Travel Log From Sarah Joy

Hi Dave!

 

Hope everyone did well at sectionals this past weekend!  I am thoroughly enjoying my time in Europe.  Below is a trip report that I have sent to my family...its pretty detailed!   I am currently in Berlin Germany and head to Denmark tomorrow morning, in time for the opening ceremonies.  Tell everyone good luck at state!  Anna says hi!

 

-Sarah

Day 1: Anna and I have a small room with a balcony and Tina, Lars, and Frederik have a larger room on the floor above us.  After unpacking a little bit, we headed off to a small pizzeria across the street from the hotel.  We all had various delicious kinds of pizza. I would tell you what was on mine, but I truly cannot remember.  Cheese, ham, garlic, and various green items?  Then we went swimming in the lake.  I have never seen water more clear or more calm.  There are no weeds and all you see is a light blue. It is cold, but once you get used to the water, it becomes perfect.  We relaxed on the shore and I took a nap.  We headed back to freshen up for dinner and more fun.  We walked (we walk everywhere-no cars needed) to a castle up on a hill.  The castle was amazing, I loved touring it.  I have cool pictures which I will have to show when I get home (I do not have a camera cord that connects to the computer).  After that, we had a traditional Slovenian dinner of meats and potatoes.  All exhausted, we headed back in for the night. 

Day 2: We woke up at 9 am for breakfast at the hotel.  Breakfast is pretty much the same food that we have in the US.  Eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt, juice, coffee, etc.  We then walked to the side of the lake and rented a row boat to visit the old church that is on the island.  Anna and I rowed while the rest swam.  (You had to be dry to walk into the church).  It was beautiful and very very very old.  (BC kind of stuff).  Anna and I swam back while the Jessens rowed this time.  We all relaxed on the shore and later took a walk around the lake and stopped for ice cream.  The environment here is very green.  The runoff from the surrounding Mountains created the lake as well as the lush forest.  We headed back to the hotel, cleaned up, and walked down to "Bled Days."  The town we are staying in is celebrating their 1000th birthday and is having a festival.  We ate traditional food like cevapcici (looks like a sausage but is not), puffy bread, ajva (peppery yummy sauce), and had their pancakes which they consider a dessert.  Anna and I walked around the small market and looked at the homemade goods people had to sell.  It reminded me of the flea market that people have at the cottage.  Now we are laying in bed at 10:00 extremely tired.  My jet lag isn't bad, I am just tired.  We have more amazing stuff planned tomorrow...cant wait.

 

Day 3: It was a rainy gray day in Slovenia.  We woke up at 7  and went for a run.  Yes I actually ran. It was beautiful running around the lake even though it was drizzling. Then we jumped in for a quick swim and headed home. We ate breakfast in the hotel and just relaxed all day.  For lunch we had a kebab.  It reminds me of a pita sandwich stuffed with chicken, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes.  Anna and I made the Singing in the Rain/Umbrella music video that is on Facebook.  We had dinner at a pizzeria. I had spaghetti with meat sauce then another pancake with Nutella.  After that we had to pack for our departure the next day.  At the end of the night we watched the best fireworks over the lake.

 

Day 4:  We all got up early and ate at the hotel so we could leave at 8ish.   The car we travel in is a ford (station wagon?) that only sits 5 people...so we are pretty squished. But the Jessens also have a carrier on top that holds some suitcases and their blow up boat.  We only had an hour drive to Ligano, Italy but with traffic, the drive turned into 2.  When we arrived, our hotel wasn't ready so we went directly to visit the Jessens family friends who lived in their old town before Thisted (not sure of their names but Gina -mom, The dad, Jonas-brother, Nana- sister, plus 2 friends: Nicole-girlfriend and Nina- sister's friend).  They were camping.  Camping is very popular here because it is cheaper than staying in a hotel.  Many people have trailers and huge setups that they stay in.  Some of these trailers are crazy...all decked out.  For example some have gardens, sinks, washers, dryers and more that they all bring with them.  We visited and went to the beach.  The town we stayed in is known for its beautiful beach. The sand is perfect and they have chairs and umbrellas people can use.  Unfortunately, it was unusually windy...not nice beach weather with sand blowing everywhere.  But  it was fun to body surf the huge waves! That was one of my favorite parts of Italy.  Afterwards we ate a traditional Danish lunch of healthy bread (which isn't that bad with stuff on it), tomatoes, cumber,  and various unknown fish spread (I only recognized tuna).  It was different...I just have to get used to it.  We showered and cleaned up for dinner at a pizzeria next to our hotel.  The whole menu was in Italian and German so I had no idea what I was getting.  Luckily guessed right and got spaghetti with tomato sauce.  I tried muscles for the first time. I thought they tasted like fishy chicken-they weren't my favorite.  Fredrick got pizza with fries on it.  Apparently Italians can put anything on a pizza.  Then the 4 older kids (Jonas, his girlfriend Nicole, Anna and I) walked around and went to various places near the hotel.  Later we went to bed.

