Adriènne in Europe 2008

good ol' toledo

2008-06-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

home, safe, and slept after being awake a good 42 hours. still feeling strange and out my my element when i suppose i should feel in my element. back to work tomorrow and everything will be as it always is.

until next time.

here we go

2008-06-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

leaving frederiques house for the airport now. will be home in less than 24 hours.

walked a ton today and sweated like crazy. it was one of the best days ive had. we explored many areas of paris and i really wanted to go walk next to the water again, so we did, and it made me very happy. i even remembered some things from last year and it was pretty cool to be able to have paris feel familiar and have memories here.

farewell from paris, i will be home soon!

love always,
adrienne

strasbourg and paris

2008-06-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

just wanted to say that we had a good time in strasbourg and im glad we added it into our trip. the first day there we just wandered around for a long while. it was nice because its quite smaller that where we are used to being. it felt like a cozy little city. yes, still a city yet it didnt feel like one. we found a few fun stores and wandered into them and got some good tea and coffee. there are lots of canals there too so we were constantly around water again. of course we wandered around the old town a bit, something almost every city in europe seems to have. its just like a part of the city where the older-style buildings have been preserved and it just looks quite quaint. it felt really good in that part of strasbourg too, i really enjoyed being there. if felt homey. the second day we had there was the day of the music festival that takes places throughout all of france. it started slow and got busy fast. there were tons of bands playing all over the whole little city. each of the bigger sets were only 30 minutes and there were probably ten sets per "stage." and there were many stages. plus all the people randomly set up everywhere. we saw young kids playing too. we hung out around one band playing classic rock songs. its funny to hear sweet home alabama with a french accent, haha. but it was really fun. actually, that bands music was spot on, the singing was the only slightly odd part, other than that it was well done. it was fun to just happen to be there while that was going on, and knowing that the entire country was filled with people doing the same thing. it was good to share something thats such a celebration and special to that county. i know we have music festivals at home, but it was just interesting to me that it was country-wide. the people we couchsurfed with there were really nice and we actually had our own room because one roommate had finished school and went home. we were very welcome there and it just felt good to have some space.

here in paris we are staying with frederique and shes a nice woman as well. we have own own room and shower, we are quite spoiled! couchsurfing we typically expect to really just be on the couch but this has been nice. we slept late today and werent in anyones way. we have a key in and out and just come and go as we please. yesterday we wandered some parts of paris weve never been and i felt like i was ina different city. weve never stayed in or been around this end of the city so its fun and new even though weve been in paris twice before now. we are forever discovering new things. we went to the pompidou museum and actually just spent time in the bookstore and boutique. its a pretty amazing building. its really fun and almost feels like cosi or something, haha. for the most part weve just been happy wandering around new parts of paris (new to us) and eating japanese food. haha, i know, its probably a sin to eat japanese food while in paris but it was so darn good! hahaha. shh, dont tell!

okay, well i must sleep now, its midnight. this is our last nite here. tomorrow we head to the airport at midnight (catching the last metro train) and our flight leaves at 6am. weve got one short flight to frankfurt and then an 8-9 hour flight to detroit so we will sleep on there. ill try and write tomorrow before we head to the airport.

much love,
adri

back at the beginning

2008-06-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

weve made it back to paris. about to sleep. will write more soon. :-)

sava

2008-06-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

our last day in santorini i got a very good feeling about the people living there. we were eating in a small restaurant - if you could call it that. we had eaten there twice before. there are only ten tables, half outside half inside. the same man - sava - takes your order and cooks your meal for you. the place is called savas and its more like being in someones house. sava is an old man. the only others we saw were an old woman, a middle aged woman, and a young girl of maybe 13. our last day the girl helped bring out food and take orders. it seemed like that would almost be part of your chores if you lived there. i mean, rather than thinking of it as putting a kid to work in any way, it was just what you did. she came back with her friends, helped a little, and then im sure took off again. everyone on the island knew one another it seemed. people were always waving and honking at passersby on the streets. once a small boy brought some sort of note to sava and ran off again. it was just a cute little community. i was trying to imagine what it would be like to grow up there and it made me smile. it seemed very homey - the whole island. the amount of tourists would make me crazy, but other than that, it seemed it would be interesting to grow up there. there would always groups of kids on bikes riding around and hanging out. anyway, savas was a nice place. when we went to leave and wait to be picked up (the people who owned where we were staying said they would pick us up at savas and take us to the airport - i think they have a deal or something because they knew wed eat there) sava made us sit back down. he didnt want us to wait out front, he told us just to stay there. then when the guy picking us up almost missed us sava clapped a few times loudly and the guy stopped. it was an all-over good experience. :-)

24 hours

2008-06-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

weve been moving for the last 24 hours and awake for pretty much the last 36. its been exhausting but not as bad as id imagined. not going to write too much now although i have lots to say about or last day in greece. nothing too exciting happened but i just observed the people a lot and got a good feeling from it all. we just reached strasbourg (you can see it in the map ive got up there). we are staying with a couchsurfer named henri-christian and his roommate youssef. there is another girl surfing their couch who is from california and apparently a couple canadians are coming through tomorrow. apparently their couch is quite popular! anyway, they seem like great people and im glad to be here. our eurail pass didnt cover all our trips and so we spent a handful on train tics today but having a free place to sleep makes up for it. its a small college town in the alsace and lorraine region. anyway, ima get off here and will write a bit more soon.

