out west

So i decided to take the train from Truro to Nova Scotia. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and I suppose it still is. But man, that is a long trip. 26 hours in total, I think. I watched a bunch of movies, tried to sleep, and generally just sat around the whole time. I guess thats about all that can be done when you're in a long, hollow tube rolling along the Canadian countryside. It was nice, though, to slow things down and do nothing for awhile. In Toronto I checked into my hostel and went exploring. Toronto Hot Dogs are something beautiful. I think I had 6 in about 3 days. Cheap, and oh so tasty. The most interesting thing I did was probably going to two different musicals. The first, Phantom of the Opera, was pretty classic. A pretty sweet experience to see. The second was a musical tribute to the band Queen. Totally different than PotO. They sold glowsticks before the show. Everyone was pretty intent on rocking out. Kind of a strange sight, but it was fun. Today I flew to Winnipeg and am staying here for the next week. I should be back in Saskatchewan by next weekend. I'd love to show some pictures of this trip to anyone who has read this blog. Let me know what works for you.

Thanks for reading,

Nolan

Truro

so we are now back on Canadian soil. We spent an afternoon in Amsterdam walking around and doing some shopping. It is kind of a crazy city. Totally a different culture and attitude towards alot of different things. There were many things you just kind of shake your head at, but as a tourist there for only a few hours, I just wanted to observe without passing too much judgment. An interesting time. We stayed at a hotel near the airport which was pretty cheap (for europe and close to an airport). It actually turned out to be a super nice, fancy place, so we got a good sleep. Thursday morning we took a shuttle to the airport then flew from Amsterdam to London Gatwick. After a layover there, we flew to Halfax, arriving in the early evening. There seems to be tons of people here who are super interested in our trip, so I think we are going to have many opportunities to show pictures and tell stories. I'm still trying to figure out what I am going to do next, but I am leaning towards spending a few days in Toronto before heading to Winnipeg and then finally Saskatchewan. But I'll see.

see ya,

Nolan

Elst

So we are hanging out in the town of Elst, in the Netherlands. We are staying at my great aunt and uncle's house, which is a super nice change from the hostels we have frequented as of late. It is really enjoyable to be able to sit back and visit with alot of relatives I have never met before, but I think my kidneys are having to work hard with all the tea and coffee I have consumed. I like it, though. We spent one night visiting a friend near Hamburg, Germany. We went to a birthday party and were surprised to see the food. Instead of chips and chocolate there was probably five different kinds of salad along with cheese and meatballs. Most people seemed to load up with salad. It seemed strange to us, but then again, it is North America with the obesity problem, so I think more salad would be a good idea.

Now we have mere days left in our trip. we go to Amsterdam on Wednesday, fly from Schiphol to Gatwick, then Gatwick to Halifax on Thursday.

See ya,

Nolan

Ps. If my mother is reading this, I have tried twice now to send an email, but first my hotmail account wouldn't send it (a few days ago) and then I accidentally somehow exited the window of my other account. now I am tired, so I am going to bed. I'll try another one sometime soon

Rhine/Berlin

Hello All,

I seem to be slipping in my postings. We checked into our hostel here and had to write the date. I thought, ´hmm, 21st or something,' but no, it was the 23rd. So... the days are going by quickly.

We took the train from Salzburg to Frankfurt, and then grabbed another train to what we thought was a town called Mainz, close to the Rhine River. It was actually Mainy-Kastel, which is different than Mainz. But we dealt with it and found another train that we could take. This train was stopping at St. Goarhaussen, our stop, according to our guide book was before St. Goar, so we thought the train would stop there. What we later realized, as we sat on the train, was that St. Goar is not an abbreviation for St. Goarhaussen. They are two very distinct towns, on two very opposite sides of the river, a river which has few bridges. So we jumped off the train at another town, walked 1.2km to a place where we could catch a boat across, found out that the boat had stopped running, walked part way back, caught a different ferry across the river, found another train station, took the train down to the town we were staying, hiked up a super steap path/steps and finally found our hostel. We were kind of tired. The hostel, though, was super cool. An old castle overlooking the Rhine River.

