Valencia, Spain

Valencia is nice. We got here at around 12pm after a 3 hour train ride. The hostel is quite nice, the walls are painted off very bright colors that give it character. It seems small but I don't know how many people are actually here. so far we have only seen about 10-15 of them. We cooked some burgers for ourselves tonight in the friepan, so we eat well.We also got a 6-pack of Heineken for a treat (it only cost us 3 Euros!). It was very hot here today about 35C. But we walked around and we found a place to eat this afternoon that at the door it said that it was home- cooked food, and it really was. We ate great.

 

We walked around the city and over a river which was turned into a park. We got really tired so we decided to take the bus to the Science Museum. This place (architecturally is amazing) I think I saw it before in the Discovery Channel (you should look it up).

 

Then at about 8pm we when to Carrefour (very famous French supermarket, which we also had in Argentina) to buy the food for dinner. On the way to the hostel we saw some transgender getting picked up at a corner. Well, we thing they are transgender, otherwise they were very ugly women. And it is now close to 11pm and we just finished dinner.

 

Tomorrow at 2pm we are off again to Madrid for 2 nights with the possibility of extending for one more night.

Barcelona

So we ended a nice 3 days at St. Laurent with our "relatives". They turned out to be really nice Brits that fed us A LOT. 

Yesterday we made our way to Barcelona, Spain. We got here quite late so we couldn´t do any sightseeing. We tried to look for a place to eat with no luck for over an hour. Our hostel is in a very business location but there are no restaurants that stay open at 12am on a Sunday night! Finally we did find something...That was a relief. 

 

Today we started of at the famous "Rambla". Human status, flower shops and other touristic things are found here. 

We were shocked when we came to this stand where this guy was getting a portrait of himself. When we got closer we realized that he was completely naked. YEAH, we could see his privates. We were shocked but most people didn´t think to mind it.

 

We now spent 2 hours trying to register Joel for his first U of M courses. Apparently, the servers can´t handle the traffic so it took extra long. We were lucky that we were warned about thieves in this cyber cafe because they just kicked one out.

 

We are off now to some more sightseeing.

Little village

So when we last sent our email we were still in Bourdeax.

 

The day after that we went to Toulouse (about 1.5 hrs away).

We did quite a bit of walking there visiting some old churches along the way. After a very hot day we decided to join the French people at the park for some shade. Over the corner we notice this woman laying down on the grass, so we decided to join her. We were almost falling asleep when a policeman came over and told us that we couldn't lay down on this part of the park. We started laughing but he didn't mind it.

 

On Thursday we made our last stop for our first France lap in Narbonne. We got picked up by our long relative from the station. He took us to a place called St. Laurent a 700 people village 30 minutes from Narbonne. As planned we arrived on the 13 of July to be present at the July 14th celebrations of Bastille (the biggest holiday in France). Most people in the village got together at night time to have a feast and all you can drink wine from the wineries in the area. After the meal was over, all the kids turn some candles on and we started walking around the village following a car blasting "marching music". The funny part was that the car looked like a car from Corydon, all suited up with fire painting on the sides and a awesome stereo system. It was sort of a clash of cultures.

 

Anyways, we made our way around the village until we got to this hill and we stopped. From there we had a good view to the church up the hill were fireworks were displayed. It was a very great night.

 

We finished our night talking to a local whos parent were actually Spanish. He complained about all the foreigners and their money showing but he seem to like us because we spoke Spanish.

 

Anyways, we are now heading to the town center to play some bochi. It is quite hot so we don't know for how long we will actually stay.

 

As a side note: I have never imagined how much do French people smoke around here. Unreal!

Tour de France here we are....

Logging in from Bordeaux, France. We arrived at this city last night. As soon as we stepped outside the train station, I noticed a little sign on the road that said "11 julliet depart Tour de France" which with our bad French we came to understand that the Tour de France will be departing from the city we are at the next day. Anyways, we went on to our Hotel. This was a shitty 1 star hotel but to our eyes it was a GREAT hostel! 

 

We woke up today and we went to the main square to find out the timing of the race. We went for some groceries and later we came back to check the Tour. It all started at about 11:30 with a parade of cars with advertizing. There were people throwing stuff at us, some useful others not so much. Once that was over we walked around to get some nice spots to watch the cyclist go. It was great, there are about 100+ of them with their whole team following them. The only thing is that it all lasted about 2 minutes which went quite fast. 

