Hi there!

I know, I know, it's been a while. I'll try to make up for it tonight. Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, we were in Noordwijk, not really sure where we were headed next. Can you guess where we went? That's right! Nowhere!! We loved Noordwijk so much that we ended up staying for the entire rest of Tim's time in Europe. For the last couple of days we rented bikes, which was a lot of fun and a great way to get out of town and see the countryside. Phil introduced us to geo-caching, which is basically a world-wide scavenger hunt based on GPS. It was a lot of fun and gave us a sort of goal instead of just wandeing around randomly. One of the ones we did was a multi-stop cache that involved giving us a whole tour of a park (although I could have done without being introduced to the stinging-nettles and blackberry brambles).

Like I was saying earlier, I really really enjoyed being somewhere for longer than a couple days because I actually got to know people and talk to them over the course of quite a few days. By the end of our stay I almost didn't feel like a guest anymore. At the Jungle Boogie they had on our last night, the only people that got dressed up were the staff, the 3 of us and 1 or 2 other guests :-P I enjoyed myself SO much!! In fact, I liked it so much I might be heading back. I'm thinking of going there to work for the fall instead of going to an Austrian farm to volunteer. It's the same sort of deal where I would get room and board but no money, but I would make a bunch more friends than if I was in the middle of nowhere on an Austrian farm. On the downside though, I wouldn't be in the Alps. I still haven't completely made up my mind. Who knows, maybe I'll do both!

Anyways, that leg of our trip ended on Saturday morning, when Tim had to head into Amsterdam to catch a flight on Sunday. Phil and I left also, said goodbye to Tim and were off to Germany! 7 very long hours later we were in Erfurt which is between Frankfurt and Leipzig. The hostel we were staying in was a HUGE shock considering where we had just come from. Quiet, not very many people and very very large. I was sort of nice to have the whole dorm to ourselves, but I was kind of lonely after being in such a small, social place for so long.

Sunday morning, after a bit of a confusion with the trains, we made it to Leipzig, only having missed the first half of the first hockey (a.k.a field hockey in North America) game of the day. I had no idea what I was going to, but it turns out it was the first day of the European Championship where the winner qualifies for the World Cup next year. It was incredible!! I saw 4 games of hockey that were one thousand times better than anything that is ever played in Nova Scotia! Phil (who is WAY more into hockey than me) informed me that the first 3 games were going to be blow-outs, but it turns out that the exact opposite is true! The second game, Spain vs. Poland, was tied 1-1 until time was up when Spain got about 10 short corners in a row and finally managed to convert to score and win the game. The Germany game was definately the most fun to be at since we're in Germany and got to cheer with the 3000 fans or so. The last game, England vs. Belgium, was good too though partly because Phil just lived in England for a year and knew a lot about the team and partly because they have quite a rivalry, which made for a well fought game. All in all it was a GREAT day and I wish I could have stayed to watch more of the tournament!

Unfortunately though, all good things must come to and end. This morning we got up early again and headed back to Frankfurt, where Phil was flying back to Canada. From there I took 3 more trains all the way to Ludwigsburg to find Steph. I'm so excited to see a friend from home and I get to stay here for a whole week!!! The family she lives with is really really nice and very generous. This weekend they're going away and leaving Pia, the 6 month old girl with the two of us. I'm pretty excited. Although a lot about this place makes me excited: free laundry, a chance to relax and be with a family for a while (it may not be my family but it's still nice) and many many other luxuries that I haven't had in 2 months.

Anyways, that's all for now. My posts from now on are probably going to become less frequent seeing as I'm really not going to be moving around a whole lot anymore. It's a bit scary to me that I've been here for a whole 2 months now and I'm now actually on my own and have to start fending for myself. But I'll manage, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it whereever I end up :-)

Until next time!
Kaila

Noordwijk, Holland

Hello!!

