Signing Off

it is 4:39 am -

i have been awake all night reading japanese fairy tales and listening to rap music -

and i am about to get a cab to the train station - 

from there i will leave for the airport - and then i will be headed for america -

this is me signing off -

j

London Town - Family Style

London has been awesome! Nate and i have been doing the town up and really getting to know each other alot better - we were saying that it is so funny how you can be close with someone for 20 odd years and you don't really know them - we've been out to a few pubs, had the "best" fish and chips in london and seen the sights - today we are going over to the south bank to see the Tate Modern Art Museum and i am very very excited - he says he isn't the art type but i'll see if i can warm him up to the idea - and the best part is it is free! 

it definitely hasn't sunk in yet that this is my last day but i guess it will - i am so excited, and i just can't hide it, i'm about to lose control and ...anyway - tonight i am going to cook a big meal of gratitude here at his flat and meet some of his freinds here - then i am off from heathrow at 8:30 in the morn - 

much love to the states!

j

Last Day in Tilford

I am all set to leave early tomorrow and head up to foggy London town - but for my last day here i enjoyed a kayak adventure down the river and a nice bike ride in the rain - i know ... i have great legs -



Tonight we're having a big ol' dinner and maybe even playing some cards!?!? everything has been very nice here but i am ready to be back on trains, plains and the north american continent -

I'll be seeing the sights first thing tomorrow through the wonder of the tube and then meet up with Nate around 7 - hope to have a few pictures -


welp, keep the light on for me -
j

Nature boy

The past couple of days have been really nice - there was a big rain two nights ago and yesterday i biked a muddy couple of hours in Bourne forest northwest of Tilford - it is a national trust forest like Brown County state park but nothing in it except trails - This morning i rode to the back of the park - the sun is shining beautifully and the breeze is nice-

I'll be in London for the final weekend in England - my cousin Nathan works for a bank there and has offered a couch - i'm really looking forward to hanging out with him -

here is alittle slice of life from today at tea time - the neighbors came over and i went under cover so you could enjoy the ambience - in the audio you can here the children in the river playing, you can hear the neighbor ladies talking about people, peter chimes in along with the windchimes, sally offers more tea...its nice i think - and here you can see the meadow that Meyon, their black standard poodle, sometimes bounds and gallops through chasing rabbits - which are plentiful but rarely caught -

much love back home-

josh

It's Kind Of Like Batesville!

Today i rode up north of Tilford in search of the beautiful North Downs Way- i found a nice part of it from Farnham Culverlands to Seale - alot of walking the bike through places that look like they are private property but i don't think they have guns here so i was safe - then i found alot of really beautiful bridleways down south back to Tilford -

the hills were really steep at times but i didn't wimp out - i'm sort of addicted to biking now and i might want to try to pick it up where i left off today tomorrow-

i still haven't heard from max, but i guess i would hear about him being lost in the canadian wilderness -

everything is just so beautiful here and the people are so kind - today i was on a remote road and a guy stopped and rolled down his window while i was looking at the map and asked if i was lost, and i said, no i am just deciding where to go - and then he gave me some sheapard's pie! no not really but he did go ahead and tell me what direction a few of the landmarks were -and i was thankful because i got to see an old church called Waverly Abbey -

on the way back i saw all the kids playing in the river - it is very cool -

i am glad to be a week out but am loving it here -

hoping Obama's hip is going to be okay,

josh

I Bike England!

Today i took off on the good old bicycle, a fine way for any featherless bi-ped to get around England - the bridleways (horse paths) are everywhere in this county (Surrey) - i rode from Tilford over two villages to Milford and back through Churt - every town has its own little pride about it - and if you are ever between Tilford and Elstead for any reason you have got to stop by The Donkey - it is a great pub with two donkeys and a bunch of large really happy people who will talk to you and give you left over food from lunch -

on my journey i also became fasinated with names here - the villages and counties all have the best names - Sheephatch, Shackleford, Hambledon, Frillinghurst, Chiddingfold - I mean those are some beastly names - there is just something so.... English about them iambic pentameter and stuff -

