Dinosaurs in Paradise

Homecoming

2008-08-24T13:01:00.002-05:00

Kulusuk, Greenland
Originally uploaded by Lee Barnett

We made it! At the time of this post, we've already been home two full days. Already have enjoyed free water at two American restaurants. Already have seen Batman. And one of us has already made a Target run.

This was definitely a record breaking summer for both of us in many ways. Check out these stats:

Number of days spent traveling:
74 days (9 June to 21 August)

Number of countries visited:
33 countries (see previous blog post)

Number of continents visited:
3 continents (Europe, Africa, and North America)

Number of pictures taken:
4,056 photos (Jessica: 2169 photos. Lee: 1887 photos)

Number of steps taken (per person):
1,738,805 steps

Average number of steps per day (per person):
23,497 steps

Greatest number of steps in one day (per person):
47,039 steps (9 July: Tunis/Carthage/Sidi Bou Saïd)

Least number of steps in one day (per person):
3,670 steps (14 August: 25-hour-long train ride from Lisbon to Paris)

Farthest east:
Vilnius, Lithuania (Latitude: 54º41' N. Longitude: 25º18' E)

Farthest south:
Douz, Tunisia (Latutude: 33º25' N. Longitude: 9º1' E)

Farthest north and west (excluding Minnesota):
Kulusuk, Greenland (Latitude: 65º34' N. Longitude: 37º11' W)

Favorite part of the trip:
All of it.

Least favorite part of the trip:
None of it.

Can't wait till next summer!

Magic Number: 33

2008-08-19T16:03:00.002-05:00

I can't believe it's almost over. It seemed like just yesterday we were in country #1. Today we're in #33. That's right, in just 71 days, we visited 33 different countries. And it's been fantastic! Mainly for my own amusement, I'd like to list all of them in chronological order for you:

USA
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Uzupis
Poland
Hungary
Slovakia
Austria
Slovenia
Croatia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
Italy
Tunisia
Malta
San Marino
Switzerland
Liechtenstein
Germany
France
Czech Republic
Spain
Gibraltar (UK)
Morocco
Portugal
Luxembourg
Belgium
Iceland
Greenland (Denmark)

There they are! Currently, we're back in Reykjavik. Tomorrow, we'll have one more adventure: a whirlwind tour of geysers, waterfalls, lava, etc.

Thursday, we'll be back in Minnesota. We've decided that Kate Barnett will be in charge of our transportation from the airport (I don't know if she knows this yet). So, contact her if you would rather pick us up.

Catching up on photos

2008-08-11T07:52:00.001-05:00

Memorial to Murdered European Jews
Originally uploaded by Jess is a dinosaur

Well, we didn´t make it to our first choice bus to Portugal, which would have been last night at 20:45 from Algeciras, Spain. Our ferry didn´t deposit us in Algeciras until about 1:40. We stumbled to the nearest budget accomodation, eyeballing some travelers asleep on benches at the port as another option, but took full advantage of the noon check out time and secured transport on tonight´s overnight bus to Lisbon! Neither of us are too upset about the extra time we have now, because Algeciras doesn´t offer much we need to see, so we´re catching up on our internet use in a nice cafe. Pretty soon it will be time for lunch.

Our plan for the remaining ten (!) days of the trip is as follows: after all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday in Portugal, we´re going to catch a l-o-n-g haul train toward Brussels via Madrid and Paris. (Okay, we might stop in Paris for some crepes... I don´t feel bad skipping Paris because we´ve both been there a few times, though I´ve never been in the summer.)

We have had the opportunity to do so much more on this trip than we even planned for Plan A. (Also known as the overly ambitious plan.) Plan B provided a nice outline but we´ve expanded so much. We keep a running tally of countries we´ve seen; it´s likely we´ll break 30 by the end!

Here is a photo from Berlin, where we went with my brother Joe. It is a great city. This is the chilling Memorial to Murdered European Jews, noticeably not called Holocaust Memorial.

Look for more updates in the next ten days!

Rocking Kasbahs in Morocco

2008-08-09T15:07:00.002-05:00

I know what you are thinking: Africa must be old hat by now. More like old HEAT. I swear, when we get home to our broken microwave (thanks, Kate) I will ignore it forever and use only the fridge. And the ice maker. Sweet, sweet American ice.

Our plan is to catch the bus from Fes to Tangier tomorrow, then the ferry from Tangier to Algeciras, Spain, then the overnight bus to Lisbon! This may not happen as transportation in both Spain and Morocco has been sketchy at best. A little tip for you: the 30 minute "fast" ferry actually takes maybe 5 hours, including lateness and waiting time. Never fear, we are self-entertaining.

