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We're home, safe and sound. After some all-u-can eat sushi and Korean BBQ I am ready for bed. Twenty two hours and no sleep makes Jennifer a dull girl... Well our mission was to make it until at least 8pm and we did it!

Surf, Sun and more Wind

The train from Windermere to Penzance was a little on the long side (didn't realize we were travelling almost the entire length of the country). We arrived at 9pm, just in time for the last bus into Land's End. We heard it was touristy though so we found a place in The Lonely Planet called Whitesands Lodge just outside called in a town called Sennen (it had also been suggested that we check out Sennen crag). Its said you could camp their for £6/night, but when we turned up this was not the case and everything they had roomwise was full. So it was 11pm and we were on some rural road in the dark walking in the direction the guy at the lodge told us there was a camping farm. We showed up to a sign saying site full, but reception was closed so we pitched anyways and packed up early. We figured there had to be more in Land's End, so we walked back out and waited for the bus. When we arrived in Land's End we were very disappointed. There was nothing but a couple shops saying "First and Last this/that" and an information counter that had no information except about the 3 or so tourist shows you could see there. There was however a map, which upon viewing made us realize the campsite we were in this morning was exactly where we wanted to be... DOH! So we walked the 1.5miles back into Sennen so we could take in the rugged and beautiful coastline and figure out what there was in the way of a town. Along the way we saw some climbers topping out on the cliff we never would have seen otherwise. We arrived back at the campsite and they found some room for us, and finally after a little stress and some sweating we were somewhat established. All I could think was that it was good we stopped for groceries along our train ride the day before. After the exertions for the day we just wanted to collapse, so we went down to the beach for some swimming, sleeping and sunning.

The next morning was a little drizzly so we got a late start, and headed to the cliff we discovered yesterday. It was full of awesome sea cliff climbing on really steep and pebbly granite. From the top it was hard to tell, but it was absolutely full of great, fun routes. It was also cool to have the waves crashing in below. The entire day was full of little drizzles that weren't enough to effect the climbing... until the afternoon. We decided to call it our last route and David had made it up in the rain and was setting up a belay when all of a sudden I was standing under a waterfull. The groove he went up turned out to be a main path or water that finally started flowing. So David hauled up the pack and I commenced climbing through the running river. Needless to say it was a struggle and I was soaked when I reached the top. It ran up my sleeves when I would reach up and in my shoes and my shorts looked like I sat in a puddle... or wet myself :P We called it a day and went back to the campsite, where we did some much needed laundry.

The next days forecast was similiar to the previous, so we decided to stay on the beach where we'd be wet anyways and rent some surf boards. It was really good surf in the morning, but became a little crowded. We were headed up the beach when gale force winds came in and were driving the rain so hard you had to turn away from it; I hid behind my surfboard. We decided to take a break at this point and chow down on the Cornish pasties we bought earlier. We stayed out of the water for awhile as the weather continued to suck and the high tide was bad for the surf. A couple hours later we jumped back in and the waves were awesome, but a little huge for our inexperienced selves. We had several good wipeouts. David was amused to watch me atop a big one and then see the look on my face when I realized the board was going to nose in and I would end up head over heels. At the end of the day we returned our stuff cleaned up and went out for dinner. I had locally caught fish (mmm mmm) and chips, and David steak and kidney pie. If we thought the weather was bad in the day, it had nothing on what came through in the night. It got so windy I was worried the tent was going to blow away around us. It did however rip out one of the stakes which I didn't realize till there was running water in the tent. I fixed it however and we survived till morning.

Today we packed up our soaked tent and bused back to Penzance where we caught a train to London. Unfortunately this did not go as smoothly as most of our other train travels. About half way through a few miles from a stop someone committed suicide by throwing themselves in front of our train. Needless to say this caused some delay. We got to the next station where after some waiting the next train caught up and they moved us to that one. I'd say this was a good decision as I saw the looks on the faces of the people facing our train as we pulled away. Unfortunately it meant it was over-crowded and people were bitchy. The rest of the journey was spent getting bumped into stepped on and stopping bags from falling everywhere. We made it to London though and are all checked into our hostel now, and with full bellies we feel much better. Only 3 more days... can't wait to see all of you then.

