Poland with Jan!

Jan and I had a FANTASTIC time in Poland. I think it surpassed all of our expectations. Jan had to fly back home a couple days ago and I'm back with Colin, typing this message from Budapest, Hungary.

I'll try to summarize Jan and I's trip through Poland below:

• Polish people are extremely nice. For example, while waiting for a bus outside of Bialowieza National Park, a nice young man came up and kissed Jan's hand and rubbed my leg.
• Polish people are very trusting. In the National Park, things are very spaced out and we needed a way to get to the animal reserve. The only option was a horse buggy driver. This is not some fancy ride, this was an old-fashioned horse buggy. A few minutes into the 45 minute commute, he told me to come up and drive. Since I had these 5 minutes of experience, on the way home, he stopped the buggy, got out and told me to hold the horses still. We had NO IDEA where he was going. About 10 mins later he came out with a pack of smokes. (This guy also couldn't speak English and we negotiated the horse buggy price with a stick and a muddy puddle)
• Polish people like to give advice. On the train ride to Gdansk, a really large Polish lady started giving Janneke some birthing advice. This lady did not speak English either and made a lot of quite graffic motions with her hands around her uterus area. We have no idea what the advice was.
• Both Jan and I fell in love with amber and made more purchases than expected.
• While in Gdansk, we went to Hel. On the boat ride to Hel, we saw 2 nuns also going to Hel. We thought this was hilarious.
• I went swimming in the Baltic Sea from Hel. Let me tell you that Hel is not warm but really, really cold.
• Polish people love really bad cover songs.

Lots of those comments are obviously stereotypes, but we did think the people were wonderful. The scenery was surprisingly Canadian. We met several Scandanavians while in Poland who were also very nice. One Swede man reminded us of a vampire but everyone else was ok.

Alright, so check out the pictures, they tell some great stories as well. Colin and I are off to Istanbul tomorrow!!

Eastern Europe with the Boys

As Patti mentioned we've been apart almost two weeks and will be re-uniting this thursday and heading south, can't wait.

As for the last 1.5 weeks with Masum and Dave have been alcoholic. Our days usually end up to be sampling as much local food while washing it down with as much beer as possible. We started in Prague for several days and enjoyed some of sights and became regulars at "tygra" a real beer hall. The guidebooks says that if you get a seat it's because a local has died. We loved it and took advantage of it every time we got a seat. After that to Wroclaw in the Polish west for more beer and replace the goulash with perogies. Several days of starch and beer, and more starch and beer etc. We are currently in Zakopane in the extreme south of Poland to we hoped to have done some hiking in the Carpathians, but the weather has not co-operated. It has literally rained every minute and will only stop several days after we leave. Wonderful town also containing lots of fine drinking establishments and great cheap restaurants. Last night, pigs knuckle and 3 ltrs of beer each for 50 zloty (17can). Eastern Europe has become my new favorite place.

Off to Krakow tomorrow and Aushwitz.

Cheers Colin

Tyskie & Sprite

It has been about a week since the big break up. Colin and I are enjoying the time with our friends.
Jan and I are having a great time in Poland. So far, we've been to Krakow and now we are in Gdansk. Krakow is like a fairy tale. There is a huge castle with legends involving fire-breathing dragons and all the rest of it. The old town also had a huge wall around it with a moat, which is now a lovely garden circling the old town. The Old Town Square is the largest in all of Eastern Europe and best of all, the beers are cheap. Jan and I have nicknamed our trip several things: "The Tyskie and Sprite trip", since I drink the beer Tyskie and she drinks sprite; or the "Find the free WC trip", since Jan has to go all the time and all the public ones cost a buck; and lastly "The nuns and pregnant ladies trip", since everywhere we look there seems to be a nun or a preggo lady.
Gdansk is lovely so far. Today we took a day trip to the Malbork Castle which is the largest of all Medival Castles. It was rebuilt after WWII and they did a great job.