 

After waiting for 2 hours and seeing the cyclist for 2 minutes we decided to do somethihg productive and walked all the way over to the train station to book our ride to our next destination, Toulouse. We were soaking wet from the sweat so on the way back we dicided to take the tram back. Turns out, the ticket machine was broken so we just got in there anyways and got a ride for free.

 

As some of you asked... yes, the French were not feeling that happy about their defeat against Italy. There was even a survey on T.V. asking the public if they forgave Zidane for the head to the chest at the end of the game, and most people said that they had forgivin him. While watching the game outside on the street with a massive amount of people it was quite an experience, and even though they lost, the people were still cheering. 

 

Well our timer on our computer is coming to an end and we really dont want to spend more money on internet, especially money that could go to a good Kebab. 

 

We will try to write as soon as possible so stay tooned for more!

 

(Written mainly by Joel)

From Tours, France

Hello everybody

We just finished watching the finzl world cup game with 1000 other people in the small town of Tours. It was a fun experience no matter the final result.

So it turn out that food is quite expensive here, so we are not eatting quite q lot. Anyways, we get by... We hqd q wonderful time in Paris, a fantastic city. Our feet really hurt from all the walking... A funny moment we had, not so funny for the people involved; was when we got to the Arc of Triumph. The traffic there is nuts and we were saying that for sure there are a lot of accidents here. 2 sec. later, right in front of our eyes, walla! Anyways, we really liked the city but very crowded. Today we cqme to Tours and we went to two chateaux and the house of Leonardo da Vinci. Very nice and interesting places.

Tomorrow, we are off to Bourdaux for more sightseeing. Hippy Hurray!

We are loggin off now but we will keep you posted about our trek through Western Europe.

In London now leaving

Hello everyone,

First of all sorry for the people that are not really interested in receiving my emails. If you really don't want to please let me know that I will take you out of our mailing list. No offence will be taken.

We just finished our first and last day in London. We really didn't do much. We arrived yesterday morning with only 2 hours of sleep (totalling 5 hours for me in 2 days). We did some walking, following an itinerary recommended by our book. Unfortunally, we couldn't finish it due to our exahustion.

So we came back to our hostel, which by the way it looks really good. Here we napped for a few ours and then we caught the game (No Portugal!!!). It is now passed 6am (people in the room snore a lot). I am going to wake up my brother soon.

We will be taking the Eurostar to Paris at about 9am and I am very excited.

Regards to all and I will keep you guys (whomever wants to get this of course) informed of our trek.

A day before ...

Well, it is 1:35 am the day of the trip. As you can see I can't sleep due to the anxiety.
I been running crazy all day. I didn't know packing would off been so hard to do. I have never taken so little clothes.

We think we got everything in. Now we need to decide what will we give to our far relatives that we are staying at: will it be Canadian Maple Syrup (approx. weight 40 oz) or Argentine "Dulce de Leche" (net weight 16 oz). For those that don't know, I will give a bit of background on how we meet our relatives.

About a year and half, we put our family tree online (http://glogowski.argentinos.ca). A person contacted us saying that they have common relatives with us. It turns out that this Englishman is a blood relative of my dad's. His grandmother and my dad's grandmother were sisters! Anyways, he owns a summer house in the south of France near Narbone. Lucky us, they invited us. We are very grateful.

Coming up!

Starting this summer, Joel and Gadster, will begin posting their trek through out Europe.
Don't miss it.

So far the country itinerary looks as follows:

1. England
2. France
3. Spain
4. Portugal
5. Italy
6. Switzerland
7. Germany
8. Czech Republic
9. The Nethelands

More details to come ...

Summary #5

Israel Day 9 (August 22nd)

We began our day early with a tour of the City of David, which is where Jerusalem was created first. Ruins were beyond recognition but we got to walk through old water tunnels. The water was freezing cold and reached our crotches. The passage way was really narrow and he had to duck to make our way through, not to mention that is was pitch black.

After the tour we made our way to the Christian Quarter were we walked around Via Dolorosa, the passage where J.C. is said to walk with his cross. We ended at the Church of Sepulture (or something like that). This is where Jesus was crucified, buried and then resurrected.

We were so exhausted after walked for 2 days straight that we decided to head back to the Hostel for a 2 hour nap. We then walked to Ben Yehuda Street, one of the most popular in Jerusalem. We ate and shop (Rebecca bought some bras in her favourite shop called "C Cup and Up"). To end the night we went to the cybercafe so keep you guys informed.

Israel Day 10 (August 23rd)

This was our last day in Jerusalem but due to our tiredness we slacked off a little. We walked around the shuk (market) at the Jewish and Muslim Quarter in search of a Huka for Ariel and some souvenirs.

