The Land of The Basques

Currently in San Sebastian --the Basque are absolutely beautiful people. They have a language that has no latin roots and they have no traceble lineage -- meaning that they are one of the oldest civilizations living here in Spain.

We got an absolutely amazing little hostel and are so upset that we just booked one night! The hostel is like a home -- not too many people so everyone becomes like family -- huge bathrooms like we are in someonés house &we can cook anytime we want in the little kitchen. We even have a dvd player!

Yesterday after getting into town we sat on the beach -- so nice to finally wear bikinis. Then we ate some amazing Pinchos (called Tapas everywhere else in Spain...basically like little appetizers served during siesta time). So we had cod, skewers of sizzling shrimp and sangria of course!!

This morning we did our first Spain shopping (make room in the shoe closet mummy!!). Although my bag is already quite heavy with the 4 articles of clothes i brought with me so i´m really going to try to limit myself.

Tonight we are off on a first class night train to Barcelona. Adios!

To view some pictures of the trip this far, click here!

Ju nu comprend pas Francais!

(as a warning -- the keyboard here is hard to type with so my punctuation is off!!)

J'arrive en Paris mon cheries!

We trained here from Amsterdam which was an interesting experience. It was quite comfortable and we shared a quartet section with a fascinating West African civil engineer turned sikh turned yogi master. We had such intellectually stiimulating conversations on religion, politics etc that the 5 hours flew right by. We are going to drop into one of his yoga classes today which should do loads for our backs and our mental state after all of this cold depressing weather! This is what i love most about backpacking -- often times its not the places you see but the people you meet that shape your experiences!

oh no! the rest of my blog got deleted :(
i don't remember what i wrote but probably just raved about the wine and the cheese. I feel like Carrie when she didn't back up her system!!! arg.

[yogi ram we met on the train - and the kundalini class we dropped into]

[cheese and bagette party we had in our hotel room]

[stopping in front of moulin rouge]

[mmm bagettes at lunchtime]

[Notre Dame cathedral]

[la'Tour Eiffel: Standard Pose]

[The Louvre]

Roxanne [you don't have to put on the red light]

I'm typing my heart away here at an internet cafe in Amsterdam. What an eclectic city this is! Canals pass through the city making it very hard to navigate, but its so quaint...even when we end up going in circles. The food is absolutely delectable, and there are tons of little shops (winkles) selling everythin from buttons to housewares to illicit goods. The streets are all darling but as you pass by you inevitabley smell marijuana wafting through your nostrils from the many "coffee shops". We havn't ventured into one and we likely won't but every other shop sells magic brownies and internet under the shroud of being a coffee shop. Thats why it took us so long to find a coffee shop that sells just plain coffee and internet.


Everyone rides bikes here - it is the most efficient form of transportation...the cobblestone is a bit hard on the feet so our plan was to get bikes today but things didnt really work out as planned! The locals are quite nice and it is really neat to get to know them. We made some friends in random shwarma places and cafes - mostly locals that give us a glimpse of the "real" Amsterdam - the one that has police everywhere even when you think they aren't there, the open-mindedness, and the friendly locals ready to give directions when you are stranded in the middle of a gracht (canal) and a curving stracht (street).

Yesterday evening after we got in we decided to do a bit of exploring. We went to the red light district - which was so crazy to see. So many women, standing in windows lit by dim red lights and flourescent black lights beckoning tourists and locals to give them a try. Prostitution is legal here but to see it displayed so freely was a bit odd as it is something pushed so underground in most other countries. In the end it is safer for the women this way, but it was a bit disturbing nonetheless.


We had our first bump along the road last night in our hostel, and we ended up sleeping on the couches in the common room!!! It was pretty fun though as it was a good story and we had a tv! We immediately got transferred to a hotel this morning though which is nice. We woke up and trekked across the city (doesn't take that long...Amsterdam is pretty small) to the new hotel, checked in and then went to the Van Gogh Museum. It contains some of his most famous works including many famous masterpeices. It showed the works in chronological order, which illustrated his growth as an artist and transitions of different periods of his life...how he was influenced by artists and other cultures, such as the Japanese.

Then we went to the Anne Frank House, who was a victim of holocaust and whose house has been set up as a memorial to show how her family hid from the Nazis during that time period. 8 people hid in the house during this time until they were betrayed and split up in different concentration camps.

After some yummy crepes we ended up here, a non magic brownie coffee shop! Tonight we are just going to relax and tomorrow we have our first Eurorail experience to Paris!

Still on Commonwealth Soil...

We just finished day one of our trip...its probably going to go by so fast from here. We got into London last night and trained it to our hostel which is right smack dab in the middle of Picadelly Circus. We were wide awake because it was barely 6:00 Toronto time but 11:00 London time. After dropping our bags off in our hostel, we decided to walk around for a bit outside and take oh-so-touristy pictures in those very picturesque red london telephone booths. Of course by the time we got home it was already 3:00 London time and we couldnt sleep because our clocks were still working Canadian.



We woke up this morning to a stereotypical London day - ominous clouds and a hint of humidity and chill. I saw a Mephisto store and of course took a picture in front of it! Then i proceeded to see if they were the same price in London as in Canada [Affirmative - phew!]. The Mephisto lady told us to buy umbrellas from Boots, the chemist down the way [read: a pharmacy similar to Shoppers Drug Mart]. So we strolled to Boots expecting to pay £5 for an umbrella...but to our shock and dismay they were priced at £22!! We felt sooo violated!! Of course, we opted to take the chance without one!

This city is beautiful but reminds me a lot of Melbourne...obviously very Victorian architecture. Walking around this morning i felt as though i was in a movie...the cars are all weirdly shaped. The bright red double decker buses are made by Mercedes and everything is the same price it would be in Canada - just multiplied by 2.2. Pents not cents. Must pay to use the bathroom. I'm glad i'm not here for too much longer! Although the people here do have an undeniable coolness...maybe its the accent?!? They also seem to have an uncanny way of making tourists feel like tourists with there blatant dry sarcasm. Obviously, we can't hide the fact that we are tourists since we look left before right when crossing the road and stop in the middle of crowds of people trying to re-navigate using crude tourist maps!


We spent the day being our own tour guides and bought a full day train pass to check out all the sites. We saw Buckingham Palace and the changing of the gaurds, Big Ben, West Minister Abby, the London Bridge, a huge ferris wheel (the London eye?) and fed some pigions in Trafalger Square. We also forked out a hefty sum to see Madam Tussauds Wax Museum...it was well worth it! Right when we walked in we saw a Bollywood exhibit with Amitabh, Sharukh and Ash! Being the fobs we are, we took pictures pretending we were the head heroines. Chaiya Chaiya was playing in the background...ahh these are the times of our lives! We then went on a quest to find some fish and chips...mission accomplished! The true London way - at a pub no less. After that we decided to jump on a random double decker bus and i had a little Harry Potter moment. Just call me Hermoine!

Tomorrow morning we leave for Amsterdam!