When we arrived in Madrid we could have taken one metro just one stop and gotten off and walked to our hostel. But, somebody misread the directions/subway map (ahem...me) and we ended up taking (I think) 4 trains...for many stops. We were also doing this just before lunch time, when most Spaniards leave their jobs for 3 hours (or so) to go home for lunch and siesta... So it was some hilarious bumper car action with the three of us and all of our bags on our awesome tour of the Madrid subway system. oops.
But we made it there eventually. Settled into the hostel (and since we only had about 18 hours in this city) headed out to see the sights. Saw the Park De Retiro, with an awesome rose garden and a huge man made lake with people out in rowboats. We also took a yoga class with a friend of a friend of Megan's. It was an Anusara class and while I appreciated the attention to correct alignment in the postures, I missed the awareness of a Kundalini Yoga class and I REALLY missed meditation at the end of class. In my mind that is where a lot of the yoga schools in the West fall short. The practice of yoga was originally designed to prepare your mind and body for meditation and many forms of yoga don't include ANY meditation in their classes. I always leave feeling like something was missing...but I am still glad we went. And I think it is good for me to take some other forms of yoga because we focus so little on alignment in KY and I do need the reminders...
Eating, as a vegetarian, is extremely challenging in Spain. Everything has Ham or seafood in it.... but we finally found a Japanese restaurant that had some Vegie choices. We each ordered something and then played musical dishes so we got to try everything. yum! After that we had to go back to the hostel and sleep. Madrid is known for having some amazing nightlife...but we were still feeling like poo...so no nightlife for us. We made up our minds that once we got to Malaga and could seriously relax for a few days we were going to feel better.
The next morning AE and I got up early (Meg decided to keep sleeping) and headed out tosee a few more things before catching our train. We saw Palacia Real, the gardens and the Cathedral. I really like this cathedral because the colors were so bright and everything inside just looked so vibrant and alive...much different than the heavy, ornamental Churchs of Rome. As we were walking back AE noted that this church seemed sort of tacky inside..."almost, Spanish." We had a good laugh at that...
Then it was back to the hostel, grab our stuff and Meg (well, we didn't grab her, I guess), and to the train station for Malaga. In Malaga we took the Subway to the airport and after quite a bit of searching found the car rental place and got our rental car!! We thought we were getting a itty bitty car called a Ford Ka...but we ended up with a really nice (and quite spacious, really) VW Polo. It was WAY nicer than any car I've ever owned. :)
Then we followed the (almost) precise directions to our hotel and checked in. I should mention for those who don't know that we were given an amazing gift from Megan's parents of the use of their timeshare for one week of our trip. So we got to stay at this beautiful resort for free. Wow. The room...was..amazing. Two bedrooms, two bathroom, a fully stocked kitchen, our own laundry, a living room/dining room and a balcony! Seriously the lap of luxury. It was perfect. After about a month of living out of our backpacks and staying in variable conditions hostels...it was SO great to settle into a place for a whole week. :) We also found the grocery store adn loaded up for the week. (how awesome to be able to make our own food!).
The next two days were pretty uneventful: sleeping in, laying on the beach, going to the sauna, going to the pool, watching movies...exactly what we needed. And our colds totally disappeared, YEA!
I'll finish up with what I am sure you've all been waiting for. The Spanish beaches have a reputation for LOTS of naked sunbathers...I mean totally nude, and just on regular beaches not specifically designated ones. I was underwhelmed by the nudity when we got to the beach. There were a few women without their tops on...but not what I had been lead to expect. Then, I went for a walk along the beach. Somehow we had picked the one modest stretch of beach because as soon as I started walking I started seeing nakedness. Lots and Lots of it. Naked walking, Naked swimming, Naked Sand Castle Building, Naked Squatting...oh, yes you heard me. At first I was sort of shocked....but then it wore off and became no big deal. Until I noticed that the naked male sunbathers were periodically shiftingheir penises around to get an even tan. That was too much for this little Midwestern girl and I headed back....
Just so you know...in "real time" (as my Dad calls it) I am back at the Yoga Borgo and loving life. But in terms of the story we still have a lot to catch up on: Sevilla, Gibraltar, Barcelona, Venice and Munich. But we'll get there.
Hope you are all doing well and settling into your Fall routines.
Blessings
KNL
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
And Then…
The next morning we were up and on our way to the train station to buy our seat reservations for all of the trains we would be taking in Spain. We waited in line for almost an hour, falling back on our standard time-killing games: 20 questions and the Alphabet game where you name a category and then try to come up withsome thing for every letter. Ex.: Songs; All My Life, Baby Got Back, Can’t Touch This…you get the idea). When we finally got up to the ticket window the guy wouldn’t sell us the seat reservations because wedidn’t have our rail passes with us. Grr! (The most annoying part was that when we went back the next day with our rail passes the guy didn’t even ask to see them! Double grr!) Moving on. We walked over to the zoo, which is known for its albino gorilla. But it was 15 euro to get in (that seems ridiculous, right??) So we contented ourselves with looking at postcards of the albino gorilla instead. There is a really nice park right in front of the zoo so we walked around a bit and found a bench to sit and have lunch. We were sitting on the bench in this order: me, Allison then Megan. Just as we were finishing our super-awesome lunch of PB&J a guy rode past us on his bike and stopped just past the bench and asked me something in mumbled Spanish/Catalan. We were all turned looking at him trying to figure out what he wanted when all of the sudden I heard Megan yell “No, no, no, no F**K! No,no, no, no!” I turned to see two guys walking away with her bag and her chasing them. As soon as she dropped the F-bomb the guys just gently set her bag down and walked off. The guy on the bike was gone too. The scary part was the guys with the bag were about 3 steps away form their bikes…and if they had gotten on there would have been nothing we could do. Luckily, Meg got her bag back and everything was still in it and safe. We heard a few other stories of people almost getting pick pocketed…but if you show any resistance they seem to just drop it. I guess there is another, easier, target just around the corner. It isn’t worth it to them to possibly get caught. But our hearts were certainly in our throats,I can tell you that. And anytime for the rest of the trip someone would come up and talk to us we all 3 instinctively held our bags closer. After a lot of freaking out and calming down we made our way over the Picasso museum. The line was about 40 minutes…nothing compared to our saga 3 1/2 hours inline at the Vatican. I found the museum interesting. I was surprised by how much ‘regular’ artwork Picasso created. I knew that he was a very talented realistic artist along with his more known abstract style…but that definitive style was really a rather short period at the end of his life/career. We were also a bit shocked by one room showcasing Picasso’s apparent ‘Porn Period.’ I am not kidding, these drawings were completely inappropriate and…just…dirty. Next on the agenda was to swing by and see the Cathedral. As we rounded the corner we saw, not the cathedral, but stories of scaffolding and advertising banners hanging from them. Apparently the church is under construction…so we didn’t really get to see it. (Which is probably ok since I am still feeling a bit churched-out). As we continued our walk back to our hostel we ran across a HUGE outdoor market. There was every kind of fruit, fish, candy, vegetable, cheese etc. that you would imagine. We stocked up on some fruit and veggies and then ran back to the hostel to drop it off before heading to our… Spanish cooking class. It wasn’t exactly what I expected (it was more of a demonstration than a class). But it was neat to get some history on Spanish food and learn some tips. We made Sangria, Tapas, Paella and Gazpacho. Good stuff. Then we met up with our Portuguese-Barcelona friends from our first night in town and went to a couple of places to hear live music. We heard some really amazing singers and again loved their choices of American music to play “Ride Around Sally.” “Johnny Be Good,” “We Didn’t Start The Fire.” Last day in Barcelona. We planned to get up early and see a bunch of stuff. But after breakfast we all admitted we felt like crap (we just couldn’t shake the colds/coughs) so we went back to bed for a few hours. Then we got up, had lunch, did some laundry…and left the hostel around 4pm. (You can’t be a super-tourist everyday.) First stop, La Sagrada Familia. A massive church tha thas been under construction since 1882 and probably will be for several hundred more years. It is a pretty impressive sight. It’s really cool to walk through the church and see the construction work that is still going on. I feel like most of the amazing churches we saw were finished hundreds of years ago. It was neat to see that there are people who still care enough about this to be building one now… Then to Parc Guell, a famous Barcelona park with these awesome benches designed by Gaudi. As we were getting ready to leave the park we saw our second randomly-walking-around-naked guy. He was just hanging out(excuse the pun) by the staircase…sort of lurking really…he was a bit creepy. Then it was dessert and dinner (just the way Grandpa taught me) and to bed because we had an early morning. The next morning we were up and out of the hostel by 6am. We took the metro to the train station and then the 4-hour train to Madrid. And I think that’s where I’ll end things for now. Still to come: Madrid, Malaga, Barcelona again, Venice, Munich…and back to the Borgo. We’ll get caught up soon. Blessings, KNL
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
A to the B-Town
New photos are up (and hopefully reorganized) on
www.kelseylumpkin.shutterfly.com.
Our last day in Amsterdam (after deciding against the
Dungeon Museum) we headed over to FOAM, one of 3
photography museums in the city. We saw one of the
most interesting photo exhibits that I have ever seen.
The photographs themselves weren’t-t that interesting
(basically like snap shots) but the concept was
awesome. The photographer had taken pictures of
trends in three cities (New York, Paris and Shanghi).
The amazing part was that often you couldn’t tell the
cities apart…everyone is wearing stripped polo shirts
in all three cities or camo…weird. There were also
some funny instances where the different cultures were
painfully obvious…the men sitting in parks on their
lunch breaks: Americans- eating, Parisians- reading,
Chinese- just sitting.
The other really interesting exhibit was a
photographer that traveled to Palestine and Israel.
He took close up face shots of people with similar
jobs making funny faces. He then posted these photos
in public places on both sides of the wall…to show
that people are really all the same, no matter where
they come from. Also, very cool.
Had some falafel for dinner (we ate a lot of falafel
in Amsterdam).
That night we went to the infamous Red Light District.
One guidebook had the interesting comment that “All
cities have prostitutes. In Amsterdam some of them
just stand in windows with red lights.” True, I
suppose…. but it was still deeply disturbing to see
it. After a very short visit we were ready to get out
of there…especially after Megan said “I feel like
we’re the free ones.” Ewww….
The next morning day is what I like to refer to as
The-Longest-Craziest-Day-Of-Ridiculous-Travel. We
were on the following forms on transportation:
Bikes
Walking
Tram
Train
Bus
Airplane
Shuttle Bus
2 Metros
Walking
But in the end we were checked into one of the nicest
hostels of our trip and we were in Barcelona. We
asked at reception for a good place to eat dinner and
headed out for a 10pm meal. This seems very late to
us…but in Spain it is very normal to start dinner at
10 or 11pm…nightlife doesn’t really get started until
3am…
At the restaurant we had some great Spanish
food…paella! And about half way through he meal
started chatting with the group of 4 sitting next to
us. They were all originally from Portugal but had
been living in Barcelona for some time. They were
really friendly and invited us out to a club where
they were going to hear live music. None of us were
feeling that great (the worst of the colds were coming
on)…but how can you pass up an opportunity like
that?!?! So we headed out with our new friends and
heard some AWESOME music. I was surprised that they
mostly played American music…old music like “She’s a
Maniac” and “The Eye of the Tiger” but it was awesome.
We went to bed early by Spanish standards…but 2am
seemed late enough to us after our long day.
First full day in Barcelona. Wandered down Las
Ramblas, a famous pedestrian walkway in Barcelona and
watched the huge array of street performers and human
statues. I have never before seen one of these
performers getting ready on the street or taking a
smoke break…. but it seemed to just be part of the
deal here. It is sort of odd to see a man painting
his baldhead silver…. or a woman dressed up and the
Statue of Liberty smoking a cigarette. Went down to
the port/beach area and saw the picture of Columbus…he
is pointing West…which seems odd to me, but who am I
to say??
As we were walking down the boulevard next to the sea,
in the middle of the morning I noticed a man walking
towards us. He had a lot of funny tattoos and
something seemed to be hanging out of his Speedo….
ohmygodNO! He was naked. Totally butt naked, not one
stitch of clothing on his body naked…walking down a
main area of town…in the middle of the day…NAKED! The
funniest part was we seemed to be the only ones who
thought it was out of the ordinary….
