| Back in the u s of a... |
[Oct. 2nd, 2006|03:45 pm] |
Hi everyone,
I'm finally back in the US. Woohoo.
I got back last Wednesday evening and within 30 minutes of leaving the airport witnessed a (non-injury) accident requiring a police report and everything! Ah, yes. Welcome back to Jersey, huh?
So apologies to those attempting to live vicariously through me. Leaving hardly any posts in the last month provided hardly an opportunity to do so. And I'm sorry for that. Too busy having fun I suppose...
But anyway, I am slowly posting a backlog of great photos I got while over in Europe. I just finished up the Switzerland photos of some great hiking. They can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/sets/
Check back often, too, because new photo should be coming up every couple of days.
I've just barely had time back in NJ and I'm already about to drive back to Texas for my sister's wedding. I will be back there for a month before looking for a job where I can, like, make some money, you know. So I can, like, eat and clothe myself. Yeah. Making money is good. So is spending it on big trips!
Take care, all -- Josh |
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| Brugge. Wha? |
[Sep. 21st, 2006|10:01 am] |
In London Tom and Jamie stayed in a hotel and I stayed in a nearby hostel in the Earl´s Court part of London.
Everything in London looks like a normal price: 10 pounds for a meal, one quid fifty for a coke. In dollars those would be normal prices. But then you have to convert to dollars and your 10-pound meal must be multiplied by two to get to dollars and your nice pub meal of chicken and mushroom pie and chips, you realize, is twenty bucks! Yikes!
Next stop after London for us was Berlin. And we planned to take the channel tunnel back to mainland Europe to Brussels, see the sights in Brussels for the day, then take an overnight train to Berlin. Well as I was checking out of my hostel in London, I mentioned my plans to the extremely chatty Brit behind the counter. He said: If you go anywhere in Belgium, you´ve gotta stop in Brugge. Brugge? Huh? Where´s that?
On the train out of London, we looked it up in my Euro travel guide. The text was even strongeer -- something to the effect that "you´d be a fool to set foot in Belgium and not see Brugge..."
So chastised, we three chnged plans and headed to Brugge through Brussels. And we were not disappointed. The weather was perfect, cool, but the sun was shining bright.
Quaint picturesque old houses snug in a row down crooked streets. Blue cloudless sky above. Canals throughout.
We had a great meal at Poule - Moule (Chicken - Mussels) served up by a friendly (and fluent) waiter Flip (Philip). We had the local Brugge Zot brew and I mentioned that it tastd like a wheat beer. Flip informed me that "wheat" in English sounds like Dutch for "marijuana". It was not marijuana beer I can assure you though -- just a nice smooth wheat beer that Tom maintains tasted "fruity".
When in Belgium, you gotta have Belgian fries (normally served with mayonnaise) as well as a Belgian waffle. I got my fries at the meal with a great half-chicken. And the waffle I got with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream at a stand after a short walk around the town. |
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| London |
[Sep. 20th, 2006|02:44 pm] |
In London, I happened to see royalty.
Friends Tom, Jamie and I were walking through Kensington Gardens in the evening when we noticed a helicopter swoop down over in the near distance. Walking past the swan pond (where a kid had just fallen in and was rescued by his dad) we came to a royal residence and a bit further to a large green where the helicopter had landed.
After ten minutes or so of the pilots and some bobbies standing about, some very nice cars rolled out of the compound and an entourage moved from car to heli. Britains agasp said it was Princess Anne. Anne who?
The soccer field next to it was cleared off, including the goal posts. Then the heli took off hovering low over the soccer field and then up and away.
Maybe they had a night of cards planned with some other royalty.
Good times... |
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| Switzerland cont... |
[Sep. 16th, 2006|02:42 pm] |
So to wrap up the Switzerland story:
(already three weeks ago...)
I ended up staying the night in this great mountain lodge in French-speaking Switzerland. I met some great belgian guys who were hiking the same route as I had planned.
Hearty meal that night, but then again, after the crazy hard day of hiking I had had, anything would have tasted great. Some great cream of mushroom soup to start, an odd main corse consisting of baked cheese with potatoes, onions and bits of ham in there.
The beds in the lodge were just a row of mattresses on an elevated platform. Ten (tired) folks in one room. You put your backpack underneath the platform and sleep side by side by side, all in a cozy room... Weird, huh?
Sleeping was accompanied by the steady sound of the cowbells near and far from across the valley.