Bet you didn't think I'd still be here :-P So this hostel is absolutely amazing and we've all fallen in love with it. Noordwijk isn't a big place and there really isn't a whole lot to do, but the atmosphere is the best of any hostel I've been in in Europe. The entire staff are people that are working for room and board so they live here and are always hanging out and are really really friendly. Every morning we wake up and decide that we want to spend another day. I think my favorite part is making friends that I get to see again the next day (or even the day after that!!). It's a nice change from meeting people for 2, 3, 4 hours and then never again. It's also a really nice change of pace, especially after the music festival. We've been spending our days hanging out on the beach and playing mini-golf and our nights hanging out with the staff and other hostellers (and also some night time swims). We also eat supper with the staff, which is a lot of fun. For 6 euros they'll just make enough for you as well (since they all live here and eat here anyways) They claim there are only 8 of them but I swear more than half the people I've met while here are staff. A bunch of them were at the same festival as me and Tim which is awesome!! It seems everyone likes it as much as us. But how could you not?

Anyways, we have yet to decide if/when we're leaving here. Tim has to be back in Amsterdam in about 4 days, so if we go somewhere, it can't be too far away. Maybe somewhere in Germany close by, but who knows: we could just end up hanging out here and relaxing for the whole time.

Tune in later to find out where I am :-)
Kaila

The awesomest time ever

Okay, so the festival is over and it was unlike anything I've ever seen and probably ever will seen. It's so hard to describe to anyone that wasn't there, but believe me, it was AWESOME. Yesterday was probably my favorite day, although I am a little worse for wear. I learned why people have been telling me all weekend that I'm crazy for wearing flip-flops. Tim and I waiting in the line to get into the front section for Incubus and it was CRAZYNESS. There was no moving at all ever except when you got pushed by the mosh pit when all at once everyone leaned in one direction and then in the other. I actually lost one of my flip-flops at one point. Amazingly enough though, I managed to find it again :-) How great is that?? Incubus was incredible (I fell in love with the singer :-)). Not until after I left did I notice that one of my big toe-nails was ripped off and all bloody (on top of the blackness from the grossness of the floor and being stepped on and stuff). It was pretty disgusting, but on the whole, definately worth it. I had the most amazing time ever this weekend.

Other than Incubus, yesterday I also saw Korn, Dropkick Murphys, Queens of the stone age, Nick cave and the bad seeds and Foo Fighters. I can't believe how many good bands I saw this weekend, it's surreal. But it's all over and now it's back to the 'real' world (in quotes of course because I'm living an entirely surreal life at the moment and none of it resembles real life whatsoever).

This morning we met up with our friend Phil and now we're on the coast in Holland at a place called Noordwijk. This afternoon we went to the beach and it was definately NOT the meditteranean, but was still a lot of fun! It actually reminds me a lot of beaches in Nova Scotia. And same sort of temperature at the end of summer (decent but not really warm). We're going to stay here for a couple nights and then I think we'll head to Germany for a couple of days. Tim has to be back in Amsterdam on the 27th to head home. On the 28th I think Phil and I are going to check out a field hockey tournament somewhere in Germany. He flies home on the 29th at which point I get to go visit Steph for a while! I can't wait!!!!

I have a farm list for farms all over Austria that I can volunteer at and I'm hopefully going to start contacting my favorites in the next couple days so I can find somewhere fun to live/work/play for September. At the moment I'm thinking I'll hang out at places for about a month but I have no idea how much I'll like it, so I'll make more definate decisions when I get there.

That's all for now! I hope everyone in Halifax had fun at the birthday celebrations this weekend! I wish I could have been there!!! (although I wouldn't have given up being at Lowlands for the world).

Thanks for all the comments!! 9 is definately a record (although I know one of them is my own)
Talk to you soon!
Kaila

So it's almost the end of day 2 of 3 of the Lowlands Festival 2005. It is incredible and impossible to describe. There are about 7 or 8 stages and usually at least 2 or 3 people playing at any one time to choose from. Tim and I have been sticking mostly together except for this afternoon when he went to Coheed and Cambria while I went to Arcade Fire. I'm am having an awesome time and love all the music I've been hearing. So far I like the medium sized stage the best because it's small enough that you can usually get right up close but big enough to have a big crowd. After watching Social Distortion last night we went to the main stage to check out the Prodigy and it was absolutely out of control. All you could see was shoulders and heads forever and ever. I'd guess about 40 (of the 55) thousand people were there. HUMUGOUS! Anyways, today's highlights also include Bad Religion which was at the big stage, but we went a bit early so we were right up about 5 people from the front and it was SO much fun!!! Now the Pixies are playing, but I was getting a little worn out from being up front all the time so I took a break to come on here and am meeting Tim after they are over. marilyn Manson is going to play at the big stage soon. We'll probably go see it for a little (you can see up on a hill and not really see that well but still hear it and watch the big screens). I'm exhausted at the moment so I'm hoping to be able to go to bed soon. Tomorrow's lineup includes Dropkick Murphys, Nick Cave andt he Bad Seeds, the Foo Fighters, Incubus and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

