Berlin, Germany.

 

    Hello there! Trevor here, perched atop the fifth floor flat located in a building older than our nation.  We have finally arrived in Berlin!! After an extremely long and monotonous day of traveling our first day was spent sleeping in and grabbing food at the local grocer for the next couple of days.  We visited the berlin wall (see above) which was quite fascinating as it had just been repainted for its 20th anniversary!! Sadly other than the wall we haven't seen much of the history, or the city for that matter, the weather has been less that promising.  The rain seems to be nonstop and the temperature has been right around 0 degrease celsius the whole time.  But Berlin has not been all bad, our hosts Chris and Stephanie have been very hospitable and have done their best to show us around in spite of the poor weather.  Chis took us out our first full day after we saw the wall and showed us a little slice of the local scene including a lovely tea/chill out place with a great ambiance and the largest second hand store I have ever been to, five stories of bin sifting!! With that, we say goodbye to Berlin tomorrow morning as we head south to meet up with our good friend Jo for what is sure to be an amazing time with him over the holidays.  Until the next post,  Tschüß!!!

Here's the sea of bikes pictures that we promised! You see this right as you come out of Amsterdam Centraal; such a nice sight to see!!

Four stories of magic!

Prinsengracht 267

Today Trevor and I decided to take the city on solo with our bicyles. It's great because the city is so bike friendly (with seperate lanes on the road and on the sidewalk, lights for bikes and everyone, literally everyone cycles in the city) so it's welcome to just ride around as a newby...just watch out for the people on scooters to room by! Anyway, after finally tracking down Trev's christmas present (!!!!!), I decided to go over to Anne Frank Huis. I don't really know what I thought of it, but I really enjoyed all the film that was taken of Anne and her family. I think I'll leave it at that.

Surfing on a rocket.

The sunset from our host's living room.

Today we said goodbye to Maaike, our second host here in amsterdam, and returned to Harm and Tiphaine's place (our first host). Yesterday was Sinterklaas and they celebrated it with lots and lots of yummy food. Trevor and I went out to a silly chinese restaurant and got some fried rice and tea and chatted about the rest of our plans. Maaike was sleeping when we got back around dinner time and we cooked her a nice veggie chili and tortia dish for the holiday!

We've really enjoyed exploring the city though! There's lots of little ally ways lined with shops full of all sorts of things and unique cafés that are set up like living rooms. It's so great to get out on our bikes and go with or without a map and let the city take us where it may. Trevor bargained with on shop owner and got me an early Christmas present. I have yet to go hunting for his yet!

It's a simple maual 35mm. I think it'll be nice to take some 'real' photos while we're out and about; to show the city in an artistic way, rather than just clicking the digital thing all day. 

Anyway, we're missing home and everyone during the holidays. Christmas is coming up and it would be nice to sleep in our cozy beds and wait for the snow during this time of year. We miss our animals too! Parents give them treats for us!

Cheers!

Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Hello again everyone. Sorry for the blogging absence. We accomplished a lot of work and let the farm life sink in. And it was a wonderful four weeks in England. We learned a lot of things about gardening and training the horses for driving. We've got quite the recipe list compiled as well! Jayne is an amazing cook who has the craziest idea for food. She could multitask the aga so perfectly. It's sad to be away from it.

We are now continuing our journey in Amsterdam! From the Harwich international port we took the ferry to the Hook of Holland, the train to Rodderdam and from there to Amsterdam Centraal. It's was a beautiful, and dreadfully cold, ride across the open ocean and it was a very interesting experience when it came to figuring out to change trains when the times tables are in Dutch. :) Thankfully, Dutch people don't mind giving confused travelers help and we got through the ordeal very well. Then once we got into Dam we met up with our first host! As soon as you walk out of centraal station there is literally a sea of parked bikes. I'd guess that there was at least 500-800 bicycles! I'll have to go back and post a picture, because it is just mind blowing. Anyway, Harm, Dutch, lives with his french girlfriend,Tiphaine. She is a nanny for a few different familirs and He works at a bakery. They just hosted us two nights, but were very kind and gave us a well-used map to get ourselves lost with. We biked around the city...until Trevor got a flat and went on foot to visit some recommended open stall secondhand stores. They proved to bring a good adventure too. Bartering with the people at the stalls and picking through all sorts of nicknacks and such. I became quite fond of the 35mm film cameras and investigating the brands that we don't get in America. It makes me miss the antipque shops with sweet old lady owners, down near Pike Place!

We've moved onto another host who lives on her own closer to the centre. She's dutch as well and has a cute jack russle named Lola. I think she became very fond of Trevor and I. It's great to be with animals again. They seem to have a very nestalgic essence to them. Especially when you've been away from home and your own pets for an extended time. It's lovely.

Here's a few photos that have been taken along the way.

One of the many canals in Dam.

So many dutch bicycles!

On the train to Rodderdam.

50pence gloves from Hadleigh!

Fox Farm.

It's been exactly a month since we're arrived in Europe! Sorry we haven't posted about our helpexchange experience sooner, we've been busy working 9-5 days on the farm!! It's lovely here though! The grounds are beautiful and the weather has been great ever since we've arrived in Ipswich. The train ride over from Glasgow was picturesque and surreal. We even got to see the ocean, which I've been missing so much. It's weird to realize that you're landlocked and the puget sound isn't just right over the trees...

Anyway, I think pictures will give you all a better idea of what's going on and where we're living than me explainging it while in a total zombie state.

The dogs are Humphrey and Bular. the horses are Dilly (the little one) and Dylan (Dartanian just came in today from training...I'll post him later). Fox farm was built back in 1380 and 1430 I believe. It's a gorgeous house with a wonderful aga. I love cooking on that thing! The apples and fruit from the garden are our good works as far as that type of work goes. The tandom and the Peugeot bikes are Janye and Alan's, but after an afternoon of repair and cleaning we took them out for a spin. We had never ridding a tandom before and couldn't help but laugh and giggle the whole ride! But so far we're loving the farm and learning a lot of new things. I now know how to make bread from scratch as well, it's brilliant!

PS

Here's a film our first host, Jules, in Glasgow made in 4 days with just a camera. She baked everything herself too!

Ipswich, England, UK

Okay, we may not be in England yet, but as of tomorrow at 11.50 we'll be on the train from Glasgow to Ipswich. And why are we going to such a middle of nowhere place? Let me tell you a wee story that'll explain it all. After being a bit screwed by the exchange rate from $ to £ we found that it'd be in our best interest to get a job via help exchange. It's an online network that connects people from all over the world to work for families and small businesses in exchange (how conveniently named) for grub and accomodations. The job that we are set up for is an organic farmstay where we'll be doing a multitude of odd end things. Trevor will most likely to the more ruff and tough jobs like renovating or buildings things around the farm and the house, whereas I can put my efforts towards DIY crafts that they want and helping train the horses to pull carriages. They've got lambs (which unfortunately will be turned into meat-lovers meals), beehives and gardens. How exciting!

Anyway, we're planning to be there for a whole month so we'll have lots of time to take in the farm life and hopefully gain some inspiration from the scenery around us. There's internet there as well so we'll try to post on the blog and add lovely pictures of our new home in England.

Cheers everybody! We miss you and send you all our love...postcards soon!

Betty

Since I've had this time to sit down and spend some good moments on the internet, I couldn't resist a look at my favorite blog leblogdebetty.com. It's been ages since I've had a glance at it. Here's my favorite photos from the past month or so: