It's been some time since our last update since we haven't had much reliable access to the internet for a while. After leaving Hilvarenbeek we quickly discovered that driving the fastest and most direct route to your destination in Europe costs a lot more than just gas and car rental. Between Luxembourg and Paris we paid over 30 euros in toll fees. After camping for a few days with Kimmie in Paris we decided that our new navigation style would include avoiding toll roads (which were luckily marked on the handy road atlas Kimmie brought us from Powell's in Portland).
We spent too much time driving after an ill-fated night in Tours (which included the most disgusting pizza I think I have ever had in my life), and found ourselves without accommodation in Cap Ferret on the Atlantic coast of France. We ended up camping illegally in a park near some dunes and spent the evening drinking wine and eating boxed tiramisu while nestled in the sand. All in all not a bad evening.
After Luxembourg, Richy and I decided that we wanted to try to hit all the tiny random countries we could. So we spent the next long car day on our way down to Andorra. Turns out that was only useful for the cheap gas (only 1.01 euro a liter) and testing Richy's skills at taking sharp turns on steep hills.
Following a two hour dip into a corner of Spain, we raced to the city of Sete to try to find a place to stay for the night after 10pm. Luckily the guy at the hostel stayed open a little late for us and we were able to get in, although he mysteriously lost 10 euros of ours between Richy's hand and the cash register. Oh well.
We spent the day on Sete relaxing in the sun while Kimmie did laundry, but unfortunately we had some communication problems and made plans to meet at two different beaches. When we finally found each other, we chilled out on some rocks and watched an amazing sunset, followed by what seemed to be an intense sandstorm. To escape, we ducked into the first friendly restaurant and Richy did a lovely job of ordering our meals in French while awkwardly rubbing the sand out of his eyes. We dined on fresh whole fish and potatoes with the most amazing garlic butter ever.
After two nights in Sete we made our way through Italy and Switzerland (yet another big driving day) to Konstanz, Germany on the shores of the Bodensee. Again we arrived after 10, but luckily the college students working the hostel were still up getting drunk and after teasing us for a bit decided to let us have a place to stay. Konstanz was pretty boring since it was too cold for swimming and lake fun, but we had a nice couple of nights to relax before the pandemonium of Oktoberfest.
We then swung by Neuschwanstein (that's the storybook castle that the one in Disneyland is supposedly based on) in Bavaria, and ended up meeting Kimmie's boyfriend and friends at Oktoberfest which involved a lot of beer drinking, broken glass, prost-ing, standing on tables and singing and basically everything you would expect. Luckily it was cheaper and less annoying than we expected. It was basically a good time all around and Richy and I were able to avoid any major hangovers.
Following Oktoberfest, we spent three nights in Prague, which was amazing. We got a chance to see all the great tourist stuff, but I feel like I need to go back for more of the modern attractions. Now we're in the tiny and adorable town of Cesky Kromlov, which seems like it came right out of a picture book.
Tomorrow we head back into Germany to Kimmie's friends' place and after a couple nights it's off to Dusseldorf to catch our plane home! It's so weird to think we'll be home in just a few days...
See you all soon!
By Katie
Showing posts with label Eurasia: From Seoul to W. Europe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eurasia: From Seoul to W. Europe. Show all posts
6.10.08
20.9.08
In Hilvarenbeek, and from the Helsinki Airport
Here's two updates in one, since I wrote one in the Helsinki airport while we were waiting there:
(Sept. 15th, 2008; Helsinki Airport)
Coming from Russia, Mongolia, China, and South Korea, Finland by comparison seems like the most clean, safe and functional place in the whole world (which actually probably isn't too far from the truth). It makes me contemplate what was going through the minds of my great-grand parents when they left this place (although I know things were much different then... pre-independence and all). The only problem is that everything here is really expensive. But the Finns don't seem to mind. After all, they don't have to worry so much about retirement or what might happen to them financially if they get in a car accident or get cancer. Their tax money ensures that their government will actually take care of all that for them. The hotel we stayed at even offered subsidized vacations for low-income Finns! Add all this to the fact that people get paid by the government to stay home and take care of their kids, income-based traffic fines (because why should poorer people pay a higher percentage of their income for the same traffic violation?), and one of the most progressive and effective penal systems in the world. This is basically my idea of a welfare state utopia - now how do I convince my fellow Americans?
