I am traveler

Berlin, Germany.

2009-12-12T19:39:00.000+01:00

Hello there! Trevor here, perched atop the fifth floor flat located in a building older than our nation. We have finally arrived in Berlin!! After an extremely long and monotonous day of traveling our first day was spent sleeping in and grabbing food at the local grocer for the next couple of days. We visited the berlin wall (see above) which was quite fascinating as it had just been repainted for its 20th anniversary!! Sadly other than the wall we haven't seen much of the history, or the city for that matter, the weather has been less that promising. The rain seems to be nonstop and the temperature has been right around 0 degrease celsius the whole time. But Berlin has not been all bad, our hosts Chris and Stephanie have been very hospitable and have done their best to show us around in spite of the poor weather. Chis took us out our first full day after we saw the wall and showed us a little slice of the local scene including a lovely tea/chill out place with a great ambiance and the largest second hand store I have ever been to, five stories of bin sifting!! With that, we say goodbye to Berlin tomorrow morning as we head south to meet up with our good friend Jo for what is sure to be an amazing time with him over the holidays. Until the next post, Tschüß!!!

Here's the sea of bikes pictures that we promised! You see this right as you come out of Amsterdam Centraal; such a nice sight to see!!

Four stories of magic!

Prinsengracht 267

2009-12-07T20:30:00.001+01:00

Today Trevor and I decided to take the city on solo with our bicyles. It's great because the city is so bike friendly (with seperate lanes on the road and on the sidewalk, lights for bikes and everyone, literally everyone cycles in the city) so it's welcome to just ride around as a newby...just watch out for the people on scooters to room by! Anyway, after finally tracking down Trev's christmas present (!!!!!), I decided to go over to Anne Frank Huis. I don't really know what I thought of it, but I really enjoyed all the film that was taken of Anne and her family. I think I'll leave it at that.

Surfing on a rocket.

2009-12-06T18:29:00.001+01:00

The sunset from our host's living room.

Today we said goodbye to Maaike, our second host here in amsterdam, and returned to Harm and Tiphaine's place (our first host). Yesterday was Sinterklaas and they celebrated it with lots and lots of yummy food. Trevor and I went out to a silly chinese restaurant and got some fried rice and tea and chatted about the rest of our plans. Maaike was sleeping when we got back around dinner time and we cooked her a nice veggie chili and tortia dish for the holiday!

We've really enjoyed exploring the city though! There's lots of little ally ways lined with shops full of all sorts of things and unique cafés that are set up like living rooms. It's so great to get out on our bikes and go with or without a map and let the city take us where it may. Trevor bargained with on shop owner and got me an early Christmas present. I have yet to go hunting for his yet!

It's a simple maual 35mm. I think it'll be nice to take some 'real' photos while we're out and about; to show the city in an artistic way, rather than just clicking the digital thing all day.

Anyway, we're missing home and everyone during the holidays. Christmas is coming up and it would be nice to sleep in our cozy beds and wait for the snow during this time of year. We miss our animals too! Parents give them treats for us!

Cheers!

Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2009-12-03T19:00:00.000+01:00

Hello again everyone. Sorry for the blogging absence. We accomplished a lot of work and let the farm life sink in. And it was a wonderful four weeks in England. We learned a lot of things about gardening and training the horses for driving. We've got quite the recipe list compiled as well! Jayne is an amazing cook who has the craziest idea for food. She could multitask the aga so perfectly. It's sad to be away from it.

We are now continuing our journey in Amsterdam! From the Harwich international port we took the ferry to the Hook of Holland, the train to Rodderdam and from there to Amsterdam Centraal. It's was a beautiful, and dreadfully cold, ride across the open ocean and it was a very interesting experience when it came to figuring out to change trains when the times tables are in Dutch. :) Thankfully, Dutch people don't mind giving confused travelers help and we got through the ordeal very well. Then once we got into Dam we met up with our first host! As soon as you walk out of centraal station there is literally a sea of parked bikes. I'd guess that there was at least 500-800 bicycles! I'll have to go back and post a picture, because it is just mind blowing. Anyway, Harm, Dutch, lives with his french girlfriend,Tiphaine. She is a nanny for a few different familirs and He works at a bakery. They just hosted us two nights, but were very kind and gave us a well-used map to get ourselves lost with. We biked around the city...until Trevor got a flat and went on foot to visit some recommended open stall secondhand stores. They proved to bring a good adventure too. Bartering with the people at the stalls and picking through all sorts of nicknacks and such. I became quite fond of the 35mm film cameras and investigating the brands that we don't get in America. It makes me miss the antipque shops with sweet old lady owners, down near Pike Place!

We've moved onto another host who lives on her own closer to the centre. She's dutch as well and has a cute jack russle named Lola. I think she became very fond of Trevor and I. It's great to be with animals again. They seem to have a very nestalgic essence to them. Especially when you've been away from home and your own pets for an extended time. It's lovely.

