no one would argue about a liter of cola, he could have a litter of beer, no questions asked. James and I ate out last night, it was good and James enjoyed a liter of beer. We had a 1st course, Pasta, and then salad, and then the main dish, we both had chicken with French fries. The menu said potatoes, but i guess its thier choice of potato. And we had gelato for desert, for the 3rd time that day, its the one thing that is really cheap, and good!
Were off to Florence in few hours, we spending two nights there and making a day trip to Pisa. Then we go to Rome.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
The catch up
Finally, we can catch everyone up; now were in Venice, We can see why so many people come to visit, it looks exactly like the pictures! There are tons of tourists here though, its sometimes nice to be around other Americans though because then you dont feel so isolated.
Innsbruck Austria is a places James and I would highly reccomend visiting, we would like to go back. The train ride through Austria and Lichtenstein was absolutely gorgeous! Theres tons of cheap skiing too!
Switzerland wasnt quite as pictureque as wed imagined, but still very pretty, the vinyards on mountain sides looked really neat from the train. We stayed in Interlaken, we had really wanted to do some extreme sport, as itàs the extreme sport capital of EU or somethng like that but the prices were outrageous! Whitewater rafting was close to 100 swissfrancs a person and we can do it in Bozeman for $32! So we went hiking and took a tram ride instead. We, okay James, "accidently" missed the tram back down the mountain so we had to hike. It took several days for our legs to recover. We saw cows with real cowbells though, smelt them too!
Onto France, When we arrived on our first evening, it was hot out! The lake (Lake Annecy) was so beautiful we couldnt wait to go swimming! And then it rained clear until we left. We did see some amazing lightning strikes though, and we still walked around the Veille Ville (Old town) and ate cheap delicious croissants until we were stuffed. I tried Violette ice cream, and it does taste pretty much like violettes, but that much isnt as good as it sounds, i think violeetes are better as a garnish. Oh, and we ate out once, since it was a tourist trap town restaurants were very expensive, so we ate at the cheapest one we could find and then wished we wouldnt have. James had a 4 cheese pizza and then couldnt get the taste of dirt out of his mouth for quite awhile. I had salad nicoise, yuck! I found a bug in it and lost my appetite. James ate one of the anchovies off my salad, and he, who will eat almost anything, had a hard time swallowing it. Unfortunately the only grocery store we could find was tiny place that didnt sell much worth eating so we stuck with cheap sandwiches and croissants. We spent one night in Aix-Les-Bains, which turned into a small nightmare. We had a cheap hotel, but it turned out to be in BFE (very far away in other words) so we had to take a taxi (22 Euros) There was not a grocery store or restaurant open anywhere so we had potato chips and a power bar for dinner. Then we found a bus we could take from our hotel, with the most uncomfortable bed weve ever slept in, and it didnt come the next morning when we thought it would. So we had to take a taxi back to the train station. Anyway, we made it to Venice with out any further problems, we even had a few hours to explore Geneva while we waited for our next train.
Today we went to Piazzo San Marco, Mobs of tourists and pidgeons but pretty neat. Its so cool that there are no car here, everyting is done by boat! many of the "streets" are only a few feet wide and everything is done via the canal, even garbage collection!
I dont know when well have internet access again, not all of our hostels have it and internet cafes can be expensive.
Dad: Ive tried calling you but your phone wont accept calls from pay phones. I heard Bruce Springsteen in Poland, At our Hostel in Switzerland a girl from Japan was wearing a Leinenkugels t shirt.
Ive been sending postcards so either youll get your own or check grandma and grandpas.
Disclaimer: I dont know where the apostrophe is on this crazy keyboard and im typing really fast because im paying for internet time so exscuse all of my errors.
Innsbruck Austria is a places James and I would highly reccomend visiting, we would like to go back. The train ride through Austria and Lichtenstein was absolutely gorgeous! Theres tons of cheap skiing too!
Switzerland wasnt quite as pictureque as wed imagined, but still very pretty, the vinyards on mountain sides looked really neat from the train. We stayed in Interlaken, we had really wanted to do some extreme sport, as itàs the extreme sport capital of EU or somethng like that but the prices were outrageous! Whitewater rafting was close to 100 swissfrancs a person and we can do it in Bozeman for $32! So we went hiking and took a tram ride instead. We, okay James, "accidently" missed the tram back down the mountain so we had to hike. It took several days for our legs to recover. We saw cows with real cowbells though, smelt them too!
