Tuesday, March 22nd - GUAPAS! (not the fat kind)

Talk about a busy day! (psych)...today we decided to leave Seville and go to
either Portugal or to Cordoba/Grenada/Malaga/cadize....or somewhere else on the
southern coast of Spain. It is safe to say we didn't have a clue. Next we
decided not to go to any of these places today and to spend another day in
Seville, so we checked back in to our hostel. We enjoyed a picnic at a plaza
after perusing lots of markets for picnicy items. We are vegetarians now, see
pic. We soaked up the sun to the theme music of Spanish guitar. We decided
Seville is a place for vacation and we decided we needed one of those. We
strolled and widow shopped and chatted before enjoying an afternoon of
sunbathing and hot chocolate on our rooftop garden terrace before a quick
siesta. Free sangria in the hostel followed by a tapas bar and a free flamenco
show. We love free so we were really digging this tapas/flamenco tour provided
by our hostel. Seville is the birthplace of flamenco so we were psyched to see a
show here. 21 year old cowboy hat wearing sassofras Nate was our tour guide. He
hung out with us and out new Israeli friend, Gaul, and told us how much he hated
giving tours and about his job at the hostel. He had been traveling for 3 weeks
with no savings before he ran out of money in Seville so he got a hostel job so
that he could live and eat for free. Too bad he's not profiting and with 40
cents to his name we're pretty sure he won't be leaving Seville anytime soon.
Nate took us to a tapas bar where we decided we were feeling more cervecay than
tapay. After tapas we walked to the flamenco place with out group. We aren't
usually big fans of organized fun but this was SO cool. We sat by our friend
Claire (Irish) in the great seats we snagged in the middle of this packed bar
and restaurant facing the concrete stage. First a singer and guitarist came out
and did a traditional flamenco song, we were blown away! Next a dancer another
girl came out and things got crazy. With the voice of one guy and the single
guitar accompanied by their stomping and clapping the noise filled the entire
bar. They were so passionate and the girl dancing was so fierce. What stood out
most was the amazing rhythm that these 4 had. The dancers did a costume change
and the show went on. You can see The roots of so many kinds of dance and music
in flamenco and it is clearly still extremely important to the Spanish people
considering the bar was packed with locals. The power of the show was really
amazing and Kelly declared it one of her favorite things she has ever seen. The
performers called a group of their friends on stage after the show and they all
took turns dancing and singing while clapping and stomping in perfect rhythm and
cheering each other on. In many ways this was the coolest part of the show.
Seeing a group of young friends in modern clothes embracing an old time
tradition and having so much fun was great. The performance and flamenco itself
are evidently full of comradery and companionship and the musical talent it
requires is insane.

After the show we met our friend Lizzy (Australian) who was accompanied by 2
French girls, Jennifer and the one whose name we can't remember. The 5 of us
girls and Gaul, who probably liked the female company as he got to tell us about
his current Parisian love, Rebecca, headed out to find a beer before heading
home. It is so enjoyable to hang out with an international group of newly made
friends and talk about the world and life as we all view it. We strolled and
chatted and got lost and learned French phrases and found a crowded alley with
lots of bars and young people and had a beer (well Kelly and Jenny didn't for
once actually) and then headed back to our hostel and said our goodnights. Until
mañana peeps!



Last night in Seville

New French and Australian amigas...and a random Spaniard who jumped in our pic


Flamenco!

New Additions

Hiya friends!

Just a quick side note-- we finally had a chance to add some pictures and short videos from the last week or so. Some of you have told us that you check in for pictures but not the stupid long stories about our days (fair enough, Kelly is more of a picture scanner herself). Scroll through our days and you´ll find some :)

We just decided to stay in Seville an extra night... so we are off for a picnic and sight seeing before Flamenco tonight! Adios amigos!!

Monday, March 21st - Do you think we can pick these oranges...??

Today we conquered Seville (Sevilla as the Spanish say). We have always been told it is SO beautiful here, and it is, but not exactly what we were picturing. We didn´t do any research so we were totally unaware that this was the 4th largest city in Spain. It is almost a combination of San Sebastian and Madrid with a much older and more rustic feel. Lots of plazas and no city grid and unbelievable architecture. In the middle of the city runs a huge river and the views from the bridge are so pretty.

We stomped all over this city today setting off at 11am with a spunky girl from Louisville that we met at our hostel. First stop (after standing on countless street corners staring at our map and searching for one of the elusive street signs here before being directed by a kind older local man) the cathedral, which was so enormous and SO ornamented from the top of every pillar and archway down to the floor. It is by far the most insane, enormous and elaborate cathedral that we have ever been in, words can´t describe...well maybe if we wrote a lot more of them they could but we don´t feel like it right now.

There are orange trees and horse and buggies everywhere here on cobblestone roads and family filled plazas. Nothing like the huge plazas in Madrid, these are smaller and more frequent, essentially just squares amongst the winding backstreets.

This city has such a mix of old and new. Huge highways meet unmarked streets where the high crowded colorful buildings are strewn with balconies. We found an awesome tapas bar for a montallio for lunch (a mini sandwich). We crossed the river and went to a beautiful park which meets the Plaza of Spain. The Plaza of Spain is ENORMOUS! A beautiful building curving around a huge huge plaza lined with a little bridged stream. Along the walls is a mural to each city in Spain, all in shiny colorful tiles. It is a spectacular sight and they were having some kind of police ceremony when we went to there were lines of policemen in the center of it all. We swang on some swings and chatted about life and how amazing it is that we still have things to talk about all day every day...no really, we do, we like each other that much! Which is lucky as we are pretty much stuck together at this point haha. We did lots and lots more walking but I think we are a little citied out to be honest. We have done so much stomping and so much sightseeing and socializing, we are both in need of a little mental break from the sights. Hopefully we will find that tomorrow.

We went to a bull ring but decided it wasn´t worth the tour...we could picture what a sandy arena looked like, I mean we went to UT, this ancient bull ring could hardly be more epic than packed Neyland on a Rocky Top game day. It was cool to see the building of the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain, and even cooler to use their bathroom as thats what we were both in need of at the time.

We found a fruit vendor and picked up some strawberries and grapes for an afternoon snack and walked and walked until we returned to our hostel at 7:30 that night, much later than we had anticipated as we left our hostel at 11:30am that morning. Our sore legs reminded us that we hadn´t done much sitting that day and we laughed about all of the couch potato days that seem worlds away.

When we got home we headed up to the rooftop terrace of our hostel, appropriately named Oasis. The chef was making paella, a traditional Spanish dish of rice, meat, vegetables and seafood. We decided that this particular version looked not too heavy on the seafood and would make a great evening feast. It always sounds like we are eating a lot on our blog but it really doesn´t feel that way...I guess all the walking can make a girl hungry. We met some more girls (this is the first hostel we have been to that seems to be overrun with women, boys are the minority it seems). We attempted travel research for quite a while, not very successfully as neither of us were sure what we were looking for. No nightlife for us this evening, sleep was on both of our minds. I think we were both a little on the spacy side today to say the least. We are still digging Spain, its vibe, people, architecture, climate, views, food....etc. It is an awesome place and we are excited for tomorrow´s awesome adventure.

