Welcome Home!

So, long delay, but we had an awesome two days in London! We walked around all day long seeing everything from Westminster Abbey to the Tower Bridge and Waterloo Station...which is a long dang walk. We took tons of pictures and got back to Dan's in Andover to get some good sleep. The next day, our last day (almost), Dan's mom cooked us a nice roast with raspberry apple pie before we left for London! We took our stuff to Gatwick Airport and then headed into town by train. It was raining, but we went to Chinatown, bought another bag so ours wasn't over the 60 pound limit and got some dinner. We took some night shots of the city, saw a guy bust his "boys" full speed on a subway pole and headed back to the airport...our hotel for the night! We ended us locking our stuff to a bench and sleeping under it. That was an awful idea! We slept for about an hour and woke up at 3am and stayed awake for the whole boarding/security process until our plane left at 9am. The ride was nice with plenty of food, coke and touch screen games and music. We got to Nashville via ATL at 5pm! Candace, Beau, and my mom were waiting for us with an awesome sign and it was time to give Hayley her real ring! There was a guy playing guitar and he played a slow song for us and I got down and one knee and did it all again :) Hayley was very excited and everyone clapped for us! Now are back in good ol' Tennessee! Thanks to everybody for actually reading this blog, it was a ton of fun documenting the whole trip through words...and ~12,000 photos! We met some awesome people and we're glad that everyone could keep us with us the whole way!

Stonehenge, Crop Circles, and Avebury!

We had an awesome day! We woke up early, ate left over croissants for breakfast and caught the train to Salisbury at about 11am. We got a bus ticket to see Stonehenge, but it was pouring the rain when we got there, so we just stayed on the bus and went back to Salisbury...then stayed on the bus and went back to Stonehenge (gotta get our money's worth haha). We got off the second time because the weather was great! We walked around taking tons of pictures. It is in a area called the Salisbury Plains where the British military trains every one from pilots to snipers, so we got some shots of a jet pulling some Gs over Stonehenge...not in the same picture though. I seriously had to pee SO bad I was sweating, but you had to leave Stonehenge to get to the bathroom and I didn't want to waste the trip there just because I had to go! So after a little while I couldn't work my camera it was bad so I ran across the place, straight out the entrance, went to the bathroom, then cut everyone in line and went through the booth and back to Hayley...nobody said anything. So, we got plenty of pictures! Dan picked us up (with his dog Jerry) in Salisbury and we went out to hunt down some crop circles out in the countryside. Most of the fields were harvested already, but we saw one huge crop circle that really awesome! Dan, took us by some cool Stone Age burial mounds, and to Avebury where the village is surrounded by two rings of these stones, bigger than Stonehenge, all the way around the village! We ate at the Red Lion Pub in the middle of the rings and rode back to Andover. It's bedtime now and London early tomorrow, so pictures will have to wait!

Ediburgh, Ogle, and Andover!

Sorry for the delay, we had a hard time finding a place to stay, got a negative reference on Couch Surfing from a guy who barely even gave us any direction, and stayed in Edinburgh instead of Glasgow. We had an awesome time in Glasgow with Mathilde and Tich! Mathilde told us about Balloch which is a town by Loch Lomond to the west of Glasgow and we took lots of pictures, I even broke out my macro lens! We missed the train back by less than 10 seconds, but we just went to a cafe for 30 minutes until the next one. We got groceries again and make pizza for dinner back in Glasgow. We got up early and headed to Edinburgh for the day! Patrice was with us for that too and we walked around everywhere, ate some dang good ribs, and mac n' cheese, saw the castle, walked across town for some awesome views then...we had to figure out what the heck we were gonna do! Patrice had to catch a plane to Croatia and be at the Edinburgh Airport at 5am and we couldn't stay with Mathilde and Tich again because they had a full house with some old friends. So, we went from place to place asking for a room (the Fringe Festival is all of August in Edinburgh and there is not a single room anywhere, even on CS). We ended up splitting a 2 person room 3 ways, RUNNING to Waverly station to catch the last train to Glasgow then running to get the train to Mathilde's to get our stuff, then RUNNING back, with all of our stuff to catch the last train back to Edinburgh (while eating Burger King) so we wouldn't have to come back very early in the morning to get our bags...Well, Patrice made his flight and we made it to the Ogle castle in Ogle, Northumberland, England! It was super nice! Since I am the 29th generation of a direct line of Ogles (my Mom is an Ogle and, if you go back 4 generations, so is my Dad haha) descendant of the very first Ogle (Humphry of Ogle 1085-1155)...we just had to stay there! We walked around Ogle, which is a very small community really not even a town. We checked out the land around the place and then just enjoyed the place! The owner's daughter cooked us dinner because we were starving and had no clue that there was nothing to eat in Ogle! She also made us a full English breakfast, tons of toast, juice, and even gave us a ride back to the nearest train station along with leftover croissants for a snack! Our train was late, which is good because we were late too, but then as soon as our train arrived in Birmingham, we saw our connecting train pulling away! Then we waited for another train...it was late, so when we got to Reading, we saw our next connecting train pulling away! So we got sandwiches and tried to call Dan in Andover. We left him a message and just hoped he would be there when we walked off the train in Andover...he was! Good thing because it was raining. Him and his girlfriend took us back to his house where they had cooked a green curry dinner for us, we played with their dalmation, Jerry, and met Dan's mum and sister for a game of Rummikub. We are going to bed now, but in the morning we are going to Salisbury to see Stonehenge and Dan is picking us up at 6:30 and we're going to check out some crop circles around Hampshire! We'll update tomorrow...I promise!

Glasgow, Scotland!

We cleaned the rooms...and bathrooms. We got milkshakes with a guy named John that was working at the hostel from Australia before we caught the train. The train ride to Glasgow was not too long, and Patrice, Mathilde, and baby Rose met us at the train station! Last night, we went to Mathilde and Tich's house, walked through the park and got supplies to make a pasta dinner. Tich (Richard) gave me a sweet "Harris Tweed" hat like the one I saw in Pitlochry! So, we plan on checking out Glasgow today, but so far only breakfast and showers are done and Hayley is playing with the baby :)

Farewell Mano, Louise, Eric, and Gus!

