Trevor May.ca

Well, Trevor and I landed safely in Vancouver after experiencing the joy that is sleeping on the floor of London Heathrow. We enjoyed a fantastic Canada day, and then I landed safely (again) in Allentown.

So this is the end of our adventure… we learned so much! Most importantly, we learned that we love each other, we make a great team, and yes, Vancouver really is as awesome as we always knew it was .

But is this the end of giver? Actually, Trevor and I would like to work to make this site available to ANY Canadian going backpacking. We think that the folks back home enjoyed our travel log and being able to see our pictures… more people should enjoy the same thing! We also want to make it so that by entering data into the “travel plans” section, you can see what other members of giver will be in the same city at the same time and meet up with them…

What we want to know is: WHAT DID YOU THINK of our travel site? What do you think could be done to improve it for you- the reader? We need your help, so we will appreciate any comments left below VERY MUCH. We want to make Giver happen!

Also, soon, I will be scanning the many many many short comics and doodles from my (two) journals. I’ll make a gallery for them for you all to enjoy… Remember to Giv’er! Love you all…

Giver deleted about an hour

So, we made it to Amsterdam! It was a 6 hour train ride from Berlin, but by now we seem to be used to that because we didn’t really notice. Amsterdam is really neat, it has a lot of old-world charm, it’s not the skyscraper city that I had imagined. It is also the bicycle capital of Europe! They’re EVERYWHEREEEeeeeee, because Holland is really really flat.

It is really architecturally pleasing here, there are tons of cool new buildings, as well as old canals and funny old houses. A lot of which are crooked :O

Amsterdam is also a shopping HEAVEN. It has, hands down, the best shopping in Europe. Both in selection of good and prices. Better than New York. They have the coolest clothes in the WORLD!! They’re so awesome, I’m kind of in shock I walked away with only three new shirts. I bought them in a market that happens every day on the street– they even have change rooms there! The clothes are of really nice quality too… Trevor wins the purchase game for the best deal- he purchased a Dutch Coca Cola flag that wasn’t even for sale, probably 12*8 feet, great quality: 15Euro. I also got a really cute big Pucca bag and this neat accessory that’s actually by a local designer: It’s like a belt… but they’re pockets! I thought it was really cool.

And it’s not only clothes, we found this random bookstore FULL of books ALL in English, at discount. Insane! So yes, hard to resist, but I am doing my best. Unfortunatley, food is really expensive. And Coke is ridiculously expensive. We is thirsty. And there is no bathrooms for free, even in the McDonalds .

Thankfully we have accomodation! Turak, our host is a Turkish Electrician who knows all the Russian Ladies He is very nice, and he took us to the infamous Red Light district– as it always is where it began behind the Stock Exchange Market. Honestly… the Amsterdam Red Light District is exactly how I would have imagined it– except for the fact that there’s a canal in the middle of the street, and there are no boobs. The Red Light District, for those of you who haven’t heard, is famous for its “Window Shopping”. It is lined with strip bars and adult shops, of course, but what’s bizzare are the rows of glass rooms where the ladies in underwear and bikinis beckon to you in person. There’s no other place like it… especially because it is not far at all from the rest of the city, not isolated in any way, and there are normal things, like restaurants and family homes in it… even a church! So it’s a bit of a mind trip.

This morning we went to see a fully functionning Windmill– it was really cool, but unfortunately the miller wasn’t ever able to get it started because there was no wind! But we did get to go right up inside it and see all the workings and learn why and how it works, so that was really neat. Probably most interesting is that all of the 8 people who came to the tour were from Vancouver~… fancy that.

No pictures, and believe me, it sucks as much for us because we’re now out of memory. Internet Caf

Well tonight is our last night in Berlin and I must admit it

Or “I am a jelly donut” as I

We made it to Prague!! It was a bit of an… adventure getting here. We almost ended up in Warsaw @____@… We were on a train that went to Prague from Wien, then carried on to Dresden. Nobody cared to tell us, however, that at the border, you had to change trains. The train we were on was going to Warsaw. Thankfully, I noticed something was up and we got off the train in time.