Sorry are getting kicked out of this computer again. We will continue later.

Summary #4: Reporting for Jerusalem

Israel Day 5 (August 18th)

Our day began by making our way to the Eretz Israel Museum. Half of the exhibits were closed down and the rest weren’t very good. This place did not cater to tourists as most was written just in Hebrew.

From there we walked all the way to the Diaspora Museum at the Tel-Aviv University. This museum is all about Jewish life outside of Israel.

As most people suggested otherwise we did take the public bus to the Disengoff Center where we were to meet with Sharona after she was done her work. As most Israelis on a hot night, we went for a dip at the Banana Beach.

After that we met with Rebecca’s best friend from Calgary, Alexandra and her Israeli boy toy. They took us to this AMAZING lounge which is located on one of the most under-developed streets of Tel Aviv. Once inside, we were asked to take off our shoes. The place is painted with glow-in-the-dark paint and is decorated with lots of mirrors which were more noticeable due to the use of black lights. Very “glow bowling-ish”! The floors are made of sand which are covered by Arabic carpets and the tables are low to the ground which were surrounded by pillows for us to sit on. VERY COOL!

Israel Day 6 (August 19th)
Today was such a lazy day! We slept in (a lot) and then went to the Rishon beach for chi-lazing! In the evening, we went to the Birthday party of a close family friend of the Glogowski’s. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was delicious. There was Latin Dance music all night and people actually danced (probably because most of them are Latin). For entertainment, they hired a magician…David Blade style! He did this really cool trick just for Gadi and I were he split a deck of cards with his mind (we were holding the magician’s hands!) We were shocked!

Israel Day 7 (August 20th)
Alexandra woke us up at nine in the morning because she wanted to come over (actually, she didn’t want to go to a family function of the boy toy). We went to Rishon beach again (while Gadi slept at home) until shortly after lunch. Today was Sharona’s B-Day so the family went out for dinner (at 3pm)

The most amazing part of the day was the birthday party in the evening. We went to club on the beach in Herzlia Pituach. The tables and chairs were all in the sand by the water. The dance floor was underneath the open sky with a live DJ which was very good. We took off our shoes and danced all night! We even saw girls skinny dipping but we fought the urge to join them.

Israel Day 8 (August 21st)
We woke early and took the bus to Jerusalem- City of Gold. We made sure to make reservations in a hostel in advance from Winnipeg. One small detail that we missed was the location of this hostel. Although we knew it was in the Old City of Jerusalem, we were under the impression that we would be staying in the Jewish Quarter. Imagine our surprise when we found out we’d be sleeping in the heart of the Muslim Quarter!

Upon checking in there was a sign behind the counter: no alcohol, no smoking which we had no problems with. However, the third point was one the shook us up a bit: NO UNMARRIED COUPLES IN A ROOM! We had to lie about our identities and tell them that we were cousins. Despite everything, the hostel was very nice (and cheap) and had an incredible view of the old city from the roof top, so we decided to stay.

We wandered about the city and made our way towards the Kotel (Western Wall). No matter how many times each of us have been to the Wailing Wall, the feelings you get are still strong and makes you feel very spiritual.

We then checked out the new Southern Wall excavations which turned out to be quite informative. There is just so much history surrounding the Temple Mount! The evening consisted of a night tour through the Jewish Quarter and ended with a walk in the new Western Wall Tunnels that go underneath the Muslim Quarter of the city. The Western Wall that everyone sees is 80 meters long, but by walking in the tunnels, we discovered that this is just a fraction of the total length which is 488 meters!

On the way back home, we walked outside the city walls. We asked a security guard for a good place to eat in the old city but were warned of its dangers.

Sorry we have to cut this short as we are being kicked out of the cybercafe.

More to come later..

Summary #3

Israel Day 3
We slept through the morning because of lack of communication with Becca's aunt and because of her inability to "wake up children". We met with Sharona in Tel-Aviv, who took us to an arts and crafts market close to the Dizingoff Centre. After Sharona left for work we made our way to the fruit and vegetable market (Shuk) . Alex, took us a for a very detailed and guide self tour through the old city of Jaffa. This city has so much history. The French, British, Ottoman, Babylonians, etc all had once controlled this town. At night we went for a swim at the Rishon beach where we stayed to have a few drinks at the footsteps of the water enjoying the view of the sunset hitting the Meditereanian Sea.