Well, they talked us into staying another night in Lybster! We were just going to be lazy, but we ended up going out along the cliffs on the coast in front of their house in kayaks and the dinghy. It was really cool, we kayaked through a ton a huge caves and tiny cracks in the cliffs! I almost flipped the dang kayak trying to ride a wave across a gap in a rock...almost flipped it and almost made it! I had to wiggle around and push myself off the way I came across. We had a lot of fun and wasted a lot of "petrol" in the dinghy! We hung out with the Dutch couple that were staying with Mano and Louise and Eric, Frenchman...oh yeah, and Gus the Border Collie! We cooked dinner, they had a rice/fish dish and Louise made me some dang good breaded corned beef burger things and potatoes! We slept great, until the Dutch blew a fog horn to wake everyone up for breakfast! Mano headed off to the control tower on his bicycle, the Dutch couple (Rennata and Sander, I think they are called) headed out, and Louise took us and Eric to Helmsdale for a check on the sailboat ropes and some good King Rib and Battered Haddock! They saw us off at the train station and we headed to a hostel north of Edinburgh again to clean some rooms for a free private room and breakfast! Tomorrow, Patrice, the CSer we stayed with in Caen, France is taking a vacation to meet us in Glasgow, Scotland and we are going to meet him and his friends at 4:15pm tomorrow...after we clean!

Home of the Highlanders!

The next day in Lybster, Mano and Louise took us to Wick after breakfast. We saw the Whaligoe steps (317 steps down the cliff to the sea). We walked around in a "European market" in Wick before lunch. I had a beef-n-ale pie with onion rings! We headed back home, passed by the airport where Mano works and a quick stop at the Tesco (supermarket) to get dinner supplies. When we got back, Duncan took me out with a fly rod, we went wading up the river and I caught 3 wild brown trout! They are native to Scotland so it was a lot of fun!  The octopus stew was made for everyone except me...I tried it, it was...different, but they cooked haggis for me along with the swede and potatoes. Then, Mano took us and Eric out in the dinghy to see a castle on the coast and a bunch of caves, we saw a seal and a puffin! It was really awesome, but freezing! Me and Eric stayed up late and watched the night sky, you can see the Milky Way here it is so dark! We saw 4 satellites and 3 Perseid meteors! We are staying another night here in Lybster...

Hiking and Sailing in the Highlands!

To hold up our end of the sweet deal...we stripped sheets and pillow cases, cleaned bathrooms and showers, and mopped the floors of the hostel! It wasn't that bad really, we got a free nights stay in our private room ($70) and free breakfast for both of us. We wanted to hike to the mountain "Ben Vrackie" so we got our bags ready and ended up hitting a souvenir shop and getting a milkshake before we went! The hike was awesome, half way up the trail there was a lake. All of a sudden, it started pouring and blowing wind sideways, so we hid behind a rock until it slacked off, we could barely stand up in the wind it was so strong! After it quit, we were wet and started walking back to the town...then we decided we came this far (to the foot of the mountain) we had to keep going! We went up, all the way to the top, took plenty of pictures, but we finally made it! A RAF Tornado flew by while we were on the mountain, it was so low, fast, and loud we thought we were about to die! We didn't see it because it was so cloudy, but they run a training route over Pitlochry. We heard another one when we got back to our hostel. We tried to get back in time to get food, but everywhere was closed. So, we went to the grocery store, bought Scottish beef steaks and made fajitas and potato wedges in the hostel kitchen! We slept like logs, but caught the 8:42am train outta there to meet Mano and Louise in Helmsdale, Scotland. They had another guy, Eric, from France staying with them and we all went out on their sailboat and learned how to "tack" into the wind and hoist the lines! It was pretty awesome and nobody fell overboard despite all of the leaning over the sides to keep the sail up and the keel down! We had fish n' chips (I had Haggis) and headed to Lybster to their house. We met a man named Duncan, a friend of Mano and Louise, and he offered to take us fly fishing for trout tomorrow! We are cooking octopus...looks awesome, but could be deadly for me, so I don't think I'll try it :( Fishing report tomorrow!

Yorkshire to the Scottish Highlands!

Yesterday, we ate breakfast and Vaughan took us to a west coast town called Morecambe (near Lancaster) in Lancashire, England. We walked around and saw all of the old buildings in the city and went down by the coast. The tide was up so high it flooded the road, so we had to go eat lunch and come back. We went to Happy Mount park and ate the packed lunch we brought while we watched some old guys play "Crown Green Bowling". We went back to the flooded road and out to the coast of Sunderland Point at low tide, saw some old boats and the grave of the "little black Sambo". Vaughan showed us the house were he grew up and bunch of other cool sights. The roads there and back were awesome! We drove through the Yorkshire Dales, which is a national park. All kinds of fast curvy roads... We got back about 7pm and cooked a curry beef dish, which is pretty much the real national meal of England now instead of fish and chips. Vaughan has me wanting to print black and white photos at home now, after we looked through all of his prints. He also has a Mamiya 645 which would be sweet to mess around with! We parted ways with Vaughan, but he says he wants a change of scenery and really wants to move to the US for a while, so maybe we will see him again! We got the 12:03 train (nasty kids everywhere and gross seats/floors) to York to make our way up past Edinburgh to Pitlochry, a tiny town at the foot of a big mountain in Scotland, we are here for two days now. We tried to go to Edinburgh, but there is a festival going on and there is NOWHERE to stay! In Pitlochry, we are going to hike to the top Ben Vrackie tomorrow after we clean the hostel for 3 hours...yeah that's right! We got to talking to the very Scottish guy working at the desk and he said if we would help clean the hostel rooms from 10:30-1:30 tomorrow we could stay for free! We got a private room with a bathroom/shower for 2 nights now! More about the work/hiking tomorrow!

