New life in Montpellier

I haven't blog for such a long time and so many things have happened.... new places, streets, stores, food, people, lots of Internet googling, trying to communicate and understand French....I am happy that even tough my conversation French is very poor, my French comprehension is good, I understand quite a bit........

It is hard to move to a new place, at least I found it hard; yes, I know we all find exciting to go somewhere, travel, meet new people, experience new things, but when it is actually happening is not that easy, sometimes is fact is darn frustrating.

Our place is quite cozy by now; we made 2 trips to Ikea and we got a few things that we need and make your life so much more comfortable. Last trip we got ourself a small treat, a 2 yummy hot dogs for 1 Euro, now we are addicted and we will have to go back:) At home in Vancouver I don't really like hot dogs because of the "white" bun, I don't like soft spongy bread, but here at Ikea to Mark's surprise I eat the Hot dog in a few wolfy bites.

We also got our self a TV; we bough the TV from some German students. We had to carry the very heavy TV which is strapped on a old chair from their place to other. I wish I had a video camera filming Mark and I carrying that TV on Montpellier streets, I am sure we could have won a prize on American most funniest videos. As soon as we got home, very tired and sweaty we both sat down in front of the tv and all Mark had to say was " gee, this is the most darn ugliest TV I ever seen". On top of the TV being very ugly it doesn't have a on/off switch button, every time we want to turn it on or off we have to plug/unplug the dam thing. I am the lucky one and I have the TV in my room, we have only 8 channels, but in fact only 5 and all in French. So far we haven't seen anything good on TV, only soap operas and stupid game shows.


We found a market close to our place with tons of fresh fruits and vegetable, the vendors are mostly arabs; they seem to be very nice people chatting happly with customers in French and arabic among them. I love to go there in the morning (as the matter of fact I go there EVERY morning) and buy "de fruits et des legumes"; right now there are lots of fresh strawberries, so every day I buy strawberries, bananas and any other fruit I feel eating for the day.

We have been eating 2 meals a day; brunch around 11 am and dinner around 7pm. Every day we are trying something "new". I am getting quite innovative at breakfast in mixing "fromage blanc" or yogurt with jam, chestnut cream (maroons), with cereal and fruit.

I finally start to get to know the city and adapt to new life style; I start running and that makes me happy. Every day I find a better route and my fear that I will always have to run on narrow streets with people and cars has started to dissipated.

New Beginning in Montpellier

We now have a place! Almost like a 2 bed room apartment in a Student residence building; we share the kitchen and the bathroom. The rooms are very austerely furnished, one desk, one chair, one bed. It would have be nice to have something more like an apartment, with the couch, coffee table and others, but still this is OK. We will try to make it cozy, we will buy a few things. We would really like to have a TV, we have the option to rent, but we just may buy one as we need the English subtitle (all channels at TV are in French!)


Pretty much everything else we need for our stay is provided by the residence --Internet! (very important) ----bed sheets, towels, kitchen stuff. We had to pay a deposit of 100 Euros and we will get the money back when we leave.

It was a bit difficult to find a furnished apartment; there are apartments, but first of all we could not find any thing suitable on the Internet, also we did not really want to book “on line” because we want to see the city to decide where we want to live. Now we know that there are apartments to rent and maybe the best place to find them is to go Student residences or the university. However it is hard to know what to do and best decision to take when you are in a new country and city. Also many other things have to be taken in consideration, most places rent for at least 6 months, others ask for money in advance, less flexibility, no Internet and so on. We have the place we are staying now for a week, and the new place is vacant and we can move there on Sat. Most places rent starting at the beginning of the month, if we did not take this place we would have to find an other place for 10 days and find an another place for 2 months.

Why do I babble so much about this? because I am a person that has a hard time to make a decision, I am worried that I may miss a better opportunity out there, I still have to learn that sometimes you make a decision may be not the best one, but you have to let it be…..Anyway Mark is happy and confident, I think everything will be ok and I will like the place. We learned better skills in these 2 days than 2 years, from how to get around to find an apartment, how to deal with people, make decision, handle stress, agree to disagree, disagree again and at the end of the day still be friends and share laughs and a 1 Euro bottle of wine.

