I FEEL sLOVEnia

Cheesy slogan I know, but it's not mine - really! It's the national slogan all over travel stuff here. Sort of like BC's "You Gotta Be Here" or "Best Place on Earth" or Alberta's ...??? (hmmm, can't seem to recall that one...) Anyway, I liked the Slovenia cheesy one 'cause it played on the words like our Four - eign blog title (get it? Four-eign, Four IN, Foreign) ... yeah, I know... anyway...

I think I am starting to feel Slovenia even though we have only been here a few days though I'm not sure all my feelings are what the PR guys had in mind. Sure I have felt amazing hospitality and friendliness (contrast to the stoic - read grumpy - Austrians especially in Wien) and taste buds rejoicing (similar to Austria), but I have also felt some other feelings.

I feel sore muscles from the 6 hour hike we did up into Triglev Park. Great hike into the alpine of some fantastic mountain country and culture. Something we are realizing more and more that we gravitate to. I suppose it doesn't have to be be alpine per se, but anywhere where it is clear people are more in touch with their surroundings. I love it. I feel it. I feel Slovenia... hmmm they may be onto something.

Today I felt wet. From the rain. Soaking through my tried and true (but not so effective anymore) MEC rain coat. Luckily, we never really had this feeling much at all over the past 2 and a half months. Actually not at all. We've been lucky and so it was with surprise and and fair degree of discomfort that I recalled all the other times I felt this feeling in the mountains and, to be honest, I can't say I felt the sLOVEnia in that. No Love, just wet. Too bad.

So tomorrow we are off to feel some love in Ljubljana. In a prison cell turned into a hostel- or so they tell us. It's called the Hostel Celica so I hope it is better than my impression of the car by the same name. I think the kids are excited. We'll see if they feel the sLOVEnia.

Bernie

Going to London

Hi everyone,

A few days ago we were in London. The first day we were there we went on the London Eye! Does anyone know what that is?  Its like a big ferris wheel except you stand in a big ball thing that is glass and it takes half an hour to go all the way around. You can see not even close to all of London, but sure enough you can see quite a bit. You can see Buckingham Palace, Big Ben(which sadly we couldn't go on a tour of because the pope was coming and it was closed for safety reasons). You could also see the big cathedral (cathedral is a big big church). After the London Eye we went to a London Theatre. That is very special to go to. There we saw a play called Oliver. It was about a boy named Oliver who is an orphan. When he asked for more food he got sold. The time this story took place in was 1830 and the place it took place in was London. Oliver went through a few people, first a guy that sold coffins and then he went stayed with a man who taught him how to Pick Pockets. There was also a mean man who worked with him. A rich nice man who Oliver pick pocketed, took him in to his grand home and looked after him until, yikes, he was stolen back by the pick pocket man. la di la di la. The bad man hurt the pick pockets girlfriend who was trying to help Oliver. But the mean man was very sly and good. Oliver was very scared on Saturday night because the mean man was trying to kill him. And then, good news alert, the nice man saved Oliver's life and took him in to live with him.

My Granny Bird and Grandpa B took me. It was fun.


Bye for now.
Emilia

A Day's Hike

We went on a hike and we saw a huge spider at the beginning. On our way back, I walked right through a different big spider's web and the big spider ended up on my leg.

The spider was about the size you see in this picture.

After the hike we drove to an animal feeding farm. We fed llamas, mountain sheep, and elk. Elk are very very soft. The llamas and mountain sheep are very messy eaters. One llama didn't want the another llama to get any oats so it spat some of its oats out at the other one. We weren't allowed to get oats for the elk, so we fed it grass instead.

Where we were feeding the animals, there was an awesome playground. There was an outstanding, super fast zip line thingy-ma-bob that you sat down on. Loney, the crazy dog, got off its leash and chased us while we were on the zip line. It almost ripped Mima's pants!

Today was fun. Hopefully tomorrow will be too. That's all for now. Hope you read everything that is new. email me if possible!
Bye , Mattias

Aufwiedersehen!

