Saturday, September 13, 2008

Bruges - We hardly knew thee






A slow and rocky start to the morning with happy thoughts of last night still too fresh in our minds. Of course we missed free breakfast but two slices of white toast hardly seems worth missing sleep over. We cleaned up in our private hostel and stored our bags in the luggage room in reception.

Oh course it had started POURING outside. We said many times it's a very good thing we found the world's best bar the night before because Brussels really lacked in some "charm" areas. Ok so it's weather, what can you do? We headed out to find some breakfast/lunch. We walked all around the city in the cool old-timey part but found everything to cost somewhere between one arm and one leg. After 30 minutes of walking in the rain, being soaked we spotted a little sandwich shop called Frappies. More food heaven!! We split a smoked salmon veggie sandwich and a waffle dipped in belgium chocolate. I have no idea what they do the the mayo in Belgium but it's amazing!! The smokey salmon flavor and crisp veggies on fresh baked whole grain bread is just what our bodies needed after a night of beer, beer, beer.

We feel we could devote an entire blog section to the belgium waffle. Trust us, there is nothing even remotely close to this in the world. The crisp outer layer is made even more delicious with hard grains of caramelized sugars. Don't even think it might be dry! The chocolate was unworldy!! Why someone hasn't had the brilliant idea to bring the real waffles over to the states is beyond us. There is just nothing better and a million ways to eat them.

Ok enough about the waffle. We collected our bags and attempted to wait out the rain. Finally we just packed up and walked the mile to the train station. This train ride was a breeze compared the last. Only and hour from Brussels to the sleepy little town of Bruges.

When walking into town there is an eery silence, like you are honestly stepping back in time to the middle ages. We walked a good 1/2 mile before we saw signs of life on the cobble stone streets. This is what Europe is about, a town that looks nearly unchanged in hundreds and hundreds of years.

With a great map in hand we found our hostel very quickly. One great thing about Bruges is it's a walking town, no need for buses ever. Any place you want to go is never more than a 10 minute walk. We walked down an ally then between two building to get to the back door of our hostel/restaurant.

We explored the town taking pictures everywhere we went. Bruges is a canal city and called the Venice of the north, truly beautiful. First stop: try the famous Belgium fries! We split a small with "cocktail sauce" which is ketchup/mayo/whiskey.... yum they were outstanding. There are two famous fry businesses next to each other that compete to be named the best. We'll try the other in the morning and get back to you.

Next on to a church, it's been a few days. We went to the famous Holy Blood Chapel. . Everyday this shiny vial is taken out of its safe and put on a pillow to be worshiped. we got a first hand look at it up close, quite exciting! The little cylinder was taken on a crusade to Jerusalem in the 12th century, and true catholics believe it's full of Jesus blood.

We had a big mission for this trip. Find the most rare and number one best beer in the world. It's made by Trappist monks and you can only get it by calling ahead to the "beer hotline" where if you are very very lucky you can set a date to come and buy one case. The beer is so rare that on the black market it goes anywhere from $30 a bottle and up. But selling it for profit is very very frowned on by the monks who only make this beer to "support being monks." So this adventure was going to be a day trip out of Bruges and probably going to leave us coming up empty handed. As luck would have it we wondered into an amazing store and started talking to the shop keeper about the process of getting the beer and his thoughts. Low and behold he happened to have some!!!! We paid for 3 bottles. One for each of us and one for Jon back in Minnesota. After showing us the old wood crates the monks still use to deliver beer and taking a bunch of pictures we were set. The shop keeper was so kind and helpful (like almost everyone we've run into) and provided wrapping for the bottle of beer and a safe way to ship the bottle to the US. We walked out of there Heather carrying the bottled boxed up and Charlie carrying the two beers in a small backpack. We walked like we were holding new born babies. Our hands were nearly shaking. One short trip to the post office and off goes our little treasure. So we have our two beers hidden in our bags trying to find a way to get them cold and enjoy them. Perhaps we could wait to drink them till we are in Naples and eat the world's best pizza (we have a lead on that too).

With our shiny free map we got a great lead on spaghetti for 3 euros each. We thought this was too good to be true. Good night... where are these small european portions we've heard so much about?? The woman who took our order asked " can I put cheese on it." Heather had to bite her tongue not to say, "is the pope catholic?" HUGE meals, HUGE!! Wonderful sauce, fresh herbs, meat and nearly 1/2 a pound of cheese on each. Yum!

