The last European Sunset

Hello everyone! We are spending our last 48 hours in Europe before hopping over to Southeast Asia. We thought we would send you a farewell photo, beautiful isn't it? We really shook it up for Happy Hour and had beer with our two dozen tasty french oysters. We can't wait to send you our photos from Asia, and the rest from Europe. Happy New Year to all! May 2007 be your best year yet!

Thailand Plans

On Sunday, we continent hop over to Southeast Asia. We fly to Bangkok, Thailand on New Years Eve, arriving at 9 am on Jan. 1, 2007. Thailand is 15 hours ahead of west coast time in the U.S. So as you are ringing in 2007 think of us, as we will be sure to think of you. We will stay in Bangkok from the 1st to the 4th of January then head down to Koh Chang. On a Thailand map find Bangkok, head southeast and look on the Gulf of Thailand near Trat. You will see Koh Chang a small island just off the coast. There we plan to do a variety of activities to include, Thai cooking school, elephant bathing and riding, and snorkeling. Stay tuned for those pictures. After Koh Chang we plan to head to Laos to renew our visa and sail the Mekong River. Then back to another Thai Island, Koh Mak, which is near Koh Chang, but much smaller. We wanted to remind you of our contact info in case you want to reach us: Julie - julie.ferguson@yahoo.com Melissa - melissa.jones3@gmail.com

Life in France

The Market

Each day in France we go to the market to get our fresh food. Here's a look at what it's all about.

Surfers Paradise!

Biarritz is a prime surfing area. We have spent some time watching them catch waves. Here are some photos for you. Yes, there is a surfer in that top photo.

Boulangerie - I love you....

Julie here. I'd like to share with you one of the true pleasures of France. French pastries. They are melt in your mouth wonderful. Here in Biarritz, we are lucky enough to have a Boulangerie a short block from our flat. Each morning my day starts the same. Coffee and then a walk to the get my pastry and then more coffee when I return. Melissa has indulged a few times and also thinks they are terrific but her passion for French pastries does not quite match mine. One day she did have one with a hot dog in it that was remarkably tasty. I've almost tried each and every kind of pastry and we still have 4 mornings left. Some pastries have apples, some apricots, some cheese, and there's always the standard flaky, buttery croissant. Yum. The French are so serious about fresh bread and pastries that the Boulangerie was open on Christmas day. That was a treat because I chose one made with croissant dough and pecans. A great way to start the special day! If you find yourself in France be sure to indulge, it's worth it.

Bon Noel to All

Hello Everyone, we managed to sneak into the Radisson Hotel on Christmas Day in Biarritz, France to let you know that we are having a great day! We miss all of you and hope you are having or had a great holiday. We had Christmas lunch at a fabulous small restaurant in our neighborhood. Julie had sea scallops and Melissa had a white fish with mussels. We followed that with a nice cheese plate and of course some wine! We just took a nice walk along the seawall and watched the surfers hang ten! Aunt Nancy sorry we missed the big party last night, the food sounded great, the scotch even better! We treated ourselves to a puzzle for Christmas and let us tell you, these France puzzles are super duper hard. We have done a lot of puzzles, but not like this one! We also found a video store that has English speaking movies, so far we've seen Notting Hill, Da Vinci Code and a few others. We take off for Paris on the Saturday evening train and then leave for Bangkok on Sunday. We are looking forward to the warm weather. In the mean time this is our last week in Europe and we plan to see and do as much as we can. Look out Asia, here we come!

Biarritz, France, Holidays at the Beach

Merry Christmas!

Biarritz, France

Hello everyone! We are in Biarritz, France on the Atlantic Ocean about 30 minutes north of the Spanish border. Today we are looking for a small studio to rent through December 30th, when we have to head back to Paris for our early morning flight to Bangkok on December 31st. Yes, we will be ringing in the new year enroute to Thailand. We will take some pictures of this beautiful city on the coast and get them posted within the next couple days. The views are breathtaking. We just had crepes for lunch, yum! More later....

