So, what do you miss?

Simple question, right? Deserves a simple answer.

Mexican food.

Seriously. I never actually realized how much the rest of the world is completely deprived of really good Mexican food. For the last five months, even in South America, we have not seen a whole lot of Mexican food and we have observed a complete absence of black beans. Can you imagine?

So yesterday I headed out to Oxford, which is LOVELY, to see a friend from college I hadn't seen since then. He's been livin there for about 5 years and one of the first questions he asked was "when was the last time you had a really good burrito?". Just hearing the words made my mouth water. I think he recognized the look on my face (which probably conveyed a combination of really high hopes for good Mexican food and a psychotic twitch of what bodily harm I might try to inflict if this were just a mean spirited joke) and said that a pretty good Mexican place had recently opened up there. :)

I actually finished the whole burrito (anyone who knows how much I normally eat at one sitting should be shocked) along with a good old Sol beer. Yummy.

The other "food" I miss is hostess cupcakes. (Yes...I know. That's why I put quotes around food!). I swear that if I find them I might have to eat a few packages at once.

Other than that, London has been a really fun time to wander and to catch up with a lot of good people. We sent back our jackets and donated some other warm stuff this morning. (Side note, who knew mailing this was SO expensive?!?) We just went on the London Eye (thanks Joe!) Which gave us nice parting views of the city. In a few hours we'll head the airport and onto South Africa, where we will be for a few weeks. Warm weather, here we come!!!

quick update

Well, it seems that when we are staying with friends or couchsurfing we visit internet cafes much less frequently and therefore the blog falls a bit to the wayside...so here I will attempt to give a quick recap of the last week of our trip.

Milestones:
1-We passed our 5 month anniversary of starting the trip on March 2nd. And learning from our previous mistakes, we made NO attempt to travel on that day. It was great. Well, kind of. We did rent a tandem bike in Amsterdam, and come to think of it, after riding clear across the city and out into more of the suburbs, the back tire broke. We had to walk the bike back clear across town, which took about an hour and a quarter. Hmmm...maybe April 2nd we'll just stay indoors!

2-We officially used up our eurail pass. Lukily we were able to squeeze about an extra week out of the thing, due to brilliant forgery. :)

3-We are now back in London, our final stop in Europe before we leave this continent. We have met so many great people from in and around London on our trip so far, that we are taking a few days just to meet up with them here before we move on. Kind of funny to have a social calendar.

4-I met a guy in Jordan who is British, but convinced that I would like olives if I just ate 13 of them in a row. We made a bet (he clearly had no idea how stubborn I can be) that I would try to eat them. Well, I did it in Berlin...lined up 13 of the little suckers and Rahima videoed it. All I can say is...I STILL dislike olives very, very much. Apparently though, I should have known to get "good olives", but what do I know? So last night, we all met up and went to see Les Miserable. Oh...how I love that musical. Ed and Rahima were a little perturbed by the fact that every word is actually sung in the MUSICAL, and Ed came to the great conclusion that the French Revolution was not caused by poverty or strife, but because they were sick of singing everything. :)

I think that just about catches us up!

the berlin wall is...

ONLY 13 feet high! What?!? Did everyone else know that but me???

So Berlin is a really cool city. It is surprisingly cheaper than many other european cities we have been in lately, which is really nice, and we are couchsurfing with an Irish-Italian guy who has been an excellent host. I know I was 12 when the wall came down...and I was old enough to more or less understand the situation, but being here has been really thought provoking for me. It is just mind blowing that overnight a government threw up a wall that prohibited people from going to work, going home from work, separating families, etc. for over 28 years. Wow. And the scarier part to me is that these so-called crazy things are still happening in our world today. It started as a barbed wire fence...then a 13 foot high structure that people could SEE over. Just not cross. Then, of course, on the eastern side they enforced a ¨death zone¨ so people couldn´t get close to the actual wall, but on the western side people could walk right up to it, paint on it, whatever they wanted. I am blown away.

So we have been wandering around what used to be East Berlin these past few days. It has all kinds of great pockets, gourmet food and restaurants (which we haven´t taken advantage of at all), super funky neighborhoods of hipsters, tons of historical buildings and monuments, and more. There is a lot of great graffiti as well, my favorite of which was a sign that reads, ¨David Hasselhoff saved the world¨. He did. Little known fact. Look it up. =)

Apart from all of that, we have been amusing ourselves with a newly invented game called ¨flattering or frightening¨. It is kind of a take on the whole ¨Would you rather...¨ game. But in this case, you present a scenario and the other person has to deem it flattering or frightening. For example, Rahima recently introduced me to the website and book of Post Secret, where people decorate a postcard and anonymously send in a secret some of which are posted on the website or in a book. They range from the simple to the heart-wrenching. One of my favorites was one where a woman confessed that when she makes her husband a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she secretly draws a heart in the peanut butter before closing the sandwich. Cute, huh?