This keyboard is really challenging شسيباتلنسيتبلسيب you know, and Lee is demanding couscous so we are braving the labyrinthine medina again to return to our amazing hotel, which is a riad built like a billion centuries ago.

Happy Wanderers

2008-08-06T16:18:00.001-05:00

Happy Wanderers
Originally uploaded by Jess is a dinosaur

A lot of people have been emailing or commenting that they read the blog a lot, even though we don´t update it very often. Since we´ll be back in the US two weeks from tomorrow (what?!) I thought it would be a good time to amp up the posting.

My photo album is a bit behind because it takes a long time to upload photos. I solved this problem by dumping the lot on my brother´s laptop and slowly transferring them to flickr, meanwhile accumulating hundreds more on my camera. Well, my brother and his laptop left for Omaha via Frankfurt via Madrid this morning with several of my photos still saved to his hard drive. All photos will arrive in good time.

Here is one from Vaduz, Lichtenstein, where we spent a day. We are laughing really hard because we were trying to do the highly acclaimed "self-portrait" style, and had already taken about five. In the picture previous to this one I am holding the camera way too close to my face and my head dwarfs Lee´s head, making me into a giantess. I like this photo.

By the way, we are in Algeciras, Spain, a town Lonely Planet describes as "unattrative" (and that´s about as insulting as Lonely Planet ever gets). Tomorrow we're going to try to go to Gibraltor, see the wild monkeys, then catch a ferry to Tangiers in Morocco!

Two weeks and Three Days!

2008-08-03T17:17:00.003-05:00

The title of this post shocks me, because I cannot fathom how the time went so fast. My flickr site has 983 photos on it, with more uploading as we speak. My feet have callouses of a weathered mountain man hermit. My skin has the hue of a Mediterranean. My mind has opened. All is well with me.

In less mystical terms, you should know that Lee, Joe and I made it to Madrid. Joe flies to Frankfurt on Wednesday, and on the same day Lee and I leave for... we haven't decided yet. Since meeting up with Joe in Freiburg we've done Strasbourg, France, where we got to say a final good-bye to our friend Celine, to Passau, Germany, where we stayed with a friend of Joe's and her hilarious family, to Prague, to Berlin, to Barcelona, to Valencia, and now to Madrid.

We look forward to the end of our adventure!

Overdue Update!

2008-07-28T16:34:00.002-05:00

Whew! What a fast several days we've had. We're now beginning the last 1/3 of our journey already! We've done so much yet it has gone so fast. This is a crazy sensation, one I must tell you more about when I return in about a month.

Currently we are in a bar using the WiFi in Prague, Czech Republic! We successfully met up with my brother Joe. We actually met up with him several days before we were planning to, in Zurich, by accident. Lee and I were taking photos of some nice churches and all of a sudden Joe appeared in a picture. Then he appeared across the street with his friend Simon. We were all pretty surprised, and celebrated with Starbucks. Mmm.

Tomorrow we are going to Berlin and we've just bought plane tickets to Barcelona for Thursday. We'll try to do Madrid together, then Joe has to get back to Frankfurt to fly back to the US and Lee and I will go to...

Stay tuned! Gotta run, battery's dying and Pilsner calls...

Back from Africa

2008-07-19T13:26:00.002-05:00

We beat the odds and managed to make our way from the Sahara Desert to the Tunis harbor in time to catch the Sunday night ferry back to Italy (via Malta).

That was about a week ago. Since then, we've seen:
Valletta, Malta,
Genoa, Italy,
Cinque Terre, Italy, and
San Marino, San Marino.
Tonight, we're taking an overnight train to Zurich, Switzerland.

Our Sahara excursion was awesome, by the way. Camels, sand dunes, giant dry salt lakes, mountain oases, great mosques, and Star Wars. What more could anyone ever ask for?

Hee hee

2008-07-11T08:08:00.001-05:00

Gute Fahrt!
Originally uploaded by Jess is a dinosaur

This is the revenge I take on Lee for not blogging. He does Gute Fahrt in Vienna here, but also participates all over Europe and Africa. (Not to mention America.)