After getting over our shock…we found a company that
did a 1 1/2 hour catamaran tour of the harbor and
decided to treat ourselves since this was the first
day we had really seen the sun in about a week and a
half. It was great…we especially liked when the
deckhands put up the sails… J
Since it had been such a taxing morning we went back
to the hostel and took a nap. Then we made ourselves
some dinner and got ready to go out for a Big Night in
Barcelona. We were meeting up with a friend of a
friend of Megan’s who had been living there for a few
months. (After quite a bit of lost wandering) we
found him at Placa Real. He then got us into one of
the main discos in town…because, he was on the list.
J (Nightclubs in Barcelona are known for having HUGE
cover charges, so we were glad to not have to pay
that. And the drinks were crazy expensive enough to
make up for it…this club was huge! There were 2 large
dance/dj rooms and one smaller one upstairs. The
upstairs room was the only one you could smoke in and
unfortunately played the best music. But we wandered,
danced and had a great time. We made it to about
4am…. still early by Spanish standards…but we were
pleased with ourselves. J
Ok. More next time. Hope you are well,
Blessings,
KNL
www.kelseylumpkin.shutterfly.com.
Our last day in Amsterdam (after deciding against the
Dungeon Museum) we headed over to FOAM, one of 3
photography museums in the city. We saw one of the
most interesting photo exhibits that I have ever seen.
The photographs themselves weren’t-t that interesting
(basically like snap shots) but the concept was
awesome. The photographer had taken pictures of
trends in three cities (New York, Paris and Shanghi).
The amazing part was that often you couldn’t tell the
cities apart…everyone is wearing stripped polo shirts
in all three cities or camo…weird. There were also
some funny instances where the different cultures were
painfully obvious…the men sitting in parks on their
lunch breaks: Americans- eating, Parisians- reading,
Chinese- just sitting.
The other really interesting exhibit was a
photographer that traveled to Palestine and Israel.
He took close up face shots of people with similar
jobs making funny faces. He then posted these photos
in public places on both sides of the wall…to show
that people are really all the same, no matter where
they come from. Also, very cool.
Had some falafel for dinner (we ate a lot of falafel
in Amsterdam).
That night we went to the infamous Red Light District.
One guidebook had the interesting comment that “All
cities have prostitutes. In Amsterdam some of them
just stand in windows with red lights.” True, I
suppose…. but it was still deeply disturbing to see
it. After a very short visit we were ready to get out
of there…especially after Megan said “I feel like
we’re the free ones.” Ewww….
The next morning day is what I like to refer to as
The-Longest-Craziest-Day-Of-Ridiculous-Travel. We
were on the following forms on transportation:
Bikes
Walking
Tram
Train
Bus
Airplane
Shuttle Bus
2 Metros
Walking
But in the end we were checked into one of the nicest
hostels of our trip and we were in Barcelona. We
asked at reception for a good place to eat dinner and
headed out for a 10pm meal. This seems very late to
us…but in Spain it is very normal to start dinner at
10 or 11pm…nightlife doesn’t really get started until
3am…
At the restaurant we had some great Spanish
food…paella! And about half way through he meal
started chatting with the group of 4 sitting next to
us. They were all originally from Portugal but had
been living in Barcelona for some time. They were
really friendly and invited us out to a club where
they were going to hear live music. None of us were
feeling that great (the worst of the colds were coming
on)…but how can you pass up an opportunity like
that?!?! So we headed out with our new friends and
heard some AWESOME music. I was surprised that they
mostly played American music…old music like “She’s a
Maniac” and “The Eye of the Tiger” but it was awesome.
We went to bed early by Spanish standards…but 2am
seemed late enough to us after our long day.
First full day in Barcelona. Wandered down Las
Ramblas, a famous pedestrian walkway in Barcelona and
watched the huge array of street performers and human
statues. I have never before seen one of these
performers getting ready on the street or taking a
smoke break…. but it seemed to just be part of the
deal here. It is sort of odd to see a man painting
his baldhead silver…. or a woman dressed up and the
Statue of Liberty smoking a cigarette. Went down to
the port/beach area and saw the picture of Columbus…he
is pointing West…which seems odd to me, but who am I
to say??
As we were walking down the boulevard next to the sea,
in the middle of the morning I noticed a man walking
towards us. He had a lot of funny tattoos and
something seemed to be hanging out of his Speedo….
ohmygodNO! He was naked. Totally butt naked, not one
stitch of clothing on his body naked…walking down a
main area of town…in the middle of the day…NAKED! The
funniest part was we seemed to be the only ones who
thought it was out of the ordinary….
After getting over our shock…we found a company that
did a 1 1/2 hour catamaran tour of the harbor and
decided to treat ourselves since this was the first
day we had really seen the sun in about a week and a
half. It was great…we especially liked when the
deckhands put up the sails… J
Since it had been such a taxing morning we went back
to the hostel and took a nap. Then we made ourselves
some dinner and got ready to go out for a Big Night in
Barcelona. We were meeting up with a friend of a
friend of Megan’s who had been living there for a few
months. (After quite a bit of lost wandering) we
found him at Placa Real. He then got us into one of
the main discos in town…because, he was on the list.
J (Nightclubs in Barcelona are known for having HUGE
cover charges, so we were glad to not have to pay
that. And the drinks were crazy expensive enough to
make up for it…this club was huge! There were 2 large
dance/dj rooms and one smaller one upstairs. The
upstairs room was the only one you could smoke in and
unfortunately played the best music. But we wandered,
danced and had a great time. We made it to about
4am…. still early by Spanish standards…but we were
pleased with ourselves. J
Ok. More next time. Hope you are well,
Blessings,
KNL
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Amsterdam.
After we had rented our bikes...and had our first near-death experience trying to cross one of the main streets. We headed to the Anne Frank house. This is the actual place where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazi´s during WWII. I was actually surprised at how big the space was, and that 7 people could live there with no one realizing what was going on. Megan said it best when she said that even though I know I am going to a WWII memorial and I know it is going to be overwhelmingly sad...nothing can really prepare you for the shock of how incredibly horrible that time was or the amazing lengths people went both to harm and to protect other people.