The following mrning, after a simple breakfast, again with my new-found French friends, I headed down the mountain with a jury-rigged setup to keep my separated sole onto the boot. Forty minutes of walking downhill and I was to a bus that took me to a streetcar that took me to a train that took me back to Interlaken. |
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| Switzerland |
[Sep. 15th, 2006|04:10 pm] |
Hey kids,
I'm certainly getting behind on the journal!!!
I am going to entirely skip over my great time in Rome. except to say that Roland and I had a great time hanging out with Evy, a Norwegian living in Paris in the moment but traveling around southern Europe for a bit.
My friend Roland and I parted ways after Rome. We had planned to go into Greece and see lots of that country but I found myself longing to try again for some good hiking in the mountains before meeting up with some other friends of mine, Tom and Jamie, in Barcelona.
So I headed over to Interlaken, a beautiful Swiss resort town where the outdoors is the thing and all sorts of activites are possible out of a cute, picturesque little place that is situated "between lakes", which is what its name means.
Interlaken was a stopover, really, where I did some preparation for a 4-day hike in the Alps. I would hike from mountain hut to mountain hut - lodging available high in the mountains that can vary in its luxury from a simple dormitory and no kitchen facilities, to full hotel accomodation. So my travel book indicated a solid 4-day hike in the French-speaking part of Switzeerland, Tour des Mouverans, in the southwest part of France. That's what I decided to try.
I had already been lugging around my great hiking boots in my pack. I had first used the boots years before for some great three- and four-day hikes along the continental divide in the Colorado Rockies.
So in Interlaken I got some decent rain gear, should there been any during the hike. That was fun using my German again, since Interlaken is in German-speaking Switerland. (BTW: "Regenschutz" sounds like a cussword but its not.) Also loaded up at the grocery store with snickers and trail mix and apples for snacking on the trail.
After prepping in Interlaken I overnighted in a town in French-speaking Switzerland closer to the hike and set out to the mountains around 9 in the morning, arriving to the trailhead around noon after trip by train and then bus.
I had already seperated out all my stuff that was not essential to the hard-core hike and left them in a train station locker so my pack was as light as possible. Heavy still, but not as heavy as it could have been.
The hike started out great, following a cascading stream. Ice-cold, since it was glacier melt coming off the mountain. Cascades mean there was some steepness there. Indeed there was.
I was excited that I was finally on the mountain, finally doing this hike that I had been thinking of for many, many months. I mean, how cool is it to actually spend several days walking among the most massive, beautiful mountains in the world???
The excitment was certainly tempered by the ascent. By the end of hour three I was fairly high up and the path leveled off for about a kilometer (I gotta do metric if I'm in Europe!) But by that time I was beat. I had prepared, but not well enough. The timing of my travels the night before prevented me from getting any good food to carb up -- just a greasy doner kebap. Toast and jam and coffee and cereal were the only things to be had at breakfast. The trail mix I brough was great but not sustaining me. And I was nearly out of my water...
I was never far, far away from civilization, though, just so you know. In the first three hours, I passed two mountain cottages and a dozen or so hikers. So although huge and gorgeous, it was by no means an isolated spot.
So after the kilometer level walk, I again had to do lots of switchbacks, climbing higher up the mountain vally there. What would have taken me 30 minutes took me over an hour. I even took a quick quick nap I was so weary. A bit out of it...
I finally got to that high point and per the guide book had two hours of more or less level walking before arriving at what should be the end of day one.
But something bad happened!
It was now around 5 or so in the evening. As I started down a slight hill, observing a valley opening up on the left and a few mountain huts in that direction, I also noticed something seemed to be pulling at my boot. Odd. Looking down I saw that the sole of my hiking boot had nearly seperated itself completely from the rest of the boot. I walked a few more steps before it came off completely.
Great! How does one do a pretty challenging Alpine hike without soles? Well, one doesn't. That simple.
Thank God, though, because as I mentioned I was rather close - ten to fifteen minutes -- from an alpine hut where I could at least stay for the night. And the boot bottom wasn't completely off. There was still a layer of the boot between the bottom and my sensitive feet. And the path to the hut was all downhill.
First I MacGyvered a fix for the sole. No, not with duck (duct?) tape. One of the "must-bring"s that I had read before the trip was an extra pair of hiking boot laces. So I had those with me and clumsily tied the sole of the boot back on. Proud of my adaptive abilities I was able to walk a whole two minutes before the whole mess started to shift around and come apart. So MacGyver laces came off, as did the sole, and I walked to the mountain hut "sole-less in der schweiz".
Sorry to leave you hanging. Gotta go play. I'll finish up my story soon and great tales of friendly French folks (?!) at the mountain hut. Mom, I'm doing fine and still have all limbs and internal organs.
