Amsterdam & Brugge

We arrived in Amsterdam 20 minutes ahead of schedule and made our way to our hostel. We considered all the options before us: pubcrawls, red-light district, dancing, skating, souvenir shopping, street-food, "coffee shops".... and finally decided to have supper at a sports bar and watch some football. It was a very nice first night. The next morning we went on a free walking tour. It was 3 hours long with an awesome tour guide. Very cool to learn things a lot more in depth about Amsterdam and its typical reputation. We both actually gained a lot of respect for the party-town.

From Amsterdam, we made our way to Belgium. We had intended to stay in Brussels, but all the hostels were booked for the 2 nights we wanted to stay. We booked one instead in Brugge. Very glad we did -- We even extended our stay an extra night. It was a beautiful town with tons of character and tons to do, all in walking distance. The first day we had Belgium fries (Belgium is actually where french fries originated.... there's nothing French about them!), and checked out some of the local sights. Spent some time in the Chocolate Museum and tasted some samples :)Their tourist map was hilarious. It was made by locals for young travellers, and was full of funny tips. We hung onto it to share with everyone back home. The next day we went skating in the Market Square downtown for a couple hours. It was pretty cool, because most everyone on the ice was trying skating for the first time. Made us look like pros!

We made a 9-hour journey across Germany today and are now back in Berlin for a couple nights. We were here only 5 weeks ago, and know that this train trip is coming to an end....

We'll keep you posted.

~ Ash & Chad

Belfast, Dublin, Cork, & Blarney

Our train from Dundee to Edinburgh was successful. We were at the airport in plenty of time for our flight. However, as the hours ticked on, we saw many planes delayed or cancelled. We were kind of losing hope for our own, but it finally ended up departing a couple hours after schedule. Belfast was a sight for sore eyes -- beautiful Christmas decorations on lots of streets, and very friendly people. We found our hostel with ease.

During our stay in Belfast, Chad got a bit of a cold. We took one sick day to rest up. We had gotten tickets to a Rugby game, which we picked up a couple days in advance. The day before the match, we got an email saying it was cancelled due to traveling conditions. Rather unfortunate.... So we went shopping for the day instead! The next morning, we took a day tour to visit the Giant's Causeway on the northern coast of Northern Ireland. It is an incredible site, named #3 of natural tourist attractions in the world (after the Grand Canyon & Niagara Falls).

We took off from Belfast for a night to visit Dublin & Cork. We didn't have a ton of time at our stop in Dublin, but we did stop and see their Christmas market. We got to Cork fairly late and checked into a hostel. The next morning, we caught a bus to Blarney to visit the famed Blarney Castle and kiss the Blarney Stone! It is said that if you kiss the stone, you will be granted the gift of eloquence (the gift of gab) for 7 years. We climbed to the top of the castle and hung upside down to kiss the stone at the top. I must say, neither of us seem all that eloquent.... maybe the effects are delayed ;)

After a 3 hour delay on our train back from Dublin, we are now back in Belfast for one night. Tomorrow, we fly back to continental Europe. We'll be staying in Amsterdam next.

We'll keep you posted.
~ Ash & Chad

Dundee & St. Andrews

We left London on a night-bus bound for Dundee. We had to change our route that night due to weather, and arrived 5 hours later than scheduled. Our bus also got stuck on a main road for over 2 hours, until we finally unhooked the trailer it was pulling. When we got to Dundee, we learned our next bus to Edinburgh was not running. Period. The whole company had shutdown its bus-routes until further notice. With help from some friendly locals, we found a nearby hotel and checked in for the night. Glad we got there when we did, because they had to turn away a ton of stranded travellers as the evening went on!

The next morning, the buses still weren't running, but we learned the trains were running (severely behind schedule). We still had plans to vist the nearby St. Andrew's golf course -- the home of golf, so we booked into our hotel for one more night. Caught an intercity bus to St. Andrew's. The course was snowy, but still cool to visit. Being the day before St. Andrew's Day, we were also granted free admission to the British Golf Museum. We got to dress up in old fashioned clothing and use old clubs and balls to putt around. It was a great time!

