Honeymoon Around The World

War torn country, Sniper fire, Sarajevo under siege, Serbs and the Croats. Probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think of Bosnia and definitely not a place you think of vacationing to. Christy and I had no intentions of visiting Bosnia until a fellow traveler told us that it is one place NOT to be missed. So, from Budapest, instead of going to our original destination-Slovenia, we decided to head for Bosnia. We first had to endure a 13 hour train ride from Budapest, which was not fun especially since it was only suppose to take us 11 hours. We assumed that the train would have a food car (which typically there is) so we didnt pack a lunch…big mistake. Thirteen hours with only a Twix bar split between the 2 of us. Of course, our first question to our host when we arrived at our guesthouse in Sarajevo was, where can we get some food at this hour? Since we arrived at 11pm, we figured we were out of luck. The owner of the guesthouse told us that just down the street was a local bar and it would still be serving food. Since we had gone all day without food, we were willing to settle for a stale bar food, that is if the place was still serving food. You can imagine our suprise when we arrived at this “bare”, which was not only a bar but a full fledge restaraunt. When we opened the door, we felt like we had stepped onto an old western movie set-here was a restaurant packed with young hip Sarajevans with smoke so thick you could cut it with a knife. The place was packed and everyone was smoking-it was so strange! We said to one another that this is what the U.S. probably looked like in the 50s. I think our table was the only one where smoke wasnt billowing up from in the entire place!

Sarajevo has an old historic town as well as the newer, more modern city. Our guesthouse was only a three minute walk to the Old Town, so the following day we took a walk down and were amazed by how beautiful and bustling it was. Sarajevo was ruled by the Ottomans and Austro-Hungarians at different times so you get an amazing mix of architeture and religons. It’s one of the only cities in Europe that has a Mosque, Catholic church, Jewish temple and a Orthodox church all in one square. In old town, you walk through numerous little alleyways where people are sitting on outside terraces and patios, drinking coffee. Pretty Muslim girls are walking about, covered up in their colorful headresses and there’s smoke coming out of all the bar-b-que restaurants that align the alley ways. Christy had some interesting thoughts about the headscarfs that Muslim girls wear-girls wear the headscarfs mostly to keep men from looking at them in a sexual way. They think by covering up their hair with a scarf (leaving their faces exposed) and their arms and legs with long dresses, that they appear as more than just an “sexual” object. But, what Christy noticed was that with such beautiful, colorful headscarf, they draw more attention to their faces and most of them were beautiful women with beautiful skin…so the headscarf kind of defeats the purpose because you end up starring at them more than you would if they wore western style clothes.

Our evenings in Sarajevo were spent sitting up on our little patio of our guesthouse that overlooked the city. We would sip on a bottle of Hungarian wine we brought with us from Budapest while listening to the catholic church bells ringing along with the muslim “call to prayer” being played from all the mosques-all at the same time. We really felt like we were somewhere special, a secret spot that most tourists don’t yet know about.

One of our goals with coming to Bosnia was to learn about its history and exactly what happened here in the mid 90’s. Immediately after you get off the train, signs of the war are everywhere. Serbia wanted to “reclaim” the land they thought was theirs and they were willing to destroy the entire Bosnian country to get it. Other than the touristy Old Town, most buildings are riddled with gun shots/bullet holes and some buildings are left completely destroyed from the bombs. For 4 years this city was under siege with bombs and sniper fire from the hills surrounding the city. Since Sarajevo is in a valley, the Serbian army was able to surround them completely, aiming their tanks and guns downhill directly on the city and its residences. Christy and I got chills talking to a local as he described daily life here. He summed it up by saying “for 4 years I lived like I had a gun to my head. Whenever I was outside, I could get shot by a sniper or hit by a bomb.” Imagine having to sprint to the store for supplies…that is before all power was lost and all entrances blocked so supplies could no longer reach the city. Another very sad sight was seeing the numerous graveyards throughout the city. When you look at the date of death, they are all the same…

