Why hello there,
So we left Dublin super early Friday morning, yesterday, and arrived in Slovakia a few hours later. Bratislava is super cheap which is nice. Yesterday we didn´t do much because Heather HAD to watch the Olympics because it was women´s figure skating... So today we have been exploring the city, walking around a lot, looking at palaces and castles. Heather´s phone does not work in most of the city, we´ve only found two places where it gets service, and our hostel is not one of them, lame sausage. So if you try to reach us before we get to Italy, it might not work.
Heather wants to add that it´s a surprisingly nice city, although the outskirts of Bratislava are not too appealing. Communism was not nice to Slovakia.
Alright, signing off until Italy.
Peace.
Maggie... and Heather
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Dublin!
Greetings Fellow Americans,
So Dublin was awesome. We stayed in a nice hotel in Temple Bar for cheaper than some of our hostels have been. Mike´s friend Dominic who we met at Mike´s house, works in the hotel industry (Bono´s hotel in Dublin.) So he was able to get us a discounted price at a different hotel. It was gnarly.
So the first day we went on another free walking tour and learned some of the history of the city, it was good except that it was snowing, and superrrrr cold. Heather claims it´s the coldest she´s ever been in her life. Our tour guide was Garvan, or Gar. He´s from County Donegal, but he barely has an Irish accent, it was kind of freaking us out, or maybe just Heather. Then we walked around Temple Bar, and H noticed that the same sweatshirt she bought 5 years ago for 20 euro is now 40 euro. Lame sauce.
Next day we checked out the Guinness Storehouse, Heather for the third time, me for the first (because I´m not an alcoholic)... It was pretty gnarly. H said some of it was a bit different than the last time. The best part was the section that chronicled Guinness advertising. We were able to pick through a bunch of commercials and thought the "Brilliant" ads were, well brilliant. At the end of the tour we were able to find seats in the gravity bar, which the "alchey" said was a first for her. We enjoyed our complimentary guinnesses up there.
That night we met up with distant cousin Martin, the police officer and Mike´s son. He took us to dinner at an Italian restaurant then to a pub for a few beers. He was quite entertaining, had some good cop stories.
The next day, our last in Dublin, we went to the Museum of National History on Martin´s recommendation. It was cool reading about Irish history from way back in the day, and IT WAS FREE! The craziest part was a few ancient bodies that were pulled from a bog. There were lots of things still intact, like fingernails and hair. They were around 2000 years old, crazy.
And that´s about it for Dublin.
Later,
Maggie
So Dublin was awesome. We stayed in a nice hotel in Temple Bar for cheaper than some of our hostels have been. Mike´s friend Dominic who we met at Mike´s house, works in the hotel industry (Bono´s hotel in Dublin.) So he was able to get us a discounted price at a different hotel. It was gnarly.
So the first day we went on another free walking tour and learned some of the history of the city, it was good except that it was snowing, and superrrrr cold. Heather claims it´s the coldest she´s ever been in her life. Our tour guide was Garvan, or Gar. He´s from County Donegal, but he barely has an Irish accent, it was kind of freaking us out, or maybe just Heather. Then we walked around Temple Bar, and H noticed that the same sweatshirt she bought 5 years ago for 20 euro is now 40 euro. Lame sauce.
Next day we checked out the Guinness Storehouse, Heather for the third time, me for the first (because I´m not an alcoholic)... It was pretty gnarly. H said some of it was a bit different than the last time. The best part was the section that chronicled Guinness advertising. We were able to pick through a bunch of commercials and thought the "Brilliant" ads were, well brilliant. At the end of the tour we were able to find seats in the gravity bar, which the "alchey" said was a first for her. We enjoyed our complimentary guinnesses up there.
That night we met up with distant cousin Martin, the police officer and Mike´s son. He took us to dinner at an Italian restaurant then to a pub for a few beers. He was quite entertaining, had some good cop stories.
The next day, our last in Dublin, we went to the Museum of National History on Martin´s recommendation. It was cool reading about Irish history from way back in the day, and IT WAS FREE! The craziest part was a few ancient bodies that were pulled from a bog. There were lots of things still intact, like fingernails and hair. They were around 2000 years old, crazy.
And that´s about it for Dublin.
Later,
Maggie
Friday, February 19, 2010
Cork
'Ello all,
Maggie here again. So two days ago H and I took the train to Cork, took about an hour and a half. It's a cute little city, apparently the 2nd biggest in Ireland. We walked around a bit, had lunch, and then met up with Kieran, Mike and Lily's son. Kieran's in the army so we stayed the night with him in the Army barracks which was quite interesting. Kieran remembers meeting Heather and me when we were little when the Woulfe's were visiting California about 15 years ago, I don't remember it. He's really nice and very funny. He took us out to dinner and a pub with a couple of his army friends. It was gnarly. Then he drove us back to Patrickswell yesterday. Today we just hung out around the house, but tomorrow I think we're going to Killarney for the day. Then on Monday it's off to Dublin for 4 days to finish off our tour of Ireland.
