randomness

making hafla cookies welcoming everyone to hafla

Senate...

Samir and I!

Me in DC

DC!!!!

In just a few short weeks... DC...glorious.

a VERY short trip... Arrive Wednesday night, return Saturday morning...

but a nice break from reality.

let's go for the gulch

Garnet Ghost town... it's pretty pimp. about an hour north of Missoula... up a mountain. I've been a few times now. Once, freshman year labor day weekend with my friend Selene. Today, laborday weekend, with my friends Ali and Amanda.

Here are some photos!

Amanda, Ali Garnet 2009

Ashleen and Selene, Garnet 2007

Get back on the map

So when we went to Morocco the email from my mom said: "Ashleen Marie. Get Back on the Map. You are off the Map." here are some images from when we went off the map (this being soley because I gave my mom a map of Europe).

Spenser with a panoramic view of that which is not mapped. Us embarking on our journey off the map. Moroccans...

Africa Sun, Croatia Ear piercing

After an hour in the sun in Morocco...this happened. And then we loaded up our backpacks and got on a train to get to Italy... a long long long two days.

Spenser got a little sun burnt

the ear piercing I got in Croatia.

We're really not that crazy

hostel sleep berlin

Belgium Sleep... Boat Sleep...

So in order to get to Greece we went by boat, sleeping on the deck of the ship. In Belgium we napped in the train station because Belgium was not good to us. In Pag, Spenser slept on the beach. In Ancona spenser slept while I watched the people around us.

Uncle George

Alas, a highlight of the people we met, good old Uncle George, the Greek man living in Venice who speaks 10 languages and leads a rather interesting lifestyle.

In the kitchen

Hola friends, I hope you're enjoying the photos... so I'm sitting in my kitchen, across from the map of Europe which my mom has marked in order to follow the journey (we're using the same one fore when I head to Ireland in January). What a crazy journey! we met so many people, two norwegian women spenser thought would murder us, two moroccan women who thought we would murder them, a hairdresser who cut spenser's hair for free and took us to dinner, an old man who hooked us up with a sweet hotel and thought spenser was lying about not speaking spanish, and among others a 89 year old Sicilian woman who had lived all over the world and thought we could speak italian.

we're on a boat: Greece

Photos involving boats...

Spenser with and on the boat...

a note about rewind posts

Angie! (And other people).
okkay...I'm working on the rewind posts. I'm also working on facebook photos so make sure Spenser shows you his facebook photos okay......? I'm also attempting to put them on CD's for spenser and what not but it's painfully slow and has to be done at bartell's. and I've already had one incident there involving a "why dont you do your job" flip out (ask Spenser)...

Holyhead...because there's nothing to do there.

This is Wales. Spenser enjoyed some ice cream here... we walked to a light house.



Here's a photo of the Ferry...and of the Irish Sea...and of Spenser in the port office. Spenser was too chicken to swim in the irish sea...or maybe that was too smart. it was cold. very very very cold. Wales was amazing. you can help yourself! in wales. and you must, or it loses it's magic.

Croatian Vodoo Magic

Suit up! I'd already lost my box, so apparently it was time to enjoy the evening (Day 4 in Croatia).

If I had to hear "I'm on a boat!" one more time I was going to sink the ship....

The local Croatia beach... lots of good times-

Spenser, Aaron and Josh in Pag...

Dinner with friends in Rijeka.

Croatia...

Glorious.

Re-wind 1: Guiness, Jameson... dublin

Guiness Factory...

Spenser in Heathrow

Spenser, Liang and I in the Guiness Factory

this whole photo upload dealer takes forever!

Back

In Seattle.
headed to Missoula next week.

Greek Islands

Hi Everyone!
it's about 5:54 am and we are getting ready to go on a cruise of the Greek Islands (I cant remember which ones but I know Hydra is on there!).

Got to greece a couple of days ago, after a long journey that went something like this:

Sunday, 2pm: leave Rijeka by bus, watch British and Americans get into fight over seating arrangement
Sunday: 6pm travel by train from Trieste to Ancona
Monday: 2am arrive in Ancona, and proceed to wait in train station until 6am
Monday: 6am, hop bus to ferry dock
Monday:8am purchase ferry tickets for 3pm to Greece
Monday 3pm: board Ferry/Cruise Ship for Greece...
Monday 5pm: depart, sleep on deck of cruise ship
Tuesday: 3pm, arrive in Greece, 22 hours later
Tuesday 5 pm: travel by Train to Kiota
Tuesday 7pm: switch to regional train to get to Athens, standing entire way because too crowded and gave up our seats to old people
Tuesday 9pm: arrive in Athens, look for hotel.

and now we're here!

Ashleen

PS, Angie I promise to do re-wind posts next week with photos and all that fun stuff.

