Holland: Amsterday And Leiden July 2, 2010
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- Image by chris181m via Flickr
On Wednesday we said our goodbyes to our hosts and got on an over night bus to Amsterdam via London. That was a poor decision. I figured I could sleep on the bus since I have no trouble sleeping in cars, but I now stand corrected. There was no sleeping until the final hour before we arrived, which made us even more groggy than before.
So after we got to the hotel and realized that our room was not ready for us since check-in time starts at 2PM and it was currently 7 AM, we left our bags at the hotel and went to the city center for some breakfast (small selection of places are open at that hour in Amsterdam) and anything to kill some time (I think we both really wanted a nap more than anything). Amsterdam collectively is not a morning person, if you catch my drift. Needless to say time crept by that morning.
So after getting checked in and having possibly the best nap of our lives, we went back to the city center for some people watching. Amsterdam seems to lack benches in most of the city, but there are many planters that work just as well and with lovely views of the canals. The entire city was decorated with orange banners and balloons for the World Cup (soccer), which the Netherlands won today, in case you were wondering. At one place that we went to there was a group of street performers that were break dancing. It was amazing!
- Image by chris181m via Flickr
Yesterday there was a heat wave of some sort that has continued on today as well. I suppose we should be used to much hotter (considering it’s about 90F around noon) but there are very few places that have air conditioning. So we sit and sweat where ever we go.
So today we packed up and headed to Leiden where Minas picked us up and introduced us to his family and to the duck that choose to turn their garden into her nursery. The eggs hatched some time yesterday, so the baby chicks were so tiny and fluffy. So we had to catch them so his children could hold them. Then the mother duck decided that it was time to go to the canal right behind Minas’ garden, so then the chicks got all confused and stuck on the wrong side of the fence (so we helped them get out to the water).
Then he took us for the Greek food that was delicious for dinner. After eating way too much we went for a walk around Leiden’s city center. This city is lovely! There were tons of people celebrating their soccer victory in the streets with loud music and a lot of drinking. Many people in their cars (or even the city buses) honked repeatedly and people in their gardens set off fire works and blew horns. I suppose we shall see what Leiden really looks like tomorrow after the clean up crew does their job.
As for the Work away thing any the remaining time we have before we meet with my mother in Ireland, we have a plane in Normandy to work at that is owned by a friends of one our previous hosts. We shall see!
Work And Play The Time Away June 28, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Bath , 1 comment so farThe time has seemed to fly by here in Bath. The other day we spent all day “working” (answering the phone/ looking after guests). You know, watching movies, eating Ice Cream, and playing cards with their youngest daughter. Claudia, their youngest, is such a joy to play cards with since whenever she is bluffing or cheating she bursts into uncontrollable laughter(which is contagious by the way). We have learned some new card games such as 3 Card Brag. Who would have known work could be this not workie.
One of their cats, Pepper, is expecting and is very round and whiny (maybe she’ll produce little Peppers before we leave). Also, the cat that was hit by the car is doing much better and is constantly meowing for attention.
- Image via Wikipedia
We accompanied the family to Oxford, where their oldest daughter attended college. They went there for her graduation; we tagged along to see the really old city. It was quite interesting considering that a lot of the buildings look like churches, but they are actually all schools. It looks as though academics has taken over this Georgian city! We wandered around and found a nice grassy area in the gardens of Christ Church.
The church actually looks more like a college than most of the colleges do. It is really old and very well kept. This church is famous for having employed both the author of Alice In Wonderland, Charles Dodgson, and Alice Lyndell’s father (although it is a bit ironic that a famous Pedophile would be employed by a church and they would advertise it with a sign in their garden).
We’ve had a great time in Bath with our host family and have learned many things “British”. Unfortunately we’re moving on to the Netherlands on Wednesday where we’ll stay with Minas, a friend of Chris’ father after making a stop in Amsterdam. We’re going to miss our new friends, but moving on is good since it means new places and new people! Exciting!
Fantastic Day In Venice April 9, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Venice , add a commentWe purchased the 12 hour mobile pass today and it turned out quite well. The pass covers all forms of public transportation(so regular buses too!). We took the water bus to the Murano and Lido islands. The water bus was also useful as a cheap boat ride after sun set. It was very nice and a lot cheaper than a water taxi.
It was exciting, we got to see how they make Murano glass. All of the glass is blown on this island only because of the risk of fire, so there are quite a few factories to visit. There is a lot of shopping on the island too, and it is a good idea to shop there if you are in the market for a large piece of murano glass for a reasonable price. We looked in the shops and saw many items that showed off their maker’s talent.
