Just so everyone knows, I have added a sidebar to the blog with links to each of my photo albums. Let me know if it doesn't work!
We are still in Lagos and loving every moment of it! Yesterday we layed on the beach all day long and then danced the night away at a bar with a live band until 4 in the morning with a huge group of people from our hostel. SERIOUSLY, this is what every vacation should be like! Kirst and I are slowly (but surely) getting more and more tan; soon we won't look like Oregonians! After Lagos we are excited to stay South and hang out in Spain and Italy before heading up to Switzerland and France. We are saving the majority of our shopping for Prague because apparently it is really cheap there.... although we just bought sweaters for only 10€ yesterday. Oops :)
I am so glad we decided to take a break from backpacking. It has been so so nice to not need to worry about catching a train on time or making sure we've reserved the correct seats. We can worry about that next week. For now, I'm just going to make sure we have enough sun screen :)
Miss and love everyone!
xoxo
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Paradise!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Where in the world am I today?
Portugal! Kirsten and I have decided to take a vacation from all this backpacking and, after 27 hours on a train, are now in beautiful Lagos, Portugal. We think we´ll be here for about a week, maybe longer. The beaches here are supposed to be fantastic and everyone in the hostel is so much fun so far. The food here is super cheap and the shopping looks fabulous. I can´t wait to lay on the sand in the sun for a few days! (Gosh, our lives are so difficult here!) I am slowly uploading photos from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Bordeaux right now. I just wanted everyone to know where we are!!
xoxoxo
xoxoxo
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why I don't speak French
I don't speak French. I don't know many people who do. Besides Canada, not very many people in North America speak French. The "important" or "valuable" language to learn in the states is Spanish. In fact, statistics show that it is only a matter of time before the US is a bilingual country with half of the population speaking SPANISH. Today some French guy flipped Kirsten and I some crap because when he goes to the states no one speaks French and he is forced to speak our language, English. He thinks it is stupid that when Americans come to France they expect everyone to speak English; instead, he said, we should learn French. I tried explaining to him that in the US we mostly learn Spanish because we are much closer to the Mexican border than to France. He looked at me and said, "But we do not speak Spanish here!"
I hate to break it to you, dude, but the world doesn't revolve around France. The US is a way bigger country and we are on a different CONTINENT than France. It doesn't make any logical sense to learn your language.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I would like to also point out that everyone else here (with the exception of one rude lady at the train station) has been VERY nice - a lot more pleasant than I expected the French to be. I guess it was only a matter of time before we ran into some French arrogance. It is unfortunate that those few difficult people are the ones who have built the French stereotype; I understand that not everyone is like that. I also want to add that although these countries are beautiful and magnificent on so many different levels, I have never been more proud to be an American and I feel much more patriotic. The constant need to defend our country and explain our more conservative beliefs makes me excited to come home and appreciate the way we live.
With that, I am going to bed! Or at least changing into some new clothes; it's so hot here. I totally have some new tan lines!
Xoxo
Meg
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
I hate to break it to you, dude, but the world doesn't revolve around France. The US is a way bigger country and we are on a different CONTINENT than France. It doesn't make any logical sense to learn your language.
Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I would like to also point out that everyone else here (with the exception of one rude lady at the train station) has been VERY nice - a lot more pleasant than I expected the French to be. I guess it was only a matter of time before we ran into some French arrogance. It is unfortunate that those few difficult people are the ones who have built the French stereotype; I understand that not everyone is like that. I also want to add that although these countries are beautiful and magnificent on so many different levels, I have never been more proud to be an American and I feel much more patriotic. The constant need to defend our country and explain our more conservative beliefs makes me excited to come home and appreciate the way we live.
With that, I am going to bed! Or at least changing into some new clothes; it's so hot here. I totally have some new tan lines!
Xoxo
Meg
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Bordeaux
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Monday, September 21, 2009
France, finally!
Bonjour from Tours, France! We finally managed to reserve seats on a train halfway to Bordeaux; we should be there by noon tomorrow. Paris will need to wait until October when we visit my friend Claire in Reims.
The Netherlands were fantastic! Amsterdam was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me so far. The first day we found our gorgeous hotel (thanks Charlie and Trina!) And wandered around the city to see where everything was. We also managed to walk through the red light district and see some of the prostitutes advertising themselves in the windows. There are "coffee shops" (places to buy and smoke marijuana) literally on every corner and it is impossible to walk down any street without smelling it. Although technically people are only supposed to smoke indoors, we passed by a countless amount of people smoking on the street; it's basically everywhere.
