Friday 30 March 2012

Vienna was a pretty chill place. We stayed in a beautiful hotel! It was suuuch a nice change, we've been really lucky with our hotels but this one was fantastic. The night we got there we went for a swim and were very pleased when we saw the pool. It was surrounded by palm trees and lusicous green plants. We could have spent the entire night there if it wasn't for the awkward couple acting as if they were the only ones there.. luckily the trees blocked our view of them, but it was still wayyy weird. We also went to a restaurant across the road from the restaurant for diner that night and were surprised to find that you could smoke inside. Europe is a bit behind on the whole no smoking thing, but most countries have banned it inside. We later found out that Germany and some of the countries surrounding it have been tentative to establish smoking laws because Hitler was extremely against cigarettes and they do not want to be seen as following his path. We spent out day in Austria by going on a nice walking tour and then getting some world famous apple struddel paired with a great coffee. After our snack we made our way to an amusement park which was very similar to the ex. Kirsten went on this crazy ride that had a huge beam that rotated like a ferris wheel but was way faster and had two seats on either end, as the the beam span the seats around and up and down, the seats were also doing theyre own flips. She screamed the whole time and had a few euros fly out of her pockets to who knows where, but absolutely loved it!! When we'd had enough of the rides we grabbed a snitchel burger and headed for the schnapps (or shwerrps as some people call it) museum to meet up with the rest of our tour group. When we walked into the museum/ factory it felt like walking into another century.. or decade or something. Everything was extremely old fashionned and most of it had not been replaced since that factory was made, it was really cool because it was so original. The oldest, happiest (probably drunkest) man showed us how they made schnapps and told us which ones had which percentages and told us what to mix with them. We then followed him upstairs where we got to taste test as many as we wanted, (in other words, we all did a TON of shots) then spent a TON of money in the gift shop. We are both still very happy about our purchases however, so the alchohol didnt get to us too much. We each bought a bottle of Red Rocket schnapps (which is 46%) and we bought a bottle of absince together (the good stuff, which is 60%). Be ready for it when we get home guys!! Kirsten also bought a shirt saying "they told me I had a good time"... very appropriate :) After the best museum so far we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the german beer hall the next day and Kirsten's birthday. The next morning we loaded everything back onto the bus once more and were off to Munich!

Munich was much like Florence, short lived but great! We got to our hotel and left almost immediately to head into town (most of our hotels were on the outskirts of town, as they are much cheaper that way). We bought a couple of souvenirs and then made our way to the Hofprahaus, an original German beer hall. As soon as we walked in we knew it was going to be a good time, the place was packed and filled with noise and the smell of beer! There was a band playing german songs and wearing authentic german clothing (short leather shorts, suspenders and all). We grabbed a bench right in front of them and ordered our first round of one litre beers (or for some of us, half lemonade/half beer.... which tasted exactly like your deliscous drink Dave, but was a lot less strong :P).. anyways they were without a doubt the biggest beers we'd ever drank! We were only there for about half an hour before a "lovely" 80 year old man who had been asking all the young ladies to dance came up and asked Kirsten to dance. She of course agreed, who could say no to such a sweet old man, right? Well as most of the blonde girls on contiki found out Max was more of a drunk mess than a sweet old man. Everyone had a great laugh watching her face turn bright red as she awkwardly danced with him. Attack of the blondes, take one. After what felt like ages to her the song finally ended and she took her seat again, only to be harassed by a random Russian man 15 minutes later. Eventually one of the guys called the waiter over who removed him from our table and we were happy again, until we recieved our dinner.. Apparently the Hofprahaus does everything super size, because our food was just as big as the beer. We all had either schnitzel as big as a regular sized dinner plate, a pork nuckle the size of 2 fists, or a half chicken the same size. Everyone put in a great effort trying to eat it all, but no one even came close. By the time our we were finished eating everyone was a few beers in and having a great time! We were making some new friends with another contiki group and a random bunch of spaniards when our tour group was asked to leave. (apparently they didnt like us walking on the tables or the stupid amount of glasses we had broke.. really though, what do you expect when you serve litres of beer!?) Half the group decided to call it a night, but a few stayed out with Kirsten to celebrate her birthday with her (which although all 40 of them had sang to her at the beer hall, was at midnight). We made our way to a little pub down the road just in time to grab a drink for her birthday. A while later we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel in time to get a few hours of sleep before hopping on the bus again the next day.

