France

So, as if our plans could actually work the way we want them to. Our eurail tickets came by special delivery to the hotel on Wednesday afternoon. The hotel refused to accept them because they did not recognize the name, now they knew we were waiting on a delivery but that didn't tip them off. Victoria tells us this on Thursday around 1130 as we were waiting for our ticket to arrive at 12 to leave! GOSH! Anyway, Jordan ended up taking an hour train ride to the nearest fedex place to pick up our tickets and then we ended up leaving England around 530 last night arriving in Calais France around 7pm. Well, the city of Calais was pretty much shut down and so was the train station so we sat down outside the train station planning on waiting the eight hours till the first train Friday morning. As it got colder we walked over to the hotel across the street and paid to stay there. We got up and got on the 1230 train to Paris and arrived around 230pm. After having a great conversation with some random Frenchman that wanted to practice English we got off at the Notre Dame Cathedral to take pictures. We thought that the Eiffel tower was not that much of a walk from there but after walking the wrong direction for about twenty minutes we walked about an hour to get there. We then realized that we could not get to the train station at rush hour to get on the last train to Austria so now we are stuck in Paris for the night. We will be getting up early in the morning (Saturday) and taking the train to Vienna and then on to Hungary by bus. No idea what the internet situation in Hungary will be like but we will try to keep you posted!

Observations of a day

I sit alone in a dingy and dark hotel facing the front door,
waiting, watching, but what for?
Wondering, what will pass by on the street outside?
A mother or father or businessman with quick stride.
Instead of watching, instead of waiting
We should all not be hesitating
To dance, to sing, quick to love,
Give praise to the one above,
And be the one walking by outside,
For others to watch as they sit still and hide.

New Travel Plans:

Step one: Head out tomorrow on a ferry to Calais
Step two: Take a train to Paris and see the sights for a few hours
Step three: Jump on an overnight train to Hungary
Step four: Stay 7 days in Hungary at Victoria's house FOR FREE
Step six: Take a train to Venice and enjoy the city for a day and a half
Step seven: Go to Rome by train and see the awesomeness for a day and a half
Step eight: Head to Bruges on a train for a day before heading over to Ireland

That's all we've got so far and who knows if that's how it will truly play out. We'll keep you updated! Cheers mates

Dover x 4 days

So after our second bout of sleeping in 15 hours we were planning on getting up, heading up the cliffs of Dover and then heading towards Hastings in the afternoon. Our plans were dramatically changed. We woke up, went to eat breakfast, at the White Cliff hotel where we stayed last night, and started talking to the proprietor of the hotel, Viktoria. Viktoria is probably seventy five years old and owns her hotel that she has paid off. Viktoria is a Hungarian immigrant to the UK and grew up in Austria and Hungary during the cold war. It was so cool to hear some of her stories! Anyway, Viktoria started asking us about our trip and asking us why we weren't going to the continent while we were over here. We explained how we were focusing on England and we were going to hit Scotland and spend some time in Ireland; all three were places we had spent much time in already. Well Viktoria told us how we couldn't not go to the continent because it was so beautiful and something we could not miss in our lifetimes. She then told us how she owned two houses in Hungary and that if we went to her town we could stay there for free for 7 days because we had stayed at her hotel here! She then told us about Eurail passes and how if we got one we could travel all over Europe, sleep on the train, and see most of the continent for minimal expense. We started thinking about it and decided it was a great idea! We then researched for the afternoon and ended up buying Eurail passes. This was a quick decision but one we are very happy with. We have seen much of England before and really only have probably five cities that we would really like to see! At this same time we got hit with jet lag and being worn out from our hike we have stayed in Dover for three days resting and waiting for our passes to come in the mail. Viktoria offered us the hotel here for twenty pounds a night for the both of us (about thirty dollars a night) for a very nice two bed bedroom in her hotel. She gave us tonight (Wed) night for free so we wouldn't have to spend any more money! The best part of our trip to the continent will be spending Euros instead of Pounds Sterling because the Euro is almost one to one with the American dollar and the pound is about 1.5 dollars to the pound!!! Nice! Look for a post from Jordan about what our plans are for the continent starting tomorrow afternoon (Thursday!)

