Wow
It's the end of our second day, and soon we're taking a sleeping train to Aswan.
We arrived two days ago at midnight, and got into our hostel without experiencing any of Cairo so far. We then ventured out in the morning and experienced Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, The Citadel, and the Egyptian Museum. The sights I have seen have been some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life. At the museum they have Tutenkhmens tomb and everything in it, he must have had a big ego. It's almost unbelievable until you see some of these things, and then learn they're 3000+ years old!
Today we got up at 4am, and got on some camels and went to the Giza Pyramids and watched the sunrise. What an experience, it just seems so surreal what we did this morning, it was dawn, in the desert, just sand dunes and us, until we saw some guys riding and yelling on horses. They weren't a threat though. Then we went to the Pyramids and climbed one of them, they're really big. We saw the Sphinx, which was OK, and then rode the camels some more. Parts of the Pyramids are really close to the city, it's odd actually.. We then went to some other tombs, and I have to tell you, I am getting sick of the way here people try to get your money. They act as a tour guide, show you a few things, then ask, or try to persuade, you to give them money. We tell them from the start "we don't want a guide, we have no money to give you" but they come along, and then ask for money and get really angry when you don't give them money. Frustrating. And people ask for tips all the time, I mean, we do have more money than them, but we soon wouldn't if we gave stuff to everyone that has asked us over this entire trip so far.
The sleeping train should be nice, first class apparently. As long as it's air conditioned, because the done near Aswan and Luxor is hot. Can't wait though. It's such a unique place. Cairo is completely mad, 22 million or so they tell us...
-Andrew
What a crazy place. We got up so early thismorning and our lovely taxi driver was waiting for us to take us to Giza. We get there and start riding out to the desert while its still dark. My camel was called Ali Babar. The area around the pyramids is now fenced off and they close the area until 9am everyday. Well, our 'guide' knew some guy whole lived in a shack just inside the fence and bribed him to let us in. Then he bribed the tourist police (such a joke in this place) to climb up the pyramid and inside one of the tombs. We were there for 2 hours and it was just us and these amazing structures. He even gave Andrew some souvineer rocks from the pyramid. After we got back we went to some more pyramids that are less know but the insides are a bit more intact. We are so thankful for our tour guide because he told us exactly how to go about getting tickets. Its crazy because ou get your tickets at one place then you drive to the site and the police tell you you have to buy more tickets, you dont. I quite like the struggle with the hagglers, its fun just sticking up for yourself all the time if you know how to do it.
Anyways tomorrow we are starting this crazy hard core non stop tour of Egypt. Highlights incluse a miltary convoy to Abel Simel and waking up on Mt Sinai on Andrews birthday. The spray from my work pressie is awesome in this heat- thanks guys!! Love you all
-Alice
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Freedom to Lobsters
A phrase they have on the back of our map to learn in Spanish?!!
Well anyways its 6am and Andrew is in bed, I cant sleep so this is my third entry. Last night we went out for a Flamenco show and Spanish tapas meal. It was fun and we meet a crazy Aussie who is living here in Madrid and has the job of being the pub crawl girl AND the breakfast girl at our hostel, harsh. I think our hostel has a big sign on it welcoming all the teenage american girls on college vacation. There´s one guy here who spends all his timei t seems on the internet, funny!
Perhaps its a tad premature to make this announcement but here we go....
I have begun to walk the road of vegetarianism. I havent had meat for about a week now, actually not alot of meat on the trip at all. Its something thats been on my mind for a long time actually, ever since Mandy and Dave introduced me to the idea of my ecological footprint. It started in Morocco when we went to the chicken markets. As you can probably imagine they wouldn´t have got the SPCA seal of approval and they made me sad and sick. I decided that I couldnt be a part of that happening and gave up chicken then. And then I thought is it so different back home, I dont think the chicken we have had has been free range (can you even get that) and it made me realise that I have no idea where the meat I eat comes from or much about how it gets to my plate at all. So, thats it, no more meat, for now anyway. Its going pretty good so far, they have amazing falafel here and even Andrew prefers it to the meat sometimes. I´ll have to talk to Mandy (are you out there sister?) and find out all about how to get my iron and protein.
