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

Prague

We are now in Potsdam, Germany, a small town outside of Berlin. We have been able to see 3 of Europe's most beautiful and influential cities. And looking back on the three we have both agreed that our favorite city so far has been Prague. Although Budapest was absolutely gorgeous, it was a bit too big and busy for us. The architecture was incredible and unlike any other place I have been. It was like taking a trip back in time but still being surrounded by the modern world. But where many other people love that, we felt it was a bit stressful. Not to mention the weather was a bit on the warm side for my comfort levels. Prague on the other hand was much smaller. The buildings and the architecture though, was just as incredible as Budapest. Maybe because Prague was smaller, there was a much more light and happy feeling in the city and in the people. We had a similar schedule of exploring the Czech Republic as we did in Hungary...

DAY 1

We arrived in Prague in the evening and spent spent the rest of the evening searching out some food. We walked into the main city center, which was called Old Town Square and got some dinner and people watched. We sat down at a little restaurant in Old Town Square and ordered some dinner to split, like we normally do, and it came out about a quarter of the size we were expecting at a high price we were not expecting. So, we made some mental notes to be more careful about where we choose food from, went back the hostel and made some peanut butter and jelly rice cakes.

DAY 2

We decided right off the bat to rent bikes to see the city because you can cover so much more ground on two wheels than on two feet. We are not into bus tours and walking tours are too long, so we got a map of Prague and found our own bike route around the city. We rode from Old Town Square up to the Prague Castle, which was a rather hard bike ride on a fixed gear beach cruiser. Those bikes are HEAVY! But like normal, Becca blew me out of the water and was waiting at the top of the hill fully recovered by the time I came huffing and puffing up it. We locked up the bikes and explored the castle by standing oddly close to some tours to hear what they were saying. The city was absolutely gorgeous! We fell in love with the Prague vibes and the loving feeling. That night we did one of our favorite things and went to a jazz club and watched a Czech Jazz band play. They were incredible.

DAY 3

Just like in Budapest, we felt we had had enough of the bustling city and decided we wanted to explore a bit more of the Czech Republic. So we took a bus about an hour and a half to a small town called Jichin (pronounced Jee-cheen). It was a small town a single street for all of the towns needs. From there we rented bikes and jumped on a trail that took us from the small town and wound us into the rural fields and forests of the Czech Republic. It was absolutely incredible. The scenery was unlike anything I had seen before. We spent the whole day riding the fields on our bikes. We came across a Czech prison and turned around and rode away as quickly as our legs could peddle. There was a sculpture outside of these 10 foot high walls that were lined with barbed wire. The sculpture was an extremely gruesome and violent depiction of a prisoner being captured and at that moment Becca and I were able to put two and two together and realized we were outside a prison and literally didnt say another word before booking it out the direction we had come. But, after that we made it to some open fields and were able to breathe in some fresh Czech air. It was amazing!

DAY 4

We again spent a day getting everything organized for the places we were planning on traveling after. I did a nice run down the Danube in the city and Becca took the day for her hip to recover. We walked into Weencelaus Square which is the main square in Prague (and we just found out, was the sight of many huge riots at the end of the World War through until the fall of the Berlin Wall). We explored the city again, trying to find some of the important buildings we had missed before. Then, that night, while we were trying to find something for dinner, Becca decided we should try some of the famous Prague ham. So we went into Old Town Square again, and it turned out that it was the opening night of the Prague Jazz Festival. So we sat on the Old Town Statue in the center of the square, ate ham and listened to some amazing avant garde jazz. We enjoyed it so much.

DAY 5

When we had gone to Jichin the first time we had asked for some suggested hiking trails... but it turned out we had missed the only bus to get us there. So we decided we would get up early and make the morning journey to Jichin again and from there catch another small bus to a region called Chesky Raj. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails in the Chesky Raj, the most famous of which is called Prachovsky Skally. The hike follows several different and in our typical fashion, we threw the maps our the window and wound our way through the trails. Prachovsky Skally is made up of towering rocks that you can climb up and down, wind through and explore. At the top of the rocks you can oversee all of the Czech Republic. We could see all of the fields we rode our bikes a couple days before. From the bottom you looked straight up walls of rock and trees. It was incredible and it was so much fun to hike and be in nature again. It made me so excited to get back to the mountains of Colorado and Forest Park in Portland!! That night we again made the trip back to Prague in time to catch the Jazz Festival. This time we were charmed by a two person spanish band. They were mesmerizing and drew the crowd to silence with their music. It was so simple, the woman, Silvia Perez sang in a natural spanish voice while her other band member played a new instrument that was like a steel drum but upside down. The two were fabulous and caught the full attention of everyone who was in the square that night. If you get a chance download their album called LLAMA. It was amazing.

