WanderLust

Moving On...

2011-11-22T07:22:00.001-05:00

Yeah yeah yeah, we've been neglectful of our blogging duties lately, we know. But really, life has been very uneventful. We just finished up at the farm. The last few weeks were spent weeding, pruning grapevines, and painting the bathroom. We would be happy to never have to look at a grapevine again. The most exciting work was lighting a bonfire to burn all the rubbish (why someone would put us in charge of that, no one knows). We were very hesitant at first, but then got pretty into it.

On one of our days off, we got dropped off at a chateau near our home, which had some beautiful views of the area. It was a nice hour-long hike back to the house. Last weekend, we spent a night in Carcassonne to get a chance to escape farm life and actually be social for once. We treated ourselves to a gourmet meal of dominos pizza and went dancing at some local bars.

During our last week, we got a lot of cooking (well, microwaving) lessons from Vonnie. She taught us how to make cheese sauce (from scratch) for a pasta bake, French onion soup, chocolate truffles, apple crumble, and chocolate cake (in the microwave!).

Pasta bake

Apple crumble

Bill, Yvonne and Russell enjoying our cooking

The 4 boys plus Bill's dog Buddy.

Yesterday we hitched a ride to Barcelona with a frenchman who lives here, so we're finally in a new country again (and loving it!). We spent the day wandering around Parc Guell and the Boqueria (an awesome open-air food market), and tonight we're going out for some Spanish food with some people from our hostel. Tomorrow we're catching an early flight to Granada, where we'll finally be reunited with Ari!

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

2011-10-28T06:44:00.001-04:00

Our start in this friendly farm town didn't go so well... We managed to miss our train stop in the dead of the night (ahhhh scary) and found ourselves stranded without a phone or a phone number to call to make it back to the farm. We decided to get off at the next stop, which luckily was only a town over. As we were panicking outside a restaurant a sweet old man asked us where we needed to go and offered us a ride. We realized this would be the perfect start to a horror movie, but he turned out to be harmless and spent the ride ranting about our terrorist government.

We finally arrived in Couiza and were warmly welcomed by Russell and Yvonne and 4 lovable dogs, a.k.a. "the boys." R and Y are an English couple that retired here 7 years ago and fell in love with the wondrous mountains, fresh air, and spring water. We often stay up drinking wine and talking about life: Melanie gets adored by Yvonne while Danielle gets insulted by Russell (his way of showing love).

On the farm we have cleaned a drain (complete with dead rats - well Russell took care of that duty), fixed a bamboo fence, and cut up wood for the fire to prepare for the harsh winter (which luckily we are missing). Our biggest job was to clear out a ditch that drains out rainwater into the river. That entailed using shears to cut out all the overgrowth and shoveling out all the rubbish. It took two days and we built up quite the arm muscles. We call it the trench, so we come in and talk about our long day in the trenches.

In the week that we have been here we have visited Andorra, a tiny country between France and Spain, and Carcassonne, a larger city just north of Couiza. It counted as work to take the long and winding journey to Andorra. Russell needed us to increase his allowance of cigarettes, cigars, and whiskey that he was allowed to take out of the country. And we gave into our own vice....candy. In Carcassonne we wandered around the medieval city and sat in a coffee shop (it was more fun than it sounds). On the way home we messed up the trains once again and found ourselves sitting at a desolate station for 2 and 1/2 hours waiting for the next train.

So far we love it here! We have been able to relax which has been a nice change from our whirlwind trip through Europe. Russell and Yvonne are great company, as are the boys.

Location:Couiza, France

Wee Wee, Pear-ee!

2011-10-24T11:06:00.001-04:00

So we're finally getting around to updating about Paris...only a week late. We were thrilled to have the comfort of our own room, REAL towels and a bath tub. Danielle's mom spoiled us by treating us to delicious meals, so we enjoyed the French cuisine of duck, escargot, and foie gras pate (a wonderful change from peanut butter sandwiches and kebabs).

We mastered the Parisienne subway and finally grasped the concept of arrondissements, so we now sound like genuine French people (except for the small problem that we don't speak any French). We saw Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower, visited the Rodin Museum and the Musee d'Orsay with Sharon, and wandered up the Champs Élysées with Laduree macaroons in hand. Danielle and Elaine also toured the underground catacombs. During our nights out on the town, we made the unfortunate discovery that drunk French men have no sense of personal boundaries (we got poked in the neck and fingers in our beers). On our final night the three of us enjoyed a dinner cruise down the Seine, which gave us awesome views of the city. After the five days there, Melanie rediscovered her love for Paris, while Danielle rediscovered her distaste for it. Overall though, it was a great last stop before arriving at the farm!

