The Eagle Has Landed

Alas, our travels have brought us full circle and we touched down into scenic Newark, New Jersey yesterday, bringing our international wanderings to an end...(that is for the time being, such a comment would be bordering on lunancy when considering the average life expectancy of modern man and the fact that there are still so many incredible places just waiting to be explored....my guess is, given ample time and desire, that this will not be the last jaunt into the cross-cultural experiments of life!...but, perhaps it will be the very beginning of much more, yet that will only be known from a future retrospective viewpoint, which, consequently, may only be arrived at through the passage of time, and, therefore, we must wait and see where and when we end up....so I digress). After arriving in Dublin, having made it out of Athens before the labor strikes (and riots that followed) had taken place, we learned that we had just barely made it in before they began shutting down airports in Ireland and the U.K. due to another cameo performance of the Icelandic ash cloud. We spent the early hours of the morning sleeping on the floor of the Dublin International Airport as we arrived at 2 a.m. and wouldn't be able to check into the hostel until later that day. Eventually we made it to the hostel where we awaited the arrival of the family the following day, which was still up in the air due to the aforementioned ash cloud. Everything worked out, as it always does, and the family arrived in Dublin and the adventures began. We all piled into a mini van and were unleashed onto the streets of Dublin in style (editors note: style, as used in this context, refers not to the physical appearance or dress of the group, but will be used as a synonym for "a box of insanity barreling blindly through narrow roads and major motorways, nearly avoiding death and/or dismemberment, with no real idea of how or when we would arrive at the preselected destination, all this combined with a sprinkling of frayed nerves, picture opportunities, sleep deprivation and hundreds of round-a-bouts in a mad dash to take in as much of the motherland as possible). Style saves the carpals and thus, will be used instead. So, in another slight digression of theme, and to the tune of a stream of conciousness style of modernist journalism, the reader is asked to indulge oneself in, and deeply consider, the fantastic idea that if you ever really want to know the dynamics of your family relations, you must simply recreate the experience of the aforementioned adjective laden description of "style" (please see "editor's note" above should you have any doubt) and repeat said description continually over the course of a week...this is truly a crash course (who loves puns?!) in whether or not you love your family members. (happily, I can say that after having such a trial by fire experience with family, I can answer that I discovered that I do indeed love family, as well as the fact that Cheesburger flavored chips (crisps for those of you that were there) really do taste like a cheeseburger,....truly a human feat to marvel at, and love the fact that great stories and memories are always the result of a family trip. Where were we?...ah, yes, driving in style....we spent the week visiting sights all over Ireland. We arrived at our hotel and settled in before heading out to grab some dinner. We went into town and got some fish and chips (excellent) and some groceries for the night. You ever tried to parallel park a minivan in style from the right, what we consider the passenger side or, ironically, the wrong side? Now that Good times!!! We were able to visit the grave site of relatives in Tullamore, Ireland and see the town where our ancestors would have spent their daily lives....although in much different times. A great experience. We toured the Tullamore Dew distillery and had a sip of the past in the form of that famous Irish liquid fire known as whiskey. Other great sights included a lot of great countryside throughout Ireland, the Lowry's Bar in Clifden (a quaint town on the western coast where we spent the evening in town at a B and B in order to relax and enjoy live music and laughs at the Lowry's Bar...it was a great night), the Cliffs of Moher, which are 600 foot cliffs that plunge directly into the Atlantic ocean in an incredible display of natural beauty, the city of Galway which has a lot of great restaurants, bars and stores, the southern coast where we enjoyed the first taste of the ocean for the first time and kissed the Blarney Stone, (you gotta do it if you are there!, it's just one of those things) and Dublin, where we saw some sights and enjoyed most of them from a post card style view (that meaning that they were closed or time was not sufficient to see them all), but we did get to enjoy a small market in the center of town with fresh olives, horse on a stick and pastries and breads...and a lively feel that made it a great experience. The days were long but the sights were many and the sun was shining for most of the trip, or at least it wasn't raining which was great for enjoying the outdoor sights. It was a bit of a whirl wind overall, but we got to see a lot. I feel like I am still taking it all in as the week passed by so quickly that you almost have to relive the experience vicariously through your own memories in order to remember everything that happened. We all made it out of Dublin on a few different flights, but there were no major complications (at least that I have heard of at this point) and the journey home began. Four months went by quickly and it seemed that the speed of time increased exponentially after the half way point was crossed. We were able to see a lot of amazing sights, meet great people and spend a lot of really great days together. Crisscrossing countries and continent by plane, train, automobiles ("you're going the wrong way!!!-name that movie), by foot, camel and scooter, hitchhiking and hoping, we made it from point A to point B, though not particularly in that order.....and are thankful to have seen what we saw....that's the great thing about traveling, just getting to be here and there and take in this experience called life from different viewpoints....such a valuable tool in life....you get to see how there are so many striking similarities in the human experience even if the culture or language is radically different and you can really learn a lot about yourself and your own culture when it is no longer around you, when you are left to wonder what that is to you, and just when you let yourself think that something like cultural difference separate people, you realize that we are all in this thing together, I've found that laughing and crying are truly universal languages, no matter where you go, if you hear someone laugh or cry, you know exactly what they mean and even more, exactly how they feel, and that a smile goes a long way when you have no idea what someone is saying...speaking of universal themes, it seems that the public subway systems in major cities are among the most depressing places in the world, a modern ferry crossing the river of Styx for business workers at rush hour, zipping across electro-magnetic rails through concrete mole holes of darkness while the blank faces within bob up and down to the monotonous rhythm of the passing ground, staring into some other far away world, that kind of stare that goes right through the walls and bodies, one that is more of a defense mechanism, a total system shut off, more a form of ignoring than staring in a place where eye contact with another person is a taboo not to be broken....the whole thing just feels lonely or lost or something...(maybe that's jut me)......and this happens everyday, all day, with no shortage of volunteers to crawl inside this vial beast...that said (sorry for depressing everyone), I really believe that most people in the world are good people and will help you if you give them a chance to...not always, but more often than not...and either way there is no sense in worrying that the world is out to get you all the time....most likely it'll just cause you to miss out on great experiences....in the end the whole experience and memories that we were able to have during our journey were incredible and G summed up the entire trip amazingly when she said the motto and invaluable life lesson of the trip was that "everything happens for a reason, that you are where you are because that is exactly where you are meant to be". Realizing such a thing really allows you to enjoy the moment and quit worrying. Good things! Well, I guess that is all...I will go back and update and edit some of the other posts as many of them were written in a budget-minded-euro-pinching haste and thus may not include some really great experiences or may be lacking in description...other than that though, Denver will be our next stop after spending a few days with family in Pennsylvania and then a couple days driving across the country...Colorado summer, here we come!!! Team Lowry

Sliding in Between a Rock and a Hard Place!!!

