where the music's playin

***disclaimer...this is a super long post...with a spoiler at the end...begin reading only to finish*** :-)

Long before, and all the way through this trip, we have been handed a helping hand now and then. Every single act of kindness has pushed us onward, cheered us up, helped us out, supported us, and made this trip everything that it has been. We would like to start off this post by thanking some wonderful people that have made this trip even more special than we could have imagined...
here goes...

All the friends and family who supported us in our planning for this trip, with advice, funds, emotional support, lodging, food, or anything else, (also by reading the blog!) it helped sooo much, and we appreciate you all. We are two lucky lucky people.

Mario, Diana, Antony, Karen and Paulo in Oxford, who have hosted us time after time, always welcoming us with wonderful company, great food, and warm hospitality

A couple of Mario and Diana's friends who we happened to meet at Cibo, Antony's restaurant, and who told us that we had better get started up to St. Bees a day earlier than we had planned...that saved us sooo much time and trouble

The super friendly and informative train conductor on the short train from Carlisle to Whitehaven (to start our hike in St. Bees)

David and ***Anne*** Hope, our impromptu St.Bees tour guides, and kind souls with good advice before starting our trek

Our hotel proprietor in Cleator Moor for good food, a comfy bed, and most of all, for picking us up in town and dropping us off the next morning at the trail head

the angel-like B&B owner in Grassmere who showed up in his car to pick up our weary bodies after a 15 mile day

Lilly and Reg, in the Italian restaurant in Penrith--what lovely people to dine beside, even offered us a bed at their house if we ran out of money!

Jon, a friend from two different pubs in Newcastle, for offering all sorts of interesting facts about the city, and giving us a warm friendly face in the rainy cold weather

the people of Great Britian for giving us free museums!! :)

workers in the Backpacker's Hostel in Edinburgh for working out an extra night for us when we realized that we were a day early, and for giving us a nights refund when we went to stay for a night with Carol and David

Carol and David!! two incredible people who treated us like family, like royalty even. Driving us around the city, feeding us incredible meals, providing an excellent bed for the night, and talking with us into the wee hours

yatzee for making such a great travel game

the friendly owners of the Meade B&B in St. Andrew's for good movies in the room, lovely porridge and breakfast conversation

the three musicians in Inverness for the first traditional music in a pub of the trip (and it was incredible)

Ther German at our hostel on Isle of Skye (Dunn Can hostel) for the use of his map. (If you happen to be reading this, we are so sorry that we have not mailed it back to you, we misplaced your address in our travels...if/when we find it, we will send it)

All the people in Dublin who helped us find the way to our hostel that night...it would have been much longer without you

The kind, kind, tour guide at St. Aoden's church for the free tour and letting us rub the wish stone there for good luck (I think it worked!)

Our Finnish roomates who entertained our conversation until late in the night until we realized they had to wake up at 5am and made them go to bed (and for leaving shampoo!)

Bernie, Mike, Ciaron and Anne for hosting two newlywed bums on their perfectly sized little bed and for being so welcoming and friendly to two people they had never met.

The owner for Letterfrack Lodge for some interesting entertainment

The man in the subaru and the couple in the mercedes for helping us get from point A to point B by taking a chance on two nice looking hitchhikers

All the hostels that have had 'free' boxes or cabinets...they were very. very. helpful

The super duper friendly man and his daughter who picked us up and took us all the way to the Cliffs of Moher, even stopping for a beach view along the way

The two women from Texas (who shall not be named) who picked us up on the way back! Even after realizing they had not picked up two Irish hitch hikers, they still took us where we needed to go!

Ms. Anna McMurray (and the other friendly members of the congregation) at the small church in Ennis. 93 years old, and full of history, stories, songs, and energy that would rival me on a good day. What a lady.

very nice hotel owner in Paris who gave us directions (oh no, much much too far to walk) to our apartment...whom we promptly ignored and walked anyway (over 5 miles)...but who was nice just the same

Scott for the great wedding gift of a couple of nights in Paris--how romantic

Annick and Jerome! for hosting us on their couch for three nights! also for all the wonderful food they shared with us! Couch surfing is amazing!

Bob and Corey (and their great neighbors), two fabulous people with a fabulous lavender farm who hosted us for a 'work week' on our honeymoon, which turned out to be an absolute highlight of the trip

Micky and her great, old house in St. Tropez. We stayed right beside one of the most expensive beaches for next to nothing! wow!

Micky and Carla for wonderful meals and company while in St. Tropez

The great Italian women on the train (the one that stopped for 4 hours...) from Florence to Naples that let us follow them so we would make it on the right train

Nonna, Linda, and all the family on Capri for making it such an incredible experience for us. We had an incredible time and so much of it was because of you!

Lorenzo for his amazing apartment

Josh and Chrisinda for coming all the way to Italy to see us!

Zach for his surprise letter in Capri!! What amazing friends we do have

Andi's parents for making us feel so at home in Germany, and for their kindness

Mr. and Mrs. Goenner for taking us all around Bodensee, sharing drinks and jazz, and for taking us to the airport!

Ute, Andi's friend, for taking us to see sights, and giving us good conversation in the only place of the trip where neither of us spoke any of the language

The kind lady at the bakery in Langenargen for happily putting up with our bad German

The apple growers and sellers in Bodensee! what a treat!

The nice Emergency crew at the Freidrichshafen airport for wrapping up Russell's hand when he cut it

London Paddington train station for having a Krispy Kreme...yes, really...it was amazing

Emma, Carol's daughter who was incredible. Tickets to a breathtaking show at the London National Theatre, complete with backstage tour and conversation over coffee--what an amazing way to spend our last days in England...

Continental Airlines for having over 300 in flight movies to choose from, something to distract us from our horrendous fear of flying

Jamie, the guy who traveled 295 days out of the year for work, at the Houston airport, for the corona and the fun conversation.

The Houston airport staff for understanding why I wouldn't want to fly into tornadic conditions...and allowing us to change our flight to the next morning

Linda and Greg for coming to pick us up at the airport...even though we weren't there...sorry! :-/

Shelley for coming to get us the next day and taking us back home

so!

if you haven't guessed it yet, we are back in the good USofA
that's right!
SURPRISE!

:)

Our only stipulation for this trip was that we would leave ourselves enough money to change our plane ticket, should we run out of money. So that when we did run out of money, we could come back home. The exchange rate chewed us up, spit us out and left us taking with it a third of our hard earned, saved, (and gifted to us by wedding guests!) money. Wow.
BUT! even back a little while before we were scheduled to come home, we have had one of the most amazing trips anyone could ask for, and do not regret coming home when we did. We'll be back for Thanksgiving now!!
And look at all the places we've been! All the things we've done! We are world travelers, married and ready to get started with our life together. This trip has only proved to us (once again) how well we work together, how much we love each other, and (again) what incredible friends and family (and strangers!) we have in our life.

Thank you for sharing in the journey with us!
Let's keep it going!
Love,
Maria and Russell




















Anyone who took our picture, gave us a good suggestion, gave directions or help in any way,

another post of pictures!

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting (again) but hopefully you'll enjoy these pictures from the last month or so...


here were out couchsurfing friends (and Russell)from Melun (in France), Jerome and Annick. They were so kind to let us stay on their couch for 3 nights! Couch surfing is a great way to get around!





And while we're talking about helpful people in France, this is a picture of Bob and Corey, the owners of the lavender farm where we worked in Normandy. Work Away is another great way to travel around!!





After France, you'll remember, we took a loooooong trip down the Italian coast to Capri. There we spent time with family,




more family,





and our friends, Josh and Chrisinda! This picture was taken on a hike around the side of the island, on the ocean the entire way, up and down cliffs, beautiful!!





and Josh and Russell had fun boy time climbing rocks and jumping from them.