Well anyways its 6am and Andrew is in bed, I cant sleep so this is my third entry. Last night we went out for a Flamenco show and Spanish tapas meal. It was fun and we meet a crazy Aussie who is living here in Madrid and has the job of being the pub crawl girl AND the breakfast girl at our hostel, harsh. I think our hostel has a big sign on it welcoming all the teenage american girls on college vacation. There´s one guy here who spends all his timei t seems on the internet, funny!
Perhaps its a tad premature to make this announcement but here we go....
I have begun to walk the road of vegetarianism. I havent had meat for about a week now, actually not alot of meat on the trip at all. Its something thats been on my mind for a long time actually, ever since Mandy and Dave introduced me to the idea of my ecological footprint. It started in Morocco when we went to the chicken markets. As you can probably imagine they wouldn´t have got the SPCA seal of approval and they made me sad and sick. I decided that I couldnt be a part of that happening and gave up chicken then. And then I thought is it so different back home, I dont think the chicken we have had has been free range (can you even get that) and it made me realise that I have no idea where the meat I eat comes from or much about how it gets to my plate at all. So, thats it, no more meat, for now anyway. Its going pretty good so far, they have amazing falafel here and even Andrew prefers it to the meat sometimes. I´ll have to talk to Mandy (are you out there sister?) and find out all about how to get my iron and protein.
New Photos
This is a our hang out loungey area in Amsterdam, had to put this one on there, so many good times!
This is a horrible cheese wrapped in bacon heart stopping kebab we got in a Japanese restaurant in Paris.
This one is of the catacombs in Paris, crazy place where the walls are completely lined with peoples bones. The bones came from an old graveyard and were moved there ages ago due to a funny idea that the cemetary was making the people sick.
The next one is us in Madrid at the royal palace. The gardens in the backgound are the royal gardens.
A spice market in Morocco
This is a horrible cheese wrapped in bacon heart stopping kebab we got in a Japanese restaurant in Paris.
This one is of the catacombs in Paris, crazy place where the walls are completely lined with peoples bones. The bones came from an old graveyard and were moved there ages ago due to a funny idea that the cemetary was making the people sick.
The next one is us in Madrid at the royal palace. The gardens in the backgound are the royal gardens.
A spice market in Morocco
Me, standing in front of a doorway in Morocco. You can't see the detail it was amazing.
Alice sitting by the pool in the Riad, taken from the 3rd floor where we stayed.
A cheesy as hell photo of Alice and I above the big square in Marrakesh
Alice standing down the street we took to get to our Riad every day.
Hello Barcelona
Well it didnt take us too long to get over the craving of own bed. Its been a glorious day in Barcelona today. After breakfast, groceries, posting, Andrew having a hypo we finally hit the beach. Such a lovely blue water, yellow (but coarse) sadny beach. We found a wee second hand bookstore thisafternoon and spent a bit of time browsing all the books. Tonight we are going to a Flamenco show. I have to log off now so Andrew can put some photos on.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sleeping in airports
We had our first exciting homelessness night last night. Got in from Morocco just after 10 and being the tight asses we are decided to bunk out in the airport for the night instead of paying for a hostel. We wandered around for a while and saw heaps of people trying to sleep in an assortment of positions an locations. Some were across chairs, some had found chairs with wheels and out them together and lots were just on the hard marble outside the police station. I think ours was the best. We found a few checkout counters right down one end of the airport where nobody was and decided to set up beds on the luggage scales ( the rubbery belt you put them on before getting on the plane). This was quite sqeet because we could put our bags at one end so that if anyone wanted to steal them they´d have to walk over us first and the rubber was much softer and warmer than the marble. I was quite worried that we might get into trouble but after a few police, cleaner and security rounds we realised that noone seemed to care at all. Got about 5 hours sleep all up I reckon. It was heaps of fun. We´re in Barcelona now until tues night when we go to Cairo. We have bought tickets to go from Barcelona to Berlin when we get back so we´ll be coming down Europe instead of up.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Morocco
Morocco, where do I start?
