This post is brought to you by the letter Z

Just a warning, before I begin, we are blogging in Croatian. The kezboard at the hotel, as zou can see, is a little different from what we are accustomed to. The y and z kezs are reversed, I canćt find the apostrophe and it took several minutes to find the @ szmbol... prettz crayz eh? This is not the first challenge that we have encountered with our international blogging. Each new countrz that we visit displazs the blogger page in their native language. What this means is our vocabularz in each language has expanded... we thought we were going to be okaz with beer, wine, please, and thanks, but now we even know log-in, new post, and log-out!
Anzwazs just wanted to let zou all know that we made it safelz and give zou a little laugh over the kezboard. Unfortunatelz we canćt post anz pics at the moment because we onlz have internet through the hotel computer. We promise as soon as we get a connection we will post something that is not in code and has some pictures too! (Wow a complete sentence that makes sense)

The Puppet Master

I have to tell you about this little shop around the corner that brings me such joy, one of the several marionette shops that we walk past each day. This one is different though, because invariably there is always the same little wooden Pinocchio marionette dancing his little wooden heart out on the sidewalk. You can hear his little wooden shoes clickety-clicking away even over the top 40 music that blasts out of the shop…. very cute but not the funny part! At the other end of the strings – the puppet master, you are probably picturing some sweet old Geppetto-esque old man in lederhosen. Nooooo the puppet master is always any one of a collection of tough greasy looking guys that look like more like bouncers. They look so disinterested and half-hearted, marionette in one hand, cigarette in the other… but what life they breathe into little Pinocchio’s tapping feet as he gets down to Black Eyed Peas or some other unlikely marionette music- it is hilarious! I laugh so hard every time I walk past that store. I wanted to take a video of it, but Adam won’t let me- I think he is scared of the bouncers.

Our Segway Into A New Day

The problem with going out late and visiting some of the local establishments is that your body clock gets a little screwed up. With that in mind, we recuperated yesterday and ended up having a little too much sleep. So we decided to get up before sunrise and take some snaps of Prague without the throngs of tourists blocking the views. So at 5am we left our hotel and wandered the cobblestone streets of Prague, sharing them with the few revellers that were staggering home from the nightclubs, (hmm sure was different on the outside looking in for a change). Your can see a few of the pictures below.

Back to the hotel for breakfast at 7am and then a nap until 10. Off we went again on foot to view a few more sights, but we decided that this walking thing is “so yesterday” and we should pick up the pace a little. The new mode of transportation…… Segway! Ok so it looks weird, and is guaranteed to turn you into a mobile tourist attraction, (perhaps not as much as a mobile hotdog harness though) with many a jaw agape and picture taken of us, by passers by. The great thing is that you go everywhere that you can walk, but at twice the speed. After a shaky start, (see video- not currently available due to technical difficulties) we zipped around all the key tourist locations in the old part of town and made a new Australian friend as a bonus.

All the swerving around tourists worked up an appetite. We went for an early dinner at one of the cafes that our tour guide had pointed out and created yet another video, (you asked for more video… so no complaining). After dinner we followed our ears to find where the music was coming from… down a side street, an outdoor Czech folk dancing performance with, surprisingly, more locals than tourists.

Well enjoy the videos and keep Czeching in on us (haha).

Working out the bugs

We have made some changes so anyone can leave comments now, sorry for any frustration! Just click on the comments link at the end of each post.... but beware everyone can read what you write!