To see all our pictures go to  http://picasaweb.google.com/smccrosky

We were certainly ready to get somewhere that wasn’t as touristy as Prague, so we headed to Budapest. a day earlier than planned. To get there, however, we had to take 9 hour overnight train from Prague. The coachettes that you reserve on the train is a little room with 6 small bunks stacked rather snuggly on top of one another. The train provides you with sheets, blankets and pillows so its actually quite nice. The only gamble is who else rooms with you in your coachette and if it will be full of six people or not. We were very happy to see that we only had to share the coachette with one other girl and she just happened to be an American from L.A.-of all places. We had a great time sharing stories and since she had just been to Africa and climbed Mt. Kilimjaro, we got some good first hand info on the place. The only downside in doing an overnighter on the train though is that in the middle of the night when crossing Hungary’s border, we had the boarder patrol guard banging on our cabin wanting to see our passports. Quite a sight, me standing there in my boxers giving the boarder guards our passports to get stamped. Christy, all snug in her bed had a good laugh and was as happy as could be since she has some crazy obsession with getting as many stamps in her passport as possible. She quickly grabs the passport flips through the pages to find the new one and then critiques how nice or ugly the country’s stamp is. Its good comedy watching her do this.

Budapest is a great city, lots of history, beautiful buildings and good cheap food. The popular activity here for locals and tourists is go to one of the many outdoor thermal baths and soak in the hot water. Its basically a huge swimming pool sourounded by gorgeous buildings and architechture. We chose the coed baths so we could swim together and also because the idea of sitting in a huge bath with a bunch of hungarian men didnt sound too appealing to me. It was awesome relaxing in the hot water, soothing our aching feet from walking so much and watching all the locals do their thing. We especially liked wathcing the guys hitting on the girls. Since there is no alcohol allowed at the baths, you really got to see some bad pick up attempts.

Of course we had to go to the Terror Museum and learn about the history of Hungary, especially the history of the secret police and communism. Once again, we left the museum just blown away by what Hungarians have been through for the past sixty plus years.  First, they were able to fight off the Germans until 1945, but then nazism took over.  Persecution of not only Jews, but other minorities, homosexuals, religious people, and the like began.  People were tried for crimes they did not commit, sentenced and executed.  This happened to millions of people.  Then after Hungary was liberated by the Soviets, and within 2 years are being persecuted again in almost the exact same way by communism. It was amazing. and so sad.  This went on until the early 90’s when they finally gained their independence.  In fact, the last prisoner of war was returned to Hungary from the Soviet Union in 2000.  Incredible. 

Tonight we will be going to the Grand Opera House to watch a philharmonic orchestra. We got the history lesson so now we needed a little culture. A little culture never hurt anyone especially when it only costs 4 dollars a ticket.

We survived our first month of international travel. A lot of times your first month is the toughest because you’re getting used to all kinds of new things. For instance, wearing essentially the same clothes day in and day out. We have basically 2 pairs of warm weather clothes. One pair you wash in the sink and let dry, the other pair you wear. It kind of feels like we have military uniforms, as can be seen from our pictures. Its tough to differentiate the days since we have the same thing on everyday. It is however clean clothes we have on, I can assure you. We did get to use a washer and dryer once in Ireland and in about a week there is word that the place were staying in Croatia has free use of washer and dryer.

Sleeping and hotels:

Wev’e run the gammit on this one, from staying in hostels in a room with bunk bed, trying to sleep with 10 of your “closest friends” to staying in a beautiful 300 year old cottage right on the ocean. Our biggest challenge was getting through Western Europe without blowing the whole years budget. Western Europe is crazy expensive and the dollar being in the absolute pits didn’t help at all. Thank God we had 2 home exchanges which saved us and now that were in Eastern Europe prices have come down by almost half. Since we arrived in Eastern Europe, we’ve been staying in pensions where we get a nice room and usually have to share a bathroom with a couple other rooms. We do have a couple of good stories come out of staying in hostesl. In Galway, Ireland we stayed in a nice hostel where we only had to share the room with 2 other people. One just happen to be a really cool Irishman who lived 20 miles out of town and was staying in the hostel because…well the Irish like to drink and he knew he wouldn’t be able to drive home after a long night of partying. Well this guy came in at around 3 am, passed out and snored so loud it shook the beds. Christy and I just looked at each other in amazement and put in our ear plugs, which usually drown out almost all noises, except it didn’t drown out this guys snoring. The poor other guy in the room didn’t have earplugs at all so we got to hear him cursing in some foreign language and trying to stick toilet paper in his ears. So, we didn’t get much sleep than night and ended up booked a bed and breakfast for the next night so we could get out of that place. Oh, the joys of traveling.