After a quick stop in Zurich (just long enough to let us know that even with a better exchange rate, it was still way way too expensive for us),




(in Zurich in front of the cathedral)


we made our way over the Bodensee to Langenargen to meet Andi's sweet sweet parents who have helped us out so much this trip,





and Mr. and Mrs. Gonner, neighbors who have also been a huge help, showing us around, driving us around, and checking on us now and then.





Germany has been great so far, here is us on our bikes that we have loved so much and the apple fields that we keep talking about (but picture this hundreds of times over)







and a few other pictures from the Bodensee area of Germany...



-all of the churches in the area had up harvest displays at the altar, full of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, grains, etc etc....very neat to see all of the different takes on it, and very colorful. This one is from Tettnang, where one of the main crops is hops, so you can see the hops and the beer in this display.




yes. it is this cold. and I love it.






One of the many beautiful sunsets over the lake.





Langenargen. One of our favorite pictures thus far.


This is one of Russell's sunset pictures...another favorite of the trip.



and one more picture from the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. Just to remind you how big they actually are...those little dots up on the cliffs? Yeah..those are people.

Thanks again for reading and keeping up with us over here! We miss you all, and it is nice to feel like we're not forgotten even though we've been gone for quite some time :)
More soon,
Maria and Russell

Food and other fun things

Happy 30th post everybody!!
If you've been reading from the beginning, thanks for sticking with us even though sometimes we go for a while without a post.

Anyway! I'll update you on Langenargen quickly....
First, there is snow!!!! Welllll not here, but we can see it covering the Austrian alps! How bout that? Walk out your front door and see snow covered jagged peaks in another country! They are beautiful lit up by the sun behind the lake. Really stunning.
Second, bike riding through endless apple fields (the smell is amazing) then coming home to fresh, hot, local apple cider is a great experience. It is apple season here on the Bodensee and we are enjoying every bit of it. A 5 lb bag of local apples from a roadside stand is only €2. They are some of the best apples I've eaten. Period.

All this talk about apples remindsme that I've been meaning to write about the food we've eaten on this trip. Not only the food we've eaten at restaurants, or in other peoples houses, but the food we have made ourselves. If you know me at all, you know I love to cook and that Russell and I both enjoy good food. With such a limited budget, sometimes it is hard, but I would rather miss museum or two in order to eat a little better. Many many times on this trip we have come up with a grocery budget to stick to for 3 days or a week...whatever...But always the budget is as small as I can make it. As a cook, it is a fun challenge. As a young couple, it is always an important lesson in using every penny as well as we can and stretching every dollar (excuse me, euro) as far as we can. And stretch we have!! I have been super proud to have made 2 or 3 meals a day for 3 or 4 days for £10! And this is without a pantry full of staple ingredients like flour, oil, etc. We have been lucky with some hostels offering a 'free' box of things left from others. The box is always fun to look through and has even given us a complete meal or two!! It contains things from soy sauce to carrots (in the fridge) to garlic butter, olive oil (yay!!!), flour, pasta, coffee, carrot cake to things like half eaten chocolate bars and nearly empty, open boxes of cornflakes.
Mostly though, we have eaten from supermarkets. This is the first thing (after a place to stay) that we look for in a town. And we aren't eating ham sandwiches every meal, either! On this trip we have eaten all sorts of wonderful( and.some mediocre) kitchen creations! For example:
Pumpkin risotto (all sorts of risotto, actually... It is great)
Quiches of all flavors
La crique (French bubble and squeak)
Beef stew (oh yeah...I've eaten quite a bit of meat on this trip)
All sorts of pastas
Zucchini parmesan
Eggplant Parmesan
Chicken salad
Salad with lemon and potatoes (yummmm!!!)
Caprese salad
Stuffed mushrooms
Pumpkin soup
Endive soup
Potato soup
Pancakes
Omelets
Bacon, biscuts and gravy
Roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans
Coronation chicken salad
Oatmeal
Sweet oakcakes
Savory oatcakes
Rarebit with roasted broccoli
Cheese fondue
Tarte tartin
Stuffed shells
Dutch butter bar cookies
Beer braised brats with german fried potatoes and sweet and sour red cabbage and apples
French toast

And that is only the beginning! So no, it isn't gourmet or fancy, but it is good and like all of our trip, handmade! This has been such a super saver on the trip. Having a kitchen. In places that you stay is key. Eating out is nice, but can put a strain on the budget. Thanks to generous people and family and every now and then a night out, we've been able to eat many things we wouldn't have otherwise!
The key to cooking in another country for cheap is buying what you know will be good in that area!
For instance, in England and Scotland and Ireland, oats were really really cheap, good and versatile!(hence all the oatcakes above,..)
Other things were good and cheap there too! Potatoes, fruit, and hummus!!! Really good, cheap hummus! And eating out? Amazing Indian food.
In France, Brie and camembert were fabulous and nearly a quarter the price you would find them in the states!
So we ate a lot of cheese! :) and fruits and veggies that were so fresh and wonderful
In Italy? Pastas of beautiful shapes and sizes, Mozzarella, parmesan, and tomatoes!!
In Germany, apples (of course!), brats, potatoes,and other german yummies
Of course, fruits and veggies and bread from the local stores are always cheap and amazing.
While groceries tend to be on the cheaper side here in general, there are a few exceptions. In St. Tropez, for instance, we decided to have a taco night (remember taco night when you were little?) so we found a store that had taco kits! $2 tops in the states. This one (remember, shells, sauce, and an envelope of seasoning) was €6 or around $8 (and you wonder where our money goes?!)
We got it anyway and had really good tacos!
And don't try to get peanut butter anywhere! A tiny container will cost you an arm
And a leg!

So as I finish this blog, I encourage you to stay in instead of going out! Make your meal tonight. With what you have! Take a look in your own 'free food' box or at the vendor down the road and put together your own travel inspired menus and meals! Take a look above for some easy suggestions! Write for recipes or to tell us about the yummy things you've made!

We can't wait to hear from you! We always love to read your comments! :)

Maria and Russell

Ode to a bicycle

A bicycle. It is amazingly simple. I never thought I would see the day again when I would get overly excied about riding a bicycle. But there have definately been these days (sunny days preferred) for Maria and I over the past week. Bodensee is a huge lake. Europe's third largest. Looming on the shores opposite us are Austria and Switzerland, the giant alps launching upward behind the small towns. Maria and I bounce around almost daily on 3 or 4 hour bike rides. We've both surprised ourselves as we had forgotten how efficient and effective bike riding truly is. We'll step off our noble steeds after an hour of riding only to discover we've gone 15 kilometers. It is fantastically easy and enjoyable, and we both feel sort of like kids again, playing around, killing time, and riding bikes. I even attempt riding a 'wheely' from time to time, but I've sadly come to realize that while one may never forget how to ride a bike, one can certainly forget how to ride an impressive wheely. I used to look smooth and polished while leaning backwards, wooing the ladies as I careened my bike forward, balancing on the rear wheel. Now I fear it looks like I'm wrestling a cow to the ground as I never quite acheive lift off with my front wheel. No worries though, it is enough for us to ride along trails, across bridges and through the never ending apple orchards of southern germany. It is truly a bit of paradise. When I reference a map, I notice that in perspective, we haven't explored much of Germany at all, just a tiny section. But on our bikes, I feel like we've discovered a hidden country along an immense lake, full of perfect little towns with brick pavers for downtown streets and beautifully colored tiles that adorn the tops of old churches and even fire stations. These towns are every few kilometers or so, stretched along the banks, all accesible on our bicycles, a few pedals away. It helps that the paths are completely geared towards cyclists, making navigation easy and safety a near guarantee (provided you don't endanger yourself trying to attempt a wheely).
A few days ago, one of our friendly neighbors offered to take us to a nearby town where we could spend the day walking around. It was a rainy morning, and he gave us the option of staying in the apartment or going along with him and his wife. As Maria weighed out weather to stay or go because of the rain, Mr.Gonner reminded us that 'there is no bad weather, only bad clothing'. I loved that quote, it may be my favorite of the trip. One other favorite quote came from our second day here. We were talking with Ute (another friendly neighbor) about how beautiful the sunset had been the prior evening. Ute said "we're only given a sunset like that once a year. If it happened every night, people wouldn't see it anymore."