Of course, Finland also has it's share of social ills; not least of which is alcoholism, but it's still a lot better than what we've got going back home. At least in my opinion... and next we're off to the Netherlands which I am sure will provide another illuminating case study in how a country should be run.
(Sept. 20th, 2008; Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, Noor's parent's house)
After a few days of sleeping on the floor in a shipping container cum student housing apartment in Amsterdam (thanks to Noor's brother) we've found ourselves in the cozy comfort of Hilvarenbeek. Lying only 8 kilometers north of the Belgian border, we were able to ride bikes to a little Belgian village this afternoon to purchase some lovely Trappist ales, and enjoy a real Belgian waffle. You really can't help but fall in love with the combination of the hip, progressive capital of Amsterdam and the lovely, bright green, windmill-dotted and bike friendly countryside of the Netherlands.
Noor's parents live in half of a 180 year old house that used to be owned by the minister of the nearby catholic church (with it's giant, ancient and charming tower) hence it's name "'t Vaticaan." The other half of the house holds Noor's aunt and uncle, as well as their bed and breakfast and huge costume shop. Apparently her family used to put on community plays, and therefore collected a bunch of costumes and props, which they now rent out for parties and plays at nominal costs. We spent about 2 hours today acting like kids, trying on outfits and taking pictures of ourselves. It was a lot of fun and made me wish I had been able to grow up with an awesome costume shop in my house!
Next, we plan to eat our way through Belgium in our spiffy new Mercedes rental car (we asked for a Peugeot, but got this!) to meet up with Kimmie at a campground outside of Paris. We're kind of sick of trains at this point (if you can imagine). But at least our car gets 35-50 mpg, so we can feel a little less crappy about driving, and hopefully save a little money. Trains in Europe are a lot more expensive that the ones in Russia, Mongolia and China!
(Sept. 15th, 2008; Helsinki Airport)
Coming from Russia, Mongolia, China, and South Korea, Finland by comparison seems like the most clean, safe and functional place in the whole world (which actually probably isn't too far from the truth). It makes me contemplate what was going through the minds of my great-grand parents when they left this place (although I know things were much different then... pre-independence and all). The only problem is that everything here is really expensive. But the Finns don't seem to mind. After all, they don't have to worry so much about retirement or what might happen to them financially if they get in a car accident or get cancer. Their tax money ensures that their government will actually take care of all that for them. The hotel we stayed at even offered subsidized vacations for low-income Finns! Add all this to the fact that people get paid by the government to stay home and take care of their kids, income-based traffic fines (because why should poorer people pay a higher percentage of their income for the same traffic violation?), and one of the most progressive and effective penal systems in the world. This is basically my idea of a welfare state utopia - now how do I convince my fellow Americans?
Of course, Finland also has it's share of social ills; not least of which is alcoholism, but it's still a lot better than what we've got going back home. At least in my opinion... and next we're off to the Netherlands which I am sure will provide another illuminating case study in how a country should be run.
(Sept. 20th, 2008; Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, Noor's parent's house)
After a few days of sleeping on the floor in a shipping container cum student housing apartment in Amsterdam (thanks to Noor's brother) we've found ourselves in the cozy comfort of Hilvarenbeek. Lying only 8 kilometers north of the Belgian border, we were able to ride bikes to a little Belgian village this afternoon to purchase some lovely Trappist ales, and enjoy a real Belgian waffle. You really can't help but fall in love with the combination of the hip, progressive capital of Amsterdam and the lovely, bright green, windmill-dotted and bike friendly countryside of the Netherlands.
Noor's parents live in half of a 180 year old house that used to be owned by the minister of the nearby catholic church (with it's giant, ancient and charming tower) hence it's name "'t Vaticaan." The other half of the house holds Noor's aunt and uncle, as well as their bed and breakfast and huge costume shop. Apparently her family used to put on community plays, and therefore collected a bunch of costumes and props, which they now rent out for parties and plays at nominal costs. We spent about 2 hours today acting like kids, trying on outfits and taking pictures of ourselves. It was a lot of fun and made me wish I had been able to grow up with an awesome costume shop in my house!
Next, we plan to eat our way through Belgium in our spiffy new Mercedes rental car (we asked for a Peugeot, but got this!) to meet up with Kimmie at a campground outside of Paris. We're kind of sick of trains at this point (if you can imagine). But at least our car gets 35-50 mpg, so we can feel a little less crappy about driving, and hopefully save a little money. Trains in Europe are a lot more expensive that the ones in Russia, Mongolia and China!