Tapas lunch

Sevilla!

The cathedral

Every inch of the cathedral was this detailed!

Chicas strolling

Brattiest Shirt Ever

Sunday March 20-- Te amo Maple Syrup

Plaza Mayor

Woes of a backpacker

Monkeying around at Palicio Real

We weren´t feeling too horrible on Sunday. After wondering on Saturday how we ever made it through our party years of college we paced ourselves a bit more last night. We packed up our bags to which Kelly´s broke even more. Now there were two metal bars jabbing her in the bum. Again, awesome. Kelly checked us out late, as usual, although Jenny was running even later, also as usual. While Jen attempted to get her life together Kel sat in the atrium distraught over her backpack crisis. Finally, right when she had reached her lowest low (in backpacking sense), Roy woke up! We figured since he is a chiropractor, he could fix a backpack spine also. He attempted some caveman style hammering to fix it at first but it still busted out of its seems. Finally he proposed taking this giant metal piece off completely...Kelly threw him a face as if he was completely out of his mind to which he went ahead and took it out with no problems. This is the part of the blog where we let you know Roy is the man. Seriously, he just saved Kelly a ton of euros/hassle/possible injuries. Thank you Royyy!!!! Turns out the spine is dumb...so we´re hoping.

The three of us caught up with the world on computers for a bit and then set out for snacks and a Picasa exhibit. We traveled through a gorgeous, ritzy area of Madrid where we sat outside for a wrap and smoothies. The weather was AMAZING and we learned all about our new friend and shared our stories in return. He´s more than just a Virgo, spine-fixing, spunky Canadian. We eventually found the museum which closed 30 minutes earlier...normally this would be a buzzkill, but on a day like today, there was too much too enjoy. We found Plaza Mayor, the huge palace, gardens and countless other wonders. We hung outside the palace for a while, where we took pictures of a fellow traveler by himself. Jenny and Kelly engaged him in conversation about travel plans/experiences and regretted not inviting him to tapas with us. Afterwards we died laughing as we realized Roy had not spoken a word but just listened to our conversation with the American guy... we had rambled about just meeting "this guy" (pointing towards Roy) and how we were going to see him in Lisbon because he makes killer pancakes and canadian maple syrup. Sometimes our joking/weirdness gets a little to strange and that guy definitely strayed off quickly thinking about what wack-jobs you meet out in the world and how we had most likely kidnapped Roy, who to his knowledge did not speak a word of English and looks pretty inconspicuous with his hood up. But seriously, we are thinking about Portugal this week, Roy really is known for his pancakes, ice cream and margaritas... why wouldn´t we go?

We had an awesome afternoon and ended the day at El Tigre, a locals-filled tapas bar off the beaten path that David had suggested last night. You order a few cheap beers, and they bring you plates of tapas. Yum! It was a great way to end our weekend in the city and with our new buddy. We grabbed our backpacks from the hostel and set off to catch a train. Luckily we made the 8pm one...Jenny passed out and Kelly watched the in-transit film. 2.5 hours later we were in Sevilla! We quickly realized in all the days glory we had forgotten to pull up directions to our hostel and there was no wifi in sight. Long story short, we wandered some...and some more...caught a bus...wandered some more....to be honest we were lost at night in a city we didn´t know before we somehow found the hostel, which is in a side street off an unmarked plaza built into a historic wall. We get it, free spirited travel is one thing but maybe this was a little too far. Clearly we are taking backpacker relaxation pretty seriously as we weren´t phased by this situation -- Lesson learned though, more organization from here on out! The Oasis hostel here is awesome though which is comforting. We knew it was bed time...so we jumped in our bunks and decided Seville will look better in the morning.

Saturday, March 19th - The Homeless Movement

Going to bed after the sun came up made this day pretty different from our typical up early, walk all day, explore everything kind of days. Madrid is cool, but less cool with a hangover. You may judge us for being a little heavy on the party animal on what is supposed to be our cultural tour of the word, but in our defense Madrid thrives on nightlife....and we love to party. We have to experience each culture for what it is known for!

We decided not only to sleep in, but also to embrace the cultural afternoon siesta. Give us a break we have been living out of a suitcase then backpack for 7 weeks now! Ok confession, alarms may have been forgotten to be set this particular morning, but around 11:30 a guy woke us up saying we needed to switch rooms. This delirious move down the hall was one of those "what city/country/continent are we in right now?!" kind of moments. It gets a bit foggy when you mix daily traveling with a few cocktails. In between all of our awesome sleeping, we headed out into the city looking less than pretty. Madrid is AMAZING! It´s strange to think that we have been to so many major cities this month (New York, London, Paris and now Madrid). In some ways a big city is a big city, full of hustle and bustle, tall buildings, advertising, public transportation, anonymity, the divide of the extremely wealthy and the starving homeless, and so many people living together in one area yet totally consumed by their own lives.

We both agree that Madrid is our favorite of these large cities. The people are fun and lively (especially compared to Paris), there is noise and action and crazy street performances everywhere, and all of the buildings maintain charming Spanish architecture. It is a metropolis but with winding streets and alley ways leading from one gorgeous enormous plaza to another. People are not head down, headphones in, cell phone glued to ear - they are walking in groups and chatting and laughing and happy! Granted, some of this may have been the beautiful weather, but whatever the reason we LOVED the vibe! We sat at an outdoor table and enjoyed a delicious brunch: bacon and egg sandwich (typical Spanish food didn´t ya know?). At lunch we saw a lady totally covered in white powder, even in her eyelids. She was pushing around a strange white sculpture on wheels...that looked a little bit like her...but not finished. We couldn´t quite figure this one out...

Lunch put the life back into us (flashback to college drive-thru Sundays after rough Satuday nights...makes us feel old, but we won´t say that because it is rude to our readers who may have a couple years on us). Next we went to one of the huge nearby plazas and sat in the sunshine watching the mix of people and wondering about their days and their lives (we love to do this, obviously). We wandered for a long time after that and were both in an observant kind of daze. We saw some of the strangest street performances ever including people painted as statues and staying completely motionless as a part of real sculptures they had built...that explains the dusty lady we saw at lunch. We walked to Opera, the Madrid equivalent of Time Square as one travel guide explained it...although we disagree completely. It had beautiful old architecture and cinemas everywhere and the only flashy enormous TV screens made up an entire wall of one of the prettiest buildings full of windows, every window was comprised of a screen and as a whole they showed one picture. We saw beautiful gardens and walked up windy cobblestone roads out onto huge boulevards full of ritzy shopping leading to back roads full of tapas bars and random souvenir shops with lots of flamenco outfits. We heard some loud music blaring and walked into a restaurant to find a flamenco show with a woman passionately stomping her feet around and swooshing her dress. She looked just like you would expect a flamenco dancer to look...We did lots of other things in our tired daze until we decided it was definitely siesta time.

