Australia. Australia: The Great Ocean Road

Saturday March 14th, 2009 - Monday, March 30th, 2009

Great Ocean Road, Victoria
(Torquay, Anglesea, Fairhaven, Aireys Inlet, Apollo Bay, Princetown, and Lorne!)

"Look ma', the kid can walk!"

That's right, apparently we know how to walk. During this 16 day stretch we averaged just over 10km a day, with almost all of those days involving ~4 babies worth of weight on each of our backs (the "baby" is a unit used to measure weight; each baby represents ~8 lbs or ~4 kilos).. Perhaps these numbers don't seem that impressive, but believe me they certainly feel like they are when live them. The weight alone was like carrying an extra 25% of ourselves -- that's like growing two new legs and one extra head! Anyways, here's a breakdown of our days (distance walked and weight carried):

1. Torquay: ~10.0km; 1kg; bused to Torquay; watched surfers, surveyed surf shops and promised to be surf pros by tomorrow
2. Torquay: ~8.0km; 1kg; too rainy for surfing; decide to sit in cafe and drink; determined to be surf pros by tomorrow; meet backpacking Swedish doctor -- puts us to shame by walking ~20-30km day (overachieving swedes =P)
3. Torquay: ~9.0km; many surfers at beach.. decide not to make them look terrible by surfing (surfers have weak confidence, don't want to undermine it); will become surf pro after big walk tomorrow
4. Anglesea: ~18.0km; 15kg; hiked to Anglsea; long walk; heavy packs; lots of coast; walking on sand with pack found to be difficult -- like walking on a herd of gritty, greased pigs; pass by Tiger Snake breeding ground -- nothing amorous seen
5. Fairhaven: ~12km; 2kg; leave packs in Anglesea, walk to Fairhaven, bus it back to Anglesea -- super-duper-success; walk relatively weightless, and thus "awesome"; celebrate with discount, day-old cinnamon buns
6. Apollo Bay: ~12km; 0kg; bused to Apollo Bay; Fish n' Chips for dinner -- witness "freakishly-aggressive-Jenny" chase seagulls who want our food.. Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; read about skin cancer statistics in newspaper and decide to buy narrow-brim bucket hat (have beard, have hat, have plaid, need fishing rod..)
7. Apollo Bay: ~16km; 4kg; plan on nice relaxing day before first day of big walk; go grocery shopping for Great Ocean Walk; breakdown of shopping:
• walk to town; 2km
• walk first market; 1km; survey prices
• walk second market; 1km; survey prices
• write shopping list
• walk first market; 1km; survey prices
• walk second market; 1km; survey prices
• walk first market; 1km; buy: ramen noodles
• walk second market; 1km; buy: carrots, bread, tuna, vegemite, eggs
• walk first market; 1km; buy: steak and veggies for "last supper"
• Tyler has tiny freak-out about starving on walk
• walk back to campground; 2km
• Tyler has bigger freak-out about starving on walk
• walk to town; 2km
• walk to first market; 1km; buy: bread, cookies, chocolate
• walk back to campground; 2km
8. Elliot Ridge: ~9.9; 18kg; have idea to carry plastic bags of food on stick (like two hunters would carry a dead gazelle: gazelle tied to stick, and stick on shoulders) -- GENIUS! Lots of up and down on the walk -- very sweaty; splash water on selves -- refreshing, but not cleansing..
9. Blanket Bay: ~11.6km; 18kg; long; boring; middle-aged English couple feel pity for our us after seeing soup dinner -- they feed us pasta -- it is delicious (thank-you England)
10. Cape Otway: ~10.5; 18kg; meet Australian named Mathew, who is also on walk -- we all like food, so that's what we talk about for the next 5 days (we also playing a card game called 500 -- fun); buy 6 chocolate bars, 1 ice cream bar and 1 popsicle at Cape Otway Lighthouse kiosk (only place to buy food on the walk); food topic for day: chocolate bars
11. Aire River: ~9.7; feeling smelly and greasy; find cold, slimy, pond to bathe in.. feel less gross (actually produced a little oil slick.. *ick*); koala near walks over us to get at nearby eucalyptus tree -- wow; awesome campgrounds -- feels like a brambly hobbit village; food topic for day: McDonalds
12. Johanna: ~13.6; 17kg; echidna shows us it's prickly butt -- mmm, wildlife-tooshy; awesomer hilltop campgrounds -- view of wavey ocean; food topic for day: pastry and pies
13. Ryans Den: ~12.4; 17kg; hills; hell; up, down, up, down, down, down, up, up, up, up, UP, down, up, down, up, etc.; meet a mob of kangaroos; two leaches jump out of a tree and attack Jenny's left boob -- hilarious; awesomest clifftop campground -- tall, jutty, clifftop view of ocean; food topic for day: food
14. Devils Kitchen: ~15.3; descend a couple hundred steps to Wreck Beach, which has an anchor embedded in some rock -- pretty cool; play cards on the beach -- also pretty cool; ascend a couple hundred steps from Wreck Beach -- not really cool..; pretty cool clifftop campground -- trees, view of ocean
15. Princetown / Glenample homestead: ~12.9km; 16kg; overcast, cold and dry; sunny, hot and dry; overcast, windy and rainy; sunny, windy and dry; sunny, windy and rainy (?!?); food topic for day: pizza and salad
16. Melbourne Lorne: ~?km; -99kg; bused to Melbourne Lorne to relax wait for Melbourne Grand Prix to stop flooding all possible accomodation; Jenny buys a sun dress
17. Lorne: ?km; ?kg; What happened today?
18. Lorne: ?km; ?kg; devonshire scone: scone, jam, cream -- mmm

So, that was the walking adventure. Good times,

Tyler and Jenny

Australia. Australia. Singleton to Melbourne

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 - Friday, March 13th, 2009

Melbourne, Victoria

Two facts:

• FACT #1: at some point, in the not so distant past, Melbourne was named the world's most "liveable" city (REFERENCE; also note that Canada rocks the liveable list!)
  
• FACT #2: the Kings Cross region of Sydney is mostly certainly NOT the world's most "liveable" anything

In our continuing adventures, we experienced these two facts back-to-back, and found them magnified by their proximity..