Onto France, When we arrived on our first evening, it was hot out! The lake (Lake Annecy) was so beautiful we couldnt wait to go swimming! And then it rained clear until we left. We did see some amazing lightning strikes though, and we still walked around the Veille Ville (Old town) and ate cheap delicious croissants until we were stuffed. I tried Violette ice cream, and it does taste pretty much like violettes, but that much isnt as good as it sounds, i think violeetes are better as a garnish. Oh, and we ate out once, since it was a tourist trap town restaurants were very expensive, so we ate at the cheapest one we could find and then wished we wouldnt have. James had a 4 cheese pizza and then couldnt get the taste of dirt out of his mouth for quite awhile. I had salad nicoise, yuck! I found a bug in it and lost my appetite. James ate one of the anchovies off my salad, and he, who will eat almost anything, had a hard time swallowing it. Unfortunately the only grocery store we could find was tiny place that didnt sell much worth eating so we stuck with cheap sandwiches and croissants. We spent one night in Aix-Les-Bains, which turned into a small nightmare. We had a cheap hotel, but it turned out to be in BFE (very far away in other words) so we had to take a taxi (22 Euros) There was not a grocery store or restaurant open anywhere so we had potato chips and a power bar for dinner. Then we found a bus we could take from our hotel, with the most uncomfortable bed weve ever slept in, and it didnt come the next morning when we thought it would. So we had to take a taxi back to the train station. Anyway, we made it to Venice with out any further problems, we even had a few hours to explore Geneva while we waited for our next train.
Today we went to Piazzo San Marco, Mobs of tourists and pidgeons but pretty neat. Its so cool that there are no car here, everyting is done by boat! many of the "streets" are only a few feet wide and everything is done via the canal, even garbage collection!
I dont know when well have internet access again, not all of our hostels have it and internet cafes can be expensive.
Dad: Ive tried calling you but your phone wont accept calls from pay phones. I heard Bruce Springsteen in Poland, At our Hostel in Switzerland a girl from Japan was wearing a Leinenkugels t shirt.
Ive been sending postcards so either youll get your own or check grandma and grandpas.
Disclaimer: I dont know where the apostrophe is on this crazy keyboard and im typing really fast because im paying for internet time so exscuse all of my errors.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Austria, Switzerland, France Update
Were in an internet cafe in Geneva, so this is going to be quick because I only have a few minutes. Austria was probably the most scenic place I have ever seen, absolutely beautiful. Switzerland was pretty too but so expensive. We hiked a little bit in the Alps our calves hurt for several days. Annecy, France was beautiful too but it rained almost the entire time we were there, we had wanted to go swimming and rent peddle boats but instead we stayed at our hotel and let our calves rest. Aix les Bains was very nice too, but it was still fairly cold and rainy. Our hotel situation was not cool, but we managed to find it (Our first cab ride), more details later. Now were killing time until our train leaves for Venice. When I get a chance Ill leave a better blog. James turn with the computer.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Marzipan and other good stuff
We made it to Vienna, and its hotter than hec here. There might be a lot of tpos because im using a german keyboard and a fer keys are in differant places.
Auschwitz was a little intense but a lot of it was rebuilt so that made it easier, it was the displays and the pictures (actual pictures taken of people when they arrived) that were hard. The kid's shoes and the human hair were probably the hardest. What was so weird is that the area was quite beautiful, and the buildings that houses prisoners were nice brick buildings with big white windows, grass and large trees! Better than what a lot of people live in! I gues that was part of the disquise so it wasnät obviously a concentration camp. We didn't go to Birkenau, we'd had enough after a few hours.
The town of Krakow was pretty nice, I think it's were Schindler from Schindler's list lived, we saw it advertised. I could be wrong though, it could have been a different town nearby. Virtually nothing in town was in english, pretty challenging. I canät believe we rode a public bus 70km and made it without a problem , that is after we spent an hour looking for the bus station.
Last night I ate peirogis for dinner and james had a cabbage roll, we're not entirely sure what we ate but we left the restaurant very full. Then in the town square we listened to a live band that played many american songs.
The night train was just a little hairy, we had a reservation but the reservation ticket said it wasnät valid with a train ticket. We have Eurail passes but they#re supposedly not valid in Poland. We asked a ticket agent who spoke a little english and she said we were okax, then before boarding the train we asked a train attendant and he seemed to think that was all we needed, then like 5 minutes before departure, he came and demanded a ticket; then we got a ittle nervous, I gave him our eurail passes and he seemed to like that and said something that sounded like yes so in the end we were okay. I didnät sleep well though, we were woken up twice for passport control at the Czeck boarder and again at the austrian border. The Czeck officers were very intimidating looking with huge guns.
