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Ljubljana Ljubljana Ljubjana. Try saying that three times fast, or even at all! Well, Loob-lee-ahna is the capital of this tiny wonder, Slovenia. Even though it rained my first d
ay and was cloudy the next two days, it is really a beautiful place. Maybe the rain even helped the trees and the hillsides look even more beautiful and green! I stayed with a guy I met in South America so I was able to get the local tour and slightly touristy tour of Slovenia. He took me to the Karst Caves the first day, but I felt like he took me to Disneyland. All the stalagmites and stalagtites looked so fake, but it was definitely a unique experience. The next day was the most relaxing day I've had on this trip so far. I treated myself to a spa day and had a massage! It was wonderful but not something I'm about to get used to. On my last day in Ljubljana, I hiked (hardly a hike) to the castle on the hill. It was a beautiful castle and I was able to climb the tower to get a great view of the city. Ljubljana is like a small version of Paris or London. It has a river running through it and lots of bridges, but on a much smaller scale, so I like it a lot. The only thing missing was the wonderful company I had in the previous two weeks. Lucky for me, I was soon on my way to Budapest, where some of the people I met in Croatia were anxiously awaiting my arrival :) Or I would like to think so. I took a 7 hour bus, watched more movies in a row than anyone ever should, and arrived in rainy Budapest to find
that the bus driver had thrown my backpack in a puddle, thank you Mr. Bus Driver. I got in touch with Jake and he met me at the metro station which was really nice because it was a dark and rainy ghost town where I was let off. We met up with the rest of the Aussies, Rory, James and Chien, and watched some Australian Football for a bit. The next day we went to the Terror Museum in the morning and then Chien and I went on those hop on/hop off sightseeing buses which was a perfect way to see the city since I was only staying 2 nights, and to get out of the rain. After a little over two hours on the bus I was pretty eager to walk again, but it was definitely worth it. James' parents were in Budapest a couple years ago and suggested a restaurant that has an all you can eat and drink buffet dinner so we decided to check it out. Such a good idea. Great food, great wine, great dessert, great night! After the all you can drink, we wanted to see what nightlife Budapest had to offer (on a Tuesday night). We ended up at a bar, completely empty, so we asked the young guy working there where we should go. He said there wouldn't be anything exciting on a Tuesday night, but we persisted, so he went over to the older gentleman, also working
at the bar, if he had permission to take us out. The older gentleman turned out to be his dad, and he agreed to let him go. This place he took us to was full of people, good music and dancing, so Tuesday nights get the green light in my book! The next day we took a river boat cruise, said goodbye to Chien who was staying in Budapest longer, and the rest of us caught an afternoon train to Vienna. There were patches of blue sky along the way so I was getting my hopes up that Vienna would be nice. We got to the hostel a little after sunset, and there was already a lively crowd at the hostel bar. The hostel even served food, so we just ate there, the guys played some pool, and we decided a red bull vodka boat was a good idea. At some point I noticed there was blood on the front pocket of my pants. "Someone's bleeding!" Then I realized it was my finger that was bleeding, oops. Jake went to the front desk to get some emergency medical equipment and went to town bandaging my finger. I was starting to look like Edward Scissor hands and I think the bandage last about 27 seconds but it was the thought that counts. Thank you Dr. Jake you are a sweet sweet man. Ended up being a really fun night and we didn't even leave the hostel. That's what is so great about hostels with a bar, as long as there is a good crowd, you have everything you need. The next day was a full day of wa
lking. We got directions to where to meet for a walking tour, we even saw the sign that said guided tours, but it didn't start for another hour. We killed some time by walking around and when we returned to buy our tickets, it ended up being an office for tours of the opera house. Oops! So when we found the right ticket office, there weren't any tours left for that day. The guys decided to go to a museum and I decided to just walk around on my own for a while. When we met up a few hours later, we went to a cafe in a park that used to be a huge greenhouse. Coffee is a pretty big deal in Vienna. That night, we wanted to actually leave the hostel so after dinner we had a few (ha) drinks at the hostel and went out to a club. I got drunk way too quickly so I ended up just going back, bummer for me. My brother, Jason, was already on his way to Prague s
o the next morning I went to the bus station to find out what time I could leave and meet him. The only time was 5pm that night, getting me to Prague around 9:30. Jason got in around 2pm so I was going to be a bit late, sorry! I watched more Australian Football, one of the final games before the championship game, at an Australian bar called The Roo Bar, while drinking an Australian beer, called Coopers. Wow, when I see that all together in one sentence I look like a serious Aussie wannabe. We walked around more that afternoon and had a final photo taken before saying our goodbyes. I am really happy to have met them and I hope I get to see them again when they venture through California. Jason texted me that he had met some people at the hostel in Prague and were ready to go out when I got there. Oh man, I was really looking forward to a good sleep. I got to the hostel and had a hell of a time getting my room because the guy at reception wanted to be nice and put me in the same room a
s Jason. Yes, that is nice of him, but Jason already told me when he checked in that his room was full. I decided to trust the guy at reception and 3 phone calls, 6 people's questions, and fidgeting through 162 keys later, he took me to Jason's room and guess what? It was full! This baffled him, so I just asked if I could put my bags on Jason's bed and figure out my bed later because I just wanted to go see my brother! We hung out downstairs in the smokey dungeon bar before heading out for a drink with these two Polish guys. We met a girl from the States who has been living in Prague for 5 months now, teaching English. Seems like a pretty cool gig. We were back at the hostel around 1am and I was excited for a restful night, but what I got was an angry group of Irish boys who insisted on yelling about their problems in the room. I realize that I paid very little for a big dorm and loud people come with the territory, so it's not really a big deal. The next morning I moved into a 5 bed dorm, muuch better. Jason felt sick, not from drinking, actually sick, so he stayed in bed until noonish while I went downstairs and enjoyed some cereal. I was finally able to get Jason out of bed by telling him his vacation was too short to spend it in bed! It worked, and we were out the door. Prague is a maze made to confuse tourists, or so we both agreed. On our way to the main square, we ended up on Amerika street and while looking at the map, a fr
iendly chap pointed us in the right direction. I bought another coat since it's not getting any warmer, and we walked all over. We had a great dinner at Cafe Louvre and on our walk back to the hostel we felt like we were heading in the wrong direction again. Soon after expressing this to each other, we were on Amerika street again! So we got lost twice in one day and ended up on the same street, called AMERIKA street. Weird if you ask me, or Jason! The next morning I woke up feeling sickly :( I was getting so close to making it all 5 months without catching a cold, but just like the weather getting worse, I can't expect perfect conditions the whole time. Our second day out, we avoided Amerika street and made it to a tourist office to ask about tours, either walking or by boat. We found a boat tour for later that afternoon so in the meantime we walked around and had a really good lunch. I ate really well while Jason was here, and that doesn't necessarily mean more expensive, just lucked out by finding really good restaurants. After the boat tour we went to see the new (new for me) Batman! It was a fun experience seeing a movie in a different country. I could get used to this :) Another great meal for dinner and it was back to the hostel to nurse my cold, which was not getting better like Jason getting over his cold in less than 24 hours, jerk. The next day we went to the bus station to figure out where to go and when. We played with the idea of Oktoberfest, but I think it was for the better that we didn't go since I was sick, so we decided on Leipzig. I don't really know how, but we heard it was a nice city. When we got to the bus station, we found out there were no buses to Leipzig, soo change of plans. Jason went to Berlin years ago so I felt bad going to a place he has already been, but he 
