Four totally awesome people are going to Europe! Pete Vincenti, Leslie Forsyth, Liz Hart, and Colin McCloskey are those awesome people. You can read about their adventures on this blog.
We're Back!
After dinner on Saturday, June 2nd, we went to the Eiffel Tower. I didn't know this when we got there, but apparently every hour at night they use the lights they installed for the Millennium. We got there around 10:45 PM, so it was a nice surprise at 11 when the lights went off.
I shot a quick video of it.
- Pete
- from Apartment in Delaware while enjoying a Vanilla Coke, June 8, 6:50pm
We're back in the states! A fairly long plane trip dropped us back in New Jersey yesterday. All are well, including Pete's mead from Tower of London and his smuggled pint glass! Hooray!
Thanks so much for your well-wishings, reading, and notes while we were away. We'll still manage to be putting some stories and more detail up on this site in the coming days. I know I'll be extracting some from my journal.
Thanks again! It's good to be back!
- Colin - from work -- yes work -- on Wednesday, June 6
Paris
Today we slept in. Or at least, didn't get up out of bed very early. You see, Colin and I have been lucky to always have our room face the street, while Liz and Leslie are always facing an alley or something. Which means we have the option of either roasting with the windows closed, or listening to cars all night but being cool with the windows open. We opted for it being cool. But in the morning, these French morons like to honk their car horns for no reason whatsoever. The street is a small street, with no traffic light or stop sign. No reason to honk your car horn. There is also very little traffic, except if Colin and I are trying to sleep. Then it's the West Side Highway.
We took it pretty easy today. All we did was go to the Louvre. We got there a little after noon, and were planning on staying until it closed. But after 3 hours all the paintings and sculptures started to look the same so we left. We just sat outside for a while, and relaxed. Then we went to a cafe and had a beer, and we walked around a little more one last time before we came back to the hostel.
Tomorrow morning we leave. I think it was the perfect length of time. I had a great time on this trip, but I'm definitely ready to go home.
- Pete
- from Hostel in Paris, June 5, 12:30am
We went to the Eiffel Tower today. It was beautiful out when we got there, but by the time we waited in line and got to the top (you've got to go to the top), it was really cloudy. But it was still really pretty. No more pictures until I get back, sorry. The internet isn't the best here.
- Pete
- from Hostel in Paris, June 4, 12:10am
London
Colin and I decided that we really wanted to see Stonehenge. The girls didn't really want to see it, so we split up. In order to get there, we'd have to drive. Colin and I took the Underground to Heathrow Airport. We figured this way we wouldn't have to drive in the city of London, which is worse that New York AND backwards. That didn't seem appealing to us. When we went to rent that car, the woman at the counter of the car rental looked at our New Jersey license, and then gave us a British car. No instructions on how to drive on the left, or any explanation of the 40 weird signs we'd be seeing.
Can you drive in America? Do you have money? Well, that's good enough for us.
Needless to say, it was an adventure. Just getting out of the airport took about 30 minutes. All these roundabouts and lack of signs. Add in the driving on the left side.
So we finally got on the highway. But we didn't really know where we were going. And there were no speed limits. Or if there were, there wasn't a single sign telling us what it was. And we didn't know if they were in kilometers or miles. Anyway, we managed to find our way. Just when we thought we were lost, we saw a sign telling us were to go.
Colin drove there, and towards the end we passed a sign for English strawberries for 50 pence, but we didn't stop since we were so close. When we got to Stonehenge, it was awesome since I had brought my sweatshirt and umbrella. See, I knew if I did it would be nice out. (The second I bought my umbrella it stopped raining, the second I bought my sweatshirt it got warm). Worked like a charm. It was beautiful out. Stonehenge (and the English countryside) was really pretty.
On the way back I drove. When I stopped for the English strawberries the dialogue went something like this:
Colin: There's a curb over here.
Bump (sound of a car going over a curb)
Colin: That was the curb.
Also, the guys selling them had just run out. He had to cross the highway onto the other side (where there was also a stand) to get some for us. I'd glad he risked his life to get us strawberries, because they were the best I've ever had.
The rest of the way back, I was fine diving. Except for the fact that by the time I got back to London it was 6 PM on a Friday (which we think is rush hour - we're not really sure when the English work) and the traffic was insane. And the road signs sucked. And Colin isn't the best navigator (still better than Tony). I somehow lost the Airport ... twice. But I eventually found our way back.
- Pete
- from Hostel in London, June 2, 1:50am
I didn't upload any pictures, but I'm here to tell you about Russell, the greatest spooky tour guide in London... that I've witnessed. Seeing as he's the only one, that may not say much, but taking a haunted london tour (one of the many great London Walks) is an awesome time. The four of us travelers were winding our way through the West End, stopping here and there to hear some of the best ghost stories the area has to offer from an accomplished historian. It makes me think about taking the 'Jack the Ripper' tour they have nightly.