Rodin's 'The Shades'

Inside the catacombs

On the cruise

Location:Paris, France

Bubbles and Beer

2011-10-13T11:23:00.001-04:00

So somehow we spent two days in Amsterdam and left with mostly pictures of men blowing ginormous bubbles in the central square. Melanie was surprised that the city was exactly how she imagined it but never thought it would actually be like that. We enjoyed participating in local customs (the ones that take place in coffee shops, NOT in the red light district). Our hostel room was on the 5th floor of the building (or the 6th by American standards), and no, there was not an elevator. So that got in our daily workout.

We went to the Van Gogh museum, which had a great collection of his works. We wandered and sat around a lot, taking in the atmosphere. We also enjoyed Amsterdam's fine cuisine - kebabs, ice cream, pastries, candy, nachos, etc. On our last day, we went to a small village outside the city that was recommended by our friends from Porjus. It was full of old fashioned wind mills and was home to a cheese farm (with free samples, yum!) and a Dutch wooden clog factory (that many clogs should never be in one room).

Danielle wanted to be polite and held the door open for a chicken who s interested in cheese-making, but then got in trouble for being there.

We then headed to Brussels, which didn't offer a lot to do but did have delicious waffles, beer and chocolate. The city grew on us over the course of the day, but it's not a place we would recommend visiting for more than a day or two. One of the biggest tourist attractions is a tiny statue of a small boy peeing. Legend has it that this boy saved the city by extinguishing a fire with his urine. Our map said this statue was like Brussels itself: small and absurd.

We went to the Cantillon brewery, which is one of the only two working breweries left in Brussels. Instead of using yeast in their fermentation,they leave the beer out for a night so that it is exposed to the natural yeast in the air. This gives it a very unique taste, one which neither of us enjoyed very much.

We spent our evening wandering around searching for the best chocolate and the perfect pub. We finally found a bar that seemed to attract a lot of Americans, and had something like 2000 beers on tap. We got to try Tremens beer, which has been voted the world's best beer for the past two years, and Duvel, which is known for it's high alcohol content. Let's just say we both ended up falling asleep in our clothes last night.

Now we're off to our last stop before our farm - Paris!

Location:Amsterdam & Brussels

2011-10-10T05:50:00.001-04:00

So our trip to Germany did not start out on a great foot. We were forced to share a sleeping car with a family with a toddler and infant, both of whom do NOT sleep through the night (so neither did we).

We did finally make it to Fussen though, and were greeted by warm weather and a beautiful view of the Neuschwanstein Castle from our attic window. We spent our first afternoon wandering the town and enjoying the quaint atmosphere, which was a nice change from the craziness of Copenhagen.

Speaking of Copenhagen, on our last afternoon we spontaneously decided to get tattoos. This was a first for Melanie, who has been putting it off for years, and it's Danielle's second. Danielle decided it was fate when the most popular parlor in town had last minute availability.

"now Faith is being sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see" Hebrews 11:1

From the last line of an E.E. Cummings poem, "I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)"

The rest of our trip to Fussen was spent relaxing, meeting some other travelers (a lot more Americans there than the other places we've been), and hiking up to the castle. Originally we decided it would be a great idea to walk all the way from our hostel. Unfortunately, that did not work out so well. We quickly got lost and our limited knowledge German ("excuse me," "thank you," and "wonderful") did not help, so we took a bus to the base of the mountain. Lucky for us, we didn't miss out on any exercise as the rest of the hike was still a bitch, and we're still sore today. The castle was beautiful and the views were even better.

Our day in Munich was spent avoiding getting stuck in the rain and drinking two liters (each!) of beer at the Hofbrauhaus before hopping on our last overnight train to Amsterdam. Maybe not the best combination?

Home Sweet Copenhagen

2011-10-06T14:27:00.001-04:00

Although our expectations for Copenhagen weren't that high when we arrived, it has now been added to both our favorite city lists. It was the first place in which we have spent a significant amount of time (4 nights in total) and we got the chance to get comfortable with the city and the people we were staying with. Despite our rough start in Stockholm, we've been able to meet some really interesting people. There is a strong sense of community among travelers, and we automatically have one very important thing in common with any hostel-dwellers that we meet. We spent a lot of time in Copenhagen with our various roommates, who came from all over (there was a Malaysian from Australia, an Indian from Dublin, a Canadian from Oslo, and three Germans).

Our first day was spent wandering around the royal gardens of the Rosenberg Castle and trekking out to the port to see the famous statue of Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. On the way, we got trapped in a star-shaped park which was very hard to navigate our way out of. While the statue was underwhelming, we enjoyed delicious ice cream and some good people watching.

The next day we did a lot more wandering around areas of the city that were recommended by someone at the hostel. We spent the afternoon in an area called Christiania, which has essentially declared its independence from the city. It was described by everyone as a hippie town, and the best way to explain it is a mix between Woodstock and Amsterdam. Pictures were not allowed so we'll have to leave it to your imagination.

On our last full day, we treated ourselves to a typical Danish meal (meat, potatoes, and fatty sauces). We then walked to the Carlsberg Brewery outside the city and enjoyed a history lesson and some beers. Once we were a couple in, we saw that it was pointless to try to get anything productive done, so we spent the rest of our evening bonding with our roommates.