Walking was a good idea after that for at least an hour to keep us from going into a food coma. Mostly we've been sharing small meals to save money so eating something so huge was a lot to handle.

We toured the Crown Plaza basement because it's: cool and free. Basically it's a huge hotel that was built on top of a church but the foundation was keep the same. And because there was going to be some sort of reception there a big tray of Belgium chocolate was laid out.... yes Heather grabbed a handful and ran. This chocolate was amazing, it was like nothing before. The taste was closer to eating a rich moist piece of cake that melted away. Heaven. One of the best chocolate tips is to buy the chocolate at the market it's the same stuff as in the really fancy shops but not in cute shapes.

A lot of the time on our trip is spent trying to find free wifi. This town has really been a challenge. We kept being directed to internet cafes.... as if we would PAY to use the internet!?!

We saw some of the funny little sites like a cannon that is in the middle of a sidewalk upside down, no one knows the story but it's been that way for hundreds of years. We were too late to see Michaelgelo's Madonna, perhaps in the morning before we head to Paris.

What city would be complete without a trip to an icecream shop. With so many flavors in a language we don't speak it was hard to decide. The shop girl was very nice and gave us a lot of samples. Charlie had some really tasty berry sorbet and Heather had.... well she had no idea but it was yellow with a pink swirl here and there.

One more stop back at the hostel to grab some warmer clothes then out to drink our one beer in Bruges. The last night really caught up with us and we are short on sleep so we called it an early night. No internet here tonight, we are in a very cute hostel with a German guy who needs to put on some pants.... and quit talking to himself about mosquitos.

We LOVE Bruges, a midevil town with a heart of gold. We both feel our mom's would love it here... perhaps they will come with us next time.

H & C

Brussels Day 1 - Surprise we're lost! (we heart Ulrich) - UPDATED












We have to quote this directly out of the Brussels map:
"Brussels is ugly, and we love it. And if we don't love it, we live with it. So don't be surprised that we built a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel or a pseudo-classic monstrosity in front of the Central Station."

That sums it up. We feel more like we are in downtown Minneapolis. (our opinion will change later)

Number one thing that is really really really made us lost (from the map):
"Although most speak French in Brussels, Dutch is also an official language (as you see from the double street names.) -- That would by why we got lost and even with asking a travel agent AND a cab driver they still could not get us the 4 blocks it ended up being from our Hotel to the Hostel. Not to mention it was sunny and about 85 degrees out, so much for our showers this morning.

Trying to order a side of famous Belgian fries with our sandwich we shared for lunch got us this response :IMPOSSIBLE!! Guess we didn't spend enough to deserve their fancy pants fries.

Waffles are different here than we thought:
"A real Brussels waffle is square, and Liegeiosu is round and carmelised You put sugar on top of the a Brussels one, and nothing on a Liegeous (the sugar is baked into it.) And if you really want to look like a tourist, order extra chocolate or strawberry.

Waffles are sold everywhere from vending machines to street vendors... do we dare eat one with out syrup??

Mid afternoon we decided to be different and try McDonalds in Europe. We had heard rumors you could order a beer there, and it turned out to be true in Brussels. Heather ordered one with her McChicken, while Charlie got the "Royal Cheese Delux". Just like they say in Pulp fiction. One thing we didn't like was you have to pay extra for condiments like ketchup or mayo for fries, which was an outrageous .50 cents in euros, about 75 cents in US for a container of either. We did however like the mayo already on the burger and chicken, as it was a bit more salty than we were used to.

After cleaning ourselves up, and doing a load of much needed laundry, we headed out to see if Brussels could redeem itself with us. Armed with a great tourist map we got from the hostel, we headed out with high hopes. After walking a few blocks Brussels transformed from a very modern city to something we both expected when we thought of midevil europe. We wandered into what Victor Hugo called " the most beautiful square in the world." The square was surrounded on 2 sides by a huge gothic style church and a palace with the other 2 sides composed of shops and restaurants. After stopping to admire the beauty of it and take some pictures, we took off in the direction of the famous Manneke Pis, or the little boy peeing statue. It was much smaller than one would think, at the most 2 feet tall, and he was dressed up in a rather silly outfit. Apparently there is a museum where you can see 800 some outfits he's worn in the past.