West Yorkshire, England!

We have been with Vaughan near Halifax in West Yorkshire, England for the last few days. We have been driving around, going hiking, taking lots of pictures, and checking out the area. Vaughan is really into photography and has lived here for over 30 years, so he knows all the good spots! He has been making us breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and we've had some good meals! Halifax is an old textile town and now it is mostly abandoned factories and immigrants, but still nice to see. Vaughan's house is up in the Pennine hills and is a really nice place to stay. We are staying here until Wednesday morning, so we are going to make a day trip with Vaughan to Lancaster and Morcambe bay area tomorrow.

More Liverpool and Scouse Accents!

Today was another awesome day in England! We slept in again, had breakfast, then had a photo shoot with Matt's Triumph. It turned out really nice! I don't have Photoshop, but I put the original shot from the camera on Facebook. We walked down the road to eat lunch at "Moby Dick", it was a great meal with lots of steak and potatoes (a real English roast). Then we walked past the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, home of the British Open a few times, to get Matt's car from the shop (not the Porsche, but his VW Corrado Storm that had a coolant leak). We got the train into Liverpool and took a "Ferry 'cross the Mersey" and Matt's showed us around the city. It was very nice...we saw the Cavern, which is the first place the Beetles ever played. We met up with Vicky again and walked around town some more before we watched a concert and crazy dance show at the docks by the Beatles museum and ate hamburgers! We went to a pub and heard a really good band play some rock music...Coke for me and Hayley! Now we are back at Matt's in need of some sleep, but tomorrow we are going to check out the "Iron Men" before heading to meet Vaughan in Halifax!

Liverpool, England!

We finally made it to the home of the Beatles! Matt picked us up at the train station and drove us out to his place in the neighborhood of West Kirby. It is super nice here! He cooked slaved over some curry for us and invited his two neighbors Steve and Shulah over and his friend Vicky. We had a good time listening to their awesome accents and they wanted to see our trip pictures, so we showed them a slideshow of every picture on our facebook for the trip! We slept in a little bit because Matt is a web designer and can work when he wants. Then, we got up and went out for the day in his Porsche 993 Carrera S! We went for a walk up on a hilltop and could see all of the peninsula around West Kirby and into Wales. Matt also has a Triumph so we went to the Triumph dealer and it was really sweet! We bought a British Triumph patch and two shirts. We checked out Chester, an old city in Cheshire that has old Roman walls around it from 80 A.D. Some of the buildings there date to the 15th century. We had awesome milkshakes, saw Paul McCartney's house and some homes of the Liverpool "footballers". We drove around in the Porsche for a while and checked everything out before going to the grocery store and cooking dinner at Matt's. Tomorrow we are having a photoshoot with the Street Triple and going to Liverpool!

Dublin!

We made it to Dublin! We were supposed to meet a couchsurfer, but we don't have a phone so when we got to Dublin we looked up their address...and it was an hour walk outside the city! They never said where to meet up so...we sent them a message and said we were in the city center, but couldn't walk to meet them. We already had another CS'er here for tomorrow night and we had no internet, so we gave him a call and asked if we could just come over and use the WiFi to get a hold of the other guy. Turns out, he said we should just stay here for the night and tomorrow too! We are getting some sleep, but checking out Dublin tomorrow!
UPDATE: We checked out Dublin! We walked around the city and ate some lunch at a pub, no drinkin'. Then, we headed back and met with Valerio, our CS'er, and went out with him and a guy from Israel to a pub. They wouldn't let me in though because I had open-toed shoes! So, we just walked around, went back to the apartment and cooked a pizza with garlic bread and a side of cereal and orange juice...we are being thrifty! We left Ireland for England!

Northern Ireland!

We woke up early in Galway, ate breakfast and caught the train to Dublin. Our rolling suitcase is no longer rolling and it sucks to drag around, but we made it across Dublin to the other train station to get the train to Belfast, then eventually to Portrush (the 55 degrees north city on the coast). We got here and decided since we have couch surfers all next week, we would just get a B&B for 2 nights and check out the Giant's Causeway and the northern coast. Last night we got pizza and brought it back to the room. We got a $5 bus that we could hop on and off all day long to see all the cool stuff along the coast. We rode it 3 times and then after the last bus was gone and we wanted more time to see stuff, we just walked along this coastal hiking trail that went about 10 miles back to Portrush. It was awesome! We saw lots of sweet stuff and had great time hiking back at sunset/dark! Tomorrow we are heading to Dublin to meet a couchsurfer.

County Clare, Ireland!

This morning we caught the train to Dublin with Matt and Kathleen. We got off at Limerick Junction to head out toward the Cliffs of Moher and they headed out to Dublin, hopefully we'll see them again in the States someday! We went as far west in Ireland as Ennis and caught a bus to the cliffs from there. We got there at about 4pm and had until 7:15 until the bus to Doolin was going to pick us up. We left our bags at the visitor's center for free and headed out the trail. The whole thing was paved and there quite a few people there. We walked all the way to the end of the path and turned around. At the other end of the path, there were signs that said "Do not pass this point!" and "Danger" and "Private Property", so we went past all those signs :) and walked away from all the tourist to find the best views of the cliffs with no railings, pavement, or walkways. Just the dirt and us. Then I had to do what I had planned. I bought her the perfect ring before we left. But, I didn't take it with us because I'd probably lose it on a train or leave it somewhere. I got her a small white gold band instead, took pictures of her real ring and hid the band and the card full of pictures in my camera bag. We finally got to the perfect spot. Sitting on the edge of the cliff, I wanted to make a video to show everyone where we were. So, we start recording and say "Hey everybody we are here" blah blah blah then I turned around, took a picture of the awesome view and got up to show the camera. The picture was actually a picture of the ring...she thought I was just being crazy showing the camera the picture of the scenery, but she saw the picture and couldn't believe it! She went from smiling to "are you serious" in about a second. Then I showed her the band and asked her to marry me, she said YES! She couldn't believe it and it didn't really seem real it was so awesome! We hung out there for a while and walked around on the "wild" side of the cliffs before we headed back to the visitor's center to get our bags. A bus pulled up going to Galway, which was better than Doolin, so we hopped on. In Galway, there is a week on horse race that has the entire town packed full of people! The only place to stay in this town is a B&B for $80, but we are going to sleep good and we'll head off tomorrow to the Giant's Causeway on the northern coast!