DAY 6

We packed our bags and made our way to Berlin. The trip was not fun as we were sitting in coach and there was not much room, but it was only 5 hours and so it was not too bad.

More about Berlin coming at the end of the week. Hope that paints a good picture of Prague for you... I HIGHLY SUGGEST GOING, if you ever get the chance. It is an incredible city.

I miss you all and cant wait to talk more. All my love!!

Prost!!

Cheers

Dani

lessons learned from traveling heavy...

Traveling is amazing… but this travel experience is not the usual “travel light” experience that most people do when they are training across Europe. In fact, this is essentially a move back from Russia to the US and making some stops as we make our way across…. But that makes for some FUNNY stories.

Let me first say that I am so thankful that Becca has agreed to help me move back because I could not manage all of my bags and luggage if I were by myself. But even with her help we have made some pretty funny and stupid mistakes!

You remember in the last post I wrote that I had to get from the airport in Budapest to the hostel by myself with all of my bags… well let me just remind you what all I have… I have two big luggage bags full of mostly warm jackets and boots that helped me survive the Russian winter. I have my backpacking backpack full of the summer clothes that I am using here and then my baby guitar. That is 4 bags that get heavy real quick. So, Becca and I are doing our best to keep our expenses low but still make it home with all of these bags. In order to do so we have decided we will train across Europe so that we don’t have to check bags and we will use public transportation (unless it’s impossible).

When we arrived at the Budapest train station to travel to Prague we were greeted by what seemed to be a helpful gentleman who worked for the train station and wanted to show us to an open cab on the train. He told us the train was completely full and we weren’t going to find a seat, so he took our bags and showed us to an open cab. We sat down to get comfy in our cabin very thankful that we had found a seat. He continued to look at us, slightly leaning his head into our space. We had gotten the guitar out to play when he interrupted and said… “Money? I help, you pay…” We had used all of our Forint (Hungarian money) and all we had was big bills of Euros that I had gotten in Russia. He was pressuring us and we felt like we should pay him something and in the pressure of the moment ended up giving him 20 Euros. That’s the equivalent of one night stay in a nice hotel… We felt dumb. And maybe like beating ourselves to a pulp…. But we are hoping he is still drinking nice cognac with those Euros. Lesson learned…

After that we settled into our comfy corner of the cabin and enjoyed the 7 hour train ride with the stinky, loud and slightly rude Czech women. Near the end of our train ride a large group of musicians, perhaps a traveling band, or a summer camp, hopped on the train. They had all of their instruments blocking the halls of the train. We were relaxing, looking out the window of our train when Becca saw our stop approaching. Not realizing it had come so quickly, we had to quickly gather our things to get out the train before it took off again. Frantically we threw our backpacks on our shoulders and tried to get the 50 lbs bags from the overhead space. 50 lbs is a little bit heavier when you also have a 20 lbs backpack on your back and it came crashing down on my face.

Becca, in the mean time was already out in the hall with the other bag and her backpack trying to lift it up and OVER the drum set, trumpet, tuba, guitar and keyboard that was blocking her way.  Instead of trying to get a better angle on the lift, so as to not throw out her back or new hip she tried to do an upright row (for those of you who are in her nature’s fitness or Sunday bootcamps) over the instruments. The band stopped playing and thought it was funny to watch her struggle and opted not to help, AT ALL. In all of her frustration and after about 20 attempts of the upright row she finally kicked the drum set out of the way and made it to the open doors. 

Somehow, after smashing my face with my bag, and watching her failed attempts, I learned to do more of a bicep curl than an upright row to get passed the instruments and made a quicker escape than Becca.

Finally making it to the open doors we realized that there was probably no rush after all because there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get on. Lesson learned, don’t rush… it makes you look stupid, and kick things.