Update on where we're going, where we've been

2008-07-11T06:23:00.003-05:00

You may notice an increase in blog updates this week. (Okay, basically yesterday and today). It is because we're in Hammamet, a blissful resort town on the eastern coast of Tunisia. Our pace has relaxed somewhat because it is very warm here, and this nice, air-conditioned internet cafe is right next to our hotel, is very cheap (two dinars for one hour, which is about $1.60) and much faster than the paltry "free internet" computers at many hostels where we've stayed. Lee and I are both uploading lots of photos to make room for more. (I think I've already taken 700 photos and we're not half done yet. God bless the digital camera.) We're also undertaking some major planning for the next few days of our trip.

So far it has been very easy to hop from one train or bus to the next, from one city or country to the next. It is easy to show up, find the tourist info station, find a free map and find a place to stay. But since we've ventured into less touristy places, a bit more planning needs to happen. The tourist centers are often closed or nonexistant. (You'd be surprised how far you can get without a map, though.) Since we are entering a heavier touring season, we are competing with Europeans on vacation, who invariably seem to know what they're doing moreso than I do.

We are going on an excursion tomorrow to south Tunisia. We will step foot into the gateway to the Sahara and possibly ride camels. We will see many sites of Star Wars filming. We are traveling with a tour group, so it should be easier. We will stay one night somewhere along the way and arrive back in Hammamet Sunday evening.

Here is where the planning comes in. All along we had though we'd take the Tuesday ferry from Tunis (the capital) back to Italy, all the way to Genoa, actually. But we found out yesterday there is also a Sunday ferry from Tunis, and it stops in Malta, which we wanted to get to but didn't know how. The tricky part is this: we need to get from Hammamet to Tunis (about an hour) and then to the port (maybe half an hour) and THEN through customs (prior to Italy this took 10-20 minutes, in Italy it took over an hour but luckily their ferries often run one to two hours late) and then on a boat to Genoa at 22:00. (Oh yes, and we're supposed to check in an hour before departure.) Our tour from the Sahara returns to Hammamet at 19:00 at the latest. In THEORY, we should be able to do this. But ports are notoriously difficult to navigate, we've found. Ferry tickets need to be purchased in advance and this particular ferry is quite expensive. (Not that big a deal, as we've been under our budget so far and have plenty of dough to blow on ferries. But not if we miss the ferry.) So, do you think we can do it? We haven't decided yet if we're going to try to go on the Sunday night ferry or stick with the easier, but less fun, Tuesday ferry.

Here is an updated list of our adventures so far, and I list these as much for myself as for you faithful readers, because I often forget where we've been, what we've done, where we are, who I am, etc. (Just kidding.)

Oslo, Norway
Stockholm, Sweden
Vaxholm (part of Sweden's archipelago)
Helsinki, Finland
Tallinn, Estonia
Riga, Latvia
Majori (part of outlying Riga coastal area)
Vilnius, Lithuania
Warsaw, Poland
Krakow, Poland
Auschwitz/ Birkenau, Poland
Budapest, Hungary
Bratislava, Slovakia
Vienna, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Zagreb, Croatia
Split, Croatia
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Kotor, Montenegro
Bari, Italy
Napoli, Italy
Palermo, Sicily
Tunis, Tunisia
Carthage, Tunisia
Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia
Hammamet, Tunisia

Many of these were little side excursions and did not take a full day. We've already done more at this point in the trip than we had planned, and if you looked at our itinerary before we left, you know it was ambitious. We were even ahead of schedule for awhile, but I'm not sure where we are now since we've slowed down a bit. (Took a long nap yesterday due to a wedding party and hellish heat at the hostel in Tunis the night before, slept in today and will probably go to the beach for some of today.) I think sometime next week marks the half way point, which is CRAZY, because we've already done so much but it also feels like we've barely been gone a week. The rest of our trip is also a bit up in the air because it depends on what we shall do and where we shall go when we meet up with my brother Joe in Germany. Prague? Spain? Portugal? Morrocco? So many possibilities.

Traveling is both very easy and somewhat challenging. I never predicted how easy it would be to just decide to go somewhere, to show up and to find things to do. This is something I want to do more when we come back. It makes no sense that I have been to Africa but not to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota. I ventured into Montenegro, the newest country (besides Kosovo) yet I can't manage the trip into Minnepolis.

The challenges don't seem daunting yet, and I know that is thanks in large part to having such a compatible traveling partner. Being with Lee makes everything seem easy and fun (if you are gagging at my saccharine sentiments, you should not be reading this blog). His French has been invaluable in Tunisia, which was once a French colony. I may have to prove my worth when we get to Spain. But before then, I'd better practice my Spanish.

Buenas tardes, y gracias por leyendo! (Okay, I cheated on that last verb, and I'm still not sure it's correct. But c'mon, it's irregular! I can't be expected to remember all the conjugations!)

