RE: Great Photos - loved looking at them.

Today is a holiday in Europe(and raining), so I didn´t get a chance to go to the Porshe, BMW or the Tuba factory today!  I´m a little disappointed to say the least.  So I ended up wandering around Frankfurt.  (I also underestimated the distance from Stuttgart to Luxembourg) It´s cool to see how they incorporated the new and old buildings together.
 
One week on my own, one week with the family, London and then home!  It´s the home stretch now!
Andrea
 
P.S. the next couple of days I´ve booked:
Luxembourg City
Vianden, Luxembourg
Gent
Gent
?
Utrecht!

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Liechstein & Stuttgart

Until today I never thought I could be so happy touring in a museum I would cry. Today I spent a whopping 2 Euros (total!) to spend the afternoon in two cool museums. The second was a bunch of crown jewels and pottery from the stone age (which was awesome), but it´s the first one that made me cry. It was a musical instrument museum! It wasn´t advertised anywhere, and the tourist info place had never heard of it, but a friend ran into it while she was here last week so I knew it existed. They had one of the first Tubas on display, a bunch of cool bassoons (or Fagotts in German), as well as every other weird and/or old instrument they have been able to get their hands on. The weirdest instrument was there only via photos, but it was still awesome! It was this music box on steroids contraption, which had 270 instruments attached to it to imitate a full orchestra. He literally was a One Man Band!

Tonight I am also staying in a private hotel room for only 29 Euros! It´s kind of nice not to do the dormitory thing for a night. It´s really nice, and is really close to everything here. Tomorrow I´ll be staying in Frankfurt, but I hope to visit the city of Luxembourg in the afternoon. It will probably end up like my adventure to Liechtenstein yesterday.

Yesterday had a lot of train/bus travel, but totally worth it to say I was there and have the opportunity to wander around the city/country a bit. While I was in Vaduz I did do the 'totally tacky tourist thing' and pay to get a stamp in my passport that says I was there. But, I am so happy I got it! I think it was the best souvenir I´ve gotten so far. I also found patches for every country I am going to on this trip (including Vatican City), at a really super cheap price, so I bought them all. The next time I am stuck with several hours at a train station, I might sew them on.

I have also finally found a place that will let me download the photos to the computer and then upload them to the net, so here´s the link to all of my photos since Berlin! I´ll try to add captions to them over the next couple of days.

I love you all!
Andrea

Basel -a quick note

I loved it here so much that I stayed another day. So, I went hiking and then to Pirates 3. Both were a lot of fun! (I could even see the Alps!) I will stop by Lichtenstein tomorrow on my way to Stuttgart, so I will still be able to see it. Another reason to stay here and not in Vaduz was the connections to get there. Since there are only 2 rail stations in the country, getting to the hostel looked like quite a hassle between the 3 busses and then walking...

Anyways, I should go to bed even though I don't have a place booked to stay tomorrow evening. (I'm sure I'll find something... if not I'll head to Frankfurt.)
Love you all, and pray I'll find somewhere to sleep!
Andrea
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Basel -a quick note

I loved it here so much that I stayed another day. So, I went hiking and then to Pirates 3. Both were a lot of fun! (I could even see the Alps!) I will stop by Lichtenstein tomorrow on my way to Stuttgart, so I will still be able to see it. Another reason to stay here and not in Vaduz was the connections to get there. Since there are only 2 rail stations in the country, getting to the hostel looked like quite a hassle between the 3 busses and then walking...

Anyways, I should go to bed even though I don't have a place booked to stay tomorrow evening. (I'm sure I'll find something... if not I'll head to Frankfurt.)
Love you all, and pray I'll find somewhere to sleep!
Andrea
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Bye Bye Mortimer!

I'd just like to thank those of you who are commenting on my blog. (Especially you Sarah!) I finally had some time to read them today, and I loved hearing from you all! My other little piece of home went missing Sunday. Mortimer the Mountie Moose (He's my stuffed moose that has an RCMP uniform, and has been on my bag instead of a flag.) went missing sometime while I was making supper, and I couldn't find him! I even sorted through the lost and found the next morning...