said he didn't mind and would actually enjoy going back. So Berlin it was. The bus didn't leave until 6pm so we had time to go to Prague Castle and I'm so glad we did. The castle is up on a hill and there is an entire city up there. The gardens are beautiful and the buildings are immaculate. We saw the changing of the guards and a small hot air balloon that carries no more than 3 people up above the river for a 360 degree view of the city. Back to the bus station, we found somewhere to spend the last of our Czech crowns and I collapsed in my seat on the bus. Being sick just makes everything harder. We arrived in Berlin after 10pm, hopped on the S ring train (Berlin is supposed to have the best public transportation), got off at Landsberger Allee, but that's where our directions ended. I heard music in the distance, and there wasn't a lot around, so said to Jason, "that might be it." He wasn't convinced so we kept walking. The music was coming from a massi
ve building, like a 7 story hotel, but it had lots of blue lighting that caught my eye. When I booked the hostel online, I looked at the pictures and there were two pictures from the bar that had blue lighting. When we turned a corner, we could see the front of the building and sure enough, it was the hostel. I have never seen a hostel the size of a 7 story hotel, so it looked pretty exciting. Well the only exciting part about it was our roommates who were 24-28 because everyone else in the hostel was on a school trip...probably freshman and sophomores..in HIGH school! When we walked into our room, our roommates were drinking some beers and offered us one. It was so nice being greeted! We went downstairs to the bar, had another beer and then the guys joined a poker game. Still trying to get better, I went upstairs to sleep. The next day was rainy, but we only had two days in Berlin so we forced ourselves to go out. We walked to the Reichstag, the Brandeburger Gate, The TV tower, the world clock the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. Back at the hostel, I took a much needed nap, but woke up feeling worse :( I got it together and we invited o
ur Irish roommate to go get dinner with us. Another successful meal and more walking. The next day we went to the bus station and bought an overnight ticket to Amsterdam, the reason Jason came out here in the first place. Our second and last day in Berlin consisted of exploring off the beaten track. We walked through a big park and ended up behind the zoo, so we saw a lot of the second string animals. While looking for a restaurant for dinner, we were discouraged by the first two menus we read, and started walking down a street that looked even less promising until turning the corner onto restaurant heaven. The first menu we saw looked great, and again, it was. I've been drinking all the hot tea I can get my hands on, just trying to make myself feel better whenever I can. We were anxious about the overnight bus, in a good and bad way. Soo excited for Amsterdam, but dreading the 10 hours. At least it marks the last of the
extremely long journeys for me, until my flight home :) The two guys behind us kept going to the bathroom to smoke which was annoying, and I had a minor coughing fit around 3 or 4am, but we made it and couldn't be happier. We checked into our hostel around 7am and went back to sleep until breakfast at 10. We relaxed for a while, made it out of the hostel early afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by the great weather. I met a dutch guy, Robin, in Cusco, Peru who lives in Amsterdam so we had plans to meet up that night. It was Thursday night, so just like Santa Barbara, it was college night. Jason and I sat at an Italian restaurant to have some wine before meeting Robin and his friend Luke. They took us to their usual Thursday night bar which was a lot of fun, before heading to their usual Thursday night club. The club is an old converted church so it's huge and it was really fun! We danced the night away and I fell thr
ough a door. Ok, let me explain. When Jason and I got back to our hostel, we were talking in the hallway before going into our room. I leaned against the wall and well, it wasn't the wall, it was a door and it wasn't latched shut so I went right through onto my bum into someone else's room. Probably startled them a bit, it startled me too! The next day we changed hostels to a more lively one, The Flying Pig. We checked in pretty early, so a lot of people in our room were still sleeping. Jason tried to get more sleep, but the cleaning people came in and tried to wake him up to tell him to check out. He was like "no no, I just checked in." Just let him be man! When we finally got ourselves out of the hostel, it was lunch time so we sat alongside a canal to eat. We had read about a non-profit group that does canal tours in a small boat (10 people max) that is based on donations. We like
d the sound of this, so we got the last two spots on the next boat leaving and away we went. The people on our boat were so nice, offering us beers, wine, strawberries, etc and our "tour guide" if I can even call him that, was more like a friend telling us interesting facts about the city. We learned about the bridge that is most popular for proposing, the twin sisters bridge that was built between the houses of twin sisters because they were too lazy to walk any more than they had to when they met for tea, the controversial architecture of the opera house and more. That afternoon was once again nap time. Being sick is not fun! We wanted to do something outside of Amsterdam so on Jason's last day we took a tram, train, bus, ferry and another bus to get to Texel, and island in northern Holland. There was only a little bit of information in my guidebook about Texel, so we didn't know exactly what to expect. We told the bus driver we wanted to go to town, where ever there were shops and restaurants, and close to the beach. This seemed ok, so when we started seeing hotels and lots of other people were getting off the bus, we joined them. We were pretty hungry by this point, so after some lunch we a
sked where the tourist information center was. Well, the english in Texel is not as great as in Amsterdam (Dutch people speak almost flawless english), so the girl started to tell me "yes, you can get information on yours and excursions." She knew the word 'excursions' but she couldn't explain where it was. She started to say it was miles away. Miles!? Oh no, kilometers. Right, ok, but where? Her blank stare made me think she had no clue what I was saying. We decided to go find a hotel and ask them, but they must have been on Dutch siesta because no one was around. Our next plan was to get back on the bus because maybe we didn't take it far enough. I did a kartwheel while waiting for the bus and little did 
we know, this would be our last photo in town. The bus drove in cirlces and ended up taking us back to the port. We could have taken it all the way back to town or where ever we were, but it was getting to be late afternoon and we didn't know when the last train was back to Amsterdam. We just went to the beach near the port, and that was fine with us. I chased some birds, some german shepards chased me and that was our day in Texel. After the ferry, then a bus, train, and tram, we were back in Amsterdam and hungry again. I feel like that's all I do, or write about at least. We had thai food and the night before we had mexican food. I guess Dutch food is pretty bad, but I'm not really sure what it even consists of. Robin was telling me it is stews and mash, but he doesn't care for it. So after our thai dinner, it was back to the hostel for Jason to pack :( I'm lucky to have a nice brother who agreed to take home a lot of my hot weather clothes, thank you! So my bag is now lighter and I am happier, except for the fact that I would rather be wearing the clothes I sent home because that would mean warm weather again, oh well. So, bye bye Jason and hello country life. Well, not really, I was just leaving Amsterdam to stay at Robin's family's home in Amstelveen, about 30 minutes outside of the city. I was greeted by his two energetic dogs and his bubbly parents. They offered me lunch and we sat out back in the sun (it was the hottest and last warm day I had in Holland). They asked me tons of questions, so I'm afraid that might have been a preview of what it's going to be like when I get back in 3 weeks. I think if anyone starts asking me too many questions, I'll just write the link to my blog on their forehead. Just a heads up! That afternoon Robin took me to a