So, we made it out of Athens hours before a nation wide transportation labor strike went into effect, cancelling all flights, outgoing and incoming, in Athens. Some rather aggressive protesting started this morning, think it got a little wild. We would have liked to have seen the protests, but catching our flight was a crucial peice in being able to spend time with family in Ireland, which we are really looking forward to. We arrived in Dublin in the early morning (around 2 a.m.) and slept in the terminal underneath the escalator...suprisingly comfortable, all things considered. We got to our hostel only to find out from the staff that we had arrived just before they started shutting down the airports in Ireland, Scotland and N. Ireland...the volcanic ash clouds were on the move again. Hopefully the airport will re-open in time for the family to arrive. For now, we'll just wait and see. That's about it for the time being...will post more as info develops. Todd and G

Rounding the Bend

We are fast approaching the date when that giant, metallic, twin-turbo-jet-fueled, shimmering dot in the sky will hurl us at 500 miles an hour over billions of sea creatures and water molecules to once again make contact with American soil in that industrial paradise known as Newark....but not quite yet my friends, nor quite yet. Last we wrote we were in Albania. We did make our way to Ksamil, a beach town that shows all the signs of growing at a rapid pace, yet still quaint despite the construction. We hopped off the local bus, which also serves as the express delivery system for locals that want to send parcels to friends down the road. You simply wave the bus over at any stop (great thing is that the bus stop is anywhere that the bus passes by, just throw out your hand as it approaches and...bam!...you are at a designated bus stop) tell the driver that a buddy down the road needs this box, put it on board and let it enjoy the ride til your buddy waves down the bus and collects the package. Very effective and cuts down on the red tape of postage altogether (just wonder how fast they'd detain us back home if we tried to leave a package on a public bus. Anyways, we wandered through town and after a couple of attempts we arrived at a beautiful turqoise beach with small islands a short distance from the shore. We spent the next few hours enjoying the sun and beautiful scenery. I swam to one of the islands and ventured around a bit...apparently what I call swimming looks much more like drowning from the shore...but I made it. (it was only about 50 meters or so, not very far, but there is a point when you are about 50 feet from shore that you wonder "what kinds of incredible beasts may be below me?". Funny thing is that when I made the return crossing I was able to walk the whole way, it got about shoulder deep. The first swim was just a balderdash, don't look down sort of a deal. We then went back to Saranda via the public bus and occupied our time in town until the bus to Athens left. We spent the next ten hours cruising under the moon towards Athens, arriving at 5 a.m. or so. We caught the nearest metro to Piraeus and hoped in the first ferry to Mykonos in the Cyclades islands. Six hours later we arrived on the island and cruised out to Paradise beach, where we set up our tent and camped for the next week. We were able to spend a day on the island of Delos, which was a major spiritual center for the ancient Greeks. Great experience! The town of Mykonos was great and consisted of your typical white buildings that cling to the mountainside, seperated by a maze of passageways. Our next stop was Athens where we spent the day seeing the Acropolis and other amazing ruins. Met some great people and will spend tomorrow afternoon touring the city and in twenty four hours we will be back in Dublin (one day before the Greek airline workers go on strike!) where we will meet the family for one more week of adventures.

Still Trucking!!!

Well, we had made it as far as Dubrovnik, Croatia during the last post. We ended up having a good weather on our second day and were able to go through the old city...which is pretty much a really well preserved ancient city that consists of narrow alleys, huge plazas, marble streets and long, rising stairs all of which are surrounded by large castle walls and look out points hanging precariously to the cliffs just above the ocean. The blue and turquoise bays that surround the walls are beautiful and there are tons of footpaths to hike up into the trees to overlook the entire site. We really enjoyed the afternoon and the rest of our stay in Dubrovnik. The next day we caught the bus from Croatia into Kotor, Montenegro. In the last post I had commented on the natural beauty of the Croatian coast...well, the drive coming into Kotor took it up another notch. You have huge fjords with mountain rivers running into the blue waters. The gigantic grey mountains rise vertically so drastically that appears to have no slope at all, and they run directly into the waters. It was something truly amazing to see. Small towns dot the road as you make your way along the coast to Kotor. There was no camping in Kotor...but a lady at the bus station named Sandra took us to their house/rental apartments and we were able to stay there for the night for a really good price, so that worked out well. We spent the day climbing the ruins of the old fortress, which zig-zag their way up the mountain side, providing spectacular views of the city, the mountains and the ocean. The entire experience reminded us of climbing Macchu Pichu, very similiar weather and feel to the whole thing. At night, the entire path gets illuminated and it provides and incredible backdrop for the city. (We wish we would have climbed up prior to getting lodging, as I believe you could camp within the ruins and no one would say anything...pretty laid back set up) Again, we had great weather, so that was good. Our next stop was Budvha, Montenegro. Unfortunately, the heavy rains had set in again. We arrived in the early afternoon and decided to head for the Jaz Beach Camp, which was described as "a swampy campground" and, considering the weather, we figured this description would hold true. We took a local bus down the highway a few minutes and were dropped off at the end of the road. We walked towards the beach and came across the dilapitad and flooded camp sites of the Jaz Beach. It mainly consisted of abandoned campers with the windows busted out, a few empty buildings and a single, sagging tent set in the middle of the field with the poles falling in all directions. It was one of those things where you wonder if the people were still inside the tent....and had been for a couple of weeks. Overall, you got a sort of abandoned-small town-bad horror film kinda feel to it. (Dead things Mikey, dead things!!! name that movie) So we walked up the beach to where there were some more buildings and found a small restaurant with people inside. The owner said that there was no camping but that if we went down the street to the white house that we could camp there. So, down the street we went where we encountered a man and two women who said we could set up camp in the backyard. They had bathrooms and a shower, so it worked out really well. During the night, there was all sorts of loud wildlife noises coming from the fields behind the house...but there were a lot of cats around so I figured that it couldn't be anything too big. We awoke the next day and caught a break in the weather. We packed up and attempted to hitchhike back into town. We had read that hitchhiking was very common in Montenegro, we didn't see any signs of this in our experience, but, nevertheless, we made it back to town and caught another bus to Ulcinj. We took a taxi to the Velika Placa, the big beach, and found camping in a secluded, relaxing place owned by a man named Tomi....a good ol farmer type. It was a cool and beautiful night, and you could finally see the stars...yeah! We spent the next day under the sun at the beach, just relaxing. It was a good day. We then moved on to Albania. Albania was a communist country for 50 years until 1991. It was a country without private cars until that point and many of the buildings still have the very Soviet concrete look to them. Things are slowly changing, but going from a Communist nation directly into a democratic nation is an intense transition and it is still taking place. There are a ton of Mercedes Benz's around, which resulted from the huge black market for stolen cars during the initial free for all of Democracy. Yet, Albania is a beautiful country that is really fascinating to me, and the people are incredible. And now, the rest of the story...the same taxi drive took us across the border, yet he stopped at the last gas station and dropped off his taxi sign, apparently taxis can't cross the border. He dropped us off in Shkodra at the Furgone, minibus, station. Funny thing about these stations is that they seem to be in a constant state of flux and move from corner to corner, so you can't really pin them down, but the taxi drivers seem to know where the last stop for that day is. We took the furgon to Tirana, which is jam packed with cars and chaos. We were able to to travel from here to Berat, a mountain town that is on the Unesco World Heritage list for its preservation of Ottoman homes that climb the mountain sides. They are really beautiful. We hiked up the hills to overlook the city and to see the castle walls, which still house 200 families. We met some very friendly locals that liked to chat and just relaxed for the evening. We eventually made it down to Dhermi, a beach town in the south of Albania...it was a long journey but we got there. Luckily, some nice locals helped us during our journey, as when we got to Vlore, a city that we had to change buses in, no one knew where the next Furgon to Dhermi would leave from. A local "taxi driver" or guy with a car, took us to where he thought he last stop was. We sat there for a little while, speaking Italian, more or less, and watching things like cows wandering into traffic and what not(funny thing is that I have used Italian more in Albania than I did in Italy!). He kept saying that a bus should pass by, then his daughter called from the local university, so we went to pick her up cause she needed a ride, we then stopped to get lunch at a local Burek/Sandwich place, and then drove back to the waiting point. A bus passed us on the other side of the road and the chase was on....unfortunately a large truck was blocking the road and we couldn't catch the bus. So he drove us all the way to the other side of town, where his brother owns a restaurant to wait there as it is the only road out of town heading towards Dhermi that the buses would use. (all this for 2 bucks) By this time the sun was shining and we could sit by the ocean while waiting. He then offered to just drive us to Dhermi. We crossed through mountains, stopped to take photos and made it to the beach. We stayed practically on top of the ocean for the night, we got a really good deal because there was no running water at the time. We were able to watch the Inter Milan-Barcelona match with the locals at the hostel. The water and beach were pristine and we were able to sleep with the sound of the ocean just outside our door. The next day we hiked from the beach back up to the main road and waved down a passing furgone that took us to Saranda. The drive consisted of beautiful coastline and turquoise waters. We meet two locals on the bus that invited us to lunch when we got to Saranda and helped us find a place to stay for the night. They talked with the owner of the restaurant who got a friend to drive us to a place to stay for the night. The two guys who bought us lunch were from Vlore, far north from Dhermi, and asked if we had been invited to stay with any locals yet. When we said no, they assured us that if we were in their home town we could've stayed with them. Albanians are genuinely friendly and helpful people, truly warm. Tomorrow we are going to hang around town, maybe go to Ksamil, where you can swim to some islands, and then we are heading to Greece. The weather has been great and we are looking forward to some Greek sun and relaxation. Not too long before we get to cruise around Ireland with the Lowry Clan.....looking forward to it. That's all for now!