We arrived in Vienna at 6 am this morning, it's not the most scenic place but we found a beautiful park with tons of rose gardens. I took a lot of pictures, so as soon as we have access to a USB port we'll post them. We had to kill time until 2, when we could check into our hostel. We explored a little bit and then we ate at a street cafe, the waitress spoke no english but some of the menu had word we recognined; Panini, Proscuitto, salame, paprika...so we had paninis and then some ice cream with a shot of espresso and whipped cream, I guess thatäs popular here, according to the guide book. There's a lot of bakeries around so we went into one and did a lot of pointing until I got a strawberry shaped marzipan, which look much cuter than they taste.
And now we're at the hostel, doing much needed laundry. James only brought 3 pairs of underware so I guess itäs needs to be done a little more frequently. Either that or heäs going to have to buy more becasue the 3 pair thing doesnät really work on our schedule.
We'll probably take the rest of the pretty easy, We've been pounding pavent pretty hard and we've had two nights with little sleep (the hostel in poland was full of drunk people yelling all night). I'm a little worried this hostel might be loud too (we got free drink coupons for thier bar upon arrival) but I'm tired to the point (and most of the people here speak english) that I might get colorful if I can't sleep.
We go to Innsbruck tomorrow, 5 hours on the train, we donät have any specific sights in mind and it's much smaller than Vienna so it should be a little more relaxing. I don't think we'll have internet access there so if you don't hear anything for awhile that why.
Auschwitz was a little intense but a lot of it was rebuilt so that made it easier, it was the displays and the pictures (actual pictures taken of people when they arrived) that were hard. The kid's shoes and the human hair were probably the hardest. What was so weird is that the area was quite beautiful, and the buildings that houses prisoners were nice brick buildings with big white windows, grass and large trees! Better than what a lot of people live in! I gues that was part of the disquise so it wasnät obviously a concentration camp. We didn't go to Birkenau, we'd had enough after a few hours.
The town of Krakow was pretty nice, I think it's were Schindler from Schindler's list lived, we saw it advertised. I could be wrong though, it could have been a different town nearby. Virtually nothing in town was in english, pretty challenging. I canät believe we rode a public bus 70km and made it without a problem , that is after we spent an hour looking for the bus station.
Last night I ate peirogis for dinner and james had a cabbage roll, we're not entirely sure what we ate but we left the restaurant very full. Then in the town square we listened to a live band that played many american songs.
The night train was just a little hairy, we had a reservation but the reservation ticket said it wasnät valid with a train ticket. We have Eurail passes but they#re supposedly not valid in Poland. We asked a ticket agent who spoke a little english and she said we were okax, then before boarding the train we asked a train attendant and he seemed to think that was all we needed, then like 5 minutes before departure, he came and demanded a ticket; then we got a ittle nervous, I gave him our eurail passes and he seemed to like that and said something that sounded like yes so in the end we were okay. I didnät sleep well though, we were woken up twice for passport control at the Czeck boarder and again at the austrian border. The Czeck officers were very intimidating looking with huge guns.
We arrived in Vienna at 6 am this morning, it's not the most scenic place but we found a beautiful park with tons of rose gardens. I took a lot of pictures, so as soon as we have access to a USB port we'll post them. We had to kill time until 2, when we could check into our hostel. We explored a little bit and then we ate at a street cafe, the waitress spoke no english but some of the menu had word we recognined; Panini, Proscuitto, salame, paprika...so we had paninis and then some ice cream with a shot of espresso and whipped cream, I guess thatäs popular here, according to the guide book. There's a lot of bakeries around so we went into one and did a lot of pointing until I got a strawberry shaped marzipan, which look much cuter than they taste.
And now we're at the hostel, doing much needed laundry. James only brought 3 pairs of underware so I guess itäs needs to be done a little more frequently. Either that or heäs going to have to buy more becasue the 3 pair thing doesnät really work on our schedule.
We'll probably take the rest of the pretty easy, We've been pounding pavent pretty hard and we've had two nights with little sleep (the hostel in poland was full of drunk people yelling all night). I'm a little worried this hostel might be loud too (we got free drink coupons for thier bar upon arrival) but I'm tired to the point (and most of the people here speak english) that I might get colorful if I can't sleep.
We go to Innsbruck tomorrow, 5 hours on the train, we donät have any specific sights in mind and it's much smaller than Vienna so it should be a little more relaxing. I don't think we'll have internet access there so if you don't hear anything for awhile that why.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Real Quick
We made it Poland, after sitting on the tarmac for an hour and a half. Our first impression of poland is that it's very beautiful, not how I imagined it. Today looks like it will be a beautiful day too. We arrived after dark so we didn't see much, but what we could see makes us think that this is probably a very beautiful city as well. I think a large part of the town center is surrounded by a large park. We just walked around the perimeter. The night life here is very active, as a result I didnt sleep well last night, drunk people shouting outside my window all night. We're going to Aushwitz today, then taking a night train to Vienna.