Anyways, another fun thing: I love being from Canada! I've now gotten our Canada Flag signed by every canadian act we've seen except Death From Above 1979 because we had to leave them early for Bad Religion. It's GREAT because they always see it and recognize us as Canadian's :-)

Last fun thing: you can collect cups and get paid for them. For every 5 cups you collect you get 1 coin (equal to a euro), so Tim and I collect whenever we ahve nothing better to do. So far we've managed to pay for all our food and drinks with our collections :-D

Okay i think the Pixies are over so I shoudl go find Tim. Talk to you soon!!!!

Kaila

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ (I don't know if you read these anymore, but oh well :-)

Hey!!

I know I already updated today, but i'm having a GREAT time at the Lowlands festival and the internet is free so I figured I'd update again. Today we saw LOTS of great acts including Polyphonic Spree, K-Os, Social Distortion and so on and so forth. For the whole K-Os act I had Tim's Canada flag around my neck and periodically got very excited about the fact that they were canadian. At the end of their act I managed to make my way backstage and got most of them to sign my canada flag. It was SO much fun :-D Anyways, I'm having a great time and the phone is Free, so if you want a phone call leave me your number and I'll call for free.

Love,
Kaila

Hey!!!

I'm at the Lowlands music festival and we've met up with a couple that have been coming to this festival for 4 years. They're great and they have been letting us know how things go here. We got to the train station around noon and shared a cab to the concert which worked out perfectly so that we could get in early and get a good camping site. The concerts start in a couple hours and I can't wait! Today's lineup includes K-Os, Franz Ferdinand, the Prodigy and polyphonic Spree and lots of other bands. It's awesome. Internet is free here so I may update often, but it's super hot in here so probably not long updates. Thanks for all the comments! Talk to you soon!
Kaila

Not a whole lot to report today, but it's my last time on the internet until next monday, so I thought I'd update. Pretty much all that's happened since last update is the overnight train from St. Gervais (near Chamonix) to Paris followed by another couple trains to Rotterdam. It doesn't really sound like much fun, but I think I'm starting to get used to these overnight trains. I slept pretty decently last night compared to the other trains (without beds). Now we're in Rotterdam. We found out from the girl working at Subway that there's a football (a.k.a soccer) game tonight: Holland against Germany, so we think we'll check that out at the hostel. Before that though, we have to do some shopping and stock up on supplies before heading to the music festival so that we don't get caught having to spend tons and tons of money while there.

Other than that, not much to say. Really, really looking forward to sleeping in a bed tonight! Then tomorrow morning it's up early and off to Lelystad for the music festival!! So excited!!! Next update will be after 3 full days of lots and lots of music (again, check out The Lowlands Website if you want to see who). Talk to you then!

Kaila

Moms are GREAT!

The Alps are absolutely AMAZING! I could stay here for weeks... maybe even months :-) Yesterday it still wasn't very nice out, but we decided to go for a hike anyways. We hiked up about 650 vertical meters up to the glacier and it was super super cool. Tim and Evan (a guy from Montana that we met along the way) decided to go across the scree type valley thing so that they could actually touch the glacier, but I wasn't quite so stupid. They survived though, so all is well with the world. That hike took us about 5 hours or so (including lots of stops to enjoy the views).

Last night, for the first time since we started camping, I didn't wake up even ONCE until after the sun came up and it was all because of my Mom :-) I love my new sleeping bag, it's AWESOME.

