Europe Pics

I uploaded some of our pics from Europe to my flickr account. I reached my monthly limit so some of my pics did not upload. I guess I will have to wait until next month to upload the rest of them. I do not use flickr enough to pay for an account. I think you will get the gist of our trip based on the photos I did upload.
We hope you enjoy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaniemar/sets/72157618414572191/

Going home.

We figured out the train and made it to the airport. Our last impression of Barcelona was sitting across from two hipsters from Italy on the train to the airport. I think they left a club and got in the train for the airport. They had little speakers hooked up to an mp3 player so they played Italian pop music for everyone on the train. At first I was slightly annoyed but actually found them amusing and kind of fun. It was fitting that we left as a began with different languages all around us.


Barcelona was a pretty, lively and romantic city. We are glad we went from hectic London to relaxing Barcelona.
Things we noticed:
- Everyone smokes, everywhere
- Ladies on scooters/motorcycles are hot
- Straight men look gay
- Paella looks better then it tastes
- All the buildings are beautiful and colorful
- People stroll
- Passage de Gracia is a fashionitsas haven
- Resturants do not open until 9pm
- Sangria complements any meal
- Even the coffeeshop at the train station uses an expresso machine to make coffee con leche
-Flying over the Pyranees is amazing
We are ready to get back to the states and speak to someone in English, but not ready for our vacation to be over.
See you soon.





-- Post From My iPhone 5/16/09

Last night

We had an amazing vacation. We were going to check out another lesbian club because we had such a god time last night, but found wifi and checked our flight and realized it was at 11am and not 2pm. We strolled around the city, had some tapas and sangria. It has been an amazing vacation, we do not want to leave but really miss the comforts of home, our friends and Ramona and Henry. Everytime we see a dog here we get sentimental. So now we are off to bed. See you all tomorrow state side.



-- Post From My iPhone

Aire

Yes, it is almost noon and we are just leaving the room. We went out last night and did not get home until 3am. Aire the lesbian club open on Thursday nights, that we went to, was hopping. The club does not even open until 11pm, we got there around midnight. Again the Boston lesbian scene was trumped by the, music, space and crowd, in Europe and there was no cover charge. The club stayed packed until closing. It was a blast. We danced to some pretty great music and were entertained by three boys who randomly broke into dance routines in various parts of the club. They were so fun.
We woke up to sunny skies today and are heading to Barceloneta to take in the coast. We are finally wearing shorts.



-- Post From My iPhone

La Rambla

So far we have found Barcelona the easiest city to navigate. If Amsterdam was the city of bikes, then Barcelona us the city of scooters.



I think there are more of them then cars, and there are seperate parking spaces for them in the streets. They also have a bike share similar to Zipcar except for bikes. We saw the bike stations everywhere and people using them.



After Sagrada de La Familia, we strolled down La Rambla. It is a long stretch of the city with shops, cafes and carts that sell everything from tourist trinkets, to art, to flowers, to birds, rabbits and turtles. It is quite a site. You can walk all the way down to the port where there are great views of the city. Off of La Rambla are narrow alley ways with more shops and cafes. Unlike Quincy market which is all tourists, this was a mix off locals and visitors. Tucked away were La Placa(plazas) where people were just hanging out. It was exactly what I though Barcelona would be. We also found this huge food market that sold fresh fruit, meat, fish, bread and candy. As tempted as I was I did not buy a turtle.



Last night was Spain's footból finals. FC Barcelona are the champions. All through the night we could hear horns and people celebrating. It was on the front page of every paper.



-- Post From My iPhone

Sagrada La Familia

This famous church designed by Antoni Gaudi has been in the process if being built since 1882 and it is still going. This is just one small corner.



They do not plan on finishing for another two decades. When you look at the final plans it is hard to beleive they will ever finish. It is the biggest most ornate building I have ever seen. We did the audio tour and walked around and through the church and we both felt we missed so much if the intricate details of the church, which when you look from inside is in the shape of a cross. Really all you can notice is the tall facades on the outside of the church, which will eventually represent the 12 apostles, 4 evangelists and the "Holy Family", Mary, Joseph and Jesus. You walk through construction is going on and people are working on pieces of the church right in front of you. It was a little surreal.
We are off to explore once we finish our coffees.