Lido Island allows road vehicles, unlike Venice or Murano. We decided to walk to the free beach on the opposite side of the island (
we forgot our bathing suites in the hotel). We walked up the beach and looked at the shells (very high shell to sand ratio) for a good hour or two before using a short cut back to the road. When we got the road, we realized that we were walking on a military base (pretty vacant one at that).
Later, we watched the bag sellers scatter and set up shop with the passing of the police (buying a counterfeit product is a felony/up to 10,000 euro fine in Italy, so I only imagine what the punishment is for selling them). 
We did some shopping today (mostly looking around), played with the masks, and bought ourselves a mask each. Haggling is the way to go when shopping around Venice; we got one down to 15 and settled.
Wondering Around Milan April 8, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Milano , 1 comment so farOur full day in Milan was filled with tram rides and walking aimlessly. It was nice though since there is a lot of old architecture and other interesting (expensive looking too) things to see.
We have learned two things about Milan; it is a business city and you really only need one full day to see the city. This is primarily because everything tourists want to see is clumped in one area basically. There is the Galleria (which has Louise Vutton and many other expensive stores all inside a covered outdoor mall), the Domo (cathedral), the theater, and a couple of squares with sculptures in them.
The cathedral was quite possibly better than the N
otre Dome in Paris. We loved every minute of it and took just a couple of pictures since they don’t like people photographing the cathedral.
We also learned not to be polite to the people with the bracelets walking around the square. One of them threw a bracelet onto Chris’ arm while we were walking by and he tried to give it back and the man said its free; he is trying to raise money to sent to Africa for supplies. So Chris said thank you and the man gave one to me and started to demand ten euros for both bracelets. We told him we don’t have the money and please take them back, but he kept demanding. So we walked away. I feel almost bad for the other hand full of swindlers that approached us afterward, considering the response they got was a firm, almost t
hreatening, NO.
For dinner we had a traditional meal of tortellini stuffed with meat in a creme sauce with ham. It was delicious and for a reasonable price!
Strasbourg: Closed Until Monday March 28, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Strasbourg , 1 comment so farYesterday we went to the EU building and were disappointed for it is closed on the weekend. However the outside of the building is very interesting. We’re going to try going there on Monday. Apparently you can listen in to the meetings and there are a lot of translators, so understanding the language shouldn’t be too difficult.
Also, we went out to lunch and I ordered an “American”, whi
ch we all thought was a regular burger with a side of fries and Ketchup. The burger came on a Baguette with the fries on top and a hint of Ketchup. Chris and Austin ordered “The Madam” which is a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with an sunny-side up egg on top. Interesting menu options.
We were coming back from the EU building and our tram was stopped by a very long parade of handicapped people. I ha
ve never seen that many blind people together in one place before!Today we learned that the EU is not the only thing that is closed on the weekends. All things worth getting a closer look are closed until Monday! That mixed with the soggy weather means that we’ll probably stay inside today. So, for tomorrow we are planning to go to the cathedral (apparently closed to tourists on Sunday).
Glasgow: Tour By Bus March 13, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Glasgow , 2commentsWe ended up taking the Glasgow City Bus tour for nine 
pounds each for two days of hop-on hop-off enjoyment. It’s an hour or so tour that we turned into a five hours.
We hopped off at The People’s Palace which is a museum that shows life in Glasgow from people of all ages and places in society through the history of Glasgow.
There was a lot of paraphernalia from as far back as the 1800′s. We learned a lot of nifty facts such as: Glasgow was a very wealthy city in the 1800′s but for roughly 60 years starting in1939, there was a depression!
It’s also the home of the Winter Gardens (a really fancy green house). The plants are very common to Houston; Sago Palms, Palm Trees, Hibis
cus, and many others that for the average person who is from areas closer to the equator, are not very exciting. It was nice, however, to have lunch in the gardens.We also walked to a candy shoppe and a open-air market. There were many interesting antiques such as a baby buggy(the old ones that are much more like bassinets on wheels), cameras, and books. It’s open only on the weekends so maybe we’ll go back tomorrow and see if there are any small something-or-others we may
like.
Glasgow: The Living And The Dead March 12, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Glasgow , add a commentWe have returned to Glasgow for five days before we move on to Paris, France. Today we wondered around the other side of the bus station which we didn’t do before because of the side ways snow (always in the face for some reason). But today was beautiful, partly cloudy, and was relatively warm in the sun, so we stayed outside more.