Ok, Later.
Maggie here again. So two days ago H and I took the train to Cork, took about an hour and a half. It's a cute little city, apparently the 2nd biggest in Ireland. We walked around a bit, had lunch, and then met up with Kieran, Mike and Lily's son. Kieran's in the army so we stayed the night with him in the Army barracks which was quite interesting. Kieran remembers meeting Heather and me when we were little when the Woulfe's were visiting California about 15 years ago, I don't remember it. He's really nice and very funny. He took us out to dinner and a pub with a couple of his army friends. It was gnarly. Then he drove us back to Patrickswell yesterday. Today we just hung out around the house, but tomorrow I think we're going to Killarney for the day. Then on Monday it's off to Dublin for 4 days to finish off our tour of Ireland.
Ok, Later.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Ireland = awesome, what else did you expect?
Ahoy There Mateys!
So apparantly I have loads of relatives in Ireland who are super nice and willing to drive Maggie and me around the country.
For example, Josie (Lily's sister) took us to Adare for the day.
Adare is a small quiet Irish town straight out of a movie. They also have a Manor. Bit of history for you, the Lord Dunraven was put in charge and built a lovely Manor for himself to live in. And despite being English he was a good guy and built houses for his farmers/workers to live in. The people of the town liked him and everyone lived in harmony. I'm assuming there was harmony, if my boss built me a house I'd be pretty happy with him.
We walked all over the Manor property (which is open to the public). It was a beautiful day and the sun was out. At one point we came up to a sign that said, "Residents and Guests Beyond this Point Only," to which Josie said, "Well girls, are we residents or guests?" We continued toward the Adare Manor, looming in the distance. As we approached the Manor there was another sign reading the same as the one before. And again we ignored it and went inside the Manor. By the way the Manor is now a ridiciously nice hotel, originally built in the 19th century with a medieval flair. Anyway, the inside was magnificant. A giant chandelier is the focal point in the main lobby. As we were touring the extravagantly decorated high tea room, I turned to Josie and asked "Do you think this place is haunted?" and she responded "It'd be a pity if it wasn't," which I thought was quite a splendid answer. After that we went outside and walked by the river which is near the golf course. Once we left the grounds of the Manor, the three of us lunched at a pub down the road and it was quite lovely.
And yesterday, two more of Lily's siblings who we didn't know about, Noula and Michael, drove us to the Cliffs of Moher which were quite spectacular. The view was awesome, it was super windy, and the rain held off just until we got into the car to continue on our journey. From the cliffs we drove to Galway which was maybe an hour and a half or two hours from there. Galway was a cute little city with tons of stores, restaurants, and whatnot. We ate at another pub, of course, and I had an awesome seafood platter, Maggie the Irish stew. From there we walked around for a bit and then headed back to Michael's house. Oh and Padre, on the way back we stopped for a drink at Durty Nelly's, it was gnarly.
Got to go,
Heather
So apparantly I have loads of relatives in Ireland who are super nice and willing to drive Maggie and me around the country.
For example, Josie (Lily's sister) took us to Adare for the day.
Adare is a small quiet Irish town straight out of a movie. They also have a Manor. Bit of history for you, the Lord Dunraven was put in charge and built a lovely Manor for himself to live in. And despite being English he was a good guy and built houses for his farmers/workers to live in. The people of the town liked him and everyone lived in harmony. I'm assuming there was harmony, if my boss built me a house I'd be pretty happy with him.
We walked all over the Manor property (which is open to the public). It was a beautiful day and the sun was out. At one point we came up to a sign that said, "Residents and Guests Beyond this Point Only," to which Josie said, "Well girls, are we residents or guests?" We continued toward the Adare Manor, looming in the distance. As we approached the Manor there was another sign reading the same as the one before. And again we ignored it and went inside the Manor. By the way the Manor is now a ridiciously nice hotel, originally built in the 19th century with a medieval flair. Anyway, the inside was magnificant. A giant chandelier is the focal point in the main lobby. As we were touring the extravagantly decorated high tea room, I turned to Josie and asked "Do you think this place is haunted?" and she responded "It'd be a pity if it wasn't," which I thought was quite a splendid answer. After that we went outside and walked by the river which is near the golf course. Once we left the grounds of the Manor, the three of us lunched at a pub down the road and it was quite lovely.