It's amazing how that little trinket worked its way into my heart. I felt like I lost my travel buddy! Okay... I admit I've gotten lonely sometimes on this trip and talked to him. Or when I was lost trying to find hostels... or frustrated when a homeless man almost urinated on me in Rome... I would love to replace him, but finding a stuffed animal in an RCMP uniform seems to be hard to find here. ;) I've seen some Swiss bears here, and if I use some white out, I might be able to turn the cross into a maple leaf.... hmm... It's not him, but it would be a fill in for Mortimer.

I ended up spending another day in Interlaken, even though there is little to do there other than extreme sports like Zorbing (google it) and then relaxing activities like sunbathing. I was pretty "museumed" and "churched" out, so it was nice to just sit and chat with people. I think I must have met over a hundred people over the last 3 days! As one Kiwi put it, 'Balmer's in Interlaken is the Mecca for backpakers... everyone has to go there at one point on their trip.'"

I did end up taking the waterbus down the lake a bit, sunbathing on a nice beach next to the super cold lake, and then taking the bus back. I also spent 35 Canadian to send back some suveniers, but it's better than luggin them around anymore! Tomorrow's plan is to explore Basel, and then watch the Liverpool vs. Milan soccer final. Thursday is Zurich and then grab some ice cream with Matt Polk in Baden. Friday brings another highlight...Lichtenshtein!

Anyways, I should go so the next person can use this FREE internet connection!

Interlaken, Switzerland

Howdy Everyone!
 
I love this hostel!  The breakfast is good, the atmosphere is awesome and the location is great!  The only downside is that the beds aren't the best to sleep in.  Yesterday I went white-water rafting and I loved it!  We went through some class 1 through 3 rapids, and even had to rescue a person from another boat (in the middle of a class 3 rapid).  The guide was super impressed with how the 5 of us worked together so well!  (I guess that dry-land practice paid off!)
 
I love Interlaken!  Think of a town with an atmosphere like Waterton, but with 2 Lake Abraham sized lakes on either side.  There are houses so far up the mountains here!  When you get here by train, you see houses halfway up the mountain with only a quad trail leading up to it.  There was one with a 1500 ft drop in there front yard!
 
This last night train from Rome to Zurich was really good!  There were 6 of us crammed in a space the size of our front entry way in my house in Rocky, but the beds were really comfy this time.  Breakfast in the morning was also an added bonus!
 
I will probably end up staying here another night, so I can have a fondue with some new friends and then tomorrow I'm off to Basel in the North of Switzerland.  I can't believe my trip is half way over!  It seems like only yesterday I was getting on that plane to London....
 
Love you all, and loving the chocolate here...
~Andrea~

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Pompeii

Hello!
 
I stayed at a hostel right in the small town of Pompeii, which was beautiful, peaceful and very relaxing.   The only downside was that the toilet only flushed when it wanted too...  Anyways...  I spent over 8 hours in the ruins, and there was no way I saw it all!  The mosaics and paintings were so well preserved!  Ironically the  25 brothels and the 4 temples seemed to keep the best...
 
While I was there I met this really nice British lady who has offered me a place to stay next time I'm in the UK, and would love to sponsor my ambitious sister's future MSF trips to Africa!  Her husband left her a lot of money when he died, so now she travels and gives money to charities she hears of on her travels.  She was such a cute little old lady!
 
Overall, I don't like Italy that much.  It's dirty, it smells, and nothing runs/opens on time.  The food is great though!  I can't wait to get to Switzerland, so I'm taking the train to Rome, a night train from Rome to Zurich, plus another train to get to my destination: Interlaken.  It's supposed to be a beautiful little city on a nice mountain lake.  I'm looking forward to just hanging out at the lake this weekend!
 
I've been contacting Matthew Polk while on the road (or should I say train tracks?), so it looks like we are going to meet up in Baden, Switzerland for a gelato on Wednesday.  (Date and time to be confirmed/decided later.)
 
Andrea's things she misses from Canada:
Honey Nut Cheerios
"Music" being played in stores and elevators
Thousand Island salad dressing
 
Things she enjoys about Europe:
The extensive train/public transport system
Gelato
the chocolate
the mustard
the yoghurt
 
I love you all, and I'll be back in just over 3 weeks!
~Andrea~

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Venice & Rome

Hello!
 