Last time I was in Prague, it was 3 years after the Soviets pulled out and things were cheap, very cheap. Tourism was in its infancy and you felt like you discovered a secret gem. I was excited to show Christy this amazing city. Well, the secret is long gone and the place is swarming with tourists. Where you have swarms of tourists you have high prices as well. I couldn’t believe the change in the main town square, new fancy restaurants everywhere, horse carriage tours, huge tour groups walking around and English being spoken everywhere.

What’s weird is that prices are all over the board. In the tourist areas, prices are about the same as the U.S. If you walk a mile outside the tourist area, you could have a nice dinner and drinks for 15 bucks. So needless to say, we did a hell of a lot of walking while we were there. Prague is still an incredibly beautiful city, the most beautiful that Ive ever seen, you just have to look past the crowds now. The number of amazing cathedrals and beautiful buildings is just mind blowing. And to think this was all built hundreds of years ago is just amazing.

Capitalism is definitely alive and well in Prague and the art of nickle and diming you is in full swing. We were in the main square and saw an ice cream stand selling a scoop for a dollar, so we thought, lets get an ice cream, sit in the square and do some people watching. So I order a scoop, and she asks if I want a cone or cup and that it cost 25 cents extra for either one. Since eating ice cream out of my hand didn’t sound like a good option I decided to spend the extra 25 cents for something to hold my wonderful ice cream in. Then she proceeded to give me a scoop and I guess I should have clarified what a scoop was, because what she gave me was no more than a small tablespoon of ice cream, sort of like a sample instead of a scoop. Anyway, it was worth a good laugh and we continued on our way, happy as can be with our very tiny ice cream cones and “sample” of ice cream.

Ok, so our German is a little rusty. We are trying to get the basic words down for each country. It makes it a little tough when you’re in a different country with a different language every four days. So after leaving Amsterdam we took the train to Berlin. I thought it would be a good time to get a history lesson in on our travels, and boy did we. I was in Berlin 13 years ago and remembered how it just blows your mind when you realize that you’re at the spot where so much history took place, where the world was affected in so many ways. We did a 5 hour walking tour through Berlin and went to all the main spots, the Berlin Wall, the Reichtag, Hitler’s bunker where he commited suicide and the Brandenburg gate. It’s incredible to think that ninety percent of Berlin was leveled during World War II.  Needless to say, the place is still being repaired and since the city itself is bankrupt, it’s taking a long time to get things in order. Also, the Berlin Wall cut right through the city so all of that area has been redeveloped as well. It’s just a really weird contrast between old Berlin and new Berlin. Our tour guide said the city is trying to come up with a new slogan for the city. One of the finalists for the slogan when translated into english is “Berlin, we do everthing, just not quite right.” another is “Berlin, we’re poor but sexy.” Thats probably the best way to describe Berlin. On our last day we went to a concentration camp. Another deal where you really can nof grasp what went on in this country until you are there. The numbers of people murdered are mind blowing. When they talk about how many were killed, its not hundreds or thousands, but millions. To see ovens that were made for cooking people and huge shower rooms that were made for gassing people is very sad. You leave the tour just dumbfounded about how this all happened and amazed at how lucky we were not to have lived through any of that.  One thing is for sure, the Nazis were bastards and the communists were not much better.

With our heads filled with an incredible history lesson, we were ready to head off to the mother of all cities, Prague….

