Stuttgart, Germany

Our arrival into Stuttgart was pretty simple. While Chelsea went to Prague, Twana and I caught a bus to Stuttgart. It was about a 5 hour bus ride. The bus had advertised that it had wifi but it was very weak and didn't work half the time. Chelsey has family friends in a small town outside Stuttgart, so after the bus dropped us off at about 12am we took a tram to where they could pick us up. It was so nice to know we were going to be picked up from the tram station since it was so late at night. 

Jill and Thomas welcomed us into their home like we were princesses. The next morning we didn't wake up till noon and they had breakfast ready for us. Their house was about a 10 minute walk from a shopping center. We ran some Aranda then came back to go on a bike ride to the center of the town. It was about a 15 minute bike ride/45 minute walk. Twana and I ended up getting separated from one another. I went to the nearest cafe for wifi and ended up being able to text her. After we met back up, we went back to the house and Jill had started cooking a homemade Germany meal for us. Her friend Helena was there. She is one of the most friendly people I have ever met! We sat down together and had a wonderful meal with good conversation. When we had all finished our meal, Jill suggested that we all go into the town center to watch the public viewing of the first World Cup game. So we all packed up in their small European car and went to watch this kickstarter. It was so much fun! There were Brazilian dancers and a band.

Germans tend to not be as enthusiastic as Americans so Twana, Helena, and I got up and danced to the music! The dancers left then Jill translated for us as the mayor gave a speech. Twana and I were never really liked watching soccer but ever since that night, we've been fans ever since.

The next day we woke up grabbed our bikes and headed to the water park. It was only €4 to get in but it was huge! There was so much to do. They had waterslides, diving boards, sand volleyball courts, and little whirl pools inside the main pool. We hung up our hammocks and went and tried out all the slides.

When playtime was over, we napped in our hammocks until we got a text from Chelsey telling us she was at Jill's. We biked back to Jill's and then all three of us decided to head to the town center to get something to eat and watch another game. We grabbed some donners, German sandwiches, and then headed to the public view. We were waiting for the game to start when we saw Helena! She told us that the Spanish club was showing the game and invited us to go with them. It just so happens that on the to the Spanish club is a small section of the town called Old Town Germany. It had beautiful, old, white and brown houses with flowers in the windows. We got to see the old Germany architecture like you see in the movies.

When we finally walked up to the Spanish club it was packed. The game had already started. Helena and her husband introduced us to all of their friends and then their friends introduced us to all of their relatives. Helena and her husband were so kind to us. They bought us food and drinks during the whole game. After the game ended, we said bye to Helena and headed home. It was dark out and half way home we heard men begin to whistle at us trying to get our attention. We ignored them but they kept following us. We didn't stop though we just stared ahead and kept walking. Finally, I got the guts up enough to look behind me and realized that they were gone. This goes to show that having more than one woman with you and an attitude to boot makes all the difference. We were worried but kept calm and cool. We locked the door as soon as we got home and slept safe and sound. 

I became sick for the next couple of days. I went out with Chelsey and Twana to Stuttgart but ended up coming back on the tram because I wasn't feeling well. They stayed out and watched more of the games while I slept at Jill's. Sunday morning wasn't a whole lot better for me either. Jill and Thomas had friends over but still invited to eat lunch with them. We all sat around their table eating more good food and having great conversations. Since Jill and some of her girlfriends had experience traveling alone, we asked if we could interview them for our documentary. They gave us great advise and information. Jill ended up having to catch a bus to Munich to visit family that same night. So it was just us and Thomas.

I woke up feeling much better. Twana had contacted a guy through blablacar for a ride to Frankfurt where we were to fly out to Greece. He came and picked us up from Jill's which was super nice of him. He dropped us off at the Frankfurt central station. Our bus wasn't for another 4 hours so we threw our backpacks in a locker and went to look for something to eat. We found a little Mexican restaurant that was also playing the USA vs Uganda game. There we met two other Americans that we're watching the game. We made friends and cheered on our team! Of course, the US won. The game was over just in time to catch our bus to the airport.

