Memoirs of the Travelling Seavers

Today Amber and I decided to take a trip to Cantebury cathedral. The one great thing about Europe is that you can get to places that are completely different in under and hour. I have really enjoyed traveling around Europe.

The cathedral was huge! I have been shock at how big these monuments and buildings are seeing that they were started in 597 A.D. I just don't know how they could build such beautiful places without the modern technology that we have today. We looked around the town and had another gelato ice cream!!! It is an Italian ice cream that is to die for.

Then we were exhausted from eating the ice cream so fast that we decided to head back early and go into Tunbridge Wells for a little bit to get some last minute gifts for Ambers mom. We just hung out around the pantiles and then headed home for a traditional english dish, shepards pie. It was really good and I would recommend it. I was unable to think of something that I could compare it to.

Amber leaves for America tomorrow in the morning and then I will have 5 more days to relax and try not to think of what I will have to do when I return home. Unfortunately, I have to start grad school again as well as prepare for the darlings of Evanston High School to return to school:(

Hopefully in the next week I will be able to add a little more about our travels, but no promises.

Erika

posted by SamErika @ 3:12 PM 3 comments

Well hello everyone. Sorry it has been so long since either of us have written. We have been busy riding trains, planes and automobiles!! Dorky!

After being in the Czech Republic we were in England for about a week, which was nice to just relax with sam's family and catch up on sleep and see everyone. Then Nigel, Sam and I went to meet his grandma in Oxford on saturday. She was very nice and we just sat out in the garden and had some tea and cake and caught up. Then Nigel and I left sam the next morning to pick up my friend Amber from the airport. Amber and I went to high school together. She had never been to England and we thought this would be a great time for her to come over while sam is studying in oxford. Nigel and I had left sam a bit late so we had to hit the motorway, so we were cruising down the motorway around 90 miles an hour, which is normal in england, and arrive at the airport just in time for amber!!

Amber and I had decided that we would go someplace we both hadn't been first and then travel around england so we decided on sweden. One of the biggest reasons we decided on Sweden was becuase Jitka, my friend from the czech republic is working there so we would have free accomodations and have someone that knew the city to help us around. Also the weather there was not has hot as it was going to be in Rome, I am not a fan of the heat so Sweden was a good choice!

We were in Sweden for four nights and we were staying in Jitka's dorm room. It was perfect for getting some rest since all the students are on holiday, it was a great place to stay. We were mainly in stockholm and the islands that surround it. It was unbelievable all the water and islands there were. I loved it becuase I have always found the water relaxing and beautiful.

We went to Gamla Stan, which is the old town and walked for about 9 hours that day. It was amazing how many different buildings and surrondings there were. IT was great though becuase it is such a walkable city that you could walk everywhere. Once I see Sam I will try to add some pictures but he is Oxford at the moment and you know me and technology! We went to a museum in Gamla Stan that had royal attire, it was amazing to see what they would wear in battle, it seemed so heavy and impossible to fight it. They also had what the women would wear in that time period and I don't know how they would manage to get through the door becuase the material around their hips were huge. I think I would like that time period though becuase it would have hidden all my lumps and bumps.

There was also an old boat that was turned into a hostel which we broken into to see what it was like. We went on a two hour river cruise, that had headphones that told us about all the different sites in stockholm we went under 15 bridges in that short period of time. Then we also saw a boat that sunk on it's maiden voyage in 1628 but they did not recover the ship, don't ask me why seeing that everyone was there when it sank in the harbor, but they recovered it in 19...something! It was really cool though to see how they restored it and all that jazz.

I was proud of my navigational ablitlies, it is amazing what you can do when you have too,. I am used to following Sam around and not dealing with directions. We got lost once and seemed to walk in a complete circle but hey that is part of the fun isn't it.

Amber and I ate a lot of ice cream and pizza, the pizza in Europe is excellent and addicting! I think that traveling makes you feel invincible to putting on weight! Lovely! I am going to have to run miles when i get home to shed the pounds.

The last night we were in Sweden we went out with Jitka's boyfriends mates and we had great fun talking to the local Swed's. We had some interesting drinks in their flat and then went out to the club. Jimmy, one of the friends, was rocking out to Purple rain all night which was great fun.

We returned to Tunbridge Wells on Friday and had a relaxing evening in the park having Fish and chips with mushy peas!! Then we went out to have a few drinks in the pub with david, sam's brother and some teacher friends.