Comments, comments and more comments!

We love comments on our blog site. In fact, it's the first thing we check when we have internet access. We've turned many heads in internet cafe's all over Europe because of our excitement about your comments. We communicate on a regular basis with our parents via email but always love when they pipe in on our blog. Aunty Nancy, Julie's aunt is also a regular on our site and we enjoy hearing from her. Melissa's cousin Raeanna from West Virginia comments even while on bed rest during pregnancy. Congratulations on the birth of Emma Grace! We love to hear from family so please post. Especially with Christmas approaching. And our friends back home. Annie, who now wants to return to Vaughan Village after remembering her time there through our tales. Joanie, who happened to notice how handsome the Spanish men are, book your ticket over! Our ex-coworkers at First Tech, Karmen, Shannon and Donna. We love hearing from you! Shannon, our mother hen, see below for an explanation about our flight fiasco! Tom and Dawn, who are in the throws of moving. We love hearing from you guys. And all of our new friends we meet on our journey. Bill and Pat, thanks for the info on Vietnam and have fun in Mexico. Shiv, all you campers out there, go visit Shiv at her campground in Ireland. Angela and Jacque, this campground is for you. Jorge and Maria Jose, Spanish friends. Maria Jose was our bungalow roomate. Ryan and Ron, B&B owners in Budapest, our first stop. Have fun in South Africa! We know there are many other people who have commented and we appreciate you keeping in touch with us! Now, Shannon and our mothers were concerned about our flight fiasco. Let's just say it was a series of mishaps. Flight at 5:45 AM, hotel that was supposed to be 2.5 miles from airport(not so), new lowcost airline that didn't have terminal number on tickets, and terminals there were very spread out. Were told wrong terminal when we asked, taxi didn't want to take us to correct terminal, bus runs infrequent and the time was 5 by then, finally what charm we had at that point resulted in one taxi driver taking us to correct terminal, but tooooo late. Packed airport, longer lines for security than we've ever seen in our lives. Bye bye airplane. After two hours and even asking to rent a car to drive to Paris, they said "no," we bought two of the 5 tickets left on the only airline that had seats remaining. It was a bummer but we have decided to not think about it and move on. Our first mishap and it was a biggy. All is well though and we have loved Paris. Keep the comments coming, It truly makes our day.

Paris, France and an American Keyboard

We've finally been able to find a keyboard we can use! On our first day in Paris we strolled down the Champs-Elysees, the famous boulevard that leads to the Arc de Triomphe. This is where all of France seems to converge. The Arc de Triomphe was commissoned by Napoleon to commemorate his victory at the battle of Austerlitz. Here also lies the tomb of the unknown soldiers. We turned to wander down the holdiay decorated steets where it was determined that if you wanted to sell cars this would be the place. The car dealerships located on this strip all have their concept cars on display. Check out the Toyota PM (personal mobility) car, we were one of the first ones to get a sneak peak. The stores and cafes had there night lights on and the Eiffel Tower twinkled in the background. Not a bad scene at all. We also visited the Orsay Museum which houses French art from 1848-1914. Artists like Monet, Renoir, Degas, van Gogh. Rick Steves let us know that you can sneak in for free late in the day, so we did. We ran right up to the Impressionalists room to see Julies favorite, Monet and Melissa's favorite, van Gogh. The Orsay used to be a train station and the setting is fabulous. In the 1970's it was almost hit by the wrecking ball but then the French realized it would make a nice place to store art. We've seen Notre Dame, where the hunchback lives - the Louve, where Mona Lisa lives - the underpass where Princess Di died - and the Luxembourg Gardens where all Parisians run free. We've tasted and learned about great French wines and have experienced nothing less than great service from the French. When we get lost on the street people stop and offer to help. We've found Starbucks and a great used bookstore and bought a couple of street paintings from the vendors along the Seine. All in all, we've seen most of what we wanted, in rain and sun, day and night. The City of Lights has been kind to us and the rumor is true - the crepes are great!