7.9.08
From HM Hostel 1905 in Moscow:
After our first days in Irkutsk, we spent three days on Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal at Solnetchnaya Guest House. We stayed in a cozy 3 bed cabin room and were fed three hearty Russian country meals a day. It was really nice and relaxing and the food was delicious. We managed a few dips into the cold lake (+25 years for us!), but it really wasn’t as bad as we had expected it to be. The water was clear and fresh, the sky was sunny and the air was clean and beautiful. I wish we could have hiked to the other side of the island to see the real vastness of the lake, but it was 20 kilometers one way, which we couldn’t really manage on a day hike (and we didn’t want to miss too much of the food). We also had wanted to take a ferry from the island to the north end of the lake and take the train on to Moscow from there, but the summer ferry had stopped running the previous week. I guess that’s one of the downsides of coming after the tourist season.
So we had no choice but to return to Irkutsk, which wasn’t a very pleasant idea since when we had been buying our bus tickets a really sketchy guy had come up and tried to grab stuff out of Bevin’s bag. When she knocked his hand away, we ran across the street and went into a restaurant, only for him to follow us and try it again. It left us with a pretty creepy, unsettled feeling about Irkutsk in general, especially since we had been warned by several people about the apparent dangers of being a tourist in Irkutsk. But we made it back (in a super crowded death trap minibus) and stayed another night without incident, enjoying the benefits of running water and hot showers for another day before our long train trip.
We thought we bought way too much food for the train ride, but when we ran out of decent things to eat after the first 24 hours, it got pretty tedious. The train technically had a dining car, but the guy who ran it acted like any customers trying to buy food were unseemly intruders on his personal universe. So we survived on the kiosk peroshkis, hotdogs and soda for several meals. Not a good diet for a healthy intestinal tract. But we made it to Moscow, where we’ve graduated to street shwarma and microwave street calzones (budget minded as always). We did have a nice pricey meal to commemorate our last travel day with Bevin though.
We had a nice death themed day today, starting with a visit to Lenin’s tomb (much more lifelike, or rather deathlike, than Mao). It was pretty creepy descending into the chilly tomb down a dark black staircase, hushed into silence by humorless guards, greeted by Lenin’s eerily lit face and curiously curled, decrepit hands. After walking by the line of buried Russian leaders (including Stalin) by the Kremlin wall, we took the metro out to Novodevichy Convent and Necropolis. The convent was impressive with its onion domes, intricate murals and old tombs. Then we walked over to the cemetery, which holds some of the most famous Russians in history, including Tolstoy, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Gogol, and many others, as indicated by the rows upon rows of towering, self-important statues and busts.
If you’re wondering where we stand in relation to the original itinerary, basically we’ve decided to take it slower across Scandinavia, so we’re not planning to meet up with Kimmie until the weekend of the 21st in Paris or thereabouts. Also our plans fell through with Nora because her mom is sick, although we may still stay a night in Hilvarenbeek. Tomorrow night we’re taking a sleeper to St. Petersberg, where we’ll be staying at Cuba Hostel for two nights, then off to Helsinki.
By Katie
So we had no choice but to return to Irkutsk, which wasn’t a very pleasant idea since when we had been buying our bus tickets a really sketchy guy had come up and tried to grab stuff out of Bevin’s bag. When she knocked his hand away, we ran across the street and went into a restaurant, only for him to follow us and try it again. It left us with a pretty creepy, unsettled feeling about Irkutsk in general, especially since we had been warned by several people about the apparent dangers of being a tourist in Irkutsk. But we made it back (in a super crowded death trap minibus) and stayed another night without incident, enjoying the benefits of running water and hot showers for another day before our long train trip.
We thought we bought way too much food for the train ride, but when we ran out of decent things to eat after the first 24 hours, it got pretty tedious. The train technically had a dining car, but the guy who ran it acted like any customers trying to buy food were unseemly intruders on his personal universe. So we survived on the kiosk peroshkis, hotdogs and soda for several meals. Not a good diet for a healthy intestinal tract. But we made it to Moscow, where we’ve graduated to street shwarma and microwave street calzones (budget minded as always). We did have a nice pricey meal to commemorate our last travel day with Bevin though.