Killarney, Kinsale, Cork!

We have had an awesome time so far in Ireland! We ended up staying with Gaetan and Stefanny here in Cork for a 3rd night. They are really nice and have done everything to show us around, eat with us, cook for us, even let us do laundry! The first day here in Cork, took a train to Killarney with Matt and Kathleen that we met on the train from the ferry. We walked about 15 miles in Killarney! There is a national park there with a huge lake, a big waterfall, and some castles. We ate at a pub again too! Kathleen left her phone at the train station and the people here are so nice, these two old Irish guys were going to Killarney and they said they would look for her phone and turn it in, the conductor of the train called the other station, they found it and sent it on the first train back to Cork the next morning. Everybody has helped us with directions, even walking with us (two different time) to show us where a certain street was. Geatan and Stef met us in the city and we ate dinner. The next morning, I FINALLY found a real camera store! I got an awesome tripod and ball head to replace the one that I wore out 2 weeks ago (whooo nice pictures to come)! Stef walked around with us in the morning and showed us the town, then just me and Hayley got a bus to Kinsale near where the Lusitania was sunk. We rented bikes there and had no idea that we would have to ride over 20 miles to see the huge coastal cliffs! We got our butts kicked by some crazy hills, cliffs, and wrong side the road driving! But, we got there and back by 6pm. We bought a bunch of cereal bars, pringles, and a whole big carton of orange juice to chug for our accomplishments when we rolled back into Kinsale. We checked out the craft shops and came back to Cork. They cooked dinner for us and we hung out for a while at their apartment. Tomorrow, we are heading out of here on a train to Galway to see the huge Cliffs of Moher (hopefully at sunset)!

Ireland Day 1

We finally made it Ireland! Our ferry landed at Rosslare harbor at 11:30am and the next train was not until 1pm. We had no idea how to get to Cork (to stay with Gaetan and Stephanie!) from there but the only train that ran out of the harbor was going to Dublin. We met an older couple from Texas and two kids our age from Arkansas and Louisiana, so we just rode with them to Dublin. The younger couple (Matt and Kathleen) were trying to go to Cork too, so we figured out together that going to Dublin was the only way, so we got to Dublin, checked it out, and purposely missed the next train to eat at a pub! We had some dang good food, steak sandwich and awesome fries that were almost potato wedges. We ran hardcore to catch the next train because we were still eating with 5 minutes left before it took off! We made it, it started moving before we even sat down! So, we got to Cork called Gaetan from Kathleen's phone and they rode on their bikes down to meet us. We went to a real Irish pub and listened to a makeshift guitar/fiddle/banjo/spoons band play some "Irish Trad" for some free beer...we drank Coke. Now are with Gaetan and Stephanie in their cool apartment on Pope's Quay in County Cork. Tomorrow morning we are going to Killarney to hike to the Torc waterfall, should be pretty awesome!

Camping and Leaving France

We had an awesome time camping and hiking with Patrice in La Hague! We got up about 9:30am and got everything ready to go. On our way to La Hague (near Cherbourg), we stopped at a store that we had seen the last time we were in Caen and bought a hard suitcase to put all of our "newly aquired" stuff in so we don't have 4 backpacks to carry :). We got the place by following the signs to a fake wedding, because the camping party was for a guy named Pierre's birthday and it was a surprise for him. It was really cool! He is a pro DJ so they had some stuff set up so he could play music and they grilled about 6 lambs and some chickens from the farm we camped on and we ate like crazy! Us and Patrice went on a hike all around the coast line, it was the perfect place for pictures! I broke my ballhead and all I have now is my Gorillapod with no ballhead. The hike was really nice. When we got back, we met a ton of people and we were up until about 3am... We set up our tents in this huge field with nobody but Patrice around and it was right on the English Channel or "Le Manche" as they call it. We had an awesome view when we woke up this morning! We ate a LOT of bread and Nutella for breakfast. They sell baguettes of bread here for about 0.80 each and they must have had over 100 two foot long baguettes for dinner and breakfast! We left and went to Nez de Jobourg which is a really cool place with rocky cliffs going down to the ocean. We tooks tons of pictures, and even jumped in "Le Manche" for a swim in our underwear! Hayley cut her foot on one the sharp rocks... We hiked around to the car and headed for Cherbourg. We stopped at a few places along the way, including the smallest harbour in France. Patrice arranged for us to stay with one of his friends, Vanessa, in Cherbourg and she lives right beside the ferry port where we leave for Ireland. She cooked dinner for all of us and we had to say goodbye to Patrice...we will see him again eventually! We have gotten to be really great friends with him and we know we are always welcome in Normandy! We had the next day to explore Cherborg, with Vanessa's house key, until we had to catch the ferry to Ireland at 6pm! We walked around Cherbourg found a camera store and talked about buying a new ballhead with a old man that didn't know a word of english. We ate at a French cowboy restaurant for 10 euros each and it was really good! On the ferry we watched an Irish dance show, some guys playing the blues, and the Irish Justin Timberlake before we went to bed. Now we are having breakfast before we land in Rosslare, Ireland!

Demnark to Caen!

