A Home Base

We are sitting in a coffee shop in Vienna, enjoying perfectly brewed cups of coffee with tiny milk leaves on them. We are watching locals study, chat, walk and enjoy their daily life. Oh how I (Stephanie) miss the daily life of Charlottesville ! Waking up to enjoy a cup of coffee while watching Kelly & Michael...walk around the familiar city, familiar shops, and speak ENGLISH!

Searching for a home base will be hard when we return to the US. We initially said this trip was meant to help us find a home  base - even if that was in Europe. But after a month, a many nights of secretly wanting my own bed, we realized we love the good ol' USA. How close it is to our family and friends...but why is the ocean so big!? Its so far away from Europe. Where we have explored, loved and hated cities, where we have fallen in love over and over, where we have walked hand in hand listening to Rick Steve's self guided walking tours! But finally, where we want to return so many times.

But how? How can we have a balance of a cozy, comfortable home base (Charleston? Charlottesville?) and also fulfill our love of travel? How can I be a nurse, a job I love and adore, while continuing my passion of travel? How can Shane finish his paramedic degree? Become a police officer? And continue his passion for travel?

Well- I don't care how. Buy it will happen, with as many prayers that have been answered this trip my faith is stronger than it has been in a while and I wholeheartedly believe we will end up where we are supposed to.

The Differences

We're trying to think of all the differences we see in Europe compared to the US! We will keep updating it; so stay tuned!

-The light switches are big,flat and square..more like buttons

-Ceiling fans aren't common

-AC is non existent..too expensive

-Germany is taxed for the rain water they collect. The square footage of the roof and the cement on the ground is converted into a tax percentage

-No open container law

-Being naked is OK

-Weed is stronger

-England's water is so expensive washing dishes in one bucket of water and then not rinsing them is common

-Iceland's water is delicious

-Public transportation is awesome

- No one likes to drink tap water

-Kids start learning a second language at a younger age

-Biking to work is very popular

-Diesel is cheaper than petrol

- Windows don't have screens and can open from the top for ventilation

-Its common to have a towel warmer in a bathroom

-Its common to combine beer and lemonade

-Their toilets are shaped differently, the hole is further back so there's a "shelf" your poo falls onto. Well post a link later with an explanation and pictures. Don't worry.

-The days are longer (this is geographical,yes, but still)

-There are no school nurses in European schools (of the countries we've been to) The administration calls the parents, or in an emergency an ambulance

-Germans wear their wedding rings on their right hands

-Cigarette advertisements are allowed. We've mainly seen them in Germany. There's also cigarette dispenser machines on every corner!

Are all cities similar or do we like the same thing in each city?

We've had a wonderful time in Paris and Germany so far...but this morning at breakfast we were chatting about the similarities and differences among cities so far. At night we always find ourselves at a bar enjoying beer or wine and watching the world cup...in every single city. And we like it..and so do the locals...so well pretend were locals.

We've tried so hard not to be typical tourists..but there are touristy sights and things we should do - we get it. But then we walk around with locals, stay with locals and eat with locals and We find ourselves doing what we did in Charlottesville- walking around downtown shopping then finding a cozy bar to enjoy a drink. So I'm frustrated... Are all cities the same in what the locals do or are we not looking hard enough?

On another note: we've been happily surprised with everything that has turned out this week. We found a ride to Cologne, Germany on BlaBlaCar.com (our hosts in France told us about it-its a ride sharing service) and we rode with a German born lady who lives in Paris, Germany, and Switzerland! Our other passenger is from Iran and lives in Cologne but was visiting his wife in Paris. We had a place to stay that night in Cologne but he offered for us to stay with him that night since we were getting back so late. Perfect! (We found his couch surfing profile on the ride to make sure everything checked out-dont worry) He then offered to let us stay Sunday night with Emily :) After finding the wonderful Emily Knollenberg in Germany (wohoo!) We walked around the cathedral and then met up with another couch surfing local who offered to show us around (personal tour guide..score! Thanks Kim!) So he told us we could climb all the way to the top of the Cologne chapel-which we would have never known about. After a hearty workout we were rewarded with amazing views. He showed us around the old a new market then translated for us at the bar and drove us to the Chocolate Factory!

After all of this positive energy and people with their giving over and over we were feeling pretty lucky..but then we were blessed all over again. We got word from a couch surfing family in Baden Baden Germany that we could stay with them, and they would even pick us up from the train station. But not only that they offered to let us go with them and their family and friends to a cabin in the Black Forest this weekend for a relaxing weekend with cookouts. Its amazing how God provides and how simple people can give so much to complete strangers. We have to figure out how to give back! Here and back in the states.

