Trevor and Amber
An ordinary couple with stereotypical "boring" jobs is ready for an adventure before life takes them captive and there is no escaping it.
We hope our blog helps you keep in touch with us and...

Getting ready to leave
Edmonton, Canada
The goal of this trip: to see the world with new eyes, explore, learn, be impacted and impact others.
Just two days until I leave for London and I think things are coming together. My Bag is almost packed and I have said goodbye to lots of friends. Thanks to everyone for all your trip tips and suggestions on what to see, do and where to stay it has been helpful already in putting my mind at ease to not worry that we will be bored (jk) I feel like I am in holiday mode akready and anxious to get on the plane.
It was nice to talk to Sandra (my cousin who lives in Spain) this morning. She has been a huge help by helping book everything to do in Spain and I am excited to actually meet her as I think the only time I have met her I was about 2 months old.
Well soon I will be writing this from across the world. Talk to you soon
Amber
written by  Trevor and Amber on April 26, 2009 from Edmonton, Canada
from the travel blog: Europe Trip

Day 1
Rocky Mountain House, Canada
With everyone already out at the campsite we headed out early and stopped at Tim Hortons on our way. We had a good drive and arrived just in time for the tail of end of breakfast. MMMM pancakes.
It was only 10 am but the weather was hot so we headed down to the lake with the air mattresses. We left the dogs tied up and Bethany watched from the shore with a good book while we tried fearlessly headed out to the middle of the lake.
Danger(name Aaron) was lurking and threatening to throw us all off our mattresses, some were successful in fighting him off, others not so much.
There was some good times like when Carrie Sam, Mike, Trevor, JoyDawn, and Jen stood on the floating dock and made waves for those of us on the mattresses, when Aaron and Andrew stacked 4 mattresses on top of each other and climbed on top, and when Aaron got JoyDawn off her air mattress and she lost her shirt in the water (ok that wasn't good for JoyDawn)
After swimming we headed back and relaxed in the campsite Carrie Sam and JoyDawn decided we needed a camp flag and Trevor's European underwear he was so proud of was the perfect solution. It started to rain so the boys set up a tarp for us to relax under and eat dinner. JoyDawn and Chandler made Taco Salad in a bag mmmm. After we dinner we played an awesome game where you put a nylon with a tennis ball in the end over your head and swing them around until you get your opponents nylon off. The pictures say it best.
After our game we were getting tired of the rain so we headed inside for a game where we learned some interesting facts about our friends (things cannot be shared).
Then it was off to bed so we could start our day with some hiking and caving!
written by  Trevor and Amber on August 1, 2009 from Rocky Mountain House, Canada
from the travel blog: Nordegg

Nordegg Camping Trip
Rocky Mountain House, Canada
With everyone already out at the campsite we headed out early and stopped at Tim Hortons on our way. We had a good drive and arrived just in time for the tail of end of breakfast. MMMM pancakes.
It was only 10 am but the weather was hot so we headed down to the lake with the air mattresses. We left the dogs tied up and Beth watched from the shore with a good book while we tried fearlessly headed out to the middle of the lake.
Danger(name Aaron) was lurking and threatening to throw us all off our mattresses, some were successful in fighting him off, others not so much.
There was some good times like when Carrie Sam, Mike, Trevor, JoyDawn, and Jen stood on the floating dock and made waves for those of us on the mattresses, when Aaron and Andrew stacked 4 mattresses on top of each other and climbed on top, and when Aaron got JoyDawn off her air mattress and she lost her shirt in the water (ok that wasn't good for JoyDawn)
After swimming we headed back and relaxed in the campsite Carrie Sam and JoyDawn decided we needed a camp flag and Trevor's European underwear he was so proud of was the perfect solution. It started to rain so the boys set up a tarp for us to relax under and eat dinner. JoyDawn and Chandler made Taco Salad in a bag mmmm. After we dinner we played an awesome game where you put a nylon with a tennis ball in the end over your head and swing them around until you get your opponents nylon off. The pictures say it best.
After our game we were getting tired of the rain so we headed inside for a game where we learned some interesting facts about our friends (things cannot be shared).
Then it was off to bed so we could start our day with some hiking and caving!
written by  Trevor and Amber on August 1, 2009 from Rocky Mountain House, Canada
from the travel blog: Nordegg

Trevor Arrives in London
London, United Kingdom
What a day my first was in London.
Arrived around noon (London time) after sleepin on the Red eye flight for only about 2 or 3 hours. Did nothing of particular importance. Ate some fish and chips, saw the tower of London, saw what we thought was he London bridge (but it was actually just the tower bridge ... oops) and finally checked out the picadilly circus (not a real circus).
I got to ride the tubes a lot the first day, so when amber and marlene left to go to their hostel, I thought I would have no problems getting to matt's flat. That was until I couldn't get to the starting station in matt's directions from where I was,, that line was closed for maintence, so I bypassed by jumping on two other trains, only to discover that I needed to take the alternate bus (many thanks to random stranger #1 for getting me to that bus). We then arrive at stop #2 and since the previous tube line was closed, I thought I needed to bus it (not knowing that there was a seperate train line). Anyway I'm on the bus for a long time waiting for my stop (thanks to random stranger #2), informed me that the bus didn't stop where I was wanting to go, but he got me off at the closes place and walked a good 5 minutes with me before sending me on my way with directions. I good 15 minute walk later I get to the train station (I got to see a really nice church along the way). So I start following matt's directions to his flat, so I wander for 10 minutes or so heading in very direction. Clueless and confused and random stranger #3 comes along walking his dog. He gets me right to the front door. Finally safe and sound. Many thanks to the many strangers. This 2 hour ordeal should have only taken 20 minutes, but this way i got to see a lot of London, while wondering if i was going to have to sleep on a park bench or not
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 2, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe Trip

Amber in London
London, United Kingdom
Well London has been amazing but for so many more reasons than one would think. The Color women conference with my mom was great and I really enjoyed spending time with her. My other highlight was most definitly seeing my very good friend Matt who moved to London 3 years ago already. Matt was a great host and tour guide, and I definitly would not have enjoyed the city so much if he wouldn't have been there to put up with his tourist friends. The city and architecture is beautiful and I understand why Matt has little ambition to move back to Canada. During my few days there we spent a lot of time walking to and fro, the many underground stations, which wasn't as hard to navigate as some people made it sound. We also saw the parliament buildings, Westminster abbey, the famous London tower and tower bridge. Piccadily circus, Hyde park, buckingham palace, and for Trevor platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter.
On Sunday we went to the Hillsong London church which was so good to get some perspective on other churches succesfully reach out to people and show God's love. We truly serve an amazing God! Sunday was probably one of my favorite days just walking around and hanging out with Matt who cooked us a great dinner and let us stay at his flat.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 4, 2009 from London, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Europe Trip

Brugge according to Amber
Brugge, Belgium
The adventure to Brugge started early in the morning where we caught a cab to the bus station. The Driver dropped us off at the wrong spot and told us the wrong building so we wandered around the block and stood in a queue (an English word for matt) unneceraily, but we eventually found our way, caught the bus and headed out of london. When we got to the English Chanel we thought we were taking a ferry but the driver drove the bus right into a cargo type train car and we went under the English channel by train. It was a weird feeling to be driven into a cargo car like cattle but it wasn't bad. We slept the majority of the way to Brugge and when we arrived realized we had 0 idea how to get to the hotel.
We finally found our way through the beautiful mid- evil town to our small but mostly clean hotel room. It is very cute and the wall of the hotel is actually part of the canal wall.
Our hotel
From the courtyard you could step right out onto the water except for the locked gate and the fact I cant walk on water: The food here is good and i enjoyed my first beer: I didnt say i had my first beer but the first beer i actually enjoyed!
The first beer Amber enjoyed
Tomorow we head for Brussels.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 5, 2009 from Brugge, Belgium

Brussels according to Trevor
Brussel, Belgium
We decided to head to Brussels after Brugge, actually we tried to find a route to see the national Canadian war museum (in a small town) but could not figure out the transportation even with the help of our hotel manager. So we came to Brussels. Upon arrivng a nice old couple from Canada actually, told us that our hotel was within walking distance of the train station, and it was. I was kinda disappointed though, the neighborhood looked very skechy ( so we did not go out after dark ). The room was small and the shower leaked all over the floor so that sucked, but the staff were rally nice, but that is what you get for booking online. I think next time we might wing it.
Brussels had some really cool old squares with giant old buildings and a really nice old church, but honestly that was about it. I honestly would not recommend it, not a lot to see and the lack of hostels made it expensive.
Manican Pis
Today we got up early to check out of he hotel and tour around a bit more. Then we headed to the train station to get to Charleroi (small town with an airport so we can fly to Barcelona in the morning). We probably circuledthe giant train station 3 times. First we were trying to find a bus to take us because we thought it would be cheaper (twice because we didn't understand people's directions). We found the bus and the driver basically made a fart noice to my face, to say piss off) when I asked him if he went to the airport. I was so confused on how to respond, it was actually quite funny, he even told another froup of people "5 euro to answer your question". Needless to say we all walked away. The train we cheaper anyway.
We are now in Charleroi where will spend the night and fly out to Barcelona in the morning. We also bought our novelty Belgium chocolate and it was delicious.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 7, 2009 from Brussel, Belgium

Gironna Spain, According to Amber
Gerona, Spain
Well the day started out with an early morning plane ride from Charlroi (which we learned how to say correctly) to Gironna, Spain and we were very excited to leave expensive Belguim for hopefully a little bit more affordable Spain. From the airport near Gironna we took a bus to the city, found some fresh fruit from the local market and walked the old Roman wall which used to protect the city years and years ago, it was very nice to see the city from the top of the wall.
On the streets they were getting ready for a huge city wide flower festival so we got to see some of the displays in progress.
After this we went to the city park to sleep and read on the grass like true backpackers do only to find that the city parks in Spain have little to no grass, only trees, gravel and a playground. After lounging for the day we had some icecream, relaxed some more and went for smoothie´s and then caught the train to Barcelona where my cousin Sandra met us at the train station.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 9, 2009 from Gerona, Spain

Barcelona by Trevor (edited by Amber)
Barcelona, Spain
What a great couple of days we had in Barcelona.
Amber´s cousin, Sandra and her boyfriend Martin picked us up at the train station on Friday night. We drove past their house to the top of the mountain to see the city by night, it was very cool. And then to their house and Sandra made us some tradional Spanish dishes, (Bread with Tomato, some different meats and cheeses, and various appitizers, sorry they are called Tapas).
Day 2 was saturday and we walked all the way accross Barcelona (I am not exageratting at all). We started on the mountain side (where they live), and first we went to a public park (HUGE) that was designed for a very rich man by an Architect named Gaudi. The park is probably just over 100 years old. There we some really cool things in the park, you can check out the pictures.
Then we walked a bit and came to this hospital (actually used) that looked amazing, it was surprising to see so much art in a working hospital. After that we walked to see the most famous thing in Barcelona, the Holy Family Church (also designed by Gaudi, who is now dead) but the church is still being constructed. Construction started in 1882 (yes over 100 years ago) and is only about 2/3 done because they ran out of money. At this time if construction continues at this pace it is estimated that the church will finally be finished around 2035.
The Holy Family Church
After that we walked down a famos street called La Ramba, which had a lot of shops and cafes (think whyte ave times 50), down to the ocean. We saw the Chirstofer Columbus statue (I immitated it and these girls lauged at me because I was cute, Amber says it was because I was a dork, but I know it was because I am cute).
Trevor mimicking the Christopher Columbus Statue
That was it for walking, we took the metro back to the house and got the car, had an amazing cheap dinner at a small resturaunt (more authentic food) then to see another house designed by Gaudi (again really cool).
At this house we were just admiring it and this guy came up to us offering "Coke-Beer-Water", we were offered alot of places around town. So I said "no" but then said to Amber "See", pointing to the guy. Amber and Sandra laughed (nervously at me) after because the guy actually offered "Coke-Beer-Water-HASH" and "See" sounds like the same as "Si", so I should be very careful next time. Finally we went to the Royal Palace (not designed by Gaudi), because they have a light / water show to music everynight, but we were late and only saw the last 5 mintues.
All in all an amazing day, a lot of walking but so worth it.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 10, 2009 from Barcelona, Spain