Went to the cafe next door to decompress and eat some bagels. :) Our next plan was to hit the Dungeon Museum. (Which sounded like a museum/ride/haunted house combo). But we needed something light...so...we went. But by the time we got there it was closed. So we decided to head over the to old Heineken brewery for the ´Heineken Experience´but by the time we got there, they were closed too! So we did some shopping, AE and Meg bought sweatshirts, because it was crazy cold. Allison got hit on by the sleazy souvenir shop owner. Meg and I laughed. Had falaffel for dinner (we sort of had a falaffel thing happening in Amsterdam). And then...the highlight of my night...we saw the 5th Harry Potter movie!!! YAY!! I had been hopping it would still be in the theaters when we got to Amsterdam because the Dutch don´t dub their movies, so I got to watch it in English! And, I have to say....it was pretty awesome, one of the better movies in my opinion. (Considering how much they had to cover I thought they did a good job).
So, completely filled up with Harry Potter we headed back to the Christian Hostel and went to bed. During the movie Meg had noticed a crack in one of her teeth so we spent the next morning looking for, finding and going to a dentist. He was able to fix her up pretty quickly...so that was good. Then we were off on the bikes again! Headed to the Van Gogh museum. On the way Megan had a little run in with the tram tracks , her tire got caught, she fell off her bike seat and onto the little rack over the back tire, could´t reach the pedal brakes, no handbrakes...ran into a construction barrier. Long story short: She was fine...but had some awesome bruises the next day!
Van Gogh museum was really great. But again...I´m just not much of a museum person... I was surprised by how much of his work is ´normal.´ It really wasn´t until rather late in his life that he started painting in the style I associate with Van Gogh...but it was neat to see his progression.
Then it was off to the Heineken Experience. They´ve turned the old brewery into a museum/ ride/ bar. It was actually quite fun. We got to feel what it was like to be a Heineken bottle going through the conveyor belt. We got to drink 3 beers. We saw the old brewing equipment. We had a good time. We got a free gift! (A bottle opener). After leaving `The Experience´we found an Irish pub for dinner. That night we wanted to go out, maybe hear some live music, just sort of hang out. The only thing we could find to go out was SERIOUS clubbing...and none of us were in the mood for that. So, we people watched for awhile (saw one really intoxicated girl get kicked out of a bar and arrested. Hint: don´t mess with the police in Amsterdam) and then headed back to sleep.
The next day (the 1st of September...I could hardly believe it was really September...and really Back To School Time...and also shows you how far behind I am on this blog, sorry!) We tried to go to the Dungeon museum again...but found out it was like 20 euro to get in...so we bailed. Trying to decide what to do next (we seriously considered the sex museum...) But instead headed for FOAM, the photography museum. And I am very glad we did!
That's it for now. Next time I´ll tell you about the photo museum (preview: it was awesome), the Red Light District, ´The Ridiculous Travel Day`, and hopefully get started on our exciting time in Barcelona.
Miss everyone...would love to get an email telling me what is going on in your life. lumpkin_k@yahoo.com
Blessings,
KNL
Went to the cafe next door to decompress and eat some bagels. :) Our next plan was to hit the Dungeon Museum. (Which sounded like a museum/ride/haunted house combo). But we needed something light...so...we went. But by the time we got there it was closed. So we decided to head over the to old Heineken brewery for the ´Heineken Experience´but by the time we got there, they were closed too! So we did some shopping, AE and Meg bought sweatshirts, because it was crazy cold. Allison got hit on by the sleazy souvenir shop owner. Meg and I laughed. Had falaffel for dinner (we sort of had a falaffel thing happening in Amsterdam). And then...the highlight of my night...we saw the 5th Harry Potter movie!!! YAY!! I had been hopping it would still be in the theaters when we got to Amsterdam because the Dutch don´t dub their movies, so I got to watch it in English! And, I have to say....it was pretty awesome, one of the better movies in my opinion. (Considering how much they had to cover I thought they did a good job).
So, completely filled up with Harry Potter we headed back to the Christian Hostel and went to bed. During the movie Meg had noticed a crack in one of her teeth so we spent the next morning looking for, finding and going to a dentist. He was able to fix her up pretty quickly...so that was good. Then we were off on the bikes again! Headed to the Van Gogh museum. On the way Megan had a little run in with the tram tracks , her tire got caught, she fell off her bike seat and onto the little rack over the back tire, could´t reach the pedal brakes, no handbrakes...ran into a construction barrier. Long story short: She was fine...but had some awesome bruises the next day!
Van Gogh museum was really great. But again...I´m just not much of a museum person... I was surprised by how much of his work is ´normal.´ It really wasn´t until rather late in his life that he started painting in the style I associate with Van Gogh...but it was neat to see his progression.
Then it was off to the Heineken Experience. They´ve turned the old brewery into a museum/ ride/ bar. It was actually quite fun. We got to feel what it was like to be a Heineken bottle going through the conveyor belt. We got to drink 3 beers. We saw the old brewing equipment. We had a good time. We got a free gift! (A bottle opener). After leaving `The Experience´we found an Irish pub for dinner. That night we wanted to go out, maybe hear some live music, just sort of hang out. The only thing we could find to go out was SERIOUS clubbing...and none of us were in the mood for that. So, we people watched for awhile (saw one really intoxicated girl get kicked out of a bar and arrested. Hint: don´t mess with the police in Amsterdam) and then headed back to sleep.
The next day (the 1st of September...I could hardly believe it was really September...and really Back To School Time...and also shows you how far behind I am on this blog, sorry!) We tried to go to the Dungeon museum again...but found out it was like 20 euro to get in...so we bailed. Trying to decide what to do next (we seriously considered the sex museum...) But instead headed for FOAM, the photography museum. And I am very glad we did!
That's it for now. Next time I´ll tell you about the photo museum (preview: it was awesome), the Red Light District, ´The Ridiculous Travel Day`, and hopefully get started on our exciting time in Barcelona.