Stuttgart treated us well.

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog but more to come! 

Dori

Berlin Update!

Hello from Germany! We are currently in Stuttgart, and have some time to update the blog! 

Twana and Dori traveled to Sweden to see the Harry Potter Exhibt (they're diehard fans!). They stayed in Stockholm and Nörrkoping, and both places stayed with a host from couchsurfers. They made good Swedish food, and played a lot of Swedish board games! I visited my friend who studies at the University of Bonn, a college town in northwest Germany. 

Twana and Dori arrived to Berlin early in the morning, then met with our host, Hitesh, and got some much needed sleep. They visited the Berlin Wall, and I arrived that evening, and we went to the Festival of Culture! This was such a fun festival! There were tons of street vendors, and live music showing off the cultural diversity of Berlin. Each music stand had a different theme, such as Turkish Ska, African Reggae, Hip-hop, Rock, and Brazilian drums, and also African Drums (just to name the ones we stopped to dance at). We became very familiar with the S-Bahn in Berlin, it was our saving grace getting around. Europe has public transportation right!

The next day we slept in a little and went grocery shopping at a grocery in the hauptbanhhof. Then we went to Wansee to the Lake! It was a lot of fun; a beach in the middle of the forest! There were a lot of Berliners there as well trying to beat the heat, it was SO HOT the entire time we were in Berlin. We got back, and went to sit by the wall to enjoy the view of the water and people watching.

Our last day we were able to buy a museum a pass to Museuminsel (Museum Island) €9 with student IDs. This pass got you into five museums, but we only went to four. We visited the Altes Museum (Old), Pergamon Museum, Neuse Museum, and Bode Museum. This took up most of our day, but because we are nerds, we LOVED it! *Note, do not wear flip flops on a museum day, right Dori ;)

The funniest thing happened at the Pergamon Museum. Twana was chased by a group of Polish Students who asked if she would take a photo with them. We have no idea why, but of course, she is a good sport.

After the museums we hung out at the park by the river, and had "pre-ssert" of gelato. We met up with Hitesh to go eat Gumuse Doners, and we talked all night with Hitesh's friends. We were really interested in hearing their stories; they were 30 and 31 and still studying (for free!) their masters degrees. We had really great chats about racial issues as well as different biases that cultures have.

We really enjoyed Berlin! It is a very young city, population-wise, and very diverse! Lots of history we didn't get to see, but hopefully we will make it back one day (possibly to study!)


We are enjoying Stuttgart, and will update from GREECE!

Thanks for reading!
Chelsey and Twana

Amsterdam Update!

Hey Everyone!

WOW have we been crazy traveling!  It's been hard to find wifi in Germany, but we are at a couchsurfing host's and luckily he has wifi!

WE LOVE AMSTERDAM!

The bus ride was a long one from London.  We took megabus, and had to ferry, or something, we were not quite sure what was going on.  No one really was.  You basically drive onto a large cargo hold, and then sit for about half an hour to go across the channel.  The other side is France, and that took a while at the border with everyone checking into the EU.  We arrived to Amsterdam after sunset, so about 10pm.  The bus takes you to a "park and ride" station of Amsterdam's public transportation.  We couldn't figure out how to buy tram tickets, so we found an intercom "INFORMATION."  We proceeded to basically yell at a man who spoke better English than us, trying to explain we couldn't get on the tram because we couldn't figure out how to buy tickets.  Finally he made us understand you buy the tickets on the tram!  We felt pretty stupid, but figured it had to have been our non-stop journey and sleep depravity talking.  So we bought tickets, and when we got to the Centraal Station, the tram driver laughed and said you HAVE to get off here!  We were seriously tired.  We found the correct bus, and thanks to Dori, she saved us some money.  In Amsterdam their trams, buses and underground are all on one ticket (€2.80 for one hour of use).  When we finally got to our host's, he was already asleep but there were four other surfers there!  We were exhausted, and all slept in the kitchen, and slept in the next morning.