So the story began because it was time to leave Singleton. We wanted to go to Melbourne. Melbourne is not particularly close to Singleton.. So we devised a plan that combined feet, cars and trains to get us from Singleton to Melbourne via several way points (numbered for later reference):

• 1: feet bring us to car (situated in Singleton driveway; ~30 seconds)
• 2: car brings us to train (in nearby city called Maitland; ~1 hour)
• 3: train brings us to other train (in major city called Sydney; ~2 hours)
• 4: other train brings us to Melbourne (traveling by night to diminish the whopping 13 hour commute!; ~13 hours!)

4 steps. Assuming each step had a modest 95% success rate, then the overall journey had a success rate of ~80%. Meaning, hypothetically, if we made the journey 5 times, then 4 of those times would be successes. Meaning 1 in 5 would be a failure. Now, it's pretty obvious what a success would be, so lets walk through what a "hypothetical" failure would be.. Most journey's don't begin with failure, so lets take step 1 as being successful. Moreover, most good failures occur because of reasons that are out of the subjects / victims control -- so lets take step 2 (the car) as also being successful because the subjects are still in control (~"sort of"). Thus we are on step 3, and have only 2 chances left to fail.. now seems an appropriate time. Train accident? Too "big" to be simply termed a failure.. Robbery on the rails? Too dramatic.. Missed train? Appropriate. But again, a good failure is out of the subjects control. Let's say the train was missed because of track renovation that our victims inquired about earlier during their planning phase, but were cordially reassured (by a train representative) that renovations did NOT exist and would NOT affect scheduling, but in fact renovations DID exist and DID affect scheduling (by ~1hour), thus forcing our subjects to reschedule their night train to Melbourne for the next morning (a surprisingly easy and affordable affair -- thank-you Country Link Trains), which in turn forced them to spend a night in Sydney on (perhaps) the busiest night of the year: Gay Mardigras (as in homosexual), which fills the streets with a curious mix of tights, trannies, and teens, that are all very leathered, very pierced and VERY gay (as in happy), which is cool, but all these people need places to stay, which makes choices for accommodation limited, forcing our subjects to return to the hated Sydney Cooee hostel (damnable meat-thieves! [REFERENCE]), the crowds also make accommodations sell at a premium, which translates into prices doubling (stupid, crappy $40 dorm bed.. I hate you bed!), and finally ending in a sleep that is broken by gay noises (as in both homosexual and happy.. ...) that are not conducive to our subjects' sleep (subjects like ours who have had a long day and could be quite accurately termed "party-poopers" do not like noises!). Following the (hypothetical) failures of step 3, step 4 arrives and likely completes successfully (except that instead of sleeping a blissed-out 8 of the ~13 commuter hours, the happy subjects are able to observe the sun's exciting (and painfully slow) ascent and descent. Luckily, there's an 80% chance that the hypothetical failure that has just been described above did not happen to Jenny and I.

Arrival in Melbourne. Initial thoughts:

• air filled with smells that are completely unlike urine -- good
• less gayness (as in happy -- unsure about other gayness) -- neutral
  
• subway's maps and electronic timetables fairly accessible -- good
• accommodations near to subway; somewhat expensive, but include toast, cereal, fruit, milk and various hot breakfast beverages (CEREAL! FRUIT! HOT BEVERAGES! In the immortal words of the Counting Crows: "you don't know what you got till it's gone") (also clean linen -- thank-you Claremont Guesthouse) -- good
• nearby stir-fry place (cheap and delicious -- thank-you Smiley Thai) -- good
  

Initial thoughts on Melbourne? Not unliveable.

Other noteworthy events:

• a hippie restaurant that lets the customer decide the value of their meal: Lentil as Anything -- more difficult than you may think..
  
• finally confirmed that the McDonalds in Australia provide free WiFi (but sadly do not offer McGriddles)
• egg tarts -- Jenny has been quoted as saying: "mmm" in regards to these
• We re-united with some friends from our Croatia tour who really talked up Melbourne and we helped them win at trivia night -- free pitchers of beer for everyone!
• Parmas are delicious and an Aussie specialty -- breaded chicken with cheese, ham and spaghetti sauce, no pasta is served with it here, only mashed potatoes and veggies. Mmmm.....
  

That's all,

Tyler and Jenny

Australia. Australia. Katoomba to Singleton

Monday, March 2nd, 2009 - Friday, March 6th, 2009

Singleton/Hunter Valley, New South Wales

When people think of Australia, Singleton is not often the town that comes to mind, but it was actually a nice place to visit. We never would have seen it otherwise, but my good friends from Edinburgh, Renee and Kempy have settled down there and had a free bedroom for us to crash in. Who could say no to that? It was so nice after the camping in Katoomba and the unpleasant hostel experience in Sydney to go and stay in an actual house with fresh, real, non-travel towels, a tv, a Wii nintendo and all the other luxuries we had at home.

For those of you who don't know, the Hunter Valley is one of the big wine regions in Australia. Many people cruise around the area and go visiting/sampling at all the wineries. They have notices in all of the wineries warning about not being able to serve you if you are intoxicated. I think it must happen a lot. But they were happy to give you a sample of whatever you wanted, it was amazing! And we even had some cheese and bread sampling too. We learned the difference between dry, sweet and fruity wines (just because it's sweet does not necessarily mean that it's fruity). And dessert wines are terrible - that's what I learned, too sweet for me anyway. We tried some sparkling red wine and it was pretty delicious, you can even serve some red wines cold.... as crazy as that may sound to you, it's true. So we're becoming quite the connoisseurs. :)

Aside from being great hosts, Renee and Kempy chauffeured us around town and took us to see Newcastle, a great coastal town in New South Wales. Beautiful beach and waterfront. It would be a great city to live in, not too big and lots of beautiful scenery. And they also took us to Kempy's parents house in a town called Tea Gardens. It's mostly full or retired people who wanted to get away from Sydney in their later years, a nice quiet community on the river/waterfront. The river connects to the ocean so it's saltwater. And I saw my first real life dolphin there, just swimming into the harbour. Amazing!

Renee and Kempy also introduced us to some crazy Australian movies and tv shows and the local cuisine. We went 'yabbying', which involves setting nets to catch yabbies (crayfish-like creatures). We boiled them up and ate them for dinner along with lots of barbecued meat. Before you boil the yabbies you have to rip their bums out so that was kinda gross, but it's better that we don't eat that part of them. We learned that what we in Canada would call 'cocktail weiners' are referred to in Australia as 'little boys'.... but not when you order them over the
counter or you might get some funny looks. Also, fried eggs are delicious on pizza and burgers, Australians try to add eggs to whatever they can. Breakfast pizza is a must! And tim-tam slams are delcious (tim-tams are the popular chocolate cookie here and you eat opposite corners of the cookie then dunk it in your coffee and sip the coffee through the cookie. So bad for you, but delicious.