If the weather does clear up, we'll be on to Edinburgh by train in the morning. Then hopefully (*crossing our fingers*) we'll be able to fly to Belfast to our awaiting hostel for a few days. Wish us luck!

We'll keep you posted.
~ Ash & Chad

London & Stonehenge

We have been in London now for several days. The evening we arrived, we went to the opening night of the tennis ATP World Tour Finals. We got to watch a doubles match featuring our Canadian boy, Daniel Nestor (he and his partner won!). Then we saw a singles game between Rafael Nadal & Andy Roddick. Rafael was pretty rusty to start out, but went on to win the match. It was very intense! Tennis is a bizarre sport to watch live. Everyone is dead quiet while the ball is in motion, but as soon as a point is scored, there is cheering and hooting and hollering until the official asks everyone to shut up again. Glad we got to experience it live! The next morning, we set out to see as many sights as we could fit in. We visited Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and rode the London Eye as the sunset :) A wonderful first full day.

The next morning, we wanted to do laundry. It turned into an all day fiasco.... so that day was a write-off. Not such a bad thing, as there were teens rioting in the streets that day due to tuition-hikes. On Thursday, we went to Oxford Street to do some Christmas/souvenir shopping and saw the great Christmas decorations strung across the street. After that, we intended to visit the London & Tower Bridges, but were evacuated from the underground due to an emergency. After a few delays, we finally did make it to the bridges and walked along the river.

The next day we went on a coach tour to see Stonehenge. Our bus driver did commentary along the whole trip, which was very informative! Seeing Stonehenge was breath-taking. We had the perfect amount of time to listen to audio-guides, take pictures, and get souvenirs. On the bus-ride back to London, our driver gave us a history lesson on the Royal family.

Tonight we're on a night-bus to Dundee, and in the morning we'll visit St. Andrew's -- the birthplace of golf!

We'll keep you posted.

~ Ash & Chad

Beautiful Paris

We spent 3 nights in Paris. Our hostel was on the outskirts of the city, but the metro made it easy to see all the sites. The first day we got settled in around 3pm, so it didn't leave any time for exploring. The next morning we headed out early to explore the Louvre. It's sheer size is stunning -- we spent 5 hours in those walls and still probably missed something (because it's easy to get lost). Some of our favorite parts were the Venus de Milo, the Napoleon Exhibit, the Eqyptian displays, and the sculptures. It was tiring going through everything, so we headed back to the hostel to rest up for the next day.

In the morning we took the metro to see the Eiffel Tower. We rode the elevator to the top and took pictures of the city from above (though it was misty due to rain). There were tons of merchants trying to sell us various sized statues of the Eiffel Tower.... it got a little annoying after the first 20 minutes. Once we returned back to the ground, we headed to the Starbucks at the Louvre to warm up over hot chocolate. Then we made our way to the Arc de Triomphe. It is in the middle of a giant traffic circle, and you have to buy tickets to get close to it -- unless you dash across the traffic circle; I think that means you earned the right to see it! We just took pictures from a distance.

Next, we headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral. We got a little distracted by people hand-feeding a bush full of birds. We attempted to crush up some of Chad's cereal and do it ourselves, but one girl told us we did it wrong and gave us some of her bread crumbs. The cathedral itself was gorgeous :) Bought a few souvenirs from a nearby shop, then caught the metro back to the Eiffel Tower. We were determined to see it lit up at night. We wandered around it in every direction waiting for the lights to come on. At 5pm, the light-beams came on. Ashley had heard there was more of a show, so we stuck around until 6pm to see it sparkle. Well worth the wait! We finally headed back to our hostel (where the heat was broken), and tried to warm up.

Next stop -- London! We'll keep you posted.
~ Ash & Chad

Munich, Chillon, & Luxembourg

We grabbed regular seats on the night-train from Rome to Munich, figuring we were used enough to sleeping on trains that we didn't need beds.... bad idea. In our six seat cabin, there were various people in and out all night, opening windows to talk to friends or throwing open the door to figure out which stop we were at. There were five ticket checks and one passport check through the night. So we really only slept about 3 hours of our 11-hour journey. We got to Munich by 6:30am and settled into the station Starbucks to relax before we trekked through the rain to the BMW Museum. When it opened at 10am, we were some of the first in line. We toured the Museum & Welt for a few hours before heading back to the station.

