Endless Summer Tiny World

Today Chelsy and I went to the great wall of china! It is so cool and so amazing, and huge!!! We went to the wall at mutianyu, it was cool cause it had restored parts and unrestored sections. It was about an hour hike up to the wall so Chelsy and I decided to take the cable car up and spend more time on the wall. Climbing the wall really is a climb and a ton of work! It is on top of a ridge of a mountain and it goes up and down the mountain ridges. This section of the wall also had 23 towers, I think we made it to 16 of them! The old section was very cool as well but definitely overgrown and falling down. We then took a “toboggan” down to the parking lot. It was real similar to a luge! So fun! At the bottom we did a little bargaining for some souvenirs and then we headed for lunch that was included with our tour. It was really good! A traditional Chinese meal with lots of tasty choices. Overall a great day and the 2,000 year old wall really was amazing! After snowboarding, walking yesterday, stairclimbing today and waking up super early due to jetlag Chelsy and I are very worn out and sore by the end of the day. I can’t wait to adjust to this time!

It has been difficult dealing with getting travel as lots of trains and buses are booked, and things are filling up fast with chinese new year coming, but we finally got a train ticket today after a lot of work and were headed to pingyao by bus on Sunday.

Quotes of today:
Chelsy: I’m too fat for these little Chinese rides (cause her toboggan wasn’t working very well)

Chelsy: I hate your mom for getting you that video camera!!! (cause I keep taking crazy video, especially of Chelsy going slowly down the slide!)

So we made it to Beijing!! Finally!! We had a 15 hour flight to shanghai, and then 2 hours to Beijing. We got in and the airlines left chelsy’s bag in shanghai (don’t worry she has it back now!) we hopped on a bus stopping near where we needed to but didn’t know where that stop was and no one on that bus spoke English! The buses were packed and just as I had been told the Chinese people are not very good at forming lines, instead it’s just a pushing and shoving match to get on the bus. We finally got our bus driver to figure out where we were going and tell us when to get off the bus. This was at about 1:30 am, as our plan didn’t even land til almost midnight. We got dropped off but in the dark, in a strange area, being unable to read signs much made following our directions a challenge so we just got a cab for the last 10 minutes to our hostel.
Our hostel is really nice and the staff is great! This morning we got up early, because the time change is messing with our sleep schedule, and we did some odds and ends before heading out to the forbidden city.
We saw tiananmen square, walked to the top of the gate, and then into the city. The forbidden city is huge!!! But so cool. All the buildings are just amazing to look at. The roofs are great and all the details in these buildings is amazing. It would take forever to see everything, so Chelsy and I only lasted half the day, but I thought that was a pretty good amount if time! We then hiked up the hill across the street, the hill is made from the dirt they dug out of the moat around the forbidden city, and we enjoyed the view for awhile before moving on. We then went to the lama temple, a Buddhist temple, where everyone was burning incense and we saw an eighty foot high statue of buddha that is carved from one piece of sandalwood!
On the way home we stopped and had our first real Chinese meal…. It was sooo spicy and Chelsy and I both decided our chopsticks skills have got to improve or were gonna lose lots of weight! But maybe that’s a good thing…..
Oh and I forgot…there is no Facebook in china! I know I’m shocked too, how can a country this big not have Facebook?? But I guess that means you’re all gonna have to keep up with me either through email or right here!
Tomorrow’s plan is the great wall!! I’m so excited!

So far the trip has started off great! Chelsy and I met in Chicago and flew to long island, ny. The airport in long island is called slip but we didn’t realize that so when the lady went to put the tag on our checked bag we thought she was asking if we were going to Iceland! Now if we had bought a $60 ticket to Iceland we wouldn’t have been upset, it just would have thrown a little wrench in our plans! So our joke the last couple days has been that we were in Iceland. The weather in NYC is nothing like Iceland though as it’s in the 50’s and 60’s the whole time we’ve been here.
Chelsy and I have a friend, Bert, in long island that we stayed with. He was one of the guys from the tour we were just on. Our first night we took the train into the city and met up and went out with a bunch of his buddies! It was a long late night so we spent half the rest of the day sleeping. We then decided to get out of the city and we headed up to the cabin Bert and his friends and family have been building for two years. It was gorgeous up there. We were up in the catskill mountains and spent the night sitting around the wood stove.
The next day we headed to the local ski mountain and went snowboarding. It was pretty crazy because there was no snow on the mountains anywhere except on the ski hill where they were making snow. It was great weather for boarding though….. Sunny and no wind! On the way back through the city we stopped and had dinner with our friend Rachel Cooper, who we know from the ship. It was great to be able to catch up with her!
This morning we headed out to the beach near long island and also stopped for some traditional new York pizza. Even though we didn’t see much of the city we had a great time! Bert and his family were so nice to us and treated us so well! It was a great start to our trip! We are now headed off to china! It’s a long flight but I can’t wait to be there!!

