Holland

 Holland is a very cute country I think with too many bridges and canals and wonderful buildings to count. I loved it. Now, in the last three months there are couple of dream spots I would have liked to visit but had to give up seeing like Aushwitz and Neuschwanstein castle. Some things were just too complicated to get to and with all the planning that was already needed to be done I didn't feel like stretching my brain any further. I'd rather enjoy what was infront of me and stay sane at the same time. Holland on the otherhand is a little easier to navigate around since it is a small country and therefore, if you remember my top ten sights to see, I was able to visit the Corrie Ten Boom house, the Anne Frank house and rent a bike! I was very pleased. It all began in Amsterdam where I stayed with the sister of a girl who was a student with me at Capernwray. I took a short train ride to Haarlem from there and visited the Ten Boom house. This was definately a highlight of my trip so far. It was the first time visiting a place that didn't feel like a dream. I walked down the street thinking "I'm going to Corrie's house!". I was quite excited. I got there just in time for the english tour and lucky me, I was the only one there. It was just me and the tour guide. Not bad. Everything was set up as it may have been back then although none of the furniture was original because it had all been taken after the family was shipped to concentration camps. When I walked into Corrie's room my favourite part of the book, "The Hiding Place" came to my mind when she is in the dining area in the night with her sister, Betsie having tea because the bombing is keeping her up. She later goes back to her room to find a piece of shrapnel that has flown through her window and landed right on her pillow which would have landed on her head if she hadn't been with Betsie. It was so neat to look at the window in her room and be reminded of God's miraculous protection. One day my friend's sister, Stefanie took me into Amsterdam by bike which was quite a thrill for a Canadian girl who rarely rides a bike and when she does she is riding on streets not so busy and is either wearing a helmut or feeling like she should have worn a helmut because death could be right at her doorstep. It was so fun, though! Riding through the busy streets with hundreds of other bikers and having mopeds wipping by your side and trams running up and down the streets. Whew!

While there I visited the Anne Frank which was really great, although it wasn't quite the same personal experience as the Ten Boom house. There was no guide and a ton of more people were there and it was not furnished at all on request of Anne Frank's father so it was a little more difficult to imagine what it was like but that is okay, not complaining, just a different experience.

I then headed to Den Haag where my friend (and the sister of Stefanie), Rebecca and her husband, Martin live. This is the big political hub for Holland. I mostly relaxed here, went into the city one day and also walked to the beauitful beach! I of course got lost getting there and was super frustrated but once I got there, it's beauty made me forget about my distress. It was an open sandy beach with fences around the grassy type sand dune thingys for lack of a better description. I loved it. On my last day all three of us went to a place called Madurodam which is a place where they have built mini replicas of famous and popular buildings all over Holland. Very impressive! I visited all of Holland in only two hours.

Corrie Ten Boom House





Corrie's room, the wall where they hid the Jews behind and the window where the shrapnel flew in.











Haarlem











Anne Frank's room





Amsterdam



At the Beach in Den Haag





The beautiful beach!

Riding a bike in Amsterdam!

Sorry, the photos are a little scatter brained today but anyway...great time in Holland! After eight days there I headed back to England once again. She seems to keep letting me in which is nice although this time the customs lady asked, "Have you been working while in Europe? You know you can't work here with out a working Visa." I said, "Yes, I know, I haven't been working." She replies, "Are you sure? because your face went red when you said that." Hmm...no one has ever called me on blushing before, I thought to myself. That caught me off guard more than anything. Then I realized I did feel a little warm but I was just nervous. England is beautiful and where I most feel at home so far but man, her border makes me nervous. Anyway, she obviously let me through and the parents of my friend, Esther who I worked with at Capernwray were waiting for me on the other side. I am just outside of Bristol right now and have soaked up a bit of history at a brief stop at Stonehenge and a beautiful day in Bath where I visited the Roman Baths. And a lot of relaxing of course. My first post that was written on European soil was titled, "I think I'm in love with England" and I can say that is still true. It is funny, I think it was the country I was least interested in seeing for the sights because I find I hear most about England on TV, magazines, etc. and see it alot in movies that in a way I just thought, 'been there, done that' but I've been proved wrong. It really is a stunning country, cozy and somewhat romantic, just how I imagined it. I think the climate, the fact that it is pretty green, the language and  having family that live here, makes me feel most at home. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos uploaded of my time here but trust me, they're good ones!

