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Iceland: Packing and Boarding Passes

We’re just getting started

This is our first post, and while Lily is a little underwhelmed, we can’t wait to start our trip tomorrow! Over the past week we’ve been packing our Osprey 20 L backpacks as carefully as we can.

Here they are (plus my messy side of the bedroom):

We fly out at 5 AM tomorrow to Chicago, then to DC, and finally to Iceland around 2pm. The flight is 5 1/2 hours, which is a little hop compared to the 8 1/2 hour flight Mrs. Holtgreive and I took to France last year.

Our first stop is Iceland. We land near Reykjavik late and night, and spend the next day and night in a nice little hostel. Lily has plans for us to see a cool viking museum nearby. Collin and I found out that the world’s largest phallic museum is also nearby, but that’s a museum for another trip. According to Lily, at least.

We are flying Ryanair once we reach Europe, which should be……okay? There’s a crap-ton of hidden fees and hoops to jump through for non-EU travelers, so wish us luck.

Most of the hostels have wifi, so be prepared for a lot of pictures! And by pictures, I mean me taking selfies in front of historic sites with Lily’s face in the background. But, really, is there any other kind?

Best wishes,

The Wonder Twins

Copenhagen: A Day in a Fish’s Life

We hit the aquarium today after a crazy morning. Between checking out, running for the free shuttle and avoiding rain, we barely made it. We sat grinning on top of the double decker bus, surprised. Maybe things were going to go okay after all.

Jinx.

A squad car sped by with its sirens blaring, and our bus driver pulled to the side of the road. He knocked over a streetlight, and, with a crunching sound, the bus rocked back and forth. I looked at Lily.

“Holy shit.”

The German couple in front of us glared at me, but before I could despair, the bus lurched forward suddenly. We were driving away, abandoning the scene of the crime.

We made it to the aquarium right before eleven.

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My phone is overheating, and it’s barely letting me post pictures. We spent most of the day in the aquarium taking pictures though, so you’re not missing much in the ways of descriptions.

We tried to catch the shuttle to the airport, only to find out it had been cancelled due to a crash. Hmmm.

We’re chilling in the Copenhagen airport now, which almost sucks as much as Stanstead. No hates and definitely no seats. Only five more hours to go….

Copenhagen: The Last Stop

Eva and Töm sent us off with full stomaches and a few teary eyes. Eva took the train to her work in Cologne and got off a few stops before the airport. She waved at us through the window for a few minutes as we pulled away from the station. We miss you, Eva. (And Töm: What’s Gucci?)

Our flight to Copenhagen wasn’t until 2, so we killed some time at the airport. After a fairly uneventful boarding process, we realized the plane was mostly empty–and we had the row to ourselves!

I know, I know. It was a small victory; Lily commandeered the window seat to take pictures. We had an awesome view as we descended into Copenhagen, where we were faced with mockery of our green energy system:

It just goes on and on. It was beautiful. I have never seen so many windmills in my lifetime. It was awesome.

Our only priority after that was getting to our hostel and sleeping. “Sleep in Heaven” is actually really cool–by day a cafe, by night, one of the larger and most efficient hostels I’ve seen. The set up is very similar to the hostel in Porto, though the building is far larger.

We hit the hay and woke up ready to walk all over Copenhagen…And then we noticed it was raining outside. First Germany, now Copenhagen. Turns out there’s a 100% chance of rain tomorrow as well. Joy.

Not to be deterred, we got our rain jackets and headed out. The first thing we saw was this awesome river, whose name escapes me at the moment….

Next was a quick walk in the park. Copenhagen seems to love itself some statues. Lots of statues with their dicks hanging out. I would go as far to say perhaps too many, but that probably wouldn’t be popular here.

We saw some wildlife, then took a detour into the Danish botanical gardens.

