Schladming

We arrived in Schladming around 5pm after a beautiful train-ride in. We had a little trouble finding Haus Katherina, but finally arrived. I think we are the only guests in this hotel as well.

We were shown our cute and very traditional Austrian apartment which has a separate bedroom, toilet room, tub room, and a kitchen/living room. It is on the top floor and has very beautiful views.

We found out we could do laundry here! No more laundry in the sink! W got our laundry sorted and then headed out to find some eats. Nearly all the stores were closed, which was weird, but we finally found a cute little place which looked like a circus inside, and got some dinner. It was weird, but I had never been in that restaurant, or even come across it before. The Pizza there was delicious, as well as the salad.

Both of us were exhausted, and so decided to go back to the hotel to finish off our laundry, and relax for the evening. We watched a football game, and then went to bed.

We woke up May 1st at 9:30am. Our host prepared a beauteous breakfast for us, which we really enjoyed. We cleaned ourselves up, and were about to head to town when we heard a marching band right under our window! There ws also a lot of church bell ringing. We headed into town, and again, we found a ghost town. We finally figured out, it must be a holiday! Tauernhof however, was open. We met a nice girl named Monika, who told us that Martin was on holiday. She did however open the bookstore so we could buy a book, and a couple of post cards, and a beauteous necklace, which Martin's wife made.

The rest of the morning we strolled around town, in the rain. We went for lunch at a little cafe near our hotel, and spent the rest of the day, playing cards, and relaxing.

We ventured out to dinner, and thought we would order some salad. That was a nasty mistake. It was a nasty pickley mess! It was shreaded meat, both pink and white, with eggs, tomatoes, pickles, and who knows what else. It was one of the nastiest things I've ever eaten.

A Short Stop in Munich

We arrived at Motel One where we discovered mistake 2 of 3. Instead of being booked for April 29th, we were booked for May 29th. Luckily, they still had a room for us, but this got us thinking and we didcovered mistake 3 of 3. We were scheduled to arrive in Schladming right now! OOPS. After some frantic searching for a phone (they didn't have a phone we could use in the hotel), we headed to the Ost Bahnhof and called Katherina Haus to change our reservation.

Having cleared up the blunders we were able to relax. Out small but cute and modern room was very nice. It had a fireplace channel on the tv, and the comfiest beds yet! So we layed down for a nap. The shower was amazing too, with the showerhead being about as big as a head...Mmmmmm.



Then off to HofBrauhaus for supper. We looked at a map and saw that this restaurant was near Marienplatz and assumed we could find it from there...but we had to ask a guy for directions. He walked us part way there, and we enjoyed a conversation with him.

On the trainride from our hotel to Marianplatz, one stop into our route, an enormous african american man came and sat across from me. He quite deliberately put his grocery bag on the seat beside him. Another man, drunk and trying to have a conversation with the large black man, forced his way onto the seat with the grcery bag, which was across from Troy. The large man moved his bag, and tried to end the conversation with the drunk guy. The drunk guy then, noticed me. He was saying I was super woman, like Madonna, but those were about the only English words he knew. He was almost yelling, trying to get someone to interpret to me, what he was saying, but the black man, was silently discouraging people from doing this. Finally the big guy, got up to leave. I didn't know whether it was our stop or not, turned it out was, but I figured we should get off too...I figured it we stuck close to him, we'd be safe.

When the drunk guy noticed we were getting off, he too got off, and tried to keep us with us, while yelling, "Madonna!", but we were trying to keep up to the black guy. Anyways, we got away. And with a funny story no less.


We were seated with an older gentleman, and started our fantastic dinner. The man was Australlian/Austrian, and was very well travelled and he had actually just visited Calgary about 4 weeks before! When we sat down, he was just finishing up his beer and must have enjoyed our company, because he stayed and talked to us for quite some time. We enjoyed his company as well.

Our dinner started with 2 beers. Troy ordered a pork steak and I bad the bone-in pork knuckle, on the reccommendation of the older man. Both dinners were very very tasty! Then we had some coffee, Kaiserschmarn, my favorite, and some cake thing, covered in vanilla cream sause for Troy.

Along the way we got talking to our waiter Alex. He is Yugoslavian, and speaks 6 languages. We talked about everything from him, to languages, travel, sport, motivation (for him to learn Greek, it was girls), and how it is easy to make anyone an enemy no matter who or what they are but few people choose to make friends. I think he liked us, because he frequently came to our table, but never offered us a bill. We were there about 3 hours.

The next morning, I was so excited about going to Schladming, that I could hardly sleep. We had a Motel One Breakfast buffet, which was cleverly hidden behind a secret wall.

To save some effort, we decided to see if we could find a train to salzburg from Munich Ostbahnhof instead of going back to the HBF. To our delight, we found one and got on!

After 1 1/2 hours the train was stopped longer than normal. We heard loud bangs, like trash cans being emptied, which is not normal for an in-use train. It turns out, this train was about to go back to Munich, and a bus ws required to continue on to Salzburg. But it was so weird, because the train was marked for Salzburg.

We got out in this place where we didn't know where we were, and asked the DB guy to help us get to Salzburg. We had a 1 hour delay, so trekked into the weird little town in the middle of no where, to get some eats.

When we finished our lunch, we turned back to the train station, and went to the platform, where we were told by the DB guy, and where the signs indicated the train would be arriving. It was very confusing, because first of all the train was very late, I think about 40 minutes, and it ended up coming in on a different track. Everyone was very confused, and no one knew what to do. anyway, after some confusion, we did find the right place to get one, and we were on or way to Salzburg.

We switched trains in Salzburg, and were finally on our way. The train car we were in to Schladming, has windows you could open, so I did the entire way, and took lots of photo's. What a great feeling, going to somewhere you love so much. It was so cool as we rode I was thinking about God...and I thought...the God was the same when I first rode this train to this wonderful town, as He is right now... for some reason, that was very cool to me at that time. I couldn't stop smiling.

