Trip Wrap-up: The Trip by the Numbers

Well, Lindsay and I are back in the states finally and I thought it would be fun to analyze what we accomplished during this trip. So, here is a look at our trip by the numbers (mostly ballparked, but we did our best):

Trip length - 104 days
Number of cities/towns we stopped in - 60
Number of countries visited - 15
Number of countries visited, according to the Palin Rule including stopovers - 16, our train went through Bratislava)
Number of countries visited, according to the Palin Rule including countries you can see - 17, I think we could see Hungary from our train at one point
Number of different beds slept in - 54...that means we had 54 opportunities to bring bed bugs home
Number of different carriers we flew on - 12
Number of takeoffs and, thankfully, landings - 22
Number of days we rode on long-distance trains - 18
Number of different languages we spoke at one point - 9 (english, spanish, french, portuguese, italian, greek, czech, dutch, and german)
Number of days we took hikes - 14
Number of different forms of transportation taken - 13 (plane, train, car, bus, smartcar, scooter, chairlift, 2-person motorcycle taxi, 4-wheeler, tram, ferry, subway, bicycle)
Number of incidents involving a bird of some sort - 3 (one parrot attack, one given to a tailgater in France, one given to a tailgater in Italy)
Number of times we had to pack/unpack our bags - 47
Number of job occupations Conor considered - 7,160,943
Number of those job occupations Conor is actually going to pursue - 0
Number of Malaria-pill induced nightmares - 22
Number of Advil popped - 30
Number of Pepto-bismal tablets chewed in South America - 16
Number of countries we went for runs in (working off the vino) - 6
Number of ATM withdrawls - too many
Bodies of water we saw the sun rise or set over - 5 (Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Aegean Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, Mediterranean Sea
Beaches blessed with our hard bodies - 12
Total distance traveled - approx. 34,500 miles
Number of times you will ever see me look like this again - 0














It was an amazing trip and thanks for tuning in and making comments, we really enjoyed reading them and keeping in touch with everyone that way. We cant wait to talk to you all about our trip and hopefully we can convince you to take your own someday too!

Love,
Lindsay and Conor

LAST STOP: Amsterdam

It's crazy, but true...we've reached the end of the 15 week journey. While this won't be the last post (conor has all these crazy ideas for a Final, Final post) this is it from abroad. We've been spending the last three days in the lap of luxury at Sarah's mom's apartment (palace) along the Prinsgracht canal in Amsterdam. We are being treated like a king and queen, so it's going to be hard to come back to reality. But, we know that our mom's will do a great job of spoiling us for a few days before it gets old (Conor just mumbled something about wanting his mother to make her famous chocolate chip cookies). While we are sadly sick of taking photos, we do have a few we'd like to share from the last two weeks.


Those this looks like it was taken from the summit of Mt. Everest, it was actually on the way up to Rigi Kulm. It looks like a blizzard, but it was just the cumulonimbus at the top of the mountain.



















On our anniversary outside our restaurant on Uto Kulm overlooking Zurich.
















Conor with his best friend, the Nightwatchmen from Rothenburg, who he was drawn to because, like Conor, he hasnt shaved or gotten his haircut in awhile and he wears the same outfit every day.






















Here is a picture from Bruges, very similar to Amsterdam, with less canals and no redlight district.

















Can't wait to see everyone in a couple days or weeks...and stay tuned for Conor's very business like wrap up report. Thanks for all of your comments, too. It's been a blast!

-lindsay and conor :)

Another country, another keyboard

Well, we made it to Brugge, Belgium yesterday for our 2nd to last stop before we head to Amsterdam and then home. Brugge is home to some of the best gothic architecture in Europe, two different estqblishments that serve over 300 brands of beer , beautiful cobblestone streets that weave in between the old buildings and over the many canals throughout the city, and yet another keyboard that i am unfamiliar with. Here is how the last 9 words of the last sentence would look if i typed them without looking at the keyboard: qnd yet qnother keyboqrd thqt i q, unfq,iliqr zith: Anyway, you can see how painful it is to make posts.