-- Post From My iPhone 5/14/09

Platja De La Barceloneta

We made it to the beach. I could not be happier. It is a beautiful day. Lucky we brought our bathing suits with us. Since nudity is the norm here we changed right on the beach. I took a dip in the water and it is slightly cold but pretty normal for the east coast. Since there are not a ton of people swimming I can only assume it is too cold for the locals. Mel is pretty comfortable sunbathing topless and and really is the whitest thing on the beach. There are people walking up and down the beach selling all kinds of stuff, water, beer, blankets etc. Mel bought some fresh coconut. We are looking forward to eating at one of the cafes set up along the beach. We couldn't have asked for a better last day in Europe.
We then headed to the main strip in for a lunch of paella, mussels and wine.



-Post From My iPhone

Buenos Dias

I wrote a whole post and lost it when my phone froze. Poop. So far Barcelona has been great. Good food, delish Sangria and lovely buildings. We are heading to see the Guadi museum today at Sagrada Familia then on to La Rambla. Warmer weather but not too sunny. We are both glad to be wearing flip flops.






-- Post From My iPhone

Dank U Amsterdam

For a wonderful time. As gays we have never felt so welcome and safe. We hate to leave your canals, coffee shops, pancakes, bike friendly streets, squares with open cafes, fabulous koffee and quaint little streets. We loved just walking around your city. As a kid I read The Diary of Anne Frank as many times as I read Little Women, and Trumpet of the Swan, which was a lot. It was cool to finally see the actual annex and it still broke our hearts that she missed liberation by one month. I will never understand how anyone can deny the holocost and it is so emotional to see the footage of the liberation.
Things we noticed:
- There are no fat people
- Tons of smokers
- Once you place your first order, you have to be proactive after that to get another drink or check
- Less trouble understanding the Dutch than the English
- Cabs are Mercedes
- Canals are beautiful at night
- We have seen some of the happiest people, especially kids who ride along side or on their parent's bikes
- For a city older than Boston they seem
to have a fast and effiecient trolly system
- Different languages everywhere
- Gay flags



See you in Barcelona.
-- Post From My iPhone 5/13/09

Tooling around

Today we are renting bikes and tooling around Amsterdam. The quality of life here is amazing. It stays light until 9:30pm and everyone seems really happy, the service has been great. We started the day at the cutest Pancake house, and had delicious pancakes, fresh squeezed orange juice and Koffee. It was the best breakfast we have had so far. The coffee has been especially good here. When we left the waiter gave us some cute little Dutch shoe keychains.



We decided to rent bikes, this is a little out of Mel's comfort zone, but she has been doing great. It is amazing to ride around and not be worried about getting killed, and no one wears helmets, because no one is racing. Everyone has a Dutch bike, no status symbol bikes to be seen. Biking is a relaxing way to commute. It did take a bit to get used to breaking by pedaling backwards but you get use to it. There are stop lights specifically for pedestrians, cars and bikes. We rode to the Homomonument that commemerates the gay men and women who lost their lives in WWII and the continued struggle. We hope to take a canal cruise later and hit the Anne Frank house.



-- Post From My iPhone 5/12/09

Vivelavie

Is the name of the lesbian cafe we went to and had some snacks and a glass of beer. It was cute. This great pic was on the wall.




We did a walking tour of Amsterdam today. We hit the red light district and saw some ladies in doors. Though we both think legalizing prostitution is the way to go, it was a little off putting to see men in business suits trolling the streets so blatantly. It is hard to think of it so out in the open.
It is so welcoming to see gay flags everwhere. The thing we were touch by the most was the huge photo exhibit of down syndrome children by a female artist. There is a website called "The Upside of Down" that has all this information bringing exposure to families with down syndrome children. I was moved by the photos and quotes by the parents about their special families.


-- Post From My iPhone 5/11/090

Seeing Art

After sleeping in a bit and then blowing out our hairdryer(our hair looks awesome) we headed out for breakfast. The coffee here is really good. We had a huge breakfast and headed over to the Van Gogh Museum. We did the audio tour and it was interesting. I have always liked Van Gogh so it was great to hear more details about his short life. Who knew he was so influenced by Japanese Art. The pace here is definitely slower and we cannot wait to rent bikes and ride around the city. I personally love the dogs in the front baskets on the bikes as they ride by. When we were eating breakfast this morning a cat came into the cafe, the bartender gave it some milk and it was on it's way. Such a different approach to animals. This place is Mel's heaven, cats, gays and legalized pot.
We are off to stroll a bit more, then find the lesbian cafe and maybe a boat ride.