Castle Town, Schwangau

We arrived in Munich at 6am but not before being served a breakfast of coffee, which I added dwater to, from the sink. I was about to take a sip, when I noticed the "DO NOT DRINK" sign. Boo. The sandwich we got as well, was terrible.

In Munich we bought a couple of Maps and then to Starbucks for a couple of Vanilla Latte's.

Where we discovered 1 of 3 errors which I'd made in planning this leg of our trip. Instead of borrowing a car from Enterprise across the street from the Bahnhof we were at, the Enterprise I rented from, was across town.

Troy was gracious with me and located a route on the metro. We found the enterprise easily and rented a tiny opel, which had just enough room for us, and our bags. We also rented a tomtom - our GPS system which like everything else this far, has been a Godsend.

We drove through the beautiful country of Germany and even got to drive on the Autobahn. The Opel had no problem keeping up, and easily held speed at 170 kph. It is quite something to be passed, while going that fast, especially when it is a mini-van!

We arrived at our hotel Landgasthof 'Zur Post'in Schwangau around 11am, and were greeted not by a person at the front desk, but by a note welcoming us to town, and providing our key and telling us they were on holidays.
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We found our cute room on the 1st floor (which is considered the 2nd floor in North America). We had a HUGE walk-out patio. We showered and got refreshed with clean clothes, and headed off to see the castles!

We drove to the closest parking lot available, and then purchased our tickets to both castles.

We had a bit of time before our tour began and were very hhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifungry. We both got a tasty bevarian sausage and some french fries to share. We then began to climb the massive hill to Hohenschwangau castle. We had a bunch of time to walk around the outside of the castle, before our tour started. What a beautiful place. It overlooked the beautiful Bavarian Countryside. Our tour guide LOVED his job, and it was easy to tell. He chatted a lot with Troy and I, which seemed to annoy some of the other people on our tour, but we had a lot of questions for him, which he was more than happy to answer.

The castle was filled with expensive gifts from dignitaries and famous friends of the Royal Family. Unfortunately they do not allow you to take photo's in the castles.

We took many photo's around the castle, and out windows in the castle, and then walked down the hill, on our way to the next castle.

Neuschwanstein looked magnificent from the valley below, and looked better and better the closer you got to it. We took a horse and carriage ride almost all the way to the top, and we walked the rest of the way.

This castle is really something to behold. It was thought up by King Ludwig II who was said to be crazy. They worked on the castle for 12 years, and by that time, had only completed 1/3 of the work. King Ludwig moved in at this stage, and 2 weeks later, was declared insane. 2 days after that, they found him floating in a lake in Munich. Ever since then, this castle has been a tourist attraction, for obvious reasons. The rest of the castle, has not been completed.

The castle is even more beautiful and elaborate that the first castle. Ludwig even had a secret room, behind his bedroom, which looks like something out of Indiana Jones. Its a cave room/secret passageway, and it honestly looks like you are walking though a cove 1000 miles, inside a mountain. There were stalagmites and different colors everywhere. Very different.

Troy and I tried to find secret passageways in the castle, but didn't find any luck. All the doors were locked, and none of the walls we pushed on moved.

We took many photos here, once again, not allowed inside the castle, but from the windows, and outside, and then we walked around to the bridge behind and above the castle.

We left the castles after trying a delicions donut like treat and another carriage ride down. Our feet, once again, were sore. We got back to our hotel, with still no sign of the owners.

We went to find some eats, after lounging around our hotel room for a bit. We found a local Italian eatery, and a friend. He was a cute old man who could not speak English, but managed to communicate he would be making our breakfast. We entered the restaurant with him, and ordered a shrimp cocktail, pizza's, and wine, and lemonade/coke for Troy. The shrimp cocktail...although not terrible, was something out of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares. It was lettuce, cooked, but cold mini-shrimp, with about 1 1/2 bottles of thousand islands dressing on top.

The pizza's however were amazing. I think it was the best I've ever had!

We had a difficult time communicating with the waiter that we would like some dessert, but he did bring us a drink from the cute old man who couldn't stop staring at me. The drink was fairly nasty, but we could not let him know that.

Finally the waiter brought us a bill. I guess he did not want to serve us dessert. We got up to leave, and the cute old guy followed us out. He pointed down the street and told us we should go see "Life Music". We attempted to follow his directions, with no luck, more-so to appease him, than because we actually were super interested.

We couldn't find the life music (live music), but we did find another cute place where we got some Tiramisu, and coffee. Unfortunately we found out after we both started eating that the dessert contained nuts...so Troy couldn't eat it!

We walked back to our hotel in the rain, only to find it locked! Before trying our key, we rang the hotel doorbell, and the owner, who had since arrived, let us in, and told us our key would have worked in the front door. Good to know for next time!

The morning brought rain, so the plans to check out the bobsled, and the crystal spa which we'd discovered were also in Schwangau, were out. Boo.

We got up and ate a lovely traditional breakfast of bread, cheese, meats, yogurt, fruit, jams, etc, and some great coffee.

We then packed up, made a quick stop to the post office to mail our beautious picture, bid farewell to the cute oldie (who we gave the Canadian Pen we'd purchased in the TO airport), and headed off for Dachau.

The drive was beauteous, yet uneventful. It was raining in Dachau. Not hard, but enough to set the mood for a walk through the memories of the past. It seemed very appropriate. It was April 29th, 2008, which is the anniversary of the day that the prisoners of Dachau were liberated.

The Concentration Camp was something neither of us will ever forget, and very graphic. I had a difficult time taking it all in, and about 3/4 of the way through it, I had to stop, it was too much for me. They say that Dachau was not a death camp, because they claim they did not exterminate people there (although they do have extermination chambers). They say it was not an extermination camp, but it certainly was a death camp, because they worked people to death, starved them to death, and beat them to death. It is said about Dachau, that the crematorium burned 24 horus a day, the entire time Dachau was open, and that was not enough time to burn all the bodies of those who died there.

We left Dachau more educated in our world's history, but determined not to let it effect the rest of our day. So naturally, we went to Burger King.

We drove back to Munich, with the help of TomTom, and returned the car, and then were driven to our hotel, Motel One.