Thus far, Amsterdam has been the most beautiful city we have visited.  The cobble-stone streets cross over numerous canals that run throughout the city.  The buildings are tall, compact and skinny, but colorful, beautiful, and charming.  We found ourselved wondering from one charming street to the next, no matter where we walked within the city.  It was impressively clean and quiet and every thing seem to be in it’s place.  The streets were busier with people on bicycles as opposed to cars or buses.  Trains run along the main streets, but most were so quiet that you wouldn’t even hear them pass by.  There was so little graffitti or garbage that it was almost a shock when we did see any.  The city is safe and easy to navigate with restaraunt after restaraunt after high-end shop.  I often got the feeling that I could live there, if only it were closer to family.  I feel almost embarrassed by the preconceived notions I had of Amsterdam before arriving there.  We always hear of the ‘bad’ things, such as the drug use and the Red Light District where prostitution is almost legal…it’s regulated anyway.  As far as the drug scene goes, yes there are the infamous ‘coffee shops’ with menus listed different types of joints, mushrooms and the like that you could buy.  And yes, the Red Light District has hookers and sex shops all on display.  But, never once was I disgusted or distracted by either of these things.  The city is far too classy and too clean. In fact, we saw numerous families walking all around the city.

We arrived late in the evening our first night in Amsterdam after a long travel day (Ireland to Brussels via plane, Brussels to Amsterdam via train, local train to our hotel).  Our first day we wondered around on foot, just getting familiar with the place and enjoying the peacefulness.  We just so happen to stumble accross the Heiniken Brewery and we felt it was only right as tourists to take a tour.  After a few hours, a couple of Heinikens and some great conversation with a norweigan couple, we countinued our walk through the city, marveling at how many restaraunts there were.  We ended up at the Red Light District and had to giggle at the prostitutes displaying themselves in the windows.  Even though we knew we were in the Red Light District, it didn’t feel at all dirty or sleezy because the streets were so tidy and quiet.  Police strolled down the side walk keeping everything orderly which is great for the prostitutes.  The police are there if they ever get into a sticky situation with a ‘customer’ because as I mentioned earlier, prostitution is regulated.  Prices for ‘services’ are fixed so that eliminates pimping and keeps the neighborhood quiet, safe and clean.  It was pretty funny though how the women were on display like mannequins in a department store window.

Our second day, we started off with a tour of the Anne Frank house, which was very moving and sad.  Great history lesson to start the day, but to lift our spirits, we walked to an outside markets where many of the locals go to buy their groceries like fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses, and sausage.  We bought a small chunk of cheese that tasted similar to mozzerela with rosemary added to it.  Sooo yummy.  We then bought some fresh grapes and, later, crackers for a nice picinic.  Before we decided on where to sit to enjoy our lunch, we decided that today would be a good day to rent some bikes and cruz around the city like the locals do.  So, off we went on our touristy red bikes down to the docks where we took a ferry across the river to a bike path that led through neighborhoods outside of the city and beautiful park areas.  We past by a windmill, the one’s that the Netherlands are known for that was so cute, especially with the goats grazing behind it.  We were so into our bike ride that we forgot about our cheese and grapes until we crossed back over into the city center of Amsterdam.  So, we found a quiet bench along a canal to sit and have our long awaited picinic.  We watched as little private boats drifted by in the canals, followed by some long tourist boats and just as we were finishing our picnic, we heard a large crash where three young teenagers crashed their boat into a tourist boat.  Oooopsie.  Exciting for us, but we felt bad for them.  Off we go on our bikes again back to the hotel where we rested up for our big dinner out.  This was the night we were determined to find some good Mexican food.  No Tex-Mex, but the real deal…and we found it!!!  The only downside, it was expensive!  We stuffed ourselved with a bunch of tacos anyway that tasted similar to one of our favorite restaraunts in Baja.  Our bellies were so happy, but since there is always room for ice cream, we couldn’t go back to our hotel without enjoying a big scoop on a sugary waffle cone from an ice cream parlor known as Australia Ice Cream.  It was delicious!!! 

