April 25 - Italy and a taste of Greece

Having a hard time finding time to post since we've been enjoying ourselves so much, but now is the time. We are staying in a hotel with a computer and free internet. Let's start at the beginning... Venice Venice was a gorgeous, magical city. I loved it. I loved all the tall, close packed, slightly crooked buildings with window shutters, laundry, flags, plants, and other items hanging off the sides; the narrow alley ways that would always lead to somewhere new and exciting (or into a canal); and of course the narrow canals. It was a sight I had never seen before - a city built on water. The whole time I imagined James Bond and sung the theme song in my head. One evening there was even a live band playing the theme song in Piazza San Marco! The place was full of old buildings and beautiful Italian basilicas, all with a single tall, crooked bell tower that looked about the same, which made us think we kept circling back to the same building. We visited Piazza San Marco with the beautiful Basilica of San Marco and toured Doge's palace and prisons attached by the Bridge of Sighs. Then we walked along the waterfront, stopping at lots of little stands to look at the very cool carnival masquerade masks (to Mike's chagrin) and paintings. It was a beautiful day so we ate some pizza and wine at an outdoor restaurant facing the water. Italian pizza is very simple and fresh, with thinner crust than your average North American pizza...quite tasty. We also had some gelato, which to my disappointment was even more expensive than gelato in Vancouver!! In my opinion it was about the same quality as well (very delicious), but I was surprised to find out that the lemon (or limone) gelato was the next best thing to all the chocolate/hazel nut-y flavours. Of course we had to look into a ride through the canals in a gondola, because how could you go to Venice and NOT do that, and were VERY disappointed to discover how EXPENSIVE it was!!! 80 EUR for 30 min, 100 EUR for 40!!!! Shocked and appalled. I didn't want to give up so easily though, so we strategically sat by one of the gondolier stands until we found two tourists with a baby to split the ride with. We gave them the luxury/romantic chairs that faced forward while we sat on these tiny little uncomfortable side facing seats, but it was worth it. Seeing Venice from the canal point of view was very cool. There were also lots of very long speed boats (like James Bond boat chase) that navigated the canals superbly. I couldn't believe how the gondolas and speed boats avoided each other and never hit any walls in these very narrow canals. You must need a very special drivers license to drive these boats. Thank god they don't rent them out to tourists. In the end we only paid 40 EUR for 40 min...which I think was worth it. How often do you get an experience like that?? Our gondolier even sung for a bit - haha. The other thing we tried to do in Venice was get lost. We tried SO hard, but we always ended up back at the piazza or the waterfront. Eventually we stopped trying and attempted to make our way back to our hotel...and that's when we got lost. We ended up in some "campo" where a lot of locals hung out, and stood staring at a map for long enough that a very nice old Italian man came and pointed us in the right direction. Turns out we still barely left our little touristy region. They really set that place up to trap tourists... One thing we were surprised about was that the place was packed with little canal-side restaurants and tourists during the day, but at night the place was nearly vacant! I tried to find a bunch of restaurants I had seen earlier, but all were closed up! That's when we realized what a day-tripper destination Venice was. We ended up spending 2 nights and one day there, and took a water bus (instead of a regular bus - no vehicles on Venice streets - painfully slow though) to the train station early on the last morning to catch a train to Florence. Florence At first, after magical and very unique Venice, I was a little disappointed by Florence. It was another fairly big city, with the same kind of tall buildings and narrow cobble stone streets, but this time there were cars on the streets and very narrow sidewalks, and SO many tourists. You were always dodging tourists on the sidewalks. Florence did grow on me though. We went to the Accademia Gallery and saw the statue of David by Michelangelo (huge!), as well as many other Renaissance statues and paintings. I was very (pleasantly) surprised by how much Mike enjoyed the galleries and cultural aspects such as cathedrals! He spent more time than I would have! We also saw the two fake Davids - one in the Piazza della Signoria, where we also saw a statue of Neptune with weird little creatures all around him...a LOT of naked male body parts... and a second up at the top of a lookout point. We also saw some gorgeous, huge cathedrals such as the Basilica Di Santa Maria Del Fiore Florence, whose dome is visible above most other buildings in Florence. I really started to enjoy Florence more when we crossed the beautiful river (on a bridge that buildings and stores on it!) and saw some of the quieter, less touristy and urban streets. The other side of the river was more hilly, and we walked up a giant hill to get to a lookout point, where we could see some of the Tuscan countryside, and the old wall that surrounds the city. It was stunning. I realized that the best Italian experience for me was not within the urban areas at museums, but out in the gorgeous countryside, so the next day we went on a bike tour through Tuscany. It was one of my favourite things. We were given really high quality hybrid road bikes, thankfully, because Tuscany is VERY hilly! There were a lot of uphills on the way there, but we had a very good, strong group so it went really well. It absolutely poured rain on us for about 15 minutes and completely soaked us, but otherwise the weather was quite nice. We road past lots of olive trees and wineries, grassy and tree covered hills, and learned about how they make wine and olive oil in Tuscany. We learned that the Chianti wine is made according to very strict regulations, one of which is that farmers aren't allowed to irrigate their crops! The wineries have to wait up to a few months to get each batch of wine approved by the Chianti wine commission. We saw lots of beautiful villas, some of which certain important government figures (even Galileo) were placed under house arrest in (I would love that!!). We got to stop for lunch at a villa owned by a real prince (unfortunately I can't remember the name...), where they made wine and olive oil, and meals all from fresh ingredients grown on their property. We had a delicious fennel and fetta appetizer, followed by a vegetable soup, and completed with a tomato-based pasta (with some kind of Italian bacon), and got to taste lots of red wines that even Mike and I liked. Our favourite was the Super Tuscan, a wine made in Tuscany with imported French grapes and traditions, but one of the chiantis we liked as well. The olive oil was delicious and we were told to drizzle it over all of our courses, and we ended up buying some to take home. Let's hope we can get it through customs! We took a tour of their wine and olive oil making facilities as well and were taught about the process in which they are made. On the return ride we stopped for gelato, and it was more the price range I was expecting - around 1 EUR - and DELCIOUS. Apparently it was made fresh every day and the extras thrown out each night. I thought I should hunt that place down at night and offer to take those... I really would have liked to spend more time in the Tuscan countryside, but that will have to be saved for another trip. We had to press on to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre A few friends told us about this place. It consists of 5 little ocean-side towns along the Northwest coast of Italy, in a very mountainous region. All are connected by hiking trails, as well as a road and train. Unfortunately the ease of travel with train meant that there were a LOT of tourists again, but it was still beautiful and totally worth it. We stored our big bags in La Spezia and then took a very quick train to the first tiny town. The towns were all situated on steep mountain sides and consisted of a small jumble of colourful buildings - very photogenic. A flood/landslide in November (or Oct?) had damaged some of the towns and the seaside path that connected them, so we had to take the more difficult higher hiking trail. I enjoyed it, because the paved, flat sea wall type thing had WAY too many tourists, and a lot of them old. The hiking trail was something else. What would have been a half hour walk was a 2.5 hour hike up tiny little stairways, ledges and pathways that climbed and circled the steep mountains that fell off into the ocean. It took Mike and I at least a half hour of wandering on random, unmarked paths until we