Today was our only really really nice day since we've gotten here. We got up early to pack up our tent and stuff and headed out. We took a gondola and a cable car up about 1500 vertical meters where we got the most spectacular view of Mt. Blanc and lots of other mountains that I don't remember the name of. I really can't explain it, but it's the most spectacular views I've ever seen. From the top we hiked down. I never really realized that walking downhill was so much work, but now, 4 hours later I'm exhausted and my feet are sore. It was definately worth it though. Absolutely amazing. Now it's just a matter of getting our bags, grabbing some food and taking the overnight train to Paris and then off to Rotterdam! It's going to be GREAT.

I know I didn't write very much today, but believe me, this place is amazing. I can't wait until the winter when I get to come back and actually go skiing on it!!

Kaila

So I came on to check my comments today only to see that the update I provided yesterday didn't work! GRRR.... oh well. I'm not going to write a whole lot today, but I'll do my best. Getting from Spain to the Alps was a pain. 6 trains and 31 hours of little to no sleep... ugh. But it was ALL worth it when we arrived here in Chamonix!! I think I was made to be in the mountains!!!! I love it so so so much. The view from our campsite is spectacular with mountains on either side and the bottom of the glacier in view on one. It's part that they call 'mer de glace' or sea of ice. I don't really know how to explain it, but seeing it makes me really understand how glaciers are so powerful and have played such a big part in shaping our earth. It's really awe inspiring. Today is our 'day-off'. And good thing, because it's pretty miserable out. Our tent has had it's first real test - pouring rain off and on all day - and it hasn't completely passed. It leaks a little, but for a cheap tent, we're staying pretty dry (the leaking is mainly in the area wherewe keep our stuff). Other than hanging out in our tent and getting a nice long shower, we've done laundry, gone shopping a bit and just sort of wandered the town. Last night was our coldest night yet, and I don't think either of us slept very well. Tonight is supposed to be even colder, so today we got some cheap, warm socks and we'll be sure to bundle up. I'll probably be wearing pretty much all my clothes :-P These are the nights when I wish I had a sleeping bag instead of just a sheet. Anyways, the store is closing up, so I gotta run. It's supposed to start clearing up tomorrow and we're going to find a nice hike to do. I can't wait!! Until next time! Kaila P.S. I just figured out what happened to yesterday's post.I had saved it as a draft :-P Oh well, the gyst of it is here, so I won't bother posting it.

Madrid: the last big city

So here we are in Madrid. It´s probably the last big place we´ll go before Tim goes home, and I´m glad because I´ve definately had enough of cities. This keyboard that I´m on is really bad, and the screen is all fuzzy, so I´m not going to go into detail today, but I´ll give you the gyst :-)

We got into Madrid yesterday morning after another overnight train with no bed, but I got much more sleep than the last one because it wasn´t nearly as loud in the car and I had a window to lean against :-) But by the time we got to the campsite and set up our tent (in the pouring rain), we were exhausted and napped for about 5 hours. After that we headed back into the city to grab some supper and wander the city a bit. On first opinion I really didn´t like Madrid all that much. It just seemed like a crowded, dirty city with nothing special about it. Although, the fact that it was raining probably didn´t help my opinion very much. Today we woke up fairly ealry and instead of staying in the city (which neither of us really felt like doing), we decided to head to El Escorial, a monastery outside of Madrid that I´d heard was really nice. It took a LONG time to get there (about two and a half hours with the bus and then the metro and then another bus), but we finally made it and it was great! I think it was the first real Palace that I´ve been to on this trip: it´s own little world! The crazyest part about it is the pantheons, where Spanish royalty from the 15th century to today are kept (well, just the dead ones of course). Kinda creepy., but cool. The whole thing was really spectacular though. Can you imagine having a ´walking room´? It was londer than my whole house was just for King Phillip II (who had it built) to go for walks at dusk. Crazy!

With all the buses and such we haven´t really had much time in Madrid today, but my opinion of it is increasing slowly. It´s a nice day, plus the part of Madrid we´ve seen today is loads nicer than what we saw yesterday. We´re not going to go to any museums or anything, but we went to a big park which was really nice and just sort of wandered the city.