Granada Granada Granada (by Amber)
Granada, Spain
We arrived in Granada after a long night on the train. I didn´t sleep as well as I had thought I would but it probably had something to do with the guy across from me (not Trevor) staring at me and playing footsie´s with me, I actually had to tell him to back off. We moved seats later and I slept better. After eating some breakfast we decided to explore the city as we couldn´t yet check into our hotel room, we walked around and saw all the major sites within the city, had some lunch and went back to check out the huge cathedral the Ava Maria. It is a beautiful church however going to all these old catholic churches puts even more questions in my mind about why Catholics do the things they do. When i get home I think I am going to do some research into the Catholic faith as I see I have little understanding of what they believe and why they continue with what seems to be many old traditions.
Anyway, as we were leaving the church this old lady came up to me and gave me a rosemary branch which i tried to hand back to her as she grabbed my hand and would not let me go. I think she was telling me my fortune and I told her repeatadly I don´t understand, No espanio, No intendio but she persisted while Trevor stood by laughing and taking pictures of my horrified face. It was not funny, i felt so taken advantage of....after all this drama and our long night I needed a nap so we checked into our hotel room. The hotel rooms was really nice it had a great view of the Ava Maria cathedral, and a little kitchenette with fridge and microwave. I cannot thank my cousin Sandra enough for planning and booking everything for us in Spain, it was so nice to have everything taken care.
After our nap we had some dinner and walked down the street to view la Alhambra from the city. la Alhambra is an old walled fortress on the top of a hill, the fortress protected a castle and the surrounding grounds. We ate some ice cream and continued on to our appointment at the Arab baths. We decided to take all the back roads while trying to find the address, and by decided I mean we got lost because we left the map from Sandra, showing exactly where it was, at the hotel room. When we finally found it after help from some locals we enjoyed the various baths or pools and a massage. Each bath is a different temperture and you are supposed to switch pools frequently, although i will say we didn´t stay to long in the cold one as I am pretty sure they put icecubes in there. It was very relaxing and exactly what we needed at this point in our trip. I wish there was one of these we could go to every week.
Day 2 in Granada we took a walk to the train station, after a lazy morning, to pick up our train tickets to get to Madrid, grabbed some sandwhiches and made the hike up the hill to la Alhambra. The grounds and gardens were beautiful and it was very interesting to see the palace and the very intricate work on the walls and celings, the attention to detail in the patterns was astounding. I love imagining in places like this what it would have been like to live there and what the Queens, and Princesses would have done throughout the day as well if I was a princess what would I be like. I know silly but doesn´t every girl think of those things? The other part of la Alhambra that amazed me was the genious of the fortress and the tactics they used to protect themselves against there enemies.
After a long day of walking it was time for more amazing ice cream then we sat in a plaza and read our books in the sunshine before going for dinner.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 13, 2009 from Granada, Spain

Our day in Valencia
Valencia, Spain
Our day was short in Valencia. We left barcelona a little later than we had hoped to. We got to the train station around 11 but the train wasn't until 2 and a 3 hour ride put us in Valencia about 530.
We soon discovered that that day must have been a holiday, every church was packed with people paying tribute to some state, so we didn't visitmany churches. There was also a plaza filled with people watching a band play (mostly old people). We made our way through he town and the. Market, but soon got lost trying to make our way back (this has been happening way too frrquently).
We made our way (by bus) over to a more modern area of town, it had a beautiful park that led up to some amazing artsy buildings. It was veyr cool. We thenmade our way back to train station to catch the night train to Granada. The ticket guy ( or us ) got confused so we didn't even have to use one of our days because we traveled that day alredy, so that was nice.
The ride was long but we managed to get a fair amount of sleep.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 12, 2009 from Valencia, Spain

Day 2 Barcelona according to Amber
Barcelona, Spain
After a busy day yesterday our feet told us. I more walking so we planned abut more of a relaxing day. We started later I. The day and drove e up to a beautiful mountain ate our my lunch and went back Down. It was a long drive but well worth it although martin was driving so maybe we should have asked him if it was worth it. After the
MOuntain we took a drive to a nearby beach city to enjoy the sun and the sand. We walked theiugh the town and i found a cute shirt and Trevor got to fly his first kite and we relaxed on the beach. After this we went to eat donairs which I found out are a Turkish food and fairly common here. They were really good but Trevor did say not as good as Maina's in Beaumont. After dinner we drove home to get ready to pack our clothes and head for Valencia. Sandra and Martin were great hostsand tour guides, it was so nice to see this beautiful city with them. We are very excited to do all the things she has planned for us in Spain. This is such a beautiful country!
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 11, 2009 from Barcelona, Spain

Our days in Madrid
Madrid, Spain
We left Granada on the morning of the 14th and made our way to Madrid. It was about a 4.5 hour train ride, so we got here around 3. We got off the train and really needed to eat and go to the washroom. The train station in Madrid seemed to have only 1 bathroom in the entire place, it took us 15 minutes to find it, we were not happy. If they are going to have to olympics here, i would suggest adding some more. We then located our hostel (I'm staying in one for the first time this trip) and it looked close on the map, so we decided to walk (the metro was only 1 €, but it was close, so we decided to walk). BAD idea, it was further than we thought AND it was all UPHILL.
20 minutes or so later, we couldnt check yet, so we left our bags and toured around.
Amber thought it was a good idea to take the maps away from me, because I am constantly checking them {it makes me feel safe to know where i am and where I am going, i hate being lost}. But she wanted me to relax and stop being a tight ass, as we tried to get to a palace. Needless to say we did get lost without the map (i told amber so), but we eventually got there after much freeking out by me.
We toured trough the gardens and then Amber wanted to go into the palace and see it, i didnt really want to go, but thats ok. so we toured around the palace and saw amazing things ( i couldnt take picuters, there were gaurds everywhere telling me not to ... so irritating). The palace was really nice and interesting, so i am glad that we did go and see it. Amber was right ...
By the time we were finished, it was 6 oclock and we were hungry again, so we made our way back to the hostel, but stopped at a major square for some food. We were bombarded by waiters trying to get us to sit at their resturaunts, again very irritating. We fininally found a place that didnt irritate us, the food was ok. We were serinated by an acordian player, i touhgt it was quite nice, Amber wanted to pay him 10 € to go away.
The square that we ate in was supposed to be really nice (Plaza de Mayor), but there is some festival going on in afew days, so there was this huge stage set up in the middle.
we then got lost again going back to our hostel but eventually got there thanks to many people giving us directions. We decided to plan out our next few days and then head to bed.
I didn't fare too well, i tought i had a fever, i was probably de-hidrated, too much sun, heat stroke. I shivered in bed for a few hours, trying to drink water, then decided to just go throw up and i felt great after that. Slept like a baby, i didnt even hear the group of drunk people coming in at 5 in the morning.
The next day we got up, had breakfast, update our blog. we had to change rooms, because we only planned on staying here for 1 night, so that is all that was booked. By the time we left here it was nearly 1. So we went to the train station to book our tickets out of here.Got there .... stood in line for almost an hour ... got to the ticket agent, and found out we needed to go to a different place to book international tickets ... crap, well that was an experience to learn from.
went to the 2nd place to get tickets and our original plan didn´t work with the trains, so instead of heading to Toulouse France, we are now just heading to Hendaye, France (or Spain) its right on the boarder, a small town, apparently very nice.
So we left the train station around 230 and walked to a HUGE park, like 20 square blocks. It was really nice, and in the middle there was a huge monument and man made lake thing. There were people paddling around on boats (but i said I am a bum, and we´re not doing that). We grabbed a sandwhich from a stand (pre-packaged and not very appatizing). We then relaxed in the 28 degree sunshine, reading our books for an hour or so.
We then got our lazy butts in gear and got some ice cream and headed to a HUGE arch. That was all that we had planned so Amber took it upon herself to make plans for the rest of the day and decided to fill it with shopping (can you sense the enthusiasum in my voice). It was alright ... ok i enjoyed myself, we picked a few things up, got yelled at by a security guard, got lost in Zara ... and then called it a day.
Now off to dinner and bed, and then we head out in the morning...
Good bye Spain, hello France.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 14, 2009 from Madrid, Spain

Travel Day (by Amber)
Toulouse, France
We are traveling today from Madrid, Spain to Toulouse, France. The day started out hurrying to catch a train in the morning to a small border town where we hoped we would be able to catch a connector train to Toulouse but no one at the train station in Spain could help with booking or times because it was in another country. We ran to catch the first train and we werent sure we would make it so didnt stop for any breakfast on the way to top it off once we got there our car was #16 at the vey end of the platform and the conductor wouldn't let us get on another car and walk through the train. , we hadnt seen such long trains before then. We arrived at the first stop to inquire about trains and they lady told us the next train was leaving in 2 min so again we hurriedly paid and ran for the train. While on the train the conductor came to check our tickets and asked if we spoke French when we said no he laughed and I think he said good luck. This makes me nervous and makes me dislike France a little already but we will give it a chance, hopefully people aren't too rude.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 16, 2009 from Toulouse, France

Toulouse According to Amber
Toulouse, France
We arrived in Toulouse yesterday and wandered for a bit for a hotel room or hostel and finally picked a place after com g to the realization that France is a lot more expensive than Spain. We went for dinner at an Indian resturant which we didn't really know until we got our food as we couldn't read the menu and just picked something with a few words we recognized.
Today after sleeping in for a bit we wandered around the town and went to see one of the cathedral's. Being Sunday we thought it might be busy and had no intention of going inside but we were a little surprised to find what looked like a huge garage sale around the church on a Sunday. There was a mix of things you would find at your typical European market, su h as shirts and skirts, purses and jewlery but there was also things like a huge cart full of shoes that you had to try and make a pair, underwear, socks cd's, and DVD's. B ut the best things were the people who had rows and rows of old probably broken power tools and old farm tools that no one under 50 has ever seen. After walking for a while longer we decided to rent some bikes and explore the city, it didn't seem like there was to much to see and the things people pointed out for us weren't very nice.
After touring the city we found a new hotel for a little cheaper and then went to see a movie. I've been feeling a little home sick so it was nice to hear some English, I was so comfortable in the theatre and caught up in the movie that I actually had to remind myself at the end if the movie we were in France.
Tomorrow we are off to another city for some beach and sun.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 17, 2009 from Toulouse, France

Marseille (by Trevor)
Marseille, France
We left tolouse fairly early for Marseille. This city is right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea so we were looking forward to some sun and the beach. We got in around noon and hadn't booked a hotel so we headed to the main area of town to look for one. We walked around for about an hour before finding one that was cheap and not dingy.
We were starving so we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to see some sights. We headed to the old part of town because the lady at the tourist office circled it. There was a really cool church, but that was it, the rest was very dingy looking streets ( Which I got us lost in as I always do) and it was all uphill. So we abondened that and went to stop #2 for he day.
We jumped on the metro and headed across town. We were going to see this giant fountain and park. I got us lost again, even though it was supposed to be right by the station (are you seeing a trend here?). We back tracked and found it, it was really neat.
We hung around for a bit and then headed back for some supper. We found a decent place but then I started freakin out about prices in France for hotel and food, and what our trip was going to cost, but amber put me in my place and all was fine.
Day 2 in marseille was more eventful. We got an all day buspass to see some things around the city. First we took a bus to the highest point in the city. Yes it was a church, we've seen a lot of these but this one looked differnet so we decided to go. It was really nice and had lots of colour which was different than all other old churches that we've seen so far.
We had some gross lunch ( the French like their meat really rare, I mean like blue rare even hamburgers ).
Then I wanted to head to beach so we waited for the bus. It was around 2. The first one that came by was full so the driver didn't stop. There was a guy at the bus stop and he said the last one was full too, so should we just keep waiting or walk to an earlier stop and catch it, or catch it on the other dircetion and then it would loop around. We choose option 3, but when it got to he end and was going to loop around the driver made us get off. I was so mad, I asked him if he was going back to port and he mumbled somethign in French but made us get off. Then he looped around so that he was on the other side of the highway , going in the direction we wanted. Thank god he stopped at the first stop. I was furiuos by now. We ran to get back on, and I yelled and he just looked confused. So we took this bus to the beach , but didn't know exactly where to get off. So I thought I knew where we where and we got off. We walked back to the water and NO BEACH! So I look at our map and we got off WAY WAY Way too early. Good one doorknob. I wanted to say screw the beach and go home. But we waited for that same bus again. Finally the bus came and we finally made it to the beach around 4, so it only took 2 hours to get there and Amber was already sunburnt from waiting outside for the bus. oops
The beach was good and the view spectacular. We relaxed for a while then walked down the beach for a good hour or so to the end. By this time we were hungry so we had amazing crepes for dinner.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 19, 2009 from Marseille, France