Babushka Mania

We arrived in Prague yesterday. A five hour train trip from Berlin. Initially the only seats we could find on the train were in the smoking "section" of one of the cars. What this meant is that this section was divided off from the non-smoking section by half of a glass wall. It didn't seem too bad until everyone kept pouring into our section to light up, then retreated to the somewhat less hazy nonsmoking area once they were finished. After inflicting some minor lung damage, we discovered that our Eurail passes entitled us to 1st class travel at least until the border between Germany and Czech republic. We escaped to the "luxury" of first class, likely knocking some people unconscious on the way with our bulky backpacks. I have a renewed appreciation for Vancouver's nonsmoking bylaws!
Czech is unlike any other language i've ever seen. At least many of the German words somewhat resemble several English words strung together in a big clump, but Czech is an odd mix of vowels and consonants, with strange accents decorating every word like Christmas lights. One look at the metro map had us confused enough to surrender to the fleet of taxi drivers praying on non-Czech speaking tourists. I think our taxi driver was a an ex-olympic shotputter/ underground Czech "don't f- with me" mobster. Seriously I thought the car might bottom out when he got in. Of course we didn't object when we circled the ciy five times before arriving at our hotel, we quite enjoyed seeing the scenery.... again, and again, and again as the meter ticked along. Our hotel is great, very clean and offers a great breakfast. Strangely, our room is filled with the aroma of cooking sausages 24hours a day... mmmmm nothing like waking to the aroma of greasy bratwurst!
Prague is an absolutely beautiful city. There are a lot of tourists here and it ir fairly expensive compared to Berlin (which incidentally seemed cheaper than we thought). Shops are filled withed with crystal, marionettes, wooden toys and every variation of Babushka doll you could ever imagine... Beatle babushkas, Star Wars babushkas, Disney babushkas, British monarchy babushkas, Baywatch babushkas.... you name it. David Hasselhoff and Prince Charles are in the running for ugliest babushka on the planet.
I apologize for rambling but I have two excuses to offer... 1. We are enjoying our first bottle of good wine since we've been abroad (gasp- a whole week without good wine!) 2. Unlike our last hotel we do not have unfettered internet access at our current location so I am on a bit of a binge!
Time seems to have slowed down so much since we left, it feels like we've been gone for at least 3 weeks. Maybe it's because of our accelerated pace in the weeks prior to our departure. I can h0nestly and unashamedly say that I already miss home. We have had such a great time with all of you in the last couple months- it makes it that much harder to be away from you now. Once again, I will take this opportunity to advise each of you to join up with us over the next year.
Okay... enough rambling I guess, our little noodle bar cafe is closing- time to move on. Pleeeeeaaase email or comment on the blog- we live for your emails, even if it just to say hello and let us know that you read and maybe laughed at the blog. It is our only contact with home and it encourages us to keep posting!
xoxoxo

Resting in the countryside

Hi folks

Reasonably quiet day today. We went out to a town called Potsdam. It served for many years as the Summer residence of the Kaisers. Their palaces all sit in a large park which we took the liberty of relaxing in. We couldn't resist getting lunch from one of the "mobile" hotdog stands, he really does bring a new meaning to fast food!

We did get caught in a brief thunder storm in the park, but the ever resourceful Jen decided to remodel her bag into a rain hat. It must have worked really well because lots of people were looking at her in what I interpreted as jealously, (but it could have been amusement... I often get those confused).


Other than that, we are packing our stuff ready for the move to Prague tomorrow.
Follow this link to see a few more photos of our week in Berlin: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9342&l=3c6b9&id=700132588

Lest we forget

Spent the entire day at Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. Words cannot do justice to the experience. A very moving reminder that we should never let this sort of thing happen, ever.
And yet we still see the seeds of it around us, and in the news, every day.

Berlin at Night

Berlin…home of the world’s biggest disco ball. Well okay, it’s not actually a disco ball, it’s part of the gaudy TV tower that was the pride of the former East Berlin. It’s just one example of the charmless architecture that covers most of the city. Institutional looking concrete buildings have long since replaced the ornate, beauties that were lost in the war and nothing is spared from graffiti.
The spirit of Berlin, however; is another story! People drink everywhere and party every night. So of course when in Berlin…..
We thought “lets tag along on one of the famous organized pub crawls” Our plans for a pub crawl were aborted when we discovered that the fellow crawlers were, (no surprise) mostly men and they were all a little young. Yes, for some reason we expected people our age on a pub crawl, I don’t know what we were thinking!
We ended up at a great bar where the cover charge was outrageous! But we parted with the one euro entrance fee and partied it up. We met two really fun guys from Manchester and laughed, danced, and drank the night away with them, (imagine a round of drinks for 4 people only 6 euro!). We left the bar as the sun was coming up. Needless to say, navigating the train system in our condition was quite the challenge! Check out Adam’s dance of jubilation upon arriving at our home station, the video is sideways so everyone tilt your head! : http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff133/aussiewilkins/?action=view&current=CIMG1400.flv

Also, check out my frustration trying to buy our tickets (using some money might have made me more successful): http://s243.photobucket.com/albums/ff133/aussiewilkins/?action=view&current=CIMG1395-1.flv
The good news is, we made it back to our hotel in time for breakfast and had to do the walk of shame through the dining room to get to our room oooohhhhhh the SHAME!
Most of the day was spent snoozing and recovering.


I AM NEVER DRINKING AGAIN!!!

My Head hurts

Feel too sick to type. Fun night!

Guten Tag

Berlin, the city that never sleeps and lets you drink beer anywhere you like... on your bike, on the streets and even on the trains. How civilized!