Some favorite photos from Krakow

2008-07-10T15:10:00.002-05:00

I am trying to stay current on my photo uploads, as my camera is getting full, but it takes quite awhile. Here are some photos from Krakow from June 22 ish:

Pierogies at last.

Hope Amidst Horror, at Aushwitz

The risk of flip flops

Lee on a night train to Budapest

You are always welcome to look at my photos on my Flickr page, though I must warn you there are a lot and I haven't culled any for quality. We enjoy reading your comments. I swear to you Lee promises to do more blogging. Right now he's updating his "Cities I've Been To" application on Facebook to make everyone jealous.

Fast internet at last!

2008-07-03T12:53:00.002-05:00

Sorry we haven't been very active on the blog lately- it is because we are too busy having fun! But now we both have to do a photo dump before our cameras are full, plus we're taking a ferry to Bari tomorrow (heh heh-- it would rhyme if not for Italians and their consistent pronunciation... it's BAR ee, like Atari). There's not much in way of cheap accomodation in Bari, so we were thinking of getting to Naples... figuring out the complications as we speak/ type.

The past few days have been among my favorite so far. We made a minor detour from our original plans, and it's working like a German train. First, instead of staying in Vienna, we spent only about eight hours there. It is near sinful to only give Vienna eight hours, but there was a little game going on there that evening: the last semi-final game in the EuroCup tournament, which they have every two years here. As a Norweigan waiter put it, "It's just like World Cup, only without Argentina and Brazil."

Basically, thinking we could find a place to stay the night in Vienna would be like thinking you could walk into a Beatles reunion concert five minutes before the show and pick up some extra tickets. So we saw the city and the fans, then made it to Salzburg by midnight. The place we stayed was listed on a hostel website, but it was actually a hotel. You cannot imagine the luxury I felt having my own room that I didn't have to share with loud/ farting/ sweating/ other people. Our OWN bathroom. And... our stay included breakfast.

Most hostels, when they advertise that they include breakfast, offer one or two choices of cereal, milk (unrefrigerated! Crazy!), maybe bread and jam, coffee and tea. Nice enough, especially when it's free. At the Hotel Lasserhof in Salzburg, we ate more at breakfast than the previous three days combined. They had cereal. (Four kinds.) They had bread and jam. (Eight kinds of jam.) They had EGGS. (Both hard-boiled and scrambled.) They had bacon. They had fruit cocktails. They had cookies. Coffee. Juice. Tea. Milk. Hot chocolate. And they had Lee and Jessica at their table, stuffing face before heading out for...

...The Sound of Music Tour! Definitely one of the most "touristy" things we've done so far, but totally fun and worth it. We even received a special Edelwiess souvenir. (It was a pin. Peter, our tour guide said they used to give out Edelwiess seeds, which will only grow in mountains, but too many Austrailians were questioned at customs. I think he made this up. Peter had jokes.)

So from Salzburg we went to Ljubljana, then to Zagreb in Croatia, then to Split in Croatia. Then the plan changing continued. We were going to take a day trip to Dubrovnik, southern Croatia, then take a ferry from Split to Ancona in Italy. However, it takes 4.5 hours to reach Dubrovnik by bus, and that's with no traffic and no border problems. (Don't know if you know-- the six countries in former Yugoslavia had a war here nigh on ten or so years ago.) Many people we've met on our travels said Dubrovnik was awesome. We didn't want to miss it. So we booked two nights here through a website, which didn't list many hostels but lots of private residences. This worried us because often when you de-board a train or bus, flocks of people will rush into your face with signs reading "Sobe. Room. Chambre. Zimmer." and try to convince you to give them money and take you far away. The place we're staying in Dubronik is very nice. It's in the home of Svee and Niko, two grandparent types who are very sweet and very non-English-speaking.

Upon our arrival in Dubrovnik, plans started falling into place. Instead of returning to Split to take a ferry to Ancona (in order to eventually take a ferry to Tunisia, Africa) we booked a ferry to Bari, which is in southern Italy and much closer to Africa. Then we booked a day trip to Montenegro, the newest country in the world. (Kosovo, number six in the former Yugoslavia, has not yet been recognized by the U.N.) We returned from Montenegro just a few hours ago and plan to have dinner with a Russian couple we met on the tour. Dinner despite HEAVY feedings on the boat. Our excursion included lunch and a snack. Well, when they brought the snack out (we were off the bus and on a boat by then) we thought it was maybe lunch and that the candy and shot of Russian grappa (45 proof) had been the snack. Snack consisted of four kinds of meat from pigs, cheese, tomatoes and a bread basket. A few hours later we had the real "lunch:" an entire fish complete with face, cucumbers, tomatoes and bread and cheese. Whenever food is included in the price we like to eat up.