Our Anniversary (by Amber)
Montreux, Switzerland
It is hard to believe we have already been married two years, time really does go so fast and it is also hard to believe that two years ago we talked about this trip not really knowing if it would happen and I dont think we would have believed it would be possible after only two years.
The day has been mostly travel but we arrived in Montreux and it is absolutly breath taking. Switzerland in general is very beautiful. The Fairmont here is also amazing and they definitly live up to the Fairmont standards. The people are so friendly and the hotel is fantastic. When we arrived we checked in and then walked along the lake front before having a fantastic dinner at the restuarant at the hotel. We then had to check out the amazing pool and fitness facility, very impressive.
In the morning I went down and had a run on the treadmill while looking at the beautiful mountains, we had an awesome breakfast in our room, overlooking the lake and then we checked out.
As we were packing up we noticed the Fairmont staff parking some Porche cars on the lawn, curious we checked it out and found out that there was a porche convention at the hotel. It was pretty cool, got to see some nice cars about 20 of them scattered throughout the property.
We then took the bus to a castle called Chillion, it was a beautiful old castle and really interesting to see how the castle was built and how it evolved and how the people lived. What made the castle so beautiful and unique is that is is located on a little island on lake Geneve. It is one of the only castles with a natural moat, pretty cool. ( I wish we could post pictures) That was all for Montreux which I was really sad to leave but our budget just could not handle it.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 20, 2009 from Montreux, Switzerland

Our short stop in Geneva (by Trevor)
Geneva, Switzerland
The plan was to stay in geneve for 2 days. We arrived at the train station and needed to get to our hotel. But first we decided to book our tickets to Paris for the saturday. Good thing we checked, because there was no tickets left. So we booked them for the Friday instead. One less day in geneva.
We pre booked this hotel, because things in switZerland are really expensive. The hotel was located near the airport, so we got a map from the tourist place. We had 2 options, amber thought the tourist place say it was a 15 minute walk, so thought that was ok. I really didn't want to get lost, so I thought we should take he bus, but the next bus want for 45 minutes, so we decided to walk. One look around the corner and all we saw was freeway. So we decided to wait for the bus. I looked at the map a bit more and then thought I understood where to go, so we decided to walk.
By the way the place we were staying was in France, just across the border. Anyway we walked for about 30 minutes and came to this huge parkade. The road seemed to end leaving the freeway looking overhead. Walking seemed like a bad decision. Another look at the map and I realiZed we were still on track, but we hadn't covered as much ground as I thought.
Finally we came to a bus stop. It was best to wait. So we caught the bus, the same bus that we could. Have just waited for without walking for 30 minutes. We only stayed on a few stops so the driver let us not pay. We then transfered to get into France and to our hotel.
The hotel was cheap but that is why we booked it BUT it was TERRIBLE. The beds were so uncomfortable and we both slept really crappy.
So we got up early he next day. We walked all the way from France into Switzerland and headed to geneva by bus. We only had half a day so we thouhgt the best way to see the city was by a bus tour. No dice, they didn't start until the afternoon.
So we went and saw some stuff on our own. There was a cool fountin and shot 10 stories into the air. It was from 1890. And a clock made of flowers. A cool theater. And some other stuff I can't remember because I am witing his entry a few days layer.
Then we were off to Paris.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 22, 2009 from Geneva, Switzerland

Paris Day 1 (by Amber)
Paris, France
We got to Paris by train a day earlier than we planned because when we went to buy our tickets for sturday the 23 all the seats were booked and we couldn't come a day late as we would miss meeting trevor mom at the airport. Because we were early We hadn't booked a room for and thought we better do that first so decided to call a few places but couldn't figure out our phone or the calling card so we decided to just go to the hotel we had booked for the rest if our stay in Paris and see if they had availability and if not hopefully find something close by. We had aleeady figured out qhich metro station we needed ( i know shocking we actually planned ahead) so we headed down to the metro and waited in line. At the front if the line i politly asked the 40+ ticket agent if he spoke english he covered his mouth and said "me" as if to say why would i disgrace myself by speaking english. After signalling that we would try to tell him in French he started laughing and spoke English. I told him we needed two five day passes for all of Paris to which he replied jokingly for "me and you". I laughed and said yes and he told Trevor to pay. Playing along I asked what he wanted to see in the city with me and he laughed and told trevor he could work the ticket desk. After paying for our tickets and getting maps he asked again if i was sure i wanted to see paris with trevor. I said i dont have much chose he paid. as we walked awayhe signalled to me "call me". The girls behind us could hardly contain themselves.
we got to the hotel we found at that there is some big tennis event happening and we would probably have a hard time finding anything in the whole city. Great. We walked to about 5 nearby hotels when Trevor started panicking as for a brief moment before I calmed him down he thought we would have to sleep on the street. I saw a nearby side street and convinced him to check there before freaking out. The first place had a tiny room but for a small price of 135€ which is about $200 Canadian while Trevor had checked that place I find another one and convinced the lady to let us stay in a single room for 70€ still the most we have paid for a room yet and by far the smallest room. We actually paid less at the fairmont. After checking in we headed to a cute little resturUnt for dinner and then walked to .......... Which was close by and had a great view of the city. There were hundreds of young people hanging out eating and drinking and watching some local performers. We walked through aimetourist shops and walked by the moulin rouge before heading to bed. So far Paris has not disappointed and we have hardly seen anything.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 23, 2009 from Paris, France

Versailles (by Brenda)
Paris, France
Hi all. Part of my duties with this trip is sharing in the blog, so here goes. Yesterday, I recovered from the plane ride, slept well and up early, ready to go. We arrived at Versailles, after a couple of train rides, picked up a Starbucks coffee, (right next to the McDonalds)- cannot get away from them. We wanted to get the most out of it, so we stood in line to rent the head phones, did not have the right ticket when we got to the front, so back for tix, then back into line again. Anyway, we saw lots of queens, bedrooms, anterooms, Louis XIV and XV furniture and silk chairs. Then outside for lunch, on the gravel, all the grass was roped off!! The whole grounds is HUGE, including the Grand Canal, which is impressive, but kind of weedy. The gardens were mostly shaped trees and bushes, in triangles, would be nice to see from the air. On the way out, we checked for a classical music concert, that we thought was beside the fountains, but it never happened. Then off to the Eiffel Tower, to see the lights come on, around 10pm. We thought they would start at the bottom and rise up, but they just slowly became brighter, then a laser show for 5 minutes at 10pm. Really impressive. Lots of vendors in the area, selling trinkets off all kinds and women begging for money, sad! I have already tried 3 different beers and cannot say any of them were bad. CHEERS to all
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 24, 2009 from Paris, France

Paris by Trevor
Paris, France
Last night we decided that we were going to go to Berlin. So we got up and went to the Train station to get our tickets. We had to wait in line for an hour (our longest wait yet). By the time we got out of there it was around noon.
Our next stop was the Eiffel tower. The night before the line ups had been huge (45 minutes) just to get tickets. So we got out the metro and there is loads of people crammed in by he stairs out. It was pouring rain, heavily. The guys who sell cheap souvaneirs tried to sell us an umbrella, even they had one. We ran accross he square and decided to grab a bite to eat and wait for it to calm down a bit.
We just wanted sandwhiches, so we found a place and it had wifi. It needed a code, so we asked he waiter and he came back and put a price of paper on he table with a nickel on top. Amber tried to look at it and didn't get it,she held it up to the light, I thought you might have to scratch the paper and it would show up, no dice. Amber's looking around and there is another waiter jsut killing himself laughing at us. It was now obvious that the waiter "pulled a fast one" on the "tourists". He came back with a big grin on his face and gave us the real code. We had a good laugh. The food here was really good and the waiter we had was awesome!
So we headed out to the tower, by now the rains had driven away practically all he other tourists so there was no lines. The top level was closed because it was in he clouds, when we got there so we bought tickets for the 2nd level. Once up there, there was a great view, it was freakin cold because of the wind and rain. We hung aroudnd for half another becuase they told us that they were opening he top level, so we bought out tickets for that and waited in line. Finally we started moving and rode the elevator to the top. It was even cooler up that, wow Paris looked amazing. A few pictures later, us getting in a few romantic kisses and we headed back down.
We took the stairs at the Eiffel Tower.
We decided to check out some other things, one cool thing was he Pantheon, a really old church with a huge dome that was coverted to secular use.
The church was beautiful and we got to climb to the top where we got some cool shots of the tower and notre dame from a distance. Inside of it was somethign called fulcrum's pendulum. It was the neetest thing, it was suspended from the center of the dome and there was plumb swaying back and forth near the ground. On the floor were the hours of a day, all the way to 24 and the pendulum swung exactly on the right time. No mechaics no anyhong just motion. I won't explain how it works, just google it, it's really interesting.
After that we had a really good dinner at a auhentic (not touristy) French resturaunt.
After that we headed back to he hotel and planned to book some stuff for Berlin. We found some hostels in our books that we wanted to stay at, so mom and I went down to use he computer, a couple must have just got there and they were friendly. They said they would be really quick, so we waited. And we waited while they wrote their blog ... checked his and her Facebook ... His and her Email ... His ESPN ... frickin ESPN are you kidding me, so much for being quick. I even started tapping my toe after a while, so annoyed! Finally they left and said "sorry for the wait", bullcrap you were.
Finally we got on and were able to book a hostel for our stay. And quickly updated our blog and headed to bed.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 26, 2009 from Paris, France

Paris Day 2 (picking mom up)
We got up and planned to leave our ridiculously expensive hotel in "hooker-ville". We thought we had to pick mom up at the airport at 6 that night so we were taking our time, so we were goig to do laundry. We' were like half packed when I decided to check what time mom's flight came in. Holy crap it was landing in 15 minutes at 10 am not 6 pm, and we were no where near the airport. We frantically packed the rest and checked out. The train ride their seemed to take forever, and there was 2 stops at the airport and we didn't know which to use. We got there about 10 minutes late, but then we got trapped in the train station. Our metro passes would not let us out, because we were in a different zone. So we were looking for a machine to buy tickets so that we could use gem to get out, but there was none there, we literally could not get through, I even tried to squeeze. I yelled at some lady who was in a uniform for help but she ignored me. Finally we looked at all the gates and one was green, it was broken, and it let us through, that was another 5 minutes.
So now in the airport, we had to find mom , so we found an arrivals board, crap her flight was 10 minutes early. Terminal 2 and we were in terminal 3, we did stop too early, so we got onto another transfer train that took us to the right place another 10 minutes. We then dashed to terminal 2A which took another 10 minutes. Finally we found her waiting patiently, looking like she was on the verge of panicking but she had only been waiting 20 minutes or so.
We later rationalized why we thought the flight was at 6 pm. At home i had of an appointment in my calender for 10am, but here the time change is 8 hours (what do you know). So when I adjusted my time zone, it changed all he appointments too.
Thank God I checked that email that morning.
So we came back into Paris, found our room a few blocks away, but definitely more respectable, but couldn't check in quite yet. So we took mom to . . . wait for it . . . a laundry matt! We had laundry to do and it was close. Half way through mom and I checked into the room and I left her so she could have a small nap and went back to amber.
After mom rested a bit, we hit the metro and went to concord square. This is where the guillotine was during the French revolution. There was a huge obelisk with a golden tip. We could see the Arc de Triumph as well and it looked pretty close so we thought we my as well see that too. So we started walking, and we walked and walked and walked and it look like it was getting further away. An hour later, we made it there. As we looked back to concord square, we realized we walked all uphill. We took the metro back to the Louvre to see the pyramids. After grabbing a bite to eat, we jumped on a tour boat on the river seine. It was an hour cruise all the way from Notre Dame cathedral to the Eiffel tower (or tour Eiffel as it is known as here).
Moms eyes had a hard time staying open about half way through. Exhaustion finally caught up with her. I had to keep elbowing her. After the boat tour we finally brought mom back so we all could get some sleep for our next adventure.