A Brief Stop in Vienna

(We grabbed a lovely meal in the dining car, after being laughed at by a bunch of Locals for saying "excuse me" to get by). We arrived in Vienna and Ruth, the friend we made on the train helped point us in the right direction, as our train from Prague was arriving at the Sudbahnhof & we were leaving Vienna for Munich from the west banhoff.

We found it easily, after Ruth departed 1/2 way through our journey. We avoided getting beer spilled on us in the metro by an intoxicated patron, thank goodness.

We arrived at Vienna west Banhnhoff over an hour early and got some snacks, and then waited for the train to arrive. We got to hear a lot of drunk football fans being obnoxious on the platform.

Finally our train arrived!

We easily found our train car, and our friendly attendant showed us to our room. First though, Troy figured he'd see how tough I was, and rammed me in the face with his pack and gave me a nose bleed.

Our room was tiny, but well appointed. Two bunks, one low for Troy, and another super high for me. I needed a ladder to get up and down.

Neither of us slept very well on the train. It was great to have a place to lie down though. We also got rammed by a train joining our train, really hard in the middle of the night. That was a bit scary but par the course I'm sure.

Prague

Beauteous Prague...you're still as beautiful as I remembered you. That's about all I remembered about Prague. We arrived around noon on Saturday by train from Berlin. We stood in a long line at a Relay station to get some Czech currency as change, only to discover they didn't take Euro. We easily found an ATM, but were unsure of how much their currency was worth. We guessed and took out $3000 CZ Monies, which turned out to be a perfect amount.

With troy as our transit navigator, we easily found our hotel, Apart BV, but since it was too early, we were unable to check in. We left our packs at a cost of 30CZ, and took off to find some eats. Its note-worthy at this point, to tell you that I took 2 Gravol on the train, to help with motion sickness, as well as the added benefit or the drowsiness. But wow...I felt like I was as tired as I had ever been. I did no discover that the Gravol had this bad of an effect on me, until our plane ride home, when I again noticed how tired I was, and in addition, noticed my pupils were the size of golf balls.

Anyways. We found some sausages, and sat in Wenceslas Square & admired all the beautiful tulips. I was SO exhausted, so we decided to try to stick around our hotel. We also left our camera in our pack, so couldn't take photo's. We found a McDonald's, for our first and only stop there, and got some fries, and sundae's...to try to get me some energy. No luck, but yummy all the same. Time seemed to move in slow motion.

From there we got a little lost, and stumbled upon an outdoor market full of marionettes, wooden toys, paintings, lace, fruits, and many other fun things. I fell in love with some art work, but we decided to wait to see if we could find something else we liked more.

From the market we headed to our hotel, located at 36 Wenceslas Square. We checked into our hotel which was clean, and comfortable and had a massive window overlooking the square.

Both of us were exhausted...me for more due to the gravol than anything else....and took a nap. 3 hours later we woke up, better rested, yet a tad crabby all the same. We ventured out, and took the metro to Charles Bridge. From there we walked across the crowded but pleasant bridge, stopping to view all the vendors and street artists, including a jazz band, who played along the bridge. We noticed a restaurant which looked nice and was right on the river. We made our way there, funding a funny statue of men peeing on our way.

For dinner, I ordered white wine, Caesar salad and veal schnitzel. Troy ordered water (still) which came in a cool bottle, Caesar salad and the organic chicken on the recommendation of our waitress. The waitress brought us some yummy and yucky bread to start with also. the Caesar salad was very yummy and contained boiled eggs. Our dinners were great, but it cost us $1465 CZ, which we figure is about $80. Go figure. We visit the cheapest city in Europe, and eat in the most expensive restaurant in the city.It was well worth it though, right along the river, with a heat lamp right above it. It was lovely.

After dinner we walked to old town, and spent some time viewing the old town square. We stopped to watch the famous clock on the hour, but were surprised such a sight gained so much fame. We got some ice cream as we left. It was delicious, and after a bit of walking our feet, once again were sore and we retired to our room. Troy rubbed my feet while I finished the finally Harry Potter book. Good Night Beautiful Prague.

This morning we woke up well rested, and happy. We packed up and left our packs for the day and headed off to Prague castle. From the station we walked 2200 meters and arrived. our first stop was the castle cafe for some coffee and apple strudel. Unfortunately it had nuts, so Troy could not partake, because of his allergy.

We walked through the castle grounds, stopping to listen in on some beautiful singing at the cathedral. We saw some great views and easily made our way back into town. We walked over to the Jewish Quarter, thanks to Troy's brilliant Navigational skills, only to find that it was a Jewish Holiday, and the museum as well as the Jewish Synagogue were closed. BUMMER.

We wandered through town and came upon old town once again, not before stopping for some post cards and stamps.

We bought some lunch - Gyro's, but were disappointed with them, and threw most of them out.

We thought briefly of taking a train ridge through the city, but figured we'd get a better tour by foot. And we did. We did purchase a boar ride. A bus took us to the boat port, and we were able to get the last seats on the top deck. Sharing a table with a few older men who turned out to be quite chatty, from Belgium. The boat tour was very enjoyable and we were served colored cake, and gross coffee. It was lovely all the same.

After walking all over town already, we made it easily from the Rive to old town square and then to the market we'd been at the day before. We saw a beautiful picture for 550 CZ and that lady was even willing to give us a 50cz discount. We found a much better price at another booth, for an even more beautiful large picture, and even had enough for 2 small pictures as well. Unfortunately the vendor was unwilling to give us a deal, but the pictures were so beautiful we bought them anyways.

With our beautiful pictures in tow, we walked back and picked up our backpacks and walked to the train. With some help from some locals we purchased some train tickets and boarded a train towards the train station.

With 62 CZ left in our pocket, we arrived at the train station, and purchased a large bottle of iced tea, and 2 8CZ cheese buns. We had 2 CZ to spare! With no problem we found and boarded our train, and even made some friends in our compartment. We are 1/2 way through our trip to Munich now, and they have stooped the train...I wonder if they threw someone off?

We'll soon arrive in Vienna.