After those two disasters we had a meeting… and discussed our traveling tactics. The keys points we discussed were: 1) Just because someone is nice and asks for money… you DON’T have to pay him. Change will work just fine, and if you don’t have that, just say “sorry, we don’t have money.” 2) Don’t rush and don’t expect people to help you. People can wait for you to calmly deal with your heavy luggage. You will probably end up taking more time getting stuck, rushing with the bags, then if you calmly and slowly move the bags. Having had this meeting we walked away feeling a lot better about our traveling tactics and how to deal with my luggage. But that feeling was killed today when we went to board the metro from our hostel to the train station before heading to our next stop, Berlin.

This morning we were riding high because we had planned our expenses perfectly to have no Czech Koruna left so we wouldn’t have to make any exchanges when we got to Berlin. However, it costs 24 koruna, the equivalent of 1 US Dollar, to ride the metro. We had NO change left and because we rode the metro plenty of times with a valid ticket and NO ONE ever checked, we thought we could make it the 3 stops without a ticket. WE WERE WRONG. As we were waiting for metro, with all of our bags the ticket inspector man saw us sticking out like a sore thumb and chose to ask us for our ticket. We told him we had just arrived and didn’t know how it worked and we would go buy a ticket because we had not even gotten on the tram yet. He replied, “No, not ok. You pay penalty, now.” We tried our best to pull our beginner traveler card, but saw no change in his mind. We ended up having to pay his “penalty” of 35 Euro a piece, which was the end of my Euros. After he took our money we watched him walk right past EVERY other person in the station without asking for a ticket. Pretty sweet. Lesson learned, always buy a stupid ticket. At least the Euros went to good purposes…like lessons learned.

So, overall… we have made some stupid mistakes but we have learned some very valuable lessons. And writing this has made us laugh at our stupidity. I must say it has been a while since I have written anything funny and it feels damn good to laugh at life again!

Life is funny…. And travel light!

 I will write about Prague in the next blog, this was an interruption for humors sake.

Goodbye to Prague and hello to Berlin!

Cheers!

Dani

Let the Adventure Begin

Budapest

I am addicted to my new found freedom. Leaving Russia only one week ago, and after 4 months of little freedom, I have celebrated each day. I landed in stifling hot Budapest, Hungary on July 2^nda little after midnight with two big rollie bags full of winter jackets and boots from Russia. I wish so badly I could have just shipped them home or left all of it behind because traveling with that much stuff is difficult. I think I would have just left all of my clothes in Russia if it weren’t for how expensive my winter jackets and boots were. I then had my backpacking backpack with the small amount of clothes I would be wearing over the next month whilst traveling, and lastly, of course, my baby Taylor guitar. So…. I looked like a fool… little me, carrying 4 bags and trying to get to a hostel in the heart of Budapest at 1 AM. 

Becca’s flight was delayed 6 hours from Amsterdam. We had originally planned to meet in the Budapest airport so she could help me with my bags, but those plans we just thrown out the window when her flight got delayed. We really had no way of communicating any new plans considering we didn’t have phone or Internet service and so I left her a note with the airport bus service telling her to meet at the hostel hoping she would somehow come across it. Not knowing when she would get in, if she would get the note or when she would get to the hostel I waited out in front of the hostel until she finally got there a little after 330 AM. And that is how our journey started…

DAY 1

Needless to say, after that late night we tried to sleep in but were rudely interrupted by the outrageous heat of Budapest. When I was in Russia I always felt stupid not understanding the temperature in Celsius degrees. Ximel had to educate me on what was considered warm, hot, cold and freezing. She told me that 30 degrees was considered hot… so it was a lovely surprise to wake up in Budapest to 40+ degrees of heat. Not fully understanding that, which was probably a good thing, Becca and I decided to go for a long walk to explore Budapest.

We walked probably around 7 or 8 miles (Looking back and doing some research, we were stupid for thinking we could walk that far in that heat… it reached 110 F). Ran out of water and realized very quickly that we were going to have to plan our trips around where the closest access to a body of water was. Although the Danube River splits Budapest it, is dirty and no one swam in it. Instead people used the fountains located throughout the city to cool off in. So we joined in the fun!

DAY 2

Realizing our mistakes from day 1 we decided that we couldn’t just walk around Budapest in the heat, we were far too exhausted for another day in 100+ F weather. So, we, rented some bikes and flew all around the city weaving in and out of the bike lanes, crossing the Danube, soaking up the sun, looked at the beautiful architecture, and of course went back for some swimming at the local watering hole.