A handmade holiday with Russell and Maria

Ah Germany...even sweeter when it took so much to arrive.
In all, our trip consisted of this:
A walk from our perfect little apartment in capri to the port (last Italian gelato of the trip in hand)
A (much nicer) boat ride from Capri to Naples
A walk from the port in Naples to the train station (walking? You ask?- yes...we're running out of money, remember?)
A long wait in the train station pretending to eat mcdonalds food so we could sit in their chairs...
A train ride up nearly the length of Italy from Naples to Milan. Overnight in a 4 person 'couchette' with two guys
A train ride from fashionable Milan to Zurich
A walk around Zurich and a grocery store lunch for a lot of money
A train ride from expensive Zurich to Romanshorn (I had no idea where either, don't worry) through beautiful Swiss alps
A ferry ride with some friendly german newlyweds across Bodensee to Friedrichshafen
A train ride on a tiny train from Friedrichshafen to Langenargen
A short car ride (with supermarket detour) with our friend Andi's mom to our apartment here!
Total? 29 hours of travel. Wow.

So! Now we are here enjoying the beautiful fall weather, the lake, the cute cute towns around the giant lake (central europe's third largest), and riding our bikes to the towns and to the apple festival we attended today!
Now, you might ask "they keep talking about 'no money, no money' so how are they doing things and having so much fun?!" well!! We are the masters of improvisation and creativity is how! We have created everything that we need with what we have or what at can buy at the grocery store for cheap!
For instance...
We don't have a tv here, but we watched a movie on my iPod tonight on YouTube with Internet 'borrowed' from some sweet person nearby who doesn't lock their Internet!
We are missing the storytelling festival back home, but have no fear! We created our own here (again) with youtubed storytellers. We opened the window for the outdoor effect, bundled up in a blanket, and listened and laughed all night!
No radio either... Solution? Radio application on iPod hooked up to speaker on portable DVDplayer and podcasts!! Now we can listen to all the car talk, wait wait don't tell me, and weekend edition that we want!!
This has happened all through the trip!
Tours at museums and churches? Who needs em? We researched things ourselves, copied them down and read them at the appropriate location!
We've made cheap as dirt restaurant quality food, picnics, music, art, travel guides, made our own games, everything!
We even made our own Oktoberfest! We decided that it would cost too much to get to Munich and stay there and get back. So we made decorations, played music, created an Oktoberfest game (with buckets and shower curtain rings) and laughed our faces off. I made german food for the occasion: brats in rolls with grainy mustard, sweet and sour red cabbage with apples, german fried potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and chewy sour cherry black forest oat bars! And get this... The entire meal, everything, came out to €3. total. That is it! Yipee!
So as I leave you on this chilly german night, I say 'who needs to buy it?' who needs premade, preassembled, preplanned fun? We have more fun making our own trip, we laugh harder and enjoy it more when we create it ourselves. Handmade fun, handmade food, handmade trip, handmade love on a handmade honeymoon. And you can't get more perfect than that. (that isn't to say we don't enjoy a good night out every now and then though....) ;)

Ciao to Italy

Wow Capri has flown by. It has been full of fun. Full of family and friends and food and fun. The water has been amazing and the scenery spectacular. And now we say "goodbye" and hopefully "we'll see you soon" if we're lucky. But that's how travel is, isn't it? It wouldn't be travel if it were a place that you didn't have to leave eventually. Which makes us all travelers on this earth, in life...ok enough philosophizing...we hate to leave but we are headed to a new country tomorrow! Germany awaits us- a little colder, more mountains, and a nearly 19 hour train extravaganza--whew.

So some Capri memories now:
Seeing the island coming into view from the bucking boat full of a Japanese tour group (all throwing up) and me (terrified that the boat will sink) and Russell (calm,cool,collected husband)

Finally seeing all the family (Italian and American) here on the island and having a giant and fabulous meal at my Zia Angelina's house

Waiting for Josh and Chrisinda at the port and finally watching them walk off the boat!

The huge meal at Maria and Salvatore's house with Nonna, Linda and J&C complete with a beautiful dessert, limoncello and priceless views

Seeing all the sights of the island with new people

Gelato at Buonacore (the best homeade gelato and homeade cones that you can smell a mile away on the island)

Making it to the end of our super long walk across the island with J&C and jumping into the ocean

The color of the water at Marina Piccola and the little fishies that nibble at your feet.

Waking up at 4am to walk J&C to the port for their 5:40 boat and walking back up the mountain to go back to sleep with Russell, enjoying the calm, dark quiet of the morning.

The perilous and unthinkably narrow road to my cousin Carmine's house and the (again) giant meal with family and friends that we had there. The laughter and stories in three different languages are hilarious and well worth the ride

Singing with Nonna and Angelina about coffee and something beautiful and (of course) O Solo Mio

Another wonderful meal with glorious views at cousin Salverio's house

Relaxing and swimming at the pool at La Residenza Hotel with Nonna and Linda

Watching J&C try to stay awake as we listened to lively Italians sing lively songs on their first night in Italy--then sitting for even longer to drink an espresso and have torta mandorla until nearly midnight

Our beautiful little apartment

A long dinner made of the best pizza, pasta and conversation in Italy with Josh and Chrisinda

Moments too numerous to count of food, incredible views, flowers, and family all here on this tiny island in the azure blue sea.

Now we prepare to depart this tiny island where my grandmother was born. Ah but this is travel- the desire to make the most of your time, the yearning for a few more moments of moonlight on ocean as smooth as glass, and the plan for a return trip soon. Well we did, we are, and we will.
Buona notte tutti! Next post from Germania!
Sending much love,
Maria and Russell

Capri

Ahhhh yes,one can definately acclimate to the caprician lifestyle quickly. It's fantastically relaxing, invigorating and recharging for the soul. Maria and I have defiately experienced some homesickness, so these past few days have been much needed. We had an adventurous,and admitadely scarry time trying to get here from Florence. First, our train from Florence to Naples was supposed to be only four hours long, not bad right, we knew we would be dining with family that night, so what's another long train ride. I comfortably dozzed off only to awake an hour later to a stopped train. After asking around, maria and I were told that something was blocking the tracks and we would be on our way within an hour. One hour passed, then another, then film crews started showing up outside the train, then the Italian passengers became restless from being deprived of their cigarettes, then, and I kid you not, they were given smoking privelages on the train. The train workers would not allow them off the train to smoke because of the dangers of standing on or near the tracks, it would be hazardous to their health I suppose (some irony, I think). So, after four hours of sitting on a stopped train and watching other trains pass by, all the while wondering how if something were blocking the tracks, why hadn't they moved it, and why was it not blocking other tracks, we were told that one of the locomotives wheels had broken, and we were not able to continue further unless we had a new locomotive. So back to a station that could give us a new locomotive, then back on course we were. When we finally made it to naples, it was 9 at night, just in time to have missed the last boat to capri. Now, the real problem with our situation was not having to improvise a new plan, but it was improvising a new plan in Naples, home of the mob, home of dirty dank and scarry streets. I half expected to be greeted by the godfather or one of his goons as we stepped off the train. So, we chose the first hotel we found to stay with the promise of a boat to Capri the next morning, "the Hotel Mignon". All in all it wasn't that bad, the room was clean...sort of, and it kept us off the streets for the night. We settled in exhausted from our ten hours on broken scarry Italian trains and turned on the television only to see the top story on national Italian news was a train broken down in the middle of Nowhere Italy, at least we made the news! After watching a little of Dirty Dancing overdubbed in Italian, we stepped out on our balcony to watch the chaos below us that is Naples streets at nights. It wasn't long until we noticed that some scantilly clad women were going in and out of our hotel entrance. Then we noticed they would stand on the surrounding street corners until invited into the hotel, do you see were I'm going with this? Apparently the hotel mignon had a reputation, but at least it kept us off the streets! So the next morning, we caught a ferry to Capri. The waters were incredibly rough, and for a time, I could fully appreciate lobster fisherman in Alaska, maria dug her finger nails deep into my hands, as I tried to reassure we weren't going to sink, and then, there it was before us, Capri, paradise and home until the end of September. Within an hour we were eating pasta, bread and fruit at maria's aunt's house, sharing Italian kisses on the left and right cheek( remember to go to the right first or you might end up planting one right on someones smackers). Ah yes, this is the life for me. Josh and Chrisinda joined us for three full days but had to leave today for Rome. We had the best time with them, and it seemed so surreal sharing food and drinks with them on their last night last night! It was a real treat having them with us and we were sad to see them leave as both maria and I know, we have the best friends in the world! As for now, I must go kiss my wife good night. Tomorrow we shall have another great day with maria's nona ida, and her aunt linda. So from maria and me to all of you out there in blogland, buona notte.