Berlin

(written by Troy) "The trip to the airport was not too bad, but the signage for the RER is not as clear as the metro. With some help from some helpful and friendly Parisians, we were directed onto the right train, destined for the Orly Airport.

Easy jet is very cheap, but is it worth the pain of being constantly in a "line"? The check in desk was not open when we arrived but people formed a line before the line. We ignored it. When boarding, you need to be in the front of the line, to get seats together on the plane. Why don't they just assign seats? But the flight was ok, and we arrived on time.

The ticket machine was a little confusing at the Berlin airport, and we got several single use tickets instead of a day pass. But I think it worked to our favor in the long run.

The train ride, was a bit confusing, and the train compartment we were in was LOUD, and obnoxious. About 10 guys got on the train, from Russia, all drunk, and with large bottles of brew in hand. They talked loud, they laughed loud, and some of them even fell asleep, once the train began to move. We felt a bit unsafe in the beginning, but one of them started talked to us, and we found them obnoxious, but harmless. Nearing their stop, one guy, started to wake his sleeping comrades. One of them was completely passed out. He pulled him, off his seat, onto the floor. You can imagine how that went over. In addition, when that guy was sleeping, a German man, boarding the train walked by, and you can imagine the disgust, when he saw this guys dirty feet, on a train seat. Europeans are very protective of their trains, and get quite angry, when people put their feet on the seats.


We found our new home at the Schoenhouse Apartments without incident. And what a wonderful home it was for 3 days. Walking through the cafe into the court yard, and around the corner, was the entrance to our building. Upon opening the door I could immediately detect the scent of a typical German home.

Down the hall and to the right was our apartment which had a relaxing living room (with a TV, that had only BBC News, and CNBC in English, along with MTV Europe, and Spanish game shows), a cute kitchenette and table and our big cozy bed with huge German pillows, and separate duvets for each of us!

After settling in, we ventured into our neighborhood, and sat outside on some long benches at a restaurant for a typical German dinner. (Schnitzel and such). On the way back home we stumbled upon Extra Foods, to stock our kitchen.

German Grocery Highlights:
~Wine as cheap or cheaper than Fanta.
~Sandwich meat, made to look like a Bear.
~Tons of selection in a very small space.

The rest of the evening was spent hand washing our laundry, playing cards, and munching on chips and gummy bears, and of course Fanta (sipping, not munching).

The next day started with a visit to Checkpoint Charlie. After some initial confusion about lineups, entrances, and lockers for the day pack, we were able to check out the museum. I forgot how many crazy schemes people came up with to flee East Berlin. Shara graciously put up with my attempted history lessons.

A short walk down the street and we were tempted by a balloon ride above the city. The view was fantastic, and helpful for orientation. Around another corner, was a long segment of the original Berlin Wall, still standing, and the topography of terror. It probably would have been very educational, but our feet were much too tired to linger, maybe next time.

A few blocks down the street landed us at Potsdamer Platz. Lunch was downstairs, and my donair was big enough for 2, so I shared with Shara, who had a small German Pizza. For dessert we went upstairs, and each ordered Monstrous Gelato Creations. We probably should have shared one.

Trying to make our way to the Brandenburg Gate we were halted by a huge parade of hockey players. Someone tried to cross the street in the middle of the LONG parade, and was harshly reprimanded by the police officer(he yelled at the top of his lungs at him). Continuing onto the gate, we came across an odd, but interesting monument to the holocaust. Cement blocks of various sizes were arranged in rows, each apparently representing a people group, affected by the holocaust. We got this information from another tourist who was admiring the memorial, but he spoke very little, and broken English.

At the gate we found our excited hockey friends again. Shara asked a fan, who was more than happy to tell us that the team had just recently won the German championship.

The Reichstag had line-ups that felt 10X longer than they really were because of our weary feet. The view from the top was worth standing in line for an hour.

While wandering towards home, we thought of taking a boat ride, but the stupid ticket lady kept ignoring us. Grrrrr.

The evening was capped off with foot rubs, a German snack, and a wine bottle, impossibly difficult to open, reading, and some soccer on the tele.

Friday started late, after some much needed rest. We were still Jet Lagging. The First stop was the east side gallery. I tried to imagine that the wall was the only thing separating me from oppressive regime.

The U-Bahn took us next, to the Ku'Damm. The subways are nice enough in Berlin (and often overground), but nobody seems to be able to top the system and security in Paris. To save our tired feet, and maximize sightseeing, we took a double decker sight-seeing bus around the city. We had the back bench all to ourselves, almost the entire back of the bus to be exact. We took lots of photo's, and enjoyed seeing a good portion of the city. It was also raining just a little, so it also kept us dry.

After the bus ride, we made our way to KaDeWe and quickly found the restaurant on the top floor. Having learned NOTHING about sharing large portions, we both had both more than we could eat, but it was yummy. We did a little shopping in the department store, and could not resist getting a German copy of "Settlers of Catan" and shipping it home.

Our feet were tired and we had an early morning the next day, so we went home to do some packing. And then back to Potsdamer Platz to see the U2 3D show. What a great movie. I often felt I should be applauding, (and some audience members did) or that the person ahead of me should sit down (it was actually audience members from the film). "Pride" and "Streets" gave me shivers.

Random Thoughts:
~I love the walk/don't walk guys in Berlin, they are also handy for figuring out which half of the city you were in, as those particular ones, are only found in East Berlin.
~I feel so proud when I can communicate "auf deutsch". One guy at the DB info place, could speak no English, but we both got the message across ok.

Paris

"I write as we make our way by train from Berlin to Prague. We have had a great time so far. We left Toronto on April 20th. A quick stop in Montreal and then off to Paris. It was difficult to sleep on the plane despite purchasing our 3 euro "zoom" blanket & pillow. We arrived in Paris France at 11am and were greated with a friendly border guard who told me it would cost a smile to enter Paris.

