stinky kids in foreign lands

home home home!

2005-12-15T10:08:00.000-06:00

we made it back to seattle in one piece. getting out of barcelona was a bit tricky. we got on the wrong train to the airport, but took a cab and made it onto the flight a few minutes before it took off. we had a day in paris to walk around and saw dead people. the catacombs had the bones of 6 million people, and it was creepy. stacks of bones in various stages of decay, nels picked up a skull and caught the plague. there was a pile of confiscated bones near the door that people had tried to take with them. we also saw another cemetary and jim morrison's grave. dude.
claire's mom picked us up from the airport and fed us cookies and salmon. beauty.

thanks to everybody that helped us out and hung out with us over the last few months: topher, chanell, eddie lo, the bradleys, and the bungies from chicago, hannah R, moms and dads, friends who kept in touch, doug and maddie, slovenian fishing guide for the ride, simon, frank, philip, stephan, andy and veronika, gil, mary burns and steve, neal, jack and ira for free floors and good times.
you are awesome and stuff.

just realized that this computer wont let us post pictures, so look again soon for spainish views.
nels and claire

thieving theives will thieve you

2005-12-07T11:18:00.000-06:00

we got robbed, but other stuff happened also. our last days in berlin were fun. we had a lebowski party, with white russians, wine and bowling. then on to florence, italy to be tourists. lots of art and good food. mary burns was our adopted mom for a couple days, which was nice. it was also nice to be around native english speakers again. it made for easier jokes. after a late night and a 4am start, we made it to barcelona on sunday morning. ten minutes later, nels' backpack was gone. we did not see anyone take it, it just disappeared. we were sleepy and looking at maps. cameras, ipod, nels' passport, gifts purchased the day before, travel diary, and a lot of little trinkets from the places we have been. all gone. but a new passport should be ready friday, and the other stuff was just stuff. annoying, but we have been really lucky over the rest of the trip.
barcelona is really nice, and we have great hosts again. WI guys who like to sing karaoke and play cards and skateboard. we are looking forward to home and friends back there, but will post a couple more times.
see you soon-

gluhswein

2005-11-26T06:56:00.000-06:00

snow day! our days here are numbered, so we've been running around this week, trying to get to all the cool berlin things we want to do. we saw a huge collection of picasso's work, and took a bunch of photos around town. thursday was cold. we went to a fussball match at the olympiastadion, where jesse owens rocked the house, and hitler got grumpy. there was less action while we were there. no goals, boo. it was still a good time, and we learned about the joys of hot spiced wine, gluhswein.

claire woke up friday morning to steady snowfall out the window, and proceeded to harass nels for 45 minutes before he managed to rise and shine. we got up and scurried to the park to play as the sun came out. then it was time for nels and phillip to see turbonegro rock, and claire to find her chilly way to kai's birthday party at simon's house. nels was happy he had makeshift earplugs to protect his ears from the punkrock onslaught. claire was distressed that she left her camera unattended in a room full of german boys. grab-ass ensued. there was also a reappearance of gluhswein, a six liter reappearance. nels detected the wine from everyone's purple teeth.
five more days in berlin. it's really sad that we have to leave, but we're getting ever more excited to see everyone at home. see you all soon.

more stamps

2005-11-23T06:15:00.000-06:00

this saturday we decided we wanted to go somewhere. die bahn offers this great deal called the 'happy weekend ticket' that would take us anywhere we wanted to go for 30 €. unfortunately we did not (could not) read the fine print, which said that the ticket was only good for the slow trains to nowhere. so we went to poland, which apparently counts as nowhere. sorry poland, we liked you. the train actually didn't make it into poland, so we got off at the german border town frankfurt der oder (the other franfurt?) and walked across into slubice. it was a smokers paradise, with cartons of the good stuff for 35 ztl. how much is that? we don't know. what does ztl stand for? nels thinks it's zolar, and claire is pretty sure it's not. oh, and we didn't actually stay at hotel relax. everything was closed and it was really cold so we mostly just walked from one restaurant to the next, buying pizza and beer. then we walked back and took the train home. the passport stamps alone were worth the trip.