picture post!!

Hi all!
As promised, pictures.

I will now cover 4 countries in a few pictures.


Russell in Scotland.
In a kilt.




And remember pouring the perfect pint at the Guiness factory? Here we are with them!




We wrote about hitchhiking to the cliffs of moher and showed someone else's picture. Here is the picture I took of Russell and the cliffs. They were spectacular.




Before leaving Ireland and the land of the perfect pint, we had to have one more pint of 'the black stuff'(along with a wee dram of Irish whisky).




Then onto the mainland and straight into Paris. Remember how romantic we said it was? Here is a beautifully romantic shot that Russell took of this big statue...I forgot the name...and one of two sappy lovers on their honeymoon. :)








After a lovely stay in Paris, it was on to Melun to stay with our couchsurfing friends Annick and Jerome (I tried to upload this picture, but the camera died while doing so...later maybe!)
Then on a train out to Normandy to work for a week! Cutting lavender? Yes we can.




and cut we did. Here is what 60 kilos of lavender (and Russell) looks like. For you Americans, that is 132 pounds.




We finished our work and headed for the beach! St. Tropez to be exact. Remember the place with all the Ferraris? We took pictures of us pretending to look famous, but I decided to post this one instead. Yay beach!





It was here that we finally had crepes from a creperie! This place gave us a funny little fork tong type thing to eat them with. Here is me trying to use it...





If you've made it this far, you are now in Italy with us!! Here is a picture from this very night, having gelato at our favorite gelateria in Florence- Festival del Gelato. This was melone (melon), mousse nutella, and fico (fig). Great gelato is absolute heaven on this earth. No question about it.





We finished the night with a free concert of flute, organ and countertenor, another gelato (!) and now it is off to bed! We'll write more soon. Capri tomorrow!

the invasion begins

The invasion of jellyfish is slow and unsuspecting. It's sort of like that scene from Jaws. The kids are all squeeling and playing in the water, the adults are on the shore, the danger lurks in the open water, slowly creeping up on it's victims... then "argh" screams a child, then they all scream "argh" in unison. Then just like that the sea has been emptied and everyone stands on the shore pointing and talking in every language you can imagine about the "meduse" as they are called in France. Literally, the past few days have been drinched in the constant stream of jellyfish washing ashore. It sort of makes swimming a challenge and a risk, but we've done it in limited amounts anyway. What occurs is, the jellyfish seem to get blown in to the shores from their leisure life of skimming the waters and just being generally absent minded creatures. Now, I can call them absent minded because literally, I don't think they have a mind, and also, any creature that mobilizes en masse, only to plummit onto a shoreline resulting in immediate death couldn't be that smart... right?
So, the days have been leisurely. We spend lots of time laying by the sea, soaking up the sun, actually I try to fend the sun off with nivea sunscreen, and then we float in the water until we are thrown back onto the shoreline. It seems we have more in common with the jellyfish than we might care to admit...
Two days ago we walked7.5 kilometers to a beautiful beach. The walk was fantastic and it carried us along the sea side the entire time. We saw lots of mansions fancy yachts, and oh yes, at the beach we saw plenty of anatomy, and I don't mean of the animal kind. It turns out the beach we walked to is well known for being a nude beach. Oops:)
So, we are now preparing for a walk into town for an hour or so, and then back to our house . We are overly excited about our friends josh and Chrisinda that will be joining us for a few days in Capri. We can hardly wait!
We leave St. Tropez on the 13th, will be in Florence, Italy for a few days and then onto the rocky cliffs and the blue waters of Capri. Until then...

We're still here!!

Hi there!
Sorry for the post delay for anyone who was waiting (my parents?) we've been enjoying ourselves here in St.Tropez at the beach. Unfortunately, we do not have Internet. However, in true Russell and Maria budget trip style, we have managed to pay for a few minutes of wifi but use it for a whole day!
Wow, St.Tropez is beautiful. Beautiful and expensive. Ferraris are as common here as Volvos are at home...maybe moreso. And the yachts. Huge. So Russell and I are enjoying cooking at the house (as usual), being sun gods and goddeses on the beach (Russell insists that in some countries his fair skin is exotic...France does not happen to be one of these), and walking around town nearly gawking at the money. €500 and €600 for one night in a hotel...€800 for a bottle of champagne. We are enjoying top quality food, accomodation and company here for a while.
We just spent an amazingly wonderful (nearly free) night on the beach watching a priceless sunset, listening to music from the iPod, eating pasta with zucchini and homeade apple tart, watching the waves and the stars and talking the hours away.
It is lovely to be at the beach. After the cold of the UK and Ireland and the work in Normandy (which was amazing, don't get me wrong) it is nice to have a bit of a 'typical' honeymoon for a while.
Here the water is blue like sapphires, the sun is warm like a good winter blanket and my husband is as perfect ad anyone could ask for.
We do miss home at times. My cousin Tarah and her husband Justin just had a little boy (Paxton), the floors have been refinished in my house, and we miss seeing family (especially the little ones like Russell's little sister Jasmine. But we are very excited to have friends and family to talk with on the phone, by Internet, and to visit with soon!! We will tell you all about these visits when they happen.
For now, I bid you 'a bientot' and say 'thanks for reading'. We promise to update sooner next time and post tons of pictures as soon as we can.
Much love,
Maria (and Russell)