We came from Singleton/Tea Gardens well fed, better educated on things Australian and extremely comfortable. And we may even be going back if Kempy gets us a job pruning grape vines for his friend. We'll let you know. :)

On to Melbourne!

-Jenny and Tyler-

Australia. Australia. Sydney to Katoomba

Tuesday, February 21st, 2009 - Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Jenny and I "tour-ised" Sydney quite thoroughly:

• Opera House
• NOTES:
• - one local compared it to a pair of turtles mating.. wierd
• Sydney Harbour
• Sydney Botanical Gardens
• NOTES:
• home to a colony of bats
• bat facts:
• unlike vampires, bats can come out during the day
• unlike Batman, bats are quite social
• bats are annoying
• misc phrases for groups of creatures:
• a Thought of Barons
• a Knot of Toads
• a Raffle of Turkeys
• a Decent of Woodpeckers
• a Conspiracy of Ravens
• a Smack of Jellyfish
• a Murder of Crows
• a Kettle of Hawks
• for fellow travelers, the 10am free walking tour is worth checking out
  
• Aquarium
• NOTES:
• sharks actually do exist and are not fictious creatures created by the Aussies to keep us away from their beaches -- big mouth, big teeth, small eyes..
• Jenny wants a platypus..
• Bondi Beach
• NOTES:
• against all common sense, this is actually pronounced "bond-eye beach"
• riptides are more fun, than dangerous
• (to Mr. B. Williams) topless beaches are everything you dreamed of and more
• may have to exchange dreams of surfing for dreams of body-boarding -- Jenny will kill me if I die..
  

After approximately 4 days at Sydney's Backpacker Headquarters Hostel, we decided to try trading up to Sydney's Cooee Hostel. Not only did it match the Headquarters' free breakfast and guest kitchen, but it also advertised cheap double rooms, air conditioning and free internet. This lead to the first harsh lesson of trip: meat theft. Little bits of stir-fry beef in a sweet Cantonese ginger sauce.. GONE. The only suspect: the clerk from hostel's front desk (he was eating "his" dinner when we discovered our loss). He had this sort of pathetic / sympathetic smile, that was endearing before the the theft, but absolutely infuriating after (I swear I saw little bits of stringy, dark meat stuck between his teeth!) Anyways, no proof, no foul -- must move on.

Beyond theft, the Cooee also suffered some minor maintenance issues. There were two bathrooms on our floor. Someone (intentionally?) managed to clog the urinals in both of them. I am ashamed to say that I panicked and fled the facilities the first time that the yellow water started to spill over the rim (don't worry, I had some hand sanitizer in my backpack).

On February 25th, took the train to Katoomba in the Blue mountain region. Small town. Many cafes. Many tourists. Free internet at the library. Impressive scenery (cliffs, waterfalls, trees, wildlife, etc.).

Bought a camping stove (I have fire!)

Stayed at the Katoomba Falls Caravan Park. Facilities well priced and clean.The tent and sleeping functioned perfectly.

Attempted 4 hour hike to the Red Hand cave in Glenbrook -- success (the hands painted on the cave were indeed red).

• NOTES:
• got lost one time (1/2 hour confusion)
• many birds
• many bugs
  
• no snakes.

Attempted 2 day hike to Chinaman's Gully, via Mt. Solitary Summit -- success (!).

• NOTES:
• got lost four times (1 3/4 hours of confusion)
• many birds
• two snakes (who puts a snake in the water)
• one leech (Jesus Christ -- they drop from trees!)
• something that bounced
• for fellow travelers:
• a bit of (lots of?) mild (extreme?) climbing is required
  
• the signs aren't lying when the claim the path is not well marked
• there is no "chinaman"
  

Later,

Tyler and Jenny


P.S. The previously mentioned showers-with-tinted-glass-divider actually turned out to be the showers-with-one-way-mirror-divider. This discovery came at a terrible price -- it involved me making several very strange faces on the mirror side, while some unknown naked man may (or may not) have been watching on the see-through side. I think it likely that an unknown naked man was watching because a certain gentleman started giving me cautionary-eyes whenever he saw me around the hostel..

Australia. Australia. Sydney: Arrival review

Tues, February 17th, 2009 - Friday, February 20th, 2009

So to recap:

• departed from Toronto, Canada (Pearson airport) at ~9pm
• arrived in London, England (Heathrow airport) at ~9am local time (~6 hours of travel, 0 hours of sleep)
• NOTES:
  
• showered successfully
• bought sandwiches.. and chocolate
• departed Heathrow at ~9pm (12 hours of waiting, 2 hour of sleep)
  
• arrived in Bangkok, Thailand (? airport) at ~? (~? hours travel, 1 hour of sleep)
• NOTES:
• very warm -- an unsettling precursor to Australian weather..
• security officers are "friskier" than those in Canada or London -- was pleased to learn that my groin was not armed
  
• departed Bangkok when the sun was near the horizon -- unsure whether it was rising or setting (1 hour of waiting)
• arrived in Sydney, Australia (? airport)
• NOTES:
• forgot aluminum water bottle on plane; attempted to get Baggage Services to retrieve it; failure
• despite warnings about the severity of Sydney Customs officers they are found to be amiable
  
• telephoned Backpackers Headquarters Hostel to make use of their offer for free airport pickup; failure -- no answer on their end; waited 30mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 5mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 0mins, then redialed -- failure -- no answer; waited 0mins, then redialed -- success (!)
• departed Sydney airport when the taxi arrived
• NOTES:
• Australian accents can be mixed with any other accent to create unimagined hybrids (i.e., aussie-indian, aussie-polish, etc.)
• arrived at hostel
• NOTES:
• reception: pleasant and helpful
• dorm-mates: nocturnal (i.e., sleep during the day)
  
• beds: ~clean
• showers: separated by tinted glass (first noticed this while trying to determine if I was the unknown naked man in the mirror -- there was no mirror -- I was not the unknown naked man)
  

After the above, we walked around, felt tired, went back to the hostel, went to sleep while the sun was still high and awoke around 4am.

