Tracy and Peter's European (and North African) Vacation ... of DOOOM!

In the summer of 2002 we went on a huge vacation through Europe and Tunisia. Below is a calendar downloaded from a palm pilot, connected to both pictures and more substantial weblog-style entries about our summer. Now on the internet for your reading pleasure! Pictures of various places are linked to from the first day they begin being relevant.


Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

We are now in Laguna Beach, but Peter has quit his job. We have a cat that's not ours that hates us, and we don't know which coast we are about to drive that cat and all of our stuff to...

15
April

get truck & pack it

Peter calls NYU; they're not accepting anyone off the waitlist; U. of Oregon it is.

Peter calls U. of Oregon, etc.

I call home, tell destination

16
pack truck

Drive to Gordian, drop off Fred, food to Zeke

To Firebase Igloo for Palm

17
Drive north from Casa del Igloo, Apocalypse Now-style (bad idea)

Dinner (mmm, Thai) and brief tour of Eugene

Continue drive of doom

Arrive at Josh and Beth's house in Portland

18
You know what rocks? Taking a bath. Woo!

Beth and I rot our brains on The Mummy while boys are at a FreeGeek meeting

19
Put stuff in storage.

Dammit! There's a leak in the storage unit. Lunch at Carrow's, hate.

Put stuff in a new, not-leaky storage unit.

Walked back to Josh and Beth's through Portland, feeling like we'd truly escaped.

Dinner at Barley Mill Pub McMinneman's (Grateful Dead theme)

Movie at FreeGeek: "Alien"

20
Play in town (Boys juggle and go to Serious Juggling; Beth and I go to Powell's tent sale, Saturday market, Powell's proper)

Dinner at Mexican yummy.

21
Peter and I return to the mothership one more time

Hungry (or I might've never left Powell's); stop for pizza

Meet Josh, Beth, Laurel, and Kevin in park

Cards and tea chez Laurel (I read The Yellow Wallpaper)

Wander back to Josh & Beth's, placate Otis, make confusing dinner plans (it all leads up to Rimsky's)

Dinner at Bagdad McMinnemans; vote for lawnjart (good pirate)

Rimsky's. Mmm.

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27
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29
30
1
May

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Getting Ready to Depart
12
13
14
15
I finally graduate

Arrive in Europe, crash

KLM flight 6064 arrives at Schiphol

Sleep

We're in Holland

Holland Pictures
16
Afspraak pedicure

Winkelhof voor bankpas gedoe

17
Opa's birthday

18
Piett done with school

Leiden and Star Wars, oh my!

Leiden, South Holland
19
Laundry (1.5 hours per wash, plus centrifuge! Ack!)

We have drinks with my grandparents before dinner. It feels like this somehow makes us adult in their eyes, a little (after all, we only had one drink each).

20
Boating

21
In Tunisia

Tunis Air flight 639 (a little delay)

Tunis Air flight 639

We meet Moncef and go on a mad taxi-louage-taxi tour of Tunisia

Camels. I am so not in Kansas anymore.

Get "home", say hi to Mathieu, drink tea

Walk around Monastir

Dinner and talking and such.

Sleep. Mmmm....

22
Tunisia Pictures
23
24
Monastir, Tunisia (North Africa!)
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29
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31
1
June

Getting Around In Tunisia
2
3
Kairouan, Tunisia
4
5
The Carpets of Kairouan

Our desert tour
6
7
D-Day, Normandy, 2002

D-Day, Normandy (continued)

Coutances

Normandy Pictures
8
9
10
11
Ireland Pictures
12
Update, only faster
13
14
15
Chris & Audrey in Europe (mostly Paris)

Galway: got our own room in the Salmon Weir hostel but everything went to hell at night when I got crowdphobic and spoiled "night out for traditional Irish music" plans and kept us out too late for ice cream. Bleh.

16
Danny Boothe's birthday

Bloomsday

Fathers Day

Get to Dublin, race to bus to Busaras to Mt. Eccles Court, notice that Bloomsday stuff is ending at Joyce Center, race to watch Ireland-Spain World Cup match.

Ireland v. Spain. 1 pint Guinness, 2 glasses cider. Stupid penalty shootouts.

Wandered Dublin looking for food

Late lunch/early dinner at The Italian Connection

Back to hostel, miss last of Bloomsday festivities by going to sleep.

Spain 4, Ireland 3, Ciders 2, Pints 1, Bloomsday 0
17
Wake up, breakfast

Go to bus station

Tour to Newgrange, with Monasterboice high crosses/tower and Mellifont Abbey along the way (50€)

18
Bus tour of Dublin: looked for street performers but struck out, saw national museum at Collins Barracks (disappointing, free), I got sick and cranky at night and Peter took really good care of me even though I was an ungrateful little bitch.

19
Bus to Edinburgh (74€)

Long walk to bed & breakfast (40£), chinese food fordinner along way

Beautiful bed & breakfast & bath. Ah, bath.


Britain Pictures
20
Get up

English breakfast of doom

Pack up and check out, wander to internet and new hostel, contact evilrooster & wertperch, etc.

Wander Royal Mile, meet up with SEF, evilrooster & The Easter Bunny

Edinburgh, Scotland
21
Summer Solstice

Geocaching in the footsteps of Burke and Hare with SEF, evilrooster & The Easter Bunny

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26
Copenhagen Pictures
27
Another rapid update
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29
30
Norway Pictures
1
July

2
3
Oslo, Norway
4
5
6
7
8
9
Some stories about Bergen and Oslo
10
11
12
Pictures, pictures and more pictures! 526 images for your enjoyment!
13
14
Hannover Pictures
15
Ani DiFranco in Karlsruhe, Germany

Get up! Breakfast closes at 9!