Last day in Paris (by Brenda)
Our last day here in Paris. We went to see Sainte Chapelle for an hour. The lower chapel was smaller, less detailed, but proceeding upstairs the stained glass windows were amazing. Pictures of mostly every biblical story were depicted. Part of our entry involved a security check, Trevor was carrying a paring knife we were using to cut fruit for lunches. So it had to be secured, with my passport, for the time that we were in the chapel.
Amber left us after that to do some shopping while Trevor and I went to the Catacombs. They are located under the city, where an old quarry existed, where rock had been taken to build many of the buildings. Cemeteries from all over had been moved to this site over the years and now 'dem bones 'dem bones 'dem dry bones were piled 6-8 feet tall and as deep as you could see.they were layered with skulls and long bones, each section commemorated the approximate year of burial. This was at the bottom of some very curvy steps and long damp dark tunnels. - not for the claustrophobic or out of shape people. We met a family from Chicago in line , Trevor starts making ghost sounds on the way down. To scare the boys about 5 - 10 years old.
We met Amber after at Sainte Denis basilica (we were half hour late as we misjudged the distance and train times). There we toured the crypts of mostly French royalty, from early 7th century to the French revolution (1790) including Marie Antoniette and King Louis XIV. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags and made it to the train station early, where we boarded the night train for Berlin.
We were in a 6 person 'couchette' small bunks, three high, at least we could lay down to sleep.it was quite restful. One of our mates there was a Mongolian man who was in Paris with his 80 person choir group, they has been in an international contest there. We could hear some of them singing in another room of the train. He spoke only a little English, mostly Russian as he had spent 8 years schooling there, learning to play the violin. The french countryside looks like the prairies, very green this year, crops of wheat, barley, canola that I recognized( still a farm girl at heart). We arrived in Berlin at 9 am - that is amber's story to tell, BUT beer is getting cheaper, only 3 euro for 500 ml (50 cL they call it) compared to 7 - 9 in Paris.

Paris (by Amber)
We tried to start today early and did ok at least we made it to the Louvre before it opened so that is an almost miracle. When we visited the Louvre grounds I knew it would be a long day to actually visit the museum based on just how massive this beautiful museum really is. I think from what I briefly read the Louvre was once a palace and they have since added on to it to expand the museum. This explains the absolutely beautiful architecture which fascinates me as much as the massive amounts of displays and beauty of the displays.
When we got into the Louvre we decided to go see The Mona Lisa or as Brenda would say Mona which was her favorite piece to see. Part of the reason we went there first was because we really didn't know where to start and also to avoid any lines and crowds as we were one of the first 50 people in. I think most of the people had this thought because there was already a crowd by the time we made it all the way there.
I don't really even know what to say about the various pieces of artwork as there was so much and so many dynamics of different types of art that I found so intriguing. I will say that my favorite sculpture was "Cupid Awakening Psyche" which was also Trevor's favorite piece. It is a beautiful depiction of love.
There was also this tiny room in the back of the Denon wing which had small sketches by various artists which I absolutely loved. The little dark room was absent of colors and formal frames but it felt like i was spying on works of art in progress and getting a glimpse into the artists and the models.
I don't really even know what to say about the various pieces of artwork as there was so much and so many dynamics of different types of art that I found so intriguing. I will say that my favorite sculputure was "Cupid Awakening Psyche" which was also Trevors favorite piece. It is abeautiful depiction of love.
There was also this tiny room in the back of the Denon wing which had small sketches by various artists which I absolutly loved. The little dark room was absent of coluors and formal frames but it felt like i was spying on works of art in progress and getting a glimpse into the artists and the models world. (I know so profound)
After 5 hours at the louvre we probably didn't even see half of it but our brains were so tired we decided to get lunch and check out the Notre Dame cathedral. On our way we stopped at the. Concerergerie which is an old prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded by the guillotine during the French revolution, it was really interesting and also had a list of names of all the people held in that prison to be killed during the French revolution. They also had a room set up similar to what Marie Antoinette would have been like they even had a rig which they believe was in her cell and a glass she probably drank out of right before she left the prison. I am really appreciating high school social studies.
Notre Dame cathedral was beautiful but to be honest not what I was expecting with all the hype we have seen many other churches that are just as beautiful and just as large as the Notre Dame cathedral but it is very beautiful. After the cathedral we got back to the hotel and walked up to Montematre for dinner and a great view of the city, we also bought some cool souvenirs.

Berlin by Amber
Berlin, Germany
Wow what an incredible day of history! We took the night train leaving yesterday at 8pm and arrived in Berlin this morning at 9am and went to the hostel, as we were sitting trying to decide what to do I overheard someone ask some other people if they were waiting for the free walking tour. I asked what it was and since we had no plan it sounded like a good idea to get a first glimpse of the city. Our guide, Paulo was excellent and gave us a great refresher on the history of Berlin and significant events and buildings. It was so interesting and again makes me think back to high school social and appreciate everything Mr. Cender taught me. Some of the most interesting things we saw was the memorial sight which is essentially a whole bunch of rectangular pillars in a park covering probably a whole city block. The sight is very strange and the idea is to get people thinking about the memorial and what it means. At first I thought it looked like a cemetery but with no flowers and no names, the guide explained many other people thought it was to depict many trains or soldiers or if you walk through it the walls feel like they are closing in on you, it is very impacting and reinforces the fact that I want to go to a concentration camp. I feel it is important to remember what thousands of people went through and tell their stories.
Another impacting site was the place where Adolf Hitler committed suicide and what Berlin has decided to do with the space. The ground space above where the bunker was is now a car park with nothing at all to indicate why the space is significant, in fact throughout the whole city i think they have done a really good job honoring the people who suffered so much without paying any tribute to the men responsible. Later on the walk we saw one of the largest remaining portions of the Berlin wall as well as the square where the huge book burning took place, again I love the artist symbolism of how they have commemorated this site. On the ground there is a green wreath where you can look through a glass tile in the ground to a part of the library that is completely sealed off and inaccessible with white empty shelves lining the walls. I will let you think about the symbolism of that.
After the tour we went and had a nap and then some drinks and dinner at the hostel we then headed for museum island and visited two museums for free. The first had manz egyptian and greek artifacts where we saw the bust of Nefertiti which to be honest i dont know what the deal is but maybe if we could have read the german explanation i would know. The second museam was an art museam with a few pieces from Monet, it was nice.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 28, 2009 from Berlin, Germany

Prague (Amber)
Praha, Czech Republic
We woke up fairly early this morning to bells ringing from the church next door for about 15 min straight and then I thought I could hear a choir but I am not so sure. The bells were so loud they rattled the light bulbs, it was kind of irritating and I am sure the guys in our room who had just gone to bed didn't appreciate them either.
The free Internet at the hostel still wasn't working so we headed for a delicious breakfast before our free walking tour of Prague through the same company as the tour in Berlin. The tour was good and again we learned a lot about the city's history and architecture(which I love). A few interesting things we saw were the old and new town square, the old powder gate from a portion of the old wall that used to stand around the city to protect it. We saw the Jewish quarter and the "new old synagogue" as well as an d Jewish cemetary which was actually part of the inspiration for the holocaust memorial in Berlin. The cemetary is really highbecause in places bodies are burried 10 people deep. When the cemetary was full they would just put more people on top. We also walked by the Prague holocaust memorial which houses every name of the 70 000 Prague Jews killed as well as some artwork done by children in concentration camps. We saw the Charles bridge and later walked across it as well as got a great view of the largest castle in the wolrd according to genuis book of world records. ( it really is absoutly unbelievably massive). We saw the Lennon wall which depicts freedom of speach in a now non-communism country.
During the tour the guide told us some very interesting stories about the city. Trevors favorite story talks about how Prague was going to be invaded by russia in a move to reinforce communism in the country and so the people take action when they receive word and replace all street signs expect the ones pointing to Moscow to "dubcheck" to confuse thenarmies when they come. This genious tactic worked for a few days before the army sorted it out. The funny part is that during the second wolrd war they use this same tactic against the Nazi soldiers and they take down all german shows.
After the tour we hurried and got our bags from the hostel ( who's Internet was still down) and headed off to the train station hoping we could find a place to stay when we got to vienna.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 31, 2009 from Praha, Czech Republic

Vienna (Trevor
Wien, Austria
I've officially been away from home a month now. We are seeing amazing things, but missing home. Amber goes crazh every time she sees a dog because she misses Cohen. We miss our friends, our church, our family and we are thinking of you all.
We started June with an amazing day, one of he better ones we've had. We are now in Austria, Vienna to be exact, we got in last night so the first thing we did this morning was to hit up a tourist info place to see what we should do. The lady was very helpful, and we planned out our day, she also talked us into taking a wine tour the next day. Mom was really excited, and amber and I thought it would be interesting so we said sure why not, so stay tuned for that tomorrow.
So we were off to check out Schlos Schonbrunn, it's the "summer palace" of the royal family "Hapsburg". It's similar to versaille in Paris. We were guided through the palace, which was similar, but the nice thing is that they furished the rooms for their actual purpose rather than for displaying art. We learned some good history too. There is the one queen, called "Sissy" and I hated her from the moment we heard about her. She was forced to marry the king of Austria, and he loved her dearly, but she thought of marriage as an institution, and dispised it. She spent hours a day combing her hair. She never had a portrait painter of her, after she was 30, because she was aging. And she rarely attended family meals, because she watched her figure. She wasn't even that pretty.
Amber says it was because of her evil mother in law, always spying on her and amber says "she can relate" jk.
Amber bought some "sissy" earing and says she wants to be just like her, just because I desipse her.
The grounds here were far better than the grounds at versille. They were better decorated and actually had flowers, what a concept. There was a beautiful bulding at the top of a hill that overlooked the palace and the whole city of Vienna. There was also a labyrinth that we got to go into and have some fun in. All in all this was a great place.
We then headed to an awesome market, except than when we got there EVERYTHING was closed, because it was a stupid holiday here. So finally we found a place to eat, it was nearly 3 o'clock. The waiter talked into getting shnapps, except he brought us some nasty tasting stuff that wasn't good at all. Before we drank, I wanted a picture of everyone's glasses, so I said "everyone put your hands on your shnapps" and mom burst out laughing, she said that sounded dirty, and after 3 mintures or so she finally stopped crying from lauging so hard.
Next we went to check out "the crooked house". It was this building that was designed by someone. Everythig was crooked, nothing was straight, floors, walls, it was very neat. In this place, there was a art exibition, some weird art from picaso, and the guy whodesign the buildigs. I'm not a big fan of weird drawings that I don't undersand, but the buildings themselves were really neat.
So were off to see downtown; we jumped on a tram, and rode it for a while, and got off When some crazy guy starting talking to amber in German, he was kinda scary.
We sat on the lawn, at the winter palace and amber read a fairytale to us, told us all about Vienna and the sites we saw and were going to see.
We then went and checked out a gothic cathedral, very very gothic.
After that we saw this really good street performer from austraillia, he did some amazing acrobatics on this giant pole, he was really good and was like nothing we had seen.
After that we headed home, we got lost in the subway station for the second time trip, we walked right through it, following the signs to our line, then all of a sudden we were outside again, so we backtracked, and found this tiny sign by an elevator that we missed.
We came back, had a beer or 2, talked with a gay couple from San Fransisco. Then headed for bed.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 1, 2009 from Wien, Austria