We woke up and took showers (YAY SHOWERS), and met Yanina (sha-knee-knee is how she pronounced it) and the four of us took off to explore the beautiful city.  Amsterdam is very clean, and has a cool vibe.  It's an old city with young people, so we felt safe the whole time we explored.  Twana has an international plan, so we were able to map out places to go, and Amsterdam isn't that big so we walked a lot.  You're easily transported to another time. 

We went to the city center and explored some shops.  Lots and lots of flashing lights and techno music, and pretty much any kind of psychedelic drug you could imagine for sale.  

It was really fun though, and we stopped at a coffee shop, then later before dinner went to a little bar for a drink.  We shopped for groceries - seriously guys, if you can grocery shop! You save so much money!  We made some simple pasta but it was so delicious!  We all chatted and sang songs while Yanini played her ukulele, then went to bed.

The next day was a little rainy, so we left later in the day.  We went to the Albert Cuypmarkt - the largest street market in the Netherlands.  There was all kinds of things for sale, but we just went to see and experience.  

Then we walked to the floating flower market on Singel (one of the main streets/canals) and then finished off sightseeing with visiting the Anne Frank House.  I would highly recommend going to see this.  It's €9 per adult, and very sobering.  You walk through where this courageous girl lived.  The line is long, but you can reserve space to skip the line.  It's a self guided tour with videos and lots to see and read.  Find out more info here.
We walked back and picked up some rice to make dinner.  We finally met our host, Teago! We made dinner for everyone and chatted and had good laughs, but went to bed early.  Walking really takes it out of you!

Thanks so much for reading, we are excited to share our journey with you!  We are currently in Berlin, and will be updating again soon (sooner than this post hopefully!)

Ciao!
Chels

Fear of the Unknown

Ever since I have decided to go on this European backpacking trip, some of the responses I get from people consist of, “Man, I wish I could do that” or “I wish I could of done that before I had kids/got a job/marriage”. My immediate reaction to that is “you still can.” I wonder why people think, especially women, they can’t follow their wildest dreams.

Women say they can’t leave their kids or they can’t afford it or they just couldn’t do it all together. I think that the only person that limits me, is well... myself. And I know you are thinking, “Well she doesn’t have kids” and you’re right, I have no idea what its like. But I honestly believe that people are going to do what they want to do no matter what.

It's fear rather than the things that tie down people that keep them from following their dreams. Fear of the unknown. Believe me! It's suppose to be scary... My adrenaline was racing when I was sitting at the computer just trying to decide if I needed to buy the ticket to Europe or not. But the thing is, if we're not scared of our dreams and ambitions, then they're not big enough. Just like deciding to have a child, that's very scary but extremely rewarding... So I've heard anyway.

And I’m not writing this to bash people who don’t travel. That is not my purpose for this posting at all. I am here to say that you can go wherever your wildest dreams take you. Don’t let society tell you your dreams are ridiculous.

I want to encourage all women to follow their dreams. Don’t you want to look back and be able to say that you did it!! You accomplished everything you wanted to in life.

Just words of encouragement for those reading our blog. Thanks for reading and stay in tune with our travels. We'll be in Berlin tomorrow!

-  Dori

UK update!

Hello! 

We are currently on a bus to Amsterdam, and these past few days have been a whirlwind, we didn't stay in one city for more than a day. 

We started in Dublin, Ireland.  Dublin is the cheapest place to fly into from the US because of taxes.  It's a beautiful city, and the city centre is pretty compact, with quiet neighborhoods close by.  We arrived on different days, so Twana and Dori stayed with an AirBnB host, and I stayed with a couchsurfing host.  Trinity College is definitely worth a walk through, most of the buildings on campus are older than our country!  I also saw the Charles Beatty Library, a collection of old and rare books.  