finally found the main trail. At one point we even ended up walking in a farmer's terraces of grape vines by mistake. The hike was very steep and tiring (thank god we left our big bags behind), but really amazing and picturesque. We ended up staying in the central town, Corneglia, in a very cool room with a second floor with a balcony, where we had Cinque Terre wine and played cards that night. We tried gnocchi with the famous Cinque Terre pesto for dinner - very delcious. Corneglia was a very cute little town, with a little jumble of buildings perched on a small mountain by the sea and surrounded by lemon trees. I really liked it. The next bit of seaside path was also destroyed, which would have meant a 4.5 hour hike over the steep mountains ot the 4th town, followed by another 2.5 hours to the last town. Mike did NOT want to do the 4.5 hours, and I admit that my legs were also very tired from all the steep stairs the day before (and the bike ride before that!) so we skipped the hike and trained to the 4th town (which was sadly very demolished and being repaired), and then hiked to the last town. The last town was a lot bigger and more touristy, but very beautiful again. We were going to spend the night there, but were warned about a day and a half long train strike, so we had to press on to Rome that day. Rome Since we weren't able to find internet access in Cinque Terre, all we had to decide on a hostel in Rome was a brief 15 min of internet in La Spezia while waiting for our train. All the hostels were super expensive, so we decided to just show up at one of the cheaper ones we could find (20 EUR/night each :S) and hope they had room. We had to walk through an alley to get to the hostel, and when we were buzzed in we were faced with a dingy reception area, with a crowd of Indian guys surrounding the guy at the desk, with loud Indian music playing. We were already a bit skeptical (he tried to charge us 25 EUR instead of 20 for the room, but we called his bluff and threatened to leave) but then we saw the rooms - white walls covered in dirt and hand prints...something out of some insane asylum horror movie. We did a few checks for bed bugs that night for sure. However, we discovered that the hostel did have some nice aspects...such as feather comforters, personal lockers, and a kitchen to make our own breakfast, and that coupled with the fact that Mike's back was hurting a lot and the other hostels were at least 8 EUR more expensive led us to stay there for the next 2 nights. Mike and I are quite tolerant of poor accommodation...especially if it's cheap! The location was also quite convenient, near a metro station. Our first day in Rome started out a bit stressful, with no guide book or advice, but merely a blown up map with no scale to find our way. We went to the horse racing tracks by the Colosseum and wandered for at least 30 minutes before we could find the entrance to the adjacent ruins. That's when we realized that Rome was maybe a bit too big to do our usual walking tour of, so after that point we signed up for a hop on hop off bus. After waiting in a 1.5 hour line, we got to wander through the Palatino brick ruins of ancient Rome, and then saw the Colosseum. It was interesting to see all the maze-like passageways that existed under the stage. We then hopped on the bus, and got off to see other marvels such as the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain, a market at Campo di Fiore, etc. Our legs were absolutely dead by the end of the day. We also bought tickets for a cheap opera - La Traviata by Verdi, because if you see opera once in your life, it might as well be in Italy...and of course it lived up to the cheap price. We entered a room with fold out chairs and a tiny set, and joked about the "orchestra" that was hiding behind the little Asian foldy-wall things, not looking forward to the travesty that was awaiting us. We burst out laughing after we heard a piano (the "orchestra") playing from behind the foldy walls, and a few poorly acting singers came out and started singing, and an old man in the front row took a very loud flash photo. It was REALLY hard to stop laughing. But, in the end, the singers were quite talented, and the acting got better, and although we couldn't really understand the story line in Italian and the set wasn't exciting, the costumes were great and we ended up enjoying it (/Mike didn't think it was THAT bad). I was glad we went. The next day we waited in a 1.5-2 hour line to get into the Vatican museum, which mainly just had a bunch of old Renaissance paintings and long hallways. It was still interesting though. We also saw the Sistine Chapel, and I was super disappointed because I thought the ceiling that Michelangelo painted (and the famous scene with the dudes on the clouds) was in a big domed ceiling room...but instead it was a dark, stuffy, rectangular room. FULL of tourists. I didn't last there long. I was a bit restless, so took a nice long shopping break before going to Saint Peter's Basicila (unfortunately for Mike, but it had to be done once while I was in Italy - and I bought a LOT of clothes!). We waited in another long line to get into the basilica, but it was worth it. It was massive inside, with sculptures of popes and religious figures, domed ceilings with paintings, etc. By the end of the day, we had decided we were pretty much done with Rome, as interesting as it was, and were ready to catch our flight the next morning to Santorini, Greece. Santorini, Greece Well, I have found my heaven, or at least one version of it, and it is Greece. I had decided after 2 hours of being here that I LOVE this country. We landed on the small, crescent shaped island (which was once the edge of a volcano crater) and were picked up by our hotel from the airport. I found a GREAT deal for our accommodation. In fact, all accommodation here was SUPER CHEAP due to the economic crisis and low season I'm guessing. There were double room high end hostels with pools for 14 EUR each, but we decided to go for a higher end hotel with an amazing view and buffet breakfast for 5 EUR more each, and boy was it worth it!! Our white, stucco hotel clings to the side of a cliff which overlooks the water/inside of the crater and a wall of cliffs on the western edge of the island, and we were upgraded to a sea view room (due to the lack of people at the hotel). Our room has 3 floors, one with the bed, one with a living area and balcony that overlooks a STUNNING view, and one with the bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. WOW. There's a pool area with glass walls that overlooks the ocean, with lounge chairs and umbrellas, and a nice outdoor courtyard where breakfast is served every morning. It is AMAZING. We are living the life. Today we mostly relaxed/read/swam in the pool (it was around 25 degrees...we got a bit burnt), and also wandered into town. The people here are just amazing too. Super kind, generous, and laid back. The family that runs the hotel is really great and friendly. We also discovered a restaurant with just the cutest, nicest little man who runs it. He is hilarious. After we finished our delcious Greek beers, he said "I never liked that beer. (pause) Too small." and grinned a very big grin. He gave us some great recommendations for food (I tried mousaka for the first time and Mike chicken souvlaki, and we had an amazing appetizer with tomato, egg plant and peppers in a tomato sauce, with a spicy feta cheese dip on the side). The food was AMAZING, with so much flavour. Such a nice change from the very repetitive/plain Italian pizzas and pastas we had been eating for a week (wasn't in the end overly impressed by Italian pastas...they were too oily for my liking and not enough spices). We were back there again tonight, and I had genista (a roasted pepper and tomato stuffed with rice and ground meat), with tzatsiki....DELCIOUS. After every meal the guy gives us a free dessert (some kind of cold pastry with ground nuts) and a shot of...grappa? And Mike watches the first half of a champion league soccer game while I play with the cat and kitten that live in the restaurant. I think we will go there every night. We were planning on maybe island hopping once more to Naxos before heading back to Athens, but the amount of travel time between places has left us with little time to actually spend in each location (such as the 8+ hour ferry to Athens!) so we decided to stay on Santorini instead. The very nice owners let us add another night in our amazing sea view room for the same price. What we paid for 4 nights (under $200) was less than the room is normally supposed to cost for 1 night! There's also lots to see and do still, such as a hike along the cliff of the crater, kayaking, and motor bike around the island :). So...we love Greece. We are wondering why everyone we know hasn't been here already, because it is absolutely amazing. Why visit Europe and NOT see Greece? I am going to be this country's biggest advertiser from now on :).