On Saturday, my birthday, I had a nice breakfast and got spoiled with all my presents. Sam got me my favorite cheese, smoked applewood. He also got me some jewelry and a book that I have been wanting! So Rich, he did well but I was still hoping for the bow!!:) Amber, sam's sister, got me a nice manicure kit, braclet, address book. Then Annie and Nigel gave me some gift certificates to get some clothes and some food!! David got me some workout clothes, which i think was a hint at my eating episodes. I am a food freak I have figured out, I follow in my dad's foot tracks. My parents gave me some money to buy clothes for this trip which was great. I don't feel a day older other than the great neck brace i have to wear at night:)

But enough about the presents. The coolest thing was that we went to Hever castle, which i would normally not be interested in but I am currently reading a book called 'The other Boylen Girl' which was set here in England. It is all about the Queen of England and Henry the 8th.

Then we went to Oxford to see the town sam is working in for three weeks. It was really nice becuase we were able to get a college tour and oxford is mostly made up of colleges so it was perfect. There are 39 colleges that make up the university of oxford. We went punting with a mate sam has met in the lab. I did pretty good at punting but it would get stuck in the mud and then I would go backwards instead of forward. We stayed in sam's aunt's house which was nice to have a proper house to come home to.

Amber and I then traveled to Bath Spa, which was really really beautiful. We had this amazing tour guide that was 77 years old but walked us around for 2 hours and told us so much of the history of Bath. We didn't go into the baths but after hearing the stories of how the baths cured so many illnesses I would definately go back when I became old. We saw where Charlie Chaplan started his career and we also saw where Jane Austen lived and wrote some of her novels.

I will stop there so that you guys don't get bored without pictures to accompany my blabbing. I still have loads of stuff i could talk about but I will save that for a later date.

I also wanted to say thanks to Rich and Jenny and Cali for calling me on my birthday, it was a great surprise, and thanks to my parents for calling as well.

Hope you are all well and we will be seeing you all soon.

posted by SamErika @ 4:16 AM 1 comments

Well, its nearly the end of another week, and an idyllic one it has been for me in sunny Oxford. The weather has been borderline between fantastic and fantastically hot, it was 100 degrees on wednesday! Unbelievable for a British summer, and with a lack of A/C in the office, sweaty too.

Well, to recap, we visited my grandma Shelia and aunt Miriam last saturday, its been a while since we'd seen them both, and it was the first time that Erika met my last remaining grandparent, and they got on well, thank goodness! Well, knowing Erika, its not hard for anyone to like her :-) (*gag*)

My aunt's house in Botley (a mile or so west of Oxford) is a great place and I can't believe I have it to myself, I'm so grateful to aunt Miriam she saved me a ton of money.

Erika left me sunday morning (hooray!) and I just chilled. Went back to grandma's house for lunch with her and Miriam, to watch the golf and do some more general chilling.

After that, I've been in a lab in the Zoology department all week, the lab is full of nice people, notably Joe, Albert (Han Jun) and Esther. Joe and Albert took me out drinking on monday night and we did a great crawl visiting some of the better pubs such as Eagle and Child, (where the inklings used to meet...you know, tolkien and lewis et al.) Lamb and Flag, Turf Tavern and Twist. I've not got the camera, so I have to wait for Erika to get back with her pictures of stockholm, I'm sure she'll have a lot to say too.

The only other main event was that we went punting last night, and Joe took some pictures, here's one of me punting, and that's Albert sitting in front of me:

We punted to a barbie to a park, with other researchers from the department, and punted our way round afterward, along with a bottle of wine and about 50 geese too.

posted by SamErika @ 6:18 AM 5 comments

Its early saturday morning, and in a couple of hours we'll be setting off for Oxford. Its been a great week at home with my family, just chilling. Erika and I had a quiet day for our anniversary, we took a 3 mile walk through the local countryside to this li'l village and had dinner at the pub there, we didn't take the camera so no pics.

Wednesday we went to meet Ady for lunch in London, we grabbed some sandwiches and sat on the bank of the Thames with a great view of the tower of london and the tower bridge, the weather was and still is amazing.

We watched a one-off detective program about a man who was pushed to his death over a balcony, two of the suspects were deaf and the main character was the interpreter who got a bit too involved. It was cool not just because of the extensive use of sign language but because at times the sound itself was engineered to reflect what a deaf person might hear.

This is a picture of one of our local parks in tunbridge wells, I'd forgotten how beautiful the place can be, its a former victorian estate with its own man-made lake:



Thursday we all went to the seaside, Camber Sands, and enjoyed the sun, sand and sea though the sea was freezing, even the indomitable Erika wouldn't go under the water. We stopped on the way to get some english breakfast and stopped on the way back for a pint in an old pub.