Anyway, inbetween our time in Switzerland and Brugge, we made two stops in Germany. The first was in Frankfurt and was really just a stopover. However, for me, it was one of the highlights of the trip because I got to see Notre Dame play live for the first time this season. We stopped by a bar that was playing the ohio state game and after the game, it cut to the last 1:33 of the ND game where we did our best to hand Navy a win after what looked like it would be a blowout win for the Irish. Luckily, we prevailed and I was estatic for that reason and because I realized that I have probably saved myself 3 years of life by not watching the Irish play live this season -- what torture.

After Frankfurt, we took the train along the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, Germany. This town, which is completely enclosed by a wall, has no modern buildings in it. We went to Hell one night, a pub located in a building with a foundation that dates back to the 900s. Anyway, it was a very sleepy, very quaint, and very beautiful city that was spared a US bombing in WWII because the US general in charge of bombing the town had a mother that enjoyed vacationing there. Anyway, we were very happy it was spared because it was magnificient. It was the type of town that was straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting, and I of course loved it because I am a sucker for all things cheezy.

That is all the time , see some of wou in a few days and talk to you hopefully one more time.

Switerland Wrap Up...

But first, a settle of the score. Minus 1 for Heidi. I´m keeping Conor warm on those "cold bavarian nights," thank you very much, Warner!

Now to Switzerland. While Conor entertained you with comparisons of heidi klum and our hikes, I´ll bore you with the gorey details of our travels. With our stay in interlaken we undertook the Harder Kulm hike and rewarded ourselves with Fondue, wine, bread, and Suisse Rosti (basically egge overeasy, bacon, chives, and cheese all mixed up with hash browns in a skillet...it was no three star diner, but I was in love.) After two nights in Interlaken, we headed for Lucerne. Which is in between Zurich and Interlaken and is the "in between" in location too...its got views of the sweeping Alps, big lakes, but its also a small, very cool, Suisse city with old wooden bridges criscrossing the river that flows through the center of the city, cobbled stone streets, and fantastic restaurants. On our first night there we were lucky enough to sample one of the best, the Rathaus Brewery, where we met up with another American ex-pat, Pat Capen, a friend from NYC by way of Shaun Horrigan. Pat works for J&J about 20 minutes outside Lucerne and agreed to meet us for dinner and drinks. We had a great time catching up, getting answers to some of our Suisse questions, and sampling various christmas brews from the brewery. The next day we dragged ourselves out of bed and boarded a boat that crossed Lake Lucerne for a small village of Vitznau which is at the foot of the large Rigi Kulm Mountain. The weather was pretty crummy, but we decided to give the hike a shot. So, in 3 short hours we hiked directly uphill through various small villages, by the time we got to the top it looked like we were in Siberia...blizzard contidions, whipping wind, and certainly no views to see. But thankfully we got plenty of the lake and towns below as we hiked up into the clouds. Lucky for us and our freezing butts, there was a cog railway we took back down instead of hiking again....With our serious hiking amibitions behind us, the next day we set off for Zurich to take a bit of a rest and stay in a nice hotel.

We did a little sightseeing but the real highlight of the stop was to venture to the top of Uto Kulm (by train this time!) for a special anniversary dinner overlooking all of Zurich and the lake below. That´s right...10 years, and Conor´s still got some good tricks up his sleeve, great restaurant choice, Conor! It was an awesome restaurant with great food and awesome views. Today we returned to die Deutschland for an overnight stop in Frankfurt before we head to Rothenburg tomorrow. Sadly our time is winding down very quickly....

Auf wiedersehen!

Heidi Klum (the model) vs. Harder Kulm (the mountain) -- warning, this is a PG-13 post

Some of you (and most of you men) have heard of Heidi Klum, the German supermodel, but have you heard of Harder Kulm, the German Switzerland mountain overlooking Interlaken? Well, we had an encounter with the latter today and there are more similarities than you think. I will now compare them for you and try to decide which one is in fact better. First, the contestants, who you should be able to tell apart because one is human and one is not:

























Harder Kulm is the mountain behind me in the back picture, which took us 5 hours to walk up and down today. Here are some more views from our hike below...

Now here are 10 comparisons, lets see who wins -

1) Which one makes me weaker in the knees? Well, my knees are asleep right now from the hike and it is tough to get weak knees from someone who you dont see in person, so Harder wins this one.

2) Easier to reach? Took 4 trains and 7 hours to reach Harder Kulm. I can only imagine it takes a lot longer than that to get to Heidi, and once you do, you gotta deal with the big boy, Seal. Harder wins again.