This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.
We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..
We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.
An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.
Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..
Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.
We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.
This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.
We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..
We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.
An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.
Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..
Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.
We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Bye bye Madrid
Today we are leaving Madrid. We have packed up our bags already and are going to walk around the city for a while till our flight to Morocco. Madrid is such a cool city. Last night we went out walking about 11 and the streets were packed with people, drinking sangria and having tapas. We got invited to have free drinks at a bar so we went there for a while. Meet some nice people in the hostel and had a chat to the Browns.
-Alice
Before I got to Madrid, I couldn´t help but think the country would be a bit like a third world nation, or more like Mexico to be honest. I couldn´t imagine that they´d have technology (that worked) like the rest of Europe, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This country isn´t in fact third world and is instead quite enjoyable. People are a bit different here, they have dinner at 10pm and the pet stores have hairless cats. Less people speak English here, so I´ve had to pull out my spanish skills, often talking up a storm the locals and impressing all the girls. Not really.
Andrew
-Alice
Before I got to Madrid, I couldn´t help but think the country would be a bit like a third world nation, or more like Mexico to be honest. I couldn´t imagine that they´d have technology (that worked) like the rest of Europe, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This country isn´t in fact third world and is instead quite enjoyable. People are a bit different here, they have dinner at 10pm and the pet stores have hairless cats. Less people speak English here, so I´ve had to pull out my spanish skills, often talking up a storm the locals and impressing all the girls. Not really.
Andrew
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Éspáñól
I´m not quite sure which vowels of Éspáñól has the thing above it so I added it to as many letters as possible. I think I covered all my bases there.
So we´re in Madrid. We left Paris and trained to Bordeaux after a mess of train booking. I just realised I´ve already mentioned this. Anyway, Bordeaux was kinda boring, we did a wine tour which was ok, but lots wasn´t in English, which made it kinda boring, but the wine they let us taste was nice.
So then we trained to Madrid. Which is now. Not much to write really. I keep thinking there has been things I´ve wanted to write about but keep forgetting. Lots of random interesting things have been happening, but when it comes time to write, I forget. Oh well
So we´re in Madrid. We left Paris and trained to Bordeaux after a mess of train booking. I just realised I´ve already mentioned this. Anyway, Bordeaux was kinda boring, we did a wine tour which was ok, but lots wasn´t in English, which made it kinda boring, but the wine they let us taste was nice.
So then we trained to Madrid. Which is now. Not much to write really. I keep thinking there has been things I´ve wanted to write about but keep forgetting. Lots of random interesting things have been happening, but when it comes time to write, I forget. Oh well
Hola!!!
Hola from Madrid! After a couple of average days in a crappy hotel in Bordeaux and after much confusion at the train station we boarded a train to Irun, a wee town just on the border between France and Spain. It was a nice train actually, one of those ones with cabins for you to sit in and spread out a bit. Just before we got into Irun a French man with a huge yellow balloon visited us to play hit the balloon around the cabin. Random. He seemed really nice thoug, kept trying to make us understand his French, we didnt. We decided to have a walk around Irun since it was a friday night and we had a couple of hours to spend. We soon found out the locals didnt seem to keen to have us there, lots of weird looks and crossing the street so as not to pass us.
We had booked a ´couchette´ for our trip to Madrid so that we could sleep. It was amazing to see 6 people and all our luggage fit into this tiny cabin. About half an hour into our trip there was a bit of a halla ballo outside our cabin, most of it was in a tounge we didnt understand but we could hear over and over ´we are the police you must give us your passport´. After a while a plain clothes cop came into our cabin to see our passports too. I made sure I checked out his badge and we gave him our passports. They carried on for some time outside the cabin with the passport check resistors and eventually it all calmed down. Drama!