The next day we hopped on a boat for a river cruise down the Rhine. The river is pretty cool in that every few miles is a super old castle to see. I guess back in the day each castle would collect tarrifs from passing ships. We toured the ruins of one of the main castles which was used more for fortification, I think. We felt kind of the wrong age wherever we went on the Rhine. On the boat, we were way younger than the vast majority. In our hostel, there were some huge groups of elementary school kids that would run around almost all the time. Us and some other travellers bunkered down in our room and then in the restaurant thingy and complained to each other. But it was okay.

Yesterday we came to Berlin. The amount of recent history (nevermind older stuff)is pretty incredible. We popped into the Reichstag to go up into the big glass dome before walking down to check out where `Checkpoint Charlie'. The museum there was kind of random, but it had some pretty neat stories of escape attempts. Lots of different ideas ranging from fake documents to hiding inside various items such as two suitcases put side by side with a hole in between to a homemade hot air balloon. We also toured the Berlin Jewish Museum, which chronicled the history of German Jews.

Today ends the main tourist part of our trip. Tomorrow we´ll be staying with a friend, and then we´ll be with relatives until almost the end of the trip. It will be nice to get to know a few people on a deeper relationship than: name, nationality, where been, where going, how long. This is kind of the standard hostel talk that is sometimes hard to break out of. Anyway, it should be a good week.

See ya,

Nolan

Salzburg

Ross and I have been here for a few nights now. It is a pretty nice little city. I don´t think we´ve really met an unkind person here yet, which is cool. The hostel weare staying at is pretty lively, so we´ve met some interesting people, which has been fun. A huge bike ride yesterday left us really sore and sun burned, but it was super fun to see the little towns around the city. Tonight we´re heading to a concert of some of Mozart´s music. It is in an old castle overlooking the city, so that should be super cool. Tomorrow we´re heading to the Rhine River where we hope to take a boat on the river and check out some castles.

See ya,

Nolan

Medicine

Hello all,

I thought I would let you know I was accepted into the College of Medicine. I´m super pumped. It hasn´t really sunk in yet. I feel a little overwhelmed with all that will be ahead, but I think the challenges will be worth it. Thanks to all of you for your help, I think I will need lots more of it.

Nolan

Venice/Innsbruck

We stopped in Venice for a super short visit, more just to see it and say we´ve been there. I must say, though, that it is super cool. However, the number of tourists crammed onto that island is quite amazing. Stepping out of the trainstation is the Grand Canal right in front of you. There are no cars, so instead of buses, boats ferrz people around the city. While walking in the streets (usually just small lanes, some only a few feet across, there are canals every 50 meters or so. Usually there are the typical gondolas filled with tourists moving by. We decided that the price (80-100E) and the fact that it would be two guys riding together was too much of a barrier for us to try it out. The central tourist square is pretty much wall to wall people during the day. Where there aren´t people, thousands of pigeons fill the space. Rumor has it that the birdseed sold to the tourists has a birth control substance added, but Ross and I figure that poison would be alot more effective.

From Venice we took a train to Innsbruck where we planned to do some sweet hiking in the Alps. It is a holiday here today, so you would think it to be a perfect day to head up into the mountains, right? Wrong. It has rained all day so far, and the
cloud cover is really low so we can barely see any of the mountains. So today hasn´t been the most productive of days. It hasn´t been too bad, though. We have walked around alot, figured out our next train ride, been to the tourist info place twice, eaten a good lunch, and now get an internet fix. Kind of nice to take a break for a day and just relax.

Ross and I have been noticing how we are pretty cheap travellers. Alot of the museums here are free, but have many opportunities for giving donations, none of which we have obliged. We carry around old pop bottles and fill them up with tap water from the bathroom instead of buying water (although we did each buy a coke for 3.80E for lunch, ouch)Panhandlers get nothing from us. I enjoy the buskers along the street, but again, no money for them. haha. It has been fun.

From Innsbruck we head to Salzburg, home of the Sound of Music. The plan from there is to spend some time on the Rhine River, Berlin, then visit a friend near Hamburg, and then visit relatives in Holland.

Have a great day,

Nolan