After breakfast, shower, laze around room (I did some "laundry")

Get out, pooch around downtown (one-way U-bahn 3.40€, 24-hr group ticket 8.20€)

Internet at Benetton "b-bar" (surreal; Peter is a 1337 h4x0r), 1.70€

Lunch at Markthalle (whoa; ~13.40€)

Herrenhausen Gardens

Georgian garden

Grosser Garten (6€)

16
Wake up! Maybe breakfast isn't so crowded if it's earlier!

Pack up, get out, yummy ice cream at Colosseum in train station (excellent)

Train to Berlin

Trade money, get S-bahn information (free w/Eurail!), go to hostel via U-bahn (2.40€)

Check into The Circus

Go out to tourist info, get map, find out where to meet Chris and Audrey

EasyEverything (14€)

Dinner (kebab & salad & fries & sodas, 12.60€)


Berlin Pictures
17
Get up! Shower, breakfast, got human enough to ride the S-bahn to:

Met Chris and Audrey at ZOB bus station. Returned to hostel for check-in, Boy, and general regrouping.

Go out, get Berlin Cards (36€), go to Potsdammer Platz, discover the Brandenburg Gate is covered (bleh)

Checkpoint Charlie Museum (10.50€). Whoa.

Back to hostel so Chris & Audrey can check in, showers of goodness all around.

18
Ani DiFranco in Kassel, Germany

Met Chris and Audrey for breakfast in Circus Café, organised & got ready to go

The Reichstag (home of the Bundestag; lots of waiting in line)

To Egyptian Museum

Picasso museum

Men In Black II

19
Oma & Opa's anniversary (1950)

Finally get to bed after traumatic jerkface experience, note to Room 218 goddess.

Meet Chris & Audrey in lobby (we're late, haven't finished packing); good news from reception: there's room for us for tonight.

Check out, lock up stuff, have breakfast (C&A out for groceries)

Head out, get as far as Potsdammer Platz before Chris realizes he left his passport in the room. Back to hostel, sort everything out, off we go again.

Deutsche technikmuseum: "Knock, knock. -Who's there? -BO-ring!"

Spectrum, das Berliner Science Center: little I hadn't seen before, lots disappointing, all of it infested with little kids.

Ice cream (great gelato), then back to hostel to move stuff out of lockers & into room

Take Chris & Audrey to ZOB

Hang out till C&A's bus leaves

To Zoo Station, walk to internet.

EasyEverything

20
Ani DiFranco and Maceo Parker at Kulturarena, Jena, Germany (www.kulturarena.com)

EasyEverything

Make way back to hostel, food on way/in lobby before getting to room (chicken kebab pita; Peter bravely tried disgusting currywurst, 3.30€)..

Get back to room, make beds, etc.

Bed time.

Wakey wakey!

Peter finally gets up, we pack.

Checkout time (leave room, put stuff in storage, breakfast (11€), go out.)

Train and hostel reservations (40€; hostel pending)

Checkpoint Charlie museum (14€)

Race back to Circus, but too late for train. Shit.

To Alexanderplatz bahnhof, cancel Munich-Rome reservation (+40€), change plans.

Ostbahnhof: tasty ice cream (10€), bread (1.80€), bathroom (0.50€)

Train to Vienna: reservations are for sucks. I suck.

21
Train to Vienna

To tourist office for map, room (47.50€), Subway sammich along the way (5.35€)

Check into Pension Funfhaus, sleep.

Back to sleep.

Tracy awake, showers, etc.

Peter gets up, shaves, etc.

Dinner (20€), back to bed when it started raining/thundering; 10€ subway daypasses and 2.60€ gelato on way back


Vienna Pictures
22
From Oslo to Hannover (via Copenhagen)

From Berlin to Vienna (via Chris and Audrey)
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Venice Pictures
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Vienna and Venice
Rome Pictures
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Rome
28
A bit of bad news, and Florence
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1
August

2
Chamonix and the Alps
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4
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6
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8
Paris and the end of our railpasses
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15
Wakey wakey!

Went shopping with Oma, scored pretty bitchen new purse (Kipling) as a birthday present, had coffee in Winkelhof, got cash, new logic puzzles book, verjaardagskalender for Piett and bus pass

Visited Schoolplein, showed off purse, asked for fountain pen, got ride to Leiden Centraal from Oma.

Train to Amsterdam Centraal (10.80€)

Meet Peter at Amsterdam Centraal (IJsselmeer train, arrives 5:49 pm). Got ticket to Leiden, took train right back.

Got to Leiden, had snack (broodje kroket, patat met, ijs), missed bus, called Oma for ride.

16
Truus van Klink jarig

Celebrated Truus' birthday

Went shopping for fountain pen; score! Also Peter got Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett.

17
Wakey wakey!

Photo-show bij Dako en Ingrid (kind of a disappointment)

18
Got up + had breakfast with Oma en Opa

Wake up, you lazy ass

To Amsterdam

EJC, Oud-Ade, Amsterdam, and THE END
19
Pack, damn you!

Bibliobus met Oma

To bank with Ingrid for wads of cash. Also got koffie, drop, and more nassi spices.

Dako, Ingrid, Stephanie, & Claudia come by to say goodbye

Continued packing (bleh)

20
We leave Europe to go back to the States

Flight was a little delayed

Northwest flight 0063 AMS-EWR

Arrive, clear immigration

Baggage claim.

...now we are back in the US, feeling better about ourselves, and each having gotten a lot more fit. Also, we both desperately want a home, so it's time to head to Eugene, OR!