Philly!

Um, so we never finished writing about our adventures in Europe. In a nutshell, the trip was awesome and we are so happy we did it. The only problem is that now I just want to live there. Maybe one day...

So Alex and I are in Philly. It's beautiful out here - when we first got here and were driving around to find an apartment, we were amazed at how green it was and how many trees there are! We live in the city, but it actually feels more like a suburb. It takes Alex about 25 minutes on the train to get to work. Alex is enjoying his job, and is keeping very busy. Our church callings keep us busy on Sundays and in the evenings. We get to work a lot with the missionaries, which is great because I always wanted to serve a mission and now I am!

We're loving how close we are to great day-trips! We went up to Manhattan with some new members and went to the temple (see picture below). And last weekend Alex and I went to Ocean City and enjoyed the boardwalk and beach. It's crazy how much there is to do out here.


Early this morning we heard a loud crash, and Alex jumped out of bed to see what was going on. He came back into the bedroom chuckling because the crash was a large tree falling down in the back and hitting our back door. Luckily it was just a tree and nothing else!

That's all for now.

Abenteuerland

Kristin, Megan, and I went to Germany on Monday morning. Most of our time was spent in Megan's mission borders, so she was our tour guide/interpreter. We flew into Friedrichshafen airport, which is right down near the Austrian/Swiss/German border. Our first night we tried to go to a small town the black forest, Triberg, to get a cuckoo clock, but all the shops were closed. We think it was a holiday or something, since even the grocery stores were closed at 5:00. That night we got lost trying to find our hotel B&B thingy, just over the border into Austria, but finally got checked in and checked out right afterward.

The first two days in Germany it rained. And rained. I've lived in Washington, so I've seen rain, and this was an impressive, never-ending rain. No breaks or let ups, just rain. The clouds were low and mist was floating all about, so we didn't have much of an idea that we were smack-dab in the middle of some really cool mountains.

We started to figure out the mountains were something neat when we went to Neuschwanstein and saw the base of the mountains under the cloud cover. There was a hit of snow on the hills above the fairy-tale castle. The castle was cool and sort of creepy at the same time. It was like a 19th century Neverland, Micheal Jackson's ranch in California. I imagine that it's cool, but still creepy.

The best part of our day was our trip up to some castle ruins above Reute in Austria. This was later in the day, and by then the rain was starting to soak through our jackets. We climbed up to the first castle in 15 minutes although the signposts said it would take a half an hour. We figured it was quick and we were already wet and cold so it wouldn't hurt anything to keep going up to the second castle, also posted at 30 minutes away. If we'd come so far, why not?

As we started on the trail up, we realized that gravity functions differently in the Alps. The Rockies are cool mountains, but this mountain was straight up! After struggling up to the top of the mountain to an impressive view of the surrounding valleys we realized that it had started to snow. Kristin was ready to kill me when I was unsure of the best way to get back down the mountain and the snow and wind had picked up. I like to think her love for me kept her warm. The castle was worth the hike, and we were the only tourists tough enough to hike for an hour up a vertical mountain in a snowstorm to see it. It was a nice change from the Disneyland feel of Neuschwanstein.

We spent the next day in Munich. We walked a lot and saw the sights. We stopped at a market downtown and got some crazy fresh juice and some yummy strawberries. I got a passionfruit, pineapple, mint drink. It was wiggity-wacky, but kinda good. The strawberries were super fresh and perfectly ripe. The city was pedestrian friendly and cool looking. We went to the Hofbraus (there's an umlaut on the a--but I'm too lazy to figure out how to do that. Pretend with me) a big beer garden. The food was very German, and we sat with some German tourists at our table. The polka band played some songs off of the German beer drinking album I bought in high school, which was funny.



The next day we drove back through the alps, on our way to the airport. We were heading to London, or so we thought. The nightmare of our England trip was about to start. Stay tuned for that . . .

The West Coast

We made our way up the west coast of Ireland. Our first stop was the Cliffs of Moher, also known as the Cliffs of Insanity, and lucky for us it was a sunny day (the last time we were there it was pouring horizontal rain). We wanted to get away from the touristy side, so we headed to some other cliffs. There was a huge sign that said, "Do not go past this point," so of course we did! We walked along this dirt path right along the edge of the cliffs. Alex and Megan would lie down on their stomach's every once in awhile and look over the edge - they're the tallest cliffs in all of Europe if that gives you any idea of how high they are!



Then we headed to the Burren, which is a windblown limestone wasteland. The landscape is completely different than the rest of Ireland. We saw the Poulnabrone Dolmen, which is a portal tomb that looks just like a big stone table. Pretty fun! After the Burren, we drove to Gort which is Ireland's little Brazil. We stopped in at a grocery store and Alex was having so much fun buying up all sorts of food that he used to get in Brazil. Alex said that if he were to live in Ireland, he would live there because there are a ton of Brazilians!