-Tyler/Jenny

Europe. Romania. Brasov: Searching for Dracula

Fri, October, 20th, 2006 - Sat, October, 21st, 2006

We had such high hopes for Romania, especially since we expected a lot of Dracula folklore. Unfortunately our visit to Romania was disappointing but there was still some excitement. We arrived around 6am which was too early to check in to a hostel because they don't let anyone in until 10am. We were desperate for a shower and sleepy so that is our excuse for what happened next. A man named Nick approached us and used his "practical/utilitarian" grasp of English to inform us that he had a private room in his house that we could stay in. He was a sketchy character with missing teeth but his happy attitude and use of English convinced us in our vulnerable state to go with him (plus he was going to drive us there, how convenient is that!). The room was very nice and actually in the home of this nice Romanian couple who spoke no English but did speak French so that helped a little.

Nick also offered to drive us to the castles at Bran and Rasnov for 15 euros(both look like castles that Dracula could have lived in but didn't). So we trusted him and agreed. Nick told us that he just had to make a quick stop at the train station and then he disappeared for 20 minutes. When he came back he had a stranger with him and told us that he had stuff to do today so this new man (who was sketchy as well and spoke no English) would drive us for the agreed price. The new guy is smiley so we go along with it.

The castles turn out to be big tourist traps (who would have guessed???) but they are pretty cool. Bran was the nicer castle (Rasnov was under construction) and it had spooky pictures of gypsy queens which Tyler enjoyed. It had a spooky feeling when you were inside the castle and just felt more like Dracula could have lived there. Very pretty view of the city as well. There were lots of stalls around the castles that sold daggers, an item I wasn't expecting to see so abundantly available but cool to look at.

The end of the trip signalled the beginning of the cabby haggling. We were unprepared for this since we agreed on a flat price and he understood that. Tyler ending up giving 2 extra euros but it was very awkward and unpleasant to haggle with someone who is already ripping you off and is unable to (or at least pretending not to) understand you. I would not recommend the experience to anyone.

We also encountered the greatest language barrier in Romania. We got spoiled in the other countries that we visited by most of the people having a little knowledge of English and most restaurants had English translations for their dishes or at least someone that could explain what it was to you. Romania was different. We were starving at 3pm and found a fast food place while walking around but discovered that we couldn't read anything that was listed so we ended up just picking random combos. I totally mispronounced everything while ordering (and Tyler saved us a table), the girl smiled at me and my brutal attempt at Romanian so at least she was nice about me butchering her language. Tyler's meal was perfectly acceptable, he got chicken drumsticks.... I on the other hand ended up with fried cheese on a bun. It was so gross! And amazingly enough it was a very popular item in the restaurant, I saw many other people around who intentionally ordered it. Craziness! The other excitement of the day was when Tyler ever so slightly electrocuted himself while trying to figure out why the washing machine was covering the floor in water.

The next day we went to Sighisora in the hopes of attending a Dracula theme park which Tyler had read about in our outdated travel guidebook. We learned that the theme park was never actually made because Prince Charles believed it would taint the beauty of Romania... so sad! After mapless wandering that revealed most of the places were closed at noon we had lunch at Vlad Tepes (Dracula)'s birthplace. Very tasty food although it is kinda sad that Dracula's old house is now a restaurant for tourists... but I bet they make good money.

-Jenny and Tyler, Dracula groupies

Europe. Hungary. Budapest: Fun with an exciteable Romanian

Thurs, October, 19th, 2006

We got lost trying to find the Statue Park in Budapest since it was in an area not covered by our map. While lost we discovered a cheap internet place and decided to spend some time there to make ourselves feel better. Tyler goes crazy without internet for a few days so it is better to appease him than have a grumpy, computer-depraved geek on my hands. :) When you haven't been on the internet for a while and are stressed and lost in an unfamiliar city you have no idea how fast time flies by. We spent 3 hours at the internet cafe and it felt like 10 minutes... crazy! But it was a nice way to kill time before our overnight train.

We shared our compartment on the overnight train to Brasov, Romania with an exciteable Romanian named Michael. He reminded me of Robin Williams, same peppiness and jumping around enthusiasm and he also looked like him (and I'm not the only one to notice the similarity, he mentioned that people tell him that all the time). He started a conversation with us by asking us what our zodiac signs were, he and Tyler are both Sagittarius's and he said that meant that they were both "soft" whereas since I'm a Cancer I'm "hard & tough". I bet a lot of you are laughing when you read that, but he was convinced that I was very tough. Perhaps I am around strangers. I was amused with his interpretation of me. He provided us with travel advice since he's been all over the place and also gave us diet advice. He was a nutritionist at some point and knows a lot about botany and was convinced that you should eat fruit 20 minutes before a meal because once you eat your carbs and heavy food after the fruit your body is tricked into thinking that the heavy food is a fruit and you'll digest it in 20 minutes instead of 20 hours. It was an interesting theory and he was very enthusiastic about it. He shared his food with us and even if we said no he would say "Come on!" until we agreed. Good thing we're push-overs or there could have been a brawl! :)

-Jenny the Hard and Tyler the Soft

Europe. Hungary. Budapest: Terror and depressing ballet

Wednesday, October, 18th, 2006

We went to visit the "Museum of Terror" today in Pest. The focus of this museum was Hungary's history with communism and the terrible things that happened to its citizens during the "reign of terror". The museum had a very spooky feel to it, as soon as you entered there was this very loud, catchy music playing that went with these video images of war, torture and despair. The museum was very well laid-out and easy to follow and in every room there were photocopied readings to accompany what you saw. The museum was definitely a shock, it's weird how we can live in oblivion of terrible things that happen overseas. History classes in Canada are a lot different from those in Hungary, I don't remember anyone having a sympathetic view towards Hungary. I guess that's what happens when you don't get the FULL story, only a distorted view. The museum was very educational and eye-opening. In the basement you were able to go into the prison cells used to keep those who were opposed to communism and you could even see where the people were killed. That area had an eery feeling about it as well, it gave me goosebumps.