Back at the super social hostel (a beautiful former Arabic palace from the 18th century that now serves as a temporary home for TONS of young people travelling around the world or just stopping in Madrid for a weekend) we finally came out of our siesta snooze...or coma, whatever you want to call it...we chilled in the huge and beautiful atrium that is full of couches and bean bags with people conversing in countless languages. We met 3 guys who had met one another in their travels and were now celebrating one of the three musketeers last nights. Canadian Roy who is a Virgo and enjoys long walks on the beach...and being a jackass (he is hilarious and our favorite friend here) lives in Lisbon and is the top porn star in Portugal (...ok inside joke for Roy--miss you darling). Roy met his 2 new amigos for life as they travelled through Lisbon..we think. Fedora wearing, guitar playing, crying when he goes home at night, multilingual tour guide David is from Orange County, Cali and has been travelling the world solo for 6 months now - well, until he met Gabby at a hostel he was working at. Brazilian Gabriel (Gabby) was a man of few words, apparently because he was a little down about heading home from his adventure and parting with his travel buddies the following morning. The words he did speak were pretty hilarious and we liked his dry sense of humor. We also met adorable Yui, who couldn´t speak a word of Spanish and only a handful of English words. She is an artist in Japan (showed us her work on her cell phone, amazing!) traveling in Spain for 3 weeks for her graduation celebration. The 6 of us decided to head out for tapas and beer after Kelly and Jenny got a little 20 minute shower and post-coma time...which turned out to be more like an hour...and 20 minutes, anyway whose counting (well maybe David, Roy, Gabby and Yui). David took us to Cerveceria 100 Montaditos, a great spot for delicious cheap tapas and even more delicious cheap beer! We had a great time and ate and drank until the place closed before heading out into the town to find somewhere to go out. Of course Kelly and Jenny wanted to go to Kapitol, the biggest nightclub in Europe. The consensus amongst the rest of the gang was that biggest wasn´t necessarily synonymous with best so we walked out to Sol, a huuge plaza with beautiful fountains that joins lots of winding side streets with the main road and an artsy subway station entrance made of dark glass. There were young people sitting around every inch of the fountain drinking beers and enjoying each others company. We squeezed in and admired the super moon (apparently some super full full moon that only happens once every...some long number of years - looked like a regular moon to us). We had so much fun sitting and laughing and learning about each other and talking about dumb stuff and serious stuff and life. This whole thing is really about soaking up life and that is what we love about it! Yui departed after a while as she was heading back to Japan the next day. It´s amazing how much you can enjoy someones company without being able to speak much, vibes are everything and she was great.

A friend of David´s came and met us...and writing this we are realizing maybe we never knew her name...and we all headed to an Irish pub (refer to yesterday about what they call a "pub"). David and the nameless girl insisted that Roy knew her too but after giving her a hug he turned to us and mouthed "I have no idea who that is..." David and his Spanish chica were pretty engaged for most of the night, well until she went to get a beer and he decided Kelly was his new favorite...he was weird. Anyway, off topic. We did more sitting around and talking (mostly to Roy) and beer drinking in the super packed pub. From there we decided to go try out the club JOY, but it was closed for a private party. Suddenly we realized how late (or early for some of our baby-boomer followers) it was and that paying 20 euros for a club wasn´t a smart choice. We stopped in the fast moving 24 hours pizza vendor for walk home snacks...David and his Madrid gal pal parted ways after he and Gabby had a tearful goodbye. It´s amazing the relationships people build through this unique experience... rarely do you have people coming and going in your life like this that help lead you to your next destination. We tried to hang out in the atrium of our palace turned hostel but it was past hours so we said goodnight to Roy and Gabby, quickly realizing Gabby had to be up in an hour for a flight. We had convinced Roy to stay another day for museums and sight seeing. Yay! It was a great night in Madrid...we didn´t make it to Europe´s biggest nightclub, but we did make some cool friends and that´s more our style. Time for a nap before breakfast/packing/checkout.

Flamenco dancer

Scary real people statues plus violin...strange

Awesome hostel ceiling

Friday March 18th - The happy place

Such a beautiful city

Tapas galore

We love it here

Staying in Hostels with free breakfast is not only cost efficient, it's a great alarm clock. If you know us (which hopefully you do because you're reading our blog creep) then you know if there is one thing that will get these two professional sleepers out of bed in the morning, it´s breakfast. After much thought yesterday about where to stay,we agreed our best option was paying a few extra euros for somewhere that includes breakfast. It sounds dumb, but it's actually a great travel tip. Anyway, up and at it today about 930 for croissants, muffins, baguettes and coffee. Yum! We decided to be super homeless and steal some muffins that 2 other people had left behind in their bread basket..then 20 minutes later we decided to be skinny so we threw them away...then 3 hours later we found ourselves with mouthfulls of tapas. Consistency was really never our thing. Anyway, back to this enthralling tale of our day...we had about an hour til check out and we wanted to take one last awesome private bathroom shower before we packed. 10 past noon we inevitably got a call asking us to check out to which we played dumb. Kelly, who was pretty much ready, took the key down while Jenny attempted to put her life back into her pack quicker than ever...always a struggle for the weakest link. That bitch is always running late! (haha for real I am always late though).

Leaving hostel awesomeness (minus the peculiar smell of indian food) we walked to the train station to reserve our seats for an afternoon train to Madrid. While there Kelly had her first traveling crisis. Her bag (identical to Jenny's) decided it wanted to start coming apart. These big packs have wire support in the back which is kind of crucial; well Kelly´s is coming out, which now results in a piece of metal poking her in her bodacious booty. Awesome. Jenny the handyman (um, woman!) gave it her best fixing skills but no go. Hopefully when it's unloaded we can fix it and duct tape the crap out of it, a great skill that Jenny´s dad Simon will surely help us with in Barcelona, duct tape is his fave. Cross your fingers everyone, this is kind of a big deal. A backpacker with no backpack is like...well, a homeless person. We have to laugh off our backpack woes because at least we´re not rolling giant suitcases around, right? Still feeling great! And it was warmer and sunnier today! Woot woot!

We strolled towards the ocean and stopped at a tapas place near where we went last night. They had tons of outdoor tables so we stopped for fried meatball pintoxs and minis. We love it here! We are vibing with Spain and San Sebastian is gorgeous... We can only imagine what an awesome summer vacation destination it would be. After our snacks, we took advantage of a playground overlooking the ocean where we could sit and swing.We walked around, trying to capture a picture of how beautiful it is here but it just isn't possible. oh well! Just for our own memories when we look back, it really is amazingly pretty! The streets are extremely clean and lined with strange trees and huge flower beds with every color in full bloom. The salt water mists up as you get to the coast and the waves crashing on the rocks along the coast are amazing. Come to San Sebastion on your next vacation! We will certainly be back.

