Monday, July 21, 2008
Last Entry Bankok to Hong Kong...
Well, we are in the last 36 hours of our great adventure and we are having so many mixed emotions about the end...excitement for coming home, anxiety about moving, starting new jobs, getting back to a normal time zone, etc. We did get somewhat motivated t0day and took a walking tour
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Hanoi to Bangkok
So there is a moment in every traveller's travel when it is time to come home and sleep in one's own bed, unpack boxes and ummm...make money. Yes, it turns out that traveling for 2 months is not the cheapest of ventures and we actually cannot wait to get back in the grind...I know, all of you who are in the grind are wishing you could wake up, watch Oprah, read for 4 hours, go get some pad thai and a massage (all for a whopping $5)...for some reason when I put it down like that is sounds pretty awesome but truth be told these two travellers are ready for a morning coffee, pouring our energy into new projects or lessons and getting back to the swing of things...
But before we do that we do have a few more days here in Bangkok...we were en route to Laos after Hanoi when we both looked at eachother (and our bank account) and said maybe we should change our tickets and go to Bangkok for the next few days while we wait for the return home...because for some reason 3 days of train rides to get to really remote places in Laos all of the sudden sounded exhausting and expensive so we opted for pad thai, massages and Oprah for the next few days...we got into Bangkok, found ourselves a decent pad (with a swimming pool) and have been vegging for 3 days...we are even playing a game "who can spend the least amount of money in a day"...I am of course winning because if you know me at all you would know that when it comes to a good game of cheapness...you can count on me...yesterday, I managed on $6...today...I think it might be $7 but Hoyt wants a t-shirt so he might hit $12....
Bangkok is great if you are looking for the big city backpacker scene...cheap, imitation (most likely pirated) of everything for sale, lots of really interesting food, the center of town has great movie theatres...we saw the new Batman (nice job to Heath Ledger) and Hancok...one of the interesting things with the cinema is that the national anthem is played before every film with a photo montage of the king in his glory throughout on the screen...everyone stands and watches during this...I could just imaging if Georgie was put on the screen before our movies...fascinating...I also almost finished with Atlas Shrugged and so I couldn't help but think of what John Galt would think of this action...anyway, we are having a great time and still laughing a lot but can't wait to be back...
But before we do that we do have a few more days here in Bangkok...we were en route to Laos after Hanoi when we both looked at eachother (and our bank account) and said maybe we should change our tickets and go to Bangkok for the next few days while we wait for the return home...because for some reason 3 days of train rides to get to really remote places in Laos all of the sudden sounded exhausting and expensive so we opted for pad thai, massages and Oprah for the next few days...we got into Bangkok, found ourselves a decent pad (with a swimming pool) and have been vegging for 3 days...we are even playing a game "who can spend the least amount of money in a day"...I am of course winning because if you know me at all you would know that when it comes to a good game of cheapness...you can count on me...yesterday, I managed on $6...today...I think it might be $7 but Hoyt wants a t-shirt so he might hit $12....
Bangkok is great if you are looking for the big city backpacker scene...cheap, imitation (most likely pirated) of everything for sale, lots of really interesting food, the center of town has great movie theatres...we saw the new Batman (nice job to Heath Ledger) and Hancok...one of the interesting things with the cinema is that the national anthem is played before every film with a photo montage of the king in his glory throughout on the screen...everyone stands and watches during this...I could just imaging if Georgie was put on the screen before our movies...fascinating...I also almost finished with Atlas Shrugged and so I couldn't help but think of what John Galt would think of this action...anyway, we are having a great time and still laughing a lot but can't wait to be back...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Hanoi to small Vietnam villages...
Well, we had a very productive day after a lazy day yesterday. Yesterday, we rested most of the day, went for a long walk and visited the temple of literature which was the main higher education center in Vietnam starting in the 11th century. We went to a yummy Indian restaurant for dinner and then ended up meeting with a bunch of ex-pats who are starting a climbing business on cat ba island. We went to a club for a bit and then headed home because are day started early today.
