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.

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.

Barthelona

Hello Loyal Subjects,

Tis your traveling Queen speaking.

Barcelona has been wonderful. The hostel is way better than Madrid. I srtuck up a convo with a fellow American on our first day. We'll call him "Jason." Jason literally got in a fight on the subway, and cautioned us not to mess with thugs. (By the way, Claire, Jason called them homeboys. So there!) So we locked up our valueables at the hostel. I only carried my phone, since it takes better pictures than my digital camera, go figure. And the hostel lock box is free!

We walked down La Rambla to the harbor on a beautiful sunny day. There was a huge farmers market on that street. I was able to get some pineapple and it was delicious. That night we went to an Irish Pub with Jason and Shane from Ireland to watch FC Barcelona. It was really fun except for all the smoke. I had a BLT and some Guinness. I had forgotten how good bacon is.

On the agenda for tomorrow...We are going to head out to the olympic village to check that out and go to bed early, early train tomorrow.

Zat is all for now!

Actividades en Madrid

Hola,

So many fun events in Madrid.

First we went to the Plaza de los Toros, the world's most important stage according to the Spanish. We went on a tour of their bull fighting arena. It was BA all the way. Our tour guide was talking super fast in spanish and then she would come over to Maggie and I and repeat what she just said in english, still talking super fast. It was also extremely cold that day and we were in the shade most of the time. We went into the staduim and took a look at everything from the cement seats. Unfortunately the circus was literally in town and there was a big top in the middle of the arena. We then went down to the bottom of the arena to the dirt, there was some room between the tent and the arena wall. We saw where a bull fighter hides from the bull if he/she must.

Some fun facts about Plaza de los Toros:
-24,000 people can fit in the staduim
-Bulls can actually jump the wall and land in the stands. Our tour guides said that is the reason she will not sit in the front rows
-The last bull fighter to die in the stadium was in the 1940s
-There has been one successful American bullfighter, John Fulton
-Many popular bands have played in the Staduim, U2, Rolling Stones, and Shakira just to name a few

That night we went out with some French guys we met at our hostel. I love talking to non-native English speakers. They were quite entertaining, Victor and Roman. We got some drinks and then went to a Tapas bar. It was a great night. And they insisted on paying! I told them when they are in So Cal I will repay the favor.

Maggie is still a bit sickly. She bought an anti-histimine to take care of the runny nose. Ewwww. I think she's gonna make it.

Next stop Barcelona!

Estamos en Madrid!

Hola,

Maggie here. We arrived in Madrid yesterday, took the metro from the airport into the city and found our hostel no problem for the first time. The hostel isn't that great but it's not terrible either. The window in our room doesn't close all the way and this morning I woke up with a sore throat and not feeling too great. It was really cold in the room, it snowed a little last night. We're trying to switch to a room with windows that close.

First thing we did this morning was stop by the train station and get tickets for Barcelona on Friday. There was a bit of confusion when reserving our tickets. We said Barcelona, but for some reason homeboy thought we wanted Paris. We didn't catch it at first but then realized that it shouldn't take 12 hours to get to Barcelona from Madrid. But we ended up with the right tickets so it's all good.

After the train station we went to the Museo del Prado and saw lots of gnarly art. It was nice.

Me gusta hablando espanol con las personas.

Paz.

More in Portugal

Today is our last day in Portugal. We went on a different sightseeing bus tour yesterday and saw the newer parts of the city. Some parts are really old, like the Barrio Alto which is where we are staying. There was a massive earthquake in Lisbon in 1755 which destroyed most of the city, only three neighborhoods survived, so the rest of the city had to be rebuilt. So yesterday on the bus we drove through a modern part of Lisbon which had a convention center, a sports stadium, and lots of big buildings.

Today we took a street car up a bunch of hills to check out Castelo de Sao Jorge, a gnarly castle overlooking the city, which was built in the 11th-12th centuries. There was also a museum near the castle which had artifacts from back in the day. It was a cool little area with beautiful views. There were lots of little cafes and houses all the way up to the front of the castle grounds. I thought it was crazy how people live pretty much right next to the castle.

After touring the castle we went to one of the cafes near it and I ordered a hamburger, which literally had ham on it. Kind of strange, but not bad. It had a regular beef patty too. I guess they like ham here in Portugal because there was a sign advertising "Melon and Portuguese ham" at the restaurant. Weird.

Switching to Heather...

So we are literally the only people in the hostel right now. It's very quiet at least. This place offers free internet usage! I wouldn't be surprised if this was the only hostel with free internet.

Ready to move on to Spain for the next week! Adios amigos!

Lisbon!

Hello all,

Today was our first full day in Lisbon, Portugal. We went on a sightseeing hop on hop off bus tour thingy. It took us around the city with a historical commentary. We saw some cool buildings and got out at the coast. We ate lunch at a little seafood cafe, for less than 9 euro, it was pretty good. We saw a bridge that connects Lisbon to another part of Portugal and it looks a lot like the Golden Gate Bridge, same colors, just not as tall. It's called the 25 de Abril Bridge if you want to look it up.

The city is really old and cool looking. Lots of tiny alleys. Our hostel is in alley and it was pretty hard to find yesterday. The breakfast is just cereal and toast, not too filling. Heather really wants "a nice breakfast sausage."

Also, there are a lot of pastry shops on the streets so we stopped in one on the way back today and I got a donut thingy and Heather got chocolate mousse, which was apparently heaven...

Fun fact of the day, our hostel is called Alface, which means lettuce in Portuguese. Pretty much everyone speaks enough English here for us to get by, which is nice.

That's all for now.

Peace out.

P.S. The commenting of our readers could use some improvement, haha, we're not sure if anyone is reading this.