love you all!

adri

sunshine

2008-06-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

hello again!

well, we are nearing the end of our time here in santorini. the second day that we went to the beach it was wonderful and gorgeous. the water is clear. seriously, i get in and look and down and can see to the bottom. i can see all the little fishies and the rocks. its pretty crazy. we paid a little bit of money to use the chair/umbrella sets they have all over out there. kamari is the big beach and that is where we went the first three days. the food here has been pretty dang yummy here - mostly shish kabab stuff. weve also been eating greek salads every day. i like everything but the feta! anyway, yesterday we waited forever for a certain bus and it never came so we ended up at a beach near kamari but on the other side of this big mountain. the black beach there was actually sand which was nice, but it felt bad because we wasted so much time waiting for that dang bus! well, today we got a moto. no, an atv, not a moto. and we drove ourselves everywhere. we went around the whole island. we went to the northern part that apparently you can see a great sunset at nite but we didnt stay for it. and then we went through the main town, fira, and then we went down to the southern part and went to the red beach there. it was pretty amazing. not anything like any other beach ive seen. it was just kind of cut out of this red mountain. we had to work to get to it - a very small hike, but it was pretty cool. much more secluded than any of the others. no stores of shops or anything - all there is room for is the beach. it was pretty awesome to just drive the atv around and be on our own - so much more convenient and fun than those unreliable buses. plus we could stop when we wanted and we got some amazing views. seriously, it was just crazy. its funny, but the atv only really lets us go 25 mph. seems a little faster than that sometimes when you are on the edge of a mountain on a small road and out in the open air. its pretty dang sweet. anyhow, the first full day we spent at kamari we swam out to come conveniently places rocks - it was a big pile really. then we came back and read a big and then went back out. it was just a good day. we also ate at a place down there and watched the sweden/spain football (soccer!) game.

...if i could do it again id budget in a lot more time in these islands. it would be a different kind of trip to have any kind of focus here rather than how the majority has been... but its nice, just so relaxing. and having our own room and and bathroom in a place feels so free! haha.

tomorrow nite we will fly 45 minutes to athens. then we are staying the nite in the airport and our next flight is at 2 in the afternoon the next day and takes us back to zurich. then a couple trains to strasbourg. its going to be a long 24 hours. ahh!

black beach

2008-06-14T04:44:00.000-07:00

just wanted to say that we are still heeere.

went down to the beach yesterday and the water felt pretty warm once you got it, haha. it was a "black beach.." which we found really means rocks, heh. wasnt too bad, but id rather have sand any day!

the architecture here is pretty crazy. i enjoy it. its so different from anything youd find anywhere in the states.

weve spent the mornings sleeping very late and the nights out on our balcony. its quite nice! im not thinking fondly of going back to the mainland after being here! haha. not that there is anything bad about that... but we are just so lazy here. its pretty wonderful to lay around half the day. we picked up a couple books at the port in athens so weve got new reading material and have spent a bit of time lying around reading as well.

santorini

2008-06-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

well, weve made it to santorini!

the ferry ride was actually pretty dang awesome. we had our own little room that was much bigger than expected. i guess its good to expect little. had two little beds, a desk, and a bathroom with a shower. it was more like a shower with a toilet. the shower wasnt closed off in any way. its hard to explain, haha. either way, we didnt use the shower. but yea... we got to the port about 3 hours before go time because we had to pick up our tickets. we were allowed to board then so we did. we just hung out on the very large ferry for those three hours and chatted. we went out to the deck when we started moving. it was awesome because it was at night and you could see all the lights on the mainland and around us on other land... it was hard to tell what was what because it was so dark. it was windy and felt wonderful on the deck. we headed to bed. it was quite vibrate-y but we both slept really well. we were so comfortable in that room, it was the most space weve ever had of our own. it was mostly quiet and we never had to worry about roommates or drunk people waking us up. we wished we could have stayed on the boat longer! oh yea, we ate some food on the boat before bed as well, some meatballs with rice and then strawberries. i thought they would way overprice it but it really wasnt expensive at all. we woke up a little earlier than needed and went straight outside. the sun had jsut come up and it was beautiful and sunny and we were passing all sorts of islands small and large. some with a couple small buildings. we went and each got a hardboiled egg and some bread and got ready to leave. it was pretty sweet to see the island while we were approaching it. its a pretty awesome place. the guy from the place we booked picked us right up and drove us up to where we are staying. we have a private room with our own bathroom and fridge and everything. its pretty freaking sweet. we actually havent seen another person where we are at. its a little weird but nice to know ill be able to sleep all night. we just took a nap and ventured out. we dont have the internet but found this little cafe so i probably wont be writing too incredibly much. not sure what else to say... its nice because although there are tourists, its not very touristy. the people seem very kind and its like we are in someones village. its a small place, i think the island is about 5 miles across. ...im going to miss the ferry! i really wish we were taking one back... though it would be a little hassle to get from the port to the airport. a was weary about the ferry and i know not everyone has good experiences but maybe because it was a bigger one or maybe because it was a night one, who knows, but it was very very nice!