Awaiting Sunset

She walks up to the top of the hill,
slowly, so slowly, taking her time
a bag of fruit in her hand,
as is her daily custom.
People at the top, she moves away.
Alone, to the side, she sits down,
smoothes out her skirt, and looks out over the city below.
A tangelo in her hand she contemplates the world as it appears before her.
Seconds, minutes, hours pass fiercely into oblivion.
As the sun sets she peals her fruit.
Hope.

To Dover!

Hunter and I set out from the campground towards Dover with our packs on our back. Hunter led the march since he is the Garmin navigator. The trek was going to be about 15 miles in all and the Garmin said we could make it in about 5 hours. We both geared up with our Ipods which helped to keep us entertained while hiking down some REALLY long roads and even led to us having a dance party in the middle of nowhere. We were able to see some beautiful countryside since a good number of the miles we hiked were through big open fields. After 5 miles of hiking the trails eventually led us to a major highway going to Dover. The next mile we walked on the side of the highway which was pretty scary with all the cars and semi's rushing by only a few feet away from our right shoulders. We decided to take the first exit we saw since we were both uncomfortable with this mode of walking. We had been hiking for 4 hours now and we had made it 6 miles; we were beat. Our legs, shoulders, and feet were killing us. After resting for a while and realizing that there was no way we could make it the remaining 9 miles today we decided to walk to the nearest town a mile down the road. On the way I gave the old "hitching thumb" a try and sure enough a man pulled over and asked where we were heading. We told him Dover and he said "Get in", we were amazed. This was the nicest man we had met in all of England. He had his little daughter whom Hunter and I guessed was about 2 years old sitting in the back. I sat up front and Hunter in the back. As we talked with David Goodlad about our trip he asked us if we had money and if we had eaten recently. After we assured him we did and had he gave us his business card and told us to call him if we ever got into any trouble or needed anything. The rest of the 9 miles to Dover which would have taken a whole other day of hiking took about 8 minutes in a car... During those few minutes he told us about the history of the area we were in and answered any questions we had. He dropped us off at the port as we thanked him several times. We then walked into town and got lunch at a kebab place. Next we found a hotel ran by what must have been some of David's friends because they were just as nice if not nicer! They gave us a room for 10 pounds cheaper than normal! (More about Victoria and Chris later) We then slept for 6 hours from 3:30 to 9:30. We woke up laughing about how much we had slept when our plan was just to take a nap. The next 3 hours we spent walking around Dover taking pictures. Then we went back to sleep after counting our blessings.

Canterbury

So we left London on Saturday afternoon. We decided to take a bus out of London so we could get as far out of the big city as we could. London rolls on for ever so it is hard to escape the greater London area. We got to Canterbury (where I had been before) and Jordan had not) and started walking through the city. We got over to Canterbury cathedral (shout out to Chaucer!) and realized it was 15 pounds to go inside. Since I had already been I decided not to go in and Jordan didn't know if he wanted to go in so we decided to cook some lunch and think about it. By this time it was about 5:30pm. We walked back over to the cathedral and it was just open to the public for free after 5pm. The "main" touristy area was closed but we were able to walk into the site where Thomas Becket was martyred and into the crypt. We then were able to walk around the gardens and the inner cloisters. The boys choir started singing when we were in the crypt and it was so amazing! Almost all the areas we got to see were amazing and off the beaten tourist route. We then went by Saint Augustine's abbey to visit the ruins/ buy a bottle of mead but it was closed. We then took off out of the city towards Dover and walked about 2 miles to the Camping and Caravan club of Canterbury and put up our tent for the night. What we learned was that if you put your tent on a hill facing downhill then you will slide out of your sleeping bag and into your backpack all night! What a night! We got up the following morning and packed up our campsite, put our packs on our back, and headed towards Dover, but that is another story.

Itinerary

Rough estimates!!!