Overall it was an exciting and unexpected experience, and it is definitely a place we would love to return to. It has a very chill vibe and offers something for everyone, and it is full of friendly and down-to-earth people.

We are now looking forward to a relaxing few days in the south of Germany.

2 Blogs in 1

2011-10-01T13:22:00.001-04:00

We haven't been able to connect the iPad to the internet for a few days, so here are our last 2 posts:

Thursday, September 29

The past couple days we have been wandering around Stockholm. Jet lag has sure got the best of us since we can't seem to not be tired all the time. We finally started to get over it yesterday just in time to hop on an over night train to the North to ruin it all. We have decided that the Old Town of Stockholm (which is where we were staying) was the prettiest part and therefore we didn't really care about the rest of the city.

The second day started off with a boat tour of the islands and bridges of the city. It turns out that their bridges look just like ours, who knew! We did learn some fun facts like the Princess married her personal trainer (big scandal) and the church's weather cock won the weather cock of the year award. Exciting stuff going on in Stockholm clearly.

We spent the afternoon in our coffee shop (complete with hearts drawn in cappuccino foam) and discovering new parts of the old city. Since we are so lovable we won over a royal guardsman who gave us the scoop on Swedish pop culture. That night we went out to a Boston themed Irish pub to watch soccer and drink the biggest beer we have ever seen.

Yesterday we made it to the museum of modern art (creepy but way cool) and the architecture museum (kinda boring but free). we finally ventured into the city center and treated ourselves to a nice dinner.

Definitely the best burger I've ever eaten- Danielle

Right now we have been on the train to Porjus, Sweden for 16 hours, but not quite there yet. One of our bunk mates (there were 6 of us in a tiny tiny sleeping car) was a friendly university student named Par (slight roll on the 'r').He was our first successful attempt at making a real friend and we stayed up late into the night talking about psychology and dancing. Great times, although the other people in our bunks didnt think so.

Tonight and tomorrow we hope to be getting a view of the Northern Lights.

----------------------------

Saturday, October 1

We headed down to Copenhagen after a wonderful couple of days in Porjus. We shared our apartment with two boys from Singapore who were finishing their 2 months of traveling. They were great company while we hunted the elusive northern lights. The don't show every night, but we were lucky and managed to get a goo view of them both nights. Porjus' beauty was captivating both day and night and the pictures really speak for themselves. So enjoy.....

We've Arrived!

2011-09-26T14:20:00.001-04:00

After a long day of travel, we have finally made it to our first stop. We decided to skip the mud baths on our layover and instead took an impressively long 7 hour 'nap.' it was creepy how empty the airport was. At one point we woke up and we were the only ones in the entire terminal,not a worker in sight.

We were greeted in Stockholm last night by our new favorite cab driver who took good care of us and got us safely to our hostel. The hostel is in the Old Town, the most historic part of the city. After Melanie accidentally woke up the other 14 people in our room, we settled in and finally got some much needed sleep.

Danielle had a rough start this morning after having trouble sleeping, so Melanie wandered the city on her own (and managed to get lost within 5 minutes). Once Danielle had recovered, we had a delicious lunch in a renovated 700 year old prison. Afterwards, we walked over to the Vasa Museum, which houses an old Viking ship that was recently recovered after being at the bottom of the sea for over 300 years. We made it to three different islands of Stockholm today, and hope to explore the others while we're here.

When we thought we were about to die of exhaustion from jet lag and excessive walking, we stopped for a cappuccino and befriended the owner. We plan on making him our new best friend here since he can provide with caffeine and free wifi.

Tonight we plan on cooking dinner at the hostel and hopefully get to bed early in attempts to get over this jet lag.

And So It Begins...

2011-09-24T16:10:00.000-04:00

It's finally here! We're off in a few hours to fly to Stockholm. We have a 10 hour layover in Iceland on the way, just enough time to enjoy an Icelandic mud bath! We know we should be excited, but it almost feels as though it's not really happening (although I'm sure once we get on the plane it will hit us). Our first stop is Sweden (well be in both Stockholm and Northern Sweden in the hopes of getting a look at the Aurora Borealis), and then we'll go on to Copenhagen, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris before landing at our first farm in Couiza, in the south of France. Around Thanksgiving we'll be off to visit the lovely Ari in Granada, stop over in Turkey and head to Thailand for a few months of farming and teaching, and hopefully get the chance to travel around Southeast Asia.

Last night we ate the perfect last meal: a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner (12 pound turkey and all) prepared by Papa Close and Diane. Other than that we've just been packing and getting everything together, and trying not to stress out too much (although that's been pretty impossible). We're determined to keep up with this blog while we're gone, but we'll see if that actually happens!

Also, make sure to keep in touch! You can contact us at danielle.eacona@gmail.com and melanie.j.close@gmail.com.