DAY 3

Upon returning our bikes to the bike shop we met a nice local Hungarian who gave us some suggestions of places to visit. One of which was just past his hometown, a city called Visegrad (pronounced Vi-sh-ee-grad). We did some google research and found that it was located North of Budapest about 40 KM on a section of the Danube called “The River Bend”. It was a medieval city famous for the Fellegvar Castle that sits on top the hills around the River Bend. It was also on a part of the Danube that was swimmable. So after taking a long hike and walk through the castle we took a dip in the river and watched the sun set. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the water and tried the Hungarian specialty, Goulash Soup. Delicious.

This peaceful and relaxing dinner was followed by a not so peaceful return journey home. We missed the last bus going back to Budapest and we only made it half the way back on a bus before getting lost on about 4 other trains and busses. We ended up off any maps that we had and finally had to just take a taxi back to our hostel at about 1AM. It was an adventure to say the least.

DAY 4

After another late arrival home we decided to take the day to relax and get all of our finances and documents in order. We spent the morning sleeping in, and hidding from the heat in our hostel getting everything organized. Then spent the rest of the day in the fountain cooling off.

DAY 5

For our last day in Hungary we decided to take another day trip. This time we journey south to a city called Tihany. Tihany is a little town located on the north side of Europe’s largest fresh water lake, Lake Balaton. We woke up early to catch the first train out of Budapest to a city called Balatonfured where we got on a bus to get to Tihany. The tiny town of Tihany was located on a hill that over looked the entire lake. It was a beautiful view of the lake from Tihany. We got some coffee at a café and walked through the town before making the walk down to the water to swim. The water was shallow and very warm. It felt like we were in the Mediterranean.  We caught the train home at 6 in the afternoon. We got back made a fruit salad for dinner and packed everything up in preparation to leave Hungary.

DAY 6

Today we are leaving Hungary. We are currently sitting on the train from Budapest and heading to Prague, Czech Republic. This train will be going through either the southern part of Slovakia or northern part of Austria depending on our route. When we first got on the train here we had a cabin to ourselves. Becca slept for a while and we were comfortable with our own space. But just about 15 minutes ago we made a stop and 4 older, stinky woman and shoved into our compartment. They had huge bags and little tolerance of our comfort level. So, here we are in the corners of the compartment trying to get comfortable for the remaining few hours of the ride to Prague where we will spend the next 6 days exploring a new city.

The internet connection is having trouble uploading pictures right now, so we will be posting more pictures later today and please see my facebook for more photos!

Cheers!!!

Dani

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!

It is official… it is midnight… 12:00 AM July 1, 2012 and my time with FC Energy and Voronezh is finished. I am scheduled to be on the first flight out of here in 6 hours to fly to Moscow where I will have a long wait until my next flight at 2:00 PM to fly to Kiev, Ukraine.  I again have a wait, which I will fill by watching the Euro Final, which happens to be in Kiev! Then I will again board one last flight to Budapest, Hungary where I will start another journey.  This journey will be very different though… in fact, it will almost be the exact opposite of what I am leaving now. I am meeting up with my buddy in Budapest and we will make our way across Europe to London in time to watch the Canadian and Cameroon national teams in their Olympic battles! In short…I am beyond excited!

These last few days have been chalked full of mixed emotions… it is hard to even try to explain how I feel. For starters, as you can tell, I am very, VERY excited to be moving onto a new chapter and new journey. But, I feel sad leaving Russia and the friends that I have made. If I just had those two emotions, it would be easy to handle, but the last few days here have been anything but easy. Let me try to explain….

As many of you know we lost our last game against Klubanochka. It was our head coaches 65^th birthday and the most important game of the season for us because it was out last chance to hold onto 2^nd place and thus a bid into the Champions League. Unfortunately, the football God’s did not want to help us out. In the first half of the previous game against Rossiyanka I went to block a ball and the next thing I knew I was on the ground with our captain, Nastya, asking “Normal?? Doctor?? Doctor??” To which I responded (in English) “Give me a second”, which she took as “No, I don’t need a doctor.” So, she said “Da Vy, da vy” which means, “Let’s go, lets go”. And I, not thinking clearly and as usual, stubbornly, continued to play. This was a stupid decision. Needless to say, it turned out that I suffered a concussion and therefore I was not allowed to play in our last match. To top it off, the headache got pretty bad and I wasn’t even able to attend the last match and instead I had to lay in my room anxiously awaiting (sleeping) the team to come back.  

