Pictures

Almost Home Time

Hello Friends and family!!

sorry it has been soooo long since I have last written - internet has been less accessible and very expensive in the last few weeks.
Right now I am in Luxembourg. Tomorrow I will see the town and stop in quickly to Brussels before heading to Brugge for the 29th. Then back to Amsterdam on the 30th to fly back to Canada! This has definately been an amazing trip. Unfortunately I only have 5 minutes until my internet time runs out and these French keyboards are tricky to manuver.....

In quick summary - Slovania is BEAUTIFUL!!! As soon as I got there I promised myself I would go back. I met some great people in Munich and had lots of fun and really enjoyed the local food. Interlaken was definately great - thanks for the tip Kristie and Dustin - I went to the top of Shilthorn - where a 007 film was shot - the second highest qccessible mountain in the alps. Paris was as wonderful as I remembered - saw the end of the tour de France up close - was only 5m from the road and was right at the finish laps so they passed us 9 times!

I will tell more later, but time is up for now.

Paige

Sunset in Croatia

Hello Friends,

Well, it has been a few days, and as seems to be the trend on this trip, I have covered a lot of ground since I wrote last.

Hungry was amazing! I definitely want to go back there some day. Jason and I spent our last day there doing A LOT of walking – my feet really hurt by the end of it and I was very much looking forward to another night in at a thermal bath, but unfortunately the one we tried closed at 7 and we were too late :( We went on a tour of their parliament – which was pretty cool and wandered through the castle grounds, parks and museums. There is so much to see and do I don't feel that we had enough time, but that seems to be a trend of this trip as well. I had really wanted to see an opera, but we were a few days too late as their opera house closes for the summer on June 30th. While disappointed, I guess I will just have to make that another reason to go back.

We took a morning train on July 5th to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia and spent the day wandering the old town, stopping for a picnic in the park before catching the night train to the coastal city of Split. While only a short stop over of 7 hours, we both felt that was enough time in Zagreb – there really wasn't too much there from what we could tell, and getting the Adriatic Sea was amazing. The water is so clear and so blue – almost turquoise. A mountainous region lies just behind city and many island dot the coastline. Split has ancient Roman ruins in the centre and many market vendor selling anything and everything are stationed all around. It is a very lively and yet easy going beach town with a lot of character. When we got off the train people swarmed the passengers asking if we needed a place to stay – something we later realized is a staple in this area – all you have to do is have a backpack on and dozens of people with a room will beg you to stay. We decided to go with it and actually got a great little apartment at the back of this guys house. He speaks only a little English, but is very kind and even gave up fruit from his garden and coffee to snack on while his wife cleaned the room from the previous guests. We weren't originally planning on staying in Split, but we were definitely glad that we did. The next day we took a 5 hour long bus ride along the coast to the southern most (almost) city of Dubrovnik – amazing! There is an old walled city where every building is made out of the same white stone. We walked around the wall just before sun set and got some amazing views of the ocean and city. We were in Dubrovnik for 2.5 days and spent most of our time cooling off in the water or sleeping on the beach. Despite my avid use of sunscreen, I am definitely more brown than when I got here!

Tired of walking everywhere and up for a little adventure we rented a scooter for a day. I didn't drive it at all – I get way too freaked out – and I spent most of the time praying we wouldn't crash it – we weren't able to buy insurance, so that would have been a costly accident! Thankfully nothing bad happened. We had a great time scooting around – drove up the hill for a great view and toured everywhere we wouldn't have walked.

I found more strawberry juice at the supermarket and brought 4 so that I can have some other times on my journey – it is a real treat. Now we are back in Split. We really liked it and I think I will even stay a few days more. Jason left to meet up with his parents this evening, so I am all by my lonesome for the next 10 days or so. We spent the morning booking hostels and everything seems to be set until I get home, which is nice. There is still so much to see and do, it hard to believe I only have three weeks left. Things have been wonderful, but I have a feeling I will be ready to come home by the end.