Paris

we need you to know that the keyboards in Paris are vastly different then the ones at home, so this is a short message! The rain has stopped and we have been able to get out and see the city. We did the Left Bank Walk, The Orsay Museum, The Louve and hit the flea and antiques markets. Tomorrow is errand day as we head out to work on the winery for two weeks in the southwest of France. We had a great night tasting wine at www.o-chateau.com courtesy of our friends Tom and Dawn.

Art in Paris - these are the real ones!

Da Vinci Code

For all of you DaVinci Code Lovers, this is for you

Christmas in Paris

Paris, France

Bonjour! We arrived in Paris on Monday evening after our first big travel mishap. We picked one of the biggest vacation weeks in Spain to fly to Paris. Because of several factors we missed our flight to France and had to buy a second set of tickets. A big hit to the budget. We arrived hours later and exited the airport to find pouring, and we mean pouring rain. The rain has continued and is expected to continue. So we just bundle up and out we go. We have seen the Eiffel Tower, the Marais district, Notre Dame and several other major sites. The city is very beautiful in spite of the wind and weather. We are looking forward to a wine tasting we have planned tomorrow (Saturday) where we will be educated on the french wine, the regions, and taste 7 different wines and some cheese. We currently have a brief break in the rain and are heading out to see what we can -before it begins again. We are here until Tuesday when we head to the winery to work for two weeks as a part of www.wwoof.org. We are looking forward to meeting our hosts who are following along on this blogsite. We hope all of you are making your final holiday plans. Remember if you want to join us in Thailand, we fly to Bangkok on Dec. 31 and are heading straight to the beach, Ko Chang, on the eastern shore, then Ko Mak. Check it out on the map and secure your tickets, we would love to see you. For now, au revoir mon amis. We shall talk soon.

2 Month Wrap

We are at our 2 month anniversary, having left Portland, Oregon on October 2nd. We are in Madrid today before flying to Paris tomorrow morning. To summarize...... 1. We have been on 3 planes, 10 trains, 5 buses, 2 boats, several trolleys, cable cars, subways, taxis and a private shuttle, and one rented car. Sounds like the 12 days of Creosotamos! 2. We have been in 8 countries. Hungary, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain. 3. We have spent about $10,000.00 of our $25,000.00 budget. 4. We stayed with 4 Servas hosts. http://www.servas.org/ 5. We completed two volunteer programs, over 180 hours of our time helping teach conversational english to the Spanish people. http://www.vaughanvillage.com/, http://www.vaughantown.com/. 6. We have drank wine in every country we have visited! 7. We´ve become experts at charades, as at times its the only way to communicate. 8. We have eaten a lot of food, some of unknown origin. 9. We have made many new friends on our journey, both from countries we´ve visited as well as other people traveling. 10. We have had only 3 bathtubs so far! Ouch! 2 a gift from Melissa´s parents and one a result of a volunteer opportunity. It has become a goal to get one on our own. 11. We have begun to think globaly. Noticing the stock markets and economic indicators from countries we didn´t even know existed. Taking a look at what businesses are thiving, where, and pondering the different world views each country holds. Learning more about the people, culture, and history of the places we visited in the past two months than in our combined 34 years spent in the American school system. 12. We´ve seen sun, rain, snow and hail, but mostly sun. 13. We´ve decided DHL has some delivery issues. 14. We´ve been startled by the vast differences in each countries postal systems. 15. We have used 5 different currencies. 16. We´ve taken about 1500 pictures so far. We bet you can´t wait for that party!! 17. We have gone through more socks and shoes than we could have imagined. 18. We have only had 2 brave soles come and travel with us. Melissa´s parents. Anyone else? 19. We began to understand the rules of lawn bowling, team handball, paddle, and cricket. 20. We have stayed in 17 different overnight accomodations. As a result of this we can pack in about 3 minutes. " The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." Marcel Proust. Let the journey continue!!!