Ta ta for now

Wind, climbing and wind

We made it out to the Peak District without a hitch. After a 45min walk through sheep filled pastures we arrived at the campsite and after setting up still had time for climbing. We stayed here for three nights and got two more solid days of climbing in, in areas called Stanage Edge and Burbage Edge. It was great especially once you trust the true stickiness of gritstone. It was however incredibly windy, but we were told we were just lucky it wasn't raining. I guess the weather here has been the pits the last few summers and we seem to have brought in a good spell of it. After our three nights in the Peaks we took the train out to Manchester where we stopped for fish and chips and tea for only £3.10. This was on our way to Windermere and the Lake district. We were told once in Windermere we could take a bus to Langdale where we would be in walking access to some brilliant climbing. Unfortunately the bus only goes to Langdale from Windermere on Saturday... and we arrived kinda late, so everything was closed... We caught a bus to Ambleside where we could have got to Langdale from, had it been earlier... After feeling kinda standed and debating our options for a couple hours we caught a taxi to Langdale. The guy was so friendly and told us where everything was and what campsite we should stay at if we were climbing etc. etc. It was definately worth the extra cost. The next day we got in some more climbing on some volcanic rock called tuff. Luckily we met a couple people and they pointed us up some good routes. The next day we were on a mission for an area called Gimmer crag. Unfortunately without a guide or map it was a little more illusive. After a couple hours we found our way there and another nice man pointed us up a very good route. We came down and decided to go for another and just as we reached the top the rain started. We thought the way down would be much easier, but this was not the case. We tried to go the more direct way and ended up getting lost amoungst the sheeps paths, talus and bracken. Luckily the storm was not more severe. We made it down a little wet, and the storm continued through the night. We packed up this morning and made our way back to Windermere. We're at the library now, waiting for our train back to Manchester, then its on to Penzance and Land's End in the region of Cornwall. Its the peninsula-ish bit sticking out the south-west end. Apparently there's great sea cliff climbing, surfing and generally nice beaches and hot weather... mmmmm. After that we're in London for a few days, and then its home on Aug 2nd. Man time flies.

Cheers

Haggis and bagpipes

So I haven't posted in awhile, because once we arrived on the British Isle everything became more expensive again. Plus there was so much to see and do in Edinburgh truth be told I couldn't be bothered. Currently we're in Hull at my friend Stuart's house. I met him originally four years ago in Australia on the International Air Cadet Exchange. We have some down time and he just got a new laptop so here it is.

The day after my last post we were up at 4am. It means we got to watch the sunrise from our Hostel Boat, but we were a little groggy and rushed to appreciate it. By 7:30am we were on an EasyJet flight to London, where we would transfer onto another flight to Glasgow. Unfortunately we booked them seperately so had to go through Customs in London, which we learned is very comparable to US customs. The lady speaking to David told him "Don't be sorry, be happy I don't send you back to where you came from". Haha, all because we didn't fill in the address on our landing cards, because we weren't 100% sure which one to give and we didn't know the hostel address in Glasgow. In the end we gave them Stuart's address and they were happy; its a good thing we had more than four hours in between our flights. We got to Glasgow and did some wandering in the afternoon before getting on a bus to Edinburgh in the evening. I am glad everyone we talked to to us not to stay in Glasgow and spend as much time as possible in Edinburgh. Even the old crazy man on the street in Glasgow told us not to stay there, and he was only happy after we reassured him we were going to the bus station to catch a bus away from Glasgow. Edinburgh was beautiful, and we did see (mostly hear actually) pipers in the street. We settled into the hostel, chatted with some fellow backpackers in the hostel before calling it a day.

In the morning we met up for another one of New Europe's free tours... I tell you this company is a dream come true. We saw all the major sights and heard many interesting stories behind them all. It seems this country's history is based solely on legends and lore rather than dates and names; this makes it very entertaining. After the tour we wandered up to the castle, but didn't pay the £12 entrance fee (holy expensive). From here we basically walked down the main old street stopping at the writer's museum and for free haggis samples (not so bad I must admit), all the way to the edge of town. Here was Holyrood palace (the Queen's residence in Scotland) and the new parliament building. It stands out drastically new against the old stone of the rest of the city. Its supposed to represent all of Scotland and has random rocks and puzzle pieces and sticks attached all over the outside of the main cement structure. On this side of the city is also park land, with some trails and we walked up the mountainy hill to Arthur's seat. Here we had an awesome 360 degree view (when we weren't in a cloud and it wasn't raining). We could see the whole city and the ocean on the other side. In the the evening we paid for one of New Europe's supplementary tours; a Ghost Tour of Edinburgh. It wasn't really scary, but you get to hear a lot more stories, mainly the eerie or spooky ones. They took us to a cemetary, and the sites of witch burnings and pagan rituals etc. Afterwards they dumped us off at a bar with free drink tickets. We stayed and chatted for awhile then went to the club mentioned in the tour. It is built into the old vaults of the south bridge, where all kinds of things used to go down. A pretty cool, but eerie place, it was dead so we didn't stay long. Back at the hostel we recognised some people from the night before and also met two new cynical Danes who were great entertainment.