But I digress. What I wanted to say is that Dubrovnik is how I imagined heaven when I was a little girl. There's an entire city walled in by a stone wall you can walk around. The ground appears to be made of marble-- in fact it is so slippery I keep almost wiping out. There are palm trees and mountains, cool breezes and blue skies and sun all day. It is, in words that fail to do it justice, awesome.

That's enough for now. I keep bugging Lee to do a post so people don't get bored of my take on things. He keeps saying, "one of these days."

Wish us luck in Napoli, land of pizza and Pompei!

Croatia Rules!

2008-07-01T09:38:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, it is Jess and Lee (he is sitting right next to me, so no, I am not hogging blogging duties) live from an internet cafe on the lovely island of Hvar, near Split, Croatia. We are in the Adriatic. We are tan. We are happy. We cannot find the apostrophe key on the keyboard.

That is all for now.

Historical Event: I witnessed Lee B. in a rush!

2008-06-27T02:37:00.002-05:00

So, the past few days have been kind of crazy. Since everything has been going so swimmingly on the trip thus far, we decided to push ourselves a little more. For our first act, we bought tickets for the 9:30 train to Bratislava... at 9:27. We thought we had allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the train station, but one more cup of coffee, etc. We still had time when we showed up to the train station in Budapest.

First we ran downstairs to the ticket office. No, we wanted upstairs for the international ticket office, on the left of platform 6. We ran upstairs. We ran to the left, but we had to enter the ticket control area, and we had no tickets. We ran to the right, but signs directed us back left to the international office. (Also, several hundred people were milling about waiting for their own trains, and we cut through them expertly, half ton backpacks and all. I attribute this feat to our navigation of the hallways where we work, and gaggles of girls are shrieking and hitting each other every whichway.) We ran back to the left, and realized we COULD go through the ticket control area to the international ticket office. Whew!

We thought we were home free, but once inside the office we had to take a number and wait for it to be called. About ten slow, leisurely travelers were in front of us in line. We watched the minutes tick by and resolved to take the next train about an hour later, though it was a less direct route.

Once our number was called, Lee asked the cashier, "Is it at all possible to buy tickets for the 9:30 train to Bratislava?"

She looked at us like we asked her if we could take a poop right there in the international ticket office.

"Maybe it is late?" Lee prompted. She sighed. Stupid Americans, she was probably thinking.

"Four minutes," and she gave us two tickets.

We ran out the door. Back outside, we looked for platform numbers, for a time table, for anything. (This is a good time to mention that the Budapest train station could really be better organized.)

"Bratislava?" some construction workers shouted.

"Yes!"

"Go!"

They pointed several tracks over and motioned for us to run.

So there we were, running pell-mell across the railroad tracks toward a train. I don´t think there were trains on the tracks we were running across, but I couldn´t say for sure. We jumped up into the car and looked around for some indication that we were in the right place. It was 9:31. Lee ran to ask some people sitting on the bus. I saw him wipe his forehead in relief, and we celebrated our success with a high five.

Then the train sat there for 15 more minutes.

***

I am writing this from a luxury hotel in Salzburg, a city that was not on our original itinerary. Yesterday we spent seven hours in Vienna, where the last semi-final game of the Euro Cup Football tournament was taking place. But that´s a story for another day. It´s time to wake Lee up and figure out which Sound of Music tour we´re going to take, and how we´re going to make it to Ljubljana, Slovenia next. (Me: Lee, how do you spell "Ljubljana?" Lee: "L-j-u-b-l-j-a-n-a." Me: Oh! I just missed a couple of j´s.

Arrival in Riga, last week sometime

2008-06-24T14:53:00.001-05:00

DSC02771
Originally uploaded by Jess is a dinosaur

In his poncho, Lee thought he resembled a Jedi.

HOT in Hungary

2008-06-24T14:00:00.007-05:00

Lee B. and I are at an internet cafe in Budapest, Hungary. The funniest thing about the Hungarian language that I've learned so far, in learning one word only, is that "thank you" is pronounced in a way that it sounds like "curse your name" (Köszönöm).

Lee's mom asked in our last post about cool weather clothes. While we were in Scandanavia I definitely wondered if I should have brought another long sleeve shirt instead of one of my tees. (For anyone interested, I brought three t-shirts, two tank tops, one orange hoodie, two pair of convertible pants, one skirt, one scarf/sarong, four pair of socks, seven pair of underwear and two pair of shoes, one hiking, one flip-flop, on this trip.) In the Baltics, I still got a little chilly, especially when it was rainy, but when we got to Warsaw it was hot. When we got to Krakow it was Hot. Now that we're in Hungary, it is HOT. I got so hot today walking around that I was hiking my skirt up around my thighs, highly tempted to raise it above my head, little-girl-in-a-church-dress style. No, mom, I did not. We took an air-conditioned break to eat Hungarian Goulash. Of course, not as good as mom's ;) Lee had mushroom, I had chicken. Mmm.

As a result of the heat and our proximity to the sun, I am really tan. (Yes, I am wearing sunscreen.) I suddenly realized today why I must have been so tan as a child. It's because I was outside ALL the TIME. So it is now. Were I in Saint Paul, I'd probably be on the couch. I think all last summer I was outside maybe as much as we have been in the last week.

So, yeah. We're two weeks in, starting week three, and everything is great. I got to call my mom the other night because some girl in a hostel left me a Polish phone card and she was leaving Poland that day. The card advertised "15 kredits," which I mistakenly thought meant 15 minutes. Well, not when you call America. I talked to my mom for about two minutes and the last thing she asked was, "Are you and Lee fighting?" I hope she heard me shout, as the Polish operater's voice cut the connection, "NO!!!" It's true what you've heard; the longer you spend doing this the easier it gets. (Not sure if you've heard that or not. That's what I'd heard.) I am surprised by what I notice. I don't miss any of my clothes. (But I do want to buy all new ones-- European women, mullets withstanding, have great fashion.) I'm not homesick, as in, I don't miss Saint Paul, but I miss our kitchen and knowing where everything is and that everything works. I miss grocery shopping and knowing what everything is. I don't miss driving. I don't miss mass media marketing. I didn't realize how inundated I've been with media-- walking around here there are, of course, advertisements everywhere, but I don't understand them. So I am active in the visual choices I'm making, whereas at home I'd probably just read every sign, billboard and newsstand I passed.

I'm hoping to be able to add more pics to the blog but I'm loading some onto Flickr right now and it's taking FOR-EV-ER. Maybe the advertised price for this internet cafe-- 170 Florint for 30 minutes, 300 for an hour, really WAS too good to be true. (1000 Florint= about $6, so 300 Florint= $1.92. And Boy Howdy was it ever difficult to find the calculator function on this computer. In Hungarian it's called "Számológép.")

In closing, we're doing well, no major catastrophes. We're moving even more quickly than we expected to. Here's where we've been since June 9th:

Oslo
Stockholm
Vaxholm (part of Sweden's archipelago)
Helsinki
Tallinn
Riga
Majori (part of outlying Riga coastal area)
Vilnius
Warsaw
Krakow
Auschwitz/ Birkenau
Budapest

And I think tomorrow we'll go to Bratislava, Slovakia, where I hope they'll have faster internet and cooler weather.

Ferry to Helsinki

2008-06-19T07:41:00.001-05:00

Ferry to Helsinki
Originally uploaded by Jess is a dinosaur

This is a view from the top deck of the ferry we took from Stockholm to Helsinki a few days ago. It was about 10 p.m. and misty and foggy. No one else was up there and it was cold. You'd think it would be a very lonely place but it was quite invigorating. After taking this picture I returned to the casino lounge with Lee where a band was covering American oldies music. This ferry was like nothing I've ever seen. It was a 16 hour journey but there was so much to do on the boat: they had a store, a casino, several restaurants, a cafe, a few decks outside, a sauna downstairs, an arcade and lots of people to watch and mullets to document. We had our own little two bed berth with a private bathroom, very small but swank. Traveling by ferry is traveling in luxury.

Quick post before bed

2008-06-18T16:34:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone, we're leaving for Vilnius in the morning and I'm not sure how the internet access will be there. Even though we're footloose and fancy free traveling the world, I want to acknowledge all the events in the lives of the friends we left behind:

* Congratulations Brenda and Andy on pledging your lives to each other in holy wedded matrimony!
* Happy birthday to Julie, who is still young and vivacious!
* Happy birthday to my mom, who birthed me and who is awesome!
* Happy birthday to Lee's sister, and my friend, Kate!
* Happy birthday to Allison!

Okay, gotta run, scary Ukranian guy lurking around computer waiting his turn.

p.s. Kate, Allison and my mom are still young and hot too. I give special assurance to Julie because she had worried that at this milestone birthday, she has lost some of her appeal, which, if you've ever met Julie, you know is a ridiculous fear :)

Still alive, from Riga!