I didn’t know that one can reside in a student residence if not a student; also I didn’t give any thought about living in a place where students live; now when I think about it, I guess it is going to be an interesting experience. For now all I can say is that I would have really liked to be a student myself and go to university in the day, bars at night, be foolish and silly and think that I am so damn smart and invincible and when I will be older I will indeed by someone Big!

The afternoon had been calm; I choose to go home and rest, I needed a down time to let go of my stress. Mark went out to enjoy sunshine and read. We both needed time alone, we been together since we got here.

So far, we had not time to really explore the city and enjoy. Tomorrow is our first day of exploration, I can’t wait to find places where I can run and bike; also looking forward to find out how can we get to the beach……..

Bonjour Montpellier

We go up in the morning and went out right away eager to see what is Montpelier about.
We have to walk only a few minutes on a few very narrow streets to get to the main plaza in centre de la Ville; la plaza is a very typical European place – a fountain in the middle, old buildings surounding the plaza and lots of coffee shops facing each other.

The only non European place in this place is McDonald’s, yes there is a McDonald’s right smack in the Centre de la Ville. In Vancouver I will never consider to go to McDonald’s, but here I would have like to go because the coffees cups are much bigger than anywhere else. Mark did not agree with me, as he felt very strongly that his first coffee in France should be in a really French place. So we went to the place right beside McDonald’s, and we ordered coffee and toast. Coffee was the size of the “Mickey Mouse” coffee and the toast was white bread------hmmmm, I was Not happy, but there I sat drinking, in one sip, my coffee and barely munching on the white bread and pissed off with the French!

Then we were off to find a place to live for 2 to 3 months. Back home we figured that this should be an easy job, but it is NOT. We went back and forth to many places, for the last few days we been walking and waking and walking and asking and asking and hoping that we will find something that we both like and also monetarily reasonable. We were thinking that we found a place but the place did not have Internet and that is a MUST have on our list.

I am very surprised that here there are very few Internet cafes. I take for granted that in Vancouver we have Internet everywhere, actually France has a lot to catching up to do with us.

There are 2 Internet cafes in downtown area, it is 2 Euros per hour, and you have to deal with the “unique” French keyboard – why the French have to have a different key board????

Besides our frustration in trying to find a place every single French person that we have been in contact with was extremely Nice. Strangers were more than willing to help with directions, advices and so on.

One day we were at the tram station trying to figure out if we should get on the tram to go and see a place, and his homeless guy, looking like a street bum, dirty and unshaven, started talking to us in very articulate and pleasant English giving us all kind of information. He was perfectly bilingual and spoke very nice and soft. I was so impressed I kept looking at him, and wondering how can such a person became a street homeless guy, wondering of his life story.

These last 2 days were stressful, basically we spent both day trying to find a place to live for next couple of months. I think that we found one today, tomorrow we will go over and try to finalize.

We been eating all our meals at home. We figure if we eat at home we can save lots of money or better yet manage not to spend tons of money. Prices for food in the grocery store is almost same as back home, except that we pay in Euros! Wine is cheap and Mark is enjoying trying to find the cheapest wine. This evening he got a bottle for one Euro. He drank almost everything very content that the 1 Euro wine is not too bad; I think that it wasn’t the best either, but hey we are now living in France (lucky us!) so we have to buy the cheapest wine because we can’t afford any better.

As I am sitting here writing my blog, I am wondering if in fact I was so damn smart to quit my job, leave my big, nice comfortable apartment, and the best city in the world to be in France and travel?

Keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Adios Barcelona, Bonsoir Montpellier

As our train to Montpellier was at 4:30 pm, we still had more than half day in Barcelona. The day before we noticed the surrounding mountains (not as high as in Vancouver) and the gondola and la teleferic. So what do I want to do in my last day of Barcelona? Of course climb he highest peak and take the gondola.