It's great. You meet outside a tube stop at a pre-determined time (it's all in pamphlet you can find about the city) and the guide (in our case the awesome Russell) takes you around, stopping at points on interest to tell you stories. We heard about tortured poets, government document keepings, theater managers, and even a dog from the old German embassy that has caused hundreds of car accidents not far from Trafalgar Square... a ghost dog, that is. And it all concludes with a stop in a pub where a surplus of delicious hard cider can be had. All goooood times.
London is my favorite place in the world after only a couple days.
- Colin
- Midnight-ish, May 31st, from the hostel in London, not believing I could get a spot on the computer
I uploaded some pictures. But I didn't tag them all.
- Pete
- from Hostel in London, ten seconds before they stop serving breakfast, May 31, 9:57am
Brussels
It ended up not raining, just being completely overcast. We were planning on getting an early start today, but someone (Leslie) was snoring like a bear during the winter hibernation. I didn't hear it, but according to Colin, it was fierce. That and the old guy sleeping below Colin kept on moving the curtain so that the headlights of the cars were shining directly in his eye.
Since everything was closed, we just walked around. Apparently, Europe is closed on Monday. We walked to center city, walked through the Stock Exchange, and the "Grand Place", which was just tourist city. However, we did get the most delicious waffles while there. Also, it seems all of Brussels has this hang up on a statue of a little boy peeing. It's called "The Mannekin Pis" and the reality did not live up to the hype.
We then walked to the Palace, which was also closed. Then we walked through the Royal Gardens, and took some awesome pictures (coming soon). Then we walked for what seemed a mile to a War Museum (also closed) that looked right down the street. It was very deceiving.
On our way to the European Union Headquarters, we stopped to get Belgium fries. They were good. They were also our dinner. So let's recap of what I've eaten today: Waffles with chocolate and whipped cream, a massive portion of fries (the large was only 20 cents more and twice as big - I had to!), beer and chocolate. Healthy Living.
We're taking it easy tonight, and we got tickets to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3, The Original Version (also known as English).
- Pete & Liz
- from Hostel in Brussels, May 28, 7:00pm
Well, since Colin and Liz are acting like little girls and Leslie is too busy emailing/talking to/dreaming about Chris Greb, I suppose I'll update the site. Unfortunately the computers are locked behind glass, so I can't upload any pictures.
We are only planning on being here for two days. But we got here late tonight, and it turns out tomorrow's a holiday and everything's closed. And we decided that we didn't want to get a late start in London like we did here, so we're leaving early Tuesday. So that gives us until about 11 AM Tuesday...or about 40 total hours. So at dinner we decide we're going to make the most of it, and even if everything's closed, we can still walk around.
It started raining about an hour ago. It's suppose to rain until 10 AM Tuesday.
- Pete
- from Hostel in Brussels, May 27, 10:35pm
Amsterdam
Hello from Amsterdam! Boy did we have a train ride here... I think Pete already mentioned it, but it requires at least another mention. A handball team having finished their season in Frankfurt was on the way to Amsterdam for clubbing and parties and then were insistent on us drinking beer with them. One fellow in particular was very friendly and asked us what we were up to and if we knew any good discos in Amsterdam, Having no knowledge of this type of thing, we told them we were counting a friend to get us places, but wished them the best. Oh... and apparently because I drank a beer without removing the neck wrapper, I am gay. They kept saying "the one with the beard... He's the loose one!" Oh well....
Speaking of that friend, when we arrived in Amsterdam Centraal station, Derek jumped on me and welcomed us to Amsterdam. After a quick pee, we got on some bikes Derek had rented for us and rode to his apartment in the eastern portion of the city. Riding a bike is a fun change from navigating metros. It left us a little less knowledgeable about where the hell anything is in the city, but with Derek as our guide, we were set. His place is really nice and near a bunch of really cool things and we settled for a bit. Our first night, we just took a bike tour of some cool sights in the city and it was really wonderful.
Yesterday, we took the entire day and saw sights, biked the city, toured downtown and were given the general sight-seeing tour by Derek. Lots of biking. Lots of pedaling. Lots of work for your legs. We had Ethiopean food for dinner at a place where Derek is a personal friend and met up with his friends for bowling and stops at a few bars.
Today we did a bit of the same thing -- biked the city with stops at the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Really interesting things to be seen and lots of good times. We did get lost trying to bike our own way from the Anne Frank House to Derek at the pizza shop where he works... Derek gives some interesting directions and we all have no knowledge of the city, but we eventually made it for some delish pizza and burgers...
The plan for tonight: bike to the red light district, check it out, and then hang out in a sit-down coffeeshop.