If you don´t believe me, just ask anyone from Ireland!  Our first destination in this great country was of course Dublin.  The city itself is very nice, very clean and surprisingly, full of upscale shopping.  However, we later discovered that there are far more charming cities in Ireland, but I´ll get to that in a bit.  Dublin was a great way to start our 12 day adventure through Ireland.  We tried to emmerse ourselves in Ireland´s history as much as we could, but it can be a bit complicated.  There is much emphasis on the Potato Famine that caused over two million of Ireland’s population to flee the country, mainy of them to America.  We were very happy to also discover that the Irish think very fondly of America and Americans in general.  We met a very sweet older couple who told us that if it weren’t for America, many Irish would not have made it through such hard times.  That made us feel good and we found that no matter where we traveled in Ireland, we were always met with a smiling face and warm hospitality.  But, back to Dublin…we tried to hit all of the major tourist spots such as the Guiness museum, the Temple Bar area, etc., plus the not so touristy spots, like the Kilmahnam Goal (prounounced Kill Main Ham Jail) which is a jail located on the outskirts of Dublin where many of the people who rebeled against British rule in the early 1900’s were sentenced to death by hanging or firing squad, or life imprisionment.  The tour of the jail was fantastic and gave a great overview of Irish history from the 1900s to present day.  We also visited the oldest pub in Dublin, which was actually built in the 1100’s.  The pub was well hidden, so out of the tourist path and we got to experience our first live perfomance of traditional Irish music.  This was exactly how I had pictured Ireland-sitting in a pub, having a Guiness and watching a small group of Irish men and women strike up an old Irish song.  Priceless.

To make the trip a bit more exciting, we decided to rent a car and venture out of Dublin, south to Kilkenny to visit castles and the like.  So, off we went to pick up the rental car in the pouring rain.  Just to explain a little, when one drives in Ireland, you drive on the left hand side as opposed to the right like in the U.S. which doesn’t seem too horrible, except when everything in the car is backwards as well.  Steering wheel is on the left, the gear shift is on the left (and yes, we rented a car that was manual shift to make matters worse…I mean exciting), even turning on the winshield wipers and the car lights was backwards.  So evertime we wanted to turn or change lanes, Steve turned on the wipers instead of the turn signal.  We made sure to listen to the advise of our friend Michelle…Stay left, Stay left, Stay left!!!  As I mentioned earlier, it was raining when we picked up the rental car, so without thinking, Steve and I ran to our tiny compact Hundai, threw our luggage in the back seat and jumped inside, but then realized that I had jumped into the driver’s side which at home is the passenger side and he had jumped into the passanger side, which at home is the driver’s side.  We then had to jump out in the pouring rain again and switch sides.  I can’t even tell you how many times we did this routine.  Eventually, Steve was able to master driving on the left hand side of the road and we were off to the quaint town of Kilkenny where finally got to see the beautiful Ireland country side and tour a very well perserved castle.  It’s a very strange thing to see at first when your not used to seeing castles.  Around you are mostly modern structures, stores and shops, etc. and then in the middle is a giant castle.  Sometimes I found myself asking, why did they build this freeway or this office building beside this old castle?  It’s so distracting!  Don’t they appreciate their castles?  But honestly, there are too many castles that are far too large and have been neglected for so long that they cannot all be taken care of.  Plus, Ireland’s population and industry is growing so we can’t blaim them for not trying to salvage every single castle.  It is a beautiful site to see Ireland’s fat cows (and they are fat) grazing around what used to be a massive castle or even through abandoned Abbeys and Monestaries.  Needless to say, Steve and I took way too many pictures of castles and abbeys, but there was just something magical about them.

The best way to see Ireland, by far is with a car.  We were able to cover a lot of ground, visiting places such as Doolin, where the famous Cliffs of Moher can be found.  Since this area was far too touristy, we jumped in our car and found some cliffs further south all to ourselves.  They were actually more spectacular because unlike the Cliffs of Moher, we could walk along the edge of the cliffs without a huge wall blocking the view.  This area is known as Kilkee.  Even further south of Kilkee at the very tip of the penninsula, we were able to walk out on the cliffs and lay in the sun on the soft spoungy grass.  It was beautiful.  After leaving Doolin, we drove up to Galway, stopping at a few fortress ruins along the way.  Galway actually surprised us.  The city itself was far more charming than Dublin and the night life was amazing.  Tons of young people were out and about dressed to the nines ready for a disco, even on a Thursday night!  We were still able to find a couple of old Irish pubs with traditional Irish music and enjoyed my new and personal favorite beer-Amstel Lager…not available in the U.S.  Darn it!!!  When we first arrived in Galway, we booked a hostel, but were only able to stay there for one night because it was completely booked the next night.  So, the hostel referred us to a small Bed and Breakfast just a few blocks away and we were able to secure a room there the next morning.  This B&B is owned by a sweet older Irish lady named Betty.  We had a great time with Betty because she was a talker!  Not only that, she would forget what she had just talked to you about, so you would end up having the same conversation with her about three different times within five minutes.  It didn’t matter though because she was one of the sweetest ladies we met.  Her accent was just darling and she always called people ‘Love’…Ok now Love, have a good day now Love, thank you so much Love.