We were picked up by our driver at around 8am and he took us on a tour of local handicraft villages which was quite fascinating. The first village was the main ceramic village in Vietnam. Teapots, vases, plates, bowls...you name it, the place was filled with all kinds of pottery. We watched many a young women glazing various things and preparing pieces for the kiln. Hoyt really seemed to enjoy watching others with their handicraft. We them moved on to a village known for making traditional paintings but they were actually printmaking not painting as much. Still it was fun to watch how the paintings are made and Hoyt even gave his hand go at it. We then finished up there and stopped at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant and ate some squid, some soup with what seemed like what corn puffs would actually be fried corn, rice (of course) and some chicken from the backyard. We finished up here and moved on to the last village which is where most of the wooden furniture in SE Asia is made. There were these huge wooden chairs with intricate detailing throughout the entire piece and unfortunately they were a little too big for our carry on.
We headed back to town, rested up a bit and then headed for the water puppet theatre. Right after we bought our tickets, we went to grab some food and a torrential downpour hit. Turns out that the sewage system in Hanoi is not the best and the flooding waters pushed the drain covers up and sewage was spewing onto the street, we had to run through it for a second to get back to the theatre so needless to say we have had to disinfect our feet...icks...the good news is that the water puppets were phenomenal and the music was a perfect way to end our time here in Vietnam....
We were picked up by our driver at around 8am and he took us on a tour of local handicraft villages which was quite fascinating. The first village was the main ceramic village in Vietnam. Teapots, vases, plates, bowls...you name it, the place was filled with all kinds of pottery. We watched many a young women glazing various things and preparing pieces for the kiln. Hoyt really seemed to enjoy watching others with their handicraft. We them moved on to a village known for making traditional paintings but they were actually printmaking not painting as much. Still it was fun to watch how the paintings are made and Hoyt even gave his hand go at it. We then finished up there and stopped at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant and ate some squid, some soup with what seemed like what corn puffs would actually be fried corn, rice (of course) and some chicken from the backyard. We finished up here and moved on to the last village which is where most of the wooden furniture in SE Asia is made. There were these huge wooden chairs with intricate detailing throughout the entire piece and unfortunately they were a little too big for our carry on.
We headed back to town, rested up a bit and then headed for the water puppet theatre. Right after we bought our tickets, we went to grab some food and a torrential downpour hit. Turns out that the sewage system in Hanoi is not the best and the flooding waters pushed the drain covers up and sewage was spewing onto the street, we had to run through it for a second to get back to the theatre so needless to say we have had to disinfect our feet...icks...the good news is that the water puppets were phenomenal and the music was a perfect way to end our time here in Vietnam....
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Hanoi to Halong Bay and Back...
The next day we did more wandering around Hanoi and looked through many nic-nack shops and then to the big market which consists of three floors of aisles upon aisles of any fabric, toy, hat, t-shirt, shrimp, eel, tool, chopstick, etc. that you would want to buy. Unfortunately, I could not take a photo because it would be a bit awkward but one of the things I will always remember is a woman in a 5*5*8ft space with clothes packed full and she had carved a little whole in the middle of the clothes and was sleeping in her booth. It was amazing. It was a bit sweaty in Hanoi so we found our way back to hotel and rested for a bit and then went for some yummy local food of rice, veggies and some tofu and called it a day.