We quickly found the correct train, after spending 38 Euro's each for a 3 day transit pass. Expensive, yet we made excellent use of it. It was quite easy to find out hotel "Le Quarter Bastille". We were greated by Vianny (or Fransois". Our hotel on the 6th floor was the smallest hotel room in history, but very cute and comfortable with a balcony opening to the street. The elevator to get to our room was equally small. We barely fit the 2 of us, along with our packs.

We showered and changed into clean clothes before venturing out. Our first stop was the Notre Dame. I suppose first we had to find it, and along the way, found a french version of a hot dog (which was a hot dog/bun, with cheese broiled on the top). It would have been excellent, except the hot dog was cold...oh well.

We came across a beautious building which turned out to be an old prison. Finally we stumbled upon the Norte Dame & Sat down to finish our hot dog where Troy was greeted by a crazy man who insisted Troy feed me the hot dog. The man kept touching Troy and did not understand when Troy told that he did not understand.

Inside the Notre Dame was very beautiful. I thought for sure that the guidebooks suggested viewing the treasury, so we paid the 3 Euro's each. After viewing the treasury, I concluded, the guide books must have said DON'T go see the Treasury, because it was boring and lame.

Our next stop was the romantic Eiffel tower. We made sure we found some kisses in the park and took loads of photo's. We were exhausted from the jet lag, so decided to head back to our hotel, to get some grub.

We soon found out that all restaurants don't open until 8pm, how crazy? We found an open pub, but could not order meals. So we ordered some drinks, and then a cheese platter (when in Paris, do as the French do). We tried each cheese -- Troy nearly barfed. It was a great experience and I discovered my love of Brie Cheese. We stayed until 8pm, and then headed out to find an open restaurant.

We looked for a french looking restaurant, but our tired feet, and jet lagged eyes got lazy and we did with what we could find. Italian.

Troy ordered pizza, with a raw chicken looking meat on it, and I tried to get gnocci with cream sauce, but I got salmon in there too. Dinner was great and the culture even better. Our servers spoke only a little English.

We had a good night's sleep, and then headed for Versaille around noon the following day. Lucky for us we found a vendor selling tickets which allowed you to skip lines. She said that no one ever believed her, and told us there was a ticket office closer to the palace, for when we discovered she was not lying. Once at the palace, we believed her about the waits, and bought tickets. The palace was beautiful as were the gardens. We grabbed a bite to eat in the garden and then headed back to Paris.

Montmare was our next stop & after wandering through a few busy streets we found Sacre Couer. What a beautiful building. We walked the million or so steps to the top for a breathtaking view of Paris & then set off to find the painters.

Many shops and vendors are everywhere, selling anything and everythign you could want. Finally the painters. We circled the painters probably 10 times, looking for the perfect and yet affordable painting. No luck. The most beautiful was 480 Euro's. BOO.

Instead of paintings, we bought crepes, I got a Nuetella/banana one, which was the yummies thing I've ever eaten. Troy had citron.

We made our way to the Arc Du Triumphe, the ceremony of the unknown soldier was going on.

As if you have to pay to walk up 280 steps...only in Paris. We paid the money, and made the circular climb. It was worth all 280 steps. :)

Beautious views greeted us. It is easy to see why everyone loves Paris. We spent quite a while up there, and took loads of photo's.

The Champs Elysse was our next stop, and our feet hurt a lot. We stopped at Quick burger, more-so to rest our feet, but who doesn't want a burger every once in a while. The metro stop was very close, and we decided we were ready to get back to a cozy bed.

The following day, Wednesday, we slept in, and ate a yummy breakfast in the hotel. We departed to Berlin soon after.

Note - beware of people who ask you "Do you speak English". When you tell them yes, they will hand you a note, with an English version of a sob story begging for money. After the first experience of this type, we pretended we did not speak English.

Second Note - When in Paris, making out in public is ok. We didn't, but saw others...loads of others. Maybe we should have given it a whirl."

I Dream In Color

Has anyone ever asked you if you dream in color? I can't really remember who, but I know I've been asked that before, and I've definitely thought about it...and of course I always thought I did, but I know now for sure, that I do dream in color. The reason I know this...is that I remember the color of the little boy's jacket in my dreams. I had a dream that I was in an accident, and I thought I hit a little boy wearing a green jacket. Turned out I didn't hit him, thank goodness...but I woke up remembering the color of his jacket.

Well I made it though my exam...I've since been scared by one of my classmates, that I wrote the exam wrong. The exam was a 3 hour exam, 8 questions, with each question being 25 marks. Now 6 out of the 8 questions were options. Either do part a, or part b. That in itself was quite a test, because you had to figure out how many marks you could get, in each option, and then choose the best one. Anyways. My classmate said that another classmate had told her after the exam, he'd re-read the initial question, and the initial question said that if you were studying from the old text, you were to do part a, and if you were studying from the new text you were to do part b questions.

Anyways - I'm hoping that was a suggestion, and I'm hoping they won't only mark my part b questions, because I'll likely fail if that's the case...but what can I do. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and saying lots of prayers about that one.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now. My cute husband is making me one of his famous vanilla latte's and we're going to see Chelsea, Andrew and cutie-pie Jack for brunch in a couple hours. I can't wait!


S

Diet Coke

My beverage of choice in trying to make myself study. As you see, its not going well. Last time I posted, it was 12 days until my exam. Now its 3. I wish I could say that if I went back, to that 12 day mark, I would have spent more time studying, and less time procrastinating...but I'd probably do it the same all over. I'm tired of studying. My mind is tired of pushing things into it, I never wanted to have in there. Troy has left me alone tonight, and I'm trying my darnedest to study, but I only managed to get a combined 25 minutes of it, and my mind won't take it. I think I'll go back in a few minutes.

It smelt like spring outside this morning. I was at the bank machine putting in a cheq, and I caught a whiff of it, and I sort of 1/2 way got out of my car. I must have looked like a lunatic. I don't care...what a wondrous smell. What do you think causes that? The theory I've come up with is this.

You know in life when times are tough? Nothing ever seems to go your way, you feel like you're at the end of your self. And then all of the sudden you think, "I'm not going to live like this anymore." And life changes, your perspective changes, and you start growing, and things all of the sudden change for you, even if the circumstances don't change, you do...and that's where the growth comes from.