We woke up early the next morning to eat HUGE breakfast and walk down the block to the Anne Frank House. It has been a life-long wish of mine to visit the annex where Anne hid for over two years with her family; I really appreciated the opportunity to finally see it. The museum is really well done with plenty of videos and interviews with friends of Anne's as well as her father. Although there is no furniture in the tiny apartment (we couldn't have walked through if there was!) Anne's decorations and pictures of her favorite celebrities were still on the walls. I think I had chills the entire time I was there.
Immediately following Anne Frank, we walked to the Van Gogh Museum only to discover that it was 20 US dollars to get in! We decided the Louvre is more important than Van Gogh and instead went to the National Museum, or the Rijks Museum. We also went to the Sex Museum in the red light district. (Very funny and interesting!)
The last morning we ate another massive breakfast and checked out of our wonderful hotel with the intention of going to Paris. As you may have read in my previous blog, however, all the trains were booked! We had to immediately cancel our reservation in Paris and frantically find somewhere to sleep until we went to Bordeaux. Since it was a Saturday, everything was booked! At one point I was seriously concerned that we would have nowhere to sleep. After 3 hours of searching for a hostel with two beds available (that didn't seem creepy; we didn't want a repeat of Berlin) we found a really cool place in Rotterdam. Since this was only our second hostel experience we were nervous but we actually had a really good time there. It was right on the harbor in adorable Rotterdam, was extremely safe and they even gave us free beer last night! We met some really cool people who gave us more travel advice; two guys we met are literally on the same route as us except going to opposite direction. (We of course, told them where to NOT stay in Berlin.)
Today we took a train to Tours, France; we'll be here for the night before we go to Bordeaux. I am really excited for wine-tasting in Bordeaux - the place we are staying is right next door to the information center on Bordeaux wine! Yes, we planned it that way. All the museums are free in Bordeaux... I can't wait to save some money :)
The language barrier is so much bigger in France than it has been everywhere else. So far no one has been rude though, which we were worried about. But the bread is amazing! We bought fresh sandwiches at a bakery for dinner and it is SO GOOD.
I can't believe that on Wednesday I will have been gone for an entire month! We still have so much to see and do. I hope everything is great at home; I'll see everyone in about 6 weeks!
Xoxo
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
The Netherlands were fantastic! Amsterdam was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me so far. The first day we found our gorgeous hotel (thanks Charlie and Trina!) And wandered around the city to see where everything was. We also managed to walk through the red light district and see some of the prostitutes advertising themselves in the windows. There are "coffee shops" (places to buy and smoke marijuana) literally on every corner and it is impossible to walk down any street without smelling it. Although technically people are only supposed to smoke indoors, we passed by a countless amount of people smoking on the street; it's basically everywhere.
We woke up early the next morning to eat HUGE breakfast and walk down the block to the Anne Frank House. It has been a life-long wish of mine to visit the annex where Anne hid for over two years with her family; I really appreciated the opportunity to finally see it. The museum is really well done with plenty of videos and interviews with friends of Anne's as well as her father. Although there is no furniture in the tiny apartment (we couldn't have walked through if there was!) Anne's decorations and pictures of her favorite celebrities were still on the walls. I think I had chills the entire time I was there.
Immediately following Anne Frank, we walked to the Van Gogh Museum only to discover that it was 20 US dollars to get in! We decided the Louvre is more important than Van Gogh and instead went to the National Museum, or the Rijks Museum. We also went to the Sex Museum in the red light district. (Very funny and interesting!)
The last morning we ate another massive breakfast and checked out of our wonderful hotel with the intention of going to Paris. As you may have read in my previous blog, however, all the trains were booked! We had to immediately cancel our reservation in Paris and frantically find somewhere to sleep until we went to Bordeaux. Since it was a Saturday, everything was booked! At one point I was seriously concerned that we would have nowhere to sleep. After 3 hours of searching for a hostel with two beds available (that didn't seem creepy; we didn't want a repeat of Berlin) we found a really cool place in Rotterdam. Since this was only our second hostel experience we were nervous but we actually had a really good time there. It was right on the harbor in adorable Rotterdam, was extremely safe and they even gave us free beer last night! We met some really cool people who gave us more travel advice; two guys we met are literally on the same route as us except going to opposite direction. (We of course, told them where to NOT stay in Berlin.)
Today we took a train to Tours, France; we'll be here for the night before we go to Bordeaux. I am really excited for wine-tasting in Bordeaux - the place we are staying is right next door to the information center on Bordeaux wine! Yes, we planned it that way. All the museums are free in Bordeaux... I can't wait to save some money :)
The language barrier is so much bigger in France than it has been everywhere else. So far no one has been rude though, which we were worried about. But the bread is amazing! We bought fresh sandwiches at a bakery for dinner and it is SO GOOD.
I can't believe that on Wednesday I will have been gone for an entire month! We still have so much to see and do. I hope everything is great at home; I'll see everyone in about 6 weeks!
Xoxo
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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