final match, and there’s lots of cool people in our hostel. I think we’re gonna pal around...
June 2009
26 posts
Where were you when Michael Jackson died?
Okay, so it may not be quite that epic, but Luke and I did have kind of a funny experience. In the hostel we were staying at in Zagreb, we were chatting with a couple of guys from Britain who were booking accommodation online. When Luke hopped on the computer afterwards, one of the dudes got a text from a buddy saying Jackson had died. Having the all-powerful internets, Luke logged onto his email...
u pičku materinu!
If anyone from the library is reading, please tell Maja that I now know what all of her Croatian swearing means.
-Luke
Come pick my roses...
After a day spent trekking around Lake Bled, a day which included a 6km walk and a rented rowboat journey, Wendy and I caught a train to Zagreb. After a small hostel snafu, we found a place to stay and promptly ate delicious greasy pizza while discussing the merits of the band Aqua.
Tomorrow we’ll see what the Croatian capital has to offer before hightailing it to Split and then maybe...
“Do not omit cream cakes”
– The oft-amusing English translation of the Bled tourist guide
Please play me something... like Here Comes the...
We’re currently in a Slovenian hostel full of damp travellers woefully checking the Croatian weather forecast. Ljubljana, the tiny country’s tiny capital, is a staging point for many a Dalmatian-bound backpacker, but mother nature doesn’t seem to be cooperating. It’s currently pissing rain over most of Central and Eastern Europe, and it doesn’t look like it’s...
Splish Splash...
What does the morning after a night out in Budapest at two different bars built in ancient buildings with some Scottish girls we met on a walking tour of the city and some of their hostelling compatriots from various countries call for??? (breath in)
Well, a traditional Hungarian bath, of course.
Luke and I had an enjoyable first day where the Buda meets the Pest on Friday. We headed over to...
Hungary Hungary Hippos...
After a brief bout of Luke-related food poisoning (damn gyros…) that delayed our departure from Belgrade by a day, Wendy and I are officially in Budapest. We’re staying with yet another graphic designer named Llazlo who lives in Central Pest. I’m actually typing this post while his friendly, but non-English speaking roommate goes through his morning routine… There’s...
From lobster to leper
It’s a working title for a book I’m writing about Wendy’s sunburn.
My breakfast today consisted of Burek and...
“It’s like driving a can…”
– Isidora on the infamous Yugo car
Maybe tomorrow... we will sleep
I am busily (but quietly) typing away at a random hostel in Athens while Luke takes his much-needed “I need to shower to feel alive” shower, for which we paid 3 euro. It is 5:57 a.m. here and we haven’t slept yet — sorry, Mom. Having been told that the train station was open all night, we opted not to pay for a hostel but to spend the few ungodly hours between when our...
Today was brought to you by the letter R(oger...
Today was a good day. Arrived in Santorini without a hitch, swam in the Aegean sea and watched ol’ Rog bag a career grand slam and tie Sampras’ record of 14 titles.
It's all Greek to us...
Athens — as much as we’ve seen her (and it’s a she) — has been a love/hate experience for these travelling hobos. The glorious weather has translated into sunburns and heat-related sluggishness, the beautiful winding streets are also unmarked and oh-so easy to get lost within, and while some things have been cheap (yesterday, all the monuments and archeological sites were...
Rome wasn't built in a day...
…but we sure saw most of it in one.
We did a whirlwind tour through Rome today, including the Vatican museum, the Sistine Chapel, the Colosseum, the ruins of the Roman forum and far more piazzas than we could count. That’s quite a feat considering it was a Republic Day and half the streets were closed to accommodate hordes of nationalistic Romans. Anyway, Rome is a fantastic city...
“It smells like Pope.”
– Wendy on the Vatican
“You have to be cognisant, or the performance will be a failure.”
– Dan Deacon, speaking to the uncooperative crowd at Primavera
Haven't slept in years...
After three days of music festival fun and more than 20 hours on a train, we’re alive and well in Rome… more to come later, for now we’ve got to find a hostel.
May 2009
41 posts
Go Barca!
Alive and well in Barcelona. The city went nuts last night as their football team won the championship. People everywhere… a lot of pee on the streets.
We´ve run into a few snags (a rather expensive hostel and a [hopefully] minor issue with our Eurail pass) that we´re en route to fix before hitting up the first day of the Primavera music festival.
—Luke
I keep seeing European versions of people I know...
Top 10 things done in Bayonne today
é
1. Failed to go to Biarritz because it was raining
2. Walked around… got wet.
3. Bought a €5 chocolate bar
4. Played poker in bed (Luke won)
5. Saw goats
6. Went for a morning run and turned down an old man’s marriage proposal while doing so (Wendy)
7. Slept in (Luke)
8. Discovered the French train workers decided to go on strike last night, thus possibly jeopardizing our trip to...
I think I can, I think I can...
After a few train-related mishaps (some our fault, others not), we are safely ensconced in a well-priced hostel in Bayonne. We find the lack of kittens disturbing.
Basque in the sun...
Although it will be hard to say goodbye to free accommodation and kittens at Romain’s, we’ve booked a train to the little french town of Bayonne for tomorrow morning. Five hours southwest of Paris; it’s the unofficial capital of Basque country. Near the border between France and Spain it’s a region where the two languages and cultures merge. It’ll be nice to get away...
The naming of kittens
We’ve given all of Romain’s kittens English names. They are as follows: Blacky, Bitey, Runty, White Arms and Bad Walky (because he’s bad at walking).
Last night at Paris' Point Ephemre bar...
é Luke: That guy has a baseball bat sticking out of his pants.
Wendy: That’s kinda scary…
Luke: Or really fashionable.