teneriffic

so, barcelona was nice and all, but the canaries are..teneriffic!
we left our hostel at 2am for a bus to girona where we caught a 6 am flight to tenerife, to a bus that took us to the south of the island.. and after eating again finally, and sleeping a bit finally, we went out to enjoy the beach!! its volcanic sand, dark grey and rather nice. its our first sandy beach, so we are making the most of it. the waters warm enough to swim, and here are a few waves..
unfortunately kate is still really feeling icky, so we mainly take it easy. i feel alot better now.. made it through the last night with both lungs in place, thats a good change!
we´ll be here two more nights, then the capital a night, then back to spain.. we just havent decided where yet. we´ll probably be cutting our trip short, because of health mainly.

montpellier, cerber, and beyond

so, after it being so nice in Nice, we expected a low...
but it didnt come in montpellier! we went to visit marie and alex sokosomething that i met on convoy last year. at that point, they didnt speak englisch or german, so it was hard to communicate. we did alot of gesturing and asked the same few questions over and over.. i could tell i liked them alot, though. this time they spoke englisch really well, and we were able to have some really great conversations. i wish we could of spent more time with them (espesially instead of cerber) but they are moving this weekend, and we didnt want to impose too long.
the first night we went with them to visit friends. the city itself was pretty cool, as well. the second day they showed us all around, until we both unfortunatly got sick.
moving on, still sick, we landed in cerber and realized it was a mistake right away. there was barely a train station, and no taxis (we called 3, but none had cars!!). the resort we ended up at also had nothing to do. the highlight was talking in french (kate can do that) to the shop owner. he also ended up to be the most friendly frenchman on the face of the earth, and when the hotel couldnt organize a way for us to get back to the train station, he closed his shop and drove us.
today we arrived in barcellona. and man, it is sooo uch better. we already went out for paella. our hostel is on las ramblas, and seems cool enough. they play good music, and when they couldnt find our reservation for the 8 bed dorm, they gave us a two bed room at the same price! so, any tips on barcellona are apreciated (murr and meg.. i look to you guys..)

and just to keep up the itenerary: from here we fly to teneriffe in the canary islands in five days. :-D

nice Nice

we are now in Nice, on the southern coast of france. and oh man, is it nice. [note:lowercase nice to be read as "good" and uppercase as the city] we got in last night and were greeted by the most friendly staff ever (although it is at times rather tooo nice..) and brought up to this old convent thing in the hills of Nice. the chapel, in all its stained glass wonder is the meeting room..

there were a few problems... we didnt fit in the car they sent to pick us up at the foot of the hills at the bus stop, so i had to wait there for him to come back. then i had to go on errands with him since it was the last chance before the weekend, this being ascention day. but the guy was nice, and bought me a pastry since it was late and we hadnt had lunch. and for dad: he drove a great bwm, britisch steering.and checking in, they didnt have our reservation on file, so it's a good thing we had a copy. they gave us free dinner to accomodate and chaged us from the 12 bed dorm into a 6 bed staff room. the security guard shartes it, and sleeps days, so our stuff is safe.

today we went into town and walked the coast and harbor. its a rocky beach, and the stones make an increadible sound as they are pushed and pulled by the waves. the sea is a very light turquise blue towards the coast, and a bit out turns to the deepest of blues. this contrast is amazing. we also went to the flower market and old town. thats about it for today, the busses werent running much and it was impossible to go anywhere. but on the bus to town we met a cool american couple and spent the day with them. (oh, and he just finished school.. film..)

does anyone still read these? i have fairly regular internet, so far, so feel free to comment or to email me!! love from the coast

photos

backpackers way

so, in true backpacker style, soon after writting my last blog entry, we checked out our plans for hostels for the next week, and decided we dont like them. we also got an email asking us to visit a friend two days later than planned. so, instead of moving on today to genova as planned, or florence as we had thought of (no hostel rooms available) we immediately picked up our backpacks and boarded a train for switzerland. hey, why not? so we are in a small swiss village visiting my friend sibe, and enjoying that life can be very easy-going. its a good break from the loud hostels and the jam-packed tourist cities. she made us an awesome dinner with lotsa veggies. otherwise we have been reading alot, and being quiet. and walking. nicenice. i want to upload some pics, but she doesnt havea card reader :-/

milano

greetings from milan!
we are spending the weekend here before going on..
yesturday my friend sibe from switzerland met us at the train and helped us find our ellusive youth hostile. then we went out to see the dom cathedral- where a service was in progress! and have coffee.
the hostil is.. well.. not as nice as the one in venice..
today we went to visit the chiesa christiana evangelica stadera, the church of roby and rose roberts (my parents friends since decades). unfortunately, after such a long trip and a brisk jog to get there, they were out of town. but i did see their son daniel, who looked exactly like he did the last time i saw him (when i was 8 and he younger..) he recognised me, too..
the highlight though was meeting an american lady who sold everything she owns to move to italy and become a christian filmmaker. we called her the gratzi gramma. she showed us a great italian-chineese-south american food place, and we talked a long time about film, italy, and life. i really liked her and will plan to stay in tougùch (not only because she owns her own studio with all the filmmakers toys..)
tommorro we will go to......
? maybe genova, maybe florence.. maybe switzerland....
:-) thats the backpackers life

venice

hey.. venice is.. WOW. can i say that again? W O W.
some lady just walked up and handedme 15minutes of net time for free. how cool is that?
yesturday we saw the rialto bridge (which we live at) and some of the old town.. had a gondola ride and made "good friends" with the gondolier.... ;-)
the food was bad so far, except the german wiener schnitzel..
but the climate is perfect, and themajority of the people friendly. especially those with boats.
the next stop is milano, we go there saturday to meet a friend of mine from switzerland. sunday we will go to the roberts church (missionary friends of the family). i havent reached them yet, but i have directions i took from an italian website.. hmm..

gone.

ok, i'm flying out tommorro for venice.
anyone who needs to reach me can use email or send a text message to +49-176-68267380.

for mom: the itenerary is
venice till sat
milan till mon
genova till wed
the coast of france a week
barcelona 5 days

thats it for now. pray for my head (had a migraine all day, made packing hard and is why i am not doing more details in this) and back

the gear

ah, yes.. every good backpacking trip around europe begins with the right companions. i was pretty sure already that kate and i were a good fit, but today a new member joined our journey: gregory chaos. he's a sturdy fellow, well built and quite a looker. he's strong and reliable, and wont bog us down. yes, i am glad to say, he is a good backpack. and what more- after trying dozens and dozens at as many stores, i found mr chaos, and knew it was a match. everything seemed great, i just wanted to see if i would be okay with him if he weighed more. and then the real shock- the lady said he was already full! so, in other words, i the person who cannot carry anything, can now carry a fully loaded backpack, due to the joys of modern technology. and he is rather cute, isnt he?

poor kate had a nap on a camping cot while i spent the last few hours deciding who i wanted to take home with me. we made it up by celebrating a halfway sucessful cuban night. we left out the cigars, and unfortunatly, the film we got turned out to not be in englisch.. oops.. but the food at the local haba cubana was great.

ps: mom, is my license there yet? please mail it to me!!