stretch of river where they have preserved 6 or 7 windmills that has become a touristy destination. They have a cheese factory, souvenir shops and boat tours. I just wanted to see the windmills, so we walked around for less than an hour so I could get some photos. Next, we went to a fishing village, Volendam, where I tried some traditional Dutch food like raw herring. It was really good and the village was really picturesque. We drove back for dinner with the family and his sister was home now. She just moved back from Italy and is working for KLM airlines. So, they are a very nice family and I'm very grateful that they are putting me up, or putting up with me for 4 nights. Robin is taking journalism classes during the week at a University about 75 minutes from his home and his parents and sister all work, so I lounged around yesterday morning, started this blog, then went back into Amsterdam to see the other side of the city that Jason and I didn't explore. I accidentally passed through part of the red light district, which they actually do tours through so it probably wasn't that weird that I was there, but I definitely wanted to keep moving since there were dirty men lingering around. I walked through the huge street market that stretches about 2 kilometers, went to a couple different squar
es that Robin's dad had pointed out to me on the map, walked through a flower market filled with tulips, oogled at some shoes that I want to buy but didn't, and came back home. FINALLY I am up to date. Today I went with Robin to his University town, Utrecht. He had class and I walked around until it started raining a bit too much for my liking. It is a smaller version of Amsterdam so it was love at first sight. I love that everyone rides bikes here, I love wooden clogs, tulips, dutch cheese, tall people, and most things Dutch. What I don't love is that it rains a lot here and the beach isn't 3 blocks away, so I could never live here. Well, this blog has exhausted me and I'm sure you are as well, I'm sorry but it had to be done :) Until next time..
I lOVE CROATIA! Jackie, Jonathan and I flew into Dubrovnik and were greeted by a man with a sign reading `KELSEY, JACKIE and JONATHAN.´ It was pretty exciting. So like I mentioned in my previous blog, hostels aren´t as big over here but rooms to rent are the hot ticket. When you get off the ferries or buses there are tons of people waiting with signs and photos of their rooms so 
it makes it pretty easy if you show up without a reservation. Dubrovnik was the only place we actually did have a reservation, hence the sign. Our apartment was a cute upstairs one bedroom, 3 bed, kitchen and bathroom all to ourselves. Dolores welcomed us to her families property with juice and cookies. My love for Croatia started immediately. We were about a 10 minute bus ride into Old Town, and it was already late afternoon (after flying Athens to Milan, Milan to Rome, Rome to Dubrovnik, we weren´t filled with energy) so we decided to walk down to the beach and find a place to eat dinner. Croatia has a lot of mountains and many of the beaches are rocky or even unaccessible, but the ones you can get to are in small coves so the water is very calm and clear and it feels more private since it´s not a long stretch of beach. We walked to the other side of the cove and passed a woman selling tickets for boat tours. It was an all day tour, stopping at three islands with lunch and drinks included. We were pretty keen on this idea, but decided to discuss over dinner. The next day we relaxed on one of the small beaches before heading into Old Town. The bus ride into town was amazing. It was right along a cliff overlooking the water, the islands, and eventually a birds eye view of Old Town, which is right on the water surrounded be castle walls. We had a few mishaps in Old Town that may or may not include a man telling us off for petting his dog and taking pictures with it, and a 10 year old boy giving us the finger. Here is a short explanation of what went down: There was a beautiful yellow lab cruising around with no collar so we thought it was a stray. He was really friendly so 
Jackie was petting him and Jonathan was taking photos. He reminded me of the dog I grew up with so clearly I wanted a photo as well, but when I crouched down next to the dog a man came up to me and said, ` don´t touch the dog!´ I asked why not? He said `because it is my dog,´ oops, so I said I didn´t know that it was his dog and he responded with, `you can take photos but do not touch him, you know, it is a bit over the top!´ Really? I would think the opposite. He doesn´t mind if we follow the dog around snapping photos, but petting a dog is over the top? We saw him later about 50 meters away from the dog just waiting for someone else to yell at, crazy man. So then there was the little kid. We were getting into the more residential part of Old Town and saw these two boys playing soccer. The younger boy scored a goal, so the three of us started clapping as we walked by. The older boy, probably 10, started to say something in Croatian but he didn´t have the friendliest look on his face. I said to Jackie and Jonathan, `I wonder if what he was saying was mean?´and at that moment 
he gave us the charming middle finger. I had my camera in my hand, so I held it up and he gladley flipped us off again. Old Town was beautiful, with restaurants built into the cliffs, a really nice nice harbor and the historic castle walls. In the harbor we found more people selling tickets for boat tours. They were all offering basically the same thing, but we found a lady who gave us a discount because she said we look like students. Jackie is 29, Jonathan is 24, we are all finished with college, but I guess since I look like I´m 12 we were able to fool her. So, departure was at 10:30am the next morning and we were ready for some boating and some islands. The first island was small and we only had 45 minutes to check it out. We cooled off a bit in the water and then walked around a little before heading to the next island. our fresh fish lunch was served on the way and the wine pitchers were handed out :) The second island was bigger so we intended on exploring a little more, that didn´t happen. While going for a swim, we met another yellow lab and approached with caution. We found out her name is Meya and she is the social island dog. We ran around with her for a while and ended up at another swimming beach with a small slide. I don´t think kids should have all the fun, so we joined the 8 year olds, why not? We met these two little girls, ages 6 and 8 who can speak English, Croatian, Spanish, Catalan and French. Their mom is Candadian and their dad is Croatian. I tried to use some of my Spanish on her, but she had me beat. Even the way they spoke was really intelligent for their age. When we were leaving, we told their mom that was the most intelligent conversation we have had on this trip. She just laughed. Back on the boat for more vino and the third island. There were about 25 people on the boat, mostly older couples, but by the third island we made friends with a group of late 20 somethings from Romania. We entertained ourselves by 
flipping and diving off the end of the dock, again not managing to explore any of the island. After a fantastic day, we were dropped off back at the harbor and had to catch the bus back to our apartment. After every bus but ours (#10) went by, and Jonathan was falling asleep/passing out, we finally saw #10 approaching. Just our luck, it went right by us! Whyyy? I will never know. We ended up walking down to a food stand, since our fish and salad lunch 6 hours ago wasn´t really sticking to our ribs. We saw an entire parking lot of buses, one with #10 glowing in the window so we raced over to make sure we made it. So after over an hour waiting for bus#10, watching it fly by us, getting food, finding bus #10 just sitting in a parking lot, we were home and asleep by 10pm. Give me a break, it was a long day!
