Alpine Adventures

Chamonix is a small town nestled deep in the alps and is the birth place of some of the worlds most legendary climbing. Obvisously this was too much for us to pass up.

We stayed with some incredible locals. Our friend we stayed with, Dennis, holds world records for skiiing, and every year, someone he knows dies in the mountains. This is a town of true adventurers.

Talking with some of the girls we stayed with, they warned us it was too dangerous to go up without a guide. Once we found out guides were too expensive, the girls begged us not to go up alone. The next morning we went up alone.
Sometimes it was scary, but always it was dangerous.

The first day we almost didnt make it off the mountain.

The next day when we went up, Eric fell, caught himself with one arm, narrowly escaping the depths of a cravasse.

This night we stayed out in the wild and pitched our tent on a glacier. The storming weather made us set up tent earlier than we had planned, and that night the fierce winds kept us up a lot of the night, re-staking our tent and trying to keep it from being blown apart.
We can try, but it is almost a futile attempt to explain how much we loved climbing the ice and being on top of snowy peaks.
Jonathan

camping in strange places.

A night with Gypsies

Backing up a little...
About a week ago, we were with our large travel group of 6 people and we landed at the Train Station in Toulouse. We got there late at night and could not get out of town to find some nature to camp in. So, we had to take to urban camping and look for a spot to sleep in this large French city. The canal ran right down the center of town, and there was a large slew of gypsies sleeping along the canal in tents. Perfect! Around 11pm we found an empty spot of grass between large groups of gypsies and started on our dinner. We stuck out quite obviously to the gypsies and soon had a Moroccan join us on our blanket. He spoke no English, but communicated that he will help protect us. Of course this was unsolicited but we didn't think much about it. Later some others came over to talk to us about Obama, and the one gypsy started to push them away. No matter how much we tried to tell him they were fine, things escalated. He felt it his duty to 'protect' us. Soon gypsies were rolling around fighting all around us, pulling out beer bottles to hit each other and punching and tackling. Oddly enough, each side was fighting 'for' us, but regardless, being that our group contained two girls, we felt it more safe to camp another place. Our Ritz Carlton for that night ended up being under a bright covering at the train station.

-Adventures in the Alps to come soon...

Jonathan

Crash Count

Updated crash count:

Jonathan: 2
Eric: 1

Over the bars, crushed helmet.

Not to worry, I'm still smiling.

-Eric

Barcelonic High Times

Great week in Barcelona with Brian. We stayed in a happening hostel right on the main strip and encountered sooo many English speaking travelers. Brian and I ran Barcelona. Getting massages on the beaches from Thai ladies, selling tickets to a club on the streets we were given for some cash, parting in the clubs and somehow I got us into the VIP section sipping on champagne...The list goes on and on. Our favorite friends were our Aussie girls and Team Belguim.

The Aussie have been hooking us up on this trip! Our Aussie girls cooking for us and such and just being rad fun, meeting another Aussie couple, who offered Brian and I a ride trying to get across france back to Eric (it was quite a scene fitting four of us, four bags, and my bicycle into a compact Mercedes!), then another set of Aussies took Brian and I around to see the tour on the top of a mountain stage!

Last night I met back up with Eric and his crew of 7. We met a lovely french family, who open there garden for us to sleep in. After enjoying dancing and festivities for Bastile day last night, it was so great to wake up to a large breakfast spread for the lot of us!
Today the massive group splits up and heads different ways.

A crazy building we snuck into.
Amazing Barcelona Architecture
When in Rome do as the Romans! Brian and I on the beaches of Barcelona.

Jonathan

Adrenaline

Walking down a crowded street around 11pm and feel a hand reach in my pocket. I quickly grabbed the wrist of the attempting pick pocket and in a sec he disappears in the tight crowd. Not long after though Eric points him out, and I take off after him. We did not meet a single person during San Fermin that did not personally know someone who was not victimised by theft. I catch him pick him up by the shirt (a smaller guy in his upper 20s) and start to bring him to the police. With the help of two of his friend who show up (much bigger than him, who luckily did not end up putting up to much assistance for there friend), he shakes out of his shirt and begins to run again. This time when I catch him I pick the thief up in a choke hold and begin to carry the fighting man to the police. Again his friends help him get free and he takes off shirtless frantically through the crowd. Eric starts to catch up with him and steer him towards me, while I run to the far side of the crowd. There I meet him in a whirlwind and flipped him upside down slamming him into the ground. Before I could get a good hold on him again, he bounded through people, and after knocking over people disappeared through the crowd. Hopefully the whole encounter will at least slightly discourage his pick pocketing. Opening ceremony

Bull Run and Bull Fights

Running with the Bulls is one of the biggest adrenaline rushes in the world. Thousands of other men running down the road next to you in terror from the sound of hooves getting louder at an enormous pace. You are half in fear of the bulls, half in fear of the panicking crowd pushing and shoving. If you go down in the run, you stay down. If you attempt to get back up, you will be trampled and cause a huge pile up. I ran with two of my friends with down the packed road as fast as we could with pure elation and yet great fear and worry.