We are finally on our way back to France. Last night we went to Rødby, Denmark to find a place to stay because it was right on the coast and as far the train would take us that night. But, when we got there, there was nothing...not even street lights! So, we came back to Nykøbing and stayed in a crazy hostel. Nobody was working there, we just went inside and swiped our card to get a key to a room, like a vending machine! It was a good place though, it had two bunk beds, a bathroom with a shower, no AC but it feels good in Denmark (in the 70s). But, it is really expensive there because the US Dollar is not worth a lot there. We paid 550 Kroner for the room, which is like $98!! We are out of Denmark now though, in France on the way to Patrice's from Paris. We have to get back ASAP to get our stuff, meet Patrice, and go camping in Cherbourg at a music festival with him and his friends! In Germany I had an all beef bratwurst that was huge and a Coke for 4 euro! Hayley got O.J. with pulp in it! The only train to Paris from Cologne, Germany was full and the lady said you "MUST" have a reservation to take it. Well, we said screw it and got on anyway, what are they going to do...kick us off the train somewhere on the way to Paris? Well, they didn't. We sat down in a seat on the train that we we're told was completely full and we just paid the reservation fee right there on the train. When we got to Paris we had 30 minutes to catch the next train. But, it was in the station across town, not the one we came in to! We got 1.50 euro subway tickets and had to take 3 different lines and RUN up and down a million flights of stairs across the whole dang smelly city...but we made it! We took the train to Caen, got here at nearly midnight. We are staying with Patrice tonight and going camping for 2 nights at a music festival in the city were our ferry leaves for Ireland! We didnt call or let Patrice know we were going to be here but he left us a candle outside to show he was waiting on us! We knocked on the door and he came to welcome us again!!

Sweden!

Sorry for the last few days with no update! The netbook only worked for the first night on the internet at Anna's house. Anyway, we stayed in Skövde, Sweden (where the Volvo powertrain factory is). The town is really small and we stayed outside of the city in Skultorp. We had an awesome time with Anna and her family! We ate breakfast together every morning and they took us for a hike/nature walk, we had a "fika" and went to the movies with Anna to see Eclipse. It was in English with Swedish subtitles! Anna and her family speak English really well, so he had a lot of fun talking to them. Her brother Eric is 14 and loves to swim, so we jumped in the lake while we were on the hike! We cooked dinner twice and Anna's mom Maria drove us around when Anna went to work and we saw the hospital where she works, all kinds of really old ruins and churches, and took plenty of pictures! She dropped us off at the science center that Anna works at and we played around, had pizza, watched her do the "gas show" and we made ice cream with liquid nitrogen! We went downtown to check out all the stores, went to a huge supermarket, and had a BBQ with everybody at their house! This morning, we ate breakfast before going to work with Anna (the train station is right beside where she works) and we played around a little more, watched a planetarium show, then we caught the train to Göteborg. We are going to Norway now, but we are VERY behind schedule, so we may not be able to meet up with Jon and Krister! We will have to see what the train times look like when we get there...

UPDATE: Not going to Norway...we are behind and have to be in Cherbourg, France by the 26th to catch our ferry to Ireland. We made it to Rodby, Denmark, but we have to stay the night and continue on our way tomorrow.

Copenhagen, Denmark!

We got up this morning in Berlin and headed for Goteborg, Sweden. We got from Berlin to Hamburg just fine, but when we tried to leave Hamburg, our train broke down and they dumped us all off and we had to wait for the next train for 2 hours! There were WAY too many people on the train and we had to be cramped up for the whole 4 hour ride just standing up against the walls/people/bags. We ended up meeting a girl Lizzy from Portland and another girl named Anna who was on her way home to Sweden! We talked the whole ride and Anna said we should just come stay with her at her house on the lake in Sweden! She had to catch the bus across to Sweden from Copenhagen, and she had to work in the morning, so she said just to meet her at the science center museum she works at in Skovde, Sweden at 4:30pm and she would take us to her house and drive us around to check out the scenery! We found a hostel in Copenhagen for 355 kronas which is $48. We also ate dinner and tried to see the new Twilight movie in English, but they were closed! They speak really good English up here. Anna said because nobody knows Scandinavian languages, so they have movies and stuff in English. Tomorrow we meet up with Anna in Sweden! ...and more pictures, but later because I'm really tired!

Riding Berlin!

We got to Berlin at about 4pm today! We walked downtown and checked out stuff while we were looking for a place to stay (no couch surfers today). We found a hostel, actually a 1-star hotel by the old American/Russian sector border "Checkpoint C (Charlie)". We left our stuff in the room and the hotel had bike you could rent for 8 euro so we rode bike around Berlin all night! It was awesome! Everything is super nice and clean in Berlin, unlike Frankfurt...We went the old sector checkpoint (from the Gotcha! movie that we watched, Becky) and got our passports stamped with old Cold War border crossing seals. Then, we rode downtown and checked out everything. We found a HUGE park with cool tree covered paths and found this place were a guy was grilling steaks, rolls, and corn on the cob...so we bought two steaks, rolls, and corn, for 9 euro! We sat by the river at a little table and had an awesome meal! We saw a walking band that would just stop and play, so we watched the sun set on the river and listened to them for a while. We rode around a while longer and explored the city, Berlin is really nice! Not much traffic and plenty of things to do! We rode back through the old "Soviet Sector" in East Berlin to our room and washed all our clothes in the shower. Goodnight! Tomorrow we will be staying with Andreas in Goteborg, Sweden!
Reminder: More pictures here-  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317767&id=38420372&l=1488399748

Frankfurt and Berlin!

So, last night we made it to Frankfurt, Germany at about 11:30 p.m. We found a hostel that was extremely close to the train station. The station, the hostel and everything else in Frankfurt was really nice! But, the hostel was in the "Red Light District." We have never seen anything like what we saw last night! And the craziest thing was that it felt completely safe. Nobody said a word to us, but it was just crazy that everything that was going on was happening right on the street. We saw prostitutes, people cutting drugs, getting needles ready to shoot up. People with knives everywhere snorting drugs out of the cracks in the side walks! There were even rooms that you could go in to get a needle and do your drugs in there. We had actually walked a little bit too far down the road and saw more than we would have if we had seen our hostel the first time. It wasn't that bad near our hostel. This morning we slept in, because we are starting to feel snotty and kind of sick and felt like rest and slowing down would be in our best interest. Also, as close as the train station was, it was raining pretty hard and we didn't want to walk to the train station while it was pouring and get all of our stuff soaked. It finally let up, so we caught the train to Berlin!