April 19 - so much to post!!!

Hello again and sorry for the lack of post-age lately!! I have lots to update on...but I am in Italy right now at a hostel so it's going to be quick! (And all the punctuation is in the wrong place so forgive me if I get lazy and choose to omit some!)

So now I have to remember what has happened since...

Edinburgh - Weekend of March 23
One of my friends said that Edinburgh is like a giant castle, and I would have to agree. It was a very cool old city, with lots of old stone (?) buildings and cobble stone streets, and a steep hill in the centre upon which sits an actual castle!!!! The first morning I went to the castle on my own because Hugh and Kirsty (my Scottish friends) had been a thousand times and werent interested in going again. It was AWESOME. I got to see all the old swords, armor, and cannons, the crown jewels, the dungeons and jail cells, etc. It was especially interesting since I am reading Game of Thrones right now, which is all about the battle over castles and kingdoms. My favourite part about the castle was reading about the treatment of prisoners. Being jailed was not a punishment there, but just a temporary situation until the punishment was administered. Often members of the castle garrison who were drinking on the job would be imprisoned, and since many preferred it to the difficult training they would have to do otherwise, they decided to make the prisoners lives more difficult by forcing them to do tedious and tiring tasks, such as lift up a heavy block, move it to another location, then pick it up again and return it. And then repeat, for hours. haha. The punishments were interesting as well...if a man murdered another while at sea, he was thrown overboard with the body. If he murdered a man on land, he was buried with the body. Seems somehow just, in a strange way... It was also interesting to see how they treated the prisoners of war, such as the Americans. They got to sleep in hammocks, and their daily rations consisted of 2 pints of ale, a large block of cheese, loaf of bread, some meat, and peas. !!!!! Not such a bad life! They also got a daily allowance!!

After the castle, I wandered up this hill/park where there was a nice lookout, and a half-completed copy of the parthenon at the top! Crazy. I think they ran out of money to finish it. Then I met my friends, and their cute little baby Holly. She was adorable and very well behaved, but watching them I realized what a handful a baby is, so was very understanding that they could only stay with me until dinner. We wandered around the city, stopped a few times for drinks or coffee, and ate Italian food for dinner, since they claimed that Italian food was excellent in Edinburgh (and i wasnt interested in eating haggis!!) It was indeed very tasty! And now that I have been in Italy...I would say its just as good! The pasta I had in Edinburgh was less olive oily, so I liked that better even. But I still need to try more :)

I stayed in a very tiny hostel that was full of character, and it was really easy to meet people. So I didnt have any problems finding people to go out with on Sat night, and ended up seeing the Scottish pub (Irish pub with live band) and club scene with 1 French guy and 3 Mexicans. Was a good time. Had to leave quite early on Sunday to catch my flight, so it was a quick visit. But it was great!!


London - Easter weekend

Well, I went to London with the intention of staying with and seeing Katherine, but it turns out she was SUPER sick, so I ended up spending more time with other friends. It was great though, I stayed with a Kiwi friend Chris that Mike and I met in Laos, and he lived in a nice 3 bedroom apartment in zone 2 with his brother and his bros wife, although they were gone for the weekend. Stuff is so expensive in London...their house cost...what was it....over 1200 pounds at least. I feel like I remember the number 2200. Maybe that was my conversion into dollars? Another mutual Kiwi friend of ours came and visited for the weekend too, so it was great to see him as well!!

Saturday morning I went to Camden market where I was both amazed/in heaven/overwhelmed. It was sooo busy and so packed with stalls for blocks, with stalls in all sorts of buildings with multiple floors, inside and out. I wandered for hours, and spent a lot of money. Lots of cool crafty things, which were way cheaper than crafty stuff in Vancouver. Lots of the stores on the streets had very cool fronts with painted scultures and things...will have to post a pic. I then met my friend Ben from high school, and we toured around and saw some of the major London sights, such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, London Bridge, etc (just from the outside though). I was really disappointed that the queen guards were in this gated area, so i could only get a picture from afar. We walked a LOT and my feet hurt a lot by the end (especially thanks to my 10 EUR boots). We also took what we thought was a tour boat ride down the river, although it turns out it was just a sea bus, basically, lol. We wondered why it was so cheap!! Saturday night I went to a comedy club with my Kiwi friends and their friends, and saw some hilarious British comedy. 2 of the 3 comedians were female, and they were actually very funny!

Sunday we went to a cool art gallery exhibit by some funny British artist (will have to post the name later when i look it up), and then wandered in another free art gallery for a bit...stopped for food at a very cool food market. I swear that EVERY country in the world is represented at these food markets in London. I had Ethiopean one day and Morrocan the next. Delicious! I am jealous, we dont even have quite that selection in Vancouver! We did a LOT more walking that day, and my feet were dying. My Kiwi friends told me to suck it up :P. Saw lots of street performers too. I saw some cool cathedral as well...will have to look up the name. Saint James? Sorry, only 4 min left on internet time, so need to post fast!!

Sunday night I met Katherine for Indian food, which was tasty. Then met Kiwis at a bar called the Ship. Was a fun night. Left London the next morning. Was an expensive weekend, but very fun!

Leaving Germany

Welll..It was bittersweet. I was realllly looking forward to seeing Mike, traveling Italy and of course going home. Near the end I was losing interest a bit, although I was sad to say goodbye to my friends and my apartment, etc. I will miss many things about Germany, such as the bread, beer, cheap gelato and curry wurst, but I am really looking forward to going home. I had a fun going away badminton match plus drinks, since I missed the last badminton when my bag was lost on the way back from Austria. Germans really like badminton apparently. It was really fun though.