After doing the required "touristy" things, we headed off to find Belgiums real treasure...beer! Our map named a place called Delerium that claimed to have the best selection anywhere, which we found tucked away in an ally not far from the square. Little did we know its actually about 4 different bars in one, as we sat upstairs at the tap beer bar, which had a decent selection of local beers on tap, probably 25 or so. As Heather was looking through the menu, Charlie wandered off downstairs to see what was up there....soon coming back upstairs telling Heather to "pack it up sally, we're going downstairs!" We had stumbled into beer lovers heaven. Over 2,000 beers from around the world. Yes, over 2,000. The menu was the size of a phone book, we had no idea where to begin. There was a disclaimer that they don't serve "industrial" beer, and the staff will try to talk you out of ordering something pedestrian. Would we ever leave?? Is this the greatest bar on Earth??

The place itself was quite impressive as well. On the celing there were drink trays from hundreds of different brewers from around the world. Behind the bar customers could leave a signed dollar bill from their country to leave their mark, and we noticed a few from the University of Minnesota, Winona Minnesota and Wisconsin. There were maybe 12 or 15 chairs at the bar, the rest of the seating was at huge wooden beer kegs with stools. We arrived about 7pm and there was a small crowd there, but soon picked up when a group of 40 came down the stairs and took over about 5 tables. We soon noticed the leader of the group taking away tray after tray of beers and became very intrigued. Was he very wealthy? Was he a celebrity? Was this David Beckham? After he had purchased round 3 for 40 people, we had to find out. Turns out it wasn't the famous football player as he admitted his right foot wasn't quite the same, but a Danish social studies teacher. He and his class were in town to tour the European Government sites, and had made time to spend a night to learn about Belgium beer. Why are all social studies teacher not this cool we wondered? Our new friend Ulrick turned out to be one of the nicest people we'd ever met. He was very friendly and answered our many questions on Europe and Denmark, and asked some of his own about us. He even told us to come to Copenhagen on our trip if we get the chance and he'd show us around. He was a big part of the reason we took this trip, to meet people like him and learn about other cultures and ways of life. Soon the first of 3 bands to play that night started. They were a cover band playing american rock songs, including the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army", which really got the entire crowd of well over 200 singing along. This very well could be the greatest bar on Earth, an out of this world beer selection, people from all over the world making new friends and sharing the great experience together. We won't go into too much detail on the beers we drank other than we had about 5 or 6 each, totalling about 12 different ones. We made a list to remember them by. Highlights would be Gildenbier which Heather had first, and Gulden Draak Charlie had for a 2nd drink. Both were dark, wonderful beers with many layers of flavor to them. At the start of the 3rd band we decided to wrap it up as it was after midnight and we'd been there about 5 hours. We noticed our friend Ulrick had gotten his first bill for the night, 3 rounds only cost him 414 euros, which would be over 600 US dollars, not bad for probably 120 drinks I guess. We walked over to say goodbye to him, and got caught into singing along to Bob Marleys "No Wo.man, No Cry" with the entire bar before leaving. Upon arrival at the hostel, the vending machine caught our eye, and Heather said we needed some "snick-a-ma-snacks" before bed. Our selections included paprika flavored chips, a waffle, and an ice cream bar. All were greatly enjoyed, and the paprika chips were a pleasant suprise as we really hadn't eaten all that much today. Sleep was very much welcomed at this point in our private hostel room.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

De Saloon


We will miss our favorite pub in Amsterdam.... we made it there once a day.

Amsterdam - Last Day







DISCLAIMER:
Before we start we need to say a few things. We undoubtedly know we are two of the luckiest people in the world. We are on a journey that so few people have a chance to experience. But with all good journeys will come some hard times. So we hope to all who read this we don't sound negative when we talk about some of the funny things that go wrong because they are insurmountably miniscule next to the joy we feel waking up everyday here in Europe.

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We probably stayed here in Amsterdam about a day too long. By the last day today we had really run out of things to see. But because we bought the 21 day eurail pass saving us big $ we couldn't use it for the first time till the 10th of Sept in order for it to get us to our final destination on time.

We made it up for the free breakfast today, not bad really. They promised eggs which sounded like heaven because we haven't had a hot breakfast in a long time, but turned out to be hard boiled eggs which we both in turn stuck or noses up at.

We stored our packs in the hostel lobby while we went for one last walk about the city. Just up and down the canals, to Dam Square which we are pretty sure EVERY road leads to.

One thing funny about Amsterdam is when you ask directions it's either measured in minutes or canals. "it's just 5 minutes up there... just cross 2 canals."