Post tapas we still obviously decided snacks for the train were a must, so we picked up some fruit at a street vendor and headed to catch our train. This is our first daytime train so we got to see so much spanish countryside and it was breathtaking. Green, rolling, landscapes, enormous mountains, and periodic little towns or villages. As the sun went down, so did our eyelids. We knew we needed a power nap before Madrid. Madrid is an awesome city, but the "thing" to experience here is the nightlife....so that´s the plan.

Off our train we figured out how to hop on the metro and find our hostel. The metro here is SO clean! Almost beautiful! None of that stinky rat filled Paris, London, NYC stuff! We turned on our pick-pocket watching eyes hardcore as soon as we got here- so far so good (KNOCK ON WOOD); we pull our rain covers over our backpacks, blocking all the crazy zipped pockets, which is a good start hopefully, but makes us look extra suspicious. Finding our hostel in the dark wasn´t as easy as we hoped...(safety first parents, don´t worry) so we wandered (with purpose of course) until someone who could obviously tell we were lost pointed us to Cats Hostel (we had already passed it a time or two). Luckily they had a room for us, so we threw our suitcases in our 4 bunk dorm, where two very serious backpackers with pots and pans, sleeping bags, camping silverware...other weird stuff that we don´t know about, and a cordless house phone (a couple, maybe german?) was trying to go to sleep. We made a quick run up to the road to get fast food (never go clubbing on an empty stomach guys, duh) and then changed and threw on some makeup. We picked a direction to go out as we left the hostel and it turned out to be a great one! It was like Chinatown for bars... promoters everywhere "free shot? you want free shot over here?!". Soon one of the promoters turned out to be really nice and spoke great English- David. He had lived in Miami for a long time before Madrid and told us where to go and how it works here... pubs from 12-3ish then the clubs. So we headed into his pub, Commo, and had ourselves a free beer and some dancing. We all know what a pub is...but apparently the Madrillanos do not. This was a nightclub if we have ever seen one, flashing lights, 3 dance floors, bumping music and music vids, and lots of bars and shots and girls in tiny skirts. We made some friends and Kelly attempted some salsa dancing with a tall french/indian guy who seemed to speak spanish? From here, David was nice enough to pick out a good club down the road where we made a few friends...one whose name we cant remember but ONLY drank Kentucky Bourbon and was thrilled to meet a Kentuckian and tell her. ha! This club was huge and we hopped up on the enormous stage and danced the night away...literally until morning. Love Espana! We made it home...at some point. Kelly passed out, Jenny Skyped and we werent a bit worried the sun was coming up. Viva Madrid!

Side note from Espana

Hi! We are in Madrid having a super awesome time. We are starting to understand why Jenny's sister Britt is loving her semester in Barcelona so much, maybe we will both move to Spain? Thoughts?

Just wanted to say Sorry about the lack of pics. If we were reading someones blog that's all we would care about too. Good iternet has been harder to come by as of late and we don't have a computer to upload pics to. Since this blog is essentially our journal we are much more concerned with having an awesome time and living in the present than figuring out how to get our pictures on this thing for you guys to look at. Hopefully we will add them in a week or so, don't want to bore you to tears.

Thursday, March 17th - Ooh, Rump-o'-smooth-skin, you say you wanna get in my Benz?

It's official, we are legit backpackers. Our overnight train arrived in San Sebastian at 8am. We had no map or plans or hostel so we set off wandering in the rain.

It was our first time in Spain and we were so happy to be here, despite the rain, we instantly got a great vibe from this place...pretty sure we are really gonna dig Espana. Not sure why but our theme song for the day was a great classic throw back that some of you will remember from our bar mitzvah party/school dance stage of life: Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back." We white girl rapped and danced around (not an easy task when wearing a backpack that spans from over your head to below your butt) the streets of San Sebastian on this fine morning, stopping only for a quick cup of coffee, until we found a place to stay almost 4 hours later.

The world is our playground and it's recess all the time. We have really been digging this playground analogy recently. We like some kids more than others. Some are nice, some are scary, some are mean, some are our friends. The only thing missing is a packed lunch from mom and a jump rope...although we contemplated joining a double dutch competition in Amsterdam.

Bad news folks, it continued to be a seriously rainy day on the playground. We decided not to let that stop us so we ventured back out into town, which is SO beautiful. we both made a little wish for sunshine tomorrow so we could see how pretty it really was. As peoples umbrellas turned inside out and the gray drizzle engulfed everything we got totally soaked. After getting a sandwhich and realizig everything was closed for siesta we decided to head back to our hostel. Getting rained in was a serious damper on our moods (haha we are such punsters) but it had some positives. We embraced the wonderful Spanish custom of a siesta, catching up on some much needed sleep, we discovered the rain covers on our backpacks, we realized that the weather has been all sunshine up to this point (pretty remarkable for winter in Europe) aand most importantly we realized something about ourselves. We have been so used to using every minute to its full advantage: exploring, sight seeing, meeting people, engaging locals in conversation, trying cultural foods, getting lost, laughing, appreciating the little things and realizing they mean more than we often give them credit for. We are exhausting ourselves in the pursuit of life. Our frustration with the rain made us realize our spirit of adventure was not burnig out. We were proud of ourselves. We know a lot of travelers would embrace an excuse to have a couch potato session but we were not fans. I mean, we're in Spain ya know? It made us thankful to realize we still wanted to be out playing in our playground.

The great thing about tonight was...everything We were totally over our lazy day. We did enjoy our long hot shoe-less showers and the hairdryer in the room had Miss Foster one happy camper. After Kelly deciding to stop moping about the sickening UL game she followed on her phone, we threw on jeans and headed towards old town. Old town was about a 10 minute walk from us - which was a breeze now that the rain subsided. Here, we read, was the place to find endless tapas (Spanish snacks) bars right on the coast. Endless alley ways off a grand boulevard were full of kids and adults snacking and drinking. Most importantly, they were wearing giant ST. Patricks day hats... Success! Both of our goals in one place- ST. Patty's and tapas. In San Sebastian they call tapas "pintoxs"; they line the counters of bars and you pay by the item or toothpick, most are about 1 or 2 euros. Some look like sandwiches, some are fried, some are smaller mouthfuls on toothpicks, most are open faced small items with toppings. We stopped in a tapas bar listed on a map we had acquired from a nice hotel concierge (...obviously not where we were staying, budget accommodations don't come with a concierge) to get a feel for how this pintoxs thing works. It was a quieter spot but we explored this cultural tradition. San Sebastian prides themselves on their pintoxs and they are everywhere! You're meant to eat one with a beer or wine, then switch bars and repeat. Kelly tried a small pastry with king crab filling while Jenny munched on a ham & cheese mini. Yum! We were ready for another... We carefully picked our next location based on their selection and the crowd. We stopped in our 2nd place where a few people were socializing and the variety looked tasty.

