quick post from Nafplion, Greece - wowzy wowow

i am going to have to write very fast as i only have 30 minutes on this computer..

we have entered a new world on the second month of this trip, leaving the snow of switzerland and entering the perfect temperatures of greece (when we went out last night, i was in my t-shirt the whole time!). since leipzig, we did two days of scenic trains in switzerland, which blew our minds. we camped in in the mountains in interlaken, watched england blow it in the croatia footy match.
we cruised down to venice and taken many megabits of photos and spent the day exploring there. we have taken an overnight train from venice to bari, on the heal of italy, and explored that town before catching an overnight ferry to patras, greece. we got in to nafplion yesterday and found our campsite on the beach. it is heavenly here. we woke up to the sun and came down to the white stone old town for a very nicely priced breakfast.
we are enjoying for the moment the warm temperatures and cheaper prices and have decided to stay on the beach until we are ready to make our way to the greek islands. after writing this, we will be hiking up a mountain to an ancient fortress that overlooks the mediteranian and this stunning city.
because we took our time enjoying germany and are now deciding to take our time here in greece we have decided to forfeit our planned trip to istanbul. i have a feeling this last month will take on its own shape and ignore any structure i attempted to put into it with all my research and scheduling. in truth, that is what we expected and we are excited to see what happens next.

12 minutes later...

was only able to do a couple pics.... more later

love you all and hope all is well.

PIC-POST: A quick overview so far of our trip from Ireland on

There are so many pics that i will have to leave out in this post for time's sake but here are a few of each place we have seen from Ireland on.


After our time in Ireland, we flew to Holland and spent four or so wonderfull days with our old and dear friend Marieke. We met up with a few of her friends as well. I got on great with the dutch boys and was treated to a match in the top division while there. They were all such great guys and even after only four days there, it was easy to see myself enjoying many more someday. Ailsa and I loved our Holland experience.



We rode these Dutch bikes (or old people bikes as we call them) to the Eredivisie match, stopping at the dutch equivelent of a "chippy" in england or "fast food joint" in america.






A few pics from Copenhagen
Bottom left is a typical bakery in denmark. soooooo tempting...all the time.














FINLAND

In Finland there are little tents where you can find yourself some of the strongest coffee in the world as well as traditional meat pastries.

here is a pic of a McMenu in finland. the coffee looking drink on the right is great. fins make wonderful coffee, even at macdonalds, and then put ice cream in it. taking that back with me, baby.





Pics of our ferry experience from Stockholm, Sweden to Helskinki, Finland and back. We got our own cabin with a shower that was free with our Eurail pass, which we loved.

The russian acrobats above were impressive but i couldn`t leave out the Finnish entertainer who, along with his russian counterparts, gave us all the cheesy entertainment we would need.


Pics of Stockholm. Not impressed with the swedish hotdog.

This is the typical building in Old Stockholm. I could not get enough of the colors and textures they used.

You really had to see the guy below to believe him. He was awesome. I think he was either very drunk or on a field trip from the mental hospital. I will try to post a video of it at the bottom but it may not work as they have been acting up recently...


From stockholm we went to see my norge family. I included that whole story with pictures and all a few postings down if you missed it. However, this is right after that on the west coast of Norway. This is another pic of Bergen, Norway. I really should have bought the coolest hat i have ever seen here, but i didn't. Interesting fact.
The train up near the fjords in Norway. This is the little mountain town of Myrdal. From here we went to visit some more friends.



My good buddy and old roommate in south africa, shaggy. we are posing in the traditional norge way here. i overdid it a bit. This was our last night in wonderful norway. Thank you Andreas and Mona for taking us in. We had a fabulous time and can't wait to see you again.TRAINS. Next, after our generous host and old friend of mine, Rachel put us up in her pad in Copenhagen, we made a last minute decision to do a night train all the way from Copenhagen to Vienna so that we could have some time with our good friend, Luzie in Austria before she left for Eastern Germany (where we would later meet her as well). These train tickets are great. Because they give you the option of sleeping while you journey somewhere, it makes more sense to jump long distances and arrive in new counties early in the morning for a full day to see all you want. The pic below is of one of our favorite first class coaches yet - we had our own silent room with all the peanuts and coffee you want. However, after the ferry ride from Denmark to Germany, Ailsa got on the train but i did not. I had to literally run after it and catch it about 200 meters from the ferry dock.
My first Bavarian beer, Hefeweizen or Wies Bier. We have been playing a lot of cards. So far, though more talented in truth, i am losing by one match to my wife.
beautiful fake tree in the train station in frankfurt
our night train to vienna. the seats are like hidabeds and fold out into cool mattresses. forgot to take a pic of that but have a video clip i show you later.