Tomorrow morning we start a 2 day trek to Chamonix. We have to leave Madrid at about noon to get to Barclona in time to catch an overnight train to Lyon. Once there we hae another 4 hour train to Chamonix. Hopefully the next time I update will be from there :-)

Hope all is well on the other side of the Atlantic!
Kaila

P.S. Mom: I´m having trouble accessing my email, so in case I can´t manage to get on, I figured out how to get a hold of Royal Bank and it all worked out fine.

Barcelona

It´s been a couple days. Mostly because I spent yesterday responding to some of the emails I haven´t gotten around to for a while (although there are still more) but also because I was a little disappointed in the lack of comments :-P I guess it´s gotten nice enough out in Canada that people are out having their own fun instead of reading about mine. Oh well...

Anyways, we leave Barcelona tonight, but it´s been great. When I first got here, I wasn´t very excited to be back in a big, touristy, hot city, but I think the break from the touristyness rejuvenated me because I´ve really enjoyed it! Yesterday we started out by just wandering the city and randomly came across a Salvador Dalí museum, so we went in :-) He was a very, very strange man, and he makes my head hurt. The museum was mostly sketches, drawings and sculptures of his and didn´t have any of his big masterpieces, but they were still super cool and had lots to look at. I think I liked it better in museums with just a couple of his works though because they all take so much thought to absorb!

Next stop was the museum of the history of Barcelona, but it was closed on Mondays. So instead we decided to make the 4-5km trek to Park Güell which was designed by Gaudí. I had never heard of Gaudí before I got here, but he was apparently a famous architect because his stuff is all over Barcelona! It was a long, long walk in the hotness, but worth it. The park was super cool with the centerpiece being this pavillion thing that has all sorts of mosaics on the ceilings and then on the roof where there´s a serpentine bench that´s all made of mosaic and goes all the way around. The rest of the park was really cool too with crazy stuff like a slanted archway. The park also provided really nice views of Barcelona. Boy is Barcelona big!!

By this time we were pretty exhausted so we took the metro back to where we started and headed back to the campsite. Unfortunately easier said than done. I don´t have time to go into it all today, but we arrived at the bus stop at 7pm and put wandering the city looking for a different bus stop and passing our campsite together and we didn´t get back until after 10pm. Ugh... exhausting!

This morning we packed up and headed out by noon. Our first stop was Montjuic where the Royal Palace and the Olympic stadium are. We didn´t go in either of the museums, but wandering around was cool. The field inside Olympic stadium looked SO nice and made me miss soccer even more than I do already!!

After wandering for a little longer we made it back to the museum from the day before. It was pretty neat. Underneath a palace/church (I´m not sure which one it is), there is a whole excavation site of the ancient town of Barcino which was in the 1st to 6th century AD (I think) You go down an elevator and there´s this whole archaelogical site with explanations about what everything was. Among other things we saw a fish plant, wine factory and some of the wall that went around the city and a episcopal church/ palace from a few centuries later than the other stuff.

I´m running out of time, but luckily that´s about all we´ve done. Now we have a few hours to wait until our train leaves for Madrid. I´m expecting it to be super, super hot there (the 35 it is here is plenty hot for me) but I think I´ll be able to survive for the 2 days :-) On the 12th we have trains booked to take us to Lyon, where hopefully we´ll go to Chamonix and spend a few days in the Alps.

Until next time!
Kaila

Porto? Barcelona?

They´re the same aren´t they? Haha, or they could be on complete opposite coasts of the Iberian peninsula. So last you heard we were in Bilbao waiting to get a train to Porto. Unfortunately the only train leaving Bilbao all day was to Barcelona. So we figured, why not? So off to Barcelona we went!

Oh wait, I forgot something. We had about 6 hours to waste in Bilbao and I saw a pamphlet in the tourist info place for an aquarium, so I decided we should go :-) It was AWESOME! It wasn´t all that big, around 25 tanks with different stuff but the stuff in it was pretty cool. Way cooler than all the stuff I got to play with on my field course. Octopi, lots of corals and some Nemo´s too! But the best part was the guy that owned it. He didn´t speak very much english but pretty much as soon as we got there he came to us and started explaining all sorts of different things about the different tanks (or at least, as much as he could). It was super, super cool. I think he liked me because I showed so much enthusiasm :-) Way to be a biology nerd! After we had seen all the tanks, he brought Tim and I back in behind the big coral tank and let us see how it all works and everything! I loved it!