While trying to find some free internet we ran into a tour group that we listened to for about minutes. Found out some funning things about Dutch last names like no one had one till about 100 years ago and no one wanted them so they picked really funny and sometimes nasty ones. I guess it's a good way to start a conversation in Holland to ask what someone's last name means.

One more lunch of pasta and a pizza... we've already stated our feelings clearly about those. And of course one more stop back at De Saloon to sit on the canal and have a Palm. We were greeted with "welcome back!" I guess that made us regulars. We will miss our favorite Holland pub.

One hot walk with our packs onto the train station to use our Eurail pass for the first time. Not by choice at all but we are traveling 1st class, it's very nice. We would have welcome the price cut of 2nd class but if you are over 26 in Europe you can hardly get any deals. So here we are on the train from Amsterdam to Brussels. We both wish it was spring time to see the amazing fields full of flowers.

We are couch surfing in this city with a guy named Phil. We had to take a later train I hope he waits for us because we will be late.

H& C

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PART II

Hope Phil understands the joy of trains. We truly do now. What should have been a less than a three hour train ride (in first class I should add) to Brussels from Amsterdam turned into a honest nightmare.

The smallest thing to complain about would be the fact it was stuffy and very very hot on the train, something must have been wrong with our compartment. We were about an hour out of Brussels when the train just stopped. And of course we have to hear in German, French (?) then English what was going on. So before we knew - we saw the reaction out of everyone else: it's not good! Due to "something" wrong with the track ahead we have to go back to the last station. Around 300+ people now sat at the platform waiting to hear what was happening next. All we would hear is, "the track is completely..... keep waiting... when we know we'll tell you something."

We made the most of what we thought might be a 20 minute delay by playing cards. 31 was our game of choice. One of us had to stay with the bags at all times while the other went off for information or to find WiFi to tell our host Phil that we were running late and we couldn't do anything but wait. I really friendly german man offered Heather his seat and she actually picked up enough to figure out what he said.

Next they announced that we all are taking a bus to the next station. So we all gathered up our things, went down the stairs, through the tunnel, up the stairs through the station and watched as two buses were already full of people and ready to pull out.

After awhile outside it was "get back on the train." After doing the stairs and tunnel again we RUSHED back to get our good seats in 1st class. That being at the very front of the train we were the farthest away. Then we sat on the train for 10 minutes before hearing: "so sorry (in two languages before we could understand) back on the buses." Again, stairs, tunnel, stairs.

Mob mentality took over.

One bus had already pulled out, the second bus clearly would not hold all of us. We crammed and squeezed on the bus like it was our life on the line. Our packs were heavy as ever and taking up the space of an extra person so the "4" of us stood with 3 times what the bus should have held.

This bus ride was only about 20 minutes but it could have been 4 hours. No air in this bus, everyone smelled INCLUDING us and were sweating so much. Our hands where so wet we could hardly hang on around the corners.

Off to the next station only to be informed it was not a direct train to Brussels and we'd need to switch over again.

Long story short we made it to Brussels, at 11:15 at night we have not found internet so poor Phil probably thinks we stood him up.

Then we did the unthinkable...

WE GOT A HOTEL ROOM!!! Oh sweat Lord this is HEAVEN!!! A real shower?! Fresh bed?! I'm not going to lie it was a lot more than we wanted to spend but it was the only one in walking distance that wasn't booked up. Heather used some haggling skills and got the front desk to knock off 30 euros.

Ok so after two very long hot showers I think we are feeling like humans again. It's a very good thing we ate a huge meal in Amsterdam because we probably wouldn't have made it this far.

Tomorrow we find the internet and hopefully Phil :)

H & C

PS from the few blocks we walked in the pitch dark here Brussels is pretty nice. Our spirits are still high... how could they not be?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Amsterdam Day 4.....or is it Heinekenville???





Another day unwinds in Amsterdam at our favorite bar, De Saloon. Made even more our favorite tonight as Prince's Purple Rain started playing shortly after we arrived.

We got up a bit on the early side today....10:30am!! We believe the city doesn't really get going until noon as the streets seem fairly empty until then. We started our day in hopes of touring the Heineken experience, but our dreams were soon crushed as it was closed until sometime in October...boo Heineken. We were directed to "The City", which ended up being just a large gift shop with all things Heineken, including a 78 euro sweatshirt Heather debated buying (ha ha). We tried our best to get our 3 free beers each we were promised on the tour, but to no avail.