I am going to spend a few more days here, going to do a day trip to a nearby island and to a National Park with 16 cascading lakes. Then I will head up along the coast for a couple of days on my way to Munich. I have three nights in Munich – hopefully enough time to explore the city and see Dachau and Newshwanstine castle. Then I am off to Interlaken for 4 days of hiking and relaxation. Jason and I will meet up in Paris on the 22, check out the main site on the Friday, Versailles on the Saturday and catch the end of the Tour De France on the Sunday – should be a memorable experience. Maybe we will catch a glimpse of Lance as he crosses the finish line?!
After that we are heading to Mercille to tour Château D-If, the prison highlighted in the Count of MonteCristo, and then to Aix-En-Provence for a day. After that I hope to see Luxembourg and Brugges, Belgium for a day or so each and by then it is time to back to Amsterdam and fly back to Canada!! Wow, it seems tiring just writing it all out like that, but I am excited for the journey.

My Internet time is quickly running out, so I better finish up. I finally got my pict's on CD and should be able to share them with you shortly – will just need to get some more Internet time soon.

Again, thank you for your emails, comments and of course your prayers. As I have said before, I have been so blessed on this trip - things seem to come together for good and I have always felt safe, praise God.

Take care. Miss you all back home.

Paige

So much to tell...

Hey Guys,

I am in Budapest right now and am loving it. This would have been a great spot to spend my summer, and I am glad that I have the chance to see it anyway. Jason and I arrived last night from Vienna, but let me start where I left off.

Last time I wrote I was just on my way out for my final day in Prague, it was beautiful. I so enjoyed that city, if any of you have the opportunity to go there definitely do. I had a pretty relaxed day wandering through the old Jewish quarter again, the town square to watch the astronomical clock do its thing, and had my lunch sitting on Charles Bridge with a good view of one of the many live performances. I walked up the hill on the other side of the bridge all the way to the top and meandered back to the castle. It was a pretty leisurely day and I bought my first “big” purchase (20euro), two paintings of the city, which I love.

I caught the night train to Wurzburg in hopes on meeting my pen pal from Germany who goes to Wurzburg University. I arrived at 4:30 in the morning, suffice to say I didn’t get much sleep. When it was light out I asked around and found my way to the University, to their student services building and finally to the class where they thought she might be. Everyone was very helpful and by 8:30 that morning I was sitting outside of her classroom. The University didn’t have a class list, so I wasn’t sure that she would in fact be there, but to my surprise and hers, I found her!! I think I was the last person she would have ever expected to be waiting outside her class, but it was definitely cool to meet her. My train to Salzburg was at 12:30 in the afternoon, so we only had ~3hours to spend together, but she skipped the rest of her morning classes and showed me around the town. Wurzburg is 1300 years old and was mostly destroyed during the war, but has been largely restored. There are many vineyards on the surrounding hills and below the castle. We had a coffee and chatted by the river for most of the time, which was better than any letter or picture we could have sent. I hope that we will have another opportunity to visit again in the future some time.

Jason was waiting for me at the hostel in Salzburg, it was kind of surreal to have a friend waiting for me at the hostel entrance in a town on the other side of the world. It is great to have someone from home to travel with, to talk to and to share my experiences with. That night we went on a LONG walk through the town, I think we got a bit lost, because we basically walked all the way out of town! We saw the Mirabel gardens, watched giant size chess in the town square and had Gyros for dinner at an outdoor stand – a very popular food staple here. The next morning we made our way back to the town square and up to the castle. It was raining, which was actually a nice break from all the heat that we have been having – nothing less than 27 for many days and often in the 30’s. Salzburg’s castle was a fortified castle with two exterior walls and many defense systems. Very cool.

By about 2 we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to see and since the weather wasn’t too good, we thought we would try the weather in Vienna. We arrived there early evening, found our hostel and just went out to the neighborhood café for the evening. I finially found strawberry juice – something I have been looking for since I landed. My sister and I had strawberry juice a few years ago when we visited Greece – I mistakenly thought I would be able to enjoy this wonderful treat at home, but apparently they only sell it in Europe, and even then it is hard to come by. Well, the café sold it, and it was just as good if not better than I remembered it.