Welcom to Sunny Croatia....atleast that is what the brochures say!!!

Well, we made our way through Italy and ended up taking the overnight ferry from Ancona to Split, Croatia. We arrived to gale force winds and rain!!! We were able to find the camping site without a hitch and set up camp. Although the weather was rough, we were able to enjoy the stay at the campsite and were happy to be in the tent. We were right by the ocean, which was a huge plus. We then took a bus from Split to Dubrovnik, which consisted of a coastal drive for about 5 hours or so. All I can say is that the coast of Croatia is amazing! You have lush forests and rocky mountains that descend directly into blue and turquoise waters with small sandy beaches tucked into coves. It was raining and cloudy and I can still say it is some of the most impressive natural beauty I have seen...I cannot even imagine what it must look like with the sun out. We passed through Bosnia, only for about 16km, but we were able to get a picture...so that is cool. We are planning on heading south towards Montenegro and Albania, ending up in the Greek islands. This is just a quick update, all is well and we will keep you posted with further developments!!! Team Lowry

The Continuation of the Continuation Continues...Part II

We had made it to Fez last time we spoke, so that is where will we start today. We settled into our room and decided to get some dinner on a rooftop patio, a little relaxation before the flight in the morning. We ate a camel burger and a lamb burger, both of which were excellent and a nice change of pace. With our bellies full and the sun setting, we decided to find the internet to print our boarding passes for the next day... but we had some issues with finding them and soon realized it was because the flight had left that afternoon, not the following day. Our time in Morocco was immediatly extended by a week, which, considering the cost effectiveness of Morocco, wasn't a bad place to miss a flight on a budget....so we settled in and decided to enjoy our time til the next flight left, what else can you do. We ended up meeting some other travellers that were currently living in Germany as ballet dancers but were originally from the states. We spent a couple nights hanging out with them and strolling the gigantic medina that lies in the heart of Fez. The next day we were sitting in the sun eating some sandwiches when a guy walked by and recognized us from Essaouria. We started talking and ended up hanging out with him and a guy named Stephan from Germany for the rest of the day. (Abdul was in Fez to help Stefan around as Stefan is dating Abdul's wife's best friend...kinda crazy connection). We were invited to eat couscous (the food so nice they named it twice) with Abdul and his family at their house. It was excellent! Everyone eats from the same bowl and drinks from a single glass, it really has a communal feel to it. They get together every Friday to eat as a family after the daily prayers. Abdulthen took us around the hills surrounding the city and we just relaxed in the sun. We hung out with some of his friends in the Medina and drank mint tea. He invited us to hang out with him and friends that night for a drum session and were parted ways til dinner. We all ate at a restaurant in town and hung around til late that evening for the drum session, it was a lot of fun...everyone just having a good time. It was really refreshing to just hang out with local people outside of the usual circumstance of a merchant/consumer situation. Once you become a friend with one person in a group the rest take you in and say that you are family now. The next few days were spent hanging out with the peoe we met and being shown different sights around the city....oh, and checking put the local medical services (those kidney infections don't like to go away and they bring quite a bit of pain with them) We decided to go to the local hospital to get antibiotics...if there was any doubt we were in a developing nation in Africa, they were erased completely at the hospital. It seemed more of a building/complex that could have been abandoned and then turned into a temporary ward for patients and doctors. This experience along makes you realize the incredible gap between developed nations and impoverished nations. Through broken French and hand gestures we got the idea across and were sent to an offsite lab to do some tests...48 hours later we had the results and were able to get antibiotics. They worked and the infection subsided...very good!!! After a few days in Fez we headed for Tangier, where our flight left from. We pretty much just laid low until our flight to Milan, Italy. Funny thing though, at the airport in Morocco, the security guy was just sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette while the beeper went off at every single person that passed through the metal detector. He just kept waving us on without any expression at all. I figured they might askme to open my bag as I have sand from different places stashed in astic bags in our cooking pans...but they didn't seem to care at all. Same thing At the border check in Italy, couldve smuggled in all sorts of stuff, not that we were looking to. So, we had made it to Italy (bergamo) to be exact and headed via train and bus to Venice. Talk about a change, going from Morocco to Venice! Not better or worse, just vastly different. Venice is a beautiful city though and can be enjoyed just walking around and admiring the twisting walkways and blue green canals that slice through the city. The sun was out and we were smiling. After two days of taking in the sights, we decided to make our way to Florence to see Michelangelo's David. The first quote for the train was outrageous, 40 euros a person, so we headed to the main bridge off the island a put our thumbs up...without much luck...so back to the train station. This time we found regional trains for a total cost for two for less than the original cost off one, nice! Off to Florence, with a few connections and a few extra hours we got to Florence and caught the bus to a local campground, overlooking the whole city...really beautiful. It felt great to be camping again!! It's our own little house on the road! We went to see David the next day, it was really amazing to see in person....we had no idea the dude is like 40 feet tall or so...really well preserved too. The following day we decided to head for Rome and set up camp along a busy roadway with a sign to Roma in our hands....6 hours later we hadn't gotten a bite (hitching in Italy is a bit more difficult than France). So we camped another night and caught the regional trains to Rome. We found another campground just outside the city and relaxed in our tent under heavy rains. We spent the next few days under sunny skies seeing the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pamtheon, the Spanish Steps, all sorts of ruins, the Vatican, and the Sistine Chapel....it was really great to see all these places in person. Some truly incredible works. We are still camping and will be looking to move on tomorrow, either into Croatia, Albania, Greece or Turkey, we have yet to decide where we will start....until the next story time!!! Wa hoo!!