Again we went out early in the morning, but Monday morning was very different from the day before. The streets were filled with people, cars, motorcycles and bikes. Everyone was rushing around. We were rushing too, as we wanted to see as much as possible in the next few hours.

First we needed coffee, so we headed to the nearest Starbucks coffee shop, but when we got there the barista told as that that there are no beans (what???) so we can get only an Americano or Expresso. We had a hard time to understand that there are no beans, I keep asking why there is not coffee, until finally I understood… we found that quite funny, can one imagine going to a Starbucks that doesn’t have coffee beans? We decided to get an Americano and that seems to make the guy happy. I guess one of the barista nightmare is to have 2 foreigners walking in the coffee shop early morning and want coffee and there is no coffee. Americano was good enough. We started walking and walking and walking. I was tired and hungry. We stopped briefly and at a pastry shop and got a few pastries to go. We made it all the way up to the castle. Then up there admiring one of the best views of Barcelona, we had the pasties, yum….they were really good.

The break was short just enough to recover a bit; after we kept going up and views were getting better and better. We made it up to the highest point in the city. We walked around and admired a 360 degree view of the city. On one side there is Barcelona, old city and the very noticeable Olympic buildings (some of them have very interesting futuristic shapes) and one the other side there is the Mediterranean sea and the port. Well the port got my attention. I was thinking I was busy at my job in Vancouver, I can’t even imagine how busy the people in Barcelona working for the port and shipping lines must be; the port is HUGE, there are a few terminals and tons of containers everywhere. The funny part, there was a Cosco vessel just discharging at port and that made me think about my job, my colleagues and my work….hmmm, everything seems that belongs to a distant past but yet I have been away only for 2 weeks. I don’t want to think back, I really like my place back at home, can I get home sick so fast???

We could have walked back down in the city but the gondola ride down is too cool to miss. The gondola goes down in a straight line, and after turns around something like a letter L. We liked that. 
It was almost 2 pm, we were hungry! an Americano and pastries and all that walking, our stomachs were screaming – Food.
We went to the grocery store and got ourselves some stuff; we stopped in the nearest park right in front of the Sagrada Familia and made ourselves some nice sandwiches, fancy cookies for dessert and Voila – a good lunch.

We were laughing devouring our lunch – well we are 2 jobless, homeless people, what better place to eat lunch but in the park in front of one of the most controversial architecture church.

At the end as we walking back to our hotel to get our bags, we noticed many tourists sitting on the benches and snacking – hmmm, it seems that they got our idea and they don’t want to spend 20 Euros for a 5 Euros lunch.

Leaving Barcelona and Arrival in Montpellier

We arrived at the rail way Barcelona north station half an hour prior to train departure only to find out that the international train is an hour late! So much for the “excellent” European rail service. Also we had to go through security gates, the same x-ray machine they have at the airport; that was OK, except the fact that if you need to go to the washroom, you have to go all the way around with the ticket in your hand and after to come back to the “boarding” area.

Finally the famous Talgo train arrives an hour and something late. There was no announcement as how long the train will be at the station, so we got on the first car available and walked with our heavy bags (did I mention that we packed “light”!) to our car. We had the worst seats on that car, the only seats that were facing backwards---I was furious, we purchased tickets in advance just to make sure we get good seats, train is late and our seats are bad; the guy sitting by me (he was not French, not sure what nationally but he wasn’t smelling very nice to say the least). I sat there fuming inside and cursing the European train.. Luckily at next stop many people got off and Mark and I had nicer seats-only 2 of us in the row.

From home we had rented via Internet an apartment for a week in Montpelier; upon arrival in Montpellier at 10 pm we were very pleased to see that our host Philippe and his wife were patiently waiting for us at the rail station. It turns out that the apartment was only 15 min walk from the station and also right downtown. As they accompanied us to the place, we were chatting in French and English, my very broken French and funny English.

The apartment is in a 1750’s building. There is a stone spiral staircase, we are on the 3 rd floor, every time I go up and down I feel dizzy. The light is on the timer, so we have to make sure we are fast enough up and down before the light turns off.