Anyways, after that awesome sidetrack, we got on our night train to Barcelona. We were in a room with a couple of people off of a Breaker High! Well, not really, because it was only for 2 months and was actually university credits, but still pretty cool. I would love to get credit for cruising all over the world!! It was a much better night train than the last because of them and because we actually had beds (although we did get woken up in the middle of the night because we were in the wrong beds, but whatever).

We arrived in Barcelona this mornign and haven´t really done a whole lot. We found a campsite and set up our tent. I don´t like it as much as the other places we´ve been staying. It´s more crowded, sort of like a mini resort, but it´s okay. I like the swimming pool! We cooled off in the pool, had showers and then headed back into Barcelona to book trains for the rest of our Spanish excursions. We wanted to stay here a couple of nights and then head to Seville and Madrid, but all the trains to Seville are booked, so after a couple of nights here we´re heading to Madrid. Then we´re there for a couple nights and have to come back to Barcelona for a couple hours before heading to Lyon, France. We´re hoping to go to Chamonix and spend our last few nights before the music festival in the Alps :-) I can´t believe that the festival is so close! That´s almost the end of Tim´s trip which means the end of my travelling and the beginning of me having to survive in Europe by myself. Eek!! Although I guess it´s not really THAT close. Tim doesn´t leave for another 3 weeks or so.

Anyways, I gotta run, I don´t have a lot of time. Tomorrow I´m hoping to spend a while on the internet so I can answer all the emails I haven´t gotten a chance to for the last couple of weeks.
Until then!!
Kaila

Siesta sucks

Well, I suppose for the people who actually rest during siesta it wouldn´t suck, but for us who are used to actually doing stuff between 1 and 5 it gets kind of frustrating. Right now we´re in Bilbao, trying to make our way to Portugal, but the train station doesn´t even sell tickets during fiesta so we´re stuck here until at least 4:30. So in the mean time, here I am so I´ll update everyone one what we´ve been up to.

We left San Sebastian a few days ago and headed west to Deba (still in Basque Country). It was a lot of waiting around for trains and buses and stuff, but we finally made it to a camp site that was near the beach. It was a lot smaller than the last campsite, but basically just a big field where everyone sets up their tents instead of having actual sites. But that was okay. I liked it! The first day there (it´s actually called Saturraran) we went to the beach and went swimming. It was a pretty nice beach. The biggest difference from home was that there were fish (and not tiny things) that kept jumping out of the water super near to where we were swimming! I´m not scared of fish or anything, but seeing as the biggest fish that usually get anywhere near me are minnows, it freaked me out a little!

After swimming we headed into a town we could see, which we found out later was called Ondarroa. It was pretty tiny and built on pretty much a cliff. Once again, we got annoyed at siesta becaue nothing was open! So we waited around and wandered for a while until stuff started opening again. The town was centered around a river that was pretty normal looking, but had HUGE fish everywhere! Okay, maybe not huge, but I´d say about 2 feet long and they were literally EVERYWHERE and just sort of hanging out right by the surface! I´ve never seen anything like it.

Turns out the only place to use the internet there was this one computer that was free, but you were only supposed to use it for 15 mintues. Hence me not having updated in the last couple of days. After a quick check of emails, we stopped at the supermarket for supper and then back to the campground. We spent the evening there playing cards and just sort of hanging out. We go to bed a lot earlier now that we´re camping because there isn´t really anythign to do once it gets dark out.

Next morning we slept in and then did laundry which we hung to try on clothes lines that we had made attached to our tent. It looked really funny :-P (We took a picture of it so you can all see it later). The lady at the reception told us about a trail that went up one of the mountains where there was a church and a pretty view at the top, so we decided to try to find it. We searched for about an hour and found a pear orchard, someones garden and greenhouse and some goats before we gave up. Then, on the way back to the campground, we found it! It was a LONG, STEEP walk up, but the view at the top didn´t disappoint. It was a spectacular panorama with mountains and a bay surrounded by cliffs. I can´t wait to see the picutres!

