How it feels to be home

Here I am sitting on the deck of my parent's condo overlooking the foothills in Colorado and I am writing this to say thank you to all of you for following my blog throughout this whole journey. I havent gone back and reread all of these blog posts but I did go back and read the first one to see if I could be inspired for this one and I realized what a journey it truly has been for me. The last 5 months of my life have been filled with..... so much. In the first blog I was writing with excitement, everything was so new, different and humorous and that made it se exciting for me. But as the weeks and months went by the blogs died, the humor faded and the excitement dwindled and although I tried to keep a positive attitude it is not hard to see that my spirit was killed a bit.

As I was leaving Russia I was really excited to be embarking on a new adventure across Europe with Becca but I was also really ready to get home to my friends and family. Dont get me wrong, the month traveling through Europe was a blast, I enjoyed every day of it and am so glad that Becca and I were able to do that, however being home is unlike any crazy travel experience. Getting on the plane from Amsterdam knowing that I was going to see my family within the day put a smile on my face bigger than the smile I had leaving Russia. Because I went to university in the northwest away from my family in Colorado coming home holds a special significance. Coming home to Colorado after these last 6 months had the same special feeling but was multiplied. I walked out of DIA customs to see my grandparents and my parents with big signs welcoming me home. There were  tears from all parties and hugs that would probably be considered awkwardly long if they weren't making up for six months of no hugs. We got my bags and went straight to a restaurant in downtown Denver that served the food I missed most in Europe, mexican food! I had a smothered chicken burrito and it was delicious. They asked a million questions, laughed at my stories and told me theirs. It was a perfect welcome home.

The sunset I came home to... CO sunsets are the BEST!

first dinner back together!

My grandparents and I enjoying time back together

My cousins and I

My uncle and I

That night I unpacked my bags, did some laundry and then..... repacked a bag to go camping for the weekend with my whole family. My cousins, aunts and uncle, grandparents, parents and of course dogs all clammed together in two camp spots for the weekend. In this family there is no time for sitting around... we are always on the go, and I must say I love that about my family. We spent the weekend waterskiing, wake boarding, tubing, tanning, sitting around the camp fire and just having some good old fashioned fun. My grandparents are some of the most awesome people I know and they have always stressed the importance of family closeness... and in good humor, the first night of our camping excursion forced our family closeness.....

The morning sun on my parents backyard... not too shabby

Getting the camper ready to go!!

The first night we were sitting around the camp fire and I was playing my guitar when a breeze started to pick up. It didnt start off too hard, you know, just a breeze where you have to watch your cups that are half full (or half empty) or your plate that has only half a hamburger left so they wont blow away flinging food and drink everywhere. But suddenly this little breeze turned sour and kicked into mach speeds. Seriously we didnt even have time to pick up our half eaten hamburgers before the wind was tearing the tops of the tents off, splintering the stakes and igniting the flames from the fire pit into a propane gas flame torch. My grandparents, cousins and uncle made it into their tents and my parents and I into our camper hoping that it would blow over. But it never did. In fact the wind kicked up even harder. At about midnight the wind speed reached about 60 MPH causing my grandparents tent to collapse. So, we attempted to make room for them in our camper... I moved up to my parents full sized bed, the dogs slept on the floor and my grandparents squeezed into the twin size converted table bed for the remainder of the night. Meanwhile the wind was threatening to blow the camper clean over (if it weren't for all of our weight holding the camper down, I am sure it would have). Needless to say we didnt sleep much and woke up at 9 AM laughing at everyone's puffy eyes and sand gritted teeth.

The morning after the storm... all the girls hangin out in bed!

The sunset before the storm get in

Luckily the rest of the weekend went a bit more smooth and we were back to some glass water (glacieerrrr as my brother has always called it). I must say being back with my family, with people who understand me without words and love me unconditionally is a truly incredible thing. Since I have been home I have been surrounded by smiles, laughter and a special love that only your family can give. Later this week my parents, the best party planners I know, have planned a late graduation/ welcome home party for me. I am sure it will be filled with a lot of good food, a lot of big laughs and lord knows a lot of people dancing!!! Then shortly after I will be taking off to Portland to watch my girls in their opening game against North Carolina on August 17th!!!! I cant wait :-)

a little wakeboarding

family lunch

Mom, grandpa and me tubing... my grandpa is awesome!!

I didnt know where to sit... but this is the crew!

some morning glacierrrrr

not too bad of a skiing place!