We can safely say Munich kicked Kirsten's butt, and there was only more fun to come in Prague.

We arrived in Prague in one piece (barely) and had a couple hours to regain our strength before the pub crawl that night.


Contiki tour number one is now finished and we finally have time to write to you guys. We are currently in Amsterdam, but we'll start off by telling you about Venice. Venice is cool. We had to take a boat to get there, the water you travel through is pretty gross, there's tons of litter. We passed so many boats on the way too: cruise ships, motor boats and garbage boats. Once you get off the boat you are instantly attacked by pigeons. Our tour guide told us that they have ton and tons of them because the tourists come and feed them, apparently it's a cool thing to do. We personally think that pigeons smell really bad, are incredibly dirty and that there are way too many here. They are also kind of scary when there are lots (or as the aussies say: loads) so we try to stay away from them as much as possible.. which is not that easy of a task. There are flocks of pigeons everywhere in Europe, but there is a huge overload in Venice. Usually when there are heaps and heaps (another aussie word) of them in one place there is someone standing in the middle of them, with pigeons on their shoudlers, arms and hands... ssssooooo gross.
On a different note, Venice is a pretty city but there isn't lots to do. We were told that in the summer, there are so many tourists that you can barely walk around the city. The biggest attraction of Venice is that it is built on a marsh, it was built by some Italians a long long time ago as a refuge. They used tree trunks and buried the base of them deep below the water, then they did a lot of other things and eventually they had a city. Due to the fact that Venice is an island everything there is imported by boat, this makes it a really expensive place to live in. Venice is very old fashionned, all imporeted goods are delivered by men holding carriages on their backs or on their bikes. The streets are so small that it would be hard to transport many things in any other way.
Another thing Venice is known for is it's glass blowing trade. It takes an apprentice about 15 years to learn how to blow glass. It is a very dificult trade to get into, but an incredible one; glass blowing has been passed down from one Venetian to another for centuries. We got the chance to see a glass blowing demenstration, and its was amazing. In the time it would take us to make a peanut butter and jam sandwhich the man had made a vase. After the demonstration we got the chance to check out some of their incredible work, most of which was layered with a special coating which made the glass almost unbreakable. We then headed off souvenir shopping and found many beautiful masks along the way. When the masks were first made they were worn by royalty so they could gamble and have relations with prostitutes without being seen. One thing we found interesting was that prostitution was not illegal but that gambling was. Now adays, the masks are used for carnival celebrations and are e xtremely extravagant. The one last thing we had to do in Venice before leaving was go on a gondala of course. Unlike in the movies, the men paddling were not allowed to sing, however they did wear stripped shirts and hats! The ride was really nice and we shared a couple bottles a champagne with the rest of our boat. We'd say it was the best part of Venice! (obviously) After an amazing italian supper full of assorted pastas, cold cuts, soup, vegetables, seafood, gelati, wine of course and what felt like an endless amount of courses we were back on the boat and off. Next stop: Vienna Austria.

Wednesday 21 March 2012

The past few days have been crazy!! .. once again. We are now on our way to Vienna, Austria, home of The Sound of Music, Redbull, nazis and schnapps.. quite the combination. Since we last wrote we've been to nice, monte carlo, piza, florence, rome vatican and venice.

Nice (pronounced neece) was a nice place.. stupid pun i know but thats really the best way to descrribe it. It was little and quiet and had beautiful beaches. There was decent shopping but we were there on a sunday so we didnt get to experience. (in case we havent already mentionned this, all of europe shuts down on sundays, soooo annoying!) We spent our day there by sleeping in, going for a couple of walks and taking a ride on the ferris wheel at the fair which was there at the same time as us. That evening however we drove to Monte Carlo to see the casino! That was cool, its exactly like in James Bonde; there were bentleys, mercedes and ferarris everywhere. Kirsten lost 10 euros on the roulette and then 5 in the vlts, but taught two people how to play (which she was very proud of, as one girl who she was showing won 15$!!) Allison lost 10 in the vlts but had fun learning how to play.. until half way through when she just started picking random things so she could finish more quickly. She wanted to cash out at 5 but was told shed probably be laughed at considering there were pepole all around them blowing thousands of dollars like it was nothing. Eventually we drove back to Nice and spent the night in before our terribly long drive to italy the next day.