Parma to Germany!

Sasa's place was really nice! He works for the European Union and as a photographer, so he gets tons of pay. He took us out to breakfast and gave us a map of Parma, so we checked it out for a little bit before we headed off to Zurich, Switzerland to get to Germany. Parma was really cool, with nice buildings and parks, but it was super hot (forecast said 104F)! Sasa warned us the day before that it would be hotter than crap. We got on a train that we thought was the right one, but it wasn't so we jumped off, but Hayley got smashed in the door! There is a funny picture of her "door mark" on facebook. We got a train to Milan from Parma to get a train to Zurich to catch one to Frankfurt! We have made it that far and are on our way to Frankfurt for the night. We found a hostel in the red light district for 20 euros a night...Tomorrow we are going to make our way to Berlin!

Venice!

We made it to Venice! We stayed there for two nights just off the island of Venice, because property there is some of the most expensive in the world and we figured everything else would be too! We had the internet and requested a lot more couch surfers, including one in Parma, Italy for when we left Venice. Then, we showered and got some sleep! The next day, we woke up just for breakfast, but went back to sleep until about 1pm...it was much needed! We headed out to the real Venice by train (about 20 minutes) it just had to cross the water out to the island. We got there at the perfect time! About 3pm everybody was leaving and there were a lot of cool shops and it wasn't beaming sun straight down on us. We got a map and went exploring. We made our way to the famous Rialto bridge, seeing a lot of canals and bridges on the way. Madonna made a music video there (and through the canals) there were lots of cool alleys and buildings. There hasn't been a newly constructed building in Venice in forever (~200 years). We stopped for some pizza and a Pepsi on our way to Piazza St. Marco, which is a huge square and church. We found the church that one the Indiana Jones movie was filmed (the one where they go into the church and break through the "X" in the floor to find the Holy Grail). Then we walked around taking pictures and checking out the many Murano glass shops, because Venice is famous for their awesome glass blowing. We found a cool canal with the sun setting right in the middle of it, so we went down to the end of it and watched it. It was awesome! We hopped on train and went back to the mainland for the night. The next day, we slept in again and headed for Milan, Italy on our way to Parma. We walked down the "Haute Couture" streets in Milan and looked at all the rich people, we didn't buy a thing! Then we got the hottest, slowest, train in the world...again. When we got to Parma, we called Sasa Maric, our host for the night and he came to the train station to pick us up! We ate pizza and got huge Coke, talked about camera stuff all night because he is a photographer. Tomorrow, it's time to get the heck out of Italy!

Pisa and Florence! (Pictures Coming...)

We got to Pisa about 10:30pm and found a hostel (no internet for a few days, so no couch surfers either)! They only had one bed left, ONE BED, so we payed $30 and shared a bed on the top bunk with rails around it. It was really nice and brand new with a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms with hot showers and WiFi for free! No A/C though! So, we went out to the Leaning Tower of Pisa at about 1am. We saw rats, bats, and ate pizza in Pisa! It was awesome, handmade, and $5. The tower was sweet at night nobody was out there, and we could do whatever we wanted, so we double-handedly straightened the tower...at least it's straight in all of Hayley's pictures of me, because she lined up the shots on the tower and not the ground :) We went back to the hostel and took cold showers and woke up with wet pillows because it was so miserably hot! We kinda slept in (about 8am) and sent out a bunch of couch requests, most of them have said no by now, but...we went to Florence and got tickets to see the Galleria Academia which is the museum with Michaelangelo's statue of David (that killed Goliath). The line was 3 hours long unless you already had tickets, so we found another museum that sold tickets to that one and went back later without waiting in line! It was nice, but you were not allowed to take pictures of it AT ALL. So I took some "sneak attack" style until security reminded me that it was strictly forbidden. 800 ISO and shooting from the hip, they came out nice! We checked out the rest of the gallery and the city, deciding that we are ready to get back to America: The land of a ton of food for cheap and free refills on drinks for 99 cents! We hopped on the EuroStar Italia train to Venice!

Alps to Rome! (Pictures Coming...)

Ok, got to get caught up here! We fell asleep on the train back into Switzerland :) We were woken up at the last stop of the train, which just happened to be the one we needed, Chur. I was woken up by a Swiss train worker guy yelling at us in German to the heck off the train! He woke us up so fast I didn't even know where the heck we were, but we were the only ones an the train! We checked out Chur again, went to a Victorinox store. We got a bus (with our Eurail pass) over the Alps through the St. Bernadino pass. It was pretty sweet we got off in Bellinzona, a city with a bunch of castles that we still are not sure if it is in Italy or Swizerland... The train there took us to Milan, Italy where we finally got our night train to Rome! It was 150 degrees in that train when we hopped on, we shared a room with a guy from Denmark and a guy from Africa that spoke French and we finally got the AC turned on. When we got to Rome, we were dropped off at Roma Tiburtina station, which is the most run down homeless shelter on Earth! We left our bags there in security and went exploring. We walked all of Rome! From the far east side all the way to the Colosseum, Paletine Hill, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and through the Vatican and St. Peter's Square! Then, we found out the Vatican was closed to visitors on Sunday, so headed back across town to see the Boca de Veritas, Circus Maximus, and the Colosseum again. We stayed the night in a sweet room to finally catch up on some sleep and showers. We washed our clothes in the sink and were ready for battle the next day. The line to get in the Vatican was around 4 hours wait in the sun, but we booked a tour for $26 that gave us "no-line" entry and number coded audio tour of each item/room/painting in the whole place! We just saw something cool, typed the number in the headset thing and it told us all about it. Even sneak attacked some pictures inside the "Absolutely NO Photos Allowed" Sistine Chapel! We headed back across town to get our stuff from the nastiest train station on Earth, caught a train to Pisa, and relaxed as it stopped at every single city between  Rome and Florence over the next 3 dang hours! Next up is Pisa!

