Circle Europe

We are in Germany.  We decided against Amsterdam, after Brussels scared us and we realized we are running short on funds.  We are currently in Frankfurt (spelling?), by way of Cologne.  Cologne was beautiful, but it was only a connection.  We extended it for a few hours, but had to get to Frankfurt in time to find a place to sleep. 

We first went to a hostel, where everyone smelled very, very badly.  Jake says it was only two people, but they smelled enough for many.  We decided to try our luck with a small hotel and found one for 45euro – $90 American.  Expensive?  A little, but it is nice by our current standard – clean and not scary.

 Tomorrow, we would like to leave for Paris.

We are in Brussels.  The keyboards here are very different than the US/English keyboard.  The letter ‘a’ is where ‘q’ should be.  ‘z’ and ‘w’ have switched places.  You must shift to type a period.  That is the least horrible thing I can think to say.  We found a decent place to stay this evening.  They believe very strongly in haggling.  The price went down by half when we seemed unsure.  We will get free breakfast. 

I finally got to use what little French I know.  Actually, had to use would be more accurate.  The first person I used my ‘I speak a little French and badly’ (in French) on, did not laugh.  I was disappointed.

I do not recommend coming here, but the Eurostar ticket here was less expensive than to Paris, so here we are.  We are leaving in the morning for Amsterdam.  Oddly, we now miss London. 

Sirens, again.  Every city we go to is filled with sirens. 

There are trash cans here, however.  They were very hard to find in England.  Someone said they are a security risk, but the streets were filled with litter, because there were none.

We tried to put up photos, but the hostel computer would not recognize the camera usb and the library computers were very, very slow.  We will try again, but I don’t know when.  With keyboards like this, it will take a little getting used to.

We’ve moved our images to the Gallery link at the top.

This country is backwards.

The salt is low in salt.

There is trash in the streets.

No one believes in the use of air conditioning.

Trash cans are more rare than in Japan.

Twix are sold in singles rather than in pairs.

The rainy English summers are surprisingly lacking in rain.

There are large metal men in the fields.

There are horses imprinted into the sides of hills.

No one seems to enjoy wearing shirts.

Towns are run by werewolves.

Virginia is not a state, but rather “one of the oldest colonies”.

It’s against the rules to flush while at the station.

Crop circles should be more accurately refered to as crop lines.

Many of these probably make no sense, but I’ll elaborate when I am home and can talk directlyhave the time to talk (or type on a computer that isn’t ridiculously slow).

We made it to the Temple of Harmony in Goathurst yesterday! Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it. People five miles out of the area never heard of it.

We decided we could walk the way and only found out after about 8 miles that my map was not to scale. Sunburnt, tired, dehydrated, we were picked up a few miles and about 40minutes before it was to close by Brian. Many, many thanks to Brian! He was looking for his lost dog (hope you’ve found him) and instead came across two desperate Americans. He had worked at the Temple himself, so took us off and brought us back to the train station as well. I KNOW we could not have made it without him.

We do have pictures, and if Jake ever remembers to bring both the camera and the usb cable we will post them.

Last night we ran into a bit of trouble with our sleeping arrangements. We made it back to Salisbury – every last one of you reading should come here, it’s beautiful – but the hostel we had stayed at was full. The other hostel was full. The hotel was £85 – about $170 – whoa! We opted for the ‘camping’ fee at the hostel. Don’t worry, we’re fine. We learned a valuable lesson in a friendly environment. The fee came with showers and free breakfast – sleep was not included. We crashed on the couches in the common room in the morning, then booked beds for tonight.

We’ve met one cat, and I have petted several dogs. I miss doggies. We have met many helpful people, but have usually forgotten to get their names. If we’ve given you a thank you card, say hello with a comment!

We left London this morning by train. We are now in Salisbury, trying to find our way to Bridgwater. Yes, that is the correct spelling. Very few people recognize the name Bridgwater, which is troubling. It’s a bit of a ‘can’t get there from here’ situation. It looks like we will have to take a train or two to make it there.

Though we are near Stonehenge, we aren’t going. We have weighed the cost against the fact that it is simply a pile of stones and decided against it. I told Jake I will make a pile of stones, accurate to the solstices and we can look at those in awe. I know, shame on us.

Speaking of weight, we mailed off some of our clothing today – back to America. Our packs were weighing too much. We couldn’t mail off as much as we would have liked. The box had to be under 2kg. or the price went up by about 30£ – or $60. Way too expensive. The 2kg we sent make a difference. Though honestly, I don’t know what that is in American weight – a pound or so? Now, that sounds like a lunch budget – a pound or so.

I am currently at a public library in Salisbury, so I’m limited in time and am not spell-checking. Don’t hold it against me if I’ve made huge errors. If you saw this keyboard, I think you’d understand.

