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