The Continuation....

So, last we left off we were sleeping in a Berber tent in Morocco, hoping that the gas wouldn't erupt into a ball of fire, killing most and scaring the rest beyond recognition....well, there were no problems and we all made it through the night alive. We woke up early the next morning to watch the sunrise over the desert and eat breakfast. We spent most of the time just enjoying the sandy dunes that surrounded the camp and taking in the fresh morning air. We then hopped back on the camels and started the long journey home. Once again, we passed through some truly amazing countryside....forests, mountains, deserts and so on...it was really great. We arrived back in Marrakech with daylight still to spare and caught a taxi (this time with better haggeling skills and a stubburn disposition, each of which got us a reasonable rate)and arrived at a hostel in the Ville Nouvelle, on the new side of town as it was closer to the bus station. It was a completely different world on this side, we had gone from the chaos of the Medina area to what seemed like a normal city...I even asked the driver if we were still in Marrakech. It was actually nice to be able to relax and rest up before catching the bus the next day. Our next destination was Essaouria, a beach town on the Atlantic coast. Jimmy Hendrix actually spent a year in this town and got his inspiration for the song "Castles of Sand" from the surrounding beaches...just a fun fact, in case they ever ask it on Jeopardy or something. Upon arriving to the town it appears fairly weathered and battered by the sun and sea...an old lazy fishing town. We caught a glimpse of the beach and sea and our spirits were ready for the ocean. We found a place in the heart of the Medina...clean bathrooms, friendly staff, and cheap rates...our lodging, two full meals at small restaurants and transportation from Marrekesh to Essaouria was cheaper, much cheaper, than a single train ride in the UK....ahhhh, that is nice. We spent the next few days lazing around the beach, walking the town and getting a few infections...a little ria and Urinary infection...but it was still good. G spent the day trying to find some diarrhia medication for me and by the end of the trip the locals walking around town were asking if we were feeling better cause they knew G was looking for medication, nice people. It only lasted about a day, so that was a big plus. We found antibiotics for G, but they didn't do the trick and the infection seemed to have become a kidney infection, atleast from what I could gather on webMD, unless you speak French or Arabic, a lot of self diagnosis has to take place. There is nothing quite like taking pills from a box written in Arabic and hoping it's the right stuff...it's not a language you can really sound out if you don't know the script. After four days at the beach, we decided to head to the city of Fez a couple days before our flight. We ended up catching the bus back to Marrakech, spending one more night in the city and taking the train the next morning to Fez. On the bus ride back to town, I decided to relax and listen to some music...it was then that the opening jam to Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick" came pouring into my head while my eyes watched a woman in traditional, conservative Muslim garments sitting across from....the complete clash between the audio stimulation and the visual stimulation was wild...two worlds meeting head...it was a cool experience. The train ride to Fez the next day was seven hours long and consisted of a constant flow of people coming and going at every stop...you kind of just pick a compartment to sit in and cram in together. At one point I had gotten up and a huge group of people got on the train, at one point there were something like 4 kids and 6 adults cramming into the compartment with G trying to explain that I was sitting next to her. One women was Moroccan but seemed to thave the spirit of a full blooded New Yorker, very outspoken to say the least. She came in like a hurrican and was kicking people out of the compartment, telling them to take their luggage down, I couldn't understand a word, but tone and volume got the point across...all we could do was laugh. She ended up being really friendly as the trip went on, just very intense. We made it to fez and found our lodging for the night without a snag. Simple, cheap and friendly staff...always a winning combination. Well...we will have to continue this story again..we are in Rome and back on the Euro, so these computer sessions tend to be a little pricey...more to come though, we are planning on heading to Albania, Greece and, if the money lasts, Turkey next!

Cobras and Monkeys and Camels...Oh My!

Well folks, we definently aren't in Kansas anymore! This much was evident as soon as we left the plane upon landing in Marrakech. The air was notably warmer and the drastic contrast between tourist and local was apparent immediately. While the plane ride was only about 2 hours from Madrid, the cultural gap was much, much larger. There was no doubt that we were outside of Occidental Europe...and it was beautiful! Although many areas of Morocco have been significantly influenced by the effects of Westernization, the conservative Muslim culture is still dominate. We got through customs and exited into a surprisingly serene airport lobby where we decided to get our bearings and eat our breakfast (packed by Dori and Nerea the night before!). Reenergized, more or less as we were running on about an hours worth of sleep, we decided to head out and make our way to the city. The cabs that lined the street were beat up peach cars that scream safety hazard....our kind of scene! We were grossly ripped off on our first cab ride, a lesson in the reality of haggeling in Morocco (we figure if you pay a third of the original price, they are still coming up on top...easily). But, when you don't know you don't know...and the reality is that a large amount of Dirhams is a fairly small amount of dollars. We made it to the Medina area in the old town and the cabby dropped us off with general directions to the hotel (pedestrian only). You could already get the feeling that the town was alive, that there were a million things going on behind the scenes in the many shops and alley way, and that the wheeling and dealing didn't stop here. We couldn't find the place off the bat and a man offered to show us the (obviously for a tip, no problem) and took us through a maze of narrow, labryinth style streets, where we encountered our first donkey just chilling in an alleyway...yes!....until we got to our hotel. He tried to tell us there were no rooms, but he knew a place that did. I decided to ask for myself and discovered no one was even there for him to ask. Turns out there were rooms...we still tipped the guy, it's just the way it works, and settled into our room for $7.50 a pop (definently not in Paris!) took the afternoon to explore the market...a vibrant, thriving maze that offers you anything you want and about a million other things you would never need...but still look cool. Was invited into a shop for tea, but when I wouldn't buy anything from the guy, he reminded me that 'nothing is free in Morocco' and I gave him some money for the tea. ( I think that statement holds true for major cities and markets, but believe this to be very opposite in the general nature of the people outside of such areas) Got completely lost, found my way back to the main square just in tome to see the night coming to life. Lots of drums, street performers, music, vendors, monkeys on leashes, men charming cobras in front of them , a veritable street circus...yes! That's what I'm talking about! After going back to the hotel, we headed out to get some food and found the square ignited with open grills and vendors. We ate a booth with fellow travelers (one hint: locals eating=budget). We ate and paid more than normal (it was our first night!!) while locals ate a hearty soup for 3 Dirham, ~40 cents. The next day we set out early with a group to go into the desert, ride camels and camp. We got to see a lot of amazing sites and country side on the way out...the utter diversity of landscape was amazing. Snow capped mountains, desert oasises, gigantic plateaus, huge canyons, forests, green pastures and desert...really nice! There were moments when I was sure the van was going over the edge of the mountain and the two Spanish guys upfront would cheer when we would pass a car without a head on collision...good times. We finally made it to our destination and road camels during the sunset to the Berber camp where we would spend the night. We ate dinner and drank tea in the tent and enjoyed a fire and drums later on. Ethen enjoyed the stars and stillness of the land. Everyone crashed after...had been a long day. (funny story: I was charged with the minor task of turning of the gigantic gas lantern in the tent. Easy enough, but when everyone starts second guessing you, you start to wonder, then the Chinese dude in the group, a guy who hasn't said much the whole trip, just looks at me and quietly says 'boom'...gave us all a good laugh and the lights went out) the rest of the story will be continued...early morning and long train ride tomorrow... will post again! Team Lowry