The next day we took a bus to Belfast, and took a ferry to Scotland.  We originally did not plan on going to Scotland, but we had a film job in Aberdeen.  Here is where we had a few travel problems!  The ferry was great, but apparently we didn't buy the correct tickets to connect from the ferry to the train station.  None of us had enough £ (GBP) to catch the express bus to the main train station, and there was not an ATM, so we had just enough to catch a local bus to a local train station.  On the bus we met a crazy old cat man, and his 20 year old cat threw up on Dori.. The whole situation was so bizzare, and we were glad to get to the train station. When we arrived, they told us they printed tickets on the train, but after the train started moving, and the ticket man came around, he informed us that we did not have the correct cards. Europe uses chip cards (http://www.tomsguide.com/us/chip-and-pin-credit-cards,review-2013.html) and sometimes our cards won't work.  Luckily the man was nice and he let us stay on the train all the way to Glasgow. 

The countryside was beautiful, and when we arrived in Glasgow, two young ticket control officers let us through without paying. Things were looking up! We found a cheap taco place, then stayed at St. Enoch's Hostel. Going into the hostel didn't look good, but it turned out to be a nice place!  We shared a double room, had our own bathroom which was great, and got some much needed sleep. 

The third day we made it to our train to Aberdeen with literally seconds to spare! The ride was beautiful along the coastline.

Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Aberdeen.  There is a reason we were the only three backpackers that were there.  We had to go there to film a pickup interview for a documentary. No one seemed to know where we needed to get to, and people looked at us like we were crazy people. We took a bus to the wrong place, then had to walk a mile or so to another road to catch another bus to take us to Balmedie, a small sleepy village on the coast.  We just missed the bus, so we tried finding food.  We found a little sandwich shop, and I mean little. We barely fit in the line and everyone was gaping at us. When we finally were about to leave with our lunch, our stash of jelly fell onto the floor and spilled. We were a hot mess! Luckily one older Scotsman helped us, and wished us a good journey.  We missed the bus a couple more times because you have to wave the busses down for them to stop. When we finally got to Balmedie, we met the man we interviewed and went to his home to set up. He didn't want his face shown. 

We made it back to Aberdeen's city centre and tried to get a bus or train to Amsterdam, but because it was Saturday, the only bus we could get was an overnight to London. We were so happy to be out of Aberdeen! 

Day four, we arrived in London early in the morning hoping to purchase connecting tickets to Amsterdam, but they were all sold out.  So we found Generator Hostel London, and headed towards it. Luckily the big sites in London were on the way! 

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben.

We found a grocery and made dinner at the hostel, then played card games with some Australians.  We left this morning and are currently crossing the channel into France, on our way to Amsterdam! 

We will be in Amsterdam for a few days, so will update more often. 

Thanks for reading! We are excited about being in continental Europe!  

-Chels

Where are we going?

Some of you have asked where we are going in Europe, so here is a list of the countries we are hoping to visit!  Some of these places we will visit just one city, and others spend a week or longer.  All of our plans are tentative, we know that a lot happens on the road and are open to letting life show us where to go (but Chelsey likes lists and plans...!)

Ireland   -   England   -   Holland   -   Sweden   -   Germany    -   Czech Republic   -   Austria
Greece   -   Israel   -   Italy    -   Switzerland   -   Spain   -   Morocco    -   Portugal   -  France   -   Belgium

Do you all have any suggestions?  Think we are missing a country?  Tell us what you think we should see, and places to look for in the countries listed above!


-Chels

We want to hear from you!

I'm getting excited about our trip!  We leave in just a few short weeks...
Dori and Twana graduate this Saturday!

We want to travel to see the world and to learn about different cultures.  Because we are bringing along our cameras, we are excited about YOU joining our trip!  We want to hear from you!  What would you like to see on the blog?   What places would you like to see?

We are excited, and hope you are too!

-Chels