The apartment is very small, I mean really really small I don’t think that I have ever been in such a small place. We can not walk by each other, one has to be in the bed or bathroom for one to be in the room.


The first night I wake up in the middle of the night with a very bad claustrophobic attack, I was breaking into a sweat and I just wanted to run down the stairs and be out. I managed to calm myself down, telling my self that it is OK, there are 2 windows, I can open the window at anytime and I can go downstairs at any time. I knew that if I can not get over that feeling Mark will understand me and we will eventually find an other place. But the next day I was OK, the apartment is small, but is only for a few days, it is clean, excellent location and we will be out most of the time. At the end I had a good sleep.

Barcelona – Wow !!! Must see city!

I love Vancouver, and I don’t even want to entertain any idea that I will ever live anywhere else, but yet I am so impressed with Barcelona. I come to the conclusion that I could live in Barcelona for a year. This city has everything; Mediterranean Sea, beautiful beaches, mountains, parks, mountains, architectures, restaurants, coffee shops, shops, narrow streets, very large streets, old and modern, noisy and tranquil, old fashion and avant garde, traditional and trendy. There are bike lanes everywhere in the city, I do mean everywhere; one neat thing that we have noticed, there is a system in place for commuter biking: there are bikes at different points in the city, so one can take a bike to go somewhere in the city and drop off the bike at a different point (the bike doesn’t have to be returned to same spot). I wish we had this system in Vancouver! All over the city people are walking, running and biking, this is why is my kind of the city!

On Sunday we got up in the morning, and went out right away. What a beautiful morning, it is sunny and clear but not hot, just perfect temperature. The city is completely quite, very little traffic, very few coffee shops open. It is Sunday morning in Europe, also the beginning of Setmana Santa (Holy week, one week before Catholic Easter to Easter day); I remembered my days in Vienna when on Sunday most of the, city was closed down only churches, restaurants and movies theaters were open. A day when everyone is supposed to slow down and spend quality time with friends and family, no work, no shopping, no malls.
First we went to the rail station to buy train tickets for Montpellier; after we got the “normal” tickets which are 55 Euros, about 85 dollars, not very cheap, eh? We headed out to Explore the city. By this time I really needed my morning coffee and we kept walking by all these places serving Nescafe! what is up with Spanish people serving Nescafe??? Spain is supposed to have good coffee. Finally we found a coffee shop that had café au lait and croissant, so we had coffee and croissants and did a little bit of people watching. I felt a bit better after what I called the Mickey Mouse coffee, coffee was small, I am used to have a tall Starbucks coffee. As I was telling Mark that for sure I will need one more coffee, just a few meteres ahead, we came across a Starbucks----I was Happy! I know that back home sometimes I said – ‘there are toooo many Strabucks around’, but here in Barcelona I was very happy to find one. Sure we stopped to have a good coffee exactly like home. Strabucks in Barcelona is exactly same as in Vancouver, even the muffins and pastries are the same.

After 2 coffees we felt really good and we started exploring the city. We walked everywhere, first to the trendiest part of town which is called La Rambla. La Rambla is the very large street with 2 big statues at both ends. In the middle there is a pedestrian only median, and people are walking along and watching entertainers, artists of all kinds, singers, florists, painters, and many souvenirs shops.

We made it all the way to the old Barcelona port and we kept going all along the beaches. It is a nice day, but not beach weather yet. Still lots of people fully clothed lying on the beach or playing volleyball, baci, soccer. We came across la Playa Nudista, but except for one naked guy, no other nudists,…that was a bit of Marks’ disappointment.

It was fun to walk around and marvel, watch people, again lots of runners, bikers, family with kids, lots of tourists like us. I kept thinking that if I ever live in Barcelona I have lots of nice places to go running or biking, the beaches are almost as long as from English Bay to Spanish bank maybe even farther. We walked for hours, and took lots of pictures. We left home around 9am and by then it was 5pm, so we decided to head home for a siesta.

I slept for one hour, and then I was Ready for the evening stroll. We end up by walking on this street (I guess similar to Robson street, but much wider) with all most expensive designer names, Prada, Gucci, Chanel and many other names that I am not familiar with.