 

Day 5: We woke up around 8:30 and had breakfast at the hotel.  Since it wasn't good beach weather again, we decided to go to Venice,  Italy a day earlier than planned. The two families drove an hour to the floating city.  When we arrived, we had to park in a special structure because there are no cars in Venice, only boats and walking.  We took a train from the parking structure to the city and walked from there.  Anna and I had to go to the bathroom  and we ended up getting charged €50 by a typical Italian (unhappy, snappy, and who needs a new job). Apparently charging for the bathroom isn't uncommon in Europe.  Before we entered the heat of the city we stopped to eat (everything is super expensive because the people know that many tourists will buy anything).  I had lasagna which is an Italian special but it wasn't the best I had.  Soon after lunch, we started walking.  The city was absolutely amazing. I felt like I was in the movie Letters to Juliet.  The history, the architecture, the people, the boats, the beauty was indescribable.  I was in awe the whole trip.  The whole city is built on wooden stilts.  People have their backdoor leading into the rivers.  Because the only transportation of the city is boats, the people have boats that function like our cars.  They have a garbage boat, mail boat, ambulance boat, taxi boats, and personal boats.  We walked for hours and I took a ton of pictures.  Then we drove back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner at their friends campsite.  They made toast, a typical Danish specialty.  It is pretty much a grilled cheese sandwich with stuff on it put on the grill.  It was a good time visiting with Gina (the mom of the other family) because she is an English school teacher and we talked about the school system. 

 

Day 6: Tuesday was the nicest day in Italy for us.  We woke up, ate, then headed directly to the beach.  Anna and her brother had digging contests and ended up with a huge hole that Fredrick could stand up in.  It was nice to relax and sleep.  We had lunch there on the beach because we were making our departure soon after to Germany.  Finally it was time to go and we rinsed off and said our goodbyes.  We started the 10 hour drive, that is when I started this extremely long email.  I can say I visited Austria! We stopped at a gas station (who also charged to use the bathroom).  The landscape in Italy is dry, hilly, and has many corn or grape farms.  In Austria, the land was more mountains with exposed rock and grassy hills.  I kept thinking of the Sound of Music- it looked just liked it.  We arrived in Germany later around 6 and kept driving. Germany reminds me most of Wisconsin.  It has many farms and forests, but more hills.  Around 8 we got to the hotel that Lars and Tina have stayed in the past.  Turns out that it was closed.  We had trouble finding a hotel for a bit because everything was full.  There was a B&B Hotel just outside the small town that we ended up staying it.  Even though it wasn't the best, it was fine for one night.  We had dinner at Burger King and headed off for bed.

 

Day 7: Today, we continued driving after our continental breakfast at the hotel.  We left right away and drove for 4 more hours until we arrived at Berlin.  The hotel wasn't ready yet so we started touring the city.  First we went to Checkpoint Charlie where the Americans checked the people from East Berlin to West Berlin.  There we read and saw fragments of the Berlin wall.  A line marks the place where the Berlin Wall used to stand.  We are going to visit it tomorrow.  We stopped for lunch at a traditional German restaurant.  All of us had their special, baby cow that was thinly prepared with a light breading and potato salad- it was really good!  Before the meal the kids ran to a chocolate store where you can make your own chocolate.  I picked milk chocolate with caramelized almonds, rice crisps, and M&Ms.  We picked up the candy after we finished lunch.  Yummy!  After that we went to the place where people used to have to enter into the city.  You would recognize this monument/building if you saw it. Then we went to a wax museum.  It was insane how real these sculptures looked.  I have a lot of pictures.  Anna, Fredrick, and I took a few trains around the city to find the huge mall which is the 3rd biggest mall in Europe.  It was a lot of fun shopping.  After that we headed to the hotel, which is actually a large apartment with 2 floors.  Tina made a nice dinner of rice with peppers, tomato salad, and bread.  We soon went to bed...