We had a nice death themed day today, starting with a visit to Lenin’s tomb (much more lifelike, or rather deathlike, than Mao). It was pretty creepy descending into the chilly tomb down a dark black staircase, hushed into silence by humorless guards, greeted by Lenin’s eerily lit face and curiously curled, decrepit hands. After walking by the line of buried Russian leaders (including Stalin) by the Kremlin wall, we took the metro out to Novodevichy Convent and Necropolis. The convent was impressive with its onion domes, intricate murals and old tombs. Then we walked over to the cemetery, which holds some of the most famous Russians in history, including Tolstoy, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Gogol, and many others, as indicated by the rows upon rows of towering, self-important statues and busts.
If you’re wondering where we stand in relation to the original itinerary, basically we’ve decided to take it slower across Scandinavia, so we’re not planning to meet up with Kimmie until the weekend of the 21st in Paris or thereabouts. Also our plans fell through with Nora because her mom is sick, although we may still stay a night in Hilvarenbeek. Tomorrow night we’re taking a sleeper to St. Petersberg, where we’ll be staying at Cuba Hostel for two nights, then off to Helsinki.
By Katie
31.8.08
On a bus to Lake Baikal
Mongolia was cold and Ulaanbaator the poorest and most underdeveloped city we've ever seen. It seems that nearly half the city consists of the Mongolian equivalent of a trailer park, substituting a trailer for the original mobile home, the semi-permanent felt yurt, known as the ger. Ulaanbaator was originally known as the city of felt, traditionally being a ger encampment that grew over time to become the largest city in Mongolia. During the communist era, however the Soviet Union pumped money into Mongolia, subsidizing the building of numerous
housing blocks and nearly eliminating the ger from the city. But, with the fall of the Soviet Union, that funding ended and the population was forced to revert to the traditional housing, if they could afford even that. The dirt streets of the city are now littered with homeless children and hypodermic needles, and as the friendly host at our guest house said, "there are some good things and some bad things," about the end of communism and the acceptance of capitalism in Mongolia.
But Mongolia was in a celebratory mood when we were there. It seemed the whole country was high on the olympcs. Mongolia won 4 medals, including 2 gold, making 31st place overall. The night we returned from our outing to the national park was the night of the homecoming of the Olympic medalists. Each gold medalist recieved the equivalent of $1,125,000 in a combination of private donations and government rewards. As our guest house host also told us, hopefully this will symbolize a new beggining for Mongolia and the end of the hardships brought on by the transition from communism.
We left Mongolia wishing that we'd had more time to spend there. It seemed like we were some of the only people who weren't planning on staying for a few weeks or a month. The country is so vast and the land so undeveloped that it takes a long time to get any distance. Thus, though we would have liked to see the unbelievably vast plains of the steppe or the camels wandering the Gobi desert, the furthest we were able to make it away from the city was about 70 kilometers to Terelj national park.Terelj is situated in a mountaious river valley and filled with gers for tourists to stay in. It's supposedly the birthplace of Ghengis Khan, Mongolia's national hero. We stayed for two nights and three days, more than is necessary to appreciate the park. The highlight of our stay was the six hours we spent on stubborn Mongolian horses trying hopelessly to get them to go anywhere faster than we could have gone at a slow walking pace. Or trying not to have them stop and lay down unannounced.
At the moment, we're sitting on a bus to lake Baikal. We left Irkutsk early this morning to go to Olkohn island which is situated approximately half way up the eastern side of the lake.Lake Bailal is the planet's largest fresh water lake, containing 20% of all the fresh water on earth. If all other sources of fresh water were to dissapear tomorrow, the water in lake Bailal would sustain the worlds needs for 40 years. It's nearly a mile deep and it's said that taking a sip from the lake's drinkably clean water adds 5 years
to your life.
And finally, my first impression of Russia: cheap cologne does not adequately conceal the odour caused by never washing one's clothes.
--Richy
housing blocks and nearly eliminating the ger from the city. But, with the fall of the Soviet Union, that funding ended and the population was forced to revert to the traditional housing, if they could afford even that. The dirt streets of the city are now littered with homeless children and hypodermic needles, and as the friendly host at our guest house said, "there are some good things and some bad things," about the end of communism and the acceptance of capitalism in Mongolia.