Our next train took us to Bern, Switzerland. We got there late and checked into our hostel. The next morning, we caught a series of trains to the Chillon Castle, located on the edge of Lake Geneva. It was beautiful to see the castle right on the water's edge, surrounded by the Pre-Alps :) We spent 3 hours exploring every inch we could. It was cool to see how the castle had been built and renovated through the centuries.... we just don't have things that old in Canada! We caught trains back to Bern, in hopes of taking the night-train to Barcelona. However, Spanish night-train reservation fees are astronomical ($300, as opposed to the usual $10-$20), so we made a reservation on a train to Luxembourg the next day instead, and checked back into our hostel for the night.

We arrived in Luxembourg today by noon. Upon our arrival, we made a reservation for the train to Paris tomorrow. The Tourist Information office directed us to a cheap, nearby hotel. It was very nice for the price we paid. We then made our way downtown to take the Wenzel Walk -- a 100-minute walk that takes you through 1000 years of history. It was self-guided, and a little confusing to find the start. So we kind of invented our own variation and still saw all of it. Onto Paris in the morning!

We'll keep you posted.

~ Ash & Chad

Venice, Florence, & Rome

Italy was a blast! We started things out in Venice, where we stayed for two nights. The first day, we did some souvenir shopping and roamed the streets. Due to high tide and busy canal traffic, many of the streets would flood with water. City workers would stretch out long sections of raised platforms so that those without rubber boots could still get around. Very interesting to see! We did something we've always dreamed of and took a gondola ride through the Grand Canal. It was wonderful, though our driver couldn't carry a tune, haha. The next day, we made our way across the city to see St. Mark's Cathedral -- More platform walking to get there. We walked the city all day, checking out little shops here and there. That night, we celebrated our five years together with a traditional pasta and wine dinner in a restaurant near our hotel.

Onto Florence: Our hostel was in a villa in the hills, next to a vineyard. It was a half kilometer from the road through a beautiful park to get to the villa. Great way to escape the city! We took one full day to explore downtown Florence. It was a beautiful place, with a charm of its own. We visited the Galleria to see The David, which was spectacular. Spent time along the river, walking the bridges and enjoying gelato. Beautiful architecture all around and a beautiful day to enjoy it!

We arrived in Rome a day later and got a hostel right near the train station. The first night, we made our way to the Colosseum. After touring it for an hour, the Forum & Palatino (Old Village) were closed for the day, so we grabbed a bite to eat, then chilled at the hostel for the evening to Skype with family. The next day, we spent a couple hours at the Palatino & Forum, then trekked across the city to re-visit the Vatican. We went inside for a tour of St. Peter's Basillica. We also had intended to see the Sistine Chapel, but the entry fee was a little ridiculous, so we unfortunately had to turn it down. Before heading back to pick up our bags, we stopped off at the Trevi Fountain to toss in another coin to return to Rome!

We just got off the night-train to Munich. We'll make our way to Bern, Switzerland tonight.

We'll keep you posted.
~ Ash & Chad

Bucharest, Budapest, & Miskolc

On Sunday, we arrived in Bucharest. Our intentions were to visit the Circle Peoples' Palace -- the 2nd largest building in the world (based on useable space or something). However, we didn't consider the fact that Sunday meant some things would be closed, such as tourist information.... After overcoming that minor delay, we took the metro to a park that was beside the palace. It was full of people playing soccer, frisbee, ping-pong, badminton, rollerblading, practicing martial arts, and tight-rope walking. We relaxed and played cards for awhile in the sun, then took a stroll around the Palace. Due to the size of the building, it was nightfall by the time we finished our lap. We were going to search out a grocery store, but realized time was an hour ahead and our train was leaving much sooner than anticipated. So we headed back to the station and hopped on our night-train to Budapest.