Cutting lavender... never thought I would be cutting lavender in France. The real pecularity is that we are cutting lavender in northern France. Apparently lavender is commonly grown in the south, so this farm we are working on is a real novelty. People come everyday and walk around the grounds, some have called ahead to request a picnic and they share these picnics underneath a willow tree in the middle of the lavender patches, some people wander up to the cafe and share drinks or snacks and consider purchasing lavender oil, homemade chilli jams or little scented stalks of lavender. The pace of this place is very comfortable, perhaps this is because lavender is supposed to relax you. Some days I'm so relaxed working in the patches that I nearly fall to sleep. We work 5-6 hours a day in return for a fantastic cottage to sleep in and relax. We also have all of our meals included, and we're not talking peanut butter and jelly. We've been treated to French cuisine, english cuisine, Dutch cuisine tons of different and yummy drinks all the while sharing laughs and stories. The owners are bob, originally from England, and corey, originally from holland. Easilycspoken I believe for both maria and I, this has truly been one of the finest highlights of our trip. It's sort of been like a holiday from our holiday. It's been so nice to wake up knowing somebodies going to tell us what to do, instead of making an itenerary, which starts to become exhausting after two straight months... strange thought isn't it? Working for ten days while on vacation because you feel like you need a break from vacationing. So far we have spent three separate days cutting lavender. One days cutting renders 60kilos of the purple stuff which is the amount required for one distillation. The day following a cutting is the day for distillation. It smells more fantastic than I could describe, it smells like......lavender I guess.
So, so far maria and I have cut 180kilos for a total of 3 distillations. The work is so satisfying. The lavender patches are alive with the constant buzzing of bees. I can't believe we haven't been stung. Maria has a constant conversation with the bees, "mr bee, I asked you nicely to move, shew,shew." then she runs from the patch briefly swatting and squeeling at insubordinate bees. We saw a humming bird hawks moth. An insect so brilliant it demanded three names. It's eradic and beautiful as it draws oil from the lavender buds. Other flightful insects encountered daily are: moths, various butterflies, and the one I named, "the giant I hope it doesn't sting me because it's as big as a 747 red and black meanest son of a gun on the block some sort of monster bee." this is a long title, but it's completely appropriate. We weave back and forth through the rows performing our various jobs, wondering if we haven't just stumbled across a piece of paradise. I now sit relaxed atop the cafe porch watching the subtle dances of the working flights of various pollen and oil collectors. I take as many mental pictures as possible. Our days are slowly coming to a close here in Normandy and I regret that we must leave, but I'm so satisfied that we came, and planted, and cut, and weeded and perpetuated a lifestyle for corey and bob that both maria and I can definately relate to. Next blog will be from st. Tropez.

one blog in four days isn't that bad... Right?

well!
A few things we haven't covered. I will try to list them and the highlights from each in a couple of smaller blogs. We are hoping to be able to add pictures very soon (not possible from the iPod. If anyone knows how to do this, let me know). We have some great ones that we would love for you to see.
So.

Paris:
Super super long walking in Paris. Lovely walking but tons of it. One of the most, if not the most, beautiful city we have seen so far. It could have something to do with the warm (read: hot) weather and bread. Oh my, the bread. Lovely soft elastic, airy, holey inside and chewy, crispy, flavorful outside...yummmmmm. And the cheese! Oh my. When you are living off very little and trying to cook every meal you get very excited about cheap food but you get especially excited about cheap good food. For instance, a large wheel of good Brie for 2 or 3 euro, fabulous European yogurt for 50 cents and very fresh, very good fruit for pennies. Amazing! We are once again in the land of grocery store and market heaven. (note: in France, wine is cheaper than water).
Paris has been a city of sandwiches of cheese and bread for us. No problemo. It has also been the city of amazingly massive iron towers, beautiful people, a language we don't understand, incredible artwork, beautiful churches and relaxing gardens full of parisans writing, reading and napping. I don't think anyone in Paris works. Some notes about the city of light (and love): on Wednesdays, the Louvre (yes, the one with that painting) is only 6euro after 6:00 and is open until 9:30. Score! There are a few scams that you will surely see over and over. The first is the gypsy looking gal holding a piece of paper. She asks 'excuse me? You speak English?' then hands you the note to read. They all have the same note. They are all: Bosnian refugees with a sick mother at home, a brother in the army, and a bun in the oven. Well... Fool me once...you know the rest. We got to the point of saying 'no' when they asked if we spoke English. I would laugh and shake my head- trying to send the message that we knew what they were doing. The other was a little sneakier. A man would "find" a ring in the dirt in front of you. A gold ring. Oh la la...Is it yours, sir?... Let me try it on your finger. (and swap your real ring for this faker.) we saw it twice. The poor second guy had a ways to go with his 'oh! Look at this ring I found' act.
Paris is lovely though. The eiffel tower at night is spectacular, the Mona Lisa is a bit small and over rated, notre dame is huge (and a bit over rated), the best tower to climb is the bell tower of ND, and as we found, the best things are free in this city of history and art. We were charmed. The only thing better would have been bikes (which you can borrow for free for 30min at a time) and more time. (and maybe more cheese)

quick note from pari

We arrived in Paris a few days ago from Ireland. It was a good flight, and we immediately had to take a bus to Paris. Ryanair tells you they will take you to Paris for half the price, but they only take you half the distance. So after an hour bus ride, we were dropped in the middle of Paris, 5 miles from our hotel. We decided to walk the 5 miles to have a nice walking tour of the city, and to save money on the subway expenses. It was a brilliant walk... we saw the Arc de Triomph, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame in the distance. Amazing. We are now staying on the outskirts of Paris with some very kind people we met on the couch surfing website, Jerome and Annick. While in Paris, we hit it hard, in one day, we saw and/or toured Notre Dame, Luxembourgh Palace, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. It was the perfect day, and in all, we walked 13 miles, our feet were sore, and we rested well that night. Now we are recovering from two very intense/romantic/perfect days in Paris. Annick and Jerome live in a very beautiful city outside of Paris called Melun. We leave tomorrow for Normandy to work on the Lavender farm for one week. It should be fun, different, and interesting. We will write more later when we have more time. Today we will travel a few miles up the road to see the castle used in Leonardo Dicaprio movie The Man in the Iron Mask, pretty neat.

we came on vacation to work!

So! Quickly here, because today Russell and I are going to try and hitch hike to see the Cliffs of Moher. Hopefully it will work out! If it does, this is what we will see

Pretty amazing huh? Solid rock rising over 200 meters (not feet) straight out of the ocean. Wow.

But! Good news quickly. Russell and I have applied to this program called workaway (similar to wwoff (I think that is how it is spelled)) that provides volunteer jobs to visitors abroad (and at home, I guess) on farms. We have scored a week on a lavender farm in Normandy. We think that it will be an amazing week, and I believe that we'll be right. We're looking forward to it! And hoping that they will give us some hats like this




We'll write more soon!
Sending much love from across the pond on this, our last day in Ireland.
Maria

Diamond Hill, Crazy bus drivers, and Ennis

We had some wretched weather in Letterfrack on our first full day. It was a little difficult to sit around and watch it rain knowing that we were trapped in the confines of our peculiar hostel. The owner of our hostel would walk around asking people each day if they liked Frank Sinatra. No matter what people would answer, he would play the same "Old Blue Eyes" songs everyday. He would also walk around making boasts like, "I'm sober today!", or "Someone set the ashtray on fire again." These might not be the most bizarre comments ever, but the fact that he kept all guests updated on his sobriety and the condition of the hostel's ashtrays was a little strange, all to the soundtrack of Sinatra. Anyway, we decided to get out a little and walk the roads to a local furniture school, and then to a handweavers store. The roads were so outrageously narrow and curvy though, that we were too nervous to continue our walk, so.....drum role please......we hitchhiked. It wasn't the biggest deal in the world, but it was a only a second for Maria and me. My first experience hitchhiking was with a guy in the mountains of North Carolina. He picked Scott and I up at a trailhead to take us into town. As he was getting in the truck, he declared, "If you guys smell something in a minute, it's me. I just farted in my fishing waders, and it takes a few minutes for it to air out." He was a real character and I'll never forget my first experience hitching. This experience was memorable, but not as smelly. Success!
Our next day carried us up 1700 feet to the top of Diamond Hill. It was a very touristy walk, but it was incredible. The whole trail lead us through a protected bog area. The ground was so soft that it resembled walking on a trampouline. It was a strange sensation to bounce while hiking. Anyway, the view from the top offered us incredible views of the Connemara National Park, twelve peaks known as the Twelve Pins, the Atlantic Ocean, and tons and tons of lakes and ponds. What a walk and what a way to finish out our time in Letterfrack, Ireland!
We took the bus back to Galway to stay with our flatmate friends for two more nights. Luckily Maria medicated again, as the ride back proved to be even more violent than the ride in. The bus driver was running over an hour behind and he was driving like his life depended on it. He would hit these little hills so fast that the bus would nearly jump it felt like, then on the back side of the little hills, the bus would come down so hard that it would bottom out on the road, scrape, make pounding sounds, and then smell of hot metal and leaking fluids. People looked positively terrified. Aside from feeling like we were riding in a charter bus European version of the General Lee from the Dukes of Ireland (the General Lee is a car from the television show Dukes of Hazard), the ride was beautiful. I was nearly overcome by the urge to yell "yeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaw" everytime our bus "jumped" a little mini-hill.
So, we had a few lazy days in Galway, trying to plan for our next country, France. Last night, we shared in an incredible meal of duck and potatoes that flatmate Mike cooked for us, had some fun conversation, traveled to their friend Jon's flat for some music and further conversation. And today, we are in Ennis, Ireland. Bernie, another one of the flatmates very kindly, very very very kindly, brought us here by car on her way to Cary to see her family. Neither Maria, nor I have been in a car since Edinburgh. Thank God for the kindness of new friends, I don't think Maria or I could have survived another Irish bus driver:) This will be our home for the next few nights and we fly out for France on the 18th. We hope to see the Cliffs of Moher while we are here in Ennis. It is a short bus ride, but as aforementioned, they can be unsettling and exciting! So we'll see. Otherwise, our current hostel overlooks the ruins of an old church, and Ennis looks like a grand place to get to know over the next few days.