The next day we went to the bus station to start heading north. We heard of a port town, Dvrenik, that would be a good jumping off point to the island Hvar. We bought bus tickets and had about 2 hours to wait. We had our bags with us so we just sat at the bus station. We ended up talking to some Australians, Rich and Will, who said Dvrenik actually had really bad connections to Hvar and that getting a bus to the island Korćula first was better. So we discussed a bit, looked at our current tickets and realized our bus had left 30 minutes ago. Such idiots. We thought it left at 1:30, but it left at 1, so we were sitting right there in the bus terminal a
nd missed our bus. We exchanged our tickets for Korćula, lost 10% on the first ticket since we missed it, and waited another hour and a half for the next bus. We met 8 more Aussies on the way, 4 guys (all friends), 4 girls (all friends). I am slowly turning into an Australian. When we arrived in Korćula, there were the swarms of people asking if we needed accommodation so the 13 of us got 3 apartments in the same building. We all made dinner in our own kitchens and ate together on the terrace, ahhh. It was really fun to have new people to hang out with. We played drinking games, got the police called on us and decided to wait until the next night to go out. The next day we rented two boats, 6 in one and 7 in the other. We would drive around for a while, stop and anchor so we could jump in for a swim, and then docked somewhere for lunch. Some people were doing back flips off the dock and while I am a master at front flips, I have never done a back flip. With some encouragement and two cameras on me, making it much easier of course, I attempted and completed my first back flip. Good fun! The wind picked up in the afternoon and we were going against the wind to get back. Our boat was tiny so every wave made a huge splash in the boat and we were getting drenched. We all looked like wet dogs by the time we got back. The last place we anchored I was too cold to swim so I just relaxed on the front of the boat while the boys dove into the water attemping to catch cans of beer. We strolled back to the apartment which was a beautiful walk along the
sea, and got ready for dinner. Half the group cooked again, but the other 7 of us went out to dinner. After dinner we were off to find a bar. One thing I really like about the bars here is that everyone can stand out front on the sidewalks or alley ways with their drinks. So if the bar is packed, you can just stand outside which I like better because I don´t feel like I am being covered in cigarette smoke. The bars close around 2am and everyone heads to the one club in town. We danced a bit but decided to head back after about an hour. I think it was for the better because our ferry to Hvar was at 6am, so we packed our bags, slept for about 30 minutes and then it was back down to the harbor to catch our ferry annnnd back to sleep. The 4 Aussie friends (Jake, James, Rory and Chien) joined Jackie, Jonathan and I and an hour and a half later and we were in Hvar with more signs in our faces for rooms and apartments. All of us were a bit tired, why? oh, I don´t know..so the indecisiveness was in full force. Jackie went with someone to check out a place and James went with another. They both came back with an `eh´ but in the meantime we found another lady who seemed to have the best location. Chien went to look at it and came right back, while it took Jackie and James about 25 minutes. We crawled up the hill (the whole island is hills) and went back to sleep until 2pm. Well, Jackie, Jonathan and I woke up at 2, the guys slept until 6pm! We got some lunch, sat at the beach for a while and planned an excellent taco dinner. The guy
s met another Australian guy in Dubrovnik, probably 40something, who lives in Estonia and vacations in Croatia quite a bit. We ran into him in Hvar and he told us about a good bar/club called Carpe Diem, so after cooking up some good food at our apartment, we went down to the bar. I feel like in every place I´ve gone I have had an off night and an on night. This night was an off night. I just wasn´t in the mood to drink and party, but sleep sounded fantastic so that is what I did. The next day we took a water taxi out to a good swimming island, or so we were told. (Funny concept - we are on an island, Hvar, but people take water taxis out to other islands to swim, but we are already on an island!) Anyway, what I was saying about being told about the good swimming beach is that when we approached the dock all we could see was three naked men. We decided to walk to the other side of the island, but there was an entire colony of them! We tried to put the blinders on, and lasted about 2 hours, but e
nough was enough already. If anyone gets the Seinfeld quote, good job :) So, that night was an on night for me and we had a little pre-party at our place before going out. And by pre party i mean Jonathan and I challenging Jake and Chien to a shot-off. Sounded like a good idea at the time.. It´s been really fun and a change of pace getting our own apartments. It wouldn´t be as much fun if there were only two or three people, but we had seven so it was great. We had a good night out, but I was dreading the next day. I was leaving the group :( I had been with Jackie and Jonathan for 2 weeks and it was time to say goodbye. They walked me down to the ferry and we all shed a little tear together. I am going to see Jackie again in London and I might see Jonathan at Oktoberfest, so I think I´ll be okay. I took a ferry to Split and then caught a 5 hour bus to Zagreb where I had to change buses, except there weren´t any connecting buses, so they told me to go to the train station. They gave me HORRIBLE directions, but I finally found it and the last train to Ljubljana was leaving in 10 minutes. I made it and I´m here! Slovenia is beautiful and green, but it has been raining :( I guess I can´t have perfect weather for my entire trip. I will save Slovenia for next time because it´s bed time and I´m taking a bus to Budapest tomorrow. I love what I´m doing and I'm am excited for tomorrow and the next day and the next..
I had this great idea that if I blogged more often, like say once a week, then I wouldn't have to write as much and I wouldn't feel like I have too much to talk about, like now. Well, Greece has not allowed me to carry out this great idea. Instead, and much more importantly, I have been sun baking and meeting really great people, or should I say Australians. I had no clue the Greek Islands were 99% Aussies, but I'm not complaining because I have had an awesome time!