(EARMUFFS for the next few)

3) Which one has nicer peaks? Well I saw Harder's peaks today and they were maginificient. I dont believe I will ever see Heidi`s plus Harder's will probably age better, so Harder wins and goes up 3-0.

4) Which has provided more wood to humankind? I believe that for both , we are talking in the high millions, so it is a toss up. 3-0 Harder still.

5) Which one would be more fun to mount? No question. 3-1, Harder still leads though.

6) Which one makes you want to take a cold shower more (good for the environment)? Well, I can imagine you get pretty hot hiking Harder in the summer, but it was cold today and we had to thaw out, so we ended up taking hot showers. Harder gives one away but is still up 3-2.

7) Better accent? Heidi`s is very sexy, but if she isnt talking, you cant experience it. Harder had accents ranging from colors to views that you could experience as long as the sun was out. I just realized that this was a really stupid comparison and am throwing it out, so Harder is still up 3-2.

8) Which is more attractive in autumn colors? Though the leaves were beautiful, I am actually not attracted to something that is not at least human, so Heidi wins and we are tied!!!

9) Better curves? Well, Harder's are hard, jagged, and full rocks, so Heidi wins this one and goes up 4-3

10) Which one would leave you more speechless? The views of the Jungfrau mountain range were absolutely amazing today, but I was still able to talk at the end of it. And I can only imagine how much of a bumbling idiot I would sound like if I met Heidi, so she wins this one 5-3 and takes the prize!

Well, there you have it from the perspective of a 15-year old inside a 26-year old's body. I hope everyone enjoyed those, which were just way to easy to think up. Does anybody have any other comparisons they can think of that I might be able to weigh in on?

pics: Wien & Munchen...die deutche is so fun

I mean honestly....there really are signs that say wiener, fhart, die, brau, frau...just to start. Conor´s having a field day acting like a 10 year old boy with a potty mouth. Not to mention the fun accents...



We spent the morning wandering through the Naschmarkt, which has been the best market we´ve seen all over Europe thus far. Probably becuase it has tons of prepared foods, like millions of stalls with little appetizers...stuff tomatoes, austiran cheese, meats, pickles, mmm delich.

After a trip to the market, we wandered along the Danube river and through a beautiful park...a nice way to recover from our all nighter watching the election....midnight for you is 6am for us....but it was worth it...things seem a little brighter, even over here we can feel it. Conor decided it was time to break out his hat with the american flag on it (he´s been hiding it in his pack since we left.)

Our trip through Bavaria continues to Munich.....where we got in late but still managed to hit our first beer hall: Augustinerkeller, which was HUGE, and the beers were even `huger`, as in one liter each. We also had dinner, which was a pig on a plate....another day when i consider being a vegan, but conor was in heaven...clearly.

Today we also visited Munich´s markets....enjoyed a lovely bratwurst with mustard and headed to the Science and Technology museum after wandering the streets. Care, we are usuing your suggested German....Gutten Tag!

Pics: Czech & Co...

One entrance to the Charles Bridge, which spans the Vltava River and contains elaborate statues every 50 feet or so. That creepy guy in dark is Conor. You can see how spooky and Halloweenish this city really is.

This building in Old Town Square in Prague has an astronomical clock on the left side that people gather to watch every hour. On the hour, it ´´releases a procession of apostles accompanied by a skeleton symbolizing death.´´

After our days in Prague we took day trip into the original land of Budwieser and their beer, Budvar to a picturesque town called Cesky Krumlov, this is the castle that looms over the town from a hill. Obama won, so I no longer feel the need to look for real estate in this town.

After Praha, we headed to Vienna....This back side of the Hofburg Palace. Like my last trip to Vienna, this trip involved mostly walking around buildings rather than walking within them. Last time, it was because me and the Eastern European Wrecking Crew were a little too partied out to do any real siteseeing. This time, it was because Lindsay and I were too partied out from staying up til 6:30 am watching G-Obama usher in a new era.

Pics: Athens & Prague

The Parthenon getting a facelift...it actually is in pretty bad shape, but you would be too if you were 2,440 years old...

View overlooking Dionysius´theater... sort of looks like we superimposed Lindsay in this photo, but we didnt, WE WERE ACTUALLY THERE!