Miss everyone...would love to get an email telling me what is going on in your life. lumpkin_k@yahoo.com
Blessings,
KNL
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Amazing Lost Bar Tab
We arrived in Antwerp and after quite a bit of lost wandering and map mis-reading we found out hostel. An interesting place to say the least... The name translates as something like ¨The Witches Brew.¨ The first floor is a bar and when we got there the owner informed us that our room was being remodeled and so we would be sleeping in the staff room. As we started looking around we realized they really took this witch theme all out. The were brooms, witches hats and lots of weird weird stuff around. The stairs were so narrow and tightly spiraled that I worried about people falling down...even when sober!
But we settled in and went for a wander around the city of Antwerp. Honestly, not much to see. The cathedral is beautiful (but all of the churches are starting to sort of blend together), we found a store that sells chocolates in the shape of genitalia (amusing...and disturbing, actually), we saw lots of super hip young people and had not-awesome Chinese take away for dinner. Then it was back to the hostel to hang out with the other residents at the bar on the first floor. It was actually a great night. Since it was a Monday the bar wasn't open to anyone but people staying there. So a group of about 10 of us ended up hanging out all night talking, laughing, playing cards...and drinking a bit of beer. (Just a bit really!)
The next morning after a bit of a sleep in we headed off to the Pedestrian Tunnel, which goes underneath the river that runs through town. We had heard that it was one of the coolest things to do in Antwerp, so we were naturally very excited. Well, the coolest part was that to get down to the tunnel you rode on a wooden escalator! That's right! An escalator made out of wood!! Whoo-hooo!!! But then you get down there. And it´s a tunnel. A long tunnel. A long, white tunnel. A long, white, plain and frankly boring tunnel. But we walked it and saw Antwerp from across the river...and then walked back. Checked out the shopping scene...a bit too hip for me. Had lunch at a bagel shop. Had fries. Took showers. Found a place where there was going to be live music that night. Hung out. Went back out and heard live music...it was good, but he sang in Flemish (obviously) but it is not as much fun to listen to folk music if you don't understand the words. Then went to bed.
Antwerp was...not awesome, overall. We were really excited and ready to be heading to Amsterdam the next morning. (Part of the reason we may not have liked Antwerp as much is that we were to the point of no longer being able to deny our colds. We were all coughing like crazy and really not feeling well...). But on to Amsterdam anyway...there is no rest for the weary traveller.
As we were boarding the train for Amsterdam we realized that the Antwerp hostel had lost our bar tab and so we had been drinking for free for two nights! Thanks Kyle!
Got into Amsterdam and headed over to the hostel. We were coming around the corner, smiling and laughing because we could already tell that we were gonna love this town. We saw the sign for our hostel. ¨Shelter Jordan- Christian Hostel.¨ our faces sank. How could we have possibly booked a Christian hostel?!? In Amsterdam of all places!?!
Amsterdam has a reputation for being a city where it is extremely challenging to find a room so we really didn't have a choice...and we checked into the Christian Hostel. (To be fair it wasn't as bad as I expected. I was only asked once to come to Bible Study. The worst part was actually that the staff were such pricks and really uptight about everything...but that didn't necessarily relate to them being Christians...I guess.)
Went out to wander and get a sense of the town. Had fallafel for lunch, checked out a coffee shop, had some fries as a late night snack and then went to bed. The next morning we rented bikes so that we could see Amsterdam the way the locals really see it. People had told me that there were a lot of bikes in Amsterdam...but nothing really prepares you for how much of a biking city it really is...wow. We had a few interesting/scary moments on the bikes...but overall we were really glad we had them because it enabled us to see a lot more of the city.
Well, I think that'll do it for me now. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up Amsterdam soon and then start to catch up on what we've been up to in Spain!
Blessings,
KNL
But we settled in and went for a wander around the city of Antwerp. Honestly, not much to see. The cathedral is beautiful (but all of the churches are starting to sort of blend together), we found a store that sells chocolates in the shape of genitalia (amusing...and disturbing, actually), we saw lots of super hip young people and had not-awesome Chinese take away for dinner. Then it was back to the hostel to hang out with the other residents at the bar on the first floor. It was actually a great night. Since it was a Monday the bar wasn't open to anyone but people staying there. So a group of about 10 of us ended up hanging out all night talking, laughing, playing cards...and drinking a bit of beer. (Just a bit really!)
The next morning after a bit of a sleep in we headed off to the Pedestrian Tunnel, which goes underneath the river that runs through town. We had heard that it was one of the coolest things to do in Antwerp, so we were naturally very excited. Well, the coolest part was that to get down to the tunnel you rode on a wooden escalator! That's right! An escalator made out of wood!! Whoo-hooo!!! But then you get down there. And it´s a tunnel. A long tunnel. A long, white tunnel. A long, white, plain and frankly boring tunnel. But we walked it and saw Antwerp from across the river...and then walked back. Checked out the shopping scene...a bit too hip for me. Had lunch at a bagel shop. Had fries. Took showers. Found a place where there was going to be live music that night. Hung out. Went back out and heard live music...it was good, but he sang in Flemish (obviously) but it is not as much fun to listen to folk music if you don't understand the words. Then went to bed.
Antwerp was...not awesome, overall. We were really excited and ready to be heading to Amsterdam the next morning. (Part of the reason we may not have liked Antwerp as much is that we were to the point of no longer being able to deny our colds. We were all coughing like crazy and really not feeling well...). But on to Amsterdam anyway...there is no rest for the weary traveller.
As we were boarding the train for Amsterdam we realized that the Antwerp hostel had lost our bar tab and so we had been drinking for free for two nights! Thanks Kyle!
Got into Amsterdam and headed over to the hostel. We were coming around the corner, smiling and laughing because we could already tell that we were gonna love this town. We saw the sign for our hostel. ¨Shelter Jordan- Christian Hostel.¨ our faces sank. How could we have possibly booked a Christian hostel?!? In Amsterdam of all places!?!
Amsterdam has a reputation for being a city where it is extremely challenging to find a room so we really didn't have a choice...and we checked into the Christian Hostel. (To be fair it wasn't as bad as I expected. I was only asked once to come to Bible Study. The worst part was actually that the staff were such pricks and really uptight about everything...but that didn't necessarily relate to them being Christians...I guess.)
Went out to wander and get a sense of the town. Had fallafel for lunch, checked out a coffee shop, had some fries as a late night snack and then went to bed. The next morning we rented bikes so that we could see Amsterdam the way the locals really see it. People had told me that there were a lot of bikes in Amsterdam...but nothing really prepares you for how much of a biking city it really is...wow. We had a few interesting/scary moments on the bikes...but overall we were really glad we had them because it enabled us to see a lot more of the city.