-- Post From My iPhone 5/11/09

Hello Amsterdam

After a long interesting day on the train we finally made it into Amsterdam. It took us a while to figure out the public train system but we finally go into our
hotel. Amsterdam is very quaint, and everything you have heard about how bike friendly it is, is true there are parking areas for bikes and you cannot even imagine how many bikes are parked, it is like car parking lot.
Our hotel room is about the size of a shoebox but I guess that is the trade off for having a private bathroom. We are situated right on one of the canals and eventhough we are in back of hotel we look right on the water. We learned there are a lot of steakhouses here and the difference between a coffee house(sell coffee) and a coffee shop(pot). Though we studied some Dutch words on the train, everyone so far speaks perfect English. We are hoping to rent bikes, see some Van Gough and take a boat ride. I think we are going to really like it here.





-- Post From My iPhone 5/11/09

Brussels

We made it to Brussels and left train station in search of Chimay. We found it but Brussels was not what we expected. The train station is in a shit part of the city. We saw a couple of pubs but did not go in because there were no women in them. After looking around we think we are in a largely Moraccan(?) area of town. Anyway, I got my Chimay and it was the fastest one I ever drank as we headed back to the train station.
At the station we had to pay to use the toilet. Considering my small bladder Mel mentioned this might be a problem if it is the same way as we travel along. The nice thing is it is getting warmer as we go I had to take my long sleeve off before departure, best €.50 I spent. About to get on train to Amsterdam.



-- Post From My iPhone 5/10/09

Wow

We made it on the Eurostar train, we both noticed how pleasant the travel attendents are, unlike TSA employees at the airport. Lots of Red Sox hats about, but not on Americans. One guy was in the US and at the same NYY game I was at a couple of weeks ago. A small world. In other news Mel bought some peanut butter and bread as a snack for our train ride. While I was not looking she took a light bag of nuts out of my small back pack and replaced it with her heavy bread and peanut butter jar. I noticed this indescretion after I carried it, as well as my 30lb back pack, all the way to the train from our hotel. When I said something, she just laughed...Nice! For someone who cannot live without PB, she has not had any yet. Not a very nice travel companion I will say, and because she is under 25 she got a discount on her train tix, WTF?!? My only conselation is again beating her at scabble on the way to France. I might just leave her in Brussels.


-- Post From My iPhone 5/10/09

Visiting Liz

You have to appreciate a city where you can find a public toilet anywhere and they are clean. Since I have the bladder the size of a peanut this is a good thing. We did a ton of walking today. We hit the very posh Notting Hill and Portebello Road where they have a open flea market, where you can buy anything. I bought myself a pocket watch, because it was fun.



We got some fresh bread, cheese and olives and headed to Kensington Gardens for a picnic. We sat by the water and watched the swans, they have deck chairs out all over for people to sit. It was lovely. After that we decided to visit Queen Liz at Buckingham Palace, so we walked through Hyde Park with it's wonderful gardens and paths and found our castle. We circled back to where we are staying and decided on a pint and rest. So far I am enjoying the Greene King IPA. Hopefully we will get some Indian later.


-- Post From My iPhone 5/9/09

Nightlife

We ventured out last night and the city was hopping. We realized what a great location we are in, we are in walking distance of Soho(gay/hipster district) and Leicester Sq(theatre distict). Needless to say as we were walking around we were amazed there were streets with bar after bar and everyone was drinking on the sidewalks in front of the pubs. Unlike what I notice in Boston it was quite a diverse crowd.
We did make it to the lesbo club called Candy Bar, it is right next to a pub we enjoyed a pint at. It was kind of weird to walk out of a pub with all these people drinking outside and right into a gay bar. I feel like all of our gay bars are hidden or obscure. Anyway, same as at home the lesbian bar served crap beer but the crowd was interesting, again way more diverse then home and not divided along gender roles. Not as many butchie/lesbo gangsta girls and not as much attitude. It was also a young crowd and Mel is saying that, not me since we know that's my type. Oh and the music was better too. We met a nice British girl who was from about 2 hours away and completely lost. When we told her we were from U.S. she told us she heard that "u could drive 6 hours and still be in the same state" and we confirmed that. Off to Portobello Road now. More to come!