We got here to Madrid this morning and its awesome. It seems the further south we go the less english is spoken. We are making good use of our phrase book here. It feels a bit silly talking Spanish though, you kinda have to lisp some sounds. Andrew learnt the word for beer pretty quick though. We went to the Royal Palace thismorning. I have never seen such opulence and extravagence before. It was amazing, one room was entirely covered in porcelin.
Our hostel seems fun but maybe not as much as the flying pig. All the rooms face onto a communal courtyard which we are hoping is where the party is at tonight.
Tomorrow we have been promised a tour by a spanish guy we meet on the subway today. He was on his way home from a party at 8 when we were arriving.
We had booked a ´couchette´ for our trip to Madrid so that we could sleep. It was amazing to see 6 people and all our luggage fit into this tiny cabin. About half an hour into our trip there was a bit of a halla ballo outside our cabin, most of it was in a tounge we didnt understand but we could hear over and over ´we are the police you must give us your passport´. After a while a plain clothes cop came into our cabin to see our passports too. I made sure I checked out his badge and we gave him our passports. They carried on for some time outside the cabin with the passport check resistors and eventually it all calmed down. Drama!
We got here to Madrid this morning and its awesome. It seems the further south we go the less english is spoken. We are making good use of our phrase book here. It feels a bit silly talking Spanish though, you kinda have to lisp some sounds. Andrew learnt the word for beer pretty quick though. We went to the Royal Palace thismorning. I have never seen such opulence and extravagence before. It was amazing, one room was entirely covered in porcelin.
Our hostel seems fun but maybe not as much as the flying pig. All the rooms face onto a communal courtyard which we are hoping is where the party is at tonight.
Tomorrow we have been promised a tour by a spanish guy we meet on the subway today. He was on his way home from a party at 8 when we were arriving.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Onward
So we're in Paris now. We should be in Bordeaux but we managed to underestimate just how booked the trains would be.
We got on our "cruise ship" in Amsterdam on Friday afternoon, and once set up headed back into the city for one final night. How different it was, being a Friday night. That place changes on the weekend, and I didn't like it. It's a shame, as I bet most people end up visiting then and get a pretty horrible impression of the place. What's weird, is that despite the tolerence that Amsterdam is known for, liberal laws on soft drugs and legalised prostitution, which some people might think are bad things, the worst thing I saw was drunk people, which happens everywhere in the world..
We arrived in Rotterdam at 1pm, and no offence Rotterdam, but what a boring city. Most of it was bombed in WWII so it's all new. It's just like Christchurch really, probably nice to live in but not so nice to visit.
Next day was Antwerp, Belgium. This city was alright actually. We found ourselves in a big square, which had a lot of restaurants and bars and a big old church and was just nice to be in. We had some chocolate.
We arrived the next day in Brussels but hopped on the first train to Paris. Paris is a nice city, quite big and a lot of old stuff. The louvre is huge and has a lot of art and the people dress well, not as well as in Amsterdam though. The first day was only ok for me but as time went on I enjoyed it more and more. We saw the Eiffel Tower and everything else. Stuff is old here.
Anyway, internet time ticks by quickly and expensively over here, especially when paying in euros..
We got on our "cruise ship" in Amsterdam on Friday afternoon, and once set up headed back into the city for one final night. How different it was, being a Friday night. That place changes on the weekend, and I didn't like it. It's a shame, as I bet most people end up visiting then and get a pretty horrible impression of the place. What's weird, is that despite the tolerence that Amsterdam is known for, liberal laws on soft drugs and legalised prostitution, which some people might think are bad things, the worst thing I saw was drunk people, which happens everywhere in the world..
We arrived in Rotterdam at 1pm, and no offence Rotterdam, but what a boring city. Most of it was bombed in WWII so it's all new. It's just like Christchurch really, probably nice to live in but not so nice to visit.
Next day was Antwerp, Belgium. This city was alright actually. We found ourselves in a big square, which had a lot of restaurants and bars and a big old church and was just nice to be in. We had some chocolate.