A Little Bit of the World, One Step at a Time

Hello! We are still here in Spain with Dori and Narea. It has been great and G is feeling about a hundred times better, antibiotics and rest can do wonders for one´s health. We took a really enjoyable day trip to Toledo with Dori on Monday. It is a beautiful city that rises and falls with the hills and has a maze of passageways that take you through small cobblestone streets. We spent the day just exploring most of the center of city...it was a great day. We were able to see El Greco´s art work in the Catedral San Tome, which is one of the most famous works of that time period. Overall, it was just fun spending the time together and enjoying the city. We just bought our plane tickets for Morocco. We will be flying into Marrakesh, Morocco on Monday morning and will spend the next ten days of so visiting different cities throughout the country. We hope to make it to Casablanca and Fez, and have considered heading south to see the Sahara Desert, I mean, come on, it´s the Sahara....but we´ll see, you know how those plans go...ha! Fez seems like it will be amazing to see, the city is 1400 years old and is considered the spiritual heart of Morocco. The Medina is a huge market place in this city, which is comprised of winding alleys, livestock, any and all market goods, people, and bazaars. It is the world´s largest living medieval islamic city, as well as the world´s largest car free urban environment. Should be pretty amazing to see. We are excited to make it to Morocco, although Dori and Nerea have really helped us out and taken care of us while in Spain, they are good people. We had lunch with Dori´s dad and sister on Sunday and are going back this Saturday for some Paella. He is a really warm man who talks about opening a typical Spanish restaurant in Denver...which would be great. We went to the El Rastro market on Sunday, but a bit late so it was pretty calm...we are going for round two on this Sunday. Well, that is another quick update...figure we should try and keep em rolling while we have a reliable interent connection. That is all...more or less.....Later!
Todd and G

España

We are still in Spain and loving the fact that we can spend time with Dori and Nerea, our extremely helpful and caring friends. WE are planning our next venture into Morocco, which seems like it will be amazing. Everyone that has been there has said it is great. We are looking into cheap flights, which tend to be cheaper than buses if you look ahead, many times fifty to seventy-five percent less. Although taking a bus allows you to see the country from the road, the savings are too much to pass up....who came up with the idea of a budget anyway. Tomorrow we are going to go to El Rastro, a giant outdoor market in Spain and then to eat with Doris father. G has been a little sick, well she has had bronchitis for about 4 weeks (she has been an incredible trooper and has pressed on without losing a beat) which we think is a result of sleeping in dorms with 15 other people and cold, wet weather. But, as fate would have it, one of Nereas roommates is her from Mexico to study transplants and happened to be a pulmonary specialist...excellent. He was able to do the examine, write the prescription and get the medicine for under 3 euros...a really good deal and an incredible break. We have met some really cool people here in Madrid and cannot express our extreme gratitude to Narea and Dori for their loving friendship while we are here. They are great. Well, we should be cruising along shortly and will return to Spain to try and spend a weekend in the mountains with Nerea and her family and friends. Just a quick update...all is well...only two more months to go....so much to see.

Viva Madrid

Just a quick post, we made it to Madrid today after a 17 hour bus ride....it went suprisingly fast. Our good friend Nerea picked us up in the city and we are staying with her tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, and so on....when we told her we were thinking of staying two weeks she responded with, "Only two weeks? Why not longer?" and she was absolutely sincere. We are going to a show tonight at the Joy Eslava Theatre where she is doing film work for the concert and her boyfriend is managing the performers. Should be a lot of fun. Hey mom, she has the blanket you made her on the couch....she is still very thankful. Well, we are in good hands here. Hasta la proxima!

Weathering A Difficult Day!

Yesterday was a rough day on the travel front. We decided to head back to the beaches to see some more sights and had read, as we found out on our previous journey, that bus service to the area is sporadic and unreliable. So we decided to rent bikes and take on the journey on two wheels ( we considered hitching again but figured a bike would suffice and allow us to travel at our own pace). All was well to start, we got the bikes and made it out of town without getting lost or run over (not too many bike paths through the city). We decided to go to Arromanches and the beaches East of Omaha before visiting the American Cemetary. Not too long after this decision, G's gear thing-a-majig snapped in half. We were now stuck in the small town of Comme, a really quaint village but not our destination nor our preferred method of having to stay there. Luckily, an ederly couple was walking by and called the rental guy to tell him what happened and where we were. We spent the next hour hanging out while the owner brought us a new bike, or so we hoped. He got there and told us it broke because you can't shift into first gear, which didn't seem right at all....but we ventured on. It soon began to drizzle and the temperature started to drop. We got to the beach and enjoyed lunch on the coastal rocks. This is when it really started raining and the wind got going gale force style. We had no other option than to keep on trucking, yet we were about 15 km out of town. After another hour we were soaked with no sign of the rain letting up; now we could see our breath. It was still going okay but the final stretch, a road of about 7 km, was rough. The wind really got going and there was a lot of uphill to conquer. By this point we were just pushing to get back to the shop. We finally made it and returned the bikes; they charged us for the damage 'we caused' to the first bike. Not being able to speak fluent French made trying to argue the charge a mute point. It was just a bummer as the bike was rented to us in disrepair. We then walked back to the train station to get back home. We had about 20 minutes til the next train left (19 of which were spent in quiet, anxiety in line ( we were beat and ready to get home) luckily the first woman in line offered anyone catching the next bus to pass her so they could get a ticket in time. This was cool...a much needed break. We got back to town and hoofed it to the closest bus stop, still soaked and getting moreso with every step (which can be fun and enjoyable on a summer afternoon, almost romantic...but on a cold, February evening it feels about as warm and fluffy as Poe's literature). We caught the bus and got within a ten minute walk of the hotel. We buckled down and made it. Hot showers and canned ravioli for all... we couldn't have been happier! We decided to change our train tickets the next day to be able to relax for a day. Tomorrow it is back to Paris to catch a bus to Madrid where we will meet up with Dori and Nerea! Should be really great! We ate looking forward to the fast approaching Spring and southern lands! Well, there you have it!