I met Mike in Dusseldorf on the 15th and we stayed at my friend Kathrin's place. The next day I showed Mike a quick German experience...went inside the gigantic old Dom in Cologne, had some currywurst, went to a brewery in Dusseldorf, saw some of the cool architecture, etc. Was a good day.

March 22 - Time spent closer to home

The last couple weekends I spent a bit closer to home in Juelich. It was nice to relax and regain my energy, as well as do a bit of exploring around Juelich/cities nearby. One Saturday I went to visit Burkhard (a friend who used to work with the UBC group) and his family in Bonn. They actually live in a very nice house in a very pretty little town just outside of Bonn, which has nice rolling hills, forests, and off in the distance the Siebengebirge – or 7 mountains. From Juelich, which is almost totally flat, you can't see any (real) mountains! Unfortunately I also couldn't see them in Bonn because the weather wasn't great and it was too foggy – but I heard they looked nice :). I had a nice visit with the whole family, and then we went into Bonn with Burkhard and his daughter Sophia to do some sightseeing there. As Sophie has lived most of her life thus far in Canada, she was very excited to speak English again.

We started at the university, which had some nice old buildings (which were once a castle, or at least belonged to some very important leader in the past..?), and then walked along the Rhein River. Apparently there are lots of castles on that part of the Rhein, but I also couldn't see those. I would really like to go back and visit and take a boat trip down the river to see them, and do a hike too. I hope I have time to! Afterwards we wandered down some cute old streets in town. I tried some currywurst for the first time and it was delicious! It's a sausage cut into small pieces with a ketchupy/spicy/curry sauce drizzled over top. Unfortunately I had to return to Juelich that night to meet up with some friends, so the visit was a bit short, but I really enjoyed it and hope that I can find time to return once again before I leave.

Sunday I biked up the river in Juelich to see a lake I was told about. It was really nice. I would love to live by a lake like that in the summer. It was surrounded by forest with a few little beaches scattered around it, and a nice path circled it. There were lots of birds (such as Canada geese - ???) and I saw a few rabbits too. It was a really nice area. I sat on one beach and read my book and had a picnic lunch. I was thinking it would be a nice place to go camping, and indeed I saw several tents there when I returned the following Friday after work. Oh how I wish I was here in summer! I would go swimming there every day after work! I should mention that the lake was actually a mining hole that was filled water – seems like a nice use of a mining hole!

This past weekend a few of us decided to check out the “mountain” /slag heap - Tagebau Hambach – the only larger hill that can be spotted across the horizon from Juelich. It is man-made and produced from all the dirt dug out of the ground beside it for coal mining. We were more excited about seeing the giant gaping hole, which you can actually see on google maps if you look east of Juelich. Since we don't have a vehicle and the others didn't have bikes, we walked there. It was about 1 hour to the bottom of the mountain. Then we followed a winding path up the mountain, which now is covered in trees and vegetation. It's kind of nice to see that destruction caused by mining could produce such a nice wildlife habitat. One friend at work had said that she went up the mountain but couldn't find the hole and it was getting dark so she left without seeing it, and we found that hilarious and laughed at her. However, once on the mountain, we totally understood how that could happen! The mountain was huge – not too tall but very wide – and paths wound all over it! The top was quite flat, so the “lookout” point only looked out over another expanse of flat land, and you couldn't see the hole. That's because they keep adding more and more dirt to the mountain, so it keeps getting wider! (In fact, they are continuing to expand the hole and mountain, and in order to do so, they are relocating entire towns!!!)

Since our original plan was to see the hole, we set out for another hour of walking just to get to the edge of the mountain. We walked past a number of hunting...tower like things, made of boards precariously nailed together. We didn't see any animals though. Finally we arrived at a few dirt roads that looked less traveled. Two roads had signs saying access was forbidden, but one didn't, so we followed that one. We ended up in a lunar/Mars like landscape with heaping mounds of dirt, which stretched on for several hundred barren metres. From then we went off road - with the edge in clear sight, we climbed over the mounds of dirt until we could see the giant machine they used to dig up the ground on the other side, and eventually we came to a lookout where we could see the hole. It wasn't as deep as I expected (although I have been informed that it's at least 300 metres deep), but it was vast and very interesting. We realized we definitely weren't supposed to be there, because walking to the edge on these mounds of dirt probably wasn't the safest! However, we had seen what we came to see, so we were happy. On the way back we saw dark clouds looming in our path, so we stopped for a break in a hut. Fortunately in our 15 minutes sitting there we completely avoided some absolutely pouring rain, and after it stopped we continued on our way. We saw an enclosure containing the ancestors of goats, which look like a cross between deer and goats. I have to check what they were called. We also saw giant ant hills, which were covered by man-made pyramid enclosures. 5 hours after we had left Juelich, we FINALLY returned, exhausted and sore-footed! It was a really interesting adventure though!

March 6, 2012 - Ireland

Last weekend was the last crazy weekend before a much-needed break from travel, and the destination was...Ireland! A friend Mike and I met in Australia, Keith, was my excellent host for the weekend. He picked me up from the airport and then we drove to Mullingar to meet another friend of ours, Clive, who lives in a house there with several other guys. Right from the get-go, I was greeted with Irish fun-loving friendliness and sense of humour, and immediately got along with all the guys in the house. One friend of theirs was a boxer, and they were joking around, impersonating the gypsy boxer Brad Pitt plays in Snatch..I found that amusing (excellent impersonation!) and interesting to discover that Brad Pitt actually spent several months living with the gypsies in Ireland to learn that accent. Just thought I'd share that tidbit.

That night was Clive's brother's birthday, and apparently friends' birthdays in Ireland are very serious occasions, and they party very hard. “Can only handle one birthday a month, otherwise you need to combine them.” And a good party it was. We went out to a club, where I was slightly disappointed to find out that although smoking is banned in most of the club, there's a big smoking room that has tables and seats and is basically just like a bar...so due to the fact that all my friends there smoke, we got to spend the entire evening in there :S. Boo. Also, the other part of the club was quite empty!! Regardless, it was a really great time. And thanks to the vodka Red Bulls and excellent musical talent of all the guys (they all play in bands), we were up to 7am hanging out and singing/playing music in the house after the club. At 1 pm when we woke up the next day, almost everyone was still asleep!




Then Keith and I made our way west to the town he lives in with his parents, Roscommon. On the way I saw a lot of beautiful green Irish countryside, with rolling hills and deciduous trees covered in ivy, farmland with sheep and cows, and a few lakes and rivers. The amount of ivy that coated the trees and forest floors made the whole place seem magical, although I felt sorry for the trees. We stopped at a few places on the way, including Carrick-On-Shannon (a town on the Shannon River), which was a very cute town with lots of little shops and a pretty riverside. There I saw the smallest church in Ireland, which was just a bit larger than a shed and built of old stone, and surrounded by buildings which towered over it. Inside were a couple of very old tombs. We went for a walk along the boardwalk at the riverfront and saw some interesting pillars which rose out of the water, and had strange string formations on the top. We wondered what they were, until we heard some eerie harmonies coming from them when the wind blew – very cool!