Berlin-Prague (Brenda
Berlin, Germany
We got up early, made it to the station in the nick of time, we had been told reservations were not necessary, so we didn't. But when we got on the train and settled, turns out most people did have reserved seats, so we stood for 1/2 hour in the hallway and at the end of the carriage, being jostled around. We finally found 3 separate seats, but in the meantime, I had made friends with 4 Korean boys in the carriage, they did not speak much English, but we managed. At the next station,we were able to sit together. When we arrived in Prague, they do not use Euros, so off to the bank machine, get a 2000 Krowne note, which no one will make change for, and we are trying to buy a bus ticket to the hostel. Bus tickets cost 100 Krowne each, so finally done. The exchange rate is 25 Krowne to 1 Euro, hard to keep track in your head what you were spending. We made it to the Chili Hostel, after bumping the suitcases over mostly cobblestone streets.
We headed for the castle there (whatever name it was) so we hurried, it was closing at 5pm. It was also raining. We get to the station stop, and turns out we still had another 2000 metres, yes 2km to walk to the actual castle, so we went to find beer. So we wandered around some more, had goulash with dumplings ( and beer) for supper, came back to the hostel, did laundry, went for a nightcap, came home to bed. I am the oldest person at this hostel, could be all of their mother!!
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 30, 2009 from Berlin, Germany

Vienna Wine Tour (by Brenda)
Vienna, Austria
The day we arrived in Vienna, we had stopped at the information shack, and discovered that there was a wine tour the next day, so for something different, we decided to go. So we met up with the guide and 4 girls from USA, they had missed the tour the day before. The tour guide directed us to a train, the conductor came to check the tickets and we were on the wrong train!! So off at a platform, in the middle of nowhere about 15 minutes from Vienna, catch the train back to the original station and get the correct one. So now, we are about an hour late, but what can you do. We arrive at a small village northwest of Vienna, it is quaint and down-home. We stop at the first place, taste 3 different wines, as the guide Adam teaches us how to swish and smell and breathe, while we are drinking. THEN, we climb onto bikes (pedal variety at least, we could have been impaired) for a leisurely bike ride through the valley along the Danube River. The river was quite high, they have had lots of rain. The vines were growing high on the hills, up as far as the eye could see. The vines were protected by the old foundations from houses, that the Romans had put there in the early 1100s. The stones also help reflect the sunlight and retain the heat in the evenings. Between admiring the scenery, there was intermittent rain showers, so now we are riding bikes with bright yellow ponchos. We rode to another house, where the barbeque was set up, Adam added 2 kinds of sausages and some schnitzel, had carried salads up and we had a feast and tasted another 4 wines from that local winery. The sun shone while we ate, it was a great picnic. After some time to regain our balance, we rode to a small village on the way back, wandered around and tasted some apricot schnapps, and bought some to bring home. It was a glorious day, the silence of the countryside was wonderful, and I spent the last mile just looking around and couldnt believe where I was. Aside, the 8 of us drank another 6 litres of wine on the train ride home, Amber and I stopped early, so you can imagine the rest of them. We had a late supper at the Mozart, a local popular restaurant. A fine day!!!
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 2, 2009 from Vienna, Austria

Salzburg (Amber)
Salzburg, Austria
What an absolutly beautiful country austria is! We got up early (5 am) and caught the train from Vienna to Salzburg we each slept a little but I took some time to look out the window of the train to admire this beautiful country God created. the rolling hills and farmland touched here and there with quaint farm houses as well as beautiful old style mansions. The fields are surrounded with large hills that slowly get bigger and turn into huge mountains as we near Salzburg. Along the tracks there are some of the tallest and greenest trees I have ever seen.
When we got to salzburg we quickly found our hostel, left our bags and went to tour the old town and shopping district and then headed back to shower and get ready for our incredibly exciting Sound of Music tour. As cheesy as it sounds is how cheesy the guide made it but it was still nice to see some of the places where my favorite movie growing up was filmed, as well it was a nice way to see the countryside as we did drive about 1/2 hour out of salzburg to see some of the places. At our hostel before we left for the tour we also met this lady who was traveling before returning home to he usa she was working with the peace core to educate women about human trafficking, it was so great to meet her and talk to her about it as I am very passionate about the a21 campaign.
After the tour we headed for the beer gardens to see how and where the locals drink. It was pretty neat, there was a big wood paneled room with large tables and dim lighting it was fairly full of people. Outside the large hall room they had cafeteria style food stalls each with a different kind of food, one with meat, one with bread, one with salad etc. There was a whole seperate room dedicated to where you get your huge 1L of beer. It was pretty good the 3 of us had all our food and beer for about 30€.
Salzburg is a beautiful city with so much to see it is still hard to believe sometimes that we are actually doing this trip and getting to see and eperience so many amazing things. On our way home from
the beer garden I said that I would have never fathomed as a kid while watching the sound of music that I would ever get to be here and have this amazing opportunity.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 3, 2009 from Salzburg, Austria

Munich Day 1 (Trevor)
Munich, Germany
We left Salzburg for Munich on Thursday morning, we wanted to spend 3 full days in Munich because there is lots to do. So we got to the train around 930 and arrived in Munich around 1130. There was a free walking tour leaving at 1 so we wanted to get there for that. So we walked to our hostel (in stead of trying to figure out the metro right away) and then made our way to Marienplatz, the center of the old town for our tour. These walking tours have been a great way to see the city and actually learn about the building as opposed to just seeing them. You just tip at the end, so if they suck then so does their tip, so far they have been great.
So we toured around Munich learning various things, my favorites was the stories about the main beer hall in town, because I like beer ... a lot.
After the tour we went to a place that served all you can eat stew, and it was delicious, we of course, washed it down with a beer.
Then we were a bunch a bums and decided to take a 2 hour nap. Still full from our stew, we didn't want dinner, but wanted some pub food, so mom looked up a place in her travel book and we headed out.
We got there and had to go up to the second floor, we could hear the accordian from he street and it only got louder. This place only had about 6 or 7 tables and a bar and it was jammed with people, except for a little table, just big enough for the three of us. We were right next to the accordian player, the place was so small that everyone was really next to him. He was blaring away something in German and occasionlly snorting like a pig and yodeling , so we had no idea, but everyone was lauging and singing along, it was awesome. Mom ordered us some food, and the German waitress said soemthing to her friends and hey all lauged at us. We had sauseges and a large salad (we were thankful for vegtables, we hadn't seen them in a while). There was also a very drunk guy, accross from us, who kept feeling the need to talk to us, even though we were completly clueless. He was also pulling random ladies up to polka on the dance floor (not really a designated area, just a 2 by 3 foot gap in front of the accordian player), amber and I were secretly hoping he would drag mom up, we even tried to get his attention for him to try. We then had some amazing apple strudell and then called it a night. We can definatly say we experienced a Authentic German Pub.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 4, 2009 from Munich, Germany

Munich Day 2 (Brenda)
Munich, Germany
We visited the Dachau memorial centre, not to be called a concentration camp, in order to remember the victims, not to glorify anything that happened there. We did a guided tour, with a young man who was very well read on the subject. We saw the original intake building, some buildings there are original, some reproductions. The torture areas had been removed, but there was still panels describing techniques etc. The bunkers were stark, scary almost, cannot even imagine the kind of things that go on there. We saw three different kinds of sleeping quarters, the bunks had shelves and lockers, just to remind the prisoners they had no possesions to put in them. Psychological terror, no hands allowed in pockets but they still sewed in pockets, faces down, peak on cap so a shadow will fall on the face. do not get the attention of the guards. how the uniforms were marked - no tattoos there.
After that exhausting experience, which everyone should visit at least once, we chilled in the park, reading our books upon returning to the city. Next, we decided to participate in the Pub Challenge, to meet new people and see 4 joints in town. I was the oldest on that gig too! We started out by drinking a free beer in the Train Station and then on the UBahn and then headed to the famous Hofbrahaus, after that was some beer in a market where we got some bratwurst and a giant pretzel. On our way to the next place Amber did a dance with some of the other girls around the maypole to impress the boys! The next place was another large park filled with benches all 30 of us played some kind of drinking game where you slap the table, the details of that game are a little fuzy but it was fun until it dwindled. Next was off the last stop for our last free beer (which none of us finished) and a gross shot of Jagermister, then off to bed with us.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 5, 2009 from Munich, Germany

Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland
Today was the final (half) day with my Mom.
We took a 6 hour train ride to Zurich and then another train to the Airport where my Mom could take the shuttle to her hotel. We got there and saw Mom off after one final good-bye. We hope she is going to enjoy her week long bus tour of Switzerland just as much as we have enjoyed the last 2 weeks.
Amber and I went back to he train station to book our tickets to Venice! Normally the reservation fee for a trip is about 9 euro each person which is about $15. For reasons that we still haven't figured out, the reservation to get out of here was about 3 times as much! It is was it is though, to leave we needed to pay about $90.
Amber and I had booked our hotel, the previous night, again the cheapest we could find was in the $120 range. so be warned, don't come to Switzerland unless you have lots of money.
On our way to he hotel, we saw a great number of rainbow flags. We checked out the city guide and sure enough, the final day of their pride month festival is today. We just hope that people aren't going to be too roudy later.
We got to our hotel and dropped our bags off and headed for dinner. The chespest thing around was a pizza for about $25, so a split that. Just as we finished eating it started to rain, but cleared up shortly. So we headed back out, even though we were feeling super lazy.
We toured around the 'old town' just having fun and taking random pictures. We really wanted ice cream but we got back to our hotel wihout finding any, so we decided to go 1 block further and low and behold, there was 1 right there. It was $10 well spent. We also saw a sign for a cinema, Amber said "I don't think that hey will be playing any movies in English", but I was curious so we checked out what was playing. We never made in because we very quickly realized that it was a "different type" of cinema, an X rated cinema. Needless to say, we didn't go see a movie that night.
We went back to our room and actualy got to watch some CNN in English. So were happy about that.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 7, 2009 from Zurich, Switzerland

Munich Day 3 (Amber)
Munich, Germany
We got up early this morning to head up to one of the most visited tourist attractions in Munich although I wouldn't really say it is in Munich as it was a 2 hour train ride to get there. Our destination, the neuschwanstein palace which will from now on in this entry be referred to as the palace. We decided that becAuse the palace was so far away to take a tour so we didn't have to figure out how to get there. The tour was good although the guide could have been better, I was a little disappointed that he didn't provide the group with more information about the palace or the area he seemed to be more of a babysitter ensuring we got to the palace on time. The palace and sights were beautiful and it truly looked like a fairy tale castle from Cinderella or sleeping beauty. Ludwig II who built the castle was a bachelour and it showed in the décor which understandably made this trevors favorite palace. The rooms were decorated in dark wood paneling and the lack of floral prints or a womens touch which I must agree was refreshing.
After we got back to Munich we booked our hotel for Zurich and Venice and then headed to the movie cafe so I could get some popcorn which I crave almost daily. While we ate our popcorn and other north American appetizers (nachos and wings) this little yorkie wandered into the cafe and ate popcorn off the floor while his owner sat outside unaware of where his dog was. Just goes to show dogs in Europe are a) better trained and b) allowed to go wherever they want without anyone blinking an eye.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 6, 2009 from Munich, Germany