- Colin
- Saturday May 26, 2007 from Derek's apartment
Frankfurt
Checkout this morning was at 11:00 AM. We left the hotel at 10:57. Since the train we were taking to Amsterdam at 1:30, we had about two hours to kill. We were planning on going to the Botanical Gardens, since Tony raved about how we had to go there. But we couldn’t seem to cross the street, and we had to walk two blocks just to be able to. Since it was warm out, and we all had our packs on, the idea of walking around gardens for over an hour lost its appeal. So we went to the train station and just waited there for the train. We got lunch, and I got one last wurst before we left.
We got on the train a little after one. Everyone (well, at least Leslie and I) were banking on sleeping on the train since we were up late last night, and we had to get up early to checkout. Well, about five minutes after the train a guy gets on, and he’s got a case of beer. And the guy after him also has a case of beer. And the guy behind him does, too. And then the next guy had a really big boom box. Turns out the German handball team had just finished the season and were on their way to Amsterdam. Before the train had left the station, Liz, Leslie, Colin and I all had a beer in our hand. Soon after those were finished, more were in our hands, even though we insisted we didn't want them. Needless to say, no naps were taken.
-Pete
-from Derek's Apartment in Amsterdam, May 24, 9:45pm
This morning we slept in. Well, Leslie got up from breakfast, but after drinking last night, Liz, Colin, and I decided not to get up. I was planning on it, as I figured (correctly, it would turn out) that German people do not eat only croissants for breakfast. But since the rest of us were being lazy, after Leslie ate she went back to bed. We got up around 11ish, but didn’t leave the hotel until about 1. In the mean time, the cleaning ladies were yelling at us in German because they wanted to clean the rooms. With my awesome navigational skills, we took the U-Bahn (subway) to the main shopping area in Frankfurt on Zeil. There we had breakfast (lunch for Leslie) where for everyone else, lunch was a sandwich. As for me, I’ve been on steady diet of Bratwursts, Knackwursts, Rindswursts, Bauernwursts, and any other type of sausage/piece-of-meat they can come up with. So I had one of those … I’m not really sure which one.
It’s been another gorgeous day, and we just took it easy and walked around. We also went to the Museum of Modern Art, which included such works of art as … a green box. A white box with a black boarder. A rectangle that the top 30% was light purple and the bottom 70% was dark purple. A pile of green goo. A room filed with potato chips. A blackboard with a few boxes and lines drawn on it. Four florescent light bulbs next to each other, three red, one white. It was riveting, I tell you. Longest 90 minutes of my life. Colin and Liz seemed to enjoy it though.
We then stopped in the Kaiserdom church, and then did some tourist shopping. Then Liz was hungry, so we stopped and got more Bratwursts, while sitting at tables in the shape of beer barrels. When we walked over the Main River, a guy was playing Colin’s favorite song with an organ box. Lucky for him, he could hear it a good 500 feet away, both coming and going! Later we’re going to go to a sit down dinner, and I will probably stick to a wurst of some sort. Then we’re going to the bar district. Tomorrow we leave for Amsterdam!
-Pete
-from Internet café in Frankfurt, May 23, 7:20pm
We arrived in Frankfurt at around 8pm after a lovely train ride through Switzerland and Germany. The scenery and natural beauty of this region is absolutely breathtaking. When we arrived at the station (another stunning train station since it is the theme throughout Europe) we encountered the inevitable problems of figuring out the new, unfamiliar transit sytem and finding food. Thankfully, Pete (Train Man) and Liz (Metro Master) each have a hidden talent for this so we managed to figure it out quite quickly. And due to it being a train station we were all able to acquire some sort of delicious food - I stuck with a sandwich from the Starbucks (they make fun of me because I go to the one American option) and Liz, Pete, and Colin had one of Germany's delicious wursts or big hot dogs as we've also been calling them.
We reached our hotel (not a hostel, but a budget hotel because apparently Frankfurt is not a fan of the hostels) and it is very nice, and very clean. The boys have a much better view from their room overlooking the city, while Liz and I look out onto the service entrance. But, that's ok since we spent a good hour or so goofing off and relaxing upstairs in the boy's room. Much to our luck, there is a bar on the first floor of our hotel, and this being Germany it was necessary, in fact, required that we partake of some delicious German beer. The three of them headed downstairs, while I trailed behind a bit because I was calling my awesome, American boyfriend (Hi Chris!). I joined them shortly and we drank some delicious beer from 0.5 liter (or half a half of a 2 liter Pepsi bottle) glasses. They were VERY big glasses and only 3 euro! After our first round, we discovered that the bar was open 24 hours, so of course we had to have a second round. The very nice German bartender brought us out 4 more large glasses; he placed one on the table and when he went to place the second one down he tapped, literally tapped, the glass he had previously placed down the glass exploded! Spilling beer all over the table and Pete's camera (it was fine). The poor bartender was so embaressed, we tried to tell him that we didn't mind and that we were on vacation and that is wasn't a big deal... but in an act of kindness he brought each out a shot of vodka! Score! ... and in a hilarious turn of events when Colin went to slam his shot glass on the table after his heroic shot taking he managed to break HIS beer glass. Hahaha. After all the glass breaking and good conversation we decided we should stop drinking and go upstairs and drunk dial our friends. After Pete and I both called our respective signigifcant others, we harassed Tony (over voicemail) and HT. I don't quite remember what we talked about but I remember laughing a lot and having a fantastic time with these fantastic people.