toilets

2008-06-11T03:51:00.000-07:00

i just went to the bathroom in a toilet that has a sign on it saying "dont put any paper in the toilet!" ... yes, meaning toilet paper. eww! just toss is it in the garbage next to it... how weird did that feel? strange. the pipes are often too small in old cities like this.

also, often its a game to figure out how to flush. sometimes a thing to step on with your foot, but most often a couple buttons on the top of the back of the toilet. one if you go number one and another button for if you go number two. if not on the toilet, these same buttons are on the wall behind the toilet. sometimes a pully thing or a lever of sorts found somewhere on the pipes that go up the wall. never anything like ones at home (little lever) or the public ones at home (hit it with your foot). iiiinteresting. haha.

sleepy ferry time?

2008-06-10T23:51:00.000-07:00

i guess we will see how well sleeping on a ferry goes overnight tonite. at least weve got beds of some sort. im not even going to venture to think of what a "bed" consists of on a cheap ferry, haha.

yesterday we went to acropolis, where the parthenon is. i actually never knew how high up it was, kinda crazy. it was what it was... cant come to athens and not check it out no matter how touristy it may be... on the way up there were a lot of little cafes and restaurants that actually look really nice but they become quite annoying when every old man who owns each one starts yelling at you to sit down and telling you they have "snacks" and coffee and whatever. every one. it was so annoying. theyd just start walking next to you for a minute and try and convince you to sit down. we were hungry but we kind of have a deal with ourselves that we will never stop and eat at a place when someone comes up and starts talking to us trying to convince us to come in. even when we stop and look at a menu posted outside (this happened a lot of barcelona), they come right up to you and try and get you to sit down and wont even let us look over the menu. this is when we leave! anyway, around where we are staying there are some great places to sit and eat or get coffee. the people are all really nice. however, a couple of times we have had kids come up to us trying to tell us lighters or keychains. its sad. usually its just adults selling random shit, or rather adults plain begging for money. this time their parents sent them out so it was kind of weird. it was just sad, like i said. and i dont know how these restaurants let people walk in and try and sell the people eating there stuff. people always coming up with roses and other shit... its just annoying. anyway... while trying to find our way up to acropolis we ended up in what felt like wandering through behind houses or something. i cant even describe it because its nothing like anything at home. its up a mountain and just little paths and stairs between buildings that are close together. it was kind of cool. definitely didnt feel like anywhere else weve been, which is nice because sometimes cities start to look the same to me in a lot of ways. we grabbed some food to eat and watched the greece/sweden game last nite too so that was fun. we ended up in this nice restaurant/coffee place where it seemed all the middle aged and older men went to watch the game. it was fun though because it felt like we were really in the culture and around the people.

okay, must go. got to check out and then wander for the day. ferry leaves tonite. :-)

update and observations

2008-06-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

hellooooo

we are in athens! woo. headed to zurich airport this morning, and now we are at our hostel here. if feels so weird to be in a hostel after a week without staying in them. this one is pretty small and has no kitchen, but hey, we are only here two nites so its no big deal. we actually just went down the street and ate some very yummy gyro-type stuff. freakin delicious. its so strange to be in greece. the language is so far from anything i know. it makes me realize that, although i know absolutely no french, comparatively, i can understand quite a bit of french. did that make sense? at least everywhere else weve been the alphabet is mostly the same and we can read things and pronounce them somewhat even if we dont understand, and often words are shared within the languages. with the greek, well, its just all lost. i dont even know how to say "yes" and "no." will have to consult the book weve got for the basics like that. im pretty excited to be here and feel loads better at the moment. i dont even feel tired and wish it were earlier so i could go out and do something. there is lots to see in athens but weve only budgeted in two days because there were so many other places we wanted to spend a bit of time.

a couple things ive noticed... in every country, i feel i am the only girl who wears a tee shirt or a hoodie. seriously. i pay close attention to this every time we get on a subway. never once have i seen another girl wearing a tee shirt. i think once i saw someone in a hoodie and im sure they were a tourist. its interesting. all women dress well. im sure at home they may wear whatever, but no one leaves home looking the least bit sloppy. i remember feeling like a slob or a scrub last year, and the feeling hasnt changed. i own decent clothes but generally that stuff isnt able to keep up for wearing days at a time. tee shirts are easiest with you only have a small bit of room and dont do laundry too often. but yea... its strange. everyone gets dressed in the morning, haha. thierry said something about a 24 hour carry-out place and how it was funny bc the ppl who lived near it could just stop there in their pjs whenever. i thought it was a pretty funny observation because at home i go to 7-11 or kroger in my pjs and dont think about it. and a good majority of the people i went to college with didnt bother to get dressed in the morning either (include me sometimes!). it sure id different. and speaking of the hours places are open, i know ive mentioned it before, but its so odd to have places be closed on sunday and closed early other days. just about no where was open in zurich yesterday. weirds be out every time. i just feel so lost. i get mad when i want to go to barnes and noble and realize it is sunday and closes at 9 instead of 11... when in geneva the bookstore closed at 7 on normal days and im not sure that it was even open on sundays, id guess not. its just a different way of doing things and would take some getting used to. another interesting thing to note is that eva longoria is the face of magnum ice cream bars throughout europe! hahaha. its funny, because ive heard of celebrities doing advertisements for odd products in other countries that they wouldnt ever do in the US because it would look bad or tarnish their reputation or whatever the reason... but i started seeing her all over in barcelona and then again in nice. these pictures of her eating a magnum "temptation" ice cream bar with a seductive look on her face. its pretty hilarious actually.

