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The Freedom Train in Boston is a red line that
the tourist follows to different sites where
cool things happened in our nation's history. |
First stop - Dublin! Our Europe dream vacation has begun and it's expected to be amazing. We took a red-eye flight to Boston, getting little to no sleep, and then another red-eye to Dublin. Boston was pretty cool. We went along the
Freedom Trail and saw some cool sights. Before we even left I was feeling pretty sick. Sunday night I had a massive migraine and felt very feverish. Thank you to those of you who joined us for frozen yogurt, by the way. You guys made our short stay home quite refreshing. Anyhow - Through Boston I started getting stomach cramps and (the secret D word). The migraine and fever remained. I was taking medications to try to calm things down but nothing seemed to work. I felt as though Montezuma had a little more revenge in store for me.
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| Here's my gut. It looks big, huh? Sorry. |
When we landed in Dublin we went straight to a pharmacy to see if I could get a different medication. The pharmacy sent us across the street to the doctor, the doctor sent us up the street to the hospital for some tests, and the hospital sent me into surgery and proceeded to remove my precious appendix. So that was Dublin. The whole time we had set aside for it was spent in the hospital. The staff was very nice and took good care of me. Brandon is frustrated because we both know that the swelling was from (the secret D word) and what I really needed was antibiotics. But when the doctors went in to check on my appendix, they said that the swelling was way too close for comfort and they took it out for safety's sake. I don't need an exploded appendix. I suppose I don't need an appendix in general. I don't even miss it.
So now here I am with three holes in my gut. After I was released from the hospital we had enough time to do a bus tour, which was a bit more bumpy than expected. Luckily, we have our last two days in Dublin, so we can go back and check on what we want. We still need to do the
Newgrange tour and there are some pretty famous author locations we saw on our bus tour that I would like to revisit.
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Look at those cool cats! This is us
with Marc and Rimalda way
back at Crater Lake. |
Next stop after Dublin was Amsterdam. We took a wheelchair through the airports and it was awesome. No line waiting for us! I think a lot of people doubted my need for one... But walking hurt! First thing in Amsterdam, we met up with our good friends, Marc and Rimalda. We met them when
they were doing a world tour a few years ago. They asked to share our campsite at Crater Lake and we've been buddies ever since! Marc said, "Call us up if you're ever in Holland!" I bet he didn't realize we would actually follow through on that one!
So the four of us went to a concert that night at the
Paradiso Concert Hall. It was a man named
Donavon Frankenreiter. His band is pretty rockin' on stage. His CD is a bit more mellow. At the end of his show he did a song with his little boy on the drums. It was super cute.
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Red light windows in the
Red Light District. |
I'm still working on recovering from surgery so we didn't do as much as we would have liked to, but we saw quite a bit. We hit up the
Van Gogh museum, the
Rijksmuseum, and a
sex museum. Van Gogh had a lot of art and it was cool. The Rijkmuseum had a lot of history of the country, which Brandon really enjoyed. And the sex museum... well, that was interesting. Amsterdam has what is called
The Red Light District and they are pretty well known for this one part of town. It used to be where the sailors would come to port and seek out some lady friends during their short stay on land. There are doorways down the streets that have red lights over them. In each doorway sits a lady. We went in the daytime so as to say that we went, but to avoid as much seedy activity as possible. The women were really just hanging out, waiting for their next customer. Some would call out to the single men walking down the street. It was definitely an experience.
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| Current day! Totally love these guys |
We had the chance to take a train out to Marc's parent's house where he and Rimalda are housesitting. It was great to see some countryside, relax with some friends, and have great food.
One thing we are enjoying on this trip is seeing all of the different architecture. It's all amazing. Amsterdam has such old buildings all lined up. A lot of the apartment buildings used to be docking warehouses. They have hooks up top that were used to load things in. The hooks have remained, and now people use them to move large furniture into their houses. A lot of the building faces also look like they're about to fall forward. I noticed many crooked buildings. I tried to get a good shot, but I don't know if a picture can truly portray the experience of seeing it.
So now here we are in Prague. That will be my next blog. I know I haven't been as vigilant as I would like to be. Hang with me. I'll get a schedule down by the time I get home. So, good night, my friends. Until next time. If you're the praying type, prayers for fast healing for me would be fantastic. I would love to get to exploring without cringing in pain so often. And I've got some towers to climb tomorrow!