So here is an example of the game:
Rahima: Flattering or frightening? I secretly draw a heart in your peanut butter sandwich.
Annette: Flattering.
Rahima: Flattering or frightening? I use my dirty finger to do it?
Annette: Eww! Frightening.

Try it with your friends. It is really fun. =)

Train rides, cold, and more cold

Well, whoever said Eastern Europe was cold in the winter sure was right. We left Prague a few days back and hopped on a night train to Krakow. Most of the cars were pretty empty, so we thought we were in luck, and would be able to lie down and even sleep part of the way. Shortly before the train started on its way, we were joined by a very nice Russian or Polish middle-aged man who insisted on speaking to us in his native lanugage, despite the fact that we understood next to nothing. Okay, nothing.

It only took a few minutes to realize how intoxicated he was. Very friendly, and the saddest mess I think I have ever seen. He proceeded to drink another (I am assuming he had at least one or two prior) bottle of vodka. Then he kind of passed out. By kind of, I mean that he would not stay passed out. He kept waking up when the train slowed or stopped, and this somehow signaled him to reach for a)more vodka b)a cigarette or c) a beer (which I dumped out on his behalf once his eyes closed again). We spent a good part of the night just making sure that as he fell off of the seat he didn't hit his head too hard on the floor. About 2am, when he was pretty still, we realized there was no one in the compartment next to us and decided to move to try to sleep for a bit.

When we arrived in Krakow (very well rested at this point...note the sarcasm) we had about 5-10 minute walk to our hostel. Wow was it cold. My face actually stung as we came out of the building and headed down the street. Another note to self: Never be awake and outside in Eastern Europe prior to 7am.

We are at at great little hostel and we have exlpored Krakow quite a bit and eaten our fair share of perogis. Rahima headed to Auschwitz today, and I will go explore a bit on my own. Yesterday we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mines here in Krakow which was really incredible. They have one chamber where everything is carved into the rocksalt. The floor looks like tiles, but it is actually one big slate of salt which has been etched into. And it even appears to have "paintings" on the walls, which are also carvings, including one of the Las Supper. Everything, right down to the chandeliers are...you guessed it...rock salt. I can't post pics on this computer, but you should google it to see how amazing it is.

Hope you are all nice and warm while reading this! :)

gnomey's blog

Well, Rahima and I are thoroughly enjoying our adventures, but so is Gnomey. He has started his own blog, to share his side of the story as well. He has just started writing, so be patient with him, but you can find his blog at www.throughagnomeseyes.blogspot.com


Enjoy!

(yes...we have that much time on our hands!)

Most of us remember Prague...

for its castle, its toy-like charm, or its cheap beer. But for me, Prague will always hold a deeper and more personal connection. Prague will be the location of the discovery of my first, real, official grey hair.

Yes. It's true.

Yesterday I went walking around Prague with Alan, a real Scotsman (kilt and all which he donned for us the night before) to see most of the sights. As I knelt down to take a picture of a swan on the river, Alan said, "Hold on! I see something here!" A second later there was a sharp twinge of pain as a single hair (or maybe a few and that is what hurt so much!) was yanked out of my head and presented to me for the viewing. Yup. Unquestionable proof. Grey.

And yes. I saved it. :)

So there you have it. The latest development and milestone in my life. And now the thoughts running through my head include: because I plucked it will seven really grow back in its place? How long have I really had grey hair, but covered it up with my incessant hair-dying addiction? Will I look as good with grey hair as Maria Rosa does? God, I hope so.

We finally made it to Munich

Manarola. One of the five towns of le cinque terre. Sigh.

Wow, I can´t believe it has been almost a full week since I have sat down and blogged! Believe it or not, we finally dragged ourselves out of Italy. It was so difficult! We really got used to our lazy little lives, living just above the waterfront, waking up to good breakfasts, then long beautiful walks, good people in town, frisbee in the public square with the little old man who watched from his window, and then three course homecooked meals for dinner. Seriously, if anyone had previously tried to tell me that some of the best food on this trip would come from inside a little apartment with two guys from Pennsylvania while in Italy, I would have told them they were crazy. But it was true.

Paul, Me, Rahima, Jason on one of the trails between two of the towns. Not a bad view, huh?