The first impression of Czech is nobody speaking decent English telling us that our train has mysteriously changed destinations. Then we were trying to figure out the czech word for ”platform” for the next train to Prague… but then the lady that worked at the train waddled over with yellow paper and a glue stick and nullified the next train… and the train after… from existence.

So it was a fun hour in the sun practicing mental conversions from Czech Krowns to Canadian Dollars. Eventually we caught the train.. the long slow train to Prague. And then after trekking around with our packs and a map for a further hour, we figured out that the hostel we had made a reservation for on the internet doesn’t actually **EXIST**…

We had an agonizing time trying to find another place, and right before the transit stopped running, around midnight, we actually landed one. The ”Art Prison” Hostel.

Yes, it actually is a converted prison, with big steel doors and tiny windows. Not so bad as far as hostels go, at least it was clean, and there weren’t any naked Russians, so we were happy.
We got ourselves an Apartment for the next three days with Kitchen, though. (Most hostels in the east dont have Kitchens, and the food bills are really starting to kill us. We can only survive on McDonald’s and grocery store bread for so long… )

As far as Prague itself goes, I really like it. It is full of old-world charm, tons of old buildings. It is not, unfortunately, as cheap as we were lead to believe. On the cheap side of European cities, but that’s about it, sadly. It’s really fun to walk around, we haven’t been to a club yet, maybe another day, it’s supposed to be THE thing to do in Prague. Makes sense, since Beer is cheaper than Coke. -_-; It’s actually hard to tell that this used to be communist. I can’t find any evidence of it, aside from big fuzzy hats with the soviet sickle logo on them being sold in souvenir shops. No crazy old ladies in babushkas um… selling tissues… or anything I guess.

Also, as you can probably tell from the Gallery, the infamous Cows of ”I love Moo York” have now invaded Prague. They’re everywhere!!!!!111
We also finally found a computer that can put our Salzburg Train Alps videos together. Now with fancy text!! oooh aaaahhh

Love you all, later!

We

“Pictures pictures pictures…” that

Hooray! We have our plans set, we

Well, we made it! (MUCH thanks to Mrs. May!!) The most exact statement I can make about this place is: Munich-is-AWESOME!!!

It?s funny how such a huge modern city can still retain SO MUCH Bavarian appeal. Some buildings are jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Cuckoo clocks and Beer Steins and Leiderhosen everywhere.

The bad sides: Everyone knows that German is a close relative to English. But nobody ever seems to mention how freakin?LONG all the German words are!!! It makes phrases almost impossible to remember, we can?t even remember street names, and navigation sometimes takes syllable-by-syllable comparison with the map.

Although the Internet and Technology is pretty prevalent, ==GOOD== internet cafes are very hard to come by around Munich. There are huge ones for internet as cheap as 0.50? an hour…. but they?re just kiosks, with no access to USB. This one at least has that, but it?s locked to kingdom come, so I can?t yet show you any of our beautiful Munich pictures.

We?re still looking for a place, and still looking where to go from here, and how. We want to go to Prague and-or Vienna, but Vienna seems to be KPSENSIVEOMG (really expensive) and Prague is…far. Also! Apparently, the visa requirement for Canadians to Czech was lifted on May 1st! Perfect timing, eh?

So, we?re having a blast here. It?s a tid bit chilly, but otherwise clean and gorgeous… quite like Canada I find. Tomorrow we go see the castle that the Cinderella castle was modeled after!!! And tonight we see movie in English!! Troy and maybe even HarryPotterIII YAAAAAAAY!!!!

So, Auf Weiderzeinerstruffenhosen.

PS, we miss your comments, it lets us know you at least read it, although we do know many of you are keeping up, and we apprestiaste that muchly!!