There were 2 British guys standing bar-side who we talked to about our dinner options - there strategy was just pointing at a mystery snack and digging in, which gave them both a mouthful of super fishy tapa and made us lean toward some safer options. No octopus pintox for us, the San Sebastian favorite. The four of us started chatting and getting really into who picked what pintox. Its easy to understand why this is such a social part of the region. James and sam were great friend choices on our part. They had backpacked after school also and traveled a lot in general. James just got sacked, which we had a hard time understanding as he said he owns his own company (just kidding James, we know we know, you "quit" - PS Jenny wrote this sentence, Kelly would never be so rude to her future boss). He has a house about 20 minutes away in France that he will be giving to us to take care of for free starting Monday! (just throwing the option out there again bud). They had just gotten into town like us, to spend a long weekend here. They had lots of fun stories and weren't too weirded out by us, which is always a plus. The four of us set off down the street to a bar where green lights glowed, kids stumbled out in big green hats and the sign said 2 for 1 Guiness and a hat! Perfect. Here we found out James had retired from the British army; he was actually the guy who shouted orders during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Naturally we inquired about being so serious, the fur hats and all the other questions London left us with. He taught us a few moves (stay tuned for proof). Now he is moving to Australia and taking Kelly on as the best employee ever (she hopes).

Sam had some big kid job that only got him a few days off to come spend some time here. They just needed a nice quiet romantic weekend together... Ha! Just kidding you guys- we know you're reading this saying "Get out! Shut up! What tards!" (all helpful American slang they picked up from us throughout the night). Naturally they were impressed with our intellect and pensive travel lessons.. It had nothing to do with how great we look in giant green hats and killer cerveza drinking skills. we all strolled through town a bit more before saying goodnights.

We were so happy not only to have made new friends who were such fun, but also to be in Spain and celebrating this great holiday.. But to have hung out with 2 people who, at the end of the night, said see ya later with no invites or creepy offers. Well done you guys- y'all win for favorite and least creepy new friends.

We walked home so happy to not be freezing, after a great night, in a new place, and to not be in Paris. That shit was bogus.

Sleep tight sugarplums

Wednesday, March 16th - "We aren't that homeless, we have Purell"

Travel day, us and our backapcks (who we still havent named but we will keep you posted) had until 11pm in Paris until we took an overnight train to San Sebastian. This day involved a lot of subway rides an errands. We found a Nikon store and replaced the camera cord Jen had lost on the beach in Samara (huge shock on that one since she is always so careful of her stuff...sike! If you know her you know that she honestly could lose the shoes off her feet). We talked to lots of train station peeps and figured out the deetz of using our eurail passes. Jens padlock on her backpack had stealthily changed it's own combo...we know this is weird but they are super janky locks. Jen blames the locks for this more than Kelly, who just blames Jenny for being scatterbrained as usual. The nice train station man cut the zipper on Jens bag so she could get her passport out, guess the lock is more for show now? We ate stolen hostel baguettes and chocolate spread on the steps by a skyscraper in Montparnasse. It really stands out bc with the exception of religious buildings and the Eiffel tower all buildings are the same height (there was a law about the limit of stories a building could have back in the day). We were homeless nomads for a while longer, exploring neighborhoods, splitting a pizza, venturing into a grocery store for carrot sticks an hummus (where our backpacks nearly knocked every single item off of the shelves we passed). We had to describe just how ridiculous we look sporting these - after a day of walking we get a serious case of newborn deer legs. 

We got on our train a little early and settled into our super reclining seats for a nice nights sleep....until all the other passengers started to board.

We don't know how to describe the smell of this train but our singed nose hairs may be an indication. It was stinkier than the horse poo burning in the sun on the beach of Samara. We hate to point fingers (who are we kidding, no we dont) but it got eye watering every time the Parisian woman behind us lifted her arm reaching up to get something out of her bag stowed overhead. Every seat around us was full and an old guy nearby with a mouth full of gold teeth kept turning around to look at us before cracking himself up. Who knew the train from Paris to Spain was the sketchiest place we would encounter? We decided we had to fall asleep quick to escape our surroundings. Just as we closed our eyes, Indian music started blaring out of some anonymous persons cell phone. By song 7 Kelly was about to lose it, Jenny secretly wished for song 8 so she could see this happen. Instead she put her rule-breaking streak to good use and found a totally quiet mostly empty area of the train. We hauled our stuff down there and spread out, each taking up 2 seats for a glorious night of train sleep...well maybe dozing is a better word for it. 

Tuesday, March 15th - Here Comes the Sun

Just a little lovin´ from France y´all

We had free hostel breakfast, at which we stole extra bread and jam to make for a free lunch. Everything is better when it's free, especially when you are funding your own world tour without very many funds. We decided to be Parisian chic today, well...as Parisian chic as 2 shower-shoe wearing, room sharing, homeless nomads who have no blowdryer/straightener/accessories/privacy and live out of a backpack can be. The result was neither Parisian or chic but it's the thought that counts right? Tights and eyeliner can make just about anyone look like a woman (a lesson we learned in Amsterdam's Red Light District...and also from Mrs. Doubtfire). We headed out for a full day of sightseeing in Paris and we accomplished everything we wanted to do! We stared in awe at the enormous stained glass windows and beautiful arches inside Notre Dame. Words cannot describe the chills this place gives you! Parisian sightseeing fuels lots of interesting historical and philosophical chats.

We wandered onwards and crossed a bridge covered in padlocks. These "love locks" were doodled on, engraved and bedazzled by couples who wanted to lock a symbol of their love in the romantic city of Paris. Every so often every last lock is cut off and the French government claims not to have a clue who does it. Guess everlasting love only lives in Paris until the mysterious locksmith decides your time is up. Next we headed to the Louvre, which was closed on Tuesdays - probably for the best as it takes 9 days to fully explore every wing and neither of us were feeling very museumy because of the most epic reason that we have forgotten to mention. It was HOT outside. Not just a little sunshine hittng your face in cold weather kind of warm, like actually hot!! We were so happy to feel this way for the first time since Costa Rica so we wanted to be outside all day (sorry to be insensitive to those of you at home who have endured a freezing winter).

We took a break for coffee at a typical French cafe that we are sure you have never heard of: Starbucks. We sat outside in the sun and sipped our iced coffees happy as could be. A cute Parisian couple rocking awesome alternative outfits sat next to us and asks where we were from. Saying the USA does not always strike up a friendly conversation but these 2 were great! New French friends!! We talked all about travels, good places to go in Spain, the advantages of being able to drink wine at Disneyland Paris, and how the Parisian youths chief cigs all day. Our respect for people speaking a second language has skyrocketed after we realized how little we retained in our respective language classes. We both have an intensified desire to successfully master a second language in the foreseeable future. We started wandering toward the gardens behind the Louvre after we had enjoyed our iced Starbucks in the sunshine and said our goodbyes to our Spanish coffee companions.