Real Coffee.

Yesterday I had real, delicious, simple filter coffee at Starbucks. I tried to accept the coffee culture in France...and I failed. But I had some damn delicious coffee! That is all.

Working For Yourself

As we're sitting here in a cafe, waiting for our train..I (Stephanie) wonder...do the French have it right? We've gotten so frustrated with the French over the last three weeks...mainly because shops,cafes, and restaurants are barely open. There's been multiple times weve walked to a cafe only to find it closed..and even in a touristy town of St Malo we walked for about 25 minutes to find just 3 cafes open and passed by about 20.

But do the French have it right? Should we work for ourselves so we can open and close as we please, and enjoy the French scenery and beaches because you made just enough money from the tourist this morning to pay for your wine at the beach?

This is the first true culture shock/change I think we've seen so far on the trip. It took a bit to get used to...but it made me think...do they have it right?

Mont Saint Michel... Take Two

Well, we finally got to Mont St Michel! And how beautiful is it? Absolutely stunning, breathtaking and magical. We ended up taking the bus here, since the trains still aren't running but that let us spend a night in Granville. We would absolutely recommend a day trip to Granville if you're in the area, just a ten minute walk from the bus/train station is the city center (most of Europe calls their downtowns "city center/Centre") Everything is right next to the water, so that's a plus. Once we arrived we walked to the hostel and found there were no open beds...so we called the place they recommended..no open beds. Needless to say we called five other places and finally found one bed, needless to say its a popular place (not to mention walking into a hospital asking for " a room for two tonight? " then being laughed at as you found out it was a hospital. Yes my UVA friends, other nurses have views of the St Michel Bay on their work days) So, after settling into our newly shared twin bed...we found a bar with tapas and the football game so life was good.

After downing tons of pan au chocolats, cracking a raw egg onto my plate (thinking it was hardboiled), and coffee we got on a bus to Mont St Michel. The visitor center offered free lockers to store our packs, we hopped onto the free shuttle and made our way. Once walking in you felt like you stepped back into mid evil times with stone walls and German style store fronts- we scoped out the perimeter and found where we wanted to eat after touring the Abby. (Obviously picked a place with the stunning view) you don't need to pay to walk through MSM, just the Abby. Since were young we paid half price (score!) And then paid a bit extra to have an audioguide. The Abbey was absolutely stunning, as we made our way down the funnel shaped building we learned how genius the architects were to keep everything structurally sound (even through all the wars and stress of time)

One bit of advice for MSM-really plan your trip timeline. We didn't get to see the tide come in because we arrived during the few days it doesn't reach MSM (first world problem) and we missed the free guided tour from the Abbey back down by 15 minutes. Then missed the guided tour out to the bay by 30 minutes because  we forgot to allot 2 hours for French standard time lunch. Don't get us wrong, still an awesome trip but as much as we researched we didn't think specific times would matter. We also decided to venture out into the bay by ourselves (despite all the signs saying it's to dangerous without a guide due to the tides and quick sand) and you should definitely get a tour guide to enjoy it. But we made it by following foot prints from guided tours so it was a win.

So- after sending off some postcards and grabbing lunch. We decided to walk back instead of the shuttle, grab some food from the market for a picnic. We met in the wine section "Shane I found wine for 2 euros" "Awesome" then in unison "Should we get two?" We guzzled one down at lunch and the other is in the fridge waiting to be guzzled...maybe breakfast.

Our B&B hosts picked us up at MSM (awesome!) and welcomed us with tea and a suggestion of where to see the world cup game. We have since decided we want to open a B&B at some point, you get to meet so many people and get full time pau for part time work! After dinner we visited the local watering hole, which happened to be a English pub with €2 beers! Tomorrow we head to St. Malo and supposedly a music festival so it should be a good weekend.
Cheers,
Shane & Stephanie

Trains, Cycling, and Tea

Well, if it isn't obvious now that we don't keep up with blogging I don't know when it will be! Stephanie writes daily experiences in her journal so no worries that well forget stuff. 

