Jillian and Kyle's Excellent Adventures: 8 October 2010--It's about time!

Hello everyone!

This is Jillian FINALLY updating our blog. It's been a while since we updated this thing, and we didn't want you to lose anymore sleep over it. Here's a super quick recap of what your two favorite traveling hooligans have been up to.

We last left you when we first arrived to Munich. In total, we spent four days in Munich. Highlights include drinking, spending time at Oktoberfest, drinking, sleeping in a tent at our campsite (the only thing available by the time we got around to booking Munich accommodations), meeting new friends from all over the world (including a lot of Australians!), drinking, hanging out with our new friends Anne and Hillary (who we met in Berlin), drinking, climbing the zillion stairs at St. Peter's Cathedral to look out over the city of Munich, wandering around town, drinking, and me getting stung by a bee on my big toe. Due to this bee sting (which caused a lot of swelling and discomfort, so of course looked super attractive!), as well as the huge downpour of rain that made the campsite quite unbearable, we spent our last evening in Munich at a hotel, where we were miraculously able to book a room for one night.

The highlight of Munich was Oktoberfest. We had a lot of fun at Oktoberfest. But, who wouldn't have fun at Oktoberfest?! Even though I couldn't drink any of the beer (one of the many times I have not enjoyed this gluten-free lifestyle!), it was very enjoyable. We went one evening and were able to scam our way into a VIP section in the Hofbrau Haus tent with our friends Anne and Hillary. Kyle enjoyed many liters of beer, while I enjoyed my smuggled-in vodka. The place was completely packed with very happy, boisterous, drunk people from all over the world. We spent another full day wandering all around the grounds, which included a lot of beer tents, carnival rides, food carts, and souvenirs. The Germans go all out with their festivities and decorations, and it was super fun and festive. Good times indeed!

In all, our European Adventures were awesome. We did very well with our giant backpacks trekking all over the place, and are of course super buff and strong now. We had so much fun exploring the histories of the interesting cities we were in, and we look forward to future visits. We did not make it to all of the cities that we had originally planned on, so we are saving future visits (that is, before we got back to the US) for Prague, Salzburg, many points in Italy, and Paris. Additionally, we are planning trips soon to go to Ireland and Scotland. Kyle doesn't know that yet, but we're definitely doing some local travel soon. Perhaps for Christmas?

We've been back in Sheffield for about 10 days. When we got home, we were both quite under the weather. We spent many days lounging around the house with sore throats, coughs, and congestion. As you can imagine, we were delightful to be around. While you may blame the copious amounts of alcohol for our illness, I blame that damn bee who stung me! And, perhaps the alcohol played a role. Either way, we've recovered a bit in time for us to make more progress on the house. We've made very large piles of things to donate, as well as things to throw away, in the garage. Once we make a bit more progress, we will rent a small dumpster (a skip!) to toss everything into.

In other news, I started my job this week. I'm working for an agency that provides in-home care to elders in the Sheffield community, with the goal of allowing elders to live independently in their homes for as long as possible. The woman who runs the agency is very generous and has lined up many opportunities for me to learn about how care is provided to elders in the UK. Given that my graduate degree had a concentration in gerontology, this is going to be a great experience! So far I've been oriented to the main office, read many client files, and accompanied caregivers on many different assignments. I'm excited to learn more.

Beyond work and house stuff, we've been enjoying some very nice weather the past few days. Lots of sunshine and clear skies have allowed us to take long walks all around the city, and we've walked many many miles in the past few days. In the next two weeks, we will be getting the house ready for a visit from the Rose family--an arm of our Sacramento family. Scott, Teresa, Brandon, and Katie will soon be staying with us on their way home from Morroco, and we're so excited to see them! We will be sure to have comfy beds (including one air mattress!), a warm house, available washer and dryer, and lots of wine ready for them! Shortly after the Roses depart, Mom and Aunt Margaret will be visiting, so this will indeed be a bustling house before too long. Needless to say, we're totally getting tired of each other, so we will welcome all visitors!

So, keep checking back to this wonky blog, and we'll be better about providing updates when we do anything fun!

Lots of love from Jillian & Kyle!

Us at Hofbrau Haus.

Us at the Hofbrau Haus Oktoberfest beer tent. Kyle with his giant 1-liter beer, and me with my teeny cup of vodka.

Those Germans take their beer tent decorations seriously.

Kyle was having a terrible time.

I know, my hat is very authentic. People thought I was a native Austrian.

The Lowenbrau Lion, who actually rotated AND lifted his cup up and down.

My wine, along with the giant beers for Kyle, Anne, and Hillary

Decor outside an Oktoberfest food stand

Decor outside an Oktoberfest food stand. Wieners are funny.

Decor outside an Oktoberfest food stand

Badass statue on the front of an Oktoberfest ride

A terrifying statue outside an Oktoberfest ride

The Bavaria Statue, which overlooks Oktoberfest. We saw lots of drunk people rolling around those grassy hills.

All the beer companies had horse-drawn carriages advertising their beer wandering around Oktoberfest. Needless to say, it was super cool, and there was horse poo everywhere.