No where in Paris captures Parisians better than at this garden. It is huge with white statues of naked figures everywhere and perfectly trimmed hedges and trees. When we were on our tour with Tyler the day before we had passed here and seen a man on an enormous ladder swinging a giant blade at the few stray twigs. The French are very particular about their gardens. There are perfectly circular manmade ponds in this garden surrounded by green chairs where the Parisians relax, chat, smoke, sleep, read. If we were photographers we would love to have an entire exhibit called "life in the green chair" capturing the essence of all the different people there. We are obv not photographers but we took some crap pictures for our memories anyway. We walked through the square that had been covered with blood for months after the French revolution and looked at the Egyptian monument that Napoleon had stolen from Egypt transporting it with a special boat he had made...what an elaborate robber.
Next we walked up the Champs de Leese, a ritzy shopping area leading up to the Arc de Triumph where store signs can only be white. McDonalds has created a special Mc'Cafe so as to be accepted by the French. We decided that it doesn't matter who you are, a cheeseburger out of a box is always delicious. Well, maybe unless you are a vegetarian.

We saw some of the most amazing break dancing and popping & locking by groups of street performers. We were kinda bummed for them that the crowds watching them seemed less than enthusiastic. Parisians are kinda dudders, which was apparently rubbing off on the Parisian tourists today. We both agree that going up to the top of monuments is never that fun, mostly because once you are up there you can't see the monument you went to see in the first place. With this in mind we didn't go up the Arc De Triumph and hopped a subway to Montmartre, the artist district of Paris. The view from up there is incredible and after a carousel ride and acquiring a free rasta colored thread bracelet from a guy from Sierra Leon who called us both lady Gaga repetedly, we sat on the steps and took in the amazing view. A bunch of guys played bongos nearby while a few of them took turns doing sick tricks with a soccer ball while standing on a raised table. We enjoyed a Cafe and wine dinner and then went into Sacre Couer, which was so specacular and chilling as the silence echoed around inside the stone cathedral walls. We sat in total silence in a pew absorbing the history and spirituality of this beautiful piece of history. Walking out of the Sacre Couer and back onto the steps up to Montmarte was like entering a totally different world of chatter, music, wine drinking, friends and activity. The night time view of the city was beautiful up there. Now that it was night we decided to take a Metro to the Eiffel tower, which is much prettier when it's illuminated. We walked through the gardens underneath it to a modern looking monument representing world peace (our inner hippies totally dig this, and we took an excessive amount of Asian peace sign pics here).

We wrapped up our last evening in Paris with some apperetifes at a cafe. As we walked back through the gardens to go home the entire Eiffel tower sparkled with shimmery lights looking like a million fireflies. Kelly loves her some glitter so this was right up her alley.

During our subway ride back to our hostel a bearded homeless drunk 4-foot loony wearing a knit sweater (picture a kind garden garden gnome mixed with a straight hobo with a dash of father time) took a break from the thrilling conversation he was having with himself to politely offer a sip of his heineken to each of us in turn. We declined the first drink offer we have received from a Frenchman...and the politest and least threatening one we have encountered at that. Although we didn't say more than a few words to him he seemed to think he was in quite the merry conversation with us, which got merrier as he gently tapped the arm of the exhausted Asian guy sitting next to him who was in such a deep sleep he nearly fell out of his seat and onto Jenny's lap. Kel gave our homeless garden gnome a cheers with her water bottle for good measure as we got off to switch trains.

This has been an epic loong day full of all the things we love about traveling and adventures in new cities. We purposefully wandered our faces off in Paris and although we wouldn't say we have a great love affair with the city, we definitely loved every minute of today. We can't wait to head to Spain and soak up the vibes of a place neither of us have ever been!


The Louvre


Typical Parisian afternoon


Sacre Coeur


Inside Notre Dame


We love this world peace monument


Glittery Eiffel Tower


Montmarte


Typical Paris pic

Our subway friends

Monday, March 14th - Sights, Snoozing and Sketchballs

Today was uber struggs. Note to selves: overnight bus ride is not synonymous with sleep. We caught a few minutes of shut eye here and there while crammed into our barely reclining bus seats, but we didn't mind because we had snacks and chats and Jenny saw an awesome windmill while Kelly wasn't paying attention. Anyway, we were post all nighter delirious when our scary bus driver yelled at us that it was time to get off somewhere on the outskirts of Paris. It was 5am and still pitch dark out. We hauled our lives back onto our backs and were ready to "make Paris our bitch" in the words of Kel Puckett. No one asked us any questions or searched our bags or made us show passports, which made us speculate about all the illegal stuff we could be hauling in our huge bags...don't worry parents, just speculating, Amsterdam hasn't transformed us into international drug lords or anything.

Arriving here we realized just how much we had learned since our first day of traveling. If we had been dropped in a random spot with no clue where we were going, carrying everything we owned on our backs with no one in sight to ask a question and not a word of English anywhere after a night of no sleep....well, we would have panicked to say the least. After all of our traveling experiences, both good and bad, relaxing and stressful, planned and spur of the moment, we noticed that we were not the slightest bit phased by our current situation. Actually, quite the opposite, we were cracking each other up until tears streamed down our faces for the
majority of the day. We managed to decipher enough French to buy 2 tickets to where we thought we were going.

We got to our hostel, St. Christopher Inn (which is so awesome, if you are in Paris on a budget, stay here!) at 6:30amish and couldn't check in until 2pm - we ate breakfast and decided to go on the 10am free Paris walking tour offered at our hostel as a time killer. Turns out this was no casual tour a we followed tourguide, Tyler, from one great sight to the next for 4 hours!! We had a long conversation about body piercings with a group of Australians who were friends from home. Pretty sure Kel fell asleep with her eyes open during this part as she later asked where they were from and how they knew each other. Our tired delirium gave us both a serious case of ADD and the giggles - great combination for us but maybe not Tyler's favorite, although he seemed to like us alright. Well, until it all hit us at once. You know that feeling you get in sophomore year of high school in your first class of the day when mrs whoever is droning on and on about photosynthesis and you are wishing you had toothpicks to prop your eyelids open with? Well maybe you don't, but as frequent class snoozers we certainly do. Tyler made the terrible mistake of letting everyone sit down on some steps as he gave a history overview. 2 seconds in and we were both head in hands passed out for who knows how long....in our defense we were both pretty sure the other one had enough stamina to stick it out and stay alert, guess we both dropped the ball on that one. Sorry Tyler, you were actually a great tour guide despite our constant distraction followed by lengthy much-needed nap - we appreciated the snooze more than you know. (Side note: Jenny's snooze was way more justifiable as she had just been on a family vacay to this fine city in the summer of 2011. Miss Puckett hasn't been since she was 8 so she could have at least paid a little bit of attention.) Since we have both been here before you may ask why we are in Paris in the first place. Well, it was on the way from Amsterdam to Spain and seemed worth doing again. We only plan about 1 day in advance, well 1 hour sometimes recently, so we just decided to stay until we wanted to leave.