When we finally stumbled into the main section of town, we met a quiet demonstrator and had a chat about world peace. She seemed fairly miffed about America’s foreign policy. Apparently, post Bush, the Danish parliament has ordered its forces to back all war efforts America is involved in.

She said many people walking by tried to argue with her. Most common were Jews on their way to the Danish-Jewish museum. We, two Jews on our way to that very same museum, smiled politely. She was actually very nice. We took a few pictures and left.

The museum itself is tucked behind gardens and old stone walls. It’s quietly respectful and beautiful, in a way only museums like it can be.

The museum was split into two exhibits–General history and post WWII-settlement. Turns out many established Jewish communities didn’t like the wave of Eastern European Jews who immigrated in the early 1900’s. There was drama, and quite a lot of squabbling. And then something they never would have predicted happened.

The museum was fascinating. The Danish resistance and the luck of Danish Jews was something I had never given much thought to. The amount of work, negotiation and luck it took to protect Jews in Denmark was astounding. The fact that it succeeded amazes me. They were so lucky.

Google the details if you’re interested. I found how they dealt with German occupation to be the most interesting.

We ate lunch at McDonald’s, which was easier said than done. Menus are hard. After lunch, we headed home–it was already 4:30.

Lily took some awesome pics along the way. I think I should sign up for a modeling gig here. No?

It was also time to check our steps. Here’s the data from the past two weeks, as far as I can tell:

Dinner was Italian and it was delicious. Lily even ate ravioli with spinach in it!

It’s been a busy few days. Tomorrow we visit the much-anticipated aquarium, and head home. Or, more accurately, one of many legs on the way home. It’s going to be a crazy few hours, that’s for sure.

Wish us luck!

Was?! (What?!)

So, J is once again tired. And didn’t post yesterday. So in recap:
We woke up and had another delicious breakfast of rolls and yogurt and the like. We left the house and headed towards the German supermarket.

Everything is cheaper there. Everything. You can get a liter and a half of juice for a euro and multiple rolls for one euro as well. They have a famous drink of Coca-cola and Fanta mixed together that is apparently really well liked.

After that we went to the local Haribo factory- which is just candy everywhere and gifts and more candy and 4 kg boxes of candy. It was crazy. Except this one lady left her dog in the car and the alarm kept going off.

We then went into Düsseldorf. Except it was pouring again. So we walked around and saw the old buildings, and then it rained again.

Side note: cool WWII era bunker we passed now turned into apartments:

So we went and got ice cream. Then we went into shopping malls, and it rained again. And then we hopped the tram home.

Apparently spaghetti ice cream is a big thing in Europe. Here’s J’s:

We ordered pizza, which has a lot of different types of cheeses that are different from the US. It was an experience.

Today we woke up and had a good breakfast. We then hopped the train to Cologne. We saw this massive cathedral. Really massive.

Then we went to the old roman ruins (Prateum?) which were so FREAKING AWESOME:

We walked around and had the Turkish equivalent of Shwarma, which was fantastic.

We then walked along the over-flooded Rhine to the CHOCOLATE MUSEUM. Which was, as you guessed, amazing. They had an indoor greenhouse with cacao trees, an assembly line of the process of creating the chocolate bars, and a chocolate shop inside.

Julia fell asleep halfway through:

We then walked back through the mall section of town and stopped for ice cream. Because ice cream shops/cafes are a big thing here. And there is a thing called spaghetti ice- which is ice cream in the form of spaghetti, obviously. Here is lasagna and more spaghetti ice in the background:

Now we are on the train home, and it is raining again. It’s always raining here. Tomorrow we head to copenhagen, and say goodbye to Eva and Töm. We’re really gonna miss them. They’ve been awesome and so nice.

Germany: Eva and Töm’s Apartment

We woke up to the news in Orlando. How horrifying. Even the German news stations are reporting often on it, and the numbers seem to be getting worse. Eva and Töm were gracious and served us a large breakfast, taking us around town to take our minds off the news.