We arrived the next day in Brussels but hopped on the first train to Paris. Paris is a nice city, quite big and a lot of old stuff. The louvre is huge and has a lot of art and the people dress well, not as well as in Amsterdam though. The first day was only ok for me but as time went on I enjoyed it more and more. We saw the Eiffel Tower and everything else. Stuff is old here.
Anyway, internet time ticks by quickly and expensively over here, especially when paying in euros..
Friday, May 11, 2007
Heineken Experience
I should have put this in the last post but I forgot, and I can't work out on these dutch computers which is "edit post" so it's just a new one for now.
Two days ago we went to the "Heineken Experience" which is like a brewery tour, but more like science alive in how it works. It was $11 (imagine that $ is actually a euro sign) each which ended up quite good value because they gave us 3 tokens each for a beer and also a gift token which netted us 1 bottle opener and bottle opener holder in each of our hands. And since Alice doesn't like beer all that much, I got her tokens. So we stopped at the first bar stop and I got 2, and then send a video from the museum of us dancing in front of a dutch windmill to our families, and continued around. They had comfy personal seats that showed all their ads on TV since the 50's and they just had tons of cool rides and things to do. Then the next bar came along so I got another 2 beers, and while sitting down enjoying those I got gifted another 2 tokens, the seat I had picked happened to be by the door, and a lot of people apparently don't want to drink beer, so they'd hand their tokens onto the person sitting at the door, me. Some people from a christian college from Kentucky sat next to us and I got gifted x amount of coins which at this stage meant I had 2 new beers in front of me and 7 tokens in my hand. I ended up giving some of the tokens away but I feel I got very good value for money from the place and would highly recommend it, even if you don't enjoy free beer.
Two days ago we went to the "Heineken Experience" which is like a brewery tour, but more like science alive in how it works. It was $11 (imagine that $ is actually a euro sign) each which ended up quite good value because they gave us 3 tokens each for a beer and also a gift token which netted us 1 bottle opener and bottle opener holder in each of our hands. And since Alice doesn't like beer all that much, I got her tokens. So we stopped at the first bar stop and I got 2, and then send a video from the museum of us dancing in front of a dutch windmill to our families, and continued around. They had comfy personal seats that showed all their ads on TV since the 50's and they just had tons of cool rides and things to do. Then the next bar came along so I got another 2 beers, and while sitting down enjoying those I got gifted another 2 tokens, the seat I had picked happened to be by the door, and a lot of people apparently don't want to drink beer, so they'd hand their tokens onto the person sitting at the door, me. Some people from a christian college from Kentucky sat next to us and I got gifted x amount of coins which at this stage meant I had 2 new beers in front of me and 7 tokens in my hand. I ended up giving some of the tokens away but I feel I got very good value for money from the place and would highly recommend it, even if you don't enjoy free beer.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Amsterdamage
Once again, concurrent posts..
London was a lot of fun, I grew to like the place more and more as time went on, and I really enjoyed the time we spent with Jeremy & Sarah. Good times, good memories.
It's Thursday today, which is a shame because it means only one more day here after today. I love this place, it's so cool to walk around, just such a beautiful city, and our hostel (Flying Pig Amsterdam) is probably one of the best hostels I have ever seen. They have a bar and are quite tolerant of people's activities and it's a greaat place. It rained the first few days but it doesn't really matter.
We went for a walking tour which was really interesting, and just walking around at night time is fun, they of course have the red light district which is an interesting walk, I actually think the city council have put this part of the city aside for adults because there are signposts with red lights in them when you go into the area, and it's like they've done it to remind parents not to bring their children, it's just odd that it's so "official". It's the very city centre so it's interesting architecurally too..
We've been having a great time, it's probably the most fun place I've visited so far.
London was a lot of fun, I grew to like the place more and more as time went on, and I really enjoyed the time we spent with Jeremy & Sarah. Good times, good memories.
It's Thursday today, which is a shame because it means only one more day here after today. I love this place, it's so cool to walk around, just such a beautiful city, and our hostel (Flying Pig Amsterdam) is probably one of the best hostels I have ever seen. They have a bar and are quite tolerant of people's activities and it's a greaat place. It rained the first few days but it doesn't really matter.