-- Post From My iPhone. 5/9/09

Goodbye London

With your tiny cars, mysterious sqiggly lines in the street, pedestrian and bike friendly roads, clean public bathrooms, free museums, expansive history, dog friendly parks, double decker busses and cute speeding taxis. We had a great time in your city. We thought we would be overwhelmed by how huge you are, but instead we managed to navigate you readily. Granted we were a bit frustrated by your lack of wifi, your library had it but no public computers, what's up with that? With all the people watching we did we noticed you are way more daring with your fashion, most noticably your shoes. Sometimes it worked and sometimes not, but that may just be our Puritan Boston ways talking.
We loved how diverse you are and integrated. We could learn a thing or two from you including how to be a world class city without losing your charm. We cannot believe we have two more destinations, we feel as if we have already had a full vacation.




-- Post From My iPhone 5/10/09

Bank of America is poop

Mel and I were good and called all of our credit cards and banks before we left. We both even received confirmation emails. I used my ATM card the other day and of course I got an email saying my account is now blocked. So now I have to call them to unblock. We spent 45 mins on the BOA chat for nothing but at least they gave us the number to call. We will do that later. We spent morning on Portebello Rd and shopped, I got a pocket watch. We picked up some picnic items and are heading to Hyde Park for a lovely picnic. Buckingham Palace later. Mel is timing me on the computer so I must end now. Cheers.

Finally

We had our first pint. We were starting to get cranky about the lack of wifi but alas we stopped in at Mabel's Pub to get a pint and we found free wifi by some miracle. It was the best beer ever let me tell you. We also had some fish and chips and all was good.





-- Post From My iPhone 5/8/09

Getting Around

We have found London very easy to get around. At first the subway map looks overwhelming but it is all color coded and the color of bars inside each train coincide with the line. We both got Oyster cards which are similar to the T Charlie card you pay for the initial card and just put money on the card as needed. This makes the fares cheaper in the long run. The trains also have cushy seats and are cleaned by people who come on between stops. Maybe the T can take a lesson. We also seem to be here with every European tween school group and there is a ton of construction going on everywhere we go. Still waiting to get that first pint of beer. Maybe later, then a search for where the lesbians hang out on a Friday night on London. Oh yeah, The Tate Modern was a very cool museum. We could have spent the whole day there.
-- Post From My iPhone 5/8/09

The English like to watch executions

That is what we learned today at The Tower of London. They also had some petty gruesome ways to killing. It took one drunk executioner 5 tries to get his guys head off. Gross. We also learned our Beefeater tour guide isn't just a history buff but they have to have 22 years service of good conduct service in the military before they can actually work at the tower. They also live on the grounds with their partners. Gave his tour a little heft. Off to the Tate modern next to see some art and do more learning.




-- Post From My iPhone 5/8/09

They let us in

Blogging from The British Library, we are having trouble finding Internet access, so this is first time we have been on Internet. We managed to get into the country with no problems. Yesterday we had some time before we checked into our hotel so we ventured out with the map. After finally getting our bearings and figuring out the map we hit Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, and Big Ben all with in 15 mins of our Hotel. We also picked up ticket for "Spring Awakening". It was amazing and we had seats 8 rows back. It is playing in Boston right now. We higly recommend you go if you can. There have been a couple of hiccups but the city is


amazing and big, many different languages spoken and wonderful architecture. We hope we have better wifi access as we go along
-- Post From My iPhone

Logan & Change

This is a post from Melanie. We are waiting at the airport watching the Bruins, Celtics and Sox on way too many flat screen TVs. Oh, and by "we" I mean Steph. I' m much more interested in people watching. So far there is a nice couple also going to London (really into the Bruins game) and one bitter, yet pleasant Carolina woman who was supposed to be at said Bruins/Hurricanes game yet her flight has been delayed. Well that's all for now folks. Next time will be from across the pond :)


-- Post From Melanie

Getting Ready

I set up this blog for Mel and I to be able to write about our first trip to Europe. I wanted to be able to blog from my phone because my laptop is not coming with me. No iWeb this trip. This is the first test. I have my phone in airplane mode with wifi on. Tonight I am packing, paying bills and getting the apt ready for the dog/cat sitter. As you can see from this photo HC thinks he is coming with us. I think he knows what is going on, he has been especially crazy. We are both excited and a little anxious but we know we are going to have a wonderful time. We are hoping for an adventure. Stay tuned, we will both be posting our travels.

-- Post From My iPhone