In the morning we went to the Shonnburg (sp?) palace and spent a few hours in its gardens, including a series of labyrinths off to the side. We walked to the top of the hill which has a great view of the city and had a hot chocolate and apple strudel in a very ornate building which was supposed to be another section of the palace, but for some reason (possibly they ran out of money or the king just changed his mind) it was never finished – and is now the café. We went to the local market, the main church and through some parks before getting tickets to a Mozart and Strauss concert in the Golden Hall – apparently it is a world famous concert hall, but we had never heard of it. Before the performance we had a traditional meal of wienersnitzle (sp?) – Jason had told me that it was veal and so I wasn’t going to have any, but the pub used chicken – which was very good indeed. On Sunday we went to the Leopold museum – which had many works by Klint and other Austrian artists – many very provocative and many amazing pieces.

That afternoon we made our way to Budapest. On the trip here we past many farms and small towns, but Budapest is itself a thriving metropolis. It is actually quite surprising how many McDonalds, Burger King’s, North Face shops, Michelin tire store, GAP stores and everything else American there it – not exactly what I was expecting. But these reminders of North America do not overtake the beauty of the city, which is definitely a good thing. The food here is super cheap (3.5 euro for half a large pizza and coke!) and so is mostly everything else. Vienna was ridiculously expensive, so this is a welcome change.

After grabbing some dinner we walked along the Danube river and took pictures of the Parliament, castle and cable bridge – Budapest is really a beautiful place. The bridge had been blocked off from traffic and cafes were set up all along. One vendor was selling a traditional Transylvanian cake – basically just dough wrapped around a spit, cooked over burning coals and coated in sugar. I love having the local food of each place I go. I haven’t been buying very much stuff, mostly postcards of the sights, (the world is so globalized that you can get almost anything they sell here back at home), but the food and the experiences of a place are unique and worth enjoying.

Today we had a more relaxing day – I woke up at 10 and we didn’t really have a set plan for the day. We walked across the bridge and up the lookout hill where we had a magnificent view of the river and the sprawl of the city. At the top is a victory monument – as many European cities seem to have – but it was cool. On the way up we saw some locals gambling with a simple ‘follow the ball under the cup’ game – we were pretty sure it was a scam so we didn’t bet – we could only bet 100euro, but even still it was hard to walk away from since we were 100% sure where it was (the guy had left a corner of the cup up showing the ball), but we figured anything so blatant must have a catch, so we reluctantly walked away – better safe than sorry I guess. Later in the afternoon we found their local market – it is in an old train station on the edge of the river, and enjoyed very tasty raspberries – way cheaper here than at home – I think it would work out to 75 cents CAD for a small container! We couldn’t pass them up.

After more exploring and a couple of stops at local cafes, we made our way to one of Budapest’s thermals baths. It was heaven!! We are definitely going to go to another one before we go.

We are planning on spending another 1-2 days here and then head down into Croatia for a while. There is just too much to see in Eastern Europe. We will only scratch the surface of 4-5 places in our 10 days here, and I wish I could spend much longer. But when Jason leaves to travel with his family I think it best that I go back into Western Europe and am planning on hanging out in Interlaken, Switzerland and around Munich – both of which have come highly recommended.

Well, this is getting pretty long, so I am going to sign off. Sorry for the length – I hope I did not bore anyone. I have MANY pictures of all I have seen and done and look forward to being able to share in visual form the beauty of these places. I still haven’t figured out how to upload my pict’s but hope to do that soon.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and correspondence. I appreciate both so much. I am sorry I have not had a chance to respond to everyone quite yet – I hope to do that soon. I miss you all and hope you are having a wonderful summer.

Happy belated Canada Day everyone! God Bless.

Love Paige

The most beautiful city in the World

Hi All,

I know I said I wasn't going to post for another week, but Prague is just so amazing I had to tell you about it today.

