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Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Written by: Craig
City: Brisbane, Australia
Weather: Sunny, warm, humid; my head is soggy again

Well, the jetlag is starting to lag, so it must be time to write the last entry of the trip. So let's GIT IT AWWWWN! We last joined our heroes, high in the air above California, ready for their whirlwind last holiday destination, a return to San Francisco...

We landed in San Francisco around 8pm, and were met with a flurry of hugging arms that belonged to Crystal's cousin, Diane. Diane is the sister of Barbra, who you might remember introduced us to Bikram Yoga in San Diego and reduced me to a puddle of sobbing goo all over the floor, like the Wicked Witch of the West. Here's the reunion photo:

Diane and Crystal, San Francisco airport

We traipsed our luggage over the BART railway system and through the streets of San Francisco until we found the hotel YESITWASTHEHILTONBITCHES and then went out for a beer and some dinner near the good ol' Moscone Center (have you got 'We Built This City on Rock and Roll' out of your head yet, coz I sure haven't). It was when we found ourselves falling asleep in our Guinness that we realised we needed to call it a night, despite the costumed St Patrick's Day celebrations happening around us.

Next day, we finally hit some tourist sites in San Francisco. We caught a tram that was painted like a Louisville (LOO-AHH-VOO) tram down to the markets at the Fisherman's Wharf, got some Huevos Rancheros, and saw the Bay Bridge. Just like how it appears in these photos:

The Bay Bridge. And Crystal and Diane

Craig takes a photo of his armpit (only available on the Director's Cut of this blog)

Fiddler on the Wharf

We were really lucky with the weather too (for the whole trip, really!) and had groovy sunshine on our last day, even though the forecasts called for rain. So we had a pleasant tram/walk down to tourist central, Pier 39. And you wouldn't believe it: we took photos. I KID YOU NOT!

Escapees flee Alcatraz

Pole dancing classes finally bear relevance to our holiday (and hey, does it show our age that we actually got motion sickness from a merry-go-round? Yes. Yes it does.)

Seals lolling about at the pier

Diane and Crystal. For the love of God, someone throw them some fish!

We found a memorabilia shop. Does it show I'm a nerd that I wanted to hug the Spider-man statue? Yes. Yes it does.

You wouldn't believe how close I came to buying these lightsabers off this guy for about $400. My willpower is weak, old man.

Awesome breadshop. We grabbed a massive olive bread loaf and smuggled it on the plane home. Oh, how we laffed! And ate bread!

Wouldn't be a San Francisco trip without queueing for half an hour to hang out the side of a cable car. Cool fun!

And really, that was kind of it! We wandered the hills (working our glutes again) and saw a church, then cable carred again and narrowly missed smashing through a car stuck in an intersection, then we grabbed our luggage and were GAAAAWN!

It was off to the airport!

An iPod vending machine at the airport. "You want anything from the iPod machine?" "Oh, grab us an iTouch, I'm feeling peckish. Better grab a Shuffle too, it's a long trip..."

And then we were on the plane! We actually slept for a lot longer than we thought, but still squeezed No Country for Old Men in over dinner (great film!) We had some bumpiness along the way to Auckland, then we had someone having a heart attack on the plane to Brisbane (seriously... they were asking for anyone with medical experience, the plane was rushed to the airport, paramedics came on board as soon as we landed, it was full on. The person involved was going strong when we left the plane, we assume and hope they're still fine).

And then Crystal's mum, Lidy, picked us up and took us back to her place, but not before grabbing supplies from the supermarket...

Exhausted at a supermarket in Queensland. The sweet, salty, black taste of home!

And that was that! What a great holiday we had, packed full of awesome cities, awesome people, and great memories. It's really hard to pick a favourite place -- each one was great, for different reasons. Hyeppy thaaames!

Okay, we'll sign off now. Thanks again for reading, hope you're all having a rockin' time, wherever in the world you are. BOOYAH!

Cheerio,

Craig & Crystal

The Couv!

Written by: Craig
Location: Up in the air, flying to San Francisco
Weather: Not much oxygen, very very cold


CRIKEY did my head hurt on the way out of Montreal! After dinner at home with Alex and Anouk the night before, Alex and I went out "for an hour" to the bar across the road, Chez Baptiste. We got back about 3am. Yegads -- I wasn't good next day, and Alex had to go to WORK feeling like that! But, y'know, the hyeppy thaaames live on even after the brain cells have left the building. Hyeppy thaaames!

Alex and Anouk, post-lentils, pre-hangover

(Strange fact: There are Language Police in Montreal that bust people if they look like getting slack with French. An Irish bar was SHUT DOWN... not for underage drinking or overcrowding... but for having Guinness posters that DIDN'T OFFER FRENCH TRANSLATIONS and for having staff that spoke French, but not INCREDIBLY PERFECT FRENCH. Crikey! Sacre bleu on a bike!)

Okay, the next day I crawled out of the apartment (Crystal walked out with a brisk happiness in her stride) and we had lunch with Anouk. And it started SNOWING LIKE A BASTID! Real purty!

Snow in The Avenue

Heavy snow is great to look at out the window of a warm restaurant, but less fun to drive through at high speeds in the back of a taxi to the airport. But all went well, we got to the airport, flew for 5 or so hours, and arrived in Vancouver over on Canada's west coast.