Rijeka...still

So... we are still in Croatia. leaving tomorrow possibly, but one never knows. headed to athens. the water here is amazing. I have never seen so many types of blue in one place. the fish are kind of creepy but its okay... yesterday was spent in the sea on an inflatible mattress, sunbathing and reading. Ive slept probably 9 hours since Wednesday... about 2 hours each night... but weve made friends from all over the world here. lots of midnight swimming.

only 9 days left!

Ashleen

Croatia

we are in Croatia. its absolutely amazing... day 4 here. staying at least one more. all should google rijeka.

Best Hostel Ever. hostel Rijeka

http://www.hfhs.hr/page.php?page=hosteli&lang=hr&hostel=rijeka

draft program!

http://www.nchchonors.org/files/2009-Pre-Conference-Program-Draft.pdf


hey! this is the draft program for DC...

Mom... can you print it? its 115 pages... I know. ridiculous.

pink lady reunion in Italy

Hello!

well we made it Napels, and are chilling in Maria's apartment right now. it's lovely, and baby Elsbeth is gorgeous! She is so adorable its not even funny. we are staying through the weekend here. then headed to Venice.

Rome was an excellent time but we were so exhausted. After leaving Milan, we took an overnight train to Rome (no sleep though) go in at about 7am checked our bags, got on a bus and started sightseeing. yesterday the temperature in Rome was 39 degrees C. tooo hot.

we checked out the Vatican, and saw the Sistine Chapel. Went to the Trevi Fountain (inspired by our journals, thanks Angie!). Went to the Colosseum. Did some other Rome stuff but those were the big ones.

then got on a train to Napels, and took a bus out to the airport where Maria picked us up, gave us fresh sheets and fresh towels, and hot water.

Oh!

oh, I've almost forgotten, I got my NCHC dates-times for DC in October (part of this travel blog).

Sam and I requested seats together on the plane for fear that alternative seatmates (no names to be mentioned) may require the involvment of alcohol for a cross country flight. We leave for DC October 28 (I think thats a wednesday), arrive, do some honors-college-esq things, hopefully bounce to do our own thing, then we have thursday which will probably require more honors things, and maybe downtime.

Friday is the research presentation... at around 8:30am. we have yet to do the research so upon our arrival in Missoula in August its crunch time. ummm lets just say we havent handed out surveys just yet... or really narrowed our focus. but we can usually pull it off.

here's a link:

http://www.nchchonors.org/2009-annual-conference.php

Ashleen

Milan...

Hello!

we are in Milan. in an internet café right near central station where we deposited our luggage and are about to start a day in Milan before taking the night train to Rome.

We ended up back in france. dont even ask. we really do just love France that much. actually we ended up in Montpellier which is the city that the french security guards yelled at us for sleeping on the ground in the train station. Our °buddy° is a jack of all trades. not only is he capable of clearing out the °vagabonds° but apparently he also likes to man the bathroom to make sure everyone pays the fee. I was like, really. are you seriously everywhere in this station.

spenser read a book on the train yesterday (we were there for about 12 hours), I pestered him and stared at the window... took photos of sunflowers... journaled... hummed... attempted to entertain myself, and tried to figure out how we would get to athens (getting a bit low on travel train days). apparently his book referenced several of the places we have been on our trip and Virginia... I attempted to read a book about a serial killer called broken skin, attempted is the appropriate term.

the last two days have involved serious discussions of vegetarianism, since in France\Spain everytime I asked if something was vegetarian it usually involved chicken or fish. so I attempted a new tactic, °only vegetables° still... how about turkey? we are going out for pasta today I think... not exactly sure.
last night when we arrived we walked about a 4 block radius to find a hotel (Hotel Boston) and it was the cheapest by far... so tonight we're sleeping for 6€ on the train. AND SOON! We will be with Maria and baby Elsbeth.

African Sunshine

Hola. Marhaba. How are things? we are back in barcelona. we went to Madrid and then to Algeciras and then took a ferry to Morocco. excellent. wellllll worth it. loved morocco. but we ARE SO SUN BURNT: an hour on the beach and now a ridiculous burn.

there are some english men arguing next to us in the café. ridiculous.

so in morocco we went to Tangier and stayed at Dar jameel the firs night. basically a palace. then we took a5 h bus to Rabat. horrible idea. but WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!
then we took a train back o tangier. and had no place to stay and had arrived at close to midnight so some women on the train offered to host us... we wathed the michael jackson news on E! ate bread and cheese and went to bed at like two am. they were wonderful women who spoke little english but hosted us VERY well.

morocco was very cheap, and the exchange rate for once was in our favor.
I bought dresses and rocks. and a backpack.
lets hope when I mail them they show up.

Spenser bought a blanket. he is VERY HAPPY about this. camel hair. bought it from a man who gave us mint tea.

we also drank orange juice worms. well spenser drank all of his. and I made it about half way through the glass when I realized there were worms in it. anyone know anything about worms in orange juice?

Tomorrow we try for Milan... wish us luck.