In the morning we were introduced to their penguin, Rowdy (yes it is in tribute to the stuffed dog on Scrubs) who they were touring around Britain with. In fact they were going to walk 450km from one side to the other, but hadn't started yet due to misplaced luggage. When we finally left to catch a bus to Hull we learned we had missed the once daily bus at 10:50am... and trains are more than twice as expensive... but not with a railcard. We bit the bullet and bought a railcard (we will use it again and it paid for itself in one use), however it did cost us almost $300 Canadian for a 4hr train ride, ouch. Last night in Hull Stuey took us out on the town. We pub hopped to few places, but my favourite was "Ye Olde Hart". A totally old place, with a ton of history and a skull behind the counter. We even met a guy lodging there who proceeded to recount stories about the multiple ghost encounters he had experienced. It was here I also developed the title of "the angry lady". Really I just had to pee bad and all the stalls were busy, so once I did get one I may have shut the door a little forcefully.

Today Stu took us into the city of York. It had an amazing cathedral, but we didn't get to view it in detail as there was a wedding taking place. We were lucky how ever as there was a multi-cultural festival taking place, so we had some yummy indian food and enjoyed the music. We also picked up info on the Peak District (our next stop) and had chivalry lessons at the castle tower... I was even dubbed a knight.

After some time in the books and online we have an idea of where we'll be in the Peak District the next week or so, however, we're not sure of the facilities and we will be camping, so this may be the last update for awhile. We're hoping the weather clears up as the area is supposed to be beautiful and world reknown for climbing... fingers crossed.

Till next time

From the country to the city

Güstrow was a pretty amazing little town. They all have so much history here. Everywhere has there own castle, a few impressive churches etc. and this is what we saw today, all without tourists. We did however run into a lady carrying a basket full of kittens she was trying to get rid of. They were so cute and its good we had someone with us who spoke the language. Earlier in the morning we finally had the priviledge of meeting Angelika, Thomas and Cordula's daughter and the owner of the room we spent 3 nights in. We all went out to lunch and David and I enjoyed some of the best fish we've ever had. Similiar to trout but specific to that area of Germany. The end of our tour of Güstrow took us to a small restaurant where Angelika and several students from her music school where having a recital type concert. They were all very good, especially Angelika's rendition of "Memories" on the harp. I felt bad interrupting with my cough, but it is getting much better finally. We spent one more lovely evening in Güstrow and in the morning caught a train to Berlin.

We found the hostel quite easily as you have to cross through the longest surviving section of the Berlin wall to get to the river Spree on which our hostel boat is parked. We are paying 12 Euro a night to pitch our tent on the deck! It's great. There's an awesome view and I get rocked to sleep. After setting up we made our way to the New Europe office, the starting point of our free bike tour! It was great, just like the one in Paris, but able to cover more ground. We saw museum island with the Berlin Dome, the TV Tower, Berlin wall, the site of the 1933 book burning, the Hitler Bunker (where Hitler spent all his time leading up to his suicide in 1945), the Reichstag (parliament), The Holocaust memorial, Brandenburg Gate and much else along the way. The gate is topped with a statue once stolen by Naplolean, but they stole it back. In fact we saw its replica in Paris.

Today we slept in then made our way to Potsdam, just outside Berlin. We spent the day wandering around its gardens and palaces built in the time of Prussian Kaisers. We even toured through Freidrich I art museum. On the way back we made a couple cafe stops to eat, drink and watch the world go by. Berlin has been an interesting place. Outwardly it looks quite run down, especially in the east, but that seems to be where you see the trendiest people and the most action. As our guide kept saying the city is quite poor, but it is in such a state of renewel and rebirth. There was a building overtop of the square with the book burning memorial where a big fashion show will be in 2009 and its historical building are covered in Mercedes ads...

Tscöss

Foiled by Adrspach, Hello Deutschland

Our next day in Adrspach started out overcast, but our first priorty was finding a way to Berlin. We finally agreed the overnight bus was the best, but had no way to purchase tickets, unless we could be in Prague by 6pm. We phoned and the bus that night was already full, so this made the process much simpler. The longer and more expensive train trip tomorrow it would be. At least we wouldn't arrive in Berlin at 5:15am as we would with the bus. David went on a mission to buy us tickets and I rested at the campsite. His task was more difficult than it would seem. He ran into Teplice (closest town to our campsite) but the train station there was unmanned. So he got a hopefully correct amount of cash and caught the trolley train back to Adrspach. Here, he communicated in varying ways with the non-english speaking ticket woman the best route for us to get to Berlin (quite compex with several changes), and bought two tickets... then ran back to the campsite... Quite the accomplishment. Upon his return we went on a walk through the Teplice rocks. Similiar to the Adrspach site as you pay an admission and there's a little tour route with signs and names etc. Many of the lines on these rocks looked beautiful as well, but unfortunately the day had turned into rain and mist. Back at the campsite we retired early as our 15 hour journey would begin early (6am).

