Europe, baby!

We’re back home. It has been a fantastic trip and we’ve seen so much and met heaps of excellent people.

Might post a longer summary post later, but for now we have uploaded some photos to Flickr and Facebook, so go check them out

A sweatty hello from Venice! We arrived yesterday afternoon after a fun trip on the train. We hadn’t reserved any seat, which we were supposed to, so we spent the first hour sitting in the hallway where we met Dan from England which were in the same situation. Gotta love the backpacker spirit!

After a while in the hallway we went to pay for a reservation (which we had to if we didnt want to be kicked off the train) and at the same time we met three girls from Brazil which were going to Venice as well. So we spent the rest of the trip chatting (even though they almost didnt speak a word of English) and we ended up walking through Venice together. So even if we didnt get to Verona as planned, we had a great day. Venice is a beautiful city, and probably even better if you’re not on a bromance trip like we are

It is insanely warm here, and any small muscle movement after 11am makes us melt into a big pool of sweat. We thought Madrid was bad, but that was actually cool compared to this! Wonder what it will be like in Rome.

Today we spent a couple of hours doing laundry, which was badly needed with this heat, and it took a while longer than expected so again our plans for Verona was scrapped So Verona will have to be on the list for whenever we’re in Italy next!

Tomorrow we’re getting on the train to Rome around noon and will spend the next four nights there! Really looking forward, and hope that a quiet evening tonight will bring back some sight seeing energy!

Ciao!

We’re sorry for the delay in updates, but it has been a crazy week in Madrid and Barcelona! People there really know how to party, and the hostel we stayed at in Barcelona was amazing too. So many people, so many great people. If you’re ever going to Barcelona, Kabul is the place to stay! Don’t expect a lot of sleep though, but that’s really not what the rest of Barcelona is about either

Originally we were heading for Marseille after Barcelona, but due to incredibly difficult information desk workers at the train station, we only got to Montpellier last night and decided to stay here in stead. It is a lovely city and we’ve spent the day walking around a little and finally having our first crêpe (sp?) on this trip We’ve also spent a major part of the day making plans for the rest of our trip, and it seems we won’t have as much time in Italy as we wanted too. Partly because of our “plan as we go”-attitude, but also the fact that the only cheep plane tickets we found were on the 28th. So we have one week left and are going to spend them visiting Venice and Rome We’re sure it’ll be a great end of our trip though and we’re also meeting up with some people we met in Barcelona, in Rome, and think we’ll have a good couple of days there before heading home.

Tomorrow we’re getting on the train for the rather long trip to Milano, which will only be a short stop for sleeping, before continuing to Venice. There are plenty of places we would love to see in Italy, but it has become evident that a 22-day travel pass is far from enough to get through everything we want. The trip so far has been a great experience and another Interrail at a later time is not unthinkable

Aleksander has caught a small fever and has not been feeling too good the last two days, but hopefully he’ll be back in shape tomorrow. Jaran has been through a couple of days feeling shabby as well, and it’s probably an important part of travelling the way we do

The picture uploading facilities in the Internet cafés we find are poor, so again there won’t be any photos at this time. But you’ll see them all when we get home

We’ll try to give another update before we head home, but if we don’t; see you home on the 28th!

We’ve finally arrived in Spain and are now “suffering” the incredible heat of Madrid! We are not able to upload any pictures at the moment, so you’ll have to wait a bit for those

After 2 great days in beautiful Bordeaux with Isabelle and Arnaud, we headed south to Sus, to visit Arnaud’s parents and a day of basically just relaxing in the shade and eating  The french cuisine is of course awesome, and probably even better in the French Basque country!

On the way to Sus, we also stopped by the Dunes of Pyla - Europe’s largest sand box! So of course Aleksander, being the kid that he is, had a lot of fun there The Dune of Pyla is a huge dune and you walk over it - probably having the work-out of your life!

After Sus, we headed for Bilbao with Isabelle and Arnaud to visit the Guggenheim museum. We also managed to squeeze in an hour on the beach in St Jean de Luz on the way. European (excluding Norwegian) beaches are incredible… in many ways!

Last night we arrived in Madrid at 10 pm after a 5 hour train ride from Bilbao. Southern Europe is hot, and you might think 5 hours on the train would be torture, but the French and Spanish has really understood how A/C should be used - not like NSB in Norway, which turn up the heat to 30 degrees and make you sweat any available bodily fluid into their excellent seats, of course covered with skin which is the perfect choice for travelling long in the heat…

Right after arriving last night we joined a bar crawl from 1 am where we visited a couple of bars and a night club. We got lost when trying to find our way back to the hostel (which by the way is excellent. If you’re going to Madrid, check ouy Cat’s Hostel!). Finally we decided we had been walking enough and caught a cab and discovered our quest for the hostel had been in the completely wrong direction.

Tomorrow we’re getting on the train to Barcelona and will probably spend the next 4-5 days there - chilling on the beach and enjoying a fantastic holiday so far!

A big thank you to Isa and Arnaud (and his parents!) for their hospitality and enduring the burden of having to guide us around for several days (and Aleksander’s singing)!

Hopefully we’ll be able to upload some more photos once we get to Barcelona - until then enjoy this great wall of text

After two great days in Paris, we’ve found our way to Bordeaux and enjoying the company of Arnaud and Isabelle. Paris was busy - lots of stuff to see in a very short time, but we got around to the most important places. Except for Louvre, which of course is closed on Tuesdays…

Yesterday we got on the train in Paris and a three hours ride took us to Bordeaux where we got ourselves a great traditional french dinner with Confit de Canard and good wine. Bordeaux is great and seems warmer (in the social meaning) than what was the case with Paris - might have something to do with our great guides here in Bordeaux as well

Today we have raided the market for wine and cheese and already consumed half of the cheese We’ve visited Saint Emilion, just east of Bordeaux, and tomorrow we’re hopefully going on a visit to a Chateu tomorrow as well as Dunes de Pyla before heading south to the Basque country.

All for now! We’re very much alive and enjoying Europe to the max

Notre Dame

Today is departure day and man are we psyched:) This is going to be such an awesome trip and none of us got any sleep last night:)

First stop is Paris (well, first stop is Kristiansand, then Copenhagen), and we have two short days there before heading towards Bordeux to meet up with Isa and Arnaud. Looking forward to that! We have so much stuff we want to check out in Paris, yet so little time. But I think we’ll have a blast anyways!

Okay, so we are off! Stay tuned for more updates on the blog:)

Cheers,
Jaran & Aleksander

In three days we’re on our way, and tonight we’ll try planning a little for Paris and Bordeaux while having a beer We’re only staying in Paris for two days, two short days actually - as we’re leaving Paris by train around 4 PM on Wednesday and head for Bordeaux.

We want to see as much of Paris as we can during those two days, but at the same time we don’t want to run our feet off. We’re planning on seeing most of the main attractions, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Sacré Cæur and Montmartre, Champs-Élysées and Arc de Triomphe. In addition we want to try and get a tour of the catacombes. Jaran has been to Paris several times, but never been in the catacombes - need something new for him as well And if there’s time we’re hoping to visit Père Lachaise Cemetery.

So most of the sights of Paris has been chosen, we just have to figure out when and where to be

When we get to Bordeaux the only two things we have on our list so far is Saint-Émilion, a small town about 30 km east of Bordeaux and Dunes de Pyla - the largest sand dune in Europe. We’ll have some more items on our list for Bordeaux after tonight I guess When we are in Bordeaux we have our own private tour guides, Arnaud and Isabelle, and we’re going to exploit them to the max!

We can’t promise detailed overviews of what we’re going to see in every location, but it’s a little slow at work right now - only two hours till holidays, so we figured it was time for a blog update

We’ve finally gotten our hands on the last piece of the puzzle: The tickets!

Now the only thing which really remains is to buy a few necessities and packing! Exactly one week from now we’re arriving at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurooooope, baby!

Now we just have to see if we can manage to reserve seats on the train from Paris to Bordeaux  to be in Bordeaux next Wednesday  evening to meet Arnaud and Isabelle who will be our tourist guides and kind hosts for a couple of days Boy, are they in for a challenge!

Hope this week at work goes by quickly and quietly - we’re starting to get real excited about getting out of here!

(Edit: For those of you wondering we’ve bought a 22-day continuous global pass which means we can travel as much as we want during those 22 days.)

San Fermin Festvial, Pamplona - by Eneko Alonso

The Running of the Bulls is a well known event during the San Fermín festival in Pamplona, Spain, from July 6th till July 14th. If all goes as planned we’re in Pamplona on the 14th, the last day of the festival, and we hope to get up early and catch a glimpse of these crazy people running for their lives from the mob of angry bulls chasing after them.

Should be a blast!

Last week we finally got ourselves onto Amazon.com and ordered the books we want for the trip (it’s amazing how Norwegian book stores can survive - many books are almost the double in prize, compared to Amazon!).

Europe by Eurail 2009: Touring Europe by Train

Lonely Planet - France (Country Guide)

Lonely Planet - Italy (Country Guide)

Lonely Planet - Spain (Country Guide)

The books have shipped and will hopefully be here in a week or two, in good time for our departure