We spent the afternoon exploring the outer areas of Amsterdam, and were surprised to find that there really is a normal looking city part to all this Dutch-ness.

Why do they even bother with food in America?!? We found dinner at a small Italian bistro around the corner from the hostel that promised pizza for 4 euros, and since we are on the cheap, we wandered in. How do we describe the fantastic-awesomeness of this food? We ordered a margarita pizza and a pasta with bacon, egg and cheese in a cream sauce, along with the best grape soda in the world...kinda like wine right? The pasta was perfectly cooked, with the rich cream sauce sticking to each piece. The pizza I don't think words can describe, and we aren't even in Italy yet! The cheese tasted like it the cow was hooked up to the restaurant it was so fresh. The wood oven cooked the crust to a perfect crisp texture with a nice smokey flavor from the fire. If this is what Italy is like, we may not come home, and we have a lead on the worlds greatest pizza in Naples.

After cleaning up a bit and recovering from our feast, we left again for a final night in the city on the river Amstel. We walked through the Red Light District one more time, up and down some canals and went to a bar called the Old Nickel, where we tried some more Trappist Monk beers from Holland. Can't wait to find those monks in Belgium! (More to come on that adventure)

We walked up towards the Dam Square and had a drink served by a smart ass waiter, who offered to buy our drinks if we didn't like them, and even informed us that he knew how to make change!! After dark we made one last pass through the Red Light District to see it all lit up, and got caught in a bit of a rainstorm. So a short 30 minute walk in the rain, with a brief stop to buy another cone of the greatest ice cream on the planet at the Australian ice cream shop, here we are back at De Saloon winding down another night for the 3rd time.

H & C

PS to review: TINY TINY cars in Europe, and Thousands and Thousands of bicycles everywhere.... there will be a quiz at the end of the trip so pay attention!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Amsterdam day 3... Red Lights and Beer





We are champs. Ok not in the traditional sense. We have small goals and large ones. 

Large ones: spend six months in europe. 
Small ones: get up for breakfast. 

Guess which one we achieved?

We went to Dam Square and saw a street performance of a guy who fit his entire body through a toilet seat then got on a 10' unicycle and juggled torches.

Then off to a "koffee" house to share a "toastie" which is what the dutch call grilled cheese and such. We knew we were close to the Anne Frank house but didn't realize it was literally next door. We went through, it was really amazing walking through the bookcase the family hid behind for so many years. The staircases where unbelievably steep. They had it set up so we only had to walk up them and there was another way out. We were a little sad they took all the furniture out of the rooms, it made it a bit harder to really envision life there. But we loved going through and seeing everything that made her diary come to life for us.

More wondering around, going in and out of little shops. We had our first Trappist Monk beer, trust me Jon is proud!!

We back back to hostel grabbed a shower, cleaned up for the night. We stopped at a few more pubs, talked to some colorful locals including an ex-US guy that might have been a few sandwiches short of a picnic. 

Oh my gosh we need to tell everyone.. the 80's are alive here and thriving.

After dark (because we were told by a local woman in her 60's it's the best time to go) we went to the Red Light District. Pretty much what we thought it would be, I mean if you have more questions just email us and we'll try to answer.

We picked up some dinner in a local grocery store. I think it was the first time for both of us we bought something we had NO IDEA what it was. My best guess it was hummus but who knows. We ate back in the lobby of our hostel.

We walked the streets a bit more found a Grolsch for 1.25 (euros) and then back to our favorite spot from our first day here to scam some free internet and catch all you lovely chaps up on our blog.

And yes, we had french fries with mayo to get the real "Amsterdam experience."

Amsterdam stuff to know: EVERYONE rides a bike, there are thousands and thousands on the streets

Goede nacht,
H & C







Amsterdam day 2... yeah





Oh hold on to your hat, we slept too late. Our two flat mates were even really quite when they came in so we have no real reason for the sleep in other than we lost an hour coming over here.

We explored the city, and ran into a really cool place called the dog bar. Literally dogs in the bar, they had water dishes for them to drink out of. Of course Heather ran up and pet them all!

Not much else to report from the first day... Amsterdam ya know?

H & C 

Planes, Trains and British Washers





Well up sort of on time, I swear that alarm is evil.

We cleaned up and were hoping to walk into the kitchen to find a week's worth of clean clothes... do I really need to explain how much we needed these?! Well with the LOVELY British washer/dryer combo our clothes came out completely soaking wet. No, not damp... soaked. We had to ring each thing out in the sink, stuff them in plastic bags and carry all that extra weight over to Amsterdam. Ughhh. Lovely bloody start.