And yesterday, two more of Lily's siblings who we didn't know about, Noula and Michael, drove us to the Cliffs of Moher which were quite spectacular. The view was awesome, it was super windy, and the rain held off just until we got into the car to continue on our journey. From the cliffs we drove to Galway which was maybe an hour and a half or two hours from there. Galway was a cute little city with tons of stores, restaurants, and whatnot. We ate at another pub, of course, and I had an awesome seafood platter, Maggie the Irish stew. From there we walked around for a bit and then headed back to Michael's house. Oh and Padre, on the way back we stopped for a drink at Durty Nelly's, it was gnarly.
Got to go,
Heather
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Limerick
Hello friends,
Maggie here, again... So Ireland has been wonderful so far but I'll start with Amsterdam. We were there for one whole day, two nights. The first night we just walked around and found a restaurant, didn't stay out too long because it was so cold. The next day we went on a walking tour and learned some of the city's history which was quite interesting. My favorite part was when the guide, Amy, told us about Louis Bonaparte. He was Napoleon's brother, and was appointed as king of the Netherlands in 1806 by Napoleon. She told us that he only did two major things in Holland as King (before Napoleon fired him.) He made all buildings have address numbers, instead of just having a plaque in front of the house to identiy who lives there. And the second thing he did was make all the Dutch people have surnames, because too many people had the same names. The Dutch people thought it was stupid becasue they were getting along just fine, so some of them came up with ridiculous names, like "Pile of Pants," "Born Naked," "Little S***," or "Hardly ever at home" (in Dutch of course) to show Louis they thought it was stupid. But Loius didn't speak Dutch so he didn't know what they meant anyway, and apparently some people in Holland still have these ridiculous last names, so it kind of backfired.
So after the walking tour we went to a restaurant with the guide and a few other people and had a traditional Dutch meal of sausage and mashed potatoes. It was pretty good. Heather had seconds on the sausage... Then we went to the Anne Frank House which was really interesting. You get to walk through the house and they have it set up how it was so you go behind a book case and climb up the super steep steps to get to the hidden rooms. There were also videos of Otto Frank, her dad, and Miep Gies, a woman who helped them hide. It was pretty crazy.
After that we went on another walking tour, this one of the Red Light District, which is where our hostel was. It was pretty interesting. So that was a full day, and then the next morning we left for Ireland.
Yesterday (our first whole day here) Heather and I did pretty much nothing, and it was nice. We hung around the house with Mike, did our laundry, and that was about it. Lily is in South Africa right now so it is just Mike at the house. Their daughter Lisa stopped by the house yesterday with her son Shane. He's 3 and super cute with his little Irish accent.
Today Mike drove us into Limerick where we walked around and went into some stores and whatnot. Then we took a taxi back to Patrickswell (where their house is) and found a pub that Mike recommended and watched the big Ireland/France rugby game. France won 30-10, but it was still cool watching it in a pub with people who were super into it.
Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, maybe just relax again, or go into town again.
That's all for now.
Peace.
Maggie here, again... So Ireland has been wonderful so far but I'll start with Amsterdam. We were there for one whole day, two nights. The first night we just walked around and found a restaurant, didn't stay out too long because it was so cold. The next day we went on a walking tour and learned some of the city's history which was quite interesting. My favorite part was when the guide, Amy, told us about Louis Bonaparte. He was Napoleon's brother, and was appointed as king of the Netherlands in 1806 by Napoleon. She told us that he only did two major things in Holland as King (before Napoleon fired him.) He made all buildings have address numbers, instead of just having a plaque in front of the house to identiy who lives there. And the second thing he did was make all the Dutch people have surnames, because too many people had the same names. The Dutch people thought it was stupid becasue they were getting along just fine, so some of them came up with ridiculous names, like "Pile of Pants," "Born Naked," "Little S***," or "Hardly ever at home" (in Dutch of course) to show Louis they thought it was stupid. But Loius didn't speak Dutch so he didn't know what they meant anyway, and apparently some people in Holland still have these ridiculous last names, so it kind of backfired.
So after the walking tour we went to a restaurant with the guide and a few other people and had a traditional Dutch meal of sausage and mashed potatoes. It was pretty good. Heather had seconds on the sausage... Then we went to the Anne Frank House which was really interesting. You get to walk through the house and they have it set up how it was so you go behind a book case and climb up the super steep steps to get to the hidden rooms. There were also videos of Otto Frank, her dad, and Miep Gies, a woman who helped them hide. It was pretty crazy.
After that we went on another walking tour, this one of the Red Light District, which is where our hostel was. It was pretty interesting. So that was a full day, and then the next morning we left for Ireland.
Yesterday (our first whole day here) Heather and I did pretty much nothing, and it was nice. We hung around the house with Mike, did our laundry, and that was about it. Lily is in South Africa right now so it is just Mike at the house. Their daughter Lisa stopped by the house yesterday with her son Shane. He's 3 and super cute with his little Irish accent.