So… instead of being able to either bring home a victory or fight a losing battle I was forced to stay home and wait for the team’s return. Which turned out to be a sad surprise when the bus pulled up and I heard nothing but footsteps and doors to my teammate’s rooms close. We lost 1-0. They scored in the first 3 minutes and we were unable to get that goal back…unable to get the season back. And, those two events (getting a concussion, and the loss) basically put a damper on the end of the time here with FC Energy.

The next days after the game were no fun. As I was still recovering and trying to get my headache to go away whilst also getting everything ready for a move back across the world, there was little time to say goodbye. Pack, sleep, eat, sleep, talk to the director and president, sleep, pack, unpack, sleep, repack, go to the bank, sleep, finally eat… it was crazy busy and very stressful. BUT, everything (for the most part) got sorted out and here I am… contract officially finished and I have nothing to think about except getting to Budapest.

OOPS… dozed off… I had to sleep and couldn’t finish the blog…

SURPRISE!!! Change of venue…

Now I am sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for my flight to Kiev. With each step away from Voronezh I feel a little less stressed and a little bit freer. I have truly never appreciated freedom like this before. I don’t have to workout, I don’t have to eat at this time, I don’t have to stay at the base, I don’t have to eat only this food… I AM FREE!!!! My entire life has been conducted within the parameters of the structured routine of the student-athlete… no questions asked and no regrets about it. I gave up so many things that I wanted to do because I had something for school and probably something else for soccer… and here I am for the first time in my life without an exact place to go to next except to relax and recover from 4 months of the most difficult thing I have ever been through. Don't get me wrong, I was more than happy to make the sacrifices I have and will continue to make for soccer and for school, but this period of rest is something I have never experienced before, and I intend to enjoy it. 

Like I was saying in the beginning… about the mixture of emotions… now sitting here in the airport, feeling the full extent of my freedom and getting excited about traveling and seeing my buddy, it is hard to feel any sadness about leaving. In all of the craziness I didn’t get to say goodbye to many people whom I wanted to give a proper goodbye to. Many of the girls from Russia took off as quickly as possible, the Cameroons left to meet up with their national team to prepare for the Olympics, our coaches were busy getting all of our documents ready and in the end I felt a very abrupt ending with the people I have spent the last 4 months of my life with… all except 3. Whom I made sure to give proper goodbyes to… Ximel, Tanya and Eurina.

Last night I was able to say goodbye to Tanya and Eurina before heading to bed, a couple long hugs and kisses on the cheeks and holding back some tears. Then this morning at 4:30 Ximel and I parted ways at the tiny Voronezh airport… and that was that.

I cant believe it was just 4 months ago that I was sitting in the Dulles airport cheersing you with a beer and saying goodbye, and here I am sitting on the floor of the Moscow airport cheersing you with a dixie cup of coffee from a vending machine to say goodbye to Russia. What a journey it has been. Even though I say, JUST 4 months ago, I really cant say it went by quickly. That seems like a hell of a long time ago...

I just reread this blog and I think it seems scattered and probably a bit shallow or emotionless… but the truth is that there are actually too many emotions to try to process in writing. I feel happy to be moving forward, sad to be leaving, confused because of the concussion, stressed because of the abrupt ending, relieved I am finally done and so many other things all in one. All I can say is that here I am… finished with my first professional football experience. It wasnt everything I imagined, but it was the experience of a lifetime.  I hope I wont have to go through anything like I did here again. I am proud beyond words for the strength I found in myself to get through it and I believe I am stronger for it. But I am so happy that this period of ferment is finally over and I can move forward to hopefully apply the lessons I have learned to my life and my future.

I will continue to blog if you continue to read and share in my travel experience. I am in the process of making another video for all of you to see… but here is the first part I have put together... it is a compilation  of my experiences in Russia. Let me know your thoughts!!

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE VIDEO

If you would like to see more pictures you can look on my facebook to see

Facebook Photos

For the last time….

Nastarovia            (I wish you good health)

Speciba balshoy        (thank you very much/for everything)

Das vi danya,           (formal goodbye)

Paka,                     (informal goodbye)

Da vy!!!!!              (let’s go!!!!)

Cheers!!!

Danielle

and just for good measures…

Zaneela J