Sorry It’s been forever since I have updated this. The rest of my tour was amazing!! I have made such great friends and it is sad to not see them everyday. But as with everything, the ship and this tour, those types of jobs always mean you make friends you won’t always see again! But anytime I am in their area they should plan for a call from me!!

Some highlights were staying in a haunted plantation with the most amazing people, partying it up in Biloxi, MS with all the casinos, and spending 3 weeks in New Orleans and going to a battle of the bands, a monday night Saints game, as well as enjoying all the sights and live music the city has to offer.

I have spent the holidays at home and am about 3 days from taking off on the next, and final leg of my trip. Yes even I do not have money to travel forever! On January 7 Chelsy and I will be flying to NYC for a few days, where we will meet up with our friend Bert, one of the guys from our tour, as well as several other friends we met on ship. Oh did I mention Chelsy will be traveling with me for the next 5 months??!! We are going to see the sights of NYC. Unbelievably this is one of the cities in the US that I have never been to, so I am really excited to see it! On January 10th we are then flying to Beijing, China. We are hoping our friend Greg Ward gets his visa figured out so he can join us for our three weeks over there! We will be traveling by train, bus or automobile for 3 weeks from Beijing to Hong Kong. I am so excited for the terracotta warriors and the Great wall, and all the great food!

We will then go from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Thailand. We will spend 3 months in Southeast Asia.  Who knows what exactly we will be doing in those 3 months but my guess is laying on beaches, hiking, riding elephants, diving and lots of swimming, as well as whatever else happens to come along our path. We will have two of my friends, Tasia and Angie with us for two weeks in Thailand, and Chelsy has a Thai friend in Bangkok. While there I hope we will hit up Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia and possibly the phillipines.

After Southeast Asia we are going to head for three weeks to India, where we will definitely see the Taj Mahal. From there we will end our five months with two weeks in Russia. My mom will visit us there and I will finally be able to see all the places she has told me about from her past.

Everything is slowly but surely coming together  and I am almost prepared to leave. I simply need to throw everything into a bag! The one slip up has been getting a Russian Visa so far in advance and with all the holidays, but we have just decided we are going to wing it and try to get one overseas. If that doesn’t work, we will have to just change our plans a little!

For those of you who do not know Chelsy I’m adding a picture so you always know who I am talking about! Time to start following the blog again, if you want to, and  seeing where all our adventures take us. And as always, if you wanna visit or you happen to find yourself in the area we are in let me know so we can meet up!

I’m still having a blast on tour and have been super busy! After the Blues Festival we were back in Little Rock where we spent our days off on a great hike at a place called Pinnacle Mountain State Park. It was beautiful and looked out over the river. From Little Rock we headed to Shreveport where our one fun night was spent at a casino and I won $80 on black jack! It was great cause it paid for my new tennis shoes I got! Shreveport definitely does not have much going on there. From Shreveport we ended up in Monroe, LA where we spent Halloween. We had a blast for Halloween, our group was the Wizard of Oz and we looked amazing. We  were hoping to go out and join a group costume contest, but unfortunately the place we went too didn’t have a group contest. We had a blast anyways though!!!

We then went from Monroe to Alexandria, LA where we stayed at a haunted plantation home with some of the nicest people I may have ever met. The people that owned and ran the Loyd Hall Plantation was the most amazing group ever. They were so hospitable and made us a homemade dinner, went to a great dinner with them and then they got all kinds of gifts for Chelsy for her birthday. They were the most hospitable ever and we had an amazing time at a beautiful place!

Today we arrived in Biloxi and we are staying at the Grand Biloxi Casino in downtown. Hopefully it will be really great and there will be lots of fun things to do. We have one week here and then we’re off to New Orleans for two and a half weeks. Chelsy and I also bought tickets to the Monday night Saints game in New Orleans as well! We’re so excited! It will be my first NFL football game!! Only one month left to go on this tour and it is going to be a fun one!

On our last days off we had relocated to Little Rock, AR and Chelsy, Robert and I decided to make the short drive to Hot Springs, AR. There was not too much going on but we got to touch a hot spring and go see the historic bath house and then go and see the room and historic hotel that Al Capone used to stay in. All in all, it was a good day!! The next day we found out we were working far from little rock so we packed up and rescheduled our hotels and went to helena, AR. But we had a hotel in Tunica, MS and that was only about 30 miles from Memphis so we decided to head there. We, of course, made a quick stop outside Elvis’ house for some pics and then headed down to Beale street.  We had a blast! The street was shut down and was only for walking on and we listened to lots of live music! Our moto of the day was we work in Arkansas, Sleep in Mississippi and we party in Tennessee!

The next day we started working at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, AR. It was really cool! We got to listen to live blues all day and the last night we got to attend the concert. It was really cool and a fun event to work. Today we’re off to go hiking at the state park near Little Rock, watch the march of the ducks at the Peabody and go to the Brewery today! Another great day off! I love it!!