Well, believe it or not I am half way through my trip and Savannah arrives in two days! That is so crazy. I can't believe it's been that long already. It has all been so great but it can be tiring too so I am ready for a second wind and a travel buddy! Things will become a bit more busy now I think and we aren't staying with as many people as I have these last three months so I am not sure how often I will get to a computer with a big chunk of time to blog and put pictures up but I will try. Thanks again for reading!

Sweden and the snow

The snow is still kicking around these days. I flew into Edinburgh just fine about 2 weeks ago and then that evening as I was roaming the streets it began to snow, like really snow. The next day the airport was closed. Needless to say I  was glad to not have another Berlin experience. A couple days later it rained and began to melt. Just how I like it, a good Vancouver Island winter, well, on a normal year that is. Then it was time to head to Sweden where I was very warned about the cold and the snow. I would get wierd looks when I said I was going there in January but this was just the way it was. I went to visit a friend, Andreas who I was a student with at bible school. We hadn't seen eachother for nearly six years so that was pretty cool. There was definately snow but I could work with it and it actually wasn't as cold as I expected it to be so all was well. We headed into the downtown of Norrkoping one day which is about 45 minutes south of Stockholm. We went to a work museum where we saw a lot of things that the Swedes made in the past. In one area there were 20 companies posted up on a wall and you had to guess which ones were still Swedish, not bought out by any other country. All but one have been bought out, even IKEA! I forget the name of the one remaining but it was some sort of bank. We went to a really neat sciency place after. You could try different things that I am not going to try and explain but it was like a miniature Science World for those of you who know what that is and then there was a photo gallery of a man, Lennart Nilsson, who takes beautiful photos  inside the body, like of fetuses and all that jazz. Pretty impressive. After that we saw a 3D Imax film of "Sea Monsters"...we both fell asleep. The next day Andreas was working so I hung out with his parents and guess where we went? IKEA!!! Yes, right in it's homeland. So special. It sure made me want to decorate my house that I don't have. We finished off the shopping extravaganza with a good 'ol Ikea meal. Beautiful really. Andreas and I headed to Stockholm one day as well which was pretty fun.The weather wasn't too nice and the snow on a scale from white to brown was more or less on the brown side so I didn't really get the "Stockholm is sooo beautiful!" experience but the architecture is quite something even on its own so with or without the sun I was satisfied. We visited the castle and saw the changing of the guards, took a walk to a place that over looks the city and also went to the Vasa ship museum. In 1628 it departed from Stockholm only to sink 20 minutes later because it was too narrow and too tall. 300 years later it was taken up out of the waters and now is in its own museum. It seriously is quite something. If you are ever in Stockholm I highly recommend that. There was a little video afterwards as well...we fell asleep again.
I spent the night in Stockholm because I flew out to Holland the next day and then that was that. Six days in Sweden. The End.

Me at IKEA

Stockholm

Lennart Nilsson Photography

Andreas in Stockholm jumping for joy!

And me in Stockholm jumping for joy!

The Vasa Ship, picture really doesn't do it justice.

Leprachauns and Kilts.