View of Prague from the Wencelas vineyards up on the hill outside of Prazky Hrad. This was the last stop on our tour of the castle grounds and was the best view by far. We got to soak in the view over some local Moravian wines, which we purchased with some crazy money that they gave us as we entered the grounds. From the vineyards, we walked down the side of the vineyard and across the bridge, where we.....

...were able to take this picture. This view is from across the Vltava River and is of Prazky Hrad (even if it was light out, you wouldnt be able to see the vineyard we were in because it is to the right of where this picture ends). Some of the best sightseeing we did was after sunset because so many of the gothic structures are lit up at night. After taking this picture, we actually walked down the river and crossed back over to go to a local pub and soak up some of the Prague atmosphere.

Picture Time: Paros & Athens

Conor in his element enjoying some cobblestones and archway flowers in the back streets of Paros...















Sunset in Paros...This picture looks like it belongs in a magazine...I think Lindsay did a perfect job of following hte rule of 3rds (I think that is a rule in photography, right Mike?)















Just after sunset in Paros. We had to scooter up a rocky dirt rode to get this pic...it is like riding over small rocks when you are bicycling, where you temporarily loose your balance...only you are traveling at much faster speeds...terrifying

View of the acropolis from our private terrace in Athens. If you look closely, Aristotle is trying to give us the bunny ears.

Prague, Round 2 for Conor, Round 1 for Lindsay (and congrats Warndog and Kelly!)

So, we have spent the last 4 days in Prague and it didnt take Lindsay long to understand why I fell in love with it the first time I came here back in 2003. Prague was the 3rd stop on what a group of 9 of us (all guys) called the Eastern European Wrecking Tour. Some comparisons that bear mentioning...

2003 - got lost in the woods up near Prazky Hrad (the Prague castle), ended up stumbling upon a pack of german sheperds and machine gun-carrying guards outside the US Embassy
2008 - got lost in the streets of Jewish Town and stumbled upon some beautiful and quiet streets and shops and warm pubs

2003 - drank flaming absinthe incorrectly due to a problem with a language barrier, received some nasty burns
2008 - drank some of the best beer out there, (budvar and pilsner urquell) and something that rivaled absinthe in taste (Slivovice, could barely get it down). Only burned the throat this time.

2003 - Ate at McDonalds most meals
2008 - Ate at many different restaurants and pubs and have enjoyed some amazing food, in particular, the beef goulash and the pancakes

2003 - advised by a neighbor to stop banging on our door so loudly (after being locked out) because "the people that live in this area still operate like they did before the Iron curtain came down...they will sit there listening to you, they will get upset, let there blood boil, and then they will kill you." We stopped banging on the door.
2008 - not really fully understanding what that guy meant back in 2003 but still terrified, I advised Lindsay to get up from her bus seat that was next to a woman who was incoherently whimpering something at Lindsay from the moment Lindsay sat down next to her. I think I told Lindsay something to the effect of, "if you dont get up now, she might go iron curtain on you and kill you." Lindsay stood up.

2003 - spent our extra day splitting it among an internet cafe, a casino, and a couple different bars
2008 - spent our extra day in Cesky Krumlov, a beautiful European village set on a winding river with a big castle that makes you quickly forget the Iron Curtain/Cold War feel of parts of Prague. If McCain/Palin wins and no houses are for sale in Villeneuve Lez Avignon, we are going to be looking for property there.

Anyway, as you can see, this time around, things were much different and much better. We got to watch the sunset over Prague while sipping wine up in the Wencelas Vineyard overlooking the city, we went on a great pub crawl one night that took us over the statue-laden Charles Bridge and allowed us to snap some amazing night shots, I dragged Lindsay around to all of the places that I visited my first time there (4 places in total) and made her take photos of me standing in front of them (Shaun and Tom, I cant wait to show you guys...), we actually ate Sushi for the first time in months and it was amazing, and we had a blast getting creeped out while walking amongst the buildings with roofs that resembled witches hats on Halloween night. Prague was way more amazing than it was the first time around and I only wish we could stay one more night. However, we have to move along to Vienna, where we will rest up before the all-nighter that we plan on pulling to watch the election tomorrow night. So go vote for Obama tomorrow, or else we might have to go Iron Curtain on you!