I wish!

When we were budgeting for this trip, I looked online to see how much items were and figured a decent budget for room, food, beer and entertainment. I looked online and thought I had a grasp on it, but once we hit England the shock of exchange rates really started to get us. Most prices are the same as they are in Canada, but in Pounds rather than Canadian, which is a $2 CDN for every 1 pound. Here’s an example budget for UK with the % after exchange rate conversion of 1.79

1 Beer Pub: £3.50 vs $4.50 (71% more w/exchange)

1 Beer Nightclub:  £5.00 vs $6.00 (66% more w/exchange)

Sandwich in café: £4.95 vs $5.95 (66% more w/exchange)

Fish & Chips: £8.00 vs $9.00 (62% more w/exchange)

Basic Hotel (Traveloge): £69 vs $99 (79% more w/exchange)

And so on. Most prices are similar or 20% less expensive ticket price, but in Pounds versus Canadian dollars so things work out to be roughly 66% more expensive after exchange rate.

If you’re going to the UK, prepare your wallet to turn into an anorexic teen.

About three years ago, on some random night the usual was going on in our routine lives. It was yet another late evening (or early morning) with our friends Steve and Karen and we had just got back from some drum and bass show and were now looking for some chill out time. But on this random night, instead of talking about how good the DJ was, or how we were not looking forward to work on Monday we instead shared our dream with them on how we wanted to take an epic trip across the world.

This topic of conversation then inspired Steve to tell us about different huge drum & bass festivals he has heard about over in Europe, Sun and Bass, Innovation in the Sun, Hospitality Nights, Valve Sound System, etc. And of course also how all our wish list DJ’s are just locals over in Europe.

Many more random nights of the same went by but all through them we continued to talk about how awesome it would be to witness these shows with our own eyes. To the point we agreed the best way to experience them would be together as the 4 of us. And so the seed was planted! Scott and I still had the dream to travel the world and now our friends Karen and Steve had their own little dream to travel Europe with us.

For about a year the seed didn’t look like it would ever grow and become reality until one random end of the summer night. We were already not looking forward to cold winter and how it would be great to escape the cold and hit a beach together. Much to my surprise this “hopeful speaking” actually turned into a reality and that November we meet up with them in Punta Cana! From this moment I knew our hopeful Europe speaking would become a reality. It was all a matter of when.

Before we knew it we where actually setting dreams into plans. Picking tentative dates, places to go, things we must do, researching events to attend, and then choosing the location to start it all… and of course of all the places in Europe to choose from. We choose Amsterdam to set us off on the right foot.
Finally on a warm summer day in August of 2009 we got off a train in Amsterdam and like it was out of some teenage summer movie we saw our friends down at the end of the walkway with the same travel tired weary smiles as us.

And so begins the next leg in our adventure…. Surrounded by the comfort of our friends.

And there is oh so many more to go!

Well, as some of your might of noticed… Scott and I are EXTREMELY far behind in our blog postings. Our anniversary in Venice was on August 5. That makes this blog 2 months behind. Holy crap!

We have been some busy travelers. But now we have slowed down to an almost halt. Our friends have flown back to Canada and our Eurail passes have expired. So, we are back in Baden Baden for awhile and staying in my relatives guest apartment which has a constant internet connection. (something we didn’t come across too often in our travels)

It’s now time to immerse ourselves in a bunch of good for you R’s. Relax, Recharge, and more importantly research! With Europe now a been there done that concept it’s time to figure out our next leg of adventures. Shall we go to Eygpt? India? S.E. Asia? All would be nice but Europe really took a bite out of our budget…. thus why we have taken a mandatory pitstop so we can really look everything over and make some smart decisions.

Guess what this means for you the reader! It means we are also going to take this down time opportunity to catch ourselves up on this blog. So stay tuned for great stories, photos and video coming up real quick.

Some topics to tap your finger and wait for:

• Getting Creeped out in Vienna
• Mountain Climbing in Prague
• Pumping Muscles in Brussels
• Participating in our own “Tour de France”
• Our thoughts to Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, and Steve Jobs
• Essential Clean Ups in London
• A Sanctuary that Belongs to the Cats
• Oktoberfest Insanity
• The beautiful under belly of Berlin
• and so much more!!