But Mongolia was in a celebratory mood when we were there. It seemed the whole country was high on the olympcs. Mongolia won 4 medals, including 2 gold, making 31st place overall. The night we returned from our outing to the national park was the night of the homecoming of the Olympic medalists. Each gold medalist recieved the equivalent of $1,125,000 in a combination of private donations and government rewards. As our guest house host also told us, hopefully this will symbolize a new beggining for Mongolia and the end of the hardships brought on by the transition from communism.
We left Mongolia wishing that we'd had more time to spend there. It seemed like we were some of the only people who weren't planning on staying for a few weeks or a month. The country is so vast and the land so undeveloped that it takes a long time to get any distance. Thus, though we would have liked to see the unbelievably vast plains of the steppe or the camels wandering the Gobi desert, the furthest we were able to make it away from the city was about 70 kilometers to Terelj national park.Terelj is situated in a mountaious river valley and filled with gers for tourists to stay in. It's supposedly the birthplace of Ghengis Khan, Mongolia's national hero. We stayed for two nights and three days, more than is necessary to appreciate the park. The highlight of our stay was the six hours we spent on stubborn Mongolian horses trying hopelessly to get them to go anywhere faster than we could have gone at a slow walking pace. Or trying not to have them stop and lay down unannounced.
At the moment, we're sitting on a bus to lake Baikal. We left Irkutsk early this morning to go to Olkohn island which is situated approximately half way up the eastern side of the lake.Lake Bailal is the planet's largest fresh water lake, containing 20% of all the fresh water on earth. If all other sources of fresh water were to dissapear tomorrow, the water in lake Bailal would sustain the worlds needs for 40 years. It's nearly a mile deep and it's said that taking a sip from the lake's drinkably clean water adds 5 years
to your life.
And finally, my first impression of Russia: cheap cologne does not adequately conceal the odour caused by never washing one's clothes.
--Richy
21.8.08
On the train from Beijing to Ulaan Baatar
We just finished our 5 days in China feeling like we're going to have to go back for more someday. There's just so much history, so much culture, and so much to see. I'm glad that we weren't able to get ferry tickets to Tianjin, because our one day in Qingdao was really worth it. There, I feel like we really got to see some of the "real" China before heading to Beijing which had been thoroughly sanitized and mall-ified for the Olympics.
In Qingdao, we stayed at a quaint and well-organized hostel established in an old church on hill and it was surrounded by old crumbling buildings and hutong alleyways. A little further up the hill we found another hostel in an old observatory with an amazing rooftop lounge. The night view of the city was spectacular and we chilled out there for a few hours, enjoying the cool breeze, some (local) Tsingtao beers, and the US vs. China women's volleyball game projected on one of the old observatory domes. The next day we wandered around the city a bit before catching the evening train to Beijing. We got to visit a famous temple and ring the official Olympic mascot bell, as well as take a tour of the Tsingtao brewery.
Upon arriving in Beijing, we were wowed by the strange immaculate cleanliness of the city compared to Seoul and Qingdao. Then it took us a while to find our hostel in the middle of the night because it didn't have a sign. Other than that, Chinese Box hostel was a pretty nice chilled out hostel in the middle of a charming (and relatively sanitized) old hutong neighborhood. We met some interesting folks there and ended up having one long night of alcohol-fueled political conversation (bordering at times on outright argument) between the three of us Greeners, a conservative American libertarian from Detroit and a German college dropout (who claimed to be set to inherit his father's 18 million euros). We all ended on friendly "let's agree to disagree" terms though.
The first day in Beijing, we explored the maze-like grounds of the Forbidden City (which was gigantic and thoroughly overwhelming) and then wandered around for photo ops around Tienanmen square. At one point, I was asked to pose for some photos by a Chinese mother and quickly had my arms filled with an adorable, chubby little Chinese baby. I felt like a politician, but in a cool way. We ended the day with a delicious dinner of Peking duck and pork dumplings.
On the second day, we spend the morning hoofing around for tickets to Ulaan Baatar without much luck (they just told us to come back the next day), so we decided at the last minute to catch a bus out to Mutianu to see the Great Wall. Because we started relatively late, we ended up getting grabbed off the bus by a faux cab driver who offered to take us to the top and back for 50 yuan each (less than $10). It was about the same as the minibus price, so we went for it. We took the cable car up and spent a little over an hour drinking in the view, taking photos and running around. It's pretty much how you expect: really big and awesome. Basically all the old stuff in China totally dwarfs all the old stuff in Korea. Kinda sad that Korea was so poor for so long and then got reduced to rubble only 50 years ago. On the way back down our "cab driver" offered to trade us Bevin for his 10 sisters, but we politely declined (only because we don't have enough money to buy train tickets for his sisters). k-k-k-k-k.