So Villach didn't happen as I couldn't book a hotel or hostel for the town...apparently some choir festival has booked up the place.  So, I switched hostels (to a much quieter one) and then left EARLY Sunday morning for Venice.  All of the reports that you don't need much time in Venice is quite true.  No, I did't go into St. Mark's because it was closed on a Sunday, but the outside was quite nice.  The square beside it floods at night because of the tide and the reflections, off of the water from the lights, was quite beautiful.  I ended up staying in an over-priced hole-in-the-wall where I had to phone the guy to get in.... anyways a big confusing mess.
 
Overall impressions of Venice:
It stinks like rotting seaweed and urine (from all of the random dogs...)
It's easier to get lost here than anyplace in the world
Every little bridge looks the same
Only go there if you have a significant other to share it with, as it gets to be annoying super easily if you're single.
 
That pretty much brings us today where my train got stuck twice in tunnels on the way to Rome.  That's right.  Not once, but twice!  It ended up being over 20 minutes between the two tunnels, so even I started to get clausterphobic in there!  After arriving in Rome I quickly found a hostel... but it was super expensive!  30 Euros for a night!  Luckily I only booked it for one so I'm switching hostels tomorrow.  This evening I walked around Rome and saw the Spanish steps, a bunch of random Roman ruins, a fountain, some more ruins, and finally the Coleseum!  It is so large!  It was closed so I didn't get a chance to go in, but it was nice to just sit there and peak through the fences at how massive it is!
 
Tomorrow I'm hoping to go to Vatican City.  It sounds nice and I think I'd better go if I'm going to teach in a Catholic school this fall.  ;) By the way, on every street here you can see at least two nuns and and a priest!  They are quite nice, and are happy to help you find your way!
 
Well I'd better book hostels for Pompei now.  I hope everything is going well for you all!
Love,
Andrea

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Hello from Salzburg

Hey everyone!
 
The last time I wrote I was in Vienna!  The next day (Just for Diana) I went to the UN headquarters there.  Two guys from Montreal told me that the tour at the New York headquarters is a lot better as it lasts for more than 10 minutes!  Since it was raining, I then joined them to the Austrian war museum.  It turned out to be quite interesting!  While we were there, they brought in some dignitaries from some Caribbean country and we toured the building just behind them!  They have the Franz Ferdinand's car there, but unfortunately I couldn't take a picture.  That evening we went to the Opera!  They had standing tickets for 3 Euros, which is definitely more in my budget than 30!  Unfortunately we were crammed in there like sardines!  We left after the second act as we didn't understand anything (it was in Latin) and we were all falling asleep standing up.  The next day brought me to Salzburg, but I just wandered around and window shopped after I found my hostel.  (So nothing interesting to report about that day.)
 
Salzburg is such a pretty little town!  There are tons of trees and foothills here and a lot of nice little buildings.  The downtown corridor has so many little streets that you have to walk sideways down, so it's mostly just pedestrian traffic down there. Over the last two days I've gone up a cable car to the top of a mountain, cruised down the river, visited Mozart's house and went to a castle that had some sweet "trick fountains".  Can you believe that this and transportation costs for the two days costs only 29 euros?  It's this awesome "Salzburg Card" that gives you free public transport and admission to all of the popular sites. (This afternoon is an instrument museum!!!)
 
Thursday night was the worst night at a hostel so far.  In fact, the hostel was great, but the other guests were horrible!  A lot of school groups are travelling right now, so the hostel was filled with about 200 10-12 year old French and Austrian kids.  They were screaming, banging on doors, and jumping off bunks until 3 am and started up at 6!  A lot of people complained, and luckily it was a lot better last night.
 
I seem to meet every Canadian in Europe....
Thursday evening I ran into a Vancouverite that I had met in Munich, so we spent Friday together seeing all of the big sites.  Then, yesterday evening I sat in the lobby and read my book for a little while, and after about 30 min another Canadian sat down and started to chat with me.  With in the hour we had 6 people from Canada all sitting around this tiny table swapping travel tips.  I spent today the morning with a brother and sister, (from the table last night) from "Three Rivers" touring around the castle.  This sort of stuff seems to happen everyday!  I think we start to pick up key words from other people's conversations, which draws us in like a magnet.  These key words for me seem to be: Canada, mounties, hockey, Stanley Cup, any province or large city name...  I couple of times, I've met people because of the brand of clothes they were wearing - ie. MEC, Roots.
 