Take note of the low sea wall that Dad built around Mum to help keep the tide away :-)

Yesterday, Mum and Erika went shopping, I had the chance to get away and go looking for a present for Erika's birthday but I'm still short on good ideas though I have a couple, its a nightmare shopping for this woman, she never knows what she'd like for her birthday! Judging by her previous post, I imagine she'd like me to get myself an anti-snoring kit and make it a gift to her :-)

Dad made some indian last night, but did he make some! Then Erika and I went out with Dave and some of his friends for some drinks in a couple of pubs. Nice to relive the pub life here in England, never find it anywhere else.

posted by SamErika @ 1:27 AM 0 comments

Hello Everyone,

Well Sam is not awake yet and I can't figure out how to get the color of my font to purple so know that this is Erika speaking!:)

Thanks to everyone for the happy anniversary wishes. Sam and I had a low key celebration. We took David's dog, solomon for a walk in the morning and then just hung out a while and took a nap. Then we walked about two miles to a pub for dinner. I had fish and chips and sam had some sausages!! nothing too exciting but it was nice to spend an evening together.

So the new situation in my life at the moment is figureing out how to sleep with a husband that has started to SNORE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. The last few weeks sam has started snoring which is great becuase that means he is getting some good sleep, which he needs, but also means that me, the picky sleepier, gets NONE! This morning I could not take it any longer, i flipped to the other side of the bed but he still was too loud to sleep so I got up around 4a.m. I ended up reading my book club book for an hour and then still couldn't sleep so went for a nice run as the sun came up. Got back to the house and no one was awake yet so i had a quick snack and took a shower and started the email!! How much you can get done in the morning if you get up at 4!

So at this point I am taking any suggestions on how to get my husband to stop snoring. Any suggestions are welcome.

The weather here is wonderful, it is nice and warm during the day, all the Brits think it is hot but it is not that bad to chicago or michigan standards. But the nice thing about the weather here is that it is nice during the day but the tempature drops in the evening to the point that you can use a comforter to sleep! I could take this weather anyday.

Well I am going to drink a 'cuppa tee' (British accent) and get ready for the beach.

Erika

posted by SamErika @ 1:42 AM 4 comments

OK, so here's some pictures that Erika promised. The final game of the world cup has just finished, and after all the hurrah of the first twenty minutes, the game stagnated and went downhill with Zidane. Such a shame. No-one wanted that especially the penalties. Can you believe that the World Cup was defined by inches (Trezeguet's shot against the crossbar), but there you have it, Italy wins for the fourth time.

So we arrived safely from the living hell/paradise that was Brno airport, after the absolute crush checking in, the departure lounge, with one dollar beers, was paradoxically bliss:

Dad picked us up, lovely to see the old man again, and the rest of the family. I saw my little nephew the next morning at breakfast, he has a cubs cap that we got him, and even knows where its from: 'Uncle Sam and Uncle Erika from America!' (and yea, he hasn't got the hang of the auntie/uncle distinction):

So we celebrated my sister's 30th, here's a pic of Erika managing the barbie from our bedroom window, and some of the guests. My sister and her family left this morning, and we just slobbed around watching tennis, football and tasting some of the rum my parents bought back from their caribbean cruise and the polinka we got in the czech republic:

posted by SamErika @ 4:07 PM 2 comments

So today is the day of the final world cup game. Sam is a little bummed I think but it will be nice to watch another sport soon. We just watched the final of the Wimbledon which was nice as well. We are at sams parents house right now. Amber, sams sister had her 30th birthday party last night which was a lot of fun. We saw some old friends and meet some new people as well. One of the best parts was seeing our nephew, Jude.

Well since i have some time i thought i would talk a little about the trip to Ireland! I was getting a little car sick becuase the roads were windy and tiny. Ryan Daily did a great job manuevering the car around the bends. We stopped on our way to the pennisula of Dingle, yes Dingle is the really name of the place we stayed! when we stopped we had a beautiful view of the country side, green grass and sheep!

The pennisula was awesome. We decided that we would bike the pennisula, which is about 30 miles, yes you heard me correctly it was 30m miles. we started when it was warm and sunny and the views were great. The country side is hard to describe, there are at least 10 different shades of green. We stopped for lunch at a cafe on the way around and had a great lunch but chilled a little too long becuase the rain came in and we had about 15 more miles to go. If you know me you know that I am not a big biker and my butt was killing me after about 300 meters! When we started on the road again it started misting and I thought to myself, this is not that bad, but then it got worse and it was pouring for most of the last 9 miles, I was drenched and the wind was just blowing against us so much that you would go forward a few inches and then go back a few inches!!!