Well, I think that'll do it for me now. Hopefully I'll be able to finish up Amsterdam soon and then start to catch up on what we've been up to in Spain!
Blessings,
KNL
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Waffles, Beer and Chocolate...oh yea! I´m gonna like Belgium!
Arrived at¨Snuffle¨our Bruges hostel around midday. And headed out to wander around the amazingly cute streets of this little town. We also figured out why we had been having such a hard time getting a train to Bruges...apparently the two days we were there they were having this huge festival/ historical enactment that only happens once every 5 years. I'll spare you the suspense, we didn't make it. :)
Had dinner at the hostel and met a bunch of other travellers and decided to go out and find the club listed in our ¨You Persons Guide to Bruges¨We got there pretty early by European standards (midnight). So things were pretty dead. We almost left when the crowds showed up...and suddenly the club was bumping! And everyone was MUCH better dressed than us travellers. (Turns out it was good that we showed up early because when we left there was a bounder at the door and people who weren't trendy dressed up enough weren't getting in...ouch!)
Next morning we were out in search of Waffles...and we were not disappointed. Then for lunch we had the other traditional Belgian food. Fries. With Mayo. And they...were...so...good. With a belly full of grease we decided to climb to the top of the belfry for an amazing look over the city of Bruges. (Note: the climb is totally worth it...but save the fries for AFTER).
The Chocolate Museum was next on the agenda. Oh yea...I said chocolate museum! It wasn't as experiential as I would have liked...and we were definitely in need of a nap because we all fell asleep in the ¨how chocolate is harvested´ video. But my favorite quote of the trip so far came from an English boy about 8 as he walked into yet another room with chocolate pots and info on the history of the cocoa bean...said in a think English accent... ¨This hasn't to do with chocolate either!¨ I think, like us, he was hoping to taste more. But we still enjoyed it...and we also enjoyed heading back to the hostel for a nap!
Then we had dinner, ice cream and hot chocolate and called it an early night. This was when we started to ignore the early warning signs that a nasty chest cold was sneaking its way into our trip...there was some coughing...and some phlegm...and a lot of tiredness...but we were not sick, we were super travellers and we would see everything there was to see!! Hmmm...
The next morning we were off to Antwerp! Stay tuned for the lamest city so far...but the coolest hostel. :)
Blessings!
KNL
Had dinner at the hostel and met a bunch of other travellers and decided to go out and find the club listed in our ¨You Persons Guide to Bruges¨We got there pretty early by European standards (midnight). So things were pretty dead. We almost left when the crowds showed up...and suddenly the club was bumping! And everyone was MUCH better dressed than us travellers. (Turns out it was good that we showed up early because when we left there was a bounder at the door and people who weren't trendy dressed up enough weren't getting in...ouch!)
Next morning we were out in search of Waffles...and we were not disappointed. Then for lunch we had the other traditional Belgian food. Fries. With Mayo. And they...were...so...good. With a belly full of grease we decided to climb to the top of the belfry for an amazing look over the city of Bruges. (Note: the climb is totally worth it...but save the fries for AFTER).
The Chocolate Museum was next on the agenda. Oh yea...I said chocolate museum! It wasn't as experiential as I would have liked...and we were definitely in need of a nap because we all fell asleep in the ¨how chocolate is harvested´ video. But my favorite quote of the trip so far came from an English boy about 8 as he walked into yet another room with chocolate pots and info on the history of the cocoa bean...said in a think English accent... ¨This hasn't to do with chocolate either!¨ I think, like us, he was hoping to taste more. But we still enjoyed it...and we also enjoyed heading back to the hostel for a nap!
Then we had dinner, ice cream and hot chocolate and called it an early night. This was when we started to ignore the early warning signs that a nasty chest cold was sneaking its way into our trip...there was some coughing...and some phlegm...and a lot of tiredness...but we were not sick, we were super travellers and we would see everything there was to see!! Hmmm...
The next morning we were off to Antwerp! Stay tuned for the lamest city so far...but the coolest hostel. :)
Blessings!
KNL
Sunday, September 9, 2007
18 Hour in Paris. Wow.
We arrived at our Paris hotel around 6pm, settled in and then headed down the street to meet Daya Kaur, a friend of the Sada Sats who had helped us book our room. She was amazingly helpful in telling us what was most important to see in the short time we had, as well as how to get there, where to eat and lots of other good info. Thank you Daya!
So we were off! We took the metro to Town Hall. Wow. Walked across the river to Notre Dame. Wow. Notre Dame was closed for the day but we walked around the outside, which is pretty amazing. I don't know much about architecture, but this church was SO different than any others that we had seen...more Gothic. (I think) It almost looked creepy...but I still liked it. Then we found the little bistro Daya had recommended for dinner and had a really great meal. I ordered the veggie plate and it was packed with salad, gazpacho, tomatoes in pesto sauce, roasted veggies...whew. To top it off we had the ¨Complete¨crepe for dinner. They are serious about complete...whipped cream, hot chocolate sauce, nuts , ice cream....we made a mess, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Being completely sated, we walked back towards Notre Dame to see if we could catch any of the famous street performers we had heard of. There wasn't much, a few guys playing guitar. But for some reason the church was open now...if I thought it was creepy from the outside, going into the church at night with only candle light was SUPER creepy. :)
No time to spare after a quick dash around the church we were off to wander the streets of the Latin Quarter. A very fun place to wander, lots of shops, restaurants, music, people...lots of life. But the clock was ticking so after just a taste of the area we were back on the metro and on our way to...The Eiffel Tower! (Ta-Da!)
I have found in my life that those places that have a reputation for being amazing tend to not live up to my expectations (The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Statue of Liberty). But let me just say that coming around the corner at night and being suddenly in front of a fully lit Eiffel Tower...was more amazing than I can recount in words. It is absolutely beautiful. Wow.