Galway to Letterfack

Our travels have now brought us to the western reaches of Europe. To look on a map Is wild. We are on the west coast of Ireland in Galway and the closest country to our west is Canada. We have been luck enough to be aquainted with four flatmates (Bernie, Cairon, Anne, and Mike) who have graciously taken us in on their spare bed and allowed us to call Galway our base for a while. Galway is a plesant city experiencing the height of its tourist season. The streets are narrow and can hardly accomodate the ocean of people that flows through. That doesn't mean that people don't try. I'm not an aggressive walker but I feel like it is a dramatic scene in a movie when we walk down them. Maria being pulled further and further from my grasp. Unlike the movie, however, we are always reunited after a few steps. Anyway, Shop Street is the main street for busking. If you didn't know (and I didn't until I got to Europe) busking is performing on the street for money. I plan on singing and playing the guitar for a few days while we're here but if that doesn't work, maria and I have come up with some other ideas. For instance, me creating sounded effects while she mimes working in the kitchen. Maybe people would give us money just out of embarrassment for us. Since being in Galway we have toured old churches, walked the coastline, strolled up and down shop street watching and listening to the buskers, and participated in a traditional music session at an old Irish pub. Bernie found a guitar for me (she plays the squeeze box). The session consist mostly of traditional Irish tunes that are fairly easy to get the hang of, which was nice. They invited me to play two traditional American songs so I chose I'll Fly Away and Michael Row Your Boat. Being the nervous wreck I am, I forgot half of the eight words of the second verse to I'll Fly Away, but everyone was nice about it and joined in singing on the choruses. It was an awesome night. Last night we attended another of the flatmate's gigs. Cairon plays all sorts of piped instruments and his band is incredible. It was fast paced and full of energy. The room was packed, and the energy was so high that people were dancing with no concern for the fact that they could or couldn't dance. Now we are lying in bed in letterfrack. It is about 60 miles of a long, hard bus ride to get here. Maria took Dramamine this time and fared much better (slept). The samecant be said for a small boy on the bus...anyway, Letterfrack is spectacularly rugged. We watched the sun set over a lake this evening and will climb up Diamond Hill tomorrow. Hope all is well and we will try to post pictures soon. Night night

the perfect pour for 250 years

Russell and I were happy to be seeing a new place, but even happier to be changing currency to be on the Euro instead of the mighty British Sterling. We were looking forward to a little break in the expense this trip is costing us so far. WRONG. Ireland might be on a currency with a better exchange rate, but the prices are some of the most expensive we've seen so far. In fact, we were told when we arrived that Ireland is the second most expensive country in Europe. hmm who knew? So! Dublin began with rain (of course) and a long search for our hostel with no map. We stopped in a pup for some bone warming Irish Stew (it would be nearly impossible to be a vegetarian in the country) asked directions from a scrawny looking guy with a backpack who kind of knew where we were going, then some nearby locals (drinking Guinness, of course) jumped in on the conversation and tried to give directions...we set off again nearly more confused than when we begin. The rain had stopped though, which made the night quite nice to walk in. Dublin is a very large city, and has lots of streets..many which we walked on. Anyway, after quite a long time (and directions from two police officers, a girl who didn't speak a lot of English, and a hotel desk worker) we stumbled (quite literally) into our hostel. We checked in and found out we were rooming with two Finnish girls who spoke better english than we (well, almost anyway). They were the perfect roommates. We walked out the door to the pub across the street to have a pint (and a half) of the best Guinness either of us has ever had. Here we found out that everyone in Ireland drinks Guinness, that they are very particular about how it is poured, and that football (english football and american) are girl sports and the only real 'man' sport is hurling (which we plan to watch on the telly on sunday). We had a short evening, full of conversation with three very Irish men (who all played hurling) and went to sleep for our first night in Ireland. So! We woke up the next morning, had free breakfast (score!) and were off to see the Guinness Storehouse. This is one of the few touristy things we felt that we should absolutely visit. If you've ever taken a fun visit to the Coke Factory in Atlanta (worth a visit if you find a free day in Atlanta, by the way), you know what this is like. Five floors devoted to the love of beer. We watched virtual beer being virtually made, tried to take artsy pictures (some of which we plan to post soon!), watched lots of Guinness ads from the last century, took quizes, became 'master apprentices', and learned how to pour the perfect pint (then drank it). We saw some beautiful views of Dublin in the 'gravity bar' in the head of the beer. Here is what I mean by that The entire Guinness Storehouse is built in the old storehouse of the Guinness Factory (storehouse means it was where they added the yeast...) but the center of it has been remodeled to be the largest pint glass in the world (no, really, the Guinness book of world records says so...but maybe they're biased) if filled, this pint glass would hold 14.3 millions pints of the black stuff. Anyway, the gravity bar was at the very top, where the head would be. 360 degree views of the city. We left the museum to the beer that is 250 years old this year and headed out in the city. We saw incredible churches, including one that had parts built in the 8th century. We stumbled upon a free tour of another, not quite as old...only 12th century.wow. Then we touched the 'lucky stone' (we'll let you know if that's a hoax or not)
The end of our first full day was a late afternoon snack, dinner of pasta and peppers at the hostel, some internet time looking at couch surfing and lots of enjoyable talking with our roomates. It was around 2am when I asked "what time do you have to get up?" and they said "oh, around 5:00". Russell and I finally went to bed so they could get at least 3 hours of sleep.
The second day in Dublin was quite nice (and not expensive) we spent the day doing things for free, more churches, nice walks, park..we saw the birthplaces of (and monuments to) Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw and headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and set off on our train to Galway. After a little misunderstanding about the train station we were to leave from, we found our seats, put on 'Wait, wait, Don't Tell Me' (podcasts are amazing) and hit the tracks.