At the end of this street emerges a labyrinth of very narrow streets with tons of shops that one can imagine, from souvenir shops, to clothes, shoes, accessories, all kind of funky stuff, restaurants, bars, pubs, patisseries, coffee shops (very European area) and hoards of people, locals and tourists alike, all out to have fun. We wandered for a while and after we got tired of the crowds around we decided to explore an other area and we got the "Arabic” area of town. Lots of signs in Arabic, and people sitting around and chatting and having tea. It felt a bit unsettling to me, I think it was ok and safe, but I was a bit worried of our surroundings. By then was late anyway and we decided to head back to our hotel.
That was our first day in Barcelona, and full day of exploration, excitements, wonders.

Buenas Dias Barcelona

After 9 hours flight we arrived at the airport in Barcelona; we had to go through customs, Oooooooo customs – dreaded word for us, as Canadian and USA customs can be very tough. But hey, not Spanish customs; the customs officer barely looked at us, just stamp our passports, no even on question to ask. That made us happy, no questions, but a stamp. We hope we will get more stamps on our passports, that is cool.

Upon arrival at the airport we were transferred by shuttle bus to the train which runs straight to downtown Barcelona (Yes, this is a free train) and connects to metro and buses; from downtown we transferred to the metro only for a few stops; when we came out of the metro station we were in front of one of the most unbelievable church in Barcelona – Sagrada Familia –so we went -WOW (it is worth to Google it on the Internet).
From the metro station, we had to walk 3 blocks to the hostel; this was the most difficult part, because even though we packed “light” our bags (no wheels) were very heavy. We both have 2 bags, one bag for our 3 months stay in France and one bag for the second part of the trip. We have quite a few books, the books are Heavy. Slowly, slowly we finally made it to the hostel. We are staying in a hostel, but it is like a hotel, we have a private room and bathroom, not bad at all.

We had just a short rest, shower and change, and went out right away to wander on the streets of Barcelona. First part of our trip we drove a lot. Now we are Walking. The weather is very nice, around 15 C, the city is amazing, beautiful buildings, architecture. The city has many parks, many people in the parks, some just sitting around chatting, others drinking, dancing and many couples kissing 

We walked to the Barcelona Arc De Triumph, walked by few museums; after couple of hours we headed back to the hostel on side streets looking for a grocery store; we found one and we got ourselves dinner for a about 10 Euros – baguette, cheese, salami, wine (1.75 a bottle), water. We had “dinner” at “la casa” and we will certainly have a good sleep (we have not slept since we left Chicago, that was how many hours ago???)

Good bye America, Welcome Europe

We said good bye to Vancouver, Seattle, Chicago and our last good bye is to Mark's parents in Jefferson Wisconsin.

It is hard to say good bye. As matter of fact, I have a really hard time with good bye and I am very wimpy when it comes to it.

Mark's parents gave us a ride to take the bus to O'Hare airport. The traffic can be really bad on the highway, so we did not want to risk to get stuck in the traffic jam on our way to the airport, it seems that the bus has priority and it is a safer mode of transportation when it comes to getting to the airport.

We flew Lot Airline -Polish airline from Chicago to Warsaw and Warsaw to Barcelona.

So far this airline it is the worst airline I have been since my all my travels: the plane was Boeing 767 but no individual TV, just TVs along the cabin and on top of that, very few movies and the movies were in Polish!!! The food was fairly poor, at breakfast we were served Nescafe (I was dying for a coffee, and I hate Nescafe) therefore not an extremely pleasant flight especially and when one is on the plane for 9 hours! The good part though was that our transfer in Warsaw was very fast. We just had enough time to go to security and for me to grab a café a lait!!! and the 3 hours flight from Warsaw to Barcelona was half full and very pleasant.

Flying to Europe - atraversiamo :)

We are flying to Europe today; we are not looking forward to the 12 hours flight, 9 hours from Chicago to Warsaw, and 3 hours from Warsaw to Barcelona, but we are looking forward to spend the weekend in Barcelona! Beautiful city, amazing architecture, tapas, Spanish pastries! Yum.......!