Venice (by Amber)
Venice, Italy
Well we have arrived in Venice or Venezia and it truly is beautiful. It is such an odd concept to see so many buildings so close to the water and I can't help but to think what happens if the water level rises even slightly. I did read In The book that flooding is a common occurance. As we walked around we thought of tony(my step dad) and how much he would truly love it here as having a boat seems to be more beneficial than a car. Our hotel is located on one of the islands just outside of venice called lido and to get back and forth there is basically a boat bus which has about 30 stops within and surrounding Venice.
When we got here we Found our way to our hotel and then quickly walked across the island to the beach before it got to cool and then we got some dinner and opened our delicious bottle of wine from the wine tour in Vienna.
When I woke up this morning I had what I thought were a few mosquito bites on my face and wished we wouldn't have left the window open; but as the day progressed Trevor told me I had about 10 marks on my face now and they were spreading to my arms. I am not sure what these hives are caused from but they have quickly spread across my arms and back and are incredibly itchy. The worst part of it though is that I don't know what caused it and therefore can't help prevent it from getting worse. Oh what fun!
Anyway we had a beautiful day today just meandering through the city, which we nearly walked across. We inquired about a gondola ride but at 80€ for a "long ride" we decided to pass. I am a little disappointed to co e to Venice and not experience this but I will get over it.
Afternour long walk through the city I wanted a nap so we decided to head to this large park which like many "parks" in Europe was not really what we would consider a park. What we found was various pavilions from different countries with art displays which we decided might be interesting and coughed up some money. To highligh the Canadian pavillion was less than exciting and featured three large screens depicting different scenes. The first a couple skating in a busy city outdoor rink, the second a slow moving panning camera from a highrise building, and the third two pigeons sitting on a steaming sewer drain while a man folds sleeping bags on the street. The most interesting pavillion by far was Russia with a haunted house, a hundred or so hanging glass balls with tiny pictures in them,2 angel sculptures one with crude oil flowing through it the other with human blood, and more that are too difficult to explain.
After our art tour I was still in need of a nap so we headed for our hotel to drop our stuff and then back to the beach on our way back we grabbed a massive pizza and ate in our room.
All in all a beautiful day aside from my face which is swollen with hives and really itchy.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 8, 2009 from Venice, Italy

Cinque Terra (by Trevor)
Riomaggiore, Italy
We were told by a few different people that we should come here. It wasn't on our original list, but we are really glad we came.
We left Venice, early Wednesday morning. I thought I had calculated enough time for us to get to the train station, but first our water bus was late (they were never on schedule) so even once it did come, I was constantly checking the time, becauce I didn't believe we were going to make it. But we made it to the train, only a few minutes before it left, but we made it.
So we rode to Florence and had to catch a regional train to La Spezia were we could transfer again to Riomoragarrie. At the train station Amber found a prarmacy and got some cream for her hives, they were driving her nuts and rapidly multiplying. We rode to La Spezia in a getto train, it was pretty run down and it was so hot so we had to ride with the windows open. The train to Riomorgeria was interesting too, we had to go through a few tunnels for mintues at a time, no big deal except for our train and the tunnel had no ligths, so we were in complete darkness, pitch black!
We got to our hostel and the guy led us to our room. We had a primo location, our building and our room is right on the water, so we had an absolutly amazing view of the ocean. The only good thing about the hostel was the view, other than that things were scetchy:
1. There was a washer, so that was cool, but Amber had to open it with a spoon and it electicuted (shocked) me the next day.
2. We stayed in a 6 bed room, 2 bunk beds and a double bed in a seperate room, seperated by a frnch door with no glass inthe middle, so we just stepped through the door without opening it.
3. There was a fridge in the room, great except for it wasn't and couldn't be plugged in because the plugs were not the same as the outlet.
4. There was dried seaweed hung on the wall as decoration.
5. There was a fan in our room that didn't work because he outlet that was supposed to be there, just had random wires sticking out of it.
6. The stairs up to our room (3rd floor) were super steep and dark and the "doorbells" to people's apartments were right beside the light switches with no indication of what was what.
7. The curtains are made of tulle.
Once we got there, we headed right for the beach (not sand, more like huge boulders). We went swimming in the ocean (very cold and salty but refreshing) and then laid on the rocks for a while. Once we had enough sun, we did some laundry and then headed into town. It only took like 3 minutes to walk from one end to the other, (very small, only 1 street). We picked up some Coke and then had a bite to eat. Then we ended the day by sitting of the rocks, drinking rum and coke, watching the sunset.
We went back to our hostel and we talked with our roommates for a couple of hours and it was the first time I actually enjoyed talking to people this entire trip (other than amber, I always enjoy talking to her) I usually leave the talking to Amber.
The next morning, we were hitting the trail! The biggest draw of CinqueTerra is the hiking paths that connect these 5 towns which all lie on the top of cliffs that sit high above the ocean. The hike is supposed to take 5 hours and cover 9 km of trails. The trails were built by farmers to get to their crops which were built on terraces.
So we headed out around 9 and headed for the train station. We were taking the train to the last town and doing the hike in reverse for 2 reasons:
1. So that we would end in the town we were staying in and could jump right in the ocean and not have to get on a train.
2. So that we could do the hardest part first, while we had the energy, otherwise we would be tired and dreading the end.
We got to the train station and realized the next train wasn't for a half hour or so, so we didn't get there until 10 and then there was a market in the town, so we didn't get on the train until 11.
We started with the hardest part, basically straight up steep stairs for 30 minutes. After that I was already drenched,Amber was glistening. So we hiked some more, most uphill but some downhill for the hour or so, until we got to the second town. We were relieved that half the hard part (2 km) was behind us, but we were starving. So we got some pizza on foccasia bread, with pesto.
The next 3 km only took us an hour and twenty mintues. But was almost as trencherious as the first, but the views were just as beautiful. We stopped for more food and most importantly gellato!
We found our way backto the trail and did the last 4 km. It was basically flat but not nearly as interesting, but we wernt complaining. There was a few places that we could have hiked down to a beach, but Amber didn't want to go because:
1. We would have to hike back up (20 minutes)
2. They were nude beaches
I was game but I couldn't convince Amber. So we made it home and headed straight for the rocks to go swimming. The water was a lot rougher than it was the day before, but I told amber that she needed to jump in anyway because I wanted to film it, it took three minutes to finally jump. (A side note to Mom, on the way back to put the camera on the rocks, before I jumped in the water too, I found a 5 cent Euro barely hanging onto a rock.) we didn't stay in the water very long so we climbed out. Apparently I cut my foot on the rock, because I was standing in blood, it was just a scrape (or 4) so it stopped right away. After Amber took a video of me doing a cannon ball, we made our way over to some other rocks that we could lay on. We found a good rock, but every so often it was get misted from the water crashing into the rocks. We were just about ready to go when Amber said "today would be a good day to get a picture of a big wave hitting the rocks", then 2 seconds later out of no where came a big wave and splashed us. Thanks Amber.
We headed in to shower, but had to wait, so we had really really short showers. Then headed out to dinner.
Dinner was interesting. We ordered pasta, amber's had shrimp in it, mine had some sort of fish. Both tasted very good but where a pain in the butt to eat. Amber said "if I find an eye in my food ..." and her concern was valid because her prawns where whole prawns, including bodies, claws, and their heads with their beady little eyes. My pasta had fish bones in it, so they were sharp and cut your mouth if you didn't see them.
Throughout dinner, people were stopping beside/below us to look at this cat who was lying in a boat. Probably 6 couples stopped and made cooing noises. Then Amber said "I am the cat, I am the devil" in a creepy voice and the guy behind Amber sneezed and Amber jumped so high, nearly screamed. I think she thought it was the cat who made the noise, either way it was hilarious.
We went back to the room and packed our bags and fiured out what time we were leaving and called it a night. as we were lying in bed, our new roommates tried to come in. Insay tried becuase they couldn't figure out the door, even though they had already had trouble with it and I showed them How to open it. They litteraly took 3 minutes to unlock it, because they kept locking it. Aaah some people.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 10, 2009 from Riomaggiore, Italy

1st Day in Rome (by Trevor)
Rome, Italy
This has started as the worst day of our trip so far.
We woke up and packed no problem and headed for the station. But first we wanted to take out cash. So Amber went to the machine, but it only took credit cards and we didn't want to do a cash advance. Meanwhile I was lookin at the departure board and the only times to La Spezia were 5 minutes ago and an hour from then, even though the sheet that we got the day before said there would be 4 that hour. A train pulled up on the other side of the tracks (not the directio we wanted) but Amber heard someone say that that was actually the train, so we ran, underneath the tracks and back up and jumped on the train and found a seat. I asked the ticket checker right beforen we got on to make sure it was going to La Spezia. Because we were running we didn't get a chance to fill in the dates on our dates on our Eurorail pass, I wasn't even sure what he date was and my iPod was in the bag. So when the ticket lady came around, I asked her why the date was, and unlike of the 13 other times we rode the train before, instead of telling us the date she said "now I have to fine you" and took our passes. She tried to explain that we have to fill it out BEFORE we get on the train or it's a 50 euro fine. (our ride to LaSpezia was only 10 montes). I tried to explain that we never had to do that before and that we ran for the train (she was the agent I asked about the driection) and that we just didn't know the date, and that we were catching another train to Rome, so I obviously wasn't trying to get away with a free ride, I even showed the ticket, but she didn't care. A decent human being would have cut us some slack, we were just doing what we did the previous 13 times. She told us 50 euro or she has to call the police. We had no money of course because if the bank machine. She told us to go ask people who were getting off at that stop to borrow money, by this time it's 5 minutes away. I asked her twice the amount 50 of 15 because of the accent. I thought twice she said 15 EACH. So I went in one direction and amber went in the other trying to ask people, of course to them it sounds like a scam, people just shook their head at me, or didn't speak English. I went throguh everyone of the two cars ahead of me with no luck and amber had none either. By then the train was pulling into the station, so she said 10 Euro and we didn't even have that much. I was furious by then, stupid lady on a power trip, it's not like didn't have a ticket and were scamming the train. Finally a couple, that amber talked to asked if we got it all sorted out, we said no they were going to call the police and thenthe said they had cash. So we paid the lady and she wrote us a ticket and gave our passes back. Now that we had he passes back in our hands and we were off the train, I told the lady that she didn't have a soul and thanked her for being on the power trip that she felt she needed to be on, etc. etc. (I left out a few obsenaties). Finally Amber got me to shut up, but I had every right to yell at her, they weren't going to call the police now. She totally ruined my day! I don't actually care about the money, that just how much it costs to stay 1 night anywhere. It was the power that she was dangling over us and her refusal to even try to understand that the previous times we did it exactly like that, wrote he date in in front of the conducter. Amber went with the nice lady who bailed us out to get some money to pay her back ans i stayed with the luggage and the hsiband. He was trying to make small talk, but I hate that in the best of situations, but I tried since they bailed us out. Finally they came back and We still hadn't eaten, but I was too angry to eat, so we just waited for our next train.
On this train, we got to our cabin and it was full with 6 people inhere, but whatever if there is no seats then that's fine. after a few hours I asked the ticket agent if there was a resuraumt car, he said yup car 3, we were on 9, so I made my way down there. It took 10 minutes and along the way I passed at least 3 cars that there was no one in, stupid train company, let's cram eveyrone Together when there are open cars everywhere. I got to the end of the train and there was no resturaunt car, thanks for wasting my time buddy, and I walked all the way back. Then another ticket guy asked me for my ticket, of course amber had it, and it had already been checked twice, I am surprised he didn't escort me back to check judging by the compentense of these Italian ticket agents.
There was also an agent in Venice that wanted to check our ticket as the train was coming to a stop and we were standing (again it was already necked twice). More people were just getting back on, he would just have to check everyone again then. They seem to be lacking some basic logic and the abilty to reason.
Finally we got to Rome. No shortages of problems after that, but nothing that disasterous. So we went and took out money, the machine only gave us 50s but wewere getting our metro pass, so no problem. We ant down to purchase it and there was no people only machines and the machines only gave a maximum of 4 euro change, so we walked all the way back upstairs to buy ice cream to get change. Finally we get on the metro and get to our stop for our hostel. And wow we get off the metro and we are in the sketchiest of areas. Nothing looked dangerous, but very dirty, very bare, but we decided to only pay for 2 nights and see how it goes.
The place seemed decent enough, it was hot, no a/c, but it had a kitchen and it was 2/3 the price of other hostels.
So we got settled and then headed out to find hue tourist information. It was close to the train station. So we headed back there and followed the signs (and I had the address) and it was no where to be found. We walked around the block twice. So finally we were dying of thirst so we ant to this cafe. We asked about the tourist place, they said oh yeah they moved it, it's now down this other street. Great, stupid city, take down the signs then.
So we followed our new directions to the place and guess what? They weren't right either. So we ask another guy and he said "1 euro and I'll tell you where it is". NO. "20 cents". NO. And then he told us anyway, it was just a few more blocks.
The tourist info only had a bunch of useless info, well the museums hours where good, but we wanted brouchures for tour companies and they didn't have anything, which kind of sucked.
So we headed back towards the metro and somehow Went through this huge long tunnel and we ended up at the "Fontana di Trevi".
It was packed with people. I remember doing a puzzle of it when I was younger, I looked it up for our trip and I thought it was in Lyon, which we never got to see, so I am glad that it was in Rome. We took picuters from a few different angles and then made our way to the bottom for the money shot. I had given the camera to Amber and turned my back to the fountain. I had my knees pressed up aginst the edge and ... ooops, up came my feet, I had slipped in the water on the marble, and nearly fell into he fountain. Luckily my butt caught the edge and I only ended up with a wet bottom. But how cool would it have been if I, Trevor -> (shortened to Trev) -> (Italianized by adding an i) to Trevi fell in the "Fontana di Trevi", I kinda wish it did happen.
We were starving so we ate at this super classy place called McDonalds. It made us feel a little like home.
Next we actually made our way to a metro stop and made it to Plaza del popolo, which was the plan in he first place. The Plaza would have been very nice, great statues, but we couldnt see them because of this ginormius stage they were setting up. And there were rainbows all over it. It seems hat Pride week had followed us from Zurich to Rome. Here we were bombarded by street guys apparently giving away roses for free. We of course waved them off, but I did overhear girls and they didn't pay anything, so we were a little confused.
So we walked to the Spanish steps, and we were totally unimpressed. From the street and from the top you couldn't even see the whole thing, so we just walked up them, sat for a while and that was it. We did come to the conclusion that these rose guys (thy were everywhere here too) were litterally trying to woo the female tourists, they obviously didn't see me as a threat.
So we went back to ridicuously hot room, found out that there was a bar right outside our window, how awesome is that when you need to sleep with the window open. So the bar started playing music around midnight and ended around 3 or 4. Thank God for good ear plugs, I slept ok, but Amber had a rough night. We were also super ticked because after the bar had stopped playing music, these people had come back from the bar and it was still smokin hot in the room and this girl shuts off the fan and closes the window. Everyone else is sleeping without covers and you close the window, dont be so inconsiderate, so I opened it when I woke up.
That was the end of our "most adventerous" day in Europe.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 12, 2009 from Rome, Italy