That night we went out to enjoy Paris, the city of love...which turned out to be more like the city of sleeze balls. We headed down by the Moulin Rouge per the recommendation of the bartender at the hostel. Talk about a recommendation....this was a terrible choice. After some cheesy and necessary Moulin Rouge pics, we walked around in our jeans, sweaters, coats, heels and scarves all bundled up and in search of a fun spot to meet some friends and enjoy some cocktails. A few guys leaned out of a car and started yelling at us in French...maybe a cultural difference we thought? We chatted amongst ourselves and ignored them as they came to a full stop and continued yelling until the honking line of cars they were holding up move them along. We were a little weirded out by how aggressive that encounter had been and as we talked about it the same thing happened with a second passing car full of men. Then two younger french guys walked along side us as we continued our loop around the square, getting uncomfortably close to us and asking question after question in French. We were polite for a moment until they became more and more abrasive with their questions at which point we just ignored them...apparently in France this is the part of the conversation when the guys yell rudely at you for several minutes and throw money at you. We don't speak French so we can't be certain what they were asking for...but we can guess. In the 7 more minutes that we walked around in search of the happening spots we had been promised by our bartender, we were harassed by 8 other men walking and 4 other car fulls who stopped and shouted. We understand cultural differences, men, sketchy areas etc. and have encountered our fair share but this was different. We were leered at, stared at and followed as we made our way back to the subway we had just gotten off. We are not easily creeped out but this was a whole new level of sketch and we were both pretty certain that Paris was a city that we could enjoy in the daylight. We still aren't sure what to make of this situation but our proximity to the Moulin Rouge makes us presume this area is still known for one thing.

Sunday, March 13th - De Lekkerste

The day has come to leave our dodgy hostel and head to Paris. Schedule looks something like this:

5am: go to bed

8am: wake up

10am: check out of dodgy hostel

10:01am: put the 2 heaviest backpacks on for the remainder of the day

10:30am: long walk and people watching in Vondlepark

1pm: stopped at coffee shop

2:30pm: worlds most enormous midday breakfast at sports bar with disco music blaring, yum, see pics

Hungry much Kelster? A real dream come true

Got enough of that dream meal stuffed in your mouth Jenster?

4pm: leave breakfast and begin extremely long walk

5:30pm: stop at cafe for a cup of koffie and some wifi usage

10pm: board overnight bus to Paris full of rando creeps with the rudest bus driver of all time

12pm: the most amazing discovery of Jenny's entire life occurred at a gas station ....behold, jumbo pack of crispy m&m's (if you read our blog often you can recall why this is so important, if not, we apologize that you are reading such a dull post and you can refer to earlier post, the skip hunt if you have such a boring life that Jenny's crispy m&m encounter is interesting enough to you that you would like to research its significance. We highly recommend a crispy m&m and nacho cheese doritos combo as your next snack.

Us (and our backpacks) have successfully had a wonderous last day in AmDam. We are having the time of our lives and loving every second of it! More to come from adventures of two lost souls in Paris!

Saturday, March 12-- Occupation: Gap Year

After planning to wake up for free breakfast around 800am, we quickly found ourselves up and at em at... 1:00! Uhhh, what? This isn't sleepy England, it's Amsterdam- we can't sleep in! Well we quickly realized that in a party town like this, lots of people use the daytime for sleep. Duh. People were even strolling into the hostel after long nights when we woke up... It was like college again :).

We set out for brunch and being the hungry hippos we are, stopped right down the street for an omelet. Let's re-confirm what we know at this point: dutch people are rude. Omelets are delicious. Well it's not that they are rude, we actually really like the dutch, it is just a different culture...for example service industries don't really have any service!

We decided to stroll north into town, exploring more streets. We found part of a park which we loved as it was full of people lying around on blankets, playing music, eating and being in love. We got back on the main road and, well long story short, we never went east. Only north. We found ourselves over and hour later at the top of town far from where we wanted to be. After mapping out our route we eventually made our way to where we wanted to be, a bit frustrated at how easily we were getting lost here. But we found some awesome new streets, full of locals! It was kind of like the SoHo of Amsterdam. Eventually we were back to town center and Feeling pretty snacky after our long long walk (shocking we know). We stopped in somewhere for a coffee, hot chocolate (yeah Kelly is addicted) and a slice of Dutch apple pie. The greatest pie ever, which wasn't as all like stuffed crust we make at home. Must find recipe. Yum! Now this town is full of museums, some really famous like the Van Gogh but we didn't want to spend our money on things we aren't that intrigued by. Just to our luck, the cities famous sex museum was next door to the yummy pie place! And for only 4 euros! We felt like we had to go to at least one museum here, and this one explained history behind the red light district, Marilyn Monroe and countless other things that are a bit to R-rated for this wholesome blog. It was fun... But also really revolting and a little scary. Let's just say, the most extreme things aren't always the most interesting. But we had a lot of laughs and it was totally worth it. Museum? Check! We are so mature.

After some more walking we took our "free" tram home and got ready for another night here. We whipped up a yummy cocktail for our walk (thanks uncle Tim!) and took the tram to the leidensphleinhsjso square. Ok ok that's not how you spell it, but all we know is it started with an L and all the streets look something like that.

We split a bowl of spaghetti at a sports bar/nightclub and then set off to explore more hot spots in the bustling area. We hopped from bar to bar, having SO much fun! We had raging dance parties to old school jams like Nelly and Ace of Base and other favorites; we were totally in our own world and it was a blast!!

We gave into the late night snack craving this time (sigh) and after Burger King wouldn't take a credit card (Burger King- you suck a lot), we found ourselves splitting a delcious meal at McDonalds. Here we met 2 giant Dutch men who bought us 2 more cheeseburgers. Alright alright, we know what youre thinking...free drinks would be a much more swanky story... but we aren't interested in that nonsense... bring on the grub gentlemen

Friday, March 11: Part 2...Escape of the Purple Light District

Time to play catch up! We survived Amsterdam- success (could probably leave it that but when are we ever women of few words?). We decided it's kind of like Vegas- 2 nights and 3 days is the perfect amount of time. The city is really beautiful! Thanks to Joe (again) for the recommendation. After getting settled in hostel dodgy (or hostel Jansen for you technical folk) we decided to do what we do best...walk. We perused up town, wandering down every little alley and nook corner full of shops and cafes. The appearance of the city is incredibly charming; it is very consistent and sprawling with canals breaking up the streets in every direction. The gorgeous architecture and bridges are lined with outdoor markets and coffee/tea/beer drinkers. It was sunny and not too cold so the Dutch people were out in full force, conversing in their gibberish :). The city had an element to it unlike anywhere else. Jenny realized that despite the over-whelming amount of people in this big city, it was quiet! The noise pollution of traffic and crowds was turned down here and left it feeling more quaint than it really is. Which led these 2 directionally challenged travelers to getting rather turned around after walking several hours- thank goodness for google map and iPhones as usual. Our hostel played a trick on us because we realized we were actually in what we think was a very affluent area of town. Close to the big park, and we came up quickly on a street lined with every designer store you can imagine. We window shopped (take a deep breath dads) at Chanel bags and Loubiton shoes. Staying in the museum district turned out to be great! We stopped for a snack of bread and butter and 2 coffees. Ok ok Kelly got a hot chocolate and it was a delicious decision. Since we had our own room and shower and were finally going out again, we decided we would head home to spend a little time on our appearance (note: this is a rare occurrence these days). All we had seen so far was a lovely and humble city; then we noticed a girl in a window.... And then 6 more girls in windows 2 floors up. There it was. Legal hookers. Yep, it was weird. Really weird. Te main girl sat boredly popping her gum and staring us right in the eye. Our creeped out but curious selves were dumbfounded (despite how much you prepare yourself it's still just super icky). More on this later... We made it back to Jansen somehow by early evening.