Ready to go day

Today is getting ready to go day; today is our last day of the year 2008 year on the North American continent. Tomorrow we are flying from Chicago to Barcelona via Warsaw. Today we are packing our bags.
How does one pack for almost one year to travel and to different destinations? we don't really know. We just tried to have necessary stuff that we may need for the first 3 months in Montpelier France. After we will see, most likely we will buy stuff as we need it. Right now we want to pack as light as possible and have comfortable clothes. Packing is a big job :)

The hotel in Barcelona is booked for 2 nights; we will be in Barcelona on the weekend, also the beginning of Semna Santa - the Holy week! beginning of the Catholic Easter; that is going to be interesting, hope there will be lots of activities, instead of having everything shut down.

In Montpelier we booked a studio downtown for a week in a 1750 building - that is cool! it is supposed to be small, but who cares this is going to be our first week, so we will be out most of the time, getting to know the city and trying to find a suitable accommodation for the next 3 months.

Visting Madison Wisconsin

Today we went to Madison; Madison is an university town and it is only a 45 minute drive from Jefferson. Mark graduated at this university with a degree of Electrical engineer. Mark is very proud of his university and his degree; he was very exited to see all these places were he spends many fun years.

We wandered downtown and around to University; went to REI just to see the store and also to get a few last minute items that we may need; went to Barrens and Nobles and got Lets' go Western Europe travel book; went to Whole Foods and got a chocolate cheese cake - Yum :)
We had a nice lunch in an Afghan restaurant. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was just fun to walk around the city.

We had a very comfortable, fun and leisurely time at Mark's parents in Jefferson Wisconsin: sleeping in, working out, going for short walks, watching movies, and of course Eating!

Tomorrow we actually have stuff to do---start packing!

Air plane tickets

Today we booked our flight to Europe.

We did not buy air plane tickets in advance because of a few reasons: first of all we weren't sure how long our road trip would take (we were very lucky to have perfect weather and therefore perfect road conditions); secondly, because Mark would like to spend some quality time at home and also to take care of a few last minute administrative things---i.e. taxes.

We booked our flight to Europe today--on Friday March 14 we will fly from Chicago to Barcelona via Warsaw. This was the cheapest fare we could find, the date and the time is also very convenient for us. We will be in Barcelona for a few days and after we will take the train to Montpellier, France.

Mark and I have some trip plans, but yet plans are very flexible, we like to keep our options open; this trip is about enjoyment, no deadline or pressure.

Fourth day in the road trip and arrival at destination

We drove many, many miles and after we crossed the Mountain /Central time-zone line (that was exciting) we decided to spend the night in Murdo; Murdo is a town of 500 people, the smallest community I have ever stayed in over night. We choose to splurge for ourselves and stay at a Best Western! In fact we stayed there because it was nice and cheap.


Mark went to book the room and I asked him to ask for a "quiet room" as far as possible from the street. Mark came back to the car laughing because the front desk clerk said no problem, we can certainly have the desired room, however there is no traffic in Murdo. How silly I could possiblly be, traffic in Murdo??? 500 people and the only grocery store in town closes at 7pm!

Speaking about the grocery store - Mark and I rushed to the grocery store to buy some food and maybe a bottle of wine. The grocery store was extremely poor, very few choices, and almost no wine or beer. We decided not to buy anything and splurge again by going out to one of the 3 restaurants in town. The restaurant is old, typical small town restaurant as you see in the movies (but I have never seen before, therefore this was interesting for me), with the bar on one side and restaurant with few tables and benches on the other side. Dinner was just OK, which is OK.

We woke up in the "exciting" town of Murdo, had a bit of the "free" continental breakfast at the hotel and went back on the road; we were thinking that most likely we will make it from Murdo, South Dakota to La Crosse, Wisconsin in that day. We drove leisurely enjoying the scenery and chatting away about our places, things left behind, friends, future travel and future in general. As traffic was still very light, roads in very good conditions, sunny weather, we made it to La Crosse faster than expected; then we decided to make it all the way to Jefferson--our final destination.