Friday, May 18, 2007
The Perfect Pint
We found some pretty good food, it took a good hour. Our Hostel only has toast for breakfast so we were hungry pretty early in the day. Since our hostel is in the temple bar district we figured we'd be able to find some pretty good pub grub. Unfortunately it's all very expensive and there's probably more Italian restaurants here than Irish ones. Eventually we found a place a little further away form the touristy area and I had an excellent steak sandwich, i even ate the mushrooms. Traditional Irish food (Stew, Bangers and Mash) is very expensive in this neighborhood. After lunch we went to the Guinness Storehouse, admission was a little pricey, as all tourist things are, but I learned a lot. We both got to pull our own pints and both did it perfectly, we have certificates to prove it. I didn't drink much of my Guinness, I'm not a huge fan. We also walked along the River Liffey this morning, not much to report.
Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Poland. WE have to check out of our hostel by 10:30am (I'm sure we'll be out by 8) and then carry our back packs all day until we get to the airport around 1:30 - 2:00. I'm not really looking forward to it but I had better get used to it. It's the 1st of many times I'll be doing it. I don't know if our next hostel has free internet or not, so if you don't hear form us for a little while that's why. Hope to hear form everyone soon!
Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Poland. WE have to check out of our hostel by 10:30am (I'm sure we'll be out by 8) and then carry our back packs all day until we get to the airport around 1:30 - 2:00. I'm not really looking forward to it but I had better get used to it. It's the 1st of many times I'll be doing it. I don't know if our next hostel has free internet or not, so if you don't hear form us for a little while that's why. Hope to hear form everyone soon!
Thursday, May 17, 2007
One more thing...
Just to answer a few questions; we found a grocery store near our hostel in London so we didn't have to buy egg sandwiches anymore. Tonight in Dublin we ate out and both had fish and chips, a little bland but still good, James had a Guinness of course.
The weather in London was cold and rainy all three days. It's a little warmer in Dublin and sunny! Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice as today!
The weather in London was cold and rainy all three days. It's a little warmer in Dublin and sunny! Hopefully tomorrow will be as nice as today!
The Big Update
Our Hostel in Dublin has free internet (but no access to a USB port so no pictures yet) so I'll try to update you on everything. London was very cool and VERY expensive and with the exchange rate everything was twice what we would pay in the US. But It shows that there is money in london, everything is detailed and designed, at least in the tourist areas. The subway is also very nice and very easy to use. The coolest thing we saw in London was the Tower of London, parts were built in the 1500's. We saw the crown jewels, and old torture devices. We took a lot of pictures!
Our train ride to Holyhead was uneventful, the town of Bangor looked really neat. The Ferry ride was also uneventful but we enjoyed the comfort of the ferry. The entire thing was set up like a nice lounge; tables, arm chairs, couches, cinema, bar....
You can immediately tell that Ireland is a poorer country than England. It's kinda dingy in Dublin and the streets are not well labeled and the tram system was new but very slow. Our hostel is in the old part of town, which is pretty neat, we're night next to a huge old cathedral, the only bummer is that we're four big flights of stair up in a room that sleeps 24 with 4 showers and it reeks light feet. Our last hostel smelt a little like feet to but it wasn't as bad as this one. Tomorrow we don't really have any specific plans, just exploring. We might go to the Guinness Storeroom. Possibly the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, and then we'll just wander around the area.
Oh, we had a small adventure with the bus from the Ferry Port; the didn't get to the Bureau de Change before it closed so we didn't have any money to get on the bus. So we found an ATM but it only gave $50's and the bus only takes the exact fare. So we went back to the ATM and figured out how to get a 10 (the smallest denomination it would give) and finally the bus driver took it and made change for us. His english was really bad and he was pretty much yelling and pointing when we tried to give him a 50. The story doesn't really sound good now that \I retell it, but it was our 1st snafu, probably not our last.
If grandma wants to know how we get around tell her we took the subway in London, then a train, then a ferry, then a bus, then a tram (above ground light rail) and we'll take a shuttle bus to the dublin airport and then fly to Poland. Buses are extremely confusing to us so we'll try to avoid them but sometimes my feet hurt too bad. Yesterday my right ankle hurt so bad I limped back to the hostel from the grocery store. It feels better today after spending most the day sitting. It did start to hurt a little on the walk to the Hostel.