Today Mike drove us into Limerick where we walked around and went into some stores and whatnot. Then we took a taxi back to Patrickswell (where their house is) and found a pub that Mike recommended and watched the big Ireland/France rugby game. France won 30-10, but it was still cool watching it in a pub with people who were super into it.
Not sure what we're doing tomorrow, maybe just relax again, or go into town again.
That's all for now.
Peace.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
We made it to Ireland!
Why 'ello there everyone,
After pretty much all day of travelling today we finally made it to Mike and Lily's in Limerick, Ireland. We took a train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven, Netherlands this morning, then a bus from the train station to the airport in Eindhoven, then the airplane, and then another 3 hours on a bus once we got to Dublin. It was quite a day. Mike picked us up at the bus stop around 11pm and then made us sausage and eggs for dinner. Yum. Heather was very pleased to have some breakfast sausages of course... Going to bed soon so this will be a short update, but we will have regular access to a computer for at least a week now so I'll update again soon, and tell about Amsterdam. We're excited to rest for a little while in Ireland, we'll be here for two weeks.
Ok, later dudes,
Maggie
After pretty much all day of travelling today we finally made it to Mike and Lily's in Limerick, Ireland. We took a train from Amsterdam to Eindhoven, Netherlands this morning, then a bus from the train station to the airport in Eindhoven, then the airplane, and then another 3 hours on a bus once we got to Dublin. It was quite a day. Mike picked us up at the bus stop around 11pm and then made us sausage and eggs for dinner. Yum. Heather was very pleased to have some breakfast sausages of course... Going to bed soon so this will be a short update, but we will have regular access to a computer for at least a week now so I'll update again soon, and tell about Amsterdam. We're excited to rest for a little while in Ireland, we'll be here for two weeks.
Ok, later dudes,
Maggie
Monday, February 8, 2010
Bruges
What up dudes?
We found another computer in a timely manner this time, do not fret Clarence, and there is definitely no need for a strongly worded letter... So Bruges is pretty awesome, and I am feeling much better, pretty much back to normal. So it's really cold here, snowed pretty much all day while we were out checking out the city, but I like it.
We met two girls on the train here, let's call them "Penelope" and "Gweneviere" (not sure how to spell that one). They're from England (obviously), and they're staying at our hostel. This hostel is pretty crappy, but it's only two days. And yes, we do seem to be meeting people in twos, gma. We've met a couple, but not too many people travelling by themselves.
The first night we were here was the superbowl which Heather convinced the dudes who run the bar at the hostel to stay open and show it. It didn't start til after midnight here. I only lasted til halftime, 2am, but H stayed the whole time with the 7 other people who were watching, and I'm pretty sure most of them did not know the rules or anything.
So today we walked around and saw the city, went to the Chocolate museum and had some waffles. Belgian waffles are pretty much the best thing I've ever eaten. We had a few in Brussels as well. Yum.
So I think that's all for now. Off to Amsterdam tomorrow.
Later.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Brussels
Hello fellow humans,
Maggie here. We've had a bit of trouble getting on a computer lately, and the last time we did we forgot to update the blog, so sorry about the delay. We have since left Barcelona, spent a day and a half in Marseilles, France and today is our last day in Brussels. Also, Belgium is a bit behind the times technologically, their cell phone networks are not so good, so Heather's phone does not get emails here, only phone calls work.
So Marseilles was a bit sketch, but there were also some really nice areas. It was quite dirty in most of the city. But we did walk up a bunch of hills and got to the top near a really nice church which had a pretty gnarly view of the city. We mostly stopped there to break up the train ride from Barcelona to Belgium though. Barcelona to Marseilles took 7 hours, after a bit of a mix up with going to the wrong train station and missing our original train... but we figured out a different route to get there and it was fine. Then another 4 and a half hours or so to get to Belgium from Marseilles.
Brussels has been really awesome. We are couch surfing here, which means we found someone who lives here and was willing to let us stay at her place for free, on couchsurfing.org. So we're staying at Anna's apartment, and she's really cool. She's drawn maps for us and told us good places to go, helped us find an English bookstore, because Heather really needed another book to read. We both finished our books pretty early on which was kind of annoying because there is a lot of down time, especially on trains. I bought "Dracula" in Barcelona so I'm good for a while. And now she has a new book to read as well. So today Anna went out with us and showed us some cool places in the city. She is 32, from Poland originally but has been living in Brussels for a few years. She works for the EU. This is the only place we're couchsurfing.
Brussels is an interesting city, there's a French and a Dutch area, and the two groups don't really like each other. Today Anna took us to some Dutch areas which were cool to see.
So tomorrow we're headed to Bruges for two days, and then on to Amsterdam for two more, then from there to Ireland for two weeks. And after that Italy for a week and a half and then we're headed home. So I guess we're about half way done. Gnarly.
That's all for now.
Peace.
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