Dave (we've been friends since slugging out a games convention in Leipzig, Germany a few years back) and his lovely wife Jen picked us up and took us to the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Canada, which is where Jen's parents met. Romantic! Great food! Hoorah!

Queuein' outside the Naam... veggie hippie hyeppy food, worth waiting for

After dinner and meeting Dave and Jen's INCREDIBLY exciteable and awesome dog Lucy at their house, we went to bed to prepare for our only full day in Vancouver the next day. Which was big and we saw heaps, so let's go to photos and caption:

The Inukshuk, an ancient stone structure letting peeps know the area is populated

Sorry, laydeeeez... this wild and sexy man is taken...

Dave, showing off his fitness compared to ours

A break during our awesome harbour bike ride

The Lions Gate Bridge

I'm not quite sure how to take stuffed, mounted, cutesy toy heads

It's almost like that bottom one has been carved to look like a dickhead.

Crystal and Jen on the Capilano Suspension Bridge

Jen and Dave, in a suspension of bridge

Treetop walk, near the Capilano Suspension Bridge

Crystal overlooks Vancouver from a mountain

We went to dinner after the big day and OH SWEET MAMMA this Portobello Mushroom thing was amazing

The effects of Portobello Mushroom and ridiculous amounts of butter

What a day! We were totally exhausted by the end of it, but happy that we'd squeezed so much in. Respect to Dave and Jen! Next day, Dave took us to a great fake meat restaurant, a coffee shop where people were playing chess (they play chess in bars too in Vancouver -- WELL LAAH DE DAAAAH!) and then it was back home on the bus and monorail (THE MONORAIL!) to grab our bags and bail.

A quick Vancouver trip, but a good 'un!

So now we're on a plane, headed for San Francisco to meet up with another cousin, Diane, and experience our last bit of holiday over here for a while. We're on this continent for only about 24 more hours, then heading on home. We'll try to squeeze in another entry before we cross the waters, but if we don't, we'll write from the LAND OF THE SHKIPPIES after catching up on some sleep.

Booyah! And thanks for reading!

Oh, forgot to mention... we're back in San Francisco in a hotel for the night, and we used that mystery cheapo website again to book it. Which means only one thing... WE'RE AT THE HILTON AGAIN, BITCHES!!! =P

Je t'aime, Montreal, je t'aime...

Written by Crystal
City: Montreal, Canada
Weather: Cold, snow everywhere (not falling but not melting much either), temp somewhere below freezing.

Long time no post!

Let me bring you up to speed (forgive me if it's a bit brief in parts, lots to catch up on and not enough time!)

We left NYC for Montreal Sunday morning. Train journey was lovely, lots of snowy scenery. Snow-covered fields are pretty, but turns out they also wreak havoc with the train lines. We stopped for over an hour at one point, waiting for 20 miles of track to be cleared of snow drifts and fallen trees. After heading on a little further we were informed that the train could not continue, and buses would take us the remaining 100 miles to Montreal. 6 hours later, we arrived!

Montreal is lovely. It's also currently covered in a thick blanket of snow (they've had an unusually large amount of snow fall here recently, the most since 1972). Because it's so cold here, not much of the snow melts, so it remains a powdery covering on thick accumulations of ice from previous falls which makes walking around fun (when you slip but don't fall over), funny (when someone you know slips & falls over) AND dangerous(for obvious reasons).

French is the language spoken here (Quebec), and while almost everyone is bi-lingual (French-English), it's easy to forget you're in Canada because it feels so European (Locals only speak English to tourists and visitors from British Columbia). I must admit, I kinda expected everyone to be like the characters in Trailer Park Boys -- perhaps this will be the case in Vancouver.

We're staying with Anouk and Alex in The Plateau, a very cool neighbourhood not far from downtown Montreal. Given we've only had a couple of days here (and needing some recovery time from our NYC must-see-as-much-as-possible jaunt) we've been content just wandering around the place.

Now for the photos:

Walking in the snow

Washing in the Philosopher's Laundrette
(they come for the washing, and they stay for the Plato)

Anouk gets cute with the lens

We resisted the urge to plunge face-first into the BOWL OF WONDERFUL COFFEE!

Anouk & I conquer a snow mountain

Snow mountain conquers a car

Craig will never cease in being fascinated by icicles...

...or silly signage --
this one translates to "Nut Butter"... oh, how we laughed.

Kid transport, Montreal style

Hibernating bicycles


We had dinner at Vertige with Anouk & Alex


Alex & Craig loving it up


Anouk finds an igloo and prepares for bataille de boule de neige

Look, I made a snow angel!

After being thwarted by the rain in my attempts to ice-skate in NYC, I finally had my moment in Vieue Port, hooray!

Lobbing snowballs

We were tempted to go in and ask about the name, but thought it much funnier to goof off out the front

The Silophone -- you speak into the microphone which transmits your message into the 5th silo of the abandoned mill behind, lets it reverberate around for a while then plays it back. Would have been great fun if it actually worked -- judging by the looks we were getting from locals, it hadn't worked for a while.

Craig suffers another joke overload

Window art inside Mont-Royal train station

Bonjour! Craig & I wave to the frozen waterway

We're off to do some sledding/tobogganing tomorrow morning with Anouk, then flying to Vancouver in the afternoon.

Ciao for now!