Sunday, June 21, 2009

My fav amsterdam photos

here are a few. appropriate or not, this first one happened to have ended up as photo #420 on the camera.







Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Amsterdam

it's been a few weeks since an update, and Mary-Beth has been on my case to write for some time. I've been kinda busy but here I am.
we spent the night on the ferry. there was engine noise but really it was quite comfortable. sometime in the morning, (7am or something,) the captain came over the intercom to wake everyone up. 30 minutes from docking or something. so we got up, and departed, and went through customs. I got a stamp on my passport and Mary-Beth did not. she was quite upset, and it caused quite a bit of confusion later on when we went to leave the Netherlands. idk what the first guy was thinking, he just glanced at the passport and handed it back. oh well.
from there was jumped on a train to Rotterdam, and another from there to Amsterdam. I don't remember what time we arrived, sometime before noon though. at this point we had no map, just a vague idea of where our hostel was. also, it was quite cold. very windy. and my jacket's zipper was broken, so I froze. we walked around Amsterdam for some hours, exploring. there are so so so many canals in Amsterdam. quite pretty. as it turns out, our hostel, (took most the day to find, without a map and all,) was very close to the red light district. (read: right in the middle of it.) you know, drunken, high, full-of-ladies-of-the-night type debauchery? yeah, that area. quite nice really. not was wild as your mother wants you to believe. especially not in the day time. just some bored women waiting for work to start. not really that bad at night either. unless you're mormon or something.
we did eat well in Amsterdam, mostly different hamburgers and such from little street shops. some chocolate covered waffles. those are quite tasty. get yourself one. some day.
we went to sleep in our hostel, in our nicely themed Star Wars Room. woke up in the morning and walked the whole of Amsterdam. we went to the outskirts and walked the outer circle, slowing working our way in. we found a windmill. not many of those left IN the city. and we went to a bunch of different street markets, picked up a few things. Mary-Beth get an awesome new hat for her collection. I'll see if I can find a picture.
that night, around 10pm or something, we headed back to Rotterdam, and then the Port of Holland, and back on the ferry for more sleep. and then back to London to meet our next Couchsurfers, Thom and Sean. Mary-Beth will take that assignment.

Friday, May 22, 2009

after-blogging?

we are back home.
and now it comes to days upon days spent blogging about everything, every detail. no, not really.

hmmm. so. I am going to write about Bath, England today. we arrived there in the evening and checked into our hostel, the White Hart Inn/Pub. it was very nice and not to expensive, either. they had a nice garden...which we would call a...balcony or patio...with grass. :P
we were in a room with a double bed and one bunk, but we actually got the whole room to ourselves for the 2 nights we stayed, because noone else booked the room. that was very nice. ;)

the first night we were there, we didn't do much. we walked around for a little bit, saw an abbey, went to an internet cafe, then went to sleep quite early.
we had to get up very early the next day to catch the tour to Avebury and Stonehenge.

our tour guide's name was Gary and he was quite friendly and amusing.
first we went to Avebury, which is almost like Stonehenge, but there are ALOT more of these stones in a more spread out area. you can also go up to them and touch them and hug them. whereas at Stonehenge, the stones are roped off and you can only see them from afar.
there were alot of sheep at Avebury... and hence, alot of sheep poo. that was fun.

then we drove some more. went to a pub for lunch in Lacock. ate some food called cottage pie. which is pretty much just meat, pastry, mashed potatoes and gravy. it was delicious.
we also saw the abbey in Lacock. the courtyard there was where they had filmed quite a few scenes from the Harry Potter movies...that was really amazing to see.
we also walked around for a bit in...fields of garlic. garlic grew like everywhere all over there. it was crazy.
oh and then. it actually cost like $20 to get into the abbey to see it, but Andy and I found this one place where you could just walk right through and get to see it. of course, at the doors of the abbey, you had to show your ticket, but we didn't go in there...just walked around the grounds a bit...and saw the courtyard. but. when we told our tour guide, Gary, what we had done, he said, "well. you do know that illegal, don't you?" and we were like what? there were no signs, we didn't do anything wrong, we didn't jump any fences or such fun...but apparently. it's illegal regardless. just the thought of being able to see something without paying...that's terrible...

anyway, we got back to Bath that evening around 6pm. or 18:oo. sheesh. I hate how they do their time differently. took me lik 5 minutes to figure out what time it was every single time. lol. but that could just be me.
we did a load of much needed laundry, ate some delicious American bleu cheese burgers, then walked around the city of Bath a bit more. I think the next morning, we went to a park. and then saw this massive building that looked really cool as well. we thought about going to the Roman baths, which the city is known for, but it would have cost a pretty penny. so we did not.

