Wkndtraveler

On our last night in Portugal we ventured out to a different part of town. Tonight we went to one of what was considered the best Italian restaurants in Lisboa. It was very tasty! Our waiter even mentioned that the prime minister even dines there. When we closed the restaurant we started talking to one of our waiters about travel and America. Our waiter, Jorge got very interested in hearing about America as that is his dream to go to one day and back-pack across the states. Then he got in trouble for "staying" at our table so long. So we felt so bad, we offered to go out for a drink afterwards. Jorge had learned English by working on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean and ready books, it was very good. We trekked across ... read more

After numerous months of planning and talking about going to Australia, we are finally here. The dreaded 15+ hour flight was something that we were amazed went so smoothly. After getting on the plane in San Francisco and a few glasses of wine we woke up in time for breakfast and just in time to land. We have been here for only a day and it is no wonder why so many people love this country. The people are friendly, weather is nice and the city is really easy to get around. We have already visited the famous Sydney Opera House (will post pics later), the Rocks (great section of town with cool shops, restaurants and bars) and Darling Harbor. The weather could be a little sunnier, but we are here during the end of their ... read more

What else can we say, there are thousands of bikes everywhere! The hotel staff told us that there are 750,000 inhabitants to the city of Amsterdam and over a million bikes! They have bike parking garages to park them in all over town. The drivers of cars look out in every direction to make sure they don't hit anyone. We attempted to get around on bike on Sunday however we only made one turn around the parking lot. The bikes in amsterdam generally don't have the brakes on the handle bars. You need to back peddle to stop! The bikes are a lot heavier than both of us are used to. Plus, I bike all the time and I could not ride the bike steadily. I kinda looked like I have smoked too much pot. Amsterdam ... read more

This needs its own entry. We ran accross this really interesting outdoor exhibit on Tuesday in Berlin. It is a traveling throughout europe of women who cut wood, or something like that when you translate it to english. The women all had muscles that we did not know existed. They were having ax throwing comeptitions, who could cut a chunk of wood the fastest and who had the cleanest cut with an electric saw. Quite different and interesting. Both of us where caught on tv and laughing and talking. We are not sure what station because the guy only spoke german and we probably would not have been able to figure it out on our tv. Again, sorry for not posting pictures...yet! As modern, efficient and cool as berlin is, this is one of two internet ... read more

Budapest, Hungary is beautiful at night and it feels very much like Eastern Europe. Their local currency is the Hungarian Forinth and they tend to transfer money to the euro and then we translate it into dollars...which after all the math in your head, it was very expensive. The food was marginal at best so we relied on pizza for lunch and dinner. After 3 days of eating pizza we could not wait to board the plane to another city. We found out that the only people who eat out are the tourists and the locals never do so it was hard to get recommendations for better pizza when they all dont go out. The city is separated into two parts: Buda and Pest and divided by the Danube River. The Buda side has the traditional ... read more