Blogs from Europe - page 11709

We left Istanbul at 6am on Monday morning with a whopping two hours of sleep under our belts (and a few beers the night before), flew all the way back to Milan, and then caught our flight to Budapest. Despite being pretty exhausted by the time we arrived, we both really liked Budapest from the beginning. Driving in from the airport was kind of strange as it looked like we could have been anywhere in the Midwest - it's really flat with huge corn fields and hot, muggy weather. This geographic confusion continued as we arrived in the city, because everyone there looked and dressed like Americans. We weren’t necessarily expecting Budapest to feel so familiar or “normal,” but I suppose after Portugal and then Istanbul, a lot of places in Europe would. We got ... read more

Bonjour Bloggers, Well it is hard to believe that we have been away from home for a week now, how time flies when you are having fun. The weather has not been so clement on this trip and yesterday and today we have had a lot of rain. However, it is beautiful to see the storms gathering and rolling across the horizon. I have attached some photos to this blog for your perusal. We are having our usual good time on the farm. Our hosts, as always, making us feel so welcome and at home. The dogs have again adopted us and have moved in with us whenever they can get away with sneaking in. Although, Ian thought it was a bit much last night when Orkney the spaniel decided to get in bed with ... read more

After a 7 hour flight full of crying babies, a neverending sunrise,and a decently boring movie I landed at London Heathrow at 6:30 am. That was promptly followed by being semi yelled at by the customs agent about the matter of my trip which woke me up. I got a crash course on the tube system, the London Underground. I found out three things. first, its hot down there. Two, It seems like you'll never reach your destination, and three they charge different prices for the same place on different lines. I rode from Heathrow to King's Cross where I planned to store my luggage. They said it would be cheaper to store at Earl's Court, which because of his accent I thought was Ascort, and sent me there. When I arrived I lugged my bags ... read more

... ich war nun gestern mit Wencke beim Sommar-Rea ... es ist jetzt nicht unbedingt mit dem dt. Sommer- oder Winterschlussverkauf zu vergleichen ... es gab nicht soviele "Krabbeltische" (? wie schreibt man das eigentlich) und die Leute waren auch nicht alle Hartz-IV-Empfänger und haben sich auch nicht so penetrant darauf gestürzt ... wo es gesenkte Preise gab, hat man sich dezent wühlend gezeigt ... ;-) ... ansonsten hätte ich mehr erwartet ... entweder die Stockholmer standen alle ab 10 Uhr (Beginn des Rea) vor den Kaufhaustüren und als wir nach 17 Uhr gegangen sind, haben sie das meiste schon weggekauft oder aber die Unternehmen halten sich damit eher zurück ... naja, egal ... ... ich habe mir übrigens auch sagen lassen (auf meine Kritik am Wetter), dass wir uns im Moment noch im Frühling befinden ... read more

The first time I visited Berlin it was in early February 1990, a scant 2 months after the Berlin Wall had fallen. The city was still divided except for a a few cement panels that had been sledge hammered down to make a short passage way for people to crawl through. All along the wall there were ' maul peckers' - people with hammers, chisels and any other instrument they could whack at the hated wall. Students and kids were clammering all over the wall. The German friends I was with looked panic stricken as several uniformed guards approached the youngsters and told them to get down. One remarked that only a few months prior those students would have been shot by the same guards. They still couldn't believe the wall was actually coming down. Even ... read more