I forgot to mention above our trip to Nottingham. we went from London to Nottingham, saw Andy's friend, met Robin Hood, then we went to Nottingham to Bath...

so leaving Bath...we took the train to London and the train and a bus from London to the port. which is where we took a ferry to Holland. we got there insanely early and had to wait about 6 hours before we boarded. we hadn't gotten tickets yet, so we wanted to be sure to get there early and for sure have a way to get to Holland. so after we purchased our tickets, we used the internet, ate, played a game or two, and then I tried to sleep (there's a picture of me sleeping somewhere on here-not very attractive at all, but Andy insisted).
there were so many Asians in that port waiting with us. it was kinda weird. they were all listening and watching people sing hymns on tv. kinda like a church service. that was weird.

and then we hopped on the ferry and had an amazing trip to Holland...where we took a few hour long trains to get to Amsterdam. but Andy gets to tell you about that. ;)

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

one photo

I'm back in Texas, will be blogging soon. right now I want to sleep, as I'm still on London time. first though, you get one picture. the first picture of Stonehenge.


taken at the grounds of Stonehenge. an artist's re-imagining if you like. ;)

Friday, May 15, 2009

...

I know we're being horrible bloggers, not writing about adventures and such. I've got things to write about, just little time to write them. I'll get caught up when I get home, which I know is less exciting, but it'll have to do.
MB and I went and saw the Counting Crows in concert last night. amazing show, really really enjoyed it. we're currently staying with couchsurfers, Thom and Sean, who are so so awesome. we only have a few days left, and then we're heading home, to get caught up on sleep, on writing, and to get back to work. we have plenty more pictures and such, just nowhere to upload them. probably won't have time to blog again before we get home monday, so after that we'll write up some of what we did. later chaps.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

from the other half...

quick quick update. yay!
check the flickr for pictures! yay!
there's a link on the right side of the screen. yay!

hmmm. that was all actually dictated to me by andrew. now...we arrived back in london this morning. Holland was pretty amazing. had alot of fun there. the weather was gorgeous...and. I don't think I've ever seen so many bicycles in my life. lol.
I got really sick on the ferry last night. that was loads of fun. but andy took good care of me.

I think we're off to the British Museum today. then to meet our second set of couchsurfers, thom and sean. ;) pretty excited about meeting them.

will try to blog again soon.

for now.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

no title..that I can think of..

quick note, don't have much time. been traveling quite a bit, haven't stopped long in one place. my phone, which I was hoping to use to get online and blog won't charge, so not sure what that's about. only time we have to blog or email is paying for internet at internet cafes. right now we're at the Harwich International Port, having arrived a few minutes ago from Bath, England where we spent 2 nights. we showed up here on the bus, not knowing if they'd let us go anywhere. after much debate over whether or not they "have any room left" on a boat the size of a small city, they decided they could sell us a ticket. we're booked to leave in a few hours on an overnight ferry to Holland. there we'll try and find our way to Amsterdam for a couple of nights, and then back to the coast to ferry back here. then back to london for a few days, and then home. currently we don't know anything about where we're going. I know we're going to a port on the coast, we'll have to find our way to amsterdam by train or bus, and then find our hostel. then retrace our steps back. not sure if we'll have time get on the internet at all. hope to write more in a few days.

oh, and I'm hoping to get some pictures online soon. we'll see.
Andy

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Gap the Mind

First blog post from London. what to say, what to say... I don't really know if I have the energy to write a post..but I've been asked for an update, and so I will oblige. I think I can manage a brief rundown of the 3 days so far and perhaps a few pictures...

Mary-Beth and I flew out of houston at 4pm on Sunday. that went ok, although neither of us had slept much in 2 days. we had a 9 hour flight to get to London, upon which we tried to sleep, (no luck,) and watched a few movies. I watched Bedtime Stories with adam sandler, and thought it was a delight. oh and Valkyrie. wow. good movie. surprised I liked it but I did. very enjoyable.
we arrived in London at 8am on monday. London time. in other words, early. we found our hotel, left our luggage there, but obviously we couldn't check in at 8am. so we explored a bit, went to find Platform 9and3/4s from Harry Potter. idk why, just cause I felt like rubbing it in sarah's face that I'd been there...:P

then we went to a lovely place called Covent Garden, which was an outdoor mall/flea market/preformance square. and we walked around and watched ppl. it was fun, even though we were absolutely exhausted. we were falling asleep every time we sat down. eventually we went a took a wee nap in Hyde park, but it was quite cold, so we went back to our hotel. they let us check in early, so we went to our room, and fell straight asleep. and really didn't get up untill 8am the next morning. occasionally we'd be up for a bit, but there wasn't much to do besides watch british telly, which is rubbish, so we slept mostly.
tuesday morning we got up, and explored London more, hit some of the big tourist spots, Big Ben and so on. we were both still tired though, on the wrong time schedule, we hadn't yet met or heard from the person we were supposed to stay with, and we were a bit grouchy. I personally was feeling that London was a fairly unfriendly town, as we'd yet to talk to a single person. of course, I'm sure some of that was in us, not the fine people of London. so, we went and met Maria, our host for a few nights. she's from Greece, though she's lived in London for a few years now. she was very nice. awesome in fact. I can give more details later, but she took us to dinner for amazing jamaican food, and then to a pub to talk. it was a blast. today, we are back on the town, just visiting various sites we wanted to see. in a few days we plan to leave London, and see a few other places in England. I'll try and find time to write more later.







ps. feel free to email, we do check when we get a chance. laters

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Tomorrow, or rather today, as its so early, I am flying to London.
I dont feel prepared, Im extremely exhausted. but, Mary-Beth and I are determined to have a good time.
I'll be blogging here as we go.
I'll be writing mostly by phone, so Im sorry for any crowding/poor formatting. enjoy.