Dublin City

 January 1, 2011 marked the beginning of a new chapter of my Europe trip. A third of my trip already through  and three countries visited (one of those only for a weekend) From October 31 to December 31 my time was full of visiting family and friends with only six days out of those two months on my own in Berlin. For the most part I took it easy.  But as of two weeks ago I began to branch out just a wee little more. I spent 12 days completely alone in Ireland and Scotland. Well, I guess not completely alone. I had my fellow pedestrians, some cool hostel roomates and quirky tour guides who kept me company but no friends to visit, no family to stay with, just me! One week I was in Ireland which was "grand". Three days in Dublin and another three in Galway on the west coast. I absolutely loved Dublin. It was just how I imagined an Irish city to be. The old looking buildings in the Temple Bar area where they have lots of pubs with live music and the city was just neat in itself with a river running right through it. Lots of character. One day I went on a tour. A nice small tour with just six of us and a guide. We toured up into Northern Ireland where we visited the Giant's Causeway (a whole bunch of rocks along the coast that are similar shape and almost puzzled in together formed by something volcanic-didn't quite get with the science of it all!), Belfast and the oldest whiskey dystillery in the world, just to name a few stops. I loved this tour, and our tour guide was great, very laid back and had a nice accent of course :) The next day I made good friends with two of my roomates, a german and australian, and we went to an Irish pub and listened to live irish music. Ah, I loved it! I wish you all could have been there! I then headed to Galway and spent the rest of my week there. Galway was really lovely but I didn't fall in love with it as much as I thought I would but it was very hard to sleep at my hostel so that may have dampered my time a little. What I did fall in love with, though were the Cliffs of Moher. These were really the reason for taking me out to Galway anyway so I was quite happy with that! I went on a day tour with a very quirky tour guide. He was nice and all but he sure liked to talk. I'm surprised I still had my ears by the end of the trip. He would tell us jokes and stories and at times he sounded East Indian which was really strange because he was clearly Irish. I thought my ears were playing tricks on me like they were just so tired of hearing him talk that they decided to trick me and make him sound like he was from India but the girl I was sitting beside heard it too so clearly my ears were doing just fine. It was a big tour on a big coach bus, lots of stops and herding people on and off, not my style, but like I said, the cliffs at the end of the trip made every bit worth it.
The next day I headed to Edinburgh, Scotland for five days. People have kept telling me what an amazing city is and they were all right. In some cities there are old buildings but then there are newer ones too but in Edinburgh I just felt like they were all old and this gave it so much character. One day I just walked around, got a feel for it and checked out some sights. If you go to Edinburgh you can't miss visiting Edinburgh Castle. It's a tiny bit pricy but at the beginning of my trip I had figured I would see a lot of castles so I would save just one or two to actually go into and this one was worth it. It is a ruin and I find those most interesting. They have all the royal history written up there as well and the next day I went on a lakes and castles tour where the guide shared alot of the same things so it was really cool to put those together and actually see different sites where certain things actually happened. That's how I like my history. No textbooks. One day I also hiked up the Salisbury Crags which are some cliffy volcanic formations. There was some snow and ice, not ideal and not 100% safe but there were lots of people doing it so I figured it couldn't be so bad and my body was craving a hike so badly! It took about 2.5 hours to walk around and up it and it was so wonderful! At the top it over looks the city and wow!
There are some other things I did as well but as I'm writing this all I want to do is show you pictures because everything was just so beautiful and words can't describe it! So I will stop typing and leave out some things and let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Enjoy!

Temple Bar area, Dublin

A Dublin busker

Fisherman's dock on the way to Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland coast

A 400 ear old bridge in Northern Ireland. A "cheap thrill" our tour guide called it. I survived.

Giant's Causeway

Galway City

At the pier in Galway city

Cliffs of Moher, Galway

Cliffs of Moher, Galway

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh's silhouette

Hiking up the Salisbury Crags

Dublin

At the top of the Salisbury Crags looking over Edinburgh. Edinburgh castle right in the center!

The 'One o'clock gun' at Edinburgh Castle that goes off at one o'clock every day except sunday since forever.

Edinburgh Castle

Stirling Castle just outside of Edinburgh

Kilchurn Castle in the Scottish highlands