okay, must be going. will update again before we head to the island. :-)

euro 08

2008-06-08T02:30:00.001-07:00

weve spent the last couples days wandering zurich with thierry as our "tour guide," heh. its been nice to have someone else with us. its also good because usually we have no idea where to eat or where to go and there are always a million restaurants and cafes. now we are taken to all his favorite spots and its nice to have some direction. last nite we watched the first two games of the euro meet 08 and had a good time. by the lake is packed with people and food stands with beer and brats. there is a large screen outside for watching the game as well. (oh yea, and czech republic won over switzerland 1-0, and portugal won over turkey, 2-0).

i am getting a burnt out a little prematurely on this nomadic way of life but i think once we get to greece itll feel good to be somewhere new and in a country ive never been. our plane leaves tomorrow at 1 and is about 4 and a half hours i think. itll feel odd to get a plane that isnt going home while we are away.

i want the hot weather that is at home right now!

zurich

2008-06-05T14:36:00.001-07:00

have arrived in zurich. :-)

geneva

2008-06-05T01:20:00.000-07:00

sooo we did end up in geneva at the end of it all. we had been trying to find someone to couchsurf with and couldnt... and there are no hostels available in most of switzerland because of the euro cup thing that is held in switzerland and austria this month. well, we were going to go straight to zurich and then realized we couldnt check in to the place we had booked after ten oclock and we wouldnt arrive til late. so the night before we left nice we realized we were going to be stranded somewhere the next nite and werent sure where we would be sleeping. well, luckily a guy on couchsurfing, titus, answered my request right before we left nice. so we got very lucky and ended up in geneva the night before last at about 830pm. took the bus over here to this apartment titus shares with two others and have slept here the last two nites. for those of you who dont know about couchsurfing, that is exactly what it is. you can send requests to others on the site to surf their couch and you can host people on your own couch. its free of charge and just a sort of favor among travelers and provides a unique experience to actually stay with and interact with someone who lives in that country/city, rather than only the other foreigners at the hostels. it has been a great experience! we are actually staying with a woman who is 55 on our last two nites in europe in paris before we fly home so that should be fun too. (sorry mama, didnt wanna tell you about all this and worry you before hand, but now that weve done it, you shouldnt worry!).

yesterday we spend the entire day wandering geneva. titus' roommate was super nice (he had to run off to meet someone) and she showed us what direction to take ourselves in. we ended up wandering in a part by the river and then into the city. in rained a bit but it didnt phase us. at the end of the nite we made our way to the lake and wandered a bit by there. it was just a wonderful day, despite the weather, because we just spent the whole time wandering aimlessly.

our last day in nice was gorgeous. if youve all read haiks blog than you know that. we laid on the beach, got only a very little burn, dont worry, and went swimming. the waves were insane! we tried to get in the water and got floored. we ended up on our asses pushed to the shore in an instant. we got in a second time and made it past where the waves turn over. then its fun to face the shore so you just get lifted up when they start to come and dont know its coming. well, haik got taken to shore pretty quickly and i stayed out. then one big on came and threw me under. right after i got to the air another came over me and then a third threw me further towards shore. then i ran like hell outta there, haha. it probably looked like nothing but it felt crazy and i didnt go back in after that! hahaha. we dried in the sun and went back to the hostel and ate.

tonite we are heading to zurich and are staying with a fella there we know.

... we are halfway through. where is the time going?!

a rambling of sorts

2008-06-02T02:55:00.000-07:00

hrm, lets see what has happened since i last wrote...

the day before last we wandered toward the beach. it was the bluest more beautiful water i have ever seen in my life! i was truly amazed! we sad by the water but it was a little chilly out. we didnt do much more than that and wandered through the little old town and got some coffee. actually, while on the beach we found yet another armenian! it is so funny when that happens because we end up kind of eyeing them, questioning whether they are or not, and then there is eye contact made too many times until someone just gives in and starts talking. haha, its always a funny interaction. the guy was in a speedo and squatted down in front of us to chat. ahhh, so strange. we ate dinner here again that night, this time is was pork ribs and potato wedges and salad. all very good and fresh. ahh, its been a luxury buying a hot and wonderful dinner here for cheap.

