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!