On our final day in Beijing, we did a lot of running around: buying train tickets, seeing Mao Zedong's plasticized dead body (which required running back and forth across the street to check our bags), visiting the snack market alley and nearby mall, hoofing it up to Olympic park to try to score some cheap scalped Olympics tickets (none in groups of three though, so only Bevin ended up attending an event - 800 yuan to see Brazil v. Argentina in the soccer semi-fina), and finally Richy and I went to the night market, took a bike rickshaw ride and photographed Tienanmen square at night. There was definitely enough to do and see to last us a few more days in Beijing, but we have a lot more traveling to do, so we have to keep moving. I am however, relieved to leave behind all the pain in the ass heightened security, which required us to wait in lines everywhere we went and get our bags x-rayed dozens of times during our short stay.
We look forward to arriving in Ulaan Baatar tomorrow afternoon and staying at Oyuna Guesthouse. We're hoping to find a way out into the countryside to do some camping and get back to nature after our long sojourn in urban environments.
by Katie
In Qingdao, we stayed at a quaint and well-organized hostel established in an old church on hill and it was surrounded by old crumbling buildings and hutong alleyways. A little further up the hill we found another hostel in an old observatory with an amazing rooftop lounge. The night view of the city was spectacular and we chilled out there for a few hours, enjoying the cool breeze, some (local) Tsingtao beers, and the US vs. China women's volleyball game projected on one of the old observatory domes. The next day we wandered around the city a bit before catching the evening train to Beijing. We got to visit a famous temple and ring the official Olympic mascot bell, as well as take a tour of the Tsingtao brewery.
Upon arriving in Beijing, we were wowed by the strange immaculate cleanliness of the city compared to Seoul and Qingdao. Then it took us a while to find our hostel in the middle of the night because it didn't have a sign. Other than that, Chinese Box hostel was a pretty nice chilled out hostel in the middle of a charming (and relatively sanitized) old hutong neighborhood. We met some interesting folks there and ended up having one long night of alcohol-fueled political conversation (bordering at times on outright argument) between the three of us Greeners, a conservative American libertarian from Detroit and a German college dropout (who claimed to be set to inherit his father's 18 million euros). We all ended on friendly "let's agree to disagree" terms though.
The first day in Beijing, we explored the maze-like grounds of the Forbidden City (which was gigantic and thoroughly overwhelming) and then wandered around for photo ops around Tienanmen square. At one point, I was asked to pose for some photos by a Chinese mother and quickly had my arms filled with an adorable, chubby little Chinese baby. I felt like a politician, but in a cool way. We ended the day with a delicious dinner of Peking duck and pork dumplings.
On the second day, we spend the morning hoofing around for tickets to Ulaan Baatar without much luck (they just told us to come back the next day), so we decided at the last minute to catch a bus out to Mutianu to see the Great Wall. Because we started relatively late, we ended up getting grabbed off the bus by a faux cab driver who offered to take us to the top and back for 50 yuan each (less than $10). It was about the same as the minibus price, so we went for it. We took the cable car up and spent a little over an hour drinking in the view, taking photos and running around. It's pretty much how you expect: really big and awesome. Basically all the old stuff in China totally dwarfs all the old stuff in Korea. Kinda sad that Korea was so poor for so long and then got reduced to rubble only 50 years ago. On the way back down our "cab driver" offered to trade us Bevin for his 10 sisters, but we politely declined (only because we don't have enough money to buy train tickets for his sisters). k-k-k-k-k.
On our final day in Beijing, we did a lot of running around: buying train tickets, seeing Mao Zedong's plasticized dead body (which required running back and forth across the street to check our bags), visiting the snack market alley and nearby mall, hoofing it up to Olympic park to try to score some cheap scalped Olympics tickets (none in groups of three though, so only Bevin ended up attending an event - 800 yuan to see Brazil v. Argentina in the soccer semi-fina), and finally Richy and I went to the night market, took a bike rickshaw ride and photographed Tienanmen square at night. There was definitely enough to do and see to last us a few more days in Beijing, but we have a lot more traveling to do, so we have to keep moving. I am however, relieved to leave behind all the pain in the ass heightened security, which required us to wait in lines everywhere we went and get our bags x-rayed dozens of times during our short stay.