We stayed in Galway for a couple of nights, and made a day trip out to the Aran Islands. On our way there we drove by the "Quiet Man" bridge. Then we took a ferry out to the biggest island, Inishmore. We had so much fun there! We rented bikes and rode around the whole island. We rode up to the highest point on the mountain, did some rugged mountain biking through some rocky terrain, and saw a stone fortress that's over 2,000 years old! An added bonus was that we saw some seals playing in the bay. Biking the island is definitely the way to go!

We then made our way up to County Mayo. We went to Cong, which is where the "Quiet Man" cottage is. We did a lot of driving through the country, and it was so beautiful! There are wild rhododendrons growing everywhere. We saw a few memorials dedicated to the people who died from the potato famine, which was kind of somber. We also saw Croagh Patrick, which is the mountain on which St. Patrick cast out snakes from the island. Then we took a slog in the bog! We walked out onto the boglands and played around. You can stand 20 feet away from someone else and if they jump, you can feel the ground shake. Pretty neat!

We'll post soon about our trip to Germany and London!

Ah, vacation!

Well, we're here in Ireland. It's green and rains a lot - we love it! We're staying at Megan's apartment in Cork city. It's a pretty fun area to live - it's right downtown where all of the shops and pubs are. The night life is pretty crazy here, and it's loud until late at night with lots of drunk people running around. But Megan's got tons of friends that stop in at night which makes it fun.

We've been driving around County Cork, visiting a lot of the small towns. When we first got here we went to Kinsale, a small harbor town. The streets are pretty tight in the small towns and hard to navigate. It was a cute town that lives off of tourists. After we visited there, we went to Charles Fort which was Britain's biggest star-shaped fort. The fort protects the town of Kinsale, and was occupied by the British until 1922 when the Irish achieved their independence. It was a very cool fort!

We went to Portugal last week, and it was fabulous! When we first got there we drove out to Cape Sagres - where Prince Henry's navigator school was. Vasco de Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and Christopher Columbus all studied there. When you stand at the tip of the cape, it really does look like the world is flat. It's pretty neat. Our hotel was right on the beach, and it was beautiful. At night these fishermen would come out and stand out on the rocks when it was low tide. It just added to the ambience of Portugal.

We went to a small town in the middle of the country called Evora. We loved that town! It had so much character, and a lot of the shop owners didn't speak English, so Alex got to try his Portuguese out on them. The area is known for their cork, and they had the coolest souvenirs and trinkets made out of cork - journals, shoes, umbrellas, cowboy hats, bags. We also stopped at a flea market in the town we stayed in and Alex got to try out his bartering skills for something we wanted. It was pretty fun! The small towns were definitely the best because they have tried to preserve their traditional charm. We would recommend Portugal to anyone!

We've been back in Ireland for a few days now. We've been doing a lot of stuff with people from Megan's branch. Saturday night there was a big party at a member's house, and the young adults got a rousing game of monopoly going. As the Irish would say, "the craic was mighty!" We went over to a member's house for dinner on Sunday and then we were taken on a tour of some ruins of the oldest powdermill in Ireland.

We were going to go surfing today, but the ocean was as flat as a lake. Here's a picture of Alex and Megan in front of the ocean. We drove out to the beach, and then went exploring in some small towns. We went to the Dromberg stone circle, like a mini replica of Stonehenge, and the country was beautiful there. We stopped in at a pub for some lunch and there were these old men sitting outside with their pints of guinness speaking gaelic. Ah, Ireland!

Graduation and other stuff

Well, we've made it. We're both graduating this Friday, and it's hard to believe! The two years for a master's degree fly by and we both agree that it has been completely worth it. We were both able to get extremely involved in our programs and build up a strong network in the Salt Lake valley. And now we get to enter the real world!

For our graduation and anniversary (5 years!) celebration, we decided to take a trip to Europe for 5 weeks. We figured it was the best time in our lives to do it because we both have a break from all responsibility! We'll be leaving the country on May 8 and we'll return on June 13. We're heading to Ireland for the majority of the time (Kristin's sister Megan lives in Ireland so it's convenient - plus we loved Ireland the last time we were there and wanted to go back), and then we're going to Portugal, London, and Germany. So, stay tuned for our posts on our adventures while we're in Europe!

When we get back from Europe, we're moving to Philadelphia. Alex got a job with Comcast Interactive Media, and he'll be doing marketing for them. Kristin will look for a job once we move out there. It's pretty exciting and scary at the same time. We won't have any time to go out there before we have to move, so we'll be living in a hotel until we can find housing. We'll be driving out, and we're planning on leaving June 19. Any advice is appreciated!

So that's all of the news for now. We're starting a new chapter in our lives and it's exciting! Keep checking back for our new posts.