Day Trip to Pompei (by Trevor)
Pompei, Italy
We got up super early (6 am) to be at the train station by 7 to take the 3 hour train to Pompei. At 6 in the morning, it still felt like 25 C. Of course the window was shut again thanks to our favorite roommate.
We made it to Pompei and made our way to the 'old city' where the ruins were. the ruins were preserved bscause a volcano had erupted and burried the entire city. This bureied city was only discovered xx years ago. The city was over 2000 years old.
We didn't know at the time that we took the wrong train, we could have gotten on one that took us close to the entrance. So we walked about 20 minutes or so to the site. We got our tickets, no line great, and entered but we wanted audio guides. But the lady told us that hey are on at the other gate. We had a map, but it took us a good 10 minutes to find out where we were, and then we realized that we needed to walk across the entire site (20 mintues) to get to the main entrance to get an audio guide.
So we were annoyed, and it was hot, but when we finally got there, there was a huge line for tickets, so it was kinda good hat we had our and walked all he way across.
We spent about 3 hours exploring he cite. The coolest things we saw where:
1. Bodies that were in the act of drying, hands raised in surprise including facial experessions. These bodies were made from casts that were made when hey were discovered. The ash had burried and preserved them exactly how they were when the volcano erupted.
2. A old theater, this was pretty cool.
3. Cool roads made of big cobblestone and the giant stones used as crosswalks.
4. Paintings on the walls and mosaic tiles on the floors, that have been amazingly preserved, many with bright colours still.
5.. My favourite was the town brothel. Complete with; beds made of stone includig the pillow, erotic picuters on the walls dipicting various sexual positions, and engraving in the walls about complaints of vineral disieases.
It was so hot we barely made it 3 hours, although we could have spent another 3 because the town itself was huge. We took the right train back to Naples, so we didn't need to walk back to the station in 'new Pompei' and found a train back to Rome. We ate our leftover pasta that we had cooked the other night and went to bed early preparing for our day tomorrow at the Vatican.
We had one good surprise and that was the girl who kept closing he window has finally left! Yeah!
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 15, 2009 from Pompei, Italy

Vatican City and final day in Rome (by Trevor)
Rome, Italy
Our last day in Rome was a full one. We got up early to head to the Vatican, it opened at 8:30 so we wanted to be there by 8, so our plan was to leave by 7:30. Well, we didnt end up leaving until 8 and we decided to take the bus, because our hostel employee guy, Justin, said that it was faster than the metro, and that it would only take 20 minutes. So we jumped on the bus, and then we hit rushhour traffic, maybe we should have considered that? So the bus took 45 minutes, but it was air conditioned, so it wasnt that bad, even when it was stuffed full of people.
We got to the vatican and there was a huge line outside, but it went really quick, because we got there right after it opened. We were amazed at the efficiency that they pumped tourists into the place. We were through the line in 10 minutes, then going through security, getting our tickets, getting our audioguides, and entering the museum, all that only took another 5.
The vatican museum was pretty cool, we saw a mummified mummy, that was pretty cool, and tonnes of cool statues, but architecture still takes the cake on being the most impressive. We were a little bit astounded at the amount of egyptian materials that the vatican posseses, especially those related to "idols and gods".
I was a little mad at myself, about 5 minutes into the vatican, our camera battery flashed "low", why in the world didnt i charge it? I realized after that i hadn't checked it at all in the last 5 days in Rome. So i couldnt take very many pictures.
The Sistine Chapel did live up to the hype, when we walked in, it just hits you like nothing else. I don't think Amber felt quite like that, but she did think it was cool. We loved how the paintings on the roof have so much dimension, and they just jump out at you, and how you can tell that the roof if curved, but cant determine its exact shape because of the paintings.
After the Vatican Museum, we went to check out St. Peter's Square and Basillica. Again the square was huge and alot to take in, very impressive. There was a long line to get into the Basillica, but they just pumped the people right through. The basillica was very impressive as well. Very orante, very beautiful. We loved the openness of it, especially around the alter, which is unusual.
There was 2 things that bothered me about the basillica.
1. Why was there not a single crucified Jesus anywhere on the alter? or anywhere in the church for that matter (that we could find)? Isn't that a requirement of all Catholic churches?
2. Why was there SO MANY statues of old dead Popes in the Basillica? It bothers me because it looks like the Popes are trying to "glorify themselves" by commisioning such extranvegant 20 foot tall statues.
After that we were so hot, it was 30+ in Rome again today. And we were hungry, we headed towards Castle St. Angelo and we stopped at one of the first places we saw. BAD idea! It was kinda overpriced, the pasta wasnt too bad, but i was kinda sick of that, so i got a hamburger. No big deal, except that it was 15 Euro and it was the biggest peice of crap of I've ever tasted. I was so grumpy after this, the waiter didnt help, he let our food sit on the counter, waiting for it to be brought to us, for 5 minutes, but what do i say? and its not like I cant tip him, tipping in Italy is automatically added to your bill, at a rate of 15%. So this jerk wad, got 5 euro from us, that he definalelty didnt deserve.
So i was uber grumpy when we left to go to Castle St. Angelo, we actually decided to check out this store that Amber wanted to go to first though. Amber was looking for a leather purse, but this place was way too overpriced, but right outside was just some guy selling guys shirts. And for the past 2 weeks, Ive been looking for a sleevless shirt, so that my arms and shoulders could actually get some sun. And this guy had some, and it was only 5 Euro, so i bought one! And then I went to rip the tag out because it was scratching me and I ripped the shirt! not too bad, we should be able to patch it up.
So finally we got to Castle St. Angelo and we toured around that. It was interesting, but dont do it on the same day as the Vatican, it will seem boring in comparison. But the one cool thing is that we got to go to the very top and look out over the city and see various things.
Next we headed to the Pantheon, because last time we were there, it was closed for a wedding (if Amber ever gets around to writing her blogs you would know that). It was pretty cool, the dome looked amazing, especially how the light traveled through it.
We were then in serious need of some Gellato. Amber looked up a place that was famous for it that was near by and we headed out. I got us lost, then Amber corrected our course, and then we ran into a protest. We think some people were on strike, but they we all kinda gathering and the police were there, but nothing was really happening. But we needed to go around a few blocks to get to this ice cream place.
We got there and I got an amazing 3 scoops, while amber settled for the double scoop. It was so delicious and messy (for me) because the ice cream was melting really fast and it got all over my hands, and i had to eat it quick, so i was sloppy and got it all over my face. Amber said i looked like a 5 year old and wanted to stand else where so she wouldnt been seen with me. I didnt care, my ice cream was delicious.
as we were getting ready to go, the protest started and we heard a lot of yelling, its a good thing we were going the other direction.
So we ended our day (our last day in Rome, and essentially traveling because we are staying with Ambers family in holland) with some shopping. we took an hour or so to go down this street which had a lot of stores. I got a pair of swin trunks (i couldnt try them on, and when i got the hostel and put them on, they are 1 size too big) and some bright blue underwear (i know you care) and Amber got a shirt and she bought a real Italian leather purse in a store, so she was really happy about that.
We headed back to the hostel, had our supper, packed our bags, showered. Then i wrote this blog, and I am going to bed.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 16, 2009 from Rome, Italy

Rome Days 2 and 3 by Amber
Rome, Italy
Our morning started with a hunt for a company to take us on a guided bike tour through Rome, sounds easy I know but it kind of felt like a wild goose hunt but we eventually found one and booked it for tomorrow morning.
We then headed for the colleseam, it is absolutly amazing to see a building standing that is almost 2000 years old. it was so hot that we didnt go to the other ruins in the area (which we kinda regretted the next day but what can you do) we walked around for what seemed like forever looking at other buildings including a huge white memorial building, and the government buildings, we then got some ice cream so we could use the washroom and found out they didn't have one. We decided to walk to the pantheon and we were astonished to see the number of police officers along the street as well as what looked like riot police in huge vehicles, we thought it must be normal but you'll see why in a couple paragraphs why it wasnt normal.
We got to the pantheon but there was a service going and so they wouldnt let us in, we waited about an hour before they told us to come back in an hour and a half at 6pm when the service was done, so naturally we did some shopping and had some drinks and went back at about 6:30 where we waited another half an hour before he told us it would now be closed for the day and to come back tomorrow. How annoying that mass can't end on time.
As we were walking back to the metro line we noticed there was a parade and thought we should go around, after going to another street we still hit the parade and Trevor for some reason thought we should walk along it, going the oppostie direction. It was a gay pride parade which was very interesting to see and also slightly disturbing, not because it was a gay pride parade but more how some of the people were dressed for example topless women with bathing suits painted on and men in very very little clothing, but the atmosphere was great and they were having so much fun i wanted to join them. At the end of the parade and along the streets was all the police officers and we finally understood why there was such a high police presence. (the next day on our bike tour our guide told us that is was predicted to be very tense because the week before two american tourists were beaten up so bad and ended up in the hospital because they were holding hands on the street)
Before we went back to our hostel we went to get some groceries to make dinner in the kitchen, it was the most intense shopping experience ever. After we had been in the store about 10 minutes they started yelling at us in Italian and we didn't understand so kept shopping as we didnt think were doing anything wrong finally he yelled at us in english (after we told him repeatedly we don't understand) that the store was closing and to go to the till RIGHT NOW, i was very scared and thought he might beat us up, but we still needed pasta noodels or what would be the point in cooking i quickly ran down an aisle and grabbed some while he chased us to the till. It was very intense!
On saturday night i woke up and thought by mistake we paid a 22€ cover charge to listen to the wildest party of the year When we thought we were paying for a bed in a hostel. The music and people were so loud at the bar right below our window from about midnight to 4am, I only heard them for about an hour and Trevor didn't wake up at all but it was so loud i thought i was in the bar.
In the morning we were up early to go on our bike tour already at 8am it was really hot but we got to see some nice ruins including the old Aquaducts which is how they used to get water into the city 2000 years ago, again it is amazing to see the genious of the artichecture and how well it has lasted even though they are no longer in use.
After going back to the hostel for some lunch we headed out to a Museam with many Bernini sculptures and a few paintings as well. Trevor and i decided our favorite type of art is sculptures so it was really amazing to see. After we relaxed on the grass in the shade and played with a little Jack Russell Terrier dog before deciding we better get somethingto eat and head to the Colleasum to see it all lit up at night.
We Ate a very late dinner at about 9 pm at the first place we found and it was worth it. Very good.
Went to the colleseam to see it at night with the lights on, and it was very disappointing as it was not even really lit up. A few spot light on the outisde and some yellow light on the first floor shining out and that was it. I ranted for a while and said i wanted to right the city and tell them how disappointed I was. I had expected the whole Colleasum to have lights shining out from the arches. We then headed back feeling very hot and tired, ready to go to bed.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 13, 2009 from Rome, Italy