In the evening we went to see the ballet at the Operahaus. We discovered that we were underdressed and got a few stares but we saw a few others who were in the same boat as us so it made us feelt better. And if anyone had been making snooty comments about us we couldn't have understood them anyway. The ballet itself was more confusing than we had anticipated. We thought that we were being smart in picking something without words so that we could easily understand what was going on... unfortunately it was a rather complicated ballet and we needed the help of a program to explain the basic plot. The plot was pretty depressing (and based on a real story): an unhappy royal marriage, prince with many mistresses & prostitutes, prince is feeling melancholy & gets new young mistress, they threaten each other with a gun but make love afterwards, prince almost kills the king accidentally, prince kills gun-wielding mistress and then himself. Odd story. The dancing was beautiful though. There was an amusing character in the ballet who was the prince's ex-lover and kept trying to win him back after he was married, she was so persistent and when he kept refusing she found him a new young girl to be his mistress. How nice of her.

Oh and to go with our "inappropriate" attire for the ballet, Tyler also filled up our water bottle in the bathroom at the operahouse. Aren't we classy? :)

-Jenny and Tyler, the picture of classiness

Europe. Hungary. Budapest: Aloofness gets the girl

Tuesday, October, 17th, 2006

We decided to spend today walking about Pest (the area across the Danube) and eventually go try to get ballet tickets for the next night since we weren't able to get through on the phone or the internet. It was quite hectic getting over to Pest since I (Jenny) was leading the way and dind't realize that I led us right onto a HIGHWAY!!!! It was crazy, the cars were SO close to us. We tried crossing to the other side but with 4 lanes it was tricky (and I'm naturally nervous about crossing non-busy roads). Tyler and I ended up on opposite sides of the highway because of my cowardice. It was a very stressful situation but everything worked out all right. I learned my lesson about following the "pretty path" (we had been following the river)... there is always a catch!

We walked to St. Istvan's Square and saw St. Stephen's Cathedral at the centre of the square. It was very fancy. There was a young girl in front of the church selling tickets to a Folk Festival that night and she convinced us to go see it. We wanted to take in some more Hungarian culture. Tyler was thrown for a loop though because the tickets in the front rows were the cheapest and the ones in the back were the most expensive, it just defied all logic. We're pretty sure that we were scammed in some way but the tickets weren't super expensive so it's okay, just odd.

We ate dinner at a restaurant near the church where the Folk Festival was being held. The waiter actually understood us when we ordered tap water (that was a first). Tyler's pasta was very good & filling whereas my "turkey stew" was really turkey with gravy... falsely labelled on the menu. If you go to Hungary remember that "stew = gravy".

The folk Festival was really cool, it mainly revolved about 2 groups of Hungarian dancers. The guys did the more complicated foot banging/tap dancing and the girls got hurled around and made "yip"s on occasion. There was one dancer who kind of looked like the actor Adrien Brody and he was so serious he wouldn't make eye contact with any of the girls who were his dancing partner and all the girls were just trying to catch his eye. I think his aloofness made them all want him. :)

-Jenny and Tyler, cultured by the Hungarian folks

Europe. Hungary. Budapest: The kindness of Hungarians

Monday, October, 16th, 2006

We ate breakfast on the train this morning with the two older ladies in our train compartment. Both were quite chatty and though not perfectly fluent in English, they were able to converse with us smoothly (much better than if we had tried to speak Hungarian, which we don't know a word of). One of the ladies (whose name we later learned was Marie) had several experiences with "Canadiana" as her daughter had been courted by one of us. She described how it had been a long 4 year relationship (filled with dancing) but it did not last. She also talked about her job which was as a felt artist, her entire family all work with it. It looks a lot like wool in its natural form and they make hats, carpets, stuffed animals, etc.

We had a lot of fun chatting with the ladies and when the train arrived in Budapest we left the train and were struck by what will likely be the biggest surprise of the trip... Marie, who had been met at the train station by her daughter Anna, offered to let us stay at her place for free. our book had mentioned scams so we were skeptical, plus we had actually made reservations for a hostel (for only the second time on our trip). Despite both of these facts, Marie and Anna seemed genuinely kind so we agreed to accept their kind offer. They even bought metro tickets for us since it's more expensive to get money at the train station. They were just insanely nice, especially for only knowing them for a couple of hours. They made us lunch and tea and we chatted with them in their very nice appartment, it was the Buda part of Budapest, which is much nicer and had a huge castle nearby. It was amazing! They also announced that they were going to their house in the country so we got to have their appartment to ourselves. How crazy is that? They were so trusting. I think that Tyler won them over with his personality, he's quite the charmer. :)

Their kindness really made Budapest one of the highlights of our trip, we had so much fun there. They had such a cool history as well. Marie and her husband work exclusively with felt and have written 30 books with both historical and technical content. We couldn't read any of them but we got to look at the pictures. There are international conferences held on the topic as well and they always go to them. They were one of the fairytale-like families... nice, generous, smart, industrious and we were lucky enough to meet them. :)

We spent the day walking about Buda and went to visit the castle. You get a great view of the city from up there. We wandered through the city and observed Hungarian culture. Meeting Marie and Anna made us feel very welcome in the city. We've also found that felafels and kebabs are the cheapest food in every country in Europe and Hungary was no exception (plus they were delicious). The only bad part of the free appartment we were staying in was that they had no hot water so we had to heat pots of water in order to take a bath but it wasn't so bad. You can't complain when you don't have to pay for anything. They also had this fun board game called "Catan" which we passed the night playing, it was so much fun. I had beginner's luck on my side. :)

-Jenny and Tyler, overwhelmed by kind Hungarians

Europe. Germany. Aachen: On our way to Budapest

Sunday, October, 15th, 2006

Today was not very exciting, we spent the day walking around Aachen killing time before we had to catch our overnight train to Budapest. We discovered that calling home from private call centre places is a much better deal than buying calling cards. We called our parents and I finally got a hold of my mom, we've had the worst timing for when we call home. Lots of answering machine messages. :P But it was great to hear her voice and chat.

We eventually got on our overnight train to Budapest which we shared with 2 older ladies. We were originally assigned the two bottom bunks in the train compartment but since we're younger and sprier we offered to climb onto the top bunks and trade with them. They were very grateful and in awe of how easily we could climb up the ladder, it felt really good to be young. We have it so easy we don't even notice it. We chit-chatted with the ladies and had a pleasant evening.

-Jenny and Tyler, not-so-exciting

Europe. Germany. Aachen: On our way to Budapest

Sunday, October, 15th, 2006

Today was not very exciting, we spent the day walking around Aachen killing time before we had to catch our overnight train to Budapest. We discovered that calling home from private call centre places is a much better deal than buying calling cards. We called our parents and I finally got a hold of my mom, we've had the worst timing for when we call home. Lots of answering machine messages. :P But it was great to hear her voice and chat.