yesterday we wandered back down to the beach with the plan of swimming. the weather said it wouldnt rain and should be nice out. we neglected to think too hard about that the weather said wind. wow, was there wind. we didnt stick around the beach for too long. literally felt as though we were going to be blown over when standing. the waves were crazy though and i wanted to be in them. it is funny because when we are wandering in town we always take care to look both ways before crossing the streets when the streets are always one way. it was the same in barcelona. it seems everywhere we go the streets are all one way. it makes me crazy enough for them to be one way only downtown at home! for them all to be one way would make me nuts. only when driving though... being pedestrians it only makes it easier. though we feel silly everytime we look both ways... but it just doesnt feel safe not to.

weve met lots of people here, but it seems most everyone is canadian, almost everyone else is american, and then a good number of australians as well. backpacking is really not such a novel idea at all, there are so many people here! and it is odd to me the crowd we encounter sometimes - people who are only looking to be drunk every night. i dont quite understand traveling all this way to do the same thing they probably do every night at home. sometimes i am confused why they are here and they seem oblivious to all the culture and interesting things around you to take in. just an observation... not meant to judge but it just makes me curious all the same. like the pub crawls you will find in every large city - a cheap way for american tourists to get drunk quick in bars that are set up just for that... i just dont understand it. i wouldnt want to hop from bar to bar with lots of other americans when i am in a city ive never seen with so many other people to meet and so much else going on in it.

yesterday was sunday and all the stores were closed. it weirds me out everytime. at home stores often close a little early - early being 9 oclock - on sundays. but here, everything is just closed. and by here i mean all the cities we visit. its so strange because i am not used to it. i remember once we had a hard time finding food because we didnt factor in that it was sunday and nothing would be open.

i dont think we are going to be stopping in geneva any longer, unfortunately, but tomoro we will head to zurich. we will be there for almost a week. then we head to greece. i am excited to be on the island of santorini and just relax. it should, and will hopefully, be warm. we will swim and sleep. i am looking forward to doing nothing, haha.

much love,
adrienne

detroit

2008-05-31T01:40:00.001-07:00

pistons lost. dangnabbit. fooey. grr.

still here

2008-05-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

ate a good dinner tonite. there are positive things about this hostel. you can buy dinner every nite for 6.50 if you want. i was positive it wouldnt be worth but deemed it worth a try, plus, that means we dont have to go to the store and buy food and then come back and cook it. and its better than a sandwich. well, tonite was roasted turkey, veggies, and rice (last nite was lamb but we arrived very late). it was super tasty! i was very impressed. the cook it all in the kitchen its quite fresh. i expected something on par with cafeteria food. so im very happy about that. id definitely shell out the extra cash for it again.

today we went into town in the afternoon and strolled about a bit. went to the modern and contemporary art museum. ...i dont think im impressed much with "art..." anyway, we got an awesome view from the roof and that was worth it. again, be sure to check haiks blog for pictures, theyre already up!

the dog poop got the best of haik today.

(a guy in our room has an ipod and speakers in our room right now and is playing wonderful music. ahh, it feels good)

nice

2008-05-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

i am uncomfortable yet again. i dont know if it is because it is a new place or because it really is an uncomfortable place. our last hostel was extremely clean and nice. the kitchen felt like someones home and the whole feel of it was just very homey and comfortable. where we are now feels dirty and a lot rougher. there is one bathroom on this floor of many many people. i tried upstairs and there wasnt even one bathroom. there is also a bar downstairs with tons of people drinking in the big room. very loud. i guess it just wasnt a great welcome after traveling for 13 or 14 hours yesterday. sigh. it is also supposed to rain the next few days. everywhere we go it rains. its discouraging. i mean, we still have a good time, but id surely welcome the sun, apparently after 10pm you can guy pizza they make here. they arent too great but we ate two last bc i was so hungry. im sure itll start looking up soon and ill get used to the place... soon, hopefully soon. not to complain, but i just want to be comfortable! and with sunshine!

*edit* : i think i am just irritated from traveling so long yesterday. ive just showered and feel a little better. it is also a bit of a trek in and out of town, we are in a suburban sort of area again. hopefully the back-and-forth in and out of town isnt too bad. i have a headache, but im sure itll get better. just exhausted lately is all.

after we leave here we are stopping in geneva for two nights on the way to zurich so that should be fun.

barcelona went well, though i feel we could have done a lot more. no more eating in tapas bars though... we ate in one in san sebastian and it was not tasty. for those who dont know, its where there are different platters on the bartop, each platter has one kind of food on it (sooorta like a buffet now that i think about it,,, but everything room temp). you can stand at the bar and just pick stuff up and eat whatever kind of food you like. the one we went to, we picked what we wanted (well, we guessed what may be good... sorta picked at random) and put it on a plate and then the guy took it and heated it up... weird. apparently the more garbage on the floor (mostly napkins), the better the bar is. i just find all the garbage on the floor uninviting. ...we also went the contemporary art museum and that wasnt too bad.

