Only one more falafel

It's reallly crazy that our trip is almost over, it's flown by
ridiculously fast. A couple of days ago we went to fountainbleau and
it was really neat because it was empty and creaky and left how it was
from 1800s. It felt like we were sneaking into some old fancy chateau
that was abandonned. To accompany the chateau was massive woods area
perfect for picnics! Today we went chateau de vincennes which was neat
and then to parc floral de Paris. That was awesome so many cool little
jardins like herbal ,botanical ,cactii ,and a massive one of just
dahlias. The base of the Rosemary plants were like trees! And the
plants were enormous, and smelled really good! tonight we are going to
sip wine by notre dame at dark( I hope it doesn't sparkle like the
Eiffel tower). More parcs and markets await us then off to London
which means new frame and rims for meeee!
Also acrooss the way is a field and kids on thier mopeds are
practicing wheelies and jay is definitely entertained right now! And
were really sad ONLY ONE DAY LEFT OF FALAFELS!!!ohhhhhh noooooooo!
Caitlin

Mmmmmm falafels

Well a week in Paris has never gone by this fast. I can't believe our
trips ends in a week. We've been to so many great places and done some
real fun things! The other day we went up to sacre ceur, were it was
jammed with tourists. I had fun watching a local cleverly sucking rich
tourists into gambling away thier savings on the street corner too!
Caitlin has discovered the soy pudding over here, which is darn cheap
compared to at home! Today we went to jim Morrisons grave, who is
buried in the same cemetary as Oscar Wilde, Chopin and Marcel Proust.
Tomorrow we head to the massive chateux fontainbleu, which should be a
good long day trip.
My highlight of the last few days was definetly going to le musee DES
arts et metiers, were I learnt how a particle accelerator works!

7 days left in paris, then off to London again!
-jay

It wasn't closed!

 Two days ago we woke up early, hopped on the right bus and headed down to the Louvre.......but it was closed! So we went to the Orsay instead which was really neat, i had forgotten how much i loved the impressionists and i was really stoked to see the picture of marcel proust and it has inspired me for now i am on the hunt for his book. Then we proceeded to go and eat more falafels! Today we went to Versailles which was so incredible, none of the pictures we took could do it any justice especiqially the gqrdens of  marie antoinette. we had a nice picnic(jay ate a whole  round of cheese!impressive) and the best part was that there was no one there. we were even a little bit late because there was a train delays but we had no line ups and alot of the time the only ones in the room. it was fantastic. oh and i think they were the originals, i thought that they were at the louvre but qlot of paintings of napolean and josephine, i was really looking forward to seeing them bu being t pretty much the only people in the room looking at them, sooo much better. i am sooo thrilled with versailles. this might sound mean but there are segway tours of versaille which are funny to begin with but we saw a guy bail on one on the tour. it was really funny.tomorrow we are doing some more sightseeing then off to a nice diner! we are having a great time and can't believe it's almost over(well that's how it feels anyway)

caitlin

Paris day two

So paris is great. Our first full day was falafels, the war museum,
then baguette sandwiches. Today, not so much. We thought we were going
to be super keen and go to the louvre super early. So I set my alarm,
and offwe went. Only thing was that there are two metro stops called
the louvre. One is tbd museum, and the other is waaay off in the
middle of nowhere! So of course somehow we ended up 45 minutes out of
town, very very far from any museum. After the train ride all the way
back into town, it was much too late to make it into the louvre, so
were saving that for toMorrow. Instead, we thought we would try some
other museums. Then 2 closed museums later, we remembered that Mondays
EVERTHING was closed!! We Sort of gave up on the day after that and
spent two hours trying to get our metro passes worked out. Hopefully
tomorrow will work out a little mote to plan!!
Jay

First morning in paris

Hello all!
Woke up this morning with the Paris sun beaming in through the window.
Our stay in belgium was most excellent, and yesterday we made the trek
down on the bus to here.
Belgium had lots of great beer stores, waffle stores and designer
stores, but most of all lame tacky tourist stores! Everywhere! We went
to two different breweries, ( one was MUCH better then the other ) ate
some different kinds of falafels and drank some different kinds of
beer. I definetly discovered that there are actually very few
brewerires that made a really good unique Trappist beer. Tons of
breweries who are "based on" Trappist recipes, but it's just not the
same!
Anyhow, now were in Paris! Two weeks here! Tons of stuff to do, first
thing this morning: get falafels.
Jay

Belgium

Oh no big deal, just went to the grocery store and got myself a
westermalle trippel for .85 cent

Yes, that is a common thought in my head as I sit here in Belgium. My
second afternoon and I've seen more Belgium beer then people. After a
visit to Antwerps beer store, with over 280 different beers, here I
sit wondering why there isn't more in Canada. Even the grocery stores
carry a massive selection!

Off to Brussels tommorrow, I'm sure I'll expirience the same thing
there though!

Goodbye london, Hello belgium!