The Necropolis is chalk-full of people both dead and alive. Most of the tombs and graves are home to wealthy merchants from the 1800′s. However, it is
not treated as a grave yard; people jog there, tours are conducted there regularly, and one couple was having a picnic on a bench. It really is city of its own.
We went to the Merchant’s Square which is apparently where wealthy people live and a lot of shopping is done. It looks as though it is brilliant at night because all the trees are wrapped in lights and in one part the entire outside area has a canopy of Christmas lights. It is the perfect place to people watch, so we grabbed a cup of coffee and sat in the outside seating for about an hour playing Games such as “Spot The Tourist” and “Guess The Profession”.
We also went to two museums in that area and learned that all museums in Glasgow are free of charge (they do however love donations).
The first was St.Mungo which is focuses on teaching people about religions from around the world. It was gorgeous and it touched on many religions, from birth to death, explaining many unique ways of life.
The other in located in The Merchant’s Square and is the GoMa. It’s all interpretive and abstracts art(things that make you scratch your head and question it being art). An entire floor of the museum is under renovation, so we did not get the whole experience of the place.
Saturday in Kyleakin March 7, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , 1 comment so farThe Isle of Skye is invaded on Saturday nights by 2 different tour groups so the main pub, Saucy Mary’s, gets flooded with people, islanders, main-landers, and Americans.
With the infusion of about 40 Americans, the population of Kyleakin almost hit 200! Of course, after you include the people driving up to 40 miles to be here on Saturday night, you get well over 200 people in the town.
Saucy Mary’s is the place to be on Saturday nights for miles, there’s live music, a festive atmosphere, and happy patrons! Around 10 PM staff at some local attraction came in dressed up as pirates and faeries.
This photo was one of the last clear shots we could get as the dance floor quickly filled up to the guy playing live music on his guitar, primarily great oldies, such gems as ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ or ‘Stuck in the Middle’.
Most of the people who got off of the tour buses were Americans studying at the University of London who had been given the opportunity to tour Scotland. We found a table of people playing cards and convinced them to try to learn Shithead; about 2 hours later we were still playing despite being the front row for the music (we were also the most vocal fans!).
Portree, Isle of Skye March 6, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , add a comment
After breakfast this morning, we decided to walk down the beach in front of Kyleakin (pronounced Kyle-a-kin, hard a), and found a lot of rocks that were great for skipping so we spent our time waiting for the bus to Portree skipping rocks, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 skips!
We spent our day today in Portree, the largest town on the Isle of Skye. While the town itself was a wee bit bigger than Kyleakin, it was still small and sleepy.
We had lunch around noon, talked to one of the guys who lives here who was working the bar, and learned that the language we want to learn, Scottich Gaelic (pronounced Ga-lik, soft a), is supposedly the third hardest language to learn after Chinese Mandarin and Japanese.
The bartender at the place we had lunch loves to hike and had several pictures he showed us including one of where he found a seal, his friend and he wouldn’t have seen the seal except that it barked at them while they were walking by, causing them both to jump. They managed to corner it a bit to get a couple of pictures; we thought about trying to find a seal but apparently they are really well camouflaged in the rocks.
While in Portree, we stopped in what is apparently the only ice-cream parlour on the island, their banana ice-cream was fantastic, and was what I ate, while Tiff had their toffee, also good but not as delicious as yesterday.
The beach around Portree wasn’t great looking right near the shore but once you look a bit father away, the water was gorgeous and had a breathtaking backdrop of mountains. All-in-all, today was a fun day but a slow and relaxed one as well.
Glasgow:The Perfect Start February 25, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Glasgow , add a commentGlasgow seems to be a run of the mill UK city, but as it turns out, it is the perfect place to begin a trip.
The people are very friendly and helpful- a plus since we don’t really know the city or what to do.The receptionist at our hostel is happy to give us directions and suggestions( along with a smile).
The food is comparatively cheap. We ate lunch for nearly 2 pound each and dinner for 2.50 pound each. And the hostel we’re in provides free a traditional, hot scottish breakfast.
The museums are usually free and open to the public all day. which is perfect for a traveler on a budget when its sleeting. The two we went to are the Transportation museum and the Kelvingrove art gallery and museum. They are actually very nifty and interesting for free atteractions. Also, a cab driver tipped us off to the Macintosh school giving free tours if you tell them you’re visiting.