In the morning we packed up and were at the train station in perfect time. Everything was going smoothly until we got off at the wrong stop in Teplice, an easy mistake to make as they all have very similiar names and we had never been to the third one. Luckily we had half an hour so we booked it through the town and found the next station with 2 min to spare. So much for breakfast. From here the journey went on without a hitch and at 5:13pm we were in Berlin. The trainstation was huge, but thankfully our train was only half an hour late giving us almost an hour to find cash and buy tickets to Güstrow. More on this: when we hiked the West Coast trail just before going on this trip we met a German couple and a few others who we would see at the campsites every night. While on this trip we received an email from them and decided to take them up on their nice offer to come stay with them in Güstrow and they would show us the Baltic Sea and surrounding area. So we arrived in Güstrow at 9pm where Cordula and Thomas met us at the train station. Were we ever happy for some food, a shower and comfy bed.

The following day we drove the half hour out to the seaside town of Rostock. Here Thomas and Cordula showed us through the throngs of tourists, to some of the best things on the Baltic. We had herring sandwiches (raw, but preserved in a way like sashimi - it was delicious), beer and mead (a honey wine from the medieval times). All the while taking in the sights and sounds of a fishing village. We made our way to the beach and were pleasantly suprised. We were both expecting something quite rugged and rocky, but it was fine white sand as far as we could see. The water was warm as well, it was like we were on a tropical beach somewhere. We walked for a ways and after some time were chased out by the weather. It was very rapidly changing today. Thankfully when the big downpour came we were under an awning enjoying a beer. Now it was just windy. Back at there house we prepared for dinner. They took us to a town nearby where a retired world famous Flamenco dancer had retired. She converted the barn into a dance school/studio upstairs and a cafe downstairs where she also showcased her painting. We enjoyed antipasto, wine and payaya all the while being entertained by Flamnco, Tango and belly dancing performances. She even had a spanish guitarist who she performed with. It was amazing. A Spanish night in a small village in Eastern Germany, who woulda thunk it.

Today they going to show us their town of Güstow. I can hardly wait.

Ciao

More Czech

In our mission to aviod tourists we went up to Vysehrad. An old fortress on the river at the very south of town. It was beautiful and had amazing views of the city, but was still pretty crowded, I guess everyone had our idea. We wandered around the old church and cemetary, enjoyed a nap, and just generally took it all in. We walked back to the hostel along Pragues version of the sea wall. We tried to visit the brewery Dmytro told me about called Novomestsky Pivorvar, New Town Brewery, but it was unfortunately closed. So we had dinner at the hostel where we met some people, all who were coincidentally staying in our room. We stayed up till the wee hours chatting before getting some rest.

In the morning we took a bus to Kutna Hora. An old silver mining town, with a uniquely famous chapel. We arrived in the pouring rain and began our search for a hostel. We got a map and list from the tourist office and decided on the hostel closest to the bus station... it was also the cheapest. However we had some difficulty finding its entrance. We ended up on a muddy trail for some time when we came out on its patio, with no way of getting in and no way around, so we continued through the mud. We finally found the entrance to what looked like the shadiest place ever... this place was made of the stuff movies like Hostel are based on. Not only that but men we staring at us out of the windows of a nearby building and there was some sort of factory right next door. So we wussed out and opted for the cheapest hotel in town. It was nice and now I could cough the night away to my hearts content. After settling in we went to the chapel, also known as, the Bone Church. The bones of about 40 000 people are laid to rest here and in the surrounding cemetary, and many are used to decorate the chapel with everything from garlands to chandaliers and even a coat of arms. In each corner there were enormous pyramids of bones, all free standing. After the chapel we checked out the old town and St. Barbaras cathedral. It was as impressive and very similiar looking to St. Vitus with less than one tenth the people. On the way back to the hotel we found a cheap little pub for dinner, but could not read the Czech menu, and no one spoke english, so we ordered randomly, the cheapest most delicious dinner of our trip.

After a restful evening we ventured from Kutna Hora to Adrspach on the train. It was a confusing process, but thanks to a nice rail worker we figured it out. We arrived again with no place to stay, and again no one spoke english. After inquiring at some hotels, we had eventually walked the 3km to the campsite. This is where we acquired a space for three nights based on very broken German and hand gestures. The only problem was after paying we had no cash. So on another adventure we eventually found a little town centre, complete with bank machine, internet and restaurant. We finalised our plans with Cordula and Thomas and had dinner all at a great deal.

Today we went back into Adrspach and wandered around the touristy rock town. It was very impressive, but unfortunately it had been raining and we could not climb. Hopefully we will have better luck tomorrow. And maybe I will start feeling better.

P.S. I cannot find the apostrophe on this keyboard if you have not noticed.

Good night.