From Galway, we drove south, stopping at the Canamera National Park for some hiking before heading down to an area known as the Ring of Kerry.  Before our trip to Ireland, Steve had booked a small cottage for us just along side of the Ring of Kerry, outside a small town known as Sneem.  I have to admit that I wasn’t all that excited because I had seen a picture of the cottage on-line and it appeared a bit too rustic.  But, I have to admit that the photograph did not do the place justice in the least!  The cottage was nestled within a group of small trees and overlooked a small bay and the ocean.  The owners had completely rennovated this old stone cottage to where the outside had the original stone, but the inside was completely modern with a washer and dryer, dishwasher, etc. In front they had added a very large sun room with couches and daybeds perfect for lounging. There was an island directly accross the bay infront of the cottage that Steve and I were able to row to in a small row boat that was lent to us to use by the owners of the cottage.  Steve spent an entire afternoon rowing ‘the princess’ around the bay and down to a small island that was a popular hang out spot for about 14 seals.  These seals were not like the ones in California, they were very curious and when they saw us approaching, they swam within about 10 feet of the row boat and watched us.  They even follwed to boat as Steve rowed us all the way back to the cottage.  At night, we would sit out under the stars in our own private jacuzzi and reflect on the days activities.  Kevin and Lori, the owners of the cottage lent us their kayaks so we could explore the coast line even further.  The water was freezing cold, well cold to my standards, but about 59 degrees, yet Steve decided to attempt swimming with the seals anyway.  Of course, it was totally entertaining for me watching him scream as he hit the cold water, but not so funny after a few minutes when his body went numb and I thought I was going to have to go in after him.  None the less, a seal came within 15 feet of him and just watched him curiously.  I think that if Steve had a wetsuit, the seal would have swam along side of him all day.  So cute.  We were only able to stay at the cottage for four days, but it was probably the most relaxing four days I have ever had.  Kevin and Lori left us robes to lounge in, peet (for fires), some snacks, even candles to make our stay a little more romantic.  One morning, Steve and I sat in the front sun room for two hours in our robes on the day bed just reading together.  It was so rejuvinating.  I will never forget that place.  We were able to spend a few hours chatting with our hosts in their beautiful house that was just down the driveway from the cottage and what an amazing couple.  They were from America, but had moved to ‘Mermaid Isle’ (as they affectionately named their property) about 10 years ago.  Such a wonderful couple and we immediately felt relaxed and at home with them like we had known them for years.

I was actually a bit sad on the day we had to fly out of Ireland.  When we first decided to visit this amazing country, I thought 12 days was far too long to spend in one country, but I could not have been more wrong.  I wish we had more time because there are plenty of things to see, things to do and people to meet.  I guess I was most surprised by Ireland’s coast line.  I never realized how beautiful the beaches were.  Who would have thought that Ireland would have some of the whitest sand and turquois blue water I had ever seen.  At times, Steve and I thought we were in the Carribean…until the wind blew and reminded us we were in a place much much colder.  Still, the history of this country is fascinating and the Irish are truely some of the sweetest and most genuine people I have ever met.  This is one country people cannot afford to miss.

We are falling way behind on keeping up with our blog. I guess too much fun and not enough down time to sit at the computer. In short, the last 3 weeks have taken us from Iceland to London for 4 days and then to Ireland for two weeks. We had a great time in London wondering the many streets and neighborhoods. We kind of rushed through the main tourist spots i.e. Big Ben, Tower of London, etc. Christy and I have realized that were not too into the sights where there are hordes of tourists. London was also Christy’s first experience with staying in a European hostel. Since London is soooooo expensive for Americans, we found that there were lots of adults staying in the hostel, which 10 years ago when i was here, you never saw that.