yesterday we were on trains for too long... we had a ten minute delay on our second train and then we got stopped for an hour part of the way into the journey. then there was lots of commotion in french - apparently someone tried to smoke on the train and was getting kicked off. long day. thought we were going to miss our first train out of barcelona too... didnt know we had to take a bus to get there and went to the subway instead. the guy at our hostel was not too good at directing us. ended up taking a cab because we thought we were going to miss it. saw a lot of nice countryside on the journey though. the train goes right by the water sometimes and you get a nice view. lots of mountains and hills. many farms. it is always interesting to see the side of these countries that is opposite the cities - where we are spending most of our time.

pistons lost :-( must win next two to get to finals.

sriracha

2008-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

hello again. i feel like i ought to update a bit. the last night in our last hostel we had a great time (again, you can see pictures on haiks blog: www.haikavanian.com/42days). we met some cool people and chatted for along time. then we headed out at midnight to the park down the street. we were staying ina residential area so it was nice and quiet. the park took us up a hill. from the top we could see out and all the buildings and lights and everything looked so beautiful. even though light pollution i found the big dipper. we stayed up there in a while - the park itself was pitch dark. we headed back a couple hours later - hoping to not step on any snails. there were many around but we could not even see where we were stepping. it was a great night all in all. we took lots of funny pictures and got some contact information so we can share pictures and chat again sometime. the guy we hung out with had just gotten out of four years in the airforce and the girl was russian but lived in albuquerque since she was nine.

yesterday we arrived at our new hostel in a more central location. the guy who owns the place is an old persian man who is very kind and caring. the funny thing is that the cleaning lady is armenian and haik has befriended her. she told us to let her know if we needed towels (suppose to charge 3 euros to use em). we asked for towels today and got em and it was wonderful. for those of you who dont know, our towels we bring are microfiber and superthin. they dry fast and take up no room in our bags but are not too great to use everyday. it was wonderful to use a real towel. it reminded me of prison (not that i would know, hah.). but just getting these towels for free when we should have to pay and the lady sneaking them to us, haha. we just wandered a lot yesterday toward nothing in particular. actually we went to the contemporary culture museum. whats funny is we didnt even end up going in the museum, just up to the video archive and watching some little films and we actually went back today (its free). today we also stumbled upon a graphic design show thing which was good to see and i know haik enjoyed.

i ate cereal this morning with warm milk. yuck. its great how much they recycle here. just next to me (im in the kitchen) is a can for "tetrapak and cans," a can for "paper," and can for "organic," and then a trash can. you can always find ones for plastic and such on the streets too. man, i need to write down these little cultural differences throughout the day. they always cross my mind and i think they would be interesting to share but i always forget. ...because people all have dogs and no rule about picking up the poo i almost step in poo daily. i feel like at home people usually bring the little baggie when they go out. who knows.

pistons 2 - boston 2
go pistons! :-)

cold milk

2008-05-25T04:10:00.000-07:00

i wish i had a good glass of cold milk! in spain the milk is so packed with preservatives that they sell it warm. no refrigeration needed! ugh. plus, it doesnt taste that great anyway. its not bad, but since i love milk, it really doesnt do it for me. grr. last nite while walking around barcelona i found myself wishing we could just walk into a good restaurant where i knew the food would be good and the bathrooms would have toilet seats and you would actually get "service" when sitting down in a restaurant. its silly to want something "american" while here, i know, but here the "servers" dont care because they dont really get tips, and there are so many places to eat but its hard to know where is good, and, well, toilet seats are often hard to come by in public bathrooms. anyway, we ended up at an asian place by the water. and, andrea, you were right, the asian food in barcelona is fantastic, hahah. horrible to say, but true. we ate great food there and i felt better instantly, and quite full. im not sure how i feel about barcelona though. its only been a day but im not too into it yet. there were a million people in the city last nite and it was just uncomfortable. it was like a festival where you are constantly jostling your way through people and just want out of the crowd. we hung our towels on the balcony last nite. then it stormed all nite and they are soaked so i didnt shower today. we slept a lot though so that was good. okay... i better get off here. been spending too much time at the computer.

love,
adri

night train

2008-05-24T08:04:00.001-07:00

well, we made it to barcelona. our night train was from 11p-9a. the couchettes are so small! six beds in a "room," three beds on top of one another and only enough room for two people to stand between each stack of beds. it was crazy. haik slept a lot but i only slept maybe 5 hours. once it got to be morning i really wanted to just keep sleeping but obviously had to get off the train...

i am loving being in the mountains all the time. at the end of the train ride the tracks were right along the ocean. its quite the scenery. it is supposed to rain every day that we are in barcelona, however, the sun is out right now. i am sitting on my bunk bed with the window open to our balcony. all i hear is people clapping and cheering and whistles and horns blowing. i think there is a soccer game nearby. we are 20 minutes from the city center in a residential feeling area. perhaps it is a childrens soccer game, im not sure. though that is all nice, i am not comfortable here yet. i am extremely tired today and havent even ventured into the city yet. (five minute walk to station, almost 20 on the metro...). we actually cut our nights at this hostel to only two and booked one in the city for the next three. made some pasta and read some rick steves travel book we found downstairs that was from 1994 and had a good laugh. i dont know how we managed to not cook food last year. we just ate lots of sandwiches, but this year i am really enjoying making food every day (as long as people dont steal the food you are keeping in the fridge, as that happened more than once in paris...). anyway, it always feels weird when we arrive at a new city. it feels uncomfortable at first. also, the people working at the last hostel were so extremely friendly that it just felt good to be there.