Before I flew to Greece, I had a quick but worthwhile weekend in Stockholm where I saw Kevin for a bit before his flight home and then hung out with Sara (who lives there). Stockholm is a beautiful city, the Old Town in particular. Everywhere you look there is water and even though it was a lot cooler there than Spain, it was a nice sunny weekend for me, which was actually a nice break from the intense heat. Sara and I went to the mall where I saw a 9 year old celebrity, some cool gadgets, such as a plastic case for a banana so it doesn't get squashed in your bag (genius!), and then made dinner back at her house. This is Sara´s cat and a tired Kelsey. The next day she moved about 4 hours north for school, so I got a hostel in Old Town and just walked around. Kevin had stayed at the same hostel a couple nights before and met a bunch of people so I thought it was a sure bet. Well, of course when I got there it was all grannies. Oh well, it was one night and then I was flying to Greece!
I landed in Athens pretty late but I had a hostel reserved so I wouldn't have to wander the streets. I met a guy, David (Australia), on the bus into town who was also on my same plane and we talked about our plans for the islands. We were both planning on heading to Santorini first, so we exchanged numbers and the next day met up at the travel agency to bu
y our boat tickets. We decided on an overnight boat because the slow boats take about 10 hours. So that day, we went to the Acropolis, had Greek salads and booked into what we didn't know at the time was the best hostel in Santorini :) We nearly missed our 10pm boat, the port is enormous and we got bad directions (as in, turn right out of the metro station when it was actually left) so if you can imagine me trying to run with my bags..well, just enjoy the thought for a while because it was a sight. We met Mike (New Zealand) and his Spanish girlfriend at the entrance to the boat who also had bad directions and ended up getting a taxi at gate E8, without knowing that our gate was E9. The taxi driver charged him 10 euros to coast from one gate to the next. I said, "you didn't pay that did you!?" He said at that point he was just happy to see the boat wasn't gone so yes, he paid. The four of us had a couple beers on the deck, trying to cool off after my evening jog and later found some chairs to curl up on and attempt to sleep. The next morning, with a sore neck and a bit groggy from lack of sleep, I could see Santorini. Mike and his girlfriend were staying at the same hostel as David
and I, Hostel Anna. When we got off the boat we expected to catch a bus, but instead there was a smelly man waiting for us with a Hostel Anna sign and a bright orange Mercedes van. Glorious! This was the beginning of a wonderful time in Santorini. Also in the van was, Danielle (Aus.), a nice girl traveling on her own and a couple others. Waiting in line at the hostel to check in, we met Jonathan (Aus.), another solo traveler. We dropped our bags as soon as possible and David, Jonathan and I headed to Perissa Beach. I've never seen black sand before and it really isn't very impressive. It looks a bit like a parking lot so it takes away from the island feel. I got over it quickly and jumped in for a swim. Although, jumping in was also a bit of an issue because it wasn't sanding like we are used to, but instead slimmy slippery rock. It's pretty funny watching the topless women stumble out to sea, but I guess I wasn't any more stable with my top on. Lunch time was upon us and I wanted some traditional Greek food, so how about gyros? We 
went to a place called Grandma's, I know it doesn't sound very authentic, but Grandma knows how to make a gyro! We went back the next day. Since I never had a true Spanish siesta in Spain, I decided to try it out in Greece and I approve. That night in the computer room, a nice Swedish girl asked me a question and I could tell we were destined to be friends. The "hang out" area of the hostel is the front patio with tables and chairs, right along the main street in Perissa (the small town in Santorini where the hostel and the beach we went to are, if that was unclear). So David, Jonathan and our new Swedish friends, Ebba and Siri, played some cards and had a couple drinks. We all went down to the street along the beach to Question M
ark Bar (weird name, I know) for a drink with Mike, Spanish gf (I apoligize, I never did understand her name), Bryan, Jackie, Danielle and Daniel. The next day it was back to the beach, this time with Ebba, Siri and David. I love swimming in the ocean and I will never be able to live anywhere without a body of water. We decided to go into Fira (Santorini's main city), for the sunset so we caught a bus around 4pm. We walked through the stereotypical narrow, cobblestone streets, browsed through some shops, had an amazing dinner, were blinded by the white buildings and enjoyed a sunset with an unobstructed view. We also saw donkey's trotting through the streets, so Greek! When we got back to the hostel we got a bottle of wine, met three more girls, sisters (Aus.) and the fun times began. We went out to Beach Bar and danced the night away. We had quite the circle going and then all of a sudden, Jonathan, who I hadn't seen all day, came bursting through the middle with Jackie, Bryan and Danielle not far behind. We never planned on meeting there, so even though Perissa is pretty small, there are a lot of clubs, which made it fun to run into people we knew after being in Santorini only one night. We were already feeling like locals, just kidding, all the locals just stand around the out outskirts of the dance floor and watc
h the silly foreigners. The bakeries in Santorini are open 24 hours, I have no clue why, but it came in handy for us. We stuck with Greek food even in the middle of the night and got these delicious spinach and feta pastries. A nice way to end the evening, but wait..Back at the hostel in our dungeon (a 30+ person dorm, downstairs so it stayed dark in the morning, and with air conditioning which is why it was so great) a few of us girls went to brush our teeth and the water came out a bit brown. One girl said, "oh, it's ok, I'll just let it run, it will clear up." It just started sputtering and the sink filled with brown water. GROSSS! Best 7 euro a night I've ever spent. The next morning the water was turned off, but they got it back and running (clear) again within an hour so. Back to the beach, slippery rocks and Grandma's. Siri and Ebba left that morning and Bryan left that afternoon so our group was becoming Jackie, Jonathan, David and me. I convinced everyone to go to the waterslide park that afternoon which consisted of two straight slides, one spiral slide, a kiddie pool with a ship and a normal pool. It also had a swim up bar which I have a
lways wanted to experience but it wasn't open yet :( They had their doubts, but we ended up having a really good time, such a good time that we are still wearing our Santorini Waterpark wrist bands. That night at the hostel patio, we picked up one more Aussie, Swanny (his last name is Swan, but that's what he goes by). The five of us went to dinner together at a place right on the beach. At midnight it was one of the sister's birthdays so we celebrated and took another trip to the Beach Bar. That night was house/trance/electronic music which I'm not a huge fan of, so I stayed for a while, but bailed early. We had to get up early the next day anyway for Ios and I knew we would be partying on the "party island."