After our hike, we were both pretty worn out. We spent the ramainder of the day/evening lazing around, napping, playing cards and a little fooseball. We went to bed even earlier than the night before!

This morning we were planning on letting our tent dry out before packing it up but at about 9:45 we realized that if we didn´t catch the 10:15 bus we were going to have to wait until 1:15. So we got up and rushed to pack eveything up and just barely made it. We took the bus back to Deba and then the train here to Bilbao. Now here we are waiting, like I said at the beginning. We´re hoping we can get an overnight train to Portugal, but if we can´t we´re going to stay here for a night and head out early tomorrow. In the mean time I guess we´ll just wander the city and see what we can find!

That´s all for now!
Kaila

San Sebastian, Part II

So I think I´m going to like camping! Last night was a little cold, but we´re working on that today by investing in a sweater (since I lost mine in Holland) and a blanket hopefully. Other than the coldness though, I´m really li9king how we have our own space and aren´t cramped into a room with 6 other people. It feels almost like a home :-) Plus we get to get a little further out of town. I think I got enough city visiting in in the first month of travel to last me for a while. I still don´t feel completely rested, but a whole lot better than yesterday!

San Sebastian is beautiful. Definately the nicest scenery since we´ve been in Greece. I couldn´t figure out how to describe it, so I went and found a picture on the internet :-) None of the ones I found really do it justice, but here´s the best one:

There´s a mountain on either side of the city. This picture was probably taken from the top of one of them. We spent the morning climbing up and exploring the one that you can see on the left of this picture. It´s sort of San Sebastian´s version of Point Pleasant Park. It had all sorts of forts and stuff all the way up and then at the top there are really gorgeous views off both sides and a chapel/statue type thing. My favorite view was the one of the island (but from the other side).



Since then we´ve basically been wandering the city looking for a blanket and a sweater. We had lunch and came here and are off on our mission again soon. We were going to go to the beach and go swimming, but neither of us want to leave our stuff unattended or go by ourselves, so we´ll probably just end up sticking our feet in the water. It´s not really that hot here anyways. Or, I suppose it sort of is (around 30 degrees) but it´s not at all humid, so it´s really quite pleasant.

Anyways, that´s all for now. I guess we haven´t really done a whole lot since yesterday. Tomorrow we´re going to go a bit west, but not far. Most of the parks/natural places around here aren´t accessible by train, but we think we might be able to get to one of them, plus there´s a nearby campground with it´s own pool!

Talk to you soon!
Kaila

San Sebastian

So we made it to Spain. The overnight train was anything but fun. It was loud and uncomfortable and the seats didn´t even recline. Tim had the window which meant that I didn´t even have anywhere to lean against (except him every once in a while) so I didn´t exactly get very much sleep. We arrived in Irún at about 6:30am with plans on finding out what there was to do there. However, Irún was kind of scary and we couldn´t find a tourist information place (which we needed to find a camp site) so we decided to get on the next train and go to San Sebastian like we had orginally planned. San Sebastian is WAY better than Irún :-) When we got here it was still only about 7:30 and the tourist info place doesn´t open until 9 so it was another LONG wait. I was about as tired as I have been when I pulled all-nighters at school, and it wasn´t fun. Once the tourist place opened it was easy to find a camp site and take a bus out to it.

After waiting in a line to get a site, it was time to test out our new tent! And boy was it tested! Just as we were getting it out to set up, it was starting to rain. I was so worried that it wouldn´t be waterproof and we´d spend the next 3 days soaking wet, but luckily the way the tent works you set up the fly before the rest of the tent so everything stayed relatively dry and the tent passed!! By this point it was around 11am and I still hadn´t really slept at all. I managed to get a little sleep, but the rain stopped pretty much as soon as we had the tent set up so by 1 or 2 the sun beating down on the tent was making it like a sauna. Still no sleep for Kaila :-( I wasted time a little while waiting for Tim to wake up. The campground we´re at has an AWESOME view! It´s on a mountain making it a good view for most people but boy am I glad we´re staying at the top! It´s a long, steep walk up from the bottom sites.