I am awaiting news as to where and when my next opportunity to play will be, but in the mean time I am enjoying time with my family, being back in the US, being around all of the people I love and who love me and visiting all of my friends. Speaking of which, my mom and I are heading out for a bike ride and so I am going to cut this blog off.

Before I go I would like to say for one last time... thank you all for reading and following my blog. Thank you for laughing at my stories or for supporting me when I was struggling. Thank you for all of your advice, for your kindness and love. When I was struggling this blog gave me such an outlet and all of your positive responses helped me get through it and stay motivated. My words can not express my gratitude except to say it in its simplest form... thank you.

Cheers from the US of A

Dani

The Remainder of the Journey

To continue from the end of yesterday’s blog and to bring you all up to speed on the last few weeks of this journey… we left Berlin, Potsdam, and Keelin to head west once again to England for a truly special experience… to the OLYMPICS!!!!

At the train station!

 The London Tower

ENGLAND

The family of my best friend and one of the people who has been in my life the longest, Brittany is currently doing a long distance family relationship, as all 5 of their family members are spread across the US and England. Her dad is working in Nottingham, a city about 2 hours North of London, and he was kind enough to open his doors to Becca and I. We stayed literally parallel to the Nottingham Palace and on the night of this picture Becca and I were able to get a glance and wave to the Nottingham King.

 Thats me with Robin Hood, of course...

I have been to England a few times before for different soccer purposes, but it was Becca’s first time to England so we did everything we could in the 10 days we were there. We got BritRail passes, which meant that we were able to get on any train at any time and go any where in England for 8 days. Let me just say that we got our money’s worth.

We spent 2 days exploring London. We saw Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower of London adorned with the Olympic Rings. We went to the British Museum. They are currently doing a feature on the history of the Olympic games. In school you always learn about these buildings and those cultures, but you never actually feel like they are real.  But as I was walking through the display I have never felt such a part of real, ancient history. (Except now I feel like I NEED to go see them in real life in Greece ASAP!!) We went to Hyde Park where the Olympic torch was being brought in and there was a HUGE concert going on for people to celebrate the beginning of the games.

 The London Eye

If we needed to make a call...

Big Ben

THe Ancient Olympics

This years gold medals...

My friend took us to the Peak District, an area north of Nottingham for some hiking. It was incredible. We went from the hustle and bustle of London to the English countryside. We felt like we were walking through people’s property but turns out it is just open space that is divided by old stonewalls that cover the hill side. We walked with sheep and bulls and got lost trying to find our way through the fields. It was absolutely amazing.

We then went to one of the three opening events for the 2012 Olympics. We took the train to Coventry to watch Canada play the defending world champions, Japan. Becca and I got our Canada gear on… luckily because Canada fans were NOT as dressed as the Japanese fans were…

Who knew that all the way across the world there could be a UP alum reunion??! We were able to meet up with one of the best outside backs I have ever played with, and one of the smartest people I know, Jessica Tsao. And to make it EVER better, we were able to sit with someone whom all of you know… especially my mom if she can remember after recovering from getting a shot from one of the world’s best forwards of all time… Tiffany Milbrett. We all sat together watching Canada’s Sophie Schmidt and Christine Sinclair play. It was amazing to see them play on the world’s biggest stage. Although they lost to Japan in their opening match they were able to get through by beating South Africa and then getting a draw with Sweden. I cant even describe the feelings I had while watching them play. I was just so filled with pride and such an immense amount of happiness for them. It is amazing to know so many Olympians. And I am just beyond proud of all of them.

Then after that game we took a day trip northeast out to the coast of England to a city called Scarborough. We just googled towns on the English coast to see and we came across this city, which we thought looked cute from the pictures. BUT, it turned out to be an entire city built as a theme park for kids and parents who think they are more entitled to EVERY kiddie ride then the next. Every bit of the beach was taken up by families who had sprawled their belongings in every direction, or by flocks of seagulls picking at the abandoned or stolen food. Becca figured she needed to get some fresh fish and chips whilst on the English coast and considering I cant eat that I decided I should just go for the fresh fish. I got a miniature shmorgous board of shrimp, crab and lobster.  We both had our little plates of food and were trying to find a section of the beach to sit down when a greedy seagull swooped down knocking the plate right out of my hand throwing my fish everywhere… the seagulls were worse than kids at the Jolly Rancher Factory after a pinyata is broken.  It was a free-for-all of seagulls and they were all attacking my hands, feet, head, each other and the food lying on the ground. It was mayhem and I lost my lunch. Bumber. I went back and got more and it was worth it… very delicious.