The next day we were picked up for our first tour of the trip. It turns out that the Vietnamese are very entrepreneurial, especially in the tourism arena and everything is done through tours and it is very difficult not to use the tours (which now makes more sense of why I sometimes see massive groups of Asian tourists around). Anyhoo, we rode in a van with lots of euro tourists for a few hours and arrived at a small town on a river where there were about 50 women waiting in rowboats to take us down the river to a pagoda (buddhist shrine) in a cave on a mountain. She rowed 4 of us in her boat for 1.5 hours...these women look like they way 100 lbs. but don't let that fool you...we arrived at the bottom of a mountain and chose to hike up like the monks do every year, although there is a trolley...which was interesting because we learned then that in the past 5 years all of the regions in Vietnam are competing on who can come up with the most tourist spots...this is a new one. We hiked up to the top of the mountain and Hoyt looked liked he had just jumped in fully clothed into a hot tub due to the heat and humidity...the 2.5 miles uphill for some reason sounded like a good idea from the bottom...We hiked back and had a big lunch with our group of some squid, greens, rice and tofu and then the ladies rowed us back and we got back to the van just in time to miss the rain...we made it back to the hotel and went and found a restaurant that served some pizza (we needed a break)...
The next day we were picked up early and we began our next tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island...we rode in a van with more euros and there was one guy from Spain who was working on becoming an Air Traffic Controller which was fascinating to learn about and especially since in the last year I have developed a horrible fear of flying to the point where I am starting to need to take sleeping pills when I fly but he reassured me that there are 7 checks on all that they do and when I heard about the kind of training one must go through to become an air traffic controller, I felt a bit better...anyway, we were dropped off with our tour guide to a large woode boat...more later though, I am a bit tired...
The next day we were picked up for our first tour of the trip. It turns out that the Vietnamese are very entrepreneurial, especially in the tourism arena and everything is done through tours and it is very difficult not to use the tours (which now makes more sense of why I sometimes see massive groups of Asian tourists around). Anyhoo, we rode in a van with lots of euro tourists for a few hours and arrived at a small town on a river where there were about 50 women waiting in rowboats to take us down the river to a pagoda (buddhist shrine) in a cave on a mountain. She rowed 4 of us in her boat for 1.5 hours...these women look like they way 100 lbs. but don't let that fool you...we arrived at the bottom of a mountain and chose to hike up like the monks do every year, although there is a trolley...which was interesting because we learned then that in the past 5 years all of the regions in Vietnam are competing on who can come up with the most tourist spots...this is a new one. We hiked up to the top of the mountain and Hoyt looked liked he had just jumped in fully clothed into a hot tub due to the heat and humidity...the 2.5 miles uphill for some reason sounded like a good idea from the bottom...We hiked back and had a big lunch with our group of some squid, greens, rice and tofu and then the ladies rowed us back and we got back to the van just in time to miss the rain...we made it back to the hotel and went and found a restaurant that served some pizza (we needed a break)...
The next day we were picked up early and we began our next tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island...we rode in a van with more euros and there was one guy from Spain who was working on becoming an Air Traffic Controller which was fascinating to learn about and especially since in the last year I have developed a horrible fear of flying to the point where I am starting to need to take sleeping pills when I fly but he reassured me that there are 7 checks on all that they do and when I heard about the kind of training one must go through to become an air traffic controller, I felt a bit better...anyway, we were dropped off with our tour guide to a large woode boat...more later though, I am a bit tired...
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Ko Phanang to Hanoi
So lesson learned: pay the extra $140 and fly from small, obscure island to bangkok if you only have 3 weeks to travel. Here is my advice to anyone thinking of traveling to this area of the world: first, do it. It is incredible. Second, either take one month and make it all you do or give yourself at least 3 month because it turns out that the infastructure of the country is not all that fantastic so it takes a wee bit of time to get from here to there.
Anyway, the highlights from Ko Phanang were certainly the nightly layouts on the beach where we pulled our mat and pillows down on the sand and chatted about nothing and listened to the gentle waves break and also our last night where we were invited by two older couples to finish the evening off with them at this little restaurant on the beach...it turns out that the two women were best friends from their modeling days in the early 80s and now both run model agencies: one in capetown and the other london. One of the husbands was a composer and had worked on the english patient music which was pretty interesting. We had an interesting conversation about what it used to be like to be a model and the difference to now including the fact that they used to bring 10 models to a shoot and you never knew whether your shot would be used and now they take one girl, work her to death and then photoshop the picture to get it right. Supposedly, a recent shot of Kate Moss took 68 hours of photoshop to produce. Interesting...