We went for a walking tour which was really interesting, and just walking around at night time is fun, they of course have the red light district which is an interesting walk, I actually think the city council have put this part of the city aside for adults because there are signposts with red lights in them when you go into the area, and it's like they've done it to remind parents not to bring their children, it's just odd that it's so "official". It's the very city centre so it's interesting architecurally too..
We've been having a great time, it's probably the most fun place I've visited so far.
Amsterdam
I think I've had the most fun of my life here in Amsterdam. And so you dont get any strange ideas, not because of the typical Amsterdam pleasures. The hostel we are staying at is so cool, so many people to meet. We have been out to dinner, to the pub or walking around with different people everyday. Last night we went out to dinner with Corey and Laura from the US. We started the night getting horribly lost and taking an hour to get to this place that was 5 mins away from our hostel. I dont think the night would have been quite as fun if we had just gone there. Today we did a walking tour with Jess and Joel all through old medievel Amsterdam. Theres some crazy random things here. The flowers are so beautiful and cheap that I bought myself a huge bunch of pink roses. Andrew is trying to dream up ways that we can move here. We realised last night that we hadnt really eaten meat at all since we got here, there's so much amazing delicious food. We've been having the best falafeel every day for lunch with a huge fresh salad. Finally Andrew conceeds that ultra healthy food can be yummy too!!!!
-Alice
-Alice
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Leaving London
We've had a brillant time here with Jeremy and Sarah, Miriam and Robert and Tim. Its sooo nice to be with friends isnt it. Big ups to Jeremy and Sarah for having us stay and taking us to the yummiest spanish resturant ever. We will have amazing linen for you for when you need to stay with us. Sorry to Rob and Tim again for being an hour late to meet you guys for lunch. Blimmen tube. Glad you are patient. Sorry to miss Izzy.
Heres a list of my top six fav bands of the moment (in no particular order)
-Crowded House
-Feelers
-Elemnopea
-Micheal Buble
-Chilli Peppers
-Switchfoot
Things I like
-Nice sheets
-Paper shopping bags
-Purfume
-Hamsters
-The colour pink
-Murder mystery books/Historal romance
-Hand written letters
-The tired achy after exercise feeling
-Clean socks
-Family (mostly)
-Having piggyback races
Things that I would like to do
-Eat a very sweet strawberry
-Give more hugs
-Write more letters
-Try vegetarianism
-Have a baby
-Form an opinion
-Lie in a park all day and watch the clouds go by
-Be completely myself
-Own a boat
-Fly kites
-Write more poems
-Love completely without inhibition or pride
Alice
Heres a list of my top six fav bands of the moment (in no particular order)
-Crowded House
-Feelers
-Elemnopea
-Micheal Buble
-Chilli Peppers
-Switchfoot
Things I like
-Nice sheets
-Paper shopping bags
-Purfume
-Hamsters
-The colour pink
-Murder mystery books/Historal romance
-Hand written letters
-The tired achy after exercise feeling
-Clean socks
-Family (mostly)
-Having piggyback races
Things that I would like to do
-Eat a very sweet strawberry
-Give more hugs
-Write more letters
-Try vegetarianism
-Have a baby
-Form an opinion
-Lie in a park all day and watch the clouds go by
-Be completely myself
-Own a boat
-Fly kites
-Write more poems
-Love completely without inhibition or pride
Alice
Thursday, May 3, 2007
London Chappies
Our first stop in a different country, still English speaking though. We have spent most of our time here so far being jet lagged and in bed, which is a shame. I got a cold on leaving NYC and have been glad for the bed at Jeremy's and Sarah's where we've been able to chill out a bit.Our nice friends at HSBC helped us get some money and off we trotted to the shops with it. Had a yummy tea on Wed at Wagamama's- very nice Asian cuisine and tonight a nice home cooked and few bottles of wine meal with Jeremy and Sarah. Went to Harrods today, tried the perfume in the bathrooms and found the NZ baby gear (just on our way past that section of course). I dont think we'll see it all here, its really nice to see old friends though.