They turn the twinkly lights on for the first 10 minutes of every hour so we walked around until we saw that and then we took the elevator up to the middle of the tower (all of the tickets for the top of the tower were sold out). So we were actually on the tower the next time they turned the twinkly lights on...pretty amazing. And except for all of the couples making out all over the place (I guess this is supposed to be a romantic spot) it was a really amazing night.
We considered staying up all night...but we were all starting to feel a bit under the weather so we went back to the hotel and slept. Not for long though, the next morning we were up early and on the metro heading to the Arc Du Triumf. This is a huge monument to the fallen soldiers and is really quite spectacular. After a look around we headed over to a little cafe and had a pastry and a coffee...wow. I don't think I have ever eaten anything quite as good as that pastry...I mean...wow. And even though I had heard bad things about french coffee, this one was very good.
Once we managed to force ourselves away from the cafe, we wandered through the gardens in front of the Louvre and saw just the outside of the famous museum. I'm not sure if I would really want to go into the Louver anyway...from what I've heard (and from looking at it from the outside) you could spend weeks in there. And I am starting to realize that I am not much of a museum person. As soon as I get into a museum I am cold, my back hurts and my eyelids start drooping...I am much more happy and alive when I am out wandering the streets and getting a real feel for the place where I am. But seeing the outside was impressive and I can say I've been there. (Which I am starting to realize is a lot of peoples motivation for travelling in the first place...which seems sad to me).
Our last stop in Paris was to the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. I loved this place!! It was a bookstore with tiny little aisles and all these nooks and crannies, not much organization and the whole upstairs was books that were not for sale but you could sit and read them for as long as you'd like. There were beds, benches and type writers there as well for yor use ...it was great. If you're ever in Paris you should definitely check it out!
And then it was a mad dash back to the hotel to grab our stuff and check out, to the train station and off to Belgium.
I suppose that is enough for now. Still to come: Brugge, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga. I can hardly believe we are just over half way through our trip...it seems like we've been travelling together forever and it also seems like we just started. Wow.
Hope all is well with you and yours,
Love and Blessings,
KNL
So we were off! We took the metro to Town Hall. Wow. Walked across the river to Notre Dame. Wow. Notre Dame was closed for the day but we walked around the outside, which is pretty amazing. I don't know much about architecture, but this church was SO different than any others that we had seen...more Gothic. (I think) It almost looked creepy...but I still liked it. Then we found the little bistro Daya had recommended for dinner and had a really great meal. I ordered the veggie plate and it was packed with salad, gazpacho, tomatoes in pesto sauce, roasted veggies...whew. To top it off we had the ¨Complete¨crepe for dinner. They are serious about complete...whipped cream, hot chocolate sauce, nuts , ice cream....we made a mess, but thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Being completely sated, we walked back towards Notre Dame to see if we could catch any of the famous street performers we had heard of. There wasn't much, a few guys playing guitar. But for some reason the church was open now...if I thought it was creepy from the outside, going into the church at night with only candle light was SUPER creepy. :)
No time to spare after a quick dash around the church we were off to wander the streets of the Latin Quarter. A very fun place to wander, lots of shops, restaurants, music, people...lots of life. But the clock was ticking so after just a taste of the area we were back on the metro and on our way to...The Eiffel Tower! (Ta-Da!)
I have found in my life that those places that have a reputation for being amazing tend to not live up to my expectations (The Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Statue of Liberty). But let me just say that coming around the corner at night and being suddenly in front of a fully lit Eiffel Tower...was more amazing than I can recount in words. It is absolutely beautiful. Wow.
They turn the twinkly lights on for the first 10 minutes of every hour so we walked around until we saw that and then we took the elevator up to the middle of the tower (all of the tickets for the top of the tower were sold out). So we were actually on the tower the next time they turned the twinkly lights on...pretty amazing. And except for all of the couples making out all over the place (I guess this is supposed to be a romantic spot) it was a really amazing night.
We considered staying up all night...but we were all starting to feel a bit under the weather so we went back to the hotel and slept. Not for long though, the next morning we were up early and on the metro heading to the Arc Du Triumf. This is a huge monument to the fallen soldiers and is really quite spectacular. After a look around we headed over to a little cafe and had a pastry and a coffee...wow. I don't think I have ever eaten anything quite as good as that pastry...I mean...wow. And even though I had heard bad things about french coffee, this one was very good.
Once we managed to force ourselves away from the cafe, we wandered through the gardens in front of the Louvre and saw just the outside of the famous museum. I'm not sure if I would really want to go into the Louver anyway...from what I've heard (and from looking at it from the outside) you could spend weeks in there. And I am starting to realize that I am not much of a museum person. As soon as I get into a museum I am cold, my back hurts and my eyelids start drooping...I am much more happy and alive when I am out wandering the streets and getting a real feel for the place where I am. But seeing the outside was impressive and I can say I've been there. (Which I am starting to realize is a lot of peoples motivation for travelling in the first place...which seems sad to me).
Our last stop in Paris was to the Shakespeare and Company Bookstore. I loved this place!! It was a bookstore with tiny little aisles and all these nooks and crannies, not much organization and the whole upstairs was books that were not for sale but you could sit and read them for as long as you'd like. There were beds, benches and type writers there as well for yor use ...it was great. If you're ever in Paris you should definitely check it out!
And then it was a mad dash back to the hotel to grab our stuff and check out, to the train station and off to Belgium.
I suppose that is enough for now. Still to come: Brugge, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga. I can hardly believe we are just over half way through our trip...it seems like we've been travelling together forever and it also seems like we just started. Wow.
Hope all is well with you and yours,
Love and Blessings,
KNL
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Switzerland to France
Our second day in Switzerland we decided to take a day trip to Lake Lucerne. We had been told that this was a charming little village right on a big, beautiful lake. So we hopped on the train and about an hour later were walking into the (not so little) town of Lucerne.
I had been craving bagels for several days. I mean, a serious go-into-every-bakery-we-see kind of craving for bagels. Apparently bagels are not to be found in either Italy or Switzerland...believe me, I looked. But as we emerged from the Lucerne train station I saw a Starbucks and thought perhaps it was worth another shot... Success! Good old Starbucks had my bagel and cream cheese waiting for me..yay!
After that excitement I’m not sure how the rest of Lucerne stood a chance...but I figured we’d give it a shot since we’d come all this way. We wandered through the outdoor market, we saw the two covered bridges Lucerne is famous for, we took in the quaint little streets and alleyways. By the way Quaint is the word for Lucerne.