Anyway, we woke up the next day, went to our little breakfast place ate the Thai version of an omelette and then finished up with some massages before loading into the taxi for the next 24 hour journey...it would come as no suprise that our train was 4 hours late and so we waited at a small station until 3am until our finally got our train (this was following a 1 hour taxi ride, 3 hour ferry ride and one hour bus ride). Needless to say when we finally made it to the airport the next day for our flight to Hanoi we were a bit of grumpy bears...we have decided to now do as little traveling as possible for the rest of the trip so we are just exploring the towns around Hanoi on this end...
We arrived late last night and found our hotel, only to be shuffled to another hotel due to some questionable reasoning but the hotel is very nice and with A/C which is great due to the heat and humidity here...we woke up today, had breakfast in the hotel which consisted of some noodles with a few spices, delicious coffee and some little not-very sweet cakes. We headed out and wandered the windy, shop filled streets of the old quarter and was dumbfounded at the amount of commerce happening...everyone was selling everything...in Hanoi all of the streets are themed with different products: the silk street, the nic nack street, the toy street, the spice street, the lantern and gold paraphanalia street and within each are people on millions of motorbikes...if Amsterdam was the town of bikes, Hanoi must be the town of motorbikes....everywhere - even on small paths in the middle of a market...too much fun...
Anyway, the highlights from Ko Phanang were certainly the nightly layouts on the beach where we pulled our mat and pillows down on the sand and chatted about nothing and listened to the gentle waves break and also our last night where we were invited by two older couples to finish the evening off with them at this little restaurant on the beach...it turns out that the two women were best friends from their modeling days in the early 80s and now both run model agencies: one in capetown and the other london. One of the husbands was a composer and had worked on the english patient music which was pretty interesting. We had an interesting conversation about what it used to be like to be a model and the difference to now including the fact that they used to bring 10 models to a shoot and you never knew whether your shot would be used and now they take one girl, work her to death and then photoshop the picture to get it right. Supposedly, a recent shot of Kate Moss took 68 hours of photoshop to produce. Interesting...
Anyway, we woke up the next day, went to our little breakfast place ate the Thai version of an omelette and then finished up with some massages before loading into the taxi for the next 24 hour journey...it would come as no suprise that our train was 4 hours late and so we waited at a small station until 3am until our finally got our train (this was following a 1 hour taxi ride, 3 hour ferry ride and one hour bus ride). Needless to say when we finally made it to the airport the next day for our flight to Hanoi we were a bit of grumpy bears...we have decided to now do as little traveling as possible for the rest of the trip so we are just exploring the towns around Hanoi on this end...
We arrived late last night and found our hotel, only to be shuffled to another hotel due to some questionable reasoning but the hotel is very nice and with A/C which is great due to the heat and humidity here...we woke up today, had breakfast in the hotel which consisted of some noodles with a few spices, delicious coffee and some little not-very sweet cakes. We headed out and wandered the windy, shop filled streets of the old quarter and was dumbfounded at the amount of commerce happening...everyone was selling everything...in Hanoi all of the streets are themed with different products: the silk street, the nic nack street, the toy street, the spice street, the lantern and gold paraphanalia street and within each are people on millions of motorbikes...if Amsterdam was the town of bikes, Hanoi must be the town of motorbikes....everywhere - even on small paths in the middle of a market...too much fun...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Amsterdam to Bangkok to Ko Phanang
So, we are waiting right now to take a bus to a ferry to go to Ko Phanang, an island off the Southern coast of Thailand. We have been traveling for 36 hours so we are needless to say ready to get somewhere.