So we've been in Angioville, Normandy,France for the past 1.5 weeks. It's beautiful out here! A very small village with one church, a town hall and a restaurant (that never seems to be open)! We can cycle (in Europe they don't say "biking, or bike into town; rather " cycle") into two slightly bigger towns, Lessay and Le Haye de Puites.  I always say "Puites" wrong so that's a fail when I go into town. But apparently I pronounce Bonjour wrong too..and also recently said Gracias to the bartender here...so that was embarrassing. We did however make it to town in time for D Day,  which was awesome! We didn't see Obama or the Queen but we did see some very cool reenactments and learned a lot about the invasion.

We've both tried to learn french while were here. Shane is better with his 3 years of French under his belt...I've learned "I don't speak French..I'm sorry...do you speak English?" If they don't we just mime at each other and point at things...I was trying to figure out a way to act out a bus and a train. That didn't work out. Moral of the story? Google translate is awesome.

Our host family is great! Gary and Nicola treat us like family! They have an interesting story too. They moved to France ten years ago to have a slower paced life than they did in England. A year later they bought a house from the 1400's that was split into two houses. Theve turned one side into their house and the other into a B&B. The pictures of before and after are amazing! Apparently the French love wallpapering everything! Garry and Nicola are also in the proccess of building a new house from scratch which is a very daunting task. We helped a little with installing some of the installation but work is slow as its hard to find time to head out to the new house. If anyone wants to help with any part of the house Garry and Nicola would love to host you. 

We've done some work with the goats. We've both learned how to milk Dorothy the goat. Its very hard! We always need Nicola to help us. We've also mucked out all their stalls (clean out all the hay laid down in their beds over the winter which is saturated in pee and poo.) So that was gross. Actually disgusting. We had said before this trip we wanted to have a few goats..we've gotten the true experience of what its like...we haven't discussed since if we still want goats. ;) It has been very cool to get to know the goats, they all have a very unique personallity and are very entertaining. 

After finishing up the goats stalls we've been takling the weeds in the gardens. Crabgrass is over here too..and its just as horrible. But there's also these plants called Stinging Nettle..if they touch any part of you there's small needles that come off and sting you. We had them all over our arms..couldn't find anything to help the sting. So we slept like that, woke up the next morning and did some more weeding...only then to find out the plant that grows next to the stinging nettle is the "antidote"! We quickly rubbed the leaves all over our arms and immediate relief! Amazing what God put in nature to protect us...if only we took the time to learn about Mother Nature.

We tried to go into Brittany over the weekend and see Mont Saint Michel but the nations rail systeam is down due to strikes, so whenever the trains start running again we will make another attempt. Hopefully the strike ends soon as we hope to head to Paris in a week or so!

London to Ireland

Whew!  We have gotten so far behind in blogging! We have spent a week in London which was wonderful, and now we're on our fourth day in Ireland!

London- we stayed with a friend of Shane's, Greg, from highschool.  It was very funny to hear them swapping high school stories all the time.  He had four other roomates so we got to hear a lot of different stories.  Two were from India, so we are educated now on where we should and shouldn't go in India and even got a private Indian food cooking lesson!  Neither of us had ever sauteed our spices before using them, so Si taught us how to do this.  The most interesting part is you add more spices to the pan once you smell the spice you're currently cooking.  We had so many spices going on we were coughing and sneezing our heads off!  But, the end result was absolutely delicioius!

To see all that we could see in London we bought a Tube 7 day pass. "The Tube" is what they call their subway, or metro.  A subway in the UK is an underground pedestrian walkway.  Their public transit system is AMAZING.  A train comes every few minutes, we had a great app that never got us lost, and the signs are clear as water.  We packed in all the normal touristy stuff the first few days, then had Greg show us around on the weekend.  We watched wakeboarding at the old harbor one morning with a beer in our hand, then headed to Westminster Abbey for a church service.  All I (Stephanie) kept imagining is Kate and William getting married! We also found a zoo and farm just half a mile from the east side of London - very interesting seeing people weed their garden with skyscrapers in the background.  Stephanie's favorite thing to do so far on the trip is grab lunch and coffee, then head to a park and relax for the day.  We did this in Hyde Park a few times in London - then when it wasn't raining we rented bikes for a few hours and rode through the park. We actually missed seeing a broadway show because we thought it was Sunday all throughout the day on Monday...then woke up Tuesday morning and realized we had to leave :(  Oh speaking of leaving London....a thirteen hour bus ride downwind from the stinkiest man we've ever smelled.  And that's saying something since we're both in the medical field.  Stephanie got to the point where she had rubbed peppermint scented body wash all over her nose, then stuck peppermint gum up her nose....I'll leave it at that.