This is where I was attacked...

Becca's HUGE plate of food... she ate it all of course

overlooking the cliffs

Then for our last day in England we took our last trip to a city in South England called Bath. This city was beautiful! The people that we stayed with live on the aqueducts of the city. There were beautiful paths that ran along the aqueducts and out into the countryside. We were staying with a generous family who had 3 young kids. We all took a bike ride down the paths and had a great time! It is always so nice to get out of the city, especially when your riding bikes, and with awesome people! But we left them shortly after to go watch the last Olympic game we were able to catch. We went into Whales for the day to watch Cameroon play Great Britain. Although I had friends on Cameroon, I had to say I was rooting for the home team. It was awesome to see the GB fans out there!!! Luckily GB won 5-0, which meant the fans were going crazy for their team! A lot of goals, a good performance and lots of cheering!!

In the nose bleeds

Then we took off for our last stop. We ended our journey where Becca began 1 month ago, in Amsterdam.

AMSTERDAM

 I am Amsterdam

Holland!!

I have heard a lot of things about Holland… both good and bad. I was really excited to see a new place. Becca had already said so many awesome things about it that I couldn’t wait to see it! We booked a hostel called Lucky Lake hostel, which is a collection of little personal trailers painted all fun colors. The place was AWESOME!! It was located on a lake far from the city. It was a bit difficult to get into the city each day but it was nice to not be in the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam crowds at night. After flight delays and yet another long travel day we got to our hostel just after midnight and slept in in the morning to catch up on sleep. Then we took the train into town and rented bikes because Amsterdam is the biking capitol of the world, after all. Biking here was seriously as stressful as driving in Russia. It was awesome to cruise the city and see everything, but you had to keep your head on a swivel at ALL times… for people, cars, bikes, trams, and anything else that might accidentally get in the bike lane. It was crazy! It was sort of exhilarating though. I felt like I was on the Autoban for bikes.

Our little trailer

Morning cup of joe

The story of Amsterdam

bikes at the train station

Dam Station in central Amsterdam

cruisin' the city

We made our way into the Red Light district to check out the wildest place on earth and figured we should have some lunch while we were there. I must say that everyone calls Las Vegas “Sin City” but that is only because all of the stuff that goes on there is illegal in America… Amsterdam is crazier and for sure more “sinful” than Vegas but everything is legal here so it’s not that big of a deal… I suppose. I loved the city though. It is a crazy place, but I kind of like that. I mean I think 3 days is the most time I would want to spend here, but it was really fun to see for a bit!

Red light district

 The aqueducts between all of the streets... beautiful!!

the home of Heineken

Becca left today and I leave tomorrow and I cant even begin to write how I feel… in fact… I think I am going to have to make that into another blog because this one is already too long and ridiculous… so please check in one more time, perhaps tomorrow or in the next week for an overview of the last 5 months of my life.

Cant wait to see everyone when I get back home! I love you all and thank you for reading. You are the best.

For the last time as a part of this journey…

Cheers!

Dani

Nothing goes as planned... EVER!

Nothing Goes as Planned… EVER.

I planned to write as often as I had been writing when I was in Russia. Clearly, I failed… miserably, my deepest apologies. But in my own defense…we have had limited internet access and seeking out an internet connection for posting a blog was just above my desire to pay to use nasty public bathrooms. So, as I said… nothing goes as planned. Not only did I fail in keeping everyone up to date with our travel experiences but as you will see below in the stories of the past month, this experience was one big hodge-podge adventure of failed attempts to make plans. But in the words of the greatest adventurer of all time, Peter Pan “the greatest adventures in life cannot be sought out, they many come at a great price...” I will do my best to catch you up with everything.

Let me start this off by saying that when I left Russia I felt like I needed love, I needed happiness and I needed freedom again. Becca surrounded me with all of those things from the day we started this adventure and has brought me back to life one day at a time. I couldn’t have imagined traveling alone for the last month. If you couldn’t tell from all of my stories back in Russia, and the few stories I posted since, traveling is bound to bring stories. If you are traveling alone then all you have to work with is your own sense of direction, your determination to piece together sentences in other languages or find someone who speaks English, and your ability to stretch your very skinny pocketbook. For me however, I am beyond thankful that I had my buddy, my travel partner (who is by the way a much better solo traveler than myself) by my side to work with….