We eventually got on our overnight train to Budapest which we shared with 2 older ladies. We were originally assigned the two bottom bunks in the train compartment but since we're younger and sprier we offered to climb onto the top bunks and trade with them. They were very grateful and in awe of how easily we could climb up the ladder, it felt really good to be young. We have it so easy we don't even notice it. We chit-chatted with the ladies and had a pleasant evening.

-Jenny and Tyler, not-so-exciting

Europe . Germany . Aachen: Watch out for the sour cream!!!!!

Saturday, October 14th, 2006

Our first full day in Aachen, Germany. So before leaving we made an executive decision not to get a HI card (Hostelling International), which gives a discount at some hostels. Jugendgästehaus , the hostel in Aachen is the first hostel which required the card... not having it cost an extra 5 euros each, per night -- so far no regrets on our decision. Also the free breakfast turned out to be a very sweet deal so the extra 5 euros was nothing. We did manage to make a huge mistake at breakfast when we thought that this white, yogurt-looking mixture was yogurt and loaded our plates with it (I had even put fruit jam in it to make a fruit yogurt) and then discovered that it was in fact sour cream. So we had this huge portion of sour cream and nothing to eat it with (cereal? - no, toast? - no), when we handed out plates in we had to look down at the floor and walk away in a hurry to show our shameful wastefulness.

On our walk into town we discovered that our hostel was right beside a farmer's field that was full of cows. They were not impressed to see us but that didn't prevent us from trying to communicate with them only to be snubbed for grain. While we were walking a woman in a car stopped across the road from us and was gesturing like crazy and speaking fast German and pointing at us. We had no idea what was going on but after going in for a closer look at the hand gestures we discovered that we had dropped our jackets about 100 metres behind us near the streetlight. That was very kind of her to tell us, Germans are friendly.

We soon discovered that Aachen was pretty dead on Saturday mornings, there were very few people around. However we did stumble upon a nice and affordable chocolate store and picked up some interesting treats like spicy, chili flavoured chocolate. We also went and visited the Cathedral which was massive and had beautifully painted ceilings. We then wandered through the ritzy streets in the central part of the city and discovered some fun statues and fountains along the way. One fountain consisted of a bunch of toys/dolls and had live musicians beside it playing the accordion, another one was of a man with a rooster in his pants.

We ate dinner at a pub called "Labyrinth" and had our most memorable meal of the entire trip. It was called the "grosse grille platten" and it was huge and delicious, lots of grilled meat. The server laughed at us when we ordered it for only two people and we thought he was crazy, how big could it possibly be? And then when he brought it to the table we were amazed! We ate for two days afterwards, so yummy. We also tried beer at the pub and mine was the girliest beer you can ever imagine, it was called "bannannen vien" which had pureed banana mixed with beer and I got to drink it with a straw. It's very good for a non-beer drinker, I loved it. Tyler's beer was called "Drexler" and he enjoyed it but I bet he would have liked it more with a little banana in it.

-Jenny and Tyler, beer connosieurs

Europe . Switzerland . Geneva: Peeing at the Post

Friday, October, 13th, 2006

By this point in the journey we've acquired several trinkets and concluded that our initial provisions were in excess. Also, this is check-out day for Geneva. So, we figure we'll pack our bags, drope by the post office to send some stuff home, then catch a train out of town. Easy, eh? ...No. This is the setup for the mostly painful mail experience we've ever faced (and hopefully will ever face).

Step one, which was simply packing our bags and checking out of the hostel went smooth. We had a hardy Swiss breakfast. Bread, cereal, coffee, juice, milk... yum. Step next, was going to the post office. Our bags were heavy, but this made us more excited about shipping stuff home. Just before we arrive, my bladder lets me know that it's done with all the fluids I had for breakfast and is willing to get rid of them. No problemo -- the post office'll have some public washrooms. We enter the post office and find there's a ticket system: select an option on a machine, a ticket with a number pops out and then you watch a screen patiently until your number and a corresponding cashier number appear. There's a couple options on the ticket machine and we can't translate them... so we end up choosing randomly and take the ticket. Waiting. My bladder gives a couple more mild announcements. Our number appears, and the teller points out the boxes used for parcels. Cool. We get a box and package the stuff -- lots of duct tape. We get a new numbered ticket. Waiting. My bladder is somewhat unuse to coffee and it's telling me that it wants it gone. Piss-off bladder -- you'll wait your turn. Our number appears, and the teller gives us some paper to fill out and tells us the price: ~60 Swiss Francs (~40 Euros)... ouch. Oh, and cash only? Darn. We had expected the credit card to take the hit and didn't have enough cash available. My bladder tries to squeeze some coffee out... luckily it fails, but it certainly gets my attention. A quick search of the post office reveals that there are no toilets. Ok, here's the game plan: Tyler quests for "facilities" and Jenny gets money (via robbery, bank-o-mat, peddling, etc.), then meet back at the post office. Go team go. Tyler quickly finds a McDonalds, runs in (making sure not to make eye-contact with any employees), "facilitates", and runs out (I worked there for 3 years, so I don't feel guilty for not buying anything). Jenny's lost -- temporarily. Stupid Geneva has places and things that look like other place and things! But she's a smartie and recovers. Spotting an old person, she drop-kicks them and takes their purse. Sadly the purse lacked sufficient funds so ditches it and accesses a bank-o-mat, then and dashes back to the post office. Parcel sent. Backpacks lighter. Success.

(NOTE: all of the above actions were executed with the equivalent of 4 babies strapped to our backs -- so we were sweaty and gross by the end of this... so sweaty... so gross).

Other things that happened:

• we got train tickets to Aachen, Germany
• we met an anglo-germano archivist on our first train
• we (and about 20 other people) couldn't find a seat for 2 hours on the second train
• usher #1 told us and our posse to find some seats up in 1st class where there was room
• usher #2 told us leave the first set of 1st class seats we foraged (we had 2nd class tickets) despite the fact that the options were either: 1st class seat OR sit in the aisle...
• usher #2 told us leave the second set of 1st class seats we had foraged...
• we muttered angrily about the stupid usher #2 and praised the coolness of the cool usher #1
• we found some 2nd class seats
• we mutterered some more and then relaxed

Bye,

-The Facilitator-

Europe . Switzerland . Geneva: Reformation, expensive food and soaking wet

Thursday, October, 12th, 2006

We were happy to find that our hostel, SYHA Hostel, was the most sterile place we have stayed in during our trip. It was soooo clean! And we got complimentary lockers to store our backpacks in and a free breakfast, so it was a pretty good deal.