-Leslie
-from same Internet café in Frankfurt, May 23, 7:00pm
Zurich
Zurich is one of the loveliest and most beautiful cities I've ever been to. It's bright and sunny during the day and seems in places like a beach resort, yet it has fine shopping streets, fun and windy avenues, and sits nestled at the foot of the Alps. It's incredibly picturesque and seems like it would be the perfect place to be year round.
We stayed at the iPR Guesthouse while there, and while it was a little weird and overly quiet, it was located in the center of the city right near the central shopping and cafe district and stone's throw from the lake to the south and major train station to the north. They truly know how to make train stations in Europe, because we've seen some impressive, beautiful stations thus far on our trip.
I've been keeping a written journal and hope to get some of the things that are there onto this site when I can. We are all doing well and have encountered good fortune in travel, service, and understanding each other's different moods.
- Colin
- from an Internet cafe in a semi-seedy part of Frankfurt, 23 May 2007
I did not whine like a little girl -Colin
Hello!
We are in Switzerland. The weather is beautiful. We are planning on going on a boat tour in a few hours. We have taken a ton of pictures, and I have uploaded a few of them onto flickr. We took an overnight train to get here, and it was really nice. First class is the way to go. I slept like a rock, but everyone else (Colin) whined like a little girl that he could not sleep. We got here at 645 in the morning, and had a really nice sit down breakfast. We've eaten more carbs in the past two days than most people eat in a month. We're also walking a ton, as that's the only real way to get around. But we're thinking about renting a car in London and driving out to the countryside. Tomorrow afternoon we head to Frankfurt.
That's all for now, but I'll try to add more whenever I can.
-Pete
-from Internet café in Zurich, May 21, 10:00am
Oui, Oui! We are in Paris!
We made it! We arrived here on Saturday, May 19th at 10am, and thus began our European adventure. Once we finally figured out which way we needed to go and the billets machine, it was a pretty smooth transition. Except for the whole, speaking in a different language thing. However, it looks like the Collingswood Public School System should be commended for hiring such a fabulous French teacher, Mme. Steinmetz, back in 1998 or so. It all came flowing back, thus making me our official Parisian tour guide and translator.
And, as it turns out, I am the PARIS METRO MASTER! The system here is really cool, we managed to each buy a ticket at 1,40€ and use it for about 4 different trains. Pretty sweet deal for the budget traveler.
We were able to see some really cool stuff right away, mainly due to the fact that we were't allowed to check into our hostel yet (luckily, we were allowed to drop our bags off though!). Our first stop was the beautiful and majestic Sacre Coeur. We spent a good 3 hours going through the church, up to the dome where we had a birds eye view of the city, and then into the crypt we went. The pictures are pretty amazing, so you should check them out!
Later that night we went to see the Moulin Rouge. Pretty disappointing, but that was actually expected. The whole area is pretty interesting though--Montemarte. It is the artsy, bohemian area AKA the sex district. We decided to take a tour of the 8 level erotica museum. It was interesting. We also had our first crepe---nutella and banana. There will be more where those came from.
On Sunday, May 19th we checked out Versailles. Although the weather was crappy the castle and grounds are absolutely gorgeous, and well worth the trip. It's hard to imagine that people actually lived there! It was an especially cool trip since I had just seen Marie Antoinette in September, and they filmed some of the scenes on the grounds. Unfortunately we had to walk back to the train station in the pouring rain, but it's ok because we didn't melt.
We ate some dinner at Le Nord Sud and had our first Creme Brülee. Delicious! We picked up our bags and headed off to the train station for our trip to Zürich...that was quite an adventure.
Au revoir mon Paris! Til next time...
Liz internet cafe from Zürich, 21 Mai, 10:35am
Take Off!
Our flight leaves at 9:00p on Friday, May 18th, so we've either not yet landed or haven't left yet. Stay tuned for any real updates.
But we might not be on the blog too often... because we're going to be in Europe!
Until the trip takes off, you can check out our itinerary, some of the places we'll be staying, and more about us (just click on our names over there on the left).
Thanks for coming by to check us out while we're in Europe!
The Trip