I'm sitting in the computer room which is in a house that is around 450 years old - it is wierd that they had such forethought - i can here the river which is full of screaming chilren...playing in the shallow water... and the occational cheers from the cricket green across the river - i still don't understand cricket but i am not too worried about it - i just can't wait to get back and watch a colts game this fall with watery beer that is served too cold and call french fries, french fries and chips, chips and football, football and drink everything with a ridiculous amount of ice in it - anyway -

i plan on working a few more hours tomorrow to finish up the garden here and then i might take off and ride a stretch of the North Downs Way which i hear is amazing -

well now that i have sorted this out, i'll belt up and i shouldn't think it will be frightfully long before i post again -

much love,
josh

MInding a Manor

Things are going quite well today - i am finished with the first day's work cleaning out beds in the garden - here is one of the long beds i finished today with a regal pose from Crackers, the dog born on christmas day -

This flower is very nice but i have no idea what it is - this home is amazing - it was orignally a large barn and they have fused the old cottage with it - the barn wood was all sandblasted and reused - so the large timbers wind up the wall retaining the white plaster walls - they also have a large meadow in back with all the geothermal pipes running underground so the house maintains a nice cool temperature in summer -

The kitchen is something right out of Food and Wine - maybe some ideas for you mom and dad!

I enjoy working again and the temperature here is perfect, although they say it is really hot - i miss the good old 90 degree days with humidity - Only 11 more days -

much love to the states,
josh

good-BYE! max

well max has moved on from this stage in our lives and i expect that he is back in the great states by now - enjoying the comfort of good-old southern Indiana - i am now in a new place just south of London called Tilford - I have landed a little job through connections as a gardener on this amazing little farm - i will have to post pictures tomorrow -

the past week in Canterbury was amazing - Peter and Sally were so nice to us and fattened us back up to the pre-trip level - one meal a day + walking everywhere had dropped a good bit of weight for us but in Canterbury breakfast was mandatory!

Here are Max and Peter and Sally as we all enjoyed a game of Boules, which is the french version of Bocce Ball - Max won every time but i was always a close second -

Despite there more mature age we had a hard time keeping up with there sight seeing schedule - we got a great trip down to Dover again but this time we got to walk along the top of the cliffs - it is difficult to see the actual grandure and depth in a photo but the water is probably a hundred yards down in this one - a ten or twelve second stone's throw -

+Opposite the cliffs are wheat fields that stretch over hills into the distance - the sky was perfect on the day we went - it looks like something out of a movie -

We also went in town to Canterbury's catherdral and were absolutely amazed at the scale of it - by far the most amazing building i've seen in all of europe -

For the next couple of days i will be working here - the internet is fast and i hope to post some more photos as they come in -and before i forget i had a request to post the full list of countries we have traveled through so i will do that before i retire for tonight -

England: London, Dover >

France: Calais, Lille, Paris, Pau, Toulousse >

Spain: Barcelona >

Italy: Civitavecchia, Rome, Venice > Hungary:

Budapest >

Germany: Munich, Frankfurt >

Netherlands: Amsterdam >

Switzerland: Bern >

Italy: Milan, Verona, Bologna, Rome, Pisa >

France: Paris, Lille >

England: London, Canterbury, Tilford

England is so old!

Well we made it in late last night and have rested up quite comfortably here in Canterbury in southeast England - we are set to see the area for the next couple of days enjoying the hospitality of Peter and Sally which are friends of my Dad's -

today we went up to the coast and enjoyed the cool air and the warm hand-pulled beer at a pub called Old Neptune which has been flooded and hit by ice burgs many times in its long history - that probably explains the floor and bar slanting downward 5 or 7 inches from one end to the other - normally it would just feel that way drinking at a bar but there you can get it just looking at the beer-

tomorrow we have tentative plans to ride bikes out and about but the weather doesn't look too keen - so maybe we will just watch the tele and enjoy tea (they really drink tea, its crazy!) and the cricket too! we are watching a match right now and have absolutely no idea what is going on-

well, long live the queen! we'll post some pictures when we have them -

living easy,
josh and max

The first final stretch

Me and Max have had a great time back at the Fort - our days were filled with beach trips and good food - and our nights were filled with meeting new crazy people and becoming friends with the world of squatter\traveller\grafitti artist\DJs and more - but all good things must come to an end and now we are headed north back to London through Pisa, Milan and Paris - The final days will be spent touring the south of England with some friends of my dads friends-


Pisa!



Here is a sideways picture of me at the famous tower - i dont know how to make it ride side up but oh well - we are just here in passing but we had to see the big leaning thing!





Trains!
We will be on trains for the next twenty four hours and here is Max in his special seat on every train - doesnt he look happy?!



Leaving Italy!



