For Your Entertainment

Rail Pass and Dreams

Hey Carina,

I took a look at the rail passes on eurail. Did you see the 5 country one with a group rate? Apparently if you are traveling with 2 people or more you can get a group rate (saver pass). The 10 days within 2 months comes to 478 euro, the individual youth for the same amount of time is 365. I read up on the saver pass and we would travel on the same pass that means we would both pay 239 (euro). Plus getting a saver pass would allow us to travel in first class. (I wouldn't care about this usually, but it would be kind of nice as we'll be traveling in the summer and I'm pretty sure most travelers are going to go with the individual youth passes. Which would mean a very crowded second class area. Plus that's quite a bit of a money saver (126 euro).

Oh and I was looking at bike tours, and noticed while doing so that a large amount of France's vineyards are on the eastern side of France, almost directly on the way to Frankfurt.

I know that we've talked a very small amount about cycling, but I want to lay it out there that I'm up for cutting even one country to do a cycling tour of some length. If you are not interested however don't worry about it. I'm just playing around with time and ideas. Here are two self guided tours in France that I've found and thought you might also like the sound of. I chose to stay away from cycling in the ridiculously hot areas...as I think we may die if attempting one in the middle of the summer:

Amboise Short Escape Cycling 4 Day Tour

Chateaux of the Loire 7 Day Tour

http://www.randonneetours.com/bydestination/france.htm

The price for the first one I think is decent. I looked at a site that compared pricing and reviews and this company seems to be a good one. (I especially like the sounds of the 1st one as well because it allows us to do some wine tasting and skip around pretty castles!) Both of these tours are self guided and the cost includes the bike rental/repair supplies/accommodations/breakfast/Maps and Contact with a support team. The price comes to $710 US if we choose to stay at a B&B. (Roughly $180 a day for 4 days).

lol Well that's all I have for this Morning, I'll be posting this as well to our blog. Give me ideas of what you would like to do...as well as things you absolutely positively will not be satisfied without. We need to lay out our desires on the table!

I am in love with art history.

Hello fellow traveller! I just got back from an Art History class in which I was practically drooling from the slides we were looking at.

Here are some significant cathedrals that I hope we might be able to see:

St. Denis cathedral, paris, france: Burial site of the Kings of France

Significance-every gothic cathedral is based off of this design. (gothic architecture was all about stained glass windows and "how tall can we make it"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benidormone/1193437476/

Chartres, France: There are two freaking huge cathedrals here

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/93579-050-84329CF4.jpg

Carina! This cathedral is 3x as high as it is wide...this picture does it no justice. (Amiens Cathedral, France)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59927723@N00/3624790590/

Reims Cathedral, France

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caracolquiscol/2604069326/

And this...if we don't see anything else...this is top ten right now of buildings I want to see:

Ste. Chapelle, Paris, France

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasenz/3185477852/

It doesn't have walls, it has buttresses and stained glass...it's beautiful

(below this pic is one of Reims Cathedral)

And that about does my rant for tonight, I can't tell you how hard it is to sit in a class and hear from Prof talk about these places and pretty much drool over them herself. And the way she describes the amount of skill that goes into creating these buildings makes you appreciate them so much more. Just think! These cathedrals were being built in the 1100s, no cranes, no electricity, just man power. Even the idea of standing on the finished roof would make me vomit, I can't imagine what it would have been like to build the roof.

Okay I'm going to go to bed. Take an art history course if you can as an elective...honestly soooo interesting. (I know the name doesn't really make it appealing...it should really be called "time-travel Europe in your desk)

Dearest Lynne,

I hope that you are doing well and not feeling too stressed! The beginning of the semester is always the hardest I find. haha over christmas I forget all about how to write papers and study!
Sooo over le holidays I got to meet your old roomie Mary Anne! And she told me all about her upcoming wedding... haha in fact she invited me to attend! So i was thinking that I would offer myself as your date lol if you wanna go
TTYl

Saskatchewan calling the other hick province.

Carina!!! Have you seen the pictures of Lauren!? She's so adorable! I'm in love. Are you going to be going to see her sometime in the next month or two? Cause I'm thinking a road trip to Rocky is in order.

Also, I am not going to give up on University! I finally received a decent grade on a paper. So there is still hope. Plus I finished my last assignment of the term yesterday and now all I have to do is study.

I've also been looking for a new place to live with a friend of mine, so my look out on life should continue to improve over the next couple of weeks. Anyways! I hope you're doing great, you're almost done the semester just stick it out one day at a time. (and please stick around Lethbridge at least till the afternoon of the 16th. I fly into Calgary on the 14th but my mom probably won't be able to pick me up till the morning of the 15th. I want to see you before you go home to Brooks. I'm planning on staying in Lethbridge till the 29th and then busing to Swift Current to meet Jeremiah's older sister and her husband. So I won't be around for New Years).

Anyways, talk to you later!

Ps. you should check out the band Hey Ocean! I think you'll like them. And if you're looking for a slightly inappropriate, hilarious movie, Jem had me watch Amelie and it was quite funny.

BOO

Hey,
Okay so I have some sad news :( I won't be able to keep our phone date. Due to the fact that my phone bill was absolutely ridiulous last month I am trying to limit my phone usage...Im sorry dude... We shall have to keep in contact this way.
So tell me, how did things work out with your classes? Have you decided what path to follow next semester?
P.S How excited are you to see the new addition to the fam fam? Although we will both be completly rejected by the grandpapa haha. I love the fact that her middle name is Tiffany... Grandpa will probably call her that!
ALSO... I will be in Lethbridge until December 16th or 17th .. will you be back by then? I would very much enjoy if our paths could cross! lol
Good luck with the rest of your school work! You will survive!

Yeah for Carina

Yeah!!!! You blogged!!! ANd YEAH!!!! YOU GOT A SCHOLARSHIP! Great all of our plans are coming together. I'm doing my best not to dip my hand into my savings for the trip. It's been hard not spending a lot this semester. Anyways, I'm having a freaking difficult time with school right now. I absolutely hate writing papers, and that is all I'm doing. This month is ridiculous assignment wise. But it's only a month now and this whole semester will be done. Thank goodness.

Dear Lynsky!

I recieved a scholarship last week.... I shall be depositing half of it in my EUROPE EXTRAVEGANZA bank account....:)
Also H1N1 is lame, my clinical has been cancelled until further notice... GAY.
Hows school for you?
P.S Im taking a language next semester for one of my electives!! im so excited! Ich spreche Deutsch!! lol

Persevere

Good Luck traveling buddy! I hope you continue to persevere for a job to fund your way to Europe with me. I for one am continuing to budget and have thus far not strayed to over spending in any way. Please tell me you haven't gone off and bought more gum yet. (I'm pretty sure you had enough to keep you going for a month). lol Oh well, gum is good. 

So I haven't found any thing recently in regards to our trip but I think that wednesday I'll be going down to the library in search of some traveling books. And some how I'll fit reading them in to my already ridiculously packed full of reading week. 

Here's a picture from Miami to keep our traveling desires alive! (just pretend its some the south of France or something...)

Hey Carina!

So what do you think? Want to blog out our thoughts, feelings, psycho ideas to each other for this trip? Just think, every time you want to shout something out to me you can put it up on the wall and I'll be able to blog back to you and vice versa. It's marvelous! And the best part is when ever life starts to hand us hardships(cough...papers), we can come here and rejuvenate our passion for the best freaking trip to ever occur! What do you say?? Blog with me?