Colin and the boys seem to be having a riot in Czech, though I'm not sure where they are at this moment...hopefully I don't get an email soon to bail them out somewhere!!

Keep in touch all, next stop: The Bialowieska National Park!

P

The Break-Up!

Colin and I officially split up yesterday! Not in a bad way though.

After 2 days together in Prague, Colin headed to the picturesque medival town in Southern Czech called Czesky Krumlov while I headed up north to Krakow to meet the lovely Janneke. In a couple days, some of Colin's buddys will be meeting him in Prague to being their 10 year Euro-trip reunion party. I have my doubts if they will even leave the Czech Republic, where the beer is so cheap. After spending one day in Krakow though, I can say the beer is as cheap and the town is equally wonderful...so Colin, if you are reading this, make sure you get up here!

Keep in touch all and we will be updating the pictures shortly!

P
Also, I'm on a Polish computer and can't use the spell check...so please don't crititize.

Edinburgh: burning chairs & empty glasses

We just left the amazing city of Edinburgh. A big thanks goes out to AJ and his lovely ladies: Erin and Anna. AJ was a great tour guide, taking us to all the big attractions, including the bookies. And the girls were great hosts back at their flat.
Upon arrival, AJ took us out for some grub at The Basement and then a night out at Pivo. After a few litre pints and shooters from the Jager girls, we were ready to head home. AJ had promised a trip to the castle the next morning. It was a rough morning for everyone, but we made it there. The next days were filled with some more tourist attractions: Camera Obscura, The Whisky Experience and Dynamic Earth.
On Sunday evening, AJ and the gang threw quite a bbq. AJ's boy scouting skills were put to the test as everyone watched him burn old chairs and whatever wood he could get his hands on. I'm glad no one was hurt.
Now we are in London, waiting to fly out to Prague at 6am tomorrow. A big thanks to Krista and Masum again for having us for our last 2 nights in the UK.
It's been great!! Next stop Eastern Europe!!!!!!

SHEEP SHEARING!!!

We got a chance to shear some sheep at our final WWOOF destination. Check it out! Colin completed his sheep, even though he had a crazy one. Patti only managed shearing half a sheep before she got worn out.
It was absolutely hilarious!!! Colin also got to hold a little boy lamb as it got it's balls 'marked'...meaning a small elastic band was put around them and eventually they shrivel up and fall off.

Photos and Following

We have had several requests about how to see our photos. We have a photo website by picasa and there is link on the page in the upper right hand corner "Colin and Patti's Photo Album".

Also if you wish you can add yourself as a follower and the website will email you when we ass a new post.

We can also be emailed at: peguesrtw@gmail.com

Things I miss...ALREADY

We've been away for nearly 4 weeks now. Already I have a list of things I miss...and here it is:


- the ability to take a bath. There are only showers in most places we stay. Or you don't know when the last time the bath tub was cleaned.
- Lohi Lake and our deck
- talking to friends/family on the telephone, instead of messenger and through email
- clean clothes
- not having to wash my underwear every night, just so I have a pair in the morning
- more than 2 (dirty) t-shirts to pick from when going somewhere
- diet coke...they have it hear, I'm just too cheap to buy it
- dijon mustard...again, they have it hear but we are too cheap to buy it. I attempted to steal some mustard packets on a ferry boat but got caught red (yellow?) handed
- friends and family, of course
- work....hahahaha, never!

That is it for now...I'm sure when we get to Africa, the list will increase to include things like hot water, soap, not having to fall asleep with lions growling nearby.

Just so everyone knows, I am having a blast! We leave the UK soon and I will miss the little lambs, the landscapes, the music, the people and so much more.

P

Dalmarkeran

We've been in the thriving metropolis of Tyron, Scotland for almost a week at our second WWOOF location hosted by Terry and Mary on the Dalmakeran farm. This has been a total blast, we don't get to bed any night much before 12 after having drank a lot of beer and wine. Work during the day has been in the garden weeding, moving plants and planting seedlings from the greenhouse. Today we are bringing it up a notch, it's sheep shearing day and we both plan on taking a stab at it. On top of that the spring lamps need to be castrated and have their tails removed. I'm not sure either of us could have handled knives to nuts, so thankfully you need only an elastic band to tackle the job. We intend to take lots of photos and will have a full recount of the shearing, balls and tail removal.