It has been good to us - other than the mosquitos - and the landscape is amazing as we head out - whole fields of sunflowers and giant mountains in the distance - we are sad to leave but ready for a new climate, good tour of England and some soft places to lay our heads -

much love to everyone at home - and will someone tell me what happened with Brad and Angelina!?!? we keep seeing pictures everywhere but we cant read the headlines!

Love,
Josh and Max

Rome Sweet Rome

We have ventured back across the middle of Europe - this time through switzerland - our trip of three days was difficult because of set-backs with trains and the like but we got to see the swiss alps - in fact we took a nap on the side of a mountain near the train station in Bern - the weather was perfect and the scenery was jaw-dropping - but now our hearts have led us back to Rome - where we know the city and the people give us free housing for work - in fact today we got free lunch because we cleaned up everything from last night -

i am relaxing in the dorm right now and i think max is asleep - the air is cool inside the tunnels and on top of the good temperature, we showered for the first time since Munich - whew! we really needed that -

Here is max at his favorite knife store we found in Munich, Germany! We bought lots of knifes to bring home on the plane ride!

This was the post card view we saw as we fell asleep on benches - the faint but enormous Alps in the background -

And here is one of a billboard for my brothers who i miss dearly but share a similar sense of humor- That cat wants that sushi!

More word to come soon as internet is free here - much love to home -

josh and max

Venice - it truly lived up to all the hype! clearly max and i are having a great time in the photo below- the streets really are water and the confusing nervous-sytem of hundreds of canals were great fun to get lost in - we slept on the street for the first time so far in venice - it was a great night for it and it sure beat spending 60 euros - i would suggest it also for those with back problems - that nice firm surface is refreshing! this cathedral was the backdrop for a Elton John they were setting up for - me and max wanted to stay and sing sing along to Tiny Dancer, but we figured we could do without -













We are now in Munich - we stayed here last night at a giant campground with campfires and about 200 other campy, happy, nerdy, americans that we had no interest in talking with - after the centro sociale nothing really can be that cool -

a detour-hassel through budapest was anything but enjoyable - we tried to meet people and get help but we just ended up with some moody hungarian that listened to korn and wanted us to pay for her drinks so we pulled the plug on that before it got started, slept at the train station and got to germany as fast as we could -

Now for the big plan we will head to amsterdam, belgium, switzerland and then back to rome where we know how to get around and live very cheaply - and we miss darcie - we plan to spend my birthday there in rome and throw a huge international party via webcast to the states! but there is no funding for that so maybe that isnt possible-

we are happy and full of doener kebab right now, the weather is beautiful and we miss home terribly - while we walk and talk we fantasize about meatloaf and mashed potatoes and seeing our good old friends and family back home -

home, home on the range where the deer and antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouragin word (in any language) and the skies are not cloudy all day -

When In Rome

This is Jaque, Darcie, me, and Jaimè. They work all day long making wicked jewelry. Except for Darcie of course. She just follows us around and chews on bottles. Darcie also has inspired our idea for a childrens novel called °Goldie: the little dog that loved everybody, except for other dogs, except for her mother that she played with all day and remained curiously overweight because her owner was away in Russia°

This is me in front of the °Coloseo°. If you look closely you can see the Pope visiting Rome on vacation.

Max and Phil talking about the 14 stone mastiff that attacked him when he and his father visited a friends house, and how the boyfriend of the freinds daughter was named Trevor and the dog bit his hand and shoulder and then he ran away and then later a trusted dog pyshcologist said that the dog had to be destroyed because it would kill someone, while the Latin Americans handcraft materials are spread out on the new mattress!

And here is Justo and Max on the ferry. What a great shot of that new Casio watch too!

For the next couple of days we will be in travel mode again from Rome all the way to Budapest - Which should be at least 12 hours of travel and the internet is very hard to use in Hungary because the keyboards arent translated at all. So i will post again once we arrive in germany -

Happy Fourth of July! Somebody get drunk and buy fireworks for me!

josh and max

Forte Prenestino

Phil - with a few of the tunnels in the background -

This is the entrance to the fort, complete with moat and bridge-




In the video we see max, the sleeping south americans, the dog who has adopted us named darcy, and one of the open common areas with the mechanic shop in it - it may be alittle shocking because of all the art on the walls but everyone we have met has been very generous, interested about where we come from and kind hearted - Phil has been our foot in the door but working with them today has earned us a bit of respect -