We look forward to arriving in Ulaan Baatar tomorrow afternoon and staying at Oyuna Guesthouse. We're hoping to find a way out into the countryside to do some camping and get back to nature after our long sojourn in urban environments.
by Katie
15.8.08
On the Slow Boat to China...
Today was a strange day. There are so many mixed emotions about leaving Korea: trepidation about going to a new place, excitement for moving on to new adventures, sadness for leaving behind good friends, happiness to see an old friend again (Bevin), and finally, relief to leave behind all the responsibilities and annoyances that life in Korea entailed for us.
We cleaned out our apartment (with some help from some lovely folks at Banghak Middle School), updated our facebook statuses, christened our journey with some 11am Scuttlebutt microbrews (that Bevin imported for us) and set off for what I hope will be the adventure of our lives. I tried to instill some team mentality for the three of us by buying some matching Buddhist rosary bracelets at the temple in Insadong, but I'll be happy as long as they retain enough sandalwood smell to take the edge off our acrid traveller's BO.
The ferry to China is, as Bevin put it, "like a really ghetto cruise ship." In other words, way above our expectations. I guess as long as we keep our expectations low, our journey will be full of pleasant surprises.
The task for Richy and I now is to stop trying to speak Korean to anyone we interact with who doesn't speak English, and to stop comparing all we see and do to our experiences in Korea. I really hope we don't bore Bevin to death with our constant anecdotes and ruminations on comparative Korean culture and philosophy.
By Katie
10.8.08
Official Katie and Richy Itinerary!
Here's the plan for our grand adventure. Dates marked with * are estimates only, all travel is by train unless otherwise noted:
8/14/08 Katie, Richy and Bevin Protas will depart on the Weidong ferry from Incheon, Korea to Qingdao, China at 5pm http://www.weidong.co.kr/
8/15/08 arrive in Qingdao at 9:00 am. Wander around. Take a night train to Beijing.
8/16/08 arrive in Beijing and check in to Chinese Box International Hostel for 4 nights http://www.asiarooms.com/china/beijing/chinese_box_hostel.html
8/20/08 depart Beijing for Ulaan Batar, Mongolia
8/21/08 arrive in Ulaan Batar, accommodations TBA
8/24 or 8/25/08 depart Ulaan Batar for Irkutsk, Russia
*8/25 arrive in Irkutsk, Russia and visit sites around Lake Baikal - emergency contact in Irkutsk:
Via Marina Shunina (our Russian friend who teaches in Seoul) "if u need any help or info while u r in Irkutsk, heres the cell phone number of a friend of mine..she speaks english well n ready to help u if u call her while u r in Irkutsk- ************ her names Yulya (Julia in english variant i think^^)"
*8/30 depart Irkutsk for Moscow (3 days on the train)
*9/2 arrive in Moscow
*9/3 or 9/4 depart Moscow for St. Petersburg (around this point we will part with our dear friend Bevin and she will travel on by plane to the Czech Republic and Ireland respectively).
*9/4 arrive in St. Petersburg
*9/6 depart St. Petersberg by ferry for Helsinki, Finland.
*9/6 arrive in Helsinki, Finland
*9/8 depart Helsinki, Finland for Stockholm, Sweden by ferry.
*9/9 arrive in Stockholm
*9/10 depart Stockholm for Copenhagen, Denmark by train.
*9/11 arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark.
*9/12 depart Copenhagen, Denmark for Amsterdam, Netherlands
*9/12 or 9/13 arrive in Amsterdam, possibly meet up with Kimmie, J, Doug, Sara and/or Noor Naaijkens (our friend from the Netherlands)
* 9/14 depart Amsterdam for Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands (Noor's hometown) we plan to spend a few days with Noor and her family while Kimmie and company move on to Belgium and destinations in northwestern France.
*9/18 to 9/28 travel with Noor (probably by her father's car, Richy driving) to meet Kimmie and company somewhere around Paris. At this point, Kimmie will depart from her company (Doug, Sara and J will return to Frankfurt, Germany) and join Noor, Richy, and I for some lovely car touring around western Europe. At some point we'll need to end up back in the Netherlands to take Noor back to Hilvarenbeek and rent a car to continue our travels.