One Way or Another....It Always Works Out!

Well, today was a really good day! As we mentioned in the last update, our plan today was to visit Omaha Beach in Normandy. The web information about buses made the trip look very straight forward and seamless, but reality always seems to drop right in between those adjectives and shake things up a bit. We could always take the tours, but they are pretty pricey and we figured we could do just as well on our own. First reality: sleeping longer than expected and waking to heavy rains (we had decided to try hitchhiking today). Once we realized that we would be completely soaked by the time we got to the main road, with no guarentee that we could get a ride, we decided to head into town and check out the bus. The first bus stop we got to was not the line we needed, so we hoofed it to the central station and found the bus to Bayeux, where we would then change to a second bus for the second half of the journey. The first part falls into the seamless category, they even gave us the student discounts!!! Once we got to Bayeux, the bus driver told us the connecting bus did not come to that stop and told us where to catch it. As far as we were able to find, the second bus did not run anywhere from the local stops, at least not during the hours that we needed...nor were there any posted return times. After the final hope that the bus would arrive (reality) we decided we would do our best to walk out of town and resume the original plan of hitchhiking. We had gottne that far and paid a bus fare already; we weren't about to give up! We walked the direction of the route out of town, stopped at a wine store to double-check our directional intuition and kept on trucking. Shortly there after we saw a sign for Omaha Beach (we were only about 4 miles from the goal!). We then immediatly stuck out our thumbs and hoped for the best,. Within ten minutes a van pulled over and woman by the ne of Isabelle, and her little dog Croquette, picked us up and we were on our way to Omaha Beach. Through broken English/French we talked along the way. She dropped us off and we agreed that if she was there when got back, great, if not, we still appreciated the ride. Omaha Beach is a beautiful beach with blue green waters that tumble gently onto the shore with such tranquility that it ses to betray the horror of June 6, 1944. Seeing the beach was an incredible experience; as you look up the hillside that gradually slopes up from the sand you can see the reminents of the Nazi bunkers, like massive gavestones rising from the grasses. There are a number of memorials on the hill, including an American cemetary (unfortunately it was closed already). Looking out on the sea, you can't help to imagine what it must have looked like to be a German soldier and see thousands of troops, planes and boats coming ashore. The battle lasted about 6hr 30min. When stand on the beach looking up, you have to wonder what it would have Bern like to be one of the first to reach the beach and have to endure so many hours of being bombarded by German artillery. It was a weird experience to be there, yet a great experience at the same time. After a while, we decided it was time to go home. We walked back to the parking lot and found that our ride had continued on and we turned our attention to the trek back home, thumbs out at every car that passed. As the sun set and the sky grew darker, we realized getting a ride was gonna be difficult, but the buses were no longer running and we had no other option...we could always try to call a cab, but that was financial suicide that was more of a last resort than an option. We walked for quite a while in what we thought was the right direction. Eventually, a driver stop and gave us a swift ride to highway that could get us home. To our dismay, our destination was 44 km away and Bayuex (where we started) was now 15 km away. It was about 8pm and we still had a ways to go. Luckily, being an on ramp to the highway, there was fairly regular traffic. We made a small sign with our destination ( smiley face and all...just to show we are friendly) and decided to wait it out with thumbs held high. After about an hour, we began to wonder how this all might pan out, walking was an option but it was not appealing and would probably mean we would get home in time to check out of the hotel and the taxi, well that has already been said. At that moment, when it seemed like it wasn't going to happen.. a small white car pulled over and offered us a ride. He was going all the way to Carn and knew exactly where our lodging was....oh yeah! We hade a great conversation in French- English-Spanish all chopped up just enough to get the main idea across. It was great! We made it home and cooked some ready made pasta in the room... it could have been the tastiest, packaged pasta of all time (it had been cheese sandwiches and oranges up to this point). We made it back happy and tired and are going to try and stay a couple more days in Normandy...if we can change our train tickets. That's all for now. Tune in again later for further updates!

Updating Like a Mad Man! Yeah!

Well, today we headed into town to catch a bus tp thr D-Day beaches, namely Omaha beach and the American Cemetary in the area, as well as the many memorials. We got into town fine, yet when we walked towards the bus station we had been to on Friday we quickly realized that it was Sunday and we were in a town that still operated on a different schedule on Sunday. Very refreshing to see, actually. Where the bus station had previously rose from the open square, there were now hundreds of vendors in a traditional open air market. There were now people buying fresh fish and whole pig heads where the buses were picking up people a day ago. We pretty much figured that today was not the day to make this trip and walked the market a bit and decided to find the local tourist office for more complete bus information to the beaches. We ended up asking some police officers for some help, but not speaking French too well usually causes one to get a general idea of where to go and necessitates leaving the precise details to fate. We ended up asking another woman for directios about ten minutes later and she graciously asked another woman for directions, another woman who spoke English and had taught a summer camp in the States many years ago. They got us to the tourist office, which was closed...Sunday...., yet proceeded to take us through the market to a bus information station, which was closed....Sunday. The one woman gave us great instructions through the city to free museums and sites, confirming the notion that Monday would be a better day to take the bus. She said she would take us around but she was really hoping to do some shopping, almost apologising for it. We told her that was fine, but if we got lost again it was all her fault (obviously this is not true) but we did thank and told not to worry. We spent the day at several different attractions and museums. We saw the spot where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake and a lot of art dating back to the 1500's. We ended our day by going to a Memorial Museum, but it recommended 4 hours to see wveryhting and we only had an hour and a half, which we occupied reading the books in the gift shop (we figured we had taken the time to get there and might as well enjoy it a bit). If we have time tomorrow we will pay the entrance fee and see the museum. So, until tomorrow....