2008-06-17T07:42:00.002-05:00

Whew. We made it to Riga, Latvia. We spent yesterday in Tallinn, Estonia and the previous day (Sunday) in Helsinki, Finland. The trip is going by so fast already. We have been traveling only one week and it feels like a lifetime-- in a good way, I mean. We have seen and experienced a lot of new things in a short amount of time: A delicious makkaraperunat in Helsinki (a delicacy of potatoes and wieners which even "vegetarian" Lee enjoyed); a ginormous pannkook peekoni ja suitsujuustuga in Tallinn (a big old pancake, full of smoked cheese and ham).

Lee is currently making me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, our own US speciality.

We'll write more later, but it's time to eat my pbj and enjoy the hostel's free coffee.

Some Photos So Far

2008-06-13T17:34:00.007-05:00

In case you don't want to look through all unedited photos on my Flickr page, here are some favorites to whet your appetite:

Oslo

Lee at our hostel with the complimentary marshmallow

Pretty fountain

One of the statues at the Vieglandparken, which houses many of sculptor Gustav Viegland´s works

And Stockholm:

Wow, this stuff is addictive. I could have just stayed home and played with computers all summer!

Photo Upload Successful!

2008-06-13T17:23:00.003-05:00

Here is a nice sign we saw on our walk around Vaxholm. Note the squiggly lines emanating from the poo: proof that stink waves are universally recognizable. This notation needs to go in the PicturePhone rule book and will serve to disqualify any stink waves that the drawer claims are actually any of the following: excitement, nervousness, thought, radiation, or time travel. Stink waves are stink waves. Swedish dog poop sign has proven it for all time.

From the City Backpacker's hostel in Stockholm

2008-06-13T15:31:00.003-05:00

I want to be just like Lee, so I am currently uploading my photos onto Flickr as we speak. However, it is QUITE slow. Maybe it's because I am uploading 163 pictures. Currently it reads 6% complete. There is supposed to be a 20 minute time limit on these computers, but two units are open and I see no one waiting... we'll see. I'm also a little technically inept, so let's hope this works.

Onto the blogging! Today we explored old town in Stockholm. Well, actually the FIRST thing we did was wake up "early" at 7:45 to book our hostel again for the night. There had been some cancellations so we were lucky to get our same spot. We were also the first people to do this since the reception opened at 8. They quickly booked up for the night. Since we had another whole day, we decided to sleep a "little" longer. Until 10. Whoops. We were well rested but not alerted because when you wake up at 10 in a hostel, most everyone has already showered. Now, some might argue that COLD showers are exactly what Lee and I need... some would be wrong.

I was less than clean when we trekked out for breakfast and then to City Hall (where it hailed for just a few minutes) and then to the old part of Stockholm. The Royal Palace is the biggest one in the world. After a much needed caffeine boost and some sidewalk strolling, we decided to hop on a ferry from central Stockholm to one of the 24,000 islands in the archipelago system. It was called _____. We hiked all over this little island.

I am currently at 14% of my photo upload and ten minutes over my time limit. We'll see if I can get away with it.

Tomorrow at 16:45 we take an overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland!

Pictures Are Here!

2008-06-12T17:32:00.002-05:00

We've managed to find a hostel in Stockholm that offers free internet connection. As a result, I've finally been able to take advantage of my Flickr account (Flickr is a website convenient for sharing photographs). I've posted all of my pictures (not Jessica's) from the first three days of our trip. Check out my Flickr page to see the photos.

40279 Steps and Counting

2008-06-11T15:18:00.002-05:00

Yep, that's my pedometer reading for today (HealthPartners recommends 10000 steps per day).

I'm unable to hook a camera up to this computer, which is truly unfortunate. I believe that Jessica and I got the ideal overview of Oslo today (it helped that both of us were fully awake - 12 hours of sleep will do that).

Fortresses, ferries, fjords, formidable sculptures in the park, and fricken Viking ships! Keep an eye out for pictures of all of the above - perhaps tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow...tomorrow afternoon we'll be in an entire different city in an entire different country. Stockholm, Sweden for those who are keeping tabs. Takk!

Safe Arrival and some time in Oslo!

2008-06-11T14:49:00.002-05:00

Hello from beautiful Oslo, Norway! Where the wind is refreshing and the people are blonde. We had a nice flight on which Lee slept the whole time. Highlights include:

* The man behind us who snorted snot into his throat via heavy sniveling, then hawked it around in there but did not spit... Gross.