Tonight I hope to go to a small Austrian town called Villach.  It is part of the way to Venice and that's pretty much the only reason I'm going there!  I think it will be nice to split up the 7 hour train ride to Venice a bit... 
 
HAZARDS of travelling:
You have to look at your watch to see what day it is...
You keep track of your travels by how many cities ago stuff happened...
You stop actually referring to the name of your town but refer to it as "A small town in Alberta"
 
Anyways, I'd better stop and book my hostel before my time is up!  See you in 5 weeks?!

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Wien (Vienna)

Hello there!
 
It seems like I´m doing well as far as getting to the internet to update you all.  (Hopefully it stays this way!)  The average cost per hour is 2 to 3 euros, but in my mind, that´s money well spent.  Luckily today my hostel has free internet at one particular computer.  Other than rambling on about my adventures, I´ve also been booking hostels for the next city at each internet stop.  So far I´ve chosen nice ones, the only downside of this second hostel is that a lot of middle school aged groups use it.  The average age here seems to be 14!  Right now there are about a dozen kids running and screaming here in the lobby. 
 
Last night was an interesting time on the night train.  I know I got a little bit of sleep, but it was very broken up.  This lady also shoved me out one station too early, so I ended up missing meeting up with a friend who I was supposed to meet at the station.  I ended sharing a "couchette" compartment with this older German man who kept making fun of me and didn´t speak a word of English.  By the way, a couchette is just enough room to lie down, but not private enough to change or wear PJs.  Anyways... trying to tell some one in an unfamiliar language to stop laughing at you is hard!  After some intense looks and a lot of gestures, he got the point.
 
Nothing was open until 7, so I spent the first hour just wandering around the station and the neighbouring streets.  Once I was able to get a "Vienna Card"  I travelled out to the hostel (which is in the burbs of Vienna... the very end of U-Bahn 4) and checked in.  Most places have a locked room that you can leave your luggage in, so today I left mine here.  The rest of the day was spent dodging the rain spells and wandering around old Wien.  During one of the intense rain spells, I "geeked it up" and went to a music museum.  Not only did it feature the great 4 Viennian composers, but the philharmonic and digital music as well.  (Hayden, Mozart, Strauss and Beethoven). I even bought a music theory game because it looked cool and might be useful for that grade 6 band class I´ll have to teach.
 
I´m here in Vienna for one more day and after that I´ll probably head to Salzburg.  After today I´m a little museum/churched out, so I might travel to a small town near Salzburg and go hiking or something instead.  I´m not sure what I´m doing tomorrow, but they don´t have a lot here besides museums and more churches, so I´m hoping to find a concert to go to or at least something different to shake things up a bit.
 
Anyways, I should go now and plan what I´m up to tomorrow!
Love,
Andrea
 
 

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Munich

Hey Everyone!
 
I got to Munich on Saturday, and walked to the hostel in the rain.  The hostel was so nice!  Feather duvets, hardwood floors... I was definitely spoiled.  There I met Haley and Boyda, two sisters from Beaverlodge, Ab!  We talked all evening (Turns out they know a friend of mine from Lethbridge) since there was so much rain coming down.  Sunday brought a trip to the large English Gardens and then Dachau, the Nazi´s first concentration camp.  The gardens were beautiful and were so large!  We saw some surfers there, a lot of soccer players, and a cool monument.  (Pictures to come...)We were trying to waste some time before a museum opened, but ended up spending the whole morning there.
 
Then it was off to the sobering experience of the Dachau concentration camp.  Over 43 000 people died there, but as far as they know, the gas chambers were never used here.  Near the end though, the creamatorium crew could´t keep up so they barried over 3000 in mass graves.  The audio tour was realy interesting as it featured prisioners´ teastimonies.  The 3 of us took our time, and went through the grounds and museum at our own pace.  It was a very spiritual experience for me.  For example, before I rounded the corner of to see the creamatorium, you could just feel your chest tighten and knew that something horrible had happened there. 
 