London to Canterbury- 19hrs (ENGLAND!)
Canterbury to Dover- 5 hours
Dover to Hastings- 14.5 hours
Hastings to Brighton- 12 hours
Brighton to Portsmouth- 17 hours
Portsmouth to Southhampton- 6 hours
Southhampton to Exeter- 35 hours
Exeter to Tintagil- 20 hours
Tintagil to Glastonbury- 36 hours
Glastonbury to Bath- 8.26 hours
Bath to Swindon- 10.44 hours
Swindon to Oxford- 9.3 hours
Oxford to Stratford-Upon-Avon- 13 hours
Stratford-Upon-Avon to Birmingham- 8 hours
Birmingham to Nottingham- 16.5 hours
Nottingham to Manchester- 22.15 hours
Manchester to Newcastle- 42 hours
Newcastle to Edinburgh- 34 hours (SCOTLAND!)
Edinburgh to Scottish Highlands- 2 days*
Edinburgh to Glasgow- 14.41 hours
Glasgow to Belfast- 20 hours (NORTHERN IRELAND!)
Belfast to Sligo-41 hours (IRELAND!)
Sligo to County Galway- 26 hours
County Galway to Athenry- 4.28 hours
Athenry to Shannon- 15.26 hours
Shannon to Listowel- 18 hours
Listowel to Killarney- 10 hours
Killarney to Cork- 16.36 hours
Cork to Blarney- 2 hours
Blarney to Waterford- 24 hours
Waterford to Kilkenny- 10 hours
Kilkenny to Dublin-23 hours
Dublin to Holyhead- 3.36 hours (WALES!)
Holyhead to Liverpool- 37 hours (ENGLAND!)
Liverpool to London- 65 hours

ESTIMATED IN HOURS OF WALKING!

Men About Town

So... I just wrote a HUGE update on what we did yesterday but I was kicked off the internet and the whole post was lost... Needless to say this post will be much shorter considering my temperament right now. Hunter and I walked all over the place yesterday. We saw the typical tourist hot spots which had already seen 2 years before: Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Kensington Gardens, Southwark, and Piccadilly Circus. We also dropped in at the good ol' Sherlock Holmes pub for a drink. Some places we checked out for the first time were the Jewel Tower (at Westminster), Peter Pan Statue (in Kensington Gardens), and the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street. We ate our first Backpacker's Pantry meal for lunch (mexican rice with beef) which was pretty tasty considering all you do is add boiling water. For dinner we went to ICCO right down the street from home sweet home Sweet Asstor :) After dinner we went to Kensington Gardens and chilled there till sundown. We had a pretty horrible nights rest and a terrible time with the wifi at the hostel.
Now we are at the Starbucks next to the Charing Cross station enjoying some wonderful coffee and free wifi before we leave for Canterbury. Hunter just finished downloading the UK and Ireland maps for his Garmin and we are heading out to continue our journey. Best wishes and we'll catch you laters.

5

England Day 1

So we arrived. After an eight hour flight, no sleep, a 40 minute train ride, and two and a half hours of wandering around looking for our hostel (which I forgot to print out!) we took a few hours of a terrible nap. After waiting around in our hostel's kitchen for an hour hoping the stove would turn on, we decided to screw cooking and head out on the town. So we hopped on the tube, went towards our old haunts of Tottenam court road. We wandered up the neighborhood and had a delicious dinner at Nando's Brazillian Cafe!!! (all London fam is now jealous!) we then wandered up to Astor college to walk around the old neighborhood and then we headed down through Soho and checked some prices on seeing Les Miserables the musical when we come back through London in July. Soho is an interesting place, lets just say that there was lots of older gentlemen in tight leather pants hanging around together. (need I say more?) It was a really busy area of London with tons of people so it was really exciting to be in that atmosphere. We are about to head to bed, we are five hours ahead of you guys so it is bed time!!! Goodnight all and thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers.

Hunter


5

Tired As A Mug

So we flew out of the Atl yesterday at 5:30 pm and enjoyed a nice long 8 hour flight. We arrived at the Gatwick airport at 7:00 this morning and rode the train (Gatwick Express) to London where we walked around with our freaking heavy backpacks for 2 n 1/2 hours looking for our hostel. We are currently dying in our beds hating every single thing we packed and now have to carry EVERYWHERE we go... the good news is: we had a safe flight, WE ARE IN ENGLAND, and we are in a comfy bed for now!

Eyjafjallajökull

Jordan and I have decided that we do not fear Iceland's above mentioned volcano and it should stop trying to ruin our trip before we even leave. We will punch the volcano in the face and windmill kick the ash cloud.

Eyjafjallajökull you have been warned.

-Hunter

We leave in 12 days!

This is Hunter and Jordan's super blog for our amazing trip to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland! We leave on May 19th, 2010 and we come back to the United States on July 21st, 2010! Flippin' Sweet!!!