anyway, its time for me to lie down a few before haik gets out of the shower. those backpacks are heavy and my body is tired today!

differences

2008-05-23T02:30:00.000-07:00

hello again! (woo, im on the laptop and have exclamation points, haha).

just wanted to mention a few random bits.

first, in san sebastian ive noticed lots of people have dogs. but nobody uses leashes! the dogs must just be trained not to get excited about other dogs since they are little. lots of small dogs but big ones too. there is one named elvis that the girls that live in our hostel (they work there and maintain the floor) have. hes a cute little white dog and loves to fetch his ball. but he has to run down the wooden floor hall outside our room and he slides all the way down it. i cant imagine how marley would cope with all that sliding, hahaha. the picture in my head is hilarious.

the whole "siesta" thing is also weird here. it gets to be 1pm and everything just shuts down completely and doesnt open again til usually 4pm. id always hear about how spain has a siesta but it is weird to experience it.

while in france we also saw people who did a lot of kissing on both cheeks when they greeted each other, another thing you know about but it still weird to see all the time.

the scooters are still everywhere. it seems to be a nice alternative to cars. everyone just rides them to work and everywhere. well, they are scooters, they are more like motorcycles. im not sure what they are called.

anyway... yesterday we wandered a bit and ended up going in the coldddd water. the waves would come and we would jump into them and they would carry us up towards shore. a couple waves got huge and folded over right before they got to us. it was crazy, haha. the tides change like crazy. the night before they were super low and then the next afternoon there was hardly a beach.

okay, well, have to go do laundry and then head out tonite. the weather is crazy. we will wake up and its crappy as hell lookin outside - gloomy and rainy... then an hour later the sun is out and it is warm and beautiful.

love you all,
adri

enjoying spain

2008-05-22T03:26:00.000-07:00

i really like spain so far... granted weve only been to this little town of san sebastian. either way, it is beautiful and quite nice. the first full day we had here started with rain and ended with a run into the ocean. it was cold but lovely. we laid out on the beach for a bit. which, by the way, no women wear tops on and old men wear absolutely nothing on. we went to bed a little early that day and the next day, yesterday, was beautiful. it was sunny and warm. we walked all the way up this little mountain with a jesus statue at the top... ill have to link to it on here. it was a great walk and so awesome to see all the coast as we were heading up and then look out from the top at the ocean that seemed neverending and thinking about how far it stretches out. i really wanted to rent a boat - a kayak or something - but today it is raining again and not so beautiful. i am glad at least we had yesterday because it was my favorite day yet. last nite we came back and made dinner - weve been sauteeing lots of asparagus and mushrooms and making pasta and salad and eating little pudding deserts and such - then we headed out again at about eleven. we played on a childrens playground right by the beach and ended up meeting some other americans. we chatted for a while and then went and put our toes in the ocean again. headed back, went to bed, and woke up late today. we have been so spoiled at this hostel - hot showers every day and basically an apartment to ourselves. its a little slow here, i mean business is, and so we are often the only people in the hostel. there arent even workers there most of the time because checkin is down the street where i am now. they own three or four different parts of buildings so the travelers who stay here are spread out. its so nice though - its like we have our own kitchen and bathroom and everything. we havent even had roommates since the first nite. when we get to barcelone - we bought night train tickets so hopefully we get good sleep on the couchettes on the train - we will be in an eight bed dorm and back to roommates. same in nice. we met a couple girls in our hostel last nite that had just come from the same hostel we are staying in there and they said it was really nice so thats good to know.

i hope barcelona is as nice as this little corner of spain because i really like it a lot. it feels good to be in a small place with no metro... or subway... or tube... whatever you want to call it. we just walk everywhere and through the "old town" that is a lot of independent little shops and small bars and restaurants. its a nice pace - not busy like the city. i really enjoy not taking the metro everywhere.

i keep checking up on the nba playoffs and am not too happy to see my pistons lost game one... but its only the first game. :-) (silly samantha... i like chauncey... and damnit i have no exclaimation mark again).

thanks to david for suggesting san sebastian, otherwise we would have never ended up here.