The Italian language is fast and beautiful and it is funny to hear Phil tell stories, that we know in English, in Italian to other people and you can pick out enough words to know which part he is telling - everyone is always kissing cheeks and saying chow, chow - it is very welcoming - Tonight we will eat with everyone and talk to more people with phil translating when their english runs out - there is a shop nearby that sell fresh fruit and bread - we will go their to get food for breakfast and lunch because we will mostly try to get out early because the heat becomes unbareble in the sun around noon - we will snap a few photos with the big sights and then head back because the tourist traps are alot more like real traps late at night -

France To Rome

Paris was beautiful but we had to move on simply because of money - we skated down on trains for about two days until we got to Barcelona - While we were there Espana won the Euro cup and the streets were absolutley crazy - i wished i had taken pictures but because of the crowds we were afraid to taked valuables with us - The rambla was packed with people, you could barely move - we met Justo the professional tennis player from Argentina and he spoke our spanish for us and got us tickets wuick across the sea to rome- while we waited for our ferry we went down to the beach which turned out to be alot more free than american beachs which in someways is very cool but there are plenty of things that should remain tamed in my opinion...eek- we swam out to these giant rocks about three hundred meters out and bathed in the sun for a long time while Justo hung out with our stuff -
There ferry was enormous and we hung out there with Justo and then a guy named Phil who is origanlly from London who now lives in Rome over heard our English and he chatted it up with us for awhile- we became fast °mates° - he speaks perfect italian and took us straight from the port to the terminal and suggested a place for us to stay at called a °centro sociale° (Chentro Sosholly) -

it is a abandoned Roman fort, forte prenestino, that has been squatted for about 20 years and has become a center of the anti-facist movement here in Rome - it has about twenty or thirty tunnels that they rent out to different people and each tunnel provides a service to the people living here - right now we are in the media center which although it is 40° celsius out, remains as cool as an air conditioned house because it is all under ground - other tunnels have welding shops, bike shops, a movie theatre, a recording studio and then of course the dormitory where we sleep with other people, most of which are south american jewelry makers/jugglers traveling through europe selling and performing - they are really nice and they watch our stuff when we are gone and we watch their stuff when they go - this morning we had to help clean up trash and take it all out to the dumpster but that will pay for our rent for up to a week - the food here is all made/grown here and is mostly vegaterian - the restaraunt serves two meals a day one large bowl or plate is usually around 2 euros which makes it the cheapest and the best food we have eaten so far in europe -

we are going into the city tomorrow to see the °real° sites but culture here is incredible - truly one of the most unique places iàve ever known of in the world, mostly because it works -

Max looking at the Eifel Tower-
Me on the Siene near Notre Dame on Sn Michel-

Barcelona

We walked La Ramblas last night until two and were enlightened with the joys of Espana!
We´ve heard that Spain´s soccer team is still in the euro cup and plays in a final game tonight which means this city will explode in they win and implode if they don´t

we are staying here one more night and plan on getting a ferry to Rome tomorrow '

Pictures of Paris are to come ' this computer has no usb ports and the keyboard is in spanish which is easier than french! :)

Going to the beach today and grocery to stock back up'

j and m

max is the white cliffs of dover

Me and max have been on a crazy adventure! We are in paris now in a bathroom than has been made into a e-mail spot-

our luck has been great ever since we left the UK - air canada lost our baggage in toronto and so we had to buy a hotel in southwest london in an awesome muslim nieghborhood where everyone wears head wraps and speaks loudly - they were all so nice - but the money drains fast in the UK because everywhere you go you have to drop 50p in the bus and so forth and so on-

we got our baggage the next day and caught tubes all the way to Dover where we took the ferry to Calais - we waited two ours at this little bus stop where we met two english speakers (one from poland and one from california( cali was annoying but poland knew how to get us quickly to the right place and lead us all the way to Lille near the border of Belgium -

Lille was crazy and huge with many young people wondering around everywhere - huge old buildings all set to 45 degree angles - We slept in a tiny one bed place where the shower and sink were about two feet from the bed, fifth floor, no elevator, no AC - in short it was awesome!!

Today we got up mapped out a route by train to Barcelona and we are "stuck" in paris until 10 tonight - max just booked our room over the phone at place near la rambla so we are stoked for that -

i guess we'll pay the turkish guy who owns the web-bathroom and go see notre dame, have a espresso -

ratliffineurope