in other news, it snowed the other day. the blizzard lasted a full 25 minutes and by the end of it, the chickadees were willing to risk their lives for a few crumbs. maybe they were tamed to begin with. we don't know.

chilly-willy

2005-11-14T11:06:00.000-06:00

berlin grocery stores are weak. we had to go to three different supermarkets to get popcorn, tuna, and whiskey. and not because one place is cheaper, or better. they each decide not to carry certain things. unexplainable. we spent most of the day chasing down our special needs. also fresh mint for mint julips. mmm...vacation.

we have made plans after berlin. it is going to be back to italy for four days in florence, staying with mary burns, a reese family friend. then off to barcelona for sangria and rain, and more floors of friends. should be fun.

mullets. they are connosieurs of them here. and sport-hawks, and bad buzz-cuts. most of the mullets have sweet moustaches to go along, and are meticulously groomed until maximum puffiness is achieved. but lets be serious, at least they are not fat.

we go to the baltic sea this week, and also bowling.

berlin in 5 photos

2005-11-07T10:49:00.000-06:00

this is our life these days. we go to parks, take pictures of eachother, and play ping-pong. the rest of our time is devoted to planning, creating, and consuming meals. a few weeks ago we had a museum marathon, with 20 museums in 3 days. new art, old art, modern architecture, ancient babylonian architecture, and some holocaust memorials. photos: mirrored pillar in the reichstag dome, nels slain in battle, murders of crows over berlin, tiergarten, us walking on water (which we do sometimes).

Jaws vs Zorro

2005-10-30T13:39:00.000-06:00

the germans were reluctant at first to cast their dignity aside and wear costumes, so we weren't expecting much going into the costume party. lo and behold, upon arrival we were greeted by garth and seven babes dressed as pippi longstockings. drinks were drank and makeouts were inevitable. anonymous simon met anonymous german lady and the rest is history. we hear he made it home at around 8 the next morning (after sleeping through his stop on the s-bahn). simon is the tall-dark type in the first photo, next is nadine, who we don't know very well. frank was humphrey bogart, but only because he wasn't allowed to take his 19th century aristocrat costume home from work at some weird tv show. frank and simon are our pals from croatia, and they've taken us out about town a lot. nels was cleverly disguised as zorro. claire was jaws. we were savage. we were the only ones with hand-made costumes. garth was cool too. he rocked out when bohemian rhapsody came on.

pumpkins en fuego

2005-10-30T13:17:00.000-06:00

halloween is catching on in germany.
we decided to carve up punkins like real 'merican folk. "the dude" and scrunchy face. mmmm...pumpkin seeds. too bad we did it two weeks before halloween, as soon as we saw pumpkins for sale.

berlin

2005-10-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

these are both photos from slovenia, in the alps. claire got sick on the busride through those mountains, and we got really lost hiking on the way to and from the waterfall.

well, we got here safe and sound. we've been seeing the sights, and playing the ping-pong (it's like a national sport or something...tables in all the parks and everything). it rained the day we got here and hasn't even been overcast since. sunshiiiiiine. tierpark, the east berlin zoo, was awesome. especially the big cats, but the giant pelicans running loose all over the place take a close second. this city is perfectly flat. no hills. none. nobody pays attention to laws here, which has a good side and a bad side. the awesome part is that we get to drink whenever and wherever we want. on the street? fine. in a bar at 5 in the morning? go ahead. on the train? of course. the shitty side, there's shit everywhere. we've heard that you're supposed to clean up after your dog, and every single berliner has a dog, but no one has ever picked up a single turd. landmines! we promised pictures, and tonight is (hopefully) the night. we're trying.

runny noses

2005-09-27T06:51:00.000-05:00

bone church, remains of 40,000 people artfully assembled for our viewing pleasure. creepy. wine in a box, going into a waterbottle. and nels is hella metal.