Neuss is a beautiful place rich with history and interesting people. Here are Eva and Töm leading lily on a tour:

Flowers I saw: (there are so many here–and so big!)

Lily, Eva and Töm reading about old castle/fortifications in the city center:

The German “White House” (which is a restaurant according to Töm, who thought it was very funny):

The oldest house in Neuss: (now a restaurant!) note the date on the wall…

One of many pretty streets/alleys we passed in the rain:

Some rodent neither of our hosts could translate to English. We found it pawing around the river bank in the rain. I’ll add it to the list of animals that don’t give a duck…

Here’s the duck:

We walked through the park and saw a bunch of old buildings and remnants of the forts that were once there. It was really cool up until it started raining cats and dogs:

Luckily, Eva made cake and treated us to German teatime. IT WAS DELICIOUS, THANK YOU EVA AND TÖM!!!

Töm and Eva took us to her mother’s house to meet the family and have a bbq. I ate way too much bratwurst, potatoes and salad. Everyone was so nice and tried to help us with our (nonexistent) German. Even her adorable niece. I didn’t take any pictures because I was having so much fun, so here’s Töm during cleanup:

I found a picture of Eva and her sisters in our house from at least a decade ago:

Finally: Eva’s mom’s beautiful house. Her garden was like a maze of roses and flowers and beautiful vines. Too bad it rained for most of dinner. Note the vines on the front of the house–they’re wine grapes!

Tomorrow, Eva and Töm are taking us to Düsseldorf. We are really excited and tired.

Sending good thoughts where they’re needed,

Julia

Porto and the Airport: On the Road to Eva (and Töm!)

We were, once again, exhausted yesterday and didn’t do much but sleep. Hence, today’s blog post will cover two days, which is good considering half of today was spent in an airport.

Yesterday we started out in our favorite little Porto café. Today marked three mornings in a row there. We just couldn’t resist. They have a million different types of pastries and meat pies, and, most importantly, black tea. Three or four pastries, tea and Lily’s soda come out to 4€, which is an awesome deal.

I think they finally got used to us, because nobody asks us in Portuguese what we ordered–they ask each other what the Americans got and type it out. Funny.

Per Dad’s suggestion, we went to the Livraria Lello & Irmão, also known as Livraria Chardron or simply Livraria Lello. It’s a huge, famous library. We actually walked past it twice the day before; barring the long line to get inside, we would have missed it again:

It’s beautiful inside–all ornate wood and fancy bookshelves. The winding staircase is definitely the focal point of the building.:

Lily made some friends with who we GUESSED might be Poe and Shakespeare. We were pleasantly surprised to find out it was Portugal day, and that the man wearing the crown was none other than Luis Vaz de Camoes. This dude was like the Most Interesting Man in the World before Dos Equis was a thing. Seriously.

According to legend, he was a one-eyed poet with a penchant for sleeping with princesses and getting into fights. Supposedly he carried his life’s work on a trip and, when the boat sunk, carried it above the water in one hand while his side-princess drowned.

I’m including a cool link if you want to read more:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/adventures-of-a-portuguese-poet-8433719/

Lily kvelling over the new Harry Potter book with illustrations:

Seeing as it was Portugal day, a lot of the places we wanted to visit were closed. We ramified this by walking around aimlessly. On our travels we spotted one golden wheel:

City hall:

A wedding: (congrats to the really cute couple! We just took pictures…)

A parakeet who dgaf about anyone:

A cool lady who played the accordion (or something similar?) complete with shoulder parakeet/parrot who also didn’t gaf:

We covered almost all of the downtown area by the time we returned home. Dinner was Chinese food (who’d have thought?)

Afterwards, we went to sleep. Our roommates are far better than those in London. That being said–just because YOU’RE excited to go do body shots with some guy named Francis at 3 am doesn’t mean you get to turn the lights on. Or that you get to snooze your alarm at 9 am seventeen times in a row.