On top of our hosts being very friendly everyone we meet here has been great, the first that gets offered upon meeting someone is usually a beer. Last night after the BBQ we were treated to traditional scotish music in the kitchen from several friends who always travel with guitar and fiddles in tow. See the new photo album on the picasa website the link is on the left.

Glencoe and Hilly Walking

After another day of many bus connections we arrived in Glencoe at the bunkhouse. It's located about 2 miles from the town, an all uphill walk. This trully is an incredible place, in every direction you look there are treeless mountains, waterfalls and sheep. The word around here is that scotland has the highest density of sheep shaggers in the world. Althought we haven't met one or seen any there certainly are enough targets around.

Upon arriving we didn't have any food so decided to head to the nearby pub (Claihaig Inn) for diner. I had my first Haggis and it was delicious plus several pints, Patti had chili (boring).

The main reason to be in Glencoe is the abundance of hilly walking (hiking), we had decided to spend 3 days here. The first day was a rest day and we enjoyed some time in nearby Fort William to get groceries and kick back. The second day we climbed The Pap of Glen Coe, as seen in the photo below taken from the town of Glencoe. This was the only point where you could actually see the top, we hiked and descended in fog. The second photo is from the top looking down towards Glencoe, we think.Our last day we walked the last section of The West Highland Way from Kinglochleven to Fort William. This trail runs form outside Glasgow to Fort William for 97 miles. It was busy for the 5 hrs we were on the trail walking 22km's as we must have seen 100 people or more. The summer months attract lots of walkers and it seems that walking The West Highland Way is a right of passage is some towns.

Colin and Patti

Islay to Glencoe

Depart campsite at 7:00am

1) Pack up camp and drive to ferry
2) Ferry from Port Ellen to Kennacraig
3) Bus from Kennacraig to Lochgilphead
4) Bus from Lochgilphead to Oban
5) Bus form Oban to Tyndrum
6) Bus from Tyndrum to Glencoe
7) Walk two miles to Hostel

Total time travelling 12 hrs, total distance travelled 127 miles

WHISKEY, chasing sheep and driving on the wrong side of the road!

We are trying to keep our posts up to date, but it is hard work! I'm going to try and explain how wonderful our visit to Islay was, but it was over a week ago now and I'm afraid I may forget some things.

So, without further ado...Islay.

Though the ferry port to Islay, which is in Kennacraig, is only about 150km from where Strontian (wwoof location#1), it took a ferry, 3 buses and another ferry to arrive on the island. From there, we rented a little car from a lady who would not recommend anywhere to go have a drink. She insinuated that by suggesting a place to drink whiskey could somehow incriminate her. After renting the car, we ended up pitching our tent at Kintra Farm. This is the most wonderful beach on the island and it had spectacular sunsets!

If you EVER have the chance to go to Islay during "Feis Isle", DO IT! We were there for the first two days of the week long malt and music festival and it was one of the funnest weekends of my life. For you non-scotch whiskey drinkers, you will learn to love whiskey at this festival. I did! Colin had to pull me away from the table with the free Lagavulin 16 year. Each day a different distillery has an open day with music, tours, festivities and free single malt scotch! It was wonderful.

Colin and I camped on Islay and were surrounded by sheep and cows. It is lambing season here in Scotland and there are cute little lambs every where you look. We recently went in an Indian restaurant and I really wanted the lamb but now that I've spent so much time near these cute little creatures, it will be a while before I eat lamb again.

Check out the pictures from this weekend on our picassa page. The weekend involved lots of whiskey and a very eventful evening drive along the coast. We chased sheep, saw a peacock, and about 100 deer.

Keep in touch!

P