Thank you to everyone who’s made a donation. It is greatly appreciated. Here’s the info, for those who have no idea what I’m talking about:

Well, we made it to London. It is not what I expected. It’s very, very dirty and smells… let’s leave it as – bad. We didn’t get much sleep, but the hostel where we stayed- where I’m typing this right now – is pretty nice. The room was tiny, but clean.

Okay, this keyboard is bizarre. No shift on the left, and @ where ” should be.

Jake forgot his connection for the camera, so we’ll only be able to upload images/video if we can find a computer with a memory-card reader. Boo, Jacob!

To family and friends, we are well. Tired, but over all okay. We’re going to try to find ‘London things’ today, and figure out where we are sleeping this evening.

My brother said the title to me, when I told him about our trip. I told Jake, and he said we should have t-shirts that say it. Good or bad, the shirts would cover our situation, either literally or sarcastically. Today, I could have worn mine (yes, we made them) as sarcasm.

It started simply. I went to the United website to check in. It wouldn’t let me. Hmm… I decided to call. I was told I couldn’t check in, because I didn’t have a return ticket. Without a return ticket, I would need something to prove I was coming home within 6 months, or a letter from the British Consulate saying it was okay for me to enter the country. That’s what they told me. ‘Sorry.’ Seems like someone would have mentioned that when I bought the tickets. Seems like I would have read something about that somewhere. Nope. Nothing.

Instead of spending my lovely day off before traveling by checking and double checking loose ends, I spent about 12 hours on the net trying to find a decent price for a return flight. Did I find one? A ticket yes, but the price is far from decent.

I’m trying to get over my aggravation. When I finally found a price I could half-way afford, I bought the tickets, then realized the day had sapped all the ‘can’t wait’ out of me. I simply didn’t care anymore. England-Schmingland.

I’m trying very hard to care now. I’m going, but I’m not far enough away from it all to be excited about it again.

I loaded my backpack tonight – everything but clothes. It weighs a ton. I took out everything and tried to figure out what could come out… nothing. There’s nothing I can’t take.

The heaviest things are the lock for our locker, the string line for drying clothes (no, I don’t know why a roll of string weighs a lot) and my tiny, travel-size bottle of Humectress. Even if I could take out those things, it wouldn’t make a difference. It isn’t one item making the pack heavy. It’s a combination of everything in it.

My backpack reminds me of the game Doom

I put on my backpack and walked around. Not too bad. Not great. I was very sad. Then, I remembered that the guide books say there are lockers at hostels and train stations for a couple dollars. They recommend locking your backpack away for the day and using a ‘daypack’. A daypack is just a smaller bag – a purse, but you can’t tell guys to use a purse. That may be my salvation. I really don’t think I could lug this thing around all day. I would come home a hunchback. Okay, it’s not that heavy…

Tomorrow, I have to call and confirm our flight and reservation at The Clink. We’re going to be getting into London a little late in the day, so I hope they’ll be okay with that.

Mood: somewhere between fear and excitement
What I learned today: no matter how little you take, your backpack will be heavy
Best thing that happened today: I remembered where I put my vitamins!

It’s less than a week before we leave. The good news? Our families now know we are going. Through a series of events, our travel plans were brought out into the open. The weird news? They are all okay with it…

We honestly expected complete and utter resistance to our adventure. Jake and I talked about who would yell the most. Who would forbid us from going. He’s headed off to college in a little over a month, so there were bound to be more people against him going. On my part, I expected a lot of, ‘What are you thinking? You just spent all your money to fix your car!’ Instead, everyone is fine with our plan. Everyone loves the idea. Everyone.

We’re going to Europe with one-way tickets, a little bit of money in our pockets, and a vague idea of what we’d like to do once we’re there… and they’re okay with this. They’re not only okay with it, they are encouraging us. ‘We only have $500.’ – ‘You guys are going to have such fun!”

Jake said it’s like we’re standing there with giant, very, very sharp scissors saying, ‘We’re going to run with these!’ and everyone is saying, ‘Great! Sounds awesome!’ …Very, very sharp scissors, shoes with slick soles, and a super greasy floor… ‘You guys will have a great time!’ It makes absolutely no sense. We do not understand why everyone is behind our adventure. It’s a bit unnerving.

There’s no logical reason why everyone loves this idea. It’s impossible to even imagine. We’ve decided, maybe they are all going against everything we expected, because we are meant to go to Europe. Meant to go and get run over by the London Eye. We will go down in history as the two Americans who were run over and killed by the London Eye.

How we meet our end...

After a little discussion, we’ve come to a decision. If we are to go down in history as the two Americans who met their end by the London Eye, we would like a memorial. We’d like bronze statues of us, placed under the newly secured (“Guaranteed not to come loose and kill travelers!” ) London Eye. The statues should be side-by-side, depicting us running from the wheel with our faces full of fear. We insist.