Here's a few photos that have been taken along the way.

One of the many canals in Dam.

So many dutch bicycles!

On the train to Rodderdam.

50pence gloves from Hadleigh!

Fox Farm.

2009-10-30T23:34:00.001+01:00

It's been exactly a month since we're arrived in Europe! Sorry we haven't posted about our helpexchange experience sooner, we've been busy working 9-5 days on the farm!! It's lovely here though! The grounds are beautiful and the weather has been great ever since we've arrived in Ipswich. The train ride over from Glasgow was picturesque and surreal. We even got to see the ocean, which I've been missing so much. It's weird to realize that you're landlocked and the puget sound isn't just right over the trees...

Anyway, I think pictures will give you all a better idea of what's going on and where we're living than me explainging it while in a total zombie state.

The dogs are Humphrey and Bular. the horses are Dilly (the little one) and Dylan (Dartanian just came in today from training...I'll post him later). Fox farm was built back in 1380 and 1430 I believe. It's a gorgeous house with a wonderful aga. I love cooking on that thing! The apples and fruit from the garden are our good works as far as that type of work goes. The tandom and the Peugeot bikes are Janye and Alan's, but after an afternoon of repair and cleaning we took them out for a spin. We had never ridding a tandom before and couldn't help but laugh and giggle the whole ride! But so far we're loving the farm and learning a lot of new things. I now know how to make bread from scratch as well, it's brilliant!

Here's a film our first host, Jules, in Glasgow made in 4 days with just a camera. She baked everything herself too!

Ipswich, England, UK

2009-10-26T02:42:00.000+01:00

Okay, we may not be in England yet, but as of tomorrow at 11.50 we'll be on the train from Glasgow to Ipswich. And why are we going to such a middle of nowhere place? Let me tell you a wee story that'll explain it all. After being a bit screwed by the exchange rate from $ to £ we found that it'd be in our best interest to get a job via help exchange. It's an online network that connects people from all over the world to work for families and small businesses in exchange (how conveniently named) for grub and accomodations. The job that we are set up for is an organic farmstay where we'll be doing a multitude of odd end things. Trevor will most likely to the more ruff and tough jobs like renovating or buildings things around the farm and the house, whereas I can put my efforts towards DIY crafts that they want and helping train the horses to pull carriages. They've got lambs (which unfortunately will be turned into meat-lovers meals), beehives and gardens. How exciting!

Anyway, we're planning to be there for a whole month so we'll have lots of time to take in the farm life and hopefully gain some inspiration from the scenery around us. There's internet there as well so we'll try to post on the blog and add lovely pictures of our new home in England.

Cheers everybody! We miss you and send you all our love...postcards soon!

Betty

2009-10-22T03:30:00.000+02:00

Since I've had this time to sit down and spend some good moments on the internet, I couldn't resist a look at my favorite blog leblogdebetty.com. It's been ages since I've had a glance at it. Here's my favorite photos from the past month or so:

Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

2009-10-22T01:58:00.000+02:00

Sorry we've been lacking, it's hard to get the internet sometimes! But we've been in glasgow for almost a week now! Took the ferry over from Belfast and then the train to Glasgow Central. Wonderful ride even though we missed our ferry and had to wait four more hours till the next one came in. But we love it here. We've had two wonderful hosts and we're still staying with our second host at the moment. Our first host was a Glasgow School of Art student studying vicsom and staying in the west end. Jules was her name and she's Filipino as well. Though she's a native Scottish girl from Aberdeen. Anyway, she was delighted to show us around and Trev and I walked through the art school...even though we weren't actually students. It was good fun though and I think I'm going to apply to the school. Way cheaper than any art school you could try to get into in America...she gets her uni for free too, since she's Scottish.

But we met Swampy, the local jakey in Kelvingrove park...I don't really know what to say about him. It's best just to look up 'swampy in kelvingrove park' on youtube.com and you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. But here's a tribute to him that we drew on Jules' wall (she's had all her surfers write a little goodbye word on it).

Kim was our second emergency host. No one seemed to message us back in time for our next nights stay, but we sent out an emergency on the Glasgow group page and she welcomed us right in! Our previous host needed to host more people so it was time to move on. But Kim is a wonderful, lively girl who books gigs at the local bars and pubs around Glasgow. She's great fun and is always up for an adventure. She even took us and the other surfer, Ellen, she's from Austrailia, to the art store where I drooled over all the amazing art supplies manufacturers that we don't get in America! I even got some beads to add to my dreads today. It's wonderful.

Anyway, we've loved Glasgow since the minute we've arrived and come quite attached to it (it really reminds us of Seattle actually!). Here's a few random pictures throughout our trip that we've taken:

Horses we came across on our ride from Dublin to Belfast.

Capital Building in the Belfast city centre.

Queens Uni in Belfast.