Next stop was Forest Park, which was a large section of forest beside a lake which had a lot of outdoor activities, including zip lining, hiking trails, and docks for boating. In the middle of the lake was a cool little castle – unfortunately, you needed a boat to get there. There were actually a few interesting old stone buildings/building remnants scattered about the area, including the remains of an old church and a tower which rose out of the water at the edge of the lake. I really felt like a was immersed in a once-medieval landscape, and tried to imagine what it was like hundreds of years ago. I went for a walk along a path through the forest by the lake and found a cool little hobbit-like hole. Inside were old stone steps that lead to a gate, which looked onto darkness and a deep pit. I'm not sure what it was. We also stopped to see “the man on the horse”, a statue of a man on a horse at the top of a lookout beside the highway, where you could see all the gorgeous countryside surrounding. I also saw an old stone abbey, which was being rebuilt/fixed up, so unfortunately I couldn't actually go inside.

In Ireland I really felt like I could imagine the history of the place, as old building remains which looked to be from medieval times were scattered throughout the countryside, and many family farms which were passed down through tons of generations still remained. I was really excited to find out that my friend lived with his parents on one of these farms!!! We had to drive part of the way on a dirt road to a little house surrounded by green grassy land and bogs, and upon exiting the car I was greeted by a VERY CUTE one year old puppy, Ellie, who I made friends with instantly. Keith's family raises cattle, although it is more of a hobby farm which they keep for tradition. Even though you can sell a cow for 2000 EUR, the cost of raising it is actually more. Keith's parents were super nice and welcoming. His dad's accent was very strong, however, and I often didn't understand him!



That night was my first real Irish pub experience, and it was almost complete with a fresh pint of Guiness, although missing the traditional Irish live music :(. Keith, his friend Dec, and I went to the tiny local pub in Roscommon called “Into the West”, although all the locals call it the Sheep Walk. It was quite small inside, with a cozy fire and little booths. I thought I wouldn't like Guiness, but it was actually quite good. It was very different from normal beer – filling and almost creamy. Apparently the pouring of the beer can really affect the taste, and Keith said this particular pub does an excellent job. The glass was filled about ¾, and then left to sit, and then filled again, with careful attention to the foam on the top. Then it had to sit for about 5 minutes longer before being brought over to the table, where you let it sit again before drinking!!

The next morning, Keith's mom made us a traditional Irish breakfast – consisting of eggs on pancakes, Irish bacon, sausages, beans and (duh duh duuuuhhh) black pudding. I was absolutely dreading trying black pudding from the moment Keith told me about it and showed me in its original form in the fridge – a black sausage formation, coated in plastic. I was also really not looking forward to find out what it was made of. However, I did try it, and I actually didn't mind it. It just tasted like the juice from meat, and barley (which gave it a crunch). It was served in little round slabs, which were cooked until they were a bit crunchy on the outside. I found out later that it was made of pig's blood mixed with bread crumbs, barley, etc. Yuck. I actually expected even worse though, so I didn't regret trying it. We also had Irish tea with milk and sugar, which was very delicious. Keith's mom gave me some tea bags to take home with me.

The remainder of the day was spent driving back across the country to Dublin so I could catch my plane. I think I really had (besides the lack of live Irish music in the pub) the perfect Irish experience.


Of course, it's never easy for me on the way home from these trips...although my flight went smoothly and I was on the platform with 8 minutes to spare, the last train I was supposed to catch back to Juelich was delayed by 90 minutes due to a “signal box malfunction”, so I missed my connection and had to spend the night with my friend Des in Dueren :(. I am forever losing faith in German engineering and trains.

Monday I went straight to work from Dueren, and then after work straight to Dusseldorf to see a Deichkind concert. It's a funny German band with hilarious lyrics that Christian showed me several years ago. Unfortunately I can't understand the words, but I really like the songs anyway, and I convinced the American at work, Michael, and Des to go with me. This time I got a ride with someone from work so that I didn't have to deal with the trains, and I arrived an hour earlier than the other friends from work I was meeting there were arriving, so I got to do some exploring. I walked along the Rheine River to the modern part of town – MedienHafen (media harbour) – which had VERY COOL modern architecture/buildings that overlooked the harbour. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me. I then walked towards the old part of town, which had maze-like cobble stone streets, old buildings, cute little stores, restaurants and breweries. I met Michael for dinner (he was late because his train didn't show up – I'm starting to see a trend here...) and we had Spanish tapas which were absolutely delicious. Of course, we took our time being used to Canadian/American concerts and arrived an hour late for the show...to find that Deichkind was already performing for a while!!!! :( :( The rest of the show was AMAZING but only lasted for an hour and a half. There wasn't even an opener!!!

Feb 28 - visit from Katherine, Karneval, and Austria

Visit from Katherine

Guess it's about time I update this! I've been getting super busy, so haven't had much time for blogging :). Lots of fun times since my last post. A few weekends ago Katherine came out to visit and we had a great weekend, despite being in such a small town! The first night we went out with Daniel and his friends to a little Irish pub in Juelich. Really cute pub, but Katherine and I realized, to our chagrin, that smoking is allowed in pubs here, and we did NOT enjoy that. Our clothes and hair smelled terrible. Was still fun regardless though. Next day we went to Aachen, where we saw the very cool old Dom and town hall, which apparently Charlemagne once lived in. I also discovered 10 EUR shoes...4 pairs of boots to be exact haha. Katherine was able to control herself more and just bought 1 :). Then we met up with some of my work friends and went out for dinner and then to a bar. Funny enough, we Canadians get excited about German beer, while the Germans just get excited about the tasty, high percentage Belgian beer. The grass is always greener, I guess... although it seems the greenest is in Belgium... Sunday we slept in super late and managed to leave the house for a walk through Juelich, stopping at the Zitadel and a little duck "lake" (lagoon, maybe...), and we found 50 CENT GELATO!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been something like 4 times since. I was SUPER excited to discover that. So yes, some of you may be thinking, but whaaat, a store was open in Juelich on a Sunday? Yes, apparently some restaurants, and gelato. Woohoo! While we were eating the gelato we became surrounded by a giant mob of drunk Karneval people, who were all in some Karneval club sponsored by the Irish man who ran the pub we were at Fri. He was a very friendly man, and came over and talked to us. And he was very surprised we knew he was Irish haha. But anyways, this Karneval group...very strange things to me. There are organizations of people that are sponsored or pay money to be a part of these groups. They all dress in costumes, and will take part in the Karneval parades. And apparently party lots the whole time. Pretty much an excuse to get drunk, although some of them have legit marching bands/dancers and spend months preparing for the parade. This particular group was dressed in blue and white striped shirts, and had other interesting accessories. They were very lively, and were singing Karneval songs loudly. Was fun to see. Oh, and most of these people were over 40. Nice to see a holiday where grown-ups can go wild :P.