BTW: "Regenschutz" means rain-protection in German... |
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| Florence |
[Aug. 28th, 2006|07:13 pm] |
Florence was a nice city. High points there was the hostel culture and Michealangelo's statue of David.
The hostel was remarkable in that all public spaces were covered with writings and drawings of people who had come and gone. It had free internet (which is great for the traveler) and great placed to hang out with people you just met. A nice rooftop deck, a garden even complete with benches and shade trees.
Anyway, Roland and I met a lot of great people there. Went out to dinner with three Aussies the first night. Cheap italian dinner that was not very good. Decent house wine is the one theme that runs through every Italian meal I've had, good or no.
Florence has a fairly small historical center which can be quickly covered. Out first full day in Florence we made our way to some of the main spots, only to get separated in the crowds. So I spent the better part of the day just walking about getting a feel for the city. There were some interesting stuff, but nothing breathtaking, nothing incredible. My opinion. There were some huge huge churches which I saw.
The best part again was the hostel. Met several folks from around the world: lots of Aussies, even more Canadians and some loverly British girls too.
The final morning there Roland and I got up early to see Michaelangelo's David before heading to the train station. That was a truly moving experience. Very beautiful. It is amazing how lifelike and fluid and true the artist made marble which had been discarded from its original use, in some cathedral, I believe.
So not much to report there. I'll write about Rome soon... |
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| Stranded in Nice is not so nice |
[Aug. 28th, 2006|05:23 pm] |
Again the trains in southern France seem to be a problem, in the rural spots where we've been certainly. From Millau we travelled the better part of the day to get to Nice, France. We were hoping to take a night train all the way to Venice, but alas the train was sold out. So what to do? Nice is right on the border with Italy and we ended up going over to Ventimillion on the Italian side. Arriving at nine pm, we walked around for nearly an hour. Each hotel was completo (full) but eventually we found one.
Not much to note about Ventimillion except that we payed to much for a hotel, we had a great cup of coffee at a cafe. There was a traffic jam at 10 in the morning at the intersection where the cafe was, and it was fun to watch the Italians "talking with their hands" - not necessarily vulgar, mind you - to other drivers cutting them off. Ha. Utter chaos so early in the day. Maybe NJ roads aren't so bad...
We finally got our train to Venice. Stayed there a couple of days. Within hours of arriving we were at an evening performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons at some odd hall in an odd corner of Venice. The musicians were in period costume, complete with the wigs! A late dinner at a good Italian pub restaurant, complete with a beer brew called "Hell" and we were off to bed...
Hotel bed was terrible and ended up with a tight back much of the next day.
We went to the Doge's Palace and got the scoop on the odd city-state that Venice came to become. Roland got a great book on its history that I should pick up when I get back to read through.
Lots of walking about. Great canals. Fun narrow walkways and bridges. Ended up the second evening in Venice at pub watching Milan Inter (football, er, I mean soccer) come from scoreless at the half to tie up Roma. Fun. But the Venetians there were disgusted. Good game to watch though if you have no allegiances...
The following day being Sunday, we had hoped to go to a church there. Even though it would be altogether uninteligble. But we got to the church at the wrong time, so went for some great cofee and brioche con crema and people-watching at a cafe right next to a bridge. Watched many an already-exhausted parent trying to get a stroller up or down the bridge steps at ten in the morning...
Then off to Flornce on a nice speedy plush but crowded Eurostar train...
That's where I'm now. More to report when I'm finished here... |
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| Nurem, Berlin, Paris, Bord, StEmily, Berg |
[Aug. 28th, 2006|04:27 pm] |
Hey kids,
Long time no write. My apologies.
New stories below.
New photos to be had at http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/
I last left you an entry about Salzburg a few weeks ago. Wow, that was a long time ago...
So Ill (no apostrophes on Florence keyboards! Sorry again...) just summarize to say that weather on the whole in Austria was terrible: rainy and not at all pleasant to be hiking in. So I went way far away in hopes of getting better weather. En route to Berlin I did a quick afternoon sidetrip to Nuremberg and checked out the rally grounds there that were used by the Nazis a long long time ago. (Seen in Triumph of the Will, for anyone interested...).
Well, Berlin turned out to be rainy as well. Argh. Still did a bit of sightseeing. Fortunately the sceond day I was there it turned sunny. The first time in a full week for me, I think. So the biggest thing I did that day was hang out in the park listening to my iPod and soaking up some sun...
The next day I headed over to Paris, where I was to meet up with Roland, a friend from NJ, to travel about together for several weeks.