Jonathan, Jackie, David, Swanny and the American (me) caught a ferry to Ios and checked into our dog kennels. The hostel was right on the beach, with 3 pools, a bar, a game room, bungalows, tent camping, everything a young traveler could want. Jackie and I got a kennel to ourselves and made the 3 boys share the other one. When I say kennel, 
picture a small hut about as tall as me with two cots and a tiny door. Home sweet home. Ios was crazy, and apparently not as crazy as usual since the season is ending. After a nice nap on the beach in the afternoon, my mates and I got ready to hit the village. There are probably 30 or more bars and clubs in the tiny village. They are all pretty small, some are packed, some are completely empty, but since they are all so close together, we just hopped from place to place. We met some cool people on the bus into town and ended up hanging out with them for most of the night. Jackie and Jonathan started calling me `Nigel no Friends´ in Santorini as a joke, (I think..?) so they have taken a bunch of photos of me either by myself or surrounded by people I don´t know. It`s become a pretty funny photo taking task. So whe
n I got separated from them at one point, I was hanging out with the group from the bus, but I heard `Nigel!` and I knew Jackie and Jonathan had found me! The last bus is at midnight, so we decided a walk home would be nice. We found a guy sleeping on the sidewalk on the main road and being the responsible people we are, took some photos with him. He was only wearing one sandal so I put the other one back on for him, I`m so nice. We tried to wake him up but he made an angry face like he didn´t want to be bothered, so we let him sleep. The next day Jonathan said something to these two guys at the hostel about their friend we saw sleeping on the sidewalk. I had no idea the passed out guy was staying at our hostel, so of course we had to show him the photos. He didn´t remember a thing poor guy, or maybe that was for the better. They were from England, finally some non Aussies! Just kidddding, as long as they aren´t American, I am happy meeting 100 Australians. Kidding again, I love Americans...but foreigners are more interesting to meet while traveling. So Ios was a quick two days and Jackie, Jonathan and I were ready to relax on another island sans partying. We decided on Naxos, not really sure why, but it´s on the way back to Athens and I don´t think you can go wrong in the Greek islands if your only requirement is the beach. We got in late, so we found a place to stay and had a nice, restful s
leep. The next day we rented ATVs. SO MUCH FUN. We had them for 24 hours so we took them all over the place. Jonathan didn´t want to drive so he switched off riding with me or Jackie. Such a girl :) We exhausted those ATVs, literally, by taking them to the top of two big mountains. Jackie`s wouldn´t start so she coasted all the way back down, and it somehow started again. The second mountain we climbed was Mt. Zeus in search of Zeus´ cave. We parked the ATVs near the top and started walking. The trail ended but we knew it was up there somewhere. We were in flip flops, but climbed over rocks to get to the cave. Pretty impressive cave, Zeus was a lucky man, expcept the massive spiders were enough to make for a short visit. On the way back down there was a herd of mountain goats being summoned for dinner time. The old m
an asked us to wait to cross the path because we would scare them in the other direction. Once the last one passed we were able to start walking again, but a bunch of the goats had turned around and were coming in our direction. They seemed harmless and right when I asked ´so are these animals aggressive?´ two of the goats with the big curly horns reared up at each other and butt heads. Well, that answers my question! We jumped off the trail and watched these two hit their heads together for about 15 minutes. Back on the ATVs we found a nice beach to sit and watch the sunset. I think I doubled the amount of sunsets I have watched in my life in the 10 days I spent in Greece. The next day consisted of more lounging on the beach, I´m getting really good at it, and figuring out a plan after getting into Athens. I had my plan..Croatia. Jackie and Jonathan were a bit more unsure, but after much hype and a nail biting $420 plane ticket, we were all going to Croatia together!
Pictures:
1 Me at Sara´s house with her gato
2 Siri, me and Ebba (Swedes in Santorini)
3 Watching the sunset in Fira
4 David, Jonathan, Siri, Jackie (blue dress), Ebba, Bryan, me, Alex (the only local we met) out at Beach Bar
5 David, Jackie, Jonathan and I at the Santorini waterslide park!
6 Me on the beach in Ios
7 Haggared, leaving Ios, going to Naxos.
8 Me with the sunset, tried taking a couple but I was having a hard time smiling, so this is what I´m left with..
9 On top of the first mountain with the ATVs, this is what we found, lovely
10 Biker chicks!
11 Apollo´s Temple in Naxos with Jack Jack Jackie!
ay and was cloudy the next two days, it is really a beautiful place. Maybe the rain even helped the trees and the hillsides look even more beautiful and green! I stayed with a guy I met in South America so I was able to get the local tour and slightly touristy tour of Slovenia. He took me to the Karst Caves the first day, but I felt like he took me to Disneyland. All the stalagmites and stalagtites looked so fake, but it was definitely a unique experience. The next day was the most relaxing day I've had on this trip so far. I treated myself to a spa day and had a massage! It was wonderful but not something I'm about to get used to. On my last day in Ljubljana, I hiked (hardly a hike) to the castle on the hill. It was a beautiful castle and I was able to climb the tower to get a great view of the city. Ljubljana is like a small version of Paris or London. It has a river running through it and lots of bridges, but on a much smaller scale, so I like it a lot. The only thing missing was the wonderful company I had in the previous two weeks. Lucky for me, I was soon on my way to Budapest, where some of the people I met in Croatia were anxiously awaiting my arrival :) Or I would like to think so. I took a 7 hour bus, watched more movies in a row than anyone ever should, and arrived in rainy Budapest to find
that the bus driver had thrown my backpack in a puddle, thank you Mr. Bus Driver. I got in touch with Jake and he met me at the metro station which was really nice because it was a dark and rainy ghost town where I was let off. We met up with the rest of the Aussies, Rory, James and Chien, and watched some Australian Football for a bit. The next day we went to the Terror Museum in the morning and then Chien and I went on those hop on/hop off sightseeing buses which was a perfect way to see the city since I was only staying 2 nights, and to get out of the rain. After a little over two hours on the bus I was pretty eager to walk again, but it was definitely worth it. James' parents were in Budapest a couple years ago and suggested a restaurant that has an all you can eat and drink buffet dinner so we decided to check it out. Such a good idea. Great food, great wine, great dessert, great night! After the all you can drink, we wanted to see what nightlife Budapest had to offer (on a Tuesday night). We ended up at a bar, completely empty, so we asked the young guy working there where we should go. He said there wouldn't be anything exciting on a Tuesday night, but we persisted, so he went over to the older gentleman, also working