Since the last time I wrote we have gone a few other places. We went from Prague to Berlin where we stayed with one of my best friends and the up and coming face of women’s soccer in the US, Keelin Winters (keep your eye on the US team for the fit midfielder who wins every header in the next few years… that will be her). We actually stayed about 45 minutes outside of Berlin in a small town called Potsdam. She was more than accommodating to Becca and I as she put us on the pimpin’ futon in her living room that was big enough to fit both Becca and I if we laid on our sides as straight as pencils… movement was strictly forbidden unless agreed upon by both parties before the movement was made. BUT the room was large enough for both of my bags, which was the most important thing.

BERLIN

Prior to leaving for Berlin we met a nice man from Belgium who said that he had “lost his heart in Berlin” and so, leaving Prague we were so excited to get to another city and experience another culture, possibly even lose our own hearts in Berlin. But we didn’t. In fact I would say I left Berlin with a much larger heart and an immensely fuller brain from the things we learned about recent world history.  Upon getting into Berlin we immediately found that it is a city of the 20^th century. This is because everything was destroyed after WWII. There was hardly anything from before the war. I am going to be honest, and you can judge me if you want, but I thought the Berlin wall would at least have some sort of wall structure left… it does not. The wall is scattered on every street corner, covered by graffiti and used bubble gum (ABC and then spit out). It was rather anticlimactic. Seeing the Berlin wall was on my bucket list for years because it came down on the very day of my birth… and so, I was really excited to see it… then when we got off the train into Berlin, there it was, a small section just set there like a lamp post or street sign on the corner of every street around us. It was dumbed down from this barrier that suppressed people for 40 years to a lamp post on every corner.  They were all painted different and sometimes I kind of liked that because it was like Berlin was accepting their history and trying to change it into the city they have grown into, but I also felt like it was defacing their history, trying to hide it beneath the progressive thoughts of the generations of now. I felt split.

We also found out that Berlin is a very spread out city. It is funny finding out distances between things on maps and in real life, because in some cities like Amsterdam, where I am now, everything is very close… When the map says 4 blocks to the left, it probably means a 5 minute walk. On a map in London, when it says 4 blocks to the left it probably means a good 20 minute walk… Berlin was more like London. And, because Becca is working with a new hip we decided walking Berlin would be much too difficult. And because we hadn’t paid for any proper city tours in any cities, we decided that Berlin might be a good place to hop on one of those tour busses that every tourist takes and looks ridiculous. We were hoping to see everything while learning facts that you couldn’t learn unless you read a history book of the city. Unfortunately our tour SUCKED and we ended up having to read that book anyways… we could hear the announcer clearly when she would speak these incredibly long German sentences describing what building we were looking at, but then just as she would start the translation into English the bus would take off red lining its engine just long enough to completely drown out everything the announcer was saying. So, we got off at every stop possible so that we could read the short blurbs on the side of the building about what it is/was.

QUICK ASIDE…. I am writing this blog outside of our trailer hostel in Amsterdam and a chicken just came out of no where and started attacking my feet. Hahaha!!!

Anyways…. The most interesting thing that we did whilst in Berlin was take a day trip to a city North of Berlin to the Sacsenhousen Concentration Camp.  My friends back in CO are probably laughing at this because they have always thought it weird that I have always been so intrigued by the Holocaust and have always felt a desire to learn about the atrocities that happened a mere 60 years ago. After all, it is an odd thing to be intrigued by something so horrible. But I must say that I am intrigued by how such a horrible thing was carried out for so long. Going to Sacsenhousen was one of the most draining and most intense things I have ever seen in my life. We spent 6 hours walking through it, reading, crying, listening to stories, learning what happened… and we left with no words to describe it. I believe that it is something that everyone needs to do some time in their life. At one point of walking through the camp I was literally forced out of the building we were in because I couldn’t take it and felt sick seeing and hearing some things. There is no other ways to describe it it is just something everyone needs to experience in their life, if for no other reason than to learn what happened so that it may never happen again.

We then spent a few days exploring Potsdam by renting bikes and cruising the city. Potsdam is an absolutely beautiful little city. It is a very quiet and peaceful city with such a cute personality. We loved exploring it and getting lost along the river trails.

Then we were off to England to go watch some Olympic Games!!!!

Because there is so many stories and pictures in here already I am going to stop this blog post and continue writing tomorrow about the other adventures. So… check again tomorrow for the remainder of our journey!!!

I am leaving tomorrow for home. Back to Colorado to see my family for the first time in 5 months!!! I am beyond excited. Becca left today and I already miss her and did not want this day to come.

Cant wait to see everyone soon!!!

From Amsterdam

Love and CHEERS!!

Dani