Our first impression of Italy was Piza... which was not a very good one. To completely honest Piza is a dump and the leaning tower is nothing amazing. It was nice to say we'd seen it, but both of us decided along with most of our group that we'd never go back again. It was crowded and dirty and the italian guys were.. not the most polite. We spent about an hour there before getting back onto the bus the finish our journey to florence.

Once again we lucked our with our hotel room, managing to snag a room with a balconny, a double and a queen size bed! We dumped our bags, got changed and were off to a traditional tuscan dinner! The dinner was very italian, there was an old man singing and playing the piano and the biggest bottles of wine we'd ever seen on the table. We started with brushetta, an olive spread and a bunch of cold cuts (Dad, Spence and Mac: salami is EVERYWHERE there). We then had some type of pasta followed by more pasta and then roast chicken,potatoes and vegetables. After that we had salad and then gelati, which hardly anyone ate as we were all stuffed and drunk. We went from the restaurant to this club called space electronic disco, one of the biggest bars in Florence. It was massive and there were lights everywhere and tons of people even though it was a monday. We had a great night there and then headed back to the hotel at what we thought was give 520 (our friend's watch was on backwards and there were no numbers on it).We realised afterwards it was luckily onlt 120. The next morning we got up waaay to early and headed to this beautiful hilltop in florence the get a group photo taken by a proffessional photographer. After that we had the afternoon to do what we wanted in florence. We went to an old florentine leather shop to learn how they make leather goods and how to tell real from fake. Kirsten volunteered for the demonstration and got to stamp the 24carrot gold finish onto the leather. After the demo we headed off the go shopping. Allison found a really cute shirt that Kirsten loved so much she bought in another colour. (of course, just cuz we're in europe doesnt mean we cant still do the same stupid things) After our short visit in Florence we got back on the coach around 2 and headed to rome.

Rome was aaaamazing! The architecture and the history is unbelievable. Once upon a time the romans basically had control over all of europe and they were incredibly rich, the remains of their empire are mostly still there today (ancient rome). We drove past all the big sites when we arrived and then went on an hour long walking tour passing the colleseum, pantheon, roman forum and many other important buildings. On the wall of the forum there were 4 maps, the first showing what europe was like before the roman emprie and the last showing the territory which the romas occupied before the 2nd world war. We were told there used to be a fith map which showed what they would have if they joined hitler, but it was removed after the nazis were defeated in WWII. Our next day was completely free so we headed to the colleseum with a few other members of our tour group where we purchased a guided tour through the colleseum, palletine hills and forum. The begginning of the tour started off well, our tour guide spoke decent english and she told us the legend of how rome became... it went south soon after though when she started talking about dates and small details no one cared about. We suffered through it for a while so we could see the inside of the colleseum but ended up leaving an hour early deciding it was worse to waste our time then our money. We grabbed some pizza, pasta and wine for lunch and then met up with the group to get into the forum. Again we left before the tour was finished as our guide told the exact same story as the first one. A long long time ago the God Mars transformed himself into a beautiful man and impregnated one of the sacred virgins. She gave birth to twins and named the romelus and remius. Because she had comitted a terrible crime as her body was holy, she was buried alive and her babies were put into a basket in the river and sent to find their own destiny. A shewolf (which is now the symbol of rome) found them and raised them, then when they became older they started to build civilization on the palatine hill. Romelus killed remius for some reason (we zoned out during this part) and thats why the city was called Rome. This is only a legend but we later found out that shewolf and prostitute mean the same thing in latin, so no one knows whether it was a shewolf or a prostitute that raised them. That night we went out to a bar that was 20euros unlimited drinks and had.. a really fun time. ... and an even better morning. After that Rome was over and we were on to Venice! (which by now was like 5 days ago, sorry for the delay guys!)