I think that's what happens in creation. In the winter it all dies, and then when the spring peeks its head around the corner (this is quite a long process in Alberta, in fact I can never ever remember a true season of spring in the 8 years I've been here) the plants, and the trees, decide they're not going to be dead anymore...they're going to change things. And of course, God commands them to do this, and the obey as creation does...but they decide they won't live dead anymore. Well I think the smell of spring is that decision, to start living again. I see little teeny tiny buds on our big tree in front of the house. That makes me happy. I love the smell of spring.

Speaking of that, I've decided the garden has to go. I've drawn up a plan for the yard...and when we're back from Europe, I'm (and by "I'm" I mean me, and Troy, and anyone else we can recruit) going to dig up the front yard, and uproot all the perennials...which is sort of sad, but necessary. Then we're going to lay sod, and leave some area's to plant some pretty potting plants each year. I think it will be easier to maintain, and enjoy. Its too buggy out there with that mammoth forest of plants...despite its potential.

Well I can't think of anything else to write....I suppose this is coming to an end. I better get back to trying to study. If you think of me, my exam is on Monday at 1:30pm Mountain time.

S

The Season of Procrastination

The countdown is on. Only 12 short days until my final exam. My brain hurts from all the studying I've done over the years for this. Finally - one left, and I feel spent. I hope I can manage enough energy and desire to study sufficiently for this exam. I'm doing quite well going into it. My mid-term which I was so nervous about, (and which I would have probably marked at 65%, I got a 91% - how that's even possible, I don't know, but I'm not complaining. Anyways, I think I'm going into the exam with 25% already - so I'd be pretty hard up not to get at least a 70% in the class. We'll see. This next 12 days can't come quickly enough, that's for sure.

Life has been busy lately. Work, entertaining, hanging out with my amazing hubby, keeping my house reasonably clean, (I've even started to think that paying someone to do it wouldn't be too bad...) and getting ready for our trip. Its been a gong show. I'm feeling extremely tired...probably due to my caffeine overdose on Monday. Normally I drink 1 cup of coffee a day, and sometimes a diet pop. That's it. On Monday (my Mother-in-law was over) I started off the day with 2 cups of tea, then in the afternoon, I enjoyed a large Tim Hortons Double Double (which won me another in Rooooll up the Rim to Win). Then I drank a pop for dinner, and then another coffee at Cathy Hooge's place. I was exhausted, but I was vibrating from all the energy inside me. Anyways, I didn't sleep a wink until about 6am that day. That sucked.

I've also been having tough luck with booking this online - and so the saga continues.

A couple weeks ago, I booked a hotel for us in Berlin for 3 nights. A whopping 274 Euro's (which was cheaper than the one I'd originally booked for us). Immediately after booking, I noticed their site had in small print, far below the reservation, that they charge you a deposit of 1 nights stay, which is non-refundable. I also noticed that they made 2 bookings for me. I immediately (literally within 1 minute of sending the reservation) I sent an email advising them there'd been an error, and would they please cancel my reservation. They advised me they have "laws" and could not cancel the reservation without charging me the non-refundable deposit. Also they would not cancel the 2nd reservation without the non-refundable portion. (which is $140 Canadian). I finally wrote an email to the original booking centre (BOOKING.COM which I would highly recommend), and they had this hotel cancel the one booking, but they were unable to help with the deposit. Fine.

Anyways, its 2 weeks since they charged my credit card, and they still haven't returned the 2nd deposit. Its making me really mad. I think despite the charge, I think we're going to stay somewhere else...I hate supporting businesses that have horrible business practices, and I feel like that's what this company has. What kind of company, charges you 20% of your entire stay, if you decide to make a cancellation with them well over a month in advance of the booking? That's bizarre.

Anyways - that's one of the weird things I'm having to deal with - well actually I deal with these things, until they get messy, and then my amazing husband steps in, like superman, and fixes the whole mess I've made. I like him (not superman, my husband).

I got to talk to my Dad for a long time today. I like him. I wish him and I lived a lot closer to one another, or else I wish one of us had a plane. One of those comfy ones that they have on Criminal Minds with the comfy leather seats, and stuff - anyways, I wish we had a plane, and could take a plane ride to each other's house for lunch if we wanted. That'd kinda be a waste of money, and the green people would probably have a hemorrhage, but it'd be really fun. Its been about 9 months since I've seen my Dad, even longer since I've seen my Mom. I guess such is life. I decided to move West.

I should be studying - I told Troy I would have to spend the night studying, however I've done very little studying...bad shara. Its so hard...I have so many other things I'd rather be doing, including pulling out my toe nails, and cleaning toilets.

Plus I'm sleepy.

I better go find Troy to see if we can watch Big Brother, I've missed it the last 2 nights. Or maybe I should really study!

S

Problems

I have problems. Last week I ordered a dress for my Mom's wedding online - I ordered it to the wrong address, and in the wrong size. I also didn't give them my expiry date on my credit card. Then today, I booked a flight for my Mother-In-Law to come to visit for Easter, and instead of booking her from Kelowna to Calgary, I booked the flight from Calgary to Kelowna, which won't really help her. Then on my way home today, I forgot to put the lid on my water bottle, and the entire 2 liter of water leaked into my seat (this is not the first time this has happened!). Seriously, what is wrong with me? Apparently I have problems.

Well my husband is home, and I should go and sop up my seat...

S

I Love Mondays

Mondays are my day of solace in a crazy busy time in my life. I've been able to sleep in a lot lately, so that's been a blessing in itself, because I'm not the best at sleeping. Today I slept in until about 9:45am, and then got up, had some yogurt and some water, and then showered, and headed off. I had a couple tasks to do today. First of all - the Bottle Depot.