Our stop off in Budapest the first time was brief. We reserved seats on a night-train to Venice a couple days later, booked a ticket to Miskolc, reserved a hostel, and dropped off our backpacks. We arrived in Miskolc a couple hours later and got ourselves totally lost looking for tourist information. Though the area we got lost in was the area where we later caught the bus we needed, so we weren't too far off! We proceded on to Tapolca, the thermal baths built into caves on the edge of Miskolc. We spent a few hours there soothing our sore muscles (and bathing for the first time in days). We grabbed a few groceries, then jumped the train back to Budapest.

Our hostel in Budapest was great. The ceilings were 10'+ and the rooms were quite nice. We had a low-key evening, then this morning roamed the city to find the Vajdahunyad Castle & Hosok Tere. Both were within a large, beautiful park. We frolicked in the fall leaves for awhile until the clouds started rolling in and we knew we had to get back before it rained. Now we're only a couple hours away from hopping our night-train to Venice. We'll be visiting Italy for at least 5 days -- spending time in Venice, Florence, & Rome.

We'll keep you posted.
~ Ash & Chad

Prague, Krakow, Auschwitz, & Vienna

These days seem to be flying by.... So after we left Berlin, we arrived in Prague, Czech Republic. The train station was a little confusing, but we finally made our way onto a metro and into the city center. We visited Prague Castle first off. It was incredible, but one tip for anyone else who goes there: don't bother with the audio guides unless you want to numb your mind with history about every wall and column. I think it would take 3 hours just to listen to the whole thing. Much better to do your own tour and read the plaques along the way. After the castle, we walked across Charles Bridge in the sunset and got some beautiful pictures of the Castle. We made a point of trying the cheap Czech beer as well -- not too bad. That night we hopped on a night train to Krakow, Poland.


After little sleep, we arrived in Krakow. Poland is not actually on our rail passes, but we went there at the suggestion of a friend. We're very glad we did! Shortly after we arrived, we put our backpacks in storage and boarded another train to nearby Oswiecim. There we toured the Auschwitz concentration camp. It was a shocking and heartbreaking tour that we are so glad we went on. We didn't take a ton of pictures, but recommend that everyone try to see this piece of history in their lifetime. We then made our way back to Krakow, where we saw the Royal Castle and Market Square. We tried one of their infamous Polish pretzels, which lived up to their reputation. We've tried the pretzels in New York, and they just don't compare to Poland. We finished the night by trying Polish beer, which is considered to be some of the best in the world. It was also quite delicious :)

After another night train (not going to lie, we haven't showered in a few days....), we arrived in Vienna, Austria. We got here quite early, so we found a Starbucks and chatted over hot chocolate until the tourist information booths opened. Then we took a tram to the Belvedere Palace. We roamed the gardens and soaked in the sun. After a couple hours, we caught another metro to The Prater, which is an amusement park in Vienna. It is home to the Wiener Riesenrad, the oldest ferris wheel in the world. Its design inspired the London Eye. We took a spin on this old wheel and had some incredible views of Vienna. Only a couple hours now until our next night train to Romania!

We'll keep you posted.

~ Ash & Chad

Copenhagen & Berlin

So a little over a half-hour after my last post; our wonderful friends, Jen & Christian, tracked down our train passes! We left Bergen 11 hours later and began our 45-day train journey. We spent yesterday in Copenhagen, where we tried to get tickets to the Kobenhavn vs. Barcelona football match. No luck there, so we watched it in the common room of our hostel, which was just as fun with all of the opposing fans! In terms of hostels, they just seem to be getting better as we go (knock on wood....). Lower prices, nicer locations, cleaner, bigger. No complaints in the hostel department.

Today we arrived in Berlin. It is a beautiful city :) There's so much to see and do. We made our way through the metro to a site where they've preserved a large section of the Berlin Wall. It was surreal to think it was once a 150km barrier across the city. Glad we got to see that piece of history. Dropped by the Mini Cooper shop and checked out the merchandise, then made our way to a Starbucks to relax and have a coffee. Found a nearby hostel that is fantastic. The room is one of the nicest so far, and the lowest price!

Tonight we finally caved in and bought mitts and head-gear.... we have been trying to deny that there is a winter coming, but we know it's inevitable.

Tomorrow we're on to Prague! Hopefully we'll post updates every few days or so.

We'll keep you posted.

~ Ash & Chad