When we went to the czech republic we stayed with my friends family and loved our stay there. we went to her grandpa's house which is in a little village and we got a great night sleep and had a lot of wine and beer. It was amazing that you could get a beer for about a dollar but then the food would cost three times more! I had a few pina coladas that were to die for!!! we had this brillant pub dinner for our farwell dinner and I had a chicken with walnut and onion stir fry thing. They also came with these great potato pancakes. It was great to see them again and we were so spoiled.

Well I think I will sign off for now but I hope you are all well and having a great summer. Sam will include some pictures later.

posted by SamErika @ 11:18 AM 2 comments

OK, cool, so Jitka's got some pictures on her parents computer, here we go, this is us in Prague:

This is a self-portrait about to go into the medieval silver mines in Kutná Hora:

This is me and Erika with Jitka's parents, Irena and Pavel, at dinner tonight:

And finally a picture of the lovely ladies I've been hanging out with:

posted by SamErika @ 4:13 PM 4 comments

Right, so a little comment on the football. Did anyone take note of the France subsitutions, not only last night, but in the game against Brazil? In fact, take note all you conservative managers everywhere, Swedes and Argentinans included. In both games, with France winning 1 - 0, the french manager made two substitutions. Now, if this was Eriksson, or Pekerman, the manager would substitute in defenders and defensive midfielders in the hope of 'conserving' the lead. As we know, in Pekerman's case, this strategy cost him the game against Germany, while England performances have hardly been awe-inspiring.

But take Ray Domenech. In two games, against two attacking teams, while trying to conserve a 1-0 lead, he substitutes in not one forward, but two!!! (Louis Saha and Sylvain Wiltord) And yet he's won both games, how does that work? Simple, everytime France attacked, naturally while trying to 'conserve' their lead, they not only had the men to lead the front line, and to run the counter-attacks (which they do so well), they would push the opposing team back so much that when the Brazillians and Portugese did attacks of their own, they had to build up again from the back, as more of their men had to come back to defend. This in turn meant less shots against France. In other words, it seems that Domenech is a disciple of Sun-Tzu: "Attack is the best form of defence" and the rest of the world should take note.

It also means better football.

posted by SamErika @ 3:41 AM 3 comments

Greetings from Ceska. This czech kezboard has rendered me feeling useless, Im surprised I can get any letters out of it, let alone punctuation....well, we landed in Brno on saturday afternoon, the game time (England of course) was at the exact same time as we landed as I was able to watch a few minutes while waiting for the baggage to roll through, as well as about 50 other england and portugese fans. Funny sight, the whole baggage conveyor available at our disposal and we are all clustered in one corner watching the tv and only glancing at the bags going through. We had a two hour train journey to take into the heart of the republik so i didnt see the rest of the game. in retrospect, probably all for the best, as it didn't hurt as bad as it would have when i heard the news.

We spent a day and a half in a remote village, where Pavel's father lives (he's 94!), the village was a cool place, with a little chapel overlooking a valley and an amazing view, there was one pub and public swimming pool in the village center next to the village head man's house which had beehives built in. Pavel was telling me that if he picked a few kilos of plums from his dad's trees, he could take them to a private distillery in the village and for a tiny sum, and some of his plums, he could get the rest distilled into the czech's favourite spirit.

We went back to Pardubice, where Jitka's parents live, about an hour east of Prague on sunday night and Jitka took us around Prague on monday, and Pardubice today. lots of history and cheap shopping, i cant get my pictures onto their computer, where I am writing from, so I'll post them when I next get a chance.

hey hey,

We are now in Pardubice and it is so wonderful to see Gitka and her family. I met Jitka a long time ago when she was living with my aunt and we have become cousins now and are so happy that we are able to see each other so often. Irena and Pavel are so wonderful and spoil us rotten. We went to their local pub last night and I loved it, it was big and just so laid back. we had a few glasses of wine and then staggered home.

We went to Praha yesterday and it was a beautiful day so I feel like now i will remember the sites better than last time i visited. Sam and I took a boat tour around the Charlies bridge and had a tour guide that told us a little bit about Praha history.

We have been able to go some good rest here since we are in a HOME and dont hear people running above us or getting busy in the bathroom, like in Ireland.

I am not sure if sam mentioned our trip to Ireland, I am sure we will get more up later but breifly we took a 30 mile bike trip around the pennisula of Dingle. In the beginning it was a beuatiful day and we were seeing the sights and then it turned nasty and we were stuck in a rainstorm that had so much wind that you barely moved. It was crazy.

I think we are getting ready for dinner so I will saw chau for now.

Erika

posted by SamErika @ 2:03 PM 4 comments