We had our most fun in London just walking and getting lost in the city. we wound up finding canals, parks and cool little pubs away from the tourist circuit. We loved the Camden marketplace where we walked through the crazy alley-ways selling everything under the sun. We also found an amazing food market where all the locals went for lunch. Amazing food. We gorged on a dish that was a big baked potato smothered with a cheese that they melt under a hot metal slab and then pour it on top of the potato. Very healthy quisuine. We cant figure out how the Brits stay so skinny when they drink beer like fish and eat fatty food. Maybe it has to do with all that walking. Our favorite pub which we think was called Ye Old Chesire Cheese, or something like that. All we knew was that it was built in the 1600’s and had all these rooms that made the building look like a dungeon or an old prison. We went on a Friday afternoon and it was packed with Londerners getting their drink on after work. We found a little table in an area that pretty much looked like a cave of the pub. We hung out with a great couple from Colombia who were on exchange in London. The girl had one too many ales and kept calling Christy “whisky”, I think she thought that was her name. They shared stories with us about Columbia which were very intersting.

Ok, well that’s London in a nutshell, we’ll have to update Ireland another time which we absolutely loved and got really lucky with the weather… only rained a couple of days and just for a few hours at that. The luck of the Irish I tell ya. Another question we have pondered since being in Ireland is how is their economy doing so well when they spend the majority of their waking hours in a pub drinking Guiness? Do they know something we Americans don’t?

Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the fall weather wherever you are!

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Glaciers, lava, waterfalls, geysers and 10 dollar beers, what a country! Iceland is the extreme in the truest sense of the word. In one day you can see just about everything that mother nature can dish out and then you can finish it off with one of the most expensive meals on the planet.

We arrived in Reykjavik at 6:30am after a 4 hour flight from New York (yes, it´s only 4 hours from New York). We had set up a home exchange and were very happy to see our host waiting for us at the airport when we arrived. I cant say enough good things about doing a home exchange. We got to stay in a nice 2 bedroom house in a great neighborhood of Reykjavik, plus we had use of our host´s spare car the whole week!
On our first day we decided to do the golden circle route which is a 100 mile drive that goes to some of the top spots in Iceland. We hiked in the valley that was created by the separating of the Atlantic tectonic plate and the Eurasian tectonic plate. This area has had some incredibly large earthquakes over the last millennium and you can see where one plate has ridden up higher than the other (check out our pics). In between these plates, there is a large fissure where a lake has formed and is home to some of the clearest water on the planet with up to 300-400 ft visibility, and yes, you can scuba dive there. If it wasn’t for the $500 price tag for one dive, we would have been game since its rated as one of the top 5 dives in the world. Who would have guessed, you could scuba dive in Iceland. Our next stop was Geysir, where the actual word geyser comes from. It´s an area where the ground is smoking everywhere, water is boiling in a bunch of pits and there is one geyser that shoots a huge plume of water up about 40ft every 10 minutes. It was incredible to see even though it felt like the whole place was going to explode any minute. Our last stop on the route was Gulfoss waterfall. All I can say is, pictures do not do the place justice. What really surprised us was how close the waterfall we could actually get. There were no ropes or railings to keep you from falling over the edge!

Day two arrived with a vengeance from mother nature, sideways rain and 38 degree temps, the Iceland specialty. Iceland is known for their wind and, boy did we get a good dose of it. We tried to do a hike on a lava field next to the ocean but after 10 minutes we were so cold and wet that we decided today would be a good day for the Blue Lagoon- Iceland’s famous geothermal lagoon. Swimming in 95 degree aqua marine water in the middle of a lava field with rain pouring down was quite an experience. You felt like you were on another planet with steam rising everywhere and all you can see is lava rocks. Oh, and the white stuff on Christy´s face is a sort of mineral mud that you smear all over your skin to make you oh so soft.

Day 3 brought crystal clear sunshine and cold temps. It actually snowed the night before and all the hills were covered in snow, IN SEPTEMBER! We drove to an area called Porsmörk, about 125 miles from Reykjavik. We spent the day hiking to incredible waterfalls, hiking on glaciers and walking out on an incredible cliff that dropped straight into the ocean. It might have been one of the most incredibly beautiful areas I have ever seen. The crazy thing about Iceland is that there are only 300,000 people that live here and the majority live in Reykjavik. So once you leave town, you´re pretty much alone. We felt like we were the last people left on the planet.