Whew. Okay. Moving on:

We got to the airport really early because the metro system is weird and it was better to avoid the long lines for the Non-EU visa check. The attendants here were actually really nice about it and we got through easily.

Today marked the third time I’ve been tested for gunpowder residue. It’s weird because they ask for your cellphone, but they also test your waist and pants. I’m kinda over it. What happens if you test positive? I’m hoping to never find out…

We grabbed lunch at Burger King thinking it would be cheaper. Did you know they sell hamburgers for 10€ here???? We settled for chicken nuggets and m&m’s, which I think was a wise choice.

We also picked up some other stuff in duty free. Man, that place is crazy. They were giving out free vodka shots. And perfume. Hopefully not to be confused.

We have around 2 hours before our flight leaves. Thankfully, the wifi here is free and fast. We’re on our way to Germany, and we can’t wait!

Eva and Töm are going to have their hands full. Good thing we’re cute.

Here’s a bonus picture from Porto–I’m guessing this dude was pretty inportant, but we were digging his glasses so….

Porto: In Pictures

These are mostly Julia’s pictures:

Julia is VERY tired at the moment, I am writing today’s post. It might also be because she took a nice dose of Benadryl. 🙂

Starting off, we woke well rested around 10am. There was only us and one other person in the dorm, so it was the best situation. We took a walk around the neighborhood in search of breakfast, which apparently starts really late here, as some people were just opening and kids were still having breakfast. We found a cute small cafe, where we had to pay after we ate the food, which was weird for us, but apparently normal here. We then decided to see the river, which involved a long trip down the many stairs and alleys, and also included seeing a massive cathedral on the way. It was very exciting to reach the river, where we had a grand view of the impressive bridge.

We then hiked our way up the ridiculously high hill/mountain to the top of the monestary. It took forever, and J kept pausing to take pictures of the numerous cats on the way. When we got to the top, we could see the entire city laid out, as well as many high bell towers and spires. We then took the top of the bridge as our route back, and napped when we got back to the hostel.

J then said we needed to leave again, so we set off for the crystal palace, which, is not actually a crystal palace. It is a shut down conference center that looks pretty by itself. But! The walk there was fantastic, we saw many more buildings and shops. Also, the trip wasn’t wasted, as around the palace are gardens, trails, a small forest, playgrounds, water features, and the romantic museum. We spent our afternoon wandering around the area until we started to make our way back.

We gained a new roomamate, who has hiked the 376 kilometers from Lisbon to here. She is from Holland and very nice and conversational. We also gained two college girls intent on seeing the music festival this weekend, and were decent enough people. We now have 6 people in the dorm.

On the way, we saw statue man in the street, and just passed him again wiping all the make up off. He’s blonde.

Our laundry is finally dry, after our laundry machine debacle, where it was still damp after 4 dryer attempts in the machine. We went to bed disheartened and the laundry turned up at the reception desk dry and folded. This place is magical.

All in all, a good day. Oh yes, the bottle of apple juice cost only €0.67. Crazy.

-Ollie

Porto: AKA Paradise

We dragged ourselves out of bed waaaayyy too early to catch a shuttle to the airport from Barcelona. And also to find out how crazy the presidential primaries are back home. This 7 hour time difference is sure something else.

I actually managed to not take a single picture until we landed in Porto. Once we landed, I couldn’t stop. This place is so beautiful, and we’re staying right in the center of it.

Porto Alive Hostel is just down the street of the last picture. It’s clean, it’s big, it has its own porch and there’s a small band playing underneath our window. It’s beyond picturesque.

Some hijinks ensued as we were moved into the third floor, only to find out an hour and a half later that it was the men’s dorm. I was beginning to question this myself as a gaggle of German backpackers started unpacking right next to us. Huh.

Nevertheless, our quirky and nervous hostel supervisor (new job) relocated us without much difficulty. We’re staying with two other women, but they seem nice and probably not crazy.

