SlashJonez

What an experience! Sorry for the ridiculously long blog... I promise it gets more exciting toward the end. As mentioned previously, the four of us (myself, Doug, Sarah and Jared) had decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. We had talked about it in November of 2008, and had been training (lots of hiking!) since then. Coming into the climb, I felt like we were prepared and that we would succeed in our endeavor. Our family and friends had confidence in us and we had all our necessary gear. Day One Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa (19,341 ft) and the highest freestanding mountain in the world. It is composed of three different volcanic peaks, the highest being Uhuru Peak, which we would attempt to summit. To climb Mount Kilimanjaro via the Marangu (aka Coca Cola) ... read more

After two flights on Qatar Airways (which had awesome service) and a 9-hour layover in Doha, I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. I had about 5 hours to kill while waiting for my brother, Sarah and Jared to arrive, so I made friends with some of the airport employees who were extremely welcoming and taught me some Swahili while I hung out in their office. In Kenya, the two official languages are English and Swahili, and a lot of the citizens speak a mix of the two languages. I learned that in Tanzania, people are more strict about speaking pure Swahili, versus the hybrid. When the group arrived, we caught a taxi to Nairobi. There didn't seem to be any traffic laws in place and locals were wandering along the street selling items to passing cars (slightly ... read more

Alright, now that you've seen the ridiculously long blog about the bike touring, I'll try not to bore you too much longer with the second part of my Paris trip. Although, you will again see that I walked many times in the wrong direction. The next two days in Paris, I decided to do some sightseeing by foot. I had booked my Moulin Rouge ticket the previous day, and noticed that the ticket had said "formal attire"... no wonder the booking agent gave me a weird look when I came by in with my backpack and tennis shoes. I used this as an excuse to get in some Paris shopping time, and went to the Gallaries Lafayette, one of the premier shopping areas in Paris, which houses some of the famous (and expensive!) designers like: Prada, ... read more

A long, long time ago, 3 years to be exact, Brittany used to live in the storybook town of Tubingen, Germany. She had a fabulous friend, named Kristy, who also came to visit her in the lovely town all those years ago. This weekend they set out on a journey to revisit the town that looked like it was straight out of a fairytale. This is their story..... We set out for Tubingen via the mitfahr (carpool) and got a different perspective of Germany. By carpooling, it is a cheaper way to travel and you get to meet people from all over the place. We met a young couple by the names of Julia and Johannes who got us to Tubingen safely (and quickly!). When we arrived in Tubingen, we checked into our hostel, which was ... read more

Living in Germany has been fun so far. As many of you know, my friend Brittany has now moved to Germany and will be teaching English to German business-people who wish to conduct business abroad. The process of getting through all of the "red tape" has been a little frustrating for her (you need a phone to get a work visa, you need a bank account to get a phone, you need a visa to get a bank account, etc...) and so we've been trying to dedicate a bit of time to being out in the wilderness of Karlsruhe and not trying to worry about the day-to-day procedural stuff. Most days we've been walking around the town, gathering things for Brittany's apartment. We finally got pillows (5 EUR pillows are pretty much the best investment ever) ... read more