The best part about this job is that we get two days off a week…. something I haven’t had in a job in two years!!! My last two days off we headed out to the lake near Tulsa. It was Chelsy, Ricky, Robert and I and we had a blast! We did some fishing, and we rented a speedboat and a wakeboard. It was a great time and makes me wanna be sure I always have days off from now on!!! I have attached some photos of us on the lake!

We are now in Little Rock, Arkansas and looking to head out and enjoy hot springs for the day, and hopefully find some whitewater rafting!! Hope everyone back home is doing great! Oh and I can’t believe I almost forgot but Chelsy and I bought our tickets for our next adventure!!! We are leaving January 10th and we’re headed to China first, then to Thailand and Southeast Asia, we’re planning to get a ticket to Australia for a week or two from there, and then we’re headed to India and finally Moscow before returning home next June! I am so excited!!!

This last weekend, in the crazy way that my life generally goes, I got convinced to run in the Ragnar relay. This is a 12 person, 24 hour plus, 195 mile relay from Winona, mn to minneapolis. You may wonder how this happens… My friend Elyse recently ended a relationship with a guy who was planning to run, knew I was in the US with no job and not much of a solid plan, so when they were short a person I’m sure it only seemed logical for her to call me. Now Elyse and I played rugby together, I’m fairly athletic and I have run a marathon before, but what both of us soon learned was that 5 months in Africa and a handful of jogs around the block does not prepare you for the Ragnar Relay.

I ended up running almost 12 miles and while I was running
sometimes thought I was going to die or collapse, but the whole thing was a blast! I was in a van with 5 other team members and we had a blast! We did a lot of cheering, always using the cowbell they gave us appropriately, a lot of running, wore some terrible headbands we found, slept about 3 hours in 30 and  on Saturday when our team hit the finish line most of us couldn’t walk but we had a blast. I’m really happy I got invited to go and it is definitely something I will do again, I’d probably just train for it!

Since I have been back life has been good. I went out to Colorado for my friend Lizzy’s wedding. We have been friends for about 15
years. She had a beautiful wedding to a very nice man and I am super happy for both of them. I also got to visit my friends out in Colorado while there. I also got to enjoy my sister’s wedding and
helping out with that. She had a beautiful wedding and It was really great to be a part of that. September was a beautiful bride and I am so happy that they are married and I got to be a part of it!!

Now I am visiting all the friends I can in Minnesota and spending time catching up with everyone.

After we left bodrum we got a 5 hr bus to pamukkale. When we got there we got our 12 hr bus ticket to Istanbul and left our bags with the bus company. We spent about 3 hours walking all around pamukkale. It is a huge old ruined city and then this mountain covered with salt tavertines and salt terraces almost. It looks very surreal and almost something out of a dr Seuss book. We had dinner in town and made it back to the bus station in time to get on our bus to Istanbul. It was a long restless night back and when we finally got to our hostel we just lounged and showered a bit. We decided on a city sight seeing bus tour and after about an hour into it we were both soo tired and when it got back to the start we decided to head back for a much needed nap time. In the evening we made I briefly to the grand bazaar but most the shops were closing. We found a nice place for dinner and drinks and got things sorted for Greg to leave today.

I said goodbye to Greg this morning after we had a little breakfast and I was all alone again. It is so hard when friends leave, depressing, I’m just happy I have going home to look forward to! I visited the mausoleums attached to the hagia Sophia and then spen the rest of the afternoon enjoying the day in the gardens in front of the palace.

Tomorrow morning early I hop on a shuttle to the airport. It is super bittersweet. I’m really excited to see everyone back home and catch up with everyone, but it will also be strange to go back to the so-called real world for a bit. No I don’t have the next plane ticket bought, but don’t worry it will get purchased soon enough! Hopefully Russia, India, and southeast Asia are up next! After a little tour and time in the US! Can’t wait to see everyone! Feel free to give me a call this week if you wanna catch up and tell me about all the news of your lives!!

After the long night to get back to turkey we spent most the day in kasudasi just lounging, the next day we headed for bodrum. Bodrum has been great because we have met a lot of great people! The first day we got here we lounged and then headed out on the town with a group from our hostel! It was a great time and made even greater when a girl from the hotel remembered Greg stumbling out of a bus at 4:30 am clueless to what had happened in the previous hours! Haha!! The next day we headed out on a boat cruise through the peninsula of bodrum! It was awesome! Great water, jumping off the boat ( which I love since I act like a 10 year old!), and lunch, a camel ride and free drinks!! It was great!! Last night we just stayed and hung with people at the bar at the hotel and then today Spent most the day hanging out. This afternoon we went for atraditional Turkish bath which was awesome! You sauna for awhile first, then steam room then you lay on a marble slab and they use a black mitt to exfoliate and remove dead skin and then you get a foam massage; we also opted fir the oil massage and mud mask since Greg had never had one and it was really nice and really cool! Gh