Anyway, It's quarter to 10 here, so I'm going to go up to our feet smelling room and try to get into a deep slepp before all of the other 22 roomies arrive! We're going to get up early in the morning so we can get showers, hopefully.
If you want to know more about anything just let me know!
Our train ride to Holyhead was uneventful, the town of Bangor looked really neat. The Ferry ride was also uneventful but we enjoyed the comfort of the ferry. The entire thing was set up like a nice lounge; tables, arm chairs, couches, cinema, bar....
You can immediately tell that Ireland is a poorer country than England. It's kinda dingy in Dublin and the streets are not well labeled and the tram system was new but very slow. Our hostel is in the old part of town, which is pretty neat, we're night next to a huge old cathedral, the only bummer is that we're four big flights of stair up in a room that sleeps 24 with 4 showers and it reeks light feet. Our last hostel smelt a little like feet to but it wasn't as bad as this one. Tomorrow we don't really have any specific plans, just exploring. We might go to the Guinness Storeroom. Possibly the Jameson Whiskey Distillery, and then we'll just wander around the area.
Oh, we had a small adventure with the bus from the Ferry Port; the didn't get to the Bureau de Change before it closed so we didn't have any money to get on the bus. So we found an ATM but it only gave $50's and the bus only takes the exact fare. So we went back to the ATM and figured out how to get a 10 (the smallest denomination it would give) and finally the bus driver took it and made change for us. His english was really bad and he was pretty much yelling and pointing when we tried to give him a 50. The story doesn't really sound good now that \I retell it, but it was our 1st snafu, probably not our last.
If grandma wants to know how we get around tell her we took the subway in London, then a train, then a ferry, then a bus, then a tram (above ground light rail) and we'll take a shuttle bus to the dublin airport and then fly to Poland. Buses are extremely confusing to us so we'll try to avoid them but sometimes my feet hurt too bad. Yesterday my right ankle hurt so bad I limped back to the hostel from the grocery store. It feels better today after spending most the day sitting. It did start to hurt a little on the walk to the Hostel.
Anyway, It's quarter to 10 here, so I'm going to go up to our feet smelling room and try to get into a deep slepp before all of the other 22 roomies arrive! We're going to get up early in the morning so we can get showers, hopefully.
If you want to know more about anything just let me know!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
REALLY old stuff.
We went to the tower of London today. It is old...to say the least. I was really expendive to get in but I think it was well worth it. The corwn jewels where amazing. Where else are you going to see a real daimond the size of a golf ball and a 500 lb punch bowl made out of solid gold?
We are already tired of walking. I think Sara already is feeling the pain. We should be in great shape when we get back though. Legs like tre trunks.
We also made our way to the Natural History Museum. Lots of kid's stuff but the building was cool.
We are already tired of walking. I think Sara already is feeling the pain. We should be in great shape when we get back though. Legs like tre trunks.
We also made our way to the Natural History Museum. Lots of kid's stuff but the building was cool.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
We Made It!
I thouht I had posted a blog last night but I guess it didn't post.... Anyway, we made it to London without any problems, our flight from JFK was delayed by two hours but they rebooked most people on an earlier flight so our flight was was not even close to full. It was nice. Yesterday we walked around quite a bit, crossed the Tower Bridge, explored the city near the Thames River, it's exquisite! Its very old and very new, the streets are all cobblestone and many are extremely narrow. Today we went to Buckingham Palce to see the changing of the gaurd, we also went to Westminster Abbey (Very Old!), House of Parliment (saw Big Ben), and Trafalgar square. Our Hostel is right next to the Millenium Bridge and St. Pauls Cathedral. Tomorrow we're going to go to The Imperial War Museum and the Tower of London. We haven't been stressing ourselves out trying to see everything, our feet hurt already! We take the train to Dublin on Thursday.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
James' School Work
Sara let you know what she is up to in school. Now it's my turn to inform you. The picture above is an old irrigation diversion on the Lower Jefferson River, near Whitehall, Montana. This is about 40 min west of Bozeman. The details of the thing are long and boring but the basic idea is that it isn't getting the job done. A group of four of us did preliminary design for a new boulder drop structure, sediment load transport and bank stabilization. I think it ended up turning out pretty good. I learned a lot in the process at least. I think next semester we do a complete set of construction drawings for the same project with a new group (thank God!).Other than school work, I am just doing a lot of biking. Many of the trails around town are to wet to ride but I have my secret places.
So the Europe trip. If any of you have suggestions of cool places to go, let us know. We know what cities and towns we will be going to, but specifics are going to be decided on the fly.
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