Amsterdam did not disappoint the last 2 days and we really can't stop talking enough about the fact that there needs to be a train revolution (in flat cities) in the US. We were able to go to a town about 25 miles outside of Amsterdam completely on cruiser bikes and complete with bike paths the entire way. What was interesting to me was the fact that this was not a scenic route persay but we rode past factories, big box stores, major highways and I couldn't believe that there were bike paths along this entire road...this would be like having a bike path run up 1-75 to Marietta and where there is construction, detour paths have been made for the bikes. Amazing.
Anyway, we went to this cheezy little town called Zaase Schan...will finish late...bus is leaving...and now am back at the same computer but 4 days later waiting for our train to return to bangkok...
We rode out to Zaase Schan where the highlight was watching a shoe carver make some wooden shoes but the bike ride was actually the best part...interesting enough, Holland is a pretty industrial country and so it was not the riding through the fields of tulips and windmills but pretty neat to see how the bike paths even led to big factories...
Anyway, we got back to Amsterdam and strolled down to a local Indian restaurant for our final European meal (the irony) but the food was delightful and we fell quickly asleep afterwards preparing for the next day's travel...we strolled around Amsterdam before we caught the train the next morning and the only notable mention was when we took a turn down the prostitute street...I had heard of the prostitutes lining the streets but we had not seen this as of yet except for a few windows sporting scantily dressed women randomly throughout the city...but this was the real deal...young women every 2 feet hanging out of doors in their underwear...they giggled as I walked by due to my nervous laugh from being the only fully dressed woman on the street...it was interesting to learn about prostitution and the legal use of drugs in the country and how when not highly regulated...the economics of the trade are much more balanced and not laundered as much...the prostitutes have more rights and actually are somewhat bummed at the legality because they now have to report their income and you know what that means...taxes!
Anyway, off from Amsterdam, we flew to Cairo, transferred planes and flew into Bangkok. We took a bus to the train station and then hopped on a train south toward the coast so there is nothing spectacular to report from Bangkok...one notable item on the train ride was the amount of shacks the were all along the railroad track...I realized that this must be the cheapest property if their are property rights in Thailand and so the whole way we saw the poorest of the poor, dogs wandering by and all watching the trains go by but on the other hand the roads here are great which suprised me after many times being on terrible roads in developing countries...so the bus travel works well...we arrived at the train stop at 4am and then took a bus to a ferry to Ko Pahangan...which is beautiful...while at the train station we got a tip from a Scotish guy about the best beach to stay in on the island so we made our way to Thang Pan Noi and to our little piece of heaven for the next couple of days...
Our beach was mostly made up of 10-15 bungalow resorts ($15 - $40) for a bungalow with a hammock on the front porch where you could see the ocean about 20 ft down the way, interspersed with yummy restaurants and thai massage venues...the other guests were mostly older couples and families which was nice because it kept things pretty quiet...we woke up in the mornings, walked to a place that served mango shakes, yogurt and muesli and coffee, read alot on the beach (under umbrellas, mom, don't worry)...got a couple of massages (reason enough to come to Thailand) and ate lots of yummy thai food...including real pad thai...oops train gotta go
Amsterdam did not disappoint the last 2 days and we really can't stop talking enough about the fact that there needs to be a train revolution (in flat cities) in the US. We were able to go to a town about 25 miles outside of Amsterdam completely on cruiser bikes and complete with bike paths the entire way. What was interesting to me was the fact that this was not a scenic route persay but we rode past factories, big box stores, major highways and I couldn't believe that there were bike paths along this entire road...this would be like having a bike path run up 1-75 to Marietta and where there is construction, detour paths have been made for the bikes. Amazing.
Anyway, we went to this cheezy little town called Zaase Schan...will finish late...bus is leaving...and now am back at the same computer but 4 days later waiting for our train to return to bangkok...
We rode out to Zaase Schan where the highlight was watching a shoe carver make some wooden shoes but the bike ride was actually the best part...interesting enough, Holland is a pretty industrial country and so it was not the riding through the fields of tulips and windmills but pretty neat to see how the bike paths even led to big factories...