Then we headed up to a national geological park. Basically Switzerland used to be covered by glaciers long, long ago. And when these glaciers moved around they created really awesome holes, caves and markings in the rocks of this area. So we spent some time in awe of nature. And then, came the real fun. For some reason the Swiss decided that a good thing to go along with these geological formations would be a House of Mirrors. I am not kidding. I guess this house of mirrors was made in honor of some Swiss Queen...or maybe it was for one of the World Fairs, I forget. But it was totally awesome! We had way too much fun in the house of mirrors... we took lots of pictures but I think they are on someone elses camera...I’ll try to get them up soon.
After we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the mirrors we wandered around some more and saw lots of Cuckoo clocks, Swiss army knives and cowbells... we decided we’d had enough fun and got back on the train to Zurich. That night we took Jen and Roman out to dinner to say thanks for letting us stay. They suggested a really great Asian fusion place...which fulfilled another one of my serious cravings for anything other than Italian food. :) We got home that night and started packing up because we were off and running again the next day. Zurich was great. The perfect place for us to be after Rome. The weather was cool, the people were calm and everything was just a bit more toned down...
The next day it was up early and a series of 3 really short train rides to get to Belfort, France. This is a little, tiny town right on the France-Switzerland border. We were met at the train station by Cyndi (a family friend of Allison's who married a Frenchman and moved here) and her two kids Ariana and Sebastian. After about 20 minutes in the car (through absolutely beautiful, lush, green country side) we arrived at their home. It felt really nice to be in a family home with kids and mess and craziness. Cyndi made fantastically wonderful meals while we were there and we got to sleep in every morning due to their amazingly effective shutters. Also in the french countryside we went one day to the some vineyards and looked at the grapes, wandered around some really cute little villages and had some more awesome food cooked by Cyndi. It was a great 2 days.
And then we were off again. Cyndi's husband (Didier) had helped us figure out the rest of our train schedules and so we were ready to go. We got to the train station and went to the desk to get our seat reservations from Belfort to Paris and then from Paris to Brugge. After much searching the train station lady informed us that there were absolutely no trains to Brugge that night. We would HAVE to stay in Paris. We resigned ourselves to that miserable fate and with the help of the Sada Sats and their friend Daya (who is Parisian) found a place to stay for the night. We had 18 hours to do Paris. (The ironic part is that we had discussed doing Paris in this way before and decided that it wasn't worth it...well, I guess God had decided otherwise.) :)
And there is you're cliffhanger ending. More photos are up on www.kelseylumpkin.shutterfly.com. And next time you'll hear all about 18 Hours in Paris and maybe we'll even get through Brugge, Antwerp and Amsterdam...but then again, maybe not. :)
Love and Blessings,
KNL
I had been craving bagels for several days. I mean, a serious go-into-every-bakery-we-see kind of craving for bagels. Apparently bagels are not to be found in either Italy or Switzerland...believe me, I looked. But as we emerged from the Lucerne train station I saw a Starbucks and thought perhaps it was worth another shot... Success! Good old Starbucks had my bagel and cream cheese waiting for me..yay!
After that excitement I’m not sure how the rest of Lucerne stood a chance...but I figured we’d give it a shot since we’d come all this way. We wandered through the outdoor market, we saw the two covered bridges Lucerne is famous for, we took in the quaint little streets and alleyways. By the way Quaint is the word for Lucerne.
Then we headed up to a national geological park. Basically Switzerland used to be covered by glaciers long, long ago. And when these glaciers moved around they created really awesome holes, caves and markings in the rocks of this area. So we spent some time in awe of nature. And then, came the real fun. For some reason the Swiss decided that a good thing to go along with these geological formations would be a House of Mirrors. I am not kidding. I guess this house of mirrors was made in honor of some Swiss Queen...or maybe it was for one of the World Fairs, I forget. But it was totally awesome! We had way too much fun in the house of mirrors... we took lots of pictures but I think they are on someone elses camera...I’ll try to get them up soon.
After we finally managed to pull ourselves away from the mirrors we wandered around some more and saw lots of Cuckoo clocks, Swiss army knives and cowbells... we decided we’d had enough fun and got back on the train to Zurich. That night we took Jen and Roman out to dinner to say thanks for letting us stay. They suggested a really great Asian fusion place...which fulfilled another one of my serious cravings for anything other than Italian food. :) We got home that night and started packing up because we were off and running again the next day. Zurich was great. The perfect place for us to be after Rome. The weather was cool, the people were calm and everything was just a bit more toned down...
The next day it was up early and a series of 3 really short train rides to get to Belfort, France. This is a little, tiny town right on the France-Switzerland border. We were met at the train station by Cyndi (a family friend of Allison's who married a Frenchman and moved here) and her two kids Ariana and Sebastian. After about 20 minutes in the car (through absolutely beautiful, lush, green country side) we arrived at their home. It felt really nice to be in a family home with kids and mess and craziness. Cyndi made fantastically wonderful meals while we were there and we got to sleep in every morning due to their amazingly effective shutters. Also in the french countryside we went one day to the some vineyards and looked at the grapes, wandered around some really cute little villages and had some more awesome food cooked by Cyndi. It was a great 2 days.
And then we were off again. Cyndi's husband (Didier) had helped us figure out the rest of our train schedules and so we were ready to go. We got to the train station and went to the desk to get our seat reservations from Belfort to Paris and then from Paris to Brugge. After much searching the train station lady informed us that there were absolutely no trains to Brugge that night. We would HAVE to stay in Paris. We resigned ourselves to that miserable fate and with the help of the Sada Sats and their friend Daya (who is Parisian) found a place to stay for the night. We had 18 hours to do Paris. (The ironic part is that we had discussed doing Paris in this way before and decided that it wasn't worth it...well, I guess God had decided otherwise.) :)
And there is you're cliffhanger ending. More photos are up on www.kelseylumpkin.shutterfly.com. And next time you'll hear all about 18 Hours in Paris and maybe we'll even get through Brugge, Antwerp and Amsterdam...but then again, maybe not. :)
Love and Blessings,
KNL
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