*9/28 arrive in Munich, Germany for Octoberfest. Accommodations are booked, but Kimmie has the info on that.
*10/1 depart Munich for other fun and interesting European destinations.
*10/8 depart Dusseldorf, Germany for Vancouver, BC, Canada at 1:00 pm by plane:
LTU International Airways # 1582
Dusseldorf International (DUS) to Vancouver Intl (YVR)
Departure (DUS): October 8, 1:00 PM CEST (afternoon)
Arrival (YVR): October 8, 2:05 PM PDT (afternoon) What!? It only takes an hour? k-k-k- :P
*10/8 (the longest day of our lives, literally) arrive in Vancouver at 2:05 pm, and depart Vancouver by Greyhound bus or car (if someone wants to pick us up *wink*wink*) for Yelm, Washington USA!!! Our 14 month journey all the way around the Northern hemisphere complete!
8/14/08 Katie, Richy and Bevin Protas will depart on the Weidong ferry from Incheon, Korea to Qingdao, China at 5pm http://www.weidong.co.kr/
8/15/08 arrive in Qingdao at 9:00 am. Wander around. Take a night train to Beijing.
8/16/08 arrive in Beijing and check in to Chinese Box International Hostel for 4 nights http://www.asiarooms.com/china/beijing/chinese_box_hostel.html
8/20/08 depart Beijing for Ulaan Batar, Mongolia
8/21/08 arrive in Ulaan Batar, accommodations TBA
8/24 or 8/25/08 depart Ulaan Batar for Irkutsk, Russia
*8/25 arrive in Irkutsk, Russia and visit sites around Lake Baikal - emergency contact in Irkutsk:
Via Marina Shunina (our Russian friend who teaches in Seoul) "if u need any help or info while u r in Irkutsk, heres the cell phone number of a friend of mine..she speaks english well n ready to help u if u call her while u r in Irkutsk- ************ her names Yulya (Julia in english variant i think^^)"
*8/30 depart Irkutsk for Moscow (3 days on the train)
*9/2 arrive in Moscow
*9/3 or 9/4 depart Moscow for St. Petersburg (around this point we will part with our dear friend Bevin and she will travel on by plane to the Czech Republic and Ireland respectively).
*9/4 arrive in St. Petersburg
*9/6 depart St. Petersberg by ferry for Helsinki, Finland.
*9/6 arrive in Helsinki, Finland
*9/8 depart Helsinki, Finland for Stockholm, Sweden by ferry.
*9/9 arrive in Stockholm
*9/10 depart Stockholm for Copenhagen, Denmark by train.
*9/11 arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark.
*9/12 depart Copenhagen, Denmark for Amsterdam, Netherlands
*9/12 or 9/13 arrive in Amsterdam, possibly meet up with Kimmie, J, Doug, Sara and/or Noor Naaijkens (our friend from the Netherlands)
* 9/14 depart Amsterdam for Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands (Noor's hometown) we plan to spend a few days with Noor and her family while Kimmie and company move on to Belgium and destinations in northwestern France.
*9/18 to 9/28 travel with Noor (probably by her father's car, Richy driving) to meet Kimmie and company somewhere around Paris. At this point, Kimmie will depart from her company (Doug, Sara and J will return to Frankfurt, Germany) and join Noor, Richy, and I for some lovely car touring around western Europe. At some point we'll need to end up back in the Netherlands to take Noor back to Hilvarenbeek and rent a car to continue our travels.
*9/28 arrive in Munich, Germany for Octoberfest. Accommodations are booked, but Kimmie has the info on that.
*10/1 depart Munich for other fun and interesting European destinations.
*10/8 depart Dusseldorf, Germany for Vancouver, BC, Canada at 1:00 pm by plane:
LTU International Airways # 1582
Dusseldorf International (DUS) to Vancouver Intl (YVR)
Departure (DUS): October 8, 1:00 PM CEST (afternoon)
Arrival (YVR): October 8, 2:05 PM PDT (afternoon) What!? It only takes an hour? k-k-k- :P
*10/8 (the longest day of our lives, literally) arrive in Vancouver at 2:05 pm, and depart Vancouver by Greyhound bus or car (if someone wants to pick us up *wink*wink*) for Yelm, Washington USA!!! Our 14 month journey all the way around the Northern hemisphere complete!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)