I know a lot of places are not like this, but in Calgary, you do not have some nice man, driving by your house in a big truck, picking up all your treasures which you place in a blue box on your curb. Neither do we have the same "service" we had in our old condo, where your garbage was rummaged though, for any special treasures, mostly by homeless people. I felt like I was doing a good deed by depositing my bottles/cans in there for them, because then they found a treasure in the midst of the leftover spaghetti (and don't think I'm that cruel - I normally put them in a separate bag). No longer do we have any special service people, picking up our cans. Before Christmas I put a bag of cans in my trunk, hoping to make it to the bottle depot. Well - its March 3rd, and this is the first time since we moved in in June that I've gotten to the depot, for a couple reasons.

First of all, it really stinks in there. Like stale beer - amongst other things. Its also really dirty, and gross in there. Also, its always SO busy, so not only are you spelling nasty smells, you have to wait for a free "table". And finally - you get only pennies. take for example this. My entire trunk was filled. You couldn't have fit anything else in there, if you tried. And my cute little civic has a pretty good sized trunk. Anyways - $16.75 is all I got back. Oh well. Its better than a trunk full of cans I guess. I think that should be a saying.

From there, I headed over to my massage therapists, for a relaxing lovely massage. It was wondrous.

I had a few things to pick up, so I thought I would make a trip to the Superstore. I love this store - although it has its quirks too. I spent a while in there picking out some new cloths, and looking at all the home deco's. The one thing you need to look out for at superstore, is overcharging. I've had it happen a couple times where the posted price is not what comes up when they ring it through. If you're not looking carefully, or not paying attention, you'll end up paying more for what you're purchasing. for me today, this was a hurricane bowl. It was on sale for $7.44, and it rang through at $19.99. Good thing for me, I caught it.

After my fun at superstore, I was off to vote. Unfortunately, they moved the polling station from the place they had it for the last election. So after parking at the far side of the parking lot, and walking all the way to the school - there was a sign that said the voting was going to be done at a different school. So I had to drive around a little bit, cause I wasn't totally sure what school it was, but there aren't too many in Renfrew. I tried another one, only to find that I wasn't on the voting list, because I was at the wrong school. With an address in hand, I was off to find yet another school - which wasn't even in Renfrew. How weird is that? Finally found it - and it was kinda funny cause the guy looking me up on his list, didn't even know the alphabet, he had a very difficult time finding Bierman.

Is it weird they don't need Photo ID to vote?

Since then I've been home, keeping up to date with Oprah and Dr. Phil, and tidying my cute house. Troy should be home soon - assuming he has no problems finding the polling station.

Anyways - Have a great March 3rd!

S

Brain Fried

Well I think all that studying psyched me out for my exam. I'm sure I passed, and I know the brains that God gave me, generally, are good ones, but I think I fried them with all the studying, because I don't think I did nearly as well on my exam as I could have done. Have you ever had something so silly on the tip of your tongue, and yet you can't remember it? That's how I felt throughout my exam. I can honestly say, I did the best that I could have. But in hind-sight, I know the area's I should have studied a bit better now. :)

I'm exhausted but so glad to be done, I'd like to celebrate, but I doubt that's going to happen. Such is life...and I'm not quite done yet. In 5 weeks, I'll be done, and I can't wait.

Calgary is the only place where we can have a blizzard in the morning, and by the afternoon people are driving around with their convertible tops down. What a weird place.

I better get to bed.

S

Still Studying...

Its nearly time for my test. At this time tomorrow I'll be doing a little jig of celebration that my mid-term is over. Studying is so boring, although I'm proud of myself that I've been doing it so dilligently. I studied SO hard on Monday and last night, and on my lunch breaks. Tonight I had my floor hockey game, and now I'm tired, my brain is fried, and Big Brother is on. Who can resist. So I'll take some rest time, and then back to the books...

Please "say a little prayer for me..."

S

All Studied Out

I've been keeping my nose in the books - hopefully it helps in my upcoming exams. I don't think I've ever really done excellent in exams. I'm not great at articulating myself under pressure unfortunately. I've always passed my exams, thank God for that, but I've never ever aced a written exam. Pardon me, I think I got 99% on my Music Theory exam a couple years ago, but that was thanks to the devoted pressure of my music teacher, and the excellence she demanded. I should pay her to be my tutor for everything. :) Everyone should pay her to be their tutor for everything for that matter! Myself and my lovely friend Michelle aced our grade 11 drama exam (I think it was grade 11). We did a dialogue - I think it was 45 minutes long, and pretty shocking;y dramatic. I believe it was between two very disturbed young women. In fact, we did so well at it, that our school of 800+ students had an assembly and Mitch & I performed our dialogue at it. It was pretty cool. WE got 100%. I think that may have been because our teacher was...how can I say...a bit of a push over. Michelle and I would tell him that we were going to practice and wouldn't be able to be present in class that day, and somehow that was fine with him, even when he came to check up on us, and we happened to be cooking waffles in the hallway for those who passed by. That was interesting. I think I also aced some music exams in High-school - once again attributed to an excellent teacher, who inspired excellence. Or perhaps I just do better at exams than I think.

Do you think its a bit of a crock that your exams are not returned to you? I do. They don't even re-use exams, or exam questions anyways, what would be the harm. I bet they would have so many more review requests that way. I am just curious to know how badly I butchered the questions, or which answer on the multiple choice was correct.

Anyways. Oh High school. Speaking of Michelle - I remember the day we met. She was sitting in front of me and my friend Julie in our science class. I believe Mr. Collie was our teacher - although I'm not sure why the gym teacher was teaching science, but that's ok. Julie & I decided we should be nice and say hi to the new girl, and wasn't that one of the best decisions I ever made. Michelle is one of the most loyal devoted friends anyone could ever think up. I love her, and I'm totally bummed we have to live so far away from one another. Maybe one day that will chance. I miss her.

I don't think there's too much else to write, except my brain is fried, and I can't wait to go to bed. I didn't sleep well last night unfortunately, and I'm paying the price right now. Hopefully everything I've studied today has sunk its way into my brain.

Oh and its probably been long enough now, that I can make a post about this, my cutie-pie baby brother Andy has been offered a job on Waterloo Regional Police, as a good ol' Police Man. I'm so proud of him.

S

Thank - You Troy!

Thanks Troy for making me this lovely blog! You're so creative and talented!

