bye bye europe.

ok. this is long overdue. sorry but this will be the coles notes version of our last weeks in europe:
from lagos we went north to lisbon in about the centre of portugal and it was great. a very old city where old auntie's give you a glare from their 4 foot tall door as you walk down the winding streets of the historical district. this is met by the modern shoreline that was updated for Expo '98. the oceanarium was amazing for us prairie kids and portugese supper cooked by another 'mama' at our hostel was delicious.
next was porto.
porto is where port originated. we went to port houses and had tours of their cellars and delicious tastings. porto is divided by the douro river and rises sharply up each side. there is tons of history but in some areas it was definitely the most seedy place we visited in europe. we would still go back though. portugal is beautiful.
from porto, we flew to london!
london was overwhelming. so huge, so crowded, the flashing lights at picadilly circus - we had 3 nights there and could have used another week! we got to stay with friends of steve so that saved us heaps of cash - everything in london costs a fortune! the underground metro costs $8 Cdn per ride and you need it to get everywhere. best thing ever: when we landed at the airport, this girl approached us and gave us 2 pre-paid underground passes that lasted until we left (she said she couldn't use them)! it was awesome!
in 1 day in london, we ate at one of gordon ramsey's restaurants for lunch and jamie oliver's restaurant for supper! very spoiled day indeed but completely worth it.
all too soon it was time to leave and go back to where we started - frankfurt.
we stayed briefly in frankfurt just to catch our flight to kona, hawaii where we are now.
we celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary eating sushi overlooking the ocean beneath us at night in hawaii. beautiful! we've been hanging out with steve's brother mark for the last couple days (he flew out to hang out for awhile) and are now settling in at the YWAM base where we will be volunteering for the next 6 weeks.
can't believe europe is done - it's been crazy!

more updates on hawaii coming soon...

much love and aloha.

stikki.