Back in the game

After a couple of days of sleep I am feeling much better and actually got out today. This afternoon I headed out to the house where Mozart lived when he was in Prague. It used to be a country house, but as the town has grown it has all but over taken the property. Even so, from the backyard there was an incredible view of the city. The property is on a hill and as you move further back in the yard the hill slopes up. I climbed to the top and found a neat little spot with a stone bench and spent some time writing in my journal.

Even just walking from the metro station up to the house had winded me, reminding me that I am still on the mend. It turned out to be the beginning of a music festival today, so I stayed for the afternoon concert by an incredible quartet. The concert was supposed to be a garden concert, but it was too hot and sunny so they moved the concert inside. It was in a small room and there were about 35-40 of us there. The music was incredible. That was perhaps the best concert I've ever seen. They played Mozart, Schubert, Dvorzak and one other that I can't think of at the moment. Sitting there enjoying that music and the beauty around me (in the house and the garden) was exactly what I needed today. I got out, but for the most part the day was pretty restful.

This evening Elizabeth and I met up for some Czech pizza. Not much different than ours other than it was such thin crust that it was nearly non-existant. After that we went out for coffee and ice cream. The waiter asked us if we wanted a small coffee or a large espresso. We both answered small coffee, wondering what was going to show up when he brought it. Sure enough he delivered two cute little demitase cups with a shot of espresso in each, accompanied by cream, a packet of sugar and some mineral water. So we drank espresso (which was quite nice) alongside our pistachio ice cream at the cafe that Franz Kafka, Albert Einstein and various other intellectual types used to regularly meet at. It's a wonder they let us in.

As we sat at the cafe we began to hear thunder and see lightening. As we left the cafe and began the walk to Charles bridge the skies opened up. Luckily both Elizabeth and I are Oregonians at heart (even if southern California is borrowing her for now) and we continued our trek. And then it just flat out poured. At this point we stepped into a little market where many others had run into before the deluge began. Soaking wet, we wandered through the maze of souvenirs (everything from magnets to shot glasses to t-shirts and of course the famous bohemia crystal) we dried off a bit. About that time we came to the other end of the market and the rain had subsided. We continued across the Charles bridge, which is incredibly beautiful and amazingly uncrowded at night! And again with the rain. At this point we stepped into a little pub to sit out this round. After about half an hour the rain calmed again and we made a dash for the metro.

And that brings us to now. Tired and hungry we are heading upstairs to take care of both of those issues. Tomorrow evening we head out for Kiev. And the train adventures continue...

Katie not feeling well:(

Katie has not been feeling well, so I would appreciate your prayers for her quick recovery. It started two days ago on the train when she had a bit of a sore throat and then yesterday that progressed to something worse and today she is feeling quite unwell. She is in bed resting now and I am off to explore Prague by myself. I left her my ipod so she can watch movies if she gets bored!

Next stop Kiev

Yes, I know Kiev isn't on the itinerary. And Elizabeth and I are hoping we aren't actually going to have to stay there. Not that Kiev isn't a lovely city, I'm sure it is, but we really want to go to Moscow. We went to the train station first thing this morning to see about getting tickets to Moscow from Prague. They were only able to get us to Ukraine as you have to get a reservation for the train to Moscow from Kiev. So we bought the tickets to Kiev and (one again) hopefully we'll be able to catch the overnight train from Kiev to Moscow on the 22nd, which is the day we will be arriving.

A brief recap... We will be in Prague until Monday the 20th. On the 20th we will catch the train to Kiev which will not get us there until Wednesday the 22nd. We're not entirely sure why it is going to take that long as generally the trip from Prague all the way to Moscow takes only 36-40 hours. I guess we're on the slow train. Plus, we get to hang out at the border for 10 hours (yes, 10 hours) while they change the train bogies.

The gauge of the tracks is about 3 1/2" wider in the countries of the former USSR than it is in the rest of the Europe. So when crossing borders into one of those countries, in addition to checking passports and visas they change the train bogies. Essentially, they separate each of the train cars, jack them up and replace the wheel sets. And apparently this process takes 10 hours.

That's the latest. We are off to explore Prague. Have a great day!

24 hours and 8 trains later

We made it to Prague. We were wondering there for a bit though. Yesterday (was it really only yesterday?) we missed our train out of London and that began a long series of train hopping to eventually get us here to Prague. We traveled through the night and changed trains literally 7 times. Tomorrow we will be working on figuring out how we will be getting to Moscow, which after talking to a woman at the train station today, sounds like it too could prove to be a bit of a challenge. After that though we plan on spending the afternoon exploring Prague and just relaxing. Our hostel is great and so we are looking forward to getting a good nights sleep. Because there is a long line for the computer and because this keyboard is not anything like the one that I'm used to I'm going to leave it at that for now.

We'll let you all know more when we get the train stuff figured out.

I left my heart in England

Well, my dad was complaining that I hadn't posted anything so I guess i should do that. I'm so excited to be in England again. If i won a million pounds on the lottery then I would move here instantly. 5 years ago I spent 9 months up north going to Capernwray Bible School and then I spent 3 months with my parents living in Devon. I loved every minute of it and have been dreaming about returning ever since.

I love the weather ( always changing), the sky (always beautiful), the people (always very proper and very cordial even when they're angry), the villages (always quaint), the bookshops (always full of fascinating old books), the city (always crowded yet full of many hidden suprises), and there are so many other things i could mention but it would take forever, here are a few more, scones with clotted cream, churches, pudding smothered in warm gooey custard, children with British accents, thatched roofs and red tiled roofs, roundabouts, paddling pools, castles and manor houses, all the history, rolling green hills dotted with sheep, British humor, Tea and cobblestone courtyards.

I am so happy to be back and so happy that we are starting our journey here instead of Moscow as we had originally thought. I'm really happy we have a home to stay in as well!

In London with just the clothes on our backs...

Well, I broke my #1 travel rule. I didn't pack a change of clothes in my carry-on. So of course, as you might guess, our luggage didn't quite make it to London. Our flight out of L.A. was delayed so we had really tight connection in Dublin- too tight apparently. Thankfully we are staying at my sister's place and don't have to worry about having our stuff right away. And the luggage is due to be delivered tomorrow morning. Other than that the trip was mostly uneventful.

Cameron and I played soccer for quite a while and after I finish writing this we'll be playing a rousing game of Sorry before heading to bed. Good times. Tomorrow Jason, Suzy, Cameron, Elizabeth and I will be heading into London for the day tomorrow to see the sights. Cameron has promised to show me around since he lives here and I have never been here before.

I hope you all are well. More soon...

Off to the airport we go...

Just about half an hour until we head to the airport. I can hardly believe that the time has actually come. We fly out at 4:30pm from LAX and after a brief layover in Dublin we will be arriving in London at 1:00pm tomorrow (London time of course which is 8 hours ahead of West Coast time) assuming no delays or any of that.

We did get our Chinese visas. They were far easier to get than the Russian ones. Elizabeth went and picked them up at the Chinese consulate while Amanda (my sister) and I were making our way down to the L.A. area. We got a much later start on the drive on Tuesday than we had hoped for because my last day in Portland was not as productive as I had hoped. I was driving down I-84 toward downtown when, long story short, the car broke down. After waiting an hour or so for the tow truck I got off the freeway. So all of those errands happened on Tuesday morning in Eugene.

Elizabeth took Amanda and I into Hollywood on Wednesday night. Neither of us had been there, so it was fun to see the sights. We even had a couple of star sightings. Giovanni Ribisi very nearly ran into me as I was walking down the street. He was leaving the Scientology Celebrity Center. You really can't make that stuff up. And then we saw Will Smith filming something in a little corner store on Hollywood Blvd.

So there you go. That's a bit of what's been going on in the last few days.

Next stop London. We'll be staying with my sister Suzy and her family a bit outside of London, so we'll let you know what we're up to there.

Off to the airport we go...