We spent today walking around and enjoying the climate and each other´s company. We invented an advanced game of "catch" that took place on a teeter-totter and involved barehandedly cathing chestnuts thrown by the other person. My years of playing baseball gave me the slight advantage in catching but Tyler was the master of teeter and tottering.

We went to visit the Museum of the Reformation and I got to put my history degree to use. It felt really good to actually be a sort of tour guide and to feel like I actually know something. I could never be a teacher though because I went off on too many tangents, but of course Tyler didn´t complain. The museum was very cool and had a great way of explaining everything, very comprehensive. There were also some amusing dramatizations of conversations involving Luther, Calvin and company. Or maybe they were just amusing because I´m a history geek.... there´s no shame in that.

We got to climb up a lot of stairs to visit the church towers and have a nice view of the city. It was awkward going up and down the stairs though because there was only room for one person so you had to make sure that you didn´t hear anyone coming in the opposite direction before you started. Otherwise you got up close and personal with some strangers.

We also got to visit an Archaeological site underneath the church. It was made up of a bunch of platforms and walkways placed throughout the excavations. We also got free audioguides to accompany us because we´re students, a very good deal.

As lunch time rolled around we discovered that we were starving and in one of Europe´s most expensive cities. We had a very sparse, expensive lunch of tiny salads (potato and mixed veggie). They were about 10cm by 10cm square containers, not very filling but we refused to pay their ridiculous prices! Take that Geneva!

We went and took a closer look at the Jet D'Eau, in fact we went as close as possible and were rewarded with a drenching spray. We couldn´t get within touching distance of it though because it had a spiky gate guarding it. The spray was very powerful even from 10 feet away though, and the winds were very strong. We were wet and shivvery afterwards but it was worth it. :)

-Jenny and Tyler, loving the Jet-

Europe . Switzerland . Geneva: Land of fountains, chocolate and gold speckled roads

Wednesday, October, 11th, 2006

As per usual we decided not to call ahead and book a hostel in Geneva, and when we showed up at "City Hostel" we were informed that they were full. Luckily there was another hostel around the corner so we didn´t feel like complete fools. The hostel resembled a small apartment building and had laundry facilities and breakfast included, which pretty much means that it was a palace in our eyes. :)

There was a brief awkward moment in our assigned dorm room when we were putting sheets on our assigned beds. A very polite french man came in and looked at us and our beds with confusion. He asked what we had done with the stuff that had been on the beds. There hadn´t been anything on the beds when we entered... so we were confused and didn´t want him to think that we were thieves. Eventually we learned that the cleaning lady had brought their belongings to the front desk so they wouldn´t get stolen, so our names were cleared!

We went out and wandered around the town, mainly trying to see the "Jet D'Eau" (otherwise known as "Tyler's beloved" as he was promised a million points if he went in it) which sprouts straight up in the air 140metres, it´s very impressive to see. It shoots up that high due to pressure and it is cold and painful to stand close to it but we did that on a different day. Anyway we found a catwalk that went over the lake and ended at a lighthouse, the area was swarming with birds and majestic swans who refused to put their bums up in the air for Tyler to take a picture (they sure have a lot of attitude).

We discovered a love for cheap, spicy gyros from "Al-Amirs" which was basically the only affordable place to eat in Geneva. They should call it "expensive city", but then they might not get as many tourists. You always hear that it´s really expensive but deep down you´re thinking "It can´t be THAT bad, they´re just exaggerating"... but you´d be wrong! It is a beautiful city though, the streets have a glitter to them, like you´re walking on streets speckled with swiss gold. Perhaps they have so much gold that they decided to put some of it in the streets, I wouldn´t be surprised if it was true.

We unintentionally entered the Red Light District, that was interesting.... Luckily no one propositioned us (the girls must have been too intimidated by my immense physique). The most we got was a helpful prostitute informed Tyler when he dropped his sweater, and I´m pretty sure that wasn´t a pick-up line, but you never know with those Swiss...

We also felt pretty smart when we were doing laundry even though we couldn´t read the instructions and just guessed, we did better than another couple in the hostel who flooded their machine with soap which drooled all over the floor. Also of note, the vending machines in Geneva are tricky and try their best to steal your money without giving you the precious Swiss chocolate. Luckily I was able to outsmart it and enjoyed my Swiss chocolate with a smug look on my face.

-Jenny the conqueror-

Europe . Italy . Florence: Failure to Flee

Tuesday, October 10th, 2006

The plan today was to see the Uffizi museum and the Jardins de Boboli, then take a night train to Geneva Switzerland. We had walked by both places earlier in the week and written them off as too expensive (€9.50 for the Uffizi and €8.00 for Jardins do Boboli [including several minor museums]), but we decided to suck-it-up for the sake of getting cultured.

The line-up for the Uffizi was pretty daunting. As soon as you get in line there is a little electronic sign giving you the approximate waiting time: 1 hour minimum, 2 hour maximum. Luckily we met a fellow Canuck in line, so we were able to pass the time a little easier. A linguistics major from Saskatchewan (whose name we can´t remember). Despite our guide book saying most places are safe for lone female travellers, she was only the second one we had encountered. Inside the Uffizi we found ourselves in what was probably the second best museum of the trip (the Louvre is the obvious first). It had a bunch of sculpture and painting (some restored, some not). A pretty nice temporary exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci that went into some explanations of why his work was interesting (everyone knows he´s talented, but it was cool to find out why he was memorable). Somewhere along the way we lost our Saskatchewan sister.

The Jardins de Boboli are best described as "big and beautiful". Lots of fountains, steps and sculpture. At the highest point you get a 360º panoramic view of Florence. We skipped the Porcelain Museum portion of our ticket, but checked out the Costume Museum and Art Museum. The costumes were pretty traditionally, but nice to look at. The art portion was mostly inlays (finely carved stones pieced together like a puzzle to form pictures -- a much more delicate and time consuming form of mosaic).

At the end of the day we discovered there was no space on the train to Geneva so we had to stay another day in Florence (NOTE: this was super annoying because we had paid €10 to store our bags at the train station for the day).