Wien, Austria with our dear friend, Luzie. I love taking night shots.



The weekly baby pic.

Next, we made a last minute decision to see Budapest and were so glad that we did. The below pic is of Ailsa's sister office, Remax of Budapest.



KILLER TURKISH STYLE BATHS

We had an afternoon in Munich and found a great beer garten there. It looked like Santa' house from the outside. The wies bier was out of this world.
I only included a couple pictures of our three days in Berlin. I took poor photos there. This one below is a recently built holocaust memorial right in the middle of Berlin.

We had a very relaxing time with our friend Luzie's family in Leipzig. Thank you so much.




This is a video of the crazy busker i have a pic of way up above. This was in stockholm...he was making a fair bit of money for his effort. I hope this video works...


WE HAVE BEEN SLEEPING, EATING AND LEARNING DEUTSCH THESE LAST FOUR DAYS IN LEIPZIG. WE WERE BLESSED WITH A FREE ULTRA-SOUND FROM A RELATIVE OF LUZIE'S TODAY AND THE BABY IS STILL DOING BEAUTIFULLY. LUZIE AND HER FAMILY HAVE REALLY BLOWN US AWAY WITH THEIR HOSPITALITY. AMAZING.

AILSA RECENTLY GOT A 24 HOUR FLU BUG AND IS RECOVERING FROM THAT AS WELL. WE HAVE CHANGED PLANS AGAIN AND MUST LEAVE PRAGUE BEHIND AS THE GERMAN TRAIN WORKERS WENT ON STRIKE AND HAVE FOILED OUR PLANS. HOWEVER, WE ARE EXCITED FOR THE NEXT STAGE OF OUR JOURNEY: THE MEDDITERANIAN VIA SWITZERLAND. SO, TOMORROW WE CATCH A SLEEPER TRAIN TO ZURICH. I CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE SWITZERLAND AGAIN. GOD HAS CREATED SUCH A BREATHTAKING WORLD AND HE IS FOUND IN HIS CREATION. I LIKE TO THINK OF ALL THESE VARYING LANDSCAPES BETWEEN ALASKA AND GERMANY AS LITTLE GLIMMERS INTO HIS PERSONALITY.

FYI, THOUGH MOST MAY KNOW BY NOW, THE MAP TO THE RIGHT OF THESE POSTS CAN BE ENLARGED AND YOU CAN CLICK ON EVERY LINE AND FLAG TO SEE TINY DETAILS REGARDING EACH LEG OF THE TRIP. THIS WILL BE SOMETHING THAT I WILL TRY TO KEEP MORE UP TO DATE.

take care everyone.

a short hello

hello again. we are in leipzig, germany and, since talking to ya last, have been down to vienna, austria / budapest, hungary / berlin, germany(via munich) in that order. we are with our friend luzie at her family's house. i am writing to say that all night tonight i have been trying to get to this computer but have gotten caught up in so many discussions on my way here and now find it to be 2 am and i am beat. so, i have to write tomorrow because we leave soon after and i don't know when i will be at a computer again after.

also wanted to add that i have updated the map to the right, which does have a few comments. the next post will have many pictures as i feel way behind in that department.

Pictures

i have more pics to put up but here are a few. I fell asleep and could't finish.






pics of Stockholm, our favorite city thus far







This was one of the coolest restaraunts we've ever been into in Stockholm, Sweden
One of the coolest travellers we have run into so far, this is Seyeon from South Korea, who has the same two month train pass as us. We met her in Oslo and then later in Bergen. Hope we can meet again.
Old alley in Bergen, Norway Norweigen Macdonalds at 3 in the morning. The Viking comes out in these people during the weekends. They absolutely destroyed this Macdonalds Up in the mountains near Bergen, Norway
Here is a video clip of the family in Norway saying hi to the family in America


At those giant's causewayZ Had good laughs with our friends, Bry and Bre. Hope we can have a good season, the all of us hangin' someday.