Stories about Venice, Vienna, Munich and Prague to come soon :)

Sunday 11 March 2012

Were on the bus on our way to Nice. The past couple of days have been crazy. We left Lucern to go stay in an old castle, which was in the middle of nowhere in France. Our room was massive it had Four beds. Everyone on the tour has been complaining about how there rooms are so tiny, but Kirst and myself have been exteremly lucky. We some how alway seem to get the nicest room. The castle was so cool, in summer time we can only imagine what the courtyard and pool area would look it. Inside the castle there was men in armour, old painting and the hallways had green lights like sleeping beauty. That night out entire group stayed in, and we played battle of the sexes. We split up and we made question that we thought the men or women wont be able to answer. Our question ranged from who was the first female pilot to questions about the Bachelorette. The guys questions ranged from what was on magnum IP licence plate to sports questions. They thought they could sneak one past us asking a question about hockey, it took allison 3 seconds to come up with the correct answer and after the game was over corrected them on dates of when it happened. Kirst knew that answer to who has the fastest train system in the world. We also knew the 2 other answers to the questions our team got right. The girl team ended up winning 8 bottles of wine and what we thought was going to be a relaxing night turned out not to be. We left early the next morning for Barcelonia, which is by far our favorite place we've been to yet.

Barcelona.. to say the least, the culture is amazing!! The beaches, mountains, architecture, street artists, souvenir shops and restaurants are all great. Knowing that we were definetley coming back Allison and I decided to take our day there easy and just soak up the sun. Instead of running around the city all day trying to see everything we walked down a street called Las Ramblas and then went to the beach. Las Ramblas is a street which runs down the center of Barcelona and is always packed with people eating, drinking or shopping. In the morning we checked out a bunch of its souvenir shops and had some amazing coffee. We eventually made our way down the street and to the christoper columbus monument, from there we had the most amazing view! I literrally stood there and took a picture of everything around me. On one side was the monument, on another was mountains, on another was the mediteranian see and the other side was the parliament buildings. We walked toward the water and spent some time on the boardwalk checking out the boats then found the beach. It was gorgeous, not quite warm enough to go swimming.. but as Allison had only ever been to BC seeing this kind of beach was really cool for her. I also loved it so we sat down there with a couple of people from our tour and before we new it, over an hour had gone by. We started working our way back up the street and found even more cool things, we decided that it was the kind of thing you had to do mulitple times before you got the full experience and decided we'd definately be back there. At about 230 we stopped at a patio restaurant for lunch (a very spanish thing to do) and I had spaghetti with seafood, Allison had tortellini... of course. We then continued walking, attempting to find a store that would sell a hair straightener, but failed. We got back on the bus and headed for the hotel to freshen up for the evening ahead.

Once again, we were incredibly lucky with our room! We had a huge bathroom and a huge balcony, our room even had a fridge. I had a nap on the lounge chair on the balcony and Allison skyped for a couple hours. While the rest of the group went to see a flamenco show we went out for a 9pm dinner and... then enjoyed a subway ride to the bar at which we were meeting up with everyone. As we had found out the night before, Spanish people have their own lifestyle and own time schedule. Lunch is long and late, dinner is small and late and most bars dont open till midnight, but dont even start to get busy until 130. Also, the spanish are alchoholics, they dont measure mixed drinks, they free pour. To make matters more interesting, they dont free pour about a shot, they fill up half the glass with booze and then top it off with mix. We learned quickly that one drink in Barcelona is not the same as one drink in Canada. After a great night out, we took a taxi back to the hotel and had a nice nap before breakfast. We then threw our remaining possesions into our bags and headed for the coach.

Now here we are, on our way to Nice. Tomorrow night we are going to the Monte Carlo Casino. Can't wait!!


Enjoy the snow Winnipeg :)

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Hi friends. We're in Switzerland right now, we just left a town called Lucerne, or Luzern as they say it. Its known for its cheese, chocoloate, watches and knifes. Its a really cute little place with a population of 30thousand or something like that. Kirsten thought it was a nice change after being in Paris and London but Allison likes her big cities. We arrived after a FULL day on the bus, in which we were all sooo hung over from moulin rouge.. still worth it though. We were both lucky enough to sleep most of the way there and when we got to our hotel we spent the night writing emails and uploading pictures. As some of you may know we only had wifi in the bottom floor so it was impossible to do anything online! I sat in the lobby and skyped for a bit but its sucks cuz everyone can hear you.