I love the ambient noise and color here. We didn’t get much done besides walk around and eat (save for lily sitting memorably in dog poop) so these pictures are all I have so far:

I also had to do my PSA for the Milwaukee Youth Council, and ended up doing it in the back courtyard. It’s actually very pretty out there, but now my allergies are acting up:

Porto is a gem. I know we have so much planned for tomorrow. Everything is in walking distance–technically–but there are lots of hills. Nevertheless, we’re making it to the beach this time.

Till tomorrow!

Barcelona: The Gothic Quarter

Lily and I woke up refreshed in our awesome hotel room with 8 hours of sleep under our belts. Considering that’s about as much as I got cumulatively in London, it was very welcome.

Here’s a lovely pose of Lily from last night:

Did I mention how much I love the European breakfast? I love it. A lot. Juice, toast, yogurt, fresh fruit and enough Nutella to overthrow a third world country. We stuffed ourselves unrepentantly and tried to figure out our game plan.

Operation “See Barcelona in One Day” began at 10 a.m. We decided to head south (north?) to the beach and swing by the Gothic quarter, famous for its cathedrals and plazas. Anything else we passed on the way was fair game.

It was stunningly gorgeous out, and the weather was hot without being sweltering. The city was alive and booming, flowing in a way I think would make London jealous.

We passed so many cool buildings and streets and only almost got run over, like, seven times, so I think walking was definitely a success. You just see more than if our butts were planted in a train. The Gothic quarter was only 39 minutes away, so we sunscreened up and took off:

We passed this cool house (much larger up close):

This is the boulevard we walked through. So pretty 🙂

The bell tower of the university: (frustratingly spelled universitat instead of universidad)

A blurry photo of me being in awe of the endless streets:

More beautiful apartment buildings. I don’t think we passed one today that I wouldn’t live in. Every one seems to have an interesting quirk–glass, curtains, strange paneling–that makes it special.

The Gothic Quarter was made up of alley after alley, interconnected with long plazas and boulevards. We snuck through the alleys, avoiding the sun because Lily is a vampire. There were so many things to do and see. I stopped into way too many clothing and jewelry stores. I couldn’t help myself. Everything is just so much cheaper here–the food, the clothes. Everything.

The first plaza we saw:

Lily having lunch in the plaza of some Saint I can’t remember:

(We had empanadas and other pastries for lunch)

One of many plazas:

An interesting alley:

The famous cathedral, in the light of the noonday sun:

We were both still ridiculously tired, and, after realizing how far away it was, elected not to go to the beach. We walked back, taking closer to an hour this time. We passed some cool places on the way, including this mysterious building on the mountainside:

(I’m sure it’s something famous, but that looked WAY too far away)

Lily hid in the shade and frowned at me when I called her a vampire:

So. So far: Top Ten Things About Barcelona (and 3 ok-ish things):

10. Traffic is predictable! Ish. Apparently people get run over here a lot, but it’s not because of confusing traffic, it’s because there are assholes, motorbike lovers, and people who are both. Crosswalks are kind of just suggestions here…

9. The amazing boulevards. Love the trees and the peaceful feeling they create. You get to see a lot of the city without stumbling into the street like a dumb tourist.

8. Open air supermarkets. EVERYWHERE. Fresh fruit and gelato 24/7, baby!

7. One-way streets. Lily loves this for some reason.

6. The weather. Couldn’t have asked for better temperatures. We don’t even burn here! (Still put sunscreen on though)

5. Mountains and ocean in plain sight. I wish we could have made it down there, but just glimpsing the ocean was awesome. It made urban life far less constricting than London.

4. Shopping. I bought stuff. Lily waited around awkwardly while I tried out my rusty spanish. I saw the most beautiful dresses I’d never have a hope of cramming into my bag and wanted to cry.