We took a 1.5 hour train to Luton London Airport to catch our flight. Charlie accidently opened the bus doors in the middle of our shuttle to the airport with his backpack causing a lot of confusion. The flight was fine, only 45 minutes or so long. The pilot was pretty funny he said, "the weather in Amsterdam is the same as London, miserable!" Actually it was sunny and very nice. We got into Amsterdam, collected our bags and decided the airport was a rip-off for exchanging our pounds for euros.

We grabbed a train in Amsterdam to the Central Station and then had NO idea how to find our hostel. Our packs weighed somewhere around 375 pounds; so that's a lot of fun. I can only say we are pretty much as cheap as we are stubborn. After countless people told us to take a bus down to where our hostel was we decided to walk. I mean we'd walked for hours and hours and hours in London each day... no big deal right? Well Heather's arms went numb and charlie pretty much lost feeling in his upper back and neck. Good times. We even got desperate and tried to pay a rickshaw driver to take us as far as he could for 6 british pounds... grr no luck.

We took a nice break on one of the many canals and eventually made it to our hostel. I was assured in an email that we could pay with a credit card...oh no - cash only. So with our bags FULL of heavy wet laundry and no euros to be had... off we went to find an exchange place that wouldn't rip us off.

Our room here is very nice, Heather asked what floor we were on and guy at the front desk said "2." I guess that's Dutch for the 4th floor. But on the other hand we are only sharing with two other travelers and we are in the heart of the city.

And why would a laundry place be open in Holland on Saturday or Sunday??? As i type our laundry is hung in every sort of nook and crack in this room in hopes of someday drying.

On the positive side we had a great meal here :) We found an amazing bar called De Saloon. Charlie had a belgium beer and a tasty burger and chips, Heather had baked goat cheese with honey and bacon and a cup of tomato soup. Mmm.

After a small talk we've decided we are trying to do too much in a day. So we are going to try to take it a little easier in hopes of being able to scrape ourselves out of bed at a normal time.

H & C

London - Galleries, Museums and puppets... Oh My!





Up by 9am, we couldn't be more proud of ourselves.

We made a stop back at the catalog store because in our worldly travels we didn't think that buying a battery charger in London would not really be the thing to do since it has a UK plug.

We hopped the overland train and then and the underground to Elephant and Castle station (I know, I laugh at it too). We walked a few blocks in the rain to the Imperial War Museum. Directly inside the museums enterance were many planes, tanks, and artillery guns from the first and second world wars. They had sections of the tanks cut open so you could see inside them. Our first exibit we walked through was the Holocost art exhibit, and one the world's largest Holocaust displays. Honestly there isn't really a way to comment on the emotion that we felt, it was very raw and moving. The art was done mainly by sole survivors who were never artists until many years after, and used it as a way to relase the feelings of what they went through, One of the final exibits of art was one called "Souvenir", and it was a collection of postcards with an artists sketches we could take for free, we each took one of Auchwitz.

We continued on the WW1 and WW2. We took a tour of the trenches (where Heather had to leave early because the air was thin and got a bit claustrophobic). One of the interesting things was the display of propaganda that was handed out during the war. Some examples were about food rations, not gossiping about the war because you "never know who is listening", mending clothes instead of buying new ones and women getting into the work force to do their part.

We went back to the main part of London bought tickets to "Avenue Q." Now off to the British museum where we shared a lunch under some shelter in a very rainy park. They are NOT exaggerating when they say you can spend at least two days there and not see it all. We of course did it in about 2 hours only seeing the highlights like the Egyptian mummies, Greek and Roman artifacts and Japan through the ages. One of the most interesting parts was seeing the Rossetta Stone. This was the original stone used to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Avenue Q was unbelievable funny!! And for 10 pounds a ticket we couldn't go wrong. Of course we did our favorite new trick of buying the cheapest seats in the house then moving up the the really "fancy pants" seats right before the show started, London has AMAZING theater, I can't wait to go back.

On our train ride back to Susannah's flat (our couch surfing host) we stopped at Sainsbury's and picked up some Stella triple filter and some pasta sauce to make a late night dinner. We ended up talking till almost 1 am with Susannah and Chelsea, a girl from San Francisco who was surfing there as well.

With good intentions as always of getting up on time we headed to bed with an alarm set.

Cheers Mates!