He was delayed a day so I spent a day seeing a few things in Paris. I didnt go all out because Ill be there soon enough for 4 to 5 days with some other of my friends, Tom and Jamie.
One thing I was interested in that I figured that Tom, Jamie and I would not get around to seeing was the Institute of the Arabian World. They had an interesting exhibit on things Arabian from ages past up to the present. That was fun. I couldn°t take any photos of the exhibit, but I could of their really interesting building (
FYI on my travel buddies: Roland is a friend of miine and goes to my church. He just finished his bar exam to become a lawyer. Hes doing a nice big European vacation before starting his law career... Tom and Jamie also go to my church in NJ and are dear friends. Tom and I caught the "what-am-I-doing-at-this-job flu" at about the same time (hopefully I didnt give it to him...)so like me his just quit his job and will be spending a lot of now-precious money in Europe. But its worth it right?
Photos from Nuremberg, rainy Berlin and Paris are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/sets/72157594245620475/
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So I finally met up with Roland in Paris and we immediately headed down to beautiful sunny Bordeaux.
Played about in the town a bit. Went to a nonexhaustive two-hour wine tasting tour where I learned to say "robust wine with hints of nutmeg, grapefruit and coffee, but the tannins left me wanting. Weak finish." Or something like that. Just kidding. It was actually a great class to prepare for what was to some.
In subsequent days we did a bus tour to taste wines at a few vineyards out in the Bordeaux countryside.
And a few days later we actually left Bordeaux to stay out in a small town called St-Emillion and home to some of the best Bordeaux wines. ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS COUNTRYSIDE. Wonderful. Especially on the day when we rented bikes and explored all sorts of rural country lanes out there. We did a vineyard tour at a winery there, too. Great meal in St-Emillion, too...
Pics from Bordeaux and St-Emillion are at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/sets/72157594245669291/
Fortunately Roland is absolutely fluent in French so getting around was completely painless - as long as he was nearby...
We then ventured further afield in southern France to Bergerac. Yes, that's (found the apostrophe)where Cyrano is from. It was quite a quaint town. A little too quaint. Walked around a bit. Took some pics. Did a boat tour on the river there. Then it was time to move on. Except the trains in southern France aren't the best so we ended up loitering about for a day longer than was necessary. We did get laundry done. And that is important I suppose...
We were certainly ready to move on to our next stop in Millau, France, but the train connection brought us back to Bordeaux for a night then off to Millau.
Millau, for the 99.9999% of the planet who has no idea what this town is, is the site of the world's tallest bridge. It is also a very beutiful bridge set in a very beautiful part of France.
Bridge: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=millau&s=int
We went on a great sightseeing bus trip to the bridge at night and the following day kayaked through the town, down the river to the shadow of the bridge (literally). With a great riverside picnic halfway down. Great dinner in Millau followed by a good time at the pub with 4 brits we met at the kayak shop.
That's all for now. More to come... |
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| Salzburg to Innsbruck |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|09:33 pm] |
Weather in Salzburg never picked up for hiking in the Alps so I moved on to Innsbruck. Met a fun Canadian girl there and we spent the afternoon together walking about and seeing what (little) Innsbruck had to offer in the way of tourist stuff. Had a good beefy Austrian meal that also involved potatoes and beer. Yum.
Weather in Innsbruck was also bad so I moved on after just one night there, but not before having a fascinating time exploring the ski jump there in the morning.
See all my Innsbruck pics at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/sets/72157594235018933/ |
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| Vienna to Salzburg |
[Aug. 14th, 2006|09:20 pm] |
Hey guys,
Been away from the internet for a while. Adventure continues thus:
I was in Vienna waiting for decent weather. Ever since I have starting scheming about a Europan vacay, I've been thinking about how great it would be to go hiking for a solid 3 or so days in the Alps. The weather I needed did not show up in Vienna, so I moved on to Salzburg.
Fun town: where Mozart lived, huge castle there, and all the lovurliness of our classic The Sound Of Music is from there as well.
I didn't get a spot in the fun hostel, but I did stay at a clean old church that had accomodation. The setup of the accomodation was less than stellar for meeting folks, though, which I didn't like...
I did a fun bike tour of the area that may or may not have been ever in the slightest way based on locations possibly appearing in the aforementioned movie. OK, I admit it. I went on the Sound Of Music bike tour. There, I said it... Geez.
Castle was cool, too.
Unfortunately the weather was poor so I did normal touristy stuff instead of hiking in the Salzburg area.
Photos from Salzburg are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/just_josh/sets/72157594231821138/ |
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