ahh, it feels good

2008-05-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

we arrived in san sebastian yesterday evening. it feels so good here. i took a long hot shower (normally wouldnt be long, but it was nite time so no one else needed to shower and i hadnt had even a warm shower since home... for some reason i cant get the shift key to work on here... no exclaimation marks for me...). anyway, it felt good to get a shower. this place is super clean and the people who work here are extremely friendly. the last nite in paris was aweful. i think i slept two hours. people kept coming in and out of the room (there were twelve beds), people were really loud inside and outside in the courtyard. i wanted to kill the spanish guys in our room - they were laughing hysterically and taking pictures in our room at some obscene hour. i just needed one good nights sleep... and i got that last nite. it felt so warm and cozy in the bed here. it wasand is super nice. anyway... it is raining here, which sucks but it is realy beautiful and we are right on the ocean. there is a small mountain that we will probably go up tomoro, weather permitting. there are also a couple beaches but it is pretty cold out now. i just wish the sun would come out (again, trying to use an exclaimation mark). back to paris though... we went to the eiffel tower one day and it started pouring rain. we ended up under this little peace monument or something with these brazilian guys playing music, along with a handful of other tourists. the brazilian guys offered us beers and they kept playing music and we stayed until the rain died down. it was right in front of the eiffel tower and was pretty fun. the next day we headed back towards the tower and just laid in the grass for a little while. we also went by the latin quarters that night and stopped in a canadian bar to check up on the celtics-cavs game, hahaha. we suck to do such a thing while in paris but we did. watched the second quarter and then wandered down the river. eventually found a metro station and headed to the hostel for our last night in the hellhole. definitely the worst place weve stayed from all the places we stayed last summer. oh well, its done now. loving this place. again, if only we could get some sun.

may stop in the alsace-lorraine area towards the end of the trip on our way back to paris. we can travel six days on our pass and are onyl using five of them. we also dont want to spend a whole five days in paris at the end again.

oh yea, and as haik said, we ordered some royals with cheese (matt, i think you will appreciate this). pulp fiction wins. also, my watch battery died and we didnt know the time for a few days. met some cool people in the crappy hostel and got them to set an alarm so we would make our train yesterday. couldnt find a watch battery in all of paris but got one right when we got here. woo.

okay, gotta get off here. :-)

san sebastian

2008-05-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

we are leaving this hostel and spending the day traveling to san sebastian today. weve done a lot since the last post but dont have time to write now. ill try and write soon.

smelly guy, flies, cold showers, and clock towers

2008-05-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

well, we are here and we are well.

... there are lots of flies in our room, an extremely smelly guy in the bed next to us (have to hide my nose under the sheet to sleep), my first shower since i was home was very cold, and at 10:20am this clock on the church next to us rang for five minutes straight. seriously, five minutes. aside the fact it rings every hour and it is right out our window. hahaha.

but really, everything is well. we made some pasta with basil tomato sauce and sauteed some mushrooms for dinner. ate it with bread and dinner cost the both of us 6 euros total... it was super delicious and budget-friendly! heh. anyway... if you are checking up on haiks blog (www.haikavanian.com/42days) you will see some confusing pictures. the first is some random meat truck but the second is from our visit to the catacombs. it was crazy. there were so many femurs and skulls and bones carefully piled up, some in the shape of a cross or a heart. look it up online to learn more. it was crazy though. you could touch them and they went on forever. the whole walk-through took 45 minutes. it felt weird at first to walk into a hallway-esqe think with all these bones. started thinking about how many people were there and how much time youd have to take to stack them up like that, and why would you, and where were the rest of the bones?

were not too jet-lagged and slept well last nite. however, after traveling all day and nite on the planes we arrived at the hostel at noon. the hostel has a lock out noon-4pm. therefore, we werent allowed in our room and had to kill four hours before we could even go lie down. that sucked, but we are rested now. we are thinking of adding one more stop in our trip, just not sure where!

okay, gotta go. take care, love you all. :-)

adri

paris

2008-05-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

this is just to let you know that we are here. got here just fine. :-)

rough itin

2008-05-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

Paris May 15 - May 19
San Sebastian May 19 - May 23
Barcelona May 23 - May 29
Nice May 29 - June 3
Zurich June 3 - June 9
Athens June 9 - June 11
Santorini June 12 - June 18
Paris June 19 - June 25

greece itin

2008-05-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

monday june 9, 2008
depart at 1:00 PM from Zurich (ZRH)
arrive at 4:40 PM at Athens (ATH)

wednesday june 11, 2008 (ferry)
depart at 10:30 PM from Athens (Piraeus)
arrive at 8:15 AM (thursday june 12) at Santorini (Thira)

wednesday june 18, 2008 (plane)
depart at 10:35 PM from Santorini (Thira, JHR)
arrive at 11:25 PM at Athens (ATH)

thursday june 19, 2008
depart at 2:10 PM from Athens (ATH)
arrive at 4:00 PM at Zurich (ZRH)

flight itinerary

2008-05-08T09:13:00.000-07:00

wednesday may 14, 2008

depart at 3:45 PM EDT from Detroit Wayne County (DTW)
arrive at 4:04 PM EDT at O'Hare (ORD)
depart at 5:50 PM EDT from O'Hare (ORD)
arrive at 9:20 AM BST (thursday may 15) at Charles de Gaulle (CDG)

wednesday june 25, 2008

depart at 6:45 AM BST from Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
arrive at 8:00 AM BST at Frankfurt (FRA)
depart at 10:15 AM BST from Frankfurt (FRA)
arrive at 1:10 PM EDT at Detroit Wayne County (DTW)