We started the next day by walking to this mountain called mount pilatus, legend has it that this was the mountain that the man who condemmed Jesus to death found peace in after he passed away, and his soul was guarded by a dragon. For hundreds of years no one was allowed to go up the mountain because of the dragon and the evil spirit. Eventually a priest went up to the moutain and realised it was a friendly dragon. Now people can ride up the mountain in a cable car and the dragon is a symbol of Lucerne, its everywhere. So up we rode for about half an hour, all the way to the top, wow was it ever high. It was awesome, but very similar to the rockies, just with no animals. All of the aussies on our tour absolutely loved it! Some of them had never seen snow before, and there was a lot of snow! One of them even stripped down and starting rolling around in it, it was hilarious! There was also a man playing one of those big long horns at the top... not sure what theyre called.

After the mountain we went on a little walking tour and saw some famous bridge, a bunch of swans and a lot of cute little buildings. We eventually split up as Kirsten went to the cheese fondu lunch and allison being lactose didnt. We parted ways for the first time then and spent the afternoon with other people in our group, wow was that weird! We both spent the afternoon shopping for chocolate and checking out the mountains. We also both manged to see this thing called Luzern's Lion which is a lion carved into a mountain, its really cool.

So now we're on the bus on our way back to france with something like another 6 hours to go. We will be sleeping in a legit castle tonight though, which we're both really excited for. Also we just passed a bunch of bison.. what!?!

Danka for reading,

Kirst and Allison

 The Tower at Night. So pretty!!!
---PS KIRSTEN'S FAMILY!!!
Theres this guy called Bryn that reminds us so much of Spence! At first it was just the fact that he spent the last 2 months in BC snowboarding that reminded me of him, but everyday I find something that reminds me of him more. Its so funny! He's tall and lanky, has curly hair just like my brother and their styles are exactly the same. I was looking at the swiss watches since theyre the best in the world and i saw a couple that i thought spence would really like.. i told allison spence would love this, he has a nixon watch just like it. Then two minutes later I was talking to Bryn and I saw that he was wearing a nixon watch. He also wears this toque which is exactly like the black or navy one my brother has too (except aussies dont call them toques, they call them beanies) To top it off im sitting on the coach now I just looked over and realised he was wearing oakleys and beats. Soo funny. You guys are identical Spence.

 The Bridge in paris with all the locks on it.


Tuesday 6 March 2012

We are now in Switzerland, the past 3 days have been a whirlwind! We started Paris by having dinner at our hotel. Kirsten was really excited for some french wine, bread or cheese! But was so dissapointed when they put a plate of turkey, tomato and french fries in front of her. After dinner we got back on the coach (bus) and headed off for our paris by night lights tour. It was absolutely gorgeous but Kirsten was so exhausted she was nodding on and off and finally woke up for good when we got to the eiffel tower. The tower was incredible, we got there just in time for the light show. We were there for about 2 and a half hours, got to go to the top and everything, but almost missed our bus going back to the hotel because the lines were sooo long. That night we were pooped from a full day of travel and took it easy in preperation for moulin rouge the next night.

Our day in Paris was amazing! We saw so many things! We started at l'arc de triomphe and climbed 200 and something stairs all the way to the top. It was without a doubt, the best view in Paris, just the right height to be able to see everything. We then moved on to the champs d'elysees which for you sheltered people is a street in Paris with big name stores all along it. It is a street for looking, not for shopping. We then took the metro to the opera house which is a beautiful building no longer being used for operas. We also saw la gallerie lafayette (a huge designer store in france, its basically 20bays) it was unfortanetely closed as it was a sunday. So we got back on the metro and headed to la cathedral notre dame. We arrived a few blocks away and started walking towards it but then had to make a detour as there was a beautiful foutain at the corner of the street. This aussie Ben we were with also spotted a little alley packed with people, cafes and stores. So we went down the alley and ended up finding amazing souvenir shops and great crepe places. Notre Dame was incredible as well, Kirsten was in awe and Allison took 5 thousand pictures.. (partly because Kirstens had died on the way) The cathedral was covered in stained glass, statues, and beautiful architecture. We really wanted to go up to the bell tower but we didnt have enough time. We walked back to the alley and bought some crepes for lunch, then went and sat down on this ledge and ate them. While sitting there Kirsten realised there was a huge group of peoples standing by the fountain with the serian flag. (she didnt know what flag it was, Ben did) and wondered allowed if it was a riot. Almost instantly a riot broke out and there was police everywhere, including a swat. We then realised why there had been a dozen police vans parked on the street beside le cathedrale. We booked away from there, as looked like shit was going down. We walked down a path beside the seine river all the way to the louvre passing many bridges, each with its own unique story. We passed a bridge called le pont royale which napolean had made with all of his friends faces sculpted onto it. After that we came across le pont solferino (we think anyways, there are way too many bridges to remember.) This was one of the coolest parts of Paris, walking up to it you think it has a golden fence, but when you get up close you see that it is a wire fence with thousands of padlocks on it. People come to this bridge when they are in love and write their name on a lock, then lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the river, symbolizing their love lasting forever. People say that Paris is a romantic city, and this was by far the most romantic thing I've ever seen. There was one we found that said "she said yes!" with the date he propsed. It was soooooo cute. We kept walking after the bridge and made a full circle to la champs d'elysees where we walked down a different street and found Marc Jacobs, Celine, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Versace, Chanel, Chloe, Jimmy Choo, Dolce and Gabana, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Fendi, Prada and Nina Riccy. It was getting late by that time so we got back on the metro, going waaay to far by accident and making our trip an extra half hour.