Tim woke up around 4pm and we decided to head back into San Sebastian to see what we could find. But being 5pm and not having had a real meal or any real sleep doesn´t really make me want to go be a tourist or really do antyhing at all. We found a little food (despite the fact that most restaurants don´t serve food at this time of day. They have lunch in the early afternoon and then don´t eat supper until it get´s dark so most restaurants close their kitchen in the late afternoon-early evening) and then found this internet place. We´re going to go to the supermarket to stock up on food for back at the campsite and then call it an early night. I can´t wait for the sun to go down so that I can finally get some sleep!

I´m really looking forward to the next couple of days because from what I´ve been given from the tourist office and the views I´ve already seen, this area of Spain is really spectacular. I think tomorrow we might explore San Sebastian a little and then going to go find some nature (maybe). At this point we´re thinking that we´ll go west along the coast next and find another place to camp on the way to Portugal where we think we´re going to go to Porto (not as big as Lisbon).

I hope everyone at home is doing well! I´m jealous of all of my family who have gotten to see all sorts of pictures that I haven´t! :-P

Until next time!
Kaila

PICTURES!!!

Hello!

So the day has finally come that I got to see some of the pictures from my trip! I have yet to get my own developed, but Justine has posted some of hers to webshots so I got to see them :-) I figured I would put some of them on here to show you all what I've been up to. If you want to see all of them, the website she posted them to is on the comments from yesterday.

This is in Paris when it was REALLY REALLY hot out, so we took a break from the exploring of the city to stick our feet in the fountain for a while. There were a few guys actually swimming in the fountain! It was hot enough that I might have joined them if I had a little more confidence in the cleanliness of the fountain.

This is on one of the islands in the middle of Paris. I think it's the one that's not Ile de la Cité, but I forget what it's called. Maybe Ille St. Louis? Anyways, this may be where my addiction to French and Italian ice cream began. By the time we left Italy I was having at least one ice cream a day. Mmmm... Ice Cream

This is a view from part way up the Eiffel Tower

Arc de Triomphe. Pretty self-explanatory

This is in a park. I think it's in Avignon. I'm trying to drink the fountain... Well... not really... but I'm trying to make it look like I'm drinking the fountain.

The beach in Nice. Definately the coolest coloured beach I've ever seen! Unfortunately by this point we had just spent 2 days on the beach in St. Raphael and had definately gotten enough sun to last us for a while. But it was nice just sitting on the benches enjoying the view :-) I did go in the water once. It was crazy... rock beach and very strong waves and steep incline makes for hard swimming!
The pidgeon picture that lots of people seem to enjoy so much. Me, I don't know if I'm a fan. Although you can tell pretty easily what I thought of the pidgeons :-P I guess I didn't really hate them; it was cool when they were all crowding around Graham. I just didn't particularly like it landing on my shoulder!


A view of Florence that we got from the town called Fiesole that we went to. I included this one just because I think the clouds are really cool. Like a painting!


Sleeping on the ferry. I hope that's the longest ferry I ever have to go on! 22 hours is WAY too much! Although, I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if we had a bed. Maybe when I'm old and have my own money :-)


What we spent so many hours of ferry rides on for :-) Swimming on the Greek Islands... oh paradise. I definately want to go back to the Greek Islands!

These last two were included more for me :-) I miss my family and of course Ellie!! All Graham's relatives loved looking at all my pictures though! I'm glad I brought them :-) For those of you who have seen my house, look how different it looks! I can't believe it! When I get home it'll look like this AND have renovations done: it won't even feel like home anymore!

Anyways, today was a good day to get the pictures because there isn't too much to report. We spent all day today getting a tent. We had to wait an hour and half for the bus and then got to the store at lunch time and had to wait until 2 for it to open. But now we have a tent and can't wait to start using it! I think it's going to be fun! It'll be really good in Spain, but I don't know if I'll want to camp when we get colder places because I don't have very many warm clothes or even a sleeping bag.

Now we don't really think we have time to get anywhere today before our 8pm train. So we're just hanging out, using the internet and such waiting. We're going to stock up on some food from the supermarket for our overnight train :-)

That's all for now! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!!
Kaila