So I'll leave it at that and let Russell fill you in about Galway so far later. I think that is plenty to digest today. But some things to think about...
Have any of you played hurling?
Did it feel manly?
What do you know about Couch Surfing?
Do you know how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness? (If not, we'll teach you! It really is an art)

Scotlands largest city and rainbows

To our friends who check for updates daily,we appologize. We only have internet every now and then, so we are limited.
Oh Glasgow! We came in on, once again, on one of the most beautiful train rides in the country (we know this because the consession lady on the train gave us a post card that said so!). Our first full day was spent touring a few different museums. We saw a great exhibition of edvard munch original prints. Included in these was the famous "scream". I'm ashamed to say that my most scholarly comment was "that looks a lot like mccully Culkin he applies aftershave in the movie "home alone". The end of the day marked our acceptance of the fact that our clothes smelled positively horrible, so we looked into a laundromat: 5 ponds per load, geeze, so we refused the laundromat and chose to hsndwash them ourselves in the sink of our room. We are still awaiting several items to dry before we pack for our flight. Yesterday we attended church at the Glasgow cathedral. Massive and unaffected by the reformation, so most of it dated to the 15th century. We then attended the Glasgow fair, where we witnessed this crazy german performing stunts atop a 185 foot sway pole, it was awesome (some of it was so unsettling and unnerving to watch that maria and I had to turn away several times for fear of the guy falling). We then watched the bay city rollers as they closed out the fair. It was an exciting day, and fun for the whole family. Now we are preparing for our flight to Belfast on easyjet. Wish us luck, and we'll talk to you anew from a new country.
Fact: Scotland gets tons of rain...tons. Even the locals will tell you to expect 4 seasons on one day. But with all that rain comes lots of rainbows. Lots of them. So right now, as we prepare to walk to the bus station loaded down with full packs ( and full bellies from our cereal and toast) and say goodbye to Scotland, it is pouring outside. So I'll think about all the rainbows that will happen because of it and we'll follow the rainbow to it's end in Ireland... And maybe they'll be a giant pot of hold at the end!! Gold or not, send good thoughts for a safe flight, if you don't mind. Now on to country three!

A day in the Isle of Skye

We started the morning staring out our hostel window upon a range that extends immediately upward from the castle mail ( or what's left of it) in kyleakin. One of our hostel mates exclaimed that we were actually staying in the boring bit of the isle of Skye, then he told us to just wait till we got firther onto the island. We weren't convinced until we caught our bus that morning. Within a few miles we were buried in the shadows by monstrous jagged crags. To say these mountains are warm and inviting would be a gross understatement. They almost intomidate saying, " come on I dare you." this is evidenced by the prevalance of mountain rescue points scattered across our map. The hills look prehistoric. I'd just about expect a dimasaur to cross the road as a sheep. It looks as if someone was given a chisel and a massive hammer, blind folded themselves, strapped themselves with TNT and set about pulverizing with dizzying affect.
We walked up to the old man of storr. Pnce again, it almost felt alien, like our bus transitioned from scotland to mars in one short hour. The rock almost looks like it's defying nature, standing firm and unmoved, stubborn but eroded just the same, spectacularly tall.
We finished the day walking to the castle mail. A great night walk as we watched the last of the setting sun over the Skye bridge.

Quick update

It is a positively chilly day in Scotland. The highs will only be in the 50's, burrrrrr. We are heading further north on another lengthy busride today. There is only one road into Inverness. It's strange to think that, given how many roads link towns in the u.s. Yesterday we traveled from st. Andrews to our current location, Aberdeen. At. Andrews is known as the birth place of golf. Pretty neat bit of history. We come from the land of the birthplace of country music to the birthplace of golf, kinds funny. Anyway, we have a bus to catch to Inverness, the home of the lochness monster, and you can bet that maria and I will be diligent hunters and will capture a famous photo for the Johnson city press.

a wee post of pictures

How would you like to come across this in the ocean?.....



yummm....crab legs!
this is the giant japanese spider crab at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford (as usual, free, free, free...makes up for the exchange rate, I guess)


This one is in Newcastle. Maria and Russell with the Millenium Bridge in the background.



The bridge is tilted in this picture. It tilts up to let boats pass through. We were lucky enough to walk over it and then see it lift up. The part that you walk over is the part that you can see lifted up closest to us.


And one more...



This is Russell standing on Salisbury Craig (just below Arthur's Seat) above Scottish Parliment and Edinburgh.
Pretty impressive isn't it?

More later!!

Good bye England, hello Scotland

We left behind new castle today, and England. For the bonnie, bonnie banks of Scotland. It was a beautiful train ride, and we caught our first glimpses of the north sea. We are now in Edinburgh, and the change on architecture is immediately apparant. This is an amazing town to view. No matter which direction we face, there are old buildings or old buildings in the shadows of vast crags which stretch hundreds of feet above the city. We climbed Authur's Seat, which took about an hour. It was a few mile hike. On our ascent, we were greeted by an ominous and expansive looking bunch of clouds. As we reached the top, it began raining. Everyone pulled out their raingear just in time for it to stop raining. And just like an unpredictable three year old child, the clouds changes their mind and went in the opposite direction. Russell and Maria- 1 , clouds and rain- 0. Anyway, the view from Authur's Seat was spectacular. It seems rare to find such a perch above a city; especially one that is free! Alas. We has to descend, because as nature would have it, Aurthur's Throne (bathroom...). So! We descended quickly. All 740 feet. Towarda the castle, and away from Scottish Parliment. And to be honest, it is hard not to feel a bit like royalty with a girl as good looking as Maria. We ate at the Royal Mile Tavern and listened to a local singer/songwriter entertain. Guess what? We were treated to his rendition of Sweet Home Alabama. He was great, but good grief! Can we not escape that song? Even in Scotland?! Argh :-). We then visited St. Giles kirk (church), and saw even more of the beautiful plaques, statues and sculptures commemorating local countrymen ( and women and children) lost in the many wars Scotland has seen through the years. Now back at our hotel, we bid you all goodnight and look forward to sharing our Scotland tales with you!

Have any of you been to Scotland? Where did you go? Did you find the weather just as spastic as we did today?

Hostels, snoring roomates, and new castle

Oh the comfort of a private bedroom. Today we awake to find ourselves many miles from the comfort of our room in oxford. Rather we are now in the city of new castle in a youth hostel.. We arrived at the hostel at 8 last night, entered our room only to find our two roommates asleep, oops. The beauty of hostels though, is that after walking in on two snoring men from Singapore, you're eager to get out of the building and explore. New castle is very different from any of the cities we've visited thus far. As we were walking around we noticed more night clubs than pubs,and tons of Indian and Italian restaraunts. We persisted on and found a little pub named bodega. We popped in and found ourselves a seat at a table. We just so happened to be there on quiz night. I couldn't understand fifty percent of the questions asked, but maria and I jumped in anyway with a group of older guys who looked like they were struggling. The question I popped in on was " what musical had the song " music of the night". Being the geeks maria and I are, I leaned over to feed them the answer, and was surprised to see they already had Phantom of the Opera written down already. It was funny to see these three scruffy British guys, pint in hand of course, answer a musical theater question correctly. Incidently, the quiz master sounded like Scrooge Mcduck. Does anybody know if Scrooge was from new castle? Anyway, we proceeded to talk to them for a while, and it turns out one of them, jon, is a former tour guide for new castle. He was bubbling with excitement and history last night and was bestowing it upon is in heaps. He's even offered to give us a walking tour tonight if the weather allows. One amazing thing we saw last night are the ancient remains of new castle'soroginal walls. So, it's dumping the rain today but what can you do? We are preparing to hit it hard today. This city is full of free museums and tons of monuments. So off we go!
Other pub questions for you:
What song has the following lyrics " I'm sitting in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination."
What president appears on the twenty dollar bill?
What state was most affected by hurricane andrew?

Back in Oxford

*find a smattering of our pictures from this first part of our trip below this post*

So! To start off, Shelley (Russell's sister) commented on my 'toad in a hole' post and suggested I search for what it was. So I did. Amelia (a friend) also commented and threw out that it might be similar to eggs in a basket (fried egg in a piece of toast) I was thinking that same thing. Turns out it is sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding batter...hmm...usually served with onion gravy. Rich rich rich. Here is a picture.