Switzerland!

Switzerland was AWESOME! We took a train from Brig to Chur that went over the Alps at the Oberalp Pass. It was sweet, we had two restaurant style booths to our selves (one on each side of the train) and I was like a dog running back and forth to each side taking pictures. The windows were about 4 feet by 4 feet squares but they slid down into the wall so you could have a huge open hole to hang out of. It was the best thing for the ride across the mountains. We got to Geneva, Switzerland at about 6am checked out the big lake in Geneva heading toward Brig. That's where we got the cool train to Chur. Before we left Brig, we got some Coke and a huge "baguette" of bread to break apart as we rode across. We stopped in Andermott and I really, REALLY wanted to check out a river in the Alps, so we found one not too far of a walk away and cooled off in the freezing cold water. It was sweet! Then we headed on to Chur and over the Oberalp Pass to take a million more pictures. We went over some awesome mountains, bridges, tunnels, etc. and went through the Grand Canyon of the Alps! Switzerland is Überexspensive! Their money is Swiss Franks (Francas) but they convert straight to US Dollars (1=1)...McDonald's there is $12 for a combo! We book a night train to Rome for the next day so we had the whole day and the night in Switzerland. We decided, since we have the rail passes, we should just go to Austria for the night! We messaged a couch surfer in Innsbruck, Austria and he said to come on over, so we headed over there from Chur. He said he would pick us up at the train station! But, when we got there he wasn't there so we found some WiFi and checked my mail to find out that he sent us a message saying "Sorry I have friends coming over tonight and can't host you"...So we got a room at the Goldene Krone in Innsbruck...it was crappy. We are on our way back to Switzerland now, then in Chur all day until our 6pm sleeper train to Rome!

Spain!

Last night we got our sleeper train from Paris to Barcelona. It was pretty cool, but we had reclining chairs instead of a bed. They slept ok, but we woke up every time our feet slid off the chair! We still have to pay revervation fees for really nice trains and popular routes if we want a seat (we can just stand the whole way on some trains that require reservations). Most of the trains we can hop on and off anywhere we want with just our passes.The Paris to Barcelona train cost us 1.50 euro each for the reclining seats. It took us through the Pyrenees mountains and into Spain while we slept and we got some awesome views once we woke up. We spent the day today in Barcelona walking around in the blazing sun of Spain! Our bags are heavy, but we packed light compared to everyone else we see backpacking. I put the waist bag on and strapped the other bag to it...finding out just now that the netbook has a white line of dead pixels running up the screen! Barcelona was hot and we didn't really want to stay there, so we got a night train to Geneva. Pretty awesome! We planned on going to Italy, but there is a train worker strike!! We thought we were going to be stuck in Spain! This train is sweet, we have beds and a locking room, guys and girls are separated though. It train was completely booked except the beds...which cost us 75 euro each! But, its better than the full fare of the Barcelona to Switzerland route which is almost 300 each! We will hopefully find some internet and get caught back up with pictures! We will wake up in Swiss country!

Well, funny story...we went to Paris the day before yesterday (July 5). It was pretty awesome, we saw the Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, walked down the Champs-Elysees and even went to the Louvre! We walked EVERYWHERE in Paris! Hayley has a blister that is taking over her pinky toe (and she said she needs her mommy). On our way back to the station to catch the train back to Caen, we decided to take the last train back at 12:24am (after midnight) since it only runs one day a week on Monday. Well, we realized on our way to the Gare St. Lazare (1 of 4 train stations in Paris) that it would technically be Tuesday morning and NOT Monday anymore when that train ran...so it was only the night before! Then, we got on CouchSurfing and posted in the Paris group that we needed a place to stay ASAP! A guy named Paul messaged us back and said come on over, even though it was 1AM. So, we called him from a pay phone and got directions to his apartment on the 7th floor looking out towards the Eiffel Tower. He was a really nice guy and we slept good! Patrice (back in Caen) was glad we found a place and didn't have to sleep in the street too! We walked back to the station and headed back to Caen for dinner with Patrice, which was awesome! Now we are on a train to Paris and we have a night (sleeper) train to Barcelona tonight at 10pm. This Eurail pass is awesome!

Slow internet here, so check the pictures at this public link...more to come!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2314216&id=38420372&l=76980f3eb7

Caen, Normandy, France Day 3/4

Yesterday, we went to a car show in Caen with lots of European cars, Opel, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Ferrari, and a bunch of American ones that they thing are so awesome...like a 5.0 Mustang and an I-ROC :) We walked the town yesterday and took lots of pictures. We spent the 4th of July at the beaches and battle sites in Normandy! It was awesome! We took a Peugeot 307 convertible and another car because some of Patrice's friends went too. We had a picnic lunch on Omaha beach the site of the landing on D-Day June 6, 1944. We swam in the water and checked out the leftover German batteries and barricades. Then we went to the American cemetery it was super nice and Patrice knows more about WWII than anybody in the world! He gave us the grand tour! We saw the busted up guns, bunkers, and pillboxes at Pont du Hoc and Longues sur Mer and checked out the cliffs at Arromanches and the leftovers of the temporary harbor used for the invasion of Normandy which was the largest harbor in the world when it was used during WWII. We had a ton of fun then ate at Patrice's house! Because of weather, we didn't go Paris the other day, but we are taking the 7:03am train in the morning. So, pictures tomorrow of Normandy and Paris!!

Day 3 Caen, France

We left Bayeux this morning with Cecile and Vincent. They were heading out of town and passing Caen, France on their way, so we rode in their car (a Peugeot brand hatchback like a Element or Scion xB). The bedroom for us had a memory foam mattress (the blue bed in the picture) and a cool view. We are in Caen, France now! We are staying Patrice Renard and he and his two friends came over this morning and brought a real french breakfast for us "Americanos" and it was really good, croissants, sweet apple fritter things and "Jus du Orange". Everyone is gone now and they gave us a key to the house which is right in downtown Caen and has a cool back yard. They are going to try to get a "cabriolet" (convertible car) and take us to the D-Day beaches with their girlfriends tomorrow. Today we are just recovering, resting, charging batteries, and walking in Caen. The next day we will see Paris.