-The Manchild-

P.S. We also bought souvenirs for ourselves in Florence: an over the shoulder bag for Tyler that is named "Victoria" and a brown, floppy hat for Jenny (she´s reliving her "Blossom" days)

Europe . Italy . Florence / Pisa: Leaning, Lasagna and Laffles (err, "waffles")

Monday, October 9th, 2006

We spent today in Pisa looking at things that lean. Well, really only the one thing leans... the rest just sort of stands at regular right angles. We had been led to believe this was not the case. According to our guide the Piazza dei Miracoli is supposed to be filled with things that are leaning. Lies (at least from what we observed). Nonetheless, the leaning tower of Pisa did have quite the lean and we were suitably impressed (though not impressed enough to pay more than €10 each to go inside -- damned expensive just to go inside some shoddy construct).

The rest of Piazza dei Miracoli was museums and cathedrals, which while interesting did not ignite a need to be visited. We almost wanted to visit the Museo delle Sinopie (Sinopias?) which houses preparatory drawing for frescoes, but it was closed for construction. So we looked for food and trinkets. We found food at this cafeteria style place. They served the cheesiest lasagna ever. It was delicious and even now the memory of it makes me salivate like someone who has been slurping novocaine. They also served some ok ravioli (I only mention it for completeness -- it could not compete with the lasagna. Sadly, I cannot remember the name of the restaurant, so it is unlikely you will ever enjoy the lasagna. Pity.

At the end of the Pisa excursion we returned to Florence, where we had waffles with gelato. Yummish.

We also visited the Ponte Vecchio, which is well know for it´s silver and goldsmiths. Lots of shiny things. Also, lot of men repeating the phrase "Si, bella," while their corresponding women cooed over the shinies (i.e., "yes, that´s nice... yes that´s nice..").

Cya,

-Tyler-

Europe . Italy . Florence: Museums galore... although we didn´t go in most of them

Sunday, October, 8th, 2006

Our first full day in Florence and we decided to explore the city. We walked by the Piazza Michaelangelo (which had an enormous statue of David in the centre of it and also had an amazing view of the city) and then we headed into the city centre. All the streets were nice and the traffic was much less crazy than in Rome. I took the role as navigator and managed not to get us TOO lost, only a little disoriented. WE went to visit the Museo Borghello which was basically a museum full of sculptures. Tyler was in heaven! The only bad part was that you weren´t allowed to take photos in most of the rooms. We don´t know why but Tyler managed to sneak in some. My favourite area was the courtyard, it was full of statues and included a bunch that were originally part of a giant fountain that was disassembled for some reason. We were actually permitted to take photos in the courtyard area so that may be part of the reason why it was my favourite.

We also went to visit the Duomo which we only saw from the outside but that was good enough for us. It had a neat green and white checkered appearance and was in the middle of being restored. Unlike a lot of the artworks in Italy, this one looked like the restoration would help it. All of the shops in the Duomo area were nice to look at and browse. It´s a great way to spend the day, just wandering around the city.

We tried to go to the Museo Uffizi, the most popular art gallery in Florence and also supposed to be one of the best. However, there was a huge line-up and the museum was only open for 2 or more hours and the price was around 12.50euros each so we decided to skip t that day. We though that we´d end our day by going to visit the Jardins de Boboli but our guide book mislead us because we thought that we could go visit JUST the gardens but that wasn´t the case. We had to buy a ticket for the gardens and the some museums which cost 8euros so we decided it wasn´t worth it wince we only had an hour and a half left until it was closed. The lesson we learned on this day was that you should always have the newest, updated version of your travel guide. Ours was from 2003 and has caused quite a few problems for us. :P

Our disappointment was washed away when we saw the piazza near the Uffizi museum. It had some of the most impressive statues of our entire trip,¨"The Rape of the Sabine" and "Perseus with the Gorgon´s Head" were among the coolest and most awesome statues that we have seen. We also added to our enjoyment by getting some delicious hot chocolate on our way to Ponte Vecchio (the bridge of silver and goldsmiths), it was like someone had steamed some milk and then added chunks of hot chocolate and stirred it all together. Liquid hot chocolate, tim hortons just can´t compare.

All in all it was a pretty tiring day just walking around the city. I can see how everyone falls in love with Florence. Tyler and I bought some groceries and ate dinner at a picnic table at our campsite. We had bought playing cards at a dollar store earlier that day so we invented some new rules to accommodate for these "different" cards (only had numbers 1-7, and the queens may have been men, we couldn´t tell).

-Jenny and Tyler, crazy card game masters

Europe . Italy . Florence: niceness and niceties, but not Nice

Friday, October 6th, 2006

We awoke on the train from Syracuse to Florence (via a change-over in Rome). Some during our sleep the train had fallen an hour behind schedule. This lateness provided and excellent conversation starter for use on our cabin-mates, a nice Austrian couple from Berne. It is fitting that I describe them as "nice" because it was my favourite (and only) adjective throughout our conversation. For some reason my descriptive vocabulary had shrunk to this one, vague, four-letter word. In retrospect I would blame my lack of verbal variety on the many painful conversations I attempted with those who only spoke utilitarian-english ("utilitarian-english" = enlish without the flowery bits). Luckily the conversation ended abrupty with a rather awkward silence -- sweet sweet silence.

Our change-over in Rome brought an entirely new set of travel companions. Given my still fresh failures I spent most of the trip reading and admiring scenery. It wasn't until we were almost at Florence that a conversation was brought to me by a couple from Kitchener, Ontario. We didn't have time to exchange more than initial pleasantries: name, origin, astrological sign, etc., but that was enough to redeem me -- I didn't use "nice" once! (though I could feel it lurking just beneath my tongue ready to spring forth..)

Exiting the train station we discovered Florence was not immune to rain. On the upside, we didn't have to worry about getting wet because we had already planned to take a bus to where we were staying: Plus Camping Michaelangelo. On the downside, the overly heated and overly damp bus was causing moisture to form on the windows of the bus, thus obstructing our view of the outside world (NOTE: for those unacquainted with any sort of travel that involves a destination: it is very important for someone to know where they are, so that they know when they are where they want to be... :P ). About 20 minutes into the bus ride, we found ourselves at the correct bus stop (due entirely to luck and not the 3 frustrating conversation with the bus driver). Exiting the bus, we were met by a very pleasant french girl who had overheard our talk with the bus driver. She was staying at the campground as well and she happily escorted to the reception desk. Then we showered, then we ate, then we slept. Day done!

-Team DONE-