3. Architecture/Gothic District

This was so so cool. Way more fun and independent than paying 20€ to ride a tour bus. Getting lost in alley after alley was absolutely fascinating.

2. European breakfasts. I love tea and desserts for breakfasts. I just don’t understand why the coffee cups are the size of thimbles.

1. The People

People watching here is so awesome! Everyone seems to speak 2-3 languages and wear the craziest clothes and shoes. They all seem to love food and drinks and getting stuff done while having the maximum fun possible.

Now. Three things we’re still trying to understand:

1. Everyone smokes. Pregnant ladies smoke. Teenagers smoke. I swear there’s a perpetual haze settled over the town. They have specific machines that pick up cigarette butts.

2. The language. What’s going on? All of my precious vocabulary has gone to waste. Sometimes there are three or four different words for an item. There are random g, t, and d‘s thrown into the words I do know. Toallas, or towels, is something that sounds like tabladas (don’t quote me on that). I miss Mexican spanish, but haven’t heard the vosotros tense yet, so take that, IB!

3. Lack of street signs/names

Enough said. We got lost enough times that these would have helped. A lot.

In conclusion:

Barcelona is AWESOME. 9/10. We would definitely live here. I wish we had more time, but we leave for Porto tomorrow.

Most of the news stations here talk about the US presidential election with faint distaste. It’s funny to watch. We’re off to find tapas, and I might come back and do just that.

I’ll leave you with this unfortunate picture:

Barcelonaaaaaaaaa

We didn’t post yesterday because lily was a little under the weather (and very grumpy) and we didn’t get up to much. It was still very interesting, so a quick recap:

We walked around Camden Town for a while, just exploring. Lily wanted to go to the zoo there, but relented after we discovered it was 30£ a person. Damn that conversion rate.

The crowds came out, so we continued walking and stumbled onto the beautiful Regents’ park, which is like Humboldt park but 6x bigger and with ten more restaurants. There were dogs, trails, fields, playgrounds and–get this–it was slightly sunny. We hadn’t seen sun since we left Chicago (no lie) so it was pretty awesome.

We soon entered the Queen’s gardens, which were stunning. There were enough rose bushes to cover a field, with a thousand different varieties. It smelled wonderful in every inch of that garden. I wanted to live in it. Lily kind of just stumbled through it, but she was sick so I’ll give it to her.

Here’s a picture of the entrance:

Some of the lakes/ponds inside:

We got into a pissing match with some pigeons, ducks and swans while there, which was absolutely bizarre. I’ll leave a video instead:

It was like all the local mafiosos were meeting up, except the sketchy warehouse was replaced by the Queen’s ponds and everyone was too scared to do anything but dive and run away.

Anyway.

Lily took a nap in the gardens while I tried to pet the dogs that walked past. This was especially difficult, as British dogs are very well trained and don’t even look at you if you hold your hand out. A big golden retriever ran up to me with a goofy smile, but sadly listened to his owner and walked away 😦

After the gardens we went and saw a movie, which was surprisingly cheap and something Britons also seem to dislike. We were 2 of 6 people in the theater, but that was okay by us. We saw The Nice Guys (solid 7/10, hilarious) and suffered through not one but two condom commercials. Apparently they play commercials first, then trailers, then a few more ads. It was weird.

Not much else was accomplished. We packed for Barcelona, spoke to a French backpacker who had just discovered the phrase “what the fuck” (pardon my French) and was excitedly using it in every sentence. He was actually kind of cute–in a crazy way.

Two nice Portuguese guys who ran the gyro store we ate at gave us tips about what to do in Barcelona and Porto. They asked us if we liked San Franciso as it was now, or back in the 1890’s. They were very concerned that we answered honestly.

Another sleepless night passed as our bunk mate got up at three a.m. To laugh creepily to herself. In russian. While spraying the room with aerosol deodorant. Then she laughed again. Because I’m not about that life, I put my headphones in and stared at the ceiling like everything was ok.