Shaking off the jet-lag, we managed to visit the bulk of the must see places in Berlin. From "Check Point Charlie" to walking the remnants of the wall and visiting a nuclear bomb shelter, (3600 people crammed into a very small space!).

We have attempted at every opportunity to speak German, and while the locals seem to appreciate the effort, it seems that even when we get the pronunciation perfect, they look at us with puzzled expression. So we usually fall back on the universal language of a smile and random gestures.

Off to the famous "Berlin Pub Crawl" tonight to see if we can make some new friends. Lets see how that works out!

We're Off !

Ok folks, we have hit the road.

The reality of being away for such a long time has not really sunk in yet, but we are excited at the prospect of seeing so much of the world over the coming months.

The first piece of reality was locking ourselves out of the house, (intentionally) as we left for the airport. Bad luck if we had forgotten anything, (Michelle is house sitting for us and had already taken off with the keys).

Next stop Frankfurt at 10:00 am Saturday and then hop on a train to Berlin for the first night.

I guess we passed the first test of the trip…. actually showing up on time for the flight. (Those that know the Paris story will understand that for us, showing up is not necessarily easy. There was a reason Vanessa made the comments she did at our wedding. If you don’t know the Paris story, leave a comment on the Blog asking for more details).

Thanks again to everoyn for making the last 2 months such a blast.

Off to board the plane now.

Adam & Jen

What do you mean I can't bring 12 pairs of shoes??!!

Jen posting here.

When Adam and I have travelled in Europe before, we noticed how many stairs and cobblestones there were and how few elevators, ramps and generally "wheelie suitcase unfriendly" terrain there was. The solution this time.... backpacks.

70 litres may sound like a large volume, most people think of milk cartons (or maybe that's just me) but when we are talking packing space... for one year... not so big anymore right? I'm not a hardcore fashionista, but I do like my pretty things AND my shoes! Packing has been a bit of a challenge for me but I am proud to tell you that I think i've mastered it! Not only that, but there are some pretty cute pieces in that 70 litre pack. (Yes Adam, they are comfortable too). The most amazing thing in that bag is one dress that can actually be at least 8 different dresses in one- YES that is not a typo 8!!! It is as if practicality and fashion got it on and made one great kid! It is also wrinkle proof and made and designed in our beautiful Vancouver. Check it out in the picture and here is a link to the site in case you're interested! http://www.narcissist.com/
Who says backpacking is all birkenstocks and cargo pants?

Seven Days To Go

With only a week to go, we are spending a lot of our time saying goodbye to great friends and family. There is definitely an element of sadness mixed in with our excitement, but knowing that friends like Kelvin, Martin, Natalie, Shelly, Lisa, Rob, and Eva are all planning to meet up with us as we move around the globe, makes the goodbye a little easier. We are also looking forward to meeting up with Jen's family in Melbourne for their very first Australian Christmas!

Without a doubt the #1 question on everybody's lips is...... "where do you start"? This time next week, we will begin our journey in Germany. Berlin to be precise. We will stay there a week or so before we head to Prague and then Amsterdam. After that? Well who knows.... stay tuned for the details as we work them out for ouselves.

The Surprise Weekend....

For about 6 months now, our dear friends Natalie & Martin have been bursting at the seams with a secret they could not tell. They had been planning a very big surprise for us that was to take place over the August long weekend. Finally, bright and early Friday morning we found out what it was!

We were greeted at 6:30 by the two of them and we were led to a limo. Inside, we were given our itinerary for the weekend and a glass of champagne. Yes that's right, no orange juice, straight up champagne at 6:30 am. Where were the four of us off to? THE NAPA VALLEY!

What a weekend! The surprises kept unfolding from there. The highlights included a hot air balloon ride over the valley, private barrel tastings at Karl Lawrence, dining at some spectactular restaurants, but most of all laughing and spending time with great friends. Oh yes and wine, wine, wine, and more wine.

It is hard not to fall in love with the Napa valley, everything is very quaint and as non-commercialized as possible for such a frequented region. It was fascinating to visit a place that wouldn't exist if it weren't for the wine industry, life revolves entirely around the agriculture. One of our tour guides told us that most people lose 20-30 pounds during harvest and crush, simply because they are working around the clock and do not have time to eat! At one point we encountered a group of policemen standing on the road in front of a winery, a roadblock we presumed...... but no, they were merely directing the half blitzed drivers in and out of one particularly busy winery!

It was a weekend full of memories that we will have forever and the amazing thing... the four of us had nary a hangover to show for it!

More pictures of this weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7408&l=fe60b&id=700132588