Berlin Day 2 (by Trevor)
Berlin, Germany
Today we had a busy day planned. A were gong to get up early and line up to see the dome at Reitstagge (the german parliment). It is a huge dome in that overlooks the sessions, and it's free to the public. We wanted to beat the lines and get there early. We didn't and had to wait for about an hour and a half, they told us it would be only an hour. We got in finally, and headed up. It was cool when you first got in, there was a central columns covered in mirrors, all at different angles, put all pointing down towards parliment but not directly. I thought as we were traveling up the staircase along the outsides all the mirrors would point directly into parliment, but they didn't and it was dissapointing. We climbed to the top and checked out the view. It wasn't worth the hour and a half wait.
We then decided to go back to the Holocost memorial, that we saw on the tour the day before. There was an information center below. It was very enlightening and sombering. At some points you think to yourself how could people be so cruel? It was hard to read all the stories, but they had some interestig ones from survivors and the hardships that they suffered.
After that we headed to see a church that had been bombed in WW2, but instead of tearing it down they left it as a reminder. That was cool, but the church that they built to replace it was even cooler. It had blue stain glass windows, cut into squares, all the way around the church.
After this, we were all pretty exhausted so we headed back to our hostel for a nap. When we got in the room, there was a pair of blank panties hanging on the ladder to go up to my bed. And they weren't Ambers. They must have been by the lockers and the cleaning lady put them their, but there was another girl staying in the room, so we moved them to her side. Below her bed, there was an Irish guy, so for good measure we made sure he could see them, you never know they might be his.
We then headed for dinner and we ate outsite, even though it was 10 degrees, because they had heatlamps and blankets, quite ammusing. As we were leavong dinner We saw a bachelorette selling condoms, again quite ammusing.
After dinner we made our way back and called it a night. By this time the panties were placed on my moms bed, so obviously no ones and we just through them out.
written by  Trevor and Amber on May 29, 2009 from Berlin, Germany

The Netherlands!
Hoogeveen, Netherlands
We caught metro to termini station to catch the shuttle to airport. the Line was huge so we were a little panicked that we wouldn't get on a bus in time to make our flight. We met three girls from the Netherlands who were on the same flight and talked with them while waiting for the bus and then while waiting for the airplane. It was so nice to meet some girls the same age, they taught me how to count to 20 (I make no promises about remembering though) once our plane arrived we caught a ride with the one girls dad to the train station as they had to drop two of the girls there anyway and then we headed to hoogeveen where my aunt was coming to pick us up. Our train did head for hoogeveen however we were on the wrong train and so it didn't stop at the station so we took it all the way to gronigen (about 45 min past) and had to get on another train to go back. I felt terrible because they had been waiting at the station for us when we went through the first time and hadn't had supper yet because they were waiting for us to arrive. We didn't finish supper until 10 but it was so good to have some home cooked Dutch food as Trevor said. We then headed for bed shortly after.
In the morning we lounged around and at about noon decided to go for a bike ride to Dedemsvaat where we also had some really good lunch. Trevor was very excited to find some stores with lens clothing and affordable prices and bought a pair of jeans and two shirts. We then headed back and relaxed until dinner.
After dinner my Aunt Theresa took us for a drive to the grocery store to pick up some traditional dutch treats that i wanted, i got all the things my opa and oma used to bring home. We then drove to see a windmill which is now a garden store where we tried on some wooden shoes (surprisingly comfortable and my aunt says many people wear them to work in the garden) we then drove around and looked at some houses and also drove by the house my mom lived in when she lived in holland many many many years ago (i am not trying to age her). It was a nice evening and a good relaxing day. Tomorrow we head for my uncle perry's house but more about that in the next post.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 17, 2009 from Hoogeveen, Netherlands

with Uncle Perry
Ermelo, Netherlands
We arrived with uncle Perry on Friday morning and came by train from Aunty Theresa's house. Once we arrived we took the car and went to Utrecht for some lunch(we had Krotten or crouqhettes mmmm my favorite) and climbed the huge dome of the church. This church is the tallest church in the Netherlands and reached something like 112 meters 95 of which we climbed. It was really interesting to see the bell fry and see how the bells work. This church had two sets of bells the first set was a set of 14 bells that take a large number of people to work them, i believe these bells only ring for special occasions such as new years, christmas and special dutch holidays. The second set of bells are for the carillon and there are about 50 (according to wikipedia) these bells are hooked up to various pullys to play music and twice a week a 70 year old man climbs all the stairs to play songs. From the top of the tower we could pretty much see all of the Netherlands, we saw Amsterdam, Rotterdam, DenHaag and even some windturbines all the way near Spakenburg it was beautiful.
We walked around Utrecht for a while before heading to a little community near Amersfoot to see a type of experiment relating to house styles, it was nice to see many differnt styles of houses in one community instead of the cookie cutter styles you typically see at home and in Europe, especially in Europe houses are often under strict regulations to look a certain way in a certain country for example a house in Austria has to look Austrian.
After some driving we headed back to the house and had dinner which coincidently happened to be my favorite dutch meal (i didn't even ask for it) Potatoes mixed with endive and bacon and meatballs. I just realized that i have never talked so much about the food we have eaten until we got to Holland I guess it is so nice to eat some familiar things and home cooked meals.
On saturday we went to the market in Spakenburg where we also got to see some old oak wood ships and then went to a steam mill where we got to see how they get the water off the farmland and into the lake, it was really interesting. After lunch we did some more driving and went to Harderwyk to see the old town and did some leisurly shopping. My uncle took us to see his new house which he is renovating before he moves in in July, it was a really nice old house with a huge garden and lots of windows. Then we headed back for some coffee, relaxed until dinner and after dinner watched a movie. It is so nice to relax and do normal things and eat normal things that we would at home.
Sunday was a good day too we got up and went for a walk to see where an underground hideout once was for some people during the war, we then went for coffee and pie and then headed to an old concentration camp, it was interesting to see how the camp was different from the one we went to in Germany, they had some nice memorials there.
After lunch my Uncle John and Aunt Harma came to visit until dinner. It was so nice to see all my family and we got to hear about their trip they were just returning from in southern France. After dinner we relaxed and went for a walk before packing our bags to head for Amsterdam.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 19, 2009 from Ermelo, Netherlands

Last City ... Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands
We walked to the train station from Perry's place, because he already left for work. We got there and the ticket machine only took cards, but none of our worked, and the lady inside wouldn't sell us a ticket. I think she thought that we were trying to pay win credit card not cash, so she was confused. So we go another lady who was buying tickets at the automated machine to buy us tickets and we just gave her cash.
So we got into Amsterdam and we had to wait in line to get metro tickets. We eventually found our tram and took it to the stop that the directions to the hotel said. But once we got off, we were lost. We wanted in the wrong direction twice before finding a map. Finally I found the street on the map and we went there. They didn't have our reservation ... Great! But there other hotel did and it was only a few blocks away. So the address brought us to one place but the directions brought us to a different place, no wonder we got lost.
We left our bags and headed back to the main square to do a free walking tour. Our guide was on crack, quite literally, maybe not at that moment, but there were some signs for sure. I said to Amber, "this guy needs to smoke some pot to mellow himself down". We toured around and saw the city and tuned out our guide most of the time. It was a little strange walking through the red light district, even in he day. And even talking about drugs makes me a little uncomfortable, so that 50% of the tour right there. But we did learn some history and interesting non-drug related facts, so it wasn't all that bad.
After the tour checked into the hotel and bummed around for a bit. Then we decided to get some food, so we headed back to the main square and found this Thai place, and it was terrible! We ordered and my soup came half an hour later. Then 2 other tables got their food before us, even though they came in 20 minutes after. There was only 4 tables in he resturaunt and our food took an hour. And then my order wasn't correct and it was extremely bland.
We really wanted to go home, so didn't feel like doing anything else, so we headed to bed.
The next day we slept in for the first time this trip, I know hat sad. We didn't get going until 1. We decided to skip the Reiget museum and headed straight for the Anne frank house. It was pretty cool to see where they all lived and hear the story again. Amber bought he book.
We spent the rest of he day shopping. Amber wants me to tell you about her jeans that she got. They were for teenagers and they fit her, short legs and all. And they we on sale. We bought a few other things as well, some more cool underwear, because underwear in Canada is either boring or super expensive. A sweater for amber and some souvenirs for our nephews and friends.
We went back and packed our suitcase and calculated how much we spent, so we could tell customs on our way back into Canada.
It was late but we headed back out for dinner. The first place we wanted to go to was open but heir kitchen was closed, so we headed down a side street and found a Dutch cuisine, place where we could get crockets. We had a nice dinner there. We walked back in the dark and saw the lights at night.
We headed to bed, we needed to be up early he next morning to catch our flight.
A great end to an amazing trip.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 22, 2009 from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Our Flight Back Home
London, United Kingdom
We were up at about 6:30 ... I don't expect this day to be too eventful.
Blah blah blah, we're on a plane.
Blah blah blah, we get to London.
Waiting an hour in the customs line.
We go to have lunch and we see a fish and chip place on the corner. Amber sat outside with the bags and I went to find the entrance. I'm three steps away and this huge guy yells at me "welcome to London", I replied thanks, then he tells me to "f BOMB off", I tried to walk by him, and he puts the back of my hand to my throat, like a karate chop, but didn't hit me. And then he kept saying "is this yours?" I'd had enough and walked away. We found a door on he other side and a few minutes later the cops showed up. They talked to him for a good half hour, I'm not sure if they took him away or he calmed down, but when we left he was gone.
So we made our way to the airport and it took way longer than I thought it would, probably an hour on the metro. When we booked the flight we really wanted to get on a 12 (noon) flight, but if the price didn't go up like it did when we checked the next day, we probably would have been running for our flight. So it was a blessing in disguise that we had to take the 9 oclock.
We got to Heathrow and check in using the self check in, checked our bags, got a Starbucks, bought some duty-free alcohol (we decided on Pimm's No 1, because our friend Simon suggested it, so Simon better be right!).
We went to board the plane and they re-printed our boarding passes! We were like what the heck, what was the point of using the self check in to print them then? Then he told us that we were upgraded to First Class!
Wow, first class is amazing! We got champagne as we boarded, our seats fully reclined, we got awesome service, free alcohol (3 glasses of wine and 2 rum and coke for me), and amazing food. The meal that I had on the airplane was probably one of the best meals I've ever had in my entire life. We had lobster and duck and this amazing salad, the only thing that was just ok was the desert, everything else was amazing.
We landed in Calgary at 8 oclock (so that's 4 in the morning Amsterdam Time). Amber's mom came and picked us up and we drove back to Edmonton.
We got to bed around 11:30 or so (7:30 am Amsterdam Time). And that ended our 25+ hour long day and our 8 week trip.
written by  Trevor and Amber on June 24, 2009 from London, United Kingdom

Trevor Flying his first kite

Hands

Martin, Sandra and Trevor

The Holy Family Church

Holy Family Church