Ireland! Ireland is beautiful! We didn't want to make the same mistake we did in Iceland and not see the countryside- so after a few days in Dublin when we had our fair share of tourist sites and pubs we decided to rent a car.  After finally finding the rental car place at the airport, we arrived and found out we could not keep our reservation because we were under 25...so we walked down to a few different booths and found a local company would rent to us for  a steep fee...fine fine...whatever... "Okay sir we'll take it." "Oh, by the way, we dont have any automatics left..." *Stephanie turns to Shane...who's driven a manual his whole life..."Ummm, want to drive a stick with your opposite hand on the opposite side of the road in a foreign country"  "Sure! Why not?!" Stephanie breaths a sigh of relief because she would have died out there driving!  We start driving, get lost a few times a a few roundabouts and keep repeating "left left left left left"

As we drive through the countryside we stop at Powerscourt House, then drive through the Wicklow Mountains National Park.  As we're driving we see a few places to pull over a hike, we then found one with a hidden lake in a valley.  Then end up at the cutest little country store and have some ice cream.  After talking with a few locals they point us in the direction of an old Monk tower, church, and graveyard.  Gorgeous! Old stone buildings with the sun shining, and green mountains all around you.  We then begin the trek to find a place to sleep tonight.  We've already tested the seats folding down in the back as a bed, but nothing compared to Emily and Brian's Prius set up!  So that's our back up plan, but have no fear.  We are sitting cozily in a bed and breakfast with tea and biscuits!  It was so nice to take a shower and have fluffy towels to use rather than the camping ones.  Andddd a bed tonight, rather than a couch?  Happy Honeymoon to Us!!

Lobster Soup & Silica

Whew! What a whirl wind of things we've done in Iceland.  We had the famous lobster soup, experienced our first hostel, went grocery shopping, and went hiking....and got lost....a lot.....

Our host, Oddur, told us to go to this hole in the wall place (aren't those the best kind?) , called Sgjdiosfjdiofsdnf - at least that's what it looks like in Icelandic.  So we ordered some lobster soup, bread, Icelandic butter, potatoes and shrimp kabobs.  They must of had a spectacular grill because that's the best shrimp and potatoes we've ever had.  The lobster soup is to die for. It was fully worth the 1250 krones, or $11ish, they didn't skimp on the lobster and there was so much cream in it our chance of a CABG increased by at least 5%.   After walking around downtown more, we got a three day bus pass and just rode around the city for a few hours.  The architecture here is very modern, and simple-but its a very young country so that makes sense.

Saturday was our day to hike Mt. Esja, it started off simply enough. We had planned to take the city bus out to the hiking center, hike, then take the bus back. The key to this whole plan was the bus system... Unfortunately for us it is mostly in Icelandic and thus looked like gibberish to us. We made it onto the first bus without a problem but then took the wrong bus back into the city. We made it out a second time only to find out that we had to wait an hour for the next connection. So we stopped in your friendly neighborhood Subway! We made it onto the connection and then proceeded to miss our stop by about 3 miles (an hour walk). So then as you can imagine we walked for an hour to the hiking center and we finally started our hike up the mountain. 

Then begins the hike - we took a peek at the maps, but they were all in Icelandic soooooo we just walked away.  We had heard from our host that it splits into two paths, one longer but easier and the other shorter but steeper.  Well, we had to make up for time and chose the short path!  It waas beautiful, the landscape changed so much from pine trees to open fields with goats and lava rock boulders.  The view was imppecable.  As we kept walking, the trail we were on was taking us down and down towards the parking lot.  Since we wanted to go up, we saw a road in the disance that led up and decided to hike up that.  Shane kept wanting to go "off the beaten path" and "make up our own trail" while Stephanie kept yellling "We are NOT making our own path, in Iceland, on a mountain!) Well, we kept following this road until we realized we were REALLY off this path, because we saw it in the distance.  So we hike accross this field, to the path we were supposed to be on, and decide to hike down.  We got to the bus station at the bottom, and realized we had an hour and a half to wait!!  Then it starts raining....then the bus comes by....then the bus passes us....then the bus stops on the highway and backs up to pick up these sopping wet Americans jumping up and down waving their arms.  We get on the bus, connect to another bus, pick up our stuff at our hosts house, get back on another bus, connect to another bus, walk thirty minutes to our hostel, check in and pass out.