We got back to the hotel with 45 minutes before we had to leave for Moulin Rouge and ran around the room, trying to get ready for one of the nicest places we'd ever been too, exhausted and straightenerless. We did it, but made a pig sty out of our room. Walking into moulin is how we would picture an old school movie theatre, red velvet carpet, big goldenpicture frames, golden hand rails and a coat check with huge black canapes, and a black granite counter. The inside looked just like in the movie, red lights on the table, almost endless wine and table after table after table. Every aspect of this concert room was incredible, unfortantely we weren't allowed to take picture though. Dinner was great! We had smoked norwegian salmon and a vegetable/couscous mix with bread and of course lots and lots of wine and champagne. There was also a waiter who was so impressed that we spoke french and hit on allison everytime he was at the table (apparently he came to the bar afterwards) The costumes were so extravagant, with feathers, sequins, buttons, sheer, lace, beads etc. The girls wore thongs and beeds as shirts, not covering anything. This took a little away from the show for Kirsten, but she still loved it! Allison wasnt fased, she loved the costumes. Their were men in shiny skin tight clothes and a ring bearer who started all the madness. Throughout the show there were a few breaks from the dancing and singing were 2 amazing acrobats performed, along with a hilarious mime and fantastic juggler. The show had animals as well, from boas to other snakes to mini horses that pranced around with the dancers. The show lasted about two hours and we headed to a pub beside it called something irish... we were too intoxitaed to remember. It was an amazing night, our tour guides were dancing on the bar (pantless, to sexy and i know it) we were poppping bottles, doing train shots and birthday shots to our new bff bryn. While sitting outside the boys were being harassed by a rose salesman who insited that they buy a rose for the pretty ladies. Eventually they gave in and Allison recieved a bouqet of 3 roses. One of which we have no idea where it came from. Finally we decided to call it a night and took a taxi back to the hotel. That was interesting.. trying to tell the cab driver where to go when our hotel was too farth north to be on the map, and with a couple of drinks in us the thick france accent was impossible to understand! We eventually got there and managed to wake up with enough time to chuck everything into our suitcases and run to the bus.

That was Paris, we can't wait to go back.

ttfn

Monday 5 March 2012


This morning at 6am we dragged our butts out of bed and down a block to meet up with our contiki tour group. They weighed our bags, checked our passports and we were finally off on our tour!!!!
On the bus our tour director Mike told us what was in store for us, which only made us more excited. We also got to chat with some of the other people on the tour. It seems like half the people on our tour are from australia, theres also a few japanese people and one american. The american guy and us had fun comparing english with the aussies and found some interesting differences, mostly in pronounciation, so we cant really explain. Oragano and tomato were proncounced differently, but not potato. Cherios are also mini hotdogs. Apparently cilantro has a another too.
We travelled for about 2 hours until we reached the white cliffs of dover, which really are beautiful. They are on the coast of the english channel and we transferred onto a huge ferry as soon as we got there. It is beautiful standing on the deck on the ferry, but it is sooo foggy, we can hardly see anything. The boat has everything on it! There is a food court, a bar, a few game rooms, a duty free perfume/ makeup/alchohol store and many comfy chairs. Stella artois was 14pounds for a 24. Beer is actually cheaper than water.
Another hour or so on the ferry and then it'll be back on the bus and on our way to Paris!! We can't wait, eiffel tour and moulin rouge will both be conquered today. Kirsten is also unbelievably excited for the wine, cheese and dinner we are going to have.
Goodbye England, Bonjour France.