We played cards, (Briscola being my new favorite card game, but unfortunately I didn´t buy a deck before I left...), drank wine (lots of it) and ate and ate and ate. The Italian way I guess! Pesto-broccoli riosotto, pasta with a mussle-clams sauce, ribbolita, eggplant parmesan, gnocci, omlettes galore, more pasta with meat or fresh vegetable sauces, and the list goes on and on. Fresh breads, meats and cheeses everyday as well. Yummy.


One of our nice dinners, in our tight quarters. By the end of our stay, we had a total of 11 people in that apartment. Yes, you are looking at one of the bedrooms (4 beds) and the kitchen-dining room! The other seven beds were in an adjacent room, about the same size!

But like I said, we did manage to leave. It was hard, but I know I will be back there someday, hopefully soon. And maybe in the summer, but maybe I don´t want to ruin the sleepy little vision that I have of that area. Imagining it overrun with tourists and packed doesn´t make me think I´d like it all that much.

So off we went to Munich. We arrived at 6:30am and my cousin, Holger, was all smiles at the train station, ready to greet us. His apartment is only a few blocks away and so we walked through the icy cold back to his house. Everything here is covered in snow. It is cold, and beautiful. We certainly have not packed for snow, so all layers are on at every moment! Holger and his girlfriend, Isabel, are the two nicest people, who have completely spoiled us. We have been showered with so much love and kindness, advice, and food, it is incredible. In the past week, we have done so much, and we could be here for a few more weeks and still not see or do nearly enough.

The first day we kind of took a day to recover and plan our time here a bit. Since then, we have been on a walking tour of Munich, a Third Reich walking tour of the city, Rahima went to Dachau (I couldn´t stomach the thought, considering I broke down and had to be led out of the Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. a few years back), but she said it was really powerful.

My other cousin´s son, Yannick, came by to meet me because he left for an internship in the US a few days later, and it was our only chance to meet. He is 15 and much taller than I am! He is so nice and smart and wonderful. He and Holger cooked us spinach dumplings for dinner.

We ate at the Hofbrauhaus one night and made friends with a bar-owner who showed around to some of the Munich nightlife. We were up until about 4am and rang in Valentine´s Day right with lots of loud music and treats. Rahima bought me an oversized gingerbread cookie on Valentine´s Day, and I returned the gesture with a pack of ferrero rocher candies. Can you tell food (and consumables) are the way to our backpacking hearts? :)

Look at the size of those beers!


Neuschwanstein Castle

After a few hours of sleep, Rahima and I headed out to Tutzing, where my aunt lives and left Isabel and Holger to enjoy their Valentine´s Day. We got to see my other cousin and her family who live there as well. I come from good people. They are all always on the go, and always joking around about something. We went to see the Neuschwanstein Castle (the one Disneyland is modeled after). Wow. We drank gluhwine (a mulled wine) to keep warm and Sebine, my cousin, properly engaged me in a snowball fight. I turned around at one point to be met dead on with a snowball to the face. Rahima caught some of it on video, which is even funnier because you can quickly see who grew up with snow. While I try to make cute little snowballs like they do in cartoons, my cousin expertly sweeps armfulls of snow directly at me. I think I got one good shot at the end there though! (sadly, I can´t figure out how to get sound on here!)




My family. Isable, Rahima, Holger, Tante Inge, Me, Rene, Sebine, Finn (the dog)
The next day Holger, Isabel, my aunt Inge, Sebine, her husband Rene, thier daughter Marie, and Rahima and I all headed out for a beautful hike in the snow. We rented sleds so that after two hours up, we could sled down. I have never been sledding before, but it was so much fun. For some reason I kept taking facefulls of snow (similar to my previous day´s snowball fight) but had a blast.





Wait, where´s the sled? :)

That night my Tante Inge taught me how to make a lovely Bavarian dish, Kaiserschmarrn. It is amazing how many sweets, or dumplings covered in melted butter make up the main dishes here. There is a reason I love those types of foods...it is aparently in my blood! :)

Me and Marie. My second cousin? Is that what you call your cousin´s kids? She is so great. Really funny, and sarcastic, like the rest of us!

Yesterday, sore as could be, Holger and I went skiing. It was so much fun. The weather wasn´t sunny, but there was very little wind and the snow was absolutely PERFECT! It was great. We skied, drank more gluhwine, and had a really, really special day. And finally, I am sitting down, able to tell the tales, via my blog. Being with my family has been such a treat. I feel so lucky to be across the world, and yet to feel absolutely and completely at home. I only wish I had more time here, but I keep reminding myself that a plane ride makes me a lot closer than I think. :) I will be very sad to leave tomorrow, but I am really grateful for all the fun things we were able to do in such a relatively short amount of time.