Listening to the Stooges on Jules' record player!

Trevor and I wented into the raddest second hanf book shop in Glasgow...So many stacks of £1 books!

Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.

2009-10-11T19:53:00.000+02:00

Well, after being rained out for almost a week, we resorted to riding as much as we could when we could. Didn't have any internet access either so we stayed in a few bed and breakfasts along the way. We were lucky to find one the first day we got caught in the rain and the old lady who managed the homey place welcomed us in and even dried our drenched clothes for us. About 20 minutes previous to that I ran into Trevor while riding and had my first fall of the trip. I've got a nice purple right knee, but a round of warm baths took care of that as well as a couple days rest at the B&B.

After that we rode up to Ardee and spent two nights waiting for the rain to clear. The women was kind enough to make us breakfast the next day even though we definitely slept through it's normal cooking hours. Many baths there as well! She told us to make a shout out to them on our blog...unfortunately their name escapes me at the moment...

But we're in Belfast now staying at the International Youth Hostel and we have INTERNET! Hence, why I'm blogging right now! Tomorrow is supposed to be nice and so we're hoping to take the ferry over to Glasgow.

PS
Trevor has a tattoo now...pictures later :D!

Dublin, Ireland, EU

2009-10-03T17:38:00.000+02:00

Mkay, we've been in Dublin for about 3 days now. Traveling via plane was a bit uncomfortable, but went smoothly. All our bags made it...Trev and I cheered when we saw our bikes getting unloaded from the luggage compartment! We ended up sleeping until 5pm the next day after being up for more than 40hrs on our way over.

The city is great though! When we road into the city centre from the airport we saw a huge crowd of about five thousand people demonstrating their rights as citizens. They were protesting the Lisbon Treaty and all kinds of people, of all different ages were out. Even the school children in their uniforms were out. It was quite a sight to see! We spent the rest of the day wondering around up and down the main street in the city centre. Walked around Trinity College where the shopping centre is and sat in the park with the locals. We also saw a movie, Inglorious Bastards, to get out of the rain. I ended up spending the majority of the movie sleeping, hah. After we waited at the Spire for our host to arrive and while we were resting our feet a silly drunk french man asked if he could pop-a-squat next to us. We intruduced ourselves and talked about Dublin and why we were both here. We shared our three month journey plans and he happened to be working for Fairtrade for a six month period in Dublin and a previous six months in Tunisa and then back to Paris (he lives and hour outside the city). He gave us some advice on the best places go to in France if you want to meet people and experience the culture. Bordeaux might have to be a new destination of ours when we get down to the south. Anyway, we soon met out host and finally got some down time in a really comfy flat right next to the Google building. It's kind of strange...we can see people running around and working on their computers when we wake up in the morning. It's good afternoon entertainment as well.

Besides that, all has been pretty well. Gone to a couple pubs for some Irish coffee and beer. The only problem we've really come across is with the bank. Apparently, they've been tracking my account and are afraid that my card has been stolen, although I already called them back in the states and confirmed with them that I will be using my visa in Europe. So now I must go find a pay phone and sit on the tele with them for who knows how long to sort this whole thing out...I guess things could be a lot worse though...who knows.

Cheers till next time....we'll most likely be in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK!!

Our means of transportation for the next 3 months

2009-09-28T06:58:00.000+02:00

After finally arranging our accommodations for Dublin I felt the need to hop on the blog and share pictures of our bikes and our two pet rats that will be missed greatly. I will be riding my mom's old Univega that she's had since the 80s (apparently I rode in it with her as a child) and Trev is riding a bike dubbed 'Spirit' that he built while we were in Montana at a shop called Free Cycles (I did the custom painting to give it some life). Unfortunately, our cycles are all boxed up and broken down for the flight, so no more joy rides before our departure. See you next time...IN DUBLIN!

Count down: 1 day!

My sweet ride.

Trev showing his ride.

Our beautiful rats. Stubs on the left and Zeak on the right.

Traveling on two wheels

2009-09-23T22:56:00.003+02:00

My boyfriend, Trevor, and I are touring Europe on our bicycles this fall/winter and dedicated this blog to our travels. Keeping family and friends updated or maybe some reading material for whomever happens to come across our blog. Our travels start in Dublin, Ireland then we ferry over to Glasgow, Scotland and trek down the international bike trail that leads us to London. We chunnel to Paris, train over to our good friend Jo in Germany and go back on the bikes to tour through beautiful Italy, the South of France and down into Spain. Then we hop up to Paris where we'll take the chunnel back to London and say 'bye bye' to Europe. The Google map to the ←left will serve as a 'play-by-play' way of tracking us while we're exploring Europe. It's just us, our two bikes and a whole new world to venture into! Count down: 6 days!!

* Click to enlarge map below* Dotted lines represent the places we're biking to, Solid lines are where we ferry or train to and Curved lines are where we're flying in and out of.