It's Monday night in Oxford. Maria and I just finished another game of Boggle with her Aunt Diana, the British prevailed again, but I placed a solid second only two points behind. We are incredibly thankful to be welcomed back so kindly into their home for a few more days while we recover from our adventures in the Lake Land District. If you look at our recent picture update to the blog, you'll see how incredible some of the terrain was that we traversed. After hiking a whole quarter of the trail (that's 50 miles), we made the tough decision to call off the rest of the walk (even with a wonderful offer for the gift of a pack horse service -that's where someone else transports your bags from place to place), as my hip feels better, but isn't quite up to the shape it should be in for 15 and 20 mile walks a day. Instead, Maria's cousin Antony and his girlfriend Karen were our chauffers yesterday and took us all across the western ends of Oxfordshire County. We saw some beautiful countryside. If you notice the picture from our recently added photo album of the small boy, this is an image from a town called Bourton-on-the-Water. It's a famous tourist trap, and people lay lazily by the town's water while the kids play in the creeks. As we were driving from town to town, we came to find out that Antony went to school with, and knows well the members of Radiohead. This was a fascinating discovery as I have been following this band for nearly 15 years. He said it very casually, but I couldn't help being a little surprised. Immediately, I started thinking to what stars I might know/met throughout the years, but the only thing that came to me was, "Have you guys ever seen Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" Both Antony and Karen responded with "Yes!" Then I informed them, "I know the village idiot from that movie." And truthfully I do. Ed Snodderly from the Down Home in Johnson City played this character and is credited as "The Village Idiot" in the credits at the end of the movie. They weren't quite as impressed as I was :)

Note from Maria:
Anyone reading this know anyone famous? Have you met anyone that made you into a starstruck, blubbering, speechless fan? We'd love to hear about it. Comment and tell us about the impressive, the funny, the just plain weird stories about meeting the stars. We need the entertainment (just kidding...but really, we like stories)
Here is a star we met in NYC. Do you know who this is? BONUS Do you know WHERE this was taken?



Also. a few things in England that I love.

Top of the list, A-number one, Cadillac of a thing in England that I love-(well...besides Russell and my family, that is) is extra thick, double cream. This is a bit of heaven right here in the milk section of the grocery store. It is one of the most fabulous things I have ever put in my mouth. And here's the catch. You cannot find it in the good ol US of A. Sure we have cream. Sure we have thick (ish) cream. Sure we have whipped cream. But with this, I could eat strawberries and (real) cream every day for the rest of my life. You think I'm kidding. ... I'm not.

Second on the list, pretty darn good, Oldsmobile of a thing in England that I love-
Old things. Sounds funny, right? No. I mean REALLY old things. Schools, churches, artifacts, streets, people...okay...well the people aren't much older than they are anywhere else, but just as loveable. Anyway. Old buildings in the States are 150 and 200 years old. Old buildings here are 500, 600, 1000 years old. This goes for the whole of Europe, actually. I remember a monument in a square in Rome that was nearly 3000 years old. Wow.

Some other things I love-
Fish and Chips (and the fact that the places that serve Fish and Chips are called 'Chippies'

Hearing Brits say "cheers" for all sorts of things. As in "cheers, thanks" or "cheers, bye" or just "cheers" or "cheers, where's the loo?"...well, I don't know about that one.

Calling the bathroom 'the loo'. Love that. Always have.

Little children that speak in English accents (I know, I know, it isn't an accent for them...but it is super cute anyway)

Eyebrow windows. If you don'tknow what they are, look them up. Also super cute.


So until next time, cheers! And if you are looking for something to do online late at night, check out some cool things to do in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Write about them and tell us, we're headed there next and looking for awesome sights to see (bonus if they're free). There is an incredible bridge there, by the way, called the Millenium Bridge. Look that up too.

Walking and 'toad in a hole'

It's been a rough go at it the past few days. We started the hike on July fifth. The night before we spent some time in a local pub in saint bees, where a colorful local asked me, " shouldn't we be fighting?" I guess they aren't so keen on celebrating the fourth in England, anyway he was a real riot. So the hike began by dipping our toes in the Irish Sea and then following the coast for the first few miles. It was beautiful. We then turned inland and started our approach for the lake district. At one point we were standing on Mount Dent, posed between a final glimpse of england's west coast with Scotland in the distance, and ahead of us mountain ranges that resembled the appalachians. Thus began our approach for the mountains and the lakes. Now here is where it got tricky, I must say that the english would much rather go directly over a range than weave to and fro like much of our hiking in the states. I have a new respect for what they call " walking" over here. When I go for a walk back home, I may put on some flip flops and be back in an hour. Here you say you're going on a walk and they don't expect you back for days. So here in lies the problem, maria and I are carrying too much weight. We tried every angle of redistribution of our clothes etc. But it finally got the best of my joints. These trails are rugged. They'll go straight up two thousand feet in one mile, climbing all the while up creeks and over boulders, it has proven to be hard on our bodies. Let me emphasize how majestic these mountains are, you would truly have to see it to believe it, but remember, if you come for a walk here, you may not be seen for many days:). To add to the dramatic effect I'm trying to create, maria and I witnessed a mountain rescue two nights ago.we were safe in our B&B watching as a helicopter came low on a ridge about 2,000 feet high, dropped a line and air lifted someone off the ridge at about midnight. Pretty intense, and when I asked someone the next day about it, they said it happens all the time. So to prevent that same scenario , maria and I have taken a few days in a small town called penrith to let our bodies heal, especially my wounded and weary left hip. I hope all is well, and do me a favor, go on a walk for me, one in flip flops, and come back in an hour :). For fun google images of "lining crag in the lake district". This was one of the most challenging climbs thus far, but so rewarding!

Note from maria: Russells hip is hurting because he took some of my weight from my pack to help me out. (without me even asking) he is the most wonderful husband a gal could ask for. :-). Also, I'm looking at a menu inthis hotel that offers 'toad in a hole' with chips for only 5 pounds... If you know what this is, please let us know by commenting on the blog. We are having a lovely time, and will hopefully be able to add pictures soon. Miss and love you all.

After a long and bumpy flight, (Russell might have some broken bones in his hand from my squeezing it so hard...) we made it to London Heathrow. There we picked up our bags and began the long process of finding our way to Oxford and getting to Mario and Diana's house. We finally found the bus station, got our ticket and then stood and watched our bus leave...without us. The sign said "Wait to be invited onto bus". So we waited, the driver stared at us, we stared at the driver, we never heard the invitation, the driver climbed on the bus, the bus backed out of the space, and we waved good-bye. No problem though, we caught the next one and were on our way. I leaned over to tell Russell to look out the window as the trip would give some nice views, but he was already snoring.
Mario came and found us at the station, we finally made it to their house and I slept. The rest of my day went like this: sleep, wake up to eat dinner and see Antony, sleep until late the next morning. Such beautiful days we've had in England so far. I hope it stays this way!
Maria - July 1st

Maria and I were engaged until late hours last night with her relatives Diana and Antony. We were of course playing the word game Boggle. Sweat dripping from our brows, furrowed in a frenzy of fannagled letters; I felt as if we were playing for public schools across America, I imagined they were chanting our names, transferring mad energy across the pond. I deciphered as many three and four letter words as possible, and guess what... I came in second to Diana. She wore her colours well and was a modest champion. Cheers to good company, good humour, and lots of laughs. (note from Maria: "I lost terribly...Washington County schools must not be quite up to par with Sullivan...") :-)
Today, we toured Oxford. Such an historical city, rich with humanities, and cheeky "City Site" tour guides.
Some highlights include:
College, college, college, college - Good grief, you must be an idiot to live here and not be educated, matter of fact it's probably impossible, or much worse, a crime. There are 39 colleges total, geeze!
Crime, ah yes, we toured Oxford Castle, which for so long took pride in its swift and expeditious practice of hanging criminals for stealing as little as one British pound. Lots of history, cool construction, neat castle, our tour guide's name was Black Bess.
We ate at the Eagle and Child. Apparently, J.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other notable authors met here to share pints, tell stories, convert from agnosticism to christianity, and invent incredible worlds such as Middle Earth - small stuff like that. I on the other hand shared a pint and fish and chips with my wife. In my opinion, equally as brilliant as Narnia!
Russell - July, 2nd