And Now....The Rest of the Story

So, we ended up catching the bus from Calais, France to Dunkurque, France and slowly continued north towards Bruges. It took a bit of work to find a bus from there into Belgium as it was getting late but a helpful man at the bus stop helped us out and we got a bus to Adinkerque (not quite Bruges, but in Belgium). When we arrived at the bus stop there was a train waiting, which we promptly boarded as it was the last train from that station heading towards Brujes. A group of young Belgian travelers were on the train and they gave us some tips, mostly about Belgian beer and fries, for our travels. So far people in the Dutch speaking countries have been some of the most helpful and friendly people on our travels. They are very cool people in general, A #1 in My book. The attendant told us we would have to make a transfer and that we would have to make the next train as it was the last one to Bruges. We hit the ground running and made the train with minutes to spare. After a short ride we arrived in Bruges, but we still had to figure out a bus to get to the center of the city. Luckily, a bus drive saw us sitting there and helped us out and got us to the central plaza and gave us directions to the hostel. We got a room and some fries and a bratwurst, they were really good. (apparently fries were invented in Belgium, but the name French Fries stuck as British and American soldiers during the first World War remembered them as French Fries as French was the official language of the Belgian Army). We spent the next day riding bikes around the city, complete with little bell ringers and all. It was great! A lot, I mean a lot , of people ride bikes around the city, which consists of narrow, cobblestone roads that twist between the buildings. At night you will see lines of bikes parked in front of the bars. We also did a brewery tour of a local brewery and then spent the night with a deck of cards and a couple beers in the hostel lobby. Another side note about the hostel. The guy who was working the front desk and bar spoke to us in English, the locals in Dutch, Spanish to the Spaniards, Italian to the Italians, and we heard him speaking French on the phone...pretty impressive! Overall, Bruges was a great city. We then decided to head into the Netherlands. A few bus rides and train rides, some on the wrong direction, and we made it to our hostel in the coastal city of Noordwijk. We spent a few days here and just relaxed. The staff was great and since it was the off season it was hard to determine who worked there and who didn't. It was like that house in high school that everyone shows up at to just hang out, nobody is really doing anything but just hanging out. One of the workers had a friend that was going to watch the Super Bowl and invited us to go. Crazy thing is that the game started at midnight out here, and we couldn't catch a bus home til 7 the next morning. It was a lot of fun and we ended up meeting some great people from England, Holland, and Poland. The bartender let everyone stay til 7 am and then we all went home to sleep. Good times. From there we took the free hostel shuttle into Amsterdam. Funny thing was that there was a group of six of us waiting to go and the shuttle driver was still sleeping. Best part is that the manager said, "Well, let me see if I can wake her up, but she's gonna need some coffee first, so it will be a little bit". Funny group working there! She got us into the city and left us with these wonderful words of wisdom, "If some guy comes up to you on the street and offers you cocaine, don't buy it...you'll get ripped off". That had us laughing pretty good. Another really cool thing was that the shuttle had a Zebra Junction CD in the stereo, which is a band that used to be a neighbor in Littleton...small world. We stayed a few nights in Amsterdam and saw the Anne Frank House. We got some fresh snow while we were there, it was really cold in the Nerherlands. Overall, Amsterdam is okay as a city. It's kind of like Las Vegas in that it is a party city and kind of dirty like a major industrial city. It was cool to see but wasediocre overall, at least for us...of course I think it would be very different in summer. Again, like Belgium, there were a lot of bikes. When you leave the central station there are literally thosands of bikes parked on giant terraced parking structures, it's pretty cool to see. I think something like 55% of all transportation in Amsterdam is by bike and 85% of the population in the Netherlands owns a bike, and uses it at some point. After a few days it was time to move on to somewhere a little more quiet and we found a hikers cabin at a campground and we hunkered down for four days and just relaxed. We got more snow but we didn't have anywhere to be so it was just fine. We met a German that was going to drive a 70's fire truck from Germany to India this summer. Freaking awesome! We decided that we should head south towards the Mediterranean to catch some warm weather. We have heard great things about morocco so we think that is where we will head. First stop on this journey was Paris. I was less than enthusiastic about this one.... it's France with their over protective language and always looking down on the non-French vagabonds....but now I must admit that Paris is a guilty pleasure and I hold no animosity towards the French, but rather I found them to be fairly nice. It kind of sucks when traveling and experiences force you to lose stereotypes that you enjoy...I mean the French are am easy target, right? While the lodging is expensive in Paris, the variety and affordability of food was great. That said, we still weren't eating in sit down style restaurants, but small vendors and stores offered fresh, filling meals that were great! The bread was excellent and every morning the bakeries, butchers, fruit stands etc would open into narrow streets. It was a really great sight. We got to see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc of Triumph (which is surrounded by the world's largesttraffic circle... it is absolute chaos to the casual observer and has enough room for at least ten lanes of traffic, all rnterin from 8 separate, major roads), famous graves like Jim Morrison and Chopin and a whole gambit of good things. From there we decided that we wanted to visit the D- Day beaches in Normandy. This where we are now, in the town of Caen, south of the beaches. Tomorrow we are going to walk the beaches and memorials. Looking forward to this experience. Well, for now that is the summary... next stop is Spain to meet up with our friends Dori and Nerea! Until the next post! Team Lowry

Hello Followers My Old Friends!

Hey Y'all, we are still cruising along...finally got us some free Internet access to do us some updating! (We are inFramce so I figured some good ol' country twang was in order, you know, just for the locals!). So the last update was a bit of a cliff notes version, my apologies, so I hope this one will be a bit more thorough (There's just too much to cover). Last we left offer were heading to London, which feels like a month ago..... wait that is about right....okay, it feels like two months ago... yeah that's better. So, we made it to London with a little help from our friends, the ones from the dairy farm. We spent quite a bit of time wandering the city aimlessly in search of our hostel, which is a task that loses much of it's laisse fare, romanticized appeal when you've got a 40 lb (18.18 kg...so European) strapped to your back. We eventually found the right place and settled in, albeit after a slight miscommunication over the price (the girl working there quoted us for all three nights, which we took as the per night rate.., 'bout had a heart attack). We really enjoyed London ( surprisingly so...I mean I
it's British) and got to see a lot of sights. All our bunk mates were cool to, which is huge. We walked across Abbey Road (if you're there you gotta) and all the regular hot spots (by the way Rob, it was 9 o'clock last I saw on Big Ben...you're not alone, I made sure the group waited around to hear the bell ring to mark the hour). The Tower of London was a great sight to see, lots if history and such... the Crown Jewels were there too, which are a bit outrageous...we are talking close to 200 carat diamonds with perfect clarity just for rituals to celebrate a largely symbolic dynasty....still cool to see... but really?! The prison art in the old cells was really impressive and a great peice of history. We also went to visit the hotel/house where Jimmy Hendrix died (couldn't find the exact place, but we walked the entire streetso we passed by it, good enough I suppose). After London, we took a ferry from Dover, England to Calais, France (my first experience being in a country where I couldn't speak the language...a bit more intimidating than I originally thought it would be...but it's France, they love it when you butcher their language through Lonely Planet phrase book pronunciation...oh man). We managed to findour way though and found that the people that were supposed to be helpful, i.e. tourist info and bus station attendants were just opposite, while most people on the street were very willing to help. Small side note: while trying to figure out a bus schedule we met two other guys trying to do the same thing. We ended up talking a little and they asked if we were from Belgium, we told them we were American and they said they were from Afghanistan....not gonna lie, there was a slight pause on both sides...that moment of both sides going "okay, what's the rest of this interaction going to look like?"...but we shook hands and exchanged names and realized we were just four people at a bus stop....we ended catching the bus north with the intention of making it from London, England to Bruges, Belgium in a single journey...tune in tomorrow to find out! ( It's almost 1 a.m. here and it was a long day of travel...to be continued...from where is the mystery you can try and figure out!).