I spent yesterday walking ALL around - up to the castle, through the Old Town, over the Charles Bridge and many other places as well. I took so many photo's trying to capture its character, but I doubt any will truly be able to express it.
I walked around with a guy from my hostel all day - we made it to the castle in time for the changing of the guard - very much like our military parades. We saw the town clock on the hour and watched it's little performance, went up the castle tower for a panoramic view of the city, went through the National Gallery - the guard there kept speaking to us in Chech and would take us to famous paintings of Chech artists. He kept taking my camera and taking pictures of me beside pieces of art - which is very prohibited - it was a really funny experience.
We walked through the old Jewish quarter. Hitler had planned on Prague being the place for a museum of an extinct race, so there are many Jewish artifacts here. There were 80,000 Jews killed from Prague and surrounding areas alone - their names are all written on a wall and the cemetery has thousands of head stones all packed together - and each stone represents 10 people!

I had my first real meal at a local restaurant last night - we found a place that the guide book suggested, right on the river with a wonderful view of the Charles Bridge. We had a traditional meal of duck, ham, pork, sour cabbage, dumplings and cold pea, cucumber and carrot salad. - it was very good - and only 350 KC or ~12euro.

I am off to the town square again today - I want to hike up the hillside and go through St. Nicholas church and then plan on catching up on my travel journal before my night train to Wurzburg - it gets in at 4:30AM!!! It is going to be a long day, as I am catching an afternoon train to Salzburg to meet Jason. Traveling can be crazy - having to pack up everything every few days is kind of weird - but like I said before, the allure of the next place keeps me moving.

Anyway, I better go out and enjoy Prague while I am still here. Miss you guys,

Paige

Third Country in Five Days

Hello Everyone!

I am now in my hostel in Prague - just arrived an hour ago from Berlin. It has been an amazing trip thus far, and it has only just begun.
I will start at the beginning...

Wednesday morning I flew to Vancouver and hung out at Granville island for the afternoon. It was a good start to my trip. I was fortunate enough to get a window seat at an emergency exit - I had a personal footrest and room to spare - it was great for the 9.5 hour flight to Amsterdam. I slept most of the way, which put me right on track for the time change. Near the end of the flight I got talking with a girl next to me - she is from Vancouver and was on her way to visit her boyfriend who lives in Amsterdam. We kept talking as we got off and went through customs and figured out that her boyfriend lives just two streets from where my hostel was. They ended up walking me to my hostel and we stopped in for a drink and a break at his house on the way. It was a very good thing that they were with me as even together we got lost for about an hour trying to find exactly where I was staying - it was very close, but there was more than one street with the same name. They were very nice and we had a good time together walking the canals and chatting. Once we found my hostel they offered to take me out for dinner - we walked through Dam Square - a monument recognizing that is because of the dams that Amsterdam exists as it is below sea level - and also through the Red Light District. I was not going to go alone, but did want to see the place Amsterdam is famous for. It was not what I expected - while definitely a seedy place, I didn't even know when were there until it was dark enough that the red lights were turned on.

I stayed in a very nice Christian hostel in the district Jordan - just off the center. It is a beautiful area - very quaint - and the people there were fantastic. The next day I toured the Anne Frank house - very moving. It was hard to imagine what it must have been like in that very place so few years ago. I wandered the canals to the museum district and spent a few hours at the Van Gogh museum - awesome. I stopped in a few parks on the way back to the hostel where they were serving a free Friday night dinner - I got to know some of the people staying there and one girl helped me find a grocery store where I found the Dutch Stroppe Waffles - a very good treat - like a cookie.

I woke up early the next morning to catch my train to Berlin - I was packed by 6:45 and at the train station an hour later only to discover that my 8 o'clock train had been cancelled. The next one was at 11, which gave me time to visit the nearby town of Haarlem, where Corrie Ten Boom lived. I visited her house, but unfortunately I was not able to tour it as it was not open. I wandered the town and bought lunch at their market - fresh, cheap and delicious. I made it back to the train station in Amsterdam with time to spare, but my train was again delayed since its engine would not start. But I didn't come with a strict schedule, so it was no bother - I got a good chance to chat with the people beside me who were from Sherwood Park no less!
By the time I got to Berlin all I had time for was going to sleep - which was much needed.