Israel Day 4 (Gadi's BIRTHDAY!!!)
Our day started by going to a spa (Relax Spa) we enjoyed an amazing couples massage, followed by a sauna/jacuzzi room ending with a healthy and included lunch. That was part of Becca's birthday gift to Gadi (Whose present is this for eh?). Ariel, Becca's brother, was taking part of a 2 and half month volunteer program for the Israeli Army and today was his graduation ceremony. We drove 2 and 1/2 hours past Be'er Sheva to the middle of nowhere for a 1/2 hour act. Once back, we got together with Becca's family to drink and eat to celebrate Gadster's 23 BDay.

Interesting Fact: So far I (Gadi) do not believe that we came to Israel, every single person speaks Russian in this country...

Summary #2

Israel Day 1
This day was not very excited as we got to the Holy Land at around 6pm. He heat wave did not take us by surprise by it took quite a time to get used to it. Sharona, Becca's cousin, came over to the house where we are staying at and we had an early day, ehhh night (time change, hard to get used to).

Israel Day 2
We started our trip out slowly by going to Tel-Aviv's beach for a night tan and swim, naturally both of us burned in the process. The water at this time of the year is quite warm, almost the same temperature as the air. Alex, Becca's uncle, took us to a Russian restaurant for an amazing shish-kabab. To kill the evening we went to a mall nearby.

Sorry guys, we know, so far not very exciting days....

Summary #1

Here is a brief summary of the past events that Becca and Gadi went through:

Toronto
(Yawn) Not very exciting city how everybody makes it to be. We walked for quite sometime to find some action downtown with no luck. We did find some obtacles on the way. On Yonge street we got caught up by a filming crew who would not let us walk pass the shoot. They told us it was for a French car commercial. They had a camera mounted to a little helicopter, pretty cool.

We continued towards the lake to find nothing that was to our interest. We still had about 8 hours to kill, so we decided to make a long stop at the movie theater. We started by watching "The Aristocrats" (funny, but not highly recommended) we then stayed in the theater and we sneaked into "The Island" (high action packed movie, shitty acting!). Anyways, after that we just made our way back to the airport for a 12 hour flight.


Unfortunately our Internet time is lacking. We will try to go to a cyber cafe maybe later on and add all the Israel part so far. We are really sorry for the delay.

Regards to everyone and just wanted to tell you that we are having a great time (mostly at the beach :) )

Becca and Gadi

We are here and safe

Hello everyone,

Sorry that we could not post anything earlier, but apparantly we have very limited internet access!
Toronto was boring (more about that later) and yes, Israel is hot! Yesterday we went to the beach and already got burned. Today we will be doing a little shopping in Tel-Aviv and going to the "shuk" (market).
We promise to write more about our experiences in detail later.
Best regards to you all,
Becca and Gadi

p.s. pictures are coming soon too (hopefully)

Everything is coming into place.

I am all packed at work. You can see a few boxes on my desk. The phone message has been change and my vacation auto-reply message has been set up. I hope Carolyn doesn't get too much of a hassle with IDEA.

At home I am almost packed, pretty good eh?

Close up area of the city we will be staying at (Rishon LeZiyyon)

Aerial View of Israel

Look Gadi, I wrote a blog!

Gadi has been nagging me to make an addition to OUR blog...so here it goes!

I am in my second last week of work and all I can think about is the upcoming trip. I am super excited to return Israel to visit with family and friends. There are members of my family whom I haven't seen in years, and others whom I have never met, such as a cousin's youngest daughter, Linor. I will also be meeting up with close friends who will be travelling at the same time as me, such as my best freind from Calgary (Alexandra) and close family friends from Toronto (Irene and her husband Ronen).

I look forward to travelling around the country, seeing all the sites and experiencing all that Israel has to offer. Most of all, I look forward to doing everything with the person closest to me (Gadi, that's you).

I do promise to write more in the future, but mostly just so that I can get Gadi off my back.

Party Planned

I just sent an email to a bunch of people about my birthday. We will be celebrating it a few days ealier, a day before Becca and I leave for Toronto. I really hope it was not a mistake to do the party the night before. We have to wake up at around 4am to catch the flight.

We are staying the whole day in TO. We were suppose to meet some of Becca's friends but it turn out that they are leaving for Israel a few days earlier. Now what are we going to do in Toronto for the whole day?

I guess we will find something...

We are just getting started

Well, our bank account is shrinking already. My ticket already went through and I feel like something went missing.

Yesterday, we puchase those International Student Cards from Travel Cuts. Can you believe it? The card expires in December and they do not pro-rate it. Hopefully we will be able to get some nice discounts in the "Land of Milk and Honey".