at the bar, if he had permission to take us out. The older gentleman turned out to be his dad, and he agreed to let him go. This place he took us to was full of people, good music and dancing, so Tuesday nights get the green light in my book! The next day we took a river boat cruise, said goodbye to Chien who was staying in Budapest longer, and the rest of us caught an afternoon train to Vienna. There were patches of blue sky along the way so I was getting my hopes up that Vienna would be nice. We got to the hostel a little after sunset, and there was already a lively crowd at the hostel bar. The hostel even served food, so we just ate there, the guys played some pool, and we decided a red bull vodka boat was a good idea. At some point I noticed there was blood on the front pocket of my pants. "Someone's bleeding!" Then I realized it was my finger that was bleeding, oops. Jake went to the front desk to get some emergency medical equipment and went to town bandaging my finger. I was starting to look like Edward Scissor hands and I think the bandage last about 27 seconds but it was the thought that counts. Thank you Dr. Jake you are a sweet sweet man. Ended up being a really fun night and we didn't even leave the hostel. That's what is so great about hostels with a bar, as long as there is a good crowd, you have everything you need. The next day was a full day of wa
lking. We got directions to where to meet for a walking tour, we even saw the sign that said guided tours, but it didn't start for another hour. We killed some time by walking around and when we returned to buy our tickets, it ended up being an office for tours of the opera house. Oops! So when we found the right ticket office, there weren't any tours left for that day. The guys decided to go to a museum and I decided to just walk around on my own for a while. When we met up a few hours later, we went to a cafe in a park that used to be a huge greenhouse. Coffee is a pretty big deal in Vienna. That night, we wanted to actually leave the hostel so after dinner we had a few (ha) drinks at the hostel and went out to a club. I got drunk way too quickly so I ended up just going back, bummer for me. My brother, Jason, was already on his way to Prague s
o the next morning I went to the bus station to find out what time I could leave and meet him. The only time was 5pm that night, getting me to Prague around 9:30. Jason got in around 2pm so I was going to be a bit late, sorry! I watched more Australian Football, one of the final games before the championship game, at an Australian bar called The Roo Bar, while drinking an Australian beer, called Coopers. Wow, when I see that all together in one sentence I look like a serious Aussie wannabe. We walked around more that afternoon and had a final photo taken before saying our goodbyes. I am really happy to have met them and I hope I get to see them again when they venture through California. 
s Jason. Yes, that is nice of him, but Jason already told me when he checked in that his room was full. I decided to trust the guy at reception and 3 phone calls, 6 people's questions, and fidgeting through 162 keys later, he took me to Jason's room and guess what? It was full! This baffled him, so I just asked if I could put my bags on Jason's bed and figure out my bed later because I just wanted to go see my brother! We hung out downstairs in the smokey dungeon bar before heading out for a drink with these two Polish guys. We met a girl from the States who has been living in Prague for 5 months now, teaching English. Seems like a pretty cool gig. We were back at the hostel around 1am and I was excited for a restful night, but what I got was an angry group of Irish boys who insisted on yelling about their problems in the room. I realize that I paid very little for a big dorm and loud people come with the territory, so it's not really a big deal. The next morning I moved into a 5 bed dorm, muuch better. Jason felt sick, not from drinking, actually sick, so he stayed in bed until noonish while I went downstairs and enjoyed some cereal. I was finally able to get Jason out of bed by telling him his vacation was too short to spend it in bed! It worked, and we were out the door. Prague is a maze made to confuse tourists, or so we both agreed. On our way to the main square, we ended up on Amerika street and while looking at the map, a fr
iendly chap pointed us in the right direction. I bought another coat since it's not getting any warmer, and we walked all over. We had a great dinner at Cafe Louvre and on our walk back to the hostel we felt like we were heading in the wrong direction again. Soon after expressing this to each other, we were on Amerika street again! So we got lost twice in one day and ended up on the same street, called AMERIKA street. Weird if you ask me, or Jason! The next morning I woke up feeling sickly :( I was getting so close to making it all 5 months without catching a cold, but just like the weather getting worse, I can't expect perfect conditions the whole time. Our second day out, we avoided Amerika street and made it to a tourist office to ask about tours, either walking or by boat. We found a boat tour for later that afternoon so in the meantime we walked around and had a really good lunch. I ate really well while Jason was here, and that doesn't necessarily mean more expensive, just lucked out by finding really good restaurants. After the boat tour we went to see the new (new for me) Batman! It was a fun experience seeing a movie in a different country. I could get used to this :) Another great meal for dinner and it was back to the hostel to nurse my cold, which was not getting better like Jason getting over his cold in less than 24 hours, jerk. The next day we went to the bus station to figure out where to go and when. We played with the idea of Oktoberfest, but I think it was for the better that we didn't go since I was sick, so we decided on Leipzig. I don't really know how, but we heard it was a nice city. When we got to the bus station, we found out there were no buses to Leipzig, soo change of plans. Jason went to Berlin years ago so I felt bad going to a place he has already been, but he 
said he didn't mind and would actually enjoy going back. So Berlin it was. The bus didn't leave until 6pm so we had time to go to Prague Castle and I'm so glad we did. The castle is up on a hill and there is an entire city up there. The gardens are beautiful and the buildings are immaculate. We saw the changing of the guards and a small hot air balloon that carries no more than 3 people up above the river for a 360 degree view of the city. Back to the bus station, we found somewhere to spend the last of our Czech crowns and I collapsed in my seat on the bus. Being sick just makes everything harder. We arrived in Berlin after 10pm, hopped on the S ring train (Berlin is supposed to have the best public transportation), got off at Landsberger Allee, but that's where our directions ended. I heard music in the distance, and there wasn't a lot around, so said to Jason, "that might be it." He wasn't convinced so we kept walking. The music was coming from a massi
ve building, like a 7 story hotel, but it had lots of blue lighting that caught my eye. When I booked the hostel online, I looked at the pictures and there were two pictures from the bar that had blue lighting. When we turned a corner, we could see the front of the building and sure enough, it was the hostel. I have never seen a hostel the size of a 7 story hotel, so it looked pretty exciting. Well the only exciting part about it was our roommates who were 24-28 because everyone else in the hostel was on a school trip...probably freshman and sophomores..in HIGH school! When we walked into our room, our roommates were drinking some beers and offered us one. It was so nice being greeted! We went downstairs to the bar, had another beer and then the guys joined a poker game. Still trying to get better, I went upstairs to sleep. The next day was rainy, but we only had two days in Berlin so we forced ourselves to go out. We walked to the Reichstag, the Brandeburger Gate, The TV tower, the world clock the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. Back at the hostel, I took a much needed nap, but woke up feeling worse :( I got it together and we invited o