And so it is, the end of the summer and the end of the easing in to our trip. We have had a fabulous two months of what I would call pretty easy travels with some fabulous meeting, reuniting, and seeing so much family and a few friends.   Bruce and Mona were more than generous with their box full of maps and camping guides as we found our way through France, Spain and Portugal.  Everyone else, as mentioned in Bernie's post, sooooooo (as Emilia would say) generous with their homes and the dolling out of ice cream to the kids! I think we will all go into some withdrawl as we head out on our own tomorrow.  We will learn to carry our own packs, find our way through various public transportation hubs, and likely slow our pace and eating habits. Hopefully we will not become so desperate that we have to "pick a pocket or two" .... Or as Oliver would sing - "food, glorious food"....could I please just have a little more..... (Thanks Grandpa B and Granny Bird for the great evening out on Drury Lane, London and the Theatre Royal, the kids are constantly singing these songs.)


We will head south through the Balkans as Indian summer has arrived back in Europe and start by trying to squeak out a few more warm days in the Slovenian Alps before Autumn truly arrives.  The tent will be folded away for emergencies and then probably not for use again until Africa. Hostelling, pensions and whatever else we can find will be our new homes en route.


We are looking forward to a new start to the next part of our trip - and as always, hope to hear from many of you via your great comments or email!

I Survived the Mona Lisa Mosh Pit

This post could also be titled "When in Paris Do As The Non-Parisians Do".

Either one would work and if printed on a T-shirt would sell like Eifel Tower souvenirs in this fine French city - crazy.

I think I know what Mona Lisa is smiling at after I witnessed (and admittedly was part of) the nutty spectacle of amateur paparazzi going after the easy target. She must be amused because it was pretty funny and actually pretty fun. Now I know that going to one of the world's most famous museums and viewing serious and priceless art is not normally "fun" in a ha ha funny way, but there definitely was an air or giddiness as we joined the scrum to get a view of Leonardo da Vinci's work. Yes it felt more like a rock concert than an art museum, but this was an centuries old icon we were seeing, one we had seen thousands of times over and in countless ways (including bad candy bar commercials), but never in real life. We were all already familiar with her, yet suddenly here she was, in the open with only a thick piece of glass, and wooden barrier, a rope, 3 meters of space filled with throngs of other adoring and curious fans. Replacing the lighter over the head from rock concerts of the past were cell phone cameras, digital SLRs and mini camcorders of people from around the world. If Coke is the most internationally recognizable product and logo, then Mona Lisa has to be a close second.

The Louvre has many amazing pieces of art to view and to see with the time and weight that one wishes. The Mona Lisa isn't one of them, but if you put the right hat on, going to see her sure is fun.

Paris and Germany

Hi,
I'm in Paris while you are at school...burn- I am learning about the history of all of the art and the history of Paris. We saw the famous Mona Lisa by DaVinci, Justin you I'll be interested in this, it was the original. Ahhh man, Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh is in New York, too bad we can't change our plans to go and see it. On the other hand we did see a piece by Matisse that was very amazing. We also saw Vincent Van Gogh's most famous self portrait. I wonder why Van Gogh, when he was sick, would paint a picture a day and they would not make sense and the light in them was all funky and weird. Did you know he committed suicide?

We are leaving to go back to Germany tomorrow and on Saturday are going to a football game. I can't wait till the football game, we get to see my favourite German players, number 10 and Oiizy (spelling) And on Monday it is my Dad's 45th birthday. Wow, he is getting old!

Goodbye, hopefully I will not take too long before I write another blog....oh man, I think just heard my mom say it is time for math......

Bye!

Trips on a train

Hi everyone,
A few days ago we took a train to Parie (Paris). Today we went to the Eiffel tower and we went up it to the top. It was so high-up although you cannot see all of Paris because Paris is so huge! I took the pictures below. We are staying in a hotel next to a neat and pretty building. Tonight we went out for dinner to a Tibetan restaurant.

A few days a go I met a friend named Phoebe. She was a nice English speaking Australian girl. We made great friends and in the morning we got to play long. She is also traveling around the world but she is at the end of her trip.

I hope everyone has a good year at school and enjoys having their teacher, no matter who their teacher is.

Miss you all, bye
Emilia