Woah. Is this what we look like in makeup? We had forgotten but were a tadbit relieved. And heels? Hmm. Let's give it a a go...

We hustled &bustled to be ready by 730 which quickly was 750. People scan cards when getting off and on the tram here but since we couldn't ever figure out how to pay, we treated ourselves to free public transpiration on the tram all weekend- thank you amdam! We had plans for the night (a fun change of pace). Kelly's friend from home, Lee, is working for a couple years in The Hague right now, so he took a train into town to meet at central station and go out for the night! Yay!

We hopped over to a place called The Grasshopper (pun intended) to pig out on cheeseburgers and beers. Lees Irish friend, Pat, met us there. After dinner, our fabulous guides walked us over and through the infamous red light district. You can't go to Amsterdam and not check it out, ya know? Well we winded through the narrow alley ways full of red lit windows where prostitutes stand, customer shopping through all the crowds as much as they themselves are being shopped for. They each have little rooms and if the curtains closed... Well you get the picture. There must be some laws because no one is totally nude but they are as close as you can get! Pat told us there are other light districts like purple for transvestites. Obviously we had to see since it was in the same area. Jenny was so boggled that these gals have themselves on display and for sale, but if you try to snap a photo it's bad news. Naturally Jenny couldn't control herself... She succeeded almost all night. That's right, we said almost. Sneaky Jenny whipped out her phone to snap one more shot of a really pretty purple light "lady", if you will. Bad idea. This "lady" saw Jenny from her 2nd floor bedroom, flashed a fierce look and came running through her inside doors. the four of us halled ass down the street and luckily this hooker couldn't run in heels (you really gotta learn that one from a young age), so we escaped the pissed off trany hooker chasing Jenny. This was a good cue we had seen enough. Pat picked an Irish pub to have a drink in and then Lee hailed a cab towards a more posh, less touristy scene. We had cocktails in a real swanky bar and then cruised through an awesome square full of bars... We had lots of dance parties and ended the night at a quieter pub to rest our feet. Poor Lee reached his limit so he set off for home and as pat followed him we set off walking in the cold. We got lost of course, but eventually found the way. Kelly was freezing and Jenny was relaying how proud she was for us not eating any late night treats! We gave in to the dodgy bed at the dodgy hostel which turned out not to be too shabby. Lights out between 5 & 6. Been a while since that happened!

Special shout out to lee and pat for such a great night! They were the best tour guides and backpack spoilers!! We had such an awesome night- thanks again y'all!

PS-- pictures to come. can't post from hostel!

Friday, March 11th - nieuwsgierige en nieuwsgierige

Last night on our ferry/cruise ship we were disappointed to find lots of fun things to do (casino, bars, cinema etc.) as this would surely ruin our plan of going straight to bed and getting a good nights sleep as we cruised over to Holland. However, pretty much everyone on the boat was a dudder, or there were only about 15 people on it. We aren't really sure which one of these was the case...if you recall we were the last 2 people on the boat and showed up as they were closing the doors so we didn't see anyone else boarding the ship. We strolled around, making a nice lap and having some awesome spring break cruise flashbacks. No sign of any such shenanigans on this boat, until a tall lad in the bar shouted across to us that we should sit and have a pint with him and his friends. We presumed he was probably a Tico due to the color of his skin....but then he turned out to be a pale english chap who had given himself a rather dark spray tan earlier that day (sorry for calling you out tan man! And thanks for the beers). Tan man and his friends were heading to Belgium to go motocross racing, which sounds like a pretty scary choice considering the smiliest of the bunch, Simon, had ended up with more of a "hoof" than a foot after a nasty accident. Obviously we peer pressured Simon to show us his so-called "hoof" - don't worry Simon, didn't look to bad to us! Hope you are reading this and digging your shout out, sorry for including the "hoof" but it was pretty blog worthy. After we had finished our beers we parted ways with the group of 6 random English lads and climbed into our bunk-beds in a cabin nicer than those on a Carnival cruise. We nixed the idea of watching a little tv as the shows on seemed to be a preview of Amsterdam's Red Light District. A few hours later, it was the crack of dawn and time to wake up. We were moving at a snails pace and were apparently long overdue for when we should have departed. Would it surprise you if we told you w
e were the last 2 people to get off the boat?...oops! Once again we were so late that we didn't see anyone else getting off the boat, sorry Stena Line employees, thanks for he awesome cabin! Once we finally did get our butts in gear, we were greeted with raised eyebrows from the funny customs guys at the arrival station.

Next we had 2 trains to get on to get from Hoek Van Holland to Amsterdam - the first broke down and sat idle on the tracks for 40 something minutes, and we missed the second despite our first train station sprint with our new backpacks on.

This travel day would have been easier if Dutch wasn't he strangest language we have ever encountered. Every written sentence looks like a Doctor Suess tongue twister and most words are a half German and half English. It's as if some Netherlands dudes wanted to talk to each other and between them they could remember a handful of English and a handful of German so they mixed them together and filled in the gaps with gibberish. Lots of words have 5 or 6 constants in a row.

Anyway, we finally got on a train and were on our way...until the ticket collector came around and told us that the train we were chilling on was more expensive than our tickets so we had to pay the difference. We had no euros so he said he would send a bill to the US for the difference of €12.50 and if we didn't pay it we would go to jail, which he said he would take care of as he worked for the justice department. Whaat a jokster, Jen immediately cracked up laughing and then got sternly told that this was not a laughing matter and he was being totally serious. He demanded our passports, flipped them each open for a split second, winked at us and walked away...uuh maybe we don't get the Dutch sense of humor?? With the exception of this strange guy, everyone here has been super nice and helpful and speaks perfect English. We have noticed that the Dutch happily squeeze in front of you when waiting in a line - maybe that's not rude here? Or maybe they are just slightly rude people?

After some tram complication we arrived at our dodgy hostel, who had forgotten our reservation so they sent us to a dodgier hostel. All is well in the in the life of these backpackers. Amsterdam is awesome and we are too busy having fun to write about it! Peace out you blog lovers. Oh, and bye Simon! Hope you enjoyed your blog mention, told you we would put you in.


Cruise ship


Snazzy bar


Tan man, Simon and the gang