Bath

We also took a day adventure in a car - me driving on the wrong (I mean, opposite - to be PC) side of the street with a stick shift - to Bath, which is about 2 hours outside of London and has working Roman hotspring Baths. You can no longer go in them, but you can drink the warm, filtered water, which is said to have medicinal value, but it just tasted like well water and actually gave me a tummy ache=(

On the way back to London we tried to find Stonehenge (we got a bit lost). We finally made it, but it took FOREVER! It was very interesting, but not as impressive as what I had expected...it was right next to the highway - strange! I don't know what I expected to feel or to happen when I saw the stones, but whatever it was, it didn't happen! Still very interesting phenomena though!

London

My sister and I arrived in London on the 30th of December and hoped to spend the New Year in the heart of downtown, but the tubes went on strike and we were stranded at some local bar in West Drayton near the airport (kind of like a South Milwaukee). We still had fun and made the best of it, but it wasn't the New Year celebration we had anticipated. The following day the tubes were running and we made our way into the heart of London and watched their New Year's Day parade. Amazingly it was mostly bands from the United States - even one from Hawaii!!!


London is an amazing city with TONS to do and my sister and I took full advantage. We went to New Year's Day Mass at Westminster Abbey - there are not words to explain the experience. The full choir was there and it was so peaceful. A nun gave the sermon and it was about letting go - a great message for the New Year!

We did a little shopping and bought some hot cross buns...we thought that was funny.


And I found a restaurant named after my sister...I would have liked to have been able to take her to eat there, but it was gourmet French and VERY pricey...so we just took pics!!!


We almost got hit by cars a couple of times because they drive on the opposite side of the road and we would be looking the wrong way when we crossed the street. Luckily they had info on which way to look painted right on the street for all of the dumb tourists! HA!


My Grandpa was generous enough to buy us prime tickets for the London production of The Lion King...the opening song gave me goose bumps and almost brought me to tears! It was phenomenal - and I am a tough theatre critic. The only bad part was the London kids who were talking through the show! I wanted to turn around and say something, but they were everywhere...it wasn't just one bad kid - they were all little buggers=( Before the show we treated ourselves to a lovely dinner of traditional fish and chips=) (Basically a fish fry at the local church in Wisco!)

Brussels

Brussels was a much more modern city than I had originally anticipated and VERY cold. But we had tons of fun wandering the streets and seeing the sights. One of the "must sees" in Brussels is a statue called Mannequin Pis and it is basically a statue of a little boy peeing. I guess once upon a time the king lost his son in a crowd and vowed that where ever he was found they would erect a statue of the child doing whatever he was doing when he was found...well, he was peeing!

There were still holiday decorations up in the town square and Lindsay and I had a good time making faces in the HUGE silver balloons that were positioned throughout the marketplace...people must have thought we were crazy, but others thought it was fun cause we started a trend and before we knew it other peeps were acting just as silly and taking similar pics.

We also tried their famous waffles and chocolate. I was a much bigger fan of the waffles!!! And they sell them piping hot and covered in a sugar glaze right on the street - YUMMY!!!

Amsterdam

This was the city my Mom was suppose to meet us in, but sadly she was unable to join us. My sister and I stayed in a hostel right in the heart of the Red Light district, but we were good girls - it is not really our scene. It was strange to wander the streets and see the antics around us though. And 2 doors down from our hostel there were prosititues with their red lights on above their doors. I wish people would be able to see Amsterdam for more than the Red Light District. It truly is a beautiful city with so much history and architecture.

We found ourselves lost quite a few times because the canals cute the city up in non-grid-like patterns, but we always found a new adventure around every bend.

It was snowing and late when we first arrived and people gave use the worst directions EVER to our hostel...we ended up jumping into a cab and riding the 6 blocks to our hostel. After so many wrong turns and so much misinformation it was worth the price to be safe in a cab and know we were in the right place. We were too much of a target wandering around with our packs on our backs in the middle of the night.

The snow made for a beautiful morning and all of the thousands of bikes were covered with snow. I can't believe how many bikes there are in Amsterdam! I was more afraid of being run down by a bike than a car (and actually almost got taken out a few times!)

Prague

Everything they say about Prague is true and then some! I loved the city, the people, even the dumpy hostel. It was a wonderful place to spend Christmas. We met some crazy Englishmen and spent Christmas making hot sandwiches in our hostel and then walking the streets handing them out to the homeless. I think we handed out about 80 sandwiches! We spoiled ourselves with a very tasty Christmas dinner at a nice restaurant, but then again, spoiling yourself isn't hard in the CR because our dollar is so strong there.

Everything about the city is truly amazing. It is so beautiful that it sometimes looks fake! We toured the city and stopped at the famous Astronomical Clock, Charles Bridge, Palace, fed some swans, and explored the shopping scene - although we really didn't purchase anything cause we didn't want to lug it all around with us!!!

We also ate chesnuts roasting on an open fire and this WONDERFUL cinn. and sugar coated dough that was roasted over an open fire as well. They were selling these yummy treats on the streets of the Christmas market, which was set up in the main sqaures of the city.

Cesky Krumlov

Next we headed to a town in the Czech Republic called Cesky Krumlov and for the life of me I could not get the name right the entire time we stayed there. Lindsay and I traveled there with a guy named Logan who we met in our hostel in Poland and had a great time. We rented an apartment for the 2 days we were there and it was AMAZING! Kind of reminded me of a little ski chalet, but not on the side of a mountain. The town itself is VERY cute, but very quite. We at at the best vegetarian restaurant EVER and watched a performance of the Christmas Story in the town square...we couldn't understand anything, but it was still very cute! There was a very large man dressed up like an angel complete with a blonde wig (cause of course angels are blonde - uuuhm) and there was a dog in sheeps clothing! I know that is not the exact phrase, but there was a dog wearing a sheeps skin parading around with the donkeys, etc. Much of the time spent in Cesky Krumlov was spent wandering the streets, admiring the Palace, and playing cards and chess in our ski chalet while sipping hot wine and eating yummy cheese. Good times=) On one of our walks my sister and I discovered a little park with streets signs all through it - we liked the train crossing pic the best - can you tell? It was also snowing the first day we arrived so we built a mini snowman=)

Finally in Poland!

It was quite the trek over the Pacific, Mainland USA, and Atlantic, but after 6 airports and quite a bit of confusion I made it to Poland was greeted with this cute sign from my sister (it says "Welcome Tracy") I had to rough it for 3 days in the same cloths because the airlines lost my luggage (ICK!) - I did go to the market and pick up the necessities though.

It was wonderful to see "the Motherland" where so many of my ancestors are from and to see where my sister spent the last 4 months. It was always a bit sad for me that I never got to share where I went to school in Spain with my family. The cold was quite a shock to my system and I pretty much wore everything in my pack just to stay warm! Hawaii has spoiled me.