Day 2 England and France

We made it to London! The flight was not that great because they had pasta and I had a "special" vegetarian meal because they said it was going to be chicken...and we couldn't sleep because the seats leaned back about 2 degrees and that's all! Hayley sat behind me and played "Bejeweled" on her touch screen and I watched a show like planet earth. Anyway, we got to London and tried to figure out what day/time/world we were in because of the time change and no sleep. Caught the Underground (the "Tube") to downtown and walked around a while, saw Westminster, Parliament House, Big Ben etc., then got the train to Portsmouth.  Got our ferry and were bloodshot-eyed by the time the ferry let us board at about 11pm! Woke up in Caen, France, bot some Euro cash (England uses the British Pound) and tried to activate our Eurail passes... the people speak no English here and had so clue what a Eurail Pass was or how to activate it! We had the girl stamp it and we just got on the train. As far as we know, that's all you have to do because it works! We went to Cherbourg, France just because we can go anywhere we want and that was the first train that pulled up to the station, so we took it!Saw some cool stuff like WWII bunkers. Came back to Bayeux on a nice train! Saw the sights there. Hayley donated a Euro to light a candle on a box inside this huge cathedral that said "Tronc Releve Journellement". It was in front of a stained glass wall with lots of flags in the design. We thought it meant something about helping you on a journey...turns out, Vincent said it means "Don't try to steal this box!" Oh well, Cecile and Vincent are two people from Bayeux we are staying with tonight. They have a nice place and cooked us crepes and eggs, let us try cheese from all of Normandy, and gave us our own room with a memory foam mattress in the floor! Next Day = Paris! Au Revoir!

We are finally in New York, NY! Finally found WiFi and are sitting next to a window with a double decker 747 parked outside. We have to be back at our gate in a few, but then we are on our way to London, England for the first stop of our trip! Check back here every day and we'll have something cool on here! We aren't the only idiots with huge backpacks here either. Thanks to Candace for taking us to the airport! We are looking forward to sleeping on the next 13 hour non stop flight over the pond more than anything! Feel free to comment on here too! See ya

DIY Studio Set-Up

Large Size Here
Here is a shot of Hayley in the studio we set up in the room. I used my SB600 triggered by v4s camera right shooting half of it through my diffusion panel (5 in 1 reflector) and half of it blasted onto the background to make it white. The silver cover of the reflector was held above the camera along with two panels of styrofoam sitting on the bed camera right. Here is a setup shot...

Large Size Here
I caught her while she was singing :) The high-tech mounting system is made up of our ceiling fan, a coat hanger, my fly rod, the power cable from my Nikon battery charger and a usb cable, with some masking tape.

Canon FD Lens on a Nikon DSLR

 
Yes you can do it... here are some shots from my Canon 50mm f3.5 Macro 1:1 FD lens on my Nikon D60. As with all non-CPU lenses (Nikon or not) you have to shoot in manual mode, but it doesn't matter for macro flash shots. Also, if the lens is unmounted, you can't change the aperture. But, you can change it if you press in the two little pins on the mount and twist the lens so it thinks it is mounted. Then, the aperture can be selected by rolling the ring to whatever you need. You have to just hold the lens up to the mount on the Nikon but it works great. I am working on a way to get it to stay there without having to hold it. This was shot at f11 and 1/80th at 200 ISO the SB600 was about 2 feet away camera right at 1/4 power.
Wanna See It Bigger?

Reflecting Crosslight

For this shot, I actually got to use my reflector outside. It is an Interfit 42" 5-in-1 Reflector and I found that the white panel doesn't work from far away (8ft+) even in direct sunlight. We were taking a break so I propped it up on my leg on the gold side because I didn't get the one with a stand and everything. It really threw some light out there! The gold color was a little harsh for this kind of shot though. The next addition to the "Vault" will probably be trying it out with just the see-through diffusion panel on my SB-600 outside.

AE-Lock and HOLD

This was shot at f3.2 and 1/200th at ISO 100. I used my Nikkor 35mm f1.8 AF-S lens. The only reason I want to "Vault" this picture is that I found that it is a million times quicker to set the AE-Lock on "Hold" instead of having to hold it down for the shot. On hold, you can just point to the background you want to expose for (in this case the woods outside the window) and press the AE-Lock one time, let it go, and still focus on something else. It's a lot faster than holding it down the whole time to lock your ambient exposure. Then just set the flash power however you want...here I just bounced the SB600 off the ceiling in TTL.

Snow Day Photoshoot

 

We had a snow day and decided to go to Barfield Park, which is right next to our apartment. We took this shot on the way back to the car with the Nikon D60 and AF-S Nikkor 35mm f1.8G lens. I had my SB600 in the hotshoe because the Cactus V4s were acting up and didn't want to fire the flash for some reason. This was taken at 1/200th with f2 aperture and the ISO set to 200. The SB600 was on TTL balanced fill mode zoomed to 35mm with -1.0 compensation.

Fall Creek Falls - Gorge Overlook Trail

We went to Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee and found this place on the Gorge Overlook trail past Cane Creek Falls. This shot was taken with my Nikon D60 and 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 VR Nikkor lens at ISO 400. The camera was set on full manual 1/15s with an aperture of f5.6 @ 52mm. VR was turned off for this shot while it was mounted on the tripod. White Balance was manually set to direct sunlight. For fill lighting I used a bare SB600 directly on the hotshoe at 50mm zoom and set to Balance Fill TTL mode with -2.7EV compensation. The sun was shining through the trees from camera right at about 4 o'clock. It was taken with my Nikon ML-L3 remote.