* The young man next to me who ordered two bottles of champagne. The flight attendant set one bottle on my tray, thinking he was ordering it to share with me. ("It's not for you," he said to my dismay.) This could be considered an honest mistake; the dude was youngish, sitting next to me, attractive enough to date me, however: This was not an honest mistake, as Lee Barnett flanked my other side, and we are not known for our subtleties in public displays of affection. (And let me tell you, here in Europe, we are not judged for outwardly being in love and for illustrating it with the occasional butt tap, nuzzle, etc.

We arrived in the Oslo airport Tuesday and took the train into Setrum Station (Central Station). We wandered briefly until we found our hotel, the lovely Sentrum Pensjonat (Central Pensjonat). On Tuesday we walked up the pedestrian shopping mecca, Karl Johans Gate, to the place where the king of Norway lives. We snuck into the historical museum to use the Toualett. We went to the National Gallery where we saw Edward Munch's Scream and some other cool stuff.

About this time, we were both pretty exhausted but tried to stay up as late as possible. I had only slept a few hours on the plane and my body felt like it was about noon, so my body thought it had been awake since 7:30 a.m. the previous day. My body, much like Shakira's hips, does not lie.

We slugged up the steps to Dolly Dimple's and ordered a delicious Margherita pizza for about 30 bucks. (I can't find the dollar key on this keyboard, but I can find ø, æ, ¤ and å.) The food is really, really expensive here. But the pizza was delicious, and I did it four pieces (Whattup, Julie?!) I could barely keep my eyes open so we somehow stumbled back to the hostel and passed the frik out. It was about 19:30 local time (that's 7:30 for you math lovers). We slept until 7:30 this morning. (Again, this one's for the mathees: 12 hours, fool.) Our sleep was totally comfortable and interrupted only briefly by the two brothers who stumbled in at some point to sleep. (Mom, don't freak out. We were staying in a four bed room and they occupied the other two beds.)

Today we're on a normal sleep/ wake schedule and we had a great day. I may let Lee tell you all about it. Tomorrow we depart for Stockholm!

Backpacking Across Midway

2008-06-08T00:51:00.001-05:00

Midway Motel
Originally uploaded by Lee Barnett

Saturday night before the trip.

Jessica was invited to Brenda's bachelorette party and I wasn't. Needing to feel productive, I decided to test out my fully-packed backpack, my camera, and my brand-new hiking shoes.

Took some touristy photos of Hamline's campus (none of them turned out - too dark).

Strolled through the lively Midway stadium immediately after the Saints' victory.

Watched Tight Phantomz through the door of the Turf Club.

Returned home, set up a Flickr account, pretended I was at a European internet cafe, and published this blog post.

Two...more...days...

The adventure begins Monday

2008-06-06T22:08:00.000-05:00

This is a cross post that I posted on my original blog, trouble in paradise. I thought I could include it here to further elucidate my hopes and goals for the trip, and address a bit of the why and how such an adventure came to be. This trip will be the cap on one end of an amazing year. ('Round these parts we measure years by the school calendar, not that there new fangled New Years' Eve nonsense.)

This was the year I

- moved in with a man
- didn't work during the summer for the first time since age 14
- started writing a book for real
- finished writing a book
- finished my Master's Degree

and now, starting Monday, 2007/2008 will be the year I spend an entire summer

- learning new things
- challenging myself to grow and expand
- leaving behind 99% of all my material goods
- leaving behind all responsibilities and obligations
- leaving behind a lot of really amazing friends and family

and having

the adventure

of a lifetime.

Six days to go

2008-06-03T21:38:00.001-05:00

On Monday, June 9, Lee and I will hop a plane to Europe to begin what will surely be the adventure of our lives. We will spend 73 days backpacking through Europe. That's the whole summer. That's right.

It is my hope that this blog will be a space for us to post updates on our travels, and for our loved ones to check in on us whenever they miss us. With less than a week before we leave, Lee and I are doing epic amounts of laundry, dumping assorted items from the fridge into a skillet and calling it "dinner," playing map games with SmartBoard software and buying things from Target we may or may not need. (Those last two activities apply to only one, not both of us. See if you can guess who is doing what.)

For my next act I'll see if I can post our itinerary.

P.S. The name of this blog came about because, before Lee and I met each other, we each had blogs. His is called Dinosaur in Trouble. Mine? It's called Trouble in Paradise. Now that we're together, we've both lost the "trouble." (Seriously though, isn't the name coincidence a little surreal?)