Anyway, we got back to Amsterdam and strolled down to a local Indian restaurant for our final European meal (the irony) but the food was delightful and we fell quickly asleep afterwards preparing for the next day's travel...we strolled around Amsterdam before we caught the train the next morning and the only notable mention was when we took a turn down the prostitute street...I had heard of the prostitutes lining the streets but we had not seen this as of yet except for a few windows sporting scantily dressed women randomly throughout the city...but this was the real deal...young women every 2 feet hanging out of doors in their underwear...they giggled as I walked by due to my nervous laugh from being the only fully dressed woman on the street...it was interesting to learn about prostitution and the legal use of drugs in the country and how when not highly regulated...the economics of the trade are much more balanced and not laundered as much...the prostitutes have more rights and actually are somewhat bummed at the legality because they now have to report their income and you know what that means...taxes!
Anyway, off from Amsterdam, we flew to Cairo, transferred planes and flew into Bangkok. We took a bus to the train station and then hopped on a train south toward the coast so there is nothing spectacular to report from Bangkok...one notable item on the train ride was the amount of shacks the were all along the railroad track...I realized that this must be the cheapest property if their are property rights in Thailand and so the whole way we saw the poorest of the poor, dogs wandering by and all watching the trains go by but on the other hand the roads here are great which suprised me after many times being on terrible roads in developing countries...so the bus travel works well...we arrived at the train stop at 4am and then took a bus to a ferry to Ko Pahangan...which is beautiful...while at the train station we got a tip from a Scotish guy about the best beach to stay in on the island so we made our way to Thang Pan Noi and to our little piece of heaven for the next couple of days...
Our beach was mostly made up of 10-15 bungalow resorts ($15 - $40) for a bungalow with a hammock on the front porch where you could see the ocean about 20 ft down the way, interspersed with yummy restaurants and thai massage venues...the other guests were mostly older couples and families which was nice because it kept things pretty quiet...we woke up in the mornings, walked to a place that served mango shakes, yogurt and muesli and coffee, read alot on the beach (under umbrellas, mom, don't worry)...got a couple of massages (reason enough to come to Thailand) and ate lots of yummy thai food...including real pad thai...oops train gotta go
Monday, June 30, 2008
Galway to Omagh to Amsterdam
Well, we have been a bit busy with traveling so the blog has lagged a bit but here goes...we are in Amsterdam but that is getting ahead of the story...after the Owen Wilson siting we walked back to our small town against 50mph winds...needless to say the bad hair day took on new meaning but we found our way back and to our new favorite pub which this time Hoyt really got to make friends with some locals including one that everyone called Johnny the Leg due to his bummed leg...we sat with a group of Irish men and listened to them tell stories and jokes for a couple of hours until our stomachs were sore from laughing so hard...
We woke up early the next morning and headed for the bus to Northern Ireland and to discover from where the great Fergus Sloan started his adventure to the new world...Northern Ireland definetly feels a bit cooler and more reserved than the republic...the folk are not as jolly although still quite nice but not in that 'I don't know ya but I want to know ya' kinda way...the land is quite different - rolling hills, lots of green, lots of small farms and all the people we met spoke much more about the land and how things are changing temperature wise...we stayed at a hostel that was also a sustainable farm. The Irish couple who owned the farm were heavily into the movement and into education about sustainable farming which turns out is very universal and not just something done in Northern California. The house was out in the country and the lovely part was the walking along the windy roads trying to pretend the smell of cow dung was actually honeysuckle...
The next day we woke up early and headed for the American Folk Park which upon our arrival we were hesitant due to the fact that we took the average age of people there down by 10 years...but once we got going we were pleasantly suprised..the historical land is a full recreation of the story of the irish and scott-irish immigration and life experience. Houses from the early 18th century peasant home to the tenant house to the boat that immigrants came over to America on (3 months on the bottom of a boat to get over)...there were people in the homes and shops along the way that were like history teachers and will tell you about how ads were printed or what herbs were used for different medicinal purposes...it was really informative. We found out that Hoyt's family most likely left due to religious persecution rather than say the potato famine because they left before 1760 and most likely they were scot-irish...