In Berlin I did a free walking tour of the city - it was amazing - I saw everything there was to see in 6hrs, and got a history lesson along the way to boot. It really was fabulous to see everything, but its history is so recent that is it palatable - it is quite moving. I walked under the gates were the wall first began, through the park that was desecrated by bombing and saw runes of the wall, checkpoint Charlie the parliament and much more. After the tour I walked through a flee market to Pergamon museum - I didn't have time to go through it all, but looked in the first room and went over the postcards - they usually show all of the highlights anyway. Across the way was the world championship volleyball games - I was still on the tour when the game was on, but I did get to see the winners hold up their trophy.
I walked down by the opera house, by the site where the first book burning was, and back to the parliament. The top of the parliament was destroyed during the war and they have constructed a glass dome over the chambers in its place. This dome is accessible to the public and gives a great view of all of Berlin. You can look down into the parliament and the members can look up and see the people above them - a constant reminder that the government supports the people.

This morning I went to the East side where a significant portion of the Berlin wall is still standing, and a section of its graffiti has been restored. It was a heart wrenching experience - thinking about how the people were trapped in their own city. By the time I had walked the length of the wall, towards the famous East Berlin TV tower - it was time to go back to the Zoological gardens for my train, but not before getting a traditional bratwurst for lunch - yummy!

And now I am in Prague! The country side on the way here was breath taking. I keep thinking that I will have time to sleep or read on the train, but so far all I have done is look out the window - there is so much to see.
God has been so faithful in everything thus far, and I am trusting that He will continue to look out for me. I have met friendly people everywhere I have gone, and have never been without a companion for my journeys. I have been great deals and wonderful hostels - I feel very blessed.

Tomorrow I will go around the Old Town and visit the Palace. I plan on spending 2 days here before going on to Nuremburg and Wurzburg. My penpal of 9 years goes to University in Wurzburg and I am hoping to find her at the University before the semester is out in July. I have not been able to contact her to tell her that I am here, but it would be wonderful if I could meet her. That part of the trip will be very quick - only one day for both stops - because I am meeting my friend Jason in Salzburg, Austria on the evening of June 30th. Jason just graduated from Mechanical Engineering and is on a 3 month Europe tour to celebrate. We are going to travel Eastern Europe together for 2 weeks and will meet up again near the end of my trip to see the south of France, the Rhine, Belgium and Luxemburg (if we can fit it all in).

So all in all - amazing. Everything. I can't believe I have been so many places already and still have so many to go. I wish I could stay longer in each place, but always have the allure of the next stop.

I haven't figured out how to download my pictures yet, so those will have to wait - in true Smith fashion, I have taken around 250 already! I love digital:)
Finding time to write big updates is harder than I thought, but I will do my best to write another update soon - probably when I get to Budapest around July 3rd.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer - and are getting more sleep than I am. With all this walking I am going to be in great shape when I get back:)

Take Care and talk with you soon,

Paige.

ps - Thanks so much for all of your emails - I love them!

The Adventure Begins

So, it is official - I am not working this summer - and what better to do than to head off to Europe. I am leaving on Wednesday June 22 and will return the end of July. It has been a whirlwind of planning lately and I just confirmed my tickets today. I am super excited about this upcoming adventure, but a bit nervous as well.

I am not quite sure yet where I will be going once I get there, but my must see's include Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. I want to spend most of my time in Eastern Europe, but will likely start off the trip in the South of France, after all, every holiday should include relaxing on a beach, right?

I am definitely going to miss all of you family and friends out there. I am going to do my best to stay in touch and keep you updated as to what I am doing over the next 5 weeks. Since mass emails are generally not kindly looked upon, check this site for my posts and pictures. If you want to write me while I am away, you can either comment on this site or email me directly - I would love to hear from you.

Please keep me in your prayers.

Love Paige

Paige's New Blog

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