ur Irish roommate to go get dinner with us. Another successful meal and more walking. The next day we went to the bus station and bought an overnight ticket to Amsterdam, the reason Jason came out here in the first place. Our second and last day in Berlin consisted of exploring off the beaten track. We walked through a big park and ended up behind the zoo, so we saw a lot of the second string animals. While looking for a restaurant for dinner, we were discouraged by the first two menus we read, and started walking down a street that looked even less promising until turning the corner onto restaurant heaven. The first menu we saw looked great, and again, it was. I've been drinking all the hot tea I can get my hands on, just trying to make myself feel better whenever I can. We were anxious about the overnight bus, in a good and bad way. Soo excited for Amsterdam, but dreading the 10 hours. At least it marks the last of the
extremely long journeys for me, until my flight home :) The two guys behind us kept going to the bathroom to smoke which was annoying, and I had a minor coughing fit around 3 or 4am, but we made it and couldn't be happier. We checked into our hostel around 7am and went back to sleep until breakfast at 10. We relaxed for a while, made it out of the hostel early afternoon and were pleasantly surprised by the great weather. I met a dutch guy, Robin, in Cusco, Peru who lives in Amsterdam so we had plans to meet up that night. It was Thursday night, so just like Santa Barbara, it was college night. Jason and I sat at an Italian restaurant to have some wine before meeting Robin and his friend Luke. They took us to their usual Thursday night bar which was a lot of fun, before heading to their usual Thursday night club. The club is an old converted church so it's huge and it was really fun! We danced the night away and I fell thr
ough a door. Ok, let me explain. When Jason and I got back to our hostel, we were talking in the hallway before going into our room. I leaned against the wall and well, it wasn't the wall, it was a door and it wasn't latched shut so I went right through onto my bum into someone else's room. Probably startled them a bit, it startled me too! The next day we changed hostels to a more lively one, The Flying Pig. We checked in pretty early, so a lot of people in our room were still sleeping. Jason tried to get more sleep, but the cleaning people came in and tried to wake him up to tell him to check out. He was like "no no, I just checked in." Just let him be man! When we finally got ourselves out of the hostel, it was lunch time so we sat alongside a canal to eat. We had read about a non-profit group that does canal tours in a small boat (10 people max) that is based on donations. We like
d the sound of this, so we got the last two spots on the next boat leaving and away we went. The people on our boat were so nice, offering us beers, wine, strawberries, etc and our "tour guide" if I can even call him that, was more like a friend telling us interesting facts about the city. We learned about the bridge that is most popular for proposing, the twin sisters bridge that was built between the houses of twin sisters because they were too lazy to walk any more than they had to when they met for tea, the controversial architecture of the opera house and more. That afternoon was once again nap time. Being sick is not fun! We wanted to do something outside of Amsterdam so on Jason's last day we took a tram, train, bus, ferry and another bus to get to Texel, and island in northern Holland. There was only a little bit of information in my guidebook about Texel, so we didn't know exactly what to expect. We told the bus driver we wanted to go to town, where ever there were shops and restaurants, and close to the beach. This seemed ok, so when we started seeing hotels and lots of other people were getting off the bus, we joined them. We were pretty hungry by this point, so after some lunch we a
sked where the tourist information center was. Well, the english in Texel is not as great as in Amsterdam (Dutch people speak almost flawless english), so the girl started to tell me "yes, you can get information on yours and excursions." She knew the word 'excursions' but she couldn't explain where it was. She started to say it was miles away. Miles!? Oh no, kilometers. Right, ok, but where? Her blank stare made me think she had no clue what I was saying. We decided to go find a hotel and ask them, but they must have been on Dutch siesta because no one was around. Our next plan was to get back on the bus because maybe we didn't take it far enough. I did a kartwheel while waiting for the bus and little did 
we know, this would be our last photo in town. The bus drove in cirlces and ended up taking us back to the port. We could have taken it all the way back to town or where ever we were, but it was getting to be late afternoon and we didn't know when the last train was back to Amsterdam. We just went to the beach near the port, and that was fine with us. I chased some birds, some german shepards chased me and that was our day in Texel. After the ferry, then a bus, train, and tram, we were back in Amsterdam and hungry again. I feel like that's all I do, or write about at least. We had thai food and the night before we had mexican food. I guess Dutch food is pretty bad, but I'm not really sure what it even consists of. Robin was telling me it is stews and mash, but he doesn't care for it. So after our thai dinner, it was back to the hostel for Jason to pack :( I'm lucky to have a nice brother who agreed to take home a lot of my hot weather clothes, thank you! So my bag is now lighter and I am happier, except for the fact that I would rather be wearing the clothes I sent home because that would mean warm weather again, oh well. So, bye bye Jason and hello country life. Well, not really, I was just leaving Amsterdam to stay at Robin's family's home in Amstelveen, about 30 minutes outside of the city. I was greeted by his two energetic dogs and his bubbly parents. They offered me lunch and we sat out back in the sun (it was the hottest and last warm day I had in Holland). They asked me tons of questions, so I'm afraid that might have been a preview of what it's going to be like when I get back in 3 weeks. I think if anyone starts asking me too many questions, I'll just write the link to my blog on their forehead. Just a heads up! That afternoon Robin took me to a
stretch of river where they have preserved 6 or 7 windmills that has become a touristy destination. They have a cheese factory, souvenir shops and boat tours. I just wanted to see the windmills, so we walked around for less than an hour so I could get some photos. Next, we went to a fishing village, Volendam, where I tried some traditional Dutch food like raw herring. It was really good and the village was really picturesque. We drove back for dinner with the family and his sister was home now. She just moved back from Italy and is working for KLM airlines. So, they are a very nice family and I'm very grateful that they are putting me up, or putting up with me for 4 nights. Robin is taking journalism classes during the week at a University about 75 minutes from his home and his parents and sister all work, so I lounged around yesterday morning, started this blog, then went back into Amsterdam to see the other side of the city that Jason and I didn't explore. I accidentally passed through part of the red light district, which they actually do tours through so it probably wasn't that weird that I was there, but I definitely wanted to keep moving since there were dirty men lingering around. I walked through the huge street market that stretches about 2 kilometers, went to a couple different squar
es that Robin's dad had pointed out to me on the map, walked through a flower market filled with tulips, oogled at some shoes that I want to buy but didn't, and came back home. FINALLY I am up to date. Today I went with Robin to his University town, Utrecht. He had class and I walked around until it started raining a bit too much for my liking. It is a smaller version of Amsterdam so it was love at first sight. I love that everyone rides bikes here, I love wooden clogs, tulips, dutch cheese, tall people, and most things Dutch. What I don't love is that it rains a lot here and the beach isn't 3 blocks away, so I could never live here. Well, this blog has exhausted me and I'm sure you are as well, I'm sorry but it had to be done :) Until next time..