-Alice
Well, I was gutted to leave America. I actually really liked it, I think I fitted in quite well really. But times goes on. The flight was nice because we weren't with American Airlines and so we actually got fed and got to watch something. I watched "Children of Men" and personally, don't get what all the fuss is about. Landed in London and met Jeremy, which was good, really good actually. Very tired from the crappy plane sleep so slept most of yesterday day and went to a pub and to a restaurant last night. Today slept in and went to the science museum and harrods, and yeah. London is quite a bit different to New York, I mean, well, you don't exactly expect them to be the same, but they're probably the two biggest city centres in the western world, and they couldn't be much different. The people are the difference really.
-Andrew
Here's the top of the cruise ship, where people can choose to sunbath if they don't like peace or quiet.
Here's Alice sitting on a 2000 year old Mayan ruin.
Here's the waterfall in Jamaica, running into the Ocean
Here's one of the rastafarians in front of some coconut drink.
Here's Alice on the cruise ship in the room with a towel pig they made us.
Alice again, and the Dodge minivan we converted into a poor-mans campervan, at a rest stop.
The nice beach in Grand Cayman, where we saw fish, some jellyfish stung Alice and a plastic bag scared the crap out of me.
Hey Alice how come you're in every picture? This is the Jack Daniels Distillery.
The hot-tub at the log cabin, looking into a forest in the smokey mountains
"Foam Henge", a fake Stone Henge replica on some back road randomly in Virginia
The Orioles mascot, a big bird!
As close as you can get (as a pedestrian) to the white house.
Abraham Lincoln. So big.
We went up the Rockefeller centre so we could see the empire state building, one thing you can't see from the empire state building. Such a large city.
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I did not feel liberated, just sea sick.
Doug, Amy & Kayla (spelling?), the kind family we stayed with in San Francisco, at Muir Woods
The golden gate bridge, which is not made of gold, and has more of a toll booth than a gate.
-Alice
Well, I was gutted to leave America. I actually really liked it, I think I fitted in quite well really. But times goes on. The flight was nice because we weren't with American Airlines and so we actually got fed and got to watch something. I watched "Children of Men" and personally, don't get what all the fuss is about. Landed in London and met Jeremy, which was good, really good actually. Very tired from the crappy plane sleep so slept most of yesterday day and went to a pub and to a restaurant last night. Today slept in and went to the science museum and harrods, and yeah. London is quite a bit different to New York, I mean, well, you don't exactly expect them to be the same, but they're probably the two biggest city centres in the western world, and they couldn't be much different. The people are the difference really.
-Andrew
Here's the top of the cruise ship, where people can choose to sunbath if they don't like peace or quiet.
Here's Alice sitting on a 2000 year old Mayan ruin.
Here's the waterfall in Jamaica, running into the Ocean
Here's one of the rastafarians in front of some coconut drink.
Here's Alice on the cruise ship in the room with a towel pig they made us.
Alice again, and the Dodge minivan we converted into a poor-mans campervan, at a rest stop.
The nice beach in Grand Cayman, where we saw fish, some jellyfish stung Alice and a plastic bag scared the crap out of me.
Hey Alice how come you're in every picture? This is the Jack Daniels Distillery.
The hot-tub at the log cabin, looking into a forest in the smokey mountains
"Foam Henge", a fake Stone Henge replica on some back road randomly in Virginia
The Orioles mascot, a big bird!
As close as you can get (as a pedestrian) to the white house.
Abraham Lincoln. So big.
We went up the Rockefeller centre so we could see the empire state building, one thing you can't see from the empire state building. Such a large city.
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I did not feel liberated, just sea sick.
Doug, Amy & Kayla (spelling?), the kind family we stayed with in San Francisco, at Muir Woods
The golden gate bridge, which is not made of gold, and has more of a toll booth than a gate.
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