Anyway, that night we got some groceries, made some irish stew and ended up visiting with a family from Northern Michigan who you wou wouldn't beleive - were Sloan's and also looking for Sloan history - serendipity I tell ya.
We hopped on a 6am bus to Dublin, caught our flight to Amsterdam and made it to our hotel at around 5pm...we picked correctly because we are staying in what seems like a quiet, family area of Amsterdam...not many tourists and lots of people on bikes.
Everyone bikes everywhere here. We have seen 3 people on one bike going to and fro. Interestingly enough none of the bikes look new all are rusty and very well used. We figure that if a bike is something you use everday all year then you must just use it until you need a new one...instead of our way of thinking of a bike which is riding on a nice day around town for excerise...so, Amsterdam is a suprise in the fact that it is not all pot smoking, hipsters but is actually probably the most beautiful, clean city we have visited and everyone seems to be content (they did get the happiest people award this past year). We enjoyed one of their main sites yesterday, the Van Gogh Museum, which was both inspiring and heart wrenching...amazing to see how someone could create something so bright and full of movement and life and then be so depressed and broken...We ended the day with the final game of the Euro cup - congrats Spain for winning after 44 years of no win.
We woke up early the next morning and headed for the bus to Northern Ireland and to discover from where the great Fergus Sloan started his adventure to the new world...Northern Ireland definetly feels a bit cooler and more reserved than the republic...the folk are not as jolly although still quite nice but not in that 'I don't know ya but I want to know ya' kinda way...the land is quite different - rolling hills, lots of green, lots of small farms and all the people we met spoke much more about the land and how things are changing temperature wise...we stayed at a hostel that was also a sustainable farm. The Irish couple who owned the farm were heavily into the movement and into education about sustainable farming which turns out is very universal and not just something done in Northern California. The house was out in the country and the lovely part was the walking along the windy roads trying to pretend the smell of cow dung was actually honeysuckle...
The next day we woke up early and headed for the American Folk Park which upon our arrival we were hesitant due to the fact that we took the average age of people there down by 10 years...but once we got going we were pleasantly suprised..the historical land is a full recreation of the story of the irish and scott-irish immigration and life experience. Houses from the early 18th century peasant home to the tenant house to the boat that immigrants came over to America on (3 months on the bottom of a boat to get over)...there were people in the homes and shops along the way that were like history teachers and will tell you about how ads were printed or what herbs were used for different medicinal purposes...it was really informative. We found out that Hoyt's family most likely left due to religious persecution rather than say the potato famine because they left before 1760 and most likely they were scot-irish...
Anyway, that night we got some groceries, made some irish stew and ended up visiting with a family from Northern Michigan who you wou wouldn't beleive - were Sloan's and also looking for Sloan history - serendipity I tell ya.
We hopped on a 6am bus to Dublin, caught our flight to Amsterdam and made it to our hotel at around 5pm...we picked correctly because we are staying in what seems like a quiet, family area of Amsterdam...not many tourists and lots of people on bikes.
Everyone bikes everywhere here. We have seen 3 people on one bike going to and fro. Interestingly enough none of the bikes look new all are rusty and very well used. We figure that if a bike is something you use everday all year then you must just use it until you need a new one...instead of our way of thinking of a bike which is riding on a nice day around town for excerise...so, Amsterdam is a suprise in the fact that it is not all pot smoking, hipsters but is actually probably the most beautiful, clean city we have visited and everyone seems to be content (they did get the happiest people award this past year). We enjoyed one of their main sites yesterday, the Van Gogh Museum, which was both inspiring and heart wrenching...amazing to see how someone could create something so bright and full of movement and life and then be so depressed and broken...We ended the day with the final game of the Euro cup - congrats Spain for winning after 44 years of no win.
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