> Well after a wonderful week in london, we're off to belgium. There
> was a lot less castles, but a lot more everything else. Still not
> the greatest food, but we found a nice little grocery store called
> planet organic. Caitlin got her fill of old paintings at some
> gallerys, and i saw some guns at the imperial war museum. We found a
> super cool bike store which caitlin got a fancy new bag from, and
> will possibly buy a bike frame from. Nearby was a local market
> filled with just about everything you could want cheap. We've had
> tons of lunches in the parks here, which there are plenty of, and
> delicious falafels. (Looking forward to the paris one though)
> Tomorrow is a wonderful 7 hour coach ride into antwerp, where we
> are staying for a couple days.
> still no photos...its harder then i thought to find a computer that
> i can plug my camera into.
> -Jay

Bobbies

We moved on from really rainy Cardiff to London! Today we went to
westminster palace which had really awesome victorian architecture but
not quite what we wanted because I forgot that it had burnt down and
was not the original. Next we headed over to tower of london which was
overwhelmed we people so tomoorow I am going early! Right now we are
sitting in a park picnicing and tonight treating ourselves to eating
out and going to watch unglorious basterds!!!! Tomorrow we are also
going to tie in a museum too, probably the science one. All in all a
really great time so far in London but no good beer stores:(:(
Caitlin!

Wales

Wales is great. We've seen tons of awesome castles and ruins. We
started in Chester, then went down to chirk castle, which was closed
(booooo), then across to flint. Flint castle was great! It was perched
on a nice hill infront of the ocean. It wasn't a pay-for castle which
was neat, however it was sewell closed. Just when we were about to
give up and leave, a local told us how to climb the side and get in
anyhow, which was what all the locals did appearently. So we got to
see the inside afterall! After flint came conwy with the massive conwy
castle. What more exciting for me was the discovery ov a little tiny
specialty beer store, filled with awesome brews. We had to go back the
next morning to stock up! Today we came to Bangor, were we just
finished beaumaris castle. It had a moat! It was duper windy, but
really fun to be at the top of the tower in the howling wind. We now
await our bus down to aberyswyth(sp??)
Internet isn't as common here, so posts will be further apart.
Also happy birthday Scott an dad!
-j

Fwd: Photos failure

>

> Well I tried posting some of our photos, but this site only allows
> very small ones, and I have no way to crop them. I will post if I
> can some other time were I can edit them.
> Sorry!
> So we arrived in in Stirling today! A nice quaint town north of
> Edinburgh. We saw Starling castle and Doune castle (MONTY PYTHON!) I
> totally reconised tons of scenes from the movie from this castle. It
> was definetly a highlight of the trip.
> We then tried finding a brewery in a town called Alloa, but we
> failed. Sooo we came back to the hostel were i have been trying to
> send photos, but it failed. Tomorrow we are off to liverpool, then
> wales.
> Last night we sat on the grassy field in Edinburgh and watched the
> bagpipers play on Edinburgh castle. It was really quite nice. There
> was some big huge piping fest going on, so every single hostel was
> booked up. I've heard enough bagpipes to last a lifetime in the last
> 2 days too.
> Hopefully I'll find a good computer soon, until then, its just my
> borring typing.

On to a bigger island(and less rain too!)

Yesterday we left Belfast and arrived in Glasgow and now we are in
Edinburg! We had a really fantastic day, first was Edinburg castle
(huge tourist trap and reenactments) so that was disappointing but
then we went to holyrood palace which for me wAs incredible. All that
I've read about there and the murder of Rizzio and to actually be
there was awesome and. Not to mention how there was incredible
paintings there that were unexpected!(ie royal paintings of ALL the
people I've read about!) and then We tried to find iniss and gunn
brewery but you need a reservation so no luck. Tomorrow is stirling
with stirling castle, doune castle(Monty python holy grAil castle) and
the brewery of froach! Then off to liverpool for a night. It is alot
less rainy and we actually saw sun and shedded our rain jackets AND
they have the BEST macaroons here, even jay really likes them! I'd try
to bring some home but I'd eat them first!
CAitlin

Changes

Heya everybody!
Tonight we hit Belfast! 7 hours of bussing from Galway, so it's nice
to be here. I sort of forgot to get the address of our hostel, so we
wondered around looking for Internet connection for 2 hours. Buuut we
made it. We finished in cork and went to Killarney, which was COVERED
in tourists, so we went to a park away from the hubab. The next day we
went to the cliffs of Moher, which were really neat, but didn't quite
deserve '7 wonders of the world.'
The big news now is we have officially, after much thought, changed
our flight home to the 24 of September. We did so because were
travelling waaay faster then we thought and won't need this much time
to fo everything we wanted. Plus were flying right into vancouver, no
Seattle to worry about!
Still no access to photos, but maybe soon? We head out to Scotland in
2 days, then who knows were!
I have also decided the purchase of this iPod was one of my best ever.
- J
-I agree with Jay on the iPod - Caitlin

No cork trees in Cork

Dublin was okay, it was a big city but they had really good beer and
cider. We moved on to Kilkenny and we both really enjoyed it. We went
to Kilkenny castle and walked along the grounds which was really neat
and we went to some old cathedrals. Today we hopped on a bus to
Dungarven(sp?) and then to Cork. Dungarven was a cute town on the
coast, but not much to do. After spending a few hours there, we
decided to move on. Cork is bigger than we thought and it has it's
charm. A lot more run down and dirty, but lots of cute little
buildings. Tomorrow we are off to Blarney castle and then to Kerry! A
local said that this is Irelands rainnest summer yet! It's a nice
break from the heat but a little less cloud wouldn't be minded. Lots
of great photos but no way to upload them! Hopefully soon!
Caitlin

Dublin!

We made it! 10 hours of planes and here we are. Dublin is a older city
where j-walking is everywhere and tooons or tourists. We walked around
for awhile and looked at the spire of Dublin. We are staying here for
two days then probably heading down to Kilkenny. Not much wireless
there, but we shall see.

T minus a week

Home from hawaii, now off to Europe