We got to Mark's parents a day earlier than everyone had predicted, big surprise for the parents. We had a great evening sharing travel stories over 2 delicious pizzas (Mark's parents just got back from Peru and Ecuador.)

In 4 days we drove from Vancouver BC to Seattle Washington and to our destination, Jefferson Wisconsin; this is the end of our road trip on highway I-90 connecting Seattle to Chicago. We crossed 7 states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin.

On road again

Third day into our road trip, we drove from Billings Montana to Murdo South Dakota, so we passed through Montana, Wyoming and now South Dakota. I really liked Montana, I love the mountains and I wish I could climb and hike on all of them, I definitely want to come back. As I love the Rockies back in Canada, I was silently impressed and my heart was all happy to have the opportunity to cross (even in the car) the Rockies in Montana.

Wyoming is such a nice state (the scenery is amazing, but I am not going to brag to much about it, one has to see it to understand).
As we were driving for hours and hours I decided that one of my future long trips (when I will be old and don't want to leave North American Continent) it will be driving, biking and hiking every mountain in the USA, well yes I do know that will take time :) but who cares when I will be really old and no working I will have plenty of time....

We were on the road a lot, we took turns driving and snacking on Lesley Stowe's crisps from back home loved Vancouver! with goat cheese and dark chocolate M&M as dessert. There were very few cars on the road so we were driving 85-90 miles per hour.

The highlight of our trip was the side trip to Mount Rushmore. The first part up there is very touristy, and even the area around the mountains, but still very worth to visit. I didn't know anything about this mountain (Mark was as usually very surprised that I don't know!) so I was so happy that he decided to make a stop there. I really wanted to go up the mountains to stare in the presidents face but this trip regretfully is not about hiking, so I definitely have to be back to do it my way! By the way my body is soo store and stiff for being in the car for so long. I can't wait to get to Mark's parents and be able to run and exercise!

Spending the second night in Bilings Montana

Today we drove almost 500 miles; I really enjoyed the drive. We started early morning so we had the chance to see how the raising sun changes the colors of the trees from plain grey into pale pink , white snow to bright pink, blue clouds into different colours clouds. There still lots on snow around, the mountains are mostly covered in snow but also there are dry patches with vegetation and bare trees. We passed through impressive canyons with cliffs and mesas, interesting geological formations.
Altogether it was a very pleasant drive, yet it was a long drive , when we finally stopped at destination and I got out of the car my legs almost collapsed on me.

We are spending the night in Billings; Billings is a very typical small size American city with a big mall governed by Wal Mart. However in this small uneventful city, I had 2 very nice experiences - the front desk clerk at the motel was nice, friendly, accommodating; the guy at Pizza Hut (we got a pizza as we were to hungry to go out for dinner) gave us 20 dollars back because we were waiting or the pizza for more than 25 min. So we had dinner for 4 bucks, not too bad for unemployed people. We may have to go back to Pizza Hut and pray to "someone" that our pizza is not ready on time :)
Pizza was delicious, or I wonder if it was indeed delicious or it was just my hungry imagination :)

Beginning

Left home, Vancouver BC on Saturday morning heading to Madison Wisconsin; we waited at the truckers USA border for one hour! why do we have a border with USA? We don't even get a stamp on the passport :)

Customs officer lady was very nice and very interested in our trip; she asked more questions about the trip than anything else, so now we suspect that she may want to quit her job :) it seems that the word travel is "contagious" :)

Saturday we travel from Vancouver through Washington, Idaho state, stay for the night in Coeur d'Alene and today we are travelling through Montana. The scenery is spectacular, weather is beautiful, it is so incredible to actually to see with my own eyes all the places that I have heard about it or I have seen in the movies....

No Internet on the first day (panic :), so Sunday at noon we stopped for coffee in the WiFi coffee shop in Missoula (Montana university town) to check emails -I find this really cool, but after all this is America ha?