Hola

Hola! En españa! Algeciras, Tarifa and Tanger today! we are very excited... my spanish has gotten us into some interesting situations... but alas we have made some good? friends or at least some interesting ones. we return to España this weekend... it will be excellent.

we went to Amsterdamn and it was an excellent time. stayed with a woman who didn´t remember checking us in.

went to Berlin and stayed for 10 euro a night at the generator hostel

went to Paris and met up with some norwegian teachers we shared the sleeper car with.

couldn´t leave france... so we went to Orleans and Nimes. Nimes was awesome. hiked to the tour of magna... google nimes.

went to Barcelona and saw La Sagrada Familia! absolutely amazing.

Fire Brigade

Marhaba. We're in London, headed for Belgium on an overnight coach (not entirely sure what that involves but that's part of the adventure right?). We've had some excellent times so far! one of the things that we are doing to mark each country so to speak is visiting all the Fire Stations/ Fire Brigades. So far we've been able to go to the Dublin and London ones which we're pretty cool. Spens is collecting his shirts...
Wales was basically awesome... went for a swim in the Irish Sea-- I did. he put his feet in. went out to a light house. went castle hunting. excellence. We had a straight up crazy stay at a B&B in Holyhead. If you havent been to Holyhead and find yourself there you should def. check it out. probably only enough to do for a day or two but its worth it.

London is chill. went to westminster abby, trafalger (sp?) square, houses of parliament, big ben, buckingham palace (no guards though :(). got lost a few times... Spenser had an amazing ham and cheese sandwhich in the trainstation... actually he had two, because the "cheese was so heavy" interesting...
we hate the £. end of discussion.
went to an AMAZING bakery with AMAZING DOUGHNUTS. and next door for cappucinnos.

at Barrys, till around 6 ish.

Dublin

Hola folks.

in Dublin.
glorious.
amazingggggg time w Patrick and Liang.
Liang was an excellent host... and tour guide.

went to the Guinness Factory... oh goodness my guinness! a free pint in the Gravity Bar (a 360* view of london).
went to the Jameson Distillery... similar to GF but finished with a glass of Jameson whiskey, while Spens and Liang had theirs with coke I chose dublin style- with cranberry juice and lime.
hit up Trinity College after that. GLORIOUS> saw Book of Kells. and the Long Room which had an amazing amazing library.

walked about 20 km today but we had a bus tour which was nice.

Pub for dinner. the local fav of the old PM- Berty.

well, headed to bed. just finished the most amazing bubble path in an olympic sized swimming tub. I almost got lost haha!

Ashleen

Alas...Without a Map.

Hola friends...family... people who have stumbled across this by mistake.

So... tis the season for blogging apparently, and because I am traveling frequently this year (oft with sketchy cellular service) and at the insistance of Liz, I have chosen to start this blog. The first two posts are small snipits on my trips to Dallas and SLC.


Anyone who knows me, knows that I get lost ridiculously easy, but alas am never in possession of a map. I can read a map, I can plot a map, but I do not actually own a map (please reserve judgment).

So... in a little less than 48 hours I board a British Airways flight for Dublin-*-*- where Spenser and I begin 7 weeks of insanity. We'll be couch surfing, hosteling, hoping for a nice bench should no other alternative present itself. And in about seven weeks, when many of you will be in Montana at the Sheldon Family Reunion (including that madra of mine who will hopefully reserve a shuttle for me from the airport), we'll leave from Athens and head back.

We're hoping to make it to: Dublin, Holyhead *Wales,* London, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Greece and Turkey... wish us luck :)

Here is a glimpse of our packing list:

3 shirts
1 pair of pants
1 pair of shorts
1 pair sleep pants
swim suit
towel
socks/underwear
tennis shoes
sandles
sheets and fleece blanket
rainproof jacket
water bottle/ money pouch/ tickets

Spenser and I in 2007.


The plan so far is simple: experience as much as possible on as little money as possible without dying, or being arrested (I don't think I could handle 12 years of hard labor).

The Universe is 20 square miles

Salt Lake City... 20.00 dollars for Gas... 20.00 for food... smuggling wine at a strict Mormon wedding... priceless.

So Matt>>pictured next to our transportation (the Jelly Bean) and I drove to Salt Lake City Utah to see a good friend and former intern, Mike, get married to another girl we know, Meg.

<<

So alas, after entirely too long in the car we arrived in Salt Lake City...

and... then next day ventured to the Great Salt Lake. which is just about as thrilling as it sounds. and it smells like death. and salt. and it was a ridiculous adventure during which our feet sunk deep in death-mud and we were surrounded by dead birds that we labeled as evidence (who wouldn't do the same thing... really?)

But! our adventure did bring us to ask some serious questions... Why?!? Why did Brigham Young choose SLC? alas... after asking Elder Santog at the church, we realized that no one really really knows the answer to this life question.

The wedding was spectacular.