We celebrated Christy´s birthday on our 4th day in Iceland. Unfortunately, the weather gods could care less who´s birthday it was and we were socked in with more sideways rain and near freezing temps. We thought that we needed a little culture anyway, so we spent the day in a great museum learning about the Vikings. We also had our first meal in a restaurant (we cooked every meal at the house, yeah I´m cheap and its damn expensive here-30 bucks for a bowl of spaghetti). But, for Christy’s birthday, spare no expense…ok, we still drank water at the restaurant since a beer is 10 bucks.

On our final day we set off on a hike to an area known for lots of geothermal activity. Meaning, the entire place looked like it was going to erupt at any minute, giant holes in the ground with steam shooting out from the boiling water inside. We hiked a trail where all around us huge plumes of steam were rising out from the ground and there were bubbling pools of water everywhere. After hiking up through the snow we came down to a valley with a stream running through it. The stream was nice and hot so we found a deep spot and hopped in. Sitting in a stream with mountains all around you and steam rising up everywhere was a surreal experience. Of course getting out, Christy almost froze but it was well worth it.

We´ll definitely be back to Iceland. We were blown away by everything. If you are into the outdoors, you gotta come here. Just be prepared for the crazy weather and crazy prices. Tomorrow we head to London for 4 days and then it´s off to Ireland.

  http://picasaweb.google.com/smccrosky  to view all our pictures

With just a little over a week left on our U.S. tour, we decided it was time to head to our final destination-Durango Colorado.  Before we did, we couldn’t help making a quick detour over to Crested Butte, Colorado for some awesome mountain biking.  We were rewarded with one of our best rides of the trip with Crested Butte’s signature, yet very challenging “401” trail.  The ride was amazing!  We first had to clime up 1500 feet to reach the top of the mountain where the down hill trail began.  I’ve never peddled up an incline that far in my life, but what a rewarding trek it was.  The air was thin at the top (over 12,000 ft elevation) making it harder to breath, so we didn’t wait long before starting our descent.  The trail took us through beautiful wildflowers with breathtaking views before cutting into the shade of the woods.  We sped through mud puddles and over man made bridges with huge smiles on our faces.  We were fortunate enough to have rented a cabin while just outside of Crested Butte which gave us some relief from the everyday afternoon rain shower.  The dogs chilled out at the cabin while we mountain biked.  I’m sure they were thankful for the two-day rest from hiking and driving.

I think we got a little spoiled in Crested Butte, so when we arrived in Durango, we once again rented a small cabin, just in case the rain had followed us again.  The actual town of Durango surprised us.  For such a small population of 16,000 people, the town is farely large.  There is a beautiful hill top college with views of surrounding mountains and neighboring golf coarse and the downtown has numerous restaraunts and brew pubs.  We had a fun time trying different local beers and cuisine, like the navajo taco-made with flat bread instead of a tortilla and smothered in chilli, cheese, jalapenos, lettuce, etc.  Yummy, yummy!  And the Texas BBQ was a treat.  We got a kick out of watching groups of rafters tackle the rapids along the river that runs right through town.  Although we didn’t attempt any rafting, we did take the dogs down to the river for some swimming in the swift water.  They had a blast chasing sticks and their tennis ball.  For us, we were all about finding some killer mountainbiking.  We knew we would be in Durango for at least three days, so each day we picked a different area to ride.  Amazingly, each area was completely different terrain depending on which part of town we were in.  In the southeast were fun rolling dirt trails, with some challenging climbs, ending with a fast, technical downhill.  On the northwest part of town, we picked up the Colorado trail (a 444 mile trail that runs from Denver to Durango-people hike it, bike it, etc), which was beautiful, but then found some dissapointing, super rocky trails that were probably the least enjoyable of our trip.  Not too far from our cabin, to the west of town was one of the best single track trails of our trip.  We rode through beautiful forests and were having a blast until Christy’s front tire blew.  Luckily we were close to the end of the trail and she only had to walk her bike for about a mile back to the truck.

After four nights in Durango, we decided it was time to head back to California.  We were sorry to see the U.S. trip come to an end.  Five weeks went by so quickly!  But, we were excited to get home and visit with family and friends before taking off for our European adventure.  Look out world, here come the McCroskys!!!