Today was a lot more lighthearted as I went on a 3 hour free walking tour with a really funny tourguide.  I hadn´t realized it before, but did your know that Hitler´s campaign started in Munich?  His first big speech was to the politicians at a meeting in the oldest beer hall in the world, which I had supper at last night.  (Some of you might be hoping that I had some beer while I was there, but since I can bearly stand the stuff, there was no way I could finish a litre of it!)  This afternoon, I went to Nymphenburg Castle with a girl I met on the walking tour, Katie.  The grounds were really large and the castle (summer home to be precise) had a moat all the way around it with two large ponds on either side that stretched for 1 km in either direction.  Everything in there was covered in gold!  It was so beautiful when the light hit it.  If this is the summer home to the "sleaping beauty castle" then I can imagine how beautiful it is!
 
Tonight at 11:30 I´ll be taking my first night train to Wien (Vienna), and I´ll arrive at 6 am tomorrow.  I´ll have to let you know how that goes at a later time as I just found a USB hub, so I´m going to try to upload some photos. 
 
Living it up, and loving you lots,
Andrea

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Hey everyone!

Here are some photos from my trip so far. London to Berlin.
Sorry that there aren´t many captions under them. I hope you still enjoy them!

Andrea

May 3rd

Hello! (You´re in for a bit of a ramble here!)

I made it to Berlin okay, and I don´t remember much of the flight here as I slept most of the way. Carla and I recognized each other quite quickly, which was an answer to prayer. (Side note: the y key and the z key are switched in a German keyboard, and it´s getting annoying!)

The last two days we´ve spent all over downtown Berlin seeing all of the sites. We even went up the Television Tower to get a birds-eye view of the town. The observation deck is at 200 m, so we could see the whole city. Carla and I found the neatest shop yesterday! It was a minibook store. The largest book there was no more than 4 cm high and 3 cm wide! They even had a replica for a stone prayer tablet from 2600 BC! Carla bought me a minibook of Europe that has a lot of photos to 'help me get some travel ideas'.

Yesterday we also found one of the 3 Birkenstock stores in Berlin so I bought a pair of sandals for myself and one for Diana. They are quite a bit cheaper over here, even after you do the conversion. I hope they fit Diana! They didn´t have the wide version, so I hope the narrow version fits. If not, I´ll take them! I might ship them with a few souveniers over to Canada within the next week. That way I won´t have to haul them all around Europe!

Today I was quite proud of myself, as I shopped in every store in German! Carla was there to help me at KaDeWe (The largest German department store: think The Bay, a liquor store and Safeway combined.) when I didn´t understand what the lady was asking. Twice the shop owners started asking about my day, and I was able to answer them! One lady even told me how annoying the English tourists were getting, as she thought I was a Berliner! I then responded that 'I come from Canada' (In German) and we both had a good laugh.

Carla and Oli are both very nice and interesting people. They are really into reinacting the 12th century (similar to what Beth does), and they have furs and weapons all over the place. Instead of compeating with blunt sword-like sticks like Beth, they use the reall thing! They want to take me to a heavy metal/gothic club tomorrow, but I don´t think I´ll enjoy it as I really don´t like that kind of music! I might go just for the experience.

I will probably head towards Munich Saturday, as Carla and I have covered most of the sights these last two days. We´ll play it by ear though. I hope this finds you all well!

Love,
Andrea

May 1st

This is a post I wrote May 1st, but it didn´t work.

Hello all!

If it weren't for all of the planes outside the window, I'd think I was in Chinook mall. There are so many shops here! There is one just for chocolate... yum! (Luckily I am able to resist it so far...) I have another hour to wait before my trip to Berlin. The flights here were really good, and the supper and breakfast on the flight to London were quite gourmet! Sweet and sour chicken stir-fry with ice-cream, and then croissants and fresh fruit for breakfast! Who knew Air Canada had good food in their repertoire?

London-Heathrow was huge! I had to take a 4 minute train ride to get from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4! Their were also a lot of shops there, but what was really annoying is that you didn't know what gate you had to be at until 40 minutes before your flight left! It was a 25 minute walk from one end to the other, so I stayed near the middle until I knew where to go. The food was so expensive! 4 pounds for a ham and cheese sandwich? That's like $8!

Well I thought I'd buy some internet time and let you know that although I've had only 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours, I seem to be doing well so far. The signs are mostly in English so I haven't gotten lost yet. (Pray that it stays that way!) I love you all, and I can't believe I'm here already!

~Andrea~