Pretty

Isn't my new blog format cute? I absolutely love it. My husband worked all day at this, and having never designed a blog like this before, I think he did fan-freakin- tastic! He still has a few tweeks to make, including changing the photo (I think the one above makes me look like a fat head).

In other news, we spent the evenings with the Pritchards. I love moments I get to share with Jack, even though I know, I'm pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole of people he likes to spend time with. Anyone pales in comparison with his Mom, followed by his Dad as a close second. Anyone else is basically at the bottom, and I am fine with this, as even short spurts of moments where I can read him "Cowboy Bunny" or play horsies with him, or just snuggle him are work everything in the world. I love him, and he has the most adorable smile. I'll post one, so everyone can see what I mean.

Chelsea and I went to see "Definitely Maybe" tonight. It was adorable, and I loved it. Andrew and troy went to see some weird Jack Black movie. I love Jack Black, he's hilarious, but I'd definitely go see "Definitely Maybe" again. It was great.

Once again, I'm up too late. Here's Jack, and I'm off to bed.

S

Rip Off

I can't buy games for my new "Bierman Europod" aka - ipod Touch. We bought the one with the 32 wha-cha-ma-call its (whatever that means), and I can't even play games. What is it good for anyways. Boo. At least it says "but mostly belongs to Shara" on the back (engraved). At least its mine. :)

Its so wonderful outside right now. I may think differently if I was sitting outside, but I am sitting in my cloud-bed, typing on my laptop, with my window open with a soft breeze floating through the window. A little chills, but mostly so wonderful. I can't wait until spring.

Its nearly the weekend, and I can't believe how fast time flies. Its nearly the end of February! Wasn't it just Christmas?

I have my mid-term next week on Thursday, so aside from spending the evening with my bestest friend in the world Chelsea tomorrow, I think I'll be keeping my face in the books for the next week. BOO TO THAT. But the end is near. 2 short months from this very moment, I will be finished with my CIP designation, and my goal will be accomplished.

When I started my job, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I figured I should do as much at the job I currently had, as I could. (I was a receptionist). So I let my employer know I was interested in becoming an insurance broker, and they did everything they could to assist me in that, and I challenged the licensing exam shortly after that, and I got my insurance license. Then I decided it would be best if I worked towards the same designations as my boss had, so I set my mind to that, and a couple years later, got my CAIB designation. After a short break, I embarked on a bigger challenge, and that was to get my CIP designation. Once April rolls around, and I write (and hopefully pass) my exam, I will have the same educational designations as my boss. (I say educational, as I'll never have the experience, or brilliance she has for this stuff I don't think!)

Anyways, I am proud of myself. So Nearly 6 years later, and after 13 courses, 4 - 3 & 1/2 hour exams, 8 - 3 hour exams, and I'll have accomplished this goal. :) I can't wait. My next goal may be to get a designation one of my peers has called "The Fellowship", but that idea is more of a "it'd be fun to be in the fellowship (of the rings)", but we'll see. That's a pretty big goal to have, considering the course requirements is at least as many courses as I've already done, all in University - so we'll see.

So much work talk. Its just that I've been super busy, dealing with only complicated situations, so its difficult to get my mind off work. I wasn't able to pull myself away from work this week, in order to take a lunch break, until today when I made myself. It was really good and therapeutic to get away, even for a short hour.

I'm rambling and once again, am up later than I intended to be, as I'm overtired.

Good Night all, thank you for reading.

S

Cranky in Calgary

I am cranky today. I'll just start off by saying that, in case you can see that coming though in this post. Troy is currently as far away from me as he can get in this house, and I think that's probably a really great idea. I think its a combination of being tired, not being faithful in getting up early to read my bible, and a crazy busy day with no stopping for breath. I didn't even have time to take a lunch break, and as I was sitting at my desk, after closing, I looked to see if anyone else at the company I work at was still working - to find out it was only me. :) I don't think that's ever happened on a week day before.

I'm relaxing now, and watching American Idol. I love reality tv, - BIG BROTHER is really fun too. Totally smut television, but so interesting. And this dude currently singing - Garret, he's horrible.

I've recently discovered that I may be accident prone. This past weekend alone, I've fallen down the stairs, cut my finger on my food processor, and knocked over an entire cup of coffee on our newest and funnest board game, and knocked a can of coke all over our carpet in the family room. The more I think about it - the more I realize how true that really is. I think I must be accident prone.

Anyways, I'm tired.

S

Sleepy Times

I should be off to bed, but I'm too tired to make it upstairs, and shower my sweaty self. I just got home from my floor hockey game. It is not my idea of fun, to play floor hockey at 10pm at night. Especially when there are only 3 girls on my team this year. BOO. Anyways, we haven't done so well this year, I think we're in the bottom of our league, but we do have fun, and we normally manage to find something to gripe about, regarding the other team.

Do you know of certain things that used to drive your Dad crazy when you were a kid? Some of my Dad's were slurping soup off your spoon, allowing your teeth to contact your eating utensil, and drawing pictures on the inside of car window's. I can honestly say, that last one, is getting to me too. SORRY DAD FOR ALL MY YEARS OF WINDOW PICTURES. I guess you don't hate that someone else does it, until you're the one who has to clean it, or the one who has a hard time seeing out the window when you're driving because of it.

Someone- not to mention any names (Troy) has scraped nearly every inch of window I can see out of, with a credit card. I know it was Troy cause I, like my Dad, would never do such a thing myself. in fact, did I tell you about the frozen car incident a couple weeks ago? Even in that situation, it never occurred to me, to do such a thing. Anyways, today I had to go get a car wash, because I could not see out my car windows, as my car was too dirty. Literally, every move I made, was in faith, that God would not let me hit anyone, cause I could not see. Anyways, after sitting in the car-wash line for 40 minutes, I finally got my car all shiny and clean, only to notice that now the inside windows of my car are all nasty. I think someone may have a job to do on Saturday (not to mention any names (TROY!!))

Anyways, I better get to bed, or I'll never be able to get up in the morning.

Ciao!

S