Today we went to the Blue Lagoon. We arrived at the Bluee Lagoon without any stress or bus problems (amazing right?). The lagoon was absolutly amazing, the water was the perfect temperature and you could go into different areas that are either warmer or colder. Next to the lagoon you could use the two steam baths or the sauna We spent a good 4 hours in the lagoon just laying around and putting different scrubs on our faces, it was haven. All in all Iceland was a great start to our trip, our only regrett is not renting a car andd touring the golden circle. If you ever come to Iceland you must take a tour either of the golden circle or a glacier walk.

The Green Man

Our first day in Iceland! I was bored with it at first, I was expecting a smaller town less spread apart with more eye catching architecture and sites.  Well, was I proved wrong by our couch surfing host- Oddur! He not only took us out for 5 hours, but he did all of this after cooking dinner for us! We saw where the northern lights are seen best, he drove us to the presidents house and stood in his yard! (We clarified with Oddur if we tried to do this in the states we would be shot) But my favorite part? Sitting in Oddurs living room and seeing these gorgeous pictures of Iceland-so much packed into an island and so much to do and see.

So, the green man. We were just getting off the plane this morning bleary eyed at 6am after traveling 4 hours in the future and trying to find the buses. We get distracted by food and soda bottles marked "light coca cola" and end up at the end of the building. "Shane, do you know where youre going?" "Yeah. Follow the little green man" "I think that's the exit sign" "Then why the hell is it green and why is he running? You're supposed to walk during emergencies people!"

I now know we will survive this trip.

Bitter Sweet Goodbye

As we sit in the airport waiting for our flight some bitter sweet memories come to mind. This past week was a blur of emotions, it started with being exhausted after moving everything out of our apartment. The only saving grace we had with our move was that it was raining and not 100° outside and we had great friends to help us. After the move the stress of packing started to set in.  Would our bags fit as carry on,  do they weight to much,  and do we have enough stuff. I found the best way to pack was slowly.  Pack for a bit then have a beer, then go back to packing then have another beer.  The theory being that if you couldn't get something right eventually you will be to buzzed to care. As we finished packing it was time for goodbyes. As I left work for the last time I was extremely happy at first, who wouldn't want to leave their job to go on holiday for a year? During the drive home I realized I will miss the place,  I was very lucky to work with the coworkers I had. I didn't like all of them but most of them became pretty good friends, I also enjoyed my job and was paid well for the little work I had to do.
I can only hope I will be able to find a similar job when I return. 

As for the family It was hard for some because they seem to think we are in the stone age and will have no communication for a year (guess there not reading the blog). For our close friends it was a sad goodbye with lots of trying to convince them to travel with us, hopefully some of them will. Both our friends and families will be missed but then again we will be in Europe!

So now,  after successfully navigating through security (without a rectal exam ;-) ) , we wait outside our gate! Our next blog will be from across the pond and the adventure will be officially on.

Until then wish us luck, 
The Corpolongos

So Much Stuff!

So much stuff!

As we were winding down from an amazing wedding weekend- we had to face reality and start packing.  Where in the world did we find all of this stuff to fit into our small apartment? It's amazing how quickly junk can find its way into the nooks and crannies of your house - not to be found until a few years later.  

We both kept looking at our "Europe pile" as we were packing, and kept saying "Isn't it crazy that we're going from THIS to this .... and isn't it?  I took a picture of our bare naked apartment, with our packs silently sitting in the background.  How materialistic can we get? Do we really need all this stuff? We hope that this adventure shows us how much we really don't need, and what we really do need.

In other news, we're married now!  It was such a perfect and beautiful day - it was everything we talked about and dreamed of!  How lucky are we that people would fly halfway across the world to celebrate with us, and others taking entire weeks off to spend time with us, and even people driving for hours or spending half a day in the airport to spend just two days with us!  Keep checking out our Facebooks for links our photographer and videographer put out! 

Love,
The Corpolongos!!

One,Two,Three

In one week we'll be married, in two weeks we'll be moving out of our apartment and in three weeks we'll be in Iceland! Everyone said it will go by so fast, and it does :) How crazy is it what we're doing-one way ticket to Europe with only a pack and God by our side? Is it really crazy though? Are we supposed to be doing this, traveling around and seeing what the world has to offer? Or are we supposed to be following the one,two,three? One-love two-marriage three-children.

We're so stoked about our marriage and this trip,  but even more stoked about y'all following our blog. We hope you enjoy it and figuring out the name's meaning ;)

Love, the future Corpolongos