Friday 2 March 2012

So we made it to London, after two hours of sleep and 16 hours of travel. Only to get to one of the biggest airports in the world, London Heathrow. We first headed to customer were we happy to see a line of about 400 people. We waited and hour and a half in a line with a family and screaming baby ahead of us and toddlers that enjoyed hugging our legs and running around us....not the cute kind. The couple behind us no sense of person space and felt that it was necessary to aggressively tap our shoulders and yell AHH every time there was half a step room in front of us. He and his wife spoke no English and we felt like farm animals being corralled. Once we got to the desk the customs office asked us one simple question " why are you here today" glanced at our passport stamped it and we were on our way.

Next was getting our luggage and trying to get to our hostel. We decided that the underground subway was best option. So we headed to the subway got our ticket, stepped into the subway and we were off. After one transfer of subway lines and just over an hour we had come to our find stop Lamberth North. We climbed around 50 with 40 pound suitcases and our backpack and headed for daylight. We went stepped out onto the road we came to realise the intersection went 6 way and the streets were not so clearly marked. After 15 minutes of deliberations we decided to head down a street that looked promising turns but turned out we were in  the polar opposite direction. Round two began as we travelled for 20 minutes without success but closer to our final destination. We paused for a moment to gather ourselves to quickly see a man with suit coming out of the only street we had not gone down yet. We figured it looked promising and followed his trails (Karen your way does work!). We finally arrived to the London Eye. ( Alyse getting lost is what travelling is all about!!)

Our night at the hostel was interesting. Our room was on the top floor and had to climb another 25 stairs to get there. Once we entered we opened the door to see a clean small room packed with 5 sets of triple bunk beds. There wasn't enough room to leave our all 15 peoples belongings on the floor, we had to place them on our beds.We were only there for hald an hour before we battle the crazy street and the london subway once again.  That night we both slept with ear plugs but there was no curtan on the window and someone wanted the window open. (probably because it was 100 degrees in the room). Even with ear plugs we were still able to hear the 3 am argument between 2 drunk English boys who were arguing over a girl who had apparently slept with both of them. Allison was also in the middle, she learnt very fast that Kirsten moves a lot and very roughly in her sleep, also the guy sleeping under me did the same thing. I felt like i was trapped in moving box and i could stop myself from rocking.

This morning we packed our bags and got into our hotel where we meet up with our tour group. Our room is very small but this is paradise compared to last nights adventures in the dorm. We spent the entire day walking around central London observing the London Eye, Big Ben and Westminster's Abbey. More excitingly we took the double Decker bus around town, and ending up getting lost. Turns out we went 45 Minutes in the wrong direction from our hotel, we have located the H and M, the M.A.C store, top shop, mark and Spencer's and pizza hut. We have come conclusion that the buses are more exciting but the subways are easier to get around in.

Tomorrow we are off to Paris, but leave at 645 in the morning.
Night Night to you folks back home.
ps. London's was cooler.

THIS IS WHERE WE CAME OUT OF THE SUBWAY
THIS IS ONE VIEW OF THE 6 STREET INTERSECTION.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Sitting at TGIF in minneappolis.... a massive airport comparered to wpg but we're sure not even close to as big as heathrow, london. We were greeted by a lovely man named Gilmore, who asked us if we were happy to be here and if we were ready to party!? He told us about how happy he was and reminded us that his name is like happy gilmore!! To top it off our server was the oddest lady.. we dont even know how to explain her other than different... so nice though, guess we should get used to dealing with weird people.

Our flight here was quick and easy. We were on the smallest plane ever though, no way a fat guy could walk through the aisle. We did run into a minor complication however before leaving.... Kirsten realised she forgot her wallet on her desk at home. Gooood job. The good part about this is that she had everything important with her.. the only things in her wallet were a spare debit card, her drivers liscence and 100pounds. (Ps mom please remember to deposit that into my bank account)

While Kirsten was going into damage control mode, Allison made friends with a lovely american who had been to europe 5 times and was sooooo excited for us. We boarded the plan shortly after Kirsten figuring out everything and 3 hours later here we are.. with another 3 hours to kill before we reboard for london. Wallet shopping here we come!