we are in the czech republic. we've got colds, and a nalgene full of wine. hallelujah. four more days of prague should give us enough rest to be healthy and homeless in berlin. beer is cheaper and better here than anywhere else in the world. so good. we met a couple guys from the states at a bar last night, and one had lived in seattle, in ballard. they live here and told us about some cool things to visit, but the names are too confusing to remember, doh! i see the packers are having trouble this season, probably because I forgot to pack my favre jersey. I will wear my packer socks next monday.

smoke while being european

2005-09-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

The zoo in Split was like a PETA propaganda movie mixed animal porn. There was a masterbating monkey in a filthy iron cage in a dark shed, three wolves in a 10X15 foot cage, chickens everywhere, a cage with about 300 guinea pigs, and goats with huge balls, and tigers. It was the best and worst $1.50 we've spent. It depends on how you look at animal cruelty.
A day later we were no longer with Doug and Maddie, but met four Berliners on the boat up from Hvar. We split a bottle of gin and passed around Nels' headphones showing them bands we like. That day we got off the boat in Rijeka and left the krauts to spend the night in a hostel/mental institution. Oh well, when we got to Ljubjana in Slovenia we found out that there were no beds in any of the hostels. And it was raining. So we bought a tarp and roughed it by the side of the road. It was okay until a pack of drunk Germans started arguing in English right by where we were. Krauts everywhere. So that two nights before last.
The next day the Berliners met up with us in Ljubjana and we drank beers. This time we did have a place to sleep, which was nice. Also, we bought about 30 vodka red bulls for $50. Not bad for the six of us, although some drank more than others.
Everyone wanted to give us free stuff yesterday. Awesome free breakfast, a free pepper at the market, free bus rides (we love the week of mobility), free train ride when we missed our stop (in the photo, nels is standing in front of the craziest map. north starts with an s there, and the map was posted with north at the bottom...so...we just could not figure out why that map didn't match our guidebook), and then we hitched a ride up to the little village in the Julian Alps where we are now. Bovec. The driver even dropped us off at his neighbor's, where we rented a room for cheap. Oh yeah, and this internet is free.
This morning we wandered through the cemetary. Some of the tombstones had pictures of the people who are buried, and some of the people had Hitler mustaches. There was a Kovač grave- possible relative of Nels. Also hummingbirds, snakes, and lizards. This afternoon we hiked, and it looked kinda like Washington. Now we are hungry. Photos coming.

eat the bones!

2005-09-15T14:42:00.000-05:00

we ate squid that we picked out. doug and maddie can attest to that.

you will never know anything as beautiful as croatia. croatia has letters like č, ć, š, ž, and đ. suckers. plus, we are here for a full week, soaking up the sun and the cheap croatian liquor. doug and maddie are here, our apartment is better than in seattle, and when you rent a boat...they do not even ask your name! dinner for four (including one liter of liquor and a mixer) costs at most...130 kuna (25 dollars total). go to croatia. go to croatia now. everyone speaks english too. haha! from here we will take another overnight cruise to rijeka, northern croatia, and then through bled in slovenia, and on to budapest and prague. we hear this is as expensive as it gets in eastern europe. we live like kings. photos soon. love always, c & n

paris

2005-09-09T15:58:00.000-05:00

this is a graveyard. spoooooky.

stuff happened in paris. mostly we walked around and looked like tourists. it is still difficult to put pictures up here. on to italy.

chi-town

2005-09-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

nels is a real razzle-dazzler on those waterskis. fear the chicago library!

let the games begin! never a dull moment, until we found ourselves alone in an almost-stranger's apartment. already watched a movie, played darts, made the only two dart holes on the wall, failed at patching them with toothpaste...and the time came to create a blog. today was all about discovery. first we discovered that the l-train ticket vendors aren't fooled by counterfeit money...or old dimes, floppy bills, or canadian change. basically, they don't want what we've got. next we discovered that chicago has no visible landmarks with which to gauge one's whereabouts. no compass, no luck. our final, and least important discovery, was that chicago is seriously the place to exchange currency. today's shoutouts go to ed and sabrina, but not to judge rehnquist. rest in pieces. oh, and an extra special happy birthday to baby secret name, who may have been born today to miller and tori.