Needless to say, I’m glad to be in a hotel room tonight.

We got up early and took the tube to the bus station. The bus was horrifically late and many people missed their flights because of the traffic. The poor bus driver almost had tomatoes thrown at her when she pulled over to check if the A/C was good with everyone. We were still late, so I don’t think she deserved the yelling.

Ryanair is an awful airline. We had to get our non-EU selves to a desk to “validate” our boarding passes before we could go through security. Of course, they don’t tell you this. It also turns out the lines for this desk don’t move, they’re 1000 feet long, and the “validation” is actually some French dude scribbling some ancient hieroglyphic onto the paper. Also, if you pretend like you’re about to cry, the other nice French man by the kiosks will do it for you.

That being said. We got our 50 L backpacks on no problem. No one so much as blinked at the size. Praise the lord.

The airplane was like a flying billboard and sounded like ad purgatory. The whole trip was them desperately trying to get you to buy an overpriced cappuccino or latte. They. Did. Not. Stop.

Once again, Dad and Mom: thanks for the headphones!

We landed in Barcelona and were met with misty skies. It wasn’t too warm, which was nice–the ocean isn’t too far away either. We got lost a couple times. Lily is stubborn about directions and I am bad at them, so we made an unlikely pair.

The Spanish here is so different. I feel like I can’t understand much at all. There are huge differences in vocab and even delivery. I’m trying, but being tired definitely doesn’t help.

I really love the architecture here though. Everything is built tall, but in an interesting and sometimes beautiful way:

We grabbed Schwarma for dinner and settled into some really nice beds. I have no clue what we’re doing tomorrow, but there’s a lot of museums and a really cool tapas/paella place nearby, so I think we have our work cut out for us.

Till tomorrow!

We Eventually Got There

Lily wrote today’s blog post because I was ridiculously tired. Also, Bletchley Park was probably her fave thing ever:

Today we went to Bletchley Park. Which was an ordeal within itself. If you remember, we have mastered the Underground sufficiently to get from one place to another. Yet, today we tried the trains.

Big mistake.

Not only are they separate from the Underground, but they require their own tickets, are located at different platforms, and don’t specifically state when to get on them.

So, we bought the wrong tickets, exchanged then with the short-tempered worker, loitered on a platform until we decided to hop a train we were only 75% certain was ours, and met a very nice ticket man.

Trains: 4/10 very confusing. Tip: if you’re coming back the same day, but what’s called a returning ticket. If it’s stapled to another ticket, do not insert it into the machine, or you will break it (Julia).

Anyways, on to the exciting bit! It was once again empty, damp, and cloudy when we reached Bletchley Park. We entered the Park, which consisted of many building to see, the Mansion, Block A & B, and Hut 11, to name some of the big ones. While there, we learned about the enigma, Alan Turing, Welchman, Christopher/Bombe, Typex, and so much more.

It was crazy. We saw a replica Bombe, and Typex, as well as an exhibit about the movie the Imitation Game. We picnicked by a small lake on the premises with swans, where we are our daily bread and Nutella sandwiches, as Europeans are against peanut butter for some reason. Here’s a few more notable pictures:

We caught the correct train back, got congratulated on making it back by the ticket man in Bletchley, broke a machine, and hopped the Underground back to a coffee shop across from our Hostel.

Tomorrow we plan for packing and seeing the changing of the guard, as we are trying to save money in this very expensive city. We are having spaghetti-Os for dinner again, as we are still unsure of cooking rights inside the hostel, as people are living there full time with their own plates, ingredients, pots, and cooking utensils. We are also eating cheap for the money.

After yesterday’s post, outside the museum were a headless couple posing for photos. Julia was a fraidy-cat and offended them, but I was happy to take pictures with them. Very nice people. I also forgot about this picture that Julia made me pose in back in Iceland:

For now, dinner and packing.
Lily