Slowly But Surely, One Goes a Long Way

So it has been a bit since we last updated the blog so there is plenty to write about. Our actual travels have taken us in a fairly different direction than our plans were supposed to...which may mean that our travels are going exactly as planned....oh man, this paradox could continue forever, forever, f o r e v e r...(credit must be given to 'Squints' on that one, and if you don't know what I'm talking about all I have to say is 'You're killing me Smalls!') So, we ended up taking the aforementioned tour a day late as the bus was full once it got to our hostel, but the wait was well worth it and we were able to see some amazing Irish countryside and coastline. (This is about where a picture should be placed but I seem to have left the memory card usb at the hostel...plans anyone?...) We then found out that you can camp wherever you like in Scotland as they have an open access law tha permits such activity, within reason. We caught the ferry into Stranraer, Scotland and made our way inland. We had a conversation, if it can be called such, with an ederly Scottish man, of which we understood about a third of everything....but man could the guy laugh and that made it all the better. We borded the bus to Sandhead, which I called Sandy-head and was laughed at by the driver and the rest...the Scots have a very good sense of humor and are extremely friendly. He dropped us off at the entrance to a camping site in the middle of darkness, asked if we had a flashligh and drove off laughing. We got our bearings and G promptly said 'We gotta be nuts'. Apparently the camping sign post was put up facing the wrong direction and we ended up not being able to find anything but a mud soaked path and decided to head into town. We found a man in a bar that called the campsite and it had been closed due to the freezing weather (seems we have stumbled into the UK during the coldest winter since 1963) and he told of us of a place down the road to camp. As it was extremely windy, pitch black and freezing we decided to hunker down in the only Inn in town, luckily Mary and Joseph had already checked out and there was still room. the next day we found a beachfront property with our tent and set up camp... it was a great time and we had a lot of fun. As it was a small town, most of the residents knew about the Americans sleeping in a tent down by the beach and most asked us if we were insane, thus confirming G's earlier statement. We then decided to walk to the next town over and a woman by the name of Marion pulled alongside us about 30 minutes into the hike. This kind soul gave us a ride and lodging for the night. She then sent us on our way with several connections across the UK. Our next stop found us in an amazing little town Newton-Stewart, Scotland. We camped for a night there, but it was fridged and our clothes were wet from attempting to wash and dry them. The only thing that worked was the washing, the dryer only gave a weak effort and left us with wet thermals. We awoke to find that the water on the rain fly had turned to ice and decided we would wait on camping the next night. (We had originally planned to spend a few days in the Galloway national forest, but have elected to do so on the return journey when it is a bit warmer.) We then spent three days with a man named Keith in England in the small town of Kirbymoorside. It was a truly great experience. He was well into his sixties and took us around town to the ruins of an Abbey, his local watering hole, great old churches and showed us plenty of places to walk around during the day. We spent nearly 6 hours just walking the country side. He then took us to another friend's farm where we spent another four days with them. They were an amazing family that showed us how the dairy farm worked and let us help with some of the farmwork. They ended up brining us to York and tomorrow we will head to London and from there into the Netherlands and across Eastern Europe but.....plans......you know. So that is really the quick and dirty version of what we have been up to. All is well and we are excited to see where this journey keeps taking us...hopefully to the warm beaches of the Mediterranean....Bahamanation!....Until the next post...

What Are Plans for Anyways?

Well, like is the case with any good trip, the aforementioned plans were not the course that we ended up taking. Rather than head south through Ireland, we hopped a bus to Belfast in Northern Ireland. We spent a good two hours walking the city and looking for hostels in a wind that about knocked us over...all while laughing...which was fun. We ended up finding a hostel across town (should've turned right instead of left when leaving the bus station) and have decided that our new plan is look ahead and see where about hostels are located. We spent the day hiking around town and looking at the murals strewn about the city. Apparently Belfast has more political murals than any other city in the world. The murals were divided according to which side of the town they were on: you have the Loyalist and Republican sides. Although this division does not officially exist any more, this division is still evident on the walls. The city has a very turbulent past, even up until fairly recent times. Yet, as always, the people have been great, extremely helpful and friendly. Tomorrow we are heading further north on a bus tour to see Giants Causeway and Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. Nice thing is that we want to head up this same coastline to camp, as everyone has said the coast is amazing, and the tour is free because we booked two consecutive nights with our hostel. So, we are going to take the tour and get off the bus after the sights and not return to Belfast, thus saving us the cost of a tour and the cost of a bus fare...yee haw! The plan is to camp on the coast, yet, as we are out of season, many of the sights are closed for official camping. So, now the unknown variable will be how easily we can find a farm, more specifically a farm with an owner nice enough to let us camp on his property. According to the 'unofficial' advice of the tourist bureau agent it should be quite easy. Wish us luck everybody and, once again, we will get pictures up at some point. Until the next internet connection.....maybe it will be a nice farmer with WI-FI...Ha!

The Eagle Has Landed!!!

Well folks...we made it to Dublin! So far everything is going great...a bit jet lagged...well "a bit" might be an understatement...we slept from 4:30 p.m. til this morning, somewhere in range of 12 hours. Spent the day walking around Dublin and took a tour of the Guinness store house. Crazy thing about that place is that 250 years ago Sir Arthur Guinness purhased the four acres for the factory for 100£ and signed a 9000 year lease on the property and a direct line into the spring water, a 9000 year lease that ensures that the owneres of Guinness only pay 45£ per year on the orignal four acres for the term of the lease. Not a bad deal! Another cool thing about the tour is that the bar at the end of it all is surrounded by glass and overlooks all of Dublin. It has quotes from books like "Finnegan's Wake" and "Ulyssess" posted on the glass,which coincide with landmarks (buildings and parks) that the quotes mention or describe. Currently we don't have a usb cord to connect our camera to the computer, but once we do we will get some pictures up. Today we are going to visit my ancestor's gravesite in Tullamore and then are going to find a place to camp for the night. We will keep everybody posted and hope everyone is doing well....Stay Classy San Diego...(which loosely translated means whale's...whoa, this is a family blog...I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree!)

Well, we are already ahead of schedule...yet a day behind at the same time!

So, apparently I had misread our itinerary a while back and we do not leave tonight at midnight as I had originally thought. We will, in fact, be leaving tomorrow at 7 p.m. on an overnight flight to Dublin, where we will arrive at 6:30 a.m. local time. Maybe it's just me, but this sure seems like a presage of events to come during our travels. Catching a flight in the United States is one thing, just wait until we are trying to catch a Turkish bus....ha...good times shall be had by all. We that would be the first "trip related" update. Onward and outward.