We made it "safe" into the bull ring, and now they put away the running bulls, and let the hyped up mass of men have their own bull fights as they release 6 bulls on at a time into the ring. After keeping safe enough distance for the first 2 bulls, I decided that I was not going to let myself regret not going for it. I ran at and swatted at the bull trying to keep enough distance. The bull put his head down and then scooped me up, hitting me in the rear, and threw me high into the air. If the adrenaline and excitement weren't enough to satisfy already, the thousand in the fighting coliseum erupted with cheering and applause.

This picture shows when the next bull would be released into the ring, a group of us would get on our hands and knees, cover your head, and the charging bull would emerge charging out of the dark tunnel and leap over/on us.

Too much was going on the take many pictures this week. The above ones were from the internet just to give perspective. Here is our only one!

It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It FAR exceeded what I expected. Such excitement. Thank the Lord I made it out all safe.





For Eric, he maybe used more wisdom and decided the bad would out weigh the good and did not run.

Now I am in Barcelona with new friends and Eric is riding to see some of the Tour De France with a few guys. We will meet back up in one week in France.

Bulls and Thieves

7-6-08

We are in Pamplona, Spain for the legendary San Fermin week long festival. Many people know this as the Running of the Bulls.

Today was the kick-off and the craziness will not subside for 8 more days. There are thousands of people here, and I would say the word most often fitting to describe everything is pandemonium. At the opening thousands of peoples crowded into a small square in front of city hall. Crowded is an extreme understatement, there were many more thousands who could not fit into the square, but were pushing to get in like a football team with the strength of an army of people. When it hits noon people spray Sangria and Champagne everywhere. Because of this glass covers the road, not a few bottles, but everywhere and all broken up. I was right in the center, and being that I was not drunk like 90% of everyone else, I was trying my hardest to stay off the ground and keep my feet from getting sliced up too terribly. It was like a ferocious mosh pit with no room for even your chest to move out and back. After the pack started to move out to the other streets, I threw away my shoes (white shoes I had bought for the festival...everyone wears all white and red) which where now covered in blood from my feet and ankles.

The first bull Run is tomorrow. I will watch this one and do the next.

Jonathan


7/7/08

Well unlike Jonathan, I've been trying to stay out of as much trouble as possible, and have done no bleeding yet. It is absolute insanity, but loads of fun.

Being that we're on a pretty low budget trip, we haven't been staying in a hotel or hostel here in Pamplona, but have been camping in the park with hundreds of other travelers from the world across. With this comes lots of fun and other advantages, but also some drawbacks. The word from the curb is to watch your stuff SUPER closely because there are plenty of vultures lurking and we'd heard stories of people getting passports stolen, etc. We even heard of a pair who put all their valuables in their sleeping bags with them during the night, but awoke to find their bags slit and their possessions missing.

Today while we were chillin in the park, a Spanishman approaches and says he just saw three guys take a bag out of a circle of friends we'd met as they snoozed, take some stuff out, and throw the bag in the trash. The bag was sure enough found in the trash, valuables gone. Two of the perps had split, but one is pretending to sleep not far away. The police are supposedly looking into the situation, but we aren't seeing any evidence of this, so Jonathan forms up a posse and goes over to confront the posing sleeper.

Jonathan throws the empty bag onto our new friend and demands if he speaks English and if he recognizes the bag. The guy denies everything, but Jonathan and crew aren't giving up so easily, and ask the guy if he'd like it if random people went through his bag. This is exactly what proceeds to happen, and upon opening the bag, the booty was revealed: a cache of apparently stolen goods. Also a big kitchen knife, assumingly for slitting bags open. With weak excuses to explain all this away, the guy became more and more trapped, right as his two compradres were approaching.

Jonathan ends up confiscating the knife and sticking it in his sash (part of the typical festival garb) like a pirate while dealing with the trio until the police arrive. In the end, and all three men were arrested, and evidence taken. For sometime afterwards, murmurs were heard throughout the camp of the tall, knife wearing American who took down the thieves.

Never a dull moment!

Eric