Karneval

Karneval is a holiday which takes place in several places around the world, where people dress in costume over several days and party very hard before lent. The centre of Karneval in Germany is Cologne, and it gets so crazy there that some of the locals will actually leave during it,... except for the ones who are totally into it. Most people at our research institute were not into it, mainly being turned off by all the "annoying Karneval songs" and drunkness. I still wanted to experience it though, so fortunately had a few friends who also wanted to take part. At the research centre cafeteria on Thurs there was a Karneval party, where everyone dressed in costume, drank beer and danced to music. I stopped by there with Ezequiel for an hour or so during work. It was a fun atmosphere, with lots of hokey/folk-y Karneval songs that sort of reminded me of Boney M christmas songs...that kind of happy feel to it. Some did get annoying after a while though. But it was cool that there were songs that entire crowds of people would sing together. A lot of the songs are in the Cologne dialect, so even Germans don't understand the words. Karneval actually starts on Thurs and continues until the following Wed (or is it Wed to Tues? I can't remember.) Some people will actually party for the entire week, and then take a week off to recover. I chose to just do two main days of Karneval myself, and it was more than enough for me.

Saturday I got up really early and caught a train to Cologne, where I met my friend Kathrin, a German girl from Dusseldorf who Mike and I met in Oz. I went with some of her friends to a brewery there. There was an hour line-up at 10:30am to get in! Inside was packed and smokey (wahmp wahmp) so I was only able to handle it for a few hours. It was fun though...lots of great costumes, and Kathrin's friends were fun. Was great to catch up with her too. The brewery was in a cool, big old two story medieval-like (or actually medieval?) building, and the basement had no ventilation, so it got reallly smokey. Eventually I left and met Ezequiel, a work friend, and his friends, and spent the rest of the day partying outside by the river or in small bars nearby. It was a fun day/night...didn't get home until 2 or 3 am.

Sunday I got up late, and thinking what a nice day it was, decided to go for a bike ride. Sure enough, as soon as I got about 4 minutes away, I noticed a dark cloud looming in the distance. In anticipation, I turned around and started biking quickly home, but I wasn't fast enough. I got caught in a huge hail storm. I thought hail was more exciting and fun than the rain that could have been soaking me though. On my way back I saw people in costumes with bags of candy and flowers, and was really disappointed to realize I had missed the Karneval parade in Juelich!!! nooooooo!!!! I then turned around and went out again for a run/walk, now that I am on a hard core physio schedule to prepare for soccer, which I am hoping to play with friends here in April...That night went to Aachen for cheese fondu at work friends. The trains back to Juelich are especially terrible on Sunday, so I had to stay over there, and Monday (a day off) we went back to Cologne for the big Karneval parade. I didn't have my costume with me (an eighties work-out girl), so I got to wear Ezequiel's long brown monk costume, which he had lost all the accessories to. It was pretty funny.



The parade was SUPER LONG. We never saw the start or end, but watched for something like 4 hours. There were tons and tons of Karneval organizations who had large floats and costumes and marching bands. Lots of the men wore old fashioned wigs, like Beethoven or old lords or something. The best part - they threw chocolate, candy and flowers into the crowd the whole time! Of course we didn't prepare for that, so between 3 of us we just had my purse, and so that became SUPER stuffed and heavy. It was funny, like trick-or-treating for adults. Of course, the kids got to go up to the front of the crowds so they got TONS of candy. We in the back had to scramble for ones that were thrown near us :). Ezequiel's friend was super into catching the candy (and was much better at it than Ezequiel and I), and he didn't let us leave for a long time, so I gorged on chocolate all day. I felt gross after. I couldn't help thinking how expensive it would be to supply all the candy and flowers - they were throwing tons of roses! and tulips! and daffodils!! Oh, I tried some excellent German street food that weekend. I tried a Thueringer sausage, which was quite good. I can't remember what the other stuff was. After the parade, there were tons of people partying everywhere. Monday is one of the craziest Karneval days. All we wanted to do was sit down, so the only place we found that had room to do so was a pizzeria. We finally left at 6pm, exhausted.

Innsbruck, Austria

Although I was absolutely exhausted from the weekend before, I had yet another exciting weekend planned. I took Friday off work and left Thurs night for Munich. Funny enough, the cheapest way for me to get to Innsbruck by Fri morning was to plane to Munich, and then train to Innsbruck in the morning, and fortunately it gave me time to have a quick visit with friends Anna and Svenja in Munich! Was really great to see both of them, and we spent the night catching up in a cute little pub near Anna's place (no smoking allowed - whew!). Of course, I didn't arrive until late so it was a late night (3am), and I had to get up at 5:30am to catch the train to Innsbruck! Oh, and me not being myself after getting run down from Karneval weekend....I forgot my passport!!!! And my toiletry bag! So not like me. I was SO worried I wasn't going to get on my plane, but then they didn't even check any ID! Thank god. The good thing about the European Union...

Anyways, had a sleep-filled train ride to Innsbruck, where I at one point encountered a very scary blue-mouthed druggy guy. Sad, because he looked super young too. Incredibly scary though, with this blue dye all over his mouth and lips. He sort of passed out in the booth next to me (thankfully not mine!) and when the train stopped, the train employee called some paramedics and they took him out and were talking to him. Christian told me that in Austria, the government gives junkies the option of a safer, less potent version of heroin that dyes their mouth blue to identify them. I think it also helps weed them off of it..? I could be wrong though. But some people go to the doctor and hide the blue pills under their tongue, and then go sell them in the street, so some people still overdose (such as this guy...). I think I am going to have nightmares about the blue people.

It was so good to see Christian again. He picked me up from the airport, took me to a ski rental place, and then we stopped at his apartment. He was in the middle of renovating it, so it was covered in dust and didn't have a proper bathroom yet (although he really tried to have workers come in and install everything while we were skiing, though it didn't work out quite as planned). So we had a dusty weekend with a new toilet, but no shower or bath. You can get pretty creative with "showering" when all you have is a kitchen sink and a bath with no running water upstairs... it was funny. He will probably cringe that I posted this (if he reads it), but it was too funny I just had to.





Friday and Sat we skied at two resorts in the Alps surrounding Innsbruck, which is a town jammed in a valley between the mountains. The hills looked right down on the city, only a short drive away. So jealous that Christian can just take a quick drive to go skiing in a great resort right after work! It's super cheap too! Only 30 or so EUR for the whole day, and Christian has a pass he can use at all surrounding resorts which is something like 280 EUR for the entire year, including mountain biking in summer! One of the resorts started right at the edge of the city, and you actually could ski over a tiny path of snow which crossed some streets/parking lots near the bottom to get to the gondola. There's some good steeps too. For some reason my legs were just exhausted that weekend, so I was kind of pathetic at skiing. There was lots of snow though (although it was very warm so was a wet snow), and great weather, nice clear view of the city and the gorgeous mountains surrounding. It was hilarious though, you could totally tell you were in Austria, land of the hard-cores, because people were walking up the slopes with backcountry skis, instead of taking the chairs/gondolas. We thought about doing that (Christian does it regularly), but based on the skiing shape of my legs that weekend, it was a good thing we didn't!




We also spent a lot of time catching up, went out dancing a couple nights, explored the very cute downtown area, got some more gelato...haha. Oh, and I tried some GREAT Austrian food for lunch at the ski resorts. One was a ball of breaded cheese floating in some soup which was delicious, and the other was a macaroni and cheese-like dish with crispy onions on top. I will have to ask Christian what they were called. Was very sad to say goodbye at the end, but was a really great weekend. The lack of passport almost got me in trouble on the flight back, but a little explaining to the supervisor and a driver's license got me through. My flight was delayed and I was afraid I would miss my connection in Hamburg, but I ended up just making it. Unfortunately, my bag didn't...so I was without a toothbrush/deodorant (the only toiletries I remembered to bring with me)/phone charger/plug adapter/runners/etc for the night and Monday. My suitcase arrived last night at 12am!! I was verrry happy to have it back.

Now I am recovering again, after an active weekend with almost no sleep. One more crazy weekend to get through in Ireland with some friends, then I am taking it easy!!!

Feb 8 - Weekend Trip to Belgium

Brussels

I really enjoyed Brussels. I wandered around and saw different sights, looked in little shops, ate waffles, enjoyed the views of all the old buildings...it was great. It was VERY COLD though. I could be wrong, but I was thinking it must have been around -15. My legs never get cold usually, even in Edmonton, but here they were COLD! Even in the hostel, I had to sleep with a hoodie and scarf, and a jacket draped over my blanket! Buildings there just are not made for those kind of temperatures. Even cafes and shops were cold. I think it also didn't help that I was walking around outside for hours on end though.



I got up fairly early (although I had to - breakfast ended at 9:30!) to start exploring. First I went to see a flea market...it was quite large, and all the vendors laid out antiques and other used goods in boxes and on blankets on the ground. I was impressed that they were able to withstand the cold. It was a little too antique-y for me though, so I carried on. My next stop was Manneken Pis. Hilarious. It's a TINY statue of a little boy peeing, but he's poised on this huge pedestal. He kind of looks like a cupid too. That one is very popular with the tourists. I made sure to stop and have a look in the little chocolate shops around, and ate my first waffle. This was my "local" waffle - i.e. how the locals eat it - plain with icing sugar on top. It was delicious!! The dough was really sweet and tasty.

The next stop was Grand Place - a big square surrounded by really old, beautiful buildings (including the Town Hall and a museum). I didn't go in any of the buildings (I think a lot of them were closed actually, some guy was telling me he tried...), but enjoyed the view from outside. I also stopped and took pictures of Beurs/Bourse. I am not sure which is the German or French name, but it's an old pretty stock exchange building.




I then navigated the metro system (it was also cold in there) to get to the Atomium. What a sight that was!!! Just look at the picture! It's Belgium's Eiffel Tower - a giant structure of metal balls and rods made to look like an iron crystal. Apparently it was constructed for the World Exhibition in 1958, when people still believed that atomic energy would save the world. The coolest part was that you could take elevators up to and escalators in between all the metal balls, and inside the metal balls were museum exhibits! Of course I was WAY too cold in there to stop and look at the exhibits, but I enjoyed the escalators.




Next I stopped for a hot chocolate to warm up while I waited for a little "Creator's Market" to open (it and other stores closed during lunch hour - strange!). A hot chocolate consisted of hot milk with a little shot glass of chocolate chips - funny!! The creator's market was neat - there were some very talented local artists/designers. I bought a couple prints from an artist there. Afterwards I wandered and saw some churches, another peeing statue (this one was a dog peeing on a fire hydrant - he wasn't quite as popular as Manneken Pis though), and stopped in a few cute little shops, including a cheap and delicious tea shop. St. Michiels Cathedral was huge and gorgeous - a lot like Notre Dame in Paris except I didn't see any gargoyles.



By the end, my legs/feet were killing me but I forced myself to walk to get one more waffle - this time the "tourist" one, i.e. slathered with an obscene amount of toppings. I got strawberries, whipping cream and white chocolate. It was...too much :). I felt horrible afterwards. I couldn't even finish all of it, at least all of the whipped cream. It was tasty though. However, I can see why the locals prefer keeping it simple :). Afterward I painstakingly made my way back to the hostel, and after resting for longer than I should have I went to the train station, arriving only 5 minutes before the train I had intended to take was going to leave. Fortunately(?), that one was cancelled anyways, and the next one was delayed by half an hour. Apparently trains are not that reliable in winter. Good thing I didn't arrive earlier.


Bruges

Sore feet and all, I refused to take any kind of taxi or bus from the train station to my hostel in Bruges, and made my way on foot. I hadn't realized the "easy 15 minute walk" would be 25 minutes along the side of a huge highway...again in -15 weather. As miserable as it was, I finally made it to my next hostel, which was actually located just outside of the town of Bruges, but fortunately still within walking distance. I was preceded by a South Korean fellow who I thought the hostel people were quite rude to, so I befriended him. His credit card hadn't been working and he had to pay for the room with his remaining cash - in coins! Fortunately this hostel only cost 10 EUR. I needed an ATM as well, and despite the front desk people warning us not to go looking for dinner in the town ("it's too expensive! bring 100 EUR with you!") we went anyway. And we found both an ATM and a delightful, reasonably priced restaurant in the heart of Bruges. (On the way we saw a TON of drunk people wandering in huge groups, all carrying wine/beer glasses, down the street - weird.) We had a steak dinner with delicious sauce (fortunately Byeong Soo, the Korean guy, liked sharing and was indecisive, so we got to try 2 sauces - peppercorn and mushroom), fries (actually no better than fries in Canada, I think), salad, a starter soup, and a dessert for 17.5 EUR. Turns out that was actually quite cheap for a meal in Bruges, or at least a dinner. I tried the Bruges beer - Brugge Zot. I think it was the most delicious beer I have ever had. I had it again while I was there, and even though I was cold and it probably helped me remain cold, it was worth it.




I have to mention that I was verrrry happy that this hostel was actually very warm. Yay! The lady at the front desk was just horrible though. Not a nice person and not helpful at all. I had to look up and find the transit website to find out when the bus that went to the train station left, even though she said there was no website. (No way was I walking there again.) But anyways. About Bruges...



It was also cold and snowy in Bruges. Snow covered the little cobble stone streets and boy it was slippery to walk on! Fortunately no accidents though. Byeong Soo and I explored the town together on Sunday. We are both the same kind of traveler - like to wander around and explore on our own, so it worked out well. Most of the buildings in town were built in Medieval times, so it was really interesting and cool to see. There was lots of brick and stone, and the town was set up like one would expect in that era - like a protected, walled fortress. There was a canal and walls that surrounded the town, and between the canal and the walls was a grassy area with windmills situated on little hills. Kids were out sledding down the hills, which was fun to see. There were also canals that ran throughout the centre of town, with little stone bridges to cross. I had really wanted to do a trip through the canal, so I was a bit disappointed that they were totally frozen! Of course, that didn't seem to stop the ducks though! We still saw several floating in a little patch of water they must have melted through the ice with their body heat!

Another thing I was looking forward to was seeing the main square, with the famous tower of Belfry that you can climb a bunch of stairs to get to the top. This was a major component of the movie "In Bruges" and so I was really excited to see it. It was somewhat disappointing, because they were doing construction in the square and the tower was closed for renovations :( :(. We saw some very cool old churches too. There were tons of churches because (I think) this is a major training area for new priests. At lunchtime we stopped to "warm up" at the cheapest cafe we could find in the area (still around 15 EUR for lunch though). At first I thought it looked cute and quaint, but then the Shakirah playlist, unfriendly waiter and the smoking chef kind of ruined the atmosphere. It was also cold in there, not helped by the beer...



I realize I am not painting the most positive picture of Bruges, but I did enjoy it. It was a lot more touristy than I expected (the town was pretty much dead besides all the tourists wandering the streets, although I suspect this was also due to the fact that it was a Sunday), but it was still beautiful. There was a little chocolate shop at every street corner, some that could only be found in Bruges. After exploring for a few hours, we had seen most of the town, so we made our way back to the hostel to catch a train to Brussels (where I would continue on to Germany.)

The train back was BRUTAL. I have now decided that I LOATHE taking the train for long distances. I had to catch 4 different trains. And one thing you take for granted when flying is the SINGLE destination. Not the case with trains, you have to remain constantly alert to make sure you don't miss your stop. Meanwhile, you are trying to understand the foreign language on the loudspeakers and signs. Also, the warm airport - train stations are COLD. I know, because I had to spend about 3 hours waiting for transfers at various stations - an extra hour for one because my previous train arrived 16 minutes late, and exactly one minute after my next left. After 7 hours of this, I arrived home at 10pm - 2 hours later than I had hoped - absolutely fried. And to find still no internet at home after 7 days, I was not a happy camper. Of course my experience is nowhere near as bad as Byeong Soo, who had waited 10 hours in a train station in Amsterdam to get to Bruges, without any certainty of a train ever showing up (tracks were frozen). So, decision has been made - avoid trains in winter at all cost, and stick to flying :). I don't care what sights I miss!



Back at home...I am finally writing in the blog, because after 10 days (and 130 EUR for a new router), I finally have internet again! Yay! I was so bored, I signed up for a membership at the fitness centre. Turns out it's a bit cold for the exercise I had originally planned to do here, so aerobics/pilates/etc will be a nice substitute. I already went to one class - dance aerobics - and wow was that funny. Apparently I am a slow learner when it comes to dance. Some moves I never mastered. I was laughing at myself the whole time. I guess it didn't help that it was in German though. Good times.

Feb 3 - Being Social

Well, I haven't had internet at home for the past week pretty much. My landlady gave me a VERY short internet cable, and I kept accidentally pulling the modem off its precarious position on top of the TV (and no, there was no better place to put it)...it fell a few times and I think the last time was one time too many - it hasn't worked since!! The landlady was very good and every day I came home there was improvement - first no lights, then blinking lights, then solid lights but no LAN light...but I think the modem is broken. May have to pay for a new one :(.

But...due to the lack of internet, I made sure I was very social this week, and that made up for it. Hung out with my new friend Marcus who works at the research centre and lives in Juelich :). First night we and Daniel got together and played board games at Marcus's place. It was some German board game...very simple but lots of strategy. Was fun. Turns out Marcus' place is about the same size as my tiny place, and he's been living there for 3 years! Second night, after Marcus brought me some packets of vanilla sugar (they don't use liquid vanilla), and individual packets of baking powder (what's with all the single servings here??), he came over and we made chocolate cookie dough. We made some sample cookies in my little toaster oven. They tasted a bit different, but still good! I made the rest the next day at work in the oven there. Everyone was very confused but thankful I shared haha.

Thursday night Marcus organized beers at a pub in Juelich to celebrate him getting his PhD. I got a Weiser (wheat ale) that came in a GIANT glass!! It was about a foot tall! Very tasty. Also tried the traditional Cologne beer. It was just a light beer, not bad though.

Because I foresaw a boring weekend with no internet (and Marcus is gone back home to Denmark for the next ten days), I decided to take a last minute weekend trip - with pretty much no planning. I used the rideshare website to get a ride from Aachen to Brussels. First this meant busing to Aachen, which took about an hour. Aachen is really cute, a larger town/city with lots of old buildings. I met the driver, a 30ish year old adventurous guy, and the three other passengers. I, the only girl, was in the front, while the three other guys were in the back - haha! The driver was a really interesting person, so it made for an enjoyable ride. We passed through three countries on the way - Germany, Holland and Belgium - and no border crossings! The roads were snowy (it's super cold here!) so the going was a bit slow, but fortunately snow tires are mandatory in Germany (not the case in Belgium...hence the slow going).

We were dropped off in Brussels, and it was a ten minute walk to my HI hostel (and a COLD walk!). It's in a really cute part of the centre of town, with narrow cobble stone roads, very quaint little restaurants, galleries and bars, really old buildings and cathedrals. I had a traditional Belgian meal with a few meatballs in different sauces and fries (although I replaced with salad), and some beer. The meal was really tasty, but I think the beer wasn't my favourite...pretty bitter. By the way, apparently Belgians were the REAL inventors of "French" fries. Maybe I should have just tried them...

Have lots of exploring to do tomorrow, some waffles to eat, some chocolate to taste, some beer to drink. Then I will make my way to